Christ Our Hope PCA blog - Tony Phelps, pastor

Where & how to find God

More from Luther on Gal 1:3:  'Whenever you think about justification, and dispute with yourself how God is to be found, remember that Christ Himself said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Therefore besides the way of Christ, you shall find no way to the Father. When any of us shall have to wrestle with the law, sin, and death, and all other evils, we must look upon no other God, but only this God incarnate and clothed with man’s nature.'

Somewhere, Luther wrote, 'Whoever seeks God apart from Christ finds the devil.'  Those who feign humility as they seek after God according to their imaginations are actually guilty of blasphemous pride - rejecting God's own Beloved Son who is the only Mediator between God and man, and the full and final revelation of God.  In truth, sinners do not seek God - but praise God, sinners are sought out and saved by God in Christ crucified & risen.

'When you look at the man Jesus Christ, you perceive the love, goodness and sweetness of God, and you also see His wisdom, power, and majesty, according to that saying of Paul, “In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and again, “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The world is ignorant of this, and therefore it searches out the will of God, setting aside the promise in Christ to its destruction. “For no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).

And so comparative religious studies are an exercise in futility, as far as Christianity is concerned.  God is only known unto salvation through His Son.  And what a sweet revelation we have in Him of God's goodness and grace, as well as His majesty.

'...Wherefore, whenever you are occupied in the matter of your salvation, set aside all curious speculations of God’s unsearchable majesty, all cogitations of works, of traditions, of philosophy, and of God’s law too, and run straight to the manger and embrace the Virgin’s babe. Then behold Him born, growing in wisdom and stature, conversant among men, teaching, dying, risen, ascending up “far above all heavens,” and having power above all things. By this means you shall be able to shake off all terrors and errors, as the sun drives away the clouds. And this sight and contemplation will keep you in the right way, that you may follow where Christ is gone. Therefore Paul, in wishing grace and peace not only from God the Father, but also from Jesus Christ, teaches first, that we should abstain from curious searching of the Divine Majesty and to hear Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father, and utters to us His will.'

God has drawn near; Christ has come into the world to save sinners.  As we look to Him in faith - incarnate, crucified, risen, reigning, and returning - we find omnipotent saving grace from God, and everlasting peace with God.

Christ alone mediates grace and peace to His people

More of Luther's comments on Galatians 1:3 ("Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ")...

The Apostle wishes for the Galatians grace and peace, not from emperors or kings, for these do commonly persecute the godly, nor from the world (“for in the world,” said Christ, “you shall have tribulation”);but from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ said: “My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives.” The peace of the world grants nothing but the peace of our goods and bodies. But in affliction, and in the hour of death, the grace and favor of the world cannot help us. The peace of God is not given to the world, because the world never longs after it, but to them that believe. And this comes to pass by no other means than by the grace of God.

Why does the Apostle add in the salutation, “And from our Lord Jesus Christ”? Was it not enough to say, “from God the Father”? It is a rule and principle in the Scriptures, diligently to be marked, that we must abstain from the curious searching of God’s majesty, which is intolerable to man’s body, and much more to the mind: “No man (saith the Lord) shall see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Those who trust in their own merits regard not this rule, and therefore remove Christ the Mediator out of their sight. They speak only of God, and before Him only they pray, and do all that they do. They who know not justification take away Christ the mercy seat and seek to comprehend God in His majesty by the judgment of reason, and pacify Him with their own works.

But true Christian divinity commands us not to search out the nature of God, but to know His will set out to us in Christ, whom He willed to take upon Him flesh, to be born, and to die for our sins; and that this should be preached among all nations. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). When your conscience stands in conflict, wrestling against the law, sin, and death in the presence of God, there is nothing more dangerous than to wander with curious speculations in heaven, and there to search out God in His incomprehensible power, wisdom, and majesty, how He created the world, and how He governs it.

If you seek thus to comprehend God, and would pacify Him without Christ the Mediator, making your works a means between Him and yourself, you will fall into despair and lose God all together. As God is in His own nature unmeasurable, incomprehensible, and infinite, so He is to man’s nature intolerable.

So seek God as Paul teaches: “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23, 24). For to this end Christ came down, was born, was conversant with men, suffered, was crucified, and died, that by all means He might set forth Himself plainly before our eyes, and fasten the eyes of our hearts upon Himself, that He might thereby keep us from climbing up into heaven and from the curious searching of the Divine Majesty.

Grace & peace - the sum & substance of the Gospel

How do you deal with your sin-troubled conscience?  How should pastors and elders counsel Christians afflicted by guilt over past sins, or struggles with present sin?  Sadly, I think we too often direct ourselves or others back to the Law:  "Here's God's will; just pray for grace to do it!"   Putting off sin and putting on righteousness are part of our on-going sanctification.  But they must spring from the reality of our justification before God because of Christ.  Only a conscience free from the fear of God's judgment can freely fight the sin that remains in our lives.  Otherwise, our pursuit of holiness will be nothing more than a perverse Protestant penance, where we try to win back God's favor and "make up" for our sins - an insult to Christ and the sufficiency of His Cross and righteousness for our justification. 

Again, Dr. Luther dispenses good Gospel medicine here, in his comments on Galatians 1:3.

3—Grace Be To You and Peace From God the Father, and From Our Lord Jesus Christ.

This greeting of the Apostle is strange unto the world, and was never heard of prior to the preaching of the gospel. These two words, grace and peace, comprehend in them whatever belongs to Christianity. Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters, and trodden them underfoot, both in this world, and in that which is to come. This the world does not know, and therefore can teach no certainty of the overcoming of sin, conscience, and death. Only Christians have this kind of doctrine and are exercised and armed with it to get victory against sin, despair, and everlasting death. It is a kind of doctrine neither proceeding from free will, nor invented by the reason or wisdom of man, but given from above.

Moreover, these two words, grace and peace, contain in them the whole sum of Christianity. Grace contains the remission of sins; peace a quiet and joyful conscience. Peace of conscience can never be had, unless sin be first forgiven. But sin is not forgiven by the fulfilling of the law; for no man is able to satisfy the law. The law shows sin, accuses and terrifies the conscience, declares the wrath of God, and drives to desperation. Much less is sin taken away by the works and inventions of men, but sin is rather increased by works. So there is no means to take away sin, but grace alone. Therefore, Paul in all the greetings of his epistles sets grace and peace against sin and an evil conscience.

This thing must be diligently marked. The words are easy. But in temptation, it is the hardest thing that can be, to be certainly persuaded in our hearts, that by grace alone (all other means either in heaven or in earth set apart) we have remission of sins, and peace with God. The world understands not this doctrine; and therefore it neither will nor can abide it, but condemns it as heretical and wicked. It boasts of free will, of the light of reason, of the powers and qualities of nature, and of good works, as means whereby it can discern and attain grace and peace, that is to say, forgiveness of sins and a quiet conscience. But it is impossible that the conscience should be quiet and joyful, unless it have peace through grace, that is to say, through the forgiveness of sins promised in Christ.     

The Gospel & good works

Here's another choice passage from Luther's preface to his commentary on Galatians.  The biblical Gospel as presented in Galatians (and Romans, etc) is what Luther has called "passive righteousness" - that is, Christ has done everything necessary to secure my justification before our holy & just God.  My works are not part of the equation.  I am declared "not guilty" because of Christ's Cross-work on my behalf  - and I am declared positively righteous because of Christ's active Law-work on my behalf.  He has attained eternal life through His perfect obedience to God's Law, His righteousness is imputed to me as I receive it by faith alone, and thereby I receive the gift of eternal life.  To put it another way, His Cross delivers me from eternal condemnation, and His righteousness gains me eternal life.  This is a "passive righteousness" because I do nothing for my justification because Christ has done everything.  Faith is simply an empty hand which receives this gift (which faith itself is the gift of God!). 

Luther, like Paul, and like every faithful minister of the Word of Christ, encountered the misguided objection that the Gospel of free justification will lead to lawlessness, i.e., "What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?..." (Rom 6:15).  Paul's answer is an emphatic "Certainly not!" - as he explains how our union with Christ in His death to sin and His resurrection to new life precludes that possibility.  Good works necessarily follow free justification - but are not in any way part of the basis of our justification.  That is the deadly error of the Judaizers,  the Roman Catholic Church, and every other legalist of whatever stripe who has destroyed the Gospel by trying to mix our works with the all-sufficient work of Christ.

Here's the way Luther describes how good works follow from free justification.  Notice the context for these good works - not hidden away in the monastery, but in the wide-open world of our everyday vocations:

When I have Christian righteousness reigning in my heart, I descend from heaven as the rain makes fruitful the earth; that is to say, I do good works, how and wheresoever the occasion arises. If I am a minister of the Word, I preach, I comfort the brokenhearted, I administer the sacraments. If I am a householder, I govern my house and family well, and in the fear of God. If I am a servant, I do my master’s business faithfully.

To conclude, whoever is assuredly persuaded that Christ alone is his righteousness, does not only cheerfully and gladly work well in his vocation, but also submits himself through love to the rulers and to their laws, yea, though they be severe, and, if necessity should require, to all manner of burdens, and to all dangers of the present life, because he knows that this is the will of God, and that this obedience pleases Him.

Why healthy Christians talk (Gospel) to themselves...

Continuing from Luther's preface:

'So both these continue while we live here. The flesh is accused, exercised with temptations, oppressed with heaviness and sorrow, bruised by the active righteousness of the law; but the spirit reigns, rejoices, and is saved by this passive and Christian righteousness, because it knows that it has a Lord in Heaven, at the right hand of His Father, who has abolished the law, sin, death, and has trodden under His feet all evils, led them captive, and triumphed over them in Himself (Colossians 2:15). St. Paul, in this epistle, goes about diligently to instruct us, to comfort us, to hold us in the perfect knowledge of this most Christian and excellent righteousness. For if the article of justification is lost, then all true Christian doctrine is lost. He who strays from Christian righteousness falls into the righteousness of the law; that is, when he loses Christ, he falls into the confidence of his own works. Therefore we also earnestly set forth, and so often repeat the doctrine of "faith," or Christian righteousness, that by this means it may be kept in continual exercise, and may be plainly discerned from the active righteousness of the law.

'Let us diligently learn to judge between these two kinds of righteousness. We have said before that, in a Christian, the law ought not to pass its bounds, but ought to have dominion only over the flesh, which is in subjection to it, and remains under it. But if it creeps into the conscience, play the cunning logician, and make the true division. Say: “O law, you would climb up into the kingdom of my conscience, and there reprove it of sin, and take from me the joy of my heart, which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation that I may be without hope, and utterly perish. Keep within your bounds, and exercise your power upon the flesh: for by the gospel I am called to the partaking of righteousness and everlasting life."'

What do we do when our consciences remind us of our guilt before God's Law?  I fear that what comes "naturally" to us most often is to make resolutions of new obedience - to try harder & do better.  "Penance" is a product of the flesh, just as much as the sin it futilely tries to combat.  It is the proud presumption that we can win back God's favor by our works.  Dr. Luther's medicine is a biblical prescription:  We must speak the Gospel to our troubled consciences - and remind ourselves of the passive, Christian righteousness which is ours in Christ, and is the sole basis of our acceptance with God.

Good Gospel medicine from Dr. Luther

I'll be posting some quotes from Luther's Commentary on Galatians that I've found to be a source of Gospel comfort.  Hope you do, as well.

In his introductory section, "The Argument of the Epistle to the Galatians," Luther contrasts the various forms of "active righteousness" - i.e., what we do - with the passive righteousness of the Gospel - i.e., what Christ has done for us through His Cross and obedience to God's Law on our behalf.  This righteousness is a gift imputed to us by God, received by faith alone, and the sole basis of our acceptance with God as our Judge.  Here are some quotes from that section:

"The troubled conscience, in view of God’s judgment, has no remedy against desperation and eternal death, unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, freely offered in Christ Jesus, which if it can apprehend, it may then be at rest. Then it can boldly say: I seek not active or working righteousness, for if I had it, I could not trust it, neither dare I set it against the judgment of God. Then I abandon myself from all active righteousness, both of my own and of God’s law, and embrace only that passive righteousness, which is the righteousness of grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins."

"When I see a man oppressed with the law, terrified with sin, and thirsting for comfort, it is time that I remove out of his sight the law and active righteousness, and set before him, by the gospel, the Christian or passive righteousness, which offers the promise made in Christ, who came for the afflicted and sinners." 

"But if there is any fear, or grief of conscience, it is a token that this righteousness is withdrawn, that grace is hidden, and that Christ is darkened and out of sight. But where Christ is truly seen, there must be full and perfect joy in the Lord, with peace of conscience, which thinks this way: Although I am a sinner by the law and under condemnation of the law, yet I despair not, yet I die not, because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my everlasting life. In that righteousness and life I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, no care of death. I am indeed a sinner as touching this present life, and the righteousness thereof, as a child of Adam. But I have another righteousness and life, above this life, which is Christ the Son of God, who knows no sin, no death, but is righteousness and life eternal; by whom this my body, being dead and brought to dust, shall be raised up again, and delivered from the bondage of the law and sin, and shall be sanctified together with my spirit."