FALSE GOSPELS BRING THEIR OWN DISASTER

“Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done.  Pour her a double portion from her own cup.  7 Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself.  In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen.  I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’  8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine.  She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”  (Revelation 18:6-8)

That’s awfully tough talk from God.  We are not used to seeing God really angry and announcing this kind of tough judgment on people.  What’s going on here?  This little scene from the latter part of the Revelation of St. John, pictures two main characters.  On the one hand, there is the “queen” who has been vexing God’s people by telling them all kinds of things about God that are not true.  On the other hand, there is God who, out of love for his people, takes what she has been doing really seriously.  God doesn’t like it at all when people lie about him, and he gets especially angry when they are arrogant and smug about it.  You can really hear that in the words above, can’t you?

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures.” (LW, Vol. 35, pp. 370-31)   Luther used good words to describe the nature of faith and its effect on us:  sure, certain, confidence, glad, bold, happy.  Faith is like that and produces those blessings only when it rests on the true Word of God.  Only that Word proclaims God’s grace by which God unilaterally acted in love to solve the problem of sin.  He sent his Son to live and die as our substitute.  That Son completed that work flawlessly and completely.  That is why our peace with God and our eternal life are certain and sure.  Our boldness rests on the completeness of Christ’s work.  It is happiness to know with certainty that our sins are forgiven and that God loves us because God himself tells us that in his gospel.

By contrast, faith that rests on any other hope than Christ has other words connected to it in our text: torment, grief, death, mourning, famine, consumed. Trusting in self for salvation brings the torment of fear and uncertainty, hopeless grief for those who die in false hope, and a famine of comfort in the face of one’s sin.  Trusting in a gospel which cannot save results in eternal death in the torment of hell.  Those are hard, uncompromising words.  Why would God ever use them?  He uses them because he loves us enough to be honest with us about the damage that false hope brings, and he loves us enough to remind us of the priceless treasure we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  May he always keep us safe from the former by keeping our faith firmly grounded on the latter.

Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word.  Curb those who by deceit or sword would seek to overthrow your Son and to destroy what he has done.  Amen.