Any other foundation than the Gospel of Jesus Christ for shaping a reliable character will be inadequate, for all other foundations focus our lives on ourselves or some creature of God.
What we hold as fundamental to our view of the world is easily taken for granted because it is “granted,” simply a given in life, an axiom about which there is no debate. The problem with our presumptions or presuppositions is how they lie in the background or at the foundation of the way we think, buried under all sorts of thinking we have constructed on top of them. Because they are just “there,” they sometimes get lost in the shuffle of our more immediate problems and questions. That can result in our being led by the current dilemmas of the day to stray from the underpinnings we count on as being there to support the entire structure of our life.
A fleeting acquaintance of mine, who was orphaned early in life and found a second home in a Lutheran parsonage, once explained to me why he was leaving his Lutheran congregation for a local church from an “Evangelical” tradition. His children needed a good moral framework for life, and the Lutheran congregation was not instructing children in anything but “the Gospel.” Why the Lutheran congregation did not help its children understand the glorious life of practicing God’s freely given gift of righteousness is beside the point for my story. This convinced Lutheran assured me that he and his wife had made sure the children understood the Gospel of justification by faith alone, receiving the gift of righteousness through the forgiveness of sins. But they needed help in training their children in the midst of our God-forsaking society and were willing to place the children in an environment which focused on proper behavior for those who want to win God’s favor. Their belief (or perhaps more accurately, their hope) that an understanding of God’s unconditional mercy and generosity will remain as foundation for all else sprang from a naïve estimation of Christian formation and instruction. It ignored how easily our inherent concentration on doing the right thing can obscure the basis of our true identity Christ has given us in baptism. This couple was searching for a solution to a justifiable concern but overlooked the need to place Christian living within the framework of fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things.
Many parallel stories could be told. Some got used to the comfort of consuming worship by screen during the COVID time and find they can get along without the reception of Christ’s promise of new life in the Lord’s Supper. Others may presume their instruction in the message of Scripture has been so solid that it cannot slip away with time if they happen to forget to open their Bibles for a while.
Human life is of one piece. That whole of our humanity flows from recognizing God is the ultimate and absolute source of our identity, our sense of safety or security, our recognition of our own worth in God’s sight, or as Luther said in the Large Catechism’s explanation of the First Commandment, our Creator is the source of all good and a haven in every need. This King is the one whom we trust as utterly dependable, sometimes in the face of what seems to be evidence to the contrary. That trust flows into the formation of our character, for only if we know that our lives rest firmly in what God is saying to us in Scripture, can they take their natural shape. When the voice of our Lord speaking His promise of new life upon us does not command our attention each day, life can be twisted and tangled by the winds of false ideas which cunning and crafty sleight of tongue may blow into our ears. Even the good-willed but mistaken formulators of alternatives to the biblical message can induce our thinking and living to stray from God’s path.
When the voice of our Lord speaking His promise of new life upon us does not command our attention each day, life can be twisted and tangled by the winds of false ideas which cunning and crafty sleight of tongue may blow into our ears.
Our character proceeds from our trust in God. Any other foundation than the Gospel of Jesus Christ for shaping a reliable character will be inadequate, for all other foundations focus our lives on ourselves or some creature of God. Only the promise that God is with us to forgive and restore will sufficiently secure life so we can enjoy living for others and feel self-indulgence as a burden. The promise that bestows our new identity as children of God points and guides us as we confront ever new challenges and assignments in life. What our character senses on the basis of the Word of the Lord produces certain attitudes, toward life in general and concerning specific questions and tasks we encounter. Those attitudes propel us into the particular actions which seem appropriate in specific situations based on the framework that our character has set in place, as it evokes perceptions of what is required or necessary in general or at any given moment.
To return to my initial story, these parents justifiably sought good instruction in the way of life and practice of the faith that they wanted their children to integrate into their thinking and acting. Such thoughts and actions happen on the basis of both example and instruction. Examples have a powerful potential, for they convey not only appropriate behaviors but almost always, implicitly or explicitly, reasons for acting in a particular way. Setting down precise rules for conduct has a power conditioned by respect for the admirable person or the coercive might of the rule-setter. Habituation through repetition of the rule, either as a general maxim or a pointed command, can produce more or less (often less) predictable behavior, at least superficially. But, as a colleague of mine once said in discussing his children, “The Gospel is fine in its place, but sometimes you have to get practical.” What he meant by this ironic observation is that when it is a matter of getting the stinking garbage out of kitchen right now, without thought about the need to regularly take out the garbage, a command will do. If what is needed is a reliable child who knows that every Tuesday the garbage truck comes by and includes this in his or her plans for Tuesday morning, the atmosphere created by a gospel-shaped environment will ensure that the goal sought by the command will be reached independently of a parental word. The understanding of his or her identity as a child of God and, therefore, a servant of other people provides a regularity and consistency which focusing on specific instructions cannot insure.
Satan’s deception is always at work to interfere with both the willingness to obey our Lord’s commands and the readiness to live out a life of conformity to His plan for human living which rests on trusting Christ’s unconditional love. Bombarded as we North Americans are from all sides with invitations to rely on ourselves and look out for me first, because we all want to sing, “I Did It My Way,” we cannot presume we or our children will automatically remember that it is Jesus who says we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Encircled by enticing offers of self-satisfying identities, self-protecting security systems, and self-exalting appraisals of our worth, we cannot presume that we or our children will automatically remember how Jesus said the first and fundamental commandment bids us love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Presumed and remembered: The promise of our God that in Jesus Christ our sins have been taken from us and His gift of integrity (or righteousness) is what identifies us definitively as children of our heavenly Father. Only this awareness, that we are always to hearken to Him, brings blessing and insures life. Casting our gaze again and again at the foundation of our life in Christ, we hear our Lord Jesus Himself, who insures we are living in His love. Listening to His promise brings fullness of life even when we feel broken and abandoned. For He is the one who assures us that He is with us, supporting, guiding, forgiving, and loving, even to the end of the age.