MenuThe Reformation: What Does it Mean?
Have you ever seen a 4-year old throw a temper tantrum in the cereal aisle? Imagine a boy screaming and throwing himself on the floor to try to get his way — to get Mom to buy Count Chocula super-sugary, extra-chocolaty cereal instead of raisin bran. When Mom picks him up, he even beats Mom’s face in rebellion. Yet despite his misbehavior, she looks on him with love. She does her best for him even if he may not “want” it.
Suppose then, as soon as they get to the parking lot, he runs away from Mom, right into the path of an oncoming car. She dives into the path of the car to push him to safety, even at the cost of her own life. That love in the mother’s heart, given freely when her son has done nothing to deserve it, is GRACE.
When Lutherans talk about God’s “GRACE”, that’s the kind of love we mean: how God looks upon us with favor and love in His heart, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, even when we actively rebel against Him and don’t deserve it. We all rebel against God. We all want our Count Chocula.
When Lutherans say, “FOR CHRIST’S SAKE”, we mean God the Father declares us righteous in His sight solely on account of what Jesus Christ has done for us in taking on human flesh, suffering and dying on a cross, enduring the condemnation that we deserved to atone for our sins, and rising again from the dead. Our salvation depends totally on Him, not on anything that we can do. The guilt of our sin was put on Christ. By what He has done, the Father’s wrath is diverted from us. “…Christ was given for this very purpose: that on account of him the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, who produces in us a new and eternal life and also eternal righteousness, may be given to us.”
When we say “GOSPEL”, we mean the good news of Christ’s story, coupled with His promise to us. Christ’s story is that, even while we humans were in full rebellion against our Creator, the Father still loved us so much that He sent His Son into our evil world to become a human being, Jesus. Jesus suffered torture and death on a cross to make satisfaction for our rebellion. He promises us that if we only believe and trust in Christ, for Jesus’s sake the Father will forgive our sins, resurrect us from death, and give us eternal life in unity with Him. Most importantly, His Gospel promise is for you.
When we say “FAITH”, we mean that one both 1) knows the story of Jesus Christ (his birth, suffering, death and resurrection) and 2) embraces the promise of God in which the forgiveness of sins is showered upon us freely for Christ’s sake. Faith is not a “decision.” It is simply believing in, desiring, and receiving the offered promise of forgiveness of sins and justification. An individual who believes that his sins are forgiven on account of Christ receives the forgiveness of sins and is JUSTIFIED.
When we say “JUSTIFIED”, we mean that when the Father, in His GRACE, declares us to be righteous in His sight. He pronounces us “not guilty.” He promises that all our sins are forgiven on account of Christ. When the Holy Spirit works in us to embrace this promise, we are transformed by that faith. We experience a new reality and a new life in which we are no longer enemies of God. It shapes the way we see God, ourselves in relation to God, and ourselves in relation to all of His creation, including our fellow human beings.
When we say “GOOD WORKS”, we mean our own efforts to do things that could be seen as following God’s law, and thereby “earning” (in our minds) some favor with God. Our error is not in the doing of good works – our neighbor needs them, in fact. Our error is our sinful tendency to rely on our doing of such works, which is relying on ourselves rather than relying totally on Christ. We cannot think our way to God. We cannot will our way to God. We cannot feel our way to God. It is only when we finally, totally, give up on our own efforts and depend solely on what He did for us on the cross that we are treating Him as we ought. We can only do what God commands when we have FAITH in Him and in His promises through the Holy Spirit. Our works are only “good” when done as a response in faith and love for what God has done.
So… the little boy grows into manhood and one day he’s shopping for groceries for his young family. He pauses for a long time in the cereal aisle. He stares, transfixed, at the raisin bran, right next to the Count Chocula. He picks up a box of raisin bran – not because his mom once told him to… not because he feels guilty about having once run away from his mom in the parking lot. But tears run down his cheeks as he thinks about how much his mom loved him. Silently, he puts a box of cereal in his cart. When he thinks of his mother’s love, he just cannot NOT buy the raisin bran.
~Pastor Nickel
