An Objective Faith

Most of American religious life encourages people to look for God within themselves; to go deeper inside until they find that experience that satisfies. When you find that subjective thing deep down inside that scratches whatever spiritual itch one may have – you have found God! This is not just the mantra of a New Age guru, it is increasingly the message of American evangelicalism. Finding that “personal relationship with God” or “making Jesus Lord of your life” has become the task of the believer on his or her spiritual journey. Two things are wrongs with this scenario – 1. Everyone already has a personal relationship with God, and 2. God has already made “this Jesus whom you crucified,” as Peter preached on Pentecost, “both Lord and Christ.”

There are only two kinds of people – those “in Adam” and those “in Christ.” Both kinds of people have a very “personal” relationship with God. Those created by God of Adam’s fallen race know Him in judgment and wrath. Those re-created by God through Christ know Him as Lord and Savior in Jesus. The people “in Christ” did not find Him within themselves. It was God in Christ who came to them, in time, in history, in flesh, on the cross, to die for their sins and be raised again for their justification; it was God who condescended to sinners to save them from the outside in by the preaching, hearing, and believing of the Gospel of God. The “Good News” is a message of what God has done to satisfy His own justice by pouring the full measure of judgment and wrath on Jesus in order to save those who were enemies and haters of God dead in trespasses and sin. To paraphrase Luther, the Gospel is outside of us!

Therefore, when you come to worship on the Lord’s Day your hope will not be found within you, within your heart or experience. The hope of the Christian on the Lord’s Day is found in objective faith in Christ through “ordinary means” apart from ourselves. Christ is our worship leader through Word and Sacrament; He speaks through ink, paper, water, bread and wine; “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone . . .” our high priest forever. Our Righteousness is in heaven!