This year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking a revolution. However, it was not to start something new. Instead, it was all about upholding the truth of God’s Word.
A lot has changed in the world since the beginning of the Reformation, but some things will never change. The truth is still under attack. At Concordia Lutheran High School, we’re all about upholding the truth of God’s Word. After all, we are a Christ-centered community. We are not Christ-centered because we have put Him at the center. We are Christ-centered because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). As a Christian community, we simply recognize this. We are who we are, believe what we believe, and profess what we profess because it is the truth given to us by God through His Word.
Being Christians in a Christ-less world is not easy. It is a constant struggle and battle for the truth. For us today, just as during the Reformation, upholding the truth is difficult because the prince of this world continues to scheme and manipulate, giving false precedence for sinful man to reject God’s truth and create a truth of his own. He seeks to lure us away from God’s Word and coerce us into believing anything else.
The truth anything outside of Christ’s true Word of salvation is no truth at all. Apart from Christ, man is dead in his trespasses and sins and there is no escape from its bondage. When man attempts to create his own truth and free himself from the consequences of sin, it is a fruitless effort that falls far short of the glory of God. Sin blinds and enslaves, hardening hearts and minds to the truth of God’s Word. If we don’t have the truth of Christ, we cannot be free.
Maintaining a true confession of the faith continues to be a struggle and a fight for us today. Satan launches attack after attack after attack upon the truth hoping to cause doubt and confusion. For example, the truth of God’s creation and the truth of original sin have been attacked by Darwin’s theory of evolution – that life evolved from molten rock and the whole existence of humanity is a fluke of nature. This untruth is taught as fact in some classrooms and universities throughout the world, but not at Concordia Lutheran High School. Darwin’s theory of evolution is a complete denial of the truth, and we are forced as Christians in today's world to contend with it and stand up for the truth of God’s Word.
Further attacks on the truth come in the form of disregard for human life. As Christians we know that it is wrong and sinful to end unwanted pregnancies by murdering unborn children. God’s Word tells us that life begins at conception, but we are confronted with a whole host of reasons to keep abortion legal and available for women. However, to say that human life is not being destroyed through abortion is simply a lie. It is a denial of the truth! In this regard, we proclaim the truth of God’s Word at Concordia Lutheran High School.
In our sinful world we witness tragedy upon tragedy, and it seems that our society has become numb to it all. And maybe, even we’ve become a little more accepting of some these lies. Even as Christians, these manipulations of the truth affect us greatly, sometimes causing us to struggle with our faith. Our goal at Concordia Lutheran High School is to equip our students with the truth of God’s Word so that they see the world through that lens and can stand firmly in that truth rather than accept the lies the world tells them.
Christians throughout the world are chastised for their faith and have been pressured to compromise the truth and allow the secular culture to dictate how we interpret the Bible and live out our Christian lives. Secular wisdom says that we have to denounce certain truths within the Scriptures and be willing to accept opposing viewpoints. They say we have to change in order to be relevant. However, those kinds of thoughts and feelings and doubt are a result of sin. As Satan bombards us with lies, enticing our sinful flesh to doubt, rebel, give up, choose something else — he twists the truth, hoping to drive you to despair.
What is the cure? What is the remedy? When something is wrong in our lives, we oftentimes try to figure it out for ourselves and determine what we must do to make things right, but in the sinfulness of our flesh we cannot do that. Christ tells us that only the truth will us set free. Every other solution only contributes to sin’s stronghold in our lives.
Jesus reminds us in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” Sin enslaves, but the truth has set you free! How do we know the truth?
We know the truth when we are continually present in His word. That’s precisely what we are promoting by expanding the requirements for the Theology classes at Concordia and encouraging our students to be in worship. We abide in His Word because God has preserved it for us and continually offers it to us as the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
The Word of the Lord is truth and by remaining in His Word — in theology class, in worship, in personal devotion — the truth is given to us and the truth of His Word is what sets us free from the slavery of sin. We abide in His Word and believe Him when He proclaims that we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. He makes us right. He sets us free.
Though we become conscious of sin through the law, His Word proclaims and delivers to us a righteousness from God, apart from the law. Christ makes us righteous and His righteousness now defines who we are! We are no longer slaves to sin. We are sons of God because the Son of God has set you free. And “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” both now and forevermore (John 8:36).
In Christ,
Pastor Chad Hoover