LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 30

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30 DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

scored in this convention. Conventions of this church
are not held in order to fill the communications media
of our age with new news about the church. We are
here only to do God’s will, to walk in His ways, and
to perform His work. The world may deride us for our
position. But this is precisely the cost of our disciple-
ship. Many a resolution that we pass here may make
us the object of the world’s scorn. Yet, if God says,
“Yes!” this convention dare not say, “No!” And if God
says, “No!” this convention dare not say, “Yes!” No
matter what the communications media think of our
decisions, we will be willing to pay the price. Are you
willing as delegates to pay the price?

The church ever lives in the afterglow of Easter.
The risen Lord is her only Strength. The Word of God
is her infallible tool. The world of man is her field
of action. “Faith Forward!” is her motto. And victory
is her eternal destiny. That’s the meaning of the words:
“Even so send I you.”

Who Is the Sender?

We'll have to have clarity in the answer to the ques-
tion: “Who is the Sender?” We know the mandate:
“Go!” Are we clear as to the identity of Him who told
us to go and to be a holy community in an unholy
world, to make of an unholy world a holy community?
Perhaps we'll have to answer this question in a double
way, both negatively and positively. Unless there is
clarity on the identity of the Sender, there may be no
authority undergirding the mandate.

To see Him once again we must return to that room
in Jerusalem, 11 men behind locked doors — hiding.
Sad faces, trembling hearts, whispered conversation,
forgetful of every promise, unmindful of every predic-
tion, shaken to the very depths of their being by the
prattle of some women who said, “We saw Him! He’s
alive!”

Mary Magdalene said it. Mark adds: “They ...
believed [her] not” (Mark 16:11). Joanna said it, Mary
the mother of James said it, and other women said it.
Luke adds: “They believed them not” (Luke 24:11).
Two dust-covered men from Emmaus rush into Jeru-
salem and say, “We saw Him!” What does Mark add?
“neither believed they them.” (Mark 16:13)

What do you do with men like that? Nothing will
help them except a personal confrontation with the
risen Christ. God’s friends thought it couldn’t happen.
God’s enemies said it wouldn’t happen. But it did hap-
pen. In that moment the risen Christ steps among His
trembling disciples and gives them the world’s greatest

tranquilizer. “Peace,—to you!” Were they tranquil?
Not at all. Luke says: “They were terrified” because
they thought they had seen a ghost. (Luke 24:37)

Then it happened. “Why are you troubled? Look
at my hands and feet. It is I!” (Luke 24:38, 39). Then
first were the disciples glad. Here was unbelief re-
solving itself into faith, doubt into certainty, and fear
into joy. Here was the vindication of His challenge:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up” (John 2:19). Here is the risen Christ and none

other, the “blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim.6:15). Here is the
only One who could give a mandate to His people.

Twenty centuries have not dealt kindly with the
Sender. A large segment in Christendom is still search-
ing for an answer to the question, Who is He? Make
no mistake about it, Christology is in our enlightened
age still the great battleground of the Christian church.
Who is He? Go back 16 centuries and behold the
struggle of the church. When the struggle was over,
the church stood before the world holding high its
manifesto. And what did the manifesto of the Nicene
Ecumenical Council say in the year 325? It said
negatively:

Christ, the Sender, Is Not the Christ of Arius

Who was Arius? A teacher who brought trouble
into the church. And even though Bishop Alexander
had excommunicated him, he wouldn’t stop talking
and making propaganda for his ill-conceived theologi-
cal deductions and conclusions. He taught that God is
utterly inaccessible, for He is removed from the world
by an impassable gulf. Ergo, He created out of nothing
an intermediate being who was called the Son of God
but who was not eternal, who was not God, who was
in all things unlike God. According to Arius, this Son
of God was not inherently sinless, but He could choose
the good and continue therein. He redeemed mankind
by showing how men might choose the good and be-
come sons of God.

With this kind of teaching rampant in the church,
something had to be done. Emperor Constantine said,
“Let’s hold an ecumenical council. Let’s get together.”
Note well, this council was not called by the bishops.
In that day nobody had as yet heard the words: Roma
locuta, causa finita, “Rome has spoken, the case is
settled.’ Here was an emperor who called together the
people of God. The council opens. The first to make
a proposal to resolve the struggle for truth was Euse-
bius of Nicomedia, who sided with Arius. In presenting
his false conclusions based on false premises, he said
things which the delegates did not like, and summarily
they rejected his proposal.

Eusebius of Caesarea arises. He has another pro-
posal. What do the delegates reply? “You’re pussy-
footing!” And then comes a young deacon. He wasn’t
a delegate. His bishop thought it would be good to take
him along. So Alexander brings Athanasius with him.
Athanasius arises and gives to men clarity as to the
identity of the Sender. And when the document, the
manifesto, is finished, the whole church stood before
the world and said what you said so bravely last night
in the Nicene Creed: “God of God, Light of Light,
Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made, Being of
one substance with the Father, By whom all things
were made.” And what is our prayer today? “Oh,
please, God, in the confusion of our time give us an-
other Athanasius at this convention who will speak
with clarity as to the identity of the Sender, and not

be like unto Eusebius Number One with his falsehood,

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