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.
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Thank you, this was my morning devotion.
I have a question, which also bothers me during confession in church. For sure, confessing our sins reminds us how much we need him because we can only fight the sin in our flesh with His help. But, if we are truly God’s children, and the old Adam has been drowned in our baptism, then God has forgiven our sins before we even confess them. Forgiveness does not depend on us, but solely on God’s grace. We don’t have to beg for mercy to be forgiven and God isn’t waiting for us to confess before He forgives. Yet, it often sounds like we are not forgiven for last week’s sins in the liturgy until we confess. That seems to me to be bad theology. My understanding is that we should confessing knowing and trusting in the promise that our sins have been paid for on the cross.
Yes, when Jesus died on the cross, our sins are forgiven. When we were baptized, we were united with him in his death and resurrection. Yet the Old Adam still lives and daily we need to drown him. But he is a very good swimmer! We need to remind ourselves that we are sinners, les it tempt us to forsake our faith. The gift of confession and absolution is that it offers that forgiveness again and again, with the promise that the pastor’s words are the words of Jesus himself.
Dear Pastor Smith,
It has taken me a while to reply to you for two reasons. One, I am no theologian and have not been trained in seminary like you have been. Secondly, when I read your reply to me, I was stunned. It seems like what can’t be drowned is not the old Adam, but rather another disguised promotion of free will. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to answer you.
You said that if we don’t keep confessing our sins (drowning the old Adam daily as you recommend) we can forsake our faith. So, maybe I am misunderstanding you, but if keeping our faith is dependent on our actions, then our salvation is not solely dependent on God. God has chosen us to be in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) and we have by His grace and mercy received saving faith from Him (1Peter 1:9), (Eph 2:8). However, according to how I understand your statement, in order to not forsake that faith which saves us, we still must be confessing sins and receiving absolution. I hope I have misunderstood you. Otherwise, as Paul wrote, I’m not sure by which church tradition, law, or writing you have been so bewitched, that you believe what has been begun by the Spirit must now be completed by works of the flesh (Gal 3:1-3).
Hearing from the Pastor, that in spite of my past sins, I am forgiven in Christ is a blessing. I am reminded that I am a child of God, chosen by Him, enlivened by Him, and growing in His grace by His Spirit. My sins have been forgiven by Christ’s death on the cross through the gift of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I need Him and I can rest in Him, knowing that my salvation is secure by the grace of God alone and not by my reason or strength. Therefore, I am confident that nothing will separate me from His love and eternal life with Him (Rom 8:38-39).
Sola Scriptura
Sola Gratia
Sola Fida
David, if y’all don’t mind me horning-in here, I have a thought or two to add.
First, the pastor is operating from the office of the keys. He is called and ordained to the task of forgiving and retaining sins. He’s not looking to withhold forgiveness. But, he must where there is no repentance. Just like Faith is a gift from God, so is repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18: 2 Tim 2:25).
The repentance isn’t a work earning God’s favor or forgiveness. On the contrary, the lack of repentance is evidence of my calloused heart rebelling against forgiveness and faith. We can’t work our way into salvation or work ourselves into keeping it. But, we can and the Old Adam desperately wants us to work ourselves out of it.
This is the struggle St. Paul exposes in Romans 7. He is struggling with the Old Adam. Lamenting the thing I would and would not do, his voice is the voice of repentance and faith, crying out to the Lord.
Relative to the forgiveness I need to hear, It’s for today’s sin. For we sin daily and much. We are constantly in need of forgiveness. The Old Man also sows doubt. And, gives his words of forgiveness, delivered by a man, called to hear confession and forgive, for my confidence and assurance.
Jason,
I don’t understand the following two sentences. They seem to be contradictory:
“We can’t work our way into salvation or work ourselves into keeping it. But, we can and the Old Adam desperately wants us to work ourselves out of it.”
“We can’t work our way into salvation or into keeping it.” God’s gift of salvation and the faith trusting in it are from outside of me and foreign to our sinful nature. This is not our work. (John 6:65; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Cor. 12:3)
“But, we can and the Old Adam desperately wants to work ourselves out of keeping it.” The Old Adam in us remains rebellious toward salvation. He is not done until we rest in our graves in Jesus’s baptismal promise. The Devil, the World, and our sinful flesh (the Old Adam) are constantly working to separate us from the Love of God. (Gal. 5:17)
My apologies for not getting right back to you. Things have been busy here. Pastor Kaspar has made some good points. Briefly, God alone saves and you’ve written about that part well. Scripture also teaches that a person who is a Christian, has true faith and otherwise would be saved by the grace of God, through faith in God’s promises for Christ’s sake alone, can fall away from the faith. If you try to put these together, you’re right that it doesn’t seem possible to believe both at the same time. But God’s word clearly teaches both. When this happens, we let the matter rest — and believe both because God says both. After all, he is the creator — we the creatures. He is holy — in this life we are not. So we don’t try to figure it out, the same way we don’t try to figure out how there is one God, but three persons who are God.
Thank both of you very much for your thoughtful answers, but especially Pastor Smith who has responded with such Christian encouragement and kindness. It has taken me a little while to get back to you because I have been busy too – with my two granddaughters here in Hawaii while their mother is on the mainland for a conference.
I particularly thank you Pastor Smith for identifying the essential difference between what you believe and my understanding of God’s word in the Bible. Being a lifelong Lutheran, I understand that there are some mysteries of God that we do not understand such as the Trinity, the Sacraments, the Hypostatic Union, and others. I am comfortable with these seemingly impossible things because I trust God and know that His ways are far beyond what I could ever understand. On the other hand, a believer falling away is not a mystery. I have not found a verse in the Bible that clearly says the Elect, whom God has predestined for eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, will lose their salvation. There are many versus in Scripture that speak to believers falling away, but they can be easily explained by the words of Jesus. Some of His chosen fall away until Christ finds them and brings them back as explained in the parable of the man who goes after the lost sheep (Matthew 18 & Luke 15) or the prodigal son (Luke 15). Others may appear to be believers, but Jesus speaks of these in the parable of the sower: some will receive the word, but then fall away under persecution or the worries of the world (Matthew 13, Mark 4, & Luke 8). Jesus also said that not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7). No where does it say these believers who will suffer eternal punishment were chosen by God, children of God or had their name written in the Book of Life.
There are many other versus which substantiate my understanding of God’s immutable sovereign choice; however, the strongest argument comes from the mouth of a child. As my son and I were discussing your reply after dinner, my eight-year-old granddaughter, who is full of the Spirit, spoke up and said: “If God has chosen you, then His will can’t be changed. Your name is written on the palm of His hands.” This is the pure childlike joy of the Gospel message: knowing that God’s will cannot be stopped, knowing you are His child, having the full assurance of eternal life with Him and that nothing can separate you from His love. May God bless both of you with that childlike joy and security.
Pastor Kaspar and I will likely come back to you, but yes, the Scripture says the elect can fall away. See the Parable of the Four Soils.(also called the parable of the sower)