A Quick Study on Law and Gospel, Thesis 13, September 9, 2018

This quick study on Law and Gospel was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on September 9, 2018. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.

Thesis thirteen of Walther’s Law and Gospel says that you are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you explain faith by demanding that people are able to make themselves believe or at least can collaborate toward that end.  Rather, preach faith into people’s hearts by laying the Gospel promises before them.  It’s not wrong to tell people that they must have faith, to demand that they have it.  In fact, that’s basically like saying to a starving man, Sit down and eat!  But, we don’t tell the starving man to create the food inside his belly, do we?
No, what we’re talking about is the creation of faith from our own selves.  This is impossible.  We cannot force ourselves to believe or trust in Jesus by our own work.  Rather, by the working of the Spirit, because we become convicted by the Law, we desire to lay our burdens down at the feet of Jesus, we desire to have our sins forgiven, and this shows that we have faith given by God already.  Or, perhaps we realize that we are restored to a right standing with God through the death of Christ, that we have our identity through Him, and this demonstrates also that God has given us faith.  Amazingly, everyone and anyone who thinks either of these things when presented with the truth of Scripture has been given faith; they haven’t created it, but it has been given as a gift.  And as small as their faith may be, or as weak, or as new, it is still faith and it is all gift.
See, faith is required for salvation, but we are not required to provide it ourselves; faith is not like the school supply list very student gets before they come to school.  Rather, faith is supplied by the person and work of the Holy Spirit, it’s a free gift that you might receive salvation through it.  Faith is required because it is the thing that receives salvation, it’s the thing that receives every good gift from God and ascribes it back to Him.
If someone were to come to you and say that they are unable to believe, it really shouldn’t surprise us: no one can.  It would be a miracle if they could.  That’s why the only thing they can do is listen to the Word of God.  There, the Lord continues to work faith in them and grows it that they might depend upon it and not themselves.  This way, as they work to not reject God’s Word and His gifts, their faith grows from that of a newborn to one fully mature in the Lord.  By this, we all recognize that we need the Lord, for we cannot do this by our own power; He must work first, and then, only then, by the gift of faith, can we respond to Him.  We are never able to do this by our own power.  We must have it from outside of us, based on Jesus Christ Himself.