Choose Life!

The following article is by the Rev. James Lamb at Lutherans for Life:

God and abortion come face to face this year with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973, falling on a Sunday. People will gather to worship the Lord and Author of Life on the day when, thirty-nine years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively took the right to life away from the defenseless unborn and declared the right to murder them constitutional.

Since then, over 54,000,000 little lives have been slaughtered under the death cry of “the right to choose.”

Many would say I exaggerate the importance of the convergence of Roe v. Wade and Sunday. They maintain there is no connection. Their oft repeated mantra: “Abortion is political and the Church exists to proclaim the Gospel not to be ensnared in politics.” This flawed and deadly reasoning is precisely why the carnage of abortion continues.

The killing of little boys and little girls at any stage of development for any reason is a travesty. Killing little boys and little girls created and gifted by God, purchased by the blood of Jesus, and children God desires to call into an eternal relationship with Him is a travesty against our Triune God.

Therein lies the connection. Abortion is not just a choice that destroys life. It destroys life precious to God.

Add to this the immeasurable guilt and regret an abortion choice eventually brings to the hearts of those involved in that choice and you have a set of circumstances that compels the Church of Jesus Christ to speak and act. You have a mission field tailor made for the proclamation of God’s law and especially the proclamation of His life-changing Gospel.

For the Christian, abortion is at its core idolatry, a failure to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” We choose the death of the helpless to deliver us from a difficult situation rather than trust in God “my help and my deliverer” (Psalm 40:17).

But the Church dare not merely pound her pulpits and demand, “Trust God, choose life” as if trust in God is something we can conjure up if we just try hard enough. Time and time again the Scripture associates help from God with salvation from God. “Help us, O God of our salvation” (Psalm 79:9). Those who profess Jesus Christ as the source of their salvation must be led to see and trust that the God who saved them from sin is the source of their help and will never abandon them.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32 ESV).

Because God’s love for us was demonstrated on the cross, we can confidently trust that nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39b ESV). Christ’s Church has a responsibility to help her people connect this wonderful promise to the life issues.

Our prayer at LFL, is that the Church will make this connection, not just this Sunday, but frequently Sunday after Sunday. We stand ready to help and equip the Church to connect and apply what she is already proclaiming, the Gospel, to these issues of life and death. It is the Gospel that truly changes hearts and lives.

Jesus = Religion

Today brother Fisk tackles the YouTube video in my previous post (much more eloquently than I did). See his Worldview Everlasting response below...

True Religion = Jesus

Today I saw a YouTube video titled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” posted by numerous friends on Facebook, so I checked it out. The cinematography is well done, but the narration is a mixed bag. It seems this man has quite a story to tell, and some of it is well told. I commend him for that. But when truth is intertwined with half-truths, assumptions, and falsehood, it is dangerous. I wish the author would have focused on his personal story and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for sinners, without all the added baggage. I have no doubt there are some Christians who are messed up with their own religious beliefs. But let’s not paint with a broad brush where God’s Word does not. Below is the four-minute video, followed by the text of the video, interspersed with my own comments. Contrary to this man’s claim, true religion = Jesus!

JESUS>RELIGION

Interesting. True religion = Jesus. So I’m not sure why Jesus > religion.

What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion.
What if I told you voting Republican really wasn’t His mission.
What if I told you Republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian.
And just because you call some people blind doesn’t automatically give you vision.

Where does Holy Scripture say that Jesus came to abolish religion? He didn’t. He is the sum and substance of true religion. He has been since the creation of man and will continue to be into eternity. And the Republican Party? Really? Moreover, it matters not who I call blind. It matter simply who Holy Scripture calls blind.

I mean, if religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?
Why does it built huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?
Tell single moms God doesn’t love them if they’ve ever had a divorce,
But in the Old Testament God actually calls religious people whores.

Religion has never started a war. Sinners start wars. And almost always for the wrong reasons. There’s nothing inherently wrong with huge churches. The same is true of modest churches and little huts and homes that serve as churches. No one feeds the poor as he should. But do not overlook the fact that Christians have done more to feed the poor in our world than any other group. If your church tells single moms and the divorced that God doesn’t love them, what type of church do you attend? And yes, God did call His own people whores, because they adulterated their relationship with Him by looking to other gods. The same type of spiritual adultery continues today.

Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practice,
Tend to ridicule God’s people, they did it to John the Baptist.
They can’t fix their problems, and so they just mask it,
Not realizing, religion is like spraying perfume on a casket.

Confessional Lutheranism preaches grace correctly. Yet, there’s not a single person on earth who practices it perfectly. What problems does religion mask? Christ’s people carry the darkness of sin into the light of Christ’s forgiveness. But if you’re looking for perfection in this area, you don’t rightly understand man’s sinful nature.

See, the problem with religion is that it never gets to the core.
It’s just behavior modification, like a long list of chores.
Like, let’s dress up the outside and make it look nice and neat.
But it’s funny, that’s what they used to do to mummies while the corpse rots underneath.

True religion gets straight to the core. That’s why true faith must begin with repentance. See John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ preaching as examples. Christianity is not primarily about behavior modification. It is about daily dying to sin and being raised up to newness of life in Jesus Christ (i.e. living one’s baptism). Living in Christ will indeed affect one’s behavior, for a good tree bears good fruit.

Now, I ain’t judging, I’m just saying, quit putting on a fake look,
Cause there’s a problem if people only know that you’re a Christian by your Facebook.
I mean in every other aspect of life you know that logic is unworthy,
It’s like saying you play for the Lakers just because you bought a jersey.

Don’t tell you ain’t judging and in the next breath pronounce a judgment. Not cool. The rest of what you say has validity. It’s not enough to call yourself a Christian. It is a daily dying and rising in Him!

See, this was me too, but no one seemed to be on to me,
Acting like a church kid, while addicted to pornography.
See, on Sunday I’d go to church but Saturday getting faded,
Acting as if I was simply created to have sex and get wasted.

This is your personal account and I have no doubt an honest assessment. God be praised when the Good Shepherd seeks, finds, forgives, and brings home a lost sheep. That is true of every Christian.

See, I spent my whole like building this façade of neatness,
But now that I know Jesus, I boast in my weakness.
Because if grace is water, then the church should be an ocean.
It’s not a museum for good people, it’s a hospital for the broken.

We are weak (dead in our trespasses and sins). Jesus is our strength. Well said. The church is indeed an ocean of grace. I pray no one claims it’s a museum for good people (it would be empty). It always remains a hospital for sinners (in which we remain patients till our Lord calls us home).

Which means I don’t have to hide my failure, I don’t have to hide my sin.
Because it doesn’t depend on me, it depends on Him.
See, because when I was God’s enemy, and certainly not a fan,
He looked down and said, “I want that man.”

Amen!

Which is why Jesus hated religion, and for it He called them fools.
Don’t you see, so much better than just following some rules.
Now let me clarify, I love the church, I love the Bible, and yes I believe in sin.
But if Jesus came to your church, would they actually let Him in?

Again, where does Holy Scripture say that Jesus hated religion? He hated self-righteousness. Would my church let Jesus in? He comes each and every Lord’s Day. Baptism. Absolution. Gospel. Lord’s Supper. He is present with His grace and mercy, calling sinners to repentance, forgiving sins, strengthening faith, and empowering His people to live out their vocations in faith toward God and love toward neighbor.

See, remember He was called a glutton and a drunkard by religion men
But the Son of God never supports self-righteousness, not now, not then.

True.

Now back to the point. One thing is vital to mention,
How Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums.
See, one’s the work of God and one’s a manmade invention.
See, one is the cure but the other is the infection.

True religion = Jesus. They are not opposite spectrums. Jesus is not the work of God. He is God. And true religion is not a manmade invention. It is Christ’s people gathered around Him to receive His good gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. In fact, Jesus calls us “My church” (Matthew 16:18). Paul calls several congregations “the church of God” and calls the church of the living God “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). So why is religion manmade? Why the infection? Jesus is the cure. But He delivers the cure within religion, within His holy Church, by means of His Word and Sacraments.

See, because religion says Do, Jesus says Done,
Religion says slave, Jesus says son.
Religion puts you in bondage, while Jesus sets you free.
Religion makes you blind, but Jesus makes you see.

True religion does not say Do. It says Repent and Believe. Jesus has taken your sin and paid its penalty on the cross. You are forgiven. True religion grants freedom, sight, hearing, faith. Why? Because true religion = Jesus!

And that’s why religion and Jesus are two different clans.
Religion is man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for man.
Which is why salvation is freely mine and forgiveness is my own,
Not based on my merits, but Jesus’ obedience alone.

The drum you’re beating is not Scriptural. True religion is God searching for man, finding him, and redeeming him via the cross. The last half of this section proves this.

Because He took the crown of thorns and the blood dripped down His face,
He took what we all deserved, I guess that’s why we call it grace.
And while being murdered, He yelled, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Because when He was dangling on that cross, He was thinking of you.

Amen!

And He absorbed all your sin and He buried it in the tomb,
Which is why I’m kneeling at the cross, saying, “Come on, there’s room.”
So, for religion, No, I hate it, if fact I literally resent it.
Because when Jesus said, “It is finished!” I believe He meant it.

The first half of this: Nice! But why hate true religion? Why resent it? True religion = Jesus. When Jesus said, “It is finished!” He did mean it. Sin is finished. So is atonement, redemption, salvation. His words have nothing to do with religion. He is the ground and source of true religion. Always has been. Always will be.

Perhaps what this man is trying to say is that most religion is false. With that I can agree. If he is looking for true religion, I invite him (and you) to visit us at Divine Shepherd. Jesus dwells among us in His Word and Sacraments, full of grace and truth, welcoming all. We are His people, sinners made saints through His blood. Don’t expect perfection though. We remain patients in this hospital, daily living from the medicine of immortality Christ gives us. At Divine Shepherd you will find that true religion = Jesus!

Sinners Wanted

All Christians are saints by virtue of Christ’s perfect righteousness. The problem arises when Christians begin to think and act like they are somehow better or holier or less sinful than others. That’s hypocrisy and it has no place in Christ’s Church.

Martin Luther sums this up beautifully in his sermons on the Gospel of Saint John:

May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the faint-hearted, the feeble, and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sin, and who suffer persecution for the sake of the Word, which they confess and teach purely and without adulteration.

Luther’s Works XXII 55

Christ’s Church is for sinners. Period. No exceptions. May our merciful God preserve us from a Christian Church in which anyone believes he is a saint apart from Christ’s mercy. Come to God’s house each Lord’s Day a sinner, be fed with Word and Sacrament, and then return home in His forgiveness—i.e. a saint!