Memorial Moment: The Gospel in the Driver's Seat

Genesis

22:1-14

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide";as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." (ESV)

The Gospel in the Driver's Seat

Thursday of Pentecost 15

13 September 2012

Martin Luther loves the "violence" of faith. He delights in the word of our Lord Jesus when he says that 'the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force' (Mt 11:12). Faith is an aggressive, unflagging assertion of confidence in the ability of God to do what He says. Faith can be that aggressive because faith trusts the Word of God and nothing else. Faith stands and falls on God's promise to justify sinners completely apart from their own accomplishments through the proclamation of the Word. The Word of God accomplishes our salvation because it proffers, gives, and conveys the forgiveness of sins merited by Jesus Christ through His suffering, death, and resurrection.

The Word does it all and does it completely. The sufficiency of the divine Word is a corollary of the article of grace and justification. The Word is sufficient to give a complete and free salvation through the speech of God declaring us forgiven and robed in the perfect holiness of Jesus Christ. This is why preaching is still essential to the church's life in this video age. God's speech to justify is personal speech. It is delivered by God through His messengers in every moment of crisis where the divine assurance is again necessary. It is proclaimed to lift the eyes of the despairing and despondent away from their own tawdry works and perverse life to look into the eyes of the dying God, who in His death has seen, embraced, and taken away these sins and redeemed this life. The justifying Word of God must be told, preached, and proclaimed into this and that moment, because it is a living and active Word of God.

How desperately we need that preaching. How easily we despair of our salvation, question our value, and focus upon our doing, rather than Christ's. This is why the Gospel, which is the power of God (Rm 1:16), must never be presumed in the church's proclamation. Yet, I fear all too often it is just presumed. "Yes, yes, we have the gospel, now let's get on with doing something with it. Let's evangelize. Let's change people's lives. Let's do the mission." And as important as those things are, they are the law not the gospel. The gospel then becomes background noise; like radiation in granite-rich Colorado; always there, but never much thought about and seldom actually preached. Then it is no longer the living and active Word of God, but an appendage, no longer the God-given heart of our church's life, but an add-on ripped from the chest of the church left to quiver a shocked death. When the gospel is the heart of our preaching, then all the rest will be added too (Mt 6:33). Without the gospel in the driver's seat there is nothing to believe, nothing to empower even faith.

Martin Luther

"Let us learn to understand this power of the Word of God, which the Holy Spirit is accustomed to exalt so much that He makes it greater than every creature, hell, death, and the good and bad angels. Yes, He even makes it equal to God, as it actually is, inasmuch as in Romans 1 Paul calls it 'the might and power of God' (Rm 1:16); and indeed one should feel so about the spoken word. Abraham understood this very clearly (Gn 22); therefore he had no doubt that Isaac, even if he were to die, nevertheless would be revived and that his seed would live on, because God does not permit His command and promise to be of no effect.

"In Psalm 91 it is stated: 'A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways' (Ps 91:7, 11). He who holds firmly to this promise and meanwhile diligently fulfills his office in his place, which he knows has been assigned to him by God, even if some dangers or obstacles are put in his way, nevertheless has no doubt about the success and prosperous outcome but is persuaded in his heart that all the angels will come flying from heaven to help and defend him rather than that any godly undertaking in accord with the Word of God should be in vain and of no effect. What you undertake on the strength of His Word must succeed, even though there were to be no angel remaining in heaven. In this the sacred accounts are therefore superior to the histories of the heathen; for in the former everything happens by God's command, but in the latter it happens by chance and by the plans of men."

Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, 22.3

Prayer

Lord Jesus, send us Your gospel, although we have in no way deserved it and with cold hearts and stiffened minds often ignored it. Send us messengers who will proclaim the Word of God into our broken and decayed lives, that there might be life and salvation for us poor sinners. Amen.

For the members of the Council of Presidents of the LCMS, that they would be built up in the holy faith, and especially for the newly elected members of the Council, that they would be strengthened for their new labor

For all confessors, that they might hear the confessions of God's people with open hearts and quiet minds and proclaim to penitents the life and salvation which is theirs in Christ

For Edward Davis, that the Lord Jesus would strengthen and heal him

Art: DÜRER, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)