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... TO OTHER CHRISTIANS!
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Here's my ill-considered overstatement of the issue: Our problem is not that we aren't telling the gospel to our pagan friends. It's that we don't tell the gospel to our Christian friends!
When's the last time you looked another Christian in the eye and said 'Mate you're a sinner. I know you have struggles, I know you're tired but, deep down you're wicked! That's your real problem. But Mate - you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ, carried on His heart before the Father, rejoiced over in the presence of the angels.'
I don't mean, When's the last time you talked about the toughness of the Christian life, or the state of the nation's morals or the soundness of certain bible teaching etc etc. I'm talking about eye-balling your brother or sister and speaking God's word direct to them - His blood was for you, you are clean!
We all struggle to muster up the courage to evangelise non-Christian friends and family. But I wonder whether a significant part of our difficulty is that we're not even used to speaking the gospel to people who should welcome it!
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That is a very good point! I've been a Christian for 21 years, but it's only in the last few years that the gospel has actually come alive for me to see that it is God's transformative power that changes me, not my own efforts.
That is one of the strengths of confessional Lutheranism.
We constantly are preaching to the saved, lest we fall away.
We need to be kept in faith. Good law/gospel preaching and teaching along with the administering of the sacraments (Lord's Supper) is a good way to do that.
Hey OldAdam, I've always meant to ask a Lutheran what they mean about the dangers of falling away. I'm fully convinced that we need to 'continue in the faith, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel' (Col 1:23). But does a Lutheran doubt that they will be finally saved?
This is pretty much exactly what I was saying a couple of weeks ago to someone. If we can't talk about Christ directly and meaningfully to Christians then no wonder we can't/ won't/ don't talk about him to non-Christians.
Hi ya, Glen!
Lutherans have assurance of their salvation. But it is the assurance that comes from the external Word (which includes the Sacraments).
We believe that Christ will never lose us, but that we can 'lose ourselves'. We're not sure the point where God will let us leave Him, but the Scriptures do speak of this.
Jesus warned us about losing ourselves by the cares of the world, disapation, and drunkeness.
Faith is a gift of God, but it can be lost. We need to be kept in faith.
I am assured salvation, but I never take it for granted, lest the world, the flesh, and the devil cause me to reject it.
Anyway, I think that is basically the way Lutherans understand it.
I think, Glen, that a Lutheran would say the question "will I persevere to the end and be finally saved?" is an unanswerable question, because it is asking us about the hidden Christ. We should instead cling to the revealed Christ, and not ask the question.
I'm not sure that I'd agree. I'm torn two ways on the P of TULIP. Either way, at times I think the almost exclusively timeless/objective/present emphasis of Lutheranism is overbalanced.
See here, paras 42-53 for more.
Classic post BTW.