Christ's rod and staff only bring comfort as we see in Psalm 23:4. The rod of Moses brought threats against humans: threats to piety (Gal 3:11) and life (Ex 19:12). The deepest and most deadly spiritual delusion presumes that humans have the power to satisfy God's holy demands in the law. The law's central purpose is to disabuse us of the presumption of the rightness of our own actions, thoughts, words, and desires. That list by itself should be a sufficient deterrent to the idea that we can be right in God's sight by our own obedience. Yet, so often we succumb to self-delusion about the rightness of our own actions, as beautiful Lisa in Émile Zola's Le Ventre de Paris (1873) tried to persuade herself after betraying her brother in law to the authorities: "No, she was not avaricious, she was sure she wasn't; it was no thought of money that had prompted her in what she had just done." Zola masterfully displays how deluded we are.

The only obedience that fully and perfectly avails before God is the obedience of the Son of God (Rm 5:19), whose obedience makes sinners right in the presence of God. Here is the fundamental difference between biblical Christianity and all other religions. In Christianity, righteousness is a gift that is dependent on God's action. In every other religion, righteousness is dependent on human action. In Christianity God has acted decisively in Christ to undo the whole world's sin (Jn 3:16). It is God's doing, not ours.

Any description of Christianity as a religion of works is a fundamental distortion of the Bible's truth. Those who depict Christianity as higher or better works than other religions are blind to the reality of human wickedness. Those who describe themselves as Christian are no more or less likely to be immoral than any other person. Take, for example, the prevailing statistics about divorce that people claiming to be Christians are just as likely to be divorced as people who decline to be identified as Christians. While this is deeply lamentable, it in no way invalidates Christianity's claim to offer forgiveness to sinners who are sorry for their sins. It actually reinforces Christianity's claim to truthfulness, because Christianity wants to deal with sin God's way, that is, by forgiving it. Christianity does not and cannot paper over sin. Sin cannot be ignored, but may only be forgiven for Christ's sake.

"Here David also touches upon the office of preaching. For through the oral preaching of the Word, which enters the ears and touches the heart by faith, and through the holy Sacraments our Lord God accomplishes all these things in His Christendom, namely, that men are brought to faith, are strengthened in faith, are kept in pure doctrine, and in the end are enabled to withstand all the assaults of the devil and the world. Without these means, Word and Sacrament, we obtain none of these things. For since the beginning of the world God has dealt with all the saints through His Word and, in addition, has given them external signs of grace. This I say so that no one may venture to deal with God without these means or build for himself a special way to heaven, lest he fall and break his neck."

"But with the words 'Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me' the prophet wishes to say something special. It is as though he would say: 'Moses is also a shepherd and also has a rod and a staff. But he does nothing with them but drive and plague and burden his sheep with an unbearable burden (Acts 15:10; Is 9:13). Therefore he is a terrible, horrible shepherd, whom the sheep only fear and from whom they flee. But You, O Lord, do not drive and frighten Your sheep with Your rod and Your staff, nor do You burden them, but only comfort them.'

"Therefore he is speaking here about the office of preaching in the New Testament, which proclaims to the world that 'Christ came into the world to save sinners' (1Ti 1:15) and that He has gained this salvation for sinners by giving His life for them. Whoever believes this should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). That is the rod and the staff by which the souls obtain rest, comfort, and joy. In spiritual shepherding, that is, in the kingdom of Christ, one should, therefore, preach to the sheep of Christ, not the law of God, much less the ordinances of men, but the gospel, which the prophet with metaphorical words calls a rod of comfort and a staff of comfort. The goats one must govern with Moses and the emperor's rod and staff. For through the gospel, Christ's sheep obtain strength in their faith, rest in their hearts, and comfort in all kinds of anxieties and perils of death.