LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 44

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44 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

all that Christ is. The Gospel is all these things, and
it does all these things in the here and now. We can
trust the Gospel because God is at work speaking and
acting through it. The Word of God is completely re-
liable and wholly inerrant because God Himself is re-
liable. Even as God would not deceive us or mislead
or confuse, so His Word does not deceive or confuse
or mislead.

Yet we know how much uncertainty and confusion
there seems to be, even among us, concerning the Word
of God. Brethren, are we truly divided over what the
Word of God is, what it says, or what its purpose is?
Does the difficulty lie elsewhere? Is the problem with
God? Is the difficulty with His Word? Is the difficulty
with us? Is it Satan who would trouble us and use
our weakness to gain a foothold on us and among us?

Our text has something to say to us in this cireum-
stance. It describes the Gospel as God’s power. It calls
the Gospel a revelation. It says that the Gospel operates
in the realm of faith. All of this sounds simple and
self-evident. Let me remind you that these promises
of God were neither simple nor self-evident when they
were spoken long ago to Abraham. They were spoken
to Habbakuk when God said: “The just shall live by
faith.” It was possible for Abraham to trust God with-
out knowing exactly how or when God would give
him a son after he had already waited for two decades
for such a miraculous event. It was possible for Abra-
ham and Habbakuk to put their faith in God when they
had no signs or signed statements.

In our littleness of faith we ask God to tell us how
and to explain His operations in ways that will satisfy
our little minds. Like Thomas we set the conditions
under which we will trust our Savior. And if we often
doubt or hesitate at the Word of the Savior, who has
never failed us, then how do we expect to be able to
trust our brethren, who have a long record of failure
when they speak the Word of God to us? Brethren,
let us not create obstacles where there are none. Neither
let us be ready tools of the evil one. There are obstacles
enough, and obstacles so huge for believing, that the
Gospel alone is powerful enough to deal with them.

Because the Gospel is such a power, let us use it.
Rather, I should say, let us be used by the Gospel.
This is all that God ever wants from us, that we should
surrender wholeheartedly to Him who loves us more
than we love ourselves. With Elijah we have moments
of anxiety about the church, for it seems too weak
and divided in the face of complex and grave issues
in human existence. But quietly and unnoticed the
grace of God still brings men to faith and holds them
despite all hindrances. Like the disciples, we are un-
easy and have misgivings about our brethren. But our
very coming here is itself a testimony to the power of
the Gospel to prevail in each of us. He who has begun
this good work in us will continue it. We can count
on His grace in our brethren more than we can count
on any other power. And we can count on God’s pur-
pose. He will lead our brethren better than any of us
might do.

Certainly there always seems to be a risk involved
in faith. Faith means daring to go against the whole
stream of common sense and experience. It means to
expect the impossible as altogether probable and what
God promises to be a sure thing. It means setting aside
what we can see and know and touch for what is unseen
and intangible and unknown. Faith is the step or the
leap into a dark place.

Nevertheless, the truth is that God has taken all
the risk out of life and death. Christ has gone before
us on our way all the way to death and hell and resur-
rection. The Gospel is the declaration that He now
also goes along with us as we make our own way. Now
the only risk we ever take is to ignore the call by which
God speaks to our faith from His grace.

Passages like our text prompt us to dream God’s
dreams after Him. Not long ago our nation was awak-
ened by a man who dared to tell of his dreams for his
people. He dared to say: “I have a dream.” Centuries
earlier another Man taught His people to pray a prayer
that is rich with His visions for His people, and this
is our Lord’s prayer, and it is our prayer for His world.
An evangelical church worthy of the name, a Gospel-
powered church, by its very nature is aware of the
goals set for it by the grace of God.

1. God’s grace gives the church a sense of security.
Our trust is not in what we are or have. Our security
has nothing to do with the cattle of a thousand hills or
an investment portfolio. It has nothing to do with our
storehouse of knowledge so vast that we must now
store and retrieve it electronically and so accurate that
it enables us to set foot on the moon. We dare to be
sure because God has washed us clean of our sin and
made us His own. It is Christ who stills our anxieties
and frees us to live in hope and joy.

2. The grace of God unites us. If God is unwilling
to let anything keep anyone apart from Him at any
time, then that same grace also is able to overcome bar-
riers that separate us from one another for any reason.
Jesus Himself said that the way in which believers
live their oneness on earth is the great witness that
tells the world of the unity that exists between Father
and Son in heaven.

For us the abiding concern must always be, quite
apart from formal fellowship arrangements, that we
make our life with other believers a demonstration of
the power of God’s grace. While we seek to preserve
the integrity of our church and our history, we must
be concerned even more that our conduct toward others
is a forthright profession of our trust in God’s grace to
do all He says and to do all He wants it to do. God is
unmistakably clear; forgiving one another is a greater
power for unity than debate or documents; it is the
only way to unity that is genuine and lasting. There
is a place for discussion and for regulations but only
as a channel to explore means by which the Gospel
can be given an opportunity to prevail among us.

In these days of the convention, as in the days that
have gone before and that will follow after, there will