Christ's Promising Word

Time after Pentecost (Lectionary 28)
October 11, 2009
A Two-Edged Sword
Hebrews 4:12-16

God’s Two Words – Law & Gospel

The word of God is a two-edged sword. There are two sides to it that cut in two very different ways. There is the Law, and there is the Gospel. And those are two different…very different…words.

Both are God’s word with the full power and authority of God behind them. Both are “living and active” in our world today. Thank God, they are…because we need them both. Both cut deep below the surface into the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.

But they are not two equal words. One is Life. The other Death. One is “good news” for us. The other “bad news” for us. One offers us God’s grace and mercy and help in time of need. The other strips us of all our pretenses and excuses until our sins are laid naked and bare before the piercing “eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” God himself, the endtime Judge.

You don’t want to be on the bad end of the law, but you do want to be on the good end of the gospel. For one word of God is like the battle sword that cuts you down in battle. A battle against God, which is one battle you will never win. And the other word of God is like the surgeon’s scalpel that cuts the cancer out so that a living loving heart can truly heal.

And these two words contest against each other. In the Christ. And on the cross. Until one word trumps and triumphs over the other and wins out. And it becomes the “last word.” God’s final word.

God’s Accusing Word – The Law

Say the word “law,” God’s law, and most people think you are talking rules. The rules that keep us safe in our society. And certainly, we need rules to keep us safe. That is one function of the law. A good and godly function.

But, by God’s law we mean much more than just the rules that get laid down either through the Scriptures or through civil authorities. We mean that searching diagnosis of a doctor, which looks far beneath the appearances on the surface to see what is going on within.

The Law, in Christian circles, is that word of God that is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That’s how the book of Hebrews puts it. “Able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

God’s word of Law is like a sharp, highly-granular, highly-detailed diagnostic tool that is able to penetrate the soul and look deep into the spirit and judge the hidden intentions of our hearts, which, as fallen human creatures, is always wanting and always lacking.

“The wages of sin is death,” the law says. “Break one, you break them all.” “Laws are made to be broken,” one saying goes. Oh, no! Not God’s law. “Laws are made because we are broken.”

And so, the law of God always accuses us. “The law always accuses,” the original Lutherans said in our founding documents. “The law always accuses.”

God’s Healing & Forgiving Word – The Gospel

And if this were the only word from God we had, well then, either we would be proud and boastful falsely thinking that we are keeping God’s law. Or else, we would be desperate and despairing because we knew darn well that we had not. But, either way, we would be in one heck of a mess.

But thank God, there is another word of God. A second one. The good news of the Gospel. Which is really God’s first and last word. The Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end.

In Jesus on the cross it happens. The two very different words of God clash and collide. God’s judging and condemning word—the Law. And God’s healing and forgiving word—the Gospel.

Jesus dies the death of sinners as rightly required by God’s law. Guilt by association, we would call it today. Aiding and abetting. Jesus befriended sinners and opened up a path to God in violation of God’s law. That was his crime. Befriending sinners.

And yet, in the same process, Jesus was also the obedient Son of God, living out the Gospel. Demonstrating in the flesh and in his love and fellowship with others, God’s mercy, grace and love.

And for three tense days, it seemed as God’s law and judgment won out. But God raised Jesus from the dead to show that God’s grace and mercy is God’s last word. God’s final word. God’s ultimate word. God’s mercy is greater than God’s judgment.

Only One can Change the Human Heart

And Jesus has now risen through the heavens to become our great high priest before the throne of God. And he is able to empathize with our weaknesses, because he himself became a human being and was tested in every way that we are, yet without sin.

And yet, he is also able to layer a picture of his own heart on top of ours. So, that when God’s judging eye looks at us, it is not our heart it sees with all its faults and weaknesses. But rather, God sees only the faithful obedience of Jesus upon the cross.

And that is where the word of God in the Gospel is so different from the word of God in the law. The law can only “judge” the human heart. Test it and evaluate it. The law cannot “change” the human heart.

But Jesus can. Jesus has the power and ability to transplant his heart into our own and fill us with his own spirit. It is the difference between a doctor saying “I have some dreadful news your heart is failing” and the surgeon saying, “Do not worry, I can implant a new device to keep your heart beating firm and strong. Simply relax and trust me, and I will do the job.”

The Gospel is God’s Last & Final Word

The word of God is a two-edged sword. There are two sides to it that cut in very different ways. There is the law and there is the Gospel.

But thanks to God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has become God’s last word. God’s final word. A word that enables us to approach throne of God with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find a grace-filled help in time of need.

© 2009 Pastor Paul jaster

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 12:11 pm and is filed under 7 - Pentecost. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.