Pastor Mark's Blog

In 1521, Luther listed and defended statements which the church of his day denounced. The resulting treatise was entitled Defense and Explanation of All the Articles. In relation to one of his statements, “A righteous man sins in all his good works,” Luther comments,

“This article annoys the great saints of work-righteousness, who place their trust not in God’s mercy, but in their own righteousness, that is, on sand. What happened to the house built on sand in Matt. 7[:26] will also happen to them. But a godly Christian ought to learn and know that all his good works are inadequate and insufficient in the sight of God. In the company of all the dear saints he ought to despair of his own works and rely solely on the mercy of God, putting all confidence and trust in him. Therefore we want to establish this article very firmly and see what the dear saints have to say about it” (LW 32:38).

It is highly likely that this article also annoys most lesser saints because most of us consider our “good works” to be good! When we do good works, we often feel “good,” but that, of course, depends on the good work. Raking leaves for hours in the hot sun to assist someone unable to do so, and especially for no pay and possibly no thanks, would probably not qualify as a “feel good” experience. Instead, we prefer to do “good works” when and where it suits us, especially “good works” which require little effort and receive some type of recognition or praise and, perhaps best of all, some monetary or material reward.

Paradoxically, we do not view our “good works” as sinful because of our human sin. Human sin blinds us to our sinful nature. In that sin, we believe that we are not sinful, or not very sinful, even when we do “bad things,” because doing something “bad” does not make us “bad,” or so we reason. On balance, most people would probably think that their 85% good deeds compared to their 15% not-so-good deeds is pretty good. Of course, one should especially remember that not-so-good deeds are not the same as bad deeds, or so we reason.

When was the last time that you gave much thought to why you do any “not-so-good” or even “bad” deeds at all, and if you have contemplated this, why did you do them in the first place? Furthermore, why would you even want to do them? Worse yet, why did you not refrain from doing them? Conversely, why would you not want to do “good” and “godly” deeds all the time? Well? What kind of a person are you?

So, we defend ourselves with the feeblest of defenses, like “nobody’s perfect” or “to err is human,” seeking in yet another way to place ourselves in the mostly good category, and if God does not like it, then God can just go to hell, right? Such is the state of sinful humanity, particularly our clever, atheistic humanity which exonerates itself with all manner of anti-religious self-righteousness. That is perhaps a little better, in their eyes, than being like “those hypocritical Christians” who cloth themselves in religious self-righteousness. Either way, the cross of Christ is the human attempt to tell God to go to hell for no liking our sinful self-righteousness.

All this makes one wonder which is more difficult, believing in God or believing in sin. In fact, theologically, the two are one and the same because the subject matter of theology pertains to the justifying God (deus iustificans) and the sinful human being (homo peccator). Physiologically or medically, we often know that something is not quite right with our bodies, but none of us likes to be told that we are terminally ill, especially when we generally feel “pretty good.” With time, however, the terminal condition becomes decided final, against our will and choice. Such is the consequence for all human beings because of human sin (Romans 6:23). Likewise, although we generally feel good about ourselves, even our sinful selves, and out “good works,” nonetheless our impending death is remains unimpeded because of our sin, our broken relationship with God, and our futile attempts to justify ourselves by our own efforts. Luther is basically saying that not a single good work on our part can stave off death. That is why in relation to our salvation our “good works” are at best good for nothing.

So, if our good works are no good, why do them at all? What is to be gained? The questions themselves reflect our selfish, sinful nature. In reality, which means solely from God’s perspective, any good works which we do are gifts given by God to others through us. Our “good works” are not our gifts to give. Instead, they are God’s gifts given to fellow sinners in need. That is exactly what Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection demonstrate, teach, and proclaim. Through Jesus Christ, God has given the gift of salvation, i.e. justification by grace alone through faith alone, to sinners as a gift, even if they are oblivious to this gift. This one good work promises to give death-bound human beings eternal life, at least to those human beings who believe that their innate sinfulness is forgiven by God’s overwhelming graciousness.

That Easter Sunday this year falls on April Fool’s day will probably create considerable amusement to non-believers, but that is nothing new. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

“18 For the word of the cross is foolishness (moria in Greek) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish (moraino) the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness (moria) of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness (moria) to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness (moros) of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Corinthians 1:18-25).

The cross and resurrection have proven to be a great source of confusion to Christians and unbelievers alike. Despite Jesus having foretold his impending death and resurrection, his disciples did not grasp what he was saying. How could one who proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God and who worked so many miracles as signs thereof die like that? It seemed impossible, but as Scripture says, his own disciples helped make it happen through betrayal, denial, and abandonment of Jesus. Judas thought that Jesus needed to be saved from himself, and when Judas started to make that happen, Jesus’ disciples only wanted to save themselves instead. From their fearful perspective, even Jesus’s arrest seemed unlikely to end in crucifixion.

Christians spend considerable amounts of time and effort trying to explain Jesus. How was he incarnated? Why was he crucified? What is the resurrection? How could he be truly God and truly human? What is the Trinity, and how does Jesus fit into that idea?

Scripture gives us some answers, and sometimes it does not. Theologians, mistakenly, often look for answers through philosophical methods and concepts, hoping that somehow the pagan wisdom of sinful unbelievers will come to their aid. For Jesus’ fellow Jews, the cross could have been no more a sign from God and of God’s kingdom than the desecration of their temple by pagan rulers to be used for their gods. That Paul could describe the cross as communicating something other than total failure is, from a worldly perspective, pure nonsense, if not plain old crazy talk.

So, why would Paul talk such crazy, foolish nonsense? To add indignation to insanity, Paul was encountered by the risen Christ himself to become one of Jesus’ proponents. While hunting down Christians for violating Paul’s faith and spreading heresy, Jesus presented himself to Paul, and from that point onwards, Paul’s life was irrevocably changed. The word of God incarnated, crucified, and resurrected does that to people. Why that happens, however, is as much a mystery as that it happens. Despite that, we do know that God makes it happen as the Holy Spirit uses that word in Christ to invoke and to evoke faith in those who hear it.

We have been given that word in Scripture and also wherever that word is purely proclaimed in law and gospel. It is the source of our faith, our life, and our eternal life. It raises us up daily to live in that word and to share it with others no matter how foolish or weak non-believers think that word is. Like Paul, Jesus has encountered us with that word in preaching, teaching, baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper. Thereby and therein Jesus is really present giving himself to us in both his cross and his resurrection so that we may be part of his eternal life already in this life, called to use our time and resources to present Jesus’ word as a pure gift for the salvation of the world. So, let’s have some fun on Easter Sunday confounding the unbelieving world with the power of God’s word in the hope that some will believe.