Mid-Week Lenten Vespers, 2021
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
https://video.ibm.com/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship
Bethany Lutheran Worship, 7 PM Central
StandardTime
The
Hymn #159 Go to Dark Gethsemane
The Order of Vespers
p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 23
p. 128
The Lections
The Passion History
The Sermon Hymn #149 Come to Calvary's Holy Mountain
The Sermon – Galatians 4
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for
Grace
p. 45
The
Hymns #552 Abide with Me
Prayers and Announcements
·
Lori
(mother) and Mary Howell (daughter) for continued recovery.
·
Christina
Jackson – PET results.
·
Congregation
interested in Maundy Thursday Holy Communion in addition to Good Friday? Send
an email pro or con.
·
DEP
Trump, ongoing investigations, and military tribunals.
·
Greater
knowledge of Luther’s works and faithful translations; i.e., the KJV is the
English (Tyndale) version of Luther’s German Bible. They established their
modern languages in England and Germany by virtue of the power of their work. Nobody
ever admits this about the KJV, that it comes from Luther via Tyndale who died
for translating the Scriptures from Hebrew and Greek into English.
Luther’s Galatians 4
1. Now I say That the heir, as long as he
is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all;
2. But is under tutors and governors until
the time appointed of the father.
The Apostle had apparently finished his discourse on
justification when this illustration of the youthful heir occurred to him. He
throws it in for good measure. He knows that plain people are sooner impressed
by an apt illustration than by learned discussion.
“I want to give you another illustration from
everyday life,” he writes to the Galatians. “As long as an heir is underage he
is treated very much like a servant. He is not permitted to order his own
affairs. He is kept under constant surveillance. Such discipline is good for
him, otherwise he would waste his inheritance in no time. This discipline,
however, is not to last forever. It is to last only until ‘the time appointed
of the father.’”
3. Even so we, when we were children, were
in bondage under the elements of the world.
As children of the Law we were treated like servants
and prisoners. We were oppressed and condemned by the Law. But the tyranny of
the Law is not to last forever. It is to last only until “the time appointed of
the father,” until Christ came and redeemed us.
3. Under the elements of the world.
By the elements of the world the Apostle does not
understand the physical elements, as some have thought. In calling the Law “the
elements of the world” Paul means to say that the Law is something material,
mundane, earthly. It may restrain evil, but it does not deliver from sin. The
Law does not justify; it does not bring a person to heaven. I do not obtain
eternal life because I do not kill, commit adultery, steal, etc. Such mere
outward decency does not constitute Christianity. The heathen observes the same
restraints to avoid punishment or to secure the advantages of a good
reputation. In the last analysis such restraint is simple hypocrisy. When the
Law exercises its higher function, it accuses and condemns the conscience. All
these effects of the Law cannot be called divine or heavenly. These effects are
elements of the world.
In calling the Law the elements of the world Paul
refers to the whole Law, principally to the ceremonial law which dealt with
external matters, as meat, drink, dress, places, times, feasts, cleansings,
sacrifices, etc. These are mundane matters which cannot save the sinner.
Ceremonial laws are like the statutes of governments dealing with purely civil
matters, as commerce, inheritance, etc. As for the pope’s church laws
forbidding marriage and meats, Paul calls them elsewhere the doctrines of devils.
You would not call such laws elements of heaven.
The Law of Moses deals with mundane matters. It
holds the mirror to the evil which is in the world. By revealing the evil that
is in us it creates a longing in the heart for the better things of God. The
Law forces us into the arms of Christ, “who is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:4.) Christ relieves the
conscience of the Law. In so far as the Law impels us to Christ it renders
excellent service.
I do not mean to give the impression that the Law
should be despised. Neither does Paul intend to leave that impression. The Law
ought to be honored. But when it is a matter of justification before God, Paul
had to speak disparagingly of the Law, because the Law has nothing to do with
justification. If it thrusts its nose into the business of justification, we
must talk harshly to the Law to keep it in its place. The conscience ought not
to be on speaking terms with the Law. The conscience ought to know only Christ.
To say this is easy, but in times of trial, when the conscience writhes in the
presence of God, it is not so easy to do. As such times we are to believe in
Christ as if there were no Law or sin anywhere, but only Christ. We ought to
say to the Law: “Mister Law, I do not get you. You stutter so much. I don’t
think that you have anything to say to me.”
When it is not a question of salvation or
justification with us, we are to think highly of the Law and call it “holy,
just, and good.” (Romans 7:12) The Law is of no comfort to a stricken
conscience. Therefore it should not be allowed to rule in our conscience,
particularly in view of the fact that Christ paid so great a price to deliver
the conscience from the tyranny of the Law. Let us understand that the Law and
Christ are impossible bedfellows. The Law must leave the bed of the conscience,
which is so narrow that it cannot hold two, as Isaiah says, chapter 28, verse
20.
Only Paul among the apostles calls the Law “the
elements of the world, weak and beggarly elements, the strength of sin, the
letter that killeth,” etc. The other apostles do not speak so slightingly of
the Law. Those who want to be first-class scholars in the school of Christ want
to pick up the language of Paul. Christ called him a chosen vessel and equipped
with a facility of expression far above that of the other apostles, that he as
the chosen vessel should establish the doctrine of justification in clear-cut
words.
4, 5. But when the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
“The fullness of the time” means when the time of
the Law was fulfilled, and Christ was revealed. Note how Paul explains Christ.
“Christ,” says he, “is the Son of God and the son of a woman. He submitted
Himself under the Law to redeem us who were under the Law.” In these words the
Apostle explains the person and office of Christ. His person is divine and
human. “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” Christ therefore is true God
and true man. Christ’s office the Apostle describes in the words: “Made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law.”
Paul calls the Virgin Mary a woman. This has been
frequently deplored even by some of the ancient fathers who felt that Paul should
have written “virgin” instead of woman. But Paul is now treating of faith and
Christian righteousness, of the person and office of Christ, not of the
virginity of Mary. The inestimable mercy of God is sufficiently set forth by
the fact that His Son was born of a woman. The more general term “woman”
indicates that Christ was born a true man. Paul does not say that Christ was
born of man and woman, but only of woman. That he has a virgin in mind is
obvious.
This passage furthermore declares that Christ’s purpose
in coming was the abolition of the Law, not with the intention of laying down
new laws, but “to redeem them that were under the law.” Christ himself
declared: “I judge no man.” (John 8:15.) Again, “I came not to judge the world,
but to save the world.” (John 12:47.) In other words: “I came not to bring more
laws, or to judge men according to the existing Law. I have a higher and better
office. I came to judge and to condemn the Law, so that it may no more judge
and condemn the world.”
How did Christ manage to redeem us? “He was made
under the law.” When Christ came, He found us all in prison. What did He do
about it? Although He was the Lord of the Law, He voluntarily placed Himself
under the Law and permitted it to exercise dominion over Him, indeed, to accuse
and to condemn Him. When the Law takes us into judgment it has a perfect right
to do so. “For we are by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Eph.
2:3.) Christ, however, “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (I
Pet. 2:22.) Hence the Law had no jurisdiction over Him. Yet the Law treated
this innocent, just, and blessed Lamb of God as cruelly as it treated us. It
accused Him of blasphemy and treason. It made Him guilty of the sins of the
whole world. It overwhelmed him with such anguish of soul that His sweat was as
blood. The Law condemned Him to the shameful death on the Cross.
It is truly amazing that the Law had the effrontery
to turn upon its divine Author, and that without a show of right. For its insolence,
the Law in turn was arraigned before the judgment seat of God and condemned.
Christ might have overcome the Law by an exercise of His omnipotent authority
over the Law. Instead, He humbled Himself under the Law for and together with
them that were under the Law. He gave the Law license to accuse and condemn
Him. His present mastery over the Law was obtained by virtue of His Sonship and
His substitutionary victory.
Thus, Christ banished the Law from the conscience.
It dare no longer banish us from God. For that matter, —the Law continues to
reveal sin. It still raises its voice in condemnation. But the conscience finds
quick relief in the words of the Apostle: “Christ has redeemed us from the
law.” The conscience can now hold its head high and say to the Law: “You are
not so holy yourself. You crucified the Son of God. That was an awful thing for
you to do. You have lost your influence forever.”
The words, “Christ was made under the law,” are
worth all the attention we can bestow on them. They declare that the Son of God
did not only fulfill one or two easy requirements of the Law, but that He
endured all the tortures of the Law. The Law brought all its fright to bear
upon Christ until He experienced anguish and terror such as nobody else ever
experienced. His bloody sweat. His need of angelic comfort, His tremulous
prayer in the garden, His lamentation on the Cross, “My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” bear eloquent witness to the sting of the Law. He suffered
“to redeem them that were under the law.”
The Roman conception of Christ as a mere lawgiver
more stringent than Moses, is quite contrary to Paul’s teaching. Christ,
according to Paul, was not an agent of the Law but a patient of the Law. He was
not a law-giver, but a law-taker.
True enough, Christ also taught and expounded the
Law. But it was incidental. It was a sideline with Him. He did not come into
the world for the purpose of teaching the Law, as little as it was the purpose
of His coming to perform miracles. Teaching the Law and performing miracles did
not constitute His unique mission to the world. The prophets also taught the
Law and performed miracles. In fact, according to the promise of Christ, the
apostles performed greater miracles than Christ Himself. (John 14:12.) The true
purpose of Christ’s coming was the abolition of the Law, of sin, and of death.
If we think of Christ as Paul here depicts Him, we
shall never go wrong. We shall never be in danger of misconstruing the meaning
of the Law. We shall understand that the Law does not justify. We shall
understand why a Christian observes laws: For the peace of the world, out of
gratitude to God, and for a good example that others may be attracted to the
Gospel.
5. That we might receive the adoption of
sons.
Paul still has for his text Genesis 22:18, “In thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” In the course of his
Epistle he calls this promise of the blessing righteousness, life, deliverance
from the Law, the testament, etc. Now he also calls the promise of blessing
“the adoption of sons,” the inheritance of everlasting life.
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| Understanding Luther's Galatians, Illustrated by Norma A. Boeckler |
