Super Lutheran...Continued

This past weekend, I preached on Philippians 3 (you can check out the sermon here).

To try to effectively communicate the reality that resumes and pedigrees don't matter...Jesus does...I declared that I was a super Lutheran.  I talked about how I was raised in the church, how I went to a Lutheran university, a Lutheran seminary, and secretly have Luther's seal on my rear end (ok...that part isn't true, but you get the point).  I am a super Lutheran.  And yet...

And yet...it doesn't matter.  I consider it all rubbish compared to knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.  Resumes don't matter.  Jesus does.  We need to be careful not to overlay a moralistic, "Jesus + anything" standard to our identity.  We belong to Jesus because He claimed us in the waters of baptism.  That is it!  Nothing else!

This message seemed to resonate with a LARGE number of people.  I have heard about it all week.  They appreciated the call back to God's grace (through faith).   They appreciated the simplicity of Jesus and the stripping away of that which demands obedience and thus competes with the gift of God's grace.  It (apparently) was a powerful word from the Lord.

But something about it has unsettled me all week...

This is not a blank check.  This is not a case of "Now that I have God's grace I get to do whatever I want."  Grace is a gift.  Jesus is all that matters.  However, I want to be clear, God does have something to say about how we should live as His people.  He does.  The key is understanding the order of things.

We do not apply a moral overlay to God's grace.  His grace is enough.  It is awesome, powerful, and sustaining.  It is also, transformative.  Our new identity in Christ allows us to realize that God's way is always better.  His plans for us are better.  Thus, we desire to follow His ways.  We study His law.  We reflect on how He desires for us to live.  We strive to honor Him.  We start with His grace and the identity as new creations that it bestows...then we seek to live out that new identity.  This isn't a blank check.  It isn't "cheap grace".  It is, however, powerful.  The key is in understanding the difference between our desires and our attempts to create an alternate morality...and God's will for our lives.

Here is a secret:  God's ways and His will for our lives are always better...