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S. Epiphany 6.25 MW Jer. 17:5-8

Hermann Sasse complained that the problem with Christendom in the modern age is that almost no one believes the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ! The Roman Church throws it out with the sacrifice of the mass. The Eastern Church throws it out with enthusiast dreams of deification by personal devotions. The Reformed Church throws it out by turning faith into rational assent to a religious ideology. Modern Evangelicalism throws it out by focusing on fixing and saving others.

Martin Luther rediscovered the actual Xn faith by first seeing the false faith Jeremiah describes like this:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD.”

This is the error of the modern Evangelicalism so popular in Christendom—thinking we are saved by faith alone. But Luther and St. Paul never say this. No! Faith must be in something or someone. Faith in our faith is cursed. That’s faith in man! That’s making flesh our strength! Faith—in and of itself—is nothing, as Luther well said! Faith’s pure passiva. It’s the object of faith that saves or damns.

Only faith in Christ Jesus saves us. This faith is—as Luther says, extra nos—outside of ourselves, not in anything we are or do or think or grasp! This faith’s never looking at ourselves, but only at Jesus, crucified and risen for our sins.

What does faith in man, making ‘flesh our strength’ look like? How can I distinguish it from faith in Jesus Christ?

An excellent question! Trust, or faith, in man is always looking inward to our hearts and at our lives. It asks: do I know the bible well enough? Do I believe Jesus really did all those miracles? Am I solid on the vicarious satisfaction? Do I love Jesus enough? Does my life reflect my heartfelt faith? Am I unwavering on biblical inerrancy? Do I show my faith by winning other souls for Jesus? Do I show my faith by behaving better than the average Joe or Jane? Am I unalterably opposed to homosexuality and abortion? How many marches have I gone on to prove this? Did I vote for the Christian-friendly candidate in the last election?

Jeremiah proclaims that sort of “faith”—and I think you will acknowledge that last paragraph is a pretty fair definition of modern Christendom’s idea of “faith”— is actually cursed, damned! That is trust in man, not trust in God! That is making flesh one’s strength. That is a heart that has departed from the LORD. Elvis has left the building!

And the first thing, when such aberrant faith is pointed out to you as cursed, damnable, that is another key tell is how you react. Do you go, “Thank God I’m not like that? I’m a Lutheran for Xt’s sake! My faith is pure as the driven snow, not like those lousy Romans, EO, Reformed, or Evangelicals! A curse on them and their houses?

If so, you’re… lost. Elvis has not merely left the building, but is dead and buried.

And I know, I know. I often react that very same damn way, myself! I know the bible! I believe Jesus really did all those miracles. I hate the Arians who deny he’s God. I know all the atonement theories, their strengths and weaknesses. I’ve devoted my life to pure doctrine and practice as a pastor, and I don’t know of anyone more orthodox than I am. I’ve had more than a few sad sack sinners return to church after talking with me. I’m a lot better behaved than the average American, stand firmly against sins like homosexuality and abortion (which is easy because I have no temptation to the first, and zero chance of having to have the latter 😉 My voting record is patchy, OK, as is my marching, but: was there a Christian-friendly candidate in the last election?

And in this way, my heart departs form the LORD, all the time! I can relate to St. Paul: the good that I would do, I do not do. The evil I would not do, that I do.

I’ve spent my time in the desert as a shrub. I often don’t see good, when it comes—not that good doesn’t come my way in large waves, day after day. It’s that I don’t see the good as good, but call good evil and evil good. Which is another tell of the sinful heart, departed from the LORD, Elvis gone AWOL…

But; Jesus has already fixed me. His death and resurrection has put to death all that shin in me.

The secret to “blessedness” is to quit looking inward at all your sin and badness, but to start looking only upward, outward—to Jesus crucified and risen for you. Fix your eyes on Jesus; quit worrying about yourself and you’ll be…

“like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.