This one’s a tough one to read, although it stands today as much as it did when Luther first made the statement:
He who falls from the grace of God upon the Law and imagines that he will be saved through works has as rough a landing as he who falls from grace into idolatry. For outside Christ there is nothing but idolatry and merely a false, imagined notion about God. If you want to be justified before God and saved by that sort of worship, it makes no difference whether you call its basis the Koran of the Turk, the decretal and command of the pope, or even the law of Moses.”
These are some strong words but words that we need to take to heart. So many religions require you to be “good enough” in order to ensure salvation. But how good is “good enough?” How will you ever know?
Even the law of Moses was commanded to be kept perfectly. But, “…whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” We can try and try and try to perfectly keep God’s commandments, but trying and trying becomes idolatry, an idol of work, according to Luther. We must rely on God’s grace in Jesus Christ, for Jesus was the only one that has kept the law absolutely perfectly, fulfilling the “good enough” that we could never become.
Praise God for His grace!
So, we want to raise up new worship leaders and avoid burning ourselves out, but we’re deathly afraid of what might happen when we “let go of the reins.”
The first problem is that we really shouldn’t have been holding the reins in the first place. When we place our own control of a ministry over God’s leading of it, we are really creating an idol out of our own ministry. A certain amount of control is good (making sure that the ministry is Biblical; having control of who is involved in the ministry, so that lifestyle is consistent with the ministry, etc.), but when we refuse to step down from leading worship for a Sunday and let someone else do it because we want things “perfect,” we are bowing to the control idol.
Instead of thinking, what if this goes wrong, or what if that goes wrong, have you thought of these what ifs?
- What if the young teen who plays guitar is allowed a chance to lead worship in youth group or a small group, and eventually becomes a dedicated, God-honoring, worship leader, devoting his life to training, teaching and leading others?
- What if the classical guitarist who has been seen as playing an old-fashioned style is allowed to use his talent to play one of the most beautiful musical intros heard in quite some time? (I know the author of the post definitely didn’t see the guitar player in that way, but I’ve always wondered what to do with classical guitar in contemporary worship, have you?)
- What if the young lady with not much formal vocal training is mentored, trained and given the opportunity to be a vocalist on the worship team? Will she be able to one day glorify God by be involved in recording vocals for worship CD’s?
You get the point, hopefully. So often we’re wrapped up in the negative what ifs that we don’t even think about the possibility that the what ifs could be absolutely positive. In fact, they could change a life for God’s glory.