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The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of Concord is for the Old Testament, Jeremiah 1:4-10 for the Epiphany 5, series C, February 3, 2013. It is from Smalcald Articles, Part 3, Article III, page 272. There is a divine consistency in the Old and New Testament where God's law is used to accuse and crush the arrogant and the proud so they may come to repentance and faith in the Gospel. Click here for the reading formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin. Pastor Doug May
The New Testament keeps and urges this office ‹of the Law›, as St. Paul says, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men". Also, "the whole world may be accountable to God….No human being will be justified in His sight." And, Christ says, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. This is God's thunderbolt. By the Law He strikes down both obvious sinners and false saints. He declares no one to be in the right, but drives them all together to terror and despair. Jeremiah says, "Is not My word like… a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" This is not active contrition or manufactured repentance. It is passive contrition, true sorrow of heart, suffering, and the sensation of death. This is what true repentance means. Here a person needs to hear something like this, "You are all of no account, whether you are obvious sinners or saints ‹in your own opinions›. You have to become different from what you are now. You have to act differently than you are now acting, whether you are as great, wise, powerful, and holy as you can be. Here no one is godly." To the Law, the New Testament immediately adds the consoling promise of grace through the Gospel. Christ declares, "Repent and believe in the gospel". Become different, act differently, and believe My promise. (paragraphs 1-4)
These are excerpts from the Book of Concord.
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