Trinity 13
Beloved. If you listened carefully to today’s Epistle and Gospel perhaps a question came up in your mind. We heard in the Gospel: an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “What do you read there?” He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.” He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” And what is this? It seems that Jesus is saying salvation by works: Do this, and you will live. But then we heard St. Paul in the Epistle: Then is the law against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given that could give life, certainly righteousness would have been derived from the law. Here St. Paul definitely rules out salvation by works, that the law does not give life.
So are Jesus and St. Paul opposed to each other? Does Holy Scripture contradict itself? The short answer? Absolutely not!
What we have in our readings is an important lesson when it comes to understanding and interpreting the Bible. That lesson is this: don’t drag one topic into another; don’t super-impose one doctrine on another. Instead, let each passage of Scripture speak for itself in its own context. Jesus answered this question of this expert in the law exactly as this expert in the law asked/ intended it. This expert in the law wanted to be saved by doing the law/ doing works. So Jesus reminds him of exactly what the Law demands when He asks him “What is written in the law?” And the man correctly says the Law demands perfect love of God and neighbor. Go and do likewise. That’s precisely the point! Neither that expert in the law nor we can perfectly love God and neighbor.
That’s what Jesus shows in the parable—only He is the Good Samaritan; only He is truly the neighbor who shows mercy to the person in need. And here in this parable Jesus gives a beautiful picture of His work to save us from all that sin, death, devil and hell has wreaked on us. We cannot show perfect love and mercy; we cannot Do this, and … live. But Jesus has and does!
Here is that glorious tie in with the Epistle. The purpose of the Law is to make us aware of our sins and drive us to Jesus as the One showing us mercy and saving us from our breaking of the law, from sin, death, devil and hell. The Law was not given for us to earn our salvation and heaven by it. Again, that’s what that expert in the law was trying to do—and Jesus answered that man’s question as he asked it, Do this, and you will live; but Jesus turned it around to show him how futile it was; that no person can perfectly do the Law and be saved by it.
What, then is the true purpose of the Law? That’s what St. Paul talks about in the Epistle: For if there had been a law given that could give life, certainly righteousness would have been derived from the law. But Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe.
Today’s readings are not opposed to each other; they do not contradict each other. Instead they beautifully work together—as do all the doctrines of Holy Scripture. As we examine today’s epistle a little more closely, we will see that the Lord has given His holy Church throughout the ages—beginning with Adam and Eve—the Gospel promise. And it is the Gospel promise that stands first, foremost and supreme—both back then and now. The Law was given later but only to be a servant or companion to the promise—never to overrule the Gospel.
The absolutely vital thing to remember is that the Old Testament saints, going all the way back to Adam and Eve, had the same faith that we New Testament Christians have today and will have until Jesus’ return—we are saved by God’s grace through faith in the Savior. In the case of the OT saints, it was in the Savior/ Messiah who was to come; in our day, it is the Savior who has come—Jesus Christ.
Listen to what Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you are seeing, yet did not see them, and to hear the things that you are hearing, yet did not hear them.” That’s the one and the same faith in God’s promised Savior! The OT saints heard of the coming Savior from sin, trusted in Him for their forgiveness and salvation and looked forward to His coming. The disciples saw and heard what the OT faithful longed to see and hear! They saw His glory; they heard from His own lips, with their own ears the words of eternal life. And we today are blessed for through the Holy Spirit inspired words of the apostles and evangelists, we hear and read the very words of the Savior. The work for our salvation stands as a completed fact/ event. And with the eyes of faith we see Jesus in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar; we know He is present there with His body and blood and giving us the gifts and fruits of His sacrifice on the cross. Pointing to the holy bread and wine to which Jesus joined His body and blood, we point and confess with St. John the Baptizer [John 1.29]: “Behold, [there is] the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and with St. Thomas [John 20.28]: “My Lord and my God!” We are not disadvantaged compared with the disciples. We have the same Christ with us!
Christianity, then, is not the result of historical development where among the OT people the idea of a Savior slowly developed over the course of years/ centuries. Instead, from the very beginning, Christianity is an absolute religion—it all goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and God’s first promise to send a Savior right after the fall into sin. He addresses the devil and promises Adam and Eve that the Offspring/ Descendant of the woman—the Messiah—would come and crush the devil underfoot and undo all his works, but in so doing He would suffer [Gn 3.15]: I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel. From Adam and Eve on, all the faithful believed this promise of the Savior; by God’s grace they were saved through faith in the coming Savior and His work. This promise was passed down through the ages—at one time only being held to by faithful Noah and family—until God, in pure grace, told Abraham that he would be an ancestor of the coming Messiah. The promise was first given to Adam and Eve and then finally to Abraham.
Brothers, I am speaking in human terms. When someone has established a last will and testament, no one nullifies it or adds to it. The promises God spoke referred to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “And to seeds,” as if it were referring to many, but, as referring to one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ. What I am saying is this: The law, which came into being 430 years after the covenant established earlier by God in Christ, does not annul that covenant, with the result that it invalidates the promise. In fact, if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Notice St. Paul, using a comparison/ illustration is very clear: The promise—or as we would say today, the Gospel—came first. All of the OT saints from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, and all the way to the time of Moses, simply had the promise of the Savior. There was no law; there could be no salvation by works. These OT saints simply put their trust in the coming Savior for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And then first at Mt. Sinai the Law was given—430 years after the promise God made to Abraham that one of his Descendants would be the Messiah in whom all the peoples would be saved/ released from the curse of sin, death, devil and hell. When God gave the Law on Mt. Sinai 430 years later, that did not nullify or add to the promise—as if a person were saved by doing the works of the Law. That’s why that expert in the law asked Jesus the wrong question. The question isn’t “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” but “Teacher, what must I [believe/ receive] to inherit eternal life?” The promise of the Gospel/ the Savior/ the forgiveness of sins is first and remains. A lot of people think that the OT saints were saved by doing the works of the Law and the NT Christians are saved by the Jesus’ work/ the Gospel. That’s absolutely wrong! Both OT and NT faithful are saved by God’s grace through faith in the Savior—for them, the one who was to come, for us He who has already come.
Follow St. Paul’s argument here: salvation was always by God’s promise/ the Gospel. The Law God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai was 430 years after Abraham. How then was Abraham saved if it was by works and not faith? What about the faithful in between or before Abraham? What about Adam and Eve? Noah?
What glorious words we find in our text: In fact, if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham by a promise. Notice two things. The very nature of a promise is faith. That is, a promise cannot be received except through faith. When someone promises you something—like to give you $20 on Friday—you have to accept their promise by faith as true since you don’t see the money. How much greater the heavenly goods of forgiveness of sin, rescue from death and hell, and eternal life in heaven! We don’t see them but God promises them to us in Jesus and we by faith receive them. Where does the law, where do our works fit into a promise? They don’t/ they can’t. It’s by faith.
That’s a good thing! Because the second point here is that if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by the promise and therefore it is uncertain. When God promises something, it is certain; it is sure. God has so promised. But if the promised heavenly inheritance is by law, that is works of the law that we have to do, it is forever uncertain. Have I done enough? Have I done it perfectly as the law demands. And then we’re back again to the question the expert in the law asked Jesus in today’s reading: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
St. Paul anticipates the natural question: Then what about the law? It was added for the purpose of revealing transgressions, until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. It was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator. The thing is, God didn’t give the Law just for the sake of giving the Law. Instead, the Law serves a very vital purpose. Just because it doesn’t save us does not mean it is nothing. Just because when it comes to our salvation it has no value, does not make it worthless. Instead the Law was given as a companion or servant to the promise. The Law is not our savior, but it is our tutor that leads us to Jesus, to our Savior from sin; the law—by pointing out our sin—leads us to recognize that we are lost and condemned sinners and to long for forgiveness from our sin. As we look at our life in the light of God’s holy Law, we feel the Law’s condemning us. Perhaps that’s what that expert in the Law was feeling when he asked Jesus: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Although his purpose was to test/ try to trip Jesus up, maybe there was a grain of truth/ of searching in his question, some restlessness of soul. That’s why it’s vital for us to use the Law rightly. We dare never use it to try to gain heaven/ salvation by it, to judge others and not ourselves, etc. But, we must use it to show us our sin to humble us and lead us to Jesus. And why? Because the law was added for the purpose of revealing transgressions. But what? The Law doesn’t overrule Jesus: until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. As soon as the Law has done its job and showed us our sin and makes us long for a Savior from that sin, the promise/ Gospel takes over and promises/ gives us the forgiveness of sin and rescue from sin, death and hell. The law has lost its power as soon as Jesus is in the heart; it cannot condemn us. Now it simply points us to those things that please God that we now want to do out of love and thanksgiving to Him who loved us and promised us in Jesus forgiveness of sin every blessing.INJ