Law and Gospel

Here's an article/commentary on the Galatians that I wrote in July 1999:


LAW AND GOSPEL

The relationship between Law and Gospel continues to be entirely misunderstood by almost all Christians. The failure of Christians to understand the role of Law in this age of Grace has caused congregations to become thoroughly legalistic, and has degenerated the Gospel proclamation of the pulpit into a guide for human conduct. If we as Christians are to preach the Good News of Christ to the entire world, then we must understand this precarious relationship between Law and Gospel to ensure that God’s Grace is never substituted with human effort.

Perhaps the most articulate expression of the relationship between Law and Gospel is found in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. Further, Paul’s affirmations in this letter are restated with increased force by the vivid imagery and colourful language in Martin Luther’s “Commentary on Galatians”. The relationship between Law and Gospel becomes fully exposed in these two theological masterpieces.

The Law is Oppressive

The Law of God is indeed holy, but is at the same time weak. The Law is not weak in itself, for it is the perfect exposition of God’s will; but when applied to humans, it can never be obeyed, no matter how earnestly we try. Our total depravity, corrupt nature, and weakness of the flesh render the Law useless. For the Law does not demand only external obedience, but the internal obedience of our hearts, minds, and souls that man is altogether incapable of.

Not only is the Law of God unable to enforce obedience in humans, but it is an oppressive device which tortures the souls of those confronted by it. For “all who rely on observing the Law are under a curse.” (Galatians 3:10) Indeed “the Law is most excellent: yet it is not able to quiet a troubled conscience, but increaseth terrors, and driveth it to desperation.” (Commentary on Galatians) When confronted with the strict and holy demands of the Law, man is driven to despair and hopelessness. For by his own efforts, he fulfills none of the Law’s righteous demands; rather, the Law oppresses him, and causing him not to love God, but to hate him instead. Striving to keep the Law actually alienates one from God, since “to live to the Law is to die to God.” (Commentary on Galatians)

To seek salvation by adherence to the Law is to seek salvation in vain “because by observing the Law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16) The Law does not work for us in seeking salvation, but against us. “He that liveth to the Law … is dead and condemned. For the Law cannot justify and save him, but accuseth, terrifieth, and killeth him.” (Commentary on Galatians) It is “so intolerable a tyrant and cruel tormentor” such that “the devil is wont by the Law to make us afraid.” (Commentary on Galatians) We conclude that the Law is our enemy, our oppressor, and our tormentor. Salvation must lie beyond the scope of Law.

The Law leads us to the Gospel

What then, was the purpose of God’s Law? Did God bring to us his Law in order to prepare us for destruction? By no means! Instead, the Law’s purpose is meaningful, since its oppressive nature curiously leads us to the Gospel promise. Paul states this clearly in his epistle: “What, then was the purpose of the Law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” (Galatians 3:19) By increasing transgressions of humans, the Law makes our depraved nature and utter imperfections clear to us as we fail to execute God’s will for us. Only by recognizing that we are shameful sinners who are unable to face the presence of a holy God, will we cry out for help in desperation. Without the Law, we have a high view of ourselves, and we convince ourselves that our human efforts, works, and deeds are substantial and procure justification. But the Law makes it abundantly clear that the opposite is true. When confronted with the Law, we then understand how hopeless we are, and that our works and deeds amount to nothing.

Thus in despair and desperation, we cry out to the promise of God. We cry out for Grace and mercy from our loving Saviour. “When a man is humbled by the Law, and brought to the knowledge of himself, then followeth true penitence.” (Commentary on Galatians) Being convinced of our own unworthiness, we look no longer to our own strivings, but to God’s Gospel of Grace, given freely for sinners. Man, “being terrified with the Law, utterly despaireth of his own strength: he looketh about, and sigheth for the help of a mediator and Saviour. Here then cometh in good time the healthful word of the Gospel.” (Commentary on Galatians) Thus we conclude that the Law leads us to the Gospel. “The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)

The Gospel brings Salvation

Gospel, not Law, gives us the way, the life, and the resurrection. If the Law drives us to the Gospel, then the Gospel provides us salvation. The Gospel is summarized by the following: God’s Grace is given to us freely on the grounds of Christ’s death, and those that receive this Grace through faith are justified as righteous before God. Paul declares that “we have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ.” (Galatians 2:16) “By faith only in Christ we are pronounced righteous, and not by the works of the law or charity.” (Commentary on Galatians) God has promised us his Grace, so that all who receive it by faith in Christ will be saved.

Further, this Gospel of Grace requires no human effort, works, or deeds to effect salvation. Rather, the mere apprehension of this promise of Grace through faith ensures a righteous standing before God. Thus the righteousness that we attain by grace through faith is entirely passive, and God’s Grace extends to us no matter how repugnant our deeds are. Indeed, “the afflicted and troubled conscience hath no remedy against desperation and eternal death, unless it take hold of the promise of Grace freely offered in Christ, that is to say, this passive righteousness through faith.” (Commentary on Galatians)

It is only this passive righteousness of God’s forgiving Grace that justifies us. There is no dependence on human effort, but rather, salvation is attributed to God alone. He is from first to last the author of our salvation. Our hope lies not in our capacity to do good works, but in God’s loving initiative manifested in his death on the Cross. In him our hope lies, and thus our salvation is assured, since it does not depend on our own fickle abilities, but God’s steadfast resolve to reconcile his people. For “there is no comfort of conscience [that is] so firm and so sure, as this passive righteousness is.” (Commentary on Galatians)

There is no Law in Grace

Grace, by definition, comes with no strings attached and does not require any prior condition for its procurement. Law, on the other hand, consists solely of demands upon the human conscience. There is no harmony between the two, and there is no Law for those who have received the Grace of God.

Martin Luther draws this antithesis between Law and Grace with impressive determination. We should “teach Christians to be ignorant of the Law” since “a Christian man is free from all laws.” (Commentary on Galatians) Christians are “children of Grace which are under no Law,” and “must have nothing to do with [the Law].” (Commentary on Galatians) There is no compatibility between Law and Gospel since “between the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of Christ, there is no mean.” (Commentary on Galatians) Paul confirms Luther’s statements by exclaiming, “if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing.” (Galatians 2:21) For “now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the Law.” (Galatians 3:25) For the Christian, the Law “is utterly abrogate.” (Commentary on
Galatians)

Not only are Law and Grace held at an antithesis, but Grace itself has defeated the Law and has set us free from the Law’s oppression. The Gospel abolishes the Law, and is our victory over this cruel tyrant. “Wherefore the Law has no right to accuse me, or to hold me any longer, for I am risen again.” (Commentary on Galatians) “The Law is void, and I am escaped out of my prison and grave.” (Commentary on Galatians) “By Christ [we are] utterly freed from the Law” since “the Father [has] abolished the Law, sin, and death.” (Commentary on Galatians) The Law which had previously kept us in bondage is now entirely nullified since the Gospel has won a victory over the Law. “Before faith came, we were held prisoners by the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed.” (Galatians 3:23) Thus Christians who possess the Gospel promise of Grace shall be no longer under the Law, but set free from it, having nothing to do with it.

Christians no longer need the Law as a guide, but will respond to the Gospel of Grace so gratefully, that good works automatically flow. Christians will declare their absolute loyalty to Christ and will do everything in their power to ensure that his will is done. For Christians, God “will put his Law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33) and thus the “the entire Law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14) For when brought under Grace, a Christian will desire to follow the Law, not under external compulsion, but by sheer gratitude of God’s Grace given for him.

Conclusions

The righteous Law of God, by its strict demands, tortures the human soul by demanding what cannot be given. Man despairs of his standing before a righteous, holy God. But convinced of his utter helplessness, the Law leads man to cry out in desperation for the unconditional Grace of God. This Grace, this Gospel, does not fail when received through faith, but ensures salvation. Thus the Gospel has triumphed over the Law, and has gained a glorious victory for all Christians. May God bless us evermore with his Gospel of Grace. Amen.

A Suffering Jesus for a Suffering World

Here's an article that I wrote back in January 1999.......


“If your God is so powerful, and so loving, then why doesn’t he do something to end all the suffering in the world?”

This question has been posed to me by many people who are struggling to come to terms with the Christian faith. Maybe God is indeed powerful, they say, but not loving enough to care about all the suffering in the world. Or maybe God is actually loving, but not powerful enough to be able to stop the pain, torture, and hurt that so many people have. But clearly God cannot be both powerful and loving, or else our world would have an absence of suffering, and everyone would be content.

The question certainly does cause me to think more insightfully about God. Why doesn’t God do more to alleviate the suffering of the poor and needy? How can God live with himself when Honduras lies in ruins after Hurricane Mitch, innocent Palestinians and Jews are being murdered by terrorism on both sides, civil war reigns in Bosnia, and so many are homeless in the cruel Toronto winter? How can God look at his creation and say that “it was very good”?

But what if God did do more to soften our hardships? Surely if God wanted to, he could ensure justice, guarantee our happiness, compel us to love. Surely he could have spared the world from Hitler, Stalin, and other oppressors. But at what cost? Why is it that God is so unwilling to influence the world more?

I do believe that if God really wanted to, he could do all that. In a display of glorious power, God could right all the wrongs in the world. But though such a display would enforce obedience, would it result in love? I’m afraid that the answer must be no. If God meddled and coerced all to be right in the world, he might as well have created robots, perfectly obedient, unfeeling objects. But God refuses to interfere with our freedom, because only those who are free to love are capable of love. And that, above all is what God wants. God loves us, and wants our love back, but forced, coerced love is not love at all. And using power to stop suffering and pain is no way to promote love.

What then? Is there no solution? Does God then leave everything in the hands of human freedom? We can see firsthand the trouble that this has resulted in. For humans choose evil, greed, lust, envy, but so seldom choose love.

God does have an answer for human suffering, and the answer’s name is Jesus. Jesus himself, who in the last week of his life went through abandonment, betrayal, scrutiny, rejection, mocking, and crucifixion. Against his suffering, ours pales in comparison. Just picture Jesus in that grotesque position, naked, ribs protruding, gasping for air, blood dripping from his head and hands, dying a slow painful death that ends with his heart rupturing as a result of swollen arteries of surcharged blood. And yet it is not the physical suffering that Jesus must contend with, but the eternal suffering caused by humanity’s failures. An eternal suffering, torturing the human soul of Jesus. Who can imagine?

This is God’s answer to human suffering. Not to automatically wipe out all that is wrong with the world. Not to flick away dictators, oppressors, and criminals in one quick swipe. Not to dazzle us with glorious displays of power. But to take on suffering himself. To make himself weak, vulnerable, at the mercy of other humans. All this to safeguard human freedom, to give us the choice to accept him or crucify him. Surely this then is the answer; the proof of God’s amazing love. By suffering eternally, he made our sufferings temporary, so that one day, we would be free, truly free.

This is the God I believe in. A God that is weak. A God that is humiliated. A God that is despised. A God that is hated. A God that knows what it is like to be human. A God that hangs dead on a cross. Because truly then, this is the God that loves.

Come to Jesus

I find this song particularly relevant in 2010.....it's a beautiful song, with beautiful German lyrics.



Verwundet, schwach, ein Sünder,
verloren, wenn du stirbst.
O, heb den Kopf, weil Liebe um dich wirbt.

Komm zu Jesus,
komm zu Jesus,
komm zu Jesus und leb.

Jetzt ist die Last verschwunden,
ins tiefste Meer versenkt.
Sein Tod hat dir das Leben neu geschenkt.

Nun sing zu Jesus,
sing zu Jesus,
sing zu Jesus und leb.

Hab keine Angst zu krabbeln,
als neugebornes Kind.
Vergiss nicht, manchmal fallen wir auch hin.

Dann fall auf Jesus,
fall auf Jesus,
fall auf Jesus und leb.

Dein Weg ist manchmal einsam,
gepflastert auch mit Schmerz.
Dein Himmel schwarz und tränenvoll dein Herz.

Dann schrei zu Jesus,
schrei zu Jesus,
schrei zu Jesus und leb.

Wenn Liebe übersprudelt,
Musik die Nacht erfüllt,
die Freude deine Leidenschaft enthüllt.

Dann tanz für Jesus,
tanz für Jesus,
tanz für Jesus und leb.

Und mit dem letzten Herzschlag,
sage Lebewohl.
Geh in Frieden, denn er wartet schon.

Flieg heim zu Jesus,
heim zu Jesus,
heim zu Jesus und leb!

Eulogy

This was the Eulogy delivered by Dad for Mr. Lee. I hope it does Mr. Lee justice, but I thought it was very touching....

Dear brothers and sisters,

As we are here in remembrance of Mr. Lee, I'm sure you all know that he was a selfless man who was always willing to sacrifice his own time and efforts for the sake of others. Mr. Lee was constantly working behind the scenes for our church, setting up tables and chairs for church gatherings, picking up garbage that was dropped and placing it into garbage bins, cleaning up church pews and tying up the hymn books and Bibles after the service concluded. He was often last one to leave the church in order to lock up the windows and doors, and he was always providing car rides, and giving a helping hand to others in need. I would like to share, in addition, some of my own personal memories.

A few months ago, I was not feeling well and needed to go to the hospital emergency room. When he heard that I needed to go to the emergency room, he came without delay to my house knocked on the door to take me there, even before I was able to pack my things for my hospital stay. As I was laying in the hospital bed, I was feeling a bit better and I asked Mr. Lee to go home because it was already 1 o’clock in the morning. But he insisted on staying with me until a doctor came to see what my condition was. I kept asking hem to go home but he insisted to keep me company. Finally, I said to him jokingly, that if he were not to leave, I would then ask the police outside to take him home. Only when he saw that I had the strength to even crack jokes with him, did he feel that he could go home. By his actions, you can tell, that Mr. Lee is selfless and caring, and constantly willing to sacrifice himself for others.

We hiked often together, Mr. Lee and I. I distinctly remember one time while we were hiking, he described to me his experiences with Canadian life and the immigration process. He mentioned the hardships and trials that he had to go through to adapt to living in Canada. He could have had an easier, more relaxing life in Taiwan if he had wanted to, but typical of himself, he wanted to ensure that his family members were able to choose their living environment in the future, even if it meant that he had to leave his comfortable life in Taiwan to settle in Canada and go through cold, harsh Canadian winters. Even if he had to entirely reorient and readjust to a different life and living conditions here. I think we can all see that Mr. Lee was a great family man, who loved his children, and was willing to give them endless opportunities, even if it meant leaving the life he knew in Taiwan.


One last point I will mention is that Mr. Lee one of the most generous people I have ever known. To himself he is stingy, but he is so willing to give to others. His monitory donations to the church are always significantly above what one would expect. He always wanted to offer more, stretching his available resources as much as he could, to support the church. Last year during a prayer meeting for the initiative of our church building fund, tears were coming out of his eyes because he wanted to offer more but couldn't. I remember once, I suggested to him that he could trade in his van for a normal sedan, but he said he needed to keep the van in case it was needed for church activities. Mr. Lee would forego the luxuries and pleasures in life that many like to enjoy, just so he contribute and help others. He was truly a great man, and these memories of him will remain with me forever.

On April 16, about 2:30 a.m. Michael called me and said that the heart beat of his father was getting weaker, so I rushed to the hospital right away. By the time I arrived, Mr. Lee was gone. I saw him lying peacefully in bed , all the struggles, all the worries, and all the pain he had suffered were suddenly gone, and the tears from his eyes had dried away. I knew he was in God's glory. Early that morning, I opened my computer and saw an e-mail from Cecil Chen, informing people that Mr. Lee had passed away. The e-mail subject he used is “A good man”. When I opened the e-mail, I looked at the subject and paused for a few seconds. Mr. Lee is absolutely, definitely, and without a doubt the epitome of a “good man”. He is a good son to his surviving mother, a good husband to his wife, a good father to his sons and a good friend to all of us. Mr. Lee always felt that he could do more for Christ, and for others. Matthew 5:2 says, ”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I know then, that his is the kingdom of heaven under the comfort of our Lord Christ Jesus. I look forward to meeting him again, and where we can talk like the old times, and he can show me the most beautiful hike towards a glorious mountain top in the presence of God in heaven.

Some years ago, I read a book with the title of “In search of a Legacy”. A sentence in the book by the author really stuck with me. I cannot remember the exact wording of the sentence, but the meaning was that “a man’s legacy can be found by searching his footsteps”. Now that Mr. Lee is no longer in our midst physically, I look back and search for his footsteps. Indeed, I see his footprints side-by-side with those of Jesus, undertaking the task of “serving the Lord with wholeheartedly and loving his neighbours”. The legacy of Mr. Lee is clear. It is one of self-sacrifice and perseverence. It is one of determination, hope, and most of all, love. May he rest in peace in God's glory, for he has earned his rest. Goodbye Mr. Lee, we will all miss you, but we will look forward to our joyful reunion in heaven.

Martin Luther and Wittenberg

So I went to the quiet little town of Wittenberg that wasn't so quiet around 500 years ago. Here's where the Protestant Reformation began! Martin Luther and his insights of "justification by faith" captivated Christians and changed the course of human history!

Here is the door of the Schlosskirche.  This was where Martin Luther hung his 95 theses for debate, challenging the efficacy of indulgences.  The original door burned down, and this rebuilt door inscribes his 95 theses in commemeration.

Here a statue of Martin Luther, in the Wittenberg town square.

This is the Marienkirche, where Martin Luther preached.  This is the pulpit (probably rebuilt though) where Martin Luther would have preached his Reformation message from!

"Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake."