Confidence Is Found in What Christ Has Done :: 2 Corinthians 3:4-11

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[It is clear that] you are an epistle of Christ, written not in ink but in the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of heart of flesh. Therefore we have confidence such as this through Christ before God (2 Cor 3:3-4).

[Prayer]

Lord God, bless your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those who have not come to saving faith, and to confirm those who have. May your Word pass from ear to heart and heart to lip and lip to life that it may achieve the purpose for which you send it, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

[Introduction]

Today we take up two primary teachings of the Christian religion: the Law and the Gospel. The difference between the Law and the Gospel is the difference between Do and Done. The Law says what you must do, and the Gospel proclaims what God has done. Do and done.

Until we can properly distinguish the difference between the Law and the Gospel, between Do and Done: We won’t have confidence in the Holy Scriptures. ... Most likely, we will think of the Scriptures as nothing more than Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth ... as if the goal of the Scriptures is to help the Christian get out of here and go to heaven. ... We won’t be able to believe in Jesus, trust him alone, in what he has done, and thus be saved. ... We won’t be able to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead (Rm 10:9). ... Instead, we will be just like that deaf and mute man in our reading from Mark 7:[31-37]. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t hear about Jesus or tell the world about Jesus until Jesus was DONE making him whole by grace, thus giving him faith. 

Once we know the difference between do and done ... 

WE CAN STAND CONFIDENTLY BEFORE GOD KNOWING THAT CHRIST FULFILLED THE LAW IN OUR STEAD: HE HAS DONE WHAT WE CANNOT DO

1. The difference between the Law and the Gospel, between Do and Done, is not just an academic question. 

Those who live by what they do will die by what they continue to do and don’t do. You will be like the Pharisees, who, Jesus said, search the scriptures, thinking that in them they have eternal life by what they do and not what God in Christ has done (Jn 5:39). The letter kills (v 6).

Meanwhile, eternal life awaits those who believe the Gospel ... the good news of what our Savior, Christ Jesus, has done to bring us salvation. He was born without sin and lived without sin before being crucified for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, buried, and raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (1 Cor 15:3-4). The scriptures are all about Jesus. 

On account of Jesus and the blood he shed, death has been abolished for the penitent believer, and both life and incorruptibility have been brought to light (2 Tm 1:10-11), thereby giving us confidence to stand before God (v 4). 

This is what Paul is getting at when he goes on to write: Now if the service of death in letters that have been engraved in stone became so glorious that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze into the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, [if these are] being made ineffective, how will the service of the Spirit not have more glory? (vv 7-8).

2. Let’s make one thing clear: The Letter of the Law is still good; we still need to do it.

So what are you waiting for? The only people who ever argue against obeying God’s Law ... of not having another god ... of not misusing the name of Yahweh, our God ... of remembering the Sabbath day by keeping it holy ... of honoring our father and mother ... of not murdering, committing adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, or living the covetous life (Ex 20:1-17) ... are the lawless ... those who are spiritually blind and deaf ... those who love their sin.

But Christ has opened our ears and released our tongues. You have been saved to do these things.

On account of his Good Word and good deeds, we now know what it means to be holy and righteous in his sight ... God’s Law shows it to us. It tells us God is holy, and we are not. We fail at obeying the Letter. It tells us that we were dead in our sins and trespasses (Eph 3:1) ... that is our rebellion, betrayal, idolatrous and fractured relationships, and we will surely die in our sins if we do not repent. We need a savior.

So the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens us. The Spirit produces life (v 6).

3. And this leads us to believe the Gospel that we are not saved by what we do; instead, we are saved by what God has done. 

This is how God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense works. Jesus covers all our sins. This gives us confidence. Jesus atones for all our sins. This gives us confidence. Even while you continue being a sinner who sins, Jesus washes us in the blood of the Lamb ... Holy Baptism ... keeping you in forgiveness. Jesus sustains us through the same blood he shed for his new covenant ... the Holy Supper. He delivers that to us through his means ... water, bread, wine. And this gives us confidence that through Christ we can stand before God, at his altar, knowing that all of God’s promises find their yes in Christ (2 Cor 1:20).

Now we are able in the name of Jesus to repent. Repentance has come through the promise of what God has done for those of us who cannot do. 

4. [Catechism confidence]

Please now turn to page 323 in your [Lutheran Service Book] and join me in confessing faithful doctrine on our confidence before God. As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household ... What is the Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer?

5. This confession should give you confidence through Christ before God (v 4). 

We do not have a sufficiency in ourselves, Paul writes, to stand before God. ... We are not qualified to claim anything as coming from ourselves. Our sufficiency (or qualification) is from God, who has made us sufficient (or qualified) to be ministers (or servants) of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life (vv 3-6).

Whereas the Law is good, the Gospel is better. Jesus has done all the law required so that we can live forgiven and free to share the Gospel of the New Covenant. 

Jeremiah told us this day was coming (31:31-34). And the evangelist to the Hebrews reminds us that this day has been fulfilled on account of our Lord Jesus. In speaking the new [covenant], the Gospel preacher wrote, [Jesus] supercedes the first one. And what is being superseded and growing old is ready to fade away. ... He is the mediator of the new covenant, so that those who are called ... (you know Christians) ... may receive the promised eternal inheritance because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant ... (which is the Law) (Hb 8:13, 9:15). 

[Conclusion]

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is where your confidence should be placed. Jesus has done what you cannot do. Now you can give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you [to receive] the share of the inheritance of the saints in light ( Col 1:12). Now we get to celebrate this ... not because of what we have done ... but because of what he does in the Holy Communion he shares with us (1 Cor 10:16). This is his Divine Service to you. He baptizes you. He feeds and nourishes you. You can now have confidence that here in his Divine Service to you, you will receive the fruit of the New Covenant, the strength and confidence to stand before God.

This is his service of righteousness, and the service of righteousness is the most glorious [of all] (v 9). Through it, we learn what he has done ... of how he has loved us, redeemed us, forgiven us, and delivered us in Jesus’ name.

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