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from the district pastor ...

Rev. Mark Jamison

The last section of "Our Declaration" is entitled The Christian Life: God's Action in the World. This article discusses how the Christian lives under both law and Gospel. Because we do not become sinless until we go to our graves, the Christian and all people live under the law as God's power to restrain sin and the power of evil. Christians are not immune from the temptation to lie, to steal, to physically or verbally attack the neighbor, or to lust in the heart after another person. The law as the power of coercion at the stoplight or stop sign at least makes one stop and think that there is a price to pay for breaking a law. If consideration of the safety of others doesn't make a motorist drive safely, the threat of getting a license revoked or suspended may do the trick. Skyrocketing insurance rates resulting from too many speeding tickets, generally will modify one's behavior.

It is not always obvious though as to how best to order societies so that sin and evil are effectively restrained. Stopping reckless drivers is challenging enough. Figuring out how to stop or eliminate terrorism is an even more daunting task. It is also true that like our personal actions, the good intentions behind public policies do not guarantee good results. The law of unintended consequences comes into play in political science. That is why in the sphere of law, people can only make reasonable judgments based on logic, observation, and analysis of evidence as to how best to prevent injustice and protect people from the destructive effects of sin. The law is not about trusting others to do their best. Legal codes are not idealistic or optimistic about human nature. They are not based on feelings or the experience of the inner life since these too are affected by sin. They assume people have the potential to do actions that need to be stopped and prevented from happening again. Most laws are legislated into existence because they deal with real problems that have arisen. In the realm of law, reason must rule supreme.

The law, since it points out wrongdoing, has an accusing edge to it. The same is true with God's laws in the Bible. When Jesus says that adultery and murder start in the heart in the Sermon on the Mount, he is saying that sin is not limited to an observable outward action. It likewise includes the will, motives, desires, thoughts, and feelings. When this is understood, the accusing voice of the law gets even louder. If God's demands on us include our inner life as well as our outward actions, it is a self righteous delusion to think a person can fulfill all the demands of God's laws. God alone knows what it takes to love my neighbor with self denying love in every moment and in every situation of life. For example, how one honors one's parents at age 15 is very different from honoring them in their eighties when their health fails and they cannot take care of themselves. Sorting out exactly how best to serve them in the maze of the changes of life is difficult enough. Throw in the inevitable tendency as a sinner to confuse what is really good for them with what makes me look good before others, and the situation becomes downright impossible. Merely being given an obligation does not give us the ability to fulfill it, e.g., some people mismanage their money and cannot pay their taxes on time. Likewise, the obligation Christ gives us to love our enemy is often stymied by old grudges and hatreds that surface at a moments notice.

The first commandment prohibits us from usurping God's role as the judge of our holiness. Given the fact also that God has us go to our graves as sinners and starts all over with us when he raises us from the dead, it is not possible for us to talk in a realistic way about our growth in holiness. Some growth if it all goes to the grave with us. All one can do as Luther says is to return daily to the drowning of the sinful self in Baptism through repentance, by turning again to the cross, and living in God's forgiveness.

But living in the Gospel, however, is a different reality. There faith rules, not reason, logic, or observation. Faith alone holds on to the Word of the cross that we are saved for Christ's sake. Furthermore, faith trusts that Christ dwelling in union with us in faith brings about good works in us and through us. Because we can't judge ourselves, sanctification is by faith too. When you know it is Christ who is your holiness, and your righteous-ness, and not yourself, you know there can be no growth in holiness because he is already perfect. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." St. Paul in Galatians 2:20, says it this way: "And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Since it is Christ working in us, the Christian life will not be a passive one that ignores the needs of the neighbor, especially the most vulnerable ones. God places them before us. It also needs to be said that living in the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins does not lead to doing anything we please, precisely because Christ is working in us. We as sinners may be self-serving, but Christ certainly isn't.

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