LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 96

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us with His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sin,
strengthening us in the life and salvation He acquired for us on
Calvary.
Strengthened by His testament, we now thank and praise, serve
and obey our Father, coming to Him in daily prayer and living
according to His commandments in our earthly calling with the
congregation, civic community, and household. This is the life
journey of discipleship. Therefore, unlike Gandalf’s response to
Bilbo that he has no insurance the journey will succeed, the
baptized believer can say the opposite:
I have insurance that I will succeed in my journey,
through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
because I am baptized, and now I have a daily battle,
confessing my sin and drowning them, and living the
new life according to God’s goodness and love.
The Cross and Sin
Before we talk about the cross, we need to address the subject
of sin because the cross has to do with sin, and sin is the
character that sets the stage. We trivialize the cross when we
minimize sin. People will not see the need for salvation and the
Good News of the Gospel before they recognize the devasting
bad news of sin and its consequences on their lives.
When we define sin, we are affected by our Western exegesis
that sees sin from the paradigm of guilt/innocence. We may
notice this in a common interpretation of Romans 3:23: “For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Some speak of sin
simply as missing the mark, or coming up short of perfectly obeying
God’s Law which means being guilty. Sin is equated with being
guilty for missing the mark.
The phrase “fall short of the glory of God” carries double
meaning. First, that people fail to properly glorify God. In other

words,
sin
is
equated
with
imperfectly
and
incompletely glorifying God. Second, the glorious existence God
intended for people is absent. Humanity is deprived of the glory
of God at the Fall. The glory and honor bestowed on Adam and
Eve at creation is now absent, or to use Luther’s word, it is
obscure in all people. With Christ, man is able to regain the
glorious existence, and the eyes can enjoy the glory of the
Divine.
In this context, the root of human sinfulness and death is
dishonoring and disobeying God. And the human problem is one
of failing to glorify God as He deserves. John concisely defines
sin as lawlessness, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact,
sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 NIV). This definition helps us see
the link between honor and obedience presented in Romans 1.
When Adam failed to honor God, he transgressed the law. The
idea of dishonor is directly connected to disobedience. In this
same context we can read Jesus’ command, “If you love me, you
will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If you honor Me,
obey Me. 1
Jesus Honored God
How did God reverse the devastating consequences of sin? To
answer this question, church fathers historically used
analogies. One of the most common analogies to explain
suffering and the cross is that of the disguised king.
The analogy is constructed in response to potential objections
to the logic of Christian salvation history and can be traced back
to the third-century Christian writer Origen, who was inspired
by Paul’s phrase that Christ “assumed the form of a servant”
(Phil. 2:7). The analogy was used to explain how God used His
love at the expense of His power to save humanity, and how
Jesus honored God by taking the form of man and suffering on
the cross.
The story begins with a king who has four virtues: justice,
power, mercy, and wisdom. A high-ranking servant rebels
against him and, as a result, the king expels him from his
kingdom. The rebellious servant, seeking revenge, builds an inn
and planted a garden in it. Anyone who travels to the king’s
palace must pass by the inn and hear and see all the attractions
that the rebellious servant built with the evil intention of luring
the passersby.
But the king has a trusted and a beloved servant whom the king
loves and gives access to all the royal rooms, not forbidding the
servant from any delicacies and enjoyments of the place. The
king also warns his beloved servant not to walk toward the inn
and to be careful of the deceits of the rebellious servant.
The trusted and beloved servant cannot resist the temptation,
however, so he leaves the royal palace and walked towards the
inn. As soon as he enters the inn, he is captured, tortured, and
thrown in prison.
The king is aware of the rebellious servant’s character and its
harshness, injustice, wickedness, and deceitfulness. The king is
faced with a dilemma: if he neglects the prisoners, his mercy

For more details see the newly released book, Jackson Wu,
Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message
and Mission (IVP Academic, 2019).
1

96 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

Convention Essays