LESSON: JOHN 1:19-28

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” John 1:19

What were the Jews from Jerusalem seeking? Christ tells us when He says, “You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. . . He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” John 5:33,35.

From these words it is clear that they wanted to increase their own reputation by making use of John, and they wanted to avail themselves of his “lamp,” that is, his high and famous name, to deck themselves out before the people. For, had John shown them favor and accepted the proffered honor, they would have enhanced their reputation before the whole people as those who were worthy of the friendship and respect of such a great and holy man.

What other result could have ensued except that their greed, tyranny, and villainy would have been confirmed as pure holiness and something precious? These men tried to make out of John a Judas Iscariot who would be prepared to justify all their vice and immorality and gain them his approval and the people’s support.

Are they not fine manipulators, offering John honor in order to bring his honor upon themselves? They offer him an apple for a kingdom, and try to exchange pennies for dollars. But he stood fast like a rock.

SL.XI.99,8-9
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PRAYER: Give us constancy and steadfastness of faith, O Lord, that we may ever serve you in singleness of heart and stand fast whatever the cost. Amen

LESSON: MATTHEW 18:1-9

Blessed is he who takes no offense at me. Matthew 11:6

Be on your guard against all and every offense. Who are those who cause offense here? All those who tell you to concentrate on works instead of faith.

Such teachers turn Christ into a lawgiver and a judge and will not let Him remain a pure helper and comforter. They plague you with the idea of having dealings with God and for God on the basis of works. They say you must make atonement for your sins to obtain God’s grace. Such people, of whom there are always many in this world, direct you to a different Christ from the one to whom you are pointed in this Gospel. If you want to have true faith and really attain to Christ, you must give up all hope in works as a basis for negotiating with God and before God. Works are all so many offences to keep you away from Christ and God.

Before God, no works at all avail except Christ’s own works. These you must plead on your behalf before God, and perform no other work before God but to believe that Christ has performed these works for you and offers them before God on your behalf. Your faith must always remain pure faith, doing nothing and keeping silence, allowing itself to be benefited, accepting Christ’s work and allowing Christ to exercise His love upon you.

You must be blind, lame, dead, leprous, and poor or you will become offended in Christ. The Gospel does not lie. Christ permits Himself to be seen only by those who are really in need and bestows His blessings only upon them.

SL.XI.94,53
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PRAYER: O Lord, grant us your grace in full measure, that we learn to entrust ourselves to you alone and are never offended at your humility. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 7:15-27

Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” Matthew 11:4-6

Our faith is strengthened and improved inasmuch as Christ is set before us in His own simple works. He is simply concerned with the blind, lame, lepers, deaf, the dead, and the poor, and has nothing but pure love and well-doing for all who are poor and needy. In short, Christ is nothing else but a consolation and a refuge for all who have a troubled and weakened conscience.

Here there is need of faith that builds on His Gospel and relies on it without any doubt that Christ is just as His Gospel portrays Him. Such faith holds nothing else about Christ and will not suffer any other view to be upheld about Him. And such faith has the Christ in whom it believes and as His Gospel describes Him. For as you believe, you will receive. “Blessed is he who takes no offense at me.”

In this way we recognize Christ aright and receive Him in true faith. This is what the Christian faith includes. Those who think that they can render satisfaction to God by their works and become righteous thereby, do not really know the Christ portrayed in this Gospel. If they persist in their mistaken views they will be lost.

SL.XI.93,52-53
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PRAYER: Give us a simple faith, Lord Jesus, that we always believe with our whole hearts that you are our Lord and Savior in the simple manner you have revealed yourself to us in your holy Word. Amen.

LESSON: PSALM 98

Christ Jesus our hope. 1 Timothy 1:1

The Greek word for Gospel [euaggelion] means “a joyful message” because in it there is proclaimed the salutary doctrine of life by God’s assurance and grace, and the forgiveness of sins is offered us. So the Gospel is not a matter of works, for it is not Law. The Gospel is a matter of faith alone, because it is absolutely nothing but the promise and offer of divine grace.

He who believes the Gospel receives grace and the Holy Spirit. As a result of this, the heart becomes joyful and well-pleased with God, and a willing and free obedience to the Law ensues. There is no longer any fear of punishment and the pursuit of meritorious works. The heart is content and satisfied with the grace of God.

From the beginning of the world, however, such promises have all been based on Christ. God has not promised such grace to anyone but in Christ and through Christ. Christ is the messenger of divine promise to the whole world. For this purpose He also came into the world and has sent out this promise through the Gospel into all the world. Before His coming He made known this promise through the Prophets. Everything points to Christ and is concluded in Christ. He who does not hear Christ does not hear God’s promise. For just as there is no law outside of Moses and the prophetical Scriptures, so God gives no promise except through Christ alone.

SL.XI.84,26-27
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PRAYER: Thanks be to you, O heavenly Father, that you have conferred your grace and salvation upon us on the certain and sure ground of faith in Christ alone, our one and only hope of eternal life. Amen.

LESSON: ROMANS 1:16,17

The gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

The Gospel is neither Law nor command; it makes no demands on us. If wretched distress and misery in the heart have come about through the first word of the Law, the Gospel comes as a loving and living word; it promises and assures us, undertaking to give us grace and help so that we may get out of such distress. It not only forgives us our sins but actually destroys them and, in addition, gives us love and the desire to fulfill the Law. This divine assurance of God’s grace and the forgiveness of sins is what the Gospel really is.

I say once more that one should not understand the Gospel as anything else but God’s promise of grace and the forgiveness of sins.

The reason why Paul’s epistles have for so long been misunderstood and, indeed, cannot be understood, is that men do not really know what is Law and what is Gospel. They regard Christ as a lawgiver and the Gospel as nothing but the proclamation of a new law. This is nothing else but locking up the Gospel and hiding everything.

SL.XI.83,24-25
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PRAYER: Enlighten us, O Lord, in such a way by your Holy Spirit, that we really understand that your sole purpose and aim in the revelation of your Gospel is to lead us to salvation as a completely free gift of your wonderful grace in Christ. Amen.

LESSON: 1 Timothy 1:8-11

The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good . . . but I am carnal, sold under sin. Romans 7:12,14

The law is the word by which God teaches us and instructs us in what we are to do and not to do, as He does in the Ten Commandments. Where nature stands alone, without God’s grace, it is impossible to keep God’s Law for the reason that man, after Adam’s fall in Paradise, is corrupt and has nothing but evil lust leading him into sin. It is impossible for him to be well-disposed to the Law from the depths of his heart.

We all experience this. There is no one who would not prefer to be without any Law at all. Every one of us realizes and feels in himself that it is very hard to be pious and to do good, and very easy to be wicked and to do evil.

Such shortcomings and unwillingness to do what is good force us into transgressions of God’s Law. What is done reluctantly, poorly, and unwillingly is of no avail at all before God. God’s Law overcomes us. We learn this from our own experience as we are by nature wicked, disobedient, lovers of sin, and enemies of God’s Law.

SL.XI.81,19
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PRAYER: Lord God, our heavenly Father, guard against all spiritual pride and self-righteousness so that when we look into the mirror of your Law we may see ourselves as we really are, lost and condemned sinners, whose only hope rests in our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

LESSON: PSALM 85

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Isaiah 61:1,2

What does Jesus mean when He says, “The poor have good news preaches to them”? Is not the good news also proclaimed to the rich and the whole world? How can the Gospel be regarded as something so important and as a great blessing when there are so many who are hostile to it?

Here we must know what the Gospel is, or we cannot understand this passage. We must diligently observe that from the beginning God has sent two words or forms of proclamation to the world – the Law and the Gospel. These two forms of proclamation you must recognize and separate. I tell you that hitherto, with the exception of the Scriptures, no book has ever been written, not even by a saint, in which these two forms of proclamation have been correctly divided. And yet this is such a basic issue.

SL. XI.80,18
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PRAYER: Grant us your Holy Spirit, O Lord, the Spirit of truth and understanding, that we may correctly understand your Word, correctly separating Law from Gospel, and never being confused in our faith. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 11:2-10

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. Isaiah 61:1

Kings and priests are normally anointed to a kingdom and priesthood respectively. But this anointed King and Priest, Isaiah says here, is to be anointed by God Himself, not with any temporal oil but with the Holy Spirit who rests upon Him as He says: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”

And so He preaches the Gospel, restores sight to the blind, heals all manner of sickness, and preaches the acceptable year, the time of grace. “Behold, your God will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy.” Isaiah 35:4-6.

If we compare the Scripture with Christ’s works and Christ’s works with the Scripture, it becomes evident that in Christ we have the right man. Luke declares that at the time when the disciples of John the Baptist came to question Him, “he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight.” Luke 7:21.

Here we must take Christ’s example to heart. He takes up His stand on His works and tells us to form our ideas about the tree from its fruits.

SL.XI.77,10
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PRAYER: Thanks be to you, O King of grace and salvation, for the fullness of your works of grace and salvation encouraging us at all times to place our full faith and reliance in you alone. Amen.