Daily Forgiveness: A Lutheran Approach
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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This video is the presentation of a paper I wrote on the nature of the forgiveness of sins in relation to one's conversion. I discuss justification, forgiveness, and the sacraments.
Currently in the process of becoming Lutheran from non-denominational and your work has had a great impact on me, so thank you Dr. Cooper and God Bless!
Same for me
Thank you. God's peace be with you. Baptism now saves us, amen.
Yes. Salvation includes all aspects of the new life process: justification by grace received through faith, sanctification through this life, and final glorification.
Thank you Dr. Cooper - Please publish this paper as a book, I would gladly pay for a copy.
I’m so happy to see how much the channel has grown over just the past few months of me watching!!
We are renewed continually as John saiys in 1 John 1:7 where the Apostle uses the word, καθαρίζει
(katharizei), a verb that is present, indicative and active. And John goes on to say , ALL (πάσης pasēs), sin.
This is great I get this question all the time!
Thanks for the great content, Dr Cooper!
Love you paster bro❤
I wish I lived in a better area, too find good lutheran churches in rural Sweden is really hard.
In a country with a rich Lutheran history, that's unfortunate.
@@DrJordanBCooper Yeah, I think it is the fault of The Social Democratic party using the Church of Sweden as a tool to secularise the Swedish people.
This one was harder for me to follow but did explain a lot on how we’re both justified and sinners.
Anyway you could make that paper available to general public?
I’ve only listened once and probably will again, but unfortunately I find the Lutheran position both comforting and confusing. If we receive forgiveness of all sin, past, present, and future in baptism and that is enough why don’t we just believe that? Much like many evangelicals believe they are saved by praying the sinner’s prayer? If the answer is that we continue to sin on a daily basis I would reply that is why we needed to be forgiven of all future sin in baptism. Since that’s what Dr. Cooper says Lutherans believe about baptism why the need for absolution and the Lord’s Supper (as a means of forgiveness, not saying we shouldn’t do these things to be reminded we are forgiven)?
I get the answer will be that Scripture teaches it and I am fine with that if it is the ultimate answer. I am asking from a logical point of view and maybe it is just a mystery. However, as someone who has always struggled with assurance of salvation I am left wondering if Lutheranism really offers it. My own understanding of assurance is believing you will be saved not just that you are saved in the present moment.
If you picture the Church as a family, Baptism is the ordinary adoption into the family, sin is leaving the family, the Absolution is the clear/spoken welcome back into the family, the Eucharist is the family meal. Being in God's family ultimately is forgiveness and righteousness (because God does not abide with sin/failure), it is Eternal Life (for God is the source of Life), and it is freedom from the demonic (for Satan is cast out and bound for the Fire). On our earthly pilgrimage, Christians live as sinners who reject their sin and strive to live in Christ (sinners and justified), awaiting the full revelation of who we are in Christ, righteous, holy, glorified.
If one sins and decides to remain in it, they are choosing to reject the Family and Christ; they commit the one unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (calling the Spirit a liar, or simplistically rejecting God's forgiveness). When we read that 'God, in Christ, forgives' we understand that as opposite to 'outside of Christ is condemnation'; so if one is 'in Christ' then all sin is dealt with, if one chooses sin they reject forgiveness in Christ and so are condemned.
The assurance comes from Christ's words of promise through the Called and Ordained Minister/Pastor/Priest and in 1 John 1:5-10; James 5:14-16, the Lord's Prayer, as well as in the Sacrament of the Altar. Assurance comes through faith/trusting Christ's Word and Work, obedience (Latin = "to hearing") of His promise and command; If Christ sets you free (from sin, death and the devil), so should you be free indeed. Again, one rejects assurance and Life/Forgiveness if one rejects Christ or calls the Word, that the Holy Spirit inspired and preserved for us, lies.
Excellent point about assurance of salvation. The New Testament consistently teaches Faithfulness as the ground of assurance, not permanence. If you are being faithful and praying all the time walking with God the Holy Spirit in Christ, your doubts will evaporate. When you stop praying the doubts return. This is normal human behavior shared by all believers, who doubt and fear. The more you pray like Jesus in the garden, to the Father the better
In the NT, regeneration and justification are always a past tense event. You can't be part way born from above. Regeneration is spiritual resurrection where God grants a new heart and faith to grasp the Gospel resulting in justification.
Salvation has senses and tenses in the NT, Regeneration and justification do not.
Unwittingly, this doctrine of gradual regeneration makes faith synergistic, relying on the individual to keep themselves from apostacy. NT regeneration and faith are monergistic, God gives them, otherwise we would resist never receive the Gospel.
There is a distinction between ultimate forgiveness found in justification and the relational ongoing need of forgiveness in the Christian walk. That's why 1 John 1:8 says He is faithful and just to forgive us. The just and faithful descriptors there are because we are already united to Christ and have that covenant relationship. Forgiveness is mercy not justice, but in the context of being in relationship to Jesus, forgiveness is also justice because it is right for God to forgive because those sins are already taken away by the justification which is already applied.
We need to tell our heavenly Father we are sorry daily, but we stand in His grace. Just because I mess up doesn't mean He will cast me away. I'm His child.
John 13:10-11 ESV
[10] Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” [11] For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
One last point. There is very little assurance of salvation in this teaching of uncompleted justification. Good grief, if I have a rough week of falling down in my Christian walk i might feel like I'm unsaved by Friday until absolution on Sunday. This really puts people's hearts on shaking ground.
"John 5:24 ESV
[24] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
Believers already have eternal life and have passed from death unto life. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are truly born from above solely by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Can you share some of the primary sources for continual justification in Lutheranism? Ive been convinced that this is one place the Anglican framers of the Articles actually sided with Lutherans
The Catechisms and all through the Confessions, as well as any old Liturgy in use among Lutherans today.
There's John Kleinig's book Grace upon grace too (basically the phrase in used to mean continual justification).
Great lecture , Dr Cooper. However, I still don't understand how a christian can forfeit faith. I can see how conversion shouldn't be tied with time, but it is a complete work of God. God not only promises to forgive us but also to conform us to his son. As Romans 6 shows, He gives us a new nature (a gift of his spirit) and doesn't expect us to rehabilitate the old nature (Romans 7). Thus Just & Sinner. If His will is set upon us (externally) then how can one resist that? I was born with the propensity to sin and forfeit Gods grace as a starting point it would seem, yet God still acted upon me from outside my own will or my own "faith". He granted me or gifted me my faith and chose to continue forgiving me and conforming me. If I follow the logic of your narrative, even though you say the believer is forfeiting God's grace, aren't you also imply that God is somehow taking away His gifts and grace from us?
If I could maybe weigh in on this question of yours without taking away anything Dr. Cooper might add. First off it’s a good question. I would say that if we read the letters written in the New Testament the warnings are all over to persevere, admonitions to continue in the faith they were rooted in. The Galatians who had heard and believed the Gospel Paul preached were turning to a different message which didn’t coincide with the Gospel at all. These are the contexts of the doctrines being presented. Often the church fails at giving those contexts and settles for the definitions instead leaving only the head soothed or only creating more problems in the mind. Simply put though, if Paul urged church’s in Corinth and Galatia (just to give a couple examples) to not grow complacent (1 Cor.10) so that they wouldn’t fall away, we should also read this as warnings for us.
It’s not as though God’s grace fails with such people who fall away as Paul starts out in Romans 9, but that they rather lost out because they pursued Salvation as if it were by works, which I believe is in like v.32-36 or something of Roman’s 9 (I don’t have my Bible handy). So you see God saves us but also we are under the judgment of the ‘hardening of hearts’ which only helps us see further that we need daily repentance and a need to fall at the foot of the cross daily. Otherwise a believer WILL grow complacent and fall away. Or at least that warning is there. Hope that helps.
@@villarrealmarta6103 Thanks for responding on this. I like your thoughts and insight on this. I have read those same passages before, but I'm not entirely sure what the scripture means by "falling away" In the case of Galatians it seems to mean believers falling into confusion. And in the context of Galatians perhaps we could say confusion between the Law and the Gospel. As we Lutherans would say - the Law and Gospel distinction. I fear that many believers even in our time have fallen into confusion over this. This confusion can certainly lead to bondage and despair that the believer shouldn't have to experience. You might even argue that these commands - "don't fall away" "don't become complacent" fall into the Law / Gospel distinction. We all need to hear these commands se we can quickly fall back on the justification and grace we find in the Gospel. Don't get me wrong. I'm fully ready to follow scripture on this (however uncomfortable it makes me feel). Perhaps many things in scripture will continue to be a mystery to us. I've always loved the Lutheran approach to keep things simple and just believe scripture. But it can get confusing when we try to elaborate on scripture's meaning or insist on a unifying explanation of all scripture. Thanks again for reaching out to me!
@@fouroakscrafts7240 yes I see your concern. I don’t think God warns us in order to terrify us into worrying about if we’re really saved or not. I believe that He warns us and if we are concerned that is a good sign, only a true Christian is concerned about their eternal welfare. It should cause us to lean back on our justification through baptism, as we continue to live lives of repentance. I can’t shirk away from the strong warning language however as Paul uses in Galatians 1 where he says “if anyone turns and follows a gospel other than the one they received, let them be eternally condemned.”
That language is very clear to me what we are up against. The devil who’s like a roaring lion is roaming looking for people to devour. This is not for the unbeliever since he’s already got them. But this is for our awareness so that we will not stop living in repentance daily as we open the Word of God which alone can strengthen our faith in God’s Son.
As you said before, (in different words) there can be no confidence in our flesh, and we must rely on Christ’s merits. All of us have been baptized into Christ. And as Paul reminds us how can we therefore live in sin any longer? Our experience will tell us the battle isn’t over. We must fight on against temptation by clinging to God’s Word more and more. “Lord keep us in thy Word and work”, read that hymn for help in that. Luther knew the battle well. Our souls are always being tempted to give up Christ, when the battle gets hard against sin the devil says, “give up your foolish fight it’s all just a stupid belief, there is no God and he can’t save you.” Satan never stops, but our God is stronger than he and commands us to put our trust in Him. I would love to just talk with you about these things it would be so much easier.
@@villarrealmarta6103 Thanks for responding. These passages still puzzle me and it puzzles me as to how a true believer can fall away from God's grace. It's as if we're saying that no work is required to receive God's grace (we all agree) but then we are saying that we then can "do" something to forfeit God's grace. I can see how this would all make since if a person was never a true believer or recipient of God's grace. Perhaps it would help to discuss it with you sometime. As you may surmise my views probably lean more toward a calvinistic viewpoint, although I don't embrace all points of calvinisim. Anyway, thanks for helping me to think through this.
@@fouroakscrafts7240 I am happy to. The “mystery” that’s behind it is that we only have the power to reject God, but not the power to come to Him and believe apart from God’s grace. Paul mentions this in Romans 11 in his doxology. The judgments of God are “beyond tracing out” and “beyond our understanding.” In the end it is by grace alone that we are saved. But if we turn away and reject the truth after believing, that is the work of man. This cannot be rationalized fully which is where the danger of Calvinism developed. I’ll send you a short video that helps sort this out easier than me typing it. Let me know what you think of the answers in the video. I’ll send it in another response.
I have a question for Lutherans, so if Baptism forgives our sins past, present, and future, then how can Lutherans believe that we can lose our salvation? Wouldn’t this possibility mean that our future sins are not yet forgiven?
All sin is forgiven in Christ, if you leave Christ you leave your forgiveness (that's why St Paul constantly interjects his clauses with "in Christ" and Jesus says, if you reject Christ He will reject you before His Father in heaven)
It's in the video.
You're still thinking in terms of a one time action without continual life of faith and repentance. The sign of baptism remains on the recipient their entire life and offers the forgiveness of sins. Throughout the Christian's life, as they repent and confess their sins, that baptism confers forgiveness to the baptized. If someone falls away and refuses the grace offered in their baptism, they are not forgiven as the grace of baptism is only received in faith.
Interestingly enough almost all of this sacramental theology exists in the Reformed Tradition but refers only to the elect. So everything he's saying we affirm for the elect but not to all those baptized.
It's hard because we tend to think of salvation only in legal terms in the West. But salvation also is a medical or biological term. I.e., think Vine and Branches metaphor that our Lord uses in the Gospel of John. Sin isn't just break a law that needs to be forgiven. Sin is also disconnecting yourself from the Vine through unbelief. Romans 14:23: "Whatever is not of faith is sin". So, if you stop trusting in Christ to be your Lord and Savior, then you've in effect severed yourself as a branch from the Vine Who is Christ. What happens to branch that is severed from its Vine? It withers and dies. So, you could have your sins forgiven, but still suffer spiritual death (Hell) because you're not connected to the Lord, the Giver of Life. Sin isn't just individual acts of disobedience. And spiritual death is being separated from the Trinity. Now, maybe we can't ever be totally, fully separated from the Trinity after we're sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30) But the Orthodox view of Hell might be stated in Protestant language like: Imagine being in the Lake of Fire with all the demons, where there is torment and gnashing of teeth, and weeping, and great suffering - you're there with the Holy Spirit inside you
Maybe sell it as an e-book online.
Please tell me that you are going to eventually publish that in a book
I will at some point.
one time for all sin.
Thank God!!!
Where can this paper be found, would like to have a copy?
justification and salvation have different meanings.
Anything added to the Blood of Jesus is WORKS! Our works are filthy rags! Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Amen! Losing your SALVATION? YOU NEVER EARNED IT! ALL Jesus! The work of Christ!
So the hearing of God's Word and also Christ's Body are works?
Also you never earned your life but you can still loose it.
I'm not sure what context your shouting into, but I don't see a connection here.
One can lose a gift he didn’t earn due to carelessness, neglect, or willful rejection.
@@doubtingthomas9117How much care, attention and willful acceptance is needed to keep a gift?
@@lkae4-depends on the gift and the attitude of the person who has received it.
@@doubtingthomas9117 How did you figure out what's appropriate for what gift and what personality of which person?