April 10, 2009

• Good Friday: Are you glorying in the cross or in your works?

  As I mentioned previously (see here and here) I've been reading through Luther's Commentary on Galatians. Reading Luther's commentary on Galatians 2 has given me a far greater appreciation of Christ's work on the cross for us.

  Many of us have heard the story of the cross for years and years and years and we lose sight of the glory, wonder and majesty of the cross of Christ and Christ's work on our behalf. The old, old story has become just that, old. We no longer take delight in God's saving work on our behalf. It has become old hat to us.

  Or perhaps we've heard the old, old story, but we've never really understood it at all, it's only been a Sunday school or Catechism lesson for us, it's only something that we know as head knowledge and it's not gone into our heart. Perhaps His Spirit has never opened our eyes to see the glory in the cross and we've never intimately communed with the Father through the Lamb who hung for us at Calvary.

  May the Spirit bear witness with our spirits and help us to understand that through Jesus (and only through Jesus) we have access to the God the Father. God's only begotten Son has opened a new and living way for us through His very flesh and blood. We may have heard of Jesus, we may have heard of the cross, but have we missed out on the beauty and the simplicity and the necessity and sufficiency of God's plan of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, God's life for us in and through Jesus Christ?

  May we never glory in our works but always glory in His cross. May we boast in nothing but Jesus Christ who is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. May we seek to make nothing known but Christ and Him crucified. Though Luther was only a man and his words are not on a par with Scripture, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit might use his words to help us all to exult more and more in the cross and to lift up Jesus Christ and Him crucified because as He is lifted up, all men will be drawn to Him by the power of God, and because only as Christ is made preeminent do we truly glorify our Father in heaven and hallow His Name.

  ~Karen

  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14.

  

  
  Some excerpts from Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians 2:

  Verses 4, 5. And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

  Since our opponents will not let it stand that only faith in Christ justifies, we will not yield to them. On the question of justification we must remain adamant, or else we shall lose the truth of the Gospel. It is a matter of life and death. It involves the death of the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world. If we surrender faith in Christ, as the only thing that can justify us, the death and resurrection of Jesus are without meaning; that Christ is the Savior of the world would be a myth. God would be a liar, because He would not have fulfilled His promises. Our stubbornness is right, because we want to preserve the liberty which we have in Christ. Only by preserving our liberty shall we be able to retain the truth of the Gospel inviolate. . . .

  Verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

  Now, if I could perform any work acceptable to God and deserving of grace, and once having obtained grace my good works would continue to earn for me the right and reward of eternal life, why should I stand in need of the grace of God and the suffering and death of Christ? Christ would be of no benefit to me. Christ’s mercy would be of no use to me. . . .

  In order to have faith you must paint a true portrait of Christ. The scholastics caricature Christ into a judge and tormentor. But Christ is no law giver. He is the Lifegiver. He is the Forgiver of sins. You must believe that Christ might have atoned for the sins of the world with one single drop of His blood. Instead, He shed His blood abundantly in order that He might give abundant satisfaction for our sins. . . .

  Verse 17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

  Paul’s argument has often comforted me. He argues: “If we who have been justified by Christ are counted unrighteous, why seek justification in Christ at all? If we are justified by the Law, tell me, what has Christ achieved by His death, by His preaching, by His victory over sin and death? Either we are justified by Christ, or we are made worse sinners by Him.”
   
  The Sacred Scriptures, particularly those of the New Testament, make frequent mention of faith in Christ. “Whosoever believeth in him is saved, shall not perish, shall have everlasting life, is not judged,” etc. In open contradiction to the Scriptures, our opponents misquote, “He that believeth in Christ is condemned, because he has faith without works.” Our opponents turn everything topsy-turvy. They make Christ over into a murderer, and Moses into a savior. Is not this horrible blasphemy? . . .

  Verse 20. Who loved me, and gave himself for me.

  Our opponents go even further than that. They say, nature is depraved, but the qualities of nature are untainted. Again we say: This may hold true in everyday life, but not in the spiritual life. In spiritual matters a person is by nature full of darkness, error, ignorance, malice, and perverseness in will and in mind.

  In view of this, Paul declares that Christ began and not we. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me. He found in me no right mind and no good will. But the good Lord had mercy upon me. Out of pure kindness He loved me, loved me so that He gave Himself for me, that I should be free from the Law, from sin, devil, and death.”

  The words, “The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” are so many thunderclaps and lightning bolts of protest from heaven against the righteousness of the Law. The wickedness, error, darkness, ignorance in my mind and my will were so great, that it was quite impossible for me to be saved by any other means than by the inestimable price of Christ’s death.

  Let us count the price. When you hear that such an enormous price was paid for you, will you still come along with your cowl, your shaven pate, your chastity, your obedience, your poverty, your works, your merits? What do you want with all these trappings? What good are the works of all men, and all the pains of the martyrs, in comparison with the pains of the Son of God dying on the Cross, so that there was not a drop of His precious blood, but it was all shed for your sins. If you could properly evaluate this incomparable price, you would throw all your ceremonies, vows, works, and merits into the ash can. What awful presumption to imagine that there is any work good enough to pacify God, when to pacify God required the invaluable price of the death and blood of His own and only Son?

  Verse 21. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
  
  Did Christ die, or did He not die? Was His death worth while, or was it not? If His death was worth while, it follows that righteousness does not come by the Law. Why was Christ born anyway? Why was He crucified? Why did He suffer? Why did He love me and give Himself for me? It was all done to no purpose if righteousness is to be had by the Law.

  Or do you think that God spared not His Son, but delivered Him for us all, for the fun of it? Before I would admit anything like that, I would consign the holiness of the saints and of the angels to hell.

  To reject the grace of God is a common sin, of which everybody is guilty who sees any righteousness in himself or in his deeds. And the Pope is the sole author of this iniquity. Not content to spoil the Gospel of Christ, he has filled the world with his cursed traditions, e.g., his bulls and indulgences.

  We will always affirm with Paul that either Christ died in vain, or else the Law cannot justify us. But Christ did not suffer and die in vain. Hence, the Law does not justify.

  If my salvation was so difficult to accomplish that it necessitated the death of Christ, then all my works, all the righteousness of the Law, are good for nothing. How can I buy for a penny what cost a million dollars? The Law is a penny’s worth when you compare it with Christ. Should I be so stupid as to reject the righteousness of Christ which cost me nothing, and slave like a fool to achieve the righteousness of the Law which God disdains?

  Man’s own righteousness is in the last analysis a despising and rejecting of the grace of God. No combination of words can do justice to such an outrage. It is an insult to say that any man died in vain. But to say that Christ died in vain is a deadly insult. To say that Christ died in vain is to make His resurrection, His victory, His glory, His kingdom, heaven, earth, God Himself, of no purpose and benefit whatever.

  That is enough to set any person against the righteousness of the Law and all the trimmings of men’s own righteousness, the orders of monks and friars, and their superstitions.

  Who would not detest his own vows, his cowls, his shaven crown, his bearded traditions, yes, the very Law of Moses, when he hears that for such things he rejected the grace of God and the death of Christ. It seems that such a horrible wickedness could not enter a man’s heart, that he should reject the grace of God, and despise the death of Christ. And yet this atrocity is all too common. Let us be warned. Everyone who seeks righteousness without Christ, either by works, merits, satisfactions, actions, or by the Law, rejects the grace of God, and despises the death of Christ.

  ---

  Related posts:
  

  • my deep concern for the churches
  • Reformation Day: Martin Luther on "How One is Justified before God, and of Good Works"
  • Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Why the Cross? Part 1-The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin
  • Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Why the Cross? Part 2-The Holy Law of God
  • Bible Reading: Jeremiah 23--THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
  • Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
  • My series of posts on True and False Religion: you can find the links here

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