One of the things that confuses people when Lutherans speak of our universal justification is that it sounds like it should flat out end up in universalism. And how on earth do we hold together what we teach about God having forgiven and absolved the world through the suffering and death of His Beloved Son together with what our Catechism teaches us about the office of the keys forgiving and retaining sin?
The key is "in Christ." Romp through St. Paul's writings sometime and gather up all the goodies that he speaks of as yours "in Christ." In Christ, the sins of the world have been forgiven. In Christ, there is pardon for all. In Christ, you are beloved and welcomed and wanted by God. In Christ, you have been made his joint-heir and you will share in all His glory. In Christ.
But outside of Christ, in this world as it is, it remains under wrath, headed to death, to hell, to destruction. It sealed its fate when it rejected its own life: Christ!
Thus our entire plea as Church is to call to those outside of Christ and urge them to abandon the attempt to find life and hope and meaning in this world as it is. It's a dead end road. To call them instead to find in Christ, in the Man who was crucified for our sins and raised for our justification a life beyond anything anyone of us could ever have dreamed possible.
Inside Christ, in union with Him, there is a world bigger the entire universe outside of Him. He came among us, bled and died and then rose again to bring our humanity into that biggest of all worlds. He is the new Adam and the whole race is recapitulated, re-headed, in Him.
In the Last Battle, Lewis gets the hang of it exactly. There, inside a stable, is a world bigger than the world outside it - an outside world that is literally falling to pieces, filled with sadness and death and deception. The stable didn't look that impressive. Rather ugly even on the outside. It wasn't until you stepped through into a new world that everything began to change and you could see what really is. And from inside, you could look out the door at the falling apart world from which you had come. The Church is this stable. The Church is what it means to be "in Christ." To be joined in saving faith to Him and to find in union with Him a life and a world whose horizons you can scarcely begin to explore now, but which will be our joyful home for all eternity - an eternity of never ending growth and joy in Christ.
In Christ. It's the key to everything.
Or, justification is not justification except for being "in Christ." Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Father. By the bye, I really missed drinking our Christmas ale together this year. You headed down south anytime soon?
ReplyDeleteNicely said.
ReplyDeleteI did too. We did drive by after Christmas this year but it was one of those quick trips. Our time in St. Louis was brief and most of the time was in parts of Missouri further south and west. Hopefully, it works out sometime in the summer months, if not sooner.
ReplyDeleteFr. Weedon,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, your little posting is filled with fear. "Be in Christ or else!" I know, and you know, the fullness of Truth is to be found only in our Lord and in His Holy Church and we are called to make disciples of all nations, but not like this. And your statement is filled with certainty for what awaits them should they not be "in Christ" during this earthly life. We don't know what will await them. should we continue to tell them the Truth? Of course, but we should not do so saying "or else." What love abounds in that?
Forgive me if I took too much out of context or missed the larger point.
Dear Dr. Palo,
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed fear to be found outside of Christ; we all should fear that. But far outweighing any fear is the joy that is found INSIDE of Christ, and that is what ultimately is the great attraction of the Church's witness. Fear there is, but it definitely takes a back seat to the desire that others share in the joy that we have in the Savior - in the world that He opens up for us.
P.S. Said in the words of our Lord:
ReplyDeleteWhoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
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ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this, Pastor Weedon. I like your reading of Lewis. I offer in return, this of Augustine's "And so, Christ’s servants, whether they are kings, or princes, or judges, or soldiers, or provincials, whether rich or poor, freemen or slaves, men or women, are bidden, if need be, to endure the wickedness of an utterly corrupt state, and by that endurance to win for themselves a place of glory in that holy and majestic assembly, as we call it, of the angels, in the Heavenly commonwealth, whose law is the will of God.”
ReplyDeleteNot to nit-pick C.S. Lewis (one of my all time favorite authors), but are the dwarves in the barn "in Christ" or not? They were the ones who chose to not see what was in front of their eyes, or hear what was happening, and yet they were still in the stable, weren't they?
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm thinking too much at such a late hour...
Former Vicar
Ah, the dwarves! They perfectly illustrate for us TWO things:
ReplyDelete1. You can be physically within the Church without being TRULY in the Church - i.e., still blind to her true life.
2. The pointlessness of God bringing by force into the Kingdom those who have not been prepared to enjoy it. St. Nicholas Cabasilas put it exactly so: "But if the life to come were to admit those who lack the faculties and senses to enjoy it, it would avail nothing for their happiness, but they would be dead and miserable living in that blessed and immortal world."
Thank you, Kiran, A wonderful St. Augustine quote!
ReplyDeleteIt is true that perfect love casts out all fear (and fear deals with punishment) - but we only receive, we only are made part of the perfect love through and in Christ. In Christ who makes perfect our love we have confidence in the day of judgment - apart from Christ and God's love, there is nothing that man can have but fear.
ReplyDeleteI love 1 John, it's such a great book.
It is indeed, Pr. Brown! I love it too - the more so as the years go on.
ReplyDeleteIn this too we see the exclusivity of Christianity. We dare to proclaim that there is LIFE in no one else - that that gift that is most certainly FOR ALL is present ONLY in Christ and thus both the scandal and the joyful announcement of our faith. "How can you say that you alone are right?" "We don't; we say that in the Man who alone rose from the dead incorruptible there is life that no death can touch; forgiveness bigger than all sin; and a welcome for all. We say all this is in Him and is only in Him."
I know a nice little magazine that has an entire issue devoted to this one topic, "In Christ." If you want to read it, call 1-800-778-1132. Ask for Issue #14. Thanks for the post, Pr. Weedon.
ReplyDeleteNow when I quote the Last Battle, people call me a heretic. What have you got that I don't?
ReplyDeleteOn second thoughts don't answer that.
Jack,
ReplyDeleteIt MIGHT have to do with what parts of Last Battle we quote rather than our persons... :) Hope you are doing well, my favorite Englishman!
I have no problem with the dwarves...although I appreciated your spelling out their significance.
ReplyDeleteI've been challenged by the young character who thought he was worshipping Tash all his life, but was accepted by Aslan.
A bit of univeralism there?
Is that the heresy?
Helen
Helen, I had the same thought when I read the Last Battle. I detected a little bit of universalism there too. There is this sense that even though he did not know the name of Aslan, he knew Aslan by another name. That is there in the first book too, with the old man who knew Aslan from another world (earth) though he did not know his name. Otherwise, I loved the books.
ReplyDelete