God Loves the Family

In a day when the traditional (and biblical) form of the family is despised, the Church cannot say enough about the good of the family. You may think that the word “despised” is a strong word, and you’re right; it is. But it is also an accurate word. When a culture redefines words like “family” and “marriage” to mean what we want rather than what God says, it is only honest to say the culture has lost respect for God and His gifts.

 

In one sense, the redefinition of marriage is a new problem, since things that are not marriage are now being labeled as if they were. But in another sense, we’ve been redefining marriage for a long time. Marriage is redefined when it is made into a temporary relationship rather than the life-long union God has designed. Marriage is redefined when it is viewed as a possible outcome of intimacy rather than the one estate for which God has reserved it (plans and desires of the heart are included). This speaks to the single and the married alike (1 Corinthians 7:1-9).

 

The term family is redefined when the members of the family do not fulfill their God-given roles: when wives do not submit to husbands as the head of the family, and husbands do not love wives and care for them with the same self-sacrificing love as Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). Family is redefined when children are seen not as a blessing that God desires and loves but as a hindrance that just has to be dealt with when it arrives.

 

The fact is, our attitude toward marriage and family is not some abstract value, limited to the world of ideals. Our attitude toward these gifts is felt and it is shown. It is evident in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. It is shown in the way we carry out (or fail to carry out) our role as a husband, a wife, a single, or a child.

 

Now if the high horse has departed and left us all on the ground alike, we should consider the attitude that God has toward marriage and family. We have despised these things, but God has honored them highly. In this world of sinners, no family is perfect, and each individual member is flawed just as the whole. Yet the Son of God so highly honored the human family that he descended to our world and put himself into one. He sanctified the family; he showed it to be a holy thing by allowing a virgin named Mary to be his mother and a carpenter named Joseph to be his foster father.

 

Last Thursday was St. Joseph’s Day, and today is the Annunciation to Mary. It is a proper time for us to consider the blessing God granted these two people, humble and frail as they were. Mary was allowed to nurture the one who gives food to all life (Psalm 104:27-28). Joseph was permitted to guard and guide to safety the one who guards Israel (Psalm 121). Certainly neither the carpenter nor his wife were perfect parents, but the Ruler of heaven and earth submitted himself in obedience to them (Luke 2:51).

 

He was a perfect child, and he is a perfect husband for his bride, the Church. He sacrificed his life to save Mary and Joseph and all of us. He baptized us and our families in the washing of water with the Word, so that sin and shame are removed, and a radiant Church remains (Ephesians 5:25-27).

 

Christ did not see the family as too lowly for him to join, but he came into the house of sinners so that he could purify it. Look at the family in the way that Christ does. He sees a Christian family as a blessed gathering of those whom God has placed together and whom he has washed with his own blood. Christ loves the family, and as family members help and care for each other, he declares himself the beneficiary (Matthew 25:40).

 

The blessings of the family are not granted to all alike. Many families in our world lack one component or another, whether by someone’s sin or by events and realities beyond our control. Many lonely individuals long for familial companionship. Scripture neither lessens the blessedness of the family (Proverbs 18:22; Psalm 127) nor does it rob the dignity of those who live without. In fact, God calls himself a “Father of the fatherless and defender of widows.” He says that he “settles the solitary in a home,” (Psalm 68:5-6). He gives himself to all who lack, and he knows best how to provide.

 

Even in our day, may God bless society and the Church with faithful Christian families. All praise be to him for giving his Son who became a Son of Man to bless us with his presence.

     Rev. Michael Willitz

     Lord of Love Lutheran Church (WELS)

     De Forest, WI

Breastplate of St. Patrick

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever.
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet 'well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

(-St. Patrick-)

“Deeds, not Creeds”

          You've probably heard the phrase before: “deeds, not creeds.” It has a nice ring to it. Perhaps the thought also is appealing to you. So many Christians these days butt heads over their opposing understanding of the Scriptures. Shouldn't Christians be spending more time showing love to one another and to all the non-Christians in the world?

“Deeds, not creeds.” The phrase may sound nice, but is it really the mindset God desires in his people? I don't think I even need to expound beyond this sentence on the hypocrisy inherent in a statement of belief that condemns statements of belief. Hypocrisy aside, let's analyze this anti-creedal creed.

Creeds

 

“Creed” comes from the Latin word “credo,” which means “I believe.” One's creed is whatever one believes. Usually in the Christian church we associate the word with the three Creeds of Christianity: the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. One might ask, “Why are these creeds necessary? Can't we all just agree to believe what the Bible says?”

Yes, as Christians we must agree to believe what the Bible says. However, a question immediately arises: “What does the Bible say?” During the early centuries of the Christian church, many interesting ideas developed—ideas based on philosophy or logic and not based entirely on the words and teachings of Scripture. For example, Arius taught that Jesus was not divine (at least, not in the same sense in which the Father was divine). Has Scripture settled the question of the divinity of Christ? Most certainly! However, God has not inspired a particular book of the Bible to address this teaching exclusively.

Nowhere in Scripture has God said, “Do not argue over whether or not Jesus is divine. My Son Jesus is true God with me—coequal, uncreated, and eternal.” The Bible teaches this, but not in one particular passage and not in so many words. Jesus calls himself God here, his disciples call him God there, and various books of Scripture portray him doing what only God can do. Though Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is true God, a statement was necessary to oppose the false teaching of Arius—a statement that would draw together from various parts of Scripture a systematic teaching. Not a new teaching, not anything different from what Scripture had always taught, but a clear Scripture-based rebuttal to respond directly to a particular heresy in a particular setting. Thus the church drew up the Nicene Creed.

In response to numerous abuses and false teachings in the church, the early Lutherans drew up and subscribed to a series of documents now know as the Lutheran Confessions. Composed from 1529 to 1577, these documents became a standard by which the Lutheran church would judge all doctrines to determine whether a doctrine were orthodox (true, accurate, and consistent with Scripture) or heterodox (containing falsehood).

Some may argue, “The Lutherans have replaced Scripture with a different set of books!” This claim could not be further from the truth. The Lutheran Confessions, like the Creeds, are not a replacement for Scripture, but an exposition of the teachings of Scripture presented in the face of falsehood. The Confessions are not the absolute source of doctrine in the Lutheran church—they remain secondary to Scripture. This means that Lutherans are not to handle questions not addressed in the Confessions as open questions. A true open question is only a question to which Scripture itself has provided no answer. C. F. W. Walther wrote, “The idea that such doctrines as have not yet been fixed symbolically must be counted among the open questions, militates against the historical origin of the symbols [that is, the Confessions], particularly against the fact that these were never intended to present a complete doctrinal system, while they indeed acknowledge the entire content of the Scriptures as the object of the faith held by the church.” (Thesis XII, Theses on Open Questions, 1868). A Lutheran dare not say “We have no position on that issue,” in response to a question that Scripture has answered.

Still think you need no creed? Without a creed, what do you believe? Someone might say “I believe the Bible.” Even this statement is a creed, though not a very clear creed by any means. Your belief in the Bible is good, but what do you believe the Bible says? Do you believe that the Bible means what it says, or do you interpret the Scriptures to mean something other than what they say? Arius himself claimed to believe the Bible, yet he rejected a fundamental teaching of the Bible concerning our Savior. Your creed is simply what you believe. Without a creed you believe nothing. What do you believe?

Someone might say, “It doesn't matter what we believe. All that matters is what we do. Deeds, not creeds!” The problem with this thinking is that if what we believe is unimportant, then what we do is unimportant. Deeds always follow creeds. We act according to what we believe. If I have no creed, I have no motivation to act. If I fail to act according to a particular creed, I demonstrate that I do not fully and truly hold to that belief. We cannot separate our deeds from our creeds. “Faith apart from works is useless” (James 2:20) and works apart from faith are useless.
 

Deeds

When we throw out all creeds and concern ourselves only with our actions, we run into a serious problem. We are evil. Our deeds are evil. Even the “good” things we do to serve others are prompted by evil motivations. Isaiah says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:6). “Deeds, not creeds,” leaves us with nothing. We have no hope. We have no righteousness. We have no salvation. Our deeds leave us forsaken by God in hell for eternity. Yes, “deeds, not creeds” can only land us in hell.

Yet we must not downplay the importance of deeds. A lifetime of good and righteous deeds is necessary to pay the way for each of us to get into the eternal kingdom of God. Now we can spend our lifetimes trying to accumulate enough deeds to earn the trip up, but the sad truth remains: already we have failed and even with a fresh start we would fail again.

Our deeds have failed. Our deeds will continue to fail. Thank God that he sent us a Savior whose deeds have taken the place of our deeds to earn our way to eternal life. Thank God that he sent us a Savior whose sacrifice on the cross has purged all our sinful deeds from his memory. We are saved by deeds—not by deeds of our own, but by the deeds of Jesus acting in our place.

God's Deed, Our Creed

Remember that God's deed is your creed. Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). The salvation Christ has provided by his deeds comes to us by faith. That is, we must believe it and trust in him as our Savior. That is, we are saved by creeds! We are saved by our belief and reliance in what Christ has done. We are saved by the deeds of Christ and we are saved by our creed—by our belief that Christ has saved us.

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the word of God. This is where “deeds not creeds” becomes precarious even for those who already believe in Jesus Christ. If we are not concerned about believing everything God says to us in his word, we put ourselves on a slippery slope. The denial of one teaching of Scripture leads to the denial of another teaching. You don't believe that Jonah lived three days in the belly of a great fish because it doesn't jive with your reason? Then why believe in the miracles of Jesus? Or why believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which the Jonah account prefigured? By inspiration of God St. Paul teaches that “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). What we believe matters. Our salvation depends on taking God at his word.

Deeds AND Creeds

 

Consider one other problem with “deeds, not creeds:” the implication that deeds and creeds are mutually exclusive. As stated earlier, deeds always follow creeds and creeds always motivate deeds. Only by faith in Jesus Christ are Christians motivated to serve God and neighbor with truly selfless acts of love. The Holy Spirit guides us as we put our faith into action.

Our creeds will influence not only how we live and interact as Christian individuals, but also how we operate as congregations and synods united by a common creed. Our beliefs will shape how we approach Scripture together, how we worship together, how we interact with those in authority over us, how we interact with those under our authority, how we approach those who act or teach in error, how we respond to those who bring our own errors to light. We express our beliefs through official synodical statements and we as synods, as congregations, and as individuals act according to these statements—not because any individual, church, or synod has authority to hold us to new rules, but because we agree that these statements are consistent with what God teaches us in Scripture.

Let us encourage one another to uphold creeds and deeds! Let us thank God for a common confession of the truth. Let us encourage one another to hold fast to our confession and to act in accordance thereto. Let us be willing humbly and lovingly to admonish those who begin to err in deed or in creed. Let us be willing to accept the heartfelt admonition of brothers and sisters in the faith.

Glory be to God! Amen.