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Summ
er 2015C
oncordia Journal volum
e 41 |
number 3
COncordiaournal volume 41 | number 3J Summer 2015
Word Alive! Connections and Conversations
The New Obedience: An Exegetical Glance at Article VI of the
Augsburg Confession Pietism on the American Landscape
Sanctification
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2015www.csl.edu | www.concordiatheology.org
publisher Dale A. Meyer President
Executive EDITOR Charles Arand Dean of Theological Research and
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EDITOR Travis J. Scholl Managing Editor of Theological
Publications
assistant editor Melanie Appelbaum
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All correspondence should be sent to:CONCORDIA JOURNAL
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2015 Concordia Publishing House Printed in USA 595247_02
A BIBLICAL, LUTHERAN VIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION THATS ROOTED IN
THE INTERACTION OF FAITH
AND LEARNINGThis is an extremely illuminating book that will be
of great help to our universities and to the LCMS as a whole. At a
time when synodical universities are struggling with Lutheran
Identity, this book serves as a template for faculty,
administrators, boards, and students for how that can be achieved
and for how that identity can help colleges to be truly excellent
at every level.
Gene Edward Veith, PhD, Professor of Literature, Patrick Henry
College
cph.org/christianuniversity
595247_02 CJournalAd Sumr.indd 1 5/4/15 8:53 AM
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Summer 2015
COncordiaournalJ
CONTENTS
volume 41 | number 3
EDITORIALs189 Editors Note
190 Word Alive! Connections and Conversations Dale A. Meyer 195
Ronald R. Feuerhahn: Historian, Theologian, Churchman, Pastor Jon
Vieker 198 Encomium for William Carr, Upon His Retirement James W.
Voelz
ARTICLES201 The New Obedience: An Exegetical Glance at Article
VI of the Augsburg Confession Michael P. Middendorf 220 Pietism on
the American Landscape Martin E. Conkling
236 Sanctification David P. Scaer
253 HOMILETICAL HELPS
275 BOOK REVIEWS
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editoRIALS
COncordiaournalJ
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189Concordia Journal/Summer 2015
Editors Note
This issue publishes the plenary presentations from the 2014
LCMS Theology Professors Conference, which centered around the
theme of the new obedience of Article VI of the Augsburg
Confession. The conference is a regular opportunity for the
theologians of the Concordia University System and the two LCMS
seminaries to engage in fruitful conversation, to learn from each
other in continuing education and lifelong learning.
We talk a good game about continuing education, but it doesnt
always seem to gain traction. What would it mean for clergy and
church workers to be vitally engaged in lifelong learning? Or,
perhaps a better way to put it, what would it look like? Educators
and DCEs already know. They are engaged in continuing education as
a natural, and in many cases mandatory, part of their vocation. On
this score, clergy are behind the curve. Virtually all learned
professions (the medical professions, law, engineering, et al.)
have a process of continuing education built into the exercise of
their work.
Why not pastors? In a society and culture that is moving with so
much velocity, in so many different directions, why would we even
want to persist in the myth that every thing we need to know we
learned, if not in kindergarten, then in the four years we spentin
what seems like a century agoearning the degree that made us
eligible for a call? We certainly wouldnt want our primary care
physicians to work that way. Why then those involved in the work of
Seelsorge?
At the heart of a profession that values lifelong
learningwhether it is required, encouraged, apprenticed, or simply
part of the jobis a deeply personal value for curi-osity. Those who
recognize that learning is a formative lifelong process that only
ends when they are six feet underground have a vital interest in
understanding the world. I am becoming increasingly convinced that
the loss of a sense of curiosity is one of the most tragic
intellectual symptoms of what many have diagnosed as affluenza. And
it happens every time we act as if we know the answer before the
question is asked.
For Christians, of course, our learning doesnt even end when
were six feet under. Its end (telos) is in the certain hope that
one day we shall know as fully as we are already fully known (1 Cor
13:12).
As such, it should be clergy who model the most vital sense of
curiosity, because our curiosity doesnt just seek to understand the
world. We understand more than most that faith alonefides quarens
intellectumseeks to understand not only the world, but the God who
is at work in the world to make all things new.
Travis J. SchollManaging Editor of Theological Publications
On the cover: Detail from The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix)
by Vincent van Gogh (1890), from a significant body of copies van
Gogh executed while he was institutionalized in Saint-Paul asylum
in Saint-Rmy-de-Provence (image: Wikimedia Commons).
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190
Word Alive! Connections and Conversations
President Matthew Harrison recently reported to the Concordia
Seminary Board of Regents that The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod
has lost 18 percent of its membership in the last forty years. To
be sure, were not the only mainline American denomination in
serious decline, and cultural and demographic reasons can be cited,
but thats little comfort to a church which has taken the Great
Commission seriously since its founding. Im not setting out on a
guilt trip here. There may well be valid reasons why some
congregations are not growing, like the decline of 160-acre family
farms in rural America. Growth is not the only measure of
congregational health, as Peter Steinke writes knowledgably in A
Door Set Open.1 That said, decline in any congregation and in the
general synod saddens us and challenges us to strategic thinking
for the future, espe-cially in our seminaries as we prepare the
pastors who will take our places. When groups talk about our
decline, the amazing growth of Christianity in other places,
especially Africa, is usually brought up, but in my experience
these discussions usually end in res-ignation and the meeting
proceeds. The 800-pound gorilla of decline lumbers off to sit
silently in the back of the room and watches us vainly put our
energies into lubricating the machinery of an institutional church
we love but is in serious decline.
I certainly dont have a silver-bullet answer, no one does, but
we can gain insight by comparing todays culture to the culture of
the early and growing church, which is one reason why our healthy,
confessional seminaries are especially important in this time of
decline. Professors who are scholars in cultures and historical
times different than our own can help us understand the practical
problems facing the church today. Most of what we do in serious
Bible study has to do with overcoming the gaps that separate us
from the original audience of the scriptural documents.2 Learning
the differences between the cultures of the first and the
twenty-first century can sharpen pastoral presentation of Gods
gospel to all the baptized in sermons, Bible classes, and
conversation. And the more insightful and incisive we are in our
preaching, teaching, and visitation, the more our laity will be
enabled to give persuasive reasons for the hope that is in them as
they pursue their vocations in the world (1 Pt 3:15). Growth cannot
be guaranteed, but we can sing with conviction, Save us from weak
resignation to the evils we deplore.3
One key difference between then and now: the first century was
an oral culture; ours is largely literate. It is estimated that
only about 10 percent of the population of the Roman Empire could
read, and the percentage of literate Christians may have been even
less.4 That has profound implications for our understanding of how
the gospel of Jesus Christ got into the hearts of people in the
first century and, pending our thought-ful reflection and strategic
pastoral and parish action, how we can witness more effec-tively in
the twenty-first century. Begin your thoughtful reflection with
this: Ask your parishioners to locate the word of God and theyll
most likely point to the Bible, which means the book or scroll
containing Gods bound words. On Sunday the lessons are printed in
the bulletin, projected on a screen or found on page whatever
in
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Concordia Journal/Summer 2015 191
your pew Bibles and many readers follow the print while the
lector reads. The sermon explicates and tries to drive home the
printed word, which is fine, but the result can be less than a
direct interaction between the preacher and the hearer because the
living and active word has been reduced to a printed point of
reference (Heb 4:12). Bible classes gather around the printed word
that literate people can read and discuss. Think about it, the very
term Bible class is symptomatic of our Western-literate culture.
Theres nothing wrong in all this, but it doesnt replicate the
dynamism of the first-century church. Largely illiterate, they
focused on hearing the spoken gospel, the viva vox evangelii. Jews,
probably more literate than Gentiles because of their devotion to
the Torah, heard texts read and expounded in their synagogue
worship by someone who could read.5 Jesus did just that in Luke
4:1619 and notice the sequel, verses 2021: He rolled up the scroll
and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all
in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them,
Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. After
Jesuss ascension, the People of the Way continued in the synagogue
but also gathered on the Lords Day (Rv 1:10) to hear from the
eyewitnesses and their companions (see Acts 1:2122).6 Sometimes the
witness would come in the person of the apostle or evangelist but
because of the mul-tiplicity of worship sites the authoritative
witness to Jesuss life and words came more often through the
writings of the apostles and evangelists.7 Those writings,
especially the works of the canonical New Testament, were read by
someone to the largely illiter-ate congregation. When Mark 13:14
says, let the reader understand, it strikes us as strange (Well, Im
obviously reading this and I am paying attention!) but it could
well be a cue from St. Mark to the person doing the public reading
to the worshipers in that first-century Christian synagogue or
house church. Similarly, 1 Timothy 4:13, Until I come, devote
yourself to the public reading of Scripture isnt a bland
encouragement to keep reading the Bible in worship but is an
earnest plea to intentional oral read-ing of the Old and now the
New Testament Scriptures because, absent reading, thats the only
way the Spirit will take the authoritative gospel into the lives of
the illiterate. This gives urgency to the plea that the Hebrews not
neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some (Heb 10:25).
Whoever is of God hears the words of God (Jn 8:47). Faith comes
from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).
The dynamism of the first-century church was, among other things,
the orality of the gos-pel, the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). The word wasnt bound and shelved,
a source of religious information, it was a powerful agent of
transformation, living and active, upon all who heard and
believed.
Consider 1 Peter. Christianity had come to the Roman provinces
of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia through oral
reports carried by religious pil-grims returning from Jerusalem.8 I
doubt they brought home slick evangelism bro-chures! What these
pilgrims did bring home to their fellow synagogue members was what
they heard with their ears in Jerusalem, the announcement that Old
Testament texts are fulfilled in Jesus. Wherever these Jews and the
God-fearers fell on the scale of literacy/illiteracy, they did know
Old Testament texts from worship. Illiteracy does not preclude
familiarity with texts.9 That being the start of these Christian
churches,
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192
actually synagogues filled with People of the Way, Peter is
concerned that they remain Gods peculiar people in the face of
powerful peer pressures against the gospel.10 He sends what we call
The First Letter of Peter, but calling it a letter already slants
our understanding, suggesting that the members of those
congregations actually read it, as we might read the bulletin
before worship or the church newsletter at home. A more accurate
picture of how the letter was received is one you may remember from
your youth, before the internet instantly connected us, when
communication was carried on by writing letters. Maybe Aunt Louise
wrote to your mother. She gathered the family around to hear her
read the letter out loud. Silas/Silvanus may well have been the
per-son who read the letter to the congregations and no doubt
shaped the form and many expressions of Peters content as he
delivered Peters witness and encouragement over and over again (1
Pt 5:12). His reading would have conveyed Peters heart and his own,
not like the lifeless readings we sometimes hear these days in
church. The nature of manuscripts and scrolls, especially the lack
of space between words and units, required the reader to be
intimately familiar with the contents, making for a direct
communica-tion to the congregation.11 In fact, the reader would
have been so familiar that a short work like 1 Peter, 105 verses,
would have been largely or completely memorized.
Peter never speaks about reading but his content and outline
reflect the oral com-munication and rhetorical conventions that
were so popular in the first century. After the salutation, Peter,
through the reader, begins the body of the letter with a sweeping
vision of the inheritance laid up for the hearers, climaxing in the
things that have now been announced to you through those who
preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,
things into which angels long to look (1:12). Therefore in verse 13
alerts the hearer to a shift of thought (oral communication signals
such moves) as Peter next presents motivations for holy living
(hope in Christs return, future; the Fathers present judgment,
present; and Christs saving work, past).12 Verses 13 to 25 climax
with an authoritative quotation from Isaiah (the hearers knew the
passage well) and the reader drives home Peters point: And this is
the good news that was preached to you. Sit in your study twenty
centuries later, read the entire epistle in this light, as an oral
communication, and youll find rhetorical devices throughout.13
What does this mean for our gospel ministries twenty centuries
later? Nancy Ammerman of Boston University has written about
theological education in our changed times. Those who are on the
margins of religious life . . . are more likely alienated because a
congregation has failed in its relational work than [that] they
have ceased to believe. Connections and conversations are the
building blocks of the new kinds of religious communities our best
students will learn to lead.14 In the first cen-tury the church
grew because the word was alive through personal connections and
conversations. Carrying that to our twenty-first century, pastoral
and congregational ministries can be more effective through
connections and conversations that use oral style more than
literary style. From the most literate through the functionally
literate to the illiterate, people respond better to imagery and
narrative than to linear propositional presentations. And younger
people who are native to new communication technologies are
literate in a different way than older generations. Many of them
wont abide long
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Concordia Journal/Summer 2015 193
lectures about the faith but they will give a hearing to someone
they trust, connection, who speaks the viva vox evangelii with the
transparency and eye-to-eye contact that marks oral style,
conversation. That means we preachers, being thoroughly literate,
will in our preparations make a special effort to lift the printed
word off the biblical page and speak it into the hearers heart so
that the word living and active surgically enters the hearers heart
(Heb 4:12). Rote reference to printed passages is less effective
than the voice of God speaking faithfully through us to our
audience and then through our parishioners to the people in their
lives.15 By the way, this invites us to the discipline of memory,
to memorize biblical texts, the Small Catechism and also the
incisive words, phrases, and sentences of devotional writers and
theological thinkers. As important as our libraries are, the
arsenal for witness must be in our heads and hearts that we take
into connections and conversations.
When I first started at The Lutheran Hour, I was asked to attend
sessions at, I think this is the name, the Broadcast Center. It was
staffed by radio professionals and their purpose was to teach me
the peculiarities of speaking on radio. One of the helpful things
they taught me was not to use long quotations because long
quotations lose the interest of the hearer. Thats true for radio
but its also true for preaching and teaching and general pastoral
communication. The problem with long quotations is that they
introduce a third entity, an obstacle to the immediate interaction
between speaker and listener. Think about it; reading a long
quotation from the pulpit requires you to take your eyes away from
direct engagement with the audience. It disrupts the connection and
impairs the conversation. No matter how great the quotation is,
even from the Bible, it can get in the way of direct interaction. A
former CNN executive, a commit-ted Christian, once spoke about the
Gutenberg captivity of the word of God. We are blessed to read the
word in print and our theological tomes and treatises have their
place, in our studies, but the living and active word goes into its
mission through con-nections and conversations. The woman left her
water jar and went away into town and said to the people, Come, see
a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? They
went out of the town and were coming to him (Jn 4:2830).
Almighty God, grant to Your Church Your Holy Spirit and the
wisdom that comes down from above, that Your Word may not be bound
but have free course and be preached to the joy and edifying of
Christs holy people, that in steadfast faith we may serve You and,
in the confession of Your name, abide unto the end; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen.16
Dale A. MeyerPresident
Endnotes1 Many churches . . . will not grow. Some are hospice
cases. But, not one of them is outside the realm
of mission. I want to underscore that growth, as significant as
it is for mission, does not alone define what mission is. To assign
mission as a title exclusively to numerically growing churches is a
mistaken understanding of mis-sion. Peter Steinke, A Door Set Open
(Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2010), 61.
2 Thomas M. Winger, The Spoken Word: Whats Up with Orality?
Concordia Journal 29 (2003): 136.
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194
3 God of Grace and God of Glory, Lutheran Service Book, 850, 4.4
William Harris in Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early
Church: A History of Early Christian
Texts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 4, 7.5
Instruction in reading Hebrew was more widely given among Jews than
instruction in Greek or Latin
was among Gentiles. Gamble, 7.6 People of the Way seems to have
been the first designation for followers of Jesus, Acts 9:2. See
also
Acts 19:9, 23; 24:14; 24:22. Christian was first used in
Antioch, Acts 11:26.7 Elders (plural) of the church in Ephesus
suggests more than one worship location (Acts 20:17).
The same may be suggested for Corinth, since the Lords Supper
was celebrated in the triclinium and atrium of a believers home,
which limited the attendance (see 1 Cor 11:1722).
8 Acts 2:5119 Cf. Acts 4:1310 For example, 1 Peter 2:410. 11 See
F. R. Cowell, Life in Ancient Rome (New York: Penguin, 1961),
165.12 On the motivations, see Dale A. Meyer, More Lively
Participation, Concordia Journal 41, 2015: 9498.13 See for example
Kenneth J. Thomas and Margaret Orr Thomas, Structure and Orality in
1 Peter: A
Guide for Translators (New York: United Bible Society Monograph
Series, 2006).14 Nancy T. Ammerman, Americas Changing Religious and
Cultural Landscape and its Implications for
Theological Education, Theological Education 49, no. 1 (2014):
33.15 See Dale A. Meyer, PDAs and the Spirits Sword, Concordia
Journal 29 (2003): 166176. 16 Collect for the Church, Lutheran
Service Book, 305.
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195Concordia Journal/Summer 2015
Ronald R. Feuerhahn: Historian, Theologian, Churchman,
Pastor
Two months before our gracious Lord saw fit to translate Dr.
Feuerhahn from this world into the life everlasting, Concordia
Publishing House released the last of three volumes of Hermann
Sasses Letters to Lutheran Pastors in English translation. In the
foreword to that volume, Dr. Feuerhahn described Hermann Sasse as
an historian with a breadth of learning, a theologian of thorough
biblical knowledge, a churchman of wisdom, and a pastor of caring
words.1 Written of Sasse, these words also most fittingly describe
the academic and churchly service of Dr. Feuerhahn to both the
church and the world.
As an historian, Dr. Feuerhahn focused his academic interests on
the ecumenical movement of the twentieth century, with a particular
emphasis on the life and works of Hermann Sasse. His doctoral
dissertation at the University of Cambridge (1991) brought to a
watershed nearly three decades of study, teaching, and writingboth
as preceptor at Westfield House in Cambridge, and at his alma
mater, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, where he served as professor
and archivist for over two decades. His groundbreaking bibliography
on the works of Sasse (1995) became seminal for Sasse scholars
worldwide, providing a meticulously assembled reference work to
primary source documents on Sasse and a renewed energy to the Sasse
renaissance of English translations launched by his colleague,
Norman Nagel, a decade earlier. The thorough and careful nature of
Feuerhahns scholarship is evident everywhere, but particularly in
the footnotes to anything he wrote on Sasse. He also accumulated a
personal library of some 6,500 volumes and thousands of
periodicals, as well as hundreds of photocopies and originals of
critical Sasse documentsall carefully organized and documented, as
only an historian of his caliber could do. Last November, Concordia
Historical Institute of St. Louis awarded Dr. Feuerhahn its
Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, for his exemplary
historical and archival contributions to the cause of Lutheran
history in North America and beyond.2
As a theologian, Dr. Feuerhahns lifelong study of Scripture and
the Lutheran Confessions, particularly as they were played out
through the life of Sasse and the ecu-menical movement, led him to
confess and teach the church as truly catholic, not in some
sectarian sense of LCMS-only or even Lutherans-only, but as the
Lutheran confes-sors declared it to be made up of people scattered
throughout the world who agree on the gospel and have the same
Christ, the same Holy Spirit, and the same sacraments, whether or
not they have the same human traditions (Ap VII/VIII 10). Agreement
on the gospel in all the articles of the faith (FC SD X 31)that is,
true catholicity and ecumenicitywas Sasses contention for church
unity throughout his interaction with the ecumenical movement of
the twentieth century, and so it became for Feuerhahn. For true
unity, the gospel of Jesus Christ means everything to every article
of doctrine, and is therefore all that matters. Dr. Feuerhahn was
fond (as was Sasse) of referencing the hymn stanza by Nicolaus
Selnecker:
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In these last days of great distress Grant us, dear Lord, true
steadfastness That we keep pure till life is spent Your holy Word
and Sacrament. (Lutheran Service Book, 585, stanza 2)
As a churchman, the confession of pure teaching and confession
of the faith was manifested in Dr. Feuerhahns clarity of thought
and gentle spirit. For example, he served with distinction as a
member of our synods Commission on Worship during the worship wars
of the 1990s and the advent of the Lutheran Hymnal Project, when he
wrote:
We pray that God would spare us from despair, from that great
sin which lies on the verge of faithlessness (as Luther might
describe it). For we do, at times, despair that the church will
ever come to face the issues involved in these so-called worship
wars. And we despair too when we see the faithful champions of a
sacramental, means-of-grace churchmanship being put down. We are
called to a renewed churchliness. There was a time when churchman
seemed to mean a church politician or official; it was a negative
designation. But that is the wrong impression. To be churchly is to
be catho-lic (among other things) and to have a high regard for the
tradition. . . . This also serves to remind us that the liturgy is
not our propertynot the property of any one pastor, nor a single
congregation, nor even the entire LCMSnot ours to do with as we
please. The liturgy belongs to the church in the broadest sense,
and we too are gifted by that tradition. For the liturgy was not
formed by a man, but by those men who live together as saints in
the church.3
Through challenging times, Feuerhahn called himself and those
around him to a renewed churchlinessto a heightened awareness of
the Lord giving his gifts through those who had come before, gifts
of pure doctrine, of right teaching, and of the churchs liturgical
treasures in word and song; and of the churchly task to faithfully
hand them on to those who follow, with humility and in the
confidence of knowing the Giver and whose church it really is.
Dr. Feuerhahns students and colleagues remember him as a
scholar, theologian, and churchman, but perhaps more than anything,
they remember him as a pastor. Indeed, at his funeral, one student
described him as a pastors pastor. His many years of parish service
in Great Britain had made him that. His regular use of a father
confes-sor gave him that. Another student described it well: There
was not a single seminarian or pastor who ever came to him,
burdened and struggling under the load of end-time stress, to whom
he failed to speak words of comfort, words of grace. Ron Feuerhahn
served so many as a true Seelsorger, as well as a model of pastoral
care for seminarians and pastors alike.
In 2002, Dr. Feuerhahns students, colleagues, and scholars from
around the world prepared a Festschrift in honor of his sixty-fifth
birthday.4 The Lord gave Dr.
196
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Concordia Journal/Summer 2015 197
Feuerhahn six more years on the faculty of Concordia Seminary,
and seven more years in retirement, living on the seminary campus
and interacting with students and col-leagues as historian,
theologian, churchman, pastor . . . and friend.
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. (Ps
115:1)
Jon Vieker
Jon Vieker is the senior assistant to the president of The
Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod and was Professor Feuerhahns last
doctoral student.
Endnotes1 Ronald R. Feuerhahn, Foreword, in Letters to Lutheran
Pastors, 3 vols., trans. and ed. Matthew C.
Harrison (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 201315), 3:ix.
Emphasis added. 2 http://www.lutheranhistory.org/2014awards.pdf.
Accessed May 25, 2015. 3 Ronald R. Feuerhahn, Unified in Act and
Song, in Through the Church the Song Goes On: Preparing
a Lutheran Hymnal for the 21st Century, ed. Paul J. Grime, D.
Richard Stuckwisch, and Jon D. Vieker (St. Louis: Commission on
Worship of The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, 1999), 222.
4 J. Bart Day, Jon D. Vieker, et al., Lord Jesus Christ, Will
You Not Stay: Essays in Honor of Ronald Feuerhahn on the Occasion
of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Houston, TX: Feuerhahn Festschrift
Committee, 2002). Available through Concordia Publishing House. For
more about Dr. Feuerhahns family, life, and career, see Scott A.
Bruzeks introductory essay, Faiths Ancient Strength, 18.
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198
Encomium for William Carr, Upon His Retirement
It is a privilege to honor Bill Carrs retirement from the
faculty of Concordia Seminary. Bill has been a good friend and an
exemplary colleague for many years. We became acquainted after he
returned to campus in the 1990s, first in graduate courses, after
years of parish experienceand all that after years of service in
the US Navy. The formerhis parish servicehas given him a deep and
abiding love for the Scriptures and for the gospel, on the one
hand, and for our Lord and for his people, on the other. The
latterhis Navy servicehas given him a deep and abiding interest in
and ability to address problems, to craft solutions, and to get
things done. If you doubt the former, listen to his chapel
sermonsalways focused upon the text at hand, always engaging the
specific message of that text, as it testifies to Christ, and
always wanting to make sure that the impact of its saving message
speaks to you. If you doubt the latter, ask him, for example, to
spin out a new program for the Graduate School. Perhaps just one
day later you will receive a mock-up of an entire evening course of
MA studies, just as I did when I was dean of the Graduate School
and he was helping in the office. Indeed, its that analytical,
organizational, and problem-solving ability that has most delighted
and amazed me. On April 29, 1962, President John F. Kennedy opined,
at a magnificent dinner honoring the Nobel Laureates of the Western
Hemisphere: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of
talent . . . that has ever been gathered at the White House, with
the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
I have often used that saying analogically with Bill with regard
to administration. In fact, it reflects my own solution to most
seminary administrative problems: Bill Carr and a bottle of
Scotchor, more accurately, Bill Carr and a bottle of Jameson. Give
Bill this type of problem, with a little encouragement or
rewarddepending upon how you look at itand youre home free! It sure
helped me during my administrative days.
Bill Carr will always be remembered as a fine Christian man, a
fine Christian husband, and a fine member of this faculty. But most
of all, he will be remembered at this place as a fine colleague. Do
you need information on something that happened years ago? Ask
Bill. He will take the time to research it thoroughly. Do you have
an idea that you would like to bounce off of someone? Talk to Bill.
Hes always got a ready ear, and probably something from the
Chronicle of Higher Education to help you out. Do you need someone
to fill out your golf foursome? Bill will oblige, and he might even
have his clubs stashed in his truck. Do you need someone to work
hard on a project that requires insight, effort, imagination, and a
nimble mind? Ask this ex-Navy guy, who has a thousand analogies and
just as many of his own ideas. Finally, do you need someone to
interpret a biblical text, whether in the pulpit or in the
classroomespecially an Isaianic onewith complete integrity, with
the ability to find Christlegitimatelywithin its contours, and to
listen to its meaning and to detect its impact, also for us today?
Then I advise you to talk to this man, while you still are
able.
Concordia Seminary is going to miss you, Bill. And so am I.James
W. Voelz
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ARTICLES
COncordiaournalJ
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201Concordia Journal/Summer 2015
Mike Middendorf is a professor of theology at Concordia
University, Irvine, California. This paper was delivered at the
LCMS Theologians Conference on Article VI of the Augsburg
Confession at Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota in May
2014. Limited modifications have been made for this article.
The New ObedienceAn Exegetical Glance at Article VI of the
Augsburg Confession
Michael P. Middendorf
Introduction: Colloquy InterviewsOver the last decade, I have
probably conducted more than forty teacher col-
loquy interviews. These have been through Concordia University,
Irvine and the CUENet program. One of the questions these teachers
usually answer for their final interview is: What about good works?
The typical answer is brief: Yes, we are sup-posed to do them,
followed by a paragraph of denunciations against thinking good
works earn or merit anything before God. Thus the respondents
typically spend much more time speaking against good works than
defining what they are. Laying Article VI of the Augsburg
Confession before Us
When asked to write this paper I re-read Article VI of the
Augsburg Confession. I found these colloquy teachers were in fine
company.
In the Kolb/Wengert edition of the Book of Concord, the article
begins: It is also taught that such faith should yield good fruit
and good works and that a person must do such good works as God has
commanded.1 One wonders what would happen if the Confessors had
stopped there. Would they pass muster (or doctrinal review) with
words like should or must? The German even asserts we must do all
such things (allerlei) as God has commanded.2
In the context of the sixteenth century and the abuses of the
Roman church, the remainder of the article raises red flags against
presuming these works earn or merit grace, while also reaffirming
the truth of the gospel.
But we should do them for Gods sake but not place trust in them
as if thereby to earn grace before God. For we receive forgiveness
of sin and righteousness through faith in Christ, as Christ himself
says [Lk 17:10]: When you have done all [things] . . . say, We are
worthless slaves. The Fathers also teach the same thing. For
Ambrose says, It is determined by God that whoever believes in
Christ shall be saved and have forgiveness of sins, not through
works but through faith alone, without merit.3
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The quotations of Luke 17:10 and from Ambrose counter any
misunderstand-ing of thinking our good works deserve anything
toward justification before God. To be sure, those red flags should
always be flying. They remain particularly relevant in a context
like Galatians,4 in dealing with the Pharisees of our day, or when
our own aca-demic prowess rears its head.
Yet the order of the articles in the Augsburg Confession, as we
are covering them in these conferences, is pure genius. When one
hears the second and third sentences here, they restate or, at
least, reaffirm the previous two articles on Justification and the
Ministry. Note, however, that AC VI does not swerve back into the
second use of the Law, but simply reasserts the exclusive truth of
the gospel, namely, that grace, forgive-ness, and righteousness
come through faith in Christ apart from any of our works.
Defining the Terms and CategoriesLet us endeavor to hear the
first part of AC VI through the theme of this con-
ference, The New Obedience.5 So, whats new? The commandments
themselves are not new, something Jesus (Mt 19:19; 22:3440; Mk
10:19; Lk 18:20) and Paul (Rom 13:810) make clear (see also FC Ep
VI 7). Rather, the person has been renewed and regenerated. As
Titus 3:56 states, Not from works, the ones which we did in
righ-teousness, but according to his mercy he saved us through
[the] washing of rebirth and renewal of [the] Holy Spirit,6 whom he
poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior (cf.
Rom 6:4, 6; 12:2; Eph 4:2124).
What then is biblical obedience? In English obey generally
conveys the notion of something we must do. The Oxford English
Dictionaries define the verb as:
(a) to comply with, or perform the bidding of; to do what is
commanded by (a person); to submit to the rule or authority of, to
be obedient to. (b) to comply with, perform (a command, etc.). (c)
to submit to, subject oneself to, act in accordance with (a
principle, authority, etc.).6
However, the basic biblical sense means to listen and respond
appropriately. The underlying Hebrew is usually ma l, to hearken
to, often to the word of Yahweh. The NT uses the Greek word group
of similarly. When one hears Gods condemning law, the appropriate
response is to acknowledge, that is, confess, that what God says
about me and all people apart from Christ is true (e.g., 1 Jn
1:810). At times, however, what is mistranslated obey is intended
to be a receptive response to the gospel. For example, Hebrews 5:9
declares that Christ became the cause of eternal salvation for all
the ones who him (Heb 5:9). To translate with a form of obey here,
as most translations do (e.g., ESV, KJV, NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV),
makes salvation contingent upon our obedience. The same appears to
be true with the cognate noun in 1 Peter 1:22, Having purified your
souls of the truth. Again, all the translations referenced above
use forms of obey. But our souls could never be purified by our
obedience; it happens, instead, by the responsive hear-ing of the
truth of the gospel. Paul even uses the verb as a parallel for
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in Romans 10:16. Thus, when one hears the gospel, the
appropriate response of is to listen responsively, to heed or
hearken to it with receptive faith (as in Rom 1:5; 6:16; 15:18;
16:26; cf. Rom 10:9).7 Well, that was law and then gospel
confessed, as in Articles IV of the Augsburg Confession). So lets
just get on with the church in Articles VII and VIII, and skip this
pesky notion of the new obedience.
But to do so is to disregard much of Jesuss teaching and,
typically, the latter portion of Pauls letters as well (e.g., Rom
1216; Gal 56; Col 34; Eph 46; 1 Thes 5; see below). Article VI
affirms, It is also taught that such faith should yield good fruit
and good works and that a person must do such good works as God has
com-manded. Thus when we hear the Lord tell us what to do and not
do, the appropriate response for the renewed believer is to obey,
that is, to do and not do according to his word. Is there as much
room for this in our teaching as there was in that of Jesuss? Is
the new obedience as prominent in our proclamation as it was in
Pauls? Does it have the same significance in our lives as it did in
theirs?
Here, I think, our tendency to make all law second use in our
proclamation and to be wary of most or even all third use obscures
the matter of the new obedience we confess. For example, can we
proclaim the parable of the Good Samaritan without changing the
intended referent of the characters and, instead, affirm Jesuss own
appli-cation: Go and do likewise! (Lk 10:37). Can we tell sheepwho
have been re-created from goat hood and who inherit the kingdom by
the Fathers grace (Mt 25:34)that they are to respond with new
obedience, consciously and actively caring for the needy, unaware
that they are doing it to Jesus himself (Mt 25:3540)? I recently
heard a great sermon on these two phrases from 1 Corinthians 6. You
are not your own; you were bought at a price (1 Cor 6:19b20a).
Amen. Yet Paul reminds us of those precious gospel truths in order
to lead up to this specific exhortation: Therefore glorify God in
your body (1 Cor 6:20b).
In my own teaching, I have generally moved beyond the two
categories of law and gospel, to use three, law, gospel and
response.8 I like response better than the third use of the law
since we still seem to be debating whether such a use even exists
(cf. Article VI of the Formula of Concord). But the term response
does what AC VI does. It raises the question, response to what? Not
my merits, but for God and because of Christ. This is where the new
obedience comes from. It is the focus of much of Scriptures
teaching as will be highlighted briefly in the remainder of this
article.
The New Obedience in the Old Testament In his recent article in
Lutheran Forum, Scott Ashmon affirms that, particularly
in the prophets, the judgment-restoration pattern dominates so
much that it appears to be the proper order of prophecy, a sequence
equivalent to the law-gospel paradigm9 But Ashmon continues by
observing other patterns in the OT, particularly a grace-law
sequence. Genesis begins in just such a manner.
It recounts Gods gracious love toward creation in general, and
human-ity in particular, by giving them life, making them
exceptionally good
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(b med), and giving them all they need for an exceptionally good
life. It is only after God has graciously created humanity that He
com-mands them to multiply, fill the earth, and have dominion over
it, and, in Genesis 2, prohibits them from eating of the tree of
knowledge.10
Similarly, he observes that in Genesis 12
God does not begin with Law in addressing Abram, even though he
is a sinner, but with grace. Only later does God, based on His
gracious elec-tion of and promises to Abram, obligate him to live
uprightly (Gn 17:1).11
This grace-law pattern exhibits itself most prominently in the
exodus, culminating at Sinai. Against any works righteous notions,
God does not give the law to Israel in Egypt and declare that he
will save them from their slavery if they obey the commands.
Neither, however, does Yahweh give them the law, call them to
confess their failures as poor, mis-erable sinners, and only then
come to the rescue. Instead, God just delivers them! At the Yam
Suph, Israel responds appropriately by trusting in Yahweh and in
Moses, his servant (Ex 14:31). That sounds a lot like Articles IV
and V of the Augsburg Confession.
Then, at Mt. Sinai, God gives what the Scriptures exclusively
call the Ten Words.12 It is shocking for many people to hear that
the Scriptures themselves never use the phrase, the Ten
Commandments. Instead, whenever ten is used in reference to them,
another noun is being modified. Exodus 34:28 identifies the words
of the covenant appositionally as the ten words ( dir habbr, ere
haddrm). The Septuagint renders the latter phrase literally as
which pro-duces the transliterated term Decalogue.13 Why no Ten
Commandments? Because the first word is gospel, reminding Israel
that Yahweh has graciously chosen them as his own and already
rescued them.14 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt,
from the house of slaves (Ex 20:2). Hummel affirms, Two later
Jewish usages underscore the same general point: (1) continuing the
Biblical usage of speaking of ten words, not commandments; and (2)
counting [Ex 20] v. 2, which plainly is indica-tive, as word
#1.15
Within the context of Israels salvation history as recounted in
Exodus and later in Deuteronomy, the remaining nine words or,
commandments, describe the new obedience, a way to live in response
to mercies already received. The dominant use of imperfect verb
forms corroborates the point. Hummel advises:
It is of utmost importance to underscore the fact that
grammatically the Decalogue is in indicative, not imperative form
(the negative lo, not al). These are statements of what the
believer who has experienced Gods grace will voluntarily do, not
commands of what he must do to deserve or earn Gods love. They
represent perimeters or boundaries of Gods kingship, beyond which
the believer will not stray, but within which He is essen-tially
free to respond joyfully and voluntarily, as illustrated by the
rest of the laws or codes of the Old Testament.16
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Luthers explanations to the commandments in his Small Catechism
nicely express the new obedience as well. For example, he explains
the lone imperative in the Ten Words, Honor (kabb) your father and
your mother (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16), as follows: We should fear and
love God so that we do not despise our parents and other
authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish
them.17
Ashmon goes on to identify all of Deuteronomy, Psalm 78, and
Ezekiel 36 as indicative of a similar grace-law or grace-law-grace
pattern. For more information on the Old Testament, see Ashmons
article. The New Obedience in the New Testament
As we segue to the NT, 1 Peter follows a similar grace-law
pattern. Scharlemann expresses it with the catchy phrases, Be what
you already are and Exodus Ethics.18 Peter essentially reminds
believers, Heres who you are in Christ, so live like it! (e.g., 1
Pet 1:3-12 into 1:13-17; 1:18-21 into 1:22; 1:23-25 into 2:13;
etc.). But I specialize in St. Paul and we are pretty much a
Pauline church so well spend most of our remaining time there.
RomansInterestingly, St. Paul references specific commandments
from the Decalogue
in only two letters. One of them, Ephesians, contains an echo of
the command against stealing (Eph 4:28) and a direct citation of
the commandment to honor your father and mother (6:2). The other
letter is Romans whose argument the opening articles of the
Augsburg Confession follows quite well. In fact, a book by Paulson
titled Lutheran Theology simply walks through Romans!19
Walther contends that in Romans 13 we find the sharpest
preaching of the Law.20 In Romans 2 Paul uses the Decalogue as a
second use mirror. While address-ing a Jew who relies upon the law
and boasts in God (Rom 2:17), he asks,
Therefore the one who teaches another, are you not teaching
yourself? The one who proclaims, Do not steal! are you stealing?
The one who says, Do not commit adultery! are you committing
adultery? The one who abhors idols, are you robbing temples? You
who are boasting in the Law, through the transgression of the Law
you are dishonoring God (Rom 2:2123).21
This is the old obedience. Walther continues:
This [sharpest preaching of the law] is followed, towards the
end of the third chapter and in chapters 4 and 5, by the doctrine
of justificationnothing but that. Beginning at chapter 6, the
apostle treats nothing else than sanctification. Here we have a
true pattern of the correct sequence: first the Law, threatening
men with the wrath of God; next the Gospel, announc-ing the
comforting promises of God. This is followed by instruction
regarding things we do after we have become new man.22
Note Walthers three parts. They sound like law, gospel, and
response.
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Romans 6:1119Romans contains sixty-two imperatives. But aside
from 6:1119, only one
appears in the first ten chapters! And that lone form has God as
its subject (Let God be true, , 3:4).23 Therefore the five
imperatives in 6:1119 are significant. They exhort those who have
become new man by virtue of the one-time aorist act of baptism to
resist sin and, instead, to walk in the renewal of life which only
now is possible (6:4).
Thus you also count () yourselves to be dead to sin (6:11). . .
. Continually resist the reign () of sin in your mortal body (6:12)
. . . and do not continue to present ( ) your bodily members to sin
[as] instruments of unrighteousness; instead, pres-ent ()
yourselves to God as living from [the] dead and your bodily members
to God [as] instruments of righteousness (6:13). . . . Now present
() your bodily members as slavish to righteousness leading to
sanctification (6:19).24
In keeping with AC VI, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession
cites verse 19 to affirm that after penitence (that is, conversion
or regeneration) must come good fruits and good works in every
phase of life (Ap AC XII 13132).
My commentary on Romans asserts the following:
The 18 indicative statements which permeate [the last half of
Romans 6] counter the notion of viewing it predominantly as
imperative commands. . . . But to exclude Pauls exhortations to
continually resist sin and, instead, to present ones entire self to
God in righteousness which has fruit for sanctified living also
obscures Pauls purpose. To choose either indicative or imperative
presents a false alternative. The key, of course, is to consider
both fully, with proper balance, and in the right order. The
indicatives of God come first, as in 6:111, and also throughout
6:1223. They are passively received. But Paul also calls for,
indeed, even com-mands, a response which entails active resistance
against sin, as well as the offering of ones bodily members in
righteous service and for fruitful holy living to God. Both Pauls
indicatives and his imperatives are . . . not properly comprehended
if one adopts a God-does-it-all attitude toward sancti-fied living.
Yes, God-does-it-all in our justification (e.g., Rom 3:2126, 28).
We do well to reject all moralism and legalism. At the same time,
we ought to confess that a God-does-it-all attitude in
sanctification is not what Paul teaches. As the Formula of Concord
states,
From this it follows that as soon as the Holy Spirit has
initi-ated his work of regeneration and renewal in us through the
Word and the holy sacraments, it is certain that we can and
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must cooperate by the power of the Holy Spirit, even though we
still do so in great weakness. (FC SD II 65)
Christian living is our responsibility, yet, thankfully, not
ours alone. It is possible only in Jesus Christ our Lord (6:23) and
empowered by the Spirit who baptized us into his Name so that just
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
thus also we might walk in lifes renewal (6:4).25
Romans 7:148:4Of course, sin throws a wrench into our new
obedience. As a result, Romans
7:1425 vividly depicts how the law performs a double function in
the Christians life.26 Pauls portrayal of his own experience fits
squarely within his theology of the now and the not yet.27 The
believer is now no longer under the dominion and condemnation of
the law (6:14; 7:4), but belongs, instead, to the age to come
through the mercies of God. Therein, the renewed mind joyfully
delights to enslave itself in obe-dience to the good which the law
commands (7:22, 25). Yet believers also still live in the not-yet
world into which sin entered and spread to all people (5:12). As a
result, Paul the believer continues to admit, I am flesh ly, sold
under sin . . . Sin dwells in me . . . this is, in my flesh (7:14,
17, 18). Here the formula observes how Paul himself learns from the
law that his works are still imperfect and impure (FC SD VI 21).
The frustration expressed by Paul in 7:1425 employs the first
person singular to give his own perspective regarding himself, the
law, and sin.
But what really counts is Gods perspective.28 Gods declaration
regarding Pauls and our reality is that nothing is condemnation for
the ones in Christ Jesus (8:1). This change of perspective explains
why Paul moves away from first person language to speak
authoritatively of Gods view in 8:14, rather than his/our own. The
decisive change happened by virtue of God sending his own Son whose
Spirit sets us free (8:23). This is why, even in the midst of the
ongoing not-yet reality, all who know how God regards them in
Christ can join Paul in declaring all of Romans 7:25. But thanks to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Consequently, then, on the one
hand, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind. But, on
the other hand, with my flesh [I am a slave] to the law of sin.
Because sin continues to reside in our flesh (simul peccator;
e.g., Rom 7:14, 17, 20), the law always accuses (lex semper
accusat, Ap AC IV 128, 295). Indeed, to some degree, any standard
reveals if one measures up or not, and to what degree; when one
falls short, as is the case for all people (Rom 3:9, 22), the law
properly exposes the shortcoming (Rom 3:1920; 7:711, 1425). But
while the law may still function to accuse those in Christ for
continuing to do what is wrong and failing to do what is right
(7:1425), it cannot condemn. Surely God does not use the law to
condemn those in Christ either. Instead, God sent Christ who has
fully fulfilled the law for us (8:34a; cf. Mt 5:17).29 If the
gospel is proclaimed clearly, repeatedly, and powerfully, as Paul
does in Romans, his and our hearers will understand they are no
longer subject to the laws condemnation. Christ who fulfilled the
law is its (Mt 5:17; Rom 10:4).
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Therefore, they can then hear the imperatives of Romans 6 and
1216 as exhortations to live out the new obedience while walking in
accord with the Spirit (8:4).
The exhortations of Romans 121630Romans 58 largely gives
theological expression to the renewal of life God gives
(e.g., 6:4); chapters 1216 then offer practical guidelines for
the life a believer lives.31 Paul fleshes out the new obedience in
great detail in Romans 1216 where, in marked contrast with the
earlier chapters, he uses forty-nine imperatives.32 Raabe and Voelz
point that out:
Pauls intent in paraenesis is not to accuse the Romans as
sinners. He does that in chapters 13, where the tone is notably
different. Paraenesis uses the language of urging, appealing, and
beseeching rather than that of harsh demanding and
condemning.33
Pauls opening appeal in chapter 12 comes through the mercies of
God (12:1) which have been expounded at great length thus far in
the letter. These mercies are for all (11:32) and graciously
renewed for us each and every morning (Lam 3:23). What fol-lows is
the new obedience. Here, the Formula of Concord says, the Holy
Spirit employs the law to instruct the regenerate out of it and to
show and indicate to them in the Ten Commandments what the
acceptable will of God is (FC SD VI 12).
In addition to Pauls move from indicative toward imperative, his
use of the word group in Romans also provides helpful validation.
Thus far, except for 8:28, every use speaks of the love of God and
Christ for us (5:5, 8; 8:35, 37, 39; 9:18, 25). But that changes in
12:9 where Paul begins a description of the believers authen-tic
love in action toward others, a topic which runs all the way
through Romans 13:10. In keeping with AC VI, the Formula of Concord
refers to Romans 13:5, 6 and 9 as evidence that good works are
necessary; these passages indicate what we are bound to do because
of Gods ordinance, commandment, and will (FC SD IV 14). Then, in
13:810, when Paul admonishes those who have been born anew to do
good works, he holds up before them precisely the Ten Commandments
(FC VI 21) by citing four of them. In this way, the law reaches the
loving fullness God lovingly intends. According to Schreiner,
Paul sees love and law as compatible in a wider way. . . . The
specific com-mands cited help Christians discern how love expresses
itself in specific situations, but the other moral norms of the law
also help believers define love. . . . If love is cut free from any
commandments, it easily dissolves into sentimentality, and
virtually any course of action can be defined as loving.34
Then, in Romans 14:115:7, Paul deals with a situation where
believers have different convictions about foods and holy days. As
a result of the work and words of Christ, these OT regulations have
now become adiaphora. Interestingly, the Augsburg
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Confession mirrors the sequence of Romans here as well. Article
VI on the new obedi-ence (cf. Rom 12:113:14) leads into AC VIIs
assertion that having the same rites and ceremonies in worship is
neither necessary for nor determinative of unity.35 The Lutheran
Confessions do not insist upon, and Paul does not even seek,
uniformity of practice as a desired outcome (see the Formula of
Concord, Article X). In the new obedience, Dunn describes how the
liberty of the Christian assembly should be able to embrace
divergent views and practices without feeling that they must be
resolved or that a common mind must be achieved on every point of
disagreement.36 In addition to what he writes in Romans 14:115:7,
the conduct of Pauls ministry further exem-plifies his incredibly
flexible behavior, even in regard to the law, and all in service to
the gospel (e.g., Rom 9:1314; 15:1521; 1 Cor 9:1923).
EphesiansAs indicated above, the only other letter where Paul
cites the Decalogue is
Ephesians (6:2; cf. 4:28), probably the most generic or least
contextual of his letters. In keeping with the creation account,
the Ten Words, and Romans 1:117, Paul starts off with glorious
gospel throughout Ephesians 1. Then the familiar chapter 2
concisely and universally articulates a classic expression of law
and gospel. In so doing, it depicts who we were (past tense) apart
from Gods loving kindnessdead in trespasses and sin; by nature
children of wrath, as are all people (2:13). To be sure, it is
always helpful to be reminded of who we were and where we would be
apart from Gods rich mercy and love. But we are so no longer! God
made us alive in Christ and saved us by grace through faith
(2:410a). The remainder of chapters 2 and 3 affirm the eternal
inheri-tance which belongs to all those who have been brought into
Gods household. Jews and Gentiles alike are now one people in the
body of Christ.
What then do we do with the second half of Ephesians? AC VI
points us in the right direction: It is also taught that such faith
should yield good fruit and good works and that a person must do
such good works as God has commanded. But, as the rest of AC VI
reminds us, as soon as one loses sight of by grace through faith as
a gift of God (2:8), Ephesians 46 will likely be misunderstood and
misapplied. Yet one should also not lose sight of the fact that
Gods love and kindness call forth a cer-tain lifestyle in response.
Ephesians 5:8 summarizes the entire letter and all of Pauls
theology well: For you were formerly darkness; now [you are] light
in the Lord; walk as children of light! ( , ). There we have itlaw
in the past tense, gospel in the Lord, and response with an active
imperative. To walk as children of light is the new obedience.
Ephesians 4 begins, I urge you, therefore . . . to walk worthy
of the calling of which you were called ( ). Later in the chapter,
Paul adds:
You . . . were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,to put
off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and
is corrupt through deceitful desires,and to be renewed () in the
spirit of your
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minds,and to put on the new self ( ), created after the likeness
of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:2124, ESV)
So dont walk and talk like the old. Walk like a new person! Talk
like a new per-son! To offer an analogy, are we like an inert
bicycle sitting there until the Spirit puts us in motion? Or, are
we more like a hiker who has been given life and lungs, body and
breath? The Spirit implores, Get up and walk with me!
Ephesians imperativesIn the rest of the letter, Paul is not at
all shy about giving specific directions and
repeatedly commanding us where to walk. As with Romans,
indicatives dominate the first half of Ephesians which has only one
imperative; but then, in the second half, after the gospel has been
proclaimed, further indicatives are joined by lots of new
obedi-ence imperatives. In fact, the lone imperative in Ephesians
13 issues an appeal to remember (2:11), sort of like to hearken to.
In Ephesians 46, how-ever, Paul uses forty imperative forms! These
tell believers how to respond properly to the gospel in their
lives.37 Is this what we typically do with these imperatives?
For example, Ephesians 5:1 states, Therefore be imitators of
God, as beloved children ( ). In my own forma-tion, I was taught to
shape a text like this into a proclamation of the second use of the
law followed by the gospel. The malady would be: All of you fall
short and fail miser-ably at living up to imitating God. Then the
gospel: But you are Gods dearly loved children anyway. Amen. At
this point in Ephesians, however, that is not Pauls point. You were
dead in trespasses and sin; formerly you were darkness. By grace
you are now dearly loved children. Respond intentionally to that
gospel! Imitate the Father who loves you dearly because of who you
now are in Christ (cf. Mt 5:4448).
In verse 2, Paul similarly pleads: And walk in love, as Christ
loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God ( , ). The law/gospel tendency is to admonish our
hearers for failing to walk in love, but then to assure them that
Christ loves us any-way. Yet the past tense indicatives proclaim
that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. In response to
having been so loved, Paul exhorts us to live love!
Later in chapter 5, verse 21, Paul writes, Submitting to one
another in reverence for Christ ( ). The second use of the law
accuses our hearers for failing to submit to their parents, spouse,
boss, dean, presi-dent, pastor, and one another. But that does not
communicate Pauls point. Instead, he presumes our reverence for
Christ because he gave himself up for us (5:2). As a result, he
urges us to respond submissively to others. My colleague Mark
Brighton points out that the governing verb here is an imperative
in Ephesians 5:18: But be filled with the Spirit ( ). From that
point on, Paul describes how the Spirits filling is actively
displayed in our lives by singing (5:19), giving thanks (5:20), and
submitting (5:21).
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In all three of these cases, Paul formulates his appeal as walk
this way, followed by a gospel reminder of what God or Christ has
already done. This is precisely what AC VI does. After affirming
that a person must do such good works as God has command-ed, the
rest of the article reaffirms the gospel as a gift from God. But
neither Paul nor AC VI revert to the second use of the law,
accusing us of falling short. Rather, the forty imperatives in
Ephesians 46 function positively to identify and to call forth the
new obedience by telling us what to do and what to avoid. We
should, therefore, proclaim these imperatives as they are meant to
be heard, as exhortations to respond actively and intentionally to
the gospel.
Concluding Thoughts on the New ObedienceHomiletical
ImplicationsIn his article Freedom of Form: Law/Gospel and Sermon
Structure in
Contemporary Lutheran Proclamation, Schmitt observes,
Recently, Law and Gospel seems to summarize the predominant form
of Lutheran preaching. It defines how the sermon is structured.
This new type of sermon consists of two major divisions: the first
part Law and the second part Gospel. . . . We might appropriately
call it Law then Gospel preaching.38
He demonstrates that this fixed form is neither Waltherian or
Caemmererian,39 and asserts,
Lutheran preaching can embrace much more. It is not bound by a
formu-laic Law then Gospel pattern but recognizes and utilizes the
freedom of sermon form for the sake of Gospel proclamation. . . .
Within such broad homiletical horizons, Law and Gospel referred to
how one offered a proper distinction of Law and Gospel in both the
content and function of the sermon while using a variety of
forms.40
So which form to use? Ashmon advises, let Scripture direct the
form and func-tion of the sermon, rather than placing Scripture and
the sermon into a fixed form-critical straightjacket. In other
words . . . let exegesis predominate in interpretation and
proclama-tion, not eisegesis.41 So if a law text is intended as
second-use accusation, Let em have it! preach it to the peccator
(e.g., Rom 1:183:20; Eph 2:13). But if a passage describes the new
obedience (e.g., Rom 1215; Eph 46), neither Paul, nor AC VI, nor
Walther calls us to turn it into second use. Instead, proclaim it
as intendedGod calling his simul justus children to live in ways
well-pleasing () to him (Rom 12:1, 2).
As demonstrated above with Romans and Ephesians, Pauls regular
sequence is not so much imperative accusations of the law followed
by gospel. Instead, he gener-ally articulates law and gospel
indicatives followed, in Walthers words, by instruction regarding
things we do after we have become new man.42 A similar use of new
obedi-ence imperatives occurs in a number of Pauls other letters as
well.43 Colossians 12
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has only four imperatives (2:6, 8, 16, 18), while chapters 34
add twenty-six more. Philippians 12 has seven; chapters 34 contain
eighteen. Galatians 14 has seven (four of them in OT quotes;
4:27[3], 30), and then thirteen in chapters 56. There is only one
in 1 Thessalonians 14 (4:18), while chapter 5 has eighteen.44
According to Pauls regular pattern, these imperatives should be
used to instruct and exhort believers to respond properly to the
gospel. In summary, they urge us, and sermons on these sections
should urge parishioners: Be imitators of God, as his beloved
children (Eph 5:1).
An Analogy: Children of the Heavenly Father45The father/child
relationship is dominant in Jesuss teaching and prominent in
Pauls portrayal of our relationship with God (e.g., father
occurs fifteen times in the Sermon on the Mount, thirteen of which
are your father; also Jn 5:3637; 17:15; 20:17; Lk 6:39; 11:113; Rom
8:15; Gal 4:6).46 What does this relationship tell us about the new
obedience?
When earthly parents give commands to their children, they do
not generally make rules and demand obedience in order to
repeatedly convince children that they are disobedient and unworthy
of anything good from their parents. Nor do they intend for such
rules to drive their children to continually confess their failures
or to despair of their unworthiness to even belong in the family.
If so, or if they were perceived as such, a child would probably
want to stay distant from such a parent and the relation-ship would
become stunted. A childs perception of this kind of parents love
would likely degenerate into seeing it mainly as something which
tolerates failures and which is forced, again and again, to deal
negatively with disobedience and somehow love the child anyway. The
goal, from the childs perspective, might be to obey, but primarily
the goal is to avoid anger and punishment. Thats the old
obedience.
At least in healthy families, this is not generally the case.
Good, though imper-fect, parents tend to give their children good
rules to obey. When appropriate, they also impose loving discipline
so that children see and suffer the consequences of their
disobedience. But parents do this to benefit their children so that
that they will become happy, healthy, content, and fulfilled as
they mature to live a disciplined, godly life. Once children
perceive this to be the purpose of the rules and even the
reprimands, their relationship with their mother and father,
established by birth and maintained by loving provisions freely
given by their parents, will grow and deepen as the loving
inten-tion behind the laws is acknowledged. Eventually, a new
obedience to parental com-mands will come out of gratitude and
respect, rather than fear of punishment.
If we continually assert that Gods law is always, or even
predominantly, his instrument to catch and convict unruly children
for their mistakes, how will people respond? Instead of drawing
near, they may want to keep their distance from such a demanding
and demeaning father. Or they may come to do their religious duty,
and then try to obey mainly to keep their father from getting mad.
Will a growing and maturing relationship likely develop with a
father who makes such demands?
But does God continue to see his children in Christ as lost and
condemned people who still deserve the full fury of his eternal
wrath? Or does our heavenly Father
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assure us that we are eternally his redeemed and dearly loved
children because Christ has fully and completely finished ()
suffering our punishment (Jn 19:30) so that in him nothing [is]
condemnation ( ) (Rom 8:1)? Thank God that the latter has become
our reality. God, the Father of lights who graciously bestows every
good gift and every perfect gift . . . determined to give us birth
by his word of truth (Jas 1:17, 18; cf. Jn 3:3, 5; Ti 3:5). Through
the renewing and adoptive work of the Holy Spirit we now call him
Abba, Father! (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).
Then, to paraphrase Jesus, if you who are evil know how to give
good rules to your earthly children, how much more will your Father
in heaven give positive, matur-ing guidelines for his children to
obey (Lk 10:13)? Such a Father gives instructions and commands, as
well as loving discipline when we fall short (Heb 12:511), for our
ultimate good. He does so in order to build us up and mature us, as
Paul describes it six times in Ephesians 4:1216.47 As we grow in
our faith relationship with him, we join with St. Paul in willingly
and joyfully doing his holy, righteous and good commands (Rom 7:12,
16, 21, 25b), while also being increasingly frustrated by our
failures to live according to his Law (Rom 7:1415, 1820, 2324,
25b).48
Nevertheless, with the confident assurance that we remain his
children by grace and in Christ, we persist in the new obedience,
striving to live out his good, well-pleas-ing and perfect will (Rom
12:2) for the benefit of our neighbor (Rom 13:810), for our own
good, and all to the glory of our gracious God. Indeed, those who
really get the gospel eagerly join the psalmist in crying out,
Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it
to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and
observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your
commandments, for I delight in it. (Ps 119:3335; cf. Ps 86:11)
Divine Causation and/or Human Cooperation?All of this perhaps
raises the question, Does this new obedience happen apart
from the conscious intent of our will, without any effort on our
part? The notion that a sanctified life of good works consists
solely of Gods work was rebutted in the discus-sion of Rom 6:11-19
above. Yet it seems to have been popularized in Lutheran circles
through an essay by Gerhard Forde.49 There Forde defines a truly
good work as being free, uncalculating, spontaneous.50 While
commenting on Romans 12:1, Douglas Moo responds, That Gods mercy
does not automatically produce the obedience God expects is clear
from the imperatives in this passage.51 This is because appeals
based upon grace and mercy are resistible and not coercive.
The active imperatives Paul addresses to Christians throughout
his letters indi-cate that willing human involvement remains
necessary. Thus the notion that a sancti-fied life of good works is
totally the work of God or done solely by the Holy Spirit should be
rejected. The Formula of Concord observes,
After the Holy Spirit has performed and accomplished this
[conversion] and the will of man has been changed and renewed
solely by Gods power
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and activity, mans new will becomes an instrument and means of
God the Holy Spirit, so that man not only lays hold on grace but
also cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the works that follow. (FC
Ep II 18; cf. FC SC II 65 cited above) But the believer without any
coercion and with a willing spirit, in so far as he is reborn, does
what no threat of the law could ever have wrung from him. (FC Ep VI
7)52
In order to explain the new obedience, I have used this musical
analogy with stu-dents. Are we like a trumpet which can only sit
lifeless in a case until the Spirit irresist-ibly picks it up and
blows life into and through it? Or is the new obedience more like a
singer to whom God has given life, breath, talent, and even songs
to sing; who then says, Sing for me! or, better yet, Sing with me!
The latter more accurately depicts the Christian. It also aligns
with the very basic and practical [Pauline] anthropology
articulated by Raabe and Voelz.
The hearers are assumed to be ordinary, concrete human beings
who actively participate in their everyday living. They seem to be
in a position to make decisions, to be led astray, to be reminded,
to be encouraged, and to be persuaded, just as we all are. Paul
addresses them as if they are a third party standing before two
powers, sin and the Spirit, and he exhorts them to pay attention to
the impulses of the Spirit and to resist those of sin. He urges
them, for example, to be transformed by the renewing of their mind
[Rom 12:2], to present their hands and feet, their intentions and
actions, as weapons for Gods service, and to offer their bodies as
liv-ing sacrifices to God.53
Paul urges us to respond actively and freely on the basis of
mercies graciously given and already received (Rom 12:1).
Various definitions of the words used to label categories have
caused some of the confusion. For example, Pieper defines
sanctification in the following ways:
(1) In its wide sense, sanctification comprises all that the
Holy Ghost does in separating man from sin and making him Gods own,
so that he may live for God and serve Him. (2) In its narrow sense,
sanctification designates the internal spiritual transformation of
the believer or the holiness of life which follows upon
justification. (3) In another respect good works are identical with
sanctification, since sanc-tification in concreto takes place
through the performance of good acts.54
Sanctification is commonly understood as the new obedience,
namely, the Christian life of good works which flows from the
gospel in the lives of believers (i.e., the end of definitions 1
and 2, as well as definition 3 above). Forde, however, defines the
term this way: Sanctification is Die Heiligungwhich would perhaps
best be translated as being
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salvationed. . . . Sanctification is thus simply the art of
getting used to justification. . . . It is the justified life.55 By
his definition, sanctification belongs within the gospel category
of justification and we are no longer talking about the new
obedience at all.
The confusion in terminology is understandable. On the one hand,
the Bibles use of holiness language predominantly expresses the
gospel, rather than the new obedience. For example, Paul uses
justification and sanctification in parallel fash-ion, asserting in
1 Corinthians 1:30 that Christ Jesus has become for us
righteous-ness and also sanctification and redemption ( ). And in 1
Corinthians 6:11 he reminds believers of what sets us apart: But
you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were declared
righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of
our God (, , ). Although such passages use sanctification
lan-guage, they are articulating the gospel (so also in the OT; see
Ex 31:13; Lv 20:8; 21:8).
At other times, however, believers are in fact called to live
holy or sanctified lives (e.g., Lv 19:2; 20:7; 1 Thes 4:7; 1 Pt
1:17; 2 Pt 3:11; cf. Mt 5:48). Such passages express the new
obedience; in Piepers words they depict the holiness of life which
fol-lows upon justification.56 But such a life always and only
flows from holiness already freely given by our sanctifying God and
Father.
Jesuss PromiseIts always good to end with Jesus. The passage
from Luke 17 in AC VI describes
slaves who work all day for their master out in the fields or
with his sheep. Then they come in and, as expected, serve their
master his dinner before receiving their own. Jesus asks,
Does [the master] have grace () for his slave because he did all
the things which were ordered? No! Thus also you, when you might do
all the things ordered to you, say, We are unworthy slaves, we have
done what we ought to do. (Lk 17:910)57
No, we do not deserve grace, mercy, or forgiveness. But Jesus,
in the way of the gospel, flips things on their head. At the Lords
Supper, he is the master who serves his servants (Lk 22:2730).
Indeed, he came not to be served but to serve (Mt 20:28) and tells
his disciples, Whoever would be great among you must be your
servant (Mt 20:26). To serve as we have been served, to love one
another as he has first loved us (Jn 15:12; cf. 1 Jn 4:11)this is
the new obedience. Thus Jesus identifies his family mem-bers as
those who both hear and do () the Lords word (in Lk 6:47; 8:21;
also Mt 7:21, 24); similarly in John 10:27, he characterizes his
sheep as those who both hear his voice and actively follow him
().
While we have no warrant to place any obligation on Christ (Lk
17:910), our ascended Lord does speak of his return as a time when
he will reward us for all we do in his name. In Matthew 16 Jesus
predicts his passion and resurrection (16:21), and then describes
the self-denial and forfeiting of life necessary for those who
would follow after him (16:2426). But he adds this blessed
assurance in Matthew 16:27, For the Son of
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216
Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels
and then he will give back to each one according to his work (kai.
to,te avpodw,sei e`ka,stw| kata. th.n pra/xin auvtou). Revelation
22:12 draws the NT toward its close with these words from Jesus,
Look! I am coming suddenly and my reward is with me to give back to
each one as is his work (kai. o` misqo,j mou metV evmou/
avpodou/nai e`ka,stw| w`j to. e;rgon evsti.n auvtou). (See also Mt
25:1423; Lk 14:14; 19:1219; 2 Cor 6:97; 1 Tm 4:8; Ps 62:12; Dan
12:3.)
It is always appropriate to remind ourselves and our hearers, as
AC VI does, that Scripture always teaches that Gods grace, the
forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and salva-tion come not through
works but through faith alone without merit (AC VI). There is
nothing to apologize for here and, fittingly, the Apology says
nothing explicitly on AC VI. But, in closing, the Apology to
Article 4 confesses this about the new obedience:
We teach that rewards have been offered and promised to the
works of the faithful. We teach that good works are meritoriousnot
for the forgive-ness of sins, grace, or justification (for we
obtain these only by faith) but for other physical and spiritual
rewards in this life and in that which is to come, as Paul says (1
Cor 3:8), Each shall receive his wages according to his labor. (Ap
AC IV 194)58
Or, as Jesus will say, Well done, good and faithful servant (Mt
25:21, 23). And thats how our new obedience turns out in the
end.
Endnotes
1 According to the Concordia Triglotta (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1921), 4446, the Latin reads, Item docent, quod
fides illa debeat bonos fructus parare, et quod operteat bona opera
mandata a Deo facere propter voluntatem Dei. Note: citations from
the Book of Concord other than AC VI are from The Book of Concord,
trans. and ed. Theodore Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1981); it is the version used in the Concordia Electronic
Theological Library in Logos and by the Concordia Commentary
series.
2 Concordia Triglotta, 44. 3 Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert,
eds., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 40;
Tappert, 3132, translates as follows: It is also taught among us
that such faith should produce good fruits and good works and that
we must do all such good works as God has commanded, but we should
do them for Gods sake and not place our trust in them as if thereby
to merit favor before God. For we receive forgiveness of sin and
righteousness through faith in Christ, as Christ himself says, So
you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are
unworthy servants (Lk 17:10). The Fathers also teach thus, for
Ambrose says, It is ordained of God that whoever believes in Christ
shall be saved, and he shall have forgiveness of sins, not through
works but through faith alone, without merit.
4 See The Situation in Galatia in Andrew Das, Galatians,
Concordia Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014),
119.
5 The title, The New Obedience, is a later insertion. While
titles were put in place as early as 1532, they were not included
in the 1580 edition of the Book of Concord. Kolb and Wengert, 36,
n. 26..
6 J. Simpson and E. Weiner, The Oxford English Dictionaries, 2nd
ed., 15 vols (New York: Oxford University, 1989), 10:637. Though
largely lost in contemporary usage, the English obey stems from the
Latin verb to hear (audio). According to Simpson and Weiner,
10:637, obey is derived from the Latin ob audire, give ear,
hearken, obey.
7 See Michael Middendorf, Romans 18, Concordia Commentary (St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2013), 60, 6667, 500501;
material in this paragraph has also been adapted from the authors
forthcom-ing commentary on Romans 916, to be published by Concordia
Publishing House.
8 See Michael Middendorf and Mark Schuler, Called by the Gospel
(Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 155156, 322324.
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Concordia Journal/Summer 2015 217
9 Scott Ashmon, Preaching Law and Gospel in the Old Testament,
Lutheran Forum 47:4 (Winter 2013): 12; he adds that this aligns
with the motives of the Formula of Concord and Walther (see the
section on Homiletical Implications).
10 Ibid., 12. 11 Ibid., 13. 12 This paragraph and the next were
developed in relation to Romans 13:810 and are adapted from the
authors forthcoming commentary on Romans 916.13 The title The
Ten Words is also present in Deuteronomy 10:4 (as well as in Philo,
Heir 168;
Decalogue, 32; Josephus, Ant. 3.138). 14 Middendorf, Romans 18,
200. 15 Horace Hummel, The Word Becoming Flesh (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1979), 75. 16 Ibid., 74; though he
continues by affirming an ongoing second use of the Law for those
who remain
sinners as well as saints. 17 Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 321322. 18 Martin Scharlemann,
Gods Word for Today: 1 Peter, Gods Chosen People (St. Louis:
Concordia
Publishing House, 1994), 73; the slogan, Be what you already
are, is also adopted by Paul Deterding, Colossians, Concordia
Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003), 138, in
commenting on Colossians 3:14, citing also 1 Corinthians 5:7a;
Ephesians 5:8. See also Martin Scharlemann, Exodus Ethics,
Concordia Journal, 1976: 165170; he rephrases the overall sentiment
later, 169, as God has already declared you to be His saints; now
show it.
19 Steven Paulson, Lutheran Theology (New York: T&T Clark,
2011). 20 C. F. W. Walther, Law and Gospel (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, n.d.), 93.21 Translation from Middendorf, Romans
18, 190.22 Walther, Law and Gospel, 93, emphasis added. For a
discussion of the old and new man, see
Middendorf, Romans 18, 459462. 23 Romans 11 then contains seven
imperatives. Yet three of these occur in the citation from Psalm 69
in
Romans 11:1011. The other four are addressed primarily to
Gentile believers, stating how they ought and ought not to regard
their own in-grafting into the people of God over and against
Jewish believers and unbelievers (11:18, 20 [2], 22).
24 Translations from Middendorf, Romans 1-8, 443, 486.25
Middendorf, Romans 18, 509511. A portion of the omitted section, at
the beginning of the second
paragraph here, states: Pauls exhortations make no sense to an
unbeliever; they make no sense to those who are still slaves to
sin, even if that slavery is cleverly masquerading itself as
slavery to some supposed autonomous self. The ongoing struggle
expressed in 6:1223 also betrays the notion that holiness of living
is somehow completely attainable, rather than on enduring struggle.
Yet they also do not make sense if our struggle against sin and our
efforts to live for God are a matter of complete futility and,
therefore, not to be energetically pursued. This is an improper
misunderstanding of Luthers sin boldly and a simplistic
misapplication of simul justus et peccator.
26 See Middendorf, Romans 18, 567576. James Dunn, Romans, Word
Biblical Commentary 38, 2 vols (Dallas: Word, 1988), 392, calls it
a two-dimensional character.
27 See Middendorf, Romans 18, 441442.28 See Middendorf, Romans
18, 49; this paragraph is adapted from the authors forthcoming
commen-
tary on Romans 916. 29 Brian Rosner, Paul and the Law (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2013), 124; he adds, In Romans
13 and Galatians 5 Christ fulfils the law through us.
Unfortunately, this would seem to imply a second or ongo-ing
fulfilling of the law by Christ, something he has finished once for
all (Rom 6:10; 8:3).
30 A significant portion of this section is abridged and adapted
from the authors forthcoming commen-tary on Romans 916.
31 Paul Raabe and James Voelz, Why Exhort a Good Tree?,
Concordia Journal 22 (1996): 161, develop their analogy by
comparing two different approaches to physics, that of Newton and
that of Einstein. There is an everyday sort of experiential and
phenomenological understanding of the universe (= Newton), and
there is a deeper, more theoretical, and ontological understanding
(= Einstein).
32 Granted, sixteen of these imperatives occur in Romans 16 in
requests to greet () various members of the Roman house churches.
Additionally, all of Romans 111 contains only two hortatory
subjunc-tives. Both are notions Paul vehemently rejects by
responding to them with (Rom 6:1, 15). However, in chapters 1216,
Paul uses three or four hortatory subjunctives positively to call
forth proper conduct in response to Gods mercies (13:12, 13; 14:13;
probably 14:19). See Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the
Basics (Grand
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Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 464465. 33 Raabe and Voelz, Why Exhort
a Good Tree?, 160; they previously, 158160, also assert the
fol-
lowing: The first point that needs to be stressed is that Pauls
exhortations are addressed to Christians, to those in Christ who
want to and are able to live for God. Second, it is clear that,
although the addressees are Christians, they cannot live for God by
their own power and abilities. The power comes from the Spi