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Out of the (Arminian) Frying Pan and into the (Calvinist) Fire

The story of the young man in the video above is a very heartbreaking and extreme example of the damage that can be wreaked in people’s lives by Arminian decision theology.  I have no problem agreeing with him that the sinner’s prayer only hurts people.

I spent most of my childhood and teenage years not really sure whether or not I was saved because 1) I initially didn’t remember ever having prayed the sinner’s prayer and 2) the multiple times I do remember praying the sinner’s prayer I wasn’t sure whether I was sincere enough when I prayed it.  My experience with decision theology was not so extreme that I prayed the sinner’s prayer every night after crying for hours, as this young man did.  But I certainly have my share of “dates I was saved” written down in one place or another, and lived in constant fear that I would be left behind if Christ were to Rapture His people off the earth.

So my concern is not with the much-needed critique of decision theology.  My concern is that the answer that is presented – a very dramatic and emotional conversion experience – is just as subjective as the problem when it comes to finding assurance of salvation.

It’s obvious to me that this young man was a terrified sinner who was absolutely crushed by the Law.  You can almost feel the despair as he says again and again, “I’m not right with God, I’m not right with God.”  He is a perfect illustration of someone experiencing what the Augsburg Confession calls the first part of repentance:

Now strictly speaking, repentance consists of two parts.  One part is contrition, that is, terrors striking the conscience through the knowledge of sin.  The other part is faith, which is born of the Gospel [Romans 10:17] or the Absolution and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven (AC XII:3-5).

And the Apology of the Augsburg Confession goes into more detail:

We say that contrition is the true terror of conscience, which feels that God is angry with sin and grieves that it has sinned.  This contrition takes place when sins are condemned by God’s Word….In these terrors, conscience feels God’s wrath against sin.  This is unknown to secure people living according to the flesh.  The conscience sees the corruption of sin and seriously grieves that it has sinned.  Meanwhile, it also runs away from God’s dreadful anger (Ap XIIa (V):29, 32).

Decision theology turns faith into a work you must do – “you need to sincerely ask Jesus to save you and to come into your heart.”  So instead of giving the terrified sinner the comfort of the Gospel freely offered, the terrified sinner is thrown back onto the sincerity of his heart – which he knows is desperately wicked, even though he might not put it in those terms.  The sinner’s prayer is always qualified by “if you really meant it.” And there are plenty of things that will make you question whether or not you really meant it.

The answer for the terrified conscience is the objective promise of the forgiveness of sins in Christ.  The Apology continues:

As the second part of repentance we add faith in Christ.  The Gospel, in which the forgiveness of sins is freely promised concerning Christ, should be presented to consciences in these terrors.  They should believe that, for Christ’s sake, their sins are freely forgiven.  This faith cheers, sustains, and enlivens the contrite, according to Romans 5:1, ‘Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.’  This faith obtains the forgiveness of sins (Ap XIIa (V):35-36).

My concern with this video is that the answer to a person’s feelings of contrition is not presented as the objective promise of the Gospel, but instead is presented as a subjective emotional experience.  Salvation is presented almost as God reaching down out of the blue and giving someone an unshakeable feeling of being loved and forgiven and of having their sins washed away by Christ, and causing them to have affection and love for Him.

Can a Christian have such feelings?  Absolutely.  But faith is not having a subjective feeling. Faith is trust in a promise.  Feelings may follow faith, but they are not themselves faith.  Feelings come from objective reality, not the other way around.  The danger of looking to an emotional experience for assurance of salvation is this: What happens when I once again feel like a horrible sinner who doesn’t love God?  What happens when that subjective experience of God’s love and forgiveness wears off and I am left all alone with my sin and doubt?  If your assurance that God has saved you is based on an emotional experience, it’s easy to conclude that maybe God didn’t want you after all.

Revivalism in general – no matter what the theology behind it – points you back to yourself for assurance of salvation.  With Arminian revivalism – in which the sinner’s prayer plays an integral part – the burden is on you to know whether or not you have repented adequately or whether or not your prayer was sincere enough.  With Calvinistic revivalism – promoted by the likes of Paul Washer (who was mentioned in the video) and John Piper – the burden is on you to know whether or not God has sovereignly saved you.  So either way, you are driven to look to your experiences and inner life for assurance.

I am not questioning the experience of the man in the video – in fact, I can relate to him in many ways.  Nor am I knocking conversion as such.  The experience of someone moving from darkness to light might indeed be dramatic.  But any experience in my heart that arises from hearing and believing the Word of God – the Word of forgiveness spoken into my ears that says “Your sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ” – is secondary to the objective reality of what that Word says.  A person baptized as an infant who is not conscious of a day in their life when they did not trust in Christ is no less saved than a person who experiences a dramatic conversion after hearing the Word.  It is the Word of Christ that is central.  Feelings and experiences may come and go, but it is the Word of Christ that is truly unshakeable.

Posted in Assurance, Calvinism, Decision Theology, Faith, Grace, Pietism.

By Dawn K
July 28, 2010

4 comments

Martin Luther on the Death of God

We Christians should know that if God is not in the scale to give it weight, we, on our side, sink to the ground.  I mean it this way: if it cannot be said that God died for us, but only a man, we are lost; but if God’s death and a dead God lie in the balance, His side goes down and ours goes up like a light and empty scale.  Yet He can also readily go up again, or leap out of the scale!  But He could not sit on the scale unless He become a man like us, so that it could be called God’s dying, God’s martyrdom, God’s blood, and God’s death.  For God in His own nature cannot die; but now that God and man are united in one person, it is called God’s death when the man dies who is one substance or one person with God.

From Luther’s Works, American Edition 41:103-4, quoted in Formula of Concord SD VIII:44.

Posted in Grace, Quotes, Theological Musings.

By Dawn K
July 17, 2010

2 comments

Why Luther Is Not Quite Protestant

Dr. Phillip Cary of Eastern University has written a paper I thought I’d share with you all, entitled “Why Luther Is Not Quite Protestant: The Logic of Faith in a Sacramental Promise.” Cary is an Anglican, but he seems to get to the root of the differences between how Lutherans view faith and justification versus how the broader Protestant tradition (stemming largely from Calvin and the Reformed) view these things.  The paper is not exactly light reading, but it certainly goes a long way in explaining why Lutherans and Calvinists often end up talking past each other.

Here’s an excerpt:

The logic of Luther’s doctrine of justification supports a faith that is unreflective, not in the sense that believers cannot have any idea at all of whether they believe (for of course they do) but in the sense that they do not have to.  Knowing you believe is possible for Luther but not obligatory, because nothing important depends on it.  This is the import of Luther’s saying that “I cannot build on the fact that I believe.”  Christians must not rely on their faith but on God’s word and sacraments, and therefore are free not to worry about whether their faith is real or sincere enough.  Pastorally speaking, it does not matter whether I am strong or weak in faith, because in either case the word of promise refers to me and is true.  So strong or weak, confident or doubtful – even sincere or insincere – what is required of me is the same: I am to hear the Gospel promises, believe them and take them to my comfort.  Things are quite different in most varieties of Protestantism, for which the promise of the Gospel does not take the form of an external, sacramental word.  For this creates the problem of knowing whether the promise really refers to me.  When the Gospel takes the form, “whoever believes in Christ is saved,” then I cannot tell whether the promise of God is about me until I am confident that I really believe in Christ.  Reflective faith therefore becomes essential in Protestantism.

But it turns out there are reasons why those who believe they are justified by faith alone might want to have a reflective faith, reasons that are operative even in Luther.  To discern them we can return to our imaginary American revivalist asking Luther whether he is a born again Christian.  “Of course – I have been baptized,” comes the answer.  We can imagine the revivalist responding, in puzzlement or indignation: “What do you mean?  You think you’re saved just because you’re baptized?  But surely, Dr. Luther, you can see that there are plenty of people who get baptized when they’re babies but don’t get saved in the end!” Here Luther is usually inclined to give the standard Augustinian answer that Catholics would also give: “Well of course none of us are saved yet; for while we are in this mortal life we are not saved in reality (in re) but only in hope (in spe).” This answer divides Catholics from Protestants.  We can imagine the revivalist at first trying to interpret it in Protestant terms: “You mean to say you can lose your salvation?”  This is a distinctively Protestant question, which no Augustinian Catholic would think to ask.  We can imagine Luther clarifying.  “No, I said I am not saved yet.  I cannot lose what I do not yet have.  You see, to be born again is not yet to be saved.  Through mortal sin – by which I mean unbelief – we lose the new life that is given us in Christ.  That is why it is called mortal.  So baptism is only the beginning of the Christian life, and salvation belongs only to those who persevere in faith to the end of their lives.”  This clarification raises the issue that divides Luther not just from most Protestants but specifically from Calvin.  At this point indeed Calvin’s doctrine marks a radical innovation in the Augustinian tradition which is fundamental to the origin of the Protestant tradition as we now know it.

You can read the rest here.

Posted in Assurance, Baptism, Calvinism, Faith, Lutheran Distinctives, Sacraments.

By Dawn K
July 5, 2010

3 comments

Jesus Lives, and He is Not Angry

Here’s another wonderful sermon preached by my pastor at this past Wednesday evening’s midweek service.  Awesome stuff!

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Jesus Lives, And He Is Not Angry

Rev. Neil Ray

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost/Midweek Service

June 23, 2010

Gospel Text:  John 20: 1-18

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Jesus, betrayed, bloody, hated, tortured, and dead, lives.  Jesus lives.  He has suffered all death could give.  He has endured all the taunts and missiles Hell had to throw.  He has given His neck to the devil.  Yet, He lives.  He laid down His life, but He has taken it up again.  He has fulfilled His Father’s will.  The prophecies have all been fulfilled.  The Law is complete.  He was dead and buried, but now, in the body born of Mary, He lives.

And here is the greatest surprise, not that He lives, that He has conquered death, that He is stronger than the strong man, but that He is not angry.  Adam failed Him in the garden.  David failed Him in Jerusalem.  Peter failed Him in the courts of Caiaphas.  We have failed him in our homes, in our workplaces, in our daily lives.  He was tortured and killed for our sins.

Once it did seem as though we would be destroyed, and that at our own hands.  It looked as though our sins would overcome us, that we would endure the justice of our shame, that we would be exposed as the wicked, selfish things we are, that we would die the common death of men and go to a Hell worse than that of Dante’s imagination.  For everything the devil did to us, we really did to ourselves.  Adam was a willing accomplice in the garden.  He succumbed to temptation, true.  He was seduced.  But don’t forget that he was in paradise.  He was not hungry.  He was surrounded by lavish, interesting, delicious food.  David had wives aplenty.  He had everything a man could want.  All his desires and wants were met.  But he was filled with greed for that which belonged to another.  No one made them sin.  No one made you sin either.  No one made you throw a temper tantrum, send an angry e-mail, call your neighbor a bad name, or say mean things.  No one made you steal or lie or cheat or covet.  No one made you think those nasty thoughts.  No one made you proud or arrogant or afraid of what people might think.  Repent.

But do not be afraid.  Jesus is back, alive out of the grave, but He is not angry.  He bears no grudge.  He seeks no vengeance.  He comes instead to bestow peace, with mercy and forgiveness, with salvation.  Jesus gives Himself alive to His creatures made now into His Bride.  Adam is restored to his dominion over creation.  David returns to his throne and wins the war.  Peter retains the keys to heaven.  And you, O Christian, are renewed, reconciled to the Father.  For Jesus lives and Jesus forgives.

He comes out of the earth, back to life, to the upper room.  Jesus lives!  The angelic song to shepherds in their fields is now fulfilled.  There is peace on earth, between God and men.  The Prince of Peace, the Lord of Life, the Lion of Judah, lives.  All other things fail.  All things of creation decay and grow old and die, but not Him.  He has died, but He has not decayed.  He has paid sin’s wage in full.  He has given Himself as a Sacrifice.  He has been nailed to the cross and pierced by the centurion’s spear.  But now He lives.

Now, the war in heaven has come to an end.  Satan has been cast down, secured in Hell with chains.  And so, too, the sins that held us have been destroyed.  We are free indeed.  There is nothing to keep us in Hell.  There is nothing to keep us out of heaven.  Our ancient enemy, that seductive accuser from the garden, has no more to say.  The cherubim and seraphim with flaming swords are removed.  They sing God’s praise and tell the women, “He is risen!   He is not here.”

Jesus lives.  And He is not angry.  Imagine that!  He is not angry.  He seeks no vengeance, bears no grudge.  He does not blame those who killed Him.  He does not blame you.  His petition to the Father on the cross, “Forgive them,” is granted in His resurrection.  He comes alive out of death to forgive, to give His life to you.

The fast is finished.  Feasting begins.  Praise ye the Lord.  Jesus lives.  Hallelujah!  Jesus died, but is not dead.  Hallelujah!  Jesus lives.  Death has done its worst, but death is undone, is no more, has nothing left.  O death, you pitiful thing, where is your sting?  O grave, you wicked liar, where is your victory?  Jesus lives.  Hallelujah!  Jesus lives.

Do not be afraid.  Jesus lives, and He is not angry.  The sacrifice has been made.  The debt is cancelled and forgotten.  Righteousness is declared.  Jesus lives.  He lives, and He is not angry.  Adam, David, and Peter are restored.  You are reconciled to the Father in the Son.  Your future is assured:  Jesus lives.  It is not just death and Hell, and the devil and his demons, that are undone.  Your sins are also undone.  They are gone, forgotten, destroyed.  Jesus lives.  Hallelujah!  Jesus lives.  And because He lives, you are just.  You are right with God, pleasing and delightful to Him.  You are forgiven, clean, pure, holy, and filled with His good works and with His name.  He is not angry.  He is glad to have you.  He wants you.  He loves you.  And He feeds both Adam and you with the heavenly feast of His true body and blood.  Come, take, eat.  Jesus lives; He lives in you.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Posted in Grace, Sermons.

By Dawn K
June 26, 2010

No comments

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Here is a sermon that was preached by my pastor, the Rev. Neil Ray of Grace Lutheran Church in Warminster, PA, at midweek service this past Wednesday.  As it turned out I was unable to attend the service, but Pastor Ray was kind enough to share the text of the sermon with me and gave me permission to share it with you all.  I hope it blesses you as much as it did me.
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The Work of the Holy Spirit

Rev. Neil Ray

Third Sunday after Pentecost/Midweek Service

June 16, 2010

Gospel Text:  John 16: 1-16

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Holy Spirit does three things.  He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.  There is nothing here about speaking in tongues, performing miracles, or seeing the future.  The Spirit has given those gifts, at times, to men.  But here our Lord speaks of why He sends the Spirit and of what the Spirit always does.  The Son sends the Spirit to take what is His and declares it to you.  He does not speak of His own authority.  But He takes what is the Father’s and the Son’s and declares it to you.  When He has done other things, miracles and such, it was to underscore or serve this gift.  For by this declaration, what is the Son’s is now yours, the Holy Spirit guides you into Jesus, into Truth.

The Spirit convicts you of sin.  Because you do not believe in Jesus.  He convicts you of righteousness.  Because Jesus has gone to the Father for you.  And He convicts you of judgment.  Because the devil has been judged, and removed from the bench, so that you go free.  This is still the work of the Spirit today.  This is the message of the Church.

You are a sinner.  You commit sins because you do not believe in Jesus.  You do not trust Him.  You think He is holding out on you, that He doesn’t care about what you want or need, that He is not providing what it takes to make you happy, and so forth.  So you take it for yourself.  If you believed in Him you would not sin.  You would wait for Him to give you what you want.  You would trust that He knows best and cares for you.  But you do not.  You think you are smarter than Jesus, nicer than Jesus, even that you love yourself more than Jesus love you.  That is why you sin.  But your sin never works the way you thought it would, because Jesus does in fact love you.

The Law of the Lord isn’t just arbitrary rules for you to follow, meant to break you or teach who is boss, like making West Point cadets scrub the toilets with toothbrushes.  Think of gossip.  Why is it forbidden?  Because no good comes of it, because it hurts not only those you talk about, but it also hurts you and those you tell.   How many times have you gossiped and then regretted it?  When have you restrained yourself, not said something evil, told the truth, spoke well of other people, even your enemies, and then regretted it?  Never.  The Law is good.  It shows us what is good.  It shows us the best way to live, what we were made for, how life is the most satisfying.  But you have broken it.  You have failed.  You have acted foolishly, selfishly.  You have hurt people.  You have dishonored God.  You have not believed that Jesus is good, that He loves you.  You are a sinner.  Repent.

That is the first conviction.  But that is not all the Holy Spirit has to say.  He also convicts of righteousness.  Because Jesus has gone to the Father, you are righteous.  Jesus has come to the earth and taken up your flesh, made Himself a sacrifice for sin, defeated death, Hell, and the devil, and then gone to heaven, to the Father, as a Man, for you.  He has opened heaven to all believers.  You are righteous because Jesus has paid your debt and gone to present your case to His Father, because Jesus loves you.  Yes, you are a sinner.  But He came for sinners.  He died for your sins.  The conviction that we are sinners is not bad or evil in the least.  Indeed, it drives us to the Gospel.  If we are sinners, then we have a Savior.  The point is this:  you are righteous in Christ.  Jesus is your Mediator, your High Priest, and your Advocate.  He points to the marks on His hands and feet and side as payment in full.  Justice has been satisfied.  The Law has no accusations left.  You are righteous.  The devil is defeated.  He cannot have you, for you belong to Jesus Christ.

This is what the Spirit takes from Jesus and declares to be yours.  The Lord makes a great exchange.  He takes your sin, guilt, shame, and mortality.  And in exchange for them, by the Spirit’s declaration, He gives you what is His:  His righteousness, innocence, holiness, blessedness, perfection, love, grace, the service of angels, the Name of His Father, and access to heaven.  He takes what is yours.  He gives you what is His.  It is not a fair exchange.  It is mercy.  It is the way of the Lord.  It is what “the meek shall inherit the earth” is all about.  And by it, you are righteous.  The Spirit seeks to convict you of this, that is, convince you, that for Jesus’ sake, at Jesus’ Word, you are righteous, the beloved of the Father.

Consider this.  The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, of necessity and for our good.  But imagine if He stopped there, if He only preached the Law.  Who would be pleased?  The devil.  If the devil had his way, we would not only put the Ten Commandments onto the walls of our court rooms, but raise monuments in our living rooms, classrooms, and bedrooms, in our libraries and bars, casinos and brothels, bus stations and grocery stores.  We would never escape from the Law if the devil had his way.  All we would know is the first conviction:  you are a sinner.

The Law is good, but the devil loves it.  Why?  Because it is one of his chief allies, a fellow prosecuting attorney.  The Law always accuses.  And so does the devil.  Remember the temptation of our Lord?  The devil uses the Word of God for his purpose, which is always the same, to accuse, condemn and kill.  But thanks be to God, the Spirit has more of the Word than just that!  What the devil despises is not the Word of God but the proper use of God’s Word, the distinction and application of Law and Gospel.

The Spirit convicts.  You are a sinner.  But there is more.  The devil would not only stop there, but he would twist it.  For his method is to always show us but one side of Christ.  He preaches the Law as though you can do it, obtain the good, and avoid the bad, in the Commandments by “giving it all you’ve got.”  He says, “See.  The Holy Spirit and I agree.  You are a sinner.  Now you need to just try harder.”  By this he would either lead you to despair, because no matter how hard you try you would not make it, or he would lead you to the delusion of self-righteousness and teach you to compare yourself to others.

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, but differently than the devil.  He does not hold the Law as a promise to be obtained or a goal to be reached.  It is simply a statement of face:  You are a sinner.  You do not believe in Jesus.  You deserve damnation.  But the Holy Spirit continues.  He uses the Law in mercy in order to expose you and convict you, but this is to prepare you for the Gospel.

So the Spirit convicts.  You are judged.  You make your confession.  You say, “I am a sinner.  I am guilty.”  But you also say, “I am baptized.  Jesus has claimed me as one of His own.  I wait on Him.  He declares me righteous.  The Lord will fulfill His Word.”  The Spirit’s conviction always leads to Jesus Christ.

Then the evidence is presented.  The court is shown the perfect life, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ.  The gavel comes down.  You confessed guilt, but Jesus showed His sacrifice.  The pronouncement is made:  “You are innocent.  You are righteous.”  And that is the judgment of heaven.  You are like Barabbas.  You are set free.  Jesus takes your place.  So also, the devil is judged.  He brought false accusations against you.  You have no sins.  You are forgiven, as clean as the new fallen snow.  You are righteous, a saint of the Most High.  The devil slandered you.  He tormented you.  He tempted you.  He is a liar.  He is judged and condemned because of it.  He cannot do this to you, a prince or princess of heaven, the bride of Christ, the beloved of the Father.  For the Father is well-pleased with you.  You are righteous.  The devil is chained in Hell forever.  His power was always an illusion, and now it is gone.  He has nothing left.  He is judged, and there is no one left to accuse you.  You are judged—innocent.

The Holy Spirit does three things.  He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.  Thanks be to God.  He does them all in mercy and He does them all for you.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Posted in Grace, Sermons.

By Dawn K
June 19, 2010

No comments

A Fascinating Irony of History

…the religious history of the late-colonial period, particularly the Great Awakening and its effects….is a story of unintended consequences.  Leaders of the Awakening – from Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, Joseph Bellamy in rural Connecticut, Gilbert Tennent in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Samuel Davies in Virginia, to George Whitefield, who went everywhere – knew what they were after when they enlisted affective rhetoric to preach about intractable human depravity and supernal divine grace.  They were trying to reawaken the church for the sake of the church itself, to reassert the sovereignty of God’s divine love in conversion, to exalt the substitutionary, penal work of Christ as God’s way of reconciliation with sinners, to demonstrate the necessity of conversion as a prerequisite for truly virtuous living, and by these means to check the worldliness promoted by the era’s new forms of commerce and entertainment.  Yet the pursuit of such goals had ironic consequences.  The awakeners preached a higher, more spiritual vision of the church, yet the result was decline in the very notion of church and a transfer of religious commitment from the church to the nation.  They focused on God’s role in conversion yet brought about an exaltation of human activity in the process of salvation.  They preached a traditional doctrine of the atonement yet opened the way toward redefining the work of Christ as an outworking of governmental relationships rather than the assuagement of God’s wrath.  They rooted true virtue in supernatural conversion yet created conditions for a new concept of virtuous living as in principle available to every person by nature alone.

From Mark A. Noll, America’s God, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 13-14.

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Calvinism, Culture, Quotes, The Church.

By Dawn K
June 8, 2010

4 comments

Martin Luther on the Promise of Christ in the Sacrament

According to its substance … the mass is nothing but the aforesaid words of Christ: “Take and eat, etc.” [Matt. 26:26], as if he were saying: “Behold, O sinful and condemned man, out of the pure and unmerited love with which I love you, and by the will of the Father of mercies [II Cor. 1:3], apart from any merit or desire of yours, I promise you in these words the forgiveness of all your sins and life everlasting.  And that you may be absolutely certain of this irrevocable promise of mine, I shall give my body and pour out my blood, confirming this promise by my very death, and leaving you my body and blood as a sign and memorial of this same promise.  As often as you partake of them, remember me, proclaim and praise my love and bounty toward you, and give thanks.”  From this … nothing else is needed for a worthy holding of mass than a faith that relies confidently on this promise, believes Christ to be true in these words of his, and does not doubt that these infinite blessings have been bestowed upon it….Who would not shed tears of gladness, indeed, almost faint for joy in Christ, if he believed with unshaken faith that this inestimable promise of Christ belonged to him?  How could he help loving so great a benefactor, who of his own accord offers, promises, and grants such great riches and this eternal inheritance to one who is unworthy and deserving of something far different?

From the Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House, 2008, pp. 317-318.

Posted in Assurance, Grace, Lord's Supper, Means of Grace, Sacraments.

By Dawn K
May 19, 2010

1 comment

“A Shield of Grace Over my Entire Wretched Life”

I love prayers written by other Christians who have gone before us.  So often they give words to what I feel but don’t know how to express.

As a perfect example, I was reading Pastor Weedon’s blog last night when I came across this wonderful prayer from Bo Giertz:

My dear heavenly Father, You know that I am hesitant and filled with fear when I stand before You. How do I dare? You know me completely. And I think about the endless abyss between Your holy being and my human pettiness. Everything I received from You has been soiled and damaged. I am ashamed to show it, and yet You let me come before You. Because of Jesus, I can come to You as Your child. Although You know everything about me and have seen every sin, You let me come – with everything I am ashamed of, everything that hurts, everything that doesn’t have to do with You. I now lay it all at Your feet and pray for Your mercy. You have stretched Your atonement over me like a shield of grace over my entire wretched life. Praise be to You for Your incomprehensible and inexhaustible mercifulness, in Jesus’ name. Amen. –Bishop Bo Giertz, *To Live with Christ* p. 340.

Posted in Grace, Prayers.

By Dawn K
May 8, 2010

1 comment

The Obituary of Jesus Christ?

I received this in my e-mail box yesterday from a Christian friend:

I noticed several things that were glaringly missing from this.  Anyone want to take a stab at what they are?

Posted in Uncategorized.

By Dawn K
April 2, 2010

8 comments

Wanted By God

I was reading a post over at the evangelical blog Parchment and Pen by C. Michael Patton entitled “Why I Don’t Like “Once-Saved-Always-Saved.”  I understand where he’s coming from and what he’s writing against – the tendency, in certain evangelical circles, to base assurance of salvation on a prayer you prayed when you were a child or the fact that you went forward at an altar call twenty years ago, even though there seems to be no subsequent interest in repentance or faith.

However, the post – and even more so the subsequent comments – illustrates the sometimes unhealthy tendency in American evangelicalism to focus on “what’s happening inside my heart” rather than on “what happened outside of me” – as well as the rather unhealthy (in my opinion) Reformed and evangelical tendency to see repentance and faith as a one-time event, “crossing the starting line” if you will.

I tried to post a comment over at the blog but for some reason it was swallowed up into the void twice (even though I was well under 2000 characters!) so I’ll reproduce my comment here:

As a Lutheran who used to be an evangelical, I think looking inside oneself in any way for assurance of salvation will always place that assurance out of reach.

It’s interesting how “once-saved-always-saved,” “eternal security”, or “perseverance of the saints,” whatever one wants to call it, is used to try to bring comfort to people by saying they can never fall away.  Yet the qualifier is “IF their faith is real.”  For it to be any comfort, one has to know whether or not they have true saving faith.

I spent years and years on the rat-wheel of morbid introspection, trying to figure out whether my repentance was really sincere enough, whether I had surrendered my life to God enough, or whether I had enough good works to prove I was a true Christian and my faith was real.

It was only when I discovered that the Gospel was entirely outside of me – through Christ’s perfect life lived in my place, and in His death on the cross for every one of my sins, even ones I committed just today or that I commit repeatedly – that I found any sort of peace.  I discovered that the Christian life is one of daily repentance and faith in Christ alone, not a “crossing the starting line into true saving faith that you can never lose.”  Instead of worrying about whether I am “truly converted”, every day is a day of repentance and faith in Christ, nourished by the hearing of God’s word and the receiving of His Sacraments.  He is the one that creates and sustains our faith to the end through His means of grace.  The date that I “got saved” matters very little to me.  All I know is that I am baptized into Christ, that He put His name on me and that I belong to Him.

I think it is wrong to tell people to focus on their faith rather than on the Object of their faith – Jesus Christ and Him crucified for their sins.

The many comments on the post from folks struggling with the assurance of their salvation, and the well-meaning attempts of others to point them to their works and experiences in order to get that assurance brought back a lot of unhappy memories for me.  The comments along the lines of “I-thought-I-was-saved-for-twenty-years-but-found-out-I-wasn’t-and-then-God-REALLY-saved-me-by-giving-me-an-experience-of-REAL-repentance/surrender” brought back even more bad memories, of the sense I had towards the end of my days in evangelicalism that I was unwanted by God and there was nothing I could do about it.  He apparently wanted others, because He gave THEM an experience of true repentance/surrender that led to minimal struggle with sin and complete assurance of salvation…but He must not have wanted me, because He gave me no such gift.

The objective promise of Baptism – that through it God forgives my sins and applies to me the benefits of His death and resurrection – led me to the conclusion that God DID want me.  It is rooted in Scripture that God wanted me.  The words of Christ and of His apostles all said: “This is for you.”  Period.  Not, “this is for you IF your faith is real.” Just “this is for you.”  Such an objective promise leads to faith.

As an illustration: sometimes I really struggle with the sin of apathy.  There are days when I find myself completely indifferent to the things of God.  The Reformed-leaning evangelical answer to this problem might be: “Maybe your faith is not real.  You should perhaps question whether or not you are really a Christian and really have true saving faith.”

The Lutheran answer to this problem is different: “Your apathy is a sin against God.  But Christ died even for that sin.  Repent and believe that His forgiveness is for you.”  Instead of hearing that my sin disqualifies me from being a real Christian, I see God smiling down at me saying, “I forgive you even for that sin.  Return to Me.”

Every week I rack up enough sins to earn me eternal punishment thousands of times over (and I’m probably understating that).  Yet every week in the Divine Service I hear God’s word to me – “I forgive you even for those sins.  Repent and return to Me.  Look to the cross, where I suffered and died for you.  I put My name on you in Baptism.  I give you My true body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.  You are My beloved child.”

Because of the objective promises of God in Word and Sacrament I no longer have any doubt that God wanted me.  And still wants me.

How could I not love such a God?

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Assurance, Baptism, Calvinism, Faith, Grace, Lutheran Distinctives.

By Dawn K
March 31, 2010

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