We
can pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America. We can declare our loyalty to a particular athletic
team, and proclaim out convictions that they’re going to win the
Series, the Super Bowl, or the NCAA finals. We can announce our
political persuasion as Democrats, or Republicans, or
Libertarians or Independents. We can swear up and down that
Coke is better than Pepsi, or Pepsi better than Coke.
But
in Augsburg, Germany, on June 25th, 1530, a confession
of faith was made that was infinitely more important than one’s
preference in soft drinks, political persuasion, loyalty to a
favorite athletic team, or even allegiance to one’s nation. On
that date a group of laypeople read and presented the Augsburg
Confession to Emperor Charles V. This first formal statement of
biblical Lutheran doctrine was presented not by pastors and
theologians, but by laymen. Laymen who had heard and believed the
comforting message of the Gospel through the clear preaching and
teaching of God’s Word– that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
This message of Good News was like a breath of fresh air in the
stale, polluted atmosphere of the medieval Church. It was like a
draught of clear cool water to a thirsty traveler in the desert.
Let him who is thirsty come; let him drink freely of the
water of life without cost. That’s exactly what the
Confessors at Augsburg had done – drink freely and deeply of the
pure water of life that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And
so these laypeople boldly made their confession of faith in Christ
before the political head of the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor
was Roman Catholic. He had the power to imprison these men if he
wanted to, or order their heads cut off. Their property could be
confiscated. Their families could face banishment, poverty and
other adversities for the sake of the confession of faith made in
the imperial presence.
The
Augsburg Confession meant something. It was no empty gesture.
The Confessors at Augsburg were willing to suffer for the sake of
the Gospel. How many Christians are prepared to do that today?
How many value the Gospel and God’s Word enough to be willing to
suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from its saving
truth that God declares sinners righteous, and forgives and saves
them, through Jesus Christ alone? How many church-members would
be prepared to forfeit home, property, reputation, spouse and
child rather than compromise the biblical message that what saves
us isn’t anything we do? What saves us rather is what God has
graciously done for the world through the incarnation, life,
death, and resurrection of His Son. How many pastors would be
willing to do that? It’s easy to talk the talk when there’s
nothing much riding on it. But at Augsburg, our Lutheran
forebears were prepared to lay their lives on the line when they
made their Confession in the presence of a hostile, skeptical
Emperor.
How
could they do that? How could they face down the Emperor’s wrath
and be willing to have him strike off their heads if God so willed
that fate for them? We marvel at that today. We’re so pampered,
so addicted to comfort and pleasure and this-world security that
it’s almost more than we can imagine for someone to be willing to
die for the Christian Faith. Sometimes it’s a challenge for us to
take the time to devote even one hour a week to hearing and
learning God’s Word, and receiving the gifts of the Gospel on a
regular basis. Two hours a week is unthinkable to many of us!
Our priorities quite frankly are different from those of the
Confessors at Augsburg. It’s beyond our understanding how they
could be so devoted to the truth of God’s Word that they delighted
in hearing it and learning it, and rejoiced in its message that
God freely saves sinners through Jesus Christ alone. It’s almost
more than we can grasp to think that a Christian would actually be
willing to die for his or her allegiance to the Word of God and
the Savior whom that Word proclaims.
The
supreme allegiance of the Lutheran Confessors at Augsburg was to
the Word of God. That Word had been buried beneath a mound of
human traditions for a long time. For centuries the Church had
been saddled with false teachings about how sinners are saved. It
was taught that you aren’t saved by grace alone, but by grace plus
works plus love. God gave you enough grace, it was taught, so you
could do the works of love that merit salvation. You might say
God got the automobile of faith jump-started but then it was up to
you to keep it in good running order. Keep it polished, keep the
fuel tank full, service it regularly, and you could have a
reasonable hope of making it to heaven eventually after who knows
how many years in purgatory,
According to the prevalent teaching of the day you weren’t saved
by Christ alone. You had to contribute something. Christ plus
works – that was the equation. But how much Christ and how many
human works were necessary? How many fasts, how many vigils down
on your knees on the cold stone floor of a church, how many alms
must you give, how many prayers must you pray, how many
“Hail-Mary’s” must you say, before you could be sure it was
enough? That it merited God’s favor? That He accepted you?
Maybe
there was more to be done. That was always the nagging question.
Maybe you were only deceiving yourself that you’d been devout
enough, holy enough, charitable enough to be welcomed by God into
His kingdom. Maybe a few more pilgrimages, or indulgences
purchased, or relics observed and meditated upon, would tip the
scales in your favor. But how could you be sure?
The
Bible teaches that a person trusting in works can only be sure of
one thing – that nothing he or she does is enough. All who rely
on works of the Law for salvation are under God’s curse, Scripture
says, for no one will be justified (declared righteous)
through the Law. God’s Law sets the bar impossibly high
for us sinners. None of us can get over that bar, and crawling
beneath it doesn’t count. Loving God with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength is impossible for those whose heart, according
to the Biblical diagnosis, is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Every good thing we do, praiseworthy
though it may be in the eyes of our fellow sinners, is still
polluted by the sinful nature within us. As Job asks, who
can bring what is clean from the unclean?
Martin Luther found that salvation through works of the Law was a
dead-end street. The Confessors at Augsburg had learned the same
thing. But in learning this, they didn’t despair of salvation.
After all, what is impossible for men is possible with God.
So instead of despairing, Luther and the Confessors rejoiced to
hear and take to heart the Gospel message, that as Romans chapter
three says:
now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made
known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
It’s
not our works, but God’s grace that saves us. It’s not our works,
but faith in Jesus Christ that takes hold of God’s gift of
righteousness. It’s not the sterling character of our performance
that makes us confident of God’s acceptance. No, it’s the
sterling character of Jesus’ performance – the perfectly holy life
He lived on our behalf – the all-sufficient character of His
atoning sacrifice on the Cross for the world’s sins – the glory
and wonder of His death-conquering resurrection. Look at
yourself, and you’ll always see a sinner, no matter how hard you
try to change that. But look at Jesus and you’ll see a Savior.
Look at Jesus and you’ll see the righteousness and salvation of
God, freely given to you and received by faith in Christ alone.
This
was the Faith that was confessed before the Emperor at Augsburg.
This was the faith that strengthened and made bold those who were
willing to face death rather than submit to the Emperor’s demand
that they recant this teaching that we’re saved and forgiven
sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christe – by grace alone, through
faith alone, for Christ’s sake alone. This was the faith that
gave them confidence that if the Emperor snuffed out their earthly
lives, a heavenly life with their Savior awaited them, a life
ultimately fulfilled in the resurrection of the body at the end of
the age.
And
where did this faith that refused to shrink in the face of death
come from? It wasn’t produced by human will-power or
determination. It wasn’t a product of a pep-rally atmosphere to
get people fired up for Jesus. It wasn’t through teachings that
softened the hard edges of Christianity by saying that what God
really wants for us is that we be wealthy, happy, and
well-adjusted. No, the faith that was prepared to die for the
sake of the Gospel was the product of God’s Word alone. Today’s
Old Testament reading speaks of the effectual power of that Word
when it tells us:
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not
return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and
flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the
eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It
will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and
achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Where God’s Word is faithfully preached and taught it will
accomplish the purposes for which God sends it. The results may
not be anything spectacular according to human standards. We look
for the big, the grand, the stupendous, the stadium-sized rallies,
and think God’s at work there. If it’s big and impressive and has
everyone jumping on the bandwagon, it’s got to be God, we think.
But we’re wrong. God is at work through the still, small voice.
God is found in the helpless trembling flesh of a newborn baby boy
in a stable in Bethlehem. He’s present in the One who preached a
sermon in His hometown of Nazareth that nearly got Him thrown off
a cliff. He’s at work in the weakness and humiliation of the
Cross where He took the sins of the world upon Himself. He’s
there in the handfuls of water poured over a sinner’s head in the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; in the
message that God forgives our sins for the sake of Jesus the
crucified Lamb of God; and in the mouthful of bread and sip of
wine that are infinitely more than mere bread and wine because
through the Word God sends they are the Body and Blood of Jesus
Christ, given into our mouths to eat and drink.
The holy Christian Church was reformed nearly 500 years ago
through the Word of God alone. Through that Word men, women, and
children came to know the comfort of the Gospel, that their sins
were completely forgiven and that they were counted completely
righteous for Jesus’ sake. No gimmicks, no hoop-la, no slogans
and Ablaze movements and other folderol. Just the Word, which God
has promised will do the work of saving us by bringing us to Jesus
and keeping us with Jesus. Those early Lutherans were confident
of the power of God’s Word. They knew that it would accomplish
what God wanted it to. It did it then. It will still do it
today.
We need the spirit of Augsburg in the Church today. We need it in
our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. We need it here at Mt.
Olive. We need those who are prepared to confess the truth of
God’s Word, who are ready to confess Christ alone as the grounds
of our salvation. We need a laity eager to hear and learn God’s
Word and the doctrine flowing out of that Word. We need faithful
pastors who will preach and teach that Word in its truth and
purity. Because it’s through the Word alone that God accomplishes
His redemptive purposes. It’s through His Word alone that God can
make each one of us a bold confessor of the Faith our fathers
confessed at Augsburg.
In Nomine Patris. . .
