When Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do people say that I am?," the disciples gave various answers that they'd heard bandied about. What do you think people's response is to that question today? Who do people say that Jesus is? You might hear answers like a wise man, a good person, a powerful preacher, a skilled teacher, a 1st century Jewish Rabbi, an historical figure. All of these are true of course, but these answers miss the mark. Others might say Jesus is a myth or fairy tale. The Jehovah's Witnesses would say that Jesus is "a god" but not the same as god as the Father. For them, Jesus is a created being. Mormons might say that Jesus is the brother of Lucifer who we know as the devil! Even some lifelong Christians from other churches don't understand the divinity of Jesus.
On Trinity Sunday we read the Athanasian Creed in our service. The focus of the Sunday is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, but the Athanasian Creed also hammers home the point that Jesus is truly God. "We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man." Or as we say in the Nicene Creed, Jesus is "of one substance with the Father." So we Christians can answer the question "Who is Jesus?" by responding that Jesus is the Son of God, truly God and truly man, our Savior. Why does this matter? Sound doctrine isn't important just so we can be right. What we believe actually matters. What if Jesus weren't truly man? Well then, He wouldn't be one of us would he? He would have been a faker, an imposter. He wouldn't have experienced the temptation, the anguish, the sadness, and pain that we feel. In speaking of Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb 4:15). What if Jesus weren't truly God? Well for one, that would make Him a liar since He repeatedly applied God's name to Himself (For example, in last Sunday's Gospel reading from John 8:58), and told the people that He and God the Father are one. And what of Christ's sacrificial death? A mere human's blood cannot cleanse the sin of another. But Jesus died as the God-man, the perfect, spotless, unblemished lamb of God. God the Son died on the cross, and God's blood does cleanse us from all sin. "In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7). Thanks be to God for our Savior, true God and true man.
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As Lutherans, we are taught the difference between Law and Gospel. The Law consists of God's commands to us. The Law keeps society in order, it shows us our sin, and acts as a guide for how we should behave as Christians. The Law is about what we do. The Gospel, on the other hand, shows us our Savior, Jesus, and proclaims that He has died for our sins giving us salvation as a free gift. The Gospel is about what God does for us. All well and good, but how does knowing that help us in our daily lives?
First, consider what Satan would have you think about yourself and your actions. Satan wants you to look at your past, all the rotten things you've done, the mistakes you've made, the hurt that you've caused other people, and wants you to think on those things through the lens of the Law. It's like Satan wants to say, "Look at all those terrible things you've done. You've certainly made a mess. How could God love you considering what you've done. You're not much of a Christian." But the devil also wants you to look to the future through the lens of a distorted Gospel. It's as if he wants to say, "Go ahead and do whatever you want. God will forgive you anyway!" Regarding your future thoughts, words, and deeds, the devil doesn't want you to consider the 10 commandments. The devil is a liar and is twisting God's word. This the opposite of how God wants us to understand Law and Gospel. The Lord wants us to look at our past through the lens of the Gospel. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” says God in Jeremiah 31. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 103, "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." "I forgive you all of your sins," says God to you through the pastor on Sunday morning during the Divine Service. Or as we pray in Luther's evening prayer, "I pray that you would forgive all of my sins where I have done wrong." Furthermore, God wants you to look to the future, those things which you will choose to do and not do through the eyes of His good and gracious Law. His desire is that we fear, love, and trust in Him alone, and would treat each other according to the 10 commandments. That's what we pray for in Luther's morning prayer, "... I pray that you would keep me this day from sin and every evil that all my doings and life may please you. ..." Luther also advises that you go to work "singing a hymn, like that of the 10 commandments." Beginning the day with prayer, hymns, and God's Word prepares us to live that day as one of God's chosen people. Thus, the title of this article; look ahead to your day with God's law in mind, and look back on your day trusting in the Lord's forgiveness as proclaimed in the Gospel. If you're not in the habit of praying Luther's morning and evening prayers I encourage you to try it. They can be found in the hymnal on page 327, or find them here: Luther's morning and evening prayer We're going to learn a little Latin today. The phrase I want to consider is extra nos. It simply means "outside ourselves." Something that is extra nos comes not from inside of us but from outside of us. Lutherans understand salvation to be extra nos, from the outside. We cannot by our own efforts generate faith in God. We cannot by our own efforts please God or draw closer to Him. No, he must come to us. Salvation from sin and death comes from God via Jesus' death on the cross and glorious resurrection. Likewise, faith to believe those promises comes to us from God. Baptism is something God does to us. It is extra nos. The Lord's Supper comes to us from the altar prepared by God through the pastor speaking the promises of Jesus. It is extra nos. As Luther puts it in the Small Catechism, "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel..." The Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, comes from outside of us to dwell in us. God repeatedly pours out His Holy Spirit upon us through His word and the Sacraments. All of these things come from outside of us.
This extra nos of the Gospel should be a great comfort to us as Christians. Why? Think about those times when you don't feel particularly good about yourself, about your sin, or maybe just about your circumstances in life. How often are we like the father of the demon possessed boy who cried out to Jesus, "I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Such difficult times can cause us to become despondent, to doubt God's care for us, or to rattle our faith in Him. If during such times we look inside of ourselves we will likely be disappointed in what we see. But God's grace and goodness comes from outside, extra nos. God the Son shed His blood on the cross to die for our sins, and the Holy Spirit delivers that forgiveness to us in God's Word, in your baptism, and in the Lord's Supper. All of those things come from outside of you. Therefore, you don't need to doubt them, since they are not from you but from God. God's word is unchanging and reliable, unlike our own words or the words of other people. Thanks be to God that He saves us extra nos. More from the internet on extra nos: - "Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know" https://www.whatdoesthismean.org/top-5--bob-hiller/top-five-latin-phrases-every-lutheran-should-know - Another article "Extra Nos (Outside Ourselves)" https://www.1517.org/articles/extra-nos-outside-ourselves - If you're into rap music :) , Lutheran artist Flame has an album out actually titled "Extra Nos". You can find it various places. The lyrics are available here: https://clearsightmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/Extra-Nos-Lyrics.pdf Consider the question "What is a Lutheran?" Here are three wrong answers. Lutherans worship Martin Luther. (No, we worship the Triune God.) Lutherans follow and believe every word that Martin Luther ever said or wrote. (No, we believe certain writings are correct because they agree with the Bible.) Lutherans just didn't want to be Roman Catholics anymore. (No, the early Lutherans sought to reform teachings and practices in the Roman Catholic church which they believed to be in error based on the Bible.)
If those are wrong answers, what are some correct ones? Well simply, a Lutheran is a Christian. During the 1500s the Lutheran Reformers wanted the church to believe, teach, and confess what the Bible teaches, and what the apostles taught in the New Testament. Period. They wanted to bring the church back to Biblical teaching and practice from which it had drifted over the centuries. The Reformers had hoped that the pope and other church leaders would see the errors that had crept in to the church's teaching and practices. When they realized that wasn't going to happen, they went out on their own. Martin Luther never wanted this breakaway group of Christians to be named after him. In fact, the term "Lutheran" was a derogatory term invented by the Roman Catholics! Nevertheless, the name stuck. Churches in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod subscribe to the writings in the Book of Concord from 1580, usually referred to as The Confessions. These writings include the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds and writings of the Lutheran reformers like Luther, Phillip Melanchthon, and Martin Chemnitz. Subscribing to The Confessions means that we hold that the doctrine taught in these writings is in accord with and agrees with the Word of God as contained in the Old and New Testaments. Other conservative Lutheran groups are similar though they may not subscribe to all the documents in the Book of Concord. For more info on what's in the Book of Concord or to read it, check out bookofconcord.org. |
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