Why Read The Dead Guys?

Last night I attended my reading group at church.  It was a truly enjoyable time sitting around the fireplace at church with the guys.  We are currently reading Martin Luther’s Concerning Christian Liberty.  I love Luther’s thesis…

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”

Doesn’t this sound like Paul?

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all…” (1 Cor. 9:19)

Luther uses the rest of this short book to unpack this statement.  Read these great quotes…

“From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian man is free from all things; so that he needs no works in order to be justified and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance from faith alone. Nay, were he so foolish as to pretend to be justified, set free, saved, and made a Christian, by means of any good work, he would immediately lose faith, with all its benefits. Such folly is prettily represented in the fable where a dog, running along in the water and carrying in his mouth a real piece of meat, is deceived by the reflection of the meat in the water, and, in trying with open mouth to seize it, loses the meat and its image at the same time.”

“Yet a Christian has need of none of these things for justification and salvation, but in all his works he ought to entertain this view and look only to this object–that he may serve and be useful to others in all that he does; having nothing before his eyes but the necessities and the advantage of his neighbour. Thus the Apostle commands us to work with our own hands, that we may have to give to those that need. He might have said, that we may support ourselves; but he tells us to give to those that need. It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and well-being, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may be children of God, thoughtful and busy one for another, bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.”

“Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love, when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought, himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and riches of his own faith.”

What a great evening we had.  It was not just talk about these ideas, but rather, it was talk about applying these ideas to our lives… about serving and loving others (e.g., our wives, etc.) out of the abundance of love God has given us, knowing that our service and love merit us nothing in God’s sight, but rather our rightness with God being found in the merit of Christ, who died our death for us so we could share in His resurrection life, a life of sharing and love.  And, we when we get up in the morning and don’t feel much like serving and loving, preaching the Gospel to ourselves that Christ died even for our lethargy.

So, why read the dead guys?  Simply they have much rich wisdom and powerful encouragement to share with us.  May I never become arrogant and think the past or those who lived in it have nothing to offer me.  The Holy Spirit used them mightily in death and He uses them mightily in death through the works they left behind.