spiritual – Higher Things

Concord #1: Augsburg Confession (Preface)

Preface

“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 12:8-9 ESV). Man is by nature a spiritual beast. Unlike the other creatures, we contemplate right and wrong, good and bad. We think on spiritual questions. The problem is that our sinful, fallen, corrupted natures cannot by nature comprehend who God is or what He is like or what He wills for us. So we resort to doing what’s right in our own eyes, thinking what’s right in our own minds, and believing what’s right in our own hearts. It makes for as many religions as there are people.

How does anyone come to an agreement on what to believe? Put a bunch of people in a room and ask them agree about something. In business or other civil matters, people can sometimes come to an agreement—perhaps even a win/win solution. But drop a spiritual question and soon you’ll find that everyone has his own opinion and no one wants to budge even an inch. Agreement over spiritual questions, over matters of faith, can never be produced by human endeavor. Concord is not reached by debate or rhetoric or persuasive speech. It can only be received as a gift from God.

So agreement over spiritual matters must be primarily an agreement with what God says. This is what a confession is. To confess means to say the same thing as someone else. “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32 NKJV). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10 ESV).

The confessions of the Lutheran Church are found in the Book of Concord. Concord means, “with one heart.” With one heart, the Lutheran Confessions say the same thing that God says and provide the basis for agreement concerning matters of faith. “We indeed (to repeat in conclusion what we have mentioned several times above) have wished, in this work of concord, in no way to devise what is new, or to depart from the truth of the heavenly doctrine which our ancestors, renowned for their piety, as well as we ourselves, have acknowledged and professed” (Preface to the Christian Book of Concord).

Concord begins with the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the sole source and norm of everything we believe and teach. And we confess with the ancient ecumenical creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, Athanasian); the Augsburg Confession and its Apology; the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope; the Small and Large Catechisms; and the Formula of Concord because they say the same thing that God says in Holy Scripture. This is our confession. This is our concord.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

Concord #15: Augsburg Confession (Church Practices)

Church Practices

You worship what you believe—this is the main point of religion. But it also works the other way around. You believe what you worship. False beliefs rarely (if ever) begin as a rejection of religious doctrine as an idea, but as corruption of worship and practice. False teaching becomes the justification for false practice.

In the Reformation, it was a dispute over practice—in particular the sale of indulgences—that led Luther to examine doctrine and rediscover the Gospel. Soon, the reformers had identified a number of corrupt practices that were symptomatic of the false teaching that underlied them. Since doctrine and practice are so wound up with each other, the question is: what practices should we keep, if any? Perhaps we need to toss everything and start fresh.

To this question, the Augsburg Confession answers for the Lutheran Churches: “Of Usages in the Church they teach that those ought to be observed which may be observed without sin, and which are profitable unto tranquility and good order in the Church, as particular holy days, festivals, and the like,” (Augsburg Confession XV.1). The Lutheran Reformation was a conservative Reformation in the sense that it sought to eliminate the error, but also to conserve what was good, right, and salutary.

But an important caveat is added. “Nevertheless, concerning such things men are admonished that consciences are not to be burdened, as though such observance was necessary to salvation,” (Augsburg Confession XV.2). Even good, right, and salutary practices that teach the Gospel, can be a cause of damnation if they are turned into requirements for salvation. This is how the good practices of the Church became corrupted in the first place. And it’s important that we Lutherans always remain vigilant that we never let our practices point us away from the Gospel to our own practicing.

Very simply put, “[Our churches] are admonished also that human traditions instituted to propitiate God, to merit grace, and to make satisfaction for sins, are opposed to the Gospel and the doctrine of faith,” (Augsburg Confession XV.3). Monastic vows, dietary restrictions, and compulsory worship, which the Roman Church promised would forgive sins, are contrary to the forgiveness won by Christ. His forgiveness is a gift freely given, without condition. And so the practices of the Church likewise ought to be free, and point to the salvation that is received only by faith in Christ.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.