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Isaiah 53
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Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. (ESV)
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Rescued From Something
Monday of Lent 2
5 March 2012
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Martin Luther often waxes eloquent about the "remarkable duel" between Christ and His creature, the law. Christ was the law's master, yet He became subject to it for our sakes. By taking our sin into His own holy person He defied the law and challenged it to do its worst to Him. And so it did when he was accounted guilty in our stead. The justice of the law was carried out against all our sin, which was plastered upon Him by imputation. He was counted among the sinners (Is 53:12); because He bore our iniquity.
The law counts guilty. It counts us guilty. It counts Christ guilty. But in Christ's being taken by the law He has turned its attention away from us. The law no longer seeks us, nor our death. It has sought Christ out and brought Him our death. Because we were in Him when He triumphed over our death, it becomes our triumph. This is why Luther calls Christ's victory over the law a "double" conquering. Christ defeats it and in Him we defeat it too. What counts against Him now counts for us.
Many modern theologians accuse Luther's associate, Philipp Melanchthon, with defining the gospel by that from which it rescues: the law. First, when rescued from a vicious enemy people talk a great deal about that enemy, its viciousness, and their experience of rescue from it. Take as an example the infantryman who, after coming off the battlefield, finds a slug lodged in the thick wallet that he kept in the pocket over his heart. The story of his rescue will be told in terms of the closeness to death that he experienced as the bullets whizzed all around. So it is for the Christian gospel, the story of our rescue is often told in terms borrowed from the fearsome enemy from which we have been rescued: the law. Second, Luther certainly tells the glorious gospel story in precisely those terms here. So poor despised Philipp is not alone in telling the story of our rescue as a rescue from something; namely, the law. |
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Martin Luther
"In what manner or way has Christ redeemed us? The manner was as follows: He was born under the law. When Christ came, He found us all captive under guardians and trustees, that is, confined and constrained under the law. What did He do? He Himself is Lord of the law; therefore the law has no jurisdiction over Him and cannot accuse Him, because He is the Son of God. He who was not under the law freely subjected Himself to the law. The law did everything to Him that it did to us. It accused us and terrified us. It subjected us to sin, death, and the wrath of God; and it condemned us with its judgment. And it had a right to do all this, for we have all sinned.
"But Christ 'committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth' (1Pt 2:22). Therefore he owed nothing to the law. And yet against Him-so holy, righteous, and blessed-the law raged as much as it does against us accursed and condemned sinners, and even more fiercely. It accused Him of blasphemy and sedition; it found Him guilty in the sight of God of all the sins of the entire world; finally it so saddened and frightened Him that He sweat blood (Lk 22:44); and eventually it sentenced Him to death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8).
"This was truly a remarkable duel, when the law, a creature, came into conflict with the Creator, exceeding its every jurisdiction to vex the Son of God with the same tyranny with which it vexed us, the sons of wrath (Eph 2:3). Because the law has sinned so horribly and wickedly against its God, it is summoned to court and accused. Here Christ says: 'Lady Law, you empress, you cruel and powerful tyrant over the whole human race, what did I commit that you accused, intimidated, and condemned Me in My innocence?' Here the law, which once condemned and killed all people, has nothing with which to defend or purify itself. Therefore it is condemned and killed in turn, so that it loses its jurisdiction not only over Christ, whom it attacked and killed without any right anyway, but also over all who believe in Him."
Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 4.5
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Prayer
Almighty and ever-living God, grant that as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our human flesh, so by Him we may be presented to You with pure and clean hearts; through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
For Chaplain Donald Ehrke (US Army), that God the Lord would keep him in His hand
For all missionaries, that they would proclaim the Christ to those who are in need
For parents, that they might be for their children a bulwark against the onslaughts of our decaying culture
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Art: GRÜNEWALD, Matthias Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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