Catholics are fond of quoting Luther’s pejorative characterization of James as a “right strawy epistle.” And I have to say that Lutheran epologists like Edward Reiss seem to play right into the stereotype.
How representative is he of Lutheranism in general? If Lutherans take the position that it’s inherently wrong for Christians to ever examine the “quality” of their faith, then do they really have any room in their theological system for Jas 2? Or do they really have a canon within a canon–wherein they pay lipservice to the inspiration of James while, in practice, James is a dead letter in Lutheran theology?
What I find odd is their distate for the predestinarian flavorings of Calvinism, yet Bondage of the Will is as predestinarian as anything AW Pink ever wrote. Shouldn't their ideas of determinism bear some sort of relevance to what Luther believed?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make sense to me that they or anyone for that matter, should "carry" a dead letter around!
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should see it is rather a part of the Living Letters given to edify and nourish the Church?
But, in some cases, it is not until God salts the oats that the mules will drink the water they have so graciously been led too!
It is my recollection that Bro. Martin did come around and begin drinking the water from that well?
I know for myself that the first time I read the book of Exodus, I wanted to cut it out of the Bible because those miracles made an unbeliever out of me! It took some time before it did sink in that with God, all things are possible while with man, nothing is in putting over our soul to Everlasting Joy and Gladness!
It's all a matter of emphasis.
ReplyDeleteThere will (of course) be good works in the life of the believer.
But since there is no such a thing as "a Christian good work", no one will be able to tell the works of a Christian apart from those of an unbeliever.
And since no one knows the heart (and therefore the motive), no one but God Himself really can know.
To place an emphasis on works, or feelings, is to play into the hands of the devil (St. paul reminds us that the devil can come "all dressed up as an angel of light" - did he not?)
That is why Lutherans rely on nothing other than the works that God does (has done, is doing) ...for us.
The Holy Spirit is the one who inspires good works. No goading of the law will do that, and filthy rags will be the fruit of any such efforts on our part.
There is never assurance when you are left to examining yourself.
This IS my body. this IS my blood, I AM Baptized. This is where I receive my comfort and my assurance...because it comes from outside of me. To me. From God. And that is somethimg that I can trust in...absolutely.
THEOLDADAM SAID:
ReplyDelete“It's all a matter of emphasis.”
Really? Edward Reiss seems to think it’s a matter of principle.
“But since there is no such a thing as ‘a Christian good work’, no one will be able to tell the works of a Christian apart from those of an unbeliever.”
Which fails to draw an elementary distinction between what we can know about ourselves and what we can know about a second party.
“And since no one knows the heart (and therefore the motive), no one but God Himself really can know.”
So Lutheranism denies the assurance of salvation. No Christian can really know whether he’s bound for heaven or bound for hell.
“To place an emphasis on works, or feelings, is to play into the hands of the devil.”
God is Lord over works and feelings. You suffer from a Manichaean dualism.
“(St. paul reminds us that the devil can come ‘all dressed up as an angel of light’ - did he not?).”
So it’s possible that Luther was a personification of the devil. Is that your point?
“That is why Lutherans rely on nothing other than the works that God does (has done, is doing) ...for us.”
Regeneration and sanctification are works of the Spirit. Or do Lutherans deny the deity of the Holy Spirit?
“The Holy Spirit is the one who inspires good works.”
Therefore, we’d be examining the evidence of God’s own handiwork.
“No goading of the law will do that, and filthy rags will be the fruit of any such efforts on our part.”
You’re schizophrenic. You lurch back and forth between works as “filthy rags” and works as good deeds inspired by the Holy Spirit. Which is it?
“There is never assurance when you are left to examining yourself.”
But you just attributed good works to the inspiration of the Spirit. Are you capable of thinking straight from one sentence to the next?
“This IS my body.”
So you worship the Pillsbury Doughboy?
“This IS my blood, I AM Baptized. This is where I receive my comfort and my assurance...because it comes from outside of me. To me. From God.”
Circumcision also came from the outside. From God. Did St. Paul therefore urge the Judaizers to find assurance in their circumcision?
“And that is somethimg that I can trust in...absolutely.”
But according to you, hell is full of baptized communicants.
The Old Adam,
ReplyDeletelet me ask you what you would say about this:
"The fruit of my Justification happened for me at the Cross, that cross that brought about His death, burial and soon thereafter, the Resurrection back into this life". Sometime ago, about 36 years ago, in my life it happened that I understood that, that God is Just and is the Justifer of the one who has Faith in Christ. That understanding is a Gift of God. Faith came into me by Hearing the Word of God.
" Sanctification, well, for me, it will be ongoing with regeneration my whole life time, however many more years I have left living and experiencing the Sanctification work of the Holy Spirit, which is seen as "objective" fruit, known objectively by the True Church as I daily deny my self life and bear the cross of Christ, too, until I pass to that place secured by that act of Justification, an "equitable deed", that was done for me by Jesus Christ dying on the Cross.
"My regeneration and sanctification come upon me by the work of the Holy Spirit and now I get to follow Him daily because of the Justification secured for me at the Cross"....?
I realize, that in one sense I was saved by the experience of receiving Christ after hearing the Word of the Gospel of the Kingdom. In the ongoing sense I am being saved by the same Word of the Gospel of the Kingdom. In the final sense, when I pass to that place prepared for me, I will enter into that Eternal state of being, "knowing the Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He sent to die for me, a death known about before the foundation of the world, as I was known to God in their hearts and minds, of Our Triune God by the same Word of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
You are right that Salvation came to me from an outside Word.
However it is this outside Word that stays within me, which is this Word:::>
Rom 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Rom 7:23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Wouldn't you say that those Words of Paul, Romans 7:19-25 are the Living Oracles active in God's Elect, who are now alive on the earth, while those same Words have no effect upon the Elect that have gone on before us to that Eternal place Justification by Christ secures for His Bride out of every generation?
Steve,
ReplyDeleteyou responded this way:
"....Circumcision also came from the outside. From God. Did St. Paul therefore urge the Judaizers to find assurance in their circumcision?...".
My answer:
No, no he did not, but Joshua certainly did after the forty year trek in the desert. And I might imagine, those boys were none to happy about drinking a lot of water after crossing over the Jordan on dry land!