With Luther, our ultimate concern is for the gospel. As evangelical Lutherans, we want the good news of righteousness through faith in Christ presented clearly and widely, for the glory of God as the one who loves sinners and for the benefit of human beings. When it comes to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, for example, it is good to keep in mind how we came to believe that the Bible is the very Word of God. The Spirit of God introduced Christ to us as the gift of the Father’s love for sinners. By the message of righteousness through faith in Christ, the Spirit formed saving faith in our hearts. And now we believe what the Bible says about itself. Notice the order. Faith in Christ comes first, then the conviction that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. In short, we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, without error, because the Scriptures bring Christ to us. Therefore, rather than trying to convince an unbeliever, as the first order of business, that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, we want to proclaim Christ to her. When the Spirit forms faith in her heart through the message of Christ, he will have opportunity to change her view of the Scriptures, too.
There’s a lesson there, too, when it comes to visible Christian churches that speak at odds with the Scriptures. Our concern is the gospel, not pure doctrine for pure doctrine’s sake. The goal isn’t to prove that we are right or that we teach what the Bible teaches, but to preserve a place for the preaching of the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. For instance, there are Christian churches who affirm homosexual marriage as a God-pleasing way in which people attracted to others of the same gender may live in a relationship of love and trust. The confusion over sexuality within the visible church calls us to action. The first action is to pray for those who have been deceived by the devil’s cunning. As we pray that the Lord would open their eyes to what he says in the Scriptures, we would rightly express our thanksgiving that the Lord graciously broke through and taught us the truth. That we know the truth about marriage is not because we are smarter or better than others, but only because the Lord is merciful. If it weren’t for the Lord’s grace, we would think and act at odds with everything God says.
After praying, by which we are reminded that we are merely instruments in the hands of the one who guides all things, we rightly take a stand. We need to confess what the Scriptures say, that marriage is for one man and one woman and that God’s initial design for human sexuality still stands. Our goal in doing so is not primarily to ensure that people do the right thing and live the right way.[1] It’s not to prove that we, unlike other church bodies, are faithful to the Scriptures and that we teach God’s Word in its truth and purity. Nor do we take a stand to demonstrate that, unlike “those” churches that teach “those things,” we put a priority on pleasing God, not human beings. Instead, we confess God’s design for human sexuality for the sake of the gospel. When natural law is obliterated, then the gospel seems unnecessary. If people do not recognize that they are accountable to God or realize how often they have transgressed God’s commands and how their sins reveal their depravity, then they will feel no need for the righteousness that God gives through faith in Christ. Once people learn how to dismiss natural law in one area of life, they become increasingly adept in dismissing it in other areas, too. And then the gospel seems superfluous to them. As we follow in the footsteps of the Reformer, we want to take a stand for the sake of the gospel. We want Christ to be magnified in people’s hearts and that happens when the Spirit convicts people of sin and convinces them that the righteousness of Christ covers their sin. This is not to suggest that keeping the preaching of the gospel as our primary goal guarantees that people will never again accuse us of being unloving, narrow-minded, or homophobic. It may, however, help us from focusing on proving ourselves right.
[1]. While it is not our primary goal as the Church (either “gathered” as a body of believers or “scattered” in our individual situations and stations in life) to ensure that people submit to natural law and live upright lives, we can think of it as an ancillary task. Both individually and corporately (as congregations and a synod), we rightly work to help preserve order in our society, out of love for our neighbor and, additionally, so that we can continue to have the freedom to preach the gospel, again out of love for our neighbor. In 1 Tim 2:1–4, as the Apostle Paul encourages us to pray for those in authority, that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives, he makes a connection between a civil society and the preaching of the good news that is the mission of the church. When the government does its God-given job of providing peace and safety, Christians can freely speak of the God who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. God’s people can be part of the Lord’s answer to their prayers for the welfare of society as, for instance, they help promote obedience to natural law regarding sexuality, by their personal example, their engagement in the community, and their support of marriage as God designed it. It’s only when the gathered people of God (e.g., a congregation or church body) think of that as the church’s primary responsibility, rather than an ancillary task, that it becomes detrimental.