The UOJ community embraces all denominations - the older, the better. ELCA began during the first wave of Pietism, with Muhlenberg establishing the origins of the General Synod. Muhlenberg came directly from Halle University.
Much later, Bishop Stephan brought his group over so he could continue his affairs with his young female groupies. Stephan was a cell group leader and a former student at Halle University. With the bishop was his enforcer - the future pope of the Synodical Conference, CFW Walther.
Both wings of Lutherdom started at Halle University. No wonder they work well together today and sound so much alike. The LCMS did not sneak around like WELS. They voted to continue their joint ministry with ELCA. They even called ECLA and Thrivent "ministry partners" on their websty - at one point, years ago. That was not under Harrison, so it does not count. Haha.
I remember hearing a recording from the LCA where a leader denounced Evangelicals because "they do not teach grace." There was so much anger in his voice that the message has stuck in my brain ever since 1978, when the LCA was emphasizing evangelical outreach through their Word and Witness program, a pale copy of the Bethel Bible Series.
Let us suppose one of you decides to step on the Third Rail of Ecumenism and question UOJ. How will the Storm-Brownies of WELS, Missouri, and the ELS respond?
- You do not have the Gospel.
- You do not teach the Gospel.
- There is no grace in your message.
 |
| These are angry, ignorant, grace-less words. |
And grace will be said with the same quavering fury that I heard 35 years ago. What is this grace? Answer - in their minds, grace is God's universal forgiveness of sin. Any mention of faith makes it a work of man, they claim, with clenched teeth and furrowed brow. Faith cannot be contingent, which means using "if" in a statement, like this one -
KJV Romans 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. 22
And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it
was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up
Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
justification.
Lenski:
By a divine reckoning Abraham was justified; by the same, a divine reckoning, all believers are justified and in no other way.
24) Thus for our sakes, too, was it written since he is our spiritual father, and we his spiritual children “to whom it shall be reckoned.” Paul retains the summary expression. Our justification is a divine reckoning just as Abraham’s was. see v. 3 and 3:24. Shall be imputed (mellei) with the present infinitive is a periphrastic future: “shall be reckoned,” but a broad, general future that covers the entire time of the new covenant and all believers in it. Zahn calls it a timeless present. The fact that the reckoning had already been made in the case of some when Paul wrote makes no difference, for the number comprised in “us” ever increases, for they are “those believing on him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead,” who justified the faith of Abraham to the effect that he is able to do what he has promised (v. 21), he who makes alive the dead as Abraham believed regarding him (v. 17). Why the ἐπί used with πιστεύειν should denote emotion (R. 602) is unclear; it denotes the basis on which our confidence rests. That basis is the same that Abraham’s faith had.
But the promise given to Abraham’s faith has now been fulfilled. Paul mentions the crown of that fulfillment, God “having raised Jesus, our Lord (see 1:4), from the dead.” This fulfillment, as was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, is the basis of our faith as it was and as it will be, the basis for all new covenant believers. We fail to understand those who say that the death of Jesus is omitted here and elsewhere in Paul. Does not the resurrection imply the death? Is not the death implied in v. 25 and already in 3:25, “in his blood”? And “blood” (not merely “death”) means sacrificially shed blood just as “delivered up” means as a sacrifice for our transgressions. Then see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15: “died for all,” three times.
Jesus’ resurrection always includes his sacrificial death but it brings out the all-sufficiency of his death. If death had held him, he would have failed; since he was raised from death, his sacrifice sufficed, God set his seal upon it by raising him up. This is how and why Christ’s resurrection stands out so prominently in the apostolic records, and why it ever holds this position in our faith. This is also why Christ’s resurrection is denied and explained away together with anything sacrificial in regard to his death by the opponents of the gospel, by all the modernistic descendants of the moralists who were crushed by Paul in chapter 2. On the sense of from the dead and the interpretation of the phrase on the part of millennialists those interested may consult our remarks in connection with Matt. 17:10; Mark 9:9; Luke 9:7; John 2:22; Acts 3:16.
R. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, by A. T. Robertson, fourth edition.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Columbus, Ohio : Lutheran Book Concern, 1936, S. 326.
The Greek text makes the parallels even closer than what we see in English.
Not for him (Abraham) alone that it was imputed.
But for us also it shall be imputed.
For those believing in Him
Who was betrayed for our transgressions
And raised for our justification by faith. [Jackson New Living Translation, Second Edition]
There is not a repetition of the Greek word for, but a repetition of that concept, which can only be translated in that way. All this God did for Abraham, but also for us who believe in Him.
Believing is forgiveness. Believing is receiving grace, as Paul concludes Romans 4 and opens Romans 5
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God.
