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The House of God and the Gate of Heaven |
For Luther wherever the Word is heard, there is the church, for it is God's Word that establishes the church. The church is not confined to a place or persons, but it will be and exist, wherever the Word is.Wherever God speaks, there the church is and heaven is open. There is no reason for a person to run here and there or withdraw into a corner. One need only look in faith at the place where the Word and sacraments are. "Direct your step to the place where the Word resounds and the sacraments are administered, and there write the title THE GATE OF GOD" (LW 5:247). As we gather at these external places to hear a sermon delivered through a human voice and gather at temples built of stones and wood to receive the sacraments, we must always remember that here is the house of God and the gate of heaven. The great danger for the church, warns Luther, is our sleeping eyes and dull ears (LW 3:155) whereby we slight these "faces of God." This is what happened to the carnal descendants of Abraham who despised the visible signs of their generation (circumcision) and devised their own way. | |
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The Bed Is Too Narrow |
Wherever the Word is, there Satan is active and seeks to spread false teaching by corrupting the Word of God in such a way that men doubt the goodness of God (LW 1:147-148). Under the appearance of God Satan, through false teaching, seeks to rob people of God as he fabricates a new god who exists nowhere.Therefore it is important that the church maintain and remain firm in its adherence to pure doctrine. If we want to have and be a church, it must not be polluted and commingled with any satanic doctrine. THE BED IS TOO NARROW, observed Luther, for Christ and Belial to remain together. Consequently, one of the two falls out and the short cloak cannot cover both (LW 5:246). | |
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Larvae Dei and the Harlot at the Gate |
Man cannot ascend to God. Therefore God, in His mercy, ordained to put before us an image of Himself so that He could be grasped (LW 2:46). In His incarnation, and in the visible signs of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, God deals with us within the range of our comprehension. In these images, we see and meet a God whom we can bear (LW 2:48).These are the common and public appearances for all Christians and in these Larvae Dei, God Himself is present. Therefore, "those who believe the promise [of the Blessed Seed] and make use of the signs become the people of God and are saved" (LW 3:110). These signs are also given so that the lost might be attracted to Him and obtain salvation to those who make use of them in faith. In contrast to these fatherly appearances of God, the harlot at the gate looks for more attractive externals which appeal to reason and the human eye (LW 3:108). Satan ignites many new lights, all of whom presume to show the people the right way to heaven. These false lights began with Marcion and have concluded with the papacy whose light shines like manure in a lantern (LW 22:58). Because Christ's presence is concealed, reason and the flesh reject these signs and devise new ones. It is only by faith, acquired through the Word, that one is able to force his way through the darkness and see the Light (LW 30:267). Larvae Dei are the agents ordained by God to direct us to the Light (LW 22:66). Thus, "we shall be safe from these dangers [of the world, the flesh and the devil] if we follow that visible form or those signs which God Himself has set before us. In the New Testament we have as a visible form the Son of God on the lap of His mother Mary. He suffered and died for us, as the Creed teaches. Besides, we have other visible forms: Baptism, the Eucharist, and the spoken Word itself. Therefore we cannot complain of having been forsaken (LW 3:108-109). | |
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The Marks of the Church |
"Thank God," Luther wrote in the Smalcald Articles, "a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd." So children pray, "I believe in one holy Christian church." Its holiness does not consist of surplices, tonsures, albs, or other ceremonies of theirs which they have invented over and above the Holy Scriptures, but it consists of the Word of God and true faith (Tappert 1959:315).Luther was accused by Eck, and others, of radical individualism in his attack and reform of the church. This, however, is not so. Luther urged reform on the basis of who and what the church truly is, namely, "where the Word is, there is faith; and where faith is, there is the true church" (LW 39:xii). The church is a holy, Christian people who are both a hidden community (LW 41:211) and a visible fellowship gathered around the marks of the church. Luther stressed that the certain mark of a Christian congregation is wherever the pure Gospel is being preached (LW 39:305). The true marks by which a person can find the church are: (1) the Word of God, (2) Baptism, (3) Lord's Supper, (4) Keys or Absolution, (5) called ministers, (6) prayer and worship, and (7) the sacred cross. For Luther, the primary distinction between the true and the false church is that the true, ancient, apostolic and evangelical church is built upon grace whereas the false church is built on works (LW 41:213). | |
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