tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post1695817797882569976..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Jesus eats with sinners. . .Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-44967180238715361542013-09-18T12:10:17.623-05:002013-09-18T12:10:17.623-05:00Dear Rev. Peters:
I knew this would happen when I...Dear Rev. Peters:<br /><br />I knew this would happen when I saw yesterday’s post, “An Unlikely Reformer.... “, and I didn’t have long to wait. You write, “In his 95 Theses Luther insisted that when Christ said “Repent” He willed that the whole life of the Christian would be one of repentance.” Luther was wrong, which is why the 95 Thesis are not included in the Book of Concord. What many people do not realize is that the Luther who posted his 95 Theses was not the Luther who wrote the Smalcald Articles. The difference was the “Tower Experience”, about 2 years after the Theses were posted. Only then was Luther fully overcome by the joy and freedom of the Gospel. That is what the Reformation was all about, and continues to be all about. The Luther of the 95 Thesis was the Luther who was still trying to make peace with a righteous, wrathful God. The Luther after the Tower Experience knew that “the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the works of the Law.”<br /><br />But there is something else that really troubles me. Lutheran pastors, for some reason, do not distinguish between the Repentance that believers undergo at conversion, when they are made members of the Kingdom of God, and the repentance, or contrition which every Christian practices regularly. Here is what Walther said on this topic: “Thesis XII.<br />In the eighth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the preacher represents contrition alongside of faith as a cause of the forgiveness of sins…<br /><br />One of the principal reasons why many at this point mingle Law and Gospel is that they fall to distinguish the daily repentance of Christians from the repentance which precedes faith. Daily repentance is described in Ps. 51. David calls it a sacrifice which he brings before God and with which God is pleased. He does not speak of repentance which precedes faith, but of that which follows it. The great majority of sincere Christians who have the pure doctrine have a keener experience of repentance after faith than of repentance prior to faith.”<br /><br />The Luther after the “Tower Experience” writes: “The Smalcald Articles<br />Part III, Article III. Of Repentance. Of the False Repentance of the Papists.<br />“40] And in Christians this repentance continues until death, because, through the entire life it contends with sin remaining in the flesh, as Paul, Rom. 7:14-25, [shows] testifies that he wars with the law in his members, etc.; and that, not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Ghost that follows the remission of sins. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins, and works so as to render man truly pure and holy.” In the previous paragraph Luther writes,“39] Of this repentance John preaches, and afterwards Christ in the Gospel, and we also.” Both John and Christ preached the repentance of conversion, not the repentance of daily contrition. We can be sure of that, because there was no Kingdom, and therefore no converts who could practice contrition. And, as Luther writes, this repentance indeed continues until death. Repentance her is the subject that does the acting; not the believer, “it (this repentance) contends with sin”. The meaning is better understood in German, “40] Und diese Busse währt bei den Christen bis in den Tod;“ „Währt“ does not mean simply „continues“. It has the same root as the word “Währung”, “currency”. In other words, “this repentance keeps its value until death …” It is a one time experience, and it, and the gifts we receive in Baptism are what “through the entire life contends with sin remaining in the flesh, …” Thus the Luther whom we admire and respect for his unique contribution to the rediscovery of the Gospel no longer says “that the whole life of the Christian would be one of repentance,” but that the one time repentance we undergo in Baptism is effective throughout our lives.<br /><br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. Marquart<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com