Law and gospel

Hymns at the beginning of the Service

Opening hymn: Vor Guð oss lýsa lát þitt orð (Bulletin 18) (Lord keep us steadfast in thy word)

Hymn of praise: Son Guðs ertu með sanni (Hymnal 56, Bulletin 02)

Collect prayer

O Lord our God, Father of heaven! We thank you that you, by your son Jesus Christ, have sown your Holy Word among us. Prepare our hearts to hear your Word with care and devoted mind, to store it in good and holy hearts, and to bear sustaining fruit. We pray by your beloved Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one true God for ever and ever. Amen.

Readings

A reading from the Old Testament:

Isaiah 48:16–19 ESV

16 Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 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; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”

L: This is the Holy Word.

S: Thanks be to God.

L: A reading from the New Testament

Acts 16:9–15 ESV

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

L: This is the Holy Word.

S: Praise to you O Lord, for you have the words of eternal life! To whom else shall we go?

Hymn before sermon

Hymn before sermon: Lofið vorn Drottin (Sb 03, Hefti 05) “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

Gospel

P: The gospel is written by the evangelist John

S: Praise be to God for his jouful message.

John 4:27–30 ESV

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

John 4:39–43 ESV

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” 43 After the two days he departed for Galilee.

P: This is the Holy Gospel.

S: Praise be to you O Christ.

Sermon

The scriptures we have read today show us in a very special way how the Bible speaks to us in two ways. Or perhaps it is better to say that the message of the Bible is twofold.

The first message of the Bible is the law of God, and the other message is the Gospel. Not only are these two messages very different, but they are in many ways completely opposite.

I: First message: The Law

It is the first message, the Law, which has always been the easiest for people to understand — at least to some extent. If people who know nothing about Christianity are asked what they think it is, commonly people will point out rules, commands and prohibitions, and sometimes expect to find some reward for keeping the Law.

In the first Reading we heard these words from the Book of Isaiah. It is the Lord himself who speaks to his people. :

Isaiah 48:18–19 ESV

18 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; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”

It should be obvious. If God is the one who is truly just above anyone else, and He has written Jis law, it is obvious that his commands and prohibitions are in essence good. God does not want to destroy us with his rules, but on the contrary, he wants to make our lives good. In fact, this is the stated goal of most commands and prohibitions in general, for example in the Icelandic collection of Laws, which are by the way much larger and more complicated than God's law.

Moreover, the God’s Law has the fundamental principle that the commands and prohibitions should be based on love, first to God and then to neighbour. For example, the seventh commandment says: “You shall not steal,” and the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.” And if we ask: What? Why not? Then the answer is: Because, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.

This is how all laws work. Justice according to the law is about keeping it. The law says: You shall! And the only response is to act accordingy. The law speaks to us and about us, tells us what we should do, or not do. Therefore, the Law is not about faith but about works.

If I hear the first commandment: You shall have no other Gods! and answer: Yes, that's what I truly believe! This does not mean that I kept it. I keep it by not having another God. And if I don't, I will miss the promises of the Law, which are all conditional.

If I repeat the words from the prophet Isaiah, let us take note of the condition:

Isaiah 48:18 ESV

18 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;

If you keep the commandments, then and only then, righteousness is yours.

Shold we not simply try harder?

It would be easy to think: shouldn't we just try harder to obey the law so that we can receive its promises and, in fact, avoid its threats as well? ‌

The problem is that absolute justice according to the Law requires absolute obedience. And absolute obedience requires a perfect heart, where there is no evil, only good. To keep the fifth commandment perfectly “You shall not kill!” it is not enough not to commit the act, if you have evil in your heart towards your neighbor. Remember that the motivation for keeping the commandment should be love for God and for your neighbor.

The same is true of the sixth commandment: “Do not commit adultery.” To keep this commandment it is not enough not to keep sex within the marriage union of a man and a woman, but it is also about the attitude of the heart. Married couples should love each other unconditionally, and no one must entertain lust in the heart for anyone other his wife or her husband. And so on...

And when we examine ourselves with sincerity, it becomes fast apparent that much is hidden in our hearts. We are not good deep inside, because that is where our distorted love is directed first and foremost towards ourselves.

So if we return to the conditional promise of the Law, we will miss the blessing. And not only will we miss the blessing, or rather the blessings, but we will also be subjected to the curses and punishments of the Law.

And this is actually what the history of the Israelite people in the Bible reveals to us. There was never a real golden age, where everyone lived in harmony with the God’s coenant. Every human being, even those who actually know God's will, have violated it, and are under the curse of the law.

II

So, the Bible also has a second message, which we know as the Gospel. The Gospel is the message that all promises of the law, and even more, are given to us with another premise. The premise of the unconditional gift.

Imagine someone bringing you a big gift on Christmas Eve, saying: Merry Christmas, I’m going to give you this gift!

Then your first thought will hardly be: Wait, how am I going to do that?

Such a question would be completely irrelevant, because you don’t have to do anything. A gift is not something you do, but something you receive. You simply have to believe and trust that the gift is truly a gift, and that you don’t have to repay for anything. Sometimes you might even forget to say thanks.

The good news is that God sent His Son to take on himself all the curses of the Law, in your place – that’s what happened when Jesus died on the cross for you. However, there is more. He has also kept the Law perfectly, and earned all its blessings. Jesus is the one who did not have any sin in his heart, but only love. That’s why he is the only one who has ever kept God’s Law perfectly, and the only one who has the right to receive its blessings. But he does not keep these blessings for himself, but he asks you to receive them as a free gift.

III

The Christian message requires us to hear both of these things. We first need to hear the law, to make the proper distinction between right and wrong, but also to realize our hopeless position toward God's righteousness. Next, we need to hear the Gospel, which frees us from the curses of the law, and at the same time gives us all its promises for the sake of Christ. And when we have received all these promises, and they are ours to keep, we can have God's law guide us in a completely different way. Now it teaches us the difference between right and wrong, without threatening us, because Jesus has taken these threats on himself, and also without giving any promises, because Jesus gives us freely anything that the Law can ever promise.

The woman by the well

And this is what really explains the woman’s reaction, which we read about earlier. Jesus had met this woman at Jacob’s well outside the town of Sychar in the mountainous region of Samaria. He had pointed out to her a certain issue in her life, which was by no means in order. Perhaps she was even despised and disgraced by the townspeople, which might explain why she came out to the well in the heat of the day, while others drew into the shade. But instead of condemning this woman, Jesus taught her to ask him that he might give her eternal life.

The reaction is amazing. She runs into the city and tells the people who are there:

John 4:29 ESV

29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

First, she had heard the preaching of the Law. She said that Jesus told her everything she has done. And it wasn’t all good at all, even though Jesus had pointed this out to her very gently. However before she ran into town, Jesus had also told her that he is both the Messiah, and that he wants to give her eternal life. In other words, he wanted to give her the blessing of the Law, to which she really had no right.

That's why, when the threat of the Law had been removed, she didn't fear talking to the townspeople and saying with such boldness:

John 4:29 ESV

29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

Finally

Finally, let us summarize.

The Law of God is the first message of the Bible, and this is God’s words about us, as well as to us, about what we should do and not do. Furthermore, it is an unyielding command to love both God and the neighbor unconditionally.

The Law promises us its blessings, both in this life and in eternity, for keeping it, and threatens us with all kinds of curses, both in this life and in eternity, for not keeping it.

And if we examin ourselves with sincerity, it becomes clear which side we fall on. This path to eternal life and eternal blessing is completely beyond us. ‌

That is why God has sent us his Son, to take on himself the cureses which by right are ours, and then give us the eternal blessings which by right are his. Not as a reward, but as a clear and unconditional gift. We simply must receive this in faith, just as we would receive any other gift. ‌

And then we may approach the Law, not on the basis of its promises and threats, but simply as a testament to God's will and as an instruction in the love for God and humans to which we are called.

Glory be to God, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit. What was at the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. ‌

Let us confess our faith together.

Hymns after the Sermon

After Creed: Mikil er náðin þín (Bulletin 09) Great is thy faithfulness

Before Lord’s Supper: Mikli Drottinn, dýrð sé þér (Hymnal 29, Bulletin 08)

Closing Hymn: Vor Guð er bjarg (Hymnal 284, Bulletin 18) A mighty fortress is our God