Full Text for Confessions 1- Volume 48 - How does the Apology help us preserve the comfort afforded by the proclamation of the righteousness of faith alone so as not to deny the value or necessity of good works? (Video)

ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CUE NET CONFESSIONS CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATION NETWORK CONFESSION 1 QUESTION 48 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 3238 Rose Street Franklin Park, IL 60131 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> How does the Apology help us preserve the comfort afforded by the proclamation of the righteousness of faith alone so as not to deny the value or necessity of good works? >>DR. CHARLES P. ARAND: Okay. The two kinds of righteousness are not alternatives between which we must choose as I think Melanchthon vowed his opponents as doing rather the two kinds of righteousness are two simultaneous dimensions of human identity which serve different purposes. And for which reason must be kept distinct. In fact, only by distinguishing them can integrity of each of them be maintained. In Luther's great Confession of 1528, which was wrote as a last will and testament, Luther expressed this with striking clarity by declaring to be holy and to be saved are two entirely different things end quote. We are saved through Christ alone but we are made holy both through faith and through these defined foundations or our vocations of everyday living. *Gerald Ebling and 20th century theologian expressed it well when he wrote that it is only by recovering a proper understanding of justification I would say the proper distinction between two kinds of righteousness that truly lets creation be creation and redemption be redemption. By confusing the two, Melanchthon thought that his opponents, in fact, did damage to both or I should put it more strongly undermined and destroyed the integrity of each. Well, how do we then maintain the integrity of the passive righteousness of faith in such a way that it provides sinners with the comfort that is theirs in Jesus Christ? Well, both Lutheran minds can agree that the first and most important thing that christians must do is that they must learn to ignore the law of God. Isn't that something? In other words, when it comes to righteous in the eyes of God, the law, no matter how valuable it is for human living, for life within the human community, and no matter how much it preserves and protects and promotes life within the human community, the law only hinders us when it comes to the righteous of God. Luther's treatments particularly in his disputation with doctrine of man and his disputation on justification highlight this kind of paradox tremendously. So when it comes to righteous in the eyes of God we must seek a righteousness beyond the law and indeed, ignore the law. Nothing is -- knowing the law I suspect is extremely counter -- ignoring the law I suspect is extremely counter-intuitive for a human being it runs counter to our entire human experience within this world. Works according to the law, like I say, contribute to the well being of the wider society by them we can attain a civil righteous, we can attain a good credit rating. We are regarded as good parents and spouses in faith and ignoring the law within the wider world leads to trouble. But the counter intuitive character of passive righteous of faith alone does not explain why human beings consistently and continually seek to be justified before God by virtue of their works. Now, this is really the Reformers turn to the doctrine of original sin, to explain why it is that the opinion of the law clings to our hearts. Luther puts it bluntly. Human nature is corrupt and blinded by the blemish of original sin. It is not evil to imagine or conceive the justification above or beyond works. Why? Because in the fall we became and sought our independence from God. Having fallen into that independence I suppose one could say that there is no one else and nothing else to rely upon except ourselves and our works. In other words, for the Reformers, human beings were not created to be independent from God. But definition, we are depend end contingent beings. What do we have that we have not received? We depend on the air we breathe the water we drink the food we eat for life. We take these away and we die. That is to say as human beings we are originally created, that we were created as dependent creatures who receive and live from the gifts of God. The fall into sin then was a fall from faith into unfaith. It was a refusal to receive God's gifts, a desire to be autonomous and self determining and independent and self sufficient. Having become that, one has no one and nothing else to rely upon except one's own works and one's own achievement. With this diagnosis of the human condition, Melanchthon stresses very strongly then that the human reason not only became dimmed in the fall, it became blinded. And the human will was not simply weakened in the fall. It became enslaved to sin. And yet even though human beings have a little vestige of the knowledge of God or awareness of God as Augusta indicated that thou has made us for thyself and also rested until we find rest with you, oh, Lord well, even though they have that knowledge, they turn that knowledge of God whether it's actual knowledge of God even the review knowledge of God, they turn that knowledge of God into an idol. That is the human heart becomes a perpetual factory of idols fabricating idols on our own terms that is idols from whom we seek approval by what we do or what we accomplish. Now, that's not what he applies to pagans. Indeed, when they came to the medieval theology, Melanchthon will argue quite strongly as Luther himself did that people took the knowledge of God, followed the Holy Spirit and turned God into an idol you miss in a striking fashion and they worshiped God as an idol. What does that mean? They sought to rest heaven from God by means of what they accomplished by means of their works. In other words, they made God work on their own terms. They sought to put God into their own debt. Well, this is where the distinction of law and Gospel come into play. Because such a person, such a fallen creature, cannot be reformed. Such a fallen creature must be killed. And so law and Gospel as the works of God killing and making alive become the means by which God kills the old Adam within us, kills the old creature, and then creates a new heart of faith that receives the gifts of God. This becomes the particular burden of Article 12 of the Apology where you'll find this stressed very strongly and consistently. And this has become in many respects the genius of Lutheran theology for the last 500 years. The distinction of law and Gospel provides sinners with comfort in the eyes of God by we might say the law providing us with a diagnosis that renders us impotent and helpless in the eyes of God. Be sure when you read the Apology you'll note whenever Melanchthon stresses the law of God in revealing sin he's not talking about the second table of the law he stresses -- he points they consistently miss the first commandment of the law, namely that they didn't consider such things as ignoring God, getting inpatient when God doesn't answer prayers as quickly as we want, grumbling against God's acts or inaction. They would consider that as sin or going to the very core of what sin is all about. So the law then becomes a diagnostic tool whereby it reveals our sin. I might use the analogy of about ten years ago when I was playing soccer with some students I went to kick the ball into the goal the first year student who was playing goalie dived to block the goal and instead landed on my leg. And I Thought I had a Charlie horse block the ball -- or a bruise. And it really hurt so I hobbled about 200 yards down to the field house. I put some ice on it. And the pain didn't go away after about an hour so I called my wife she came in and took one look at it and said you're going to the hospital I said no I've got class tonight wrap it up I'll be fine. She went out and got two rather large burly looking men and said you're going to the hospital I went to the hospital they took some X-rays. And they said you fractured your knee in three places you are having surgery tomorrow with I think four pins inserted. Once I saw the X-ray, I said okay I Got a problem. In a similar way, the law diagnoses the first commandment idolatry of -- of a heart or diagnosis of the hearth is a factory of idols you might say. Once we are laid low, demolished annihilated the Gospel comes in to revive us and make us alive by proclaiming their righteousness of Christ, the benefits of Christ given to us in the Gospel. Now, this is the critical thing that the Gospel is not just simply the story about Christ but the purpose of Christ's life namely for the forgiveness of sin es. You see Melanchthon doing this in paragraphs 48 to 60 of Apology 4. But note the Gospel is not simply a word of information. For the Reformers and the Gospel does what it speaks about. The Gospel gives that about which it speaks. It accomplishes that about which it speaks. So it's a performative work. Now, here is where we get into the issue of what some might call forensic justification. Very often Lutherans are accused of having to view justification that says God says you're righteous but we all know you're not as if it's illegal fiction. As if it's simply a way of -- as if it was simply a veneer. He says we are but we know we're really not. Well, my colleague Jim *Vellick has an analogy that I think is very helpful to illustrate how the Gospel creates a new reality. It's an analogy derived from baseball. A few years ago the St. Louis Cardinals had a home run hitter on their roster by the name of mark McGuire. Mark McGuire hit probably as many home runs as he hit singles. He was not a particularly fast runner on the bases but if you can imagine for a moment, McGuire hit a single he's standing on first base for whatever reason he gets it in his head that he's going to try to steal second base. The pitcher throws the ball to home plate. McGuire Breaks for second the catcher received the ball, throws it to the shortstop the shortstop tags McGuire out three feet before he touches the base and the umpire yells safe. Now what happens? Assuming it's a home game you're going to have a riot. What happens? McGuire gets up and stands on second base. Why? Because the umpire's word created the reality. He really is Safe. It goes into the record books as a stolen base. No matter how many times the instant replay shows that he was out, the reality is, he is safe. Similarly for us. No matter how many times we may replay for ourselves an instant replay of our lives and our sin, the fact of the matter is, we are righteous. We really are. God's word creates a new reality. And for that reason, faith clings to that external word. It change to the word that is outside of us rather than the works that are inside of us. It clings to the external word because that word does what it says. And there in lies the comfort of the Gospel for sinners and therein we learn to ignore the law. Now, one last illustration. My colleague, *Bob Corwith, like's to tell this story. And it goes to our distinction of Gabriel Bell and *William Auckman. Three men one time appeared before saint Peter at heaven's gate. Thomas Aquinas and Gabriel Bell and Martin Luther. Peter goes up to Thomas Aquinas and says why should I let you into heaven. Thomas pulls behind him a large sack and says look at all of these works that I have performed with the assistance of God's grace. Peter then goes onto Gabriel Bell and says why should I let you into God's heaven? He then pulls out a large sack of works and says look at all these works that I performed without the assistance of God's grace. Peter moves onto Martin Luther and says why should I let you into God's heaven Martin Luther pulls out a document from his vest pocket and hands it to Peter and says here is my birth certificate. Peter received it and says that's nice. Where are all your works. And Luther goes, oh, I thought I was supposed to leave those behind on earth. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***