LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 43

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PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed through faith for faith, as it is written: “He who
through faith is righteous shall live.” (Romans 1:16-17 RSV)

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written: The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16-17 KJV)

It was difficult to choose a text on which to address
you on this occasion. There are so many issues on
which something needs to be said. There are so many
things which our God wants to say to us from His
Word. There are many things I would like to say,
some of them just as a man and some of them as a
man of the church. Each of these sources suggests
worthy themes like repentance, thanksgiving, or mission.

I was helped in this predicament by recalling that
we are Lutheran Christians. This does not imply that
we own a secret formula for resolving all the difficulties
of life. Neither does it suggest that we ought to have
special exemption from the assignment of wrestling
with the problems common to the world and other
Christians. It says simply that we can make a good
ending because we can make a good beginning.

We make our beginning with God. What really
counts is what God does and thinks and says about His
creatures. The great decisive action of God has already
taken place in Jesus Christ. The decisive message for
all of history is what Christ’s redemption means for all
men. Justification by grace is not only the central doc-
trine of the Christian faith, as Luther pointed out, but
it is also the central issue in all of human life.

Because of Jesus Christ we can begin with God
in complete trust. Two words thread their way through
the Gospel proclamation. They say: “For us.” These
words form a rainbow promise that brightens up every
dark place and time of our life in the church and in
the world. Because He is for us so perfectly, we have
confidence in the midst of every difficulty that besets
the church or our Synod. Because He is for us so
altogether, we can move out with confidence into the
world with the vision that all men should be able
to say: “For us.”

If we have gathered here in fear or uncertainty or
weakness, then we are truly prepared to hear the
Gospel. Our human frailty and the judgment of God
have penetrated every fiber of our being, and now it
is time to be reminded of the power of God’s grace.
Now is the time for us to speak to you today. A church
assembled in convention, especially if it is a Lutheran
Christian church, ought to know what it is and what
it can be by the grace of God. We are

The Gospel-Powered Church

To say this is to confess that we have felt the
impact of God’s condemnation. The power of the Gospel
always addresses itself to salvation, for the mercy of
God always deals with people who are in trouble.

43

More specifically, the Gospel always concerns itself
with people who are in trouble with God.

Not long ago debate raged over the question whether
or not God is dead. We ought to be worried more
that it makes so little difference to people in the church
or in the world whether God exists or whether He
makes any difference. When the Children of Israel,
fleeing from the troops of Egypt, came to the shores
of the Red Sea, then they knew they were in trouble.
When later they ignored God’s rescue and care by
turning their attention and trust to idols made by their
own hands, then God at once made them recognize the
nature of their trouble—they were in trouble with
Him.

It is time for us to recognize the nature of the
trouble we are in, as church and as society. All of
us are in trouble with God. We in the church, above
all, are in trouble if we turn our highest trust and give
our honor to anything other than the grace of God.
We seem to sense in the darkness and dread of doom
closing in around us that the world has gone mad and
the church is in confusion and disarray. We should be
sensing in this fact the power of God in judgment, for
the Creator of all is a jealous God with whom no one
dares to trifle. God means business.

The Gospel is the record of God’s grace in conflict
with every other power known among men. The Gospel
tells how the Stronger One entered the palace of the
strong one and won the victory. It is the good news
that Christ came and that He prevailed in our place
and in our stead against our enemies.

But the Gospel is always more than simply a record.
It is a power. It is a fact, as St. Paul puts it, the power
of God. In the Gospel God is not only making some-
thing known; He is making something happen. The
Word of God tells and explains all that God does, but
it is also the means by which God is at work in His
dealing with men.

This is the way in which God has always dealt with
His people. Throughout history He has found His ways
to get His message to His people. But He has always
been interested in doing more than inscribing His Law
on tablets of stone, sending prophets with a word for
the moment, or inspiring writers to pen letters.
Throughout history God has been at work among men.
He has underscored His Law by acts of judgment,
sometimes as huge and dramatic as the flood, some-
times as sudden and intimate as the striking down of
Ananias and Sapphira. But He has also underscored
His mercy by forgiving the woman taken in adultery
and those who were gathered beneath the cross. He
has done so by healing every hurt and showing that
all is well between God and those who have put their
trust in Christ.

In the Gospel God reveals His righteousness. He
makes known that He himself has set things right
with His creatures through Jesus Christ, and there
He shares His own perfect righteousness by giving us