All Chrisians wind up Lutheran in the end

In Luther's day, in the Augustinian monestary, when one of the monks was on his death bed, it wasn't uncommon for them to be thinking in terms of what they had done in life and whether they had done enough good works to make the cut in God's eyes. This is when someone would hold a cross or crucifix before the dying man, and then they would finally remember where their salvation lies. In the end, every Christian has only the cross of Christ to look to. Even Roman Catholic Christians, who when their head hits the pillow at night are thanking God that He sent His son to die for their sins.

Today's evangelicals live by an odd paradox. They have such a shallow view of sin and grace that it's a wonder they cling to any faith whatsoever. I'm not trying to cut them down in any way. I believe they are as sincere about their faith as any Christian throughout the ages could be. The paradox is that the things that they believe strengthens their faith actually destroys faith. And that can actually be a good thing!

What am I saying? Consider this for a moment. We are about to embark on the season of Easter, wherein the celebration of Christus Vicktor will be our song and praise. Our faith comes by hearing what God has done for the sake of Christ on our behalf, and our faith is strengthened by hearing it repeated and eating it and drinking it. The wonderous word made flesh in our ears and on our lips. That's something that is unique in Lutheranism, this reveling in the work of our savior for his sake.

Today's evangelical goes down a different path. They will say prayers that sound not too different from what we would, and worship in a way that, at first glance, roughly resembles Christian worship. But as soon as this easter day is over, they will turn to the law again for advice on how to live a virtuous Christian life and recieve blessings in return.

We Lutherans teach of three uses of the law. The use, being a curb, is there to reign in unrightousness in the world and applies everyone, believer and non believer alike. The second use applies to only Christians, and is the mirror that reveals to us our sins and drives us to dispair of our situation. The third use is the advisory use, that tells us what a Christian life should look like, and this third use is what modern evangelicals are predominately concerned with. They take third use and take it such and extreme that it becomes a heavy burden, which then becomes second use that reveals to them how much they fall short of God's demands. The law of God is always the law of God, no matter what use we may make of it. We might try to use the law to get a blessing or even to try to prove how worthy we are, but the Holy Spirit will use it however HE sees fit. The person who tries to live by the law will die by the law, and that death will come because of second use of the law, or the law driving us to Christ.

In Galatians, 3:24, St. Paul makes a reference to a cultural practice in the greek word, paidagogos. That word refers to a person who was hired by the father of a son to follow the son around and whack him with a stick any time he stepped out of line. Each time the kid did something his father deemed against the rules, the paidagogos whacked him. Pretty mean, eh? So also the law whacks us, till eventually we turn to Christ for relief.

So third use, advisory use, of the law turns easily to second use, driving the one who strives to be justified under the law of his own strength to flee to Christ. The faith we may have in the works done in the flesh is destroyed by the accusation of the law, and faith in Christ is built up by the repentence and turning away from the socalled "virtues of the flesh". Just as the monks in Luther's time were driven by the law's accusations to believe that they hadn't lived up to the standards of God, so also do the sincere evangelicals find they are accused by their own attempts to follow the advise of the law. And just as the Monks in Luther's time were reminded by the Cross of Christ where their only hope lies, so also is the sincere evangelical reminded by the Cross of the hope, no, the only hope, which is Christ alone.

It's good that their faith in their works is destroyed. It's good that their faith in Christ is renewed. In the end, every Christian winds up a Lutheran.

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Under His Wings...

Psalm 91

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday. (4-6)

This Psalm is often seen as a messianic Psalm, for two reasons. One is because it seems to point to someone other than your average Israelite (including David), and the other because it includes a passage that Satan used to tempt Jesus. Satan had taken Jesus to the top of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: " ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’"

Of course, Jesus replied back with better from Deuteronomy 6:16. It's known today that a sign the Israelites were expecting of the messiah was that he would be able to jump off the top of the temple and angels would come to rescue him. They probably took this also from Psalm 91, but Jesus refused to do this, even though it would have shown the whole world he was truly the messiah. In this case, he proves himself to be God's own son by obeying his Father, saying, "it is written; you shall not put the LORD, your God, to the test".

But what else might Jesus have been up to? Many of today's teachers say that Jesus was proving himself in wilderness, and indeed it's obvious that he was. But what's even more remarkable is that in that same Psalm that Satan used to tempt Jesus, it says, "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways". (Ps 91:11) This line, I think, is important because later on, on Maundy thursday night, Jesus said as the temple guards were preparing to arrest him...

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him (one of his companions), "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" (Mt 26:52-54)

Here, we have Jesus saying he could call out for help, but refuses so that the scripture would be fulfilled. He could call, but he didn't. Isn't it remarkable that only a short while before a ministering angel was there in the garden with him? (Luke 22:43) Jesus, while being tempted by Satan, turned down the help of angels, even if it were to show all the world he is the Messiah. Here, Jesus turned down the help of angels... to show the world he truly is the messiah!

Jesus said, many times, that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets. (Mat 3:15, 4:14, 5:17, 8:17, 12:17, 21:4, Jn 12:38, 13:18, 15:25). He also said, he came to be a ransom for many. (Mat 20:28, 1Ti 2:5-6, Heb 9:15). His entire life, from start to finish, was about fulfilling the righteous demands of God, even to the cross itself and death on Golgotha for all. Each time he turns down the gifts that God would give his only son, whether it's food in the wilderness, or angels to rescue him, or riches or the world, or life itself... he turns it all down, suffering instead in our place, taking our sins, our trials, our torments, our hunger... Just as the prophet said, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Is 53:4) And because of this, we can now have the promises of God in the Psalm:

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him

and show him my salvation." Ps 91:14-16

Just as it says, "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways". Guard our hearts and minds in the true faith unto life everlasting. This, for our lenten season, we see your glory and sacrifice, and recieve the promises ever in your name, Amen.

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Faith Connected to Something Real...

What is the point of Faith? The reason I ask the question is because there seems to be some growing confusion as to what faith is. Christians understand (at least Lutheran Christians do) that their faith is based on extra gnose, or knowledge that is outside of us. That knowledge comes from God in His word and is demonstrated in real human history by His acts and His intrusion into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. This Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to God's will, suffered on a real wooden cross, shed real RH typable blood, and died a real, true death. He was raised from the dead, really and truly, in the flesh, was touched by real people, ate real fish in front of his disciples, and breathed real breath on them. It's all true.

But even more so than all that of that, our faith is based on promises that are connected to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Whosever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life". This is just as true as anything else about Jesus, whether people believe it or not.

Faith is nothing more than the utensil -- the empty hand -- that grasps and hangs onto these truths. But lately, there seems to be a push to redirect people's attention away from that which faith grasps and believes, and turn their attention to faith itself. After the recent "documentary" about the lost Jesus tomb, there was a discussion panel moderated by Ted Koppel. It would seem that there was a concensus, led by the Roman Catholic (priest?) that it wouldn't matter how much proof there was that Jesus didn't rise from the dead. No matter what, they would still believe.

No matter what, eh? On a recent broadcast on a Christian radio station, the host of the show gave the following fake scenario as a news report: Archeologists have found a second chamber near the "lost tomb" of Jesus that contains a cross, and on that cross is a sign written three languages that says "JESUS OF NAZARETH - KING OF THE JEWS". The letters on the sign are written in Aramaic, Greek and Latin. DNA testing shows that the blood on the cross matches the DNA samples of the bones in the ossuary that bears the inscription, "Jesus, son of Joseph".

Ok, what I'm hearing is that, faced with such a scenario, people would continue to believe no matter what. I'll grant that this amount of evidence that Jesus didn't rise from the dead isn't incontrovertable, but it's pretty good. But what I'm hearing that's even more disturbing is that quite a few teachers and pastors are, in essence, telling people to look at the fact that they believe that Jesus rose from the dead as proof that it's all true and the report is not.

That's exactly the trap that Satan has set for us. He absolutely loves it when God's people examine their faith in times like this. I mean, after all, do I really have faith? In the face of such strong evidence that Jesus never got out of the tomb, never was resurrected... is my faith strong enough to withstand that? Or should I turn away from myself and my faith and look to God and his promises?

Any time we tell someone to examine their faith, we could well be doing the work of Satan. Satan's biggest single trap is he wants us to doubt. He wants us to say goofy things like "I'll believe, no matter what" rather than simply looking to the Cross of Christ for comfort. In fact, if people want to do something in times like this as a bible study, just start with chapter one of Job. God's message for Job, whose faith was assailed on all fronts, is exactly the message we need to hear. If anyone points you to your faith as proof, or tells you that you have strong faith or weak faith in the face of Satan's barbs and schemes, just think about Job when he said "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. "

Along with the truth of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his promise to "raise you up in the last day", is the truth that God's plans cannot be thwarted. It's impossible for people to refute the Jesus of God's plan. They can try, but they cannot succeed. So let them keep digging in the sand. They wont find peace there.

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