Luminescence, Volume 2. C. K. Barrett
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against the system of indulgences by means of which, by task performed and money paid, people were taught that they would receive remission of penalties for sin itself. It was not simply a protest against the Pope. The Castle Church itself contained (so it was believed) a thorn from the crown of thorns, a tooth of St. Jerome, four pieces of St. Chrysostom, six of St. Bernard, four of St. Augustine, four hairs of “our Lady,” a piece of the swaddling clothes in which Jesus was wrapped, thirteen from his crib, a nail from the crucifixion and much besides. In all 19,013 bones (in 1520) which made it possible to reduce your spell in purgatory by 1,902,202 years and 270 days. The time had come to say to this, and many another travesties of Christianity flourishing under ecclesiastical patronage, a resounding NO!
But this is 1963 and to any who care for the story of reformed Christianity this year brings a special commemoration. This is a centenary. In 1563 two men, widely differing in personal characteristics, Zacharias Baer, shy, quiet scholar and Caspar Olering14 brilliant popular preacher contrived to write the Heidelberg Catechism. It was written at the request of Fredrick III when he succeeded to the Palatinate and to Heidelberg, it’s capital. Both authors knew the meaning of suffering, perhaps that is why they began this best loved of all Reformation statements of the faith, with the personal and (it might seem) untheological question: “What is thy only comfort in life and in death?” The answer is too good not to quote: “That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, are not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the Devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head; yea that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.” But the question alone suffices to bring us back to the text which is about comfort.
COMFORT
We hear it wearisomely repeated that Protestantism is only a negative religion. The very word is unfortunate. The very word Protestant is unfortunate and it would be good if we had a word like the German Evangelisch and were simply “evangelicals.” And of course we have seen that the Reformation did on occasion have to say a decisive No, only because it was concerned to say Yes in another direction. The Reformation was in fact a rediscovery of the New Testament Gospel that God has provided comfort for humankind in his affliction. The word “comfort” has perhaps, in modern English, unhappy associations. It suggests too much the idea of God cradling the few saints in the Church on Sundays, soothing their tattered feelings and lulling them into a conveniently anesthetized sleep.
What does it mean? We cannot do better than to go back to the Heidelberg Catechism and its answer to the question, with which the Reformers all begin—“What is a human being’s comfort in life and in death?” What is it that can make possible a life free of anxiety and fear, set free for service? The answer is that God has taken the initiative in dealing with the human situation. The real rub in my situation is not that I am an unfortunate little fellow, prevented by a hostile universe from getting the easy and comfortable life that I deserve; the rub is that I am a guilty sinner, in revolt, not against the universe, but against its Creator and mine. “The sting of death is—sin?”
This is the situation God has dealt with by sending his Son to make satisfaction for all my sins. This means that now in Jesus Christ I belong to God. I am in his hand, and no power in hell or on earth can pluck me out of it. God who has done so much for me will not fail me now. Not a hair can fall from my head without my Heavenly Father’s will. And more than that, he gives me his Holy Spirit to assure of eternal life hereafter, and to make me ready here and now to do his service and accomplish his will.
This is the comfort Paul knew. He did not mean he never suffered; this very letter includes a list of appalling suffering. It meant that in all these things he was more than conqueror, and that nothing whatever could separate him from God’s love. Whatever he did, wherever he went, he was armed and protected by God’s love. “As far from danger as from fear/ While love almighty love is near” (Charles Wesley). This is the comfort rediscovered at the Reformation, by Luther and his friends. If any person knew the meaning of “fightings without and fears within” it was Luther. But it was the core of his new faith that “I am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ,” and the man who knew that, knew that life and death held no more terrors. “Where will you go,” they asked him, “if you are put under the ban of the Empire?” “Sub-caelo,” somewhere under heaven, he replied. There is no need to fear.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,One little word shall fell him. (Luther, “Ein Festeburg”)
This was not only Luther’s poetry, it was the price of his life. When he was warned, not unwisely, not to attend the imperial parliament at Worms, he said, “I will go, though there be as many devils as tiles on the roofs.”
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,And He must win the battle (Luther).
Is this out of date? Have human beings so come of age that they have no longer a need for this virile, positive comfort that God has to offer his people? I do not think so. Human beings still know they have to die, and the sin of the world is not now perceptibly less even though distinctly more respectable in places. We still need the positive victory over sin and death. Just because the Reformation is so positive, it has a negative aspect too; just because the comfort which comes from God is so adequate and free, it is wrong to seek comfort from any other source.
COMFORT FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE
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