Family of God Lutheran Church     ELCA

In third grade, I remember praying that Jesus wouldn't come back that day, because I felt I didn't have enough faith, and I would be thrown in hell. I don't know where I got that idea, but somehow it became a view I accepted as true, and it made me scared, which is not what Christians should be thinking. 

At the end of this month, Sunday, October 25th, we will remember Martin Luther and the Reformation. It is not a time to proclaim we are better than anyone else. But it is a Sunday to sing hymns written by Luther and other Lutheran hymn writers, to hear the freeing words of the Gospel, and to thank God for the untarnished good news of Jesus Christ, which Luther and others proclaimed when the Gospel was being obscured. 

The Gospel can be obscured in many ways, because it is not the way the world works. Lutherans speak of God's grace that makes us righteous before God, but it is easy to fall into some significant traps that make grace "ungrace," like what I described about my third grade experience. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit and we cannot compare one person's faith with another's. The good news of Jesus does not grade you on how much faith you have otherwise faith would turn into a good work which nullifies the grace of God. 

There are other ways the Gospel can be obscured. Some people teach that grace is infused in us by God so that we can have the ability do good works by which we are judged. In other words, we are saved by grace, but there is still a work that needs to be done to prove our faith before God. That is salvation by works, and an ungospel. Others say we have to make a declaration of faith to be a Christian, pray a sinner's prayer, or come down to an altar call, which means that faith is an exercise of our will, and that our place before God is once again because of a work we do. Some say we are saved by prevenient grace, which is grace given to us before our conversion, and we still have to do something, like pray the sinner's prayer. This is also a work. 

There are other traps as well. But as Lutherans, we believe we are saved by grace alone, that is, without anything on our part. In fact, the reformers dared to say that if we had our way, our will would never choose to trust God. That shows the depth of our hopelessness when we rely on ourselves and not God. 

Grace is the gift of God, a pure gift, given without strings attached. We trust that God through Jesus has proclaimed us innocent of our sin, which He takes upon himself. And we can do nothing to help this. What a promise! What a gift! Such a gift to be totally free from the conditions which demand we do something of our own free will. I wish I learned that in third grade. In fact, it took me many years for this Good News to sink in. 

"What??? I don't have to do anything?" some say. "That can't be true! I, and I mean I have to do something for God to declare me righteous. You mean I cannot do anything?" Yes. It is true. So preaches Scripture, and we need to be reminded of this, because that is not the way the world works. In the world, we get what we deserve, but that is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Many say they have found Jesus, to which some respond: "I never knew He was lost." Humor aside, another hat I saw says "Jesus found me." Ah, there we go. We don't find Jesus, Jesus finds us, like a lost sheep, and claims us, redeems us, and pours out the Holy Spirit on us so that faith in that promise becomes life changing. 



Thanks be to God for these words of promise, this Good News of Jesus Christ.