“‘Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?’ declares the Lord. ‘Is not my word like fire,’ declares the Lord, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’” (Jeremiah 23:28-29)
The prophet Jeremiah had a difficult ministry, no question about it.
By and large, the people of Israel had turned away from placing their hope and trust in God. They put their hope and trust in alliances with other nations and the strength of their armies—none of which could do anything to save them from the very real problems they faced: foreign invasion from the Babylonian Empire, siege warfare, bloodshed, famine, starvation, and being dragged off to exile.
More than all of those physical problems, the people had been led astray from following the one true God.
They chased after idols and the sinful desires of their hearts. To make matters even more detrimental for their spiritual well-being, when faithful prophets like Jeremiah declared what the Lord needed his people to hear—that they were sinning and needed to repent and turn back to him—false prophets claimed that they were receiving visions and prophecies from the Lord in which he said everything would be fine. The people didn’t have to rend their hearts; they didn’t have to change their ways. All was well.
Is it any different today?
False teachers still run rampant through the visible church, claiming that all is well, even when sinful lifestyles and deeds are accepted because God is love and just cares about peace and unity for all.
God gave Jeremiah, and all who would handle the Word of the Lord, a serious, sometimes difficult charge. God gives his followers, including you and me, the same difficult charge today: Speak his Word faithfully.
That means speaking the truth in love to our fellow believers in Christ. That means calling sin out wherever it may be found and urging repentance. Why? So we can share the comforting joy of the gospel message: that Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins and restore us to a right relationship with our God.
As God told Jeremiah, his word is like a fire and a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. It needs to be! Because our sinful hearts are hardened. As sinful people, we don’t want fellow Christians calling us out in love for doing something that goes against God’s will for our lives.
We need God’s law to break through that hardness of our hearts and shatter it to pieces. We need God’s gospel message to create in us new hearts and restore to us the joy of salvation, as King David wrote in Psalm 51.
Both law and gospel must be present to speak God’s Word faithfully.
Without the law’s grave reminder that sin separates us from a righteous God, the gospel message loses its significance. Without the gospel’s amazing declaration that our sins are forgiven and we are no longer separated from our righteous God because Jesus has given us his righteousness, the law remains an inescapable death sentence.
But thanks be to God that his Word points us to our Savior Jesus, who fulfilled the law perfectly in our place and gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation in his name. He frees us from sin and death so that we may live for God in all we think, say, and do.
That’s the amazing message we get to hear in God’s Word—in worship services, sermons, devotions, and Bible studies—and it’s the amazing message that we get to speak faithfully to others. Our God promises us that as we share his Word faithfully, he is right there with us. Always.
Law and Gospel: Bad News—Good News is a solid, easy-to-follow presentation of the two basic teachings of Scripture: the law—our great dilemma—and the gospel—our only solution. This book from the People’s Bible Teachings series faithfully presents this essential foundation for the Christian’s faith and life.
Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe for free devotional content every week!
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
Leave a Reply