Antinomian Aversion to Sanctification?







An emerited brother writes that he is disturbed by a kind of preaching
that avoids sanctification and "seemingly questions the Formula of Concord .
. . about the Third Use of the Law." The odd thing is that this attitude, he
writes, is found among would-be confessional pastors, even though it is
really akin to the antinomianism of "Seminex"! He asks, "How can one read
the Scriptures over and over and not see how much and how often our Lord (in
the Gospels) and the Apostles (in the Epistles) call for Christian
sanctification, crucifying the flesh, putting down the old man and putting
on the new man, abounding in the work of the Lord, provoking to love and
good works, being fruitful . . . ?"







I really have no idea where the anti-sanctification bias comes from.
Perhaps it is a knee-jerk over-reaction to "Evangelicalism": since they
stress practical guidance for daily living, we should not! Should we not
rather give even more and better practical guidance, just because we
distinguish clearly between Law and Gospel? Especially given our
anti-sacramental environment, it is of course highly necessary to stress the
holy means of grace in our preaching. But we must beware of creating a kind
of clericalist caricature that gives the impression that the whole point of
the Christian life is to be constantly taking in preaching, absolution and
Holy Communion-while ordinary daily life and callings are just humdrum
time-fillers in between! That would be like saying that we live to earth,
rather than eating to live. The real point of our constant feeding by faith,
on the Bread of Life, is that we might gain an ever-firmer hold of
Heaven-and meanwhile become ever more useful on earth! We have, after all,
been "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Cars, too, are not made
to be fueled and oiled forever at service-stations. Rather, they are
serviced in order that they might yield useful mileage in getting us where
we need to go. Real good works before God are not showy, sanctimonious pomp
and circumstance, or liturgical falderal in church, but, for example, "when
a poor servant girl takes care of a little child or faithfully does what she
is told" (Large Catechism, Ten Commandments, par. 314, Kolb-Wengert, pg.
428).







The royal priesthood of believers needs to recover their sense of joy
and high privilege in their daily service to God (1 Pet. 2:9). The "living
sacrifice" of bodies, according to their various callings, is the
Christian's "reasonable service" or God-pleasing worship, to which St. Paul
exhorts the Romans "by the mercies of God" (Rom. 12:1), which he had set out
so forcefully in the preceding eleven chapters! Or, as St. James puts it:
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world" (1:27). Liberal churches tend to stress the one, and
conservatives one the other, but the Lord would have us do both!







Antinomianism appeals particularly to the Lutheran flesh. But it cannot
claim the great Reformer as patron. On the contrary, he writes:







"That is what my Antinomians, too, are doing today, who are preaching
beautifully and (as I cannot but think) with real sincerity about Christ's
grace, about the forgiveness of sin and whatever else can be said about the
doctrine of redemption. But they flee s if t were the very devil the
consequence that they should tell the people about the third article, of
sanctification, that is, of new life in Christ. They think one should not
frighten or trouble the people, but rather always preach comfortingly about
grace and the forgiveness of sins in Christ, and under no circumstance use
these or similar words, "Listen! You want to be a Christian and at the same
time remain an adulterer, a whoremonger, a drunken swine, arrogant,
covetous, a usurer, envious, vindictive, malicious, etc.!" Instead they say,
"Listen! Though you are an adultery, a wordmonger, a miser, or other kind of
sinner, if you but believe, you are saved, and you need not fear the law.
Christ has fulfilled it all! . . . They may be fine Easter preachers, but
they are very poor Pentecost preachers, for they do not preach... "about the
sanctification by the Holy Spirit," but solely about the redemption of Jesus
Christ, although Christ (whom they extol so highly, and rightly so) is
Christ, that is, He has purchased redemption from sin and death so that the
Holy Spirit might transform us out of the old Adam into new men . . . Christ
did not earn only gratia, grace, for us, but also donum, "the gift of the
Holy Spirit," so that we might have not only forgiveness of, but also
cessation of, sin. Now he who does not abstain fro sin, but persists in his
evil life, must have a different Christ, that of the Antinomians; the real
Christ is not there, even if all the angels would cry, "Christ! Christ!" He
must be damned with this, his new Christ (On the Council and the Church,
Luther's Works, 41:113-114).







Where are the "practical and clear sermons," which according to
the Apology "hold an audience" (XXIV, 50, p. 267). Apology XV, 42-44 (p.
229) explains:







"The chief worship of God is to preach the Gospel...in our churches all
the sermons deal with topics like these: repentance, fear of God, faith in
Christ, the righteousness of faith, prayer . . . the cross, respect for the
magistrates and all civil orders, the distinction between the kingdom of
Christ (the spiritual kingdom) and political affairs, marriage, the
education and instruction of children, chastity, and all the works of love."







"Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, unto Thy Church Thy Holy Spirit,
and the wisdom which cometh down from above, that Thy Word, as becometh it,
may not be bound, but have free course and be preached to the joy and
edifying of Christ's holy people, that I steadfast faith we may serve Thee,
and in the confession of Thy Name abide unto the end: through Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, our Lord. Amen."











Kurt Marquart



Concordia Theological Quarterly



July/October 2003



Pages 379-381







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