The Lord is a fierce Friend, and He is a fierce Foe. He is the sort of Friend who tells you what you need to hear, whether you like it or not. And He is a fierce Foe of your sin, because it is your enemy, of the devil who misleads you, and of the death that permeates your fallen flesh.
The Lord is a fierce Friend, and He is a fierce Foe, but He is also the Lord your God. He speaks with the authority that belongs to Him as the Creator of all things. And His Word to you is fire and water — a fire that threatens to consume you, and deep water that would drown and destroy you.
The thunder of His Word shakes the mountains and causes them to tremble. It is a fierce Word, a storm that breaks over your head with dark and billowing clouds, thunderbolts and lightning.
God is not some senile old man who simply smiles and nods as you go about your way. He does not pat you on the back and tell you it’s okay to go on sinning.
Do not confuse His Gospel with permissiveness. And do not suppose that you can sin all you want, “that grace may abound all the more.” The Lord your God loves you, He does not coddle you. He does not speak peace where your heart is set against Him — He calls you to repentance.
Is His Word not a Fire that consumes the straw and stubble and hay within you? Is His Word not, first of all, a Hammer that crushes you by exposing your sins and condemning them as wrong?
His Word is such a fierce Fire and a strong Hammer that pounds away, not because He delights in hurt, but because the way of sin is deadly and damnable, and because the way of Life with God is altogether different than that. So, His Law is fierce, and it is relentless; and the One who is your fierce Friend becomes your fiercest Foe in causing His Word to be preached to you without pulling any punches — until the Lord accomplishes the purposes of His heart for you in Christ Jesus.
So, for example, in the midst of Jeremiah’s strong Word of condemnation against the people of Jerusalem who did not listen to the Lord their God, who persisted in their sins, who were prideful and presumptuous and worshiped false gods — in the midst of his strong Word against the “prophets” who ran though God did not send them, who spoke according to their own hearts instead of His — the Prophet Jeremiah also speaks of the Gospel when he says, “The Lord’s wrath and anger will not be set aside until the Lord has accomplished the purposes of His heart.”
The thing is that, even when He is at His fiercest, and even when He is most ferocious with you, as though He were the roaring lion who would consume you — even then, the Lord purposes to save you by His grace in Christ Jesus, to give you Life with Him. The purposes of His heart are deep divine Love, tender mercy and compassion, forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation with Him.
It is true that God is fiercely loyal. And it is true that, as you live and abide in Christ Jesus, your sins will not be able to separate you from the Love of God, because He has atoned for them and forgives them. But do not imagine that God ever takes your sin lightly. And do not suppose that your sin is ever harmless, or that it does not cause great damage to you and to your neighbors.
No, the Lord your God is relentless and ferocious, until He has accomplished His purposes for you in Christ Jesus. So, what is it, then, that Christ has come to do?
He has not come to bring “peace on earth.” On the contrary, He comes with a sharp, two-edged Sword, whereby He divides and conquers. He does come to establish Peace with God. But Peace with God results in alienation with the sinful world; to be reconciled with God in Christ Jesus is to be turned away from your sin, the enticements of the devil, and the allurements of your flesh.
It is like that Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of Fire by night, by which God led the sons of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and across the wilderness, until at last, through the waters of the Jordan, He brought them into Canaan as He had promised. That Cloud and Fire were the very Glory of God in the midst of His people, which divided and separated Israel from Egypt, and so cut off the Egyptians from pursuing Israel, coming between the people of God and their enemies, Pharaoh with all his horses and chariots. And that same divine Glory of God in Christ Jesus is set between you and your own self, between even your bones and marrow, dividing between the flesh and the spirit, between your body and soul, and at times between you and your family and friends.
It’s not as though God desires to break apart families. Indeed, He calls you and commands you to love your spouse, to love your children, to love and honor your parents; to love your neighbor; to love even your enemies, and to pray for those who persecute you. But He does also call you to separate yourself from unbelievers, to turn both your heart and your body away from false gods and idols, and to turn your heart, mind, eyes, and hands away from that which is your neighbor’s.
Likewise, the same Pillar of Cloud and Fire that leads you out of captivity into freedom, through the desert into the Promised Land, also separates you from Egypt — from all the sinful lusts and desires of your fallen flesh, and from all the sinful pursuits of your heart, mind, body, and soul.
Christ brings that division — for you and in you — by the way of His own Cross, which is both Law and Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. Indeed, the death of Christ Jesus is your repentance, whereby you die with Him, that you might also rise and live with Him.
The Cross of Christ is both Law and Gospel, because it is in His Body on the Cross that you see the wrath and anger of God poured out against the sins of the world, including all of your sins.
There you see the Law of God fulfilled in the condemnation and punishment of sin, but so also in the faith and love of Christ Jesus, who willingly bears such wrath and anger against Himself in love for you and for all people, in the sure and certain confidence that His Father will raise Him.
That is the Redemption, the Reconciliation, and the Righteousness of God for you in Christ Jesus. And it is for the sake of that precious Holy Gospel that God’s Law is so fierce, and for the sake of that Gospel that the Lord Jesus comes with such Fire and Brimstone, Thunder and Lightning.
He comes “to cast Fire upon the earth,” but He kindles it, first of all, in His own Body of flesh and blood, by the way of His Cross and Passion. And it is from that accomplished fact of His atoning Sacrifice that He casts Fire upon the earth by the preaching of repentance, whereby He calls you to contrition, to sorrow over your sins, to regret them as very great indeed, and to flee from them to newness of Life in Him. And by the fire of repentance, kindled in you by His Word and Holy Spirit, He cleanses you within and without, as gold and silver are cleansed and purified by fire.
He casts the Fire of His Spirit upon the earth, in order to work repentance and faith within you by His grace. It is to that end that He has first of all kindled that Fire in Himself, beginning with His Baptism in the waters of the Jordan River. There He submitted Himself to St. John’s preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He submerged Himself in the water, taking all your sins, your death, and your damnation upon Himself, and then bearing it all in His Body over the next three years, until His Baptism was finally completed in His death upon the Cross.
And then, just as He had emerged and risen from the waters of the Jordan, and the heavens were opened, and the Father spoke, and the Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, so did Christ Jesus also emerge from the tomb, arise from the dust of the ground, ascend into heaven, to the Right Hand of His Father, and pour out His Holy Spirit generously upon His Church on earth.
So, when you see the Cloud of His Cross rising in the west, in the domain of darkness where the sun has set, and you hear the south wind blowing that hot wind, the preaching of repentance, which shatters rocks and levels mountains, then analyze the present time and consider what this means.
Heed the preaching of repentance, and return to the significance of your Baptism into Christ Jesus. Die to yourself, to your sins, and to the sinful world around you, and live unto God by faith in Him.
Turn away from your sins, knowing that all sin is contrary to the Will of the Lord. Turn away from your grudges and your pettiness. Turn away from all those false gods and idols that consume so much of your attention and affections. Turn away from your anger. Turn away from your despair.
But do not turn away from your neighbors. Rather, where you have neglected them, repent of your sin and return to the Lord your God by loving and serving your neighbors in peace. If you have withheld your heart from your spouse, then trust Christ and open your heart to your wife or your husband in love. If your children have been disobedient and disrespectful, teach them obedience by your example, and teach them respect by the humility of your own repentance before God.
If you have not honored your parents, if you have not loved and cherished them and given thanks to God for your father and mother, then turn away from your sin and toward your parents in love.
Where you have lusted, repent and change your ways. Avert your eyes. Discipline your heart and your flesh. Pray, and meditate upon the Word of God. Where you have spent money recklessly, stop, and give alms to the Church and to your neighbor in his need. And where you have been gluttonous or a drunkard, fast and pray, and exercise restraint. Give your mouth to speak the Gospel and your hands to serve your neighbor. And flee with your feet away from sin to do good.
And as you work to do all of these things, and you come up against the brick wall of your inability to make yourself righteous, realize that, while you can and should discipline your outward actions, you remain sinful from the inside-out. And then fix your eyes on Jesus, and consider Him who has endured such hostility against Himself, and remember that for the joy set before Him He endured the Cross and did not consider the shame to be any deterrent, but gave Himself for you and for all.
Consider the example He has left for you to follow in His steps. Consider how He turned the other cheek, how He bared His back to those who struck Him, how He forgave those who sinned against Him, how He did good and not evil. But more than His example, see in His Cross the Gospel. See the fulfillment of the Law, the satisfaction of its punishments. See your reconciliation with God.
And do analyze the time, that it is growing short. You know how to plan and consider for tomorrow. You know how to find out what your work or school schedule is going to be. You can check and see what the weather will be like. You know how to tell when your car needs gas. And you can read your neighbor to know when he’s about to blow a gasket, or when he needs a helping hand.
So also, analyze the present time, and consider the signs of Christ. Look to the Cross, which is set before your eyes, that you might know the seriousness of sin, but also the greatness of God’s Love, His mercy and compassion, His Atonement and forgiveness. Consider the signs to know that God is with you, the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night that are set before you in Holy Baptism, and in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the Holy Absolution of all your sins. And consider the death of Christ until He comes, who actually gives you His Body to eat and His Blood for you to drink. In these you know the heart of God, your fierce Friend who is the fierce Foe of all your enemies, who deals with you by grace and calls you away from sin and death to Himself.
If the Hammer of God’s Law crushes you, then know that there upon the Cross the Son of God was crushed into the dust on account of your transgressions; so that, in raising the same Christ Jesus from the dead, God might again form Man from the dust of the ground in His Image and Likeness, and breathe into Him the Breath of Life — and so also raise you from death to Life in Him.
When the Law weighs heavy upon you, trust Christ and live. Listen to His Word, pray according to His Promise, confess your sins and be forgiven, and receive the Gifts He so freely gives to you; for here is the Cloud by day, the Fire by night, and the Life-giving Wind of the Holy Spirit — here in the Cross of Christ Jesus, your Savior — that you should not perish but live forever and ever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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