The Error of Confusing Justification and Sanctification.

There are generally two types of gospel preaching common among us. The first presents all men as sinners and Christ's blood as the remedy, and then asks if one is a partaker of the remedy, with the surety of it generally contained in such questions as, Have you left the ways of the world, Are you living after the flesh, Have you made confession of (put away your) sin, Are you striving against sin, etc. This preaching ignores the Justification that is by faith in Christ, and places our faith, or confidence, in Sanctification, or how well we are warring against sin. This is a great and hideous error.

The right way to preach the gospel is to present all men as sinners and Christ's blood as the remedy, and then preach forgiveness of sins by faith alone, teaching the penitent to look only to the atoning blood of Christ and believe that therein is his or her complete, absolute, and eternal Justification, or forgiveness of sins. God forgives and receives you solely for the sake of Christ and His redemptive work, with no regard to your greatest merit (which is none before God) or your greatest demerit. God beholds only the work of His Son and is completely satisfied. Then teach that on account of having received such an inestimable gift, having beheld what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, let us as obedient children strive against sin, the world, and our own flesh. Not so that we can receive forgiveness, but because we have already received and possess it by grace alone.

Faith

Acts 18:27
And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:

Believe by grace. How often do we hear the phrase, "Believe by faith." It is, unfortunately, common to hear preaching which separates Christ from Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and sets people on an endless quest for certitude of salvation based upon their faith, or their inner experience. Neither faith nor an experience can be a saving foundation, for Christ alone is the foundation of salvation for all who believe, and He is ministered unto us in the gospel, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and the Sacrament of the Supper. Therefore we ought to say that we obtain by faith, through grace, the benefits of Christ disclosed therein, for the word and sacraments contain and offer to the sinner all the promises of God in Christ Jesus.

This does not mean that the believer does not experience Christ, His love and forgiveness, but this experience is a fruit of having received Christ in the word and sacraments wherein Christ, our Foundation, is revealed and extended. The Word is foundational, and in this we trust and believe.

Luther and Augustine on Original Sin and the sacrament of Holy Baptism

I post those few quotes from our elders to see if what is preached today sounds like the faith of our fathers. If it is a different sound, perhaps it is a different faith. But Scripture says there is one faith.

In the second place, since we know now what Baptism is, and how it is to be regarded, we must also learn why and for what purpose it is instituted; that is, what it profits, gives and works. And this also we cannot discern better than from the words of Christ above quoted: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Therefore state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he be saved. But to be saved. we know. is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever.

Here you see again how highly and precious we should esteem Baptism, because in it we obtain such an unspeakable treasure, which also indicates sufficiently that it cannot be ordinary mere water. For mere water could not do such a thing, but the Word does it, and (as said above) the fact that the name of God is comprehended therein. But where the name of God is, there must be also life and salvation, that it may indeed be called a divine, blessed, fruitful, and gracious water; for by the Word such power is imparted to Baptism that it is a laver of regeneration, as St. Paul also calls it, Titus 3, 5.

But as our would-be wise, new spirits assert that faith alone saves, and that works and external things avail nothing, we answer: It is true, indeed, that nothing in us is of any avail but faith, as we shall hear still further. But these blind guides are unwilling to see this, namely, that faith must have something which it believes, that is, of which it takes hold, and upon which it stands and rests. Thus faith clings to the water, and believes that it is Baptism, in which there is pure salvation and life; not through the water (as we have sufficiently stated), but through the fact that it is embodied in the Word and institution of God, and the name of God inheres in it. Now, if I believe this, what else is it than believing in God as in Him who has given and planted His Word into this ordinance, and proposes to us this external thing wherein we may apprehend such a treasure?

Now, they are so mad as to separate faith and that to which faith clings and is bound though it be something external. Yea, it shall and must be something external, that it may be apprehended by the senses, and understood and thereby be brought into the heart, as indeed the entire Gospel is an external, verbal preaching. In short, what God does and works in us He proposes to work through such external ordinances. Wherever, therefore, He speaks, yea, in whichever direction or by whatever means He speaks, thither faith must look, and to that it must hold. Now here we have the words: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. To what else do they refer than to Baptism, that is, to the water comprehended in God's ordinance? Hence it follows that whoever rejects Baptism rejects the Word of God, faith, and Christ, who directs us thither and binds us to Baptism.

Martin Luther, Large Catechism

But now, can that part of the human race to whom God hath promised deliverance and a place in the eternal Kingdom be restored through the merits of their own works? Of course not! For what good works could a lost soul do except as he had been rescued from his lostness? Could he do this by the determination of his free will? Of course not! For it was in the evil use of his free will that man destroyed himself and his will at the same time. For as a man who kills himself is still alive when he kills himself, but having killed himself is then no longer alive and cannot resuscitate himself after he has destroyed his own life - so also sin which arises from the action of the free will turns out to be victor over the will and the free will is destroyed. "By whom a man is overcome, to this one he then is bound as slave" This is clearly the judgment of the apostle Peter. And since it is true, I ask you what kind of liberty can one have who is bound as a slave except the liberty that loves to sin?

St. Augustine, Enchiridion

"Unto this end the Son of God was manifested." Ah, my brethren, all sinners are born of the devil, inasmuch as they are sinners. Adam was made by God: but when he consented to the devil, he was born of the devil; and all that he has begotten are as he was. With concupiscence itself we were born, and our birth comes of that  condemnation, before we add to it debts of our own. If we are born with no sin, there is no reason for hastening with our infant children to baptism for their absolution. There are two births for your understanding, by brothers, of Adam and of Christ: two men, but of them one man is man, the other man is God. Through the man that is man we are sinners: through the Man that is God we are justified. One birth has cast us down to death; the other has raised us up to live. One draws sin along with it, the other delivers from sin. For to this end came Christ as man, that he might do away with the sins of man. "To this end the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."

St. Augustine, Homilies on 1 John

Think for a moment of those brothers of ours whom we call "infants": but now, in the name of Christ whom they have confessed, all their sins have been washed away by his blood. They came, old, into the Baptistery and went out new - came in aged and went out infants. Their old life was somnolent age: their new life is the infancy of regeneration. But remember that past sins have been forgiven not only to them but to us. 

St. Augustine, Homilies on 1 John

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his rewardings" - not awardings but rewardings, becasuse he rewards evil with good. "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities": that is done in  the sacrament of baptism.

St. Augustine, The Spirit and the Letter

This is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism, which is celebrated among us. All who attain to this grace die thereby to sin - as he himself is said to have died to sin because he died in the flesh, that is, "in the likeness of sin" - and they are thereby alive by being reborn in the baptismal font, just as he rose again from the sepulcher. This is the case no matter what the age of the body. 

For whether it be a newborn infant or a decrepit old man - since no one should be barred from baptism - just so, there is no one who does not die to sin in baptism. Infants die to original sin only; adults, to all those sins which they have added, through their evil living, to the burden they brought with them at birth.

St. Augustine, Enchiridion 

What Freedom A Christian

3.8 See, how rich therefore is a Christian, the one who is baptised! Even if he wants to, he cannot lose his salvation, however much he sin, unless he will not believe. For no sin can condemn him save unbelief alone. All other sins – so long as the faith in God's promise made in baptism returns or remains –all other sins, I say, are immediately blotted out through that same faith, or rather through the truth of God, because He cannot deny Himself. If only you confess Him and cling believing to Him that promises. But as for contrition, confession of sins, and satisfaction – along with all those carefully thought out exercises of men – if you turn your attention to them and neglect this truth of God, they will suddenly fail you and leave you more wretched than before. For whatever is done without faith in the truth of God, is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit.
Martin Luther, Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Perseverance, Lutheran Confessions

"Fourthly, The entire [the holy Catholic, Christian] Church confesses that eternal life is attained through mercy. For thus Augustine speaks, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, when indeed he is speaking of the works of the saints, wrought after justification: "God leads us to eternal life not by our merits, but according to his mercy." And Confessions, Book ix.: "Woe to the life of man, however much it may be worthy of praise, if it be judged with mercy removed." And Cyprian in his treatise on the Lord's Prayer: "Lest anyone should flatter himself that he is innocent, and by exalting himself, should perish the more deeply, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to entreat daily for his sins." But the subject is well known, and has very many and very clear testimonies in Scripture, and in the Church Fathers, who all with one mouth declare that even though we have good works, yet in these very works we need mercy."
Ap VI 201

Accordingly Daniel also prays (9:18, sq.): "For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do it; defer not for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name." Thus Daniel teaches us in praying to lay hold upon mercy, i.e. to trust in God's mercy, and not to trust in our own merits before God. We also wonder what our adversaries do in prayer, if, indeed, the profane men ever ask anything of God. If they declare that they are worthy because they have love and good works, and ask for grace as a debt, they pray precisely like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11, who says: "I am not as other men are." He who thus prays for grace, and does not rely upon God's mercy, treats Christ with dishonor, who, since he is our high priest, intercedes for us.
210, 211

"Let us, therefore, hold fast to this which the Church confesses, viz. that we are saved by mercy."
223

It is a great temptation for those who have been justified by faith, to move from faith alone and include works for justification. It is even taught by some in such a way that works serve to complete faith, rather than follow as an adornment. They therefore judge their justification, or state of grace, according to their performance of whatever works they have set up as necessary, for such works are evident to them while the promise of God in the gospel is unseen and cannot be grasped or measured by works.  However, we must remember that we are forgiven and justified by grace thru faith alone in the merits of Christ. It then follows that where this justifying faith is present, good works will also be found, but since the saved and justified still sin much every day, mercy alone preserves us as God leads us by the Spirit and raises us up again when we fall. It is purely pharisaical to say that God preserves in faith by the Spirit those who are able to refrain from sinning to such a degree that God must abandon them, for they are then praying as did the Pharisee, "I thank you God that I am not as other men are." We are not forgiven by mercy and then made to retain this forgiveness according to works. Rather, we are forgiven by mercy and sustained in this forgiveness by mercy in spite of our many sins. Yet it does not follow that true faith abides with impenitence.

A False Shepherd

Two Opposing Views Of The Good Shepherd

The original Apostolic Lutheran Church "Principles of the Doctrine of Christ" rightly divided sin and grace, law and gospel. However, certain men have crept in unawares and have perverted the old doctrines of our church to such an extent that the new edition of the "Principles" present to us a different Jesus Christ.

The new 'Principles' state that man is not awakened to the knowledge of sin by the Law, but is convicted "before the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ." Let us consider this picture of the Good Shepherd. To be convicted of sin is to know that one is a sinner and under the judgment of eternal damnation by God. According to the modern Principles, the sheep of the Lord are not comforted by the Shepherd, but when they see Him they are filled with fear and terror because of their sin and must fall groveling upon the earth not daring to even look upon Him for fear of judgment and punishment. The sheep would rather flee and hide from the holiness of this Shepherd. Such is the Christ preached by the false prophets among us.    

Scripture teaches that conviction of sin comes only by the Law, the Ten Commandments. "Nay,  I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" Rom 7:7. The sinner who trembles before a righteous God at Mt. Sinai is then led to Christ our Savior. Scripture states Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to bring grace. "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" Jn 1:17,18. He came unto us as a Brother, humble, bearing flesh and blood. When the accusers brought the adulteress to Jesus He did not convict her but said, "Neither do I condemn thee." Scripture give us a much different picture of our Good Shepherd and teaches that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who calls unto Himself all who are weak and heavy laden, all who are sick with sin, all who are lame, and all who fear the righteous judgment of God. To such ones our Good Shepherd promises healing, cleansing and forgiveness. He promises that he will not reject even the poorest and weakest sheep, but will tenderly care for it, and when one is too weak to walk He will carry it on His shoulders. He says that He will gently lead His little lambs, and all who come unto Him He will in no wise cast out. Scriptures states the sinner can freely approach this Good Shepherd because He knows our infirmities and has given His life for our sins. And most wonderfully our Good Shepherd says He gives unto His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish because they are under the protection of the Father.

How can a church flourish when sin is not rightly comprehended and Christ is made into Moses?  The single greatest error and cause for our current deplorable condition as a fellowship is that the holy Law of God has been rejected.  When the true knowledge of our bondage to sin by natural birth is not known, neither can one come to know the wonderful life, liberty, and freedom we enjoy under the care of the true Good Shepherd. May God strengthen the remnant of true believers among us.

Steven E. Anderson
6/28/2011

Baptism: A Washing of Regeneration

"Not because of deeds [done by us in righteousness but in virtue of His own mercy by] the washing [of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit]. Titus 3:5
The enemies of the grace of God, under the pretext of love, have preceded us and distorted all those other passages. Therefore this passage summarized those. "By mercy," he says, "we are saved." But by what road does mercy come to us? "By washing." They say: "Washing can refer to the Word, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit, namely, that we are baptized in the Spirit. If He is conferred, then Baptism is a washing of regeneration, that is, it is a sign of those who are regenerated. In other words, the washing of regeneration is bestowed on those who have already been regenerated through the Holy Spirit." If we say: "By what authority do you establish this as the meaning?" there is no one at home. Therefore they say that no outward thing justifies or profits a person. But Baptism with water is such a thing; and therefore wherever it is said of Baptism that it justifies, they add a gloss, as, for example, in the passage from Peter (1 Peter 3:21), which they take to mean: "You have had a seal impressed upon you by which it is declared that you have been baptized through the Holy Spirit." I can practice this art too, and better than they, but I ask them to prove it. Therefore I could say: "The blood of Christ does not profit us, because it is an outward thing. Christ was conceived [by the Holy Spirit], as we pray; therefore He does not profit us." This is their foolishness. We, too, say that an outward thing is nothing, if it is by itself; then it is utterly [without profit]. But if it is joined to the very will of God, then it does profit because of the will that has been attached to it. One cannot convince the sectarians of this, and to this argument they do not answer a word except to stick to their refrain about "an outward thing." Why do they teach this? We know. But if God binds His Word to a tree, it now becomes not only an outward thing, but through the Word there is the presence, will, and mercy of God. Thus in Baptism there is not only mere water, because there is present here the name, or all the divine power joined through the Word in Baptism, and God Himself is the One who baptizes. Take note of this. But they do not listen, but stubbornly harp on the words: "An outward thing does not [do it]." Beware of their madness, because when an outward thing is grasped through the Word of God, it is a saving thing. If the humanity of Christ were without the Word, it would be a vain thing. But now we are saved through His blood and His body, because the Word is joined to it. Thus, Baptism bears the Word of God by which the water is sanctified, and we are sanctified in the water.

Martin Luther, Lectures on Titus
You have here a commendation of Baptism such as I can hardly find anywhere else in the New Testament.