LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 41

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PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 41

in His victory through Baptism. There we are buried
with Him into death that like as He was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life. Whenever and
wherever God is making His grace known, whether
through words of forgiveness or through acts of mercy,
there God is doing something.

This is the critical point in the phrase “justified by
grace.” What is God really doing in our time that
makes sense to modern man who wants some proof
that he can see or understand? What is God doing that
has any value by our present standards? To put it
bluntly: what good is the grace of God doing today?

God’s simple answer is that His grace is still justi-
fying. That answer is not really mystifying or as
irrelevant as it may seem. It means that God is making
wrong things right again. God’s grace is tackling the
whole agenda of things that have gone wrong in this
world and is setting them straight again. Where you
have failed in any way, God wipes your failure from
the record with forgiveness. Where you have failed,
there God writes in to your credit the record of Christ’s
perfect holiness. It is as though your failure had never
happened and only Christ’s love took place. And then,
as though this were not enough, God’s grace changes
you to be like God in His kindness and love.

God’s grace is both a very private and a very social
kind of action. Though we don’t know any better than
did Nicodemus where the wind comes from and where
it goes, we can feel and see what it does. The preaching
of the Gospel in simple words or when channeled
through water in Baptism or through bread and wine
in Holy Communion is doing things that can be felt
and seen. You don’t see forgiveness or grace, but
sinners know the peace and hope that comes with
pardon and being in Christ. You don’t see the Holy
Spirit at work, but you can see changes in families
and communities and nations as swords are beaten into
plowshares, the poor are fed, the dispossessed are re-
stored, and the burdens of the handicapped are relieved.

If St. Paul were here to listen to my exposition of
his letter, he might interrupt me in my remarks at this
juncture. He would suggest that I take up my previous
subject a little later in connection with verse 8 and
that I dare not overlook the significance of verse 7 now.
He breaks off as if to warn that we are always in danger
of trying to list and describe all the blessings of God’s
grace in terms that men can enjoy here and now.

Whatever justification by grace means for you today,
it means much more for the future. “Being justified
by His grace,” St. Paul says, “we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.” The same God
who brought all things now present into being by His
creation has announced plans for a new creation. The
same God who has showered His creatures with count-
less blessings in this present life, intends to give bless-
ings in the life to come which no eye has seen or ear
has heard.

By His grace God completely changes our status.
When He names us His children by the second birth

in Baptism, He means exactly that. He surrounds us
with all kinds of evidence that He is our Father and
we are His sons. But we are His heirs, named to possess
and enjoy forever all that He is and that He has.
Mindful of the greatness of God’s grace, the same man
who described what it means to be justified in this
present life was the one who wrote in eager hope and
anticipation: “I have a desire to depart and to be with
Christ, which is far better.”

In case you have sensed that St. Paul is here trying
to carry us away and beyond our earthbound existence,
then you are absolutely right. To prevent us from be-
ing too much with this world, God has called us to
gather together in His name by twos and threes, by
congregations and conventions of various sizes and de-
scriptions. He wisely committed His Word and sacra-
ments to the care of His gathered people. Whether we
call them congregations or something else, we need to
come together at the place where the Holy Spirit comes
to work among us with His overwhelming grace. Every-
thing in life tends to tear us apart from one another,
tends to make us something less and other than the
beloved children of God. Before this convention is over,
I hope earnestly that the gathering place of God’s people
around Word and sacrament has been restored in our
view as the exalted place of God’s presence and action.
All of our hopes for the church of God and world of
God are centered here because this is the place where
God goes into action with His perfect grace.

I

There is a natural inclination to halt at this point.
It appears that God has solved all of our problems
through justification by grace. Christ has provided suf-
ficient forgiveness for all sin and enough holiness to
make all wrong things right again. It might seem that
the only continuing obligation a Christian has is to go
to church somewhat as he might go to a bank in order
to transfer assets from Christ’s account to his own ac-
count, which is always running into bankruptcy. But
this is a caricature of justification by grace. It reflects
a total misunderstanding of what God is saying in these
verses from Titus.

In a sense Paul is saying that justification by grace
has as its purpose that men might be justified for grace.
Grace is God’s own nuclear fission which sets off a chain
reaction. The grace that would not stop short of offering
up the Son of God on the altar of the cross will not
cease until all men have the opportunity to share in
that grace. This is where the church receives her mis-
sion. This is where we get into the act. ,

But before we chase off into every direction being
busy about many things, Paul inserts a significant tran-
sitional phrase. “This is a faithful saying,” he comments.
In another word, this is the sure Word. In a world of
uncertainty where you can’t count on what men say
or do, you can count on God. Where we have failed
Him, at this point God does not fail us. You can count
on God most of all where you need most of all to be
sure of Him.