Rev. Paul R. Harris is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas. He was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry in 1983. He has a predilection to cave living.
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Hello Pastor Harris~
I am a life long Lutheran and I am impressed with what you confess at your church. I have been through the gambit of CGM in Lutheranism (and all its trappings) and long for my old church; the one I grew up with.
There are the doctrines of Objective and Subjective Justification in varying flavors across all of the Lutheran church bodies in America; anywhere from all are forgiven and justified prior to faith to Justification by Faith Alone (in other words…no such thing as Objective Justification).
You seem to be a bit of maverick in your synod for truth and purity…and I admire it. Where do you personally stand on Justification and what do you teach?
In Christ,
Joe
Dear Joe;
Astute observation and a good question.
I teach as follows: Subjective justification is based on objective justification. The reason the prodigal son is converted is because his father first ran toward him. Note, contrary to the impression some translations give and what some pastors teach, the son wasn’t interrupted. He was converted then and not before then and could not continue with his proposal to work his way back into his father’s good graces by being made as one of his father’s hired-hands.
Christ is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world; Christ carried the sins of the entire world away. That is objective reality and objectively true. Faith lives in that reality; faith holds to that truth. Indeed, subjective faith is caused by the Holy Spirit using these objective facts.
There are two ditches to be avoided. 1) Sujbective faith makes Christ’s atonement or redemption real or true, i.e. they are only as sure as I believe them to be.
2)Objective justification means people can’t resist the Holy Spirit; can’t reject the Lord who bought them; and can’t refuse be gathered by the gospel.
There is also a red herring here. It’s dragged across the trail, I think, by pastors wishing to emphasize objective justification. It’s saying that there are forgiven people in hell. No, there are people for whom Christ died there. Forgiveness of sins is only received by faith since it’s a promise. There are people in hell who don’t want, indeed they hate, forgiveness. The rich man in hell shouts NO! to the Gospel. The gnashing of teeth our Lord refers to those in hell constantly doing might be from pain but it could also me, and I think is, in anger.
If you deny objective justification you deny the Gospel since John 3:16 doesn’t say God so loved me but God so loved the world. If you deny subjective justification, you deny the means the Gospel gets to you since John 3:16 goes on to say “that whosoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In Christ,
pastor harris