“We Hold That One is Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law”
Dear Friends in Christ: when the
Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write those words, he was explaining a basic truth
of God’s dealings with man—the Law shows us our sin and that we cannot stand
blameless before a holy God, and the Gospel shows us God’s grace—His unmerited favor for the sake of Christ.
This is “basic stuff,” we all know this and yet we’re in need of constant instruction and reinforcement of these facts. The reason for that is because, even as Christians, we have that old nature clinging to us; the one that wants to earn his way into God’s favor, the one who, in Paul’s words elsewhere in Romans, accuses and excuses his conscience as the need arises.
Tragically, the Church in
Luther’s day had largely lost its focus on the grace of God; or to be sure, the
word “grace” was tossed about, but grace for them meant something you
got from God in order to live a good life that merited salvation; “grace” in
this sense is almost like the gasoline in your car’s tank that allows you to
get where you want to go. The problem for Christians in Luther’s day was that
they never knew if they had enough gas to make the trip—you had to guess and
hope that God’s love outweighed His wrath in your case. That sort of teaching
terrified Luther as he sought to find peace with God; peace that he was told
was up to him to establish. When he realized that sin wasn’t just outward acts,
but that sin flowed from man’s sinful heart, he saw that he had no chance
before this holiest of Lords.
Thankfully, Luther’s
vicar-general at the Augustinian monastery, Johann von Staupitz, sent Luther to
teach the Scriptures at the new university at Wittenberg. There, for the first
time, Luther read the Bible rather than what Church fathers, popes, and
councils said about the Bible. This section of Romans inspired Luther as he
studied the Scriptures at Wittenberg: (3:19-28): 19
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the
law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held
accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will
be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- 22 the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For
there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, 24 and are justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put
forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to
show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over
former sins. 26 It was to show His righteousness at the present
time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.
By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Luther said of this, “Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement the just shall live by faith. Then I grasped that the justice of God is his very own righteousness where through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise” (from Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand). We thank the Lord that He has preserved His Church throughout the ages through the work of the Church fathers, the reformers and countless faithful pastors and teachers, so that we can still today hear and know the Word of God declares us freely forgiven through the perfect and all-atoning work of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Brothers and sisters, the Word has set us free! Free to love God and our neighbor as ourselves, all because we know we stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Luther wrote that “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it.” God’s Word accomplishes what He intends—it doesn’t return to Him void (Isiah 55:11), on that you can stake your life.
Rev. Kenneth L. Humphrey
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
LCMS Stewardship Ministry
Newsletter Article – October 2019
In the early morning hours of Feb. 18, 1546, Martin Luther closed his eyes forever. And the hand that hammered the 95 Theses into the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517, penned its final words:
“We are all beggars. This is true.”
And this is the truth that our Lord says makes you free. Ironic, isn’t it? That, in order to be free, you must be a beggar; you must be utterly dependent and reliant upon God. This makes us uncomfortable – the way we’re uncomfortable when someone gets us a Christmas or birthday present when we haven’t gotten them one. We feel we owe them. And we don’t much like being in someone’s debt.
But what Luther would remind us is that we are all indeed beggars. But we’re not just anyone’s beggars. We’re God’s beggars. And this is His legacy to the Christian Church. Christ came for sinners. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to heal the sick and raise the dead. He came for sinners, and He dwells only with sinners.
And, if we are to be where He is, we must be willing to be counted among the lost, the sick, and the dead. We must be willing to be beggars. We must cry out for mercy, for grace, and for his undeserved love and kindness. We must be dependent solely on Him and what He gives.
And here’s the beauty: He gives us everything. Everything – forgiveness of sins, salvation from death and the devil, and eternal life. This is not because of any worthiness or merit in us, but it is because of His divine goodness, mercy, and grace.
On account of Christ’s death and resurrection, the Father forgives you, saves you, and is pleased with you. And you receive. You receive His love, His righteousness, His holiness, His acceptance, and His inheritance. We are all beggars. This is true.
This is the heart and soul of Christianity and the life-blood of the Christian Church. God justifies us, and He declares us innocent and righteous by His grace received through faith for the sake of Christ. This is not because of our works; this is because of His work on the cross. We, who once were enemies of God, are reconciled to Him and made to be His children.
This is what Luther would point us to when He took up his pen for the last time and scribbled “We are all beggars. This is true.” We are beggars. But we are beggars of the God who does not ignore us, who doesn’t pass by us on the other side. We are beggars of the One who descended from heaven to make His dwelling with sinners.
We are beggars of Him who deigns to dwell with us, among us, and – yes – even in us by grace for Christ’s sake. For in the bread and cup that we bless, we share together with Christ and each other the riches of God’s grace.
So inexhaustible are the riches of this grace – the Gospel in sermon and absolution, in Baptism and Holy Communion – that our cups overflow. We, who are God’s beggars, are not only inexhaustibly satisfied but have something to give back in thanksgiving and praise.
“Here I Stand” on the Word in the Church
“...REMEMBERING YOU IN MY
PRAYERS...” (Eph. 1:16)
For Rev. Vernon Boehlke (emeritus, Riverton), who
continues to receive treatments for cancer.
For Rev. Ralph Jaeger (emeritus,
Laramie), who continues to gain strength after a heart attack in early
December.
For Rev. Kenneth Humphrey (Trinity,
Morrill), whose health continues to improve and has returned to work.
PASTORS AND CONGREGATIONS
The parish of
Zion, Grover and Grace, Pine Bluffs is being served in a vacancy arrangement by
Rev. Lincoln Winter (Trinity, Wheatland).
St. Paul’s,
Sidney is being served by Rev. Allen Strawn (St. Paul’s, Bridgeport) during the
vacancy.
Rev. Travis
Sherman (Grace, Gordon, NE) is serving Grace, Merriman, NE (Nebraska District) while it
considers its future.
Rev. Jonathan Lange (Our Saviour, Evanston and St. Paul,
Kemmerer) received and returned a call from St. John’s, Palmer, Kansas.
Rev. Noah Fremer (Bethel, Lander) has
received and is considering a call from a dual parish in the North Wisconsin
District.
Here I Stand: Confession and Thanksgiving
Christianity is being privatized.
Many Christians today believe that the Christian faith is no more than a
private transaction between God and the individual Christian. They think it is
enough for Christians to worship in the privacy of their own homes or
wilderness. They think public worship and congregations of Christians are
unnecessary and should not be supported. And the government also joins in by
restricting and limiting public expressions of Christian doctrine. The
government has even shown some hostility to the freedom of Christians in
business to confess and live out the Word of God in public. The idea is that
“freedom of religion” means freedom of private religion only.
The teaching of the Bible contradicts
this notion. The Christian faith is always a public matter, expressed in both
public teaching and life. In these Roundup articles we have been focusing on
the public confession of the church, speaking aloud with Luther before the
world, “Here I stand.” But the public confession of God and His Works is
essential to the entire Christian faith, life, and worship.
The Psalms teach us this public
worship by exhorting us to thank, or give thanks, to the LORD, “for He is good”
(Psalm 118:1). The office of the Levites was especially to “thank and praise”
(1 Chronicles 23:20), which they did by their public teaching of God’s Word and
the singing of the Psalms. This was their public service, every morning and
evening. But the Biblical word “thank” does not quite mean what we usually mean
in modern English. For us, thanksgiving has become a personal attitude or
disposition of the heart—a private matter. And it is true that a thankful heart
and mind is a fruit and expression of true Christian faith.
But the word “thank” in the
Scriptures actually means to confess or declare something about someone
publicly (see Matthew 11:25). So to thank the Lord means to sing or speak aloud
God’s Word—all that God has revealed to us about Himself and His Works. What honors
God and brings Him glory is for others to hear His Word from our lips.
So God’s Word teaches us that the
public preaching and teaching of God’s Word is essential to the Christian faith
and the church of Jesus. Likewise, God commands and blesses the public
confession, song, thanksgiving, praise, prayers, and testimony of the church.
He further commands and blesses this same public confession (or thanksgiving)
that individual Christians speak out and live out in their daily lives and
vocations. “O confess aloud concerning the LORD, that He is good, that His
steadfast love and mercy endure forever” (Psalm 118:1, 29).
REFORMATION 500: 1519 in Review
In mid-October
1519, Luther wrote a little treatise, “A Sermon on Preparing to Die” (AE
42.99–115). Here is a beautiful glimpse of Luther the pastor, comforting and
caring for those who were facing their death. In this work, Luther had not
completely abandoned the idea of extreme unction as a sacrament and prayer to
the saints, though he would in the coming months. But what shines through most
clearly is the comforting application of the teaching of justification and the
faithful use of the Sacraments, as you may see in the excerpts that follow.
“First, since
death marks a farewell from this world and all its activities, it is necessary
that a man regulate his temporal goods properly or as he wishes to have them
ordered, lest after his death there be occasion for squabbles, quarrels, or
other misunderstanding among his surviving friends. This pertains to the physical
or external departure from this world and to the surrender of our possessions”
(99).
“Second, we must
also take leave spiritually. That is, we must cheerfully and sincerely forgive,
for God’s sake, all men who have offended us. At the same time we must also,
for God’s sake, earnestly seek the forgiveness of all the people whom we
undoubtedly have greatly offended by setting them a bad example or by bestowing
too few of the kindnesses demanded by the law of Christian brotherly love. This
is necessary lest the soul remain burdened by its actions here on earth” (99).
Luther then
teaches the dying Christian to rely upon Christ’s atonement and the sacraments.
“We must earnestly, diligently, and highly esteem the holy sacraments, hold
them in honor, freely and cheerfully rely on them, and so balance them against
sin, death, and hell that they will outweigh these by far…. To recognize the
virtues of the sacraments, we must know the evils which they contend with and
which we face. There are three such evils: first, the terrifying image of
death; second, the awesomely manifold image of sin; third, the unbearable and
unavoidable image of hell and eternal damnation” (100, 101).
Then he points us
to Christ: “Thus you must concern yourself solely with the death of Christ and
then you will find life…. Grace and mercy are there where Christ on the cross
takes your sin from you, bears it for you, and destroys it” (104, 105). “So
then, gaze at the heavenly picture of Christ, who descended into hell [1 Pet.
3:19] for your sake and was forsaken by God as one eternally damned when he
spoke the words on the cross, ‘Eli, Eli lama sabachthani!’—‘My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?’ [Matt. 27:46]. In that picture your hell is defeated
and your uncertain election is made sure. If you concern yourself solely with
that and believe that it was done for you, you will surely be preserved in this
same faith. Never, therefore, let this be erased from your vision. Seek
yourself only in Christ and not in yourself and you will find yourself in him
eternally” (105–06).
Finally, Luther
at length directs us to God’s Word and the sacraments for sure comfort and help
at death. He says of the Word, “It points to Christ and his image, enabling you
to say when faced by the image of death, sin, and hell, ‘God promised and in
his sacraments he gave me a sure sign of his grace that Christ’s life overcame
my death in his death, that his obedience blotted out my sin in his suffering,
that his love destroyed my hell in his forsakenness. This sign and promise of
my salvation will not lie to me or deceive me. It is God who has promised it,
and he cannot lie either in words or in deeds.’ He who thus insists and relies
on the sacraments will find that his election and predestination will turn out
well without his worry and effort” (109).
Announcements
Schools: Mrs. Betty
Garwood was honored
as Magistra Magna (master teacher) by the Consortium for Classical Lutheran
Education (CCLE) at its recent 19th annual conference. Mount
Hope Lutheran School was recognized as an Outstanding Classical Lutheran
School. Mount Hope and Trinity Lutheran School, Riverton, were recognized for
the renewal of their accreditation. Pr. Castillero is a Certified Classical Lutheran
Educator. Pr. Cain is a Certified Classical Lutheran Administrator. Congratulations
to all!
Seventeenth
Annual Renaissance Christmas Festival at King
of Glory Lutheran Church, Cheyenne, December 6 & 7. Seating begins at 6:15.
Program at 7:00 PM. Reservations are required—please call (307)632-1247.
Admission is free! Freewill offering received. Wassail Punch + Food + Music +
Merrymaking!
THE NEXT
ROUNDUP will be delivered to
congregations around October 20 (November 2019 issue).
“…
September 19, 2019 Council Meeting
Minutes from the August Council Meeting were read and approved.
Treasure’s Report: The Treasure’s Report was read by Treasurer Julie Alkire, month end balance’s for August were as follows: General Fund $9,574.65; Maintenance and Repair $3384.85; LCEF Steward $3578.53.
Pastor’s Report: Pastor Humphrey reports that the crabapple tree at the parsonage appears to be diseased, he and Don Bowlin cut one branch out but remainder of tree does not look healthy. He also notes that the West wall of the basement continues to show signs of water leaking, though he has painted/sealed multiple times. Rudy has worked on the parsonage’s sprinklers again.
Pastor Humphrey will be attending the Fall Pastors’ Conference at Mount Hope October 7-9, and he will be leaving from the LWML Fall Rally to attend the CCS meeting.
Pastor notes that the printer has been replaced with a newer model Kyocera from Western Plains. There was no upfront cost and we are leasing it with paper cost at 1.2cents/black & white, and 12cent/color.
Pastor Humphrey reports he has resumed leading Divine Services and Sunday Bible Study on the Gospel Reading. Sunday School has been “rebooted” with Melvina Dillman and Zandee Hendren taking a more active role. CPH’s Enduring Faith Curriculum is being used. George Ross is working with the older youth.
Confirmation and Thursday Morning Bible Study will resume when Pastor’s Cardiologist approves return to full time work.
Upcoming Events include youth group meeting at Alliance on 9/29/19, and they are planning to have a monthly meeting. The combined youth group will also be meeting for mini golf in Torrington on 10/13/19. Reverend Kevin Rose will lead a study on dinosaurs and fossil records at Our Savior in Chadron, on 10/5 from 10am-3pm, lunch provided. The LWML Pine Ridge Zone Fall Rally will take place on 10/6 at 1:30 in Alliance. Pastor Humphrey will lead a devotion and Pastor Schnare will present on the Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF).
Elders Report: No new business to report;
Trustees Report: Virgil reports he has sprayed the weeds around the church and the parking lot. He reports he will assess the water leak in the parsonage basement. He also reports the landscaping project is complete.
New Business: Pastor Humphrey reports Kelley Bean has donated $250 to Trinity Lutheran’s Gift and Memorial Fund.
There being no further new business, the meeting was adjourned. Pastor Humphrey closed the meeting with the Lord’s Prayer.
John Bowlin, Secretary.
Trinity
Lutheran Women’s Society LWML Minutes
Sunday,
September 15, 2019
Following dinner, a short meeting was called to order by President Sandy Heine in the name of the Triune God with 8 members present. Minutes from the July 10, 2019 meeting were unavailable and will be read, along with these minutes at the next meeting. The Treasurer’s Report was not available for our meeting and would be shared at the November meeting.
Committee Reports:
President Heine reported that there were school bags ready. A list of items is included with each bag and all members of Trinity were encouraged to fill a bag.
Communications:
A thank you note from Orphan Grain Train for the flood relief donation in eastern Nebraska was read.
Unfinished Business:
None
New Business:
LWML Sunday is October 6, 2019. All ladies are encouraged to wear their LWML pin and sit together as a group. Melvina and Lisa will set up an informational table in the Narthex.
Fall Rally will be Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 1:30pm at Immanuel Lutheran in Alliance. In addition to normal business and Bible study there will be a tour of the School. Ladies were asked to prayerfully consider running for Zone VP or Secretary.
Although there is no LWML meeting scheduled in October, we will be meeting on the 9th at 7:00pm to organize the LWML room and to clean up the Sunday School rooms.
Closing Devotions:
The meeting was adjourned with the Lord’s Prayer.
All members will bring a snack for the November meeting.
The next LWML meeting will be November 13, 2019. Closing Devotions will be provided by Susan Williams.
Yours in Christ,
Susan Williams, Secretary
LWML
SUNDAY OCTOBER 6th
Sunday School/ Youth Group News
Check the Trinity Lutheran Sunday School Facebook Page for information and updates. We very much appreciate the help and guidance of ZanDee Hendren to keep parents informed and involved in our Sunday School activities through the Facebook page.
A special THANK YOU to all who helped with our “Kick-Off Sunday—Sundae! The ice cream and toppings was enjoyed by all for fellowship after church, Sunday, September 8, 2019. A special thank you to ZanDee Hendren for getting supplies for a great treat.
Thank you so much for those who attended our Sunday School meeting on August 25. We had a very informative and helpful discussion of providing Sunday School for children of our congregation and community as invited.
We have established two Sunday School classes for Sunday mornings after church which began, Sunday, September 8. We are blessed to have teachers for classes and PRAISE GOD for their help in Sunday School.
We now have three Sunday School classrooms:
Nursery: Ages 3-Kindergarten---Sunday School teacher, Kylie Wilson
Elementary: Grades 1-5th, Sunday School teacher---ZanDee Henren
Youth: 6th-12th ---Youth Leader, George Ross
We ask our congregation for continued prayers for our Sunday School children, parents, and teachers. Praise God!
A very special “Thank You” to Sandy Heine, Nancy Wohl, Roxanne Humphrey and Don Bowlin for their service in teaching Sunday School in the last years and keeping it a part of our church. And they still have volunteered to be here to help as needed. We thank God for each of you.
Melvina Dillman
DATES TO REMEMBER FOR OCTOBER
October 3 Manual Strauch Birthday
October 12 Geneva Johannes Baptismal Date
October 13 Debra Schneider Birthday
October 14 Dorothy Stuckert Birthday
October 18 George and Tracie Ross Anniversary
October 20 John and Sandra Kammerzell Anniversary
October 22 Dorothy Holthus Birthday
October 25 Sharon Schledewitz Birthday
October 26 Wayne & Betty Batt Anniversary
If your name does
not appear, it is because these were taken from Trinity’s calendar directory
for which we have permission to use names and dates. Please notify the office
to have a date added.
October 17th
Voters’ Assembly meets to set the budget and appoint officers for 2020. We encourage all voting members to attend
this very important meeting. If you are
not a voting member, and would like to become one, please come to the
meeting. The meeting will begin at 8:00
PM
