Eighth Sunday after Pentecost: Old Testament, Amos 7:7-15                      

Amos 7:7-15

Just recently I heard a discussion regarding the teaching ministry of the first President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, C.F.W. Walther. His hallmark contribution to our theology, “A Treatise on Law and Gospel” brings forth one of the gems “unearthed” by our namesake. Luther put the light of Scripture on something that had been lost, better mingled, and that was the clear distinction that must be made in holy writ between those passages that preach Law and those that preach Gospel. The Law demands and gives no supply. Then it terrifies the conscience and brings all the judgment we rightly fear when encountering it. The Gospel brings the blessed news that God has done for us, all that He has demanded of us in the person and work of His dear Son. The church always gets in horrific trouble when it mixes the two messages, for the Law mixing with Gospel always dilutes the Gospel and the Law takes precedence. Not because the Law is more powerful, but because the Law masterfully utilizes our fallenness. It is a deep chasm.

In our Old Testament reading this week we have Amos faithfully declaring God’s judgment against the northern kingdom and they will have none of it. God is behind the preaching and in it is the perfect picture of the fact that God gives no room and has absolutely no interest in our good intentions at satisfying the demands of the Law. He only is interested in our coming to the end of ourselves that we would flee to the sweet salve of the Gospel and life eternal in His Son. After our rescue through the Gospel the Law continues to serve us in guiding our moral lives. The Law of God is never to be set aside from this use. Both the Law and the Gospel are to be treasured. But we must remember, even as Christians, that we only have the power to obey the Law by the gifts of God’s grace.

I wanted to lay the foundation for why those who oppose Amos do so. It is a clear demonstration that fallen men and women have no place in their hearts for God’s demands. None. Don’t be fooled by the attempts of those overtly religious and we must guard against self-deception. Amos preaches the hard words of God’s Law for the express purpose of bringing God’s people in the north to repentance. The message sadly fell on deaf ears as it would decades later in the south. “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Christ comes only for sinners. Repenting sinners. That’s why the Law is hard. God be praised!