God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 17:25-27 This Good
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, February 2, 2024
25 For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray to you. 26 O LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good to your servant. 27 Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight, for you, O LORD, have blessed it, so that it will be blessed forever.”
David ends his prayer by acknowledging that he understands the Lord’s blessing: God will build David’s house. This is not a mere reference to David’s palace, nor is it really about the temple David had hoped to build. David’s house in this case is his family line, but in a greater sense, it is all about David’s great descendant, the Messiah: Jesus Christ. This is the Good that David thanks God for. The coming child, the descendant of David through his sons, will be the Son of God, continuing forever and blessing forever.
What else can we say about this Good? That the Messiah would come was excellent news; it was the promise God had given to Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, and to Moses. Now David has heard the promise from the lips of the Father, and he understands. The Good God gives is the blessing God gives. Here again we observe the force of the piel verb in Hebrew. The verb “to bless,” which is baruch, is brought into the piel stem by David to show the declarative nature of blessing, as well as the forensic courtroom side of God’s blessing. God has declared and pronounced mankind to be blessed by Christ, and this blessing stands. It cannot be removed or taken away. A foolish man, a sinful man, might reject it and turn away from it, but that does not tear down the blessing or God’s declaration. The justification of sinful mankind by the grace of God is the great Good we have been given through Christ. While David praises God for bringing this through his, David’s, line, we praise God for the Good itself. We stand acquitted, declared not guilty of our sins, on account of Christ’s grace and mercy. “God always promised his grace and the forgiveness of sins (and that means to be blessed by God) even when there was as yet no Law by which they might pretend to become righteous, before Moses was even born” (Luther, sermon on Galatians 3:15-22). For God’s forgiveness is not something we earn, nor is it something we participate in or help along. We are purely passive in forgiveness, receiving it with trembling hands and undeserving hearts. We believe and confess:
1, Forgiveness of sins is the same as justification. David teaches: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1). We obtain this forgiveness only through faith in Christ, which is to say, by faith alone. This is the way that the unrighteous becomes righteous, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21.
2, Sins are forgiven because of Christ, who is the one who, single-handed, achieved our forgiveness. He was the sacrifice of atonement, received “by faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). The Letter to the Hebrews teaches: “Since we have a great high priest,... then let us approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:14,16). By inviting us to draw near to God with trust in Christ rather than our own merits, this passage requires nothing but faith.
3, Peter’s words stand firmly: “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). Peter’s “all” resonates with its precision. There is not part or page of the Prophets that does not point like John the Baptist at Christ. “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail” (Lamentations 3:22). “Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away” (Nahum 1:13). “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). We cannot take hold of the name of Jesus Christ except by faith, but through faith, we take hold of every single one of Christ’s blessings.
4, The forgiveness of sins is promised for Christ’s sake. Paul says, “Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed” (Romans 4:16). If it depended on our deeds, our merits, our worthiness, or on our achievements, the promise would never be certain. It would be useless, in fact, since we could never be certain whether we had done enough, merited enough, were worthy enough, or had achieved enough. “Experienced consciences,” our Confession reminds us, “can readily understand this” (Apology).
To this I will add just one statement from one of the ancient Doctors of the Church: “Let no one glory in his own works since no one is justified by his own deeds. But he who is righteous has it as a gift because he was justified after being washed. It is faith therefore that frees men through the blood of Christ, for ‘Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered’ (Psalm 32:1)” (Ambrose of Milan).
The Good of Christ, the Good which comes through Christ, is ours by faith in Christ, and it is ours forever. Each of us with faith in Christ will “continue forever in his sight,” for the LORD has blessed us, and we will be blessed forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.