Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present
unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work
--Martin Luther
(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)
"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
(Isaiah 55:11)
When it comes to having a "special effects" budget, God should have an unlimited--even infinite--repository upon which to draw. The sinner in us--the old Adam and the old Eve--knows this and covets God's special effects. The simple miracle of Faith In Christ insufficiently impresses this covetous desire. For, after all, what's so impressive about a washed-up, itinerant rabbi dying on a cross? Now, if he had come down from there and saved himself, that would have been an "accomplishment" worthy of his claim to be the Son of God!
Instead, God's special effects are hidden within the realm of nature, easily (or sometimes not) explainable by the laws of nature and easily dismissed by sinners covetous of the spectacular. God wraps his purpose in the plainness of his Word delivered by all too ordinary human means: a failed messiah-figure, a common preacher, an old, musty book. These too are easily dismissed by the old Adam and the old Eve. In their place the old sinner in us inserts the special effects of its own enthusiasm which--as long as its "budget" lasts--shows forth the accomplishment, not of Faith in Christ, but of faith in self.
Yet, when the Holy Spirit goes to work as God's Word gets delivered by those ordinary human means, God's purpose gets accomplished and prospers in the salvation of the world. By these simple means--Word and Sacrament--the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps those who hear in the one true faith--that is, in Jesus Christ our Lord.
No fooling!
Ephesians 3:8-12
To me – less than the least of all the saints – this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to enlighten everyone about God’s secret plan – a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things. The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ’s faithfulness.
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