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In need of grace

I’m Lutheran, and we Lutherans often get ourselves tied up in knots over the use of the law in the life of faith.

I believe, as Luther did, that Scripture reveals Christ through both Law and Gospel. Law, for Lutherans, is whatever convicts us of our sin and our need for Christ.

Another use of the Law, and a hotly disputed one at least in Lutheran circles, is what the reformers knew as the “third use of the Law.” Here the Law serves not only as a mirror for our sinful nature and its desires, but as a guide for proper conduct. That’s where we Lutherans get tied up in knots, as we also hold to the Augustinian belief that we are sinners, down to every last bit of our being, including the very will that desires and seeks a redeemed life with God.

So those of us who follow the form of Christianity begun by that Augustinian monk named Martin Luther often find it difficult to talk about holiness. To tweak a phrase by Janis Joplin, holiness seems like just another word for nothin’ left to lose. Yet as Psalm 99 states so directly, we are to “exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.”  

People, especially those unaffiliated with the church or the Christian faith, often find such talk of holiness off-putting. Christians are hypercritical and hypocritical, they say. Unfortunately, we often are just those things. We aren’t the one who is holy. God is.  

And that’s exactly what the Law in Scripture tells us. God is holy. Because God is holy, he desires our holiness. He wants to set us apart; to consecrate us. The whole Biblical notion of holiness had to do with being set apart, set aside for special use. When we pray, as in the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be thy name,” we are praying for God to make his name holy, to set his name apart for special use.  

Do you long to be special? Do you hunger to know how God has blessed you and tasked you with holiness? If you do, I encourage you and invite you to try church. We have tons of church options right here in Sidney. I encourage you to go. Pick one and go – hear the Law, and also hear the Gospel: you are his creation, and he loves you so much he sent his own Son so that you might have life in his name (John 3:16). You aren’t perfect; none of us is. We’re all in need of grace.  

And that’s just what God comes to give. Scripture, in Law and Gospel, is a gift. It is Word, and God’s Son Jesus is that very Word made flesh. Come get to know him! 

Rev. Eric C. Alm

Pastor, Parish of the Plains

 

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