November 5, 2006 Mark 16:16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Just recently I saw an advertisement for "Old Lutheran" sweatshirts and t-shirts. On one of these shirts they had a stein of beer and underneath it they had a Luther quote, "sin boldly." As I got to thinking about that, I thought what a misrepresentation of Lutheranism that is. Luther wasn't even talking about drinking beer when he said to "sin boldly." Luther actually said, "I wish the brewing of beer had never been invented, for a great deal of grain is consumed to make it, and nothing good is brewed." (LW 54:172) But people will buy these shirts, and take joy in their Lutheranism because they can drink beer and think they are "sinning boldly". Oh my, if that's what distinguishes us as Lutherans we might as well quit and just turn our church into a bar. But that's not why we're here - and that's not what the Reformation or being Lutheran was about. Today I intend to take you back to the roots of the Reformation. What was it really all about? After we look at Mark 16:16, you will know what we're all about and hopefully understand what are -
The Roots of the Reformation
I. Show a need for salvation
Most of us are taught from our history of the Reformation that the Reformation began with the 95 theses which Martin Luther nailed to the castle door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31st, 1517. They were written against indulgences - pieces of paper said to free people from years of purgatory - and they also questioned the authority of the Pope. Those 95 Theses were not written primarily as an attack against the pope or even indulgences - although it definitely happens therein. Something deeper is behind these attacks. The 95 Theses reflect Luther's deeper concern over how to deal with guilt in light of eternity. Theses six reflects this -
6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God;
Think about this whole are of concern - how foreign it is to today's "religion." At the front and center of theology in Luther's time was how to get rid of sin and guilt in order to escape eternal judgment. There were theatrical plays in the city squares which graphically depicted people burning in hell and suffering in purgatory. Such an approach to religion is completely foreign to our religious society. Very rarely do you hear a preacher graphically describing hell - how God says that it is a lake of fire - where people will burn and suffer eternally. Just imagine hearing people weep for an eternity - with no one to console them. This is real. Yet this doesn't seem to concern people much today. All people want to hear about are how to have a better relationship with their spouse, how to raise their children, or how to manage their finances. They want information for this life - not the life beyond. In the average citizen's theology everyone assumes that we all go to heaven - when in reality God says that many are called but FEW are chosen. A young man once hung himself after abusing his girlfriend, and the girlfriend actually told her daughter that he was in heaven. In Luther's day people were not so generous with heaven. Hell and fire and suffering were regularly laid before the people - and they were given no way out of some sort of suffering. Even if they didn't have hell ahead of them, they still had the fear of years and years of purgatory. So when the ignorant people were offered a piece of paper to get out of years in purgatory - they jumped at the chance.
Luther experienced the results of this problems as he saw people using these pieces of paper as an excuse to sin - trading for indulgences - gambling for them - and even buying prostitutes with them. He attacked this problem in two ways. First of all, he recognized that indulgences and the very concept of purgatory were not Scriptural. So he attacked the need for these pieces of paper. This helped to free the people from these false doctrines and the spiritual and monetary abuses that were occurring. The second way that Luther attacked this problem is rather surprising. As he dug people out of purgatory he also proceeded to bury the people further and further into hell. Instead of ignoring hell or denying it's existence, he spoke in such extremes about sin and hell that it was shocking. He said that man was born dead in sin, unable to come to Christ, and under the control of Satan. Even man's finest works were nothing but abominations in the holy God's sight. This was based on the clear Scriptures -
Ephesians 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
1 John 5:19 The whole world is under the control of the evil one.
Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
With words like these, Luther made it clear that there was a hell that the whole world is destined for from birth - and that there is nothing that anyone can do about it.
This is what Mark 16:16 makes clear. Heaven and hell are clearly laid before us - when God talks about who will be saved and will be condemned. These two words are passive words in the Greek. We - as humans - are the passive recipients - at the mercy of a judgment from God. This really is quite a picture. Imagine putting your children's dolls away at night time. They have no power. You lift them up by the arm, the head, or the body - and put them where you determine best. This is how the Scriptures draw our eternal placement at our death or on Judgment Day - at the hands of the Almighty God who places us where we belong - in hell or heaven.
This kind of talk still scares people yet today. Erasmus and other theologians like to put some power in the hands of man - the ability to somehow determine where he goes and make his own choice and decision. In a George Barna poll, more than seventy percent of 'professing evangelical Christians' in America expressed the belief that man is basically good. And more than eighty percent articulated the view that God helps those who help themselves. Modern theology attempts to draw us closer to God by making Him less demanding - as if He only demanded we try hard - or by trying to make man less evil - as if he really has some goodness in him that makes him more cute and loveable before God because he is created in God's image. According to the Scriptures, however, we are born dead in sin - hostile against God - under the control of Satan - wanting nothing to do with the hidden God. You either view to river of men flowing away from God or to God. The root of the Reformation started with this awe-full doctrine of total depravity - which made man into a helpless and evil being as a result of Original Sin - ugly in God's sight and under His wrath - flowing away from God on the way to hell. Being Lutheran means to believe that by your nature you are nothing but a helpless sinner who deserves nothing but God's wrath. You recognize that there is a huge gap between you and your holy God - one that cannot be crossed by any one of us - no matter how hard we try. It means believing that you need to BE SAVED from your captivity to sin and Satan.
II. Reveal the source of salvation
This naturally leads to the question - how then can I be saved - if it is not up to me? Mark 16 verse 16 shows how this salvation comes about. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. What does this mean - to "believe"? When asked what role faaith played in their lives, one local teen answered, "I have faith in myself." This is what American Christians are being taught when it comes to faith - believe in what God can do through you - and you will be saved. Listen to this quote from a Pentecostal book called, "How to Find Freedom from the Power of Sin." It is typical of how people view faith nowadays.
We must guard against the idea that God will conceal sin with a robe of righteousness. No! No! Nakedness is clothed, but not sin. Sin is taken away, and the righteousness of Christ is imparted to those who know the recovery power [Emphasis mine] of the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ"
Notice how it says you can't get the righteousness of Christ until you experience the recovery power of it. This means that you won't be righteous until you learn how to stop looking at pornography, or being greedy, or getting angry. This is not much different from the theology that Martin Luther grew up with. In order to free yourself from your flesh, you must pray so many prayers, go on trips to Rome, and make sure that you perform all of the acts of penance that the Catholic Church tells you to. As you do these things - you will fill yourself with more and more of God's grace and righteousness - helping you become more like God so you can eventually get to heaven. These are things that we are hearing on Christian radio and reading in popular literature today under the guise of "Christianity" and modern day "faith."
In a deceitful way Satan has turned faith into works. He has made faith the object of itself. In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul rules out this idea of "faith" when he writes by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, " For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." Whenever you are pointed to yourself - how much you trust in yourself or your God - or when you are pointed to how you renew your life as a Christian even - you will end up under the curse of knowing you have not done or believed enough. It led Luther to despair - never feeling that he had made enough confession or performed enough works to cleanse himself of what he'd done. In short, it never relieved his guilt. This is not what faith is about.
Jesus declared a different pathway to salvation - that of a specific faith that pointed other than to the self. Matthew 16:15 specifies what God wants us to believe in. "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'" The "good news" is another word for the Gospel - such as in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The good news is that God bridged the huge gap between Himself and man by sending His Son. God Almighty descended down to depths of a crib and was born as a baby in a lowly manger stall. This Son of God then proceeded to give the next thirty years of His life to obeying the Law - doing everything the Father told Him to do in the Bible. Wherever the Holy Spirit led him - to a desert to be tempted for 40 days or to the house of a tax collector - Jesus went. Jesus took this obedience a step further. When He transcended into our world - He allowed His experience to go even deeper. When the Father then told Jesus - His only Son - to go to a cross and allow Himself to be blamed and punished for the sins of the world, Jesus went. Jesus gave His own body to be the punching bag of God's wrath. At this one moment, Jesus allowed Himself to experience and feel what it was like to have the guilt of sin on His shoulders - and God's anger on Him. Jesus believed that God would raise Him up again from the dead. The good news is that Jesus said "it is finished." The good news is that John promises us that this atoned for the sins of the world! The good news is that God accepted this sacrifice - as proven in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. The Gospel declares that there is not one law that is left for you to obey. There is not one sin that needs to be paid for. The Gospel lays this beautiful meal of forgiveness on your plate and says to you, "eat!" It is so foreign to our reason that our natural man deems it foolishness and runs away from it. Yet the Holy Spirit works through the beauty of this message and then enables our dead bodies to reach out for that meal and taste it through the eyes of faith saying, "this is wonderful!"
Luther's reformation revealed the source of salvation - "whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved." Christ comes to us through faith in the Gospel in Word and sacrament. Christ does not come through man's prayer or choice - but through Word and sacrament. It is simply incredible how God offers to give us this Christ and puts this holiness over us. He takes simple water - sprinkles it on our head - and says, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Who would imagine that such a simple act could actually wash sins away, give the gift of the Holy Spirit - and connect the sinner to Christ? Yet that is what God's Word says that baptism does. Through simple faith in Christ God takes all of what Christ did 2,000 years ago - and He gives us credit for all that Jesus did. Through the simple washing with water God regards us as having been bathed in the blood of Christ from head to toe. God hides Himself in the waters of baptism. God reveals Himself through a cross! What a wonderful thing! We do nothing, God does everything for us in Christ. This was the root of Luther's concern - as explained in his original 95 Theses - 62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
As Lutherans we want to go back to this core root of the Reformation. As we watch the modern day Evangelicals and other denominations bring in droves of people through programs and workshops for happier marriages or better money management - we may be tempted to think if we just had a better music program or a bigger narthex or cooler logo we would be sure to "grow our church." Instead, let us cling first and foremost to the message that gives us freedom from hell and God's wrath - the cross of Christ. Let us old time Evangelical Lutherans recognize that the cross is source of salvation - as found through the Word and the sacrament. Instead of shying away from these - now more than ever we need to promote these and emphasize these. As the original evangelicals - we cling to the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. This is what changes us in God's eyes. Without faith in this Gospel, we will be condemned. This is what Lutherans confess and believe. It is another core root of the Reformation.
III. Focus on the future through faith
This idea of salvation by "faith alone" has been ridiculed by the Catholic Church. "It's too easy," they say. What they don't realize is that faith is a living and an active thing. It changes the way you think and the way you act. It makes you view everything you have, your spouse, your children, your job - your future - as a gift of God. Faith in the Gospel changes the way you live.
Faith changed the way Martin Luther lived. He searched for a relief from guilt. He also sought certainty. He wanted to do everything God told him to do. So his monastery told him to beat himself - to sleep on hard beds - to do all of these things to somehow make his future more secure. It led him to despair. But when Luther rediscovered the truth of the Gospel he wrote, "finally, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, I weighed more carefully the passage in Habakkuk (2:4), where I read: "The righteous shall live by his faith." From this I concluded that life must come from faith. In this way I related the abstract to the concrete, and all Holy Scripture and heaven itself were opened to me." (LW 5:158) Through faith he was able to conclude that heaven itself were opened to me. This realization changed his view of life - what he valued and what he feared. This what the Reformation was all about. The third root of the Reformation is a reopening of heaven through simple faith in Christ.
Did you ever stop to think about what a sad faith it is to never have the certainty of heaven? At a recent marriage in a Catholic wedding, the priest said a prayer for my wife's Lutheran mother, whom they believed was in purgatory. When she died her mother paid the priest to have a Rosary on her behalf - hoping to speed her way through purgatory somewhat. How sad is it - to bury someone that was a faithful member of church his or her whole life - and be consigned to the fate of thinking that he or she will have to spend centuries contemplating what he or she did in life - and suffering for it. This is the faith of the Catholic Church.
Think about how sad it is for so many unbelievers to only look at the eyes of the world through sinful and selfish eyes. Imagine how sad it is to think that your children need to be kept safe only by you - that there were no angels. Imagine how scary it would be to think that you needed to control your future - how successful you would be - as if God were not in charge. Imagine how terrifying it would be to face death, never knowing if you had done "enough" to be welcomed through the "pearly gates" - assuming that you will get there because you are a "good guy."
The writer to the Hebrews wrote that, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for." (Hebrews 11:1) Through faith, Luther took God's promises seriously. Mark 16:16 has an awesome promise. "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Jesus - the eternal God - promised that when you believe in Him and are baptized - you WILL BE saved. Notice that Jesus doesn't say you might be saved, or that you could be saved - but that you will be saved. There is no doubt in this promise. There are no hidden clauses or waiting periods. When the Israelites were bitten by poisonous snakes in the wilderness - God promised them that if they simply looked to the brazen serpent on the pole, they would be saved from death. They who looked at it were saved. God's promise came true. When God promised He would send His Son to be born of a virgin - He did it. When Jesus promised that He would die and rise from the dead - He did it. So when this same God promises us that we who believe in him and are baptized into him will be saved - we can be sure that when we die - we will go to heaven immediately - because Jesus already paid for all of our sins.
This is what gave Luther the courage to do what he did. He knew that his words would cause him to be excommunicated. Luther knew that if he would not recant his words and his declaration of salvation through faith in Christ at the Diet of Worms - that he would be declared a heretic and most likely put to death. When he focused on God's promises for the future, none of this bothered him, because he believed God's promise of salvation in Christ. He was able to stand up against all of those who told him to recant what he said. He was able to go against everything he was taught - even the Pope himself. When Luther learned that some of his own students were put to death for their faith - he even lamented that he wasn't the first to be able to suffer for the Gospel. His faith in God's promise of salvation enabled him to speak boldly against the false teachings of the church. This was another root of the Reformation.
The devil is still on the attack today. He wants us to be on the defensive for what we believe - afraid of what will happen if we speak up. He wants us to be apologetic for what we believe as Lutherans - as if our view of morality, Baptism, the Lord's Supper - heaven and hell were somehow wrong and archaic. He'll say things like, "how can you be so close minded as to believe that only Christians will go to heaven? How can you be so sure that you will go to heaven - after all of the sins you commit every day? How can you say that little infants are sinful? Or that the whole world is really under the wrath of God? Or that the whole Bible is inspired? Don't think that your neighbor will even begin to believe that they need a Savior. You better not really speak God's Word to him. All you'll do is alienate him." We've bought into his reasoning. As a result, we are living with neighbors whom we have not shared the gospel with. We are living with fear over saying the wrong thing. We wonder to ourselves if we really have faith because we think things we shouldn't think and say things we shouldn't say.
The only way to get past these fears is to focus on the future through faith. Cling to the Gospel promises of Christ. Whoever believes and is baptized WILL BE SAVED. We have a wonderful message to share - with a future and a sure hope. It doesn't matter if we are called religious wing nuts, when we know what the truth is. It doesn't matter if our classmates don't like us when we know that God loves us. When we know that we have an eternity in heaven, all of these temporary troubles seem like nothing. It's what led Luther to write in A Mighty Fortress,
And take they our wife, goods, fame, child and life. Let these all be gone. They yet have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth.
It's this kind of faith that gives us the courage to continue in the footsteps of the Reformation. With faith in a sure future in heaven through Christ, we are motivated to speak the truth to those who need it. We don't worry about messing up, knowing that God is still in charge. We are willing to make enemies and even face death for the sake of the kingdom.
The following list was compiled by a 20th century Lutheran who, observing other Lutherans, wrote down what he thought a Lutheran was about. Here's some of what he said:
These things may distinguish us as Lutherans. We can laugh about them - or at least smile about them. But I hope you recognize that this is not what we really believe being a Lutheran is all about. He missed the keys to Lutheranism. It's not about drinking beer, playing cards, making Jell-O or eating sauerkraut. It's about believing in God's Word. Lutherans believe that as a result of Adam and Eve's sin we were born dead in sin - under the wrath of God - and under the control of Satan - unable to come out. Lutherans believe that Jesus completely bridged this gap - having lived, suffered, and died for our sins. We believe that we are saved by faith alone, Scripture alone, and grace alone. We believe in the Gospel - that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. These are the roots of the Reformation. It's what being Lutheran is all about. Amen.