Sanctification By Grace
Through Faith
by Pastor
Robert Rhyne
"They are truly beautiful proclaimers
of Easter, but shameful preachers of Pentecost. For they preach nothing about
the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, only about salvation in Christ....
However, Christ has earned for us not only God’s mercy but also the gift of the
Holy Spirit, that we should have not only forgiveness but also an end of
sins."
--Martin
Luther
When I began writing this I was excited to share how I
had been relieved of workaholism through biblical
truths I had learned from Christians in the recovery movement. I had begun to
see that today’s talk about “addiction” was a modern way of saying what Jesus
said in John 8:34: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
My scope was simply to offer hope to workaholics: that Jesus can free us from
that sinful addiction, as he can free us from any addiction.
But as I wrote, the seed idea grew into a mustard tree
casting shade into areas so broad that I could scarcely keep up with the
implications. I became convinced that I would have to write a book, but then
discovered that the book had already been written, dozens of times. So I
contented myself with merely introducing what the interested reader could
pursue on his own through some of the books listed in the
attached bibliography.
My theme expanded to: Sanctification by Grace through
Faith. In the pages that follow I share several ideas which were largely absent
from my thinking, preaching and teaching for the first ten years of my
ministry, but which I am now trusting and sharing, and which are enabling me to
enjoy life and ministry to a truly amazing degree. I’m sharing the hope of
Sanctification by Grace through Faith along with Justification by Grace through
Faith every time I open my mouth. I look back with regret that gaps and
mistakes in my understanding of sanctification have damaged my and my hearers’
grasp also of justification, to say nothing of hindering the daily experience
of the new life which is our spiritual birthright. My hope is that, having
messed up thoroughly, I can better appreciate the importance of getting it
right.
“Sanctification” refers to the Holy Spirit’s “setting
apart” of people for God. This setting apart involves first of all what we are,
and then what we do. Sometimes sanctification is narrowed down immediately to
the performance of good works, but I think it is important to emphasize first
of all the believer’s new identity in Christ, and then discuss the new behavior
which results. [“God created us as human beings, not human doings!”] The
catechism expresses our new identity: “...That I should be his own, and live
under him in his kingdom, and serve him....” So sanctification is first
something to be enjoyed, and then something to be done.
We are first of all set apart to be his own: to enjoy
a relationship with our Creator God. He has related himself to us as a loving
Father who accepts us as his sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. He is a
heavenly Bridegroom who rejoices over us, his Bride, with singing (Zephaniah
All of these things–including good works–happen by
grace through faith. Good behavior in Christ is a product of trusting Christ’s
work in us rather than trying to perform in our own strength. Here is good
news: God has made provision for us to replace the sinful behavior we hate with
the good works we desire. All of us have struggled with besetting sins against
which we seem to be powerless. Call them addictions, call them compulsive
behaviors, or call them bad habits–we promise God it won’t happen again, we
make New Year’s resolutions, we assure our families, but we do it again. Our
sin may have to do with alcohol, money, anger, sex, food, power, pride, or
(list your own). The only advice humans have to give is, “Try harder.” That
doesn’t work, as we all have found. The Apostle Paul was amazed that the
Christians in
In the pages following I will offer illustration and
explanation. If I may be allowed to use my own case as an example, Part One
will be an account of what these ideas have done in my own life, and Part Two
will describe some of the effects I’ve seen among those I serve. The Scripture
which summarizes what I hope to say is Galatians 2:20, (which has become my
favorite verse because it says it all): “I have been crucified with Christ and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by
faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Luther
comments on this verse (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, American
Edition):
Here Paul clearly shows how he is alive; and he states
what Christian righteousness is, namely, that righteousness by which Christ
lives in us, not the righteousness that is in our own person. Therefore when it
is necessary to discuss Christian righteousness, the person must be completely
rejected. For if I pay attention to the person or speak of the person, then,
whether intentionally or unintentionally on my part, the person becomes a doer
of works who is subject to the Law. But here Christ and my conscience must
become one body, so that nothing remains in my sight but Christ, crucified and
risen (p. 166).
There is a double life: my own, which is natural or
animate; and an alien life, that of Christ in me. So far as my animate life is
concerned, I am dead and am now living an alien life. I am not living as Paul
now, for Paul is dead. “Who then is living?” “The Christian.” ...Christ is
speaking, acting, and performing all actions in him; these belong not to the
Paul-life, but to the Christ-life. ...There is a double life, my life and an
alien life. By my own life I am not living; for if I were, the Law would have
dominion over me and would hold me captive. To keep it from holding me, I am
dead to it by another Law. And this death acquires an alien life for me,
namely, the life of Christ, which is not inborn in me but is granted to me in
faith through Christ (p. 169).
J.P. Koehler, in a comment on Galatians 2:19-20 (The
Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, NPH, page 67), summarizes what I hope to say:
We are not to imagine that a holy life has not been
provided for and that we must now lend a helping hand with the Law. The Gospel
has abolished the Law, not in order that we might keep on sinning merrily, but
in order that we may live to God. And this Christ does in us.
I.
Christians believe that they have been saved wholly
and solely by the finished work of Christ. Unhappily, however, many believers
think that the practical Christian life of obedient service to God, which
follows as a fruit of justification, is a product of self-effort. This “try
hard” approach to sanctification may not be embraced consciously, but it is
assumed–perhaps by default due to our inherent legalism (opinio
legis)–in practice. As Luther warned above, when we
are focused on Christian behavior as something we perform in ourselves, we
become doers of works subject to the law. The law, of course, arouses the
sinful nature, and our obedience comes harder and harder. We then become
discouraged by our failures and feel condemned by the law. We may then even
begin to question whether we were ever justified.
May I illustrate from my own experience? From the time
I transitioned to an adult faith at college in 1972 until the time I entered my
first call in 1981, I lived “under grace,” enjoying the fact that I had been
saved by the finished work of Christ. When I read the Bible for the first time
in 1972 it was like having the light turned on in my life after the vague liberalism
I had fallen into. I found out for sure that I was loved by God, that heaven
was real, and that my Father had a purpose for my life. I had never known such
joy. A cold, empty spot in my chest had been filled up with God’s love. I
couldn’t get enough of Bible reading and study. My years in Seminary were
wonderful because my responsibilities were so clear: learn the Bible and
related subjects as thoroughly as possible so as to share the information in a
parish–the very thing I was eager to do.
But when I began serving my first call in 1981 things
changed. I became very self-conscious in my Christian life. This is perhaps a
special danger for those in the public ministry, though certainly not limited
to us. Somehow, sharing the gospel was not the natural, joyful occupation it
had been during my “non-professional” days. The Great Commission fell on me
like a ton of bricks and overwhelmed me. It became a law over me, coercing me,
condemning me. I came to feel totally responsible for the faith, the behavior,
the performance, and even the emotions of the thirty communicant members of my
two congregations. I also felt vaguely responsible to add to that number every
person within a hundred miles. To attack this impossible goal I used all the
inadequate resources of my “self.” I became a performer, a fixer, a rescuer, a
controller. As I became more and more self-conscious I found that for my
happiness I was torturously dependent upon my members’ approval of me. Finally
I became a workaholic, addicted to the institutions I was trying to build, and
very much cut off from the “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”
which are the matters of the
How was life for my wife at this time? She was
extremely patient outwardly and extremely angry inwardly. She sat at home
evenings acutely in need of my time while I was out counseling members who were
not a fraction as troubled. From time to time she would try to tell me what my
family needed, but she was speaking to an addict in denial. I don’t remember this,
but she tells me I would walk away when she tried to speak to me of my neglect
of my family. There were always plenty of good reasons why I had to do exactly
whatever it was I was doing. And after all, I was doing it all “for God.” My
work was out of control and my life was unmanageable.
Christmas of 1984 I took on another addiction which
provided some escape from my workaholism: I bought a
VCR. It’s difficult to describe the weird sense of well-being I experienced
when I took some time out from the day’s schedule to peruse the video store,
and had a movie on hand to watch at the end of the day. The entire process of
planning to rent a movie, selecting it, and then watching it, acted as a drug
for me. And like a drug addict, I would be irritable and miserable if I didn’t
get my fix on schedule. The recreation of renting and watching a movie,
innocent in itself, became for me a process addiction I could not control.
(There are substance addictions and process addictions.) I even had recurring
dreams, practically every night, of selecting movies to rent. In a check list
for addictive behaviors, every single item was true of me and my videos. Along
with watching the movies, it was a rare night that I didn’t have at least one
During all this time I was outwardly doing a
creditable job of pastoring. My sermons and Bible
classes were well liked by my congregations; membership grew at an average
rate. Some people came to faith. But I was miserable in my work and daily
wondered whether there might be some way out of it.
In January of 1991 a shift began which changed
everything. I learned about “Christ-in-me,” the doctrine of the mystical union.
I learned the truth expressed in Galatians 2:20, explained thoroughly in Romans
6-8, that I had been crucified with Christ and the resurrected Christ wanted to
live through me. It was so simple: if only I would give up striving in my own
energy and trust Jesus who indwelled me through the Holy Spirit, he would do it
all. [1] Since then I have begun to experience in my personal life what Paul
says: “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful
nature” (Galatians
I’ll never forget one night that January, lying beside
one of the kids on the bed after reading them a bed-time story, and feeling
perfectly at peace. I wasn’t in a rush to start a movie, I wasn’t looking
forward to a beer, I didn’t feel guilty about not
being at my desk. I was, for the first time in years, content to be where I
was, what I was, when I was. I wasn’t straining into the future,
I was focused in the present, silently praising God.
It wasn’t that I personally had
changed or improved, nor had I arrived at some higher stage of
Christianity. I had simply learned the implications of the fact that Jesus had
been living in me from the time I was brought to faith. As I began to trust
Jesus in me to live his life through me, I began to experience it. Conversely,
whenever I fail to trust him, reverting to self-effort, I am quickly reminded
that in myself I’m the same powerless sinner I ever was. A new life of
obedience is not the result of an improved life, but rather of an exchanged
life: “not I but Christ” (Gal
The key to enjoying Christ’s power in us is by
rejecting our own fleshly efforts. Luther speaks of how it is through
“surrendering entirely to Christ” that we experience all that is ours in Christ
(What Luther Says, Vol. II, p. 657, par. 2028, Concordia, 1959):
If you desire to attain the true holiness which avails
before God, you must utterly despair of yourself and rely on God alone; you
must surrender [3] yourself entirely to Christ and must accept him in such a
way that everything he has is yours and that what you have is his. For thus you
begin to burn with love divine and become an entirely different person, born
completely anew. Your inner being will then be entirely changed.
An illustration I find helpful is my first encounter
with a self-driven power mower. I had been hired to do a man’s yard work. He
provided the mower. I had used power mowers before, but never a self-driven
one. After one circuit around the large lawn I was exhausted. I decided to go
to the door and tell the man there was something wrong with his mower. But when
I stopped pushing I found that the mower kept traveling, and actually began
pulling me! The trouble, of course, was that I had been trying to go faster
than the mower was geared to go. When I gave up forcing it, it took over and
provided the progress. The same is true with our Christian lives. Christ is
living in us with his power ready to provide the progress when we give up.
Another illustration would be when I first learned to swim. I grew tired some
distance from the side of the pool and began to panic that I wasn’t going to
make it. I kicked and moved my arms with all the energy I had, but it wasn’t
enough. Suddenly I struck my foot on the bottom of the pool. It wasn’t as deep
as I had thought, and I could stand on the bottom with my head above water. In
the same way, Jesus is there to keep our heads above water as soon as we quit
our thrashing about.
The life of dependence on the indwelling Christ was
introduced to me by two books: The Normal Christian Life, by Chinese pastor
Watchman Nee; [4] and Handbook to Happiness, by Charles Solomon. It was
afterward that I found the same ideas in Luther and the dogmaticians
of Lutheran Orthodoxy. The humbling thing to me is that I never understood on
my own from the clear word in Scripture this “Great Exchange” of
sanctification. My slowness probably had something to do with Harold Senkbeil’s observation that “having been burned by the
abuses of Pietism, Lutheranism has shown an understandable reluctance to deal
with the scriptural themes of the new life in Christ” (Sanctification: Christ
in Action, NPH, page 115). Understandable perhaps, but inexcusable and extremely destructive.
I thank God for the insights of other Christians who were not limited by such
blinders and who have opened the Scriptures for me.
Nee explains the exchanged life of the Christian like
this:
The Apostle Paul gives us his own definition of the
Christian life in Galatians 2:20. It is “no longer I, but Christ.” Here he is
not stating something special or peculiar–a high level of Christianity. He is,
we believe, presenting God’s normal for a Christian, which
can be summarized in the words: I live no longer, but Christ lives his life in
me. God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one answer to every
human need–his Son, Jesus Christ. In all his dealings with us he works by
taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God
died instead of us for our forgiveness: he lives instead of us for our
deliverance. So we can speak of two substitutions–a Substitute on the Cross who
secures our forgiveness and a Substitute within who secures our victory (page 12).
God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by
strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do
anything but by removing him from the scene of action. For years, maybe, you
have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this is
still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that
you are indeed powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside
altogether God has done it all. Such a discovery brings human striving and
self-effort to an end (page 54).
We have spoken of trying and trusting, and the
difference between the two. Believe me, it is the difference between heaven and
hell. It is not something just to be talked over as a satisfying thought; it is
stark reality. “Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I will
no longer try to do it.” This is the point most of us fall short of. “Lord, I
cannot; therefore I will take my hands off; from now on I trust thee for that.”
We refuse to act; we depend on him to do so, and then we enter fully and
joyfully into the action he initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active
life, trusting the Lord like that; drawing life from him, taking him to be our
very life, letting him live his life in us as we go forth in his Name (page
183).
Charles
Solomon covers the same ground, but with a more clinical approach:
Many Christians, even those in full-time Christian
work, find that they are still doing it for him rather than his doing it
through them. Hudson Taylor was an example of this. ...
In psychotherapy, of whatever persuasion, self is
strengthened to cope with those problems. Herein lies
the basic problem with psychotherapy. With enough psychotherapy, some of the
symptoms will respond so that the person may become better adjusted, with the
symptoms either diminishing or leaving. But, in order to cope with them, better
defense mechanisms are built and more acceptable behaviors are learned; and
self becomes stronger. Thus, when symptoms improve as a result of pure
psychotherapy, the real problem, self-centeredness, always gets worse. This
result is diametrically opposed to what God does because God’s way of dealing with
self is that it must become weaker and weaker until its control is finally
phased out. Self is reduced to nothing so that Christ can be everything (page
46).
We are not referring to some experience where self or
the flesh is permanently removed and we obtain sinless perfection; and we are
not referring to what is sometimes termed a second work of grace. We are
talking about entering into something experientially that is already ours positionally–the life of Christ (page 50).
At our counseling office, we sometimes admonish people
after they receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior: “Don’t you ever try to live
the Christian life! You have invited the Lord Jesus Christ into your life–let
him live his life in you. That’s why he entered your life.” It is a life that
is lived by faith. And, when we understand this, we see that there is no way we
can live a Christian life. It is not a set of rules that we keep. That is
legalism. It is the law that gives sin its power and spurs many believers on to
overt or covert rebellion. Valiant attempts to restrain sin from without rather
than allow the Spirit to constrain from within, often produce exactly the
opposite results from those intended (page 53).
If we are to struggle to live for him, then he cannot
live through us. Until self is dealt with, we continue to self-struggle,
perhaps even asking him to help us (page 54).
When I think of how much I’ve studied Romans, I can’t
believe that I missed the hope offered by chapters 6-8 for deliverance from
besetting sins. The part I really understood and identified with was
I now believe that Paul is describing in that section
what happens when we needlessly and unnecessarily live out of our own resources
“under [the control of] the law” instead of trusting Christ dwelling in us by
his Spirit “under [the control of] grace.” When I came to see this, verses in
chapters 6 and 8 which had been inscrutable suddenly made perfect sense and
gave intoxicating hope for change. When I was experiencing slavery to work,
approval, and video-renting, I was under the law and putting myself further
under the law in an attempt to control my sin myself. The harder one tries in that
fashion, the worse things get, as
I now see Romans 7:15-25 as a parenthesis in the
overall discussion spanning Romans 6-8. Just as Romans 2:1 - 3:20 describes the
impossibility of being justified by the law, Romans 7:15-25 describes the
impossibility of being sanctified by the law.
The point of the larger section is clearly: “...Just
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may
live a new life” (Romans 6:4)–literally, “we may walk around in newness of
life.” The discussion spanning Romans 6 - 8 is to prove the point made in
6:1-2: We shall “by no means” go on sinning. Obviously, we’re not to believe
we’re stuck for life in the frustrating disobedience of Romans 7:15-25. And it
gets even clearer: “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to
sin” (Romans 6:6). This “body of sin” is the same “body of death” we hear about
in
Right now we can walk around in a different way of
life, free of the slavery to sin described in
None of these promises leave room for a life stuck in
slavery to sin as described in Romans 7:15-25. So how does that section fit?
Paul tells us in 7:9: “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment
came, sin sprang to life and I died.” Paul describes what happens in his
personal life when he mistakenly takes hold of the law to control himself and puts himself back into the slavery which, as he
describes in Romans 6, he has no need to be under. Notice how often the word
“I” is used in Romans 7:15-25, with no mention of the Holy Spirit. But when the
indwelling of the Spirit is introduced in chapter 8, obedience replaces
frustration.
Paul could hardly have said, “You have been set free
from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18) if he expected
himself and us to live like Romans 7:19 describes: “What I do is not the good I
want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.” To deal
with this I had always neglected Romans 6:18–which I didn’t understand–in favor
of Romans 7:19 which I understood intimately. I lived with this
misunderstanding and passed it along in sermons, Bible studies, and counseling
sessions for years. For ten years I gave no one the explicit hope of living a
new life, free from the slavery to sin. My sanctification message was: “Try
hard, and ask God to help.” I was putting people under the law for
sanctification, and they were trapped, with me, in the frustration of Romans
7:15-25, doing the evil we didn’t want to do.
What a joy for me personally and professionally to
understand that section in the context of Romans 6 & 8! Romans 8:2:
“...Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law
of sin and death.” Romans 8:3-4: “What the law was powerless to do in that it
was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful
man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in
us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the
Spirit.” To live according to the sinful nature is nothing else than putting
ourselves under law, arousing the sinful passions. To live according to the
Spirit is nothing else that living under grace, and trusting Jesus–in me
through his Spirit–to live his life through me.
A description of my human attempts to control my
addiction to videos (which didn’t work) will perhaps provide a useful contrast
to God’s way (which did work [6]):
1.
Of course, I told myself what a sinful waste of time it was.
2.
I reminded myself that my body was a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the
Holy Spirit was offended to have to sit and watch movies every night. I asked
myself whether I wanted Jesus there watching what I was watching. I asked
myself how I would feel if Jesus returned and found me living as a “couch
potato.”
3.
When I wasn’t pounding myself with the law, I shamed myself with the gospel:
“How can you sit here wasting your time when Jesus lived a life of suffering
and then died for you! Jesus loves you and you’re letting him down, you’re
disappointing him, you’re slapping him in the face and hammering nails into his
hands....” [This is the horrible practice of “shaming with the gospel,” which
turns the gospel into law and brings guilt instead of release. The Hymn (TLH 405), “I gave my life for thee; what hast thou giv’n for Me?” was pointed out to
me by one of our professors at seminary as an example of this. [7]
4.
I used every “should” I could muster to control my habit. “My love for Christ
should compel me, my gratitude should change my
life...”
5.
I appealed to my pride by telling myself this was not like me, that I was too
talented to waste my time, that other pastors weren’t enslaved to
self-indulgence the way I was, that lay people did a better job of the
Christian life than I did.
None of this worked. Now I understand why: I was
trying to control or improve my sinful flesh. The sinful nature is only evil
all the time and doesn’t improve, and cannot be coaxed, forced, or motivated
into pleasing God–not by law or by gospel. It can’t be changed, it must be
exchanged.
It isn’t trying which brings about the new life of
freedom, but dying to self through identification with the death of Jesus. All
of my attempts listed above are legalistic, even when they involve the words of
the gospel. I believe we must be careful with the whole idea of motivation
since it can become a humanistic, legalistic substitute for God’s answer of
Christ-in-me. Motivation very easily becomes fleshly manipulation. If we are
not continually conscious that obedience must be performed by Christ in us, we
will find ourselves trying to motivate the sinful nature to do good, which has no place whatsoever in Christian thinking.
The Bible doesn’t speak that way. The Lutheran Confessions warn us against such
“law works”.[8]
In my confusion I had developed and substituted an unbiblical
plan for producing a sanctified life: by trying to motivate people (whether by
law or by gospel) to try harder, instead of by explaining the difference
between living under law and living under grace. I was unqualified to teach my
congregation anything about walking according to the Spirit because I knew
nothing about it. All that time God was offering in the Bible his way which
worked, and I was tip-toeing around his promises devising my way which didn’t.
I had sanctification whittled down to this: Believing Jesus died for you should
make you grateful, and your gratitude should motivate you to improve your
behavior (somewhat). Ugh.
While it is true that the new life of obedience is
motivated by the gospel, we must remember that one can be motivated to do
something but be unaware of how to accomplish it. Motivation alone isn’t
enough. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 deals with motivation: “For Christ’s love compels
us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And
he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but
for him who died for them and was raised again.” It also contains a clue as to
how the motivated behavior gets accomplished through the exchanged life. Don’t
miss the words: “All died.” The “we who live” is the same as the “I live” of
Galatians 2:20. In both cases it is not “we” or “I” who love or serve, but
Christ in us. The reason this is so important to me is that while I was
motivated to serve Christ, I tried for ten years to do it by my own strength.
But all of my love and gratitude were not able actually to produce what I was
motivated to do in my life or ministry. Because it wasn’t working I was
burdened with the weight of shame and unmet obligation. I feared I might have
lost my faith. Then, when I gave up trying to fulfill the obedience I was
motivated for, Jesus performed his exchange. Then I began to see the fruit of
his love which compelled me. Not even the love of Christ can wring God-pleasing
service from my “self.” I must be counted dead. Then he lives in me and loves
through me. I believe we must be very careful in our use of words like
“motivate,” “should,”[9] and “try”. They lend
themselves readily to fleshly, humanistic and legalistic attempts to “act” like
Christians. As the Formula of Concord reminds us, the law can produce only
actors.[10]
Here is what I have now discovered in the Scriptures
and experienced in my own life: I cannot live the Christian life. Love for
Christ can move me to desire but cannot enable me to live a Christian life.
Gratitude for salvation can move me to desire but cannot enable me to live a
Christian life. Only Christ can live the Christian life, and he is living his
life through me as I surrender myself to him and stay out of the way, under
grace. Today, when I find myself tempted to gratify the flesh and “behave
addictively,” I know what to do. I remind myself of the radical gospel of grace
and of my freedom from the law. I tell myself things like this: “Had a hard
day? Poor Bob. Someone rude with you? Want to comfort
yourself with some beer and videos? Go ahead! Rent everything in the store, pick up a quarter-barrel on the way home! Jesus loves
you no matter what you do. You can’t make him stop. You can’t make him love you
one little bit less. You are holy, without blemish, and free from accusation”
(Colossians
Of course, there is a part of me that very much does
want to indulge the flesh. The deceitfulness of sin suggests to me the lie that
I can enjoy the pleasure of sin and at the same time enjoy the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit. On those occasions I disobey. Then, when I lose my joy in the
Lord, I run back into his waiting arms. I remember with relief that although I
disobeyed him, his love is unconditional. His Holy Spirit in me will never let
me be comfortable while straying outside of his will. He brings me back to
dependence upon him, back to surrendering to his will, back to the joy of
obedience. The same scenario plays out when my flesh usurps Christ’s throne in
my heart and I proudly insist: “I can do it myself!” My wise Father lets me
make my mistakes, then draws me back to ever more
complete dependence on him. The ongoing struggle against sin in the Christian
life does not consist in our self-effort to avoid sinning by virtue of our own
moral strength or will power. The struggle is the struggle of faith to maintain
its total dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of
Christ in
The person struggling with a pet sin needs to be
assured that his salvation is not contingent whatsoever on his behavior, either
before or after coming to faith. The sin and guilt question is settled once and
for all by the finished work of Christ on the cross. Once the person is certain
of his eternal life in Christ he can be counseled concerning Christ’s ability
to set him free from his pet sin. Galatians 5:16, “So I say, live by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Romans 8:9,
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if
the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” The struggle must consist not in trying
to overcome the sin by will-power and self effort but in surrendering the
effort to God and trusting his work in us.
To live under grace rather than under the law is the
secret to living by the Spirit, so that we’re not carrying out the desires of
the sinful nature (Galatians
The attempt to...induce...believers in Christ to do good by holding up the Law and issuing commands to them, is
a very gross confounding of Law and Gospel (p. 381). ...At the present time the
Law has no other purpose than to reveal men’s sins, not to remove them. Instead
of removing them, it rather increases them.... Thus the Law increases sin: it
does not slay sin, but rather makes it alive (p. 383). Ps. 119,32: I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart. The psalmist does not say: “When
Thou smitest me with the thunder of Thy Law, I shall
run the way of Thy commandments. No; in that case I do not run. But when Thou comfortest me so that my
cramped heart is made large, I become cheerful and willing to walk the strait,
the narrow, way to heaven.”
That is an experience which you may have made
personally. After a long season of sluggishness and lukewarmness,
during which you began to hate yourself because you saw no way to change your
condition, you happen to hear a real Gospel sermon, and you leave the church a
changed man and rejoice in the fact that you may believe and are a child of
God. You suddenly become aware of the fact that it is not difficult to walk in
the way of God’s commandments; you seem to walk in it of your own accord. How
foolish, then, is a preacher who thinks that conditions in his congregation
will improve if he thunders at his people with the Law and paints hell and
damnation for them. That will not at all improve the people. Indeed, there is a
time for such preaching of the Law in order to alarm secure sinners and make
them contrite, but a change of heart and love of God and one’s fellow-men is
not produced by the Law. If any one is prompted by the Law to do certain good
works, he does them only because he is coerced...(pp.
384-385).
The ways available for falling into legalism are more
numerous and more subtle than I had ever imagined. I used to think that
legalism referred only to justification–making our works part of the cause of
our salvation. Certainly we are all very careful never to do that. But I have
come to believe that also any talk about sanctification which is not based on
Christ-in-me must necessarily result in legalism. Luther himself says as much
in his comments on Galatians 2:20:
When it is necessary to discuss Christian
righteousness, the person must be completely rejected. For if I pay attention
to the person or speak of the person, then, whether intentionally or
unintentionally on my part, the person becomes a doer of works who is subject
to the Law (page 166, emphasis mine). ...There is a double life: my own, which
is natural or animate; and an alien life, that of Christ in
Thank God, I have now been taught to live under grace
and not under law, and that has changed my life. Now I have courage not only
for the future hour of death, but also for the present hour of life. Just as
Justification by Grace through Faith made me confident of going to heaven, now
Sanctification by Grace through Faith has made me confident of getting through
the day.
II.
The wake-up call for applying this to my ministry came
in January of 1992, one year after I learned about the exchanged life. A young
woman of my congregation had received a letter from a friend who had moved away
some years ago. The woman was troubled because her friend had written: “I’ve
never felt so free as when I stopped going to church.”
It hit me as though God himself had screamed at me from heaven: “I came to set
people free! Why isn’t it happening? There’s something desperately wrong with
‘church!’“ From that moment it became my constant goal to open my mouth at
church always to set people free. It was Jesus’ mission to proclaim freedom to
the captives. Certainly the captives in our society include those who are
trapped to some degree in addictive and codependent behavior. Therapists place
the size of that group at 96% of the population. Lutheran theologians must
conclude that it is 100% of the population. That’s the percentage which sins,
and therefore is enslaved to sin until set free by the Son.
Why was the young woman in bondage while attending
church and relatively free while not? Because her church had put her under the
law instead of setting her free from the law by the gospel. Her church was
doing her more harm than good.
Experiences like hers have been discussed in a book
that has been tremendously enlightening for me, The Subtle Power of Spiritual
Abuse, by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen. It
describes a parallel situation to illustrate what is meant by spiritual abuse:
In the context of her Christian home and her
evangelical church, this woman had been shamed, manipulated and weighed down by
a distortion of the gospel. Though Jesus came with “good news” to set us all
free, she had been pressed by other Christians to work harder at being a “good
Christian.” When she had failed in her honest attempts, she was judged as
undisciplined and unwilling–perhaps even unsaved. She tried harder and harder
to do all that was prescribed: more Bible reading, more prayer, more financial sacrifice. ...The result, for her, was that
the concept of grace was lost completely, and church in general was no longer a
safe place (pages 11-12).
Once
again, if only I had read to the end of Law and Gospel! Walther writes:
Law and Gospel are confounded and perverted for the
hearers of the Word, not only when the Law predominates in the preaching, but
also when Law and Gospel, as a rule, are equally balanced and the Gospel is not
predominant in the preaching. In view of the precious character of this subject
I am seized with fear lest I spoil it by my manner of presentation. The longer
I have meditated this subject, the more inadequate does the expression seem
that I can give it; so precious is this matter (p. 403).
Walther takes the words from my own heart when he says
he’s seized with fear lest he fail adequately to express this precious subject
matter. He does a terrific job, as you can see from the excerpts I’ve included.
If I can contribute anything original to the subject
so thoroughly covered by the books in my bibliography, it would be by giving a
name to the perversion which Walther describes so well. I suggest the names:
“passive legalism” or “legalism by default.” Legalism does its enslaving not
only when we misapply the law, but also when we fail to actively set people
free from the law. It isn’t enough to avoid legalism, we must preach against
being under the law. We must preach grace in all its radical, unconditional
truth to the point that it amazes our congregations and makes ourselves wonder
if we haven’t gone too far. Until someone speaks to us in
concern that we are condoning sin (as Jesus, Paul, and Luther were accused of
doing), we probably haven’t done our job.
How can we teach the gospel so that no one will abuse
grace and think that the gospel gives him permission to sin? There’s no way you
can preach grace so that no one will abuse it. People accused Paul of setting
people free to sin, they accused Martin Luther of setting people free to sin, they even accused Jesus of condoning sin. And if you explain
the gospel correctly, somebody is going to take it as license to sin. But what
you dare not do is limit God’s grace to prevent people from abusing it. A
conditional gospel is no gospel at all.
Walther
tells us what kind of preaching it is that allows Christ to live his life
through us:
If you want to revive your future congregations and
cause the Spirit of peace, joy, faith, and confidence, the childlike spirit,
the Spirit of soul-rest, to take up His abode among the members of your
congregation, you must, for God’s sake, not employ the Law to bring that about
(p. 385).
Make a vow to God that you will adopt the apostle’s method, that you will not stand in your pulpits sad-faced,
as if you were bidding men to come to a funeral, but like men that go wooing a
bride or announcing a wedding. If you do not mingle Law with the Gospel you
will always mount your pulpit with joy. People will notice that you are filled
with joy because you are bringing the blessed message of joy to your
congregation. They will furthermore notice that wonderful things are happening
among them. Alas! Many ministers do not meet with these wonderful experiences;
their hearers remain sleepy; their misers stay stingy. What is the reason? Not
sufficient Gospel has been preached to them. ...It is not sufficient for you to
be conscious of your orthodoxy and your ability to present the pure doctrine
correctly. These are, indeed, important matters; however, no one will be
benefited by them if you confound Law and Gospel. The very finest form of
confounding both occurs when the Gospel is preached along with the Law, but is
not the predominating element in the sermon. The preacher may think that he has
proclaimed the evangelical truth quite often. His hearers, however, remember
only that on some occasions he preached quite comfortingly and told them to
believe in Jesus Christ without telling them how to attain to faith in Christ.
Your hearers will be spiritually starved to death if you do not allow the
Gospel to predominate in your preaching. They will be spiritually underfed
because the bread of life is not the Law, but the Gospel (p. 407).
In 2Cor. 1,24 we read: Not
for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by
faith ye stand. This is a fine text for your initial sermon. Remember this word
of the apostle well: when you become ministers, you become helpers of the
Christians’ joy. Do not become ministers who vex and torture the people,
filling them with uncertainty and causing them to go home from church
heavy-hearted. ...Do not worry when you hear fanatics say that you are not
truly converted, otherwise you would come down on your people with the Law much
more forcefully and that you are preaching you people into hell, etc. Let
fanatics say about you what they please. You may rest assured that your method
is the correct one because you are to be helpers of joy to Christians; you are
not to put them on the rack of the Law. The longer you preach to your people
after this method, the more they will praise God for having given them such a
pastor (p. 407).
I work diligently to become a pastor such as Walther
describes. I had always thought I taught the gospel quite clearly, but when I
consciously made it my goal to set people free from legalism, I received some
surprising reactions. Here are some of the comments I heard:
“...I
have been really refreshed in my Christian life by your sermons [on Galatians
and Colossians] this summer. I’m reading my Bible and praying more.”
“I’ve
been a member here for 63 years, why haven’t I heard this before?” (“This” referring to the Christian’s freedom from the threats and
coercion of the law. I’m sure I had preached that message before, but
apparently not emphatically enough to be heard.)
“I
tried what you said about giving up and turning it all over to God, and it works!” [said by at
least five people] “I can’t believe that something I’ve struggled with for
fifty years just went away!”
“Pastor,
I just want to tell you that I and my whole family are enjoying this new grace
thing. Keep it up.”
“I
think you need more law in your sermons.”
“Until
about a year ago I thought I should just give up [the Christian life]. I didn’t
feel qualified for the kingdom. But your teaching on
grace...” [said by a member of the church council
through a smile and tears].
[letter] “Dear Pastor and Melissa, I got the book. ...It was
really hard, but I gave up. What a relief!! It was like a burden was lifted.
...I gave it to God, knowing only he could make the difference, and it didn’t
matter how ‘good’ I was, what I did, how many Bible verses I read: unless I let
him steer I’d never get through the storm.”
I’m
having more fun than I’ve ever had in my life as I “proclaim freedom to the
captives.”
Along with reading some excellent books on grace and
the exchanged life, it has helped my ministry to familiarize myself with the
literature on addictive behavior and systems. The patterns of sinful behavior
are so obvious that even non-Christian observers can describe them so as to
benefit the Christian pastor. I find that I have spent too little time studying
people and their problems (also my own!). As a result, the answers to human
need–all contained in Jesus Christ–I have not understood or delivered
effectively. I have made some terrific blunders with hurting people due to my
ignorance of addictive behavior and the havoc it causes in families and
society. As a result of reading the recovery literature, both secular and
Christian, I have profited immeasurably, and many people are being helped.
I first became interested in this subject as I took
recovering alcoholics through adult instruction. I noted time and again a
spiritual depth to these people which “normal” people didn’t seem to have,
including a tremendous appreciation for and understanding of God’s grace. At
the same time I was struggling with the amazing lack of grasp on grace on the
part of life-long Lutherans. I now know that recovering alcoholics, to begin
recovery, have acknowledged their powerlessness over their addiction and
surrendered control over their lives to God–Steps 1-3 of the Twelve Steps of
AA. Meanwhile our pews are occupied with people, many of whom haven’t realized
that they are addicted to alcohol, work, TV, food, smoking, gambling, shopping,
running, approval, or to solving the problems of a significant other. These
people are trying hard, as I was, to keep their sinning to a moderate and
acceptable level. They are anxious not to cross that invisible line between
being a standard “poor, miserable sinner” who can’t help it; and being one of
“those who live like this” who “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians
5:21).
I believe spiritual renewal will come as we saturate
our sanctification teaching with grace and certainty just as we do our
justification teaching. We must make it our goal to set people free with grace,
explaining that Christ desires to live his life through us, and teaching that
he has replaced our former identity as “poor, miserable sinners” with our
present identity as new creatures “holy, blameless, and free from accusation”
(Colossians 1:21-22). “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation! The old
has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians
The big enemy of surrendering to Christ and
experiencing spiritual renewal is the desire to be in control. This, of course,
is close to the essence of what sin is. “You will be like God,” Satan said
(Genesis 3:5), and we still believe the lie. We are born under the delusion
that we are lords of our lives and that we should be in control of everything
and everyone that concerns us. As long as we try to control our sin, we’re
defeated. As soon as we give up control and surrender to Christ, trusting his
provision of new, resurrection life in us, we have victory by grace and through
faith. As long as we try to control other people’s sin, we resort to legalism
and maintain a performance-based religion. As soon as we let go of control,
setting them free under grace and turning them over to the Holy Spirit, they
will mature spiritually and produce the fruit of the gospel in their
transformed lives.
“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord [and I’m not]’ but by
the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). We have had the Holy Spirit from the
moment we came to faith. My prayer is that he will reveal to us, in all of its
manifestations, our defeating, destructive desire to be in control of our
selves and our fellow Christians. And by his grace may we be set free “to serve
in the new way of the Spirit” (Romans 7:6). “Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom” (2 Corinthians
When I was about six years old I had a dream one night
which I have never forgotten; it’s as vivid as if I dreamed it last night.
Please understand, I don’t spend any time at all trying to interpret my dreams,
but this one seems to illustrate very well the things I’m seeing now, over
thirty years later. It went like this: I dreamed I was at the house of my
playmates, up the street from my house. A huge, white bird had alighted in the
yard at the side of the house. It was large enough for five or six of us to sit
on its back between its wings, and it would give us rides. I still remember the
bird’s white head against the blue sky as it took us high above the trees. I
remember its friendly, black eyes. I can still recall the exhilaration as we
flew through the air in the bright sun. Always the bird decided when to fly,
where to fly, and when to land. We could sense that the bird loved us and cared
for us–there was nothing frightening about the rides it gave us, but they were
very thrilling. As so often happens when six-year-olds are having fun, I heard
the voice of my mother calling me home for lunch. After eating, I dashed out of
the house and ran back up the street to resume our marvelous play with the
bird. But everything had changed. I found in my friends’ yard a crude, wooden
contraption, nailed together, vaguely in the shape of an airplane. My friends
were sitting on it, between the wings. It didn’t fly, of course, or even move.
I asked, “Where is the bird?” They looked sheepish and explained, “Don’t worry
about the bird. We couldn’t make it go where we wanted, or when we wanted, so
we built this. This is better,” they said, but I could tell they weren’t
convinced. And then the dream turned horrible. I looked down at two wooden
boards nailed together for a wing, and protruding from between them were the
ends of feathers, once white and beautiful, now brown and dead. They had
apparently nailed the boards to the bird. There was no longer a friend who
could fly us to the sky, just a pile of junk. Its only advantage over the bird
was that it was our junk, and we were its masters. The last scene I remember
was three kids sitting on the junk, pretending that we were happy and that it
was as good as it used to be.
As I learn about the presence and the power of the
Holy Spirit for today, and learn how to enjoy Jesus alive in me, it’s as though
the friendly bird has come back. He isn’t dead or gone after all. He can’t be
killed, and he can’t be chased away! He’s always there, waiting for us to get
tired of our pile of junk, to surrender our insistence on being in control, and
to climb on his back. The feathers protruding from the boards were only
unneeded feathers left behind, the huge bird wasn’t destroyed. He hasn’t
deserted the children. The exhilaration is back; life is thrilling. My purpose
in life now is to call to all the children, “Forget your junk! Climb on this
beautiful white bird! He’s safe! He’ll take us to the sky!” I don’t know by
what route the friendly bird is taking me to his Home, and I don’t care. I plan
just to enjoy the ride.
Recommended
Anything
by Andrew Murray (Absolute Surrender, The Full
Blessings of Pentecost...)
A
Hunger for Healing–The Twelve Steps as a Classic Model for Christian Spiritual Growth,by J. Keith Miller, Harper, San Francisco.
Birthright
–Christian, Do You Know Who You Are? by David C. Needham,
Multnomah,
Classic Christianity, by Bob George, Harvest House
Publishers, Inc.,
Grace Plus Nothing, by Jeff Harkin, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Growing in Grace, by Bob George, Harvest House Publishers,
Inc.,
Handbook to Happiness–A Guide to Victorious Living and
Effective Counseling, by Charles R. Solomon, Tyndale
House Publishers, Inc.,
Hope
in the Fast Lane–A New Look at Faith in a Compulsive World, by J. Keith Miller,
Harper Paperbacks (Originally published in a cloth edition as Sin: Overcoming
the Ultimate Deadly Addiction)
Let
Go, Let God, by John E. Keller,
Luther’s
Works, American Edition, Volume 26, “Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters
1-4,” Concordia Publishing House,
My
Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers (various publishers)
Romans:
The Law: Its Functions and Limits–Exposition of Chapters 7:1 - 8:4, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Zondervan
Publishing House, Grand Rapids.
Romans:
The New Man–Exposition of Chapter 6:1-23, D. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, Zondervan Publishing House,
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, J.P. Koehler,
Northwestern Publishing House,
The
Grace Awakening, by Charles R. Swindoll, Word
Publishing.
The Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W.
Tozer, Harper,
The
The Person & Work of the Holy Spirit, by R.A. Torrey, Zondervan,
The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother
Lawrence, Whitaker House,
The
Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, by C.F.W. Walther, Concordia Publishing House,
The Ragamuffin Gospel –Good News for the Bedraggled,
Beat-Up, and Burnt Out, by Brennan Manning, Multnomah,
The
Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen,
Bethany House Publishers,
Tyndale
New Testament Commentaries: Romans, F.F. Bruce,
Inter-Varsity Press, Eerdmans Publishing Company,
End
Notes
(For
those who are interested in how historic Lutheran theology presents these
truths)
_ednref1[1]
The doctrine of Christ-in-me appears in The Formula of Concord, Thorough
Declaration, III, Righteousness of Faith (Trig. 937,64 ): "Therefore we
unanimously reject and condemn...as contrary to God's Word... 6. That not God
dwells in the believers, but only the gifts of God."
The
doctrine is described by Francis Pieper in his Christian Dogmatics,
Vol. II, pp. 406-413. I supply some quotes for your
convenience, but please see his entire article in context:
Justification
effects the mysterious indwelling of the Holy Ghost and of the entire holy
Trinity in the believers (unio mystica).
a.
The unio mystica is
distinct from the general presence of God with all creatures....
b.
The unio mystica must not
be reduced to a mere influence of God or to the indwelling of divine gifts....
c.
It is not a pantheistic transformation of the substance of the Christians into
the substance of God....
d.
The doctrine of the mystic union is highly important both as a doctrine and for
the Christian life. There are such as regard it
lightly, but Scripture makes much use of it both to warn and to comfort us.
The
unio mystica is the result
of justification. To make it the basis of justification means to mix
sanctification into justification....
[from footnote] Luther: "After Paul had been converted,
he had the same flesh, the same voice and tongue which he had before. However,
his voice and tongue uttered no blasphemies, but spiritual and heavenly words,
to wit, thanksgiving and praise of God, which came of faith and the Holy Ghost.
So, then, I live in the flesh, but not after, or according to the flesh, but in
the faith of the Son of God. Hereby we may plainly see whence this spiritual
life comes, which the natural man can in no wise perceive. This life is in the
heart by faith, where after the flesh has been killed, Christ reigns with His
Holy Spirit, who now sees, hears, speaks, works,
suffers, and does all things in him, although the flesh does resist." (St.
L. IX:232)
Scripture,
furthermore, explicitly states that the manifestations of the new life, the
performance of good deeds, and the avoidance of sin are the result of faith in
the remission of sins earned by Christ.
....By
rejecting justification sola fide [by faith alone], a
man remains under the Law, and the Law cannot break the dominion of sin. In
fact, it increases sin. ...Since the Law is thus utterly unable to bring about
sanctification, God has replaced the old covenant of the Law with the new
covenant of the forgiveness of sins by faith without the deeds of the Law (Jer. 31:31 ff.) Faith in the Gospel produces sanctification.
Lex praescribit, evangelium inscribit [the Law
prescribes, the Gospel inscribes].
Let
us repeat it: The Law lacks the power to bring about its fulfillment, "in
that it was weak through the flesh" (
This
doctrine as it appears in the dogmaticians is
informatively sketched in The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, by Heinrich Schmid, Augsburg Publishing House,
Minneapolis, 1961, pages 480-486, The Mystical Union. Especially to the point
are these quotes:
The
passages John 14:23; 1 Cor. 6:15,17;
Eph. 5:30; 2 Pet. 1:4; Gal 3:27; 2:19,20, prove, moreover, that this union is
not merely figurative, but literal and actual, so that it cannot be described
otherwise than as the union of the substance of God with the substance of man,
in consequence of which God pours out the fullness of His gracious gifts upon
the regenerate (page 480).
This
union is characterized further as a "mystical union (because it is a great
mystery (Eph.
[2]
QUENSTEDT (III, 623): "The mystical union does
not consist merely in the harmony and tempering of the affections...but in a
true, real, literal, and most intimate union; for Christ, John 17:21, uses the
phrase, 'to be in some one,' which implies the real presence of the thing which
is said to be in, not figuratively, as a lover in the beloved. The mystical
union does not consist alone in the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in
believers. For when Christ says, John
[3]
HOLLAZ (932) defines: "The mystical union is the
spiritual conjunction of the triune God with justified man, by which He dwells
in him as in a consecrated temple by His special presence, and that, too,
substantial, and operates in the same by His gracious influence." QUEN.
(III, 622): "The mystical union is the real and most intimate conjunction
of the substance of the Holy Trinity and the God-man Christ with the substance
of believers, effected by God Himself through the Gospel, the Sacraments, and
faith, by which, through a special approximation of His essence, and by a
gracious operation, He is in them, just as also believers are in Him; that, by
a mutual and reciprocal immanence they may partake of His vivifying power and
all His mercies, become assured of the grace of God and eternal salvation, and
preserve unity in the faith and love with the other members of His mystical
body." (page 482) (Emphasis mine)
CALOV (X,
526) "The mystical union of Christ with the believer is a true and real
and most intimate conjunction of the divine and human nature of the theanthropic Christ with a regenerated man...so that Christ
constitutes a spiritual unit with the regenerated person, and operates in and
through him, and those things which the believer does or suffers He
appropriates to Himself, so that the man does not live, as to his spiritual and
divine life, of himself, but by the faith of the Son of God, until he is taken
to heaven." And he specifies, as the accompaniments and consequences of
the mystical union of believers with Christ, "A spiritual anointing; the
designation of Christians [the anointed] taken from this; the mystical espousal
with Christ. The mystical anointing is that by which the regenerate, having
been consecrated to the Holy Spirit by virtue of Christ's anointing, have been
furnished with His gifts as spiritual prophets, priests, and kings. The
espousal of Christ with believers is that by which He eternally marries Himself
to believers through faith, so that they become one spirit, and by His power
communicates to them, as to His spiritual bride, intimate and enduring love,
all His blessings and all His glory, so as finally to lead them to His home,
and dwell with them in His celestial and eternal kingdom." (pages 482-483) (Emphasis mine)
"The
essence of the subjects to be united are, on the one part, the divine substance
of the whole Trinity, 2 Pet. 1:4, and the substance of the human nature of
Christ, John 15:1,2,4; 1 Cor. 6:15-17; Eph. 5:30;
Gal. 2:19-20; on the other part, the substance of believers, as to body and
soul, 1 Cor. 6:15,19; Eph. 5:30" (page 483).
QUENSTEDT
(III, 619) proves the Mystical Union ..."(2) From
the indwelling in believers, Eph.
_ednref2[2] "It is completely self-evident that in this
case [of the fruit of the Spirit], too, no vainglory can result; for the life
of the Christian is the life of the Holy Ghost or of Christ (Gal.
_ednref3[3] For some reason, many Lutherans seem
uncomfortable with the concept of surrender. Although the word
"surrender" doesn't appear in our English versions of the Bible that
I know of, I believe the concept is inherent in Romans 6:15-19 when Paul speaks
of "offering ourselves... offer the parts of your body...." Also
Romans 12:1, "...Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing
to God–this is your spiritual act of worship." I see these verses as
describing the Christian way of life as one surrendered to God. And isn't the
making of that basic confession of the Christian: "Jesus is Lord" (Romans
10:9, 1 Corinthians 12:3), the surrendering of the lordship of our lives to
him? Also, I see the command to "deny (disown) yourself" and
"take up your cross daily" as surrendering. "Submit" would
be equivalent. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves
to God;" as also Hebrews 12:9, "How much more should we submit to the
Father of our spirits and live!" While there are many ways to express the
idea, I find that particular word, surrender, to be especially meaningful for
my life. In Luther's Morning Prayer we are taught to begin the day by
surrendering: "I pray Thee that Thou wouldst keep me this day also from
sin and every evil...for into Thy hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and
all things."
_ednref4[4] I hope we can make use of helpful teachings from
various writers without implying endorsement of everything they taught. Some
have expressed caution of Watchman Nee because he had a disciple, Witness Lee,
who founded some sort of cult. But remember, Luther had Carlstadt. Please limit
my approval of Watchman Nee, and all the other writers I quote who are not
apostles, to the quotes I include. In his book Christ Esteem, Don Matzat, a pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,
acknowledges his debt to Nee and refers to The Normal Christian Life as a
"classic" (page 51).
_ednref5[5] Concerning the uses of the law: The law is the
holy, immutable will of God for what we humans are to be and do. In the realm
of sanctification, it serves as a mirror and a guide. As a mirror it reveals
the works of the flesh to us so that we may acknowledge them to God in
repentance. As a guide it pictures for us what the new life of obedient service
to God involves. Outside of the law's uses in sanctification, it also has a usus politicus by which its
threats curb to some degree the coarse outbreak of sin in society. The use of
the law as curb has nothing whatever to do with Christian sanctification.
Actually, inclusion of the uses of the law are not
integral in a discussion of the mystical union or renovation. To recognize this
fact does not constitute antinomianism. The Antinomians "or assailants of
the Law are justly condemned, who abolish the preaching of the Law from the
Church, and wish sins to be reproved, and repentance and sorrow to be taught,
not from the Law, but from the Gospel" (Trig. 957,15). The practice of
"shaming with the gospel" (which I discuss later) is a way of using
the gospel as law, which is antinomianism, and which we must oppose.
In
the entire discussion of the Mystical Union and Renovation in Schmid the dogmaticians find no
occasion to refer to the law or its uses (Schmid,
pages 480-491). In Pieper's discussion of the Mystical Union (Christian Dogmatics, Vol. II, pp. 406-413) he mentions the law only
to say:
"The
Law cannot break the dominion of sin. In fact, it increases sin. ...The Law is
thus utterly unable to bring about sanctification."
I
find that many Christians are (in my estimation) overly afraid of slighting the
law. I believe it has something to do with thinking of Jesus more as a solution
to the problem of sin and death, to the neglect of knowing him also as a person
with whom to have a relationship (as Friend, Brother, Bridegroom, Shepherd...).
We need to offer people Jesus not only as the way to life, but as life. Heaven
is not just a nice place to escape sin and death and hell, it's where Jesus is.
Jesus is not just a utility. The gospel is not the message of how to get to
heaven only, but how to have a relationship with our Creator–what we were
created for.
When
Jesus is thus relegated to a rescuer only, we feel the need to use the law's
threats to keep reminding people of the problem for which Jesus is the
solution. If Jesus is a utility, we dare not let people forget his usefulness.
However, if the goal of salvation is a restored relationship with our Lord,
then we find that we love him for who he is, not just for what he can do for
us.
_ednref6[6] Please note: we do not accept the truth of a
doctrine because it "works." But the fact is that when God makes a
promise, it does work!
_ednref7[7]
I'm glad to see that it has been changed in Christian Worship, A Lutheran
Hymnal, #454, to "I gave my life for thee; Come give thyself to me."
_ednref8[8] Formula of Concord Art. VI, par. 5: "...the Law
cannot burden with its curse those who have been reconciled to God through
Christ; nor must it vex the regenerate with its coercion, because they have
pleasure in God's Law after the inner man." Paragraphs 9 and 24 of the
Formula must be interpreted in the light of paragraphs 3, 5, and 16 so that
they do not seem to justify misusing the law and abusing Christians. The
statement in par. 9 as translated by Tappert:
"the punishment of the law" is needed "to egg them on so that
they follow the Spirit of God," is translated more adequately in the Triglot: "...the truly believing...need...also
frequently punishments, that they may be roused [the old man is driven out of
them] and follow the Spirit of God." The bracketed explanatory note from
the Latin version is very helpful. The way the law promotes the following of
the Spirit is by each day demonstrating the inability of the flesh to obey.
Galatians 2:19: "For through the law I died to the law so that I might
live for God." This is further borne out by the parallel comment in par.
24: "...coerced to the obedience of Christ...also oftentimes by the club
of punishments and troubles, until the body of sin is entirely put off, and man
is perfectly renewed in the resurrection..." Am I correct in thinking that
the only obedience the Old Adam can render to Christ is to die? I'm sure, in
the light of par. 16, that the law cannot extort from the flesh (of believer or
unbeliever) God-pleasing obedience to Christ: "For as long as man is not
regenerate and [therefore] conducts himself according to the Law and does the
works because they are commanded thus, from fear of punishment or desire for
reward, he is still under the Law, and his works are called by St. Paul
properly works of the Law, for they are extorted by the Law, as those of
slaves; and these are saints after the order of Cain [that is,
hypocrites]." Am I right in thinking that the "punishments"
referred to in paragraphs 9 and 24 have in view not so much the preaching of
the law but primarily the kind of divinely imposed discipline described in
Hebrews 12:10-11?: "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they
thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his
holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on,
however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have
been trained by it."
I
find the Epitome, Art. VI, par. 3-5, very helpful in understanding the thought
behind FC VI: "...It is needful that the Law of the Lord always shine
before them... that the Old Adam also may not employ his own will, but may be
subdued against his will, not only by the admonition and threatening of the
Law, but also by punishments and blows, so that he may follow and surrender
himself captive to the Spirit...." (4) "Now, as regards the
distinction between the works of the Law and the fruits of the Spirit, we
believe, teach, and confess that the works which are done according to the Law
are and are called works of the Law as long as they are only extorted from man
by urging the punishment and threatening of God's wrath. (5) Fruits of the
Spirit, however, are the works which the Spirit of God who dwells in believers
works through the regenerate, and which are done by believers so far as they
are regenerate [spontaneously and freely], as though they knew of no command,
threat, or reward; for in this manner the children of God live in the Law of
God, which [mode of living] St. Paul in his epistles calls the Law of Christ
and the Law of the mind, Rom. 7,25; 8,7; Rom. 8,2; Gal. 6,2.
I
believe the Formula of Concord agrees that the way to short-circuit the
frustrating activity of the flesh is to stop functioning under the law. Par.
11ff: "But we must also explain distinctively what the Gospel does,
produces, and works towards the new obedience of believers, and what is the
office of the Law in this matter, as regards the good works of believers. (12)
For the Law says indeed that it is God's will and command that we should walk
in a new life, but it does not give the power and ability to begin and do it;
but the Holy Ghost, who is given and received, not through the Law, but through
the preaching of the Gospel, Gal. 3:14, renews the heart..." "...(17) But when man is born anew by the Spirit of
God, and liberated from the Law, that is, freed from this driver, and is led by
the Spirit of Christ, he lives according to the immutable will of God comprised
in the Law, and so far as he is born anew [Question: are there degrees of
regeneration or are we either regenerate or not? -RR], does everything from a
free, cheerful spirit; and these are called not properly works of the Law, but
works and fruits of the Spirit, or as St. Paul names it, the law of the mind
and the Law of Christ. For such men are no more under the Law, but under grace,
as St. Paul says, Rom. 8,2 [Rom. 7:23; 1 Cor.
9,21]."
_ednref9[9] I have a strong distaste for the word
"should," the subjunctive of shall. I think that in the ears of
contemporary Americans it waters down the law and sounds like God is laying vague
obligations upon us, not absolute demands. I always expect to hear a
"but" after "should." It was "through the law"
that Paul "died to the law" (Galatians
_ednref10[10] Formula of Concord Art. VI, par. 16, "For
as long as man is not regenerate and [therefore] conducts himself according to
the Law and does the works because they are commanded thus, from fear of
punishment or desire for reward, he is still under the Law, and his works are
called by St. Paul properly works of the Law, for they are extorted by the Law,
as those of slaves; and these are saints after the order of Cain [that is,
hypocrites]."
_ednref11[11] By way of illustration: It isn't okay for my
children to disobey me, but I love them even when they do. Knowing this makes
my children secure, happy and obedient. If they felt my love was conditional
they would become insecure, unhappy, and rebellious.
_ednref12[12] Hollaz says,
"...The regenerate man co-operates with God in the work of sanctification,
not by an equal action, but in subordination and dependence on the Holy Spirit,
because he works, not with native but with granted powers. This is inferred
from the words of the apostle, Phil. 2:12,13" (Schmid, page 491). Philippians 2:12-13: Therefore, my dear
friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more
in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
_ednref13[13] The Christian's individual personality is not
lost. Professor Koehler says (Gesetzlich Wesen, p. 19): "The spirit has not perchance evolved
out of the flesh, rather it is the new life
God-created. It is the life of the Holy Ghost, yea, the Holy Ghost himself in
us; and yet again not as though man's personality were
thereby destroyed. That would lead us into pantheism.
Koehler
says concerning Galatians 5:16-24 (Galatians, page 147):
What is meant here by "Spirit?" Some here
understand the Holy Spirit, the Third Person in the Godhead; others understand
the human spirit which is filled with the Holy Ghost. Understand it as you will,
you will in no case be able to think the thought through completely, and
therefore our clumsy reason will always be able to raise some objection against
either explanation. The interpretation of other Bible passages where the same
question arises, suffers likewise. So much is plain: now Paul is speaking of
the new life in the Christian. That is his life in so far as he is the person
in whom this life takes place. It is he who thinks and wills and acts. But at
the same time Scripture says just as plainly that it is the Holy Spirit,
indeed, that it is Christ who lives in the Christian and lives the life. If we
now read that the Christian is to walk in the Spirit, we also see how the
Christian's personality is distinguished from the Spirit. Therefore we need not
bristle when a commentator says that the Spirit here is the Holy Spirit, the
Third Person in the Godhead. Just as little is it objectionable when in Gal.
6:8 this Holy Ghost is looked upon as the field from which the harvest of
eternal life is gathered. At the same time it is also clear that in these
matters Scripture does not involve itself in subtle differentiations because
reason, which would like to see them made, could not grasp them anyway. [emphasis mine]
_ednref14[14] I've found it helpful in my own thinking to
distinguish between our identity (old man in Adam / new man in Christ) and our
natures (sinful/spiritual). The Christian still has two natures, flesh and
spirit, but we have only one identity: new creature in Christ. I think it is
very important for our growth in sanctification that we be clear about our
identity as Christians. Even though we still sin, "sinners" are not
who we are, we are "saints," we are "the righteous."