Tag: Isaiah 56

The Law and the Promise

In the Young Adult group that meets on Wednesday evenings, in between silly movies, we’ve been reading Galatians. And to Lutherans in the know Galatians is probably the most Lutheran book of the bible. It is a book about the proper distinction of law and gospel. And distinction is the right word.  They are two separate covenants – Abraham and Moses. But the covenant with Abraham – “he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Galatians 3:6)” – is both prior to that with Moses and more direct. God speaks directly with Abraham.  The covenant of Sinai with Israel is mediated by Moses.  Exodus has Moses going up the mountain and down the mountain and up and down each time relaying parts of a negotiation.  Down, I’ve met the LORD. Up, the people of Israel say you are scary.  Down, tell them they are right and to back away from the mountain. Up, they’ve agreed and backed away. Let me bring down your word. You should go down first.  Down, witnesses the golden calf. Breaks the law. Cleans up Israel.  Up, yes, God, I’m sorry, I dropped the tablets. I’ll make a copy.  Down, here is the law again, will you keep it? Up, they said they’d keep it. Down, we need to assemble the elders for a meal on the mountain. Up, a meal with the Elder and the LORD to celebrate the covenant of Moses.  The covenant with Abraham is the promise – the gospel.  Believe, God will do it, God has done it. The covenant with Moses is the law.

Isaiah 56, our Old Testament lesson for this Sunday, is an interesting mixture of the promise and the law. But I can’t help but hear the gospel predominate. “Thus says the LORD: Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed (Isaiah 56:1).” Paul would say something like the law was given to us as guardian (Galatians 3:24). And there is nothing wrong with the law.  The law is good and wise. It is justice. It is righteousness. It’s problem is that the law cannot make us righteous. It instead exposes that we are far from righteous and injustice is what sow. Often injustice is what we sow exactly when we think we are meeting it out.  And so what we need is the promise.  “My salvation will come, my righteousness be revealed.” God will act.  And in the act of God we shall find our salvation, even victory over our sinful selves.

And this is the superiority of the Gospel – of the direct promise. It is available to all. It is available not to the offsprings of Abraham, the pure physical descent.  It is available through the offspring – Christ (Galatians 3:16).  Isaiah puts this in a different key.  He calls out the foreigner, that is the gentile, and the eunuch, that one literally cut off. Our lesson cuts this line out.  Probably because of squeamishness over eunuch.  “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people’; and let not the eunuch say ‘behold, I am a dry tree. (Isaiah 56:3)’” Isaiah implores both to “hold fast to my covenant.”

Which covenant?  He mentions the Sabbath and the sacrifices.  The sacrifices are clearly part of the law.  But the Sabbath goes back to the beginning.  On the seventh day, God rested.  The toil of the law – the guardian – is felt.  But he Sabbath rest comes.  And yes, the necessities of the sacrifices of the law once filled the temple.  And Christ cleared it saying “my house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples (Luke 19:46).” For Christ is the salvation of God.  And Christ is the righteousness of God.  It is not that the law is useless or contrary.  It is that the promise is stronger.  The law kills us, but God is the God of life.

And he gathers us all into his house of prayer. He promises the eunuch “I will give you a house within my walls, and a name that shall not be cut off.” He promises the foreigner, “I will gather others to him, besides those already gathered.”  These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in prayer. Paul would say in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. In Christ we are heirs of the promise.  And we have seen his deliverance revealed.

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The Best Laid Plans

Do you ever start something not really sure where it is going to go?

That usually isn’t me.  I want to have “the plan”.  I want to work “the plan”.  “The plan” might even have multiple paths and checkpoints.  Now I’ve never been crazy about this.  I’ve always known full well in the wise words of Iron Mike Tyson that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”  But when you get punched in the mouth is when you hope your plan is more like a Bach fugue.  The melody is solid, you just have to shift to a different mouth.

Something like that might be the secret to a successful and happy existence on earth.  Can you roll with the punches?  Do you have enough grit such that you don’t have a glass jaw? Are you limber enough to play the rope-a-dope occasionally, or at least get your head out of the way of the haymaker?  If you are good at it, or never come up against Mike Tyson at least, you might even think you can go the full 15 rounds and grab the belt. Define “the belt” however you want to. 

You can file all of that under what Luther called civil righteousness.  The world works a certain way.  Some of those ways are not very Christian, using that word in the sense of nice or meeting a certain decorum.  But that starts to point out the problems with Civil Righteousness. Everyone around you might think you are the best person on earth, a living saint.  But, none of them get a vote that counts.  And even if they absolve you of great crimes because you have donated enough money to get your name on a building, their absolution lasts until you leave the building.  If you plan for civil righteousness you have received your reward.  Enjoy the belt.

The other type of righteousness Luther calls the righteousness before God.  And the brutal truth about this type is you can’t plan for it.  In fact, the more you plan and scheme and try to earn it, the more it punches you in the mouth. Eventually, bloody and bruised and knocked out, you might conclude that it’s a funny game, the only way to win is not to play. Because you can’t win the righteousness of God.  It only comes as a free gift. It only comes to broken sinners. It only comes to those who are flat on the mat admitting they are not going to beat the 10 count.  That is the stink of desperation in the civil realm, but before God that is when He can start to do something.  That is when we put down our plans and seek out God’s plans.  When we are raised by the Spirit.

Part of the good news is that God has told us where this goes.  This conforms us to his son, Jesus. He has also told us what to expect.  The punches of the world will keep coming.  But the plan of God is your eternal salvation. Your reward will be great in heaven.  

Part of the good news also is that it is good, not nice. Nice is always defined socially.  Nice is always changing. What is good? Conan the Barbarian’s answer isn’t it.  What is good doesn’t really change. “Keep justice, do righteousness (Isa 56:1), and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).”  For soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed.  With our plans we never really know where they are going; with God’s plan we know.