The Problem with the Phrase, "Covenant of Works"

"The disadvantage of the phrase 'covenant of works' is that it has led to a controversy over the nature of the covenant agreement between God and Adam.  Two problems especially have entered the discussion:  (1) The terminology is reminiscent of a commercial exchange.  This suggests that eternal life is a kind of commodity... (2)  The works are Adam's works, not God's so one gets the impression that Adam is left entirely on his own.  These two contentions are used to maintain a clear contrast between works and grace." - Frame, ST, p65

When the New Jerusalem Came to Jerusalem

The entry of triumph of the Son of God into Jerusalem marked the beginning of the end.  The end of the old order.  The end of the old Jerusalem.  The end of the old administrations of the covenant.  The end of the old temple.  The end of shadows and types.

The New Jerusalem had come to Jerusalem.  The New High Priest had come to replace all old priestly types.  The True Sacrifice had come, the Lamb of God, to replace all shadows in lambs and bulls and goats.  The Blood of the Son of Man had come and would be shed for His people and the Atonement so longed for had come to replace the atonements that only pointed to something greater.  The new Man had come, replacing the old humanity, the New Adam for the old, first, fallen Adam.  The new Temple had come and when the old temple destroyed it, God rebuilt it in only three days, and then destroyed the old.

The celebration of Palm Sunday is a celebration of victory – victory over death through death.  Victory over sin by One who had no sin taking all of our sin upon Himself.  Victory over the curses of God by becoming the curse of God and hanging on a Tree.  Victory from the Tree of God’s curse to the Tree of Life – tearing the veil in two and lifting the prohibition – now all men could come and partake – but only through the cross, only covered in the blood, only washed in the waters of His Spirit-baptism.

Children would sing.  Infants would declare the Good News.  Demons would tremble and religious types would try to keep those little ones away.  But Jesus would declare “let the children come to me” and children, you are all welcome – welcome to come to Jesus with us – to confess Him and worship with us.  We are told to have faith like you have.  We are told to come with you and worship.  “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”  With the coming of Jesus – everything is turned on its head.  The world is turned upside down.

They Have Little Because They Ask Little

"Might it not rather be feared that many believers in this generation pray too little?  Is it not the actual amount of time that many Christians give to prayer, in the aggregate, very small?  I am afraid these questions cannot be answered satisfactorily.  I am afraid the private devotions of many are most painfully scanty and limited; just enough to prove they are alive and no more.  They really seem to want little from God.  They seem to have little to confess, little to ask for, and little to thank him for.  Alas, this is altogether wrong.  Nothing is more common than to hear believers complaining that they do not get on.  They tell us that they do not grow in grace as they could desire.  Is it not rather to be suspected that many have quite as much grace as they ask for?  Is it not the true account of many, that they have little, because they ask little?" - Ryle, A Call to Prayer

Diligent Private Prayer

"And I assert confidently that the principal means by which most believers have become great in the church of Christ is the habit of diligent private prayer." - Ryle, A Call to Prayer

Creation Obeys

"Anything God creates is necessarily under his lordship:  under his control, subject to his authority, confronted by his presence...There is no struggle in Genesis 1, as there is in the creation accounts of other nations.  In Genesis 1:3, God simply commands, and the light appears." - Frame, ST , p61

Look around and what do you see?  Creation.  Look around and what do you see?  Obedience.  Light, Darkness, waters and earth, stars and planets, flowers and squirrels.  Obedience.  They exist, they do what they do and not what they don't, out of sheer obedience to the One Who spoke them all into existence.

The beauty of creation is a reflection of obedience to Yahweh and to His universal covenant with creation.  There is no struggle, except for the curse which all creation groans over, the curse because of the fall of the vice-regent who was to operate under God's law over all of that creation.

But Man is being put back and creation is being renewed.  Obedience is growing, manifesting itself here and there in ways it had been lost before.

The Aroma of Sacrifice

In Ephesians 5 we are instructed to be imitators of God as dear children, to walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Sacrifice before God is never unnoticed by God.  All that Christ did, in His suffering and death, could have appeared to some in those moments that God had forgotten Jesus – or that His sufferings were not noticed.  Even Jesus crying out on the cross, “Why have you forsaken Me?” leads us to wonder.

But here we are, recipients of that sacrifice.  Nothing went unnoticed by the Father.  And in Christ, this Table also teaches and seals for us this truth – no suffering of His children ever goes unnoticed – all suffering for Christ – all obedience to the Father, and especially obedience that pays a price, goes unnoticed.  It is before Him a sweet-smelling aroma.  In Christ, nothing, absolutely nothing, in our lives, goes unnoticed.

The Kingdom of Leaven

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman put into three measures of meal till it was all leavened.  The kingdom of heaven is not an alternative way of life in the world. The kingdom – that is, the church – is the New Way of living.  We are the new society, the new citizenship, the new kingdom.

We do not gather primarily as a refuge for those escaping from the world – although the church is that for some when they do flee.  But here, in the midst of the assembly, ministered to by Word and Sacrament in the fellowship of the saints and the power of the Holy Spirit, we are the new polis – living before God and with one another.

And this worship service instructs us in that.  We are summoned here to be renewed in covenant with God.  We are washed as we confess our sins.  We are lifted up and evaluated, re-arranged, equipped, remade, through the Word.  We lift our prayers and supplications for all aspects of life around us, calling on God to change not only us but the world.  We gather for a meal of Peace and Thanksgiving with our God – and we are sent – out with His blessing to conquer with more grace, more mercy, and more love.

And so the kingdom of heaven is like leaven.  It naturally expands – it naturally grows out and affects more and more of what it is in – and we are here – in the world.  Even this time of worship is taking place here, upon the earth – and so this is leaven – this service of worship is not only for us – it is for the world.  It is leavening the world.  Come and worship Your conquering King.