# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S258
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

258

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Unjustifiable Faiths:

© 2017 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
1333 S. Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, MO 63122
888-THE LCMS • lcms.org/ctcr

Four Common — and Wrong — Beliefs about Justification
L eader’ s

This work may be reproduced by a churches and schools for their own use in the study
of the Scriptures. Commercial reproduction, or reproduction for sale, of any portion
of this work or of the work as a whole, without the written permission of the copyright
holder, is prohibited.

Gui de

Art illustration provided by Concordia Historical Institute,
concordiahistoricalinstitute.org. Used with permission.

Session One:
“Just Believe”
Believe in what your heart is saying,
Hear the melody that’s playing.
There’s no time to waste,
There’s so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside,
Give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need,
If you just believe.1
When St. Paul writes that we are justified by faith apart
from the deeds of the law, he is contrasting two distinct
approaches to God: through “faith” or through “deeds of the
law.” The wider context of Romans reveals what is unstated
in that sentence, namely, the object of faith (i.e., what or
whom we are trusting), which is Jesus Christ. American culture believes people are justified by faith, too, but the object
of that faith is quite different. The object of that faith is oneself, and belief in oneself is the key to achieving a kind of
secular “salvation,” namely, realizing the American dream.
1. The lyric just quoted, from the movie The Polar Express,
offers belief as salvation from the grown-up’s world of cynicism. According to the lyric, in what two things is the hearer
to believe? What is the promised outcome of such faith?

Introduction
“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works
of the law” (Rom. 3:28). Luther’s understanding of this Biblical
teaching created a ripple effect through both the church and
society of his day. What do people understand “justification” to mean in our time?
Within the Christian Church, the concept of justification refers to God’s juridical declaration of righteousness
through faith in Christ Jesus. But even more people understand justification to mean “the act of showing that a person’s conduct is right or reasonable.” When put under pressure to explain their actions or their character, most people
will try to show why their behavior should be approved
by those calling their actions into question. So a Board of
Directors may ask the corporate CEO to justify certain
actions that he or she has taken. Radical environmentalists ask the world to justify human existence on the planet,
which they believe humans are destroying. Legislators must
justify to the taxpayer proposed increases in local, state or
federal taxes.

One is to believe what the heart says and believe what one
feels inside. The promised outcome of such belief is that
you will have “everything you need.” What “everything”
includes remains unspoken.

In response to a specific request of the 2016 Convention
of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (Res. 5-10), the
LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations
(CTCR) has prepared a series of Bible studies on the doctrine of justification. The other studies in this series look at
the Scriptural doctrine of justification from historical and
Biblical viewpoints. This Bible study explores four commonly held beliefs that do not justify a person before God.
Since each is an attempt to show that the person’s conduct
is right or reasonable (and therefore should be acceptable
to God), each is really an example of self-justification, and
as such, falls short of what Scripture teaches: “It is God who
justifies” (Rom. 8:33b), as He declares people righteous
through faith in Christ. The titles of each session (in quotation marks) are commonly heard and commonly believed
religious truisms that are not true but rather false and dangerous human myths and opinions about justification.

2. To believe in what your heart is saying is to believe in
yourself. According to Scripture, why can’t a person always
believe what the heart is saying? See Gen. 6:5, Jer. 17:9
and Matt. 15:19. Does the same verdict hold true for the
Christian’s heart?
The human heart is corrupted by sin. Note the added
italics in these verses: “Every intention of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5b). “The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). “For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false
witness, slander” (Matt 15:19).
A Christian is still saint and sinner (see Rom. 7:14–25).
Therefore, the Christian’s heart struggles against
1

Leader’s Guide |

2019 Convention Workbook

3

misleading desires, too. It is why we still need Confession
and Absolution.
3. According to the song, to believe in what you feel inside
is to give your dreams the wings to fly. What examples from
history illustrate that faith in a dream brought it to reality?
What examples illustrate that faith in a dream was not
enough to bring it to reality?
For a list of those whose persistent belief in themselves
brought their dreams to reality, see life-with-confidence.
com/inspirational-stories.html. Included are such people
as George Lucas, Henry Ford, Michael Jordan, Colonel
Sanders and Walt Disney. While we do not have the
names of those whose dreams have failed, we do have
their failed products. Clairol Yogurt Shampoo, Coors
Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water, Colgate Toothpaste’s
Kitchen Entries meals, flavored bottled water for cats and
dogs, Bic disposable underwear, and of course, the Ford
Edsel. The point is one cannot point to the persistence
and success of others as a guarantee that one’s own
dreams will fly if the person only believes in himself.
4. After years of rejection, Tom’s idea finally comes to successful fruition. His faith in himself is justified by overwhelming sales. He explains to his pastor, “The secret to my success
is this: I just believed in myself and never gave up.” If you
were Tom’s pastor, how would you answer? See James 1:17.
One might direct Tom to reflect upon God’s First
Article gifts to him and the part such gifts (including his
self-confidence) played in his success. Luther’s phrase in
his explanation to the First Article reminds us that God
has given us “all that we need” for this life, including,
in some cases, a strong determination. “Every good and
perfect gift from above” also includes one’s talents and
skills. To take all the credit for success is to make an idol
of oneself (Ps. 85:12; 145:15–16; Eccl. 7:14; Rom. 12:3).
5. A poster reads, “Have faith … believe in yourself … and
what others think won’t matter.” The author of that poster
thinks that the opinion of others should not be a deterrent
to those who believe in themselves. But what if one of the
“others” is God?
The Scriptures direct us to put our trust in God (Prov.

3:5–6). Locating trust anywhere else is idolatry, especially

when it encourages us not to take seriously the advice of
others but rely only on ourselves (Prov. 4:13; 6:20).

Josh Groban, “Believe” The Polar Express. (Warner, 2004).

4 | Unjustifiable Faiths: Four Common — and Wrong — Beliefs about Justification