Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Threat of Punishment and the Promise of Grace – The Law threatens punishment for sin; the Gospel promises forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake. Faith justifies because faith lays hold of the promise of forgiveness in Christ. Such faith is a miracle of the Holy Spirit through the promise of the Gospel. This week’s meditation focuses upon the Close of the Commandments. The Law always threatens punishment because we are sinners. The threat of punishment is necessary in order that we might see our sin, be brought to repentance, and flee to Christ for forgiveness. The narratives this week, God’s Law Threatens and Accuses, the Worship of the Golden Calf, and God’s Wrath Is Poured Out upon Idol Worshippers at Mount Sinai illustrate both the corruption of sin that the Law reveals and the punishment that we rightly deserve. The week’s final reading on the Close of the Commandments teaches us that Jesus Takes the Place of the Guilty, suffering all that the Law demands of the sinner, for us and for our salvation. The promise of “every grace and blessing” through obedience to the Law is fulfilled in Jesus who was made to be sin for us and who, by His suffering and death, suffered the wrath of God by being punished in our place. The promise of the Gospel declares to us that all is fulfilled in Christ, who has redeemed us from sin and the Law’s threats with “His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”CP220925