Trinity 13

Galatians 3:15-22 - Trinity XIII - August 25, 2013

What the Law Can Do for You

Our salvation is extra nos.  That’s Latin for ‘outside of us.’  They don’t require that we learn Latin at the seminary, but there are a number of Latin phrases that any Lutheran pastor worth his salt cannot help but have had drilled into his head.  Now, you don’t have to learn the terminology like I did, but you had better learn the concept.  Extra nos.  Outside of us.  The moment that one begins to require that certain conditions be met within the sinner by the sinner in order for him to be saved is the moment that the gospel is completely denied and turned into something that it’s not, namely, the law.  Our salvation is outside of us.  Because it begins and ends with God’s pure love toward sinners.  Period.  What God planned for us from eternity to rescue us from our sin and from his wrath God accomplishes outside of our control. 

And thank God.  We’re not as reliable as he is.  The fact that he is in control of the most important need in our life is of great comfort to the Christian.  That is, of course, if we know the character of this great God in control.  And we do.  He loves.  He speaks kindly to those who have wronged him.  He forgives.  He keeps his promises.  We see his character clearly revealed toward us in the vicarious death of his Son Jesus Christ who on the cross atoned for all our sins.  The same thing that teaches us that God is good and loving also teaches us what God has accomplished.  It is where our Savior said, “It is finished.”  

And this was God’s plan from the beginning — his work.  All promises of the gospel in Scripture are promises of what God does in Christ — Jesus wasn’t an afterthought for God.  He was the solid hope of the ages ever since God first promised redemption and even before.  Of course the prophets and kings that desired to see Christ never saw him as clearly as we do today in the hearing of the gospel.  But it was the same gospel.  It was the gospel that Adam heard.  It was what Noah heard.  And as St. Paul mentions in our Epistle reading, Abraham heard it too; and he believed. 

Abraham received a promise.  But just like his fathers, he had done nothing.  He received a promise of what God would accomplish for him.  What God would accomplish for Abraham would be accomplished for all humanity, as God said, “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”   All sons and daughters of Adam would be declared innocent of their sin through the work of Abraham’s greatest Descendent, Jesus Christ.  That’s what it means to be blessed.  It was by grace.  And although he was childless and his wife was 90 years old, Abraham believed this promise and it was accounted to him as righteousness. 

We call this promise the Old Testament.  It is also called the Old Covenant.  All the regulations and requirements that surrounded the life and worship of God’s people revolved around this here promise made to Abraham.  It was a promise!  It was free!  And this is the main point of our lesson. 

The word for testament and the word for covenant are the same word in both the Hebrew and in the Greek languages.  So more often than not you’ll see this word simply translated as covenant.  But the two words have notable difference in meaning that must be distinguished by the context alone.  What is a covenant?  What is a testament?  Let’s consider these two, and then see how the context in which we find this word in Scripture teaches us the difference between life and death, between hope and despair, because you know it’s a distinction between God’s work and our own. 

A covenant is a deal or a contract; it’s a pact or a treaty.  Today a covenant is established with a handshake, or, legally speaking, with signatures.  It’s when two parties agree to specific terms so that they mutually benefit once both sides fulfill their obligation to the other.  If one party were to transgress or fail on his end of the agreement, then the whole deal, or covenant, is rendered obsolete, and the other party is free to act accordingly, as though no deal had ever been struck.  Imagine someone breaking an international treaty, for instance.  Well, you can imagine what follows. 

Now a testament is different from a covenant.  But it is no less legal.  Like a covenant, it’s also signed.  But it does not go into effect upon a signature or a handshake.  It goes into effect upon the death of the testator.  In fact, his is the only signature needed.  And also unlike the covenant, a testament cannot be annulled or made obsolete once it is established.  No matter what.  Whereas with a covenant any failure on either side renders the whole deal off, as though it had never been signed at all, with a testament the only condition that needs to be met is for the one who signed it to die, and his final will and testament becomes binding.  It’s final.  What if a guy leaves his whole inheritance to his gold-digging wife?  Too bad.  It’s final.  What if a guy leaves millions to his unworthy scoundrel children who never loved him?  It’s final.  Their transgression cannot undo their father’s will.  What if one doesn’t even want the house and possessions that are left to him in his father’s will?  Well, he can refuse it or give it away or burn it down.  But you can’t change his words.  A will is a will.  The testament is final. 

Now, as I said, in the Bible, the word for covenant and the word for testament is the same.  But as you can see, there are some real differences, and Scripture uses the word in both ways.  And so we’ve got to look at the context.  This is where St. Paul is arguing from.  He makes a very important point about the Old Testament promise of the gospel and about the promise as it concerns us today.  He’s looking at the context; he says, “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.” 

Now our translations tend to go with this word, covenant.  But that’s not what Paul is making reference to.  He’s talking about a man’s last will and testament.  It’s clear!  He’s not talking about a treaty or a pact that God made that requires us to keep our end of the bargain.  He’s making the exact opposite case.  “Even with a man-made testament,” he says, “no one annuls it or adds to it once the guy dies.”  It doesn’t happen.  “Much less,” Paul argues, “with God.  He can’t break or change his promise.” 

Now, it’s true that God makes a covenant with his people in the covenantal sense of the word.  It’s no coincidence that the two languages that God chose to use for Holy Scripture contain two very different meanings in one word.  Well, God wants us to find the distinction in the context.  Because by doing so, we learn to distinguish the law from the gospel. 

It is true that God makes a covenant with man.  I do this, you do this, and we’re good.  God gave his Commandments on Mt. Sinai.  His people would obey them.  They said they would.  God said that they would be his people.  The covenant was made.  It was a deal. 

Yes, it’s true that God makes a covenant with his people.  And he’s true on his end of it.  But we are not.  He makes a covenant, and his people break it.  God says that we will be this way and do such and such, and on this condition we will be blessed forever and he will be our loving God.  This is the law!  He speaks it.  And the promise of blessing is real!  But it will never be realized by our own efforts because we are sinners.  We promise.  We have every intention.  But we have not the power. 

Yes it’s true that God makes a covenant.  But we need more.  We need God to write a testament, lest by our sin the whole deal be called off.  We need God to reveal his eternal favor toward us and turn his gaze away from our sin.  We need him to bless us on account of what another has earned.  We need him to make a promise that doesn’t get undone as soon as we transgress, but that holds firm, un-annulled, unedited, and unconditional.  We need a treaty of peace from God that depends not on our peaceful behavior or good will, but upon his.  We need a testament. 

You know how they say, “Let’s cut a deal”?   Why cut?  I don’t know why that developed in English, but the Hebrew says the same — and for a reason.  A covenant is not just made.  It isn’t just established or written.  It’s cut.  The way you would cut into flesh and make it bleed.  The covenant that God made with Israel and with all the prophets and kings that longed for redemption was cut, and by being cut, pointed ahead to exactly what they longed for.  It pointed to the shedding of blood on Calvary of him who would obey all the words that they promised and failed to do.  It pointed to him who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity.  That's why the covenant on Sinai was confirmed with what?  What did our Old Testament lesson say?  It was confirmed with blood.  Sprinkled on the altar, where God was appeased by nothing less than the blood that pointed to Jesus.  Sprinkled on the people, who needed more than to make a deal – they needed a promise.  The promise was found in the blood. 

All the regulations and requirements that surrounded the life and worship of God’s people revolved around this here promise.  That’s why there was so much blood.  That’s why the foreskin was cut off in circumcision.  It was a sign and seal of God’s promise. 

But it turned into something else.  Folks in the days of St. Paul —(and long before his day and long since)— turned circumcision and all the other ceremonies of the Old Testament into works of man that we had to accomplish in order to make God’s promise true.  In order to personally apply what God promised, there were some conditions you had to meet. 

But no!  Not even with a man’s testament can you change it once it has been ratified.  Certainly much less with God’s Testament can one word of the gospel be altered or added to when the cruel suffering and death of the very Son of God himself has made it final and permanent.  

God cut a covenant.  The word is the same as testament.  Because the law end of the deal that we are unable to fulfill was fulfilled by Jesus.  He fulfilled both ends of the covenant by living, and ratified the testament by dying.  He lived the perfect life that we did not.  He did what the Good Samaritan did, what the priest and the Levite, who represent the law, could not do for you.  He, by loving, by loving you, loved his neighbor as himself, and placed God’s glory above whatever glory sinners seek.  He showed compassion, compassion on the one who was rendered totally powerless by the devil who robbed him.  He was left to die.  He was left, and in his impotence represented us in our spiritual depravity.  We have nothing to offer God.  Our sin has robbed it from us. 

But the broken covenant that left us without a plea, became the testament that no law can undo.  It gives everything that God promised to him who obeyed the law and more.  It gives eternal life and fellowship with our gracious God. 

To seal to us what the death of Christ has earned, Christ himself gives (he doesn’t just sprinkle) he gives for us to eat and to drink the very body and blood that all the Old Covenant sacrifices pointed to.  The law could not give life.  Because it demanded something of us that we could not give.  The detailed law was given to Moses 430 years after Abraham first heard the promise.  It was given because of transgressions – to keep God’s people with a firm awareness of their sin.  We need to know our need.  But the blood of Christ does give life.  It is not an addition to the gospel when we receive it in the Lord's Supper.  It is a confirmation that everything God has every promised to you in your regret, in your sadness, in your doubt – that it is true.  How can it not be when the very blood that ratified the testamental promise made to prophets and kings and poor sinners of old is poured into your mouth by Jesus himself? 

The Lord's Supper gives to us what is outside of us.  It gives what has been accomplished by no work of our own.  It is not a sign of your commitment.  Your participation is not something that needs to be recorded in a ledger somewhere to make sure that you are a member here and that you are eligible for a Christian funeral.  No, your participation is a participation in the body and blood that now lives and reigns in heaven. 

“Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” 

So says our Good Samaritan to all his ministers concerning you.  There is nothing that you need, nothing that you lack, nothing that your sin and guilt and sadness make you want that Jesus does not leave paid for right here, and that will not be offered again as much as you need it until Jesus returns to bring you to Abraham’s bosom where angels and archangels and all the company of heaven rejoice at what God’s Son has been bequeathed to you.         

In Jesus’ name, Amen.