LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 65

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

LER II ITE LETT LOI EG PEPPERELL ORE GIES IE LE ERODE EE, 21g"

THE DOCTRINAL ESSAY 65

a human creation. It is a gift, the creation of God
Himself.

The holiness of the church does not depend upon
a certain kind of church polity. It has nothing to do
with apostolic succession or with the idea that the head
of the church surrounded by his bishops is somehow
infallible. It does not depend upon the observance of
certain rights and ceremonies, however desirable they
may be for the devotion of people. It does not depend
upon the fulfillment of man-made requirements, how-
ever great the contributions they make to the piety of
the church. The holiness of the church is a gift, the
creation of God Himself, conferred upon the members
of Christ’s body by the Holy Spirit of God through faith
in Jesus Christ.

Communicated

The holiness of the church has its origin in Jesus
Christ and is constantly focused on Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is holy. His holiness is communicated to the
world in His spotless life, His innocent death, and His
glorious resurrection from the dead. In the soil of His
achievement for the world, the holiness of the church
takes root, grows, and matures. Christ is the Head of
the Church, and He is its Glory. The church is Christ’s
body. All criticisms of the church finally founder here,
for Jesus Christ is holy. In Him there is nothing at all
that is unholy, impure, unsanctified.

The church is holy, for Jesus is Lord of the church
and has sent His Holy Spirit to call, to gather, to en-
lighten, and to sanctify the church in His holy name.
The church is holy because the Holy Spirit dwells in
it and sanctifies its members.

Work of Spirit

The work of the Holy Spirit is a churchly enterprise.
Explaining the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, the
earliest Christian symbol, Luther said: “I believe that
I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus
Christ, my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit
has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His
gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith; even as
He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole
Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one true faith; in which Christian church He
daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers

_ and will at the last day raise up me and all the dead

and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal
life. This is most certainly true.”

The church is holy because the Holy Spirit dwells
in it and leads it into all truth. Without the labors of
the Holy Spirit the church would be nothing. With the
Holy Spirit there is a church—the church of God,
holy, set apart, made up of people who are themselves
holy through Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the body.

Saints
Members of the church are constantly called “saints”
by the apostles of Jesus Christ. The messengers of
Jesus Christ never distinguish between saints and sin-
ners, since a saint by New Testament definition is a

sinner saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, justi-
fied by grace, declared holy by God Himself because
of the merits of Jesus Christ conveyed by the Holy
Spirit through faith. We often speak of saints in a dif-
ferent sense. Someone will say, “To live with that
person you have to be a saint.” By that we mean you
have to be perfect or nearly perfect. In apostolic lan-
guage a saint is a creation of God, set apart for God’s
glory, justified by God’s grace through faith that is in
Christ Jesus. It is just as if the sinner has been clothed
upon with Christ Himself. As God looks upon Christ,
so He looks upon the sinner and declares him holy,
just as if he had never sinned at all.

The saints of God in Christ are God’s new creation
in this world of ours, destined for life rather than death.
By Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again, the saints
of God live. They are moved by the Spirit of God, who
has lighted the fire of faith within them and fans the
flame of the new man in Christ that he may be filled
with all the fullness of God. Saints are elected to a life
of obedience to Jesus Christ. They are elected not
because of their obedience to Christ but because of the
free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Their election is not
due to their obedience, but their obedience is due to
their election. As obedient servants, they have a voca-
tion of obedient service. In all their imperfections they
are a holy priesthood, the inheritors of every promise
to the people of God in the Old Testament, the bearers
of the promise to the world that now is.

Not “Holy Joes”

The saints of God in Christ are not “holy Joes,”
frowning upon the simple pleasures provided by God
in this world and feeding on the dry crumbs of ascetic
negativism. They do not wear a mask of holiness be-
hind which they hide their pride, prejudice, and passion.
Saints are sinners forgiven by God’s grace. They are
driven forward by God’s power to be a new breed in
this old sin-soaked world of ours— impelled by the
Spirit of God to bless rather than to curse, to heal
rather than to hurt, to forgive rather than to condemn,
to build rather than to destroy.

There is no room for pride, personal or professional,
individual or denominational, among the saints of God
in Christ. God the Creator is a just God and no re-
specter of persons; God the Redeemer is the Justifier
of everyone who believes in Jesus. Where is boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? The law of works?
No, the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.

Being justified by faith, the saints have peace with
God. They are not on the defensive. They are not
called upon to bare their teeth in the face of peril or
persecution. They take it all patiently, knowing that
God Himself is the avenger of all such as are His holy
ones in Christ the Lord.

Drama of Life

Saints of God in Christ have a role to play, not
merely as actors taking a part in a make-believe play