Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1 by Pieper Francis

Author:Pieper, Francis [Pieper, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Published: 2011-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

The question why people do not recognize the Scriptures, which are the Word of God, as the Word of God, is clearly answered by the Scriptures. Jesus is dealing (John 8) with people who would not recognize His Word as the Word of the Son of God. Jesus indicates this when He says (v. 37): “My Word hath no place in you,” and when He asks them (v. 43): “Why do ye not understand My speech?” and then supplies the answer: “Even because ye cannot hear My Word.” And the cause of the Jews’ inability to understand His speech and hear His Word, Jesus says, is the fact that they are not children of God, have no communion with God. Positively and negatively Jesus declares (v. 47): “He that is of God heareth God’s words; ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God.” It is obvious from the context that the term “hear” is here used in the pregnant sense, denoting not merely the external hearing with the ears, but also the “internal” hearing, the reception of the word as God’s Word. With the external ear the Jews heard Christ’s Word, but since they were not children of God, they could not recognize Christ’s Word as God’s Word, but revolted against it. Christ here establishes the fact that acceptance of His Word as God’s Word is confined to the Christians. Again, in John 10:4, in the Parable of the Good Shepherd, Christ says that His sheep follow Him, “for they know His voice,” and in v. 26 He gives as the reason why the Jews would not accept His Word: “Because ye are not of My sheep.” Luther, too, remarks on John 8: “Hence the Jews have no other ground for their unbelief than that they are not God’s children” (St. L. XI:568). But, now, why does Christ deny that the Jews who were disputing with Him were God’s children and declare that they were consequently unable to receive His Word as God’s Word? The Jews based their divine sonship on their natural descent from Abraham, saying: “Abraham is our father,” John 8:39. Thus they revealed that they did not recognize Christ as the Savior of sinners, as the One who had come to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). Expressed in theological terms, they did not recognize Christ’s satisfactio vicaria, although His satisfactio vicaria had been clearly pictured to them by Isaiah: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (ch. 53:5), and though Christ Himself had reminded them of this satisfactio when He told them: “If you believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). In short, the Jews’ rejection of the Word of Christ as not being the Word of God was but a symptom of a deeper-seated disease, namely, that they did not believe in Christ’s vicarious satisfaction.

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