Giants of the Reformation (3)

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled… Hebrews 12.15

The Freedom of a Christian
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
“[The minister of Christ] ought so to govern and teach Christians all these matters that their conscience and faith will not be offended and that there will not spring up in them a suspicion and a root of bitterness and many will thereby be defiled…that is, that they may not lose faith and become defiled by the false estimate of the value of works and think that they must be justified by works.”

Pastors have to be careful in emphasizing the importance of works done freely in Christ for the sake of loving our neighbors. On the one hand, we don’t want to be thought of as always “haranguing” our folks and suggesting that they just aren’t “good enough,” thus creating the impression that the only way they’re ever really going to be saved is by wearing themselves out doing good works. But we don’t want them to be complacent about good works, as if mere faith were sufficient for our Kingdom-and-glory calling (1 Thess. 2.12). It’s a delicate tightrope, but one that pastors must walk at all times. We want good works, deriving from a good walk with the Lord, for good motives, so that the goodness of God comes to light in the land of the living (Ps. 27.13). The call to good works can be a Scylla and Charybdis for some believers; we must do our best to navigate a straight course in equipping the saints to do them.

Suggest a prayer that you might use before entering the pulpit to help keep you mindful of this important matter.

T. M. Moore

Organizing with the Spirit
The Lord Jesus is building His Church. His Word is the blueprint, His Spirit is the General Contractor, and we are all builders together of the Body of Christ. But are we doing our work God’s way, or ours? The Spirit has His ways of organizing our work, and we do well to understand as much as we can about His methods. This is the argument of Dr. Kent Miller of Michigan State University, and you can watch our Conversation with Dr. Miller, and download a free copy of his paper on the subject, “Organizing with the Spirit,” by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.All quotations from Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christianin John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings(New York: Doubleday, 1962).