If any of you are well versed in this art, I mean, if any of you can rightly make this distinction, he would deserve to be called a doctor of theology.  For Law and Gospel must be distinguished from each other.  The role of the Law is to terrify men, to drive them crazy and to despair – especially rude and vulgar people – until they realize they can do neither what the Law demands nor achieve God’s favor.  That will make them despair of themselves.  For they can never accomplish that goal – to obtain God’s favor by their own efforts – and keep the Law.  I recall when Dr. Staupitz said to me on a certain occasion: “More than a thousand times I have lied to God, promising that I would become godly.  But I never did what I promised.  I will never again resolve to become godly, for I see that I cannot carry out my resolution.  I want to quit lying to God.”  That was also my experience under the papacy: I was very anxious to become godly, but how long did it last?  Until I had finished reading the Mass.  An hour later I was more evil than before.  This state of affairs goes on and on until a person becomes quite weary and is forced to say, ” I have had it up to here with being godly according to Moses and the Law.  I am going to follow another Preacher, who says to me, ‘Come to Me, if you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ” ….

This Preacher does not teach that you can love God or that you must act and live a certain way.  Rather, He tells you how to be godly in God’s eyes and how to be saved, despite the fact that you cannot do as you should.  This kind of preaching is wholly different from the teaching of the Law of Moses, which deals only with works.  The Law says, “You shall not sin….Go and be godly….Do this, do that….” But Christ says, “Accept the fact that you are not godly.  But I have been godly in your stead.”

Quoted in Walther, C.F.W., Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible.  St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2010, p. 27-28.  Cf. Luther’s Works: American Edition, Volume 23:271-73.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

God’s Love Covers Me With Christ

Advent Midweek 1

December 1, 2010

Jeremiah 23: 5-8

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

God loves you dearly, and that is shown most clearly by the Lord’s desire to come to you to save you. Advent means “coming.” The Lord is coming. During Advent we joyfully relive the countdown to Bethlehem, waiting for the perfect timing of our God to send us our Savior as Mary’s son. We also rejoice that the Lord comes to us here and now in His forgiving ways—the Gospel, Baptism, absolution, and Christ’s body and blood. We might call this current Advent of our Lord in His forgiving ways as His second advent.

But we also wait for another coming of our Lord—Jesus’ final advent. He is coming to set His people free. On the Last Day He will judge the living and the dead. How can you be sure you are prepared for that day? How can you be sure you will be found righteous, innocent, pure, and holy? By trusting God’s beautiful, comforting promise in Jeremiah 23:6 where God promises that Christ will be your righteousness, your perfect record—no wrongs and all good credited to your account as you trust in Christ. Because “this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ ”

“The Lord is our righteousness.” There can hardly be better news than this, for we are certainly not good enough in ourselves.

Rod Torreson, the poet laureate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a Missouri Synod Lutheran school teacher. He grew up on a farm in Iowa. His family had a loyal farm dog. The dog was a tame, helpful, protector of the chickens and sheep. He was joyful. His whole back half would swing as his tail whipped when greeting his master. But this dog had a dark secret, a terrible double life. At night he would catch up with a pack of wild dogs and hang out. They didn’t smoke and play cards. They’d track down sheep; sink their canines past the wooly fluff right into lamb’s flesh. One morning the Torresons caught him sneaking home at sunrise with some lamb caught between his teeth.

O Christian, you are living a double life too. We look so tame and domesticated, pious little Christian family dogs. But there is a battle going on inside me, inside you. Wild dog thoughts race through our fevered minds. Animalistic instincts leap within us, seeking to be free. Free to sink our teeth into our best friend’s reputation by barking out cutting words. Free to wander off wherever we want into dens of iniquity. Free to stare our sharpened eyes on what the Lord does not want us to see, leering into the glowing computer screen, panting in the dark corner. Free to dump our Master and be our own masters as we chomp down hard on the flesh of rebellious fruit. Oh sure the loyal dog inside gains control for awhile, but “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). We have divided hearts and split minds. We’re tame on the outside, wild on the inside. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

Lord have mercy on us! Hosanna, that is, save us! Deliver us! And even before we cry out, He already has. For God loves us dearly. He saw our need before we were. Before His advent to judge our Lord comes twice—both advents to cover us with Christ’s righteousness, His perfect goodness, that at His last advent we can stand and live forever.

That is why the God who loves you dearly sends a righteous branch from David’s clan. A beginning tree doesn’t look like much, especially a little shoot growing out of a stump. But this shoot from the stump of David’s nearly decimated family tree has got a name: “the Lord is our righteousness.”

First, this branch that God raises up is not just anyone. He is “the Lord!” This is not just some regular old descendant of David. This offspring is not another Solomon who starts out with great promise but fails miserably. This is Yahweh Himself.

Second, this branch that God raises up is not just His own righteousness—proof of the Lord’s own holiness, goodness, and perfection—but He is your substitute. He has come to stand before the court of God’s judgment in your place. He has come to be your not guilty verdict and your straight A report card. “The Lord is our righteousness.”

What a blessed substitute before God’s judgment. In place of our sinful conception—for we all like King David, as Psalm 51:5 testifies, inherited sin from our parents—God places in evidence the sinless conception of Jesus. In place of our childhood disobedience, God places in evidence the perfect obedience of Mary’s Son. In place of our teenage foolish choices, God places in evidence the wise choices of Jesus’ early manhood. In place of all the good we’ve meant to do but left undone, God places in evidence the completed work of the God-man. In place of our death, part of the wages of our sin, God places in evidence Jesus’ death because it is the wages of all our sins. In other words, when God the Judge opens your record, O Christian, He sees Jesus’ record. According to God’s judgment you’ve lived every moment from the womb to the tomb without a single failure of any kind. For “the Lord is our righteousness!” Not even the tiniest smidgen of your sin is showing—only Christ.

But remember, it’s not that you are righteous, that you’ve done the good you ought. It’s that He is righteous. And by being in Christ you are righteous, for “the Lord is our righteousness.”

So, repent. Fess up. Yes, I am a poor, miserable, wild dog of a sinner. And the eternally free Son of God, who willingly bound Himself into our slavery, proclaims you free. And the angels are rejoicing. Welcome home. Eat the Lamb of God’s flesh to feed the believer and strengthen him for the daily battle against your wild dog flesh.

Abide, that is, hang out, stick around with, Christ and His Word, Holy Scripture. Abide, hang out, dwell in the Church, the hospital for dogs infected with mad dog disease. Live in the embrace of your Baptism into Christ’s resurrection. You are God’s own child—even as the war in your body continues. The Son has defeated sin, satanic wolf, and death for you and declared you free. And on that last advent, the Day of the Resurrection, you in Christ will be completely free, no more sickness, no more aching tiredness, no more chaos, no more sin—you’ll then be as righteous as Jesus is for you today and on Judgment Day.

Until that final advent, return to the new life God gave you in Baptism. Hear your true Master’s voice. Confess the truth God’s Scripture gives you: I am a sinner. I deserve eternal punishment. But the Lord is my righteousness.

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

Now Scripture sets forth two kinds of teaching – Law and Gospel.  The Law, in condemning sins and setting forth the gravest threats of God, is that hammer (Jer. 23:29) through which God breaks rocks, that is crushes the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humbles it, so that truly and earnestly acknowledging the multitude and magnitude of sins and of the wrath of God over sin, the mind begins to hate and detest sin, to fear the wrath and judgment of God so that it is unwilling to perish eternally under them but sighs and struggles with groaning that it may be freed from them.  There the Law indeed has and sets forth promises of life, but on condition of perfect fulfillment …. the Gospel, however, teaches that what was impossible for the Law on account of the flesh, God provided by sending His Son (Rom. 8:3).  Therefore it shows Christ, the Lamb of God, born under the Law for us, in order that He might make satisfaction to the judgment of God, revealed in the Law, by His obedience and suffering on our behalf.  This Mediator the Father sets before us in the Gospel as a propitiation by faith in His blood through the remission of sins (Rom. 3:25).  “For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who believes in the Son should not perish but have eternal life” (John 6:40).  Thus the Gospel proclaims, offers and sets before contrite and terrified consciences the grace of God, reconciliation and remission of sins freely on account of the merit of Christ; and it is His will that everyone should lay hold of and apply this benefit of the Mediator to himself.  The ministry of private absolution applies this general promise of the Gospel to the penitent individually, in order that faith may be able to state all the more firmly that the benefits of the passion of Christ are certainly given and applied to it.  Moreover, in the use of the Lord’s Supper, Christ offers, applies, and seals, to all who receive it in faith, the New Testament with the precious pledges of His body and blood, namely, that God wants to be gracious with respect to our sins and to remember our iniquities no more.

From the Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House, 2008, pp. 902-903.

The aim of this chapter is to show the necessity of conversion and to argue that it is nothing less than the creation of a Christian Hedonist.  I don’t mean you have to use this phrase, or even like this phrase.  I mean that no one is a Christian who does not embrace Jesus gladly as his most valued treasure, and then pursue the fullness of that joy in Christ that honors Him. (p. 54)

I believe that Piper has good intentions when he says this.  He is concerned that by merely telling someone “believe in Christ and you will be saved,” that that person might be lulled into a false sense of security – likely due to the fact that many equate “believing in Christ” with merely believing certain facts about Christ, or with merely praying a sinner’s prayer – neither of which necessarily involve repentance from sin.

The problem is this: in his zeal to avoid false converts, Piper ends up taking a fruit of faith – love and affection for God – and making it a condition for salvation (though this love/affection is itself a gift of God).  According to Piper, I am ultimately saved not through repentance from sin and trust in Christ, but through my love and desire for God.  Repentance and faith in Christ are fruits of this love, not the other way around.

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional.  It is not an “extra” that a person might grow into after he comes to faith.  It is not simply a way to “enhance” your walk with the Lord.  Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your “faith” cannot please God.  It is not saving faith (p. 73)

So at what point do I know if my heart has truly “hit upon this pursuit?”  To know whether I have true saving faith, I am asked to look within myself to see if God has created this love and desire for Him in my heart.  Not whether I simply trust in the words and promise of Christ, but whether I possess a certain feeling, or whether I have attained a level of obedience/surrender that proves that I truly love God.

What happens when I look inside myself and see nothing but sin and corruption? What happens when I see even my good works tainted and soiled with sin?  What if I look within myself and find that my heart is horribly cold toward God, that I desire everything BUT God? What then?

The answer is not to conclude “I must not really have saving faith yet.”  The answer is to repent and believe that Christ died even for those sins.  Then my love for God WILL increase – but as a fruit of faith, not as a condition for faith.

Does God forgive me because of something He sees in my heart – even if it is something He created Himself – or for the sake of Christ alone?  Can I not love God BECAUSE He saved me from hell?  Did not Martin Luther hate and rail against God in despair until he discovered the Gospel that we are justified through faith alone – wherein there was hope that even a sinner like him could be saved?

Part 3 will deal with confusion of Law and Gospel in Christian Hedonism.

Christian Hedonism is summarized by Piper in this way: “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” It’s a slight tweaking of the answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s question, “What is the chief end of man?” A: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” In other words, glorifying God and enjoying God are not separate pursuits.

He expands upon this with the following:

Christian Hedonism is a philosophy of life built on the following five convictions:

1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

2. We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse.  Instead, we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God.  Not from God, but in God.

4. The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

5. To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people.  Or, to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.  (DG, p. 28)

So what kind of problem could I possibly find with this?  In and of themselves, these things may be true.  Luther himself summed it up in his explanation to the First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods before Me”) in the Small Catechism: “We should fear, love and trust God above all things.”  Loving God above all things certainly includes delighting in God and taking pleasure in Him.

When I first read Desiring God a number of years ago, my first reaction went something along these lines: “What wonderful news that God wants us to obey Him out of pleasure and delight and not simply out of duty.” Many people seem to have this reaction – a sort of wonderful liberation from an all-too-common view in certain Christian circles that pleasure in and of itself is wrong or to be avoided.  If all Christian Hedonism entailed was the idea that delight and pleasure are good things and that God wants us to delight in Him, I don’t think I would have much of a problem with it.

But, as I would later discover to my dismay, this is not all it entails.  What I first saw as “wonderful news” I eventually came to see for what it really was – the Law kicked up several notches.  And this Law is presented as something true believers can keep.  In this way Piper ends up confusing Law and Gospel.

One of my Twitter friends commented that Desiring God is not a work on soteriology (i.e. how one is saved). However, the more I think about this and mull it over in my mind, the more I think I have to disagree.  In fact, the main problem that I have with the philosophy of Christian Hedonism lies in how Piper connects it to salvation.  This will be the subject of Part 2.

The problem with the church today is that Luther’s problem has stopped
being our problem. Luther’s problem was the original problem of all
true theology: How can mankind be redeemed – rescued from his sins, and
the death and hell they have merited? For Luther, the question became a
very personal one: “How can I be redeemed?”

This question is really a question about God: “How can I find a God of mercy?” Today’s questions about God – if they are about God at all – are thoroughly self-absorbed: How can I find a God who can give me my best life now? How can I have a life of purpose? How can I be happy? In these questions, God is a means to an end. But God is not a means to an end. God is the end, even as He is the beginning.

I heard a church historian speaking recently about how modern
American religious thought is different from previous ages. One of the
things that makes our age unique is that nobody thinks he is going to
hell. Luther wrestled with a different kind of problem. He couldn’t see
how he wouldn’t be condemned to hell.

It occurred to me while singing the wonderful hymns "A Mighty Fortress is our God" and "Salvation Unto Us Has Come" this past Sunday that these are songs that were written by people with a deep conviction that hell, God's wrath, and the devil were real dangers.  Hell and the wrath of God were terrifying prospects and the devil was a real and powerful enemy.  Our condition under the Law is desperate, bleak and hopeless.  It is only through Christ and his perfect life, death and resurrection that we have any hope of escaping God's wrath.

To run the risk of severe understatement, one does not get this sense so much today.  Mention hell and the wrath of God and you might get dirty looks from Christians as well as non-Christians.  It's not seeker-friendly to talk about such things, and we ourselves are not so sure we're comfortable with a God into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall.

And so in most of American Christianity, God has been reduced to a relatively benign, therapeutic figure that, I am convinced, Martin Luther and the other Reformers would not even have recognized.  Except as an idol.

How did we get to this point?

It seems to me as though the self-centered questions we ask today are only symptoms of a larger problem.  Luther and the Reformers answered the question "How can I find a God of mercy?" with the Biblical answer of the Gospel – that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life for us, died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead three days later.  The terrifying fury of the Law was answered by the sweet, wonderful news that God is for me in Christ even though I deserve nothing but wrath.

Somewhere down the line, the question "How can I find a God of mercy?" seemed to be answered by either downplaying God's wrath or eliminating it altogether as an outdated, antiquated notion.  Thus the Gospel is reduced to "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  Sin prevents you from participating in this wonderful plan.  Accept Jesus as your personal Savior and find your purpose."

But I don't need Christ dead on a cross to live an abundant life by the standards of this world.  I don't need Christ dead on a cross to find my purpose in life.  I don't need Christ dead on a cross to be happy.  Believe it or not, there are a lot of happy, fulfilled non-Christians out there.

I do need Christ dead on a cross if my problem is sin that condemns me to hell.  I do need Christ dead on a cross if my sin has earned God's wrath and judgment.

One does not find a God of mercy by creating an idol.

But in any case … here are the words of the hymn in its entirety.  Enjoy!

"Salvation unto Us has Come"
by Paul Speratus, 1484-1551

1. Salvation unto us has come
By God's free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone;
He is our one Redeemer.

2. What God did in His Law demand
And none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on every hand
For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure desires
The spirit of the Law requires,
And lost is our condition.

3. It was a false, misleading dream
That God His Law had given
That sinners should themselves redeem
And by their works gain heaven.
The Law is but a mirror bright
To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.

4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,
Sin held its sway unceasing;
The task was useless and in vain,
Our gilt was e'er increasing.
None can remove sin's poisoned dart
Or purify our guileful heart,-
So deep is our corruption.

5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled
Or we must die despairing,
Christ came and hath God's anger stilled,
Our human nature sharing.
He hath for us the Law obeyed
And thus the Father's vengeance stayed
Which over us impended.

6. Since Christ hath full atonement made
And brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may be glad
And build on this foundation.
Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,
Thy death is now my life indeed,
For Thou hast paid my ransom.

7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,
Thy Word cannot be broken;
Thy call rings out, "Come unto Me!"
No falsehood hast Thou spoken.
Baptized into Thy precious name,
My faith cannot be put to shame,
And I shall never perish.

8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin
And makes men conscience-stricken;
The Gospel then doth enter in
The sinful soul to quicken.
Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;
The Law no peace can ever give,
No comfort and no blessing.

9. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone
And rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith is known,
With love and hope increasing.
Yet faith alone doth justify,
Works serve thy neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living.

10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise
To Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God that saved us by His grace,-
All glory to His merit!
O Triune God in heaven above,
Who hast revealed Thy saving love,
Thy blessed name be hallowed.

My first thought was – wow.  All Law and no Gospel.

So if a person who lives as though there is no God saw this bumper sticker and said, "Oh no, what if there is a God?" and starts cleaning up his moral act – does that mean the person is going to heaven?  Not without the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.  Even if the person from that time forward lived a perfect life (which is impossible in actuality), that wouldn't make up for everything wrong he had done previously.

On one of the podcasts that I listen to, someone once said something to the effect that if Satan took over a city, he wouldn't make it a city where there's no law and order and everyone is engaging in crime and there's mayhem and evil everywhere.  No, it would be a city where everyone is a respectable, law-abiding citizen, the children are all well behaved, where all the people are moral and go to churches every Sunday where Christ is not preached.

There needs to be repentance AND the forgiveness of sins.  Otherwise all you wind up with is the confusion of Law and Gospel, a kind of "clean up your act or you're toast!" sort of legalism that saves no one.

As a former American evangelical myself, I was particularly interested in Mr. Parton's discussion of the thoughts and feelings of former evangelicals (him also being a former evangelical) coming into Lutheran churches, how many lifelong Lutherans fail to appreciate and often take for granted the rich liturgy, depth of worship and wonderful theology that they have, and the misconceptions that they often have about how evangelicals think and what they are looking for.  Here are some excerpts that I particularly identified with:

"…when evangelicals end up in Lutheranism, they end up looking for the most orthodox expressions of it that they can find.  They’re not looking for nicer people.  They’re not looking for better potlucks.  They’re not looking for a better community.  They’re looking for what they didn’t have in American evangelicalism.  I had all that there.  I had great friends.  We had a social life there.  We had all of that.  They’re looking for a clear expression of what they’ve been seeking in the areas of both reverence and mystery.  They’re not looking to be entertained." 

"… there is a mindset in Lutheran churches … that, “You know, American evangelicals have got all the answers on how to grow a church.  We just need to do what they’re doing.  And if we could just do it – maybe with a little bit of pizazz – we could get people to show up.”  But notice the assumptions that are behind this kind of approach – that the historic worship of the church is not something to be honored, that people come to church to be entertained.  These are uniquely Baby Boomer kind of concepts that have been picked up by, unfortunately, churches of the Reformation and pastors in churches of the Reformation …. when people come to these churches they often times hear nothing different than what they’ve heard in their evangelical experience.  And when they find that – let me tell you, if you’re a Lutheran pastor here – you want somebody mad, you do a bait and switch on an American evangelical who went through hell to end up in your church and you do this kind of crap.  When that is done, you better hope they’re not armed – ‘cause they’ll come looking for you…. And they’ll want to know why you jettisoned what they think are the true treasures of the tradition of the Lutheran Reformation – which is the Gospel being central, Law and Gospel preached from the pulpit, a consistent service [from] a hymnal, solid catechesis – that’s what they have come to find.”

"Why are Lutherans messing with [the historic liturgy]?  Because they think it’s boring to people.  They don’t understand, because they have a lot of people that have listened to this and say, “Ho, hum.  What is the big deal?  We’d like to do something racy and fun for the Sunday service.”  I’ve likened this to people that have grown up living in a great three-flower Michelin guide French restaurant …. Lutherans … have grown up in this great restaurant and they’ve never known anything else but three-flower guide meals – Law and Gospel, beautiful liturgy, magnificent hymnody, all of this – the catechism, all this wonderful theology with Christ in the center.  Then they discover Carl’s Jr.  And that is the funnest thing – “it’s new, it’s hip, it’s right down the block – and you know, we could get stuff like milkshakes from Carl’s Jr. and we could put it at the table with the foie gras.  And it’ll go together – it really will.  Or – you know, have you discovered styrofoam cups – maybe the Chateauneuf de Pape can be poured into a styrofoam cup and then it can be used again, too.  And maybe that would be fun to try.”  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of folks that have never been off the reservation in some of these Lutheran churches, and you’ll find a lot of frustration with them if you go to visit these churches – that they’re going in the direction that you’re leaving.”

“… people need to hear that we [Lutherans] are not weird and we’re not liberal.  We’re not Catholic and we’re not liberal, and that’s what they assume.  You’ve got to fight against that.  You’ve got to think, “How can I get out there and show that I am evangelical in the best sense, and I’m not Roman Catholic?” and explain that.  There’s a complete disconnect there.  Lutherans do not get that.  They think that they’re considered like everyone else.  As an evangelical I considered Lutherans unsaved.  You [Lutherans] consider the evangelicals saved.  They consider you lost.”

“I can just tell you my personal experience with Law and Gospel is in
the liturgy every Sunday, and particularly in Confession and
Absolution.  That is unheard of – I mean, the first time I went into a
Lutheran service … if you’re in an old place and an old service,
you’re going to confess your sins first.   And I’ll tell you, my wife
and I looked at each other when we did that and we thought, “We have
found something.  We haven’t done this.”  I mean, really confess what
you have done – what you deserve.  And then the Absolution coming from
the pastor in the stead of Christ, that our sins are forgiven.  Unheard
of.”

I hope to share my thoughts on these in more depth in upcoming posts.  But in the meantime, go to New Reformation Press and buy this lecture series!  It is well worth the money.