The law…the tutor of Christ – LD2 (Lord’s Day 2)

In order to be cured of a sickness we need to recognize that we are sick. One does not go the pharmacy for a prescription or go in for surgery unless they know that they are in need of medicine or are in need of medical attention. The same is the case for us spiritually. We won’t look for a Savior, we won’t look for a salve for our sins unless we know that we are spiritually we sick – we need a cure.

Physically we may have symptoms of a sickness or disease but we can often stubbornly ignore these things or learn to live and cope with them. However, when we visit our doctors for a check up they point out those symptoms and diagnose the sickness or disease. The symptoms that we may have learned to ignore have been highlighted so that we realize that we are in need of medical help. Spiritually, we have symptoms that tell us that things are not well. We experience pain, brokenness, alienation, longings, etc. but we learn to live with them or we assume that these are just part of being human – it’s the way things are. However, God has provided, like the medical doctor, the Law that highlights our sin-sick soul so that we realize our need for help. The law reveals our sickness for what it is and points to our need for a cure. The Heidelberg puts it this way:

Q. How do you come to know your misery?
A. The law of God tells me.

Q. What does God’s law require of us?
A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22—
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets hang
on these two commandments.

Q. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
A. No.
I have a natural tendency
to hate God and my neighbor.

The Law of God sets a high standard; with our sin-sick soul we are unable to fulfill the law. The point is not, however, that we remaining sulking in our sin. Instead, the law shows our need and points to the cure – Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in Galatians 3:24 “the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ” (NASB).

The law is for our own good for without it we would continue living thinking that everything is just okay. Praise God that he provided the Law so long ago to point us to both the Physician (Jesus Christ) and the Cure (Jesus Christ).

What is your only comfort?

Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

Certainly the most familiar words from the 450 year old document come from this first quesion and answer – and for good reason! There is so much here to be packed that we could camp out here for a long, long time. In fact that’s just what I did for awhile during college. In a time of uncertainty in my life and deep worries, I turned to this Q&A for deep comfort. I memorized the lines: “I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” That phrase I turned into a breath prayer. Throughout the day I would pray it repeatedly – “I am not my own, but I BELONG to you Lord and you are faithful.” In this way, my heart did find comfort.

A new adventure in an old direction

When I talk with people my age or older who grew up in the same church denomination that I did, they often cringe when they hear the words “Heidelberg Catechism.” Thoughts of rote memorization, cranky catechism teachers, and theological discourse with no connection to real life arise in their minds.

Although I grew up in the same denomination as those who speak bellingerently towards the catechism, I never actually had a Catechism class. I’ve only experienced the catechism informally. My goal – perhaps overly ambitious – is to go through the H.C. Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day (the Heidelberg Catechism is a 16th century document that attempts to summarize some of the essential teachings of Scripture. For teaching purposes, it is divided into 52 “Lord’s Days” – one teaching/topic for each Sunday of the year.). I want to read through the catechism and offer a brief meditation on one of its teachings.

My hope is that by doing this for myself will re-emphasize the real life applications of the catechism.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Today a fellow social studies teacher and I took thirty high school students to San Diego’s Museum of Natural History. They have an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls (essentially the same exhibit that was in GR a few years back). As I walked through the exhibit there were a number of things that caused me to stop, ponder, and stand in AWE.

1) God’s sovereign care of His scriptures. Before the 1947 discovery of the scrolls, the earliest extant Hebrew manuscript was the Masoretic text that dated to about 1000 AD. The Dead Sea scrolls date all the way back to 250 BC to 68 AD. What a discovery – and by happenstance! When one compares the Dead Sea scrolls (68 AD) to the Masoretic text (1000 AD) there is essentially NO difference between the text. The differences that do occur are mostly variations in spelling comparable to “Savior” to “Saviour.” Surely God’s word will remain!

2) The Qumran community and the other Jewish groups of the OT and NT times so reverenced the LORD that they would often refuse to write out his name. Instead they would write …. in place of the four Hebrew letters of God’s name. In comparison, I think of how flippantly we toss God’s name for this, that, and the other thing. The Hebrews knew the power of a Name. Throughout the OT we hear a phrase like “call upon the Name of the LORD.” There is power in God’s NAME.

3) Besides showcasing the Qumran scrolls, the exhibit included biblical manuscripts from the past 2,000 years. There were numerous illuminated manuscripts (biblical texts with decorated letters or illustrations in the margins). Included in this collection were sections of the first commissioned handwritten illuminated manuscript since the printing press known as the St. John’s Bible. (Click here to check out their website!) The illuminated page highlights the written word but accentuates it with imagination. Sometimes I think that in the age of the printing press, we have lost the abiliity to read the printed word with a sanctified imagination. One can’t but do that when confronted with an illumined page of Scripture.

I praise God for preserving these texts for 2000 years to be enjoyed and studied so that his Name may be praised.