Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 45 – August 1978
Who Then Can Deliver Us?
Sermon by Rev. D. J. Van Garderen, Th. Grad. on Lord’s Day 5 & Hebrews 2:17
Scripture reading: Hebrews 2
Psalter Hymnal: 170; 317; 383:1, 2, 4; 373:1, 3, 4
Beloved in Christ Jesus, our Lord,
There is a certain grimness about the first section of the Heidelberg Catechism. In a concise summary of the Bible’s teaching concerning sin and misery, we are also told that God will in no way leave our sin and rebellion unpunished. Can we do anything ourselves to remedy this awful situation? Can we escape the consequences of our sin and corruption? In a most damning way Scripture responds with God’s “NO!” Not only are we corrupt from the very heart, but we are prisoners bound securely with the bonds of every deed we have committed in disobedience to our Creator God. We are by nature prisoners living on “death row” awaiting a sure and certain penalty from which there is no reprieve or leniency. Every time we open our mouths we entangle ourselves even more deeply. Every time we act it is but another charge against us which justifies the sentence of death under which we live.
1. “HOW THEN CAN WE BE SAVED?”
Men of all ages and in all manner of situations have therefore cried, “How then can we be saved?” How can we be delivered from this bondage, this slavery to our sinful desires and deeds? How can we and our societies become different, better and good? Many, many solutions have been and still are being offered in the world today.
Toss out religion and the God of the Bible! Take the pathway of atheism both in theory and in practice. Shout from the rooftops: “There is NO God!” A very popular “solution” indeed. Replace God with a belief only in man and in his universe. Believe only in creation itself, but deny a Creator and Ruler of creation!
Many walk this road, be it those who chant the gospel according to Karl Marx as they worship a red flag, or be it those who worship their capital and the power and so-called peace and freedom it gives under the red, white and blue coloured flags of various democracies!
Only the FOOL says in his heart there is no God. Not believing in God means that there is no God to punish sin and to judge us. But really, have all the denials of God’s existence by your atheist acquaintances changed the reality of the fact that God is there after all?
It is like a young shepherd who sees his sheep disappearing each night. The wolf is destroying them while he is asleep in the shepherd’s hut. The sheep disappear and still he shouts: “There is no such thing as a wolf. These creatures are a figment of the imagination!” In spite of his denials the sheep still disappear, and all his denials do not change reality one iota. A refusal to believe in something, be it a wolf, or in the case of atheists, God Himself, does not change a solitary thing!
There is another popular solution that also does the rounds in our society today. Rather than DENY God, simply CHANGE Him. God is essentially a kindly, benevolent Being Who really understands us and our weaknesses. He will know that at least we tried to be good, to be honest and even promote peace and sanity to the best of our ability. On getting to the gates of heaven these people will say, “God, I’m sure you’re happy to meet me here. You must admit that I was a real trier. Worked hard and did my best, and was a lot better than a few others still left behind on earth. So God, since You are a loving God, You’ll let me in, won’t You?”
Here is a belief that we can be delivered simply by trying, by doing our best, and a belief that God appreciates a hard worker and will kindly overlook disobedience and failure. Deliverance, according to this theory, is achieved by a willingness to “give it a go” and a belief that God is not too fussy after all.
Is this way of deliverance the way taught in God’s own Word? What has this idea in common with the deliverance of which the Bible speaks? How then can we be saved? Certainly not in the ways that are so popular in society today. ONLY, exclusively in the ONE and ONLY way which the Lord Himself outlines in His Word.
2. THE BIBLICAL WAY OF SALVATION.
According to God’s Word there is but one way of salvation. That way requires total obedience and conformity to God’s law. It means being 100% holy as God is holy, righteous as God is righteous, and perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.
That way requires that, if we fail to be holy, righteous or perfect in any way, no matter how small or minimal, we must fully atone or pay for it. That atonement, or payment for sin, any sin, is death! Such is God’s justice, and such justice must be satisfied and paid in full.
Congregation, according to God Himself the one way of salvation is total obedience to God in every detail. No matter how much this truth grates and grinds against the grain, it is an unalterable fact. Likewise, God punishes disobedience, all disobedience according to His Divine standards of justice. That has been and remains true from the beginning of creation to all eternity.
3 THE HOPELESSNESS OF OUR SITUATION.
In the preceding discussions on the Catechism our sinfulness was described. In Question 12 of Lord’s Day 5 we hear that God will in no way waver His justice and its outworking.
Question 13 of the Catechism is now heard as a cry of despair, a final grasping at straws. Can we pay this debt, this burden of death our sinful deeds have loaded on our backs, can we pay this debt OURSELVES? Even this last gasping cry of hope is crushed and shattered by Scripture itself… “Certainly NOT!” Suddenly, and with this answer, even the faintest flicker of hope is extinguished and total darkness dominates everything. But still we try!
Mankind, people must have hope! We must have light. Therefore the Catechism continues: “Can any other creature – any at all – pay this debt for us?” At first glance this seems to be a question that is somewhat absurd. In our modern, sophisticated day and age it seems completely out of place to explore the possibility of the debt of one man being paid for by another. No man, or angel, or creature, or anything can pay this debt! And so another attempt to relieve the hopelessness of our situation is effectively doused.
Yet this vain way of escape, this way of seeking deliverance is still being sought by men. It always has been. Most of us who have heard of Martin Luther will also be familiar with the infamous Johann Tetzel. Tetzel, complete with papal blessing and guaranteed pardons of deliverance, came into Luther’s Germany with a strange message. Equipped with a great chest he encouraged people to place in it donations on their own behalf and on behalf of others. These donations purchased deliverance and it was guaranteed by the church of Rome that the clinking of every coin as it hit the bottom of the chest was like a bell that sounded in purgatory announcing the release of yet another soul from that horrid place!
No Tetzels tolerated in our churches! And yet he still sneaks in and is even welcomed. Some people seem to have the attitude: as long as I’m going to church, sticking to the rules, doing my bit, and even contributing, THEN I’ll be guaranteed of deliverance. That “creature” called time, money, a good appearance and all the other disguises it puts on is so often seen as a substitute deliverer. A recent eulogy at a funeral rang, “As a youth this man sang in our choir, as an adult he was an active member of Rotary… therefore he must be in heaven, dear friends!”
Can any other creature – any at all – pay this debt for us? No, No! No man can bear the weight of the guilt of another, and no dollar bill, or good deed, or whatever, can bear it either.
4. THE DIVINE FORMULA FOR A DELIVERER.
Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters, for the Catechism, in presenting the teaching of Scripture as it does, knows more! With God nothing is impossible. Although the pathways to deliverance which we walk are dead ends, and although we ourselves cannot forge a way of salvation, God CAN. He mapped out this way of deliverance in His Holy Word. If there is to be deliverance we need a deliverer or mediator, someone to help us from beginning to end who must fit the following description:
First, such a deliverer must be truly human and truly righteous. He must be man, Adam, and fully so. He must be as we are, and He must live as we do. He has to be made like us in every respect… be MAN. But at the same time He must be RIGHTEOUS, that is, conform totally and fully to God’s commandments in word, thought. and deed. He must be totally without sin, there must be no deceit, no guile on His lips.. He must be holy as God is holy, righteous as God is righteous, yes perfect, total, whole, complete and able to accomplish God’s will entirely, as God Himself is perfect. He must, in short, be like Adam was before he sinned in the Garden of Eden.
In the second place He must be more powerful than all other creatures that inhabit the universe. More powerful than any man, than the strongest creature that lives and breathes, yes, more powerful than the angelic hosts of heaven. He must, says the Catechism, be truly God!
How do we know this? We know this, brothers and sisters, because we have just described no one less than God’s Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ! He, the Mediator between God and all who believe in Him, He and He alone fulfills the demands of all that a deliverer must be and be able to do for our salvation. Without mentioning Him by name the Catechism is already singing a song of praise and adoration of Christ Jesus the Lord.
Man cannot deliver himself. We are hopelessly lost and bound in the power of sin and nothing in all creation can save us. Only Christ, Who was, is, and ever shall be with God; Who Is God, can, by taking upon Himself human form, be the One to deliver us. Christ only, always CAN BE and, to all who truly seek deliverance in and through Him, WILL BE the Saviour of our lives.
Congregation, in some respects the approach to deliverance which the Catechism adopts in Lord’s Day 5 and 6 is cumbersome and even seems to be a roundabout way of approaching the redeeming work of Christ. One is tempted to say: Why doesn’t the Catechism first introduce Christ and then follow this with a fitting description of His glorious person? Perhaps such an approach would have been better. In fact quite some criticism has been levelled at the Catechism for its treatment of deliverance in this Lord’s Day.
It is true to say that this approach reveals how the Catechism was a human product of its time. However, in spite of criticism, this approach has immense benefits attached to it. How totally this approach extinguishes attempts to look at ourselves and at other people or things as a means of deliverance from sin. I cannot save myself, and neither can any creature or thing on this earth.
Do we heed this? The world doesn’t! It is a reason for despair when we see the way the world looks to kings and presidents, to the World Bank, to its nuclear arsenal for deliverance from our troubles. How despairing to see people look to the person of a Karl Marx, or even an Ayn Rand as providing the key to salvation. What utter folly to see the way people look to a Freud, or turn to their “Valium 5s” for a solution.
When will MAN ever learn?
And does the church and its members learn?
Deliverers in the way of new theologies, of changing God and His Word, of various kinds of ecstatic experiences are so often sought as substitutes! Others seem to think that their orthodoxy is a guarantee of salvation and consider themselves delivered.
How we need to be reminded that it can only be Christ Jesus, no one else and no one less than Christ Who is fully human and fully righteous before even God Himself, Who is also true God, Who can deliver us. Christ, because of the fact that He is God’s Son Who became flesh and dwelt among us, is the one only true deliverer. There is no-one and nothing else.
Do you seek that deliverance from sin and death? Are you seeking it ONLY, EXCLUSIVELY, in Christ Jesus the Lord?
AMEN.