Theological term
Pedagogue
5 sermons · All terms
The Permanence and Primacy of Christ and Christianity
Paul's argument in Galatians 3:19–26 is pressed from every angle: the Mosaic law was given because of transgressions, temporary in design, never a rival to the promise but a servant of it, and fulfilled entirely in the coming of Christ. The law functioned as a pedagogue — restraining sin, exposing guilt, and driving the sinner toward the one it signified — but with Christ's advent that tutelage has ended. True sonship before God belongs not to national Israel nor to any who ground their standing in works of law, but exclusively to those united to Christ by faith, who are thereby Abraham's seed and heirs of the promise. The sermon calls the church to be guarded against any doctrine that introduces human works into the ground of justification, and to be ardently and exclusively attached to Christ as the sole Savior of sinners.
Sanctity of Life
The Sixth Commandment — 'You shall not murder' (Exodus 20:13) — extends its protection to the pre-born, grounding the prohibition against abortion in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God. This sermon works through three lines of argument: the precise meaning of the Hebrew word for murder, the consistent biblical testimony to the sanctity of human life at every stage from conception to old age, and the specific case law of Exodus 21:22–23, which affords the pre-born equal legal protection under the lex talionis. The sermon closes with a call to press the law upon a culture that celebrates abortion, while proclaiming that the blood of Christ is sufficient to forgive all who have participated in this sin.
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule, functions as the capstone of the Sermon on the Mount's legal teaching: whatever you wish men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. The sermon distinguishes the positive form of the rule from its weaker negative counterpart, showing that Christ's command demands active, unconditional love toward others — not a quid pro quo conditioned on how others treat us. The Golden Rule is examined as a summary of the Decalogue's second table and the love command of Leviticus 19:18, applied concretely to family, church, and society. Yet because the Sermon on the Mount is law, not gospel, its primary effect is to expose sin and drive the hearer to the cross, where justification by faith alone provides the only ground of hope for those who fall short of its demands.
The Only Redeemer of God's Elect
Galatians 3:10–14 sets law and gospel in sharp contrast, demonstrating that justification before God is entirely excluded from the domain of law-keeping. Paul's threefold appeal to Deuteronomy 27, Habakkuk 2:4, and Leviticus 18:5 establishes that the law demands perfect, perpetual, and entire obedience — an impossibility for sinners in Adam. The only hope lies in Christ's substitutionary, curse-bearing work: he bore the imputed sin of his people, exhausted the wrath of God in their place, and secured for them both the blessing of Abraham and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sermon calls hearers to abandon every form of faith-plus-works supplementation and to rest wholly in the particular redemption accomplished by Christ alone.
The Great Day of God
Malachi 4:1–6 sets before the reader two destinies — the wicked consumed like stubble in the fire of divine judgment, and the righteous flourishing under the Sun of Righteousness. This sermon argues that the prophet's vision of 'the great day of the Lord' finds its near-historical fulfillment in the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem (typified in Revelation 6:12–17), while simultaneously serving as a portrait of the final judgment when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. Preparation for that day consists in two things Malachi commands: remember the law of Moses by immersing oneself in Scripture, and look to the kingdom announced by the Elijah-figure John the Baptist. The closing exhortation is urgent — flee to Christ now, for on that day there is no third position between the wicked and those who fear the Lord.