Christology – Page 9 – What Does This Mean?

The Three Ways God Cares for Us

Encore Post: When we baptize a new Christian, we ask him to promise several things and to confess several things. Following the ancient tradition of the Church, we ask the candidate if they believe what the creed proclaims. But we do this with three questions: “Do you believe in God the Father…?” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ…?” and “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit…? We do this because each person of the Holy Trinity has His own role in our life and salvation.

This is a bit of a mystery, since all three persons are involved in all these acts of love for us, yet the Scripture speaks of each having these roles. Rather than try to puzzle out how this is so, we rejoice that each person loves us in his own way.

Martin Luther in his Small Catechism calls each person’s work an article and speaks about them separately. So, he talks about the good news that God the Father created and provides for us, God the Son redeems us with his own blood and the Holy Spirit makes us holy. This good news gives us joy, especially since we just considered his law in the Ten Commandments. We have been confronted by the fact of our sinfulness. Now we can have peace in the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

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God the Jealous God

Encore Post: In our tour of the Ten Commandments, we learned that God wants more than just a casual keeping of his law. He wants our heart and soul to match our behavior. “Love your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) Of course, we know that we cannot keep the law perfectly in this life and God knows it, too. Jesus died to pay the price for our disobedience and earned us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So, why should we try at all to be good?

The reason is that sin has its consequences in this world as well as the next. When Adam and Eve sinned, sinned multiplied and became a part of the lives of everyone of their children. It brought with it death, sickness, disaster, grief and pain. It destroyed the close relationship between people and between people and God. Since we were made to share our lives with God and each other, it harmed the very purpose for which we exist. It sin that God sent his Son to save us from, not to be a fire insurance policy against hell.

God describes the relationship he has with his people as a marriage. Sin amounts to being unfaithful with other gods, dividing our love for him by giving ourselves to others. So it is that God warns us in the First Commandment that he is a jealous God and there are consequences when we are unfaithful to him. (Exodus 20:5-6) God that the death of Jesus breaks the power of sin and death in our lives. With prayer and the help of other Christians, we can fight back against these sins and sometimes even be free of them.

After all, God’s warning comes with a promise. It is not only sins that travel from generation to generation, but blessings as well. With the help of the Holy Spirit, when we establish habits of doing good — attending worship faithfully, praying with our children, reading God’s word to them and caring for others, these, too, will be a part of their inheritance.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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The Problem is in the Heart

Encore Post: To a serious believer, the Ten Commandments seem simple enough. Believe in God and don’t frequent idols — check. Don’t swear — check. Go to church every week, sometimes more — check. Love mom and dad — check. Never killed anyone, never took anything that doesn’t belong to you, never stepped out on your spouse, don’t lie — check on all counts. And then comes coveting… How do you deal with thoughts and feelings?

As we have considered the other commandments, we’ve learned they are not so simple. Still, they seem doable. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments point out the real problem. Our Old Adam and Old Eve want everything for themselves. Everyone at work gets a raise and yours is quite generous. But you know your teammate got more. So you’re jealous.

King David had everything, including many beautiful wives. Yet one look at someone else’s wife — and he took a bath. Committed adultery, lied about it and arranged the murder of her husband. Later he put his finger on the problem. He was sinful from birth — sinful since he was conceived. (Psalm 51:1-5) Jesus summed it up when he said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:19-20)

Let’s face it. We cannot do this alone. Instead, we can turn to the one tempted in every way that we are, except he didn’t sin. (Hebrews 4:15) His suffering and death breaks the power of sin in our lives. When we remember our baptisms, we remember that the Old Adam and Eve were drowned there. We can confess our sin to him, be forgiven and face our fight with the flesh. We also have those in this fight with us — our brothers and sister in Christ. Together we can resist whatever comes to our minds — and hearts.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Speak up for others

Encore Post: It all began with a lie. “You shall not die, but you will be like God…” (Genesis 3:4-5) Since then, falsehood has been the go-to sin — the way we try to wiggle out of tough spots. Sometimes it works — for awhile. The trouble with lies is that they multiply like rabbits and it is hard to keep them all straight. A variety of this strategy is to try to build yourself up by tearing others down. It is why it is the staple of garden variety gossip — and political campaigns. It is also when someone is in competition with us that we assume the worst of others — and spread it. The problem is, of course, such lies destroy reputations and lives. It is why God forbids lying about others. But you know all that. It is the common theme of preachers when they take up this commandment.

Martin Luther sees something more in this commandment. It is God’s call to speak up for others — especially those who cannot speak for themselves. So, when when the opportunity comes, we should speak well of others. We should praise people publicly when they do well, help others to see their good side and when we hear someone criticized, defend them. This is especially true if they are weak, defenseless, not present to defend themselves or are in danger. This can be challenging when the person is a friend or loved one, but difficult if they are opposed to us or even an enemy. We may discover that they are not as bad as we think.

Every day we fail to do this. Yet there is forgiveness for us. Jesus suffered the insults and lies of others — even his friends. These lies resulted in his crucifixion. He knew this would happen, yet he willingly suffered that we might be saved. Because he died and rose again, God now sees only the best in us — that we do good because we love him and that we are holy for Jesus’ sake. He now gives us the ability to see the good in others, to pray for them and defend them.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Beg, Borrow and Steal

Encore Post: Advertisements are all around us. They call to us: “you can have that bright, shiny, car. If you act now, you can get it for hardly any money at all…” “Buy a lottery ticket and you will win millions of dollars.” The temptation to win something for nothing, to take a shortcut to get what you desire is strong in us. What we may not realize is that at the bottom of it all is taking something that is not given to us or earned by us. In fact, you could see the first sin as theft — taking the one fruit God did not give.

Stealing is obvious when someone breaks into your house and takes your T.V., when they drive off in your car or hold up a grocery store. Less obvious, but just as real, is when someone steals your identity, charges you way more than an item is worth or sells you a property they know will need major repairs. What is less obvious is how each of us steals. We rob people not only when take something, but when we do not give others what we owe them. When someone pays us, we owe them our best work. When we do not help them to protect their possessions and improve their business, they are poorer for it. Even when we sue someone for damages and are awarded more than we need to recover from the harm done to us is a form of theft.

Thank God that he is merciful even to thieves. Jesus forgave the thief on the cross and died for his robbery and ours. Not only that, but in Jesus God gives us everything we need — life, salvation and faith to be generous to those in need. With the strength he gives, we can resist the temptation to steal and become, like him, people who give.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

God’s Good Gift of Marriage

Encore Post: “It is not good,” God said, “that man be alone. I will make a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18) Formed from the rib of Adam, God presented Eve to man. “At last bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” replied Adam. … “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh,” Moses concludes his account of the first marriage. (Genesis 2:23-24)

God’s gift was very good. Marriage is the closest picture we have of the nature of God. In it, there are two persons, yet one flesh. It is a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. It is the foundation on which God builds families, where children can be raised in love and security. It is sealed with God’s gift of sexual intimacy. God thinks so highly of marriage that he makes it a part of the ten commandments. That is why he limits sexual activity to marriage.

In our culture, which makes sexual freedom into a god, it can be more challenging than ever to keep this commandment. Everywhere are sexual images, pornography, temptation to all manner of sexual encounters. Jesus makes it no easier when he tells us that even to look at someone not your spouse with desire for her is to break this commandment. (Matthew 5:27-28)

Thank God we have resources that can help us resist these temptations. Marriage itself helps by providing the place for these feelings to be expressed. We also have each other. All of us have these temptations and we can urge each other to be faithful. When we see a friend tempted, we can plead with them and remind them of the consequences of such sin. And when we do fall into sin, we know that Jesus died to forgive our sins and is with us always to help us resist it.

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To Live Well, Honor Your Parents

Encore Post: The Fourth Commandment is different. This commandment is positive. It urges us to honor our father and mother rather than the “nots” of most of the commandments. It comes with a promise — that you will live a long life. It is the first commandment that even non-believers can keep and their lives will be better in this world. It is the first of the Words to explain what it means to love your neighbor — to do to others what you want them to do to you.

So, why is honoring our father and mother the first commandment about loving our neighbors? Of all of the vocations (callings) that God gives to us, parenting is the most basic. We are not all blessed with children, professions, businesses or crafts, but everyone of us has one father and one mother. A parent is for us a mask that God wears to care for us in this world. When the evil of this world deprives us of a loving father and mother, adoptive father and mother, a step father or mother or a foster father and mother, life is profoundly more difficult and troubled. When a father and mother serve God by caring for their children, providing for their needs, disciplining them and loving them, their children have the best chance of living a happy and productive life. When we love them, thank them, care for them in old age and illness, we encourage them to serve faithfully. Most of all, we set an example for those we care for.

Martin Luther also saw in fathers and mothers a model for all people God calls to care for us. Employers, rulers, pastors, teachers, first responders, husbands and others are called to lay down their lives for those in their care. We benefit from their leadership and protection. When we honor them, we honor God who called them. We, in our turn, then serve those in our care, as Christ loved us and gave his life so we can live. When we honor all our leaders, we live longer, simpler and happier lives in the balance.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Who is Your God?

Encore Post: When St. Paul first visited Athens as a Christian, he noticed that it was a very religious place. Everywhere he went, he found a temple or sometimes just an altar to this or that god or goddess. That he expected. But what caught him by surprise is there was an altar on which to sacrifice to an unknown god. Someone really wanted to cover all their bases! (Acts 17:16-31)

Our world is also a very religious place. Everywhere you go there are churches, temples and gathering places. “In God we trust” appears on the money of the United States. Conversations often invoke a god, even if it just in cursing. At times of death and birth, a god is often called upon to provide blessings or comfort. For a secular society, gods are everywhere.

God made human beings so that we need to depend upon him. So, even when a person is not a Christian, even if they are an atheist, they need to depend upon someone or something, especially in times of need. Martin Luther describes it this way:

“A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” (Large Catechism 1.1.2-3)

For Christians, God is not some fuzzy concept, one of many competing gods or goddess, or the whole universe merged together as a single being or something we are obsessed with or addicted to. God is our Father, who loved us before he made the world, who knit us together in our mother’s womb, who in the person of the Son of God, suffered, died and rose again, so that we might live with him forever. All other things that we can make into a god are either a product of human imagination or are not made to take the weight of our trust. Sooner or later they will fail. But God will never fail. He is with us, now, through death and into eternal life.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Why is Luther’s Small Catechism so Popular?

“Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach … Yet they [do not understand and] cannot [even] recite either the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments”
— Martin Luther, “Preface” in The Small Catechism 0.1

Encore Post: Luther was shocked and dismayed. His prince had sent him and his friends on a mission to go throughout Saxony and see what needed to be done to reform the church. There was no bishop who came over to the Reformation to provide care for the people, so the prince had to act. Luther knew the everyday people were badly educated — but he didn’t know how bad it was. He had instructed his friends to write catechisms to help fathers and priests teach the people. He was not at all satisfied with their work and it clearly was not working. So he produced two Catechisms — the Large Catechism for pastors and fathers learn how to teach children and the Small Catechism for the children to memorize.

Luther produced two classics. The Small Catechism revolutionized Christian education of children — even beyond Lutheranism, resulting in basic catechisms for children appearing in all denominations. Wherever the Lutheran Church and its missions went in the world, the Small Catechism soon followed. As soon as the Bible appeared in a new language, the Catechism and the liturgy were sure to soon follow. It is among the most translated works in Western civilization. When the first Missouri Synod Lutherans emigrated to America, among the essential books packed in the trunks were the Bible, the Catechism, a prayer book, a hymnal and a book of sermons. Wherever the Missouri Synod organized congregations, they would immediately set up schools — sometimes multiple schools — where at first the pastors would teach, you guessed it — the Catechism, the Bible and then other subjects. As soon as a congregation could afford it, they would also call a school teacher.

The Small Catechism was so popular because it was so basic. It taught the bedrock doctrines needed to live a Christian life — the Ten Commandments and with it God’s law in its three uses; the Creed and with it the Gospel which saves us and gives us the power to live the Christian life and the Lord’s Prayer, and with it the building of a life centered around Jesus. He also translated these treasures into the child’s native language, so they could comprehend them. He then explained them carefully, sweetly in easily memoizable words. He did all this without using combative language. The result is that even non-Lutherans cherish the Small Catechism.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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St. Timothy, Pastor, Bishop, Friend of St. Paul

Encore Post: Timothy of Lystra had a blessed childhood. His grandmother and mother were Jews who came to Christ. Even in the womb, he heard the Holy Scriptures, and was raised loving God, even though his father was a Gentile. He may have been already a Christian when he first met St. Paul, or came to faith through his preaching of the Gospel. A kind, mature and reserved young man, he impressed everyone — including St. Paul. So, Paul had him circumcised and bought him on his missionary journeys. Called as a pastor, he soon became Paul’s trusted and effective assistant. When Paul was near martyrdom, he called for Timothy to come to be with him. After Paul’s death, Timothy served as the Bishop of Ephesus. Church tradition reports that he was martyred in his old age.

On January 24th, the Lutheran Church gives thanks to God for St. Timothy and all pastors. God sent them to proclaim the Gospel, to care for his children, to bring to them the his gifts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to forgive their sins when they repent and to be present with them in all the days of their lives. The Scriptures urge us to study their lives, learn from them and imitate their faith. We do this not because they are holier than us. They are not. It is because they are just like us. Since they lived trusting in Jesus, we, too, can live trusting in him. After all, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrew 13:7-8)

to: The Confession of St. Peter | Conversion of St. Paul