The Augsburg Confession: Do’s,
Don’ts, and Can’ts
Pastor Mathew Magera – 7/9/17 – Sermon 236
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
It’s pretty great that we
are saved by grace through faith and not by works, I’m sure we could all agree.
But, doesn’t that statement just leave us wondering, okay, now what? Doesn't God command us to do certain things
like keeping the Ten Commandments or loving our neighbor? I mean, we have to do
something, right?
This little phrase
"have-to" is often an indicator of the last ditch efforts of the
sinner in us trying to justify him or herself. But we know that we can't
justify ourselves. We're told over and over again but we still end up back on
this phrase of "have-to." It implies a requirement, a condition,
something necessary. It is the language of the law and those sinners in us strongly
desire to be able to boast in God's presence of all the "have to's"
we've completed in life.
During the time of the
reformation, articles 18-20 were included in the Augsburg Confession in part to
deepen the conversation on the status of good works and also because of a man
named Pelagius who lived during the 5th century. Pelagius was a monk who
believed that our human nature was a neutral one and that by a person's own
will and action they could attain salvation without Christ. Pelagius is an
example of that sinner within us working to convince us that something must be
done and the reformers sought to clearly identify this as a false teaching.
Pelagius took the easy way out of that struggle. He took that last ditch effort
and rather than avoiding it, he let it get to him and decided to embrace it by
saying not only is there something we have to do but we can actually do it on
our own apart from Jesus, like an itch you just have to scratch. Well, Pelagius
scratched that itch, but all it did was make things worse.
Summarized, Articles 18-20
on free will, the cause of sin and good works mean this: We are instructed to
do good works because they are the will of God. Good works don't merit our
salvation. True good works can't be done without faith. In totality, these
statements say that we do not have to do good works to be saved but that faith
produces good works inevitably because we want to do them. So, we wonder, how
can this be?
In our second reading from
James this morning, we hear James talking about good works. James says in
chapter 1 verse 22, "Do not merely
listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Clearly
here, James is talking about action. Do not just listen to the word. Do not
just believe it. Do not just have faith in the Word. Faith is not complete just
in the hearing of it. Do it. If God's word says to feed the hungry, do it. If it
says to visit the sick, do it.
He goes on further to say, "Anyone who listens to the word but
does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and,
after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks
like." When you wake up and you look into the mirror in the morning, your
hair is all over, there's crust in your eyes, wrinkles in strange places, stuff
on your teeth and your breath probably doesn't smell too great either. What's
the mirror telling you when you see that? It's saying, "You look like a
train wreck." Now, do you just walk away, shrug your shoulders and start
your day? No. If you see all of that in the mirror, you spend time doing
something about it. It's just common sense. This is how James is referring to
our hearing of God's word. We take a look into our spiritual mirrors when we
hear God's word read and preached to us in the light of Christ and it is as if
that mirror is looking at us and saying, "you are a forgiven and renewed
child of God." James says that if we get all of this from looking into
these spiritual mirrors we shouldn’t just walk away but we should do something
about it. It's common sense.
James finishes up this
section saying, "But whoever looks
intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it - not
forgetting what they have heard, but doing it - they will be blessed in what
they do." James is encouraging you looking into that spiritual mirror.
Now, we need to talk about this law that gives freedom. In what universe do we
talk about the law giving freedom? The law is known for imprisoning us and
condemning us. There is only one law that gives freedom and that is the law
that is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. This is what James is referring to, not
looking at the law itself but at the one who fulfilled it completely. The law
that gives freedom is only found in Jesus Christ. Whoever looks intently into
the perfect Jesus Christ... is what James is saying. If you look at Jesus,
listen to him, and live in him, not merely hearing the word but doing it, you will
be blessed in what you do.
Now, how do we do these good
works that are God’s will without doing them to be saved? We have to destroy
the have-to of good works and allow them to grow into a want-to. You do not
have to keep the Ten Commandments to be saved but they are the will of God and
therefore we should do them through faith. How do we destroy that have-to and bring
about a want-to? Perhaps going even deeper, how is that change done to us?
God's salvation is not just
one more burden that we have to carry in this life. God wants us to know and be
sure of our salvation in Christ because the fewer burdens we carry the more we
will be free to want to do the good works of God. To destroy the have-to we
need to change the language of how we view salvation and our freedom. We live
life in an if-then world. We hear if you study hard, then you'll get good
grades. We hear if you eat your dinner, then you will get dessert. We hear that
a lot in our household. We may even hear if you are a good person, then you
will go to heaven. The Gospel, however, is always communicated using a
because-therefore statement. Because Christ has done this, therefore I am free
to do this. Jesus lifts the burden of the have to and gives us the want to.
Let me tell you this story
to illustrate the difference. When we were out in Iowa two weeks ago with our
friends from seminary, we always plan a chunk of time for just the guys to get
together and go do something, leaving the ladies with all of the kids and a
chunk of time for the ladies to get together and do something, leaving the guys
with the kids. Well, on this one particular day, the ladies went out for the
morning hours, leaving us guys in charge. Seriously, you never know what will
happen when you leave six guys in charge of eleven kids all under the age of 7.
There are movies made using storylines like this.
The three oldest kids had
been running around together since we arrived and they were making secret
hideouts throughout the house. They came to me looking like they had done
something wrong and said, "we can't get into our secret hideout."
Upon asking where the secret hideout was, I came to learn that it was now in my
bedroom. "Why can't you get into the secret hideout?" I asked. Well,
they had apparently locked the door to keep people from getting in but when
they opened the door to go do something else they closed the door behind them
without unlocking it. When they came back, they couldn't open it.
Now, while they are the
oldest of the bunch and typically hung out on their own, they are also admired
and followed by some of the younger children in the crowd. So, you can imagine
my first thought at this point, "who is locked in that room?" Filled
with concern, and now a few of the other guys with me, we had the same thought,
"we have to get the door open." Whatever it takes, we have to get
that door open. It was close to a panic situation. Call the owner, pick the
lock. Whatever we need to do we need to open that door before our wives came
home.
Pausing the story for just a
moment, this is how Christians first look at good works. There is an intended
goal and resolution (salvation) and a certain task that must be done (the law),
it's required to be done, in order to reach that goal and resolution. If God
catches us failing these good works or tasks, we'll never be saved. This is the
have-to attitude. There is pressure, adrenaline, stress. We have to do this or
we will be punished. This is what’s going on in my story: if our wives came
back to that house and saw us trying to reach a toddler on the other side of a
locked bedroom door, they wouldn't ever leave us alone again.
Fortunately, we are told by
these older kids, "there is nobody inside the room." We all go and do
a kid check and sure enough, all present and accounted for. There is nobody
locked inside my bedroom. Big sigh of relief. We are free from the burden of
that problem. We have all of our children. We don’t have to open the door to be
saved. This is like hearing that Gospel for the first time, just like hearing
Ephesians 2:8, "You are saved by grace through faith not by works of the
law." Really? I don't have to do this to be saved? Big sigh of relief.
So, now we have a locked
bedroom and we have been freed from the necessity of having to get that door
open to reach trapped children. We've just been told essentially, "you're
free." So, the thought comes to us, well we don't have to open the door
but we could just do it anyway. So, I called the owner of the house. They
didn't answer so I left a message. No rush, no hurry, but we have a bedroom
door that was locked on accident. We’re working on the prolbme. We found some
tiny tools and tried to pick the lock. Didn't work. Then, all of a sudden I had
a thought, and I said, "Hey guys. I think the door to our balcony is
unlocked." And just like in the cartoons, you could practically see
lightbulbs appear over our heads. This was no longer a task that needed to be
done to avoid wrath of the wives but it was now a full out challenge to complete.
This was now something we didn't have to do but we absolutely wanted to do
anyway. Long story short, we got one of us onto the roof and over to my
balcony, the balcony door was unlocked, he got in and unlocked our bedroom door
and everything was fine.
The point of the story is,
when we are freed from the have-to of the law and given freedom in Christ,
there's nothing in us that just turns the have-to into a want-to, but it is
simply a by-product of that freedom that is given to us. Though we do not have
to fulfill the law to be saved, we know it is the right thing to do and it
becomes a challenge for us, a mission, God's mission that we want to do. That's
how the Gospel works and transforms us and our view about good works. When that
burden is released, the freedom of want naturally comes out.
Ministry is an opportunity
and a challenging one but because of our freedom in Christ, therefore we want
to do it. We don't have to bring the good news of Jesus to our family and
friends, in faith we want to. That opportunity has been placed in front of us
just like climbing a roof to scale a second story balcony. The pressure is
removed and the freedom of wanting to do it for Jesus' sake fills in. Once we
are free from the burden of the law, God asks us how we want to serve. In
Christ, God's will becomes our will. We have plenty of opportunities to do
God's will. Faith, therefore, does not ever ask the question, "What do I
have to do?" but rather it says to God, "Thy will be done" and
then faith seeks to do it. So, how do we know where we are at?
I’ll leave you with this. Let’s
use worship as a gauge. Have you ever thought to yourself, "oh, I really
just don't want to go to church." I'm too tired. I slept in. It's boring.
It's hot. I'd rather be fishing. I'd rather be this or that. If I wake up on
Sunday morning and think to myself, "I don't want to go to church" I
know something is wrong. And this has nothing to do with me being a pastor. If
I have that feeling like I don't want to go to church but think that i have to go
to church for this reason or that I know that my faith is misplaced. I know
that my faith is weak. I know that it needs to be renewed. The fact that I
don't want to get up and go to church on Sunday is the very reason that I
should get up and go to church. I need to hear that wonderful Gospel again to
remind me of my freedom in Christ. I need to renew that want-to and destroy
that have-to feeling. So, if you ever
think to yourself, "I just don't want to go to church" you have just
given yourself the perfect reason to go.
When we find ourselves
repeating over and over that we are saved by grace through faith and not by
works of the law and then getting that itch like Pelagius that makes us think
we still need to do something, going to church, putting yourself into a
position to receive that good news brings a relief to that itch. Giving in like
Pelagius and believing that we can do something just won’t help you. But
sometimes it takes more than one time hearing that Word to discover that
want-to mindset. But we keep listening. We keep coming back. We keep looking
deeper for that word just for us, that word that tells us we are forgiven, that
word that tells us we are loved, that word that tells us we are free. And then
when that faith takes root in us, true good works come from that. Good works
that we do because they are the will of God. Good works that don't count toward
our salvation. Good works that can't be done without faith in the freedom of
the Gospel that is for you. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.