Of Faith and Love: A Meditation on 1st John 3

Of the many disputed points during the Reformation era, the relationship between Faith and Love were among the greatest.  While Lutheran Reformers were resolute in emphasizing Faith which clings to Christ and receives salvation by His Grace, the Roman apologists were immovable in their emphasis that Faith must be coupled with Love for it to be saving at all.  While Lutherans sounded the trumpet of Faith Alone, the Romans sounded back that Faith without works of Love is dead.  Since this is the week in which we celebrate the anniversary of the Reformation, it seems appropriate that we enter into this discussion once again… and with the light of St. John’s first epistle to guide us, perhaps we can find ourselves at a more charitable conclusion.

I will make no effort to hide my love for this epistle, or for the whole of St. John’s writings.  I find his Gospel is the most magnificent theological treatise ever written, and his letters drive home his theology, received from Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The Apocalypse given to him by Jesus Christ during his exile on Patmos is the culmination of his heavenly teaching, and the capstone to the entire Christian canon.  St. John the Evangelist, the great theologian who rested his head upon Christ’s breast at the Last Supper, and who was the last of the Apostles to enter in heavenly rest, has much to teach the Church in every age.  We are wise to listen, for as he opens his first epistle, he tells us plainly that his Apostolic witness has the goal of giving us fellowship with him, whose fellowship is truly with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

By the time we reach the third chapter of St. John’s first epistle, we have been immersed in his poetic Hebrew style of parallelism, and either / or dichotomies.  To be in the Light of God, is to be in the Light of Christ; in Christ there is no darkness at all, but the world is awash in wickedness; those who are of God, imitate Christ, while those who are of the world, imitate the world.  St. John minces no words, when he tells his readers, that if someone claims to love God and hates his neighbor, he is a liar, and the love and life of God do not abide in him.  Consider the short summation St. John offers in 3:7-10:

Little children, let no man

deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even

as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the

devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this

purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might

destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of

God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and

he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the

children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:

whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he

that loveth not his brother.

It would seem that the Romans were right, and in a certain way, they are.  We cannot discard the clear teaching of St. John, that by the works of people, the Children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.  It is an eternal truth, that we shall know people by the fruits or works they produce, just like we know a tree by the fruit it produces.  Jesus taught this principle to St. John, and St. John faithfully passes that teaching on to us.

And what are the commandments that St. John tells us must be kept, that we might be known as the Children of God?  He presents this clearly in 3:23:-24:

And this is his commandment,

That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,

and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him,

and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us,

by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Here is where St. John helps to settle the hash of the Reformation debaters.  What is the first commandment?  To believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the same command that Jesus speaks of in the 8^th chapter of John’s Gospel, where His true disciples are those who hear His Word, believe it, trust it, keep it, and live by it.  The first commandment that John records, that Jesus taught, and that the Law given on Mt. Sinai present, are all the same—it is the command to fear, love, and trust God above all things, having no other god before Him.  This love of God that hears and believes Him, trusts Him for salvation in Jesus Christ, and overcomes the world, is a work that God begins and sustains in us.  St. John makes this clear in 4:7-11.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;

and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us,

because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,

that we might live through him. Herein is love, not

that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to

be] the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so

loved us, we ought also to love one another.

The life of love we have, is born of God—born from above by Water and Spirit.  That we love God, believe Him, trust Him, and live in Him, is a work He accomplishes for us through the power of His Word coming to us, and raising us from the death of our trespasses and sins.  This faith, which God gives to us through His Word, rests in His Word, and trusts His Word above all things.  Such faith is life eternal, receiving all things from the pierced hands of Christ, who poured out His Divine Love upon us.  It is not we who approach God, seeking to love Him and keep His commandments, thereby earning our salvation; but rather it is God who approaches us in the Person of His Son, seeking and saving lost and condemned sinners like you and me.

And from a faith born from the Love of God in Christ Jesus, what else can emerge but the love of God and neighbor?  How can faith born of Jesus Christ, who gave His life as the ransom for the whole world, bring forth anything but love and compassion for our neighbors?  Indeed, it cannot—for this good Vine produces only good fruit, because in Jesus there is no darkness, no hatred, no lying, no evil at all.  If we live in Him by faith, then His Love becomes our love, and His fruits of righteousness become our fruits of righteousness.

But as St. Paul will write in his epistle to the Romans, where then in our boasting?  It is excluded.  Christ is all in all.  He is the one who seeks and saves the lost; His Love is what brings us forth from the death of unbelief to the eternal life of faith; His grace poured out through His Cross is forgiveness, life, and salvation; His Works of Love become our works of love, and if we live in Him, His Life is our life.

The resolution of the Lutheran and Roman controversy, is entirely here in the words of St. John.  Faith alone can receive from God the love and grace and mercy to be called His sons and daughters, through the Gospel of His Only Begotten Son.  But such faith and love of God, since it is born of God and lives in God, cannot ever be without love of God and neighbor.  No one can claim to have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, who abides in hatred of his neighbor, because the love of God in Jesus Christ suffers all things for the salvation of every man, woman, and child who will ever live on this earth.  The love of God creates faith in us, which in turn produces love toward God and neighbor.  Indeed it is faith alone which receives the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus, but such saving faith is never alone—it is always proceeding forth from our Savior who gave it freely to us by His Word, and proceeding through us to our neighbor who needs our works of compassion and mercy.

And so what are we to do, when we find ourselves full of wrath, envy, malice, and hatred of our neighbor?  We are called to repent, for saving faith does not abide with mortal sin.  We hear the Word of Christ, which calls us to leave our wickedness behind, and live in His love by grace through faith, which will work itself out in fruits of love and mercy and grace toward our neighbors.  Here the Christian lives in the tension between St. John’s first chapter, in which we confess our sins, and God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness; and his concluding verses in chapter five, especially verses 4-13:

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh

the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world,

[even] our faith. Who is he that overcometh the

world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

…

 These things have I

written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of

God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye

may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Amen.

Remaining in Christ’s Word: Meditations on John 8

One of the Gospel readings for this Sunday, the 27^th of October, highlights a common refrain from the Reformation era of the western Church:  to remain in the Word of Christ, is to be a disciple of Christ.  The Lutheran stream of the Reformation was absolutely obsessed with this concept, and used it to establish one of the fundamental Solas that so many Reformation Churches cling to.  From whence do we learn that Jesus in the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him?  From whence do we learn that no man shall be justified by the Law, but rather only by grace through faith in Jesus’ vicarious atonement for the sins of the whole world?  We learn these things from Holy Scripture, which St. Paul tells Timothy (and us, as well,) are breathed out by God.  Jesus, the eternally begotten Son of God, who is the Word of God made flesh, is also the Author of Holy Scripture together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Scriptures as they are written, are reflections of the Eternal Word of God who is Jesus Christ.  The fundamental reality is that the Word of God is a Person, who is God Himself.  There is no division between Jesus and His Word.

And so, it makes a bit more sense, when Jesus tells not only His disciples but all the gathered crowds, including the disbelieving Pharisees, that the only way to be His disciple is to remain in His Word.  For all the fuzzy philosophy and theology of countless ages, this piercing truth cuts to the quick of human life.  We can pretend all we want that Scripture is old, or outdated, or quaint; we can puff ourselves up on our modern pride that we know better than the Prophets and Apostles of antiquity; we can delude ourselves that our forms of politics, economics, science and medicine are our new saviors; we can even dream that man alone is the measure of all things.  But alas, for all the dreams and delusions we foist upon ourselves and the world, Jesus speaks clearly—if you belong to Him, you will abide in His Word.  Anything less than hearing, keeping, guarding, believing, trusting, and abiding in His Word, is to not belong to Him.  To abide in Jesus’ Word is to abide in Jesus Himself—a clear indication of what Holy Baptism accomplishes by grafting us into His death and life, how The Supper feeds us on His very Body and Blood in the bread and the wine, and how the words of Holy Absolution renew us after we have fallen to temptation and sin.

But if Jesus’ teaching is so clear, concise, and simple, why do so many people live outside His saving Word?  Why has society at large, and so many theologians within the visible Church, thrown His Word aside and chosen to live apart from it?  Jesus answers this question as well, in the very same chapter.  The reason people cannot hear or abide in Jesus’ Word, is because they refuse—they are children of their father the devil, and the lusts of their father they will do.  Why does the world ignore Jesus’ Word?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  Why do theologians and pastors abandon the Word of Christ?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  Why do people in the Church abandon Jesus’ Word for every new bloviating heretic they can find?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  And Jesus makes it clear, that those who sin are slaves to sin, children of the devil, and children of wrath.  Outside of Jesus there is nothing to save anyone from the devil who prowls about the world, seeking any he may devour.  Outside of Jesus, there is nothing to rescue the world from the slavery of our evil foe.  Outside of Jesus, all of man’s powers have been bent to worship and serve their father of lies, who was a murderer from the beginning.  Why do people abandon the Word of Christ?  Because they are of their father the devil, and the wickedness of their father they will do.

For this Sunday, when we remember the high calling of the Reformation to return to the Word of Christ that we might truly be His disciples, we ought to remember that this call is not just for Lutherans, or Methodists, or Baptists, or Romans—it is the call of Christ to all who would belong to Him.  The Word of God made flesh, whose Word the Holy Scriptures are, calls us to hear Him, to believe and trust Him by faith, to repent of our evil, to be absolved by His grace, and to rise up in a newness of life ever more conformed to His Image through the Spirit that works through His Word.  The call of the Reformation to hear the Word of God and keep it, is not an innovation of the 16^th century, but the constant call of faithful confessors of the Church throughout her whole history, rooted in the call of Jesus Himself.

And to you this day, Jesus’ call comes.  Be His disciple.  Hear His Word.  Abide in Him by His Word, that His Word—His Life—may abide in you.  For if you abide in His Word, born from above by Water and Spirit, you shall know the Truth who is Jesus Christ our Savior, and He shall set you free from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  For by His grace you have been saved through faith, and not by your works, lest anyone should boast, and take for themselves the glory of the Only Begotten Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world.  He, and He alone, is the Truth that sets you free.  Hear Him.  Believe, and live.  Amen.

Wrestling with God: Meditations on Genesis 32

There are few sections of Scripture so enigmatic as the story of Jacob wrestling with God.  This is fostered, I think, by the vagueness of the language used, and exacerbated by how preposterous the idea sounds right out of the gate.  Here’s the section, from verses 24-30 (KJV):

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a

man with him until the breaking of the day. And

when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched

the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was

out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said,

Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let

thee go, except thou bless me.  And he said unto

him, What [is] thy name? And he said, Jacob.  And

he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:

for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and

hast prevailed.  And Jacob asked [him,] and said,

Tell [me,] I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore

[is] it [that] thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed

him there.  And Jacob called the name of the place

Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Note that at first, the text relates that a “man” wrestled with Jacob throughout the night, while he was alone.  And as the day began to break, and this “man” did not prevail against Jacob, the “man” touched his thigh and put it out of joint.  Jacob, however, refusing to release the “man” until he would bless him, receives a blessing from this wrestling partner that changed his name to Israel—and noted his place before God and men.  However, when Jacob asked the name of this “man,” he is rebuked, as the visitor leaves him.  Lastly, Jacob names the place where this occurs, according to what just happened to him—that he has seen God face to face, and yet his life is preserved.

This strange event begins to gain focus, in the context of the story.  Jacob has returned after having lived abroad for many years, to meet his brother from whom he has taken the birthright.  Esau was once intent on killing Jacob for having stolen the blessing of the eldest son, and now Jacob is coming home.  Jacob has already sent many gifts in procession to meet his brother, and just in case Esau’s vengeful intentions remained, he separated his camp into two, so that some of them may survive.  It is in this night before he meets his estranged brother, that this great wrestling occurs.  In the midst of Jacob’s terrors of conscience, he finds himself striving with God—but God in the form of a man, which seems a clear indication that the pre-incarnate Jesus is the one whom Jacob sees face to face, and lives.

Given the context, the story begins to seem more relatable to us, even in the modern day.  Who among us has not had a night of terror, in which our conscience, and the fear of just retribution for our wickedness, has left us broken and weak?  Who has never wrestled with their conscience, knowing that they deserved judgment and suffering at the hands of those we have harmed, or those whom we should have helped, but did not?  Such nights leave us wasted and spent, particularly if they come at a time in our lives when the sins of many years are heaped up in a single moment, and we can see our judgment just over the horizon, like Jacob could envision Esau coming at the break of day.

But in reality, with whom are we wresting, when we are confounded in our sins?  There is only one judge of both the living and the dead, and that is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, begotten by His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light..  He tells us that all authority in heaven and earth have been given to Him, and that upon that Last Day, He will beckon some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting damnation.  While it may be tempting for modern man to see Jesus as just a squishy snuggle toy that we whip out to make people feel better about themselves, the reality is that in Jesus Christ the whole of the Law and the entirety of the Gospel are reconciled.  In Jesus alone is the condemnation of our sin, as it was His finger that wrote upon the stone tablets the Ten Commandments given to Moses.  Upon Jesus alone were laid our sins, from the foundation of the world until its final day, so that in Him alone might be found grace, mercy, forgiveness and life.

And so it is, that Jacob becomes a Patriarch to all the household of faith.  Just as Jacob wrestles with Jesus in the terrors of his conscience, in sight of the judgment he knows he deserves, so we wrestle with Jesus in light of the Law that shows us our sins and the just recompense due to all workers of iniquity.  But also like Jacob, we cling to Jesus, knowing that in Him alone is life, forgiveness, mercy, and redemption—in Jesus alone, through the finished work of His Cross, do we receive the blessing of grace by faith, rather than the fires of judgment in unbelief.  And like Jacob, this wrestling comes at a cost, leaving us limping and scared from the severity of our repentance, turning from a life of evil and wickedness, and limping into a new life of holiness, self-denial, and love of God and neighbor.  In Jacob our Patriarch, we see the life of the Christian writ large, before the giving of the Law at Sinai, or the anointing of David as King of Israel, or the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah, or the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil.  In Jacob we see Law and Gospel, faith and repentance, leading to mercy and life in Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, now and forever.  Amen.

Church Membership: Meditations on Ruth 1

I have often opined, that our day and circumstances are more akin to those of the Old Testament period of the Judges, than they are to any other time period in Scripture.  Much like the time of the Judges, everyone seems to do “whatever seems right in his own eyes.”  Like the time of the Judges, there is no king amidst the people of God in our day—and while we may have rid ourselves as Lutherans of a tyrannical pope through the crucible of the Reformation, we’ve ended up fulfilling a dark Roman prophecy that we’d end up with a million individual, little personal popes.  In severing our relationship to the Bishop of Rome as head or king of the western Church, we’ve ended up with a free-for-all in western Christendom, where camps of similar minded folks band together, with greater unity only found under the greatest of persecutions… just like the time of the Judges.  Sadly, in many Lutheran churches, where we once put the Word of God at the head of the Church (ostensibly, so that we might have no other King than Jesus Christ, whose Word the Scriptures are,) the Scriptures are left in a tidy stack, disregarded as relics of a past no longer relevant to our day.  Across the western Christian landscape, everyone does whatever seems right in their own eyes—with sometimes greater, and sometimes lesser agreement with God’s Eternal Word.

This has, I think, given birth to a modern blight upon the western Church, called the “seeker sensitive” movement.  This particular movement attempts to transform the Church into a socially relevant institution that can be sold to the “seekers” out there in the secular culture.  It assumes some very poor theology, not least of which that the world is actually seeking after God, when Holy Scripture is clear that no one is righteous, no one seeks after God on their own.  Together, the whole human race has become unprofitable and accursed, turned its back on God, and run full steam toward perdition.  This new movement, however, desperately attempts to mimic cultural norms, in order to get them in the door, and then hope the Word will stick.  It’s a well documented bait and switch technique that doesn’t work out in the long run—either the church has to remain mostly secular to keep the “seekers” they lured in, or they have to hit these “seekers” with the Cross of Christ that is still just as big a scandal to them as it was before they came in the door.

For the “seeker sensitive” movement, Naomi’s conversation with Ruth is a nightmare scenario.  Not only does Naomi refuse to accommodate the pagan culture of her area, but she tells her daughters in law to stay with their pagan families and their pagan gods, while she goes back to Israel.  She didn’t try to make a sale, or just get the girls to follow along in hope the Word might stick later when they arrived in Israel.  No bait and switch, or bait and bait, as is the case in many modern western churches.  No trying to copy the local pagan music or dancing, no dumbing down the Name of God to a common vocabulary that might accommodate the pagan god language, and certainly no chasing them down with “programs” and “initiatives.”  Far from pursuing her daughters in law, she actually repels them with the hard realities of what following her (and following the One True God) will cost them.  In the end, she watches the one daughter go back to her pagan family, and against all her warnings, receives Ruth to continue with her.

Imagine your next new member or Confirmation class run this way.  First, you tell them about our Triune God, His Law, and His Gospel.  Then you explain the extent of the costs:  death to yourself, all your pagan passions and desires, and a new life in Christ that lives entirely for others, conformed to Jesus’ image.  Then, you invite them to leave… to return to their pagan families and friends, because they would be much happier there, able to live out their meager lives in harmony with the perverted and wicked desires of their hearts.  When they protest, spell out the consequences once again, and in greater detail—tell them that they can’t pick the church’s music, liturgy, or programs; that they can’t shape the church to meet their “felt needs,” or reflect their personal opinions; tell them they would always be beggars at the Throne of Grace, never deserving of anything good from the Lord, and that all their self-important good works mean nothing in the shadow of the Cross.  Then, give them a chance to peaceably leave, and choose with full knowledge their path, be it back into the bosom of their comfortable paganism, or into the arms of the crucified Jesus who hands to them a cross of their own.

Such a pattern of Christian instruction and membership in the local congregation, was actually the norm for hundreds of years after the time of the Apostles.  The persecuted Church did not build programs to pursue the culture, shaping the church into their image, but rather they preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ, and called the world to be conformed to Him.  When people came to learn of Jesus, the teachers didn’t pull any punches—they were taught, that discipleship meant death to self, and would likely result in a physical death, devoured by animals, burned at the stake, tortured and chopped up in pieces, boiled in oil, and so forth.  And against all human reason, and all marketing and sales strategy, the Church grew exponentially.  This is because the Church of Christ doesn’t grow based on human efforts, but rather by the work of the Holy Spirit—the work of God Himself.

And there’s the rub we should remember.  We do not grow the Church, anymore than we started it, or sustain it.  We can’t save the Church.  The Church is the very Bride of Christ, created, sustained, and grown by Him and His Word.  It is Jesus who converted Ruth, and it is Jesus who will convert all those who will believe in Him through His Word.  And for those whom He calls, justifies, sanctifies, and gives new life, there will be no peril on earth that will separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ.  There will be no beast, no fire, no persecution that will take that life away from them.  There will be no issues of “worship format” or “music preference” that will drive them to divide the Body of Christ, or divide themselves from the Vine who is their forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.

And so my question for the Church today, is what kind of disciples do we think we’re creating with all our compromising human programs and initiatives?  In reality, we don’t create a single disciple.  Only God creates—resurrects—sinners into living disciples of Christ, born from above by Water and the Word, nourished on His Body and Blood, healed by the pronouncement of His Holy Absolution, guided and enlivened by His Law and His Gospel.  If we wonder why the Church seems bloated with half-hearted Christians who are so easily separated from Christ and His Word by all their pagan proclivities, I suggest a new round of comprehensive catechesis.  Let’s let Naomi and the early Church inform our discipleship in the modern Church.  My wager is that the numbers of the visible Church will decline sharply, as some take the honest path of Orpah back to the comforts of their pagan lives, and those with hearts converted by the Holy Spirit in His Word, remain steadfast with Christ as did Ruth.  May we be ready to believe the Word once again, and see the Holy Spirit at work, rather than our filthy rags.  Amen.