God's Word for You (Monday, Oct 6, 2008)
A Daily Online Devotion by Pastor Tim Smith
Philippians 3:15-16
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (NIV)
When Paul says “such a view of things,” he is talking about the view that we struggle to serve God, knowing that we have a place in heaven (Philippians 3:12-14). But Paul knows that Christians will have different ideas about what the Bible means. God will clear these things up as he communicates with us. Since God communicates to us through his word, we will find the answers to our differences there, in the Bible.
One of Luther’s former students said:
“This is a very necessary and firm rule: Not to accept any doctrine which is not revealed by God; and that such doctrine must agree and accord with the doctrine of faith in the Lord Jesus. Where such a revelation does not agree with the doctrine, it is not to be thought a revelation of God, but a delusion of the evil one; it matters not what miracles may accompany it.” —Veit Dietrich, early Lutheran pastor, pupil and chronicler of Martin Luther
What if the Bible doesn’t give us a clear answer about something we disagree about? For example (I’ll pick something minor), in Genesis 7:2, God instructs Noah to take not only “two of each animal, male and female” (Genesis 6:20), but seven of each kind of clean animal, “a male and its mate.” In both Hebrew and English, there is a question in this passage: Does God mean that there should be seven of each clean animal, or seven pairs of each clean animal? The Bible doesn’t go into any great detail about this apart from these verses, and it could very well go either way. In truth, Noah himself didn’t have to worry about it, since the animals “came to Noah” on their own (Genesis 7:9), at the command of God.
Such things we can describe as open questions, because there is no clear answer. But there is no question at all about how we are saved. Jesus rescued us from our sins, and he is “the end of the Law” (Romans 10:4). Through him, we have the promise of heaven—and there’s no question about that at all.
Veit Dietrich (1506-1549) was a student of Martin Luther and was the scribe who wrote Luther’s words down as dictation during lectures—many of these sets of notes became published as part of Luther’s Works. He later served as pastor of St. Sebaldus Church in Nuremberg. He died young, just three years after Luther himself. Many of his prayers (called collects) are still used in Lutheran churches in America today.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn's father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
