The three readings for Series C of the 1st Sunday in Lent are Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13. Chosen to preach on is Romans 10: 9, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Before analyzing Romans 10:9, one short word for those who are going to be speaking on the temptations of Jesus. The great temptation is to use the pericope as an example of how we keep from being tempted. That is a confusion of Law and Gospel because it makes us rather than Jesus the center of the wilderness experience. Remember that the entire Bible was written so that you might believe in Jesus; not primarily so that you can overcome temptation. It is not an error to teach how to overcome temptation; it’s just that this isn’t the main theme of this pericope.

As to Romans 10:9, it is probably among Christians, and not just evangelicals (decision theologians) one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible. The passage is read as though the apostle Paul is answering the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Answer: “Confess with your mouth…believe in your heart.” The problem with that is no unbeliever is capable of following such advice. For the unbeliever is dead in sin and will never confess nor believe as long as Jesus is not regarded as God Himself.

To make the point, what is the difference between these two promises? “If you get a promotion, you will receive more money.” “If you are my son, you will receive more money.” The outcome is the same. However, there is a huge difference in fulfilling the “if” clause. The first can be likened to living under the Law by which you receive more money by something you do. The second can be likened to living under the Gospel by which you receive more money by doing nothing. The first is dependent on your work; the second is dependent on what someone else has done to make you a son either by being begotten or being adopted.

Romans 10:9 is often understood as the first promise rather than as the second promise it truly is. That is to say, Paul is not answering a question of unbelievers as to what one needs to do in order to be saved. Rather, this passage answers the question of a believer who wonders whether or not he is truly saved. Paul’s answer, “Do you confess with your mouth and do you believe in your heart” is not to provide a roadmap to salvation but rather an assurance that one has already been totally saved by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Law promises are conditional based on your accomplishing some work through your will in order to be saved. Gospel promises are unconditional in that the promise is never based on your words, thoughts or actions but always on the work of Jesus Christ with special reference to His death and resurrection. Not to keep a clear Law and Gospel distinction between promises of the Law and those of the Gospel is to fall into the trap of both confusion and false comfort.

The greatest danger in not understanding a L&G perspective for these verses is to imagine that the way you get someone to become a believer is to encourage them to confess with their mouth and believe in their heart by a series of 4 or 5 steps. For good measure, such false evangelism should also include verse 13 and encourage them to call upon the name of the Lord because then they will be saved! Ridiculous. Such a calling on the name of the Lord for the purpose of becoming saved reminds us of the prophets of Baal who called upon their dead god to bring fire to the altar.

The bottom line is that Jesus has done all the work to save us as our walk through Lent will reveal. The way we lead a person to faith is not by giving them a set of rules that they need to fulfill but in proclaiming the Gospel. The content of the Gospel is not only the events of Jesus’ suffering and passion but also the promises and benefits which are available to the world because of His death and His resurrection. In fact, Paul says just that in verse 17 of the same chapter 10, “And faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” It’s a significant difference between L&G.

For the Transfiguration of our Lord celebration, the Series C three readings are Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Hebrews 3:1-6 and Luke 9:28-36. Althought the Lukan passage about the actual Transfiguration is tempting to choose to preach about, the choice for this sermon is Hebrews 3:3a, “For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses…”

The “more glory” phrase can refer to the fact that when Moses was on Mt. Sinai, his face was reflecting the glory of God while the face of Jesus on Mt. Transfiguration was radiating the glory of God, being God Himself. This last Sunday of the Epiphany season once more reminds us that Jesus is not simply our Savior because He is both the promised Son of Man (Daniel 7) and the promised Messiah (Gen 3:15) but He is God Himself. For there is no angel that has his own glory but instead reflects the glory of God. For Jesus is like the sun’s brightness that comes from within itself while we human beings reflect God’s glory as does the moon the sun’s glory. (See I Corinthians 15)

This distinction between Jesus and Moses goes far beyond the source of the brightness of their respective visage. It involves the great distinctions between Law and Gospel as understood with the phrases “the old Testament” and “the new Testament.” Surprisingly, these phrases when used by the Bible never refer to the set of books written before and then after the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, the old Testament refers to that old covenant inaugurated in Exodus 24 and the new Testament refers to that new covenant inaugurated in 1 Corinthians 11 with the holy eucharist.

The covenant Moses presided over was in essence of Law since the promises upon which it stood were those of the people who said, “All these things we will do and obey.” As Hebrews points out elsewhere, the new covenant was based on better promises; that is, the promises of God Himself and alone. For the holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit both begin and finalize our salvation without any contribution or cooperation on our part. Chapters in Hebrews clearly distinguish between the 2 covenants; the first leading to certain death and the second resulting in the forgiveness of sins for the entire world.

While Moses on the mountain of Transfiguration represents the Law and its dire consequences, Elijah represents the prophetic sure hope of a new age brought in by the coming of God Himself in flesh. While indeed there is a glory of Moses and Elijah, that of Jesus far transcends theirs. Unlike many sermons that want to make the point that the disciples had to return to the valley after that mountaintop experience, we instead prefer to preach how Jesus Himself returned to the valley to continue His saving miracles and salvation. That is the point of the Transfiguration for us. That He, Who ascended into the heavens, will never leave us nor forsake us as we endure the valley of this earth looking forward to the fulfillment of the heavenly kingdom after that glorious Day of Judgment.

For the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany the three readings to choose from for preaching are Isaiah 6:1-13; 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20 and Luke 5:1-11. The text to interpret and apply will be Isaiah 6:5, “The I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am undone!”

Isaiah is in the midst of a vision with the Lord God sitting on a throne, high and lifted up surrounded by seraphim angels with 6 wings. Is that why he said, “Woe is me”? From an L&G point of view, the Woe is me is the natural response on the part of human beings when confronting God. Because all fallen human beings live under the Law, they are under the impression that their works, their thoughts and their words will make a difference as to whether or not God will decide to save them. Realizing how far short each of us fail to live up to God’s perfect demands, we naturally conclude that we are in big trouble in the presence God Himself. The Gospel reading from Luke 5 reveals a similar response on the part of Peter after the miracle of the fishes.

The goal of the sermon is to see to it that every listener is cut to the bone with his or her inability to be right with God through personal effort. It is a proper preaching of the Law that never uses the Law as a means of getting right with God. Instead, the Law is used to do God’s work of accusation and damnation. The sermon is not to direct the accusing finger of the Law to those outside the fellowship gathered together but rather to hammer home the fearful consequences of those who will die under the curse of the Law.

The Gospel provides no help to the unbeliever or believer, for that matter, in saving oneself. Rather, the Gospel is the announced promise that God will do all the saving with neither cooperation with or contribution from anyone who is attempting to save himself. That comes home so clearly in this passage as an angel needs tongs to remove the blazing hot coal from the altar. What happens next is often overlooked. That same hot coal is then applied to the lips of Isaiah. But rather than a scream from the man, verse 7 reveals that now his iniquity is taken away and his sin purged.

This needs further clarification. For the word iniquity could refer to the sin itself but that would be ridiculous because no one stops sinning when forgiven. Rather, the Hebrew word for “iniquity” refers to the punishment that should be ours because of our sin. It refers to the consequences of being under the curse of the Law. What Jesus did on the cross was not take away our sins but take away our eternal punishment that should have been ours. We are forgiven in the sense that we are no longer held accountable by God for our sins. Why? Because Jesus was held accountable on the cross.

As an aside, this also provides a wonderful opportunity to speak of water baptism. Just as God uses a hot coal that conveys the forgiveness of sins, so also in the Pentecost baptism God conveys the forgiveness of sins through a splash of water into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So also, the same God provides the true body and blood under the form, not of a coal or splash of water but through a morsel of bread and a sip of wine. What a mystery! Or as Jerome translated into the Latin Vulgate, what a sacrament!