PASTOR'S DESK:
As we turn the pages in
our calendars, we turn
them in our hearts, t o o .
Last year is over and done
w i t h , behind us. All its
fears, disappointments,
sins and failures belong t o
Jesus, now, not us. He
came for them, was born
for them, carried them all
t o cross for you and me.
And because He did. He
comes t o us, now, in Holy
Baptism, in His Word, and
in His Holy Supper t o
wash, t o speak, and t o
feed every fear,
disappointment, sin and
failure off us.
This is St. Peter's appeal
for a good conscience.
"And corresponding t o
that, baptism now saves
you—not the removal of
dirt from the flesh but an
appeal t o God for a good
conscience—through the
resurrection of Jesus
Christ." Our baptism into
Christ takes us into His
death and rising: into His
death t o leave behind in
the grave forever all the
sin, shame, guilt, suffering,
disappointment, and
whatever else it is that
tries t o tell us God is not
with us, our Father; and
into His rising again t o
bless us with all that's His:
child of God, eternal life,
the Father's approval.
"Dear God, as I turn the
page on another year I
wish I could appeal t o You
for a good conscience on
the basis of my
performance this past
year, but I cannot. Year
after year there is t o o
much sin, t o o much guilt
and shame, t o o much me
for that; too many days
without prayer, without
Your Word in my heart or
on my lips. Unlike John
the Baptist's cry, 'He must
increase, but I must
decrease,' my motto has
once more been: 'I must
increase, but He must
decrease.' I am trusting
Your Word, God, that this
is why Jesus came in our
flesh, why He was born of
Mary. I am trusting this is
why Jesus went t o the
cross for me, for all of us,
and why He rose again.
This is why Jesus comes t o
us now in Your Word, in
Holy Baptism, and at the
Holy Supper—to turn the
pages for us as He wipes
always all our sins and
carries all our sorrows. To
preserve the pages clean
and white every day, every
spot rinsed away. To give
what the gospel promises:
'an appeal to God for a
good conscience.' Thank
You, God, for this
appearing of Your love and
salvation (Titus 3:4-7).
Starting Ash Wednesday,
and continuing each
Wednesday through Lent,
we will begin again
through the Small
Catechism, starting where
it starts: the Law, the Ten
Commandments. We will
see ourselves reflected in
the Law, and it won't be a
pretty sight. It never is
when you are looking into
that mirror. But, that look
will make us hunger more
and more for the gospel.
The Law says we don't
deserve a good conscience
with God. But, just like
children receiving gifts at
Christmas, or living each
day by the kindness and
goodness of others, we
live now from the gifts
Jesus brings us, from the
kindness and goodness
God delivers and makes
our own in His Word, His
Water, and His Supper.
The Bible encourages
everyone to live by faith in
these. "Faith" is never
aimed in the Bible against
Jesus' work for us in these
places. I f s aimed against
any work of our own we
might trust in, instead.
Trust only Jesus, as He
turns the pages and dates
for you. Happy New
Year!
Something " O L D " (Zechariah 4:6)
"'Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts."
Any Christian with experience Icnows—
unless he's in complete denial with a
hardened conscience—love for God and
trust in His promises is an unnatural thing in
his heart. By nature, his heart bears no love
at all toward God, no trust in any of His
promises. Such "plants" are just not native
to the soil of sinful hearts. They must be
planted and constantly nourished there.
Jeremiah calls the heart "deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked" (17:9).
What is native, what grows quite naturally in
the soil of a human heart, without any help
or aid from the outside—though there's
plenty of that—is hatred toward God,
contempt of His judgments, distrust in all
His ways and promises. Might or power
cannot help us. Only God's Spirit can.
This is what Zechariah was preaching.
Through him God was encouraging His
people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild
the temple, reestablishing its sacrifices and
services. For here God would come among
His people, giving them His Spirit, working
in their hearts repentance over sin and faith
in His promises. Zechariah was sounding
like Jesus: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fmit of itself, unless
it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless
you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in Me, and I in
him, bears much fruit; for without Me you
can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).
Outside the water fish slowly suffocate and
die. Outside the places where God's Spirit
comes to do His work and saving, we, too,
slowly suffocate and die. Repentance and
faith, once given by the Spirit, are slowly
replaced by a repentance and faith we've
given ourselves. These may look and feel
like the real thing to us, but they aren't.
"'Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts.
There is a danger trying to live the Christian
life under your own steam: it can't be done.
It can be faked or pretended, but it can't be
done. Self-chosen worths and worship have
no power or might to convince God, or even
ourselves-Hf we're honest—that we are
Christians, true believers, forgiven all our
sins and fellow-heirs with Christ. Amid life's
ups and downs, trials and tragedies, and all
our sins, we need something more sure.
We need God Himself coming to us, God
Himself choosing us, God Himself speaking
to us, God Himself Washing us, Feeding us,
saving us. In a word, we need Jesus.
The Baptized know they are sinners, often
looking no different, or better, than anyone
else. God's Word, with parables like the
sheep and the goats, or the wheat and the
tares, teaches them this. They've learned
not to place any hopes on looking or living
better than others. They try to live as God
calls them to, with repentance and faith.
But, crying out from under all their sin, they
come to where God's Spirit is promised,
trusting that—whether or not they feel,
sense, or see it—God is there, by His Spirit,
doing His woric for them, and His saving.
Don't look within. For you will find a spirit
there, only it won't be the Holy Spirit. Look
outside, to the Word, Water, and Supper of
Christ. For there you will find the Holy Spirit
doing His thing, delivering Jesus to poor
miserable sinnei^, and with Jesus even
grafting into and nourishing in their hearts
God-type "plants" like repentance and faith.
Something "NEW" (Romans 11:20)
"Well said. Because of unbelief they were
broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not
be haughty, but fear."
St. Paul had just written to the Gentile
Christians, "But if you do boast, remember
that you do not support the root, but the root
supports you" (11:18).
No branch is a
branch because it attaches itself to the root.
It's a branch because the root not only
produced it, but supports and nourishes it.
This means you and I are not saved
because we believe. We believe, because
we are saved. We believe, because of
Jesus. We are Christians because "you did
not choose me, I chose you."
Faith is a work God does in us, a result of
His Spirit at work in the Water, in the Word,
and in the Holy Supper. Here Jesus is
being delivered to poor sinners. Here, then,
the Holy Spirit is being delivered, too, to do
His saving wori< and calling in us.
For
having descended on Jesus at His Baptism,
the Holy Spirit remains with Jesus (John
1:32-33).
This "'Not by might nor by power, but by My
Spirit,' says the LORD" is not at all popular.
What is popular is seeing faith as man's
work, man's part, our contribution, what you
and I offer God in order to either win His
favoritism or to enable Him to save us. As if
God needed some catalyst to empower
Him, some enzyme supplied by us called
our faith in order to save us.
What a contrast with Romans 9:16, "It does
not, therefore, depend on man's desire or
effort, but on God's mercy." You can supply
all the desire, want, effort, whatever it is you
want, to be a Christian, saved, good,
whatever, none of that will obligate God to
save you. What will obligate Him to save
you is His own Word and Promise to you in
His Word, in Holy Baptism, and in Holy
Communion.
Farth has nothing else to
stand on or trust. Not its own wori<, not its
own worth, not its own merit, not its own
anything.
Only what God Himself has
promised—not to good worths, but to faith.
And that you and I trust this is all God's
doing, His gift to us. "For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith—and this
not from yourselves, it is the gift of G o d not by wori<s, so that no one can boast"
(Eph.2:8-9).
You can't boast in your
believing, then, making it the object of your
proud contemplation. "I'm saved because I
believe."
No.
Turn that around.
The
branch does not support the root; the root
supports the branch.
Say, "I believe,
because I am saved; I believe, because the
Holy Spirit brings Jesus to me in my
Baptism, in His Word, in His Holy Supper,
pardoning all my sin, clothing me in His
righteousness, feeding me with a Body and
a Blood that cannot end now in death. I
believe because the Holy Spirit, with Jesus,
nourish and sustain this faith in me. Yes, it
remains hidden beneath all my sins, my
fears, my weaknesses, but it is there. I trust
it is. I am not trusting me and my powers, I
am trusting God and His mercy.
Jesus
Himself has taught me such trust."
That's the "fear St. Paul calls us to. Faith
does not make God's saving possible.
God's saving makes faith possible. It's why
faith fears, trembles at the thought of being
on its own. Born of God's merciful Word,
merciful Water, and mercy-full Supper, faith
is now supported by these. It knows, it
confesses, it doesn't support Jesus, Jesus
supports it. Faith knows, confesses, it has
something outside itself to stand on: the
mercy God always promises and brings to
it.
T H E Y SAID IT FIRST!
I said tliis on Reformation Sunday: "The Bible never aims the word faith against Jesus, or His
Work and Promise for us in Holy Baptism, in Holy Communion, or in His Holy Word. The Bible
aims the word faith over against us....'By faith apart from the deeds of the law" means: by
Jesus, apart from whatever you work or bring to the table." These, however, said it first and
better:
C.F.W. Walther
"Thesis XIV: In the tenth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when faith is
required as a condition of justification and salvation, as if a person were righteous in the
sight of God and saved, not only by faith, but also on account of his faith, for the sake of
his faith, and in view of his faith." (Proper Distinction, pg. 268)
"What God's Word really means when it says that man is justified and saved by faith
alone is nothing else than this: Man is not saved by his own acts, but soiely by the doing
and dying of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the whole worid." (ibid,
pg. 269)
"Faith is merely a passive instrument, like a hand into which some one places a dollar."
(ibid, pg. 272)
Francis Pieper
"The Lutheran position is that justifying, saving faith deals only with the Christ outside us,
or the Christ for us. The grace that justifying faith grasps is the gracious disposition of
God which is and remains in God's heart, but which He exhibits in the Gospel."
(Christian Dogmatics, Vol.2:436)
"The many errors which have arisen in the Church on this point call for a special section
in which the instrumental character of faith is more fully set forth." (ibid)
"On this score especially the d e a r teaching of Scripture has been rendered obscure.
The Biblical terms 'by faith' and 'through faith' have been given an entirely unscriptural
content. It must be stressed that no intrinsic value dares be ascribed to justifying faith in
addition to the grace of God in Christ. This is precisely the meaning of the statement
that faith is merely the instmment of receiving the grace of God; and that is exactly what
Scripture teaches." (ibid, pg. 438)
"'Faith justifies and saves, not on the ground that it is a work in itself worthy, but only
because it receives the promised mercy (Apol., Art. IV [II], 56; 147, ibid., 86; Trig. 919, F.
C , Sol. Decl., Ill, 13). That is also the meaning of the Lutheran axioms: 'Faith justifies
not in the category of quality, but in the category of relation'; 'Faith justifies not as an act
by itself, but because of the object which it grasps'; 'Faith justifies not as a work, but as
an instrument.'" (ibid, pg.440)
"Nor does the fact that faith is a wonderful creation of God give faith any intrinsic value
toward saving sinners. Luther expressed this truth in the strongest possible way. 'Not
even in this respect, namely, in so far as it is a gift of the Holy Ghost, does farth justify,
but simply inasmuch asrtstands in relation to Christ." (440)
"'Here the principal question is not whence, or what sort of work, faith is or in what
respect it surpasses other wori<s, since faith does not justify perse (on rts own account)
or by any intrinsic value.' (Eri. 58, p.353) Whoever denies that farth is a donum Dei will
deny also the mere instrumentalrty of farth." (ibid, pg.440)
"In conclusion w e must point out that wrthin external Christendom a general protest is
being raised against a purely instrumental conception of farth. If farth is merely
instrumental, then, say the Protestant synergists, rt is reduced to a mere shadow and
has no further place in the order of salvation." (ibid, pg.442)
"It is a grave danger to define farth as the conscious acceptance of the grace of God. It is
not the fides reflexa [me reflecting on the fact I have farth], but solely the fides directs
[my farth looking away from rts merit and woriih to Christ], farth grasping the Gospel of
Christ, which is the medium 'leipticon' of the grace of God.'" (ibid, pg.444)
Luther
The truth of the Gospel is this, that our righteousness comes by farth alone, wrthout the worths of
the Law. The falsification or corruption of the Gospel is this, that we are justified by farth but not
wrthout the works of the Law. The false apostles preached the Gospel, but they did so vi/rth this
condrtion attached to rt. The scholastics do the same thing in our day. They say that w e must
believe in Christ and that farth is the foundation of salvation, but they say that this farth does not
justify unless rt is "formed by love." This is not the truth of the Gospel; rt is falsehood and
pretense. The tme Gospel, however, is this: Worics or love are not the ornament or perfection of
farth; but farth rtself is a gift of God, a wori< of God in our hearts, which justrties us because rt
takes hold of Christ as the Savior. Human reason has the Law as rts object. It says to rtself:
"This I have done; this I have not done." But farth in its proper function has no other object than
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was put to death for the sins of the worid. It does not look at
its love and say: "What have I done? Where have I sinned? What have I deserved?" Butrtsays:
"What has Christ done? What has He deserved?" And here the truth of the Gospel gives you the
answer: "He has redeemed you from sin, from the devil, and from eternal death." Therefore farth
acknowledges that in this one Person, Jesus Christ, rt has the forgiveness of sins and etemal
life. Whoever diverts his gaze from this object does not have true farth; he has a phantasy and a
vain opinion. He looks away from the promise and at the Law, which terrifies him and drives him
to despair. (Galatians)