The name of the book which I will be reviewing is “The Spirituality of the Cross”. The author is Gene Edward Veith, Jr.  Dr. Vieth is a Professor of English at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin.

One of my main purposes for this presentation will be to attempt to explain - as best I understand it - the Christianity that the Bible presents and which I have observed to be quite often different from that which is understood by many people whom I have encountered.

Although I realize that some in this room have made it clear that they do not believe in the God of the Bible, or in some cases, of any unseen entity at all; I will be speaking from the point of view as one who does believe there is God. I also believe that to the extent He has revealed Himself, He has done so through His creation in a general way - as well as in a more specific way through inspired words which have been written down for all to read - and finally, and especially, through His incarnation in the person of Jesus, the Christ. I will therefore be treating the words from the Bible as revealed and inspired truth - and I graciously thank you in advance for your willingness to at least listen to their claim and consider the possibility of their truth.

My primary reason for selecting this particular book is that I believe it gives a clear presentation of Christianity; while at the same time addressing a number of common misconceptions and/or misrepresentations of this religion. My presentation will take the form of reading selected portions of the book, with intermittent personal comments. Any underlining and/or other highlighting in my written presentation will be mine. (Words in parentheses will indicate my slight variation of wording within quotations from the book.)
                       
Dr. Veith begins: “Many of us are searching for some kind of a spiritual life, even though we are not always clear about what that means. We yearn for a sense of transcendence, and yet we always come crashing down to earth. The various mysticisms make grandiose promises of enlightenment and spiritual empowerment ...but mundane life intrudes. Work, family pressures, practical responsibilities, hurting and failures all have a way of breaking the spiritual mood.”

“Churches would seem to be custodians of spiritual reality, but they often do not seem particularly spiritual. The whole round of preachers, (the) sitting in pews, and going to fellowship dinners can seem so ordinary. One would think that spirituality would be rather more spectacular.”

“At least that was my experience” writes Veith. “At different times in my life I have embraced liberal theology, accepting whatever is progressive and crusading for social justice; and I have been a raving, miracle-expecting fundamentalist. My liberalism proved spiritually vacuous, while my fundamentalism proved shallow.”

Dr. Veith then proceeds to share how an understanding of what C.S. Lewis referred to as ‘Mere Christianity’, and what Martin Luther pointed to as ‘justification by grace through faith alone’, “helped to change all that.”

Over the past year, several presentations to our SRLS have pointed out that within all religions, including Christianity, there are many different varieties, each with some special emphasis on teaching and/or tradition. Dr. Veith now states, “This book is about one of those Christian spiritual traditions ... an introduction to the Lutheran spiritual tradition. This is a faith particularly centered in the cross of Jesus Christ ... and whose insights have a profound resonance in ordinary, everyday life.”

                                                                     
“A better term for ‘Lutheran’ spirituality is ‘evangelical’ spirituality.  The term ‘evangelical’ is simply a term derived from the Greek word for ‘Gospel’, which in turn literally means ‘good news’. ‘Evangelical’ means
someone who focuses on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Christ, through His death and resurrection has won forgiveness for sinful human beings and offers salvation as a free gift”, all out of God’s love.

“Today the term ‘evangelical’ is (often) used to refer to a wide variety of more-or-less conservative Protestants. For all of their differences, Baptists, Charismatics, Calvinists, Wesleyans, and the various non-denominational ‘para-church ministries’ do stress salvation through Christ and emphasize ‘evangelism’, so the term is apt. But originally, the word ‘evangelical’ meant ‘Lutheran’. In the years following the Reformation, ‘evangelicals’ were those who followed Luther, as opposed to ‘reformed’, who followed Calvin. Even today in Europe, churches that follow a Lutheran theology call themselves not ‘Lutheran’ - a term Luther himself hated, not wanting Christ’s Church to be named after him - but ‘Evangelical’.”

“Many people today say that they are not interested in religion, with its doctrines, creeds, and institutions; but they are very interested in ‘spirituality’.” “(But) whether in the world’s organized religions or in the individual strivings of human beings to find meaning in their lives, certain patterns keep emerging. Adolf Koeberle notes three kinds of spiritual aspiration: moralism, in which the will seeks to achieve perfection of conduct; speculation, in which the mind seeks to achieve perfection of understanding; and mysticism, in which the soul seeks to achieve perfection by becoming one with God. Though all of these ways contain elements of wisdom, Lutheran spirituality is different from them all.”

“Instead of insisting that human beings attain perfection, Lutheran spirituality begins by facing up to (our) imperfection. We cannot perfect our conduct, try as we might. We cannot understand God through our own intellects. We cannot become one with God. Instead of human beings having to do these things, Lutheran spirituality teaches that God does them for us - He becomes one with us in Jesus Christ; He reveals Himself to our feeble understandings by His Word; he forgives our conduct, and in Christ, lives the perfect life for us. We do not have to ascend to God; rather, the good news is that He has descended to us.”

“Human sin, and God’s grace, are the two (opposite) poles of Lutheran spirituality. To be sure, these are intrinsic to all of Christianity, but in Lutheranism they are both heightened. They are resolved in the principle by which, it is said, the church stands or falls: justification by grace through faith.”

“The way of moralism seeks to earn God’s favor, or a satisfying life, through the achievement of moral perfection - always doing what is right, avoiding wrongdoing of every kind, keeping oneself under control by sheer willpower and a scrupulous conscience. Certainly, the desire to be good is a laudable sentiment - if it only could be accomplished.”

“Many people assume that moralism is, in fact, what Christianity is all about. Good people go to heaven, it is thought, while bad people go to hell. Christians (it is thought) are those who live morally upright lives, avoiding ‘sins’ while doing good works. (For some) this takes the form of rather small lifestyle choices - avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and other pretty pleasures - while (for others) it takes the form of working for vast ideals, righting the wrongs of society through political activism and social reform.”

“It is true that some versions of Christianity do tend towards the moralistic. (And) certainly, moralism (itself) characterizes many of the world’s religions. In Islam, (for example), every detail of life - including the food one eats, the details of family life, and the policies of government - is regulated by strict moral rules. Even non- religious people often follow the path of moralism. Animal rights activists, environmentalists, and political activists (can) tend to be just as zealous, perfectionistic, and all-demanding as the more conservative religionist.”
                                                                                         
“Moralism, however, involves a host of impossibilities and contradictions. People just do not - and, it seems, cannot - live up to their own high standards. We keep failing. Sometimes, our very attempts at moral perfection lead us to immoral actions, as when our strict rules cause us to hate, coerce, and feel superior to others.”
                                                                                         
“Moralists are often tempted to mask their failures with dishonesty or rationalization. This is why moralism is often accompanied by hypocrisy.” No less that six times in the Gospel of Matthew we see where Jesus himself addresses certain of the spiritual leaders of his day by stating: ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!’”  The problem is not only that people of the highest morals slip up. It seems that the very effort to be moralistic tends to breed harshness, pride, and even cruelty - hardly signs of being ‘a good person’,” states Veith. And I will add here - is it any wonder that so many people take great delight when seeing the public moral failings of the Jim Bakers, Jerry Falwells and Jimmy Swaggarts’ of our time? Though we cannot look into their hearts, we can all see the outward affects of sin in the lives of those who have been - correctly or not - identified with morality as religion.

No, moralism is NOT what Christianity is about. Rather, as God’s word states: “...not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy he saved us...” Titus 3:5, and again, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works.” Ephesians 2:8.

“Another approach to the spiritual life, besides moralism, is speculation.” (Veith uses the word “speculation”, which others often refer to as “Gnosticism”) - “the assumption that knowledge (and especially, supposedly hidden knowledge) is the key to spiritual fulfillment.” “Certainly, the pursuit of knowledge, like the pursuit of morality, is among the worthiest of human endeavors. And yet, as a spiritual path, it too keeps running into dead ends. Many answers have been offered (to life’s purpose and problems), but they keep changing, as the history of human thought shows. One school of philosophy is succeeded by another.” “Furthermore, human systems have a way of reflecting human desires more than objective reality. Ideologies that claim to account for everything have often become the pretext for power plays, deception, and oppression. The Enlightenment of the French Revolution gave us the Reign of Terror and Napoleon. The liberal-sounding tenets of Marxism gave us the gulags. As with moralism, the way of speculation often becomes simply another occasion for human pride, manifesting itself in an elitism that scorns ordinary people.”

Veith continues: “In my own case, I poured over books of every kind in my search for spiritual illumination. To be sure, they all contradicted each other.”

“(But) perhaps the most appealing mode of spirituality today is mysticism: attaining the ecstatic experience of becoming one with God.” “The techniques of achieving such experiences are varied, from ascetic self-denial to elaborate methodologies of meditation; but they all promise spiritual ecstasy and supernatural empowerment.” “One problem here is the fine line between the self ‘becoming one with God’ and the self becoming God.”

“All three of these conventional approaches to spirituality involve human beings’ expending strenuous effort to reach God. Koeberle says that the three approaches to spirituality are tied to the various faculties of the human mind: moralism exerts the efforts of the will; speculation exerts the efforts of the intellect; mysticism exerts the efforts of the emotions. Lutheran spirituality begins with the insight that all human effort to reach God is futile. The will, to use Luther’s term, is in bondage - not only can we not fulfill the moral law perfectly, on the deepest level, we do not want to. The intellect is in a bondage of its own, bound by it limits and tainted by the sinful will. The emotions are likewise in bondage, apt more to lead us astray than to lead us to God. Far from aascending to God, we spend most of our time trying to run away from Him.”
                                                                                         
“But God is no passive force. God is the one who is active, not human beings. The issue is not our ascent to God, but God’s descent to us. Lutheran spirituality is all about what God does. To rescue us from our miserable and depraved (fallen) human condition, He became a human being Himself. The God-man Jesus Christ accomplished the perfection moralists only aspire to and took upon Himself the punishment for everyone’s moral failures by dying on the cross.”

“When we stop speculating and look to what God Himself has to say in His Word, we find that our condition is more serious than we might have thought. The Bible indeed requires moral perfection. It holds up sublime moral truths and explores God’s radical hatred of every kind of wrongdoing. Not only does it demand perfection, it goes on to intensify what that perfection entails. Not only external actions but internal feelings and motives must be absolutely pure. Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount condemns not only adultery but lust, not only murder but (hate) - promising the same judgment for both (Matthew 5:21-30).”

“The Bible demands that we be righteous, but then tells us that ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’ (before a Holy God) (Isaiah 64:6). We learn that we are fallen, complicit in the disobedience and the curse of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). A genuine confrontation with God’s law destroys complacency, security, and every shred of self-righteousness. To be sure, one response would be to deny it all, to insist that I really am a good person, that there is nothing wrong with my vices, and that God’s Word isn’t true at all. But the Bible speaks with an authority that is difficult to evade, and in one’s heart of hearts God’s law rings true.”

“God’s law has many ‘uses’ - to restrain evil in society and to serve as a guide for the Christian life - but it’s (primary) ‘spiritual use’ is to cut through our layers of self-deception so that we realize just how lost we really are. Being helpless and utterly dependent, is precisely our spiritual condition. In biblical language, the law brings with it the ‘conviction of sin’, inspiring ‘repentance’. Admitting one’s failure - and agreeing with one’s condemnation - is the first step of Lutheran spirituality.”

“But the law is the prelude to the Gospel. Those broken by the law are convinced of their need and of their inability to save themselves. Then the message that God does it all comes as an astounding relief, as good news! Those who despair of achieving perfection by themselves can hear the message of the cross - that they can find totally free forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ - and cling to it, desperately, with every fiber of their being! Christ’s righteousness is counted as their own. The law’s demands for moral perfection are thus satisfied, vicariously, but effectively. Christ’s death counts for any punishment they deserve. They are utterly forgiven, released from fear, (and) filled with gratitude for the sheer grace of God.” And this is all received through faith.

“(This) faith is not mere intellectual assent to certain beliefs. This would be the way of speculation. Nor is it any version of ‘positive thinking’. This would be the way of mysticism. Faith, for Lutherans, is certainly not a ‘decision to accept Christ’ as it is described by later evangelicals. Making salvation a function of the will would be moralism - making salvation contingent, once again, upon what the human being does - a function of human effort, willpower, and action, in all of their actual futility.” “(Rather), faith itself is considered by Lutherans to be a gift of God, created in the human heart as His action through the Holy Spirit. Faith has to do with trust ... the assurance that, in fact, He will do it all. ‘For faith does not justify or save because it is a good work in itself’, explains Melanchthon, ‘but only because it accepts the promised mercy’. Properly speaking, it is Christ on the cross who saves. Faith is simply dependence on that sacrifice. When a Lutheran is asked ‘When were you saved?’, the answer is often something on the order of ‘about two thousand years ago, when Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead’.”

“Christianity (then) has to do not so much with a code of behavior or a system of belief or a set of experiences, but with Christ. We are saved solely by the action of God: He is the one who saves us by performing everything we could not. God caused Himself to be born as a human being. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, kept the moral law perfectly. And then, when He was being tortured to death on the cross, in perhaps the profoundest miracle imaginable, He took upon Himself every sin, every transgression ever committed, and suffered every punishment we deserve. Jesus died because the ‘wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23). More than that, when He cried out in his death agony, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46),
Jesus was experiencing the Holy God turning away from all the evil in the world - which Jesus was bearing in His body - the same withdrawal of God that constitutes hell. But then, having atoned for the sins of the world, Jesus rose again.”

“According to the terms of this mysterious exchange, all of the sin that the Christian has ever done - all of the selfishness, the hate, the secret vices, the greedy egotism that breaks out in hurting others - all of this is credited to Jesus. And killed on the cross. Conversely, Christ’s righteousness is credited to the Christian. When we come before the Holy God, He does not turn away in judgment; rather, He sees us through the lens of Christ. Our mediator claims all of our sins and has paid for them with His blood. He provides all of the good works we need, clothing us in His - not our - righteousness. This is what it means to be saved.”

“Lutheran theologians speak of ‘objective justification’. Strictly speaking, justification took place outside of ourselves, in the actual historical events of Christ’s death and resurrection. On the cross, two millennia ago, our salvation was accomplished as an objective event. Forgiveness is also objective. This is an astonishing teaching, of course. It may seem too easy, too good to be true. It is precisely ‘the good news’, the ‘Gospel’ or, in Greek, the evangel from which the first evangelicals took their name.”

“But what is the connection between our lives, here and now, and what happened on Golgotha, the hill on which Jesus was crucified? Though Christ atoned for the sins of the entire world, it is clear that not everyone has faith. If there is an objective justification, there must be a subjective justification, wherein the fact of Christ’s work on the cross has its impact in the life of an individual human being. If faith, (as mentioned above), is not a decision nor an (emotional) experience ... and if salvation is totally the work of God, it would (then) seem that faith too must be a work of God. So how do we attain a saving, life-changing faith? The answer, in Lutheran spirituality, has to do with the so-called means of grace. We are connected to Christ, and the Holy Spirit works both faith and good works in our lives by means of the Word and the Sacraments.”

First, the Word. “God is no abstract force, as in many religions, but a person. Central to every level of Lutheran theology and spirituality ... is the insight that God Himself addresses human beings through human language.” “(Some) religions look for ‘visions’ of God; other theologies expect God to manifest Himself through a particular experience. Some Christians assume the Holy Spirit communicates to them directly, as an inner impulse or a personal revelation. For Lutherans, God comes from the outside; the Holy Spirit is to be found objectively. God speaks directly and effectually to us in His Word.”

                                                                                  
“(And) why shouldn’t God also communicate and establish relationships by means of language? Not by vague intimations or mystical intuitions, but real language, with words and grammar and meanings - language that is accessible to everyone, that can be written down. The Christian’s relationship to God, like all other relationships, thrives on two-way conversations -  God speaks to the Christian who reads His Word - and the Christian speaks to God by prayer.”
                                                                                         
“Critics of Lutheranism say that, well, the Bible is a human document, written over centuries by many different human authors working in specific cultural and historical contexts. Lutherans insist that the Bible, though written by human beings, is indeed the Word of God. But the Word of God is not the Bible alone. The Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, is (also) described in that Bible as the ‘Word of God’; so that Jesus is ‘the Word made flesh’ (John 1:1-2, 14). What the pastor preaches is the Word of God. (And) every proclamation of the Gospel, whether in a sermon or a layperson’s informal witnessing to a friend, is a dissemination of God’s word. This oral word, in so far as it is the message of the Bible, is God’s Word delivered by a human voice.”

“The main difference between God’s Word and merely human words, is that God - the Holy Spirit - promises to be at work whenever His Word is spoken. ‘My word that goes out from my mouth’, says the Lord, ‘will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it’ (Isaiah 55:11). And again, ‘Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ’ (Romans 10:14, 17). And that Word, whether oral or written, en-fleshed in Jesus or preached from a modern-day pulpit, is powerful, incisive, and convicting: ‘For the Word of God is living and active.’ (Hebrews 4:2)”, and again,
‘For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:20-21). God in His direct inspiration and providential control of history, caused His Word to be put into writing. Consequently, Christians believe that ‘all Scripture is God-breathed’ ( Timothy 3:16).”

“That God’s Word is written in a book, which anyone can read whenever they want, sounds unspiritual to many people. They prefer communication with the divine to be more vague and esoteric, channeled, perhaps by some oracle, or encoded in some sort of secret riddle, or relegated to the realm of mystical experience. But Christians believe that God’s Word is (also) something tangible, written down in ink and paper, accessible and objective.”

“Human reason can figure out quite a lot about truth. The great medieval theologian, Thomas Aquinas, believed that reason can even prove there is a God (though other Christians disagree). But reason, Aquinas went on to say, cannot tell us very much about that God - what He is like, His purposes, His disposition towards human beings. For that, for knowledge of the utterly transcendent ... we need God to tell us about Himself, His works in history, His will, and what He has done to rescue us. And how can we know these things apart from their expression in human language? We are, again, utterly dependent on His Word.”

“Lutherans and other Christians agree that the Bible gives us accurate information about God’s actions in history. We would never know about the incarnation or that the atonement happened, if we could not read about them. Otherwise, these objective, historical events would dissolve into time and we would become oblivious of
them. The narratives and teachings of the Bible tell us what we need to know.”

Lutherans, however, see something else happening when we read or hear the Bible. It is a means of grace. The words of the Bible do not merely convey information, they convey the Holy Spirit. God is literally and objectively present and working, inscribing in our hearts the gift of faith.”

“The point of Bible reading is not merely to learn about God to see how we should behave, or to gain principles for successful living, though the Bible does communicate such things. To read the Bible as a spiritual venture is to be confronted, in the most personal terms, with God Himself. This confrontation is terrifying: An honest reading of God’s absolute requirements, His furious judgement against the smallest infraction, can only fill the reader with guilt, panic, and despair. (Yet) this confrontation is also healing as the reader comes to realize that this God of wrath is also the God of grace, that from the beginning He provided for sacrificial blood to cover His peoples’ sins, that He came in Jesus, that His wrath is swallowed up in the cross. As we read the history and precepts, the poetry and the narratives and the apostolic letters, we encounter the law and the gospel, through which the Spirit works to change our hearts and bind us to Christ.”

Veith continues, “I remember when I first began to read the Bible seriously. As I read the Old Testament, I was overcome with its sublimity; then later, horrified by passages such as God’s commands that the Canaanites be slaughtered. I began to realize that God was something ‘other’, someone far above my comprehension. I realized that I had been constructing God according to my preferences, positing qualities that I like and ascribing them to the deity I believed in. In effect, I was making God in my image.”

“The Word of God itself speaks of other tangible means of grace, which, by the power of that same Word, also
convey Christ and create faith. These are the sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion. Lutheran spirituality is a sacramental spirituality, centered in the conviction that the Holy Spirit actually descends in the waters of Baptism, and that Christ is really present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.” “These are astonishing claims; but they are more examples of the objectivity of God’s grace and the fact that God accomplishes everything for our salvation, and that all we need to do is to receive His gifts.”

While libraries have been filled, and Christian denominations have been created and divided on the various different understandings of the biblical teachings of these sacraments, I reluctantly - for time’s sake - must limit myself to this simple reference to them. To read more about these sacraments I refer you to page 31 and following in Veith’s book.

Moving on then, “(in some religions, such as) Hinduism, the material world is seen as an illusion spun by a demon, and to be saved means to escape the bondage of the senses and the attachment to physical existence. Christianity, by contrast, has always affirmed the religious significance of the physical.”

“The first article of the Christian creed is the doctrine of creation, in which God not only created the material universe, but saw that ‘it was very good’ (Genesis 1:31). The second article is the doctrine of the incarnation, which likewise affirms the physical realm by teaching that God Himself ‘came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and was made man.” In Christ, ‘the Word became flesh’ (John 1:14).”

“The means of grace - the Word and Sacraments - are likewise material things. The means of grace through which the Holy Spirit works in us to create faith and spiritual growth are evangelical - that is, they bear the Gospel of forgiveness through Christ. They do not work as talismans to make rains fall or business successful (though we can pray for such things). Their purpose is to communicate grace, the unmerited favor of God that grants eternal life.”

One other main area that Veith addresses in this book, and that may especially catch the attention of certain people in this room - is that of a proper understanding of the separation of church and state - or as Luther called it, the Doctrine of Two Kingdoms. “Lutheranism insists that the Christian is a citizen of two different kingdoms at once.”

“(A question and concern that is often raised is:) ‘Does the Church have the right to impose Christian morality on non-Christians?’ One way to solve the problem is to make religion and culture identical. Most of the world’s
religions are, quite directly, cultural religions. The spiritual beliefs serve to sanction social practices. In the tribal nature religions, the particular social customs are tied to the gods, explained and justified by mythological tales. In many pagan faiths, the ruler is a god, or descended from a god, and a seamless web is woven to unite nature, culture and religion into a single whole. For many people, their religion is simply a part of their cultural identify.“

“(But) whether the church tries to rule the culture or form a culture of its own, sin runs too deep. None of these schemes are ever successful. Christian monarchies succumb to corruption. Christian communes dissolve due to jealousy, personality conflicts, and overt sin. No one, including Christians, can live a perfectly moral life, much less force anyone else to. And on this fact, all attempts to enshrine a perfectly Christian culture founder.”

“Somehow, Christians must be ‘in, but not of’ - engaged in the world, while still being otherworldly. Lutherans call it the doctrine of the two kingdoms. According to this view, God does rule the culture, and God does rule the church. But He rules them in two different ways.”

“The doctrine of the two kingdoms actually frees Christians for effective action in the secular arena and untangles the dilemmas they often face in public policy. Morality, for example, is often assumed to be the main business of religion. Thus, (for example), those who oppose abortion are accused of trying to impose their religion on others. Invocations of moral principles are routinely ruled out of bounds in a nation that separates church and state. According to Lutheranism, however, morality is the main business - not of the church at all - but of the earthly kingdom. Religion, one’s relationship to God, is based not on the Law, but the Gospel; but our social relationships with each other are based on the law. God’s moral law is written on the hearts even of non-believers (Romans 2:14-15). The protection of life is the business of all governments, in all cultures; and Christians are right to oppose abortion on moral grounds. This in not imposing religion on anyone - that would have to involve forcing people to have faith in Christ, which cannot be done. (As citizens of an earthly kingdom however), Christians can work to protect life and uphold other moral principles through pragmatic tactics, cooperating with non-Christian allies, (even involving themselves in) politics, and helping pass laws.”

“Problems come when the two kingdoms are confused with each other - when the church functions like the culture, or the culture functions like the church. What is appropriate in one realm is often not appropriate in the other.” “(The church) may not lock people up who disobey its teachings. The church has absolutely no business conducting inquisitions or holy wars. Trying to ‘impose’ ones’ religious beliefs on others would indeed be a violation of the Gospel. The church, Luther insisted, may not use coercive power; (and) is not allowed to use the sword - only the Word. A war may be just and to be fought in one’s earthly vocation; but a religious war as such - the notion of conquering people for Christ - is, Luther believed, completely out of order.”

Christians, he said should suffer for their faith, following the cross of Christ, rather than defend their faith through violence. Faith is a gift of God, the work of the Holy Sprit operating through he means of grace. It cannot be imposed on anyone through some act of power or the Sword. The secular ruler, on the other hand, does employ power, the office of the sword. The lawful secular authorities - not the church - may wage war, coerce obedience, and punish wrongdoers. The secular authorities may not, however, tell pastors what to preach, or otherwise interfere with the office of the Word. They should protect the church, which will not protect itself.”

“The earthly kingdom exists to carry out the law; the spiritual kingdom exists to carry out forgiveness. Every Christian is a citizen of both kingdoms simultaneously and must function both spiritually and in the world. The Christian lives in this tension.”
In another chapter of his book, Veith makes observations on the interaction between the doctrines of sanctification and the fallen human nature. “Whether we consider growth in faith or growth in good works ... the holiness of a Christian is not always evident (from appearances)”.(As mentioned earlier under the discussion of moralism), “the failures, hypocrisies, doubts, lack of love, apathy, phoniness, egotistical pride, and secret sins of the flesh are well-documented in Christian churches.”

 “The church, in fact, often seems like a rather weak and attenuated institution. Christians, or churchgoers, often seem little different from their non-Christian neighbors. Individual Christians usually have to admit these charges in their own lives, and in fact they (we) confess them daily. Their relationship with God often seems to vacillate wildly, from times of ecstatic closeness to God to times when He seems absent - from times of spiritual energy to periods of spiritual dryness. Often, little progress is evident, just one failure, followed by a fresh start, followed by another failure. If God is really at work in the lives of Christians, shouldn’t one expect better than this?”

“Luther (explains why this is so as he) speaks of how our ‘old man’ is in conflict with our ‘new man’. The baptized, converted sinner is (indeed) given a new spiritual nature, a new life in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit - but the old sinful nature, inherent in our fallen flesh, remains. (see Galations 5:16-26).

“And then there is the fact of actual suffering. When we face failure or disease or loss of a loved one or the prospect of our own long and lingering death, we raise the agonizing question, where is God now? The prophet Isaiah - in the midst of national apostasy, political collapse, and divine judgement concludes, ‘Truly you are a God who hides himself. (Isaiah 45:15) To say God is hidden, of course, does not mean that He is absent. On the contrary, someone who is hidden is actually present, just not seen. The hiddenness of God is one of the most profound themes in Lutheran spirituality.”

(Just as) the child who is hiding in the room is certainly there ... (we cannot) judge by appearances when we experience suffering or when God seems distant or rejecting, or not real at all. Nor can we judge by appearance when considering what is happening when water, bread, and wine are used in a church service, or when the pastor reads from a book and proclaims words from a pulpit. If we were to judge from appearances, we would scarcely have thought that this Jewish carpenter is actually God in the flesh. His being tortured to death at Golgotha, judged strictly by appearance, would be repulsive, a meaningless act of cruelty. We would never guess that it was the salvation of the whole world. God conceals Himself, often in things that we would least expect - a crucified criminal, a book, water, bread, wine, a gouty pastor, trials and suffering, human beings working and raising their families.

“(Finally), in the ‘spirituality’ section of most bookstores, one will find shelves and shelves of titles offering a whole array of techniques and teachings that will solve all problems and bring us to the pinnacle of success.” Luther called this kind of self-aggrandizing, success-centered, power spirituality ‘the theology of glory’. Of course its attraction is understandable. Naturally we want success, victories, and happiness. We will be attracted to any religion that can promise us such things. We want complete and understandable answers, evidence of tangible spiritual power, all conveyed by an impressive, well run, and effective institution. Instead, God gives us the cross.” Veith continues, “I have heard that missionaries sometimes have a hard time explaining Jesus to followers of tribal faiths. ‘Our god is a great warrior”, they sometimes respond. ‘He would not let himself be killed like your Jesus.’ The theology of the cross cuts against the grain of all natural religion.”

“(Here) it must also be emphasized that the theology of the cross, while it speaks of the spiritual significance of suffering ... (is not a theology of) asceticism - the purposeful cultivation of unpleasant experiences so as to gain
spiritual merit, or some salutary mortification of the flesh.” (Rather) the suffering and death which Jesus took upon himself was the punishment required by a just God for the sins of the world. 

Seven hundred years before Christ went to the cross, the prophet (Isaiah wrote): ‘Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him , and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ (Isaiah 53:4-6)

A brief review then,

In our relationship with God, He is the one who acts. We do not seek Him; He seeks us. We notice how this is dramatized in Christ’s parable of the lost sheep recorded in  Luke 15:4-7. (Next, in our fallen nature), we do not love God; He loves us: ‘This is love’, writes the apostle John, ‘not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (I John 4:10). As in Francis Thompson’s poem ‘The Hound of Heaven”, we try to run away from God, but He pursues us, relentlessly tracking us down. Once again, instead of our ascending to God, He descends to us.    

Lutheran (spirituality) always tells struggling or doubtful Christians not to look inward - (for) to do so is to see only the sinful self - but (rather) to look to something objective and tangible: to the cross, to God’s Word, to the immutable promise of God. The confidence that those promises apply to me, that I am a Christian and have been saved, is established not by the vagaries of memories, decisions, or sensations of being elected or not, but by an objective, tangible historical event - (the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ)!

Being a Christian then is not about morality, speculation or mysticism. Rather it is about trusting in God’s love - a love that has been proven for us on the cross. And that love is for everyone; ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’

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PS:       There is so very much more worth reading in Veith’s book, for which I did not have time to include in this book report.

Ken Koehler
Director of Christian Education & Youth Ministry
St. Andrew Lutheran Church
West Fargo, ND 58078

dcekkoehler@ideaone.net