And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.One of my favorite theologians is Martin Luther. No, he is not the guy who gave the "I have a dream" speech and led the civil rights movement in the US. Rather, Martin Luther is the 16th century man after whom the 20th century Martin Luther King, Jr was named.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. ~ John 3:15-17 (NLT)
There are many reasons why I like Martin Luther so much. He was brave. He was down to earth -- even crass at times. He was practical. He loved the Bible. And he was driven to become a serious follower of Jesus.
Luther was born on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany. One day in 1505 he was walking home from the University of Erfurt where he was a student studying law. And a fierce electrical suddenly developed. Luther was out in an open field with lightning crashing and thunder clapping all around him. To say that he was afraid would be an understatement. In his fear Luther made a vow that if God would save him he would become a monk.(1)
Amazingly Luther survived the storm. In keeping with his vow he gave away everything he had and became an Augustinian monk.(2) But Luther had a hard time as a monk. He was a very driven man and even though most people would consider him to be a good monk, in his mind he was never good enough. That is, in his own self understanding he was a failure. He had a bad attitude and gave into temptation and had bad thoughts about other people. He felt that God did not like him because his prayers were imperfect. He really struggled with his sense of failure.
In 1512 Martin Luther was sent to be a professor of Bible at the new university in a town called Wittenberg. As Dr Luther began to study the Bible and prepare his lessons, the more he heard God saying that it is Christ alone who makes sinners right with God -- and that comes by faith alone. We do not earn God's favor by keeping "the law." That is, it is not by doing all the right things and keeping all the rules that we gain merit with God. No, the only way that we relate to God is by faith -- trusting in Christ and Christ alone.
This does not mean that heart-felt obedience is unimportant. It is very important! But we cannot ever meet the demands of God. We cannot live up to his standards -- no matter how hard we try. We are always going to fail. But it is in the midst of the failure that we realize the fullness of the gospel -- the grace of God. As the apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:16:
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”"The law," representing God's expectations, is good because it shows us that we cannot ever obey God perfectly enough or do enough good to earn God's favor. No, we are always depending of the grace of God -- and that is the gospel.
(NLT)
And this is one of the main reasons that I like Martin Luther. He helped us rediscover the biblical tension of law and gospel. That is, we are constantly going back and forth between law and gospel.
Everyday we live with the reality of God's expectations and our own inability to live up to them. The fact is that I am a failure when it comes to being a disciple. I am not always obedient -- and my heart is never fully in the right place. I do not love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. And I do not love my neighbor as myself (Jesus Creed!).
So, I am deeply troubled when I read as we did in Section 7 about the rigors of discipleship. Jesus says that we cannot be his disciples unless we obey him -- take up our crosses, and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Crosses are painful to carry. They are sacrificial. And they are about ignoring our own needs and wants so that we can follow Jesus and do the things he wants.
I am not very good at that. And clearly neither are the disciples in the New Testament. Even Peter, the chief disciple, denies Jesus (three times!) right before his crucifixion. The other disciples argue with each other over who is the greatest. And the New Testament letters are mostly the result of conflict amongst Jesus' followers in the early church.
The fact is, none of us get it right. None of us live up to the discipleship demands of Jesus. But the good news is that even if we're not very good followers of Jesus we still belong to him because we are by faith trusting in his grace. We are depending on his generous sacrifice on the cross and his glorious resurrection and victory over the forces of death. Because we have faith in him his cross becomes our cross and his resurrection becomes our resurrection. We are connected to him like bubble gum.
Thus what Martin Luther discovered and what resonates with me is that even in discipleship we are depending on God's grace -- his mercy and generosity. And what I have discovered in my own life is that the presence of this grace motivates me to want to obey Christ and be a disciple. I do not feel like I want to drop out and quit when I fail at following Jesus. Indeed, it bothers me when I fail. And I seek God's forgiveness. I know that I cannot use the promise of forgiveness to become a spiritual slacker. I cannot say, "Oh, it is okay if I sin because I know that God will forgive me so I will just go ahead and sin." That is not healthy.
However, what is clear is that healthy discipleship grows out of an awareness of God's grace in our lives. And this is incredibly powerful and freeing.
SECTION #8 NOTES
(1) A monk is someone who is a member of a religious order. They take special religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to their superiors.
(2) He became a member of the Black Cloister of the Observant Augustinian Order in Erfurt, Germany. Augustinian monks are Christians who keep some very specific spiritual disciplines that center around love and learning.
ASSIGNMENT #8
(1) It was only after the apostle Peter had blown it by denying Jesus at his trial that Jesus commissioned him to "feed his sheep." Where in the gospels is that commissioning of Peter found? (2 points possible)
(2) Write at least five sentences answering the following question -- Why is it that we are more inclined to become serious followers of Jesus once we have failed at being followers of Jesus? If you can, share some of your own life experience in your answer. (23 points possible)
Again, email your essay to me at bboydston@piu.edu . Write your essay in the email itself -- or if you use a word processor, copy and paste the essay into the email. Make sure that your name, the name which you used to register for this class, appears at the top of the essay.
I will respond to you as soon as possible. Do not wait for a response from me before you start working on your next assignment.
