LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 18

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18 DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

problems and ills? And do we have the courage and
the love and the patience to deal constructively with
them? And do we have the faith and the imagination
to go forward with and for our blessed Lord? If we
do, we shall be true heirs of the Reformation and stand
in living conformity with our confessional platform.
To that end may God grant us His Holy Spirit for Jesus’
sake, Amen.

i
The Proclamation of the Law and the Gospel

Martin L. Koehneke
Concordia Teachers College, River Forest

(Based on 2 Samuel 12:7: “Thou art the man”;
John 19:5: “Behold the Man!)

We are thankful that Holy Scripture never conceals
the faults of its noblest and most notable characters.
Such a one was David, whose psalms have found their
way into the worship of God’s people in every land.
This man, who taught us to sing, falls into sin — into
a black, inexcusable, shocking sin. You know the lurid
story — of his shameful adultery with Bathsheba, of his
shameless murder of her husband Uriah — oh, I need
not tell it over again. The Bible gives it to us in all its
naked ugliness.

But Scripture reveals more than the sin of David;
it shows the forgiving mercy of a gracious God, who
confronts David through His prophet Nathan. David
faithlessly turns from God to a married woman’s arms;
God faithfully pursues David in a prophet’s voice — to
show him his sins and to save him from his sins. When
David hears from Nathan the familiar story of a mean,
rich, heartless, selfish man, who appropriated the only
lamb of the poor man, all that is good in him wells up
in holy indignation and flames into total judgment:
“The man that hath done this thing shall surely die”
(2 Sam. 12:5). Then on that hot fervor of righteous
wrath comes this dash of cold water: “And Nathan
said to David, Thou art the man” (2Sam.12:7). Only
two words in the language of the Old Testament — two
sharp, burning, searing, cutting, damning words: “Thou
art the man!” Like a spearpoint sharpened almost to
invisibility, it goes right through the armor of his
respectability and rank into his dulled and peaceless
conscience. The pointing finger of Nathan is the accus-
ing and condemning finger of God.

But God does more than accuse. He is not “the hid-
den God who drives men to despair.” 1 He leads sinners
to the penitent confession: of David: “I have sinned
against the Lord” (2Sam.12:3); the confession of the
prodigal: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before Thee and am no more worthy to be called Thy
son” (Luke 15:8); and of St. Paul, whose claim to status
lay in this, that he was “chief of sinners.” (See 1 Tim.
1:15)

And God does more! He absolves. He forgives. God

1 Hermann Sasse, Here We Stand, trans. Theodore G.

Tappert (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1946),
p. 116.

has a simple, instantaneous, complete message for the
penitent and believing heart. Nathan speaks for God:
“The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2 Sam. 12:13).
“I will remember your sins no more” (see Jer. 31:34).
I have “cast all your sins into the depths of the sea”
(see Micah7:19). “Your sin is covered.” (See Rom.
4:7)

But how can this be that God can accuse a man
and say: “Thou art the man”; “thou shalt surely die”;
“the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23); “the soul that
sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4); and still say: “I have
put away your sin”? Does the accusing God become
an excusing God—alibiing for His creatures, indul-
gently winking at and blinking away their sins like
a doting grandfather?

Accuse and then excuse? Has He not said: “It is
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”
(Heb. 10:31)? What of His “judgment and fiery indig-
nation”? (Heb. 10:27)

Accuse — yes; excuse — no! “Thou art the man,”
yet He forgives — because of another Man. Behold that
Man!

Our scene shifts to the judgment hall of Pilate.
Even the enemies of God must finally acknowledge and
proclaim Him for what He is. “Behold the Man,” said
Pilate. Behold this Man, says God. “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). “He was
wounded for your transgressions, He was bruised for
your iniquities” (see Is.53:5). “Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John
1:29). “In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins” (Eph.1:7), “for God made Him
who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him” (see 2 Cor.
5:21). “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and
brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). “By His stripes
we are healed” (see Is. 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). “The blood
of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
(See 1 John 1:7)

But there is more to the story. The abused Man
has something to say to the accused man. The un-
masked sweet singer of Israel hears another word from
God whose justice and grace meet in Christ Jesus:
“Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also
that is born unto thee shall surely die.” (2 Sam. 12:14)

“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourg-
eth every son whom He receiveth. . .. My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when
thou art rebuked of Him... . If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he
whom the father chasteneth not? ... Now no chasten-
ing for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous;
nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby.” (Heb. 12:6, 5, 7, 11)

So forgiven David becomes a chastised David — the
child dies, then a son takes up the father’s example and