LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 40

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

40 PRESIDENT’S

remind us that “the devils also believe and tremble”
(James 2:19). God knows that our acts also betray our
brave words. How else can you explain that when God
confronts man almost invariably God has been the first
to speak and almost always His first two words have
been: “Fear not”? Unless we sense the nature of our
predicament as fallen creatures, we shall never be able
to sense the nature of God’s grace.

God came to us. In St. Paul’s words: “The kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared.”
Even the notion of coming was an act of grace. The
almighty Creator took the step down to meet His fallen
creatures. Grace is God’s idea because this is the way
God is. Human religion has never known this concept,
for man has never dared to propose such an extravagant
idea. God was not moved by anything He saw in His
creatures. God was moved to come “not by works of
righteousness which we have done.” St. Paul might
have said much more than these words. He might have
portrayed the way soldiers were casting dice for Christ’s
robe or the way that we grab at the goods of this world.
He might have described the anxious seekers for mir-
acles of healing in Christ’s time and ours. He might
have portrayed the casual disinterest or the fanatic
haters of His continent or of ours. But however St. Paul
might say it, he could only mean that God came for no
other reason than that He loved us without a reason.

God comes with grace because grace is what the
world needs. Long before 20th-century church councils
decided to listen to the cries of men in need through the
channels of our miraculous devices of communication,
God’s own ears had detected the same sounds through
His network of communications. Long before prophets
in 20th-century churches foolishly advocated that the
world should determine the agenda for God and the
church, God knew what the world was really crying
about. Men needed what only God could give. Men
needed grace big enough to forgive sin, sensitive enough
to feed the hungry and heal the hurting and lift up
the oppressed, and steadfast enough to reach out pa-
tiently to all men through the long centuries of time.

Grace is in fact the answer of God to the great social
issue of all time. Our modern social sciences describe
our human condition with words and phrases such as
these: “personality conflict,” “alienation of affection,”
“breakdown in communications,” “credibility gaps,” “so-
cial acceptance or rejection,” a “sense of personal worth
and well-being,” and the like.

God’s language is more blunt and more honest. He
describes the condition of His fallen creatures as for-
eigners and strangers, prodigal sons and idolaters. In
their relations with one another He describes His crea-
tures as envious and greedy, backbiters and seducers,
and murderers. Is it any wonder that there are pockets
of poverty, ghettos of oppression, and protest marchers
in a world where men have quickly sensed that only the
evil of other men has prevented God’s goodness from
being distributed equally and generously to all?

Grace became the bridge by which God crossed over
the gulf of sin to His creatures on the other side. Grace

ADDRESS

was designed by God to create bridges so that His for-
giveness might bind together again all those cut off
from one another by what they had done and said.
Grace was to be God’s network of communication and
transportation so that all His blessings might be shared
with all His creatures everywhere.

The grace of God is always God in action. Paul
wrote to Titus that God’s kindness and love toward
man “appeared.” Men were able to hear and sense
and see God’s grace when they saw Christ. The human
flesh and blood with which Christ clothed Himself at
Bethlehem marked Him as a child of man, a creature
subject to hunger and pain and sorrow. The burden of
sin which He assumed marked Him as the target for
rejection and hate. But the significance of the story
of Christ’s life and death lies not in what was done to
Him but in what He did. The grace of God persevered,
and Jesus Christ loved us to the very end. The grace
of God overcame in the great act of redemption in
a way that no human being can fathom or describe.

Yet it is possible to say something about this grace
of God, for it is in action now. Justification by grace
is much more than an incomprehensible or indescribable
creedal confession. Justification by grace is life and
salvation for men all over the world in 1967. The God
who did such a great thing in Christ’s life and death
and resurrection is still doing a great thing among
men here and now.

The gracious action of God begins for a man in
Baptism. It is continued by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, “According to His mercy He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior.” Our God is not an irresponsible
or indifferent Father to His children on earth. He is
neither aloof nor powerless. God is still in the front
lines of the battle, where the real struggle goes on.
God knows that discriminatory laws and restrictive
covenants are conceived in human hearts and minds
before they are written on paper. He knows that
murders and wars are designed inside people before
they are carried out on streets and distant jungles.
We point to the scene of this struggle, and we concede
to the agony of it when we confess with St. Paul: “The
good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would
not that I do.”

But if we want to perceive God at work, then we
must look in the right place. To Nicodemus and to any
modern doubter our Lord points to the towering trees
silhouetted against the night sky. You can hear the
sound of the rustling leaves and see the waving of the
swaying branches, He says, but you will never know
where the wind comes from or where it goes. And
St. Paul does not cease his agonizing until he has told
us where to look for help: “O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

The same Christ who won His personal battle be-
comes involved in our struggle. The Savior who be-
came a part of our sin and weakness makes us partakers