In this article I want write about the place of the proclamation of God's judgment in preach­ing. Already in 1952 Dr. K. Dijk complained that 'the element of God's judgment is some­times neglected'. Preaching 'about the serious proclamation of God's judgment is much too sporadic and there is not enough warning given'.¹ I cannot assess how the preaching is in our churches on this point only that there is reason not to be too optimistic about this. We are not immune to all sorts of evangeli­cal influences, in which one speaks about the Lord God, especially as a loving Father, but too little attention is paid to what the Scriptures say about God and His wrath and judgment. Important issues are at play here. When one ignores God's judgment, one will no longer be able to assert His forgiving love. Where the judgment of God is no longer preached even­tually the gospel will be diminished! For that gospel is really the joyful message of Him who carried the judgment of God for us.

Lord's Day 31⤒🔗

The preaching of God's judgment is dealt with in Lord's Day 31 of the Heidelberg Catechism. In answer 84 says:

The kingdom of heaven is closed when it is proclaimed and testified to all unbelievers and hypocrites that the wrath of God and eternal condemnation rest on them as long as they do not repent.

Few indications are given in our confessions with respect to the content of the preaching. But in Lord's Day 31, we find a very clear indication that the preach­ing must also speak about God's wrath and eternal judgment. The sermon may not only be a message of God's love, comfort, help and presence. The preaching also voices a serious warning and even threatens. For the preaching must take into account the reality that there could be unbelievers and hypocrites living in the congregation. Article 29 of the Belgic Confession speaks about people, who for all appearances are in the church, but really do not belong to the church. All those who do not spiritually belong to the congregation must be shown how serious their attitude is. They must know: "but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36); "If anyone does not love the Lord — a curse be on him" (1 Cor. 16:22). Therefore the preaching must mention how terrible God's wrath and judgment are. In addition men­tion must be made of what the Scripture say about God's jealousy.² "The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath." (Nah.1:2; cf. Ex. 34:14). He stands on His rights. The God, who is in Christ our Father, is a consuming fire (Heb.12:29). Precisely because the Lord your God is a jealous God He is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deut. 4:24). It is the fire of His love that does not tolerate rejection and denial. The preaching from Scripture must also show how dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31).

In this connection it is important to pay at­tention to the framework of these serious judgments in Lord's Day 31. It is placed in the context of the preaching of the gospel, and the proclamation of the promise of forgiveness. In the preaching many things are dealt with. The Scriptures are explained. The congregation is introduced more deeply into theology. Connec­tions are made with daily life. Encouragement and comfort are given. But the focal point, the core around which all this lies, is formed by the proclamation of the promise of forgiveness. The preaching is first and foremost the prom­ise of the great pardon, as answer 84 teaches us following the path of Luther and Calvin.

The Lord Jesus himself speaks of this when he addressed his disciples telling them that they in his name much preach about the repentance and forgiveness of sins. (Luke 24:47). Paul also tells the people of Antioch "that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you" (Acts 13:38).

Lord's Day 31 combines the preaching of judgment and the proclamation of the gospel of forgiveness. Where God's forgiving love in Christ is proclaimed at the same time we hear the pain felt for every person that rejects this love. The dark tones of the wrath of God and the eternal judgment are heard in the same space in which the gentle sounds of the gospel are heard. That means that the preach­ing of judgment emerges from the gospel and is based upon the gospel. It is the framework that we also encounter in the letter to the He­brews. After the author has richly unfolded the gospel, he arrives, in chapter 10, to a moving proclamation of the judgment over those that do not give ear to this gospel and forego the blood of Christ. Especially now that the light of God's mercy in Christ radiates so clearly, it becomes all the more terrible when one nev­ertheless chooses the darkness! Unbelief now becomes the treading under foot of the Son of God, and an insulting of the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29).

How much the preaching of judgment has its place in the proclamation of the gospel of reconciliation appears already in the formula­tion of question 84: "How is the kingdom of heaven opened and closed by the preaching of the gospel?" It becomes clear also from the end of answer 84: notwithstanding that "this testimony of the gospel God will judge both in this life and in the life to come".

Apparently the proclamation of judgment was to be part of the testimony of the gospel! The joyful message is accompanied by the preach­ing of judgment on him who remains disobedi­ent to the gospel. (John 3:16 at the same time 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:20 with 2 Cor. 5:10).

Administration of the Keys of the Kingdom←⤒🔗

 We must not ignore the fact that the Catechism mentions the preaching of judgment in con­nection with the administration of discipline. At the end of the section about our justifica­tion, our Catechism speaks about the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The Catechism expresses the larger context of preaching in this that by the proclamation of the gospel, the kingdom of heaven is opened and closed.

Answer 84 presents, unmis­takably, a polemic against Roman Catholicism. The fight in the sixteenth century was particularly about the keys. The keys functioned especially in the confessional where the priest, by virtue of the power granted him by the Pope, gave acquittal to the repentant sinner. Against that it became the strong position of the Reformation that the power of the keys was not exercised in the dark of the confessional through a priest, but in the public proclama­tion of the gospel.³ Luther calls the holy gospel the treasure of the church and writes: "This treasure is the key power of the church, which are given to her by the merit of Christ" (Thesis 60 from 1517). And Calvin writes, with refer­ence to Matthew 16:19 and John 20:23:

We know, therefore, that the key power is simply placed by the preaching of the gospel, and that it is not so much a power but a service toward people. For Christ has not given this power to people, but in His Word, whose servants He has made people.Institutes IV, 11, 1

How much our forefathers, in the footsteps of Luther and Calvin, saw the proclamation of the gospel as the service of the power of the keys, becomes clear from the answer that the national Synod of Middelburg, 1581 gave to the following question:

Is it not appropriate in the Sunday sermon, to proclaim publicly and in general, to the repentant forgiveness and urge the unrepentant to confess their sins? It is responded: Since the binding and freeing of sins is sufficiently done in the preaching of the word it is not necessary to introduce a specific form for that purpose.

The Reformation not only brought the admin­istration of the keys of the kingdom from the confessional to the pulpit, but it brought, at the same time, also an entirely different view of preaching. The Reformers saw preaching as the service of reconciliation. The Holy Spirit is active in the preaching, carrying the reconcilia­tion to the people and making it their own. Something happens in the preaching! This new view on preaching flowed out from the rediscovery of justification by grace alone. God wants to proclaim His acquittal to people. In the preaching we come face to face with God who wants us to hear His voice and with His grace enters our lives. The reformers came to recognize what Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:21: "God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe". This salvation gets a foothold in our life because it is preached. The message of the cross is truly "the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).

This saving character of the preaching was rediscovered in the reformation. For Luther it comes down to the fact that the Word is writ­ten in such a way that in the preaching Christ is active in his struggle against all dark powers that threaten.⁴ Calvin writes that "in that what is preached is the very word of God, promul­gated at the supreme tribunals written in the book of life, ratified firm and fixed in heaven." (Institutes IV, 11, 1). Whenever there is preach­ing then the gates of paradise are open for us, indeed the voice of the minister is accompa­nied by the drops of the holy blood of Christ falling on us (Com. on Heb. 9:20).⁵

This reformational view on the 'contingent' character of preaching we find back in Lord's Day 31. Something indeed happens in and through the preaching! There the opening and closing does occur. The power of the keys is exercised. The kingdom of heaven is opened and shut. I think that it is good to once again express these things to each other. For anyone who pays attention will discover that today not all listeners are aware of this. The sermon must especially deal with what many experience as difficulties and trials. The ministers are in large measure judged by the manner in which they bring the message. Many are eager to hear an encouraging word on Sunday. And often nega­tive reactions are heard when the dark tones of wrath and judgment are present in the sermon. In light of this Lord's Day 31 gains new rel­evance. We must again realize what preaching is. It is to our confessions the administration of the keys of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is opened up and closed! He who wants to pass judgment on the preaching, should in the first instance pay attention to this. Is the minister active, as the one sent by Christ, to indeed do that to which he is called in Lord's Day 31? Is the joyful message of forgiveness of sins pro­claimed? Does he open the kingdom of heaven for all who believe? And does he not forget that he also has the task to close that realm for all that do not repent? Does he give voice in the preaching to the warning and admonish­ing, does the congregation also hear that the Lord will judge His people, because our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 10:31)? In the Libera­tion, we have learned to speak again about God's covenant wrath, particularly also in the New Testament (Heb. 10:30). This covenant wrath belongs with the preaching of the gos­pel. It may not be forgotten but must always come to the fore in the preaching.

From the formulation of question and answer 84 I even dare to say: he who is (too) silent about this covenant wrath, is not doing justice to the gospel!

In the Midst of the Congregation←⤒🔗

The late Dr. M.J.C. Block wrote once:

Of course Lord's Day 31 does not intend to divide the congregation into two groups, each receiv­ing its own message. For the promise of the gospel comes to all, and that also includes the hypocrites and those who do not truly repent (how remarkable is that!), and conversely the true believers cannot possibly do without all those warnings, admonitions and threats...⁶

I think that he is right in this. It is notable that in the letters of the New Testament rarely is the judgment of specific people of the congregation mentioned. The preaching of judgment sounds clearly in the midst of the congrega­tion. The letter to the Hebrews is a good exam­ple of this. Also the believers need the preach­ing of judgment, first and foremost to come to a true self-knowledge and to realize how much they need the Lord Jesus time and again.

I will leave this aside for now because my intention is deal with this in a broader context in the second article. The believers also need the preaching of judgment in order to real­ize how serious it is when they sin. Especially the preaching of God's wrath and judgment can down play the modern image of God as a good-natured grandfather who has much sympathy for what his children do. The Lord is a God who "expresses his wrath every day" (Ps. 7:11) and that "our secret sins set in the light of His presence" (Ps. 90:8). Especially the proclamation of God's wrath and judgment prevents us from treating our sins lightly. We must always realize what an old form prayer expresses: through our violations we provoke God's wrath against us.⁷

That is the reality in the interaction between the Lord and His children. And that reality the preaching must always present to the righ­teous. The necessity of that was made clear to me, when I, more than once, on pastoral visits in the last few years, had to hear: it may be biblical what you say, but we really choose for ourselves! Shocked I went home with the ques­tion: do people no longer realize how much God is to be feared (2 Cor. 5:11)? Are people then already so estranged from what we con­fess in Lord's Day 4: God is terribly displeased with our sin? How real this is we hear in Psalm 32, where David confesses: "For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer". It was this reality that made him also exclaim: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or disci­pline me in your wrath" (Ps. 6:1). Especially in our tolerant and victim culture, God's children cannot do without the preaching of judgment.

We need that preaching, not only to fear sin, but also to strive for holiness. Especially because God judges us (1 Pet. 1:17), we must want to become holy in our walk (1 Pet. 1:15). The reality of having a God that 'judges' (Peter uses the present tense!), will urge us take seriously what we are used to calling our daily repentance. God judges already, He will once do so definitively. "For we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ , that each one may receive what is due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:11). At one time everything will be 'revealed'. And that total disclosure must urge us on to already please the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:9)

The preaching of judgment sounds indeed in the midst of the congregation. May we never forget what the Canons of Dordt confess: God wants his "work of grace in us by the preach­ing of the gospel, so he maintains, continues and perfects it by the hearing and reading of His Word ... but also through its exhortations and threats" (V, 14).

Recently a sister spoke to me after the church service. She had great objections to the way I, at the beginning of the service, had pointed out our sins and guilt before God. Such a confes­sion of our unworthiness she found to be inap­propriate for a community that shares in the riches of Pentecost and knows the fruits of the Spirit. When I referred her to how the church teaches us to pray in the form-prayers at the back of our church book, she replied: that may well be, however, I am in total disagreement with this.

This response started me thinking. She brought me before the question: how do people arrive at such a reaction? Does this imply that also among us sin is out of the picture? Are people so alienated from what Luther has so con­cisely expressed: "but righteousness does not come in the thoughts but by the confession of unrighteousness" (Com. on Psalm 117)? And what Calvin presents to us: "we cannot first seriously turn to God, before we begin to be displeased with ourselves" (Inst. I, 1, 1)? That this question can reasonably be asked also becomes clear from what Professor J. Douma writes in a recently published book:

he who thinks that in the reformed church service fol­lowing the reading of the Ten Commandments the congregation obviously admits her guilt before God's holy face, has a different experi­ence then I.⁸ The professor has the sense 'that among us there is rather a lack of knowledge of sin.'⁹

I would like to draw your attention to the meaning of the preaching of judgment for believers. Especially since sin may not be taken out of the picture, we as believers repeatedly need to hear that preaching. How will we benefit from knowing Him who saves from sin (cf. Mat. 1:21), when we do not see ourselves as 'poor sinners' (cf. answer 126 Heidelberg Catechism)?

Knowing our Misery←⤒🔗

We learn how indispensable this self knowl­edge is in Lord's Day 1. The knowledge of how great our sin and misery is, appears to be nec­essary to be able to joyfully live and die in the comfort given in answer 1. Knowledge of our powerlessness and guilt is part of the life of faith. Answer 2 is unmistakably the answer of the believer, the person who has just expressed the wonderful confession in answer 1. Know­ing our own helplessness and guilt does not precede the faith in Christ, but appears to be connected with an unbreakable bond. Also it is not a stage one can leave behind. It does not state: What must you have known... The Cat­echism uses the present tense: What you must know... Answer 2 teaches how the confession of answer 1 can be held onto in life by always again realizing how great our sin and misery is. Yes the believer must always grow in this knowledge. Thus our text book says in answer 115 that God wants us to engage in a lifelong process of getting to know our sinful nature. It is clearly a lifelong learning process, where God wants that acknowledgment "we, poor sinners" to resound with ever greater depth!

It is not superfluous to emphasis this. For throughout the history of the church, people have, unfortunately, all too often seen the knowledge of their misery as a first step on the road to life in the only comfort.¹⁰ This view is strongly held by 'old writers' who are still well-loved in old reformed circles. W. Schort­inghuis makes it in fact a prerequisite, in that he always repeats, that we, when want to be helped by the Lord Jesus, first have to become a 'healthy' subject. Only when one sees oneself as lost, does the Saviour want to save. One must have truly discovered the five 'dear nots': I will not, I cannot, I know not, I have not, and I am not good.¹¹

Th. Van der Groe emphasizes:

And indeed this is the right approach and method to fruitful preaching of a crucified Christ under the blessing of heaven that people ... first with true seriousness to thoroughly persuade people of their sins, curse and damnation from the law; and of their blindness, powerlessness and deadly enmity against Christ; until they, by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, feeling the burden of the disastrous misery of their soul and thereby totally brought low and are in their hearts deeply wounded and defeated!¹²

This independence of knowing our own misery has gone a long way from the teaching of Calvin. He states emphatically that there is no such thing as repentance preceding faith in Christ. The reformer writes:

They, however, that think, that much honour precedes repen­tance and that the faith that then originated, or as a result produces the fruits by the tree, have never known its power and leave themselves to bring an all too light a proof of this feeling.Institutes III, 3, 5

For Calvin the experience is part of the knowledge of our powerlessness and guilt to the understanding of faith.

We find this understanding of Calvin back in answer 2 of the Catechism. We find it also in Lord's Day 33: the heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, belongs to the life of the truly converted. It is continually with God's children, along with a continual joy in God through Christ. How much the realiz­ing of our own misery belongs to the life of the believer we hear also in Lord's Day 23, where the conscience of the believer finds him con­tinuously guilty before God and brings him to confession of this guilt.

When Professor Douma evaluates the matter, a red light should go off for us. Knowing sin and guilt are essential to the life of faith, an indis­pensable comfort for life and death!¹³

Preaching of the Law←⤒🔗

When it comes to the knowledge of sin and misery the Catechism, in Lord's Day 2, points to the law of God. Sin in Scripture is always a matter of going against God's law. For this rea­son it is also that law that helps us to see our misery. This law is not the 'bogyman of Sinai', but is God's merciful turn­ing toward His people. This is the covenant law, the law of life (cf. Deut. 5:33; Acts 7:38). One cannot sharply contrast 'law' and 'gos­pel'. On the contrary, also the law is covered by the gospel. The Lord Himself starts to give Himself, in the Ten Commandments, to His people. This becomes clear from the opening words. The law stands in the light of the gos­pel. Calvin sees the Law rightly covered "by the covenant of merciful adoption" (Institutes II, 7, 2). Precisely that law, the law of God's love, reveals how far we are from home and how we resemble the image of the lost son.

This counts for us as New Testament believ­ers even more, because God's law comes to us — as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:21 — as 'the law of Christ'. Correctly Lord's Day 2 refers then also to Christ. What God's law demands of us, we learn in Christ. He came to 'fulfill' the law (cf. Mat. 5:17). Therefore we must think of it as teaching, in which He lets us see how deep God's law penetrates and how much the Lord lays claim to us. But we must also consider His life of obedience that demonstrates this before our very eyes. Especially at the end of that life we discover what the rule of God's love con­tains and what obedience to that rule means. It has brought Jesus unimaginable suffering. At the cross we learn very well how terrible our sins are. For on Golgotha comes 'the full burden of the law' in all its weight on us. There we see what happens to people that do not uphold the words of this law by carrying them (cf. Deut. 27:26). The Crucified One shows us what it means to be a 'sinner'!

When Lord's Day 2 says that we learn to know our misery from the law of God it is talking about the law as it is known in all its clarity through the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Whenever we speak about knowing how great our sin and misery is the gospel must be open. Christ teaches us, as the Catechism says. He does this especially and mostly at the cross.

We indeed know our guilt from the law of God. But it is really the law that appears to us in all its clarity in the holy gospel.

Thus the reformers have spoken about the revealing function of the law. Luther mentions this discovering function repeatedly. The law is the 'hammer' with which God knocks down our pride and self-righteousness. The assigned role of the law is to put us before God's face and reveal to us His wrath over our sin. The law is the 'executioner' to make us long for Christ.¹⁴

Also Calvin sees it — with his own nuance — this way.

We continually need 'the tutorship' of the law. The law is 'as in a mirror we dis­cover any stains upon our face, so in the Law we behold, first, our powerlessness; then, in consequence of it, our iniquity; and, finally, the curse, as the consequence of both.Institutes II, 7, 7

In our self-knowledge Calvin states this to be most important that, 'we showed that it principally consists in renouncing all idea of our own strength, and divesting ourselves of all confidence in our own righteousness, while, on the other hand, under a full consciousness of our wants, we learn true humility and self-abasement. Both of these the Lord accomplish­es by his Law...'Institutes II, 8, 1

I write this article about judgment in the preaching. I think that we badly need this preaching of judgment. When believing knowledge of how people appear before the face of God goes missing, the walk of life in the only comfort runs into serious danger. This means concretely that God's law in all its strict­ness (cf. the 'so strictly' in question 115 HC) on our Lord's Days must be bound on our hearts. The judgment that is in God's law as the law of Christ must be heard from the pulpit. There is indeed no 'condemnation' for those that are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:1). But that does not mean that we can be silent about this condemnation, however. God commanded that His laws must be clearly preached so that the congregation learns to know her sin and guilt and begin to understand what it means that we are 'poor sinners'. She cannot become estranged from what the church has prayed for centuries:

Holy God and Father, we humble ourselves before you, because we have frequently and grievously sinned against you. We acknowledge that if you would enter into judgment with us, that we would not have deserved anything other than eternal death. We are in sin conceived and in iniquity born and that all manner of evil desires against Thee and our neighbour fill our hearts. Moreover we continually break your commandments in thoughts, words and actions. We do not do that what you had expressly commanded, and what was forbidden, we did. In all this we have sinned against you, and we are no longer worth to be called your children nor to lift up our eyes to You in heaven.Dutch Psalm Book, p. 563

From this prayer it becomes clear how much, also for believers, the judgment of God is still a daily reality. It is not true that we, when we believe in Christ, have nothing more to do with God's wrath. All of us are not "children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3) anymore, however, it is true that the Lord Himself is terribly displeased with the sins which we do (cf. answer 10 HC). For this reason we must "seek" every day again the forgiveness in Christ (cf. answer 115 HC). The Catechism uses the present tense!

Moses complains in Psalm 90 that the whole­some understanding of God's wrath is so sel­dom found. I think there is reason also today for that complaint. Therefore, the strict preach­ing of the judgment of God, that comes to us in the law, is so necessary. For we may not forget what Lord's Day 4 confesses "God is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins". Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.

On the question on how the law is then to be 'strictly' preached, the Catechism gives the answer by referring to its explanation of the Ten Commandments. The word 'so' in question 115, in my opinion, makes that clear. He who follows the different treatments of the Lord's Days 34 to 44, discovers how our textbook each time again the depth of God's law binds our heart and time and again points out how we go against God's commands. While the Catechism shows us a life of thankfulness — the laws are discussed in the framework of the gratitude! — the law also fulfills its revealing function. The two go hand in hand and must have their place in the preaching of the Ten Commandments.

Thus in the preaching our life must be kept in the light of God's law. In this way the law must have a pastoral nature to assist the congrega­tion in seeing concretely the evil and shortcom­ings by which at times other sins than those mentioned in the Catechism must be dealt with, will come up, because we live in a dif­ferent time and face other temptations (cf. for instance the concreteness of answer 110: "false weights and measures, deceptive merchandis­ing, counterfeit money"). For also contempo­rary sins must not escape our attention.

Here too the regular catechism preaching proves to be a wholesome tradition: it prevents one-sidedness and compels the servant of the Word to speak about God's wrath, His judg­ment, His justice concerning our guilt, our evil and our deserved punishment. In a time when we hear much about God's love, we must again fully realize that our God is the Holy One, who insists on the rule of His love.

For the Sake of the Gospel←⤒🔗

From Luther we can learn that the preaching of judgment serves the proclamation of the gos­pel. We already heard him say: "but righteous­ness does not come in the spirit but by the con­fession of unrighteousness". When it comes to the role of executioner that the law performs, for Luther this is all about righteousness, and the forgiveness of the sin by grace alone. The reformer always again emphasizes that God gives grace to the humble. To bring us to that humility, the law functions as a 'hammer' that pounds our self-esteem to pieces. The echo of this teaching of Luther we find in answer 115 of the Catechism. God lets His law be preached so strictly to us, because He wants 'that throughout our life we may more and more be­come aware of our sinful nature, and therefore seek more eagerly the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ...'

The strict preaching of the law has been clearly direct­ed to what we hear in the gospel. The self-knowledge about which our textbook speaks, has no goal in and of itself, but serves to drive us to the Lord Jesus. They who already realized how deathly ill they are, will all the more seek the cure of this Physician (cf. Luke 5:31). Forgiveness will only be sought when one knows of one's own guilt and God's wrath on all the sins that we commit. Those who want to understand the wonder of the pardon, must first hear its sentence.

That sentence we hear in God's law. And it re­sounds in our conscience, as Lord's Day 23 tells us.¹⁵ That conscience doesn't speak of itself. It is made to speak by God's law. And it is made to speak by the Lord Himself, it will always 'accuse' us. Our conscience becomes truly 'con-science': 'with-knowledge'. It endorses completely what the Lord says and passes judgment on itself. C. Trimp writes in this connection:

The charge of the law resonates in the speaking conscience ... So deeply has the charge penetrated into human life, that the suspects accuse themselves!¹⁶

That is why it is so necessary for the law to be strictly preached, for the consciences of God's children must continue to speak! If the accusa­tion of our conscience is silenced, how will we then, yet each day again, seek pardon in the blood of Christ?

Strict preaching of the law and God's judg­ment is ultimately also necessary for the gospel to remain the gospel. For the gospel cannot be understood without God's law. It is after all the gospel of 'ransom' (Matt. 20:28), of the reconciling 'blood' (Luke 22:20), of the 'expiation' (Rom. 3:25), of the 'righteousness' of God (Rom. 3:22), of the 'justification' (Rom. 5:1) and of the 'forgiveness of our trespasses' (Eph. 1:7). Precisely through the preaching of the law, the gospel receives its deep resonance and we understood what the Lord Jesus can be for us. The gospel receives its deep resonance through this. "It is the deep bass, which enhances the lovely sounds of the gospel."¹⁷

Where the law of God is no longer strictly preached, all the fundamental characteristics of holiness in Christ lose their grandeur and richness. The gospel without God's law becomes a tarnished gospel. A gospel that perhaps still offers modern desperate people encouragement, but no longer speaks about freedom from guilt before God, of rescue from sin and does no longer speak of the wonder that God brings freedom to godless people.

It also no longer brings true joy. For real joy is and remains always the joy of David in Psalm 32: "You forgive the guilt of my sin". Because of that miracle he could joyfully sing: "You surround me with songs of deliverance".

I hope that it has become clear how much the judgment of God must be preached in our churches. At its deepest level it is about remaining in the gospel and in the joy of the gospel. Only when we humble ourselves each time again under the judgment of God, can we remain intensely joyful in the miraculous forgiveness in Christ. Where people know that they stand guilty before God, there also joy can be heard:

Who is a God like You, who par­dons sin...?Mi. 7:18

Indeed:

It becomes, as it always has been already in the liturgy: Those who want to sing Gloria in excelsis Deo, must begin with the Kyrieleison.¹⁸