Pastor, stop telling us the Law, just tell us the Gospel! Why do so many people fear the Law of God? If the Law is preached rightly your true nature is revealed. You are not just imperfect but doomed to hell if salvation comes by your work. Man is not really afraid of all law, indeed, we like to hear what we can do. We like to know what it is that pleases God, but that is because we seek to earn our way into God’s heart.
The Catechism was written in 1529 after Luther had engaged in a visitation of the churches in 1526 and he discovered the deplorable, miserable condition of the churches. “The common person, especially in the villages, has no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine…they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs. Now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all freedom like experts.” (SC, preface, 2-3)
Now as a pastor, I would hope this is not the case, but we also do not take the knowledge and faith in the Holy Scriptures for granted. Rather, pastors are called to teach so as to impress this Word of God upon all people, young and old. Never should you assume you are too young or too old to dig into this catechism. Luther even called himself a student of the catechism. He even says, “Those who are unwilling to learn the catechism should be told that they deny Christ and are not Christians.” (11) I commend the prefaces of the Small and Large Catechisms to your reading. Without further ado we start at the beginning:
The First Commandment: You shall have not other Gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We hear this commandment and think, well that’s easy, I don’t worship any other gods! I must have this down pat. Let no man ever become so conceited as to think that we keep this commandment!
What is a God and what does it mean to have a God? “a god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress. So, to have a God is nothing other than trusting and believe Him with the heart. I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust is right, then your god is true. On the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you do not have the true God. (LC, I, 2-3)
In theory, this sounds easy! But in reality, we transgress this commandment every time we sin. When I teach my catechumens, the question often arises, what commandment was broken? To which they quickly realize the first is always included. For when I disobey God by not keeping the 3rd commandment, Remember the Sabbath day, it is obvious that you have also not trusted in God. So also is the case with the second table of the Law, loving your neighbor as yourself.
The prominent example that Luther uses is that of mammon. This word, mammon, is often translated as money, but it includes a much broader spectrum. It includes not only money but also possessions. Man is often led to think that if he is wealthy then he has God, but those who are poor also turn mammon into their god because they seek after wealth as though it is their only care.
Included in this pursuit of God is man himself. If you trust and boast in your great skills, powers, friendships then you also have a god, because you base your salvation upon how good you are, rather than giving glory to that which is from God. This was evil that all the line of Herods fell into. They considered themselves above the law, to the extent that Herod Agrippa in Acts 12 is struck down by God because he did not give glory to God for his power.
When we become secure in our sin, our heart seeks confidence in ourself. Thus, the reality is when I do not keep the first commandment, I make myself god. This was the first temptation in Genesis 3, the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This is our sin today. “God you don’t know what you are doing, I know best.” The conscience says, “God must serve us and he is our debtor, we are in control!”
To this let us continually return to the positive means. We fear, love, and trust in God above all things. When the realization comes that you have sinned, turn to your true God. For though the first commandment condemns you in every sort of way, you have the confident provision that he will also not deny you or turn away from you. As he leads you to repent, he has also provided the way of escape.
This is what the famous account of John 3 is all about. Though you were conceived and born in sin, God provides you with a washing of new birth in the Holy Spirit. He delivers you from your sin since you cannot! Your sins are washed away because Jesus went to the cross and suffered and died on your behalf. Why? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” He is the one and only true God. All other false gods want you to atone for your sins, in fact, they expect unwavering obedience. But our God, to whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” Will never disown or abandon you.
Faith grasp hold of this promise for faith needs an object. Let not your faith hold onto yourself or the objects that you adore as more precious and important than your God. Rather, continually trust in that sure object of faith, Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus alone that we have life and salvation.
As we go through the rest of the commandments notice how the heart, in faith, then engages in action, be it in thought, word, or deed. Keeping the commandments is not just about what you say and do, but it is what flows out of the heart. So let us understand clearly, without the regenerative work of God of the forgiveness of sins delivered to us through his precious means of grace, the heart only desires its selfish motivations. It is only by being made a new creation in Holy Baptism that we can say, “Lord, thee, I love with all my heart.” And because of Jesus alone, that statement is most certainly true.
