Life Without the Gospel

Imagine life without the Gospel. For many people, even for many people that we know, this is their reality. What would such a life be like? How would we live, think, be? Without the Gospel we have only the law, only demands, rules, a raging conscience which is devouring us or which is caged and ignored. Without the Gospel there is no Jesus on the cross, no forgiveness of sin by His blood, no comfort in His Word. What is the result of such a void?

The answer is two-fold: pride or despair. A Pharisee or a Judas. Without the Gospel we are flung toward pride on the one hand, and despair on the other. Our Lutheran Confessions give us this insight:

As long as they hear the bare preaching of the Law, and nothing concerning Christ, and therefore do not learn from the Law to perceive their sins aright, [they] either become presumptuous hypocrites (who swell with the opinion of their own righteousness) as the Pharisees, or despair like Judas. [Formula of Concord, Epitome V.7]

We have to do something with our sin. If we cannot confess our sins and hear the promise of forgiveness, then we are set to get rid of our sins in another way. Either we act like we have overcome sin, or we know that sin has overcome us. Without the Gospel we go around like Pharisees or like Judas, governed by pride or despair. These are the only options. (There is perhaps a third option: total indifference to sin, but this is really the worst form of pride.)

Pride tries to handle sin by overcoming it. We see this effort embodied in the Pharisees. By all accounts they were very pious and outwardly holy. They added to the Ten Commandments hundreds of extra laws, but the common thing about all of these laws is that they were keep-able, do-able. This is the way of all man-made laws.

We tend to think that all the extra laws the Pharisees invented would make things more difficult; their standard would be more difficult to keep, but the opposite is true. As more laws are added the simplicity of the ten commandments is obscured. Traditions tend toward externals, and while the ten commandments demand love and sacrifice, traditions demand certain clothes and manner of hand washing. The law demands our heart, soul, mind and strength; traditions may be kept with our hands.

“Don't smoke.” “Don't dance.” “Don't eat meat.” Please add to the list your favorite man-made law. Whatever laws we add the the Scriptures might be difficult, but they are always possible. And this possibility is where pride lives. Whenever humanity invents a law it dulls the accusing edge of God's law until you have mere instruction that asks for correction instead of demanding repentance. This is the road of pride, the way of the Pharisee.

The other road taken without the Gospel is the path of despair. This is the result of the law doing what it is meant to do: it convicts us of our sin. The law shows us our sin; it always accuses. But the Lord intends that the Gospel would then come around to comfort us with the forgiveness of our sins. Without this comfort despair is given free reign; despondency runs free. This is the way that Judas went, and King Saul.

While our pride seeks to overcome sin, despair results from being overcome by sin. The Lord intends neither. He does not leave us to handle sin and death by our own resources and strength. His solution for our sin is the death of Jesus, His suffering, His blood, His cross and the resulting forgiveness and life. We take up the battle against sin not with our will or emotions but with our Lord Jesus and His Word of forgiveness and life.

Would that the Lord would keep us both from presumptuous pride and despair of His promises, and keep us in the comfort of His Gospel. And more, for all of us know people who live without the Gospel; whose lives are a swing between pride and despair, may God open our lips to speak His law and shed the light of His Gospel into the darkness of pride and despair. Amen.

INJ,
Pastor Wolfmueller

Comments

[Diane R]

The post was very good. However, sadly, sin and the need for forgiveness by God is not a concept today as much as it was in previous eras. Today, the need seems to be for meaning and purpose. So the big question then is, how do we present meaning and purpose and then segue into the sin matter. The so-called purpose-driven churches are trying to do this but IMO have utterly failed to make the transition and a presentable gospel.

[Evolved]

Life without the gospel: A life with one less delusion.

Sounds good to me...

[Johannes]

I can't tell you how much this breaks my heart, Evolved. I don't know if you're someone that checks this site out regularly or if you're a fly-by, but I truly pray that God go with you and show you how good His news really is. I don't know if you've been hurt by someone trying to cram Jesus down your throat, or if God has seemed to fail you at some point, or if you believe that Christianity is a panacea for fools, or anything else. I don't know if this blog is a place where you would feel comfortable sharing your story.

But I do know that the good news of Jesus isn't just a story, and it's not a delusion; it's a promise and an act that shows that God made good on His promise to forgive you. We delude ourselves when we say we don't need God's forgiveness. (Trust me, that's a delusion I fought with for a long time...)

I hope that your interaction with this blog will be more than the two sentences you posted, and I pray that God will help you through whatever's getting in the way of His gift for you.

[Mark]

This was a bit confusing to me. It is as if Pastor Wolfmueller is saying Jesus is seperate from the law - He is not. The law of God brings one to the Cross of Christ in repentance. Maybe I am wrong, but should we not delight in God's law?

The Pharisees, as Paul was, did not add to the law (maybe some one can show me this in scripture), they abused the law, the very spirit of the law - was to be a blessing and protection. They had the law, they knew the law and abused the law. Before Jesus, obeying the law brought forth God's blessings in earthly terms (land, fruit, etc.), never one's salvation.

Without Christ, we are sons of destruction. Christ is the gospel, our High Priest, and the word.

Blessings

[Evolved]

Johannes,

All your feel-good preaching aside, do you have any actual evidence that the Christian god actually exists and the Bible is an accurate representation of how the world works, or do I have to take Jesus on faith the same way people took Zeus, Odin etc. by faith in ancient times? What makes your delusion true and all other delusions false?

[johannes]

Evolved,

A debate involving evidence will inevitably lead to talking past one another. We would both be able to look at the same evidence and come to different conclusions based on the presuppositions we bring to the table.

For instance, you would likely look at the Grand Canyon and say it's a beautiful example of a formation caused by erosion over millions of years. I would look at the Grand Canyon, note that the river would have had to change direction 180 degrees at some point in time due to the changes in elevation (Water does have difficulty running uphill most of the time) and come to the conclusion that a possible explanation could be a worldwide flood that tore the earth apart. And I suppose an Odinite might draw the conclusion that it was carved out by a wayward blow from Mjolnir.

As much as either of us would like to claim the high ground and say we come with the most open mind, neither of us would be able to approach the evidence with a clean slate. I have my obvious bias toward a Creator God, and you have your obvious biases. (Incidentally, your references to "IDiots", "theistard morons", and "Pseudo-scientific douche-bags" on your own blog site completely wipe out any credibility to any claims you might make to rationally, dispassionately, or unbiasedly approach the topic. Granted, the same applies to creationists who use similar verbal abuse. But the point remains--we cannot approach the issue from an evidential standpoint free of bias, particularly in the case of non-repeatable historical evidence. It all boils down to interpretation.)

So yes, it does ultimately come down to faith. Just as I believe that God created the first man to be a one-day-old, yet fully mature being, I also believe that God created the earth complete with one-day-old, fully formed mountains.

There will be nothing that I will be able to say or show that you, in your smugness, would not be able to find something to find a flaw in, however minor or even imaginary. By the same token, there is nothing you will be able to say or show to me that definitively proves that there is no God.

This is why we depend on God to give us faith. I'll agree wholeheartedly that the message of Jesus on the cross is idiocy to anyone trying to figure it out on their own. But God uses the things that don't make sense to show us the limits of our sense.

So the short (and probably unsatisfactory) answer to your question as to what makes my delusion true viz any other is that it is the One on whom my delusion hangs. Aside from the evidence of several accounts that are in better shape than many accounts of other historical events we take for granted, I rely on the faith given me by the one true God.

I continue to pray that God soften your heart. (And no, that's not necessarily a "feel-good" prayer... it doesn't feel good to be convicted.)

[Paul Maurice Martin]

Pride or despair as the only possibilities outside Christianity? I appreciate your love of our tradition, but not the lack of realism. There are huge numbers of people from other traditions who are neither prideful nor despairing; there are also large numbers of Christians who are prideful or despairing.

Frankly your own position here is rather prideful. As one Christian to another, I'd respectfully suggest you might take a look at that.

Blessings,
Paul

[Steve]

Paul,

I'm a little confused. Is claiming that only the Gospel brings salvation a prideful statement? If so, then I guest Christ is the most prideful person in the history of world since he claims to be "the way, the true, and the life and no one comes to Father except through me".

Thanks,

Steve

[Heidi Sue]

Pride = "I don't need God."

It doesn't matter if you're really nice or really boastful when you say it. Of course, there are lots of people from other traditions that are not haughty in the way they go about rejecting God; they are simply self-reliant, and that's the sort of pride that God condemns (cf Psalms 14, 53)

[Tim]

Evolved,

Yes. No. Go beat your wife some more.

[Steve Newell]

Heidi Sue:

Pride can also equal "I can do what God commands".

[Mark]

Evolved asked a good question, albeit with a less than genuine attitude judging by the words choosen, and yes I do judge, other wise I would not be able to discern a pearl from swine vomit.

The word "faith" probably has a different meaning to many different folks. Many non believers can and do defend the historicity of the biblical texts, the facts, and the archeological evidence, without faith. Kind of like being on a jury Evolved, make a decision and get over it. Your hate is common, expected, and quite useless. Judas knew Christ, just like you do. If an early earth date pisses you off so much and all who think the earth is less than 10000 years old should be classified as "insane" (according to your funny blog), get elected and make it a law. Otherwise IMHO your nothing but a cry baby with more faith in bad, unproven, presumptuous "science" as I may be thinking God created with the appearance of age (Adam and Eve were not infants) not to mention dating techniques are far from being fact - any more than God is a 'feel good' delusion.

Evidence - Christ lived, died, and His Resurrection. Something thousand year old texts foretold, by many different writers in different geographical parts of the world.

"Delusion"? - No.
"Feel good"? - Not if it costs us our lives; Yes if we seek a kingdom not of this world. Nothing of our flesh will destroy our hope, our eternity, or our salvation. If none of that concerns you, no problem. Those of us who are as saved are quite diverse - many with Ph'ds in science all the way to nothing at all to our names but a need for forgiveness. I bet that simplicity pisses you off as well, eh?

[Heidi Sue]

Steve Newell:
Absomalutely!

Mark:
Historically, the Pharisees added to the law, recognizing an "Oral Torah" that was basically the tradition supposedly handed down from Moses through the generations, essentially a rabbinic tradition (not to be confused with the Talmudic tradition following the Temple's destruction in 70 a.d.). This oral Torah was in addition to the written Torah, the five books of Moses that we have at the beginning of the Old Testament. Think of it as similar to the Roman Catholic canonic law if it had been passed down word-of-mouth. This is one of the things that separates the Pharisees from the Sadducees, who recognized only the written Torah.

[Mark]

Heidi Sue,
Thanks for that clarification.

Blessings

[Kelly]

Many thanks to all who choose to stay on topic in these posts-- what that doesn't happen, the thread is successfully spun off into oblivion and the real discussion is lost. Those who would lurk on blogs that they vehemently disagree with in order to rile people with the occasional drive-by post are more worthy of our pity than anything else.

This original post was pretty good, and this statement is nice and succinct: "While our pride seeks to overcome sin, despair results from being overcome by sin. The Lord intends neither. He does not leave us to handle sin and death by our own resources and strength. His solution for our sin is the death of Jesus, His suffering, His blood, His cross and the resulting forgiveness and life. We take up the battle against sin not with our will or emotions but with our Lord Jesus and His Word of forgiveness and life."

[Evolved Rationalist]

If there is one thing that theistards cannot give, it is evidence for their faith in an imaginary sky-daddy god.

[Steve Newell]

Evolved or should I say evolving,

Please explain to me how life began and how this can be proved? Also, how can DNA be created out of random mutations.

If there is evidence of a god, what would be signs? An open minded person would what to ask this type of question.