God gives Salvation

Sakarias Ingolfsson

Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

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Arise o God

Arise, O God, and defend your cause (Psalm 74:22a)

So begins a document signed by Pope Leo X on December 10, 1520. The document condemned the teachings of Martin Luther and gave him two months to retract his alledged heresies. Luther refused, and was subsequently excommunicated.

A year later, a trial was held for him in the town of Worms. There he was made outlaw in the territory of Emperor Charles V. However it was not as simple as just taking his life. Many of the princes in Charles's reign, including Elector Frederick of Saxony, were sympathetic to both the Reformation and Luther as its leader. He therefore enjoyed protection in Saxony until the end of his life in 1543. So the Reformation continued. Between 1520 and 1530, Luther wrote a number of works that would have a great influence on the future. This includes, for example, his small and large Catechisms.

Charles V did not like this development, and when he called the princes of the kingdom to a diet in 1530, in the town of Augsburg in southern Germany, the first thing on the agenda was to discuss the reformation. The reformers realized that they had to defend their faith, but were still not prepared for what met them in Augsburg. A man named Johann Eck had circulated a publication in which he jumbled together statements and more or less correct quotations, from and about various reformers, not just the Lutheran ones. It became clear that it was necessary to start by explaining what the true faith of the Lutheran Church was.

This initial explanation consists of 21 articles, most of which are very short and concise. The order of the articles is conscious, and it tells a certain story: the story of the Lord Jesus, who is the Lord of the Church. Therefore, it is only natural that the Augsburg Confession opens by talking about God himself.

The first article of the Agsburg Confession reads like this.

1st article: About God

In the first place, it is with one accord taught and held, following the decree of the Council of Nicea, that there is one divine essence which is named God and truly is God. But there are three persons in the same one essence, equally powerful, equally eternal: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three are one divine essence, eternal, undivided, unending, of immeasurable power, wisdom, and goodness, the creator and preserver of all visible and invisible things. What is understood by the word “person” is not a part nor a quality in another but that which exists by itself, as the Fathers once used the word concerning this issue.

With these words, the Augsburg Confession defines the first and most important premise of the confession: Faith in God.

‌The God who reveals himself to us, not only in nature, but especially in Holy Scripture, is not some undefined concept. We like to say that we can't put God in a box or define Him too much. It is true that we should not define him more than he does himself, but the point is that God does just that. He speaks of Himself in the Scriptures. He says: This is how I am! He reveals himself in his actions and words.

When we read the Holy Scriptures, we see that God is only one being, yet he is also three persons. God is one and three at the same time. This is a difficult doctrine, because it cannot be set up mathematically. We must simply believe it on the basis of Scripture.

Those who have tried to follow the path of mathematics have always failed, and the result is an errant theology. Therefore, this first article of the Augsburg Confession continues, and condemns various heresies. This includes the teachings of Arius and the later teachings of Muhammed, but they are of the same kind.

With the first article of the Augsburg Confession, we confess that it does indeed matter how we talk about God. He is not just some airy concept or principle. He is not an emotion or so indefinable that no one can recognize him. On the contrary. He is a real being, who is one way and not another. He is a real God and has a real name. He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Everything begins with him, and everything ends with him. He is a giver who has given real things, and moreover real promises that we can trust.

2nd article: On the original sin

Obviously, this is not the whole story, and Article 2 of the Augsborg Confession introduces us humans. However, it is not with such beautiful words as we would have preferred. Because here, there is no one is saying that we are all good inside. On the contrary, this article describes our human problem, which is exactly the opposite. The second article reads like this:

Furthermore, it is taught among us that since the fall of Adam, all human beings who are born in the natural way are conceived and born in sin. This means that from birth they are full of evil lust and inclination and cannot by nature possess true fear of God and true faith in God.

Moreover, this same innate disease and original sin is truly sin and condemns to God’s eternal wrath all who are not in turn born anew through baptism and the Holy Spirit. Rejected, then, are the Pelagians and others who do not regard original sin as sin in order to make human nature righteous through natural powers, thus insulting the suffering and merit of Christ.

The first article describes God himself, who is our creator and wants to give to us humans all good things. The second article describes our response, which is to despise the Creator. Instead of being grateful to him, we look at him with suspicion. We demand what he gives, and we keep demanding even more, and yet want nothing to do with himself. That is our nature anyway.

The story of the Fall in the second chapter of Genesis tells us that despite all that God had done, Adam and Eve believed the serpent when he gave them a story with “alternative facts”. Adam and Eve turned away from the Creator and began to worship creation instead. With that, the nature of the man changed. It was disfigured and damaged. God created man in the beginning in his image, but God's image has been broken and lost.

Man was created for love. To love God above all else and our neighbor as oneself. Jesus tells us in the 22nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that this is the essence of God's Law. This is his good will for us. But if we take a look at ourselves, and look sincerely, we see that it is not so. Our love for God depends on what we perceive that he does for us. It is the same with love for our neighbor. It is so, because our love is primarily directed at ourselves. Therefore we are able to love whatever that can benefit us.‌

When Article 2 speaks of evil lust, this is what it means. Man is bound to his selfishness. Even when we do our best deeds, part of the equation, whether it's conscious or not, will always be how it benefits me. What do I get in return? Will he or she like me better? How does this shape me as a person? How will I be remembered? Can I make my mark on the world? etc. That these questions can always be found in the background, is a part of our sinful nature.

And such a nature does not conform to the requirement of being perfectly good, as is needed in the perfect kingdom of God. It is not in our power to love God as we should. It is not in our power to choose him. It is not in our power to want to choose him. Therefore, our sinful nature is the real sin that excludes us from heaven. It does not even help to try to improve ourselves, because good as it may be, it does not change our nature. We need God to give us a new nature, that is, to give us a new birth. It is not something we can do ourselves, but it must be His gift.

This is the second premise of the confession. But before any real conclusion is drawn from this, there is one more premise. That is the third article.

3rd article: On the Son of God

Likewise, it is taught that God the Son became a human being, born of the pure Virgin Mary, and that the two natures, the divine and the human, are so inseparably united in one person that there is one Christ. He is true God and true human being who truly “was born, suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried” in order both to be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all other sins and to conciliate God’s wrath. Moreover, the same Christ “descended into hell, truly rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, is sitting at the right hand of God” in order to rule and reign forever over all creatures, so that through the Holy Spirit he may make holy, purify, strengthen, and comfort all who believe in him, also distribute to them life and various gifts and benefits, and shield and protect them against the devil and sin. Finally, the same Lord Christ “will come” in full view of all “to judge the living and the dead …,” according to the Apostles’ Creed. Rejected are all heresies that are opposed to this article.

The second article made one exception. As we read, it said: "After the fall of Adam, all men who are conceived in a natural way are born with sin." This is to make room for Jesus Christ, who was not conveived in a regular way, but he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had a perfect human nature, yet a nature that was not shaped and marred by sin. Jesus is the perfect man.

However, he differs from all others in that Christ, the man Jesus of Nazareth, is also the Son of God, that is, God himself, clothed in flesh and blood. God became a man, a perfect man, but is still God. God took on a body and thus could be born, eat food, drink ordinary drink, wear clothes. He had a mother, and because she was the mother of Christ, she was indeed the mother of God. The fact that God became man means that he could have a mother.

Furthermore: He occupied a certain space where he was, could walk here and there, or even ride a carriage. He talked to people where he was. In other words, God had become man. Furthermore, this means that Christ was able to participate in human suffering. He was tortured, and felt the pain. When he was struck, the wounds bled, and the blood that flowed from them was the blood of man, but also the blood of God. When he was nailed to a cross, he could die like an ordinary man. And we conclude that God himself died on the cross. Because God became man, He was able to give His life for us and for us.‌

"God is dead" said the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Although it was hardly what he meant, he still hit the nail on the head with this one. This is one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, as well as its core message. God died!‌

The whole world was condemned to death because of the original sin of Adam and Eve. All of us have participated in their rebellion and are equally guilty. But God came into the world as a man, without participating in this rebellion. He alone has ever been innocent. And he said: I will bear the consequences for your sin. God was born as a man precisely so that he could die. He came into the world to be our substitute in death.

No one else could do this. Not only because Jesus alone is not guilty; but also because he alone is stronger than death. God becoming man meant that He could die for us. But at the same time it is also true that God cannot die, and therefore death could not hold him. It is a great mystery, but a mystery on which we are totally dependent. No one but Christ could truly conquer death.

The title of this talk is "God Gives Salvation." We begin, as it were, by saying that God gives himself for salvation. He gave his life for us. But how does this benefit each one of us? Jesus died in our place and won the victory over death. Amen! But how is it done so that it applies to me and you? The fourth article has the answer.

4th article: Concerning justification

Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3 and 4.

The answer in its simplest form is this, that God imputes to us the righteousness of Christ, that is, his death and resurrection, when we believe it. That is, when we trust that it is "for us," or rather "for me."

The problem, of course, is exactly that; that it is by no means natural for us to believe or trust this. First, we may prefer to continue in our rebellion against God, not caring that He is willing to bring us back into favor. We act as if there was a good reason why we betrayed God, and that that reason is still there. We actually want to love ourselves rather than to love him.

Second, if we should realize that such stubbornness is not good, then we start looking at our sins. Maybe then we will come to the conclusion that they are not so bad after all. We just need to do some good deeds to offset the bad that we have done. We deny that our nature is corrupt, and believe that we just need to peel of the corrupt layers, and bring out the good essence of our nature. Because of course we feel that we are good deep within.

Or maybe we actually take an honest look at ourselves and find that our core is not as good as we thought. Maybe we hear God's law and believe it. Deep down we are selfish and even evil. Then, self-pity replaces the confession. We think that we are not worthy of Jesus dying for us. He came to save those who want to repent, but we can't even repent properly.

So even if Jesus wants to give us salvation, it does us no good, because we cannot even accept it.

What if our nature is so corrupt that we cannot love God, and cannot believe in Him, how then can the salvation that God wants to give us, benefit us?

This is finally answered by the fifth article of the Augsburg Confession.

5th article: Concerning the office of the Church

To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when he wills, in those who hear the gospel. It teaches that we have a gracious God, not through our merit but through Christ’s merit, when we so believe. Condemned are the Anabaptists and others who teach that we obtain the Holy Spirit without the external word of the gospel through our own preparation, thoughts, and works.

The answer to our problem is that God has provided for everything, even this. Even the faith itself, that trusts the word and receives it, is a gift that comes with the word. It is the Holy Spirit who works in our hearts when we hear the words of Scripture, calling us to receive them.

This quality of the Word is a fact that the Bible has been teaching us from the very first page.

The third verse of the Bible says

Genesis 1:3 ESV

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God created the world just by speaking his words.

The prophet Isaiah says about the word of God:

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

‌When we read about Jesus in the Gospels, we constantly see his words in action. Jesus calmed the storm with his word alone. He cast out evil spirits with a single word. He healed the sick with just his word. He even raised the dead with his word alone: the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus of Bethany who had been lying in his grave to the third day.

Is it any different when he calls those who are spiritually dead, and have no ability to believe in him? Can he not create faith in those who live in rebellion against him?

Maybe we still want to live in our sins, but it is precisely for such atheists that Jesus had to die. Maybe we don't think we need forgiveness, but it's precisely for such stubbornness that he had to die. Perhaps we feel that our sins are too great, or that we do not deserve His grace unless we can overcome them first. But if we could, then Jesus would not have had to die for us. For it is precisely for such sinners that Jesus had to die.‌

Not only that, but he has now already done it. Not only that, but he has already risen from the dead. Everything is ready, we can believe it and trust in it.

Finally, I must come back to what the fifth article specifically deals with. God has not only spoken His words long ago, but He sees to it that it is spoken continually. Precisely for this purpose, he has founded his church and the office of preaching: So that the word is constantly preached and the sacraments are constantly distributed.

He has won salvation for us.

He has given us salvation.

And he continues to deliver his salvation to us, as long as the Church stands. As long as preachers stand in the pulpit and declare what the Word of God says. And should they become silent, even then, he will see to it that his word is heard: Christ is dead and risen. He did this. . . for you.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

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