|
|
 |
Psalm
103:1-14
| | |
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (ESV)
|
|
|
Teach Everything
Tuesday of Pentecost 5
3 July 2012
|
|
|
Before God all sins are equally damning. They all demand repentance and can only be healed by the merits of God's eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. However, before humans not all sins are equal. Some are more hurtful to us and some are less hurtful. For instance, stealing penny candy is not as damaging to humans as preaching that unregenerate humans can find God and be reconciled to Him on the basis of their own merits or works. Nor is this merely a human judgment about greater and lesser sins. This is a divine judgment for the sake of us humans. In other words, teaching false doctrine is worse because God says it is. However, teaching false doctrine is worse, not because it is a greater offense to Him, but because it is a greater stumbling block to us (Mt 5:19, 23:13; 1Co 9:16, etc.). In this our heavenly Father shows Himself to be oriented toward our need for forgiveness, life, and salvation, which comes by the preaching of the Word of God (not our own whacky ideas) (Rm 10:17).
The teaching of human power in salvation condemns to damnation those who trust their own merits or works above those of Christ, the eternal Son of God and the only propitiation for our sins (1Jn 2:2). Self-confidence in salvation is the opposite of trust in Christ alone. Either God can do for us what He promised in Christ, or He cannot. We do not have the freedom in God's sight to preach just whatever we please, nor is it good for us to preach our own opinions in the presence of God's people. God has always pronounced sharp condemnations against such do-it-yourself theology (Jer 23:30-31), which leads to self-righteousness. How harmful this false preaching is to the flock which Christ has redeemed with His own blood. It is one thing for the shepherd to jump off a cliff, it is another thing for him to lead off the cliff of error to their deaths a whole flock of those redeemed by the Good Shepherd. False preaching will do that. This is a most horrible transgression of the first table of the law; to make the claim that God is saying something He has not said.
The divine Word is not a smorgasbord of teachings that we may teach or not teach as we fancy. Human reason has been notoriously poor at picking and choosing the right doctrines to believe. Their relative importance is often a matter of judgment, and judgment impaired by fallen human reason beside. God has revealed His will to us in His Word, so who are we to decline to believe, teach, and confess any part of that will? The Lord has told us what is most important in the Word itself. Christ is at the center of that proclamation, but with Him comes all the fullness of the divine revelation: "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). By this teaching He is with us always. Christ has commissioned us to teaching everything. |
|
|
Martin Luther
"We will not permit this cause to be diminished, because the one whose cause it is, is great. However He was small when he was laid in a manger and yet at the same time was great, so that He was adored by the angels and He was proclaimed Lord of all. So we would not suffer any article of His Word to be hurt. In the articles of faith, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to us, we should and must retain them. For the remission of sins applies to those who are weak in faith and morals, and would acknowledge their sin and seek forgiveness. They are not subverters of the doctrine and would acknowledge their error and sin. However, those who defend their error and sin in the face of all opposition claim that error is the truth and righteousness. They do this so that they might reject the remission of sins, because they distort and deny the Word which proclaims and offers the remission of sins. Then first let them have concord with us in Christ, that is, let them acknowledge their sin and amend their error. If then we are deficient in our spiritual gentleness, they can accuse us with valid reason."
Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 6.1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, You have given us the fullness of the truth in the divine revelation of Your Word. Grant us Your Spirit, that we might confess it faithfully in the world, that You would be known as a gracious God, who bears our sins and sends as far from us as east is from west. Amen.
For Pastor Charles St-Onge, for the ninth anniversary of his ordination to the office of the ministry, that the Lord Jesus Christ, chief bishop of all souls, would guard and keep him in his service to the church
For the youth and adult counselors of Memorial Lutheran Church who attended the Higher Things Conference in North Carolina, that they would be built up in the holy faith and given joyous homecomings
For Cliff Scherer, Sr., that the Lord Jesus Christ would grant to him a recovery of his strength
|
|
Art: DÜRER, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
|
|
 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
