For Transfiguration Sunday on 2/3/08 the three assigned readings are Exodus 24:8-18, 1 Peter 1:16-21 and Matthew 17:1-9. Chosen to preach about this Sunday is Exodus 24:8, “Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.”
The events at Mt Sinai with Moses and Israel are well known–or, are they? Ask most Christians how many individuals did God permit to come up on Mt. Sinai and you usually will hear one (Moses) or perhaps two including his brother (Aaron). But Exodus, chapter 24 reveals that 74 men went up Mt Sinai, saw God and they ate and drank (verse 11).
This chapter is the most important of the Old Testament books as it is about the inauguration of the First Covenant or First Testament. In fact, the Bible never uses the terms “Old Testament” or “New Testament” to refer to the books of the Bible. They instead point out the two different covenants–the one of Exodus 24 at Mt. Sinai and the other of I Corinthians 11 at the Lord’s Supper.
One cannot simply describe the difference as one between Law and Gospel. For both covenants are gracious in that they bring undeserving people into a right relationship with God. The differences–and many of them are revealed in the book of Hebrews–is that the First Covenant was built on inferior promises. How so?
In Exodus 24 the people were part of the covenant in the sense that they promised to obey all that God had said. It was a two-way covenant between them and God with the people needing to keep up their side of the bargain. Of course, in a short time they indeed failed with the construction of the golden calf.
The Second Covenant is also found in the Old Testament books. Genesis 12 and 15 reveal how God makes this covenant with Abraham that was begun in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve and the promise of a Savior. But the vision Abraham has in Genesis 15 is God alone solidifying the covenant. Abraham is not part of the covenant-making promises. God swears to Himself. This second blood of the covenant is indeed a gracious promise in that undeserving people are brought into a relationship with God and the covenant is kept by God and Him alone.
Theologians of self-glory love the covenant at Mt. Sinai because it protects their egos from death as they imagine they can contribute to their salvation. Unfortunately many Christians are also under the delusion that justification is God’s work in bringing us into a right relationship with Him and sanctification is our part in making sure that we stay in that right relationship.
But the indictment of the Law reveals that God and only God gets ALL the credit for our salvation including both justification and sanctification. For the body and blood of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ is given and shed for the remission of our sins not only at our conversion but throughout our lives. The Theologian of the Cross looks not to his own life for assurance of salvation but to the cross of Christ which benefits have been transferred to Christians for sure through the waters of the Sacrament of holy Baptism!
Name:Tom Baker