"Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:2-3
"Grow into salvation?" That sounds like (and has been interpreted to mean) you earn God's redemtion and grace! How do we reconcile that with our guiding Lutheran principle--"saved by grace through faith alone?"
Well, how many of you as a child have gotten a present from a relative who lived far away that was too big for you--a sweater, shirt, or slacks maybe? You can't and don't want to return it. After all it is a gift! So what do you do? You hold onto it and wait to grow into it! The gift (salvation) is free, but with it comes responsibilities and expectation of growth in faith and discipleship.
Using Peter's analogy, we get salvation (taste the Lord) freely, but we are like infants in faith--ready only for milk at first, but that milk (God's word?) nourishes our faith and increases our appreciation of the gift.
So this is a Lutheran friendly scripture, after all!
Pastor
2 comments:
Cool way to approach this. I was listening to a Methodist pastor this morning speaking about how humans view grace- prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying. It seems that his level of sanctifying is like the sweater that you are given that you grow into with discipleship and discipline. Still working on all these concepts in my head.
Lutherans have always been shy about talk of sanctification. I wonder why that is? Justification aside and dealt with, what's the problem? I'm still working things out in my head too--as you can see!
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