Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
March 2018
Office of the Keys
Where’s the accountability? Who is going to own up, come forward, take the heat, stop the passing buck? That is something that our sinful human nature wants to avoid if at all possible. If there is a way to get out of admitting fault, then great effort and ingenuity will go “all-out” in order to find that escape hatch. About a generation ago, the great push to update the older hymnal gave opportunity to some false teachers to soften some central doctrines essential to the forgiveness of sins. Under the guise of, “We only wanted to update the language…” there was a change made in the confession of sins at the very beginning of the Divine Service liturgy. Can you spot the difference?
It used to say, “I…confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended Thee and justly deserved Thy temporal and eternal punishment.” (And our current hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, kept this wording, except for words like “Thee” and “Thy.”)
But the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), for just one example, introduced these words in the same spot: “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
It sounds okay when you read it for the first time, but then you compare it, and you notice that the confession has lost the sense of accountability! All we would confess is, “Poor us! We were duped and victimized by someone else who unleashed all their sin on us. Come, Jesus! Help us out of this jam, will ya?” Gone was the sense of temporal and eternal punishment. Gone was the condemnation of the law, to which we must be held accountable. And so also, gone was the full comfort of Gospel forgiveness, too.
God is angry at sinners! How can this be? Weren’t you taught that God loves everybody? Sure, that’s true! But it would mean absolutely nothing if you water down or ignore altogether the deep sense of our sinfulness, our disease of corruption that renders us unclean before the Lord, our rebellion against Him that has earned nothing but wrath against us.
Wait a minute! You have heard, have you not? God hates sin, but loves the sinner! Actually, that rule is meant to apply to us, as we are called to deal with sinners in our everyday life. We treat our neighbors with love, and make every effort to regard them with the forgiving love that our Savior has shown toward us. On the Last Day, before the absolute judgment throne of God, however, there will no more be any distinction of sin from sinner. If someone does not believe in Jesus, or rejects His forgiveness, then that person and his sin will be condemned! The Almighty Judge will not say “Depart from me, you cursed,” but then add right after that, “but I’m only talking to your sin. The rest of you can stay right here with me, if you promise to be good!” No, the law rightly condemns all of us entirely, not just our sins.
That’s what we have been hearing full-force during this season of Lent. The law should impress the sense of condemnation upon us so forcefully, that we ought to feel crushed and repulsed by what we have done and left undone. However, when that role of God’s Holy Word has done its work, then we have moved from Lent and Good Friday straight to Easter. With the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, all condemnation has been removed from you! Sinner no more! Therefore God no longer hates you as a sinner, either. He hated Jesus, actually, as He hung on the cross in your place, but on the third day the hatred was fully satisfied, and now for you, there is nothing but your heavenly Father’s love. You were not given some “easy way out” from the accountability of the law; instead Christ was the one who became fully accountable in your place.
He wants you to partake abundantly of love and forgiveness. God desires to bestow His rich gifts upon you like a generous, refreshing spring rain shower. He has sent you a man called and ordained to speak absolution, that is, forgiveness as though He were speaking it to you Himself. Where’s the accountability? Squarely on the shoulders of your Savior. Isn’t it ironic? The people who want an easy way out always end up going the route of works-righteousness, and thus they make salvation utterly impossible. Yet if you believe in Jesus Christ alone, eternal life cannot come any easier!
Blessed Lent and Easter! Yours, in service to Christ, Pastor Stirdivant