It can be helpful, at times, to step back from in-depth exegesis and examine the broader narratives contained in God’s Word. This exercise can reveal profound truths. Among many profound truths is this: God wants us to trust in His promises. All of them. God wants His promises to be our singular source of certainty.
We often understand Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac as an example of obedience. Instead, the writer of Hebrews tells us that we should understand Abraham’s actions as a manifestation of his great faith. See, God had already promised Abrham that he would have a great multitude of descendants and that this promise would be fulfilled through Isaac. Abraham knew that God keeps His promises. Abraham’s source of certainty was God’s promises rather than his personal observation about the finality of death.
As stated by John the Baptist, if we have two cloaks and our neighbor has none, we should give our second cloak to our neighbor. But why? True, it helps our neighbor in need, but it also helps us. Having one cloak requires trust in God’s promise to protect and sustain us instead of the illusionary certainty of a second cloak. Whatever the source of our fear, love, and trust—our certainty—that is our god.
In the LCMS, our second cloak is insisting on massive budget surpluses and stockpiling unprecedented returns from endowments in times of great abundance for fear of future scarcity. The wisdom of men tells us that culling “underperforming” campuses, ministries, and other institutions will preserve and protect our church body. God promises us that He will preserve and protect His Church forever. As we sell off the great institutions of the LCMS—institutions built by the wise and courageous believers in God’s promises, our forefathers who crossed vast oceans, traveled untamed rivers, and traversed countless miles of rudimentary roads to spread and practice their faith—senior leaders of our church would have us put our trust in swollen bank accounts; even as our Kingdom-expanding institutions atrophy and die.
Placing our certainty in the material is a product of our fallen, sinful nature. It is a sin as old as sin itself. We have an innate desire to control our fate. We are compelled to define truth according to our own reason. In so doing, we attempt to be our own god. Not even St. Paul was immune from this. We sometimes imagine that St. Paul became a fully-formed proclaimer of the pure Gospel on the road to Damascus. One would assume that encountering the crucified, risen, and fully glorified God of the universe would be more than enough to put his trust in His promises. Even for St. Paul, it wasn’t. In Athens, St. Paul fails to plant a church because he insists on appealing to the reason of the Athenians instead of simply and clearly preaching God’s Word. Between Athens and Corinth, Paul repents:
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
God calls us, His saints, from a sinful life of foolishness and fear into a regenerate life of wisdom and courage. The wisdom to which we are called is none other than trusting in the certainty of His promises. In every possible way, this wisdom God grants to us is foolishness according to our own reason. The courage our certainty imparts is ridiculed and mocked by the world. These precious gifts of wisdom and courage are the same gifts the Holy Spirit imparted to the earliest martyrs, the Church Fathers, our LCMS forefathers, and to us even now.
So, like St. Paul, let us repent. Let us trust in the Lord our God. He will preserve His Church forever.
Almighty and most merciful God, we believe; help our unbelief. Grant us the wisdom to trust in the certainty of Your promises, and the courage to act with a boldness befitting heirs to Your Kingdom. Grant that by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened for Your service. We pray these things, and whatever else we may need according to Your will, in the name of Your beloved Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
SDG!