Is
Sanctification Missouri's Weakness? This
pastor asks our Synod some hard questions I
am reminded of our Lord’s words in Luke 6:46, that
calling him “Lord” must be more than a
ceremonial habit. It must be our personal obedience to DO
what he says. In his commentary on Galatians, Martin
Luther emphasized sanctification as supernatural
spiritual life which expresses its vital power in loving
service to God and man. Faith is not idle but is occupied
and exercised in working through love. In
our Synod sanctification has often been dissolved into a
correct delivery of justification. The implication is
that if pastors deliver the Word and Sacraments, that
will cause submission to the will of God for holy
living. And it will do that – even among the
ritualistic and formal in Christendom. But there is so
much more; there must be increasingly visible
results. And they are not optional (1 Thess. 4:3-8). It
is with such visible Christianity that our Synod
is having problems. The
Biblical pattern is that the Word (and again the Word in
“the Sacraments”) empowers our conscious
willing to “be holy in all our behavior.”
And that is the Holy Spirit’s work: “the
Holy Spirit bears witness to us, saying . . . I will put
my laws upon their minds” (Heb. 10:16). Even the
Confessions use the word “cooperate”
when describing our conscious and active concurrence
with the Holy Spirit in our sanctification (FCII, 65,66). When
we took our ordination vow, we promised God to “convince,
rebuke, exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2), actually to “appeal”
(“parakaleo”). Appeal to what? The
beautiful appeal in Heb. 10:23 to “hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering, because He Who
promised is faithful,” should be a tremendous
reminder that “the New Testament church never
knew any contrast between a ‘static' and a ‘dynamic’
confession” (Fritz Rienecker), that their
“confession” was not an enshrined orthodoxy
upon which they drew, but always and immediately the Word
that was put into action. The
authority of Scripture is irrelevant, unless we obey it.
Almighty God has not subjected His Word to human language
for our categorization (“objective validity” or
“ontological relevance”). He has given it for
our re-birth (1 Pet. 1:23) and renewal (1 Pet. 1:15-2:3).
I was so moved by St. Paul’s statement (Gal. 6:15),
that when you have life in Christ Jesus, neither orthodox
church membership means anything, nor its lack. “What
counts is a new creation. And to as many as take their
stand according to this rule, peace be upon them and
mercy, upon the people
of God.” I
think our Synod’s disregard for sanctification may
also explain its disregard for the Holy Spirit’s
gifting. Synod doesn’t need the Holy Spirit, because
it has “programs, resources, and materials.”
The realm of “good works,” considered a
secondary and almost automatic function of justification,
is taken care of by means of “workshops” and
the “enabling” of an expanding staff of
District and Synod “specialists.” Just compare
Acts 4:31 to a District evangelism workshop. Our
Synod seems stalled at the first half of Romans 10:10.
And it refuses to acknowledge that no amount of orthodoxy
and training will ever bring it close to the living
confession of the New Testament church – which is
PROMISED by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). If anyone says
that “we do not need to look for special signs
and wonders . . .” (President’s Newsletter,
Feb. 1995, Reporter) he is flatly contradicting Scripture
in Heb. 2:4 which (also according to the best available
Greek exegesis) promises an ongoing perceptible
power. When
I ask many faithful Missouri Synod Lutherans, “Do
you hear from the pulpits and programs of our church a
call for holy living; do you see in our church a people
‘zealous for good works’ and eager to witness
for Jesus?” the answer is often a thoughtful “No.”
I fear that the lump of our dear old Synod does not
want to be leavened. Rev.
Horst W. Jordan 335
High St. Manawa,
WI 54949 uena@netnet.net |