Rediscovering Luther's Vision for a Grace-Centered Church with Dr. Robert Kolb

Each podcast confronts real-time struggles facing the local church in a post-Christian culture . Step into the action with the ULC at unitel leadershiporg . This is Leigh Time .

Great , great conversation . The first go around if you want to go back a few months . We talked about semiotics . I think I'm saying that right Now , luther the entrepreneur and our prayers for the LCMS into the future .

Today we're going to geek out on the book of Concord and its role and Luther's role in the life of the church today , from the LCMS out to the wider church . Maybe you get us going today , dr Colb . We were just chatting before I hit play about the opportunity to be in this .

I've been in inter-ecumenical spaces a lot and one of my prayers is that Lutherans , our theology , the liturgy , would be stewarded with hospitality for those who are around us .

I believe the wider church is looking at us and if we can , by the power of the spirit , move from a place of scarcity and protection to a place of abundance and sharing with the wider church . I think the wider church would be better for it . Any thoughts on that ? I mean , that's really your hearts . You just told me your calling .

One of your main callings is to make Luther accessible , not just to Lutherans but for the wider church . So what are your thoughts , bob ? Thanks for hanging with me today , brother .

Well , in some ways , our witness to Christians outside our own little tight circle . We might say we've become comatose . I don't think we've lived up to the spirit of the Augsburg Confession , which was a document that wanted to call the whole church to the theology that Melanchden , with Martin Luther and other colleagues , were developing in Biddenberg at the time .

So I think we've got great potential . I know in my own experience .

I've had wonderful conversations and seen how many of Luther's insights make sense in our world today , and so I just hope that , even if it's not always pleasant to be around other Lutherans or to be around Lutherans in your neighborhood , for those outside the church , the conversation with the Lutheran tradition over 500 years , I think , is one that the church needs

now more than ever .

On some of those things he was definitely a sinner in need of the mercy and grace of God , a beggar indeed . But talk a little bit more specifically about his desires , for , as he saw the church kind of going further and further away from maybe the liturgy and the history of the 1500 years that had preceded him , how he really wanted to draw both sides .

I mean , this is the way I kind of view Luther . He kind of has his arms outstretched wide in the hopes that we would all draw near to Jesus , the Christ as he's revealed himself down through history and through the liturgy . So get a little bit more specific on Luther's kind of heart cry .

I can't remember if we talked about this the last time that we were together , but his experience was that he grew up with a definition of what it meant to be a Christian that focused above all on hour , making the right sacred moves , the right religious practices , and to do that through the proper ritual .

And what was important was getting the proper ritual down and doing that with the priests , who were the only ones who could make contact with God for you . And that was from us to God direction .

I know that my historian colleagues will say oh , there was plenty of grace in the theology of the 15th century in Germany , and that's true , but it was a grace that was always conditional on what we did . And Luther found that the biblical direction is coming in the opposite direction and it was centered on a conversational God .

And so , instead of getting the right ritual practices down , luther found getting the right teaching , drawing from the narrative of God's interaction with us in human history is what the Christian faith is really all about .

And he then believed that the pastoral office , the leadership in the church , were very important for this , and he saw a proper liturgy as a wonderful agent of conveying God's word . But it was God talking to us and then our response of prayer and praise and service in the society around us .

And so I think that model is really important today because it takes the focus off me and it doesn't place my assurance on whether I've been a good boy or not , places my assurance on the cross of Christ and on that empty tomb .

He writes a lot about the presence of Christ and I recently ran across , in one of his books called Discernment , a deep , deep dive into Jesus on the road to Emmaus , meeting the two , two disciples , and how he basically get , he liturgizes them in that interaction . He interprets the scripture . So there was four kind of movements that Nowan kind of draws out .

He interprets the scripture for them and allows them to see the necessity of the Christ suffering . What they thought was the worst thing is now is now the best thing for them . So the way of the , the way of the cross , and they're kind of just oh , and they're oh and wonder .

And then , and then I love this , the humanity of just stay with us , just stay with us a little bit longer . So there's this stain , this abiding . They still don't recognize them necessarily , but they want his presence and it's kind of like that's what worship is Like . We have to get out of bed , we show up , we gather with the other people .

Oh , the other thing , too is he goes really deep into the interpreting of scripture is a community thing , it's not an isolated thing . It's something that is done with other people . All run through these four really quick and then get you .

So there's interpreting scripture , there's this stain , there's obviously the breaking of the bread , the divine presence of Christ , and then their eyes are open to his divine presence , and then there's this remembering of Christ . He's with them in a mysterious way now that he wasn't before .

They've experienced life with him and they can't help but have their hearts burning and go and carry the message of Christ back to the disciples who are in fear , seven mile run , actually , that night .

That is the , that whole story , which , a lot of times in Luke , we don't realize that takes place on Easter Sunday , the night of Easter Sunday , that same , that same day . So that , basically , is there's a sending then that comes out of the liturgy and those four kind of movements . Any response to that , though , dr Kohl ?

And as the great grandson and grandson of immigrants I well I think of in my youth , when Lutheran churches along the Catholic churches were among the foremost welcomeers of those who came to our shores from other places , and I don't know if our churches have that same spirit today . Our congregation here in St Louis does .

It is very active in in a group formed by Lutheran Church Missouri Synod , people called Christian Friends of New Americans that have brought the gospel to a group of Nepalese , for instance , to many of the Bosnians who the federal government has settled here .

This is one of the concentration points for Bosnian refugees , and so we've made a small but significant impact , I think , because places where we failed to go with our witness to Christ , the Lord sent people here to us , and so I don't have much sympathy for , for us rather prosperous Americans who don't want to welcome the stranger , as the disciples on the road

to Emmaus did .

Ministry is recognizing the fact that the church doesn't exist for herself . Necessarily . The church , the church exists for us , but Jesus came to bring us into his mission and his mission is to get all of his , all of his kids back . I mean , that is the .

The center point of all of scripture is the righteous reign and rule of God , most especially seen in the rule of Jesus Christ , through his upside down kingdom , through the way of the cross and then the the hope of the resurrection . So it's hard for me to even fathom , dr Colvin , that a church wouldn't like . That seems elementary to me .

But it's not because of sin . It's not because of sin , because what does sin do ? It turns us in on ourselves . Yeah , pastor , make me feel comfortable .

Yeah , one of them , one of my biggest , one of my biggest , I think , invitations today , is that pastors would see themselves , yes , as teachers , but acquippers to bring the word to , especially in a post Christian culture , like when we need .

We need the Lutheran handles , our Lutheran understanding to open up the scriptures for us in beautiful ways , and I think that so to get into the book of Concord today , I think that's what the book of Concord does is it gives us really , really helpful handles in telling the greatest story , the greatest story of all time .

Anything to add into the storied nature of the book of Concord , and it's in its fit for us today , dr Colvin .

And so it's that , that story of how human life progresses in conflict with Satan , that that is the the red thread that runs through the whole of the book of Concord and that's that's what Lutherans have always wanted to confess and that's what those who truly study , and often and study the book of Concord find as the inspiration for our life will witness today .

We've sort of dehydrated it in too many instances and , with that dehydration , placed it on the shelf and worried about other things that we wouldn't be worried about if we understood what it means that Christ died and rose for us , as Paul says in Romans 4.25 .

And that then in Romans 6 , he relates to who we are as baptized children of God . Our sins were buried , we were raised with Christ , and if we really trust those words of absolution that we receive , first in baptism and then throughout our lives , we will say well , if I'm righteous , I'm going to live as a righteous child of God .

And so the fruits of faith aren't something that we add on if we like , or that just are optional . The fruits of faith are an integral part of understanding what trusting Jesus Christ really means , and we trust that he has taken our sins away from us . They don't identify us anymore . That's what I find interesting about Romans 6 .

Can we see more that grace may abound ? Paul doesn't say you better not or you'll go to hell . He says that's not who you are . You have a new identity . You've been baptized into the family , and so let's walk with Jesus .

It's not a word that we use in everyday vernacular today , or even necessarily righteousness to become righteous , but to get to the core of what justification does by grace , through faith , is it gives us that new identity ? Do you think the identity conversation is something the church should really lean into as it relates to the justification topic ?

We're justifying ourselves to our spouses , we're justifying ourselves to our kids , we're justifying ourselves to our teachers . We're justifying ourselves . Our whole lives are saying I did it right or I didn't have any choice when I did it wrong .

And so the concept of actually getting the lines on the page of our life coming out right , that's not too bad an analogy , that's not too bad .

But , yes , I know almost absolutely nothing about modern studies in psychology , but I do know that Eric Erickson's understanding of how human personality is determined by trust reflects a profound biblical insight , and I think people who really work with the words would disagree with me , I suppose .

But I think righteousness in the 16th century understanding in the biblical use of the term , and identity , the way we use identity , come very close to each other .

And so it does seem to me that part of our problem is saying I'm justified , I have a ticket to heaven , there's not much I can do about it until I get there , whereas , as the scriptures tell us , that the Holy Spirit is coming to us with the gift of forgiveness , that means we are changed people , and I think you're right for not only pastors but all

Christians to help one another understand that they're changed people . That's one of the challenges of our day .

See , I don't know any instance where he took part in an adult baptism , because everybody was baptized . There weren't Jews in the community of Wittenberg anymore . They'd been ousted in the 14th century I guess it was so .

At any rate , he says , in 1520 , the medieval church had just engineered a forgetting of baptism and said you have to make up for what happened in baptism by doing the sacrament of penance . And so in that sense , at the beginning of this , of the Reformation , baptism was not a matter of discussion .

By the time you had lived for 25 years with Luther's preaching in Wittenberg , I think you knew that your baptismal identity went with you every day . And if you learned the small catechism and took it seriously , you knew that the old Adam has to be drowned .

Every day you have to renounce your sinfulness and come in sorrow before the Lord and say you've made me who I am , who I really am . And so let me know that again . In a sense , I think all theologians are writing their autobiography as they preach and teach , and so what Luther was doing was saying I find comfort in the fact .

Every day I can think that the Lord has given me a new identity , even though there wasn't really a word for identity that was in common usage in the 16th century .

I got another one at not that I don't bring it out at church , but the one that I really dig into that I had back in seminary is at home . What was it like editing that with Timothy Wanger , dr Wanger as well . Just get us behind . What that whole experience was like . That must have been extraordinary .

A friend of his and mine sent him to me to talk about where he should go to grad school . Then he came back to the Twin Cities as a parish pastor and so we were in contact . Then he said to me that summer of 1990 , don't you think we need a new translation of the book of Concord ?

A new Tapper , ted Tapper , which I suppose is his predecessor by two or three at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia . Tapper had edited it , although more than half of that Tapper edition was translated by members of the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod at the time .

Yaroslav Pelican translated the Apology and Arthur Carl Pipko on the formula of Concord and interestingly enough , chuck Aaron , my colleague , translated the Apology and I translated the formula of Concord . Tim said don't you think we need a new translation ? I said no , I'm going to run fine .

Then he showed me how , particularly in the notes and in the introduction there had been almost 50 years of scholarship good 40 years of scholarship , in which there had been really a new wave , particularly in the background of the formula of Concord but also with the catechisms , and so there were many more insights that we could pack into the notes .

That's why I think the 2000 translation still stands unrivaled in terms of that use of a more recent scholarship , and we were a little bit surprised by a little bit of change in the language . There were certain phrases that just came out differently by the year 2000 than in the mid-1950s .

we argued . Our wives were always afraid when one or the other of us would come to town for a weekend of work on the Book of Concord , because we were good friends and so we just reality each other , and one of the most important discussions we had was over whether it was by faith or true faith .

Through faith and I said well , by faith makes it sound as though it's just another good work we do , and Tim said well , through faith makes it sound like a garden hose you put grace in at the house and it runs out to the garden , but faith isn't really important . We finally decided that we would go with that old translation principle what sounds best .

Going to the Greek didn't help , because Paul uses thea through faith and the dative by faith interchangeably , and we couldn't figure out what it was .

What I learned , though , was that and it deepened I knew about Erickson already , but it deepened my appreciation of what he said about trust , because it is what Luther says in a more profound way , I think , about trust in his explanation of the First Commandment in the Large Catechism .

There is a depth of penetration by this trust that really determines your personhood , your personality . That was Erickson's message that if you learn more trust rather than less trust in your first two years , you're going to be what our society calls a better adjusted personality .

And so that understanding that faith is not just the first of all good works , as Luther initially said , but it's really the penetrating determination of my sense of identity To say it that way that whole understanding of faith comes out . Another battle I lost actually nobody lost on that one .

I think we both profited with the text and theologically , in our understanding .

And what Luther said was no , when God speaks , or the way God regards you imputus , the technical , theological term but the way God regards you , that determines reality . And we do have this Roman 7 struggle with the law of sin that still are the system of sin we might say that still wants to take over .

But the bottom line reality as Paul says as he moves into chapter 8 , is we throw ourselves on the mercy of Christ and if Christ says you're mine , we're his . That's who we really are , even though we experience the kind of secondary reality , but a very real reality of our sinfulness . That's the beauty of the ultimate reality .

Yeah , that's the beauty of Luther , saying that we are both sinful and righteous at the same time . Amen .

And he said that situations wouldn't work because it sounds like we're sitting Well , the German word is standing but he wanted walk of life . So we have walk of life , which I find a little bit awkward . But it does get the idea that Luther had .

We are called and we're called into movement in our homes and our jobs and our societal relationships and our congregational relationships . We're not just sitting around or just standing in a corner , we are active . So he convinced me we could use that term , even if I find it a little bit awkward .

Theological debates are so much fun , especially when we realize we're brothers in Christ , claimed by , and we are united in him and we're just growing up into him . Who is our head ? I pray for more of that sort of discourse in the Missouri Synod .

To be sure , one treatise that I have found interesting given the times and I've done some writing on this and I'd love to get your take on it is the treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope , and Luther's and the Reformers struggle in getting enough men ordained through the bishops Bishops I remember some quotes like the bishop .

If the bishop refuses , then those who are local there's even just a pastor or someone local . They have the right because it's been given to the church the right of ordination . Would you bring us into that power struggle in the 16th century and why the treatise and the power and primacy of the Pope was written ?

. And there was one thing that the Augsburg Confession didn't really cover . Although we used a manuscript version of the Augsburg Confession , actually a kind of speculative one , that was in the old edition of the German and Latin and in the new edition of the German and Latin . I just brought it along .

This came out in 2014 and it has , I think , a better German text than the one produced in 1930 that we were still relying on , and I actually got to help I'm the only non-German that got to help with this one a little bit .

But already in the first printed edition of the Augsburg Confession , Malikton toughened up Article 28 on the power of the bishops to aim at specifically at the power of the Pope .

But Luther and Malikton both saw that the system of the way that church was governed hierarchical was always going to have the temptation to rely on human power and human arrangement and the human enforcement of law rather than on the power of the Word of God , and so they needed to address the papacy as a system .

There were reformers in the Middle Ages who had called the current Pope an Antichrist , but Luther said no , if you're going to talk about Antichrist , it's really the whole system .

You can have the best of men taking that office , but the whole way the system is set up is going to not permit the gospel to flow freely , because the institutional concerns are going to govern the proclamation of the gospel , and I think that's probably a very helpful observation that Luther makes in his small called articles already , which were written almost at

the same time as the treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope . But I think it reminds us that that treatise is an admonition to us to realize that there will always be a necessary tension between the institutional forms of the church which God has set up , although there's probably less instruction on that in the New Testament than we think there is .

Sometimes we try to find Bible passages to justify every voter's decision , and that's not wise because we get stuck with them . But he saw again . I think the treatise on the power and primacy of the Pope is another argument for the primacy of the proclamation of the word of God .

I'll be in tongue of cheek here , man , but I mean it's kind of the same dance between the institution and those of us that are at the grassroots just trying to be faithful with word and sacrament , trained by the institutions which I love , I'm a product of and thank you for your service in those respective institutions .

And are we listening well to one another ?

And I think our listening and our empathy are care for one another . And then the resolutions , if you will , the way the church organizes , the way church focuses on formation and adapts to the day and age in which we live while not compromising on the truths of Scripture .

I don't think there's enough listening right now in the LCMS and I think some of our struggles could be similar to some of the struggles in the 16th century .

And so the whole life of the church , not only the whole life of the individual believers but the whole life of the repentance , and it's also always a battle to recognize that God wants us to be at home in our culture , that Christ came into human culture , to a specific human culture , and and lived there as a historical being , and , and so we are always

going to have the privilege of witnessing it to our own culture . But we're always going to be tempted to accept cultural values and confuse them with biblical values . But I think that's one of the delightful things about being a Lutheran .

Luther's view of the relationship between the church or the individual Christian and the culture society around us was one of great appreciation , because culture is a gift of God in all its many aspects literature , music , whatever .

But we also recognize that there are squatters on our father's property and Satan is always trying to pervert us through certain false cultural values , because the culture is fighting a war of self-defense as well , and once its needs and its dictates to be established as the only way .

And so Lutherans will always be both appreciative of culture as a gift of God and they will be critical of the faults of culture , and especially as those faults invade the church .

Every 6 am on Sundays , dr Colby get up bright and early and I'm around the table with anywhere between six and eight leaders in our church , some of whom are prayerfully discerning the Lord's call into ministry , maybe ratified by an external call by the church sometime in the future .

But they're just information and we've been walking through this book and it's going to take us a long time . It's going to take us a long time , probably for the last four or five months and just just loving every we get through about a page a week , it's so , but it's still .

That being said , it's so rich and still very , very accessible for the everyday learner , follower of Jesus . So , yeah , what was the story of leading you to write that ?

I don't know exactly how to describe it , but there were stations , and if you were working on the first commandment you would go to see Mrs Jones , and if you were working on commandments two and three you'd go to see Mr Olson and so forth , and so you could proceed at your own pace , and when you finish the kind of instruction that Mrs Jones or Mr Olson

would provide , you'd go to have a little conversation with the pastor , either as an individual or as a group , and it was , I think it was usually Wednesday evening , started with a little soup and sandwich supper , and so parents were welcome too , but a lot of weight was specifically falling on parents and I thought that's quite a load to drop on fairly busy

parents , because Luther's catechism is so accessible I mean , it's been translated into . Matt Heisey from the Lutheran Heritage Foundation tells me I forget over a hundred languages now At any rate .

So I wrote that as a kind of guide to parents to help them understand what Luther was getting at and how to apply it in our day and age , and I did one update , I guess , when we moved from the Minnesota printer to the Seminary Press . I worked through it . It's still probably too old in some regards and I should look at it for updates .

But I think it's being translated right now , I think , into Amharic and Ethiopia , or at least there are plans to start that and it's been translated into a number of languages .

As the first Lutheran missionaries in India translated it , kind of paraphrased it , as a man named Johann Campanius translated it into a no longer used Native American language on the Delaware coast when the Swedes had a colony there .

It's been a document that has spoken to children around the world for 500 years and I know that at least in one third world , a majority world country , it's being used by Roman Catholic priests with instruction as well .

As you look at the world today , with all of the beauty , wonder and opportunities for growth , for people to be drawn closer to Jesus , as you look at the Ten Commandments , taking the First Commandment because all of them kind of connected to the First Commandment taking the First Commandment out , what commandment would you actively invite and again I'm leading you to

make a selection we should preach on all the other nine commandments , but what commandment would you actively invite us to preach on the most , especially given the times in which we live ?

So our failure to fear love and trust in God above all things is something that we need to be reminded of as that which justifies our saying I am a poor , miserable sinner , and if I'm not miserable I'm not being fully honest with myself at one point . But of course that misery is replaced by the joy of the word of absolution .

So , at any rate , I think a little first amendment preaching is always in order , but for the rest of them , I think you could justify almost anyone , depending on the specific situation in your congregation it has .

It makes me that Luther didn't give more attention to the sixth commandment , because sexual sins are so , so poisonous to society and when things go wrong in family life and the abuses of sexuality have particularly serious societal implications . What's interesting to me is that Luther was particularly concerned about seventh commandment sins .

He saw greed as a great enemy and he it's interesting that he wasn't preaching in Nuremberg , where

there were a lot of really rich merchants . Wittenberg didn't have that class of upper class people .

But he did recognize that from the peasants who brought their produce to the market and cheated him when he was buying carrots , to the bankers who had driven his family into bankruptcy and their smelting operation , once or twice there were idolatrous temptations lurking around the command not to steal . He also has a high respect for human life . Abortion wasn't .

Abortions happened , of course , but village life controlled them . Euthanasia wasn't really a question , because people didn't live very , quite as long as they do today . But he had a great deal of concern for the respect for human life and saw a violence of every kind as a serious problem .

But more serious was the hatred , the denunciation , the way in which attitudes were shaped that shun certain people and feel to sympathize with their needs .

So in each one of these instances , certainly in our society , you could spend time on the eighth commandment to , with fake news and deception as almost a way of life , for not just in politics but in economic life and family life and the like .

of the A's from the Gilgamesh epic and the like , right . So you've got Baal , kind of the chief god who's connected with meaning and purpose , and mammon and money , right . And then you've got , so there's many gods in the pantheon , right , but these three were kind of honing in on and then shining the spotlight of the 10 commandments , god's law there .

So we talked about money , we talked about mollic , the god of anger and rage , war , and connected to mollic too , who has the face of a bull , the hands of a human and a belly filled with fire . There's child sacrifice . That's connected to the god . Mollic , found on the hills , even outside of this is a fascinating story .

Gehenna , right , the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth outside on the hills , and so this was a huge preaching point for us , dr Kolb . Like inside the walls , jesus is . This is Hebrews 13 , right , jesus is then crucified for us outside of the walls on Calvary's hill . He goes outside , to where the robust immorality is taking place .

It weeps over our sin , but swallows it up there on the cross as well . That's the mission of the church to go beyond the walls in anticipation of that new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven , when that god , the destroyer God , is once and for all destroyed . This is just another way to speak about spiritual attack as well .

Right , because these gods are no gods at all . But the third one , then , is Ishtar that we focused on , which is a god of sexual immorality , lost , et cetera , and it's so amazing . There really is like Satan is very creative , but when you just call him out like , there's really nothing new about it .

This is what the holy scriptures are coming alive for us right now , and it just focuses us on our desperate need for Christ . Any responses , though , to the gods of this day and age .

I codify it all under two words . Excuse me , he's going to have to add it this Ready to go again , you're good . You're good , yes , with the two words individualism and materialism . Genesis 2.18 , I like to call it God's First Great Whoops , because he said , oh , that's not good , everything had been good , and then it's not good that that man be alone .

So we're created for human community , and any contempt for the community is contempt for God's design , for our very fundamental humanity . And so that individualism that we cultivate as the ideal , you know , stress on a false kind of freedom .

Luther's used the word freedom and liberation for justification quite a bit , but it was freedom to be God's child , not to do our own thing and stand at our own two feet . And then materialism we really do value our own lives and other people's lives in terms of what they have rather than what they've given away .

So the two extremes are nihilism if you're really honest , or hedonism if you're not just pleasure at all costs , right . So , yeah , there's really nothing , nothing new . Last , the last question . This is so much fun and this one probably could go on and maybe maybe spur us to another conversation .

There is debate around and I don't remember this is much going through the seminary , but still debate around the first and second and or or not a third function of the law . So what's your perspective toward the debate around ? No , there's two functions . No , there's , there's three or uses or functions .

I was thinking about the third impact of the law , but the translation says Use . Why ? Because the German says use .

And the more I got to thinking about it and I've just in in the last year I've done some thinking on this on a deeper level , the , the whole debate has has really centered on a third use of the law that , like like Calvin's third use of the law , became the most important use of the law .

Well , it's clear that for Luther , the second use of the law , the call to daily repentance , is key to Turning to Christ in faith and opening up then a life of the fruits of faith . So some of my very good friends have said a third use of the law is always going to turn us back into looking at our own works .

My argument always was that , yeah , especially in our society and evermore in our society , you just have to help Christians with some positive instruction . When I was growing up there was new it to the to be ver , and and Eisenhower was president , and at least if you were a European American , all things were good . We thought but but we do need instruction .

But as I have thought about this , but Luther and well I did , well Luther didn't use the term use of the law much at all , any of the uses . Once in a while I think I've found a couple , three , four in instances where he uses Malenken's language .

But the use is what we do as Christians when we're giving the law to someone else , what you do from the pulpit or or what your people do as they Raise their kids and have Christian conversations . Yeah , but the function is something distinct from that .

Their example I use is you're giving the best sexual instruction ever given to seventh or eighth graders in your community , talking about the sixth commandment , and you're it's just , you're praising this beautiful gift from God and One of the members of the class runs from the room crying his or her eyes out .

You've been using that as instruction , as third use , but it had a second use or maybe a first use .

I can't do what I want to do anymore , but probably I either I've been abused or I have been abusing , and , and then the function Leads to an impact , and so in an article in Luther and quarterly , I think in the summer of 2023 I tried out play with this idea that we need to pay attention to the fact that we use the law in one way , it functions in

one way , or maybe more than one way , and it has one or more impacts impacts on on lives . And it's true of the gospel to Luther says , at least at one point . He talks about the gospel as the recreative word that restores our identity as children of God .

He talks about it as consolation for the children of God in the midst of the daily struggle , and he talks about it as the Holy Spirit's empower us to do his will . So I've got to want to play with that more , but I think that distinction is is helpful .

And the thing that I have discovered , though , as I thought about it , more the more I instruct you , the , as my friend Jim nesting and used to say , the law is like a wolf that you've trained as a good guide dog or helping dog .

It's a great friend , but you never know when it's gonna turn on you , turn on you , and so the instruction that we hear is liable to cause us To feel accused or crushed and drive us to repentance again , because the law is the law , is the law is the law .

It's talking about our actions , and we're always living in this tension of being a sinner and righteous at the same time .

I've really enjoy learning with you , brother , and I know Whoever hundred thought I don't know how many people are gonna listen to our conversation today If even just two lives are touched and and consoled by the love of Christ and then mobilized for mission in his name to console other hearts , it's been time , time well spent , dr Colba .

People want to stay connected to you and your work right now . What's the best way to do so ?

Today wasn't necessarily one of those days , I I think , wherever you sit in the Lutheran Church , missouri Synod , however you define yourself , hopefully your ultimate definition , your ultimate identity as a child of God Mobilized for mission with brothers and sisters in Christ in the Lutheran Church , missouri Synod , who doesn't exist for herself , who is a part of the

one holy Christian Apostolic Church , all who proclaim Jesus as Lord . It's a good day . Go and make it a great day . Thanks so much , dr Cole .

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