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Big Picture Overview of OT – Understanding Isaiah in Its OT Context (Part 5)
God’s Covenant Promises, Signs, Son(s) & Servants – in Genesis, Exodus,… 2 Samuel … & Isaiah
Son(s) & Servant(s) – Adam, Noah, Israel, David, Jesus
(1) Sonship Issue of Adam as God’s Son … and Jesus as God’s Son (the “True/Last Adam”) AND as God’s Divine Son:
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man [adam] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 5:1-3
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man [adam], He made him in the likeness of God.
Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and named them “Man” [adam] when they were created.
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered [begat] Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Luke 3:23… 3:38
Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,… the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
1 Corinthians 15:45
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. [See John 5:21]
(2) Sonship Issue of Israel as God’s First-born Son & Servant … and Jesus as God’s Divine/True Son & Servant:
Romans 9:4 … the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises
Exodus 4:22-23
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve Me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
Hosea 11:1
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.”
Matthew 2:15
… where He [Jesus] stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called My Son."
Cf. Christians as “children” & “sons of God:” Romans 8:14,19 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God…. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Cf. 1 John 3:1-2, John 1:13, Matt. 5:9
(3) Sonship Issue of David/”David” as God’s Son & Servant … and Jesus as David’s AND God’s True Son:
Psalm 89:27 “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” …
Isaiah – Israel and an Individual Messiah as God’s Son & Servant
Isaiah 1:2ff., 43:6, 63:8ff., 64:8ff…. v. Isaiah 9:6, etc.
Isaiah 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;”
Isaiah 44:1ff “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen…”,
Isaiah 42:1 “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”
… AND Isaiah 49 & 52-53!!!
provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
God’s Covenant Promises, Signs, Son(s) & Servants – in Genesis, Exodus,… 2 Samuel … & Isaiah
Genesis 1:1-2:3/ 2:4-3:19
And God said. And God saw … was good. And God blessed => “Be fruitful & multiply,… fill….”
And God said (6x – vv. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24) begins each day. “Then God said” (2x – vv. 11, 26). “God blessed them and said” (2x – vv. 22, 28). => “Ten Words”
Gen. 3:15 Protoevangelium v. the Curse of the Ground AND the Great Reversal (adam subject to dust)
Genesis 6 & 9 Noahic Covenant(s)
Gen. 6:18 Moses’/OT’s first use of Hebrew term b’rit
God establishes his B’rit with Noah AND gives Noah a Command: Noah & family must come into the ark.
8:20 – 9:17 – What is most commonly called the “Noahic Covenant”
Moses’/Genesis’ use (now repeated) of Hebrew b’rit (Chapter 9 verses 9, 11, 9:12, 13, 15, 16, 17)
Notes: (1) The covenant is (a) Unconditional, (b) Universal & (c) Everlasting!!!
Notably Universal: with Noah AND ALL Noah’s seed, …
AND ALL living creatures,… AND for perpetual generations!
(2) Noah & Ark Animals, Flood Subsiding, God’s Restoration of Creation Mandate and God’s Repeated Giving of the Mandate, and Noah’s Name all reflect/echo Genesis 1-2:4.
(3) The Sign/Token –- famously the rainbow –is for the LORD (!) 9:12ff.
(4) Noah’s “Fall”/ a failed “2d Adam” ….
(5) Noah’s curse on Ham & Canaan, and Noah’s blessing of YHWH, Shem’s God.
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Further problems with humanity, summarized in the Genesis 10-11 Table of Nations and Tower of Babel – in particular highlighting rising conflict with Nimrod & the people/kingdoms/cities that come from him (including Babel & Assyria/Nineveh) … culminating with the TOWER of Babel!
This all sets up the major contrast/tension between the City of Man/Idolatry/Man’s Glory and
the LORD’s plan/promise/covenants with & through Abram.
Genesis 12-28ff. Abrahamic Covenant(s) –
including the initial/calling commands & promises the LORD made to Abram of land, seed & blessing [Genesis 12:1-3].
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
(A) “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And (1) I will make you into a great nation, And (2) I will bless you, And (3) make your name great;
And (B) you shall be a blessing; 3 And (1) I will bless those who bless you, And (2) the one who curses you I will curse. And (3) in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The LORD further specifically makes & cuts his covenant(s)with and/or for Abram and his seed & family. God confirms and expands on the promises as the story of Abram moves forward. See, e.g.:
the specific b’rit of 15:18ff. …
the b’rit olam 17:7ff. and the SIGN of the covenant l-oth b’rit (17:11)… and
the LORD’s magisterial covenant oaths in 22:15ff.
See also, the LORD’s Reaffirmation of Covenant Oath/Promises to Isaac & Isaac’s Responses (Gen. 26) and God Almighty’s Call, Promises, and Naming of Jacob as Israel (Gen. 35).
Exodus 1-4/ Moses (& Aaron) & Israel v. Pharaoh/Egypt
1:7 fruitful & multiplied
2:24b-25 … and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.
Chapter 3 (note sign 3:12 … and signs Chapters 4 … and then 7-13ff.)
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Big Picture Overview of OT – Understanding Isaiah in Its OT Context (Part 4)
Hebrews 11:1-16, 39-40
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Isaiah 51:11
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Revelation 3:12
“The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.”
Revelation 21:1-3
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Revelation 22:1-3
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Isaiah 48:18-19
“Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring [zareka = “seed”] would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.”
Isaiah 66:22
“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”…
Genesis 4:17, 4:23-26, 6:6, 10:6-20, 11:1-9
Daniel 3, Isaiah 47:8-13, Revelation 17-18
Note: Genesis 11:3 lebenah v-hachamar => Exodus 1:14 bilbenim bechomer, 2:3 tebath b-chemar < Genesis 6:14 tebath
Genesis 1:1-2:3
And God said. And God saw … was good.
And God blessed => “Be fruitful & multiply,… fill….”
And God said (6x – vv. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24) begins each day. “Then God said” (2x – vv. 11, 26). “God blessed them and said” (2x – vv. 22, 28). => “Ten Words”
Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 6 & 9 Noahic Covenant(s)
Gen. 6:18 Moses’/OT’s first use of Hebrew term b’rit
God establishes his B’rit with Noah AND gives Noah a Command: Noah & family must come into the ark.
8:20 – 9:17 – What is most commonly called the “Noahic Covenant”
Again, Moses/Genesis’ use (now repeated) of Hebrew b’rit (9:9, 9:11, 9:12, 9:13)
Notes: (1) The covenant is (a) Unconditional, (b) Universal & (c) Everlasting!!!
Notably Universal: with Noah AND ALL Noah’s seed, …
AND ALL living creatures,… AND for perpetual generations!
(2) Noah & Ark Animals, Flood Subsiding & Restoration of Creation Mandate (and Noah’s Name) reflecting Genesis 1-2:4.
(3) The Sign/Token –- famously the rainbow –is for the LORD (!) 9:12ff.
(4) Noah’s “Fall”/ failed 2d Adam ….
(5) (5) Noah’s curse on Ham & Canaan, blessing of YHWH, Shem’s God.
Further problems with humanity, summarized in the Genesis 10-11 Table of Nations and Tower of Babel – in particular highlighting rising conflict with Nimrod & the people/kingdoms/cities that come from him (including Babel & Assyria/Nineveh) … culminating with the TOWER of Babel!
This all sets up the major contrast/tension between the City of Man/Idolatry/Man’s Glory and
the LORD’s plan/promise/covenants with & through Abram.
Genesis 12-28ff. Abrahamic Covenant(s) –
including the initial/calling commands & promises the LORD made to Abram of land, seed & blessing [Genesis 12:1-3].
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
(A) “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And (1) I will make you into a great nation, And (2) I will bless you, And (3) make your name great;
And (B) you shall be a blessing; 3 And (1) I will bless those who bless you, And (2) the one who curses you I will curse. And (3) in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The LORD further specifically makes & cuts his covenant(s)with and/or for Abram and his seed & family. God confirms and expands on the promises as the story of Abram moves forward. See, e.g.:
the specific b’rit of 15:18ff. …
the b’rit olam of 17:7ff.,… and
the LORD’s magisterial covenant oaths in 22:15ff.
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Big Picture Overview – Understanding Isaiah in Its OT Context (Part 3)
Romans 4:13-18
13 For the epangelia [“promise”… or “announcement” … or summons to what is fitting or decreed” (i.e. call)] to Abraham and his spermati [“seed”/ “offspring”/ “remnant”] that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”— in the presence of the God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your spermati [“seed”/ “offspring”/ “remnant”] be.”
Romans 9:3-11…
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong (1) the adoption, (2) the glory, (3) the covenants hai di-a- thῆ -kai, (4) the lawgiving, ἡ no-mos-the-si-a (5) the worship, and (6) the promises hai ep-an-ge-li-ai. 5 To them belong (7) the patriarchs [3 – A. I. & J.], and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, Who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though ὁ lo-gos [the word] of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his sperma [(singular/neuter) “seed”/ “offspring”/ “remnant”], but “Through Isaac shall your sperma [(sing.)“seed”/ “offspring”/ “remnant”] be named.”
See Gen. 15:5-6 – 5 And He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your tza-re-ka [seed/offspring/descendants] be.
6 And he believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
Gen. 21:12 - But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
Gal. 4:23,28 - His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise. … Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
John 8:33,37 – 33 They answered him, “We are offspring [sperma] of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
37 “I know that you are offspring [sperma] of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.”
Genesis 1-3ff. “Adamic Covenant” – Parts 1 & 2
Part 1 - Gen. 1-2 - “Edenic Covenant”
… in Reformed Theology, see “Covenant of Works” …
including (a) Gen. 1:26 ff - Imago Dei & the Creation Mandate/Commission and (b) Gen. 2, especially (i) Gen. 2:15 and (ii) Gen. 2:16-17 command re fruit, with 2:17 prohibition re tree of the knowledge of good & evil. cf. Hosea 6:7 - “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with Me.”
Part 2 Gen. 3:8-19 Post-Fall Curses & Grace, esp. the Gen. 3:15 Protoevangelium version/part of Adamic Covenant (i.e. Gospel Promise, … in Reformed Theology under the “Covenant of Redemption”).
Genesis 6 & 9 Noahic Covenants
Gen. 6:18 B’rit with Noah. Command: Noah & family must come into the ark. First use of Hebrew term b’rit in OT.
9:8-17 – What is most commonly called the “Noahic Covenant” Again, the use (now repeated) of Hebrew b’rit (9:9, 9:11, 9:12, 9:13)
Unconditional, Universal & Everlasting!!! Notably Universal: with Noah AND ALL Noah’s seed, … AND ALL living creatures,… AND for perpetual generations! The Sign/Token is for the LORD (!) and is famously the rainbow.
Further problems with humanity, summarized in Genesis 10-11, particularly with Nimrod & the people/kingdoms/cities that come from him (including Babel & Assyria/Nineveh) … culminating with the Tower of Babel (!) all set up the major contrast/tension with the LORD’s plan/promise/covenants with & through Abram.
Genesis 12-28ff. Abrahamic Covenant(s) – including the promises running from 12:1 (and expanding) forward, the specific b’rit of 15:18ff. … the b’rit olam of 17:7ff.,… and the LORD’s magisterial covenant oaths in 22:15ff.
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Big Picture Overview of Understanding Isaiah:
(1) The Old Testament (including Isaiah) & the History of Israel, Judah, and God’s People in the context of the power politics & spiritual warfare of the Ancient Near East.
(2) The Structure, Flow, and Main Issues & Themes of the Book of Isaiah.
Main Segments of Israel’s History Leading Up to & Through Isaiah & at least, his “Former Things” Prophecies.
- Patriarchs &YHWH’s Covenant & Covenant Promises with Abraham, reiterated & developed with Isaac & Jacob a/k/a Israel.
- Exodus & YHWH’s Sinai/Horeb Covenant via Moses with the Sons of Israel & with the Sons of Aaron.
- Joshua & “Conquest” of (some of) the Promised Land.
- Tribal Period of the Judges leading to the anointing of Saul and then to YHWH’s special choosing of David, son of Jesse.
- Saul, then David & Solomon as kings of a United Kingdom – YWWH’s special covenant with David (2 Sam. 7).
- Divided Kingdoms of (2) Judah with David’s line and (b) Israel/Samaria with various short-lived dynasties.
- Fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel/Samaria to the Assyrian Empire, and the resulting diaspora of the tribes [722/21 B.C.]
- Final Fall of Jerusalem & the Kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and the resulting destruction of the Temple & Jerusalem walls, further large-scale Exile of the people of Judah to Babylon [586 B.C.]
Major Parts of the Book of Isaiah:
Chapters 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66
[or, alternatively, per Motyer: 1-37 (“The King”), 38-55 (“The Servant”), and (The Anointed Conqueror”)
Chapters 1-39 - Mainly addressed directly to Isaiah’s Own Generations and regarding “Former Things” & Judgment, however with some Messianic & Other Hopeful Prophecies. [For term “former things” and “things to come” terminology see, e.g., Isaiah 41:22, 42:9, 43:6-21, 46:9, and 65:17.]
The Book of Isaiah begins with Covenant Lawsuit Chapter 1 and/or all of Chapter 1-5 [the Lawsuit is re Mosaic/Sinai Covenant]. Also, add the Theophanic Call Vision of Chapter 6, and Chapters 1-6 serve as the Book’s Introduction & a Summary of the Unfaithfulness of God’s People …but also with His Call to Repentance & Reconciliation.
Add 7-12 to complete the 1st Main Segment of the Book [with 7-12 really highlighting the juxtaposition of (a) the unfaithful King Ahaz vs. (b) the prophesied Immanuel-child (Ch. 7)/Son (Ch. 9)/Shoot from the stump of Jesse (Ch. 11).
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![Luther’s 1518 explanation to Pope Leo X re Luther’s 95 Theses and his position on indulgences: Ad Leonem X. Pontificem Maximum, Resolutiones disputationum de virtute indulgentiarum Revere[n]di Patris ac sacrae theologiae Doctoris Martini Luther Augu…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cfec75be011530001fe8231/1610577196040-2227HA934ZO1K44TEOYC/Screen+Shot+2021-01-13+at+4.32.33+PM.png)
Luther’s 1518 explanation to Pope Leo X re Luther’s 95 Theses and his position on indulgences: Ad Leonem X. Pontificem Maximum, Resolutiones disputationum de virtute indulgentiarum Revere[n]di Patris ac sacrae theologiae Doctoris Martini Luther Augustiniani Vuittenbergensis.
![The close of Luther’s 1520 De libertate christiana, dissertatio … [and] epistola eiusdem ad Leonem Decimum summum pontificem – with the epistle to Leo X leading into Luther’s treatise](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cfec75be011530001fe8231/1610577407070-7BBBRTN613OS9UYONMJR/Screen+Shot+2021-01-13+at+4.32.57+PM.png)
The close of Luther’s 1520 De libertate christiana, dissertatio … [and] epistola eiusdem ad Leonem Decimum summum pontificem – with the epistle to Leo X leading into Luther’s treatise
Leo’s Papal Bull vs. Martin Luther’s Errors “Exsurge Domine” published on June 15, 1520, identifying and censuring 41 errors by Luther, and insisting that Luther recant all of his errors: Bulla Decimi Leonis, contra errores Martini Lutheri, & sequacium. Note: While this Bull did NOT excommunicate Luther, it threatened him and gave a short window for complete recanting; in addition, the Bull was published on June 15 in Rome in a ceremony that included the burning of all of Luther’s known works. … Luther refused to recant and later, in the fall of 1520, attended a public burning of the Papal Bull in Wittenberg. After the deadline for Luther’s recanting had expired in December, Leo opened the New Year 1521 with his January 3, 1521 Bull, Decet Romanum, which excommunicated Luther.
Part 1 of Excerpted Highlights and Some of My Further Notes, Boldfacing Emphasis & Scriptural Supplementation to Martin Luther’s treatise on Christian Liberty – De Libertate Christiana “About [Concerning] the Freedom of a Christian.” Luther completed this work in September 1520 and published it, along with the open letter to Leo, in November 1520. Click here for a full PDF of the document.
Many people have considered Christian faith an easy thing, and not a few have given it a place among the virtues. They do this because they have not experienced it and have never tasted the great strength there is in faith. It is impossible to write well about it or to understand what has been written about it unless one has at one time or another experienced the courage which faith gives a man when trials oppress him. But he who has had even a faint taste of it can never write, speak, meditate, or hear enough concerning it. It is a living “spring of water welling up to eternal life,” as Christ calls it in John 4[:14].
Then Luther presents his Two Main “Themes” [theses/propositions]. Luther not only introduces & uses these themes to govern his rhetorical message for the treatise per se, but also as the key truths about Christian liberty AND, in fact, as gospel realities/truths anchored in justification by faith alone [in the grace of Christ] and governing Christian’s New [grace‐ based] Life in Christ – including the Christian’s discipleship, sanctification, worship, and all of his/her further works/service. In this, Luther begins to develop more fully his “middle way” of upholding first & foremost justification by faith along while also opposing antinomianism [in line with Paul].
To make the way smoother for the unlearned—for only them do I serve—I shall set down the following two “themes”/propositions concerning the freedom and the bondage of the spirit:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
These two theses seem to contradict each other. If, however, they should be found to fit together they would serve our purpose beautifully. Both are Paul’s own statements, who says in I Cor. 9[:19], “For though I am free item all men, I have made myself a slave to all,” and in Rom. 13[:8], “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”
Love by its very nature is ready to serve and be subject to him who is loved. So Christ, although he was Lord of all, was “born of woman, born under the law” [Gal. 4:4], and therefore was at the same time a free man and a servant, “in the form of God” and “of a servant” [Phil. 2:6–7].
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 - “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
Paul in Romans 13:5-8,10 – “Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law….
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ, as Christ says, John 11[:25], “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”; and John 8[:36], “So 2
if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”; and Matt. 4[:4], “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Let us then consider it certain and firmly established that the soul can do without anything except the Word of God and that where the Word of God is missing there is no help at all for the soul. If it has the Word of God it is rich and lacks nothing since it is the Word of life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and of every incalculable blessing. This is why the prophet in the entire Psalm [119] and in many other places yearns and sighs for the Word of God and uses so many names to describe it.
On the other hand, there is no more terrible disaster with which the wrath of God can afflict men than a famine of the hearing of his Word, as he says in Amos [8:11]. Likewise there is no greater mercy than when he sends forth his Word, as we read in Psalm 107[:20]: “He sent forth his word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.” Nor was Christ sent into the world for any other ministry except that of the Word. Moreover, the entire spiritual estate—all the apostles, bishops, and priests—has been called and instituted only for the ministry of the Word.
You may ask, “What then is the Word of God, and how shall it be used, since there are so many words of God?” I answer: The Apostle explains this in Romans 1. The Word is the gospel of God concerning his Son, who was made flesh, suffered, rose from the dead, and was glorified through the Spirit who sanctifies. To preach Christ means to feed the soul, make it righteous, set it free, and save it, provided it believes the preaching. Faith alone is the saving and efficacious use of the Word of God, according to Rom. 10[:9]: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Furthermore, “Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified” [Rom. 10:4]. Again, in Rom. 1[:17], “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” The Word of God cannot be received and cherished by any works whatever but only by faith. Therefore it is clear that, as the soul needs only the Word of God for its life and righteousness, so it is justified by faith alone and not any works; for if it could be justified by anything else, it would not need the Word, and consequently it would not need faith.
This faith cannot exist in connection with works—that is to say, if you at the same time claim to be justified by works, whatever their character—for that would be the same as “limping with two different opinions” [I Kings 18:21], as worshiping Baal and kissing one’s own hand [Job 31:27–28], which, as Job says, is a very great iniquity. Therefore the moment you begin to have faith you learn that all things in you are altogether blameworthy, sinful, and damnable, as the Apostle says in Rom. 3[:23], “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and, “None is righteous, no, not one; ... all have turned aside, together they have gone wrong” (Rom. 3:10–12). When you have learned this you will know that you need Christ, who suffered and rose again for you so that, if you believe in him, you may through this faith become a new man in so far as your sins are forgiven and you are justified by the merits of another, namely, of Christ alone.
Since, therefore, this faith can rule only in the inner man, as Rom. 10[:10] says, “For man believes with his heart and so is justified,” and since faith alone justifies, it is clear that the inner man cannot be justified, freed, or saved by any outer work or action at all, and that these works, whatever their character, have nothing to do with this inner man. On the other hand, only ungodliness and unbelief of heart, and no outer work, make him guilty and a damnable servant of sin. Wherefore it ought to be the first concern of every Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and increasingly to strengthen faith alone and through faith to grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him, as Peter teaches in the last chapter of his first Epistle (I Pet. 5:10). No other work makes a Christian. Thus when the Jews asked Christ, as related in John 6[:28], what they must do “to be doing the work of God,” he brushed aside the multitude of works which he saw they did in great profusion and suggested one work, saying, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” [John 6:29]; “for on him has God the Father set his seal” [John 6:27].
… Should you ask how it happens that faith alone justifies and offers us such a treasure of great benefits without works in view of the fact that so many works, ceremonies, and laws are prescribed in the Scriptures, I answer: First of all, remember what has been said, namely, that faith alone, without works, justifies, frees, and saves; we shall make this clearer later on. Here we must point out that the entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts: commandments/precepts and promises. Although the commandments teach things that are good, the things taught are not done as soon as they are taught, for the commandments show us what we ought to do but do not give us the power to do it. They are intended to teach man to know himself, that through them he may recognize his inability to do good and may despair of his own ability. That is why they are called the Old Testament and constitute the Old Testament.
… It is clear, then, that a Christian has all that he needs in faith and needs no works to justify him; and if he has no need of works, he has no need of the law; and if he has no need of the law, surely he is free from the law. It is true that “the law is not laid down for the just” [I Tim. 1:9]. This is that Christian liberty, our faith, which does not induce us to live in idleness or wickedness but makes the law and works unnecessary for any man’s righteousness and salvation.
This is the first power of faith. Let us now examine also the second. It is a further function of faith that it honors him whom it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard since it considers him truthful and trustworthy. …
Is not such a soul most obedient to God in all things by this faith? What commandment is there that such obedience has not completely fulfilled? What more complete fulfillment is there than obedience in all things? This obedience, however, is not rendered by works, but by faith alone. On the other hand, what greater rebellion against God, what greater wickedness, what greater contempt of God is there than not believing his promise?
The third incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom. By this mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul become one flesh [Eph. 5:31–32]. …
…Therefore faith alone is the righteousness of a Christian and the fulfilling of all the commandments, for he who fulfills the First Commandment has no difficulty in fulfilling all the rest.
But works, being inanimate things, cannot glorify God, although they can, if faith is present, be done to the glory of God. Here, however, we are not inquiring what works and what kind of works are done, but who it is that does them, who glorifies God and brings forth the works.
As a matter of fact, the more Christian a man is, the more evils, sufferings, and deaths he must endure, as we see in Christ the first-born prince himself, and in all his brethren, the saints. The power of which we speak is spiritual. It rules in the midst of enemies and is powerful in the midst of oppression. This means nothing else than that “power is made perfect in weakness” [II Cor. 12:9] and that in all things I can find profit toward salvation [Rom. 8:28], so that the cross and death itself are compelled to serve me and to work together with me for my salvation. This is a splendid privilege and hard to attain, a truly omnipotent power, a spiritual dominion in which there is nothing so good and nothing so evil but that it shall work together for good to me, if only I believe. Yes, since faith alone suffices for salvation, I need nothing except faith exercising the power and dominion of its own liberty. Lo, this is the inestimable power and liberty of Christians.