Pieper & Luther: No public ministry now? (Part 5- Parable of Talents)

This post concludes this series on "No Public Ministry today?".  I have now included a Table of Contents on Part 1 for ease of reference.

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The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 was so "enigmatic" or mysterious to me in my unbelief, yet became so clear when I was brought back to faith, the faith of my Lutheran upbringing in my confirmation classes.  

The talk of talents and the faithful servants... why were they so good and the other one bad?  What was it about the bad one that made him to be "cast into outer darkness" where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (a most terrible description!)?  It was this:

Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. (Matthew 25:24)

This is the description of unbelief...  we know our God to be a God of wrath, a "hard man"...  so that a punishment must be made to a righteous God.  In our unbelief, we cannot see that the Law of God can only Show Our Sins, and so cannot save us.  We cannot believe a message from God, a message that is "too good to be true".  We cannot believe that we can possibly "Taste and see that the Lord is good".

This is why the message of "UOJ" (Universal, Objective Justification) is so odorous to some.  It springs from unbelief, not from a lack of knowledge or from a misunderstanding     But "UOJ" is the very Gospel itself, the one that Jesus referred to when he said:

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15

Do a text search of the New Testament on this phrase: "preach the".  What does the New Testament say should be preached?  The "gospel", the "kingdom of heaven", the "word".

So what is the Public Ministry commanded to preach?  This:

... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Isaiah 1:18

Our God is not the master who is a "hard man", but a God of Grace and Mercy.  How can anyone possibly believe this?  Only by His Word, His Word that is written, that simple says:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

God's message is absolutely clear!  It is a UNIVERSAL message, it is an OBJECTIVE message... on the face of it!  He has done it all, paid the full price for all.  There is nothing we can do, only believe.

Dear God!  You are a witness to my tears... you are a God of Grace and Mercy!  You aren't the "hard man"!  Help thou mine unbelief!  In Jesus name!  Amen.