Luther, Spiritual Disciplines, and Our Neighbors
Christians have to attend to the mastery of their sinful impulses so that they can serve their neighbors effectively. Luther approached the issue of sanctification with some reserve for fear that his generation, so recently weaned from the idea of good works as a means to grace rather than the fruit thereof, would fall back into the old patterns of thought.
One of the many practical effects of the Reformation was a change in how people viewed what are now called “spiritual disciplines.” In the context of the Reformation, most people believed that their good works contributed to their justification. They also believed that doing super-spiritual things like becoming a monk/nun would be rewarded by God. However, as the Reformers taught and preached the truths of Scripture, slowly but surely, people began to understand that their good works did not help in the matter of justification. Furthermore, they began to understand that super-spiritual things like monasticism were not found in Scripture and therefore could be abandoned. However, the Reformers noted that good works and biblical spirituality were still certainly part of the Christian life. Here’s a good summary of how Luther emphasized good works and the “spiritual discipline” of serving one’s neighbor.
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Why Is Darkness Settling over Our Land, and What Can We Do?
Our greatest offensive weapon (the one that will be used to win the day) is Word-driven prayer. ALL kinds of prayer, at ALL times, with ALL perseverance for ALL the saints. Why is prayer so effective? Prayer brings God into the equation, enlists the resources of heaven, and does what God can do. Satan’s hosts are completely defenseless against God’s intervention. This is why Satan and his rulers do not fear us … until we begin to pray.
How do we interpret the increasing evil around us? The depraved thinking that shouts wrong as right? The diabolical deception wrapping its tentacles around our children? The sexual depravity that is not only openly practiced but promoted, applauded, and exported? The rapid rise of violence and crime? Once beautiful and orderly cities spiraling into anarchy and chaos?
Ponder everything you see around you in its worst forms. Do you wonder why these things are happening? Things that were unheard of in our nation 50 years ago?
A Deeper Source
Our only hope in addressing and reversing this decline is to make the right diagnosis and remedy. If you seek to explain this godlessness, you might point to people, government, media and entertainment, the breakdown of the home and education. But you would be missing the real issues. These are the surface manifestations of a deeper, more diabolical, and determined Driver.
The Apostle Paul, under God’s inspiration, gives us a 2,000-year-old answer that is dead center.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Dissect that sentence carefully for your understanding depends upon it. We are not in a battle against mere human forces. The ones who pull the strings of this great dilemma are from a lower realm. There is an unrelenting army of evil that is waging war against God and all He represents, led by His ancient enemy, Satan himself. He commands …
RULERS: They have the authority to accomplish deadly plans and they have realms over which they reign.
POWERS: They have a sphere to dominate and the power to do it. They are not weak and insipid but formidable enemies.
WORLD FORCES OF THIS DARKNESS: These are not merely local demons restricted to just your small neighborhood (although they are there). They are overseeing large areas of the entire world, bringing darkness wherever they work. It is a well-coordinated strategic attack, using everything at their disposal. They command people and policies, plans and resources. Much is at their disposal.
SPIRITUAL FORCES OF WICKEDNESS IN HEAVENLY PLACES: A great cosmic battle is raging. Satan has waged this battle since his fall from heaven, and it is unending. It is headquartered in the unseen realm but waged upon this earth. Satan and his hosts are 100% evil and are relentless in their attack upon God and all He represents. Their nature drives them to steal, kill, and destroy with no mercy.
While we may notice only the seen world, this battle in the heavenly realm is just as real as the earthly. Many dismiss this evaluation as fictional and childish, perhaps even comical. This is just as Satan desires. We must look deeper with Biblical insight and spiritual eyes. Wise men and women of God know that the true followers of Christ are both the objects of Satan’s attacks and the warriors in the King’s army.
What Do We Do in This Battle?
Paul alerts us to this warfare (and the reason for the darkness) and gives us all the necessary equipping to engage successfully. We need not lose hope or fade in the battle.
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Speaking Simple Things
When we hear a phrase like “God wrote the Bible,” we immediately want to include a dozen or more asterisks behind it to try and prove that we’re not ignorant, uneducated, and anti-intellectual. We want to sound sophisticated and enlightened, having moved beyond the simplistic statements we were taught as children. We want to signal to others that we’re not like those Christians who just accept everything on blind faith.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal ran an article where they asked college students who sympathize with Palestinians in the Israel/Hamas war whether they knew which river and which sea were being referred to in the popular chant “from the river to the sea.” Only 47% of students could name the river (Jordan) and the sea (Mediterranean). Once they were shown the river and the sea on a map and informed that “from the river to the sea” meant the annihilation of Israel, 67.8% of the students changed their minds and no longer supported the chant.
It might not be wise to wade into a hot-button issue to prove a different but related point, but the fact that close to 70% of students in a pro-Palestine rally were unknowingly calling for the extermination of Israel because they chanted a slogan that was catchy to say and sounded supportive shows how easy it is to be captivated—literally taken captive—by the sound of words when they play to the desires of our hearts. Having compassion and concern for the innocent Palestinians who are caught up in this tragic conflict is good and noble. Unknowingly chanting for the annihilation of a different people group—one that has a history of being the victims of genocide—a position you don’t even hold is not good and noble; it’s ignorant and dangerous.
My point here is not to talk about the Israel/Palestine conflict. I would be way in over my head. I simply want to point out how easily we are swayed by words and rhetoric more than arguments. I’m currently reading Augustine’s Confessions and this is a something that he discusses. Having doubts about his Manichean beliefs, he was excited that a prominent Manichean teacher, Faustus, was coming to speak in Carthage, where he lived.
After hearing Faustus speak, he was impressed by the way he spoke but disappointed by the content of his speech. Yet Faustus’ reputation for being a Manichean teacher was great, and Augustine’s peers said all he needed was to wait for Faustus to come, and all his doubts would be relieved. That failed to be the case.
Augustine wrote about this experience,
Those who had given me such assurances about him must have been poor judges. They thought him wise and thoughtful simply because they were charmed by his manner of speech.
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You [God] had already taught me that a statement is not necessarily true because it is wrapped in fine language or false because it is awkwardly expressed.
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You [God] had already taught me this lesson and the converse truth, that an assertion is not necessarily true because it is badly expressed or false because it is finely spoken.
I had learned that wisdom and folly are like different kinds of food. Some are wholesome and others are not, but both can be serveed equally well on the finest china dish or the meanest earthenware. In the same way, wisdom and folly can be clothed alike in plain words or the finest flowers of speech.
tldr: The way something is said has no bearing on the truth of the thing.
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Our Hope in the Ascension
The Ascension is a further fulfillment and vindication of the triumph of the Resurrection. It is no wonder that the Ascension is highlighted throughout the New Testament as a necessary precursor to a number of blessings in this age of the Spirit. The Ascension is linked to the giving of Messianic gifts (Eph. 4:8-10), to the intercession of our High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16), and to the subjection of all things under Christ’s feet (1 Peter 3:22). Because Jesus is our conquering king, he is positioned to gift us with the spoils of victory.
We must place our hope in men,” said Gandalf.
“Men!” Elrond replied. “The race of men is weak, failing. The blood of Numenor is all but spent, its pride and dignity forgotten. It is because of men that the Ring survives. I was there, three thousand years ago, when Isildur took the ring. I was there when the strength of men failed.”
This scene from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy should remind us of the doctrine of the Ascension. Elrond was right, but Gandalf was more right. Yes, the race of men is weak. Yes, evil survives (and thrives) because one man took what he should not have taken. Yes, the strength of men failed thousands of years ago. But our hope in human flesh is not misplaced. In Tolkien’s story, there is a Man—Aragorn—to sit on Gondor’s throne. Just as because of Christ’s Ascension, human flesh now sits at the right hand of God.
Of all the aspects of Christ’s work in his state of exaltation, the Ascension is one of the most overlooked. Every Christian knows something about the Resurrection. Most look forward to Christ’s coming again. But few could tell you much about the Ascension. To be sure, it’s there in the Creed, but most Christians—if they consider the Ascension at all—think of it as little more than a heavenly transit system. Jesus ascended into heaven; that’s how the Son of God got back home. Although Easter is a high point in the church calendar for most Christians, Ascension Day is virtually forgotten in many Protestant traditions, including my own Reformed tradition.
This has not always been the case. Even as Calvin and Bucer moved away from many of the Catholic calendar’s saint days and holy days, they still retained “Five Evangelical Feasts” in the church calendar: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. The Palatinate Church Order of 1563 (an influential liturgical manual from the Heidelberg area of Germany) observed Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. The Church Order coming out of the Synod of Dort (1618–19) adopted what had long been the practice of Reformed churches in the Netherlands: the observation of several feast days (including the Ascension of Christ) in addition to Sunday. In the words of Daniel Hyde, for the Reformed tradition on the continent, these evangelical feasts were “not holy but helpful.”
More important than history, of course, is the Bible.
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