{"id":7187,"date":"2021-10-12T06:43:18","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T13:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7187"},"modified":"2021-10-15T04:46:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T11:46:39","slug":"by-good-works-how-the-bible-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7187","title":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-size:40px\" style=\"color:rgb(0,0,0);\">By Good Works? How The Bible Works<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Pentecost-21.pdf\">Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:rgb(0,0,0);\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<html>\n\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\">\n<meta name=Generator content=\"Microsoft Word 15 (filtered)\">\n<style>\n<!--\n \/* Font Definitions *\/\n @font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Calibri;\n\tpanose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Open Sans\";\n\tpanose-1:2 11 6 6 3 5 4 2 2 4;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\n p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing\n\t{margin:0in;\n\tfont-size:11.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;}\n.MsoPapDefault\n\t{margin-bottom:8.0pt;\n\tline-height:107%;}\n \/* Page Definitions *\/\n @page WordSection1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n\n<\/head>\n\n<body lang=EN-US style='word-wrap:break-word'>\n\n<div class=WordSection1>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Pentecost\n21<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><b><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>A sermon\non the Epistle of James<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>You likely\nhave heard of the book, <i>The Da Vinci Code, <\/i>by Dan Brown. In 2003 on the first\nday the book was released, it sold one million hard-cover copies, making it the\nfastest selling adult novel in history. A few years later Brown wrote a sequel,\n<i>The Lost Symbol<\/i>, that also broke sales records.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What is\nthere about <i>The Da Vinci Code<\/i> that is so attractive? Do you think Dan\nBrown used a plot generator? Using a plot generator, one can plug in a certain\ncity and a secret society, and then the plot generator will turn out a five-hundred-page\nnovel. It all is done according to a formula. And it all revolves around sex\nand violence.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>But that\nisn\u2019t enough to explain why these books are successful. Parts are totally or\nobviously wrong. <i>The Lost Symbol <\/i>has a long section in the middle that\nis said to be boring. What is there that sells them?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>It\u2019s\nbecause the plot is about a plot. The claim is that \u201cothers\u201d have kept you in\nthe dark, but we are letting you in on the big secret. \u201cThey\u201d are keeping it\nfrom you. We are revealing it to you. That\u2019s what sells.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Which\nbrings us to the problem before us today. Luther, commenting on John 15 on the\nvine and branches, once wrote: \u201cBy doing good works you will prove that you\nhave faith.\u201d He even uses the word \u201cprove.\u201d By doing good works, you will prove\nthat you are the branch and not cast off. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What\u2019s\ngoing on here? Have \u201cthey\u201d \u2013 the Luther scholars or Lutheran pastors \u2013 been keeping\nthose passages from us? In fact there are many statements like that in those\nmore than one hundred large octavo volumes by Luther. You may say: Well, why\nthen have you been telling us that salvation is by faith alone and not by works\nwhen there are these other passages?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Then one\nhas to face the fact that over a long period of time and many occasions, Luther\nsaid many things. But if you pressed him, he would come back to what he wrote\nintentionally in the Small Catechism in the Third Article: \u201cI believe that I\ncannot by my own reason or understanding believe\u2026.\u201d And the Holy Spirit is the\none who sanctifies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>All of\nthat is to lead to the fact that in the New Testament we have all kinds of\ndifferent things. Just the other day someone wrote that the charter of\nChristianity is Galatians 3:28: \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor\nfemale, slave nor free.\u201d\u00a0 This is the charter of tolerance of welcome, and this\nis the key to the whole Bible!! <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Someone\nelse, this person from one wing of the Baptist church, said that everything\ndepends on what you say about Revelation 20:2-3 where it talks about the Millenium,\nand does that come before the Tribulation and before Christ comes? Or does it\ncome afterward? And that\u2019s the key to all of Scripture!!<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Or if\nyou talk to a Roman Catholic long enough, what you come to finally is: Don\u2019t\nforget the key to Scripture is Matthew 16:18: \u201cYou are Peter and on this rock I\nwill build my church.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Or if\nyou talk to somebody from the Eastern Orthodox, they will say: \u201cRemember 2\nPeter 1:4: \u201cWe will become partakers of the divine nature.\u201d We become God.\nThat\u2019s the key to the Bible from their point of view.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Many\nyears ago in the national dialogue between Lutherans and the Eastern Orthodox,\na Greek Orthodox professor of the New Testament turned to the Lutherans and\nsaid: \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter with you people? Can\u2019t you read Greek? It says in\nJames 2:6: \u2018Faith without works is dead.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Of\ncourse we will never know Greek as well as the Greeks, but we do know about\nthat passage. If you take a survey among people, one of the top ten passages\npeople know is: \u201cFaith without works is dead.\u201d Or \u201cBy their fruits you shall\nknow them.\u201d They may not know where it comes from, but they know it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>You may think:\nWhat are you preachers keeping from us? \u00a0You have said \u201cfaith alone,\u201d but you\naren\u2019t you keeping James 2:6 from us? You tell us that salvation is not by\nworks, and what do we do now?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>We have\nthe Epistle of James in the New Testament. Luther is famous for having written:\n\u201cIt is an Epistle of straw.\u201d Not only once, but also late in his life. When he published\nthe New Testament in German in 1522, he put four books at the end: Hebrews,\nJames, Jude, and Revelation, without page numbers and not included in the index\nand separated by some space from the rest of the New Testament, exactly the way\nhe dealt with the Apocrypha in the Old Testament. He separated out those books\nbecause, as he said: You don\u2019t find Christ in them. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>It\u2019s\ntrue in James 1:1 and 2:1 the name Christ is used, but basically where is\nChrist alone by faith alone in these books? Luther was not alone. People think\nthat he was eccentric, a wild man. Actually, Erasmus, the greatest classical\nscholar of the time, held the same thing about James, and so did Cardinal\nCajetan, who was the major theologian of the Roman Catholic Church at that time.\nThis view of James was common.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What do\nwe do about James? Some Lutherans today say that Luther did say this but, you\nknow, it is significantly there in the Bible. It tells us how to live.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What is\nthe problem? The problem is the Epistle of James and using the Bible. The\nproblem in James is not about faith and works; it is about: Can we keep the\nlaw? James says we can:<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1:22:\n\u201cBe doers of the word, and not hearers only. . . .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1:25:\n\u201cBut a doer who acts, he shall be blessed. . . .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2:8:\n\u00a0\u201cIf you really fulfill the royal law. . . .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2:12:\n\u201cSo speak and so act as those who are judged under the law of liberty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin-left:.25in'><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>2:18:\n\u201cShow me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my\nfaith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin-left:.25in'><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>2:21,\n24: \u201dWas not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son\nIsaac upon the altar? You see . . . faith was completed by works. You see that\na man is justified by works and not by faith alone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Here is\nAbraham, friend of God, and this text from the covenant with Abraham; he is\nsaved by works and not faith alone, and faith without works is dead. That is\nabout as clear and as plain as you would wish. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What\ndoes Paul do in the fourth chapter of Romans? He talks about Abraham. There in\nvs 3 he quotes the same place from Genesis 15:6: <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin-left:.25in'><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u201c\u2019Abraham\nbelieved God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,\u2019 Now to one who\nworks, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as he due. And to one who does\nnot work but trusts him who justifies he ungodly, his faith is reckoned as\nrighteousness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Here\nAbraham is just the opposite. Abraham is not the friend of God but ungodly. And\nit\u2019s not by works but by faith and only by faith. Works don\u2019t count. And this\nspelled out in the same chapter of Romans, 4:13-14: <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin-left:.25in'><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u201cThe\npromise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did\nnot come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the\nadherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is\nvoid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>One\ncan\u2019t get around what Paul does in Romans 7:1-6. Here he talks about the law,\nusing the analogy of what happens when one partner in the marriage dies. When\none of them, the husband or wife, dies, they are no longer married. So, too,\nwith the law. The law was there until Christ came. But when Christ came, the\nlaw doesn\u2019t count anymore. The same thing is in Galatians 3:1-29. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Yet there\nare places in Paul, such as Romans 1:5 where the text is about the obedience of\nfaith and Galatians 5:6 about faith active in love. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What is\nthe total Paul? What is the total New Testament? This is not apples and\noranges. There are <b>real <\/b>differences. This is not comparable to how some\nsay tom\u0103to, and some say tom\u0101to. No, this is exclusionary. This is a\ncontradiction. Either the law can be kept, or it can\u2019t be kept. James and Paul\nare in full contradiction. Has there been a deep plot by Luther and Lutherans\nto keep us from giving James his due? Should one study James to see how \u201cthey\u201d\nhave been keeping it in hiding? Not at all!<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>How do\nwe use the Bible? We could point out all kinds of problems, problems you don\u2019t\nneed to know about. And we don\u2019t go around counting texts. We ask ourselves to\nweigh them. How do we sort it out?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>The key\nto scripture is the cross. You may recall that Paul, when he\u2019s dealing\ncritically in 1 Corinthians 2:2, writes: \u201cI resolve to know nothing among you\nexcept Christ and him crucified\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s the key. That\u2019s the test. And\neverything else is to be seen in relation to that. Otherwise we get caught in\nall these problems that produce all these divisions and all these fights. It\u2019s\nnot an intellectual game. And it\u2019s not something where you can say: Well, those\nare \u201cthe scholars,\u201d but we can just take it as it is. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Salvation\nis at stake. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about. And salvation, the Gospel, is that Jesus\nChrist died and rose for you and me. That\u2019s the test of everything. Amen<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNoSpacing><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/body>\n\n<\/html>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A sermon for the Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost. Select <a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7187\"> here<\/a> to read more or <a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Pentecost-21.pdf\">here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7192,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7187\/revisions\/7192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}