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Psalm 29

 

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,  ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth  and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, "Glory!" The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace! (ESV)

In-So-Far-As

Monday after Holy Trinity

4 June 2011

"There is a law." "There isn't a law." Ok, which is it? It can't be both can it? Yes, it can. It all depends on how it is used; how it functions. The law is truly God's law. It is divinely given, righteous, and holy. It is right in all it commands. It faithfully portrays our brokenness and our distance from the God who gives it to us. Yet, the law has its limits. Its coercive powers only apply to the flesh and the life of this world. It governs human relations and crushes the fallen flesh's pretensions to righteousness and holiness in the sight of God. It cannot touch the inner man, recreated after Christ (2Co 4:16), which is renewed daily by the holy gospel and constantly lives in the remission of sins, which is declared by the Word of God. He lives this way always. In the law. In the gospel. Each doing its own work, in its own way, and in its own place.

 

The limiting concept in this distinction is the "in-so-far-as" of the proper application of the law and the gospel. It is a dialectic which never resolves into a synthesis. It is constant tension, a battle to keep each within its own proper bounds. The law applies to us in-so-far-as we are flesh and fallen sinners. The gospel applies to us in-so-far-as we are justified in God's sight for Christ's sake. These two apply to the person as he exists in reality all the time. Just in different ways. The law and the gospel apply to us always until our life in fallen flesh is dissolved by death.

 

In-so-far-as we are justified by the gospel proclamations, the law has no place in our lives. It only speaks peace and the inner man is comforted and shaped like Christ by it. We are fruitful children of the Spirit, kings and priest, and heirs of heaven. Those who have been declared right in Christ live this way. The inner man will delightedly do what the law demands without any coercion. He can give himself and his away to his neighbor with wild abandon, because in Christ he cannot out-give God. There is no guilt, no blame, nothing to hobble the life of such a person. Oh, that we could live this way every day! Who could stop the life of such a person? 

 

Martin Luther

 

"'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law' (Gal 5:22-23). There is certainly a law, just not against these things. So elsewhere Paul says, 'The law is not laid down for the just' (1Ti 1:9). The righteous person lives this way, so that no law is necessary for his work, which would admonish, urge, and drive. Instead, he will do spontaneously what the law demands without any coercion by the law. Therefore the law is not able to accuse and blame believers in Christ or to disturb their consciences. Indeed it terrifies and accuses, but Christ seizes it and drives it away with its terrors and threats. So the law is simply abrogated for them. Therefore it has no right to accuse them, for they do spontaneously what the law requires. By faith they receive the Holy Spirit, who does not let them remain idle. Even if the flesh resists, they walk by the Spirit, etc. So the Christian inwardly fulfills the law by faith, for Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to all who believe (Rm 10:4), outwardly by works and the remission of sins. Truly, the law accuses and condemns politically and theologically all those who live by works and the desires of the flesh."

 

Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 5.23  

 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, help us to live in peace and quietness under the message of Your holy gospel. Amen.

 

For Cremella Allen, who is gravely ill, that the Lord would send the holy angels to watch over her

 

For Sherry Porter, that the Lord Jesus would be with her as she undergoes cataract surgery

 

For the family of Hugh Locker, that the Lord Jesus would grant them the grace to mourn with the hope of the resurrection and the life of the world to come

Art: D�RER, Albrecht  The Adoration of the Holy Trinity (1511)

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