Jacob Hercamp – Page 13 – What Does This Mean?

Holding onto the Precious Gift of Eternal Life

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Some things can’t be bought with money. The things which are imperishable, undefiled, and unfading are often priceless. Money can’t buy the things which are priceless. And what you have been given by the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed priceless, more precious than gold, for in His gift you have life now and for eternity.

Our Gospel lesson takes up to the resurrection according to St. John, the first evening of the Week, the first Easter Day, when the apostles had locked themselves in their rooms for fear of the Jews. And all of a sudden there is the Risen Lord Jesus, speaking, “Peace be with you”. And what kind of peace this was for the disciples. This is not some kind a worldly sense of understanding peace. This is much more than a cease-fire treaty. No, this peace is something much more profound and lasting. This peace reached down into the very core of the beings of the disciples. For upon giving them this peace, Jesus establishes them as those who would be sent out to do His work, forgiving the sins of the repentant as well as withholding that forgiveness from the unrepentant.

And this work of the apostles and now those men who have been called into the Office of the Holy Ministry to forgive sins continues on to this day for you. The peace given to the disciples is a peace which emboldens them to proclaim the work of Christ to all the nations, starting in Jerusalem. It is a peace which we sing about in the great Easter hymn Awake My Heart in Gladness, the 5^th stanza.

Hear the words:

The world against me rages, its fury I disdain;
Though bitter war it wages, It’s work is all in vain.
My heart from care is free, no troubles trouble me.
Misfortune now is play. And night is bright as day.

Only can we truly sing this hymn and feel this way when we are given the peace of Jesus.

You see wrapped up in the preaching of the death and resurrection of Christ, you have life and eternal peace. The peace is wrapped up in knowing it is Christ’s death which covers your sins and your offenses against God, and you are account righteous by God for Christ’s sake. That Jesus paid for your sins by giving himself at the cross for you. Indeed it was our sins which hanged him to the cursed tree. But it was in this very act that God our heavenly Father exalted Christ. In other words, Christ’s glory and the glory of the Father was manifested in showing grace and mercy to us poor miserable sinners, thus bringing us peace.

And now He gives this peace in the blessed words of the Absolution: “Your sins are forgiven you on account of my bitter sufferings and death.” And what peace that is for those who are afraid and in the dark of night.

For those disciples now apostles, for they were being sent out to do Christ’s work in the world, as we heard in the reading from Acts, they take a beating for what they preach. Just before that Peter had been ordered by the council of the teachers of the Law to stop preaching Jesus and him crucified. And so Peter says those famous words, “We must obey God rather than men.” Peter and John and the rest of apostles for that matter are emboldened to preach the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection because they are at true peace, and they know exactly what they have to give to those who have ears to hear such proclamation. Peter has something to give to his hearers that is priceless, far more precious than even fine gold. He has the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death for our sins and his resurrection for our justification as well as the Baptism and Supper which our Lord Jesus Christ institutes. And in hearing the Gospel of Christ proclaimed via these means, faith in Christ is being created and strengthened by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The apostles then are not seeking these beatings out. Yet, they do not run from them, either. They saw just how Christ had suffered for preaching and teaching the Truth. And they were told they too would suffer and be handed over to the Synagogue and governors, etc. They are given Christ’s peace and endure the suffering that comes with following Christ. The apostles also were not without the Son, for by the Holy Spirit, they were being reminded of the Words of Christ, to make them their own and then proclaim them to you. They were ready to suffer for Christ’s sake. And the witness of those apostles still is being proclaimed to you. Even this day.

Hold onto this priceless gift, for it is your life and salvation as well as your peace. Do not neglect it. Do not be let this precious gift be like pearls before swine. Do not think God’s grace cheap either. Your salvation might be free to you but it was far from free for our Lord. God the Father paid dearly for our salvation. He gave up his Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to die to save. He paid for our salvation with his own body and blood. Only the blood of God incarnate would pay your redemption price. And God did do this. He paid your redemption price, and has done it in great mercy for you.

Peter and John in our reading from Acts suffer for their preaching of the Name of Jesus Christ. But as I said earlier, they were given the peace in the promise of our Lord Jesus, which far outweighed their temporary earthly suffering, for something far better awaited them. And something far better also awaits you. But indeed, our faith will be tested just as their faith was tested in their sufferings for the Name and proclamation of Christ. May Christ be merciful to us in that hour.

We might not be in the same situation as those specific apostles being beaten for their proclamation of the name of Jesus. But we are in very uncertain times, when government seems to be ever encroaching upon religious liberty, as well as, removing the voice of the believer’s from the public square. But let us not forget the promise of Christ’s peace which in with us by grace. By the grace of God, Peter and John were able to rejoice, as the text of Acts says, “Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” They saw their present sufferings as a participation in Christ’s sufferings. For by their suffering and even by our own sufferings for the sake of Christ we are being made ready for the glories to come for the sake of Christ Jesus who suffered for us. Christ suffered and has entered eternal glory by his resurrection, and we having been united to Christ, having been born again by Holy Baptism will be brought into the same glory for the sake of Christ. Let us then be bold and follow in the example of the apostles, and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and the salvation found only in Him.

Peter and John held on to the precious gift and proclaimed the excellencies of the grace and mercy of God. Pastors called to you still proclaim the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from everlasting death and hell. And indeed, preaching His name, brings you His peace. Peace that the world does not know, nor can it know without believing the voice of Christ in the preaching of His Word.

Jesus did many signs and wonders in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name. Jesus when speaking to Thomas extols those who hear and believe. Hear then the proclamation of the Name of Jesus and take it to heart, for He has shown you mercy and has saved you from your sins. Peace be with you. Your sins are forgiven on account of Jesus. May Jesus’ peace be with you forevermore, just as He has promised. Cling to the priceless promise of eternal salvation by faith. Your faith shall be tested, and probably is being tested even now with all that is happening around us. But let us rejoice in the trials that our Lord God put before us, for by them our faith is being refined and strengthened, to the glory and honor of Christ.

You have not seen him, yet you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Be then at peace in trials of faith, cling to Christ in faith, for Christ is risen, and we too shall arise to the imperishable inheritance awaiting us.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

What is Prayer?

In my short time as a Pastor, I have heard many people, including myself say, “My prayer life is pitiful.” I have also heard people say they do not know how to pray. Let me first say that prayer is a wonderful gift that our God has given us, for that is how we communicate with our Dear Father in Heaven. He has given us His Word in Holy Scripture, and He has given us His Name to call upon at all times and seasons.

The 2nd commandment tells us about the name of our Lord and God. We shall not misuse it. However, to use it rightly, God tells us to call upon Him and He will answer us. He commands us to pray. But He also attaches the promise that He will hear our prayers and answer them.

Prayer is extremely important, even for Jesus. Luke’s Gospel tells us more than any other Gospel about Jesus praying. On one occasion, the disciples go to him and implore Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus does not scold them, but rather Jesus teaches them the prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer are Jesus’ own words now put on our lips to pray. What special words! And we get to say them to our Lord who promises to hear and answer! Even when we do not know what to say or what to pray for, we have the Lord’s Prayers and the prayers of the saints of the Old Testament in the Psalms at our fingertips in Holy Scripture. We even have Jesus praying the Psalms to the Lord while at the Cross. St. Paul also attests to the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf when we don’t know for what to pray.

The next section of the catechism deals with the Lord’s Prayer and the petitions that Jesus teaches us to pray. May we all pray the prayer He has taught us to pray fervently to our Father in Heaven who loves to hear our petitions and requests and delights to answer our prayers.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Walking Along the Emmaus Road

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!

I want you to close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself as one of those disciples who was walking away from Jerusalem from our text in Luke 24. Can you put yourself into their shoes? Luke says plainly, that they were some of Jesus’ disciples. But here the men are walking away from the Holy City of Jerusalem down trodden and full of sorrow and probably some fear. While we don’t know the exact conversation that the two men had on the road they were having, what we do know is that their conversation revolved around the events of the past days.

Perhaps that conversation went like this:

Has it really been two days since we saw our Teacher hanging on the cross? Those words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” still chill my bones. Where do we go from here? 3 years of following him. 3 years of getting our hopes up. He had to know the priests wanted to get rid of him. They tried to stone him once. I don’t want to stay in Jerusalem any more. For if that’s how they treated our teacher, what is in store for the followers like us? We are likely next to hung from a cross. Emmaus is not too far, perhaps there we can find some shelter. But who is this man following us? He seems to be catching up to us.

What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?

Excuse me? You can’t be serious right? Have you not heard? Have you been living under a rock? Do you really not know the events that have just transpired in Jerusalem? Jesus of Nazareth was hung on a cross and was killed. And we were all but certain that he was the One who was promised to Come, the Messiah who was going to redeem Israel. But he was crucified on a cross at the hand of the chief priests and the Romans. And to add to all this, some of the women in our group said they saw Jesus alive this morning along with a vision of angels telling them Jesus had risen from the dead. Dead men don’t rise from the dead.

“O Foolish Ones, and slow to heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Well, I haven’t really thought of that. What do you mean? Tell us more that we might understand. Are you saying Moses, the great prophet spoke about Messiah?

Indeed, Moses, the prophet whom the Lord knew face to face, spoke often of the Messiah. Listen to his own prophesy: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—and later Moses spoke that the Lord would put my words in his and he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

And many other places in the writings of Moses, the Messiah is promised and spoken of. The Lamb of the Passover, the promise of the seed of the woman, the promise of Abraham, Moses interceding for sinful Israel after the golden calf. The preaching and teaching concerning Day of Atonement. The blood of the Lamb cleansed the people, the Messiah’s blood would have to be poured out in suffering to cleanse the people of sin once and for all.

Okay, so Moses. Who else?

Isaiah spoke of Messiah in this way: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5).

No! The Messiah was to usher in his kingdom and bring peace, He was supposed to restore Israel to its rightful place and break off the chains of Roman tyranny. He was supposed to be the king riding and leading Israel to victory!

But the King did come to the daughter of Zion riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey triumphantly. And His victory and your victory were sealed at the cross. It was indeed necessary for the Messiah, the Christ, to suffer and die. He did not come to free from Roman tyranny, but something much bigger and worse: He came to free the world and redeem you from sin and everlasting death.

Huh? We are learning a lot. Maybe we should open up the scrolls of Moses and the Prophets a bit more because we are getting schooled right now. Sir, where did you say were from? Okay, so what about the women’s reports? The prophet David, King of Israel writes in his 16^th psalm of the resurrection of the Lord’s Holy One, “I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the paths of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The Messiah would be indeed be raised from the dead.

Sir, we have much to learn. Our stop is almost here, please stay and tell us more.

Bread and wine await us for our dinner along with other good things. Wait. What is this? The man from the road has taken the place of host for this meal? Didn’t we invite him to this feast?

“Come the feast is prepared,” he says. “Take and it, this is my body which is given for you.” (Luke 22:19)

This is He! This is the Messiah! This is Jesus, the Christ!

No faster than you see Him and He vanishes. Where did He go? One thing is for sure: Jesus is alive! He is risen from the dead! We saw Him in the breaking of the bread! Come let us go back to Jerusalem to tell the others this wonderful news!

Our fears are gone; Jesus is victorious like He said He would be! Why did we doubt the women? Why were we afraid? Christ has triumphed! He is living! We know He is alive, He is with us in the breaking of the bread. Lord, forgive us for our foolish and sinful thoughts. Why did we doubt! For the Lord has done all things well, He has been raised from the dead. And He has freed us from sin and death forever more. Alleluia!

Come then, let us go to Jerusalem to tell the others what we have witnessed in the breaking of the bread. That our eyes are opened to the resurrection of Jesus at the breaking of the bread. Trust Christ’s own Words, it was necessary for Him to die and suffer for our sisn, and like He said He was to rise again from the dead, and He Did to the glory of the Father! Do not walk in sorrow, do not be forlorn. Christ accomplished what was said of him in the Law and the Prophets. That he would suffer and die and rise and enter into his glory.

He died to save you from eternal death, and He who claimed you at the Font as his own, wakening you to new life now and forever through the Water and the Word, now gives to you his own body and blood that was broken and poured out for you at the cross for you to eat and to drink that you may receive and participate in Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. It is the medicine of immortality. Take heart and eat of the feast prepared by your savior, Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead, for He is there in the breaking of the bread. That is the place of his glory, his Supper given for you.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Discipleship: Following Where Jesus Goes

Encore Post: So just where does Jesus go? Well he goes to places that are pretty messy sometimes. If we just consider the 12 disciples who Jesus called to himself at the beginning of his ministry, we see a man in Matthew who was a tax collector. We see a zealot in Simon, we see a couple of brothers who want honor and glory. And that’s just a few of them! What we see in the 12 disciples are sinners! And all the disciples of Jesus including us are sinners! Jesus preaches to sinners like the 12 and still to you and me.

A term that comes from the bible is that of disciple. And that is a great thing to recall. We who follow Jesus as taught in the Bible according to the words of the apostles are disciples of Jesus. We believe the teaching that was handed down by Jesus to the first disciples who were later called apostles who then wrote their Gospels, Epistles, and Prophetic books that make up the New Testament.

The season of Epiphany is a great time to be talking about the disciples because we just heard the reading of Peter, James and John being called to be “fishers of men” and soon we will be hearing the words from the Mount of Transfiguration, “Listen to Him!” Disciples are and to follow and to listen to their master, their Lord Jesus. Peter on the mount shows a desire to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory, but that is not where Jesus stays. No, he goes, setting his face like flint towards Jerusalem, getting ready for the Cross, where He would atone for the sins of the world. Many people, even Peter, don’t want this to be the case, but it must be so. That is why Jesus was sent.

A disciple then follows Jesus to the cross. That is where our journey takes us, the place where our salvation is won. The place from which comes all our blessings including the blessing of being able to tell others about Jesus’ wonderful work there for all humanity. Disciples then don’t just keep this message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to themselves, but rather disciples tell others who do not know about Jesus to follow Jesus unto that Promised Land which he has entered and will ultimately gather us together with all the faithful disciples who have gone before us.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Palm Sunday in Advent?

This text for Advent 1 for the 3 year lectionary is something we hear on Palm Sunday. It seems to be well sowed into the fabric of Holy Week, so why does it show up at the very beginning of the church year? That is a question that I have been rolling around in my head for the past week. And I think I found the connection, from the Prophet Zechariah whom Matthew quotes. “Behold, your king is coming to you.” This quote is the reason that this is read on the first Sunday in Advent. “Your King is coming to you.” We always think that Advent is preparing us for Christmas, well, because it does, but the season prepares us for something so much more. It prepares us for the other ways that Christ our King, comes to us.

We see in Palm Sunday a Jesus entering Jerusalem to a parade, but only a couple days later the city is no longer cheering but crying out “Crucify!”At the cross we see the title given again to Jesus. The first being when the magi visit. It seems that no one fully understood the title king at his birth nor at his crucifixion, for His Kingdom is not from this world. The throne he sits on is actually a cross, to which he willingly goes to die for the sins of the world.

Christ’s Kingdom has already come to you, believers of his word. He proclaims we are in his Kingdom right now via the Word and Sacraments. He mercifully comes to you in His Divine Service to forgive us our sins on account of his suffering and death. And He promises us everlasting life because he rose from the dead. Having risen and now ascended to the right hand of the Father, we trust his promise that He will come back to take us to Himself.

Christ will come again, no longer riding humbly on a donkey, but in all his divine majesty and glory. He is coming back to judge the living and the dead. And we who believe look forward to that this final coming of Christ the King. Why do I say we look forward? We are awaiting Christ’s final coming in which he will set all the world right, and remove us from sin and from the sufferings of this world. Behold, your king is coming to you in mercy, oh faithful ones, now and always.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Baptism and Waiting for Christ’s Final Advent

Encore Post: We confess in the 4th part of Baptism: “What does such baptizing with water indicate?” Answer: “It indicates that the Old Adam in us should be daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”

“Where is this written? Answer: St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

When we confess this part of Baptism we see that there are two men at war within us, the Old sinful Adam and the New Man, created in the image of Jesus, to do the good works which God had prepared beforehand for us to do. And sometimes because we are still in our sinful flesh we will fail, miserably in fact, in not sinning. But we know from Jesus himself and explicitly from St. John that if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who graciously forgives our sins.

Only when we die or when Christ returns in His final Advent will the fight that is within us be completely done. Our sinful flesh fights against our desire to actually do things which are pleasing in the sight of our Heavenly Father. You just need to watch children who hear their parent’s instruction concerning cleaning up their toys before breaking out more and kinda begin to put things away before becoming too enamored with the toy train in its box. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, said our Lord of His Disciples. We see in them ourselves too, our spirit is willing but our sinful flesh is weak and sinful.

But Christ promises in Baptism we have salvation, and as Paul says we have are united to Jesus’ death and resurrection that we may live a new life. What we are in Baptism is not fully known, but in the final Advent of our Lord our Old Adam will be stripped away and we will be like Jesus is, pure as He is pure.

Baptism prepares us for Christ’s Final Advent, and we pray with all the saints, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come!” And Jesus responds, “Behold, I am coming soon.”

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Words that Carry Weight

Encore Post: Perhaps you can think of a time when you received some words with weight behind them. I remember the words of the pastor who announced to the congregation that my wife and I were married. Perhaps you have had similar words spoken. Maybe they weren’t words of great joy but maybe they were those heavy words from a doctor saying you had cancer. Or you can remember back in high school how the gossip got around. That old lie we tell ourselves: Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. Words definitely carry weight. Some good weight and others much worse.

And so it is with Jesus. He is preaching the Word given Him to preach. We were told what this Word was last week in his first sermon, right out of the prophet of Isaiah. He was anointed to preach good news to the poor. He preaches with authority unlike any people of the towns had seen. And His Word carries weight! And His Word is effective!

Jesus’ word has power. You might think it odd, but have you ever read the bible out loud to yourself? To hear the words, reverberate into you own ears. Paul makes the connection to faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.

In a manner like Peter’s mother-in-law, you have been raised back to life by the word of Jesus. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. But by the power and authority of the Word of Jesus you are made alive. You were called by the very Word of Jesus at the moment of your Baptism. The very Word which was preached and proclaimed to the demon was said to you. “Out you unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit.” You were dead in trespasses and sins, held in captivity and slavery of sin, death, and Satan. And Christ speaks a mere word from the cross, “It is finished.” The time of slavery is finished, the time of death is done. “It is finished,” says your Lord and Savior Jesus.

And He speaks life into you, calling you to a life of faith in Him. Clinging to the promise and pledge that by his life, death, and resurrection, we too have the same resurrection. You have already been raised to a new life by Baptism where He speaks to a very wonderful Word carries real weight!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Inerrancy: What Does It Mean?

Encore Post: Inerrancy means to be without error. If the Bible contains errors then what use is it for us and our salvation? How could we find the errors? What would be true, and what would be erring? If one thing is wrong in the word it might as well be thrown out entirely.

This is what we get with Higher Historical Criticism of the Bible. If the words written on the pages of the Bible are not truly God’s word then certainly the words there are riddled with errors because they were written by men. The Bible was questioned even in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. For a much greater overview , I highly recommend you take an opportunity to read the newest book by David Scaer where he lays out these things as they were happening inside the Missouri Synod’s St. Louis Seminary in the 1950s, leading to the walk out of its liberal faculty in 1974.

One place that people said even Jesus erred in the Bible was when he gave the saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 10:23-26) Those with the view that Jesus erred would say that Jesus had no idea of germination. It was always assumed that it died but now science has shown otherwise. They claims Jesus didn’t know this. But all that does it show their cards when it comes to understanding Jesus. They think He was just a man and not God in the flesh. But the Bible tells us otherwise. And besides, those of the errant view did not care to see what Jesus was doing in the verse before it. He tells the the people, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jesus is talking about his death on the cross and his resurrection. He is speaking about your salvation, not about the science of how a seed germinates and the like. He effectively says, “I am the seed that must die in order to bring life to you who believe in me.”

But if we take seriously the words of John 1, that Word was Made Flesh, we should take seriously the words which are recorded for us in the Bible because that word speaks of Jesus. For He is the Word of the Father, and that Word has been glorified for us by his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, for our salvation.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Need of a New Heart

Encore Post: God used Moses to give his people the Lord’s Law on Mt. Sinai. It was the Lord’s holy will for Israel. And in effect, the way that Israel was called to live was to serve as an effective witness to the nations that surrounded it. Their way of life was to point to the Law of the Lord and bring life to the nations. That is why that he calls us to teach our children and their children. I think that is a call to remember the 3rd commandment because on the sabbath day Israel was to remember what the Lord had done for them and their salvation (Exodus out of Egypt). The generation with Moses were either eye witnesses or they were the generation that followed the eye witnesses of those events.

Israel was told not to forget the things they had seen, lest they lose life. But the problem was that Israel had a bad heart. And that is our problem too. We don’t listen and take to heart what the Lord our God tells us. If we look long and hard at our own hearts, or better yet, let’s let God talk about our heart. According to Him, we have a heart of stone. Israel could not be the witness the Lord called them to be, and neither can we. We utterly fail to walk in the way of the Lord. And we can’t make our hearts of stone alive. We need a new heart.

Dear Christian, you have been given a new heart, a new spirit.. This happened at your Baptism. This heart is made in the image of the One, the Word made flesh. Jesus walked in the ways of the Lord our God, His Father. He walked in the statutes and laws of His Father on your behalf. It was through Him and by Him that the nations learn of the mercy of God. And because of this wonderful One, Jesus Christ, you have life everlasting. Your heart is made alive in Christ, through baptism into His name. There at those baptismal waters you were made God’s child. He made Himself your God. And in and through Christ you certainly and do keep the laws and statutes of your Heavenly Father, for He has done them for you. And now we want to walk in His Way which leads us to life everlasting.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

See Also: The Law of God is Good and Wise | Fence, Mirror and Guidebook | What is Baptism? | Baptized into Christ’s Body | Sabbath as Day the of Salvation

The Four Ways of Interpreting Scripture

Encore Post: Pastor Smith has spoken a little about the four fold sense of interpreting Scripture. The Alexandrian theologians (at least some of them) followed this four fold sense method. Antioch held just to the literal or historical sense.

Those four are: Literal, Allegorical, Tropological, and the Anagogical senses. Below, I will try to explain them. I hope it proves to be a helpful primer. I do not believe I have a full grasp on each of these senses, but again I hope this gives some idea as to how the senses of interpretation were used to “get deeper into the meaning.”

The literal or historical sense is applicable to both a historical event and literary text. The literal sense is emphasized insofar as it historically grounds subsequent spiritual interpretation. Every subsequent sense was supposed to be connected then to the literal sense.

The allegorical sense then is used after the literal sense. The allegorical sense has been argued to go all the way back to St. Paul, even Jesus uses allegory in some of this parables. The allegorical sense of Scripture has been understood as referring to the mysteries of Christ and the Church as prefigured in Scripture. So then in the allegorical sense the object of allegory is properly Christ and the Church. Another principal of the allegorical sense in light of the Old Testament is that the object of allegory in reference of the Old Testament is a reality in the future.

The tropological sense applies a Scriptural text to the moral life. This sense, historically, has been a contributing factor for Christian anthropology and spirituality. The tropological and allegorical senses are united because while the allegorical sense refers to Christ and Church, the tropological sense refers to the individual members of the Body of Christ.

Finally the analogical sense is the eschatological sense of Scripture that looks forward to the consummation of everything in Christ at his final coming. In light of this we can kinda begin to see how these senses work all together. For instance, the anagogical sense represents the fulfillment of allegorical sense.

This was all supposed to find Christ, but more often than not, theologians went much further afield. This is why Luther was very weary of it. The medieval Church came up with some fanciful interpretations that had absolutely nothing to do with Christ.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO