The Key to Church Growth.
In one of his Lutheran hour sermons, Dr. Walter
A. Maier made the following statement. "When Luther undertook the
Reformation of the Church and his eyes were opened to the fact that in Christ alone,
but in Him completely, every believer has the forgiveness of his sins, it
became his all-consuming object in life to exalt the atoning Savior, to preach
the crucified, sin-destroying Christ, the risen, life-bestowing Redeemer; and
because he humbly dedicated his marvelous mentality and tireless energies to
teach Christ, preach Christ, exalt Christ, write Christ, sing Christ, love
Christ, live Christ, always as God's Son and the world's Savior, there was not
enough power on earth or in hell, among men and devils, to restrain his work.
Nor can the churches today ever hope to be used of the Spirit in saving men's
souls unless they, too, concentrate their efforts on Jesus." (Walter A.
Maier, O GOD CLEANSE OUR C
That statement by Dr. Walter A. Maier
gives us a profoundly accurate description of true Christian orthodoxy. A truly
orthodox theologian will devote his energies to teach Christ, preach Christ,
exalt Christ, write Christ, sing Christ, love Christ, and live Christ, always
as God's Son and the world's Savior. True Christian orthodoxy involves far more
than correct doctrinal formulations. There must also be an
orthodoxy of attitude, of emphasis, of love, of motivation, and of the
heart.
Let me make it clear from the start
that I am not talking about some sort of "gospel reductionism." True
orthodoxy will never use Christ as a cloak for indifference to what the Bible
says, nor will it gloss over any doctrine explicitly stated in God's Word.
However, in contrast to false orthodoxy, true orthodoxy does not attempt to
settle every question left unanswered by God's Word. All attempts to go beyond
the Word of God are a departure from orthodoxy. Am I saying that we cannot take
a stand by pointing out that a proposed answer to a theological question
contradicts what the Bible says? Of course not! True Christian orthodoxy begins
and ends with what the Bible says. However, the emphasis is on Christ.
While false orthodoxy is cold and
legalistic, true orthodoxy is warm and caring. While false orthodoxy is weak
and defensive, always fearful that someone might reject one of its precious
doctrinal formulations, true Christian orthodoxy is robust and dynamic, always
confident that all opposition will crumble before the power of the gospel.
Luther has been accused of keeping too
many Catholic customs, however, he did not keep anything that was contrary to
the explicit teaching of God's Word. Instead he yielded inasmuch as Christian
freedom would allow so that his controversy with
While false orthodoxy goes through the
motions of preaching, baptizing, confirming, and communing true Christian
orthodoxy earnestly endeavors to see that every person understands the way of
salvation, for such understanding is vital to the work of the ministry. The
very purpose of preaching is to bring all men to repentance and assurance of
God's mercy in Christ, and Luther had no assurance of salvation until he
understood the way of salvation. Trying to give men assurance of salvation
without this understanding leads them into a false security.
While false orthodoxy may lead men to
conclude that forgiveness is available through the mere outward performance of
a sacramental act, true Christian orthodoxy makes it clear that "Without
faith" the ceremony "avails nothing" (Martin Luther, L.C.). For
even though God uses the ceremonies of baptism and the Lord’s Supper to
give us His promise of forgiveness in Christ, it is only through "personal
faith” in Christ that we receive what is promised (Walter A. Maier, 1943,
Galatians 3:22)
While false orthodoxy treats Communism
as a political theory and tries to remain neutral by holding that the Bible
does not specify what form the government should take. True Christian orthodoxy
recognizes the fact that Communism is not a form of government, but a
dictatorship controlled by a secular religion that is hostile to the Gospel.
Therefore, true orthodoxy will condemn and denounce communism as enthroned
blasphemy, as did Dr. Walter A. Maier.
When false orthodoxy wants to identify
with the state; true Christian orthodoxy forbids the church from entangling
itself with the affairs of state while demanding that the state keep out of the
church’s business (2Corinthians 10:4). The job of the church is to preach
the gospel, not legislate morality.
On the other hand, when false orthodoxy
wants the state to be totally secular; true Christian orthodoxy makes it clear
that the Ten Commandments were given to the state (Moses), not the church
(Aaron), and are to be the basis of political law, not religious law.
While false orthodoxy sees the
legalization of abortion as a moral issue, true Christian orthodoxy sees it as
an attack on the gospel, for those who promote abortion are denying the infants
they kill any chance of ever hearing the Gospel.
While false orthodoxy sees the drive to
legitimatize homosexuality as a moral issue, true Christian orthodoxy sees it
as an attack on the Gospel, for those who justify homosexuality harden the
hearts of homosexuals, and so send them to hell.
While false orthodoxy elevates
tradition [i. e. man-made explanations of the Bible,
Mark 7:8-13] to the status of doctrine, demanding that everyone accept its explanation
of the Bible as the correct explanation, true Christian orthodoxy makes those
truths that are explicitly stated in God's Word the standard of faith, and
insists on conformity to that standard (Isaiah 8:20).
While false orthodoxy produces outward
conformity, true Christian orthodoxy produces conviction. It produces
conviction by zealously proclaiming the Gospel, by diligently leading people to
understand the way of salvation and look to Christ for mercy, by taking what
the Bible says seriously, and by refusing to look for revelation outside of
Scripture (John 8:31). It was the truth of Scripture that filled Luther's heart
with joy and changed him from a trembling sinner into a confident believer.
Although false orthodoxy may claim to
properly distinguish between law and gospel, true Christian orthodoxy
understands that the law is God's Word of warning to the unrepentant, while the
Gospel is His Word of comfort to all who repent. The law shows us our need of
God’s grace, while the gospel assures us of God’s grace. The law
was given to convince the lost that it is impossible to please God apart from
Christ, while the Gospel was given so that all who acknowledge their sin might
be justified through faith in Him.
While false orthodoxy sees secular
schools and universities as non-religious, true Christian orthodoxy recognizes
them as temples of anti-Christian humanism, and, in many cases, seminaries of
hell. Far from being neutral, they are usually hostile to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
If the Gospel can be likened to a great
net that has the power to bring souls into God's kingdom, then those who follow
false orthodoxy might be likened to the disciples who labored all night and yet
caught nothing (Luke 5:5). They catch little because they fail to see that
opaque theological terminology and lifeless presentation can hide the Gospel
just as effectively as false doctrine. They catch nothing because they assume
that the Gospel will be just as effective whether they pray for God to help them
reach souls or not. In contrast, those who are truly orthodox know that prayer
is vital to effective soul winning (Psalm 126:6, Luke 10:2). The net that the
disciples used always had power to bring in fish, but it only brought in a
great multitude of fish when God worked with the disciples to make their
efforts effective (Luke 5:5-7). Likewise the Gospel always has power to bring
men to salvation, but the great multitudes of converts come when God is working
with men who are truly orthodox. This was true at Pentecost, it was true at the
Reformation, and it was true with the preaching of Dr. Walter A. Maier. (Mark
I was only four years old when I first
heard Dr. Maier preach, but I have never forgotten how his words gripped my
heart and burned themselves into my soul. That is why
I am sickened by the fact that sanctimonious clergymen would rather ignore him
than emulate him, and would rather find fault with him than admit that he had
an orthodoxy they lacked. I am also sickened by the fact that I see little
evidence of true orthodoxy in the world today. Lacking true orthodoxy,
Reformation churches have become lukewarm and I believe that God is using
liberalism to spew them out of His mouth (Revelation
I would like to see every pastor read
and study Dr. Walter A. Maier's sermons, learn from exposure to the true
orthodoxy he championed, and strive to emulate his commitment to the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Churches that are committed to the gospel have no need to hide
their colors behind a generic name in order to get a hearing or gain members,
for God will be actively using them to reach a lost and dying world.
Gary Ray Branscome