Inside Out, or Outside In?

"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."  Thesis 14, C. F. W. Walther.

Quick quiz.  When Jesus died on the cross, whose sins did He take away?  You'll find the answer to this after the first paragraph here, but I encourage you to think about how you would answer that right now before reading on.

One essential question that we face in life is a simple one that is not simple to answer.  What is faith?  In a simple way, faith is merely believing something.  I believe that, when I put my key in the ignition and turn it, my car will start.  I believe that, when I twist my key in the door, the lock with either lock or unlock, depending on how I twist it.  I also believe that the door will stay locked or unlocked once my key is removed.  That is demonstrating faith in both my key and in my lock.

So, looking at the answer to our quiz, it's actually very widespread.  Jesus died and took away the sins of the whole world.  Every person who has ever been conceived in this world has had their sin removed by Jesus, carried to the cross, and crucified with Him.  The removal of our sin (which separated us from God) is completely outside of us.  We contribute in no way to the removal of our sin.

In that way, the removal of our sin is similar to my door lock example, though not exactly.  A better illustration might be that my wife uses her key to lock the door.  I have done nothing to make it happen, but I believe that the door is locked and will remain locked.  In a similar way, Jesus died and removed my sin.  I have done nothing.  I have not given it to Him.  I have not demanded that He take it.  I have not put it on Him myself.  Jesus did the whole work.

That's where this thesis enters in.  Jesus did the whole work.  My belief that Jesus did the work in no way means that I am now contributing to the work.  It's kind of like what yesterday's post was about.  I cannot make myself believe, and in that same way, my belief does not mean that I am now contributing to God's work in Jesus.  The work is fully Jesus' work.  I simply believe that He did it for me.

When we start talking about faith, it becomes tempting to make faith about something we do.  We tell others to believe, rather than simply sharing what they should believe in with them.  We talk of strengthening our faith, but our faith is strengthened the more we dive into God's Word and see just how deep a hole Jesus rescued us from.  We believe more firmly as we hear God's promises more firmly, not by simply telling ourselves to believe more.

In the end, faith is merely the thing that receives the message of Good News.  It doesn't grab it for itself.  It doesn't figure out the Good News.  It simply hears the Good News and says, "Yes, this is Good News for me."

Just do it.

"In the ninth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when one makes an appeal to believe in a manner as if a person could make himself believe, or at least help toward that end, instead of preaching faith into a person's heart by laying the Gospel promises before him."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 13.

"Just believe."  A person has a question about some matter of the faith.  Not so much a life or death matter, but one in which that person simply cannot see God's hand at work.  That person shares their concern with another Christian who, desiring to help, gives that advice.  "Just believe."  This could apply to many situations, and indeed, I have seen and heard it applied in a variety of situations.  But, as our thesis above indicates, perhaps we should think through what such a statement says.

"Just believe."  If belief were really that simple, it sure would be nice.  The problem is, we simply cannot make ourselves believe something.  If I tell you that the grass is blue and the sky is green, you cannot make yourself believe that.  Yes, part of that is because your eyes quickly reveal that this isn't the truth.  However, this simple exercise shows us something of belief.

Belief comes, not by us convincing ourselves of the truth of something, but when the truth of something is presented to us.  (As an aside, yes, we can choose not to believe it, even if it is very clear, which many people do in a lot of areas of life.)  That's what this thesis makes clear.  We cannot make ourselves believe, otherwise our faith is only in ourselves, and in our ability to convince ourselves of something. 

Belief in God, and especially in God's Gospel message of Jesus, comes when we lay the promises of God in the Gospel before the other person. Let's take our (not so) imaginary situation, and see what that would look like.  So, the person approaches you, let's say, because they are struggling to believe that God is caring for them during a particularly difficult time in life.  Instead of telling them to "just believe,", what if we instead first empathized with them.  "Yes, I can see where that could cause you to wonder about God's care for you."  Then, what if we reminded them, not of the importance of their faith, but instead, the One in whom they put their faith.  "God never promised that life would be easy.  But, He did promise that He would remain with us, even in the difficult times.  That's what Jesus really is all about.  Jesus would endure the worst, so that you could also know that God stays with you through the worst.  While God may not make the situation better. He does promise that this will pass, and that He still cares and has the situation in His hand.  He had Jesus' hands nailed to the cross to show you the distances He would go to make you His, and He put His Spirit in you at your baptism as a deposit, and He will make good on that deposit."

You see, instead of telling someone to just believe, we instead point them to the one that has done great things for them.  It's the difference between a person believing in themselves and believing in God in Christ Jesus.  And that, in the end, is a world of difference.

Do you feel sorry? Do you? Do you really???

"In the eighth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the preacher represents contrition alongside of faith as a cause of the forgiveness of sin."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 12.

The role of repentance is one that quite often gets misplaced when it comes to the hope we have in Jesus.  Sure, we are quick to say that all you have to do is to believe that Jesus died for your sins, but we are also quick to add, but you also have to feel sorrow for the sin you have and change what you are doing.  At its worst, this comes across as though a person has to change their behavior to be in line with God's commands before they can be saved by Jesus' death and resurrection. 

Make no mistake about it.  God wants people to feel sorrow over their sin.  He wants them to realize their sins and faults, and to heartily want to change, whether that sin is adultery, murder, idolatry, lying, pridefulness, or self-reliance.  No matter how big or how small, God wants people to feel sorrow for that, since it separates them from the just, yet compassionate God.

However, there are times where that sorrow needs to be given space to be realized.  In God's way, it really is about realizing that God has rescued us from our sin in Jesus' death and resurrection.  While we may hope and pray for an outward change, the biggest thing is the state of the beliefs of the person.  If they cling to God's word in Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection for them, they are rescued, even should they not immediately express godly sorrow over their sin.

That's where one significant part of the word repentance comes into play.  One part of repentance is realizing that you are not trusting in God above all things, and in turning to Him for your hope in life.  Another part is the change of life, of behavior, to be in line with God's commands.  The first part of repentance must take place as God turns the heart of the sinful person to Himself in Jesus.  The second part, to be quite frank, is never fully achieved in this life, and therefore, becomes an unrealistic expectation if we try to put it as a condition of being in the state of salvation.

Godly sorrow quite often grows out of our experience with the Gospel.  As we see just how wide and deep the love and compassion of our God is, we start to see just how wide and deep is the quagmire of our sin.  We also realize that there is no way we can ever drain that swamp ourselves.  Only God can rescue us from it, which He has happily done in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

The Difference Between Love and Fear

"In the seventh place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when there is a disposition to offer the comfort of the Gospel only to those who have been made contrite by the Law, not from fear of wrath and punishment of God, but from love of God."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 11.

Many, many years ago, in a little booklet of instruction for the common people of Germany to better know God's message in the Bible, Martin Luther put together the basics of the Christian faith in a question and answer format.  Beginning with the commandments, he put forth an important part of the faith, and then would have questions to better explain what they meant.

In the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods," Luther asked the question, "What does this mean?"  He then answered with a simple phrase.  "We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things."  Those three verbs are interesting choices.  Sure, we understand fear.  When we realize that the God who made everything has a reason to look upon us with wrath and anger, we should be fearful.  And that's where the next word truly stands in opposition to fear.  Love.  We are to love God above all things, which would seem impossible if God were only interested in seeing how closely we matched up to His will and design.  Recognizing our shortcomings, faults, and sins, love would seem to be farthest thing from our thinking.

On occasion, I will hear someone say that, to receive the good news of God in Jesus, you have to love God and not be afraid of Him.  And to some degree, I understand that thinking.  If I only fear my wife and any time that I do something that will upset her, that doesn't speak to a very strong relationship.  Of course, I would much rather do things because I love her, not because I am afraid of her, or fear upsetting her or disappointing her.  Yet, there are times when I will do something that she wants, not so much out of love, but simply because not doing it would seem the worse choice.

You'll notice the key to that previous paragraph, though.  That makes no sense unless I have an active, thriving relationship with my wife.  When I have that active relationship with her, then there are times where I am much more concerned with not disappointing her, or not upsetting her, rather than simply doing things out of a motivation of love.  Yes, it would be ideal if I did everything I do for her out of love, but because of my fallen sinfulness, that simply isn't likely (much less, possible). 

That is where this thesis truly speaks to those who are already in relationship with God.  Sometimes we do things because we fear letting God down, disappointing Him, or upsetting Him.  That's okay when we have a living, active relationship with Him.  Now, it would be far different if someone were not in Christ.  Fear there needs to drive them to a relationship with God, not to be a place of refuge.  They need to know that God still cares and to know the comfort of the Gospel.  That is truly what the message of Good News is to do, to comfort.  We cannot tell them at that point that they don't receive God's good news if they are only afraid of God, and can only receive it if they love God.  Perhaps the thing that they first need to hear is that God loves them, which is a great comfort when they start to get to know Him.

That's why the comfort of the Gospel must go out to those who fear God, or who believe their actions call for God's punishment upon them.  We should not tell them that they will only be received when they love God.  In fact, as we reflected on back in Thesis 8, when they find themselves fearful or terrified, the very thing they need to hear is the Gospel, not that God's good news is theirs when they love God.

What is faith, and what does it do?

"In the sixth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the preacher describes faith in a manner as if the mere inert acceptance of truths, even while a person is living in mortal sins, renders that person righteous in the sight of God and saves him; or as if faith makes a person righteous and saves him for the reason that it produces in him love and reformation of his mode of living."C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 10.

I will admit, this thesis is a rather challenging one to touch on with people.  In a lot of ways, what the thesis says are truly matters of the heart, which are not easily discernable from outward appearances.  Just because you "know" that Jesus died on the cross, and that His death was a sacrifice for sin, does not immediately mean that such knowledge brings salvation.  Instead, it is when the head and heart together grasp this knowledge and cling to it as the firm foundation of life.  It isn't merely head knowledge, but instead happens when head and heart are both turned to Jesus.

That's the same essential thing in the second part of this thesis.  A person may hear of what Jesus did for them, and then may change their maner of life to live like God outlines as the new life in Jesus.  However, that still may or may not reflect what that person is clinging to as the truth that defines their life.  That person may be changing out of reasons other than that God has rescued them in Jesus. 

Thus, the preacher simply cannot make a simple statement such as, "Know that Jesus died for you, and that is enough."  Just knowing that isn't enough.  Yes, the knowledge of what Jesus did is essential, but it is also insufficient by itself.  That is why the preacher has to emphasize belief in what Jesus has done, and that it was done for that person.

By the same token, the preacher cannot say that you have proper faith simply because there has been a change in how you live your life.  People change parts of their lives for many different reasons.  Yes, a change in life to become more caring, compassionate, and loving could be an indication of faith, but could also be brought about for other reasons.  Faith still is what clings to Jesus, and because it is a matter of where someone puts their trust, it is not easily discerned as to its presence or absence.

In case you ever wonder why preachers often spend a decent amount of time on what they preach, these matters are some of the reason.  If I were to simply point someone to knowing what the Bible says, and indicating that such knowledge is sufficient for salvation, I am pointing someone in a wrong direction.  Sure, we preachers can become too fine with our words, but we also take care to make sure our words are not careless, not directing people to the wrong place for their trust.  Anywhere other than Jesus means that the preacher does exactly what this thesis speaks to.

Where do You Turn?

"In the fifth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when sinners who have been struck down and terrified by the Law are directed, not to the Word and the Sacraments, but to their own prayers and wrestlings with God in order that they may win their way into a state of grace; in other words, when they are told to keep on praying and struggling until they feel that God has received them into grace."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 9.

At first glance, this thesis from the first president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) seems fairly obvious.  Once someone realizes that the parts of their life that are contrary to God's Law mean condemnation, they are terrified of what that means, and want to know how to be right with God.  It seems fairly obvious that we would direct them to hear what God says, and to come to the places where God delivers His grace to us human beings.

Yet, it is sad that I have seen the obvious not practiced.  When someone reveals that they are having a troublesome time with some particular sin, one response I have heard quite often is, "Go and pray about it."  Another response that is quick to be said is, "Well, just believe and God will get you through it."  The reason I say that these are sad responses is that they don't turn the person to the places where God says He works, namely in the Word and the Sacraments.  The first turns the person, not to God's Word, but to their prayer life.  That seems to be a rather small point, but in effect, such a statement turns a person to the faithfulness of their prayers and prayer life instead of turning them to God's faithfulness in what He has done and spoken to them.

The second statement does something similar.  It turns a person, not to God and His Word, but to the strength of their faith.  And think about that for a moment.  This is a person who has admited that they are terrified or struggling because they have broken God's Law or are struggling with something that puts them outside of God's design.  Turning them to their own faith is hardly going to help such a situation.  Whose faithfulness is more reliable, ours or God's?  So why would we turn them to their own unreliable faith life?  Why not turn them to the God who says that He is faithful always?

God wants us to know that there are places where we can know for sure that He has promised to be present and active.  Those places are His Word and His Sacraments.  This is why Lutherans in particular are so particular on the Word of God, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.  In these places we are told for use, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God is doing His work and bringing His grace to us.  Sure, there are times when He may choose to work through other means, but we have these with His sure promise.  Why would we direct someone to some other place, then?  Why not direct them to those places where God promises to work and to be present, bringing His grace? 

The Wrong Medicine Kills

"In the fourth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Law is preached to those who are already in terror on account of their sins, or the Gospel to those who live securely in their sins."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 8.

Jesus tells lots of stories.  One of His stories includes two people.  One is a person who is a leader in the religious establishment, who thanks God that he is not like other people, murderers, swindlers, etc, or even the poor tax collector that he also sees in the place of worship.  It seems pretty clear that this man's heart looks at his life and doesn't really see much wrong.  He doesn't see himself as a sinful person who needs God's redeeming, but instead, as someone who is do all right for himself.

The other person in the story is a despised tax collector.  While we know practically no details of this man, it's likely that he knew that he had cheated others for his income, and that he had supported the work of the foreign government who held power of his people.  He couldn't even look up to God, but instead, simply asked God's forgiveness for a poor, miserable sinner like himself.

Quite the contrast with these two.  And quite the challenge for administering the law and the gospel.  It's likely that we would look at the religious leader and not see much in his life for which he would need the law. He would seem a prime candidate to whom to focus a Gospel message.  Yet, as Jesus sees it, that's the wrong thing this man needs.  He needs the reminder that he has wandered far from God, and that any sin, no matter how big or small, separates him from God.  The Gospel has little meaning, as he doesn't see himself as a really sinful person in need of God's redeeming.

We might make the opposite mistake with the tax collector.  Here, we see a man who is knowingly doing things that God has said is wrong.  Our inclination is likely to point out how he is breaking God's law, and calling for him to repent and mend his ways.  Yet, as Jesus sees it, this man's heart has already been crushed by the law.  He instead needs the reminder that he is valued by God, and that God would seek to redeem him.

It's very rare that an outward look at someone's life will show you if they need the Law or the Gospel declared to them.  In fact, I would even go so far as to say that we all have parts of our lives where we need a Law message, and other parts where we need a comforting Gospel message.  In many ways, it's very interesting that God seems most harsh on His people, but when we think about it, it makes sense.  They should know their sin, and they should know what their sin calls for.  They should be the most humble, appreciative people in the world.  And yet, we tend to see that our hearts far too often are like those of the religious leader.

At the same time, we see the many around us who are blatantly living in violation of God's Law, and we want to see a stern Law message delivered to them.  Yet, how often could that stubbornness that we see in them really be hiding the fact that they are broken down, beaten up people who are desperately looking for some reason to have hope.  They may need a Gospel message more than many others.

What it boils down to is relationships.  The better we know a person, the more we know if they need a Law message or a Gospel message.  If we give the wrong one, we either cause a self-righteous person to think even more highly of themselves, or we beat down someone with God's law when they are already beaten down.  The wrong medicine isn't just problematic, it kills.

Who, or What, is on First?

"In the third place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Gospel is preached first and then the Law; sanctification first and then justification; faith first and then repentance; good works first and then grace."  Thesis 7, C. F. W. Walther

Okay, this one seems pretty straight foward, doesn't it?  But perhaps the clarity of this thesis is not as apparent as it may first seem.  When you look at it, it looks like a basic formula for the preacher to follow, right?  Start off with the law and hit them between the eyes, then bring in the good news and bring healing to them. 

Yet, I would dare say that, while the preaching task is something to which this thesis speaks, it speaks much more to the application of the Law and the Gospel into the lives of God's people.  Let me explain this a bit.  If a person thinks that he is a really great guy, and that there is nothing wrong with him, sharing the good news of the Gospel isn't really going to hit home with him, more than likely.  In his eyes, he has nothing wrong, for which God would need to pay a price.  The Gospel has no meaning when he thinks he has done nothing wrong. 

That's when the law has to come first. The law has to first show this man that, despite what he thinks, he is not perfect as God calls him to be.  He has to see that his sin, as small as it may be, still eternally separates him from God.  He needs to see that any imperfection creates a rift between him and God, one that he cannot cross himself.  Only then will the good news of the Gospel bring any kind of meaning to him.

This dynamic presents itself in the rest of the thesis.  You don't start with sanctification and then move to justification. because such a move would sound something like this: here is what you have to do to get your life together, and now that you have your life together, you are acceptable to God.  It places the emphasis back on the work of the person, not of Jesus.  The order of it makes it as though we have to become pleasing to God before He will accept us, rather than that God receives us and then makes us into something pleasing in His sight. 

That's why this thesis is about much more than preaching.  Yet, it also shows us how often we Christians mess up God's Law and Gospel.  How often have we been guilty of telling someone to get their lives straightened out first, and then they can become part of the people of God?  It's like telling the liar, stop lying, and then God will accept you, or telling the homosexual, stop being homosexual, and then God will accept you.  The change follows the time when the Gospel message hits home, which happens after we realize our need for God's good news in the first place.

How Extreme is God?

"In the second place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Law is not preached in its full sternness and the Gospel not in its full sweetness, when, on the contrary, Gospel elements are mingled with the Law and Law elements with the Gospel."  Thesis 6, C. F. W. Walter.

There are times, when we read God's Word, that we are sort of uncomfortable with just how stern God can be.  Whether it be a careless word spoken, a lustful thought, an intention to hurt or harm our neighbor, or even harboring anger against another, God says that the price to pay for each of them is condemnation.  That sternness is something that we have a tough time with.  After all, a little white lie calling for the same result as murder just doesn't seem right.  And yet, that is the price to pay when it comes to breaking God's Law.

By that same token, the word of forgiveness in the Gospel is also one that we sometimes have a tough time with.  God relentlessly pursues the worst of sinners and those whose lives aren't all that sinful.  God wants to pour out His grace on all, and so He says that even the most hardened murderer, the most perverse adulterer, and the biggest thief can all be redeemed simply be believing that Jesus died to restore them to God.  We want to add things to that, to require something of them to "prove" that they are sorry for what they have done.  But God's gracious attitude toward them is something that, at times, also makes us uncomfortable.

God is more extreme than we tend to think, I would say.  He is unbending in what His Law calls for.  Even a single thought contrary to what He desires and designs is worthy of condemnation.  Yet, God is also far more gracious than we could ever imagine.  Simply calling upon His name and asking for forgiveness is enough for God to open the doors to eternity and welcome them home.  God is stern in the extreme when it comes to keeping His Law, and He is inviting in the extreme when it comes to His eternal kingdom.

That's the point here in this thesis.  We can never be as strict as God in His Law, and we can never be as gracious as God in His Gospel.  So, as we seek to communicate both the Law and the Gospel in our proclamation of God and of Jesus, we want to strive to make sure that the Law is heard in its utter strictness, and that the Gospel is heard in its utter sweetness. 

How Do We Mess This Up, Part 1

The first manner of confounding Law and Gospel is one most easily recognized--and the grossest.  It is adopted, for instance, by the Papists, Socinians, and Rationalists and consists in this, that Christ is represented as a new Moses, or Lawgiver, and the Gospel turned into a doctrine of meritorious works, while at the same time those who teach that the Gospel is the message of the free grace of God in Christ are condemned and anathematized, as is done by the papists.  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 5

At this point in our ongoing discussion of these theses, we get to the point where Walther begins to point out the many varied ways that we humans tend to misuse God's Law and Gospel in our application of it.  Now, in this first point of that here, you probably see some names in that thesis and may wonder, who are those people, and what did they do?

The essence of the thesis is this: If you turn what God has done in Jesus into anything other than a message of good news, you have distorted God's law and the gospel.  Jesus came into the world to rescue sinful human beings and to restore them to the Father.  His perfect life was lived so that His perfection could cover us.  He died with our sin to take away our sin.  He rose to new life so that we would have the assurance of new life.  In other words, all that Jesus did was to make us right with God.  To take what He did and to make it somehow into something that we still have to do is just plain turning the good news into another kind of work.

There are many different ways that we can confuse this teaching.  When we say that someone has to "get right with God" before they are part of God's people, we are confusing the law and the gospel.  The gospel message is that Jesus, and Jesus alone, makes them right with God.  A change in their actions or behavior does not get them right with God.  Yes, we hope and pray that, as a redeemed child of God, that repentance would take hold in their heart and bring about change, but that isn't a requirement.  All that is required is to believe that Jesus has redeemed you and made you God's own child.  So if we say that someone has to give up a sinful behavior before being one of God's children, no matter how small or large, we turn the good news into a law, and in doing so, take away from what Jesus has done for us.

The other thing that Walther points out here is that, when someone then says that the true proclamation of the good news isn't what makes us right with God, this is also messing up the teaching of the law and the gospel.  So, for example, if someone were to look at the previous paragraph and say that this is wrong, that the person has to change before they can be a Christian, and that I am wrong in what I wrote, they are also confusing the law and the gospel.  The gospel is simply good news.  The law points out where we fall short, and the gospel tells us what God has done for us.  It really is that simple.  But we humans have this unfortunate tendency to take simple things and make them complicated.  That's why we need to revisit things like this from time to time.

Making it Make Sense

"The true knowledge of the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is not only a glorious light, affording the correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, but without this knowledge Scripture is and remains a sealed book."  C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 4 in "Law and Gospel"

I remember it very vividly.  The young man was leading the student Bible study, and he was looking at one of the stories where Jesus warns against money.  He started off talking about how money was a bad thing, and that God's people should be poor and not have money, as money would inevitably lead people away from God.  I remember the challenge of not embarrasing the young man for a wrongful understanding of what Jesus was really saying, while at the same time wanting to show that there were other things at work with what Jesus was getting at there.

On another occasion, I remember talking with another young man about what Jesus and His crucifixion meant.  This young man was driven by guilt to try to do right in everything that he did.  After all, he reasoned, Jesus paid such a high price for me, and that now meant, in his mind, that he had to do everything right, not so much to repay Jesus, but out of fear that his failure to live right would mean he would be cast away from God.  In other words, the sacrifice of Jesus actually inspired guilt in him, instead of the comfort of knowing that God had paid his price for him in Jesus.

It seems that our human nature, when we engage God's Word, so often is to misunderstand it.  We read something that is intended to be good news, and we take it as a club to bludgeon ourselves or others with it.  Or, we read something that is a strict reminder of just how righteous and holy God is, and when we look at ourselves, we think we aren't doing too badly, and so it really doesn't seem to apply to us.  (For example, how many of us really, really think that we are the chief of sinners, as Paul would write?  We see so many other examples that seem worse than us, and so a word of law actually comforts us, which is the very point of this thesis.)

This is why the previous thesis, the one about rightly applying the Law and the Gospel, is so vital, and why this thesis draws directly from it.  If you make the Law into a comfort, the intent behind it is sealed from you.  If you take the good news and make it something you or others have to do as a requirement, the intent of the good news is sealed from you.  Now, I will say, not a single one of us will nail this every time, which is again why we cling to firmly to God's forgiveness in Jesus.  Yet, as we grow in God's Word, hopefully we start to realize that correctly applying the Law and the Gospel is a much tougher task than what we may have thought, and we see how it is the key to understanding so much of what God has said.

As a final point on this, this is where the role of the Church overall comes in.  On our own, we will quite often misunderstand what God is saying.  But when God's people come together and talk through what God says, God's Spirit quite often guides us to a deeper, and perhaps even better, underestanding of what God is trying to communicate.  My misunderstanding may be corrected as I hear how someone else reads the same passsage, and my knowledge and understanding may help someone else who is misunderstanding.  This in particular is why gathering in study and in worship is so vital for God's people, for there, the iron sharpens iron, one of God's people sharpening another.

WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

"Rightly distinguishing the Law and the Gospel is the most difficult and the highest art of Christians in general and of theologians in particular.  It is taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience."  C. F. W. Walther's Thesis 3

In some respects, figuring out the difference between God's laws and God's good news would not seem to be all that difficult.  When it comes to simply reading what God says in His Word, and then figuring out if the statement is a statement of Law or Gospel, one may not find it too difficult to decide.  When one reads, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," very few of us would shout out, "That's Good News!"

The lecturer C. F. W. Walther would even go so far as to say, in his lectures on this thesis, that the doctrine of the Law and the Gospel is rather easy to learn, so easy that even children can learn it.  It is when it comes to the application and the use of these teachings that they become rather difficult to distinguish.  Perhaps an example best helps to illustrate this.

A young lady within the congregation becomes pregnant.  She, and her family, have been very faithful in learning God's Word and in attending worship and living out their faith.  But now, she and her boyfriend have tried out a few things, and she now discovers that she is pregnant.  What is the proper response of the pastor or the Christian to whom she makes this confession?

Hopefully, right now, you are saying that you don't have enough information to really know what would be proper to say.  That means that you can already see that, to properly know when to speak law or Gospel, one needs to know more about the situation than its simple presentation.  You have to know the person.  You have to know their background.  You have to know what led to the situation. 

Looking at our example, we could see the application of the law or the gospel in a few different ways.  If we knew this girl, and we knew she was starting to rebel against her upbringing and her faith, and we knew that she was intentionally doing things to irritate her parents, we might take one approach, likely that of the law.  However, let's say that she has been a very faithful girl to faith and family, who just happened to be out with her boyfriend one night, and hadn't thought through her "warning signs", who made a mistake, who feels very sorrowful about it, and knows that it is going to impact the rest of her life.  Wouldn't that call for a bit of a different approach?  Perhaps one that still reminds her of God's law, but one that shares good news and forgiveness with her, while at the same time offering support for the difficult journey ahead. 

That is why Walther can say that the application of Law and Gospel is one that is truly learned from the Holy Spirit in the realm of experience.  Rightly knowing if we need to apply law or gospel means we have to know the person.  It means we have to know the situation.  The trouble is, quite often, we humans seek to hide those things that paint us in a negative light, which often means that we are applying law or gospel to a situation without knowing the half of the situation. 

In the end, we realize that only God alone can truly rightly apply Law and Gospel to our lives.  We still are called to speak that word to each other, and to be wise in speaking it.  But we are also called to remember that we will fail in the proper application more often than we get it right, and because of that, we are to cling to the forgiveness of God in Jesus all the more.

Applying the Correct Medicine

"Only he is an orthodox teacher who not only presents all the articles of faith in accordance with Scripture, but also rightly distinguishes from each other the Law and the Gospel."  C. F. W. Walther's Thesis 2.

When you get sick, one of the more important things that a doctor can do is give you the proper medication for what ails you.  If he/she were to give you a treatment plan that didn't match what the problem was, the situation could actually be made worse.  Imagine being told that you were going to need surgery for a cold, or being told that your broken bone would be fine if you took cough syrup.  It would make no sense, and could actually end up doing far more damage.

As we look at this thesis, there are a couple of things at work here.  The first one corresponds with the first phrase, that an orthodox teacher presents all the articles of faith in accordance with the Scriptures.  This is an important point to make.  God speaks many things in His Word.  While different parts of what God says apply to our lives at different times, we still need to hear everything that God teaches us.  From how we have been made, to what God has done for us in redeeming us, to what our interactions are to look like with each other, and the importance of reaching out to those who don't know the good news, God teaches us a lot of different things.  A true teacher of God's Word will make sure to teach on all of these, not leaving any of them out.

However, as yesterday's blog discussed, the whole realm of Scripture finds two major teachings at work, that of God's Law and that of God's Gospel.  This same teacher of God's Word not only strives to teach everything that God teaches in His Word, but strives to do so by rightly figuring out if something is God's command to us, or if it is God's good news to be proclaimed to us.  If he were to speak, say, of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and instead of making it good news, were to make it come across as though you now had to live up to that sacrifice in order to be pleasing to God, he would be failing to distinguish the good news from God's commands. 

We will touch on these things much more in this series.  These various theses will hone us in on how exactly we do this, why it is important, and what all is at stake as we apply the Law/Gospel dynamic to God's Word.  So keep reading and commenting as we think through these matters.

Your Bible is Full of This

"The doctrinal contents of the entire Holy Scriptures, both of the Old and the New Testament, are made up of two doctrines differing fundamentally from each other, viz., the Law and the Gospel."  Thesis 1 of C. F. W. Walther's, Law and Gospel.

Sometimes God seems mean, angry, and vindictive.  Yet, at other times, God seems deeply caring, compassionate, and merciful.  Why is this?  Well, to some degree, that is explained by the thesis I listed above.  God created the world and human beings to live and operate in specific ways.  That design was broken very early on, and that brokenness now fills everything in creation.  God's Law was broken, and that means that all people now live outside of God's will and design.  In other words, even at our best, we are still lawbreakers, and God takes His law so seriously that such a state puts us under His fury and wrath.

On the other hand, we see that God truly cares deeply for His creation, and especially for us human beings, created in His image as we are.  He wants us to be right with Him.  He wants us to know how deep is His care and devotion for us, that He would even surrender up His own Son to rescue us from the pit of our own devising.  He searches far and wide, calling out to us, restoring us, and giving us hope of renewal.  In other words, even at our worst, God still wants to rescue us and redeem us, no matter how far we may have fallen.

We see God's law at work in many ways throughout the Bible.  God tells us what our lives are to look like as His people.  He tells us what He expects, what He looks for, and what is pleasing in His sight.  He tells us how He created things to operate, and how our relationships with each other are to look.  All of these fall under His Law.

We also see God's great care at work throughout the Bible.  He looks for the lost sheep.  He cares for the poor and the sojourner.  For those who have wandered, He cries out, calling them to return.  It doesn't matter how far away they are, or how slight their missteps are, He wants them to hear Him and return to Him.  He even goes so far as to take the necessary action to make sure they can return to Him for good. 

When you read through your Bible, you will see elements of one or the other of these on pretty much every single page, whether it is history, teaching, songs, or laments.  These two teachings, the law and the gospel, fill the pages of the Bible.  Now, what that means for us is something we will continue to ponder in future posts.

A very Lutheran Thing: The Law and the Gospel

My apologies to those of you who have missed my postings on here.  While I could offer up the excuse of much going on, that is all it would be: an excuse.  However, I want to pick this back up, and over the coming days and weeks, I will be doing a series of posts on something that is often seen as very Lutheran: the distinction of God's Law and the good news of God's Gospel.

Before I begin, though, I should probably start off with an explanation of what these two things really are.  Defining terms is a vitally important thing, especially as our language tends to rub the rough edges off of the meanings of words.  When we say a word, there is a reason that there are different words that say roughly the same thing.  In our day and age, much of those distinctions seem to be lost from time to time.

So, to start off, what is God's Law?  Well, there are various ways of answering that question, and I won't pretend to be the final authority on it.  Some would see it as everything that God says in such places as the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses.  Often in the Scriptures, that is what is spoken of when God's Law is mentioned.  However, looking through those five books, we see different types of law.  Some are moral, some are ceremonial, and some deal with the life of God's people, the Israelites, in how they were to interact as a society.  Three different applications, yet one word, law, used to represent them all.

For my purposes here, we will be using the word Law to mean the way that God designed His people to live, and thus, find that represented best in the moral law, which God spoke and expanded upon in the Ten Commandments.  So, while God may mention in the Old Testament that the eating of shellfish and pigs are not according to His law, those are more for His people of that time.  They are not moral law.  What we see in the commandments, and the different ways that God expands upon that, are what the focus of the word "law" is, as I will be using it.

Likewise, the Gospel, in its truest translation, is the good news.  It is the announcement of God's gracious interactions toward His people, especially in Jesus' work of His perfect life, His sacrificial and substitutionary death, and His victorious rising to new life, and now giving that new life to us through the announcement of His good news to the people of the world.  Like the word law, you can find other elements than this at work in the whole of the Bible, but for our purposes, this paragraph explains how I will be using the word.

There you have it.  The Law and the Gospel.  Last point for today.  The things I will be writing about over the next few weeks will be drawn from a book entitled "Law and Gospel", taken from lectures given by the first president of my particular church body well over a century and half ago, a man by the name of C. F. W. Walther.  I will take time to examine the various theses that he lectured on, hoping that these strike you in profound ways as we consider God's good news to us in Jesus.