I think this relates to your previous discussion of sermon length. The pressure for short sermons reduces all sermons to 2nd use of the law plus Gospel. I for one would not preach renewal without preaching both 2nd use and Gospel. With time constraints the renewal of the Holy Spirit can seem like extra baggage to be edited out of our sermons. I know this is wrong and I appreciate your rebuke and challange to bring Pentecost and 3rd use of the law into our preaching.

I’m more used to the Reformed debates surrounding this topic. There is SOME debate going on in Reformed circles about how sanctification and justification relate to one another. Some advocate what they call the duplex gratia (double grace) where Christ procures not only justification, but definitive sanctification, whereby we are translated from the domain of sin to the realm of the eschatological Spirit. Our progressive sanctification is therefore grounded in this double grace i.e. that we are forever justified and positionally sanctified.

On the other hand, others (like Mike Horton) argue that justification is a verdict that accomplishes what it says. In other words, when God declares us “righteous” on account of Christ’s active and passive work, it is a word which can’t help but effect what it pronounces; it creates new creatures and light out of darkness. Sanctification is therefore a progressive conformity to the unalterable righteousness we have in Christ.

Would I be correct in suggesting that the Lutheran position is closer to the second option?

I fear that these “circles” you mention are bigger than we think. The origin of these circles can be traced right back to our seminaries. Before I go any further, I truly believe our seminaries are the best in the world, but they are not perfect. Some of our professors were exposed and schooled during the beginnings of the liturgical renewal movement. When you read some of the things written during that time by the professors, they openly critisized the “Old Missourians” as pietists. Openly critisized preachers such as WAM I and those who came before them.

I believe the other element to this is just an over reaction to the American evangelical movement, which I can understand. Many of our good confessional guys came out of this mess, and just cringe when the subject of santification comes up. Which again, I can fully understand.

Our laity not only need to hear about our justification again and again, which the first priority, but we need to know what good works are. We don’t just don’t dream them up out of thin air. They come from scripture and that needs to be also proclaimed from our pulpits and gleaned from our personal devotions. Biblical ingnorance is rampant in our synod and acrossed other denominations. If they don’t hear about our justification and santification from our pulpits, where else are they going to hear about it? Satan and the world of men are waiting to give their answers.

During my vicarage my bishop used to remind me that if we don’t teach them about Christian lives, Kenneth Copeland and the likes will.

I figured a Pentecost preacher is one who preaches the article of the creed in this way (quote below, if I may pit Luther against Luther). In the church we live in continuous repentance receiving the continuing forgiveness, all the while trying to stop sinning. The new life we are quickened into is one that tries to do the right thing, with various and varying results. Sorry if this seems like lecturing. I just read all these passages.

“Now this is the article of the Creed that must always be and remain in use. For we have already received creation. Redemption, too, is finished. But the Holy Spirit carries on His work without ceasing to the Last day. For that purpose He has appointed a congregation upon earth by which He speaks and does everything. For He has not yet brought together all His Christian Church (John 10:16) or granted all forgiveness. Therefore, we believe in Him who daily brings us into the fellowship of this Christian church through the Word. Through the same Word and the forgiveness of sins He bestows, increases, and strengthens faith. So when He has done it all, and we abide in this and die to the world and to all evil, he may finally make us perfectly and forever holy. Even now we expect this in faith through the Word.

…These article of the Creed, therefore, divide and separate us Christians from all other people on earth. Even if all people outside Christianity–whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites–believe in and worship only one true God, they still do not know what His mind toward them is and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him. Therefore, they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy Spirit.” (Large Catechism)

To pit Luther against Luther a little bit more, he says things with different nuances about holy living. Nothing really contradicts, however.

“He who does not go forward on the way of God, goes backward; and he who does not continue to seek, loses what he had successfully sought; for there is no standing still on the way of God, and ‘when we begin not to want to become better, we cease being good, ‘ as st. Bernhard says.

Emphasis on WANT to become better. Sometimes, often, and maybe as we get older and more feeble, even less and less able,–we don’t become better, however, we try and WANT. There has to be consolation for this.

But also ” I recall that Staupitz used to say: more than a thousand times have I promised god that I would be better, but I have never kept my promise. Hereafter I shall promise no such thing, for experience has taught me that I cannot keep the promise. Therefore if God is not appeased and gracious to me for Christ’s sake and will not grant me a welcome and happy little hour when I must leave this miserable life, I shall not be able to be steadfast with my promises and all the good I have done. This was not only a sincere but also a godly and holy despair which all who would be saved must confess with mouth and heart. ”

And: “When we shall finally stop lying, deceiving, stealing, murdering, robbing, committing adultery, we shall have become pious, that is, when they use the shovel to put us under ground. For Paul says: ‘He that is dead is freed from sin’”.

There are many people who have come to genuine Lutheranism from exactly this demand to be able to show a changed life, who have been deeply wounded and damaged by this teaching not kept in its proper place. It must always be stated vary carefully in balance to the right person at the right time.

I think Matthew Harrison handles this very well in the “Christ have mercy. How to put your Faith in Action.”

Sorry, “ringheim” is Brigitte.