Category: Articles

Days and months and years unfolding clearly showed what sin had wrought: fallen Adam’s children learning lessons fallen parents taught. All these sacrificial offerings crested as a crimson flood: Patriarchs and priests atoning for their sin with cleansing blood. – LSB 572, Verse 2

We have always lived with the consequences of the Fall. That may sound like a simple, obvious statement- we do not know what it is like to live without the pain of sin, death, and the power of the Devil. However, Adam and Eve had lived in that perfect Eden, and so every sin, every withered plant, every ache, sickness, and human death came as a shock to them as they saw exactly what the price of their disobedience cost themselves and their descendants. Sin was not just a misstep, one small action taken too far, or an accident. Instead, the Fall destroyed the perfect man God created. God, as the perfect father to Adam and Eve had passed on His image to them, yet Adam as an imperfect and sinful father to the rest of humanity passed on his fallen image to all his descendants. The curse of the fall was not just for Adam; it was for the whole human race which was now born innately corrupt and sinful, separated from God forever.

Yet God is merciful to His people. He does not allow us to remain separated from Him no matter how much our sinful nature would prefer to have nothing to do with God. All through the Old Testament, we see the Patriarchs (Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob among others) offering sacrifices on altars to God. They offered them in times of thanksgiving and in times when they knew God had spared them despite their sin. They understood the extent of God’s justice as well as His great mercy, and so they offered their sacrifices to Him in repentance and faith in His promise to send a Savior.

This continued with the sacrificial covenant God made with the Children of Israel. After bringing them out of Egypt, God set out the specific rules regarding sacrificial offerings: when they needed to be made, the amount of the offerings, and the rituals surrounding them. These sacrifices reminded the Children of Israel that God delivered them from slavery and preserved their lives both physically and spiritually. The blood of the animals slain on that altar covered the sins of the people and reminded them that God was not only just, but He was also merciful and did not hold their sins against them. From the outside, the blood of hundreds of animals scattered on the Children of Israel seems gory and unfair, but the price of our sin is death. It always has been since the time God killed the first animal to cover Adam and Eve’s shame. Yet these sacrifices were made in faith that God would in time send a Savior to fulfill His promise to Eve and crush the Devil.

Much to the delight of many youth across the country, the Higher Things conference season is fast approaching. This is always an exciting time for church youth groups who have been fundraising all year for these trips as every conference provides wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. The plenary speakers expound on the conference theme, breakout speakers present on a variety of topics, the multitude of services provide a theological foundation grounded in the liturgy, great hymns, and sermons to meditate on, and yes, there will be some time for fun and games as well. Another aspect of conferences that I especially love is learning the conference hymn. If you were not aware that Higher Things has a specific hymn chosen to fit the theme of each conference, now you know! This year the hymn is “In the Shattered Bliss of Eden” (LSB 572) which ties in with the conference theme – “Sanctified.” The text of this hymn covers the entire story of our salvation from the fall into sin, through the Old Testament sacrificial covenant, onto Jesus’ death and the New Testament sacramental covenant given to us in the present day.

In the shattered bliss of Eden dawned the day of sacrifice, as our primal parents shuddered – Sin had caused this dreadful price! Faith embarked with this discernment: Only God can cover sin, as He took their leafy garments and He clothed their shame with skin. –LSB 572, Verse 1

In Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve took that fateful bite of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the wonderful paradise that God created for them was gone. They achieved what they were promised by the serpent: to know the difference between good and evil just like God, yet with this newly acquired knowledge came the realization that what they had just done was evil. They broke God’s law, and immediately their sin and shame were visible. As they desperately tried to hide themselves from God with fig leaves, God came to them, showed them their sin, and gave them both a curse – the punishment for sin – and offered them a promise, that their sin would eventually be crushed by the seed of Eve.

The scene that followed is highlighted in this first stanza of the hymn: God took an animal and killed it in order to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. What a shock this must have been to our first parents. This was Eden! Nothing had ever died, or withered, or been sick, or been killed before. God’s warning to Adam in Genesis 2 where He said Adam would die in the day he ate of the tree in the garden was visibly carried out in front of Adam. Adam would eventually die, and all creation took on his curse and would die with him. God killed this first animal to cover the sin of Adam and Eve, and what a horrible price it must have seemed at the time. They could not have foreseen the thousands of animals that would be sacrificed to cover the sins of Children of Israel nor the painful, terrible sacrifice of Jesus Christ – the seed of the woman sent to crush the serpent’s head. Instead, what they saw and learned on that day was that God alone could cover their sin and that all their attempts to cover up what they had done were futile. Sin came at a price, and that price was death.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

The book of Acts begins with these words from Luke, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach…” Jesus’ earthly ministry was only the beginning of His work. As we can see in throughout Acts, it is Jesus who is building His church. Jesus is always in His church, with His church, and works through His church. And He continues to be with, lead, and sanctify His church today.

Church is the place where you belong, but not because of the music, activities, or programs that may be offered. You belong in the church because you are a sinner. You belong in the church and have been placed into the church because you are a redeemed and baptized child of God. You belong in the church because God has graciously placed you into His Body through the work of His Son. The church is made up entirely of broken, sinful people who are loved and redeemed by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It is the place where peace and forgiveness can be found because the church is where Christ is present through Word and Sacrament.

The prayer of the father in Mark 9, “I believe, help my unbelief” is a prayer I often find myself praying. It’s honest. It’s a cry to our Heavenly Father asking for the faith that is His alone to give. It’s also a prayer that Jesus loves to answer, and the means by which He often answers this prayer is through the church. It was through the church, through water and the Word, that God baptized you and the Holy Spirit created faith in you. Jesus answers that prayer and fills our unbelieving hearts with faith. Whenever we remember our baptism, whenever the pastor declares the absolution of our sins, whenever we take the Lord’s Body and Blood, God is working in, and softening our hearts of unbelief. It is through the church that Jesus does this. It is through the church that Jesus sustains and feeds our faith through His Word of Absolution and through the Lord’s Supper.

Gene Edward Veith states, “[God] employs certain means by which He converts the lost and sustains His people…God’s grace, the message of His love and forgiveness through Christ, come to people too, through the Sacraments, which are tangible manifestations of the Gospel.” God loves and cares for us and our souls using the church as the means by which He baptizes, communes, and feeds His own. He washes us and places us into a body of believers in order to strengthen and sustain the faith He has created in us. After all, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Kathy Strauch is a member of Faith Lutheran Church in Troy, Michigan and is a graphic designer.

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Talking to your unbelieving friends can be difficult. The passage above seems to present a problem that makes it harder. How can I get my unbelieving friends to believe when they can’t understand what I am saying? How do they get the Holy Spirit in order to understand the truth, so that I can speak the truth to them?

My framing of the problem is really the problem. There is no sequence of the Holy Spirit coming and then the truth. It does not happen that the Holy Spirit is received and then the truth of God’s Word is received. Rather, Christ gives us his Holy Spirit with his Word. Our Lord’s words are Spirit-filled. Jesus said that his words are “Spirit and life” (John 6:63). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is received with the truth, with God’s Word. In fact, we cannot expect to receive the Holy Spirit apart from God’s Word and the Sacraments, which are God’s “visible” Word. Luther wrote, “We should and must insist that God does not want to deal with us human beings, except by means of his external Word and sacrament” (SA III VIII:10).

When it comes to an unbeliever, God prepares that person for conversion through His law—His commandments. All people have an innate knowledge of God’s law through having a conscience. This is called the natural knowledge of God. However, people deny this knowledge and pervert it. But when God’s law as revealed in Holy Scripture is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit convicts and allows no denial of what is good, right, and holy. It says in our Lutheran Confessions, “The Spirit of Christ must not only comfort but through the function of the law must also ‘convict the world of sin’ [John 16:8]. Thus, in the New Testament the Holy Spirit must perform (as the prophet says in Isaiah 28:2) “alien” work—which is to convict—until he comes to his “proper” work—which is to comfort and to proclaim grace. For this reason, Christ obtained the Spirit for us and sent him to us” (FC SD V:11).

First the law is proclaimed, and then the Gospel. It is through the Gospel that God works conversion, or brings people to faith and life in Christ. Conversion also occurs through Holy Baptism, which is Gospel, as is the case with infants. But for the unbelieving adult, the spoken Word will be the means by which the Holy Spirit penetrates the stony heart. Through the Gospel, sinners who are blind, dead, and enemies of God are given sight, made alive, and turned to love God. This happens by the Holy Spirit acting upon people, for unbelievers cannot understand and cannot help themselves. It says in the Small Catechism’s explanation to the Third Article of the Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith . . .”

This reminds us that you can’t reason someone into the kingdom of grace. It didn’t happen for us that way. Why would we then try to argue our unbelieving friends into a confession of true faith?

So the answer to reaching your unbelieving, undiscerning friends is God’s Word. Speak God’s law and Gospel to them. The Holy Spirit works through the Spirit-filled Word. Bring God’s Word to bear on their lives, and the Holy Spirit will act upon them. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Faith does not come from reason, from the best argument, or from the most knowledge. You don’t have to win anyone with your skills. In fact, you can’t.

Let me offer two other important points. First, the Holy Spirit can be resisted (Acts 7:51). Therefore, we are never to judge our confession of the truth by “results.” Second, the Word of God does not return empty (Isaiah 55:11). Therefore, as God gives you the opportunity, continue to speak the Word to your unbelieving friends and bring them to the public proclamation in the Church. There may come a time later in their lives when God brings to mind that Word you spoke.

Finally, rejoice in the Gospel of your own forgiveness as you receive absolution and are reminded of your baptism, hear the Word of Christ preached and partake of His body and blood in the divine service. Then by the Holy Spirit you continue to receive for certain the complete forgiveness from the Father for the sake of Christ, which you then declare to others.

Rev. Philip Young is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and he serves as the pastoral advisor to the Lutheran Student Fellowship group at Vanderbilt University.