Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Galatians 3:15-22)
The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we come to you in boldness and confidence as your dear children, calling on you, our dear Father. Let your Word be taught in its truth and purity, and help us to lead holy lives according to it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Christianity is an historical religion, and the bible is an historical book.
The great offense of Christianity, as opposed to other religions, is the claims it makes about history.
A bit over 200 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection there was a man called Mani, who was from modern-day Iraq, who founded his own religion which was called Manichaeism. This religion was a major world religion at the time of the early church, and spread all throughout the Persian Empire, and China and into Northern Africa and Europe.
Mani tried to mix together Christianity, Buddhism and an ancient Persian religion called Zoroastrianism and taught that all these three religions had their fulfilment in himself, and said that he was a kind of “final prophet”. Mani also wrote down his own teaching, and he criticised Jesus for not doing the same thing, and he said that Christianity was deficient because Jesus left the task of writing down of his teachings to his disciples, instead of writing things down himself.
What do you think about this criticism? Why didn’t Jesus write anything down?
But the most important thing about Jesus is not that he wrote, but that he spoke and taught, and then suffered, died and rose. The teaching of Jesus is not just what Jesus said and taught, but also what he did. And the fact that he taught is also an historical fact. Jesus wanted other people to witness to him, and he sent the apostles throughout the whole world as eyewitnesses to the historical facts that they saw happen when they were with Jesus.
You see, Christianity is always historical. Even today in our church, we are gathered here as a part of history. The fact that there is a congregation gathered in this place to hear the preaching of the word of God is an historical fact. What we are doing, and what we continue to do week after week is to join in God’s history, as he himself speaks to us, sends the Holy Spirit and opens our eyes to Jesus Christ’s presence in our midst as we, his baptised people, hear his word and receive his holy Supper.
So you can see that God is always entering history again and again to give gifts to people. The fact that you have heard the preaching of the word of God today, and you received the body and blood of Christ given for you and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins is an historical fact.
Now, what does this have to do with our epistle reading today, and our sermon?
In the section of Galatians that we have read today, we hear these words: “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.”
St Paul wants you to think about a situation when a person’s words are also at the same time an historical event. All of our words are historical events, but especially when a person dies, and they write out a will.
No-one can cancel a person’s will or add to it once they are dead. When you write a will, you say, “What I have written, I have written.”
It’s very important that people respect these sorts of agreements. It’s a sign of a strong culture when people keep their words and stay true to their words in all spheres of life. For example, parents need to stay true to the words they speak to their children, bosses to their employees, teachers to their students, salespeople to their customers, pastors to their listeners, and politicians to their electorate. Jesus says: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” People can hold to account those in authority over them with the historical facts about what they actually said.
And in the same way, we should also hold God to account over the historical facts about what he actually said. When the devil, your flesh and your sinful self want to convince you that Jesus died for everyone in the world except you, you can turn to God in prayer and hold him to account over the historical fact that he said: “God so loved the world”. You are part of the world, and so he must have given his only Son for you.
And so, St Paul in our epistle reading today is talking about the historical detail about when God spoke his words to different people in history.
St Paul writes:
“To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “At to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by a promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.”
So what’s he talking about here? He’s talking about concepts and ideas, he’s talking about history. Jesus was an historical person, and he was from an historical family—he was descended from King David and Abraham. This is such an important fact, that if you open up to the first page of the New Testament, Jesus’ family tree is the first thing described there. Also, God spoke his promises at particular times and particular places to Abraham. But then later on in history, God also spoke to Moses and gave him the law at a particular time (430 years later) and at a particular place (Mt Sinai).
St Paul is teaching about the distinction between these two events in the bible: when God spoke to Abraham and later to Moses. There are two different events here, and two doctrines that the Holy Spirit teaches that are completely different.
The one thing that Holy Spirit teaches is the Law. The law is everything that God wants you to do. It says, do this and don’t do that. It shows you what you should do and should not do, and also what you should have done and should not have done. So the law always brings you to despair. It always kills you, because you can’t fulfil it and you can’t live up to all the expectations. Anyone who thinks that they can perfectly fulfil by themselves everything that God commands them in the 10 commandments is a hypocrite and not a Christian. That’s one thing.
Now the other thing that the Holy Spirit teaches is the Gospel. The Gospel is not a law. It doesn’t command anything to you, but it shows you what God has done and what he has promised. So the Gospel works completely outside of human reason, outside of human suffering and outside of the human imagination. The Gospel is the preaching of the forgiveness of sins to you totally freely, even though you may break every piece of the law, day after day, again and again. Jesus Christ, true God and man, has died for you all your sins—He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—and He has risen again from the dead for you and has defeated death, sin, sadness, suffering, tears and pain.
The Book of Concord says: “We [the Lutheran church] believe, teach and confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be kept in the Church with great diligence as a particular brilliant light… The law teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and it rebukes everything that is sin and contrary to God’s will… The Gospel…shows what a person who has not kept the Law (and therefore is condemned by it) is to believe. It teaches that Christ has paid for and made satisfaction for all sins… We reject and regard as incorrect and harmful the teaching that the Gospel, strictly speaking, is a preaching of repentance or rebuke and not just a preaching of grace. For by this the Gospel is converted into a teaching of the Law. Christ’s merit and Holy Scripture are hidden, Christians are robbed of true consolation, and the door is opened again to the papacy”. (FC Ep V 2, 3, 5, 11).
Now St Paul proves this by pointing to history.
What did God speak to Abraham? Law or Gospel? Answer: He spoke the Gospel. God said to Abraham somewhere around the year 1900 BC: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” He also said: “All the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” He also said: “Fear not, Abram: I am your shield and your very great reward.” He also said: “My covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” That’s Gospel—it’s all promises.
God also gave Abraham the sign of circumcision in the flesh to remind the descendants of Abraham of the promise that God made to his offspring. St Paul says in our reading that this offspring is, in actual fact, Jesus Christ.
But now we go forward 430 years to the middle of the 1400s BC to the time of Moses. What do you think God spoke to Moses? Law or Gospel? Answer: He spoke the Law. God said to Moses: “You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honour your father and mother.” – and so on.
So did God promise descendants to Moses? Did God promise to make Moses’ descendants as many as the stars of heaven? No! He just gave him the laws.
God made his promises to Abraham. St Paul writes: The law does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it is no longer by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
So what’s the law for? Well, that’s exactly what St Paul asks. He writes: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.
He means this: People were sinning. They needed to be told what was right and wrong. The same goes for us: we need the law—we need to be told from God’s law what is right and wrong, we need to be shown where we have sinned, and we need to be shown how to live our lives in love.
But then St Paul writes in verse 21: Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
The law isn’t against the Gospel. We need to know how to live and what to do, but we also need to be shown our Saviour in all our failures, and to be shown that he has died for us. The law and the Gospel are not contrary to each other. But the law works in front of our eyes. We can see it when it is kept, we feel it when we have broken it. But the Gospel is the peace of God which passes all human understanding. The Gospel shows us the Maker of the Universe enclosed in the womb of young virgin. The Gospel shows us our God and Lord dead on a cross. The Gospel shows us our resurrected Lord with holes in his hands.
The Gospel doesn’t make any sense to the law, it doesn’t make any sense to our reason, to our understanding, but it’s still true.
The law tells you what to do and not to do, but it can’t give you life. Instead, it puts you to death. But the Gospel does give you life, simply because the Gospel promises life. St Paul says: If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But look at history: God spoke promises to Abraham, not laws. And Jesus is Abraham’s son, not Moses’ son.
The law shows you your sin, and how you’ve failed. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. St Paul says in our reading: “The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin.” The Scripture has locked you up, and sentenced you to death, tied you up, and thrown you into the darkest dungeon.
Why? Does God hate you? Does he want to see you suffer? Does he take pleasure in spitting in your face?
Of course not!
The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
God has promised you eternal life in Jesus Christ, and he invites you simply to believe it. He has promised that your baptism is the actual pouring out of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, and he invites you simply to believe it. He has promised that when a pastor says, “I forgive you all your sins”, that this is his own words, and he invites you simply to believe it. He has promised that in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, that you are given the body and blood of Christ given for you for the forgiveness of sins, and he invites you simply to believe it.
And when you believe the promises of God, you join in God’s history, not just the history of the world, but the history that extends beyond time, with the true offspring of Abraham: Jesus Christ, your God and Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Come Holy Spirit, and remind us of the promises of Jesus, and give us the peace which passes all understanding. Give us the joy that comes from God’s promises, which he spoke to our father Abraham and to his offspring forever. My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour! Amen.
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