No “real presence” means something else must be present…

Posted on January 4, 2010 by theoldadam

                                                                                                     IMG_4372 by edirect3

…and that something else is your seriousness, your efforts, your decision, your good works, yada, yada, yada.

The Roman Church believes in the real presence but they are into the aforementioned pious activities, as well.

That’s their problem.

They believe in more than Christ alone, too.

So much of Christianity does. Lutheranism, the type that Luther espoused, rests in Christ and Him alone. This is radical. Even many Lutherans today do not accept it. There is often the call for a bit of the self in the equation. It might just be one little bit, but that is one little bit too much. You might as well tell Jesus to scoot over a smidgen and make some room on that cross for you.

What then do you end up with? ‘The God project’…that’s what.

You end up with people who look down their noses at real sinners. People who are just  a little better than everyone else. You end up with people in churches who walk alike, who talk alike, who carry similar looking bibles with similarly highlighted passages that place the onus back on the sinner. You get people who place the believer at the center and curve everything back in on him/her. You get people who are just playing a ‘religious game’. You get phonies.

You get Roman Catholicism dressed up in Baptist (non-demon) garb. The pure sweet gospel of the forgiveness of sins and the total justification and sanctification of the sinner for the sake of Jesus Christ,  just goes away. And now it all revolves around you. It’s sickening really. It’s a trick of the devil. It’s antithetic to everything the gospel is.

There’s no humility in that kind of a theology. There’s no ongoing repentance there.There’s no freedom there. There’s only the theology of glory. Becoming a better Christian becomes the goal. What does that mean?  It’s now all about YOU…that’s what that means. You know all the right Christian words, but in reality you have become a Jew. You are living under the law, not under grace.

One cannot become a better Christian than he/she is at the moment that they were baptized. (Baptized by God, by water and the Word) Please, save the baptism of the Spirit talk…that’s what water Baptism IS!!!

I know that talk like this drives many of you crazy. You hate it when people place everything upon the Lord. “We’ll, we just can’t live anyway we want!”  As if you don’t anyway. How often do you really break free from your comfort zone? How often do you really think of the neighbor, before yourself? If you’re anything at all like me, and I suspect that you are…the answer is ‘not too often’.

I would like some of you out there to put your emotions aside for a moment, and think about what I have said. Are you resting in Him? Or are you engaged in a bit of the God project yourself? I do (engage in it) from time to time when I’m at my worst. But I once again return to my Baptism, I receive Body and Blood of our Dear Lord, I hear the Word of the Law which puts an end to me, and I am once again led to repentance and new life in the hearing of His promises.

Am I better than you? Are Lutherans better than you?  Come on…you know me better than that. We aren’t better… but we know who and what we are. We know what our deeds, our seriousness, our decisions account for…not much… when it comes to the life of faith in our Dear Lord Jesus.

I hope you will take this as I intend it for you.

I intend it only as food for thought, that you might place the emphasis in your Christian life on the Lord and take the emphasis off of yourself, where it does not belong.

Then, in the freedom that flows from a greater trust in Christ Jesus, go and live in that freedom to the benefit of others and a more secure understanding of what it means to be one of His own, one of His adopted children, who do not need to perform at a certain level of faithfulness in order to remain in the family.

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Please feel free to take issue with me.

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Filed under: Freedom | 95 Comments »

Do you look good on wood?

Posted on October 3, 2009 by theoldadam

PIC00001.JPG by PeterVogelPhoto

Each and every person on this planet faces their own cross.

We will either go to it in this life, or the next.

When I see a cross, that is the first thing I am reminded of…that I will not escape it. The world will have it’s way with me unto the grave.

But that grave will not hold me. Death’s power, it’s sting, is no longer permanent thanks to that very same cross.

Romans 6:3 -11

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?   4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.   5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.   7 For he who has died is freed from sin.   8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.   9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.   10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.   11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In my baptism, God has already put me to death…along with Christ Jesus.

But He has raised me from the dead, also…along with Christ Jesus.

This is His promise.

Maybe our promises aren’t always fulfilled, but God never breaks His promises.

That is something we can count on.

And if that is not enough for us, He reinforces that promise and works in us His good and gracious will, giving us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation each time we ingest His body and blood, and each time we hear His Word preached or taught. And that is apart from anything that we do, say, feel, or think.

No, it’s not magic. 

It is the power of God through the gospel for all who have faith.  The very same faith that He gave us when we were dead in our sins and trespasses.

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Does this post give you trouble?  Do you feel uneasy with it?

Or do you feel relief?  Freedom?  The joy of a new life…yet given to you once again?

 

 

 

Filed under: Baptism, Death, Freedom, The Gospel | 6 Comments »

Becoming more ‘Jesus-like’

Posted on June 12, 2009 by theoldadam

(originally posted May 10th, 2008)

Some people love the religion game. They love to talk a real good game , but when it comes right down to it, they are just like the rest of us…incapable of being ‘Jesus-like for more than a minute or two…if that’s even possible.

How can this be? The Bible surely tells us in Jesus’ own words what He expects from us. And the Bible is replete with examples of Jesus’ own works. So there it is; a road map clearly drawn. Open and follow.  “What must I do to inherit eternal life”, the lawyer asked Jesus,  Jesus answered, “What does the law say?”( There it is…the first part of the Law/Gospel paradigm) The lawyer answered, “You shall love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And Je sus said to him, “You have answered rightly, do this and you shall live.”

You want to be more Jesus-like?  There it is. “Go and do, and you shall live.”

What does doing what Jesus said we need to do to live have to do with being more Jesus-like? Everything! Jesus was all about loving, and being faithful to the Father with everything He had , and loving everyone else as Himself. You want to be Jesus-like…then do that. That’s all. It’s not complicated. You don’t need 3 Spiritual advisors and a dozen different books to figure it out. You don’t need to pour over the scriptures looking for clues and hidden tidbits in obscure passages for the divine secrets that will reveal the formula. There is one formula. ” Go and do”.

We just love that, don’t we? Give me a list and let me go. I can start knockin’ ’em down and checkin’ ’em off. ‘I’m on my way! Better and better each day!’

“Well, God would never have told us to do something if we didn’t have the ability to do it!”

Pelagius said the same thing. He was a 4th century monk who denied the doctrine of original sin and said that we carry within ourselves the goodness required to do God’s Law.

Even though Pelagius’ teachings were branded by the early Church as heretical, they’re still alive and well today, living in the hearts and minds of many Christians, and as practical doctrine in many Christian churches.

‘A little bit of God and a little bit of me.’

“So what’s with all that ‘Sermon on the Mount’ language that Jesus used, giving us a list of to-do’s and to-don’ts?”

Jesus was re-presenting the Law of God, just as Moses had done earlier, but this time Jesus left us no wiggle room. He laid down the law and He laid it down hard. “If you even look at a woman in that way…” “Do not worry…” “If your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out” “Your righteousness must exceed  that of the scribes and Pharisees to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”

“OK…that’s a pretty good starter list…let me get to work on it.”   What!   You can’t even begin to work on it. You are done…as I am done. The things on that list that Jesus used are not meant to spur you to improvement…they are meant to drive you to despair…to kill you off to your own religious project…to stop you from thinking that you’ve ever got a shot at becoming what the law demands. 

Nope. We still want to become more like God. We still think that we can muster up just enough goodness to make a difference.  “I want to become more Jesus-like if it kills me!”

In explaining the first article of the Apostle’s Creed in the small catechism, Luther writes that we “owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.”

Of course we do! The law is still in place. But Luther was no fool. He realized that while what he said is true, we ought do those things, he also realized that we cannot do those things with the pure hearts and untainted motives that God requires of us.

So Luther, understanding our core problem, writes this in explaining the third article of the Apostle’s Creed,  “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith…”

There is the gospel side of the Law/Gospel paradigm.

The law always accuses, and the gospel always gives life; frees us of the accusation.

You want to be more Jesus-like? Then jump off the WWJD bandwagon and live in the freedom that He has won for you on the cross and in your baptism, and that He gives to you in the preached Word, and whenever the Sacrament of the Altar is offered.

Let God be God, and you be you. Isn’t that enough, anyway?

    – Steve Martin

Filed under: Freedom, Re-run | 29 Comments »

Two kinds of People

Posted on October 29, 2008 by theoldadam

I have a theory that there are basically two kinds of people. Those that want freedom and those that want security. FREEDOM

When the Israelites were taken out of Egypt, many wanted to go back. They wanted what they were used to, certain foods, certain housing, a certain routine. With freedom there is a lack of certainty. It’s a bit scary at times. The outcome is not guaranteed. But you are free to make your own decisions. You are not subject to the decisions of another.

This seems to be a choice that many will make in the upcoming election. More security, less decisions, less freedom.  More food, more healthcare, more housing, less choice, less freedom. You can’t have it all. If you want security, someone has to provide it. That someone will call the shots…not you. If you want more freedom, then you are on your own to a greater extent. The old safety net system, family, friends, church, will still be there, but not so much the State. A bit more risky, but more freedom is retained.

In the Church, there are similar choices. One can choose freedom or one can choose the security of the law.

If you are not quite comfortable with what Christ Jesus has promised for you, if that seems just a bit too much to chance without adding to it a little bit of your effort, then gravitate towards the law. The law will inform you, demand from you, everything that you need be doing to be righteous before a Holy and just God. It’s all there. Just add your performance.

If you are willing to take a chance, and trust the promises of Christ Jesus, in what He has done for you on the cross and what He has promised you in your baptism, then you don’t need the law to prove how righteous you are. Someone (Christ Jesus) has already declared you to be free and righteous already…just because.  Just because He said so.

Is it easy to be free? No it’s not. There are responsibilities, there is accountability. And we often fail. The difference is that in society..we pay a price for that failure. With faith in Jesus…He has already paid the price for our failure. He forgives us our sins.

For me, since I have tasted the true freedom that Christ Jesus has won for me, there will never be any going back to the security of the law…to what ‘I do’.  Never.  Oh, I might be tempted to. The old Adam in me (the State…the state of sinfulness!) wants me to go back to Egypt (the law) everyday! The old Adam is constantly telling me that Christ Jesus couldn’t possibly forgive me all my sins. I must get busy and show God just how serious I am about this righteousness project.

The fact of the matter is that I am not serious about showing God how much I love Him, or how much I can be faithful to Him. The fact of the matter is that I don’t want Him (very much). The fact of the matter is that He knows this and that He has done something about it… in the person of His Son, Christ Jesus.

So, I’ll take the freedom that Christ Jesus has won for me, and I’ll leave the trip back to Egypt (the law) for those that ‘can’t handle the truth’ ( please don’t try and force me to go back with you ). And I’ll pray that someday the law will finish it’s job and kill the slave to sin, that out of the sweet, forgiving sound of the gospel, the new man or woman might be born anew to a life of trust and freedom…in our Lord Christ Jesus.

Vote for whom you will. But never give up the freedom won for you on the cross and promised you in your baptism.

Filed under: Freedom | 13 Comments »

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