Confessing Evangelical

The article by Dr Joel Okamoto on Speaking the Gospel into Postmodern Ears (see earlier post) goes on to look at the Lutheran - and biblical - alternative to this postmodern "blind doubt", in which

For both the modern and the postmodern mind, the key issue is what I am able to know, what counts is what I am able to know, to grasp, to understand.

Dr Okamoto points out how this is the complete opposite to the position we face with the Gospel:

From our Lutheran Catechism we confess about the Holy Spirit: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

“I cannot by own reason or strength believe.” That is our situation as sinners; that is the way Lutherans speak about the sinful condition: “I cannot believe.”

Always salutary for us to be reminded of this: as someone whose conversion (back) to Christianity was largely influenced by reading CS Lewis, I have a tendency to think that mere intellectual argument is sufficient to bring someone to faith (even though that is a total misreading of my own experience). To be reminded that people cannot believe is shocking to us, but true (and, one might add, something that needs to be given more than just lip-service in how we go about sharing the Gospel with people).

But given this inability to believe, how are we to set about addressing postmodern non-believers?

What is called for is to put the so-called “free will” to death, and then to bring forth new life. In the language of the Lutheran tradition, preaching the Law is putting the sinner, the rebellious in us, to death. Preaching the Gospel, the good news of forgiveness of sins and eternal life, on the other hand, brings forth faith in Christ the Lord.

Yes, but can you give us some concrete examples of what that means in practice? Dr Okamoto quotes Gerhard Forde, who uses the example of election, in his book Theology is for Proclamation:

Take the doctrine of election: the teaching that God chooses those who are saved. Who is Yahweh but the God of Israel? What is Israel but God’s chosen people? “Jacob I loved; Esau I hated.” Election provides “a crucial test case,” [Forde] says, “because it is such a persistent, intractable, and offensive problem for us.”

So what do we do? How do we set about preaching the message of God's election of sinners? "What word should be proclaimed?". I had a real interest in the answer to this question, having until recently been a Calvinist. While I feel I have some handle on the Lutheran position on election, I was wondering how Lutherans set about addressing the topic in practice, and so I was on the edge of my seat as I read all this.

Forde's answer is striking - almost shocking. But then I keep finding myself being first shocked, then persuaded, and finally thrilled and delighted by Lutheran teachings, and this may be no exception (p.15, emphasis added):

We are not, says Forde, "...to proclaim that God is an electing God; everybody knows that already and is scared to death by it." To proclaim that God elects is a preaching of the Law; this is a word that accuses and terrifies. Where this word has done its accusing work, where it has shown the wrath of God, then the word of the Gospel is to be spoken. What is to be said? In this case, the task is not to explain election. It is to do the electing. As Forde puts it: "One must have the nerve - or better, the Spirit - to do the unheard-of-thing and say to those listening 'You are the elect!' or 'You are the one.' " And out of such preaching God works, God saves.

One of the most refreshing differences between Lutherans and other evangelicals is Lutheranism's willingness to say, outright, "I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" - rather than hedging God's forgiveness round with "ifs". In Forde's terms, to elect, rather than merely talking about election.