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We Lutherans are known to be stubborn. That’s how it is with most people, I think. The only thing that changes from person to person is WHAT that person is stubborn about. We get frustrated when people are either movable or immovable crosswise from us. They should be lax in areas we are, or they are sticks in the mud where we are. Most of this is according to human ways of thinking, just look at society and politics!
We Lutherans ought to be different. We should be open to being moveable. We should not follow any person’s winsomeness. We must not give way to any human opinion or philosophy or reason. But where there is a clear Word of God we ought to give way immediately. We order our lives according to the Word of God, as the Inspired Psalmist sings: “Your Word is a Lamp for my feet and a Light for my path.” (Ps 119) “The prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments [are] the pure, clear fountain of Israel. They are the only true standard or norm by which all teachers and doctrines are to be judged.” (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration: Summary, Rule, Norm § 3)
If God’s Word says something, we not only believe what it says, though. We behave like we believe it, too! We live according to the Word of God. It is the only infallible rule for both faith (what we believe) and practice (what we do). And so God says to believe or do something that we’re NOT doing, we change coarse. If His Word says not to believe something or not to do something, we don’t. But if our belief and our behavior does, in fact, line up with the Word of God, then we won’t give an inch. We say what He says, and we won’t yield a single Word or syllable.
What does this look like? Well, we’ll consider a few doctrines to make this point. It’ll become evident how we Lutherans, especially, do not depart from the divine Word. It’s what sets us Lutherans, and, of course, LCMS Lutherans apart from all others. We’ll consider the Law of God, the Sacraments of Christ, and finally, the doctrine of justification.
When it comes to God’s Holy Law, we believe what Christ says about it. “Not a jot, not a tittle will pass away from the Law.” (Mt 5) Not even a single stroke of the pen falls away from God’s Law, the 10 Commandments. Every “i” remains dotted (jot). Every “t” stands crossed (tittle). When it comes to morality, many Christians have forsaken the Law of God, falling prey to Satan’s question: “Did God really say?” (Gen 3) What God says is sin, we say is sin. What God says is righteous, we say is righteous.
We aren’t just different when it comes to the Law of God, but with the very heart of the Gospel. We differ from Protestantism on the Sacraments. Many Lutherans want to “buddy up” with Evangelicals because they’re “anti Catholic,” but doing that means that the Sacraments are sidelined. The Sacraments are not inconsequential. They lie at the very heart of the Gospel, because they are the visible Gospel, the tangible Gospel—the Gospel you hang onto with your sight and senses. They are the means by which Christ makes the Gospel yours. This means that Christ is delivering right to you and for you His death and forgiveness. When it comes to the Sacraments, we don’t depart from the Word at all. We hold to it, even if it fails to match up with human ways of thinking.
With Baptism, Peter says, “Baptism now saves you.” (1 Pet 3) And we Lutherans say, “Then Baptism saves.” We don’t try to play with the Word so that Peter’s inspired words do NOT mean what they say. When Peter says “Baptism saves you,” he means, “Baptism saves you,” and not something else.
Same with Absolution, which is “the very voice of the Gospel” (AP IV), when Christ says, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (Jn 20) Clearly Christ gave the authority to forgive sins to the Apostles as ministers of the Gospel. What else do these Words mean? Christ clearly indicates that is the authority granted to the Office of the Ministry. To say something like “only God can forgive sins” or that the Apostles could NOT forgive sins is either to agree with the Pharisees (Mk 2) or to make Christ’s Word in John 20 confusing and meaningless.
To say without moving an inch that “Baptism saves” or ministers have the authority to forgive sins is to take after Luther. Luther, most famously, did this for the Sacrament of the Altar. When Luther met with Ulrich Zwingli, who held that the Sacrament was a memorial meal and that Christ’s words are only symbolic, he wrote on the table “EST” (the Latin word for “Is”). Whenever the conversation took a wild turn, Luther would invariably point at the word “IS” written, maybe carved, on the table. “Is” means “is,” as some now say.
So when Christ says, “This [brea] IS My body” and “this cup [of wine] is My blood,” He means it. If He meant something else, He would’ve said something else. That’s what we Lutherans believe, teach, and confess. As an aside, we also don’t think that “is” means “becomes.” The consecrated bread is Christ’s body, the consecrated wine His blood in a mysterious way that we cannot comprehend with our reason or discern by our senses. The Lutheran teaching also excludes any Roman Catholic transubstantiation.
Finally, we must turn to the doctrine by which the holy, Christian, and apostolic Church stands or falls—the doctrine of justification. This how Augsburg Confession, Article IV confesses this doctrine:
[1] Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. [2] People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. [3] God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5]).
The Church lives and dies on this article. The doctrine of Christ and His justification of sinners is the spoke of the wheel. If it cracks and crumbles, no one’s getting anywhere, least of all eternal life with Christ. This doctrine means everything! The doctrine of justification, that by faith in Christ alone are we declared righteous for Christ’s sake alone, means everything to sinners. Apart from this Good News (Gospel) there is no peace. The sinner would always be in doubt.
We maintain this doctrine against all the falsehoods of the Roman Catholic Church, and this isn’t some ancient fight of some 500 years ago. In His sermon for St. Bartholomew, the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo IX Pope Leo warned against presuming you are saved. He said “[The Lord wants to] challenge the presumption of those people who think they are already saved.” In official Roman Catholic teaching you must always maintain doubt about whether you’re saved or not. This teaching not only troubles the conscience of believers, but it undermines Christ, whose death alone is the reason for salvation. It also undermines His Word, as His Spirit wrote through John in his first letter: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 Jn 5)
As Lutherans we don’t move from the Word. If the Word says move, we move—gladly, joyfully! Other than that we camp. We make His Word our Word. We believe, teach, confess what God says. His Word means what He says. “The Law of God is good and wise”—we hold to it, even do it. “Baptism saves.” Ministers forgive. “Is” means “is.” And “we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” (Rom 3) Indeed “to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” (Rom 4) You can be confident and bold about all of this, not because you believe it, but because God says it. He’s true to His Word. Calvary and Easter prove that.
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