October 8, 2012 - Monday of the 18th Week after Trinity
Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 10:12-21
Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 7:1-19; Matthew 10:1-23
He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. (Deuteronomy 10:21)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. We don't love God because the Law demands it. It's the Law's demand that we love God that drives us as it drove Adam and Eve after the Fall to flee God and hide from Him, for through the Law comes knowledge of sin . The Law isn't given so that we sinners can try the best we can to do it, but to turn us toward God who alone can fulfill for us what the Law commands. We love God, not because the Law demands it, but because He first loved us, sending His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
The St. Paul tells us, “Christ is the end of the law for all those who believe,” because "Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses."
The Law doesn't point to itself, it points to Christ. The command to fear and love God doesn't point back to Sinai, it points to Calvary. Moses can't help us; only Jesus Christ can, because He is risen from the dead, and lives and reigns to all eternity.
True Godly fear and love isn't proving to God you did your best, but taking God at His Word. He is our praise. He is our God — not money, possessions, personal gifts or interpersonal values. He does for us great and awesome things that our eyes see when His Gospel Word is preached to us, sprinkled on us, and fed to us for the forgiveness of sins, life, and eternal salvation. Released from the Law, we are bound to Christ. In this way, through faith, we fulfill all of the Law’s commands in perfect obedience; no longer slaves to the law of sin, but children of our heavenly Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone And rests in Him unceasing; And by its fruits true faith is known, With love and hope increasing. For faith alone can justify; Works serve our neighbor and supply The proof that faith is living. (LSB 555:9)
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