#DailyDevotion It’s Halloween. Do You Want God’s Alien Work Or His Proper Work?

October 31st
Read Deut 32:28–52
Deu 32:39 “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Luther writes: God indeed also claims for Himself the work of slaying man, as we have heard above (v. 13). In Scripture God expressly says: “I kill and I make alive” (Deut. 32:39). But Isaiah distinguishes between these works of God and says that some are His “alien” works and others his “natural” works (Is. 28:21).
The latter are God’s works of grace, according to which He forgives sins, pronounces sinners just, and saves those who believe in Christ.
God’s “alien” works are these: to judge, to condemn, and to punish those who are impenitent and do not believe. God is compelled to resort to such “alien” works and to call them His own because of our pride. By manifesting these works He aims to humble us that we might regard Him as our Lord and obey His will.
Again he says: So it seems to me, and I declare: When God begins to justify a man, he first of all condemns him; him whom he wishes to raise up, he destroys; him whom he wishes to heal, he smites; and the one to whom he wishes to give life, he kills, as he says in I Kings 2 [I Sam. 2:6], and Deut. 32[:39], “I kill and I make alive, etc.” He does this, however, when he destroys man and when he humbles and terrifies him into the knowledge of himself and of his sins, in order that the wretched sinner may say, “There is no health in my bones because of my sins; there is no soundness in my flesh because of thy indignation” [Ps. 38:3].
And again: This was the office of the Spirit. These then are the two works of God, praised many times in Scripture: he kills and gives life, he wounds and heals, he destroys and helps, he condemns and saves, he humbles and elevates, he disgraces and honors, as is written in Deuteronomy 32[:39], I Kings 2 [I Sam. 2:6–8], Psalm 112[:7–8], and in many other places. He does these works through these two offices, the first through the letter, the second through the Spirit. The letter does not allow anyone to stand before his wrath. The Spirit does not allow anyone to perish before his grace. Oh, this is such an overwhelming affair that one could talk about it endlessly! But the pope and human law have hidden it from us and have put up an iron curtain in front of it. May God have mercy! Amen.
So it may be strange to modern ears whom the false prophets of this age who say God is Love, meaning God is only Love to hear God kills, slays, puts to death and wounds. But love is God’s proper work. Both His wrath and love for us are seen on the Cross of Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ, help us to see that when we are wounded, slain, and put to death in this life it is so the Father may heal and make us alive through your death and resurrection. Amen.