May Church News Letter Article

Beloved in the Lord:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I thank God through Jesus Christ for each of you as your faith and perseverance through these recent times of disparity has not only been a witness to me but has also been a witness to all congregations and leaders in the LCMC.  Your faith and courage has allowed the building up of hope within their hearts for the preserving of the true teaching of Christ’s Church for future generations.  May God richly bless each of you as we join together to bring Christ’s Kingdom further into completion on this earth.

If there is one thing this post enlightenment society hates it is an absolute.  When human reason is elevated above the sovereignty of God all truths become relative.  Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Truth is not a collection of philosophical beliefs relevant only in the contexts in which they dwell.  On the contrary truth IS JESUS CHRIST!  For those who have a mathematical mind let me put it this way Jesus=Truth.  There is no truth outside of Jesus Christ no matter how much our human reason seeks it.  The truth is salvation is found in Christ (the Word of God) alone.  But God’s word as truth has never been enough for humans; it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV)  God said!  And that should have been enough for humankind.  In reality it was until faith in the Word of God was tested by the great deceiver.  Satan’s question to Eve was, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 ESV)  “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5 ESV)  In other words “perhaps you didn’t hear correctly or maybe God was lying and there are better words than these.”  Ever since then humans have sought to look beyond God’s Words to find some “deeper truth” or some “absconded reality” that God is keeping from us.  Let me put an end to that search; God does not lie and He has poured Himself out for you giving to you all of Himself holding back nothing.  This took place on the cross over 2000 years ago.

Adam and Eve were then removed from the garden, not as an act of punishment rather as an act of grace.  “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” (Genesis 3:22 ESV)  If Adam and Eve would have eaten from the tree of life and become eternal they would be eternally in their sinful state and there would be no hope of redemption.  In Baptism we die to the old self and are born again of the Spirit.  This new creation reconciled to the Father through the sacrifice of the Son is what lives on forever. 

As you can see the sinful desire to look beyond the Word of God for “better” or “deeper” truths is the desire not of the new creation in its perfect obedience quite to the contrary; it is the desire of the sinful flesh seeking ways to justify its sinful desires.  A child is content eating glue and dirt however as a parent we must teach them not to indulge their desire for such things.  We give them meals consisting of the four food groups balancing their diet for the sake of their health.  This is how the Father sees us.  We are lost children seeking to gratify our every impulsive desire and then justify it by our reason and human intellect.  Human reason and intellect are wonderful gifts from God and are fantastic as long as they do not contradict His Word. 

Today the temptation of the great deceiver has reared its ugly head once again.  Satan comes to humans asking, “Did God really say?”  As well as declaring “Surely God didn’t mean…”  One of the reasons that Satan has been so successful lately is because we live in an extremely biblically illiterate society.  If one doesn’t know the scriptures than one is easily lead astray.  God is calling each of you into a relationship with Him through His Word Jesus Christ.  How many of you have relationships where you do all the talking?  Or how intimate are the relationships in which you talk to or hear from the other person once a week or once a month? 

St. Paul teaches us that we are to die to the old and become born anew daily.  This dying and rising is not something we do, it is something that is done to us through the encounter with God’s Word.  The law puts to death the old and the proclamation of the gospel raises us anew.  (Next month I will speak more in depth about law and gospel and how to approach God’s Word.)  I encourage and pray that each of you, if you don’t already, will come alongside me in a daily reading of scripture.  Don’t worry at first if you do not comprehend what you are reading.  Simply ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the scriptures to you, read your selected reading, and pray that the Lord will use what you read to make you more like Christ this day.  I look forward to hearing testimonies of how this simply concept has changed your life.

Beloved we are in a battle for our very souls and for the souls of those in our community.  Rest in the promise that salvation is the work of Christ and sanctification is the work of the Spirit but know also that God invites us to come alongside of Him in His Divine Rescue Mission.  God created man and woman and then invited them to become co-creators with Him as he commanded, “Be fruitful and multiply.”  God is still inviting us to be co-creators with Him in our modern age.  We are to be the proclaimers of the Word in our thoughts, words, and deeds; thus calling others to His mercy and grace.  Let us labor together standing on the truth of the Word of God! Amen!