Thursday, 19 February, 2004

We continue a devotional journey focused around portions of Carl E. Braaten’s book “Justification.”



Braaten writes that a theology of the gospel can be developed only within a cluster of supporting concepts. This week will look at a few.

The law tells people what they ought to do; the gospel declares what God does. The law demands and threatens; the gospel gives and forgives. But when a person hears the “thunder of Sinai,” several things can happen. The law can aggravate a person’s rebellion… Or the law can be taken seriously as a way of salvation and thus lead to the righteousness of works… But the law does more; it drives the self-reliant person into despair. It pulls the props out from under a person; it casts one into the slough of despondency, self-accusation, anxiety, and suicide. Thus the law prepares the way for the hearing of the good news of divine grace freely offered.



It is good to speak of what the law can do, for it can do much good in the way people live there lives. But find it vital to find one’s way to the last sentence of the above passage: “Thus the law prepares the way for the hearing of the good news of divine grace freely offered.” The gospel is a new word that cannot be opened up within the domain of the law…it is fresh and new…just like creation out of nothing. The law is good for us. The law points to what can be done and how we can act and live…but the gospel points to what God does…and that is what our faithful storytelling is all about – our God whose love for us pursues us without end…pursues us to love us even as we run through and in our rebellious days.



Connection: The law can be a great comfort for us. The commandments are a gift that helps broken people enter into the creativity of community. The gospel is the power to transform what can be by our own work into a reality and vision that pulls us beyond the law into the sacrificial love of life within the community of the good news that is indeed a part of the gift of this day.



Lord God, we give you thanks for the gift of the law and how it shapes us and reminds us of the orderliness of your creation. We give you thanks for the gospel steps in to nurture and create new life within us even as we stumble and fall under the demands of the law. By your grace you make us whole and heal us and guide us into the way of your beloved Son. Amen.