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Avoiding All Lies and Deceit (1): Speak No Evil
Jesus' enemies deliberately changed the meaning of the Lord’s words to suit their own wicked purposes, which was to secure condemnation against Jesus or to curry favor with the religious leaders of Israel. It is also possible to falsify a man’s words, even if you quote him verbatim. You omit from your quote a qualifying statement that further explains the intention of the neighbor. The result is that you deliberately make him seem to say something that he did not actually mean. To falsify a man’s words is wicked, because a man himself must determine his own meaning. We may not impose a foreign meaning on our neighbor’s words. If a man is unclear, then in charity we must seek to determine the meaning of his words either by asking him or, if that is not possible, by reading his words carefully in their context.
“Crucified with Christ, I Live” (1)
But did Paul’s relationship to the law change? Did the law change? Did the law change its demands? Did the law say to Paul, “Do your best, and I will cut you some slack”? Did the law say to Paul, “Do not worry—God grades on a curve”? Did the law say to Paul, “You are better than others and God appreciates your sincere efforts to keep me”? No, the law does not change and it cannot change. The law is the unchanging standard of God’s righteousness. There is nothing wrong with the law, but there was everything wrong with Paul; there is everything wrong with us.
Did the law die, then? Was the law abolished or abrogated? Did God say, “I see that you cannot keep my commandments; therefore, I will no longer require it”? Did God cancel his requirements and then accept something less than perfect obedience instead? The answer is no! The law is still in force and all sinners who are under the law must perish, therefore.
The answer is that Paul changed. The law did not die, but Paul died. “I am dead to the law” or “I died to the law” (v. 19). Paul’s relationship to the law changed because he died; when Paul died, the law lost its power over Paul. The law, says Paul, cannot condemn me; it cannot curse me; it cannot damn me; and it cannot hold me captive.
Samson Forfeits his Office (1): A Wicked Plot
The enemy asks, “Tell me how your witness as a Christian might be utterly ruined, so that you make yourself utterly ineffective as a Christian, and even come under church discipline. Tell me how Canons 5:5 might become true of you. How might you very highly offend God, incur a deadly guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, very grievously wound your conscience, and sometimes lose the sense of God’s favor for a time?” “Tell me how hypothetically such a thing might happen.”
The Christian must not say, “Well, you could tempt me to commit a terrible sin, and you could drive me on in my impenitence until I am hardened in my sin, so that I refuse to listen to the admonitions of my fellow church members, my family and friends, and the elders. That would accomplish your goal.”
The Christian must flee from such a question, he must flee from the Delilah who would ask such a question, and he must flee to Jesus Christ. “Lord, help me; sin tempts me; I feel its allure, its attraction. Strengthen me by the power of thy Holy Spirit given in the cross.”
The Creeds, Assurance, and Good Works (1): Heidelberg Catechism, A. 86
If good works are not the basis, the cause, the reason, the instrument, or the means of our assurance, what do we make of Answer 86 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which gives our good works a certain role? Answer 86 in response to the question, “Why must we—who are saved “merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours” (Q86)—“still do good works,” we read (among other things) this: “also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith by [German, "aus;" or "out of"] the fruits thereof.”
God Who Justifies the Ungodly (1)
In justification, then, we have no plea except the perfect obedience, sufferings, death, and righteousness of Jesus Christ. In justification, when we stand before the holy, righteous God, we say, “I am ungodly, but Christ is just and righteous. I have sinned, but Christ has been perfectly obedient. I am guilty, but Christ is innocent and he has made perfect satisfaction for my sins.” In justification we say, “My conscience [accuses] me that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and [I] am still inclined to all evil” (Heidelberg Catechism, A 60).Recent Posts
