DM-931: Preaching Law and Gospel Guidelines for preaching sanctification

Benjamin C. Squires benjamin@musicspectrum.org

Bibliography
Barth, Karl. "Cardinal Principles of Lutheranism and 'Evangelical Theology'." Concordia Journal, March 1981: 50-57. Fesko, J.V. "Preaching as a Means of Grace and the Doctrine of Sanctification: A Reformed Perspective." American Theological Inquiry, January 15, 2010: 35-54. Kolb, Robert and Charles P. Arand. The Genius of Luther's Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. Loy, David. "What the Gospel Does: Three Ways of Applying the Gospel Correctly." Concordia Journal, Winter 2010: 21-31. Nafzger, Samuel H. "Growing in Christ." Concordia Journal, November 1982: 206-213. Saleska, Timothy. "The Two Kinds of Righteousness: What's a Preacher to Do?" Concordia Journal, April 2007: 136-145. Warneck, Richard. "Notes on Preaching Sanctification." Councordia Journal, January 1999: 56-64.

Guidelines for Preaching Sanctification

1. Recognize the need for the preaching of sanctification. There is one thing the preacher knows: his people are being shaped every day in ways that negate the way of the Lord, that is, in ways that deny what it means to be human as God intended (Saleska, 142). With that, Timothy Saleska offers a very pointed reminder of the need for preaching sanctification. People do not live in an input vacuum. If they are not hearing Gods direction, they are hearing how to live according to the worlds desires. Therefore, the preacher first recognizes the need for the preaching of sanctification and Gods direction. As Christians, we desire to know Gods direction. Again, Saleska: [The Law] is also a delight because it shows us what God wants us to do, and it echoes the delight of our new hearts! (Saleska, 143). 2. Preach the Gospel. Yet, before we jump right into preaching sanctification goals, we would best remember that the new life is birthed from hearing the Gospel in its fullness. Therefore,

in order to preach towards sanctification, one must preach the Gospel. Would we have our congregations to be zealous for good works, on fire for Christ, good stewards of Gods gifts to themthen we should follow the Scripturally informed advice of Dr. Francis Pieper: Learn to preach the Gospel (Nafzger, 212). It is encouraging to find this same focus from a Reformed perspective in J.V. Feskos Preaching as a Means of Grace and the Doctrine of Sanctification, an article that does well in distinguishing Law and Gospel. Fesko stresses that the power for sanctification comes through Gospel preaching: In the preaching of the Scriptures, preachers must set Christ and him crucified before their congregations every time they mount the pulpit. It is only in the encounter with the resurrected and ascended Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures and through the preaching that the performative power of the word is brought to bear upon Gods people, the corporate communion of the saints (Fesko, 48). 3. Distinguish between the indicatives and imperatives. We turn again to Feskos Reformed article for this surprisingly succinct distinction between Law and Gospel where a preacher pays close attention to grammar as the guide for distinguishing command and promise. This grammatical approach emphasizes that sanctification preaching (imperatives) flows out of the indicatives. [T]he indicative tells us who we are in Christ, and the imperatives tell us how we are to live.In fact, the imperative always follows the indicative by way of a conclusion, with thus, or therefore (Fesko, 49, emphasis original). Of course, this grammatical distinction is not original to Fesko. Samuel Nafzger said: [E]verywhere in the Scriptures we see that Gods indicative is always followed by

a therefore. Because of what God has done for you in Christ, therefore be who you are! (Nafzger, 212). However, I am glad for Feskos emphasis on this distinction, because it marks a very helpful and true approach to preaching, especially on the Epistles, which often work with such order of indicative therefore imperative. When considering this order, [the preacher] grounds his exhortations on the work of Christ and on promises about the coming salvation that awaits Gods people (Saleska, 145). 4. Sanctification is not a prerequisite for justification. The indicative therefore imperative order points to another guideline: sanctification is not a prerequisite for justification. Yet how careful we must be that we do not use this exhortation as some kind of prerequisite for finding the favor of God or as something that precedes saving faith or as that which constitutes conversion(Barth, 54). Barth, then, references Walthers Law and Gospel: It is His glory that men say of Him: Jesus receives sinners. He is not to become a different being, he is not to become purified, he is not to amend his conduct, before coming to Jesus. He who alone is able to make him a better man is Jesus; and Jesus will do it for him if he will only believe (ads quoted in Barth, 55). 5. Affirm the new life in Christ. Rather than seeing sanctification preaching as coming out of the command language with its prohibitions and directives, Warneck encourages the proper sense of being when approaching such preaching. The verbalizing of shall and shall not gives places to affirming the new life in Christ (Warneck, 63). In other words, we celebrate the persons that God has made us to be in Christ and celebrate the way we live as those new creatures. To be a human being as God created us to be, a perfect

human specimen, involves being totally passive, as a newborn child of God, and totally active, as a responsible neighbor to other people and to the whole of Gods world (Kolb and Arand, 30). David Loy describes preaching toward invitation whereby a sermon draws in the hearer to see what it means to be a new creation. The sermon begins with the Gospel as it serves as an invitation to turn away from sin and its wages and to live in the blessings of the forgiveness which our Savior won for us through his death and resurrection (Loy, 26). A sanctification goal in a sermon is not another command; Loys focuses on the way a sermon can affirm the new life. [T]he Gospel proclaims the new reality God creates for us. The Gospel functions as the invitation to live in that reality, and the Gospel actually opens the sin-blinded eyes of the heart to the invitation (Loy, 26). 6. Affirm active righteousness without compromising passive righteousness. Finally, sanctification preaching affirms active righteousness without compromising passive righteousness. The passive righteousness of faith provides the core identity of a person; the active righteousness of love flows from that core identity out into the world (Kolb and Arand, 26). As the preacher wraps up his sermon, he points once again to the righteousness won for us by Christ while still highlighting the sanctification goal. The active righteousness of daily life as recovered by Luther carves out the necessary theological space to speak positively about life in this world and all that preserves our lifewhether law, works, or human reasonin a way that does not compromise the passive righteousness of Christ (Kolb and Arand, 76).