Chump Change Lawless Donkishness

Lutherans are Gospel people. Always gonna be Gospel people. We're Evangelical Catholics. We're Orthodox, but not Eastern, Catholic, but not Roman, Evangelical, but not Protestant.

We emphasize the Gospel to the point where a lot of folks outside of Lutheranism think we're antinomianians. Heck, there are some within Lutheranism who are antinomian and decry anyone else who dares exhort anyone over anything.

But let's not throw the baby out with the baptismal water!

It is good that we are focused on the Gospel and then...well, more Gospel. I would rather be labeled antinomian than a legalist. Chances are, I've correctly understood the Gospel then.

We're all about grace coming to us in Word and Sacrament. Because those drive everything for us. They give us Christ, who alone merits salvation at Calvary and through His rising from the dead. We preach that Christ alone saves us, apart from anything else. He gives us this one-sided monergistic saving work in His Word, given to us through preaching, absolution, water, bread, and wine. We keep the main thing the main thing.

Christianity is not about being a moral do-gooder.

But, let's not overreact to the unfortunate destruction of many churches by the foolishness of Pietism.

I'm not going to get into the minutiae of this "Great Sanctification Debate" as it was labelled some months ago. I understand the concern of some people within Lutheran circles of using the words "progressive sanctification." I get that.

Let's just say that I'm on board with men like Prs. Cooper and Surburg on this one. Neither one of them is teaching works righteousness. Neither one of them is saying that we need to do all sorts of introspective navel-gazing to determine if we really are a Christian. Don't believe me? Look at Pr. Cooper's blogs regarding Paul Washer. (http://justandsinner.blogspot.com) Neither of them are saying we are sanctified by the law. The law can't do that. These guys are Confessional Lutheran Book of Concord pastors, not Pietists. Many of the accusations against them were false and misguided. Both of them are faithful Lutheran Gospel men. Both of them are all about the Gospel. And I'm not a pastor, so I'm definitely not looking to stir up an old debate.

I am of the opinion that the Confessions support them in a very solid way, however.

What do our confessions say?

Epitome, VI, 1: Since the Law was given to men for three reasons: first, that thereby outward discipline might be maintained against wild, disobedient men [and that wild and intractable men might be restrained, as though by certain bars]; secondly, that men thereby may be led to the knowledge of their sins; thirdly, that after they are regenerate and [much of] the flesh notwithstanding cleaves to them, they might on this account have a fixed rule according to which they are to regulate and direct their whole life, a dissension has occurred between some few theologians concerning the third use of the Law, namely, whether it is to be urged or not upon regenerate Christians. The one side has said, Yea; the other, Nay.

Epitome VI, 3: We believe, teach, and confess that the preaching of the Law is to be urged with diligence, not only upon the unbelieving and impenitent, but also upon true believers, who are truly converted, regenerate, and justified by faith.

Epitome VI, 8: Accordingly, we reject as a dogma and error injurious to, and conflicting with, Christian discipline and true godliness the teaching that the Law in the above-mentioned way and degree is not to be urged upon Christians and true believers, but only upon unbelievers, non-Christians, and the impenitent.

Epitome - Third Use

Solid Declaration VI, 1-5: Since the Law of God is useful, 1. not only to the end that external discipline and decency are maintained by it against wild, disobedient men; 2. likewise, that through it men are brought to a knowledge of their sins; 3. but also that, when they have been born anew by the Spirit of God, converted to the Lord, and thus the veil of Moses has been lifted from them, they live and walk in the law, a dissension has occurred between some few theologians concerning this third and last use of the Law.

For the one side taught and maintained that the regenerate do not learn the new obedience, or in what good works they ought to walk, from the Law, and that this teaching [concerning good works] is not to be urged thence [from the law], because they have been made free by the Son of God, have become the temples of His Spirit, and therefore do freely of themselves what God requires of them, by the prompting and impulse of the Holy Ghost, just as the sun of itself, without any [foreign] impulse, completes its ordinary course.

Over against this the other side taught: Although the truly believing are verily moved by God's Spirit, and thus, according to the inner man, do God's will from a free spirit, yet it is just the Holy Ghost who uses the written law for instruction with them, by which the truly believing also learn to serve God, not according to their own thoughts, but according to His written Law and Word, which is a sure rule and standard of a godly life and walk, how to order it in accordance with the eternal and immutable will of God.

For the explanation and final settlement of this dissent we unanimously believe, teach, and confess that although the truly believing and truly converted to God and justified Christians are liberated and made free from the curse of the Law, yet they should daily exercise themselves in the Law of the Lord, as it is written, Ps. 1:2;119:1: Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law doth he meditate day and night. For the Law is a mirror in which the will of God, and what pleases Him, are exactly portrayed, and which should [therefore] be constantly held up to the believers and be diligently urged upon them without ceasing.

For although the Law is not made for a righteous man, as the apostle testifies 1 Tim. 1:9, but for the unrighteous, yet this is not to be understood in the bare meaning, that the justified are to live without law. For the Law of God has been written in their heart, and also to the first man immediately after his creation a law was given according to which he was to conduct himself. But the meaning of St. Paul is that 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.

Solid Declaration - Third Use

So, in short, I don't need to pontificate much here. The Lutheran Confessions are pretty clear. We affirm the third use of the law. We are not antinomians. We affirm the new obedience of the believer. We affirm that the life of a Christian should be one of repentance. (Luther's first thesis, anyone?) As our Confessions say, the Law is for the believer too.

In a very big way, I am glad that we get called antinomian sometimes because we are all about the Gospel given in Word and Sacrament. It's good and proper to be all about the Gospel. But let's stop overreacting to the grievous error of Pietism. Our Confessions are clear, the believer is also to live a life of repentance and walk in obedience to Christ. St. Paul, St. John, and St. Peter all exhort Christians repeatedly in Scripture. Yes, of course the Gospel is center, the Spirit is the driving agent behind this all, and the Word and Sacrament ministry is at the fore. But they still don't stop with exhortation.

Something about a baby and some water. Or something.