Tom,

I know
I know
I know!!!

Oh such a paradox this “TRUTH”, our Christian FAITH. It’s ours!!!!

But wait, if it is, how is it ours then if it has nothing to do with us doing it? There is nothing I am asked to do anyway!

You wrote:

[[There is nothing more that God needs to do for you to get you MORE saved.]]

The dual natures, [SAINT/SINNER] are becoming more and more apparent to me, for instance, consider this about the CHURCH of Thessalonica.

In Acts we read this:

Act 17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.
Act 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Act 17:12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Act 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

The dual natures in me are striving, the Theologian of Glory in me is against the Theologian of the Cross; it is always the GLORY STORY to be noble like the Bereans because that makes me look better in my eyes all the while thinking you are thinking, “OH, HOW NOBLE MICHAEL IS….” all the while you are really seeing me as a sinner in need of the Savior too.

Yet, we read this in First Thessalonians:

1Th 1:2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
1Th 1:3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It appears there was strife and there always is strife, between the Theologians of Glory and the Theology of the Cross in our flesh are against each other, our flesh is always, always against God’s Word, His Spirit. It always takes someone outside of me to show me I am a sinner!

I want to imagine myself as a worker of faith, a laborer of love and of course Tom, I am always steadfast in the Hope in our Lord Jesus. But just the imagination betrays me that I am a THEOLOGIAN OF GLORY in my flesh.

You have helped me greatly in properly seeing my SIN and calling it sin so I can ask for forgiveness too.

I could not nor can I do any of those GOOD WORKS Paul ascribes to the Church there in Thessalonica! It becomes clear that Church started to “receive” His Work of Faith, His Labor of Love and His Steadfastness!

But there is HOPE for sinners who are becoming blind so that they might see. Paul finishes that chapter with this oddity:

1Th 1:9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
1Th 1:10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

This begs the question then and it too is clearly what you are teaching hereon about Philippians 3 for the second Sunday Lutheran Lectionary, HOW CAN I BE BOTH A SINNER AND A SAINT WAITING FOR JESUS TO COME AND NOT LIVE IN FEAR OF THE WRATH TO COME WHILE I AM WAITING?

It’s simple yet difficult to see until I too am blinded so that God can give me sight so that I too can agree with Scripture and you hereon, that I am both a Saint because of the Lord’s work and a sinner because of Adam all the while waiting for His Son from Heaven to bring the wrath to come!

Hmmmm, how can these things co-exist?

It is a mystery and you are making it clear, the Mystery!

Thanks Tom,

michael,
Eureka, CA

“HOW CAN I BE BOTH A SINNER AND A SAINT WAITING FOR JESUS TO COME AND NOT LIVE IN FEAR OF THE WRATH TO COME WHILE I AM WAITING?”

Man, that is a great question. If honest I think many of us Christians lay in this tension. It reminds me of a similar though I have from time to time. Luther said he got great comfort from the Word of God. Most of the time I never did. But one thing that Dr. Baker and a rare few other true Gospel preachers have made me see is seeing through the Law/Gospel lens (beware of ANY preacher when asked this replies, “Oh, I preach the whole council of God”, setting you up for law, law and law). But even more was something Dr. Baker has said that makes so much since, a sharper edge if you will. There’s Law/Gospel then there’s those living under Law or under Gospel. Because if you are living under Law, though you profess Gospel, the Scriptures will read a certain way and if you are living under Gospel they read another way. That seemingly little “living under” one or the other is very crucial in modern protestantism that professes verbally grace alone/faith alone/Christ alone but live and work under law in reality (I think this was ultimately James point about a dead faith, that is in reality a faith that is living under law).

But it struck me just last night pondering this a bit more relating to getting comfort or not from the Word itself, most of the time it drove me to deeper fear and dispair (and I struggle with the hard passages still until I read them here). Why? Because if you pick the Bible up with the premise of “what must I DO to be saved/stay saved/find assurance” kind of hidden in the back of your brain – then you are in trouble. But if you pick it up with “what Jesus did for me”, very hard to do, the Scriptures begin opening up very differently and comfort arises.

In my struggle over baptism I found this to be most stark a contrast. When under “believers only” teaching baptism became a terror, and a law to me…far from being a comfort or aid to my soul it slayed and killed me all the more. Because I would ask, “How do I know I had faith by the proofs of faith, works, that I got baptism right”. See the “what must I DO to be saved/stay saved/find assurance” principle is there. But when I first heard of baptism as a GIFT FROM God, God’s name GIVEN to me and particularly the name of Jesus meaning HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS, baptism was never sweeter than that very Gospel and then it became the Sword of the Spirit for me to USE against the devil’s tormenting preaching of the damnation of my soul day and night.

The parables as Dr. Baker recently can reflect this, read as “what must I DO to be saved/stay saved/find assurance”, they are terror. Read as what Jesus has done, LIFE GIVING WATER. E.g. the parable of heaven being like the man who found a great treasure in a field and sold all that he had to have it. Read as “what must I DO to be saved/stay saved/find assurance”, heaven is the treasure to buy, renders it as I have to sell somehow all that I have to have it. How? However, read as the lost being the “treasure” found and heaven/Jesus being the One Who came and found it, selling all that He had on the Cross to have it – THAT’S GOSPEL brother, pure unadultrated Gospel!

Blessings,

larry – ky

I know this is off subject a bit, but I didn’t know where else to post this “epiphany”. It just dawned on me the difference in hymns that are rooted in the “calendar church year” Vs. the “order of salvation”. The former keeps it objective, like the Gospel. The later inherently drives you inward.

I NEVER SAW THAT BEFORE, though I’ve experienced it constantly!

Sorry for the out synch post but it was such an eye opener I had to share it!

Larry KY