Sometimes things appear a certain way, but at second glance are quite different than had appeared initially. Last week I was in Riga, Latvia, convening with fellow Luther Academy faculty members and LCMS missionaries John Bombaro, Quintin Cundiff, Jerry Lawson, David Preus, along with academic dean Jēkabs Jurdžs, preparing the 2023/24 academic year of the English stream of our online Lutheran seminary. The northeastern Baltic region (once called Livonia) was among the first regions in Europe to return to the ancient teachings of Christianity—only a few short years after Luther had rediscovered them. This phenomenon would later be known as the Lutheran Reformation. During a break, Lula Tiews, our daughter Mariam Tiews, and I discovered Melngalvju Nams, a beautiful mansion rebuilt between 1996 and 1999 to reflect the original one from the early 13th century. A German inscription on the façade read, “DEN GERECHTEN GOTT LIEBT UND EHRT, SEIN GESCHLECHT ER SEGNET UND VERMEHRT.” Interestingly, one can understand this inscription two ways—firstly, through a Law-oriented, pre-Reformation lens: “Love and honor the just God, He blesses and increases His lineage.” This approach would be contrary to biblical teaching, posing the same theological nut that had plagued Luther: “I am a sinner, yet God is just, so I must be eternally damned!” However, one can also read this inscription as God’s true religion has always meant to be understood (just as one can translate Romans 1:17 from either a Law or a Gospel perspective): “God loves and honors those made righteous [by Christ], He blesses and increases their lineage.” This rendering is guided by the Gospel, which teaches that while we are all sinners, those who repent in Christ are covered by His righteousness. So which reading is correct? The latter! Because as we later found out, the inscription was affixed in the 16th century, three centuries *after* the building was constructed when Livonia was celebrating the Gospel that was now shining across all of northern Europe.
tiewsfamily.org 