A Pastoral Concern regarding the Reformation

Guess what!  Lutherans are still heretics!

So says a group of priests who have issued a Fraternal Correction to Pope Francis who is rebuking him for his apparent sympathies for Martin Luther.  In fact, these priests are emphatic that the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church remain just as divided as ever.

Consider this description regarding how one is justified before God: 

The gospel does not teach that all sins will in fact be forgiven, nor that Christ alone experienced the ‘judgment’ or justice of God, leaving only mercy for the rest of mankind. While there is a ‘vicarious suffering’ of our Lord in order to expiate our sins, there is not a ‘vicarious punishment’, for Christ was made “sin for us” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21) and not a sinner. Out of divine love, and not as the object of God’s wrath, Christ offered the supreme sacrifice of salvation to reconcile us with God, taking upon himself only the consequences of our sins (cf. Gal. 3:13). Hence, so that we may be justified and saved, it is not sufficient to have faith that our sins have been removed by a supposed vicarious punishment; our justification lies in a conformity to our Saviour achieved by that faith which works through charity (cf. Gal. 5:6).
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2017/11/the-gospel-as-heresy/#ezQsRSoYeP9qhRSD.99

So, there you have it.  Justification in Roman theology is not by faith alone (for an opposing view, read Romans 3:28), but rather by our deeds of love which spring out of faith.

While the Lutheran Church has never denied that deeds of love will spring out of faith (we agree with Titus 2:14 among others), we also state that such deeds do not save us (we agree with Ephesians 2:8-9).  If justification comes by "a conformity to our Saviour achieved by that faith which works through charity," how is that working out for you?  How well have you conformed to Jesus?  How do you know the number of your deeds are enough?  Or that they are good enough?  Or that your works are done with a pure enough motive?  Or that God is sufficiently pleased with them?

We do not take any joy that the western Church, after 500 years of schism (to be fair, a better date for official schism would be 1530 when the Lutherans officially presented the Augsburg Confession), remains divided.  But the division is at the very heart of the Gospel--how a man is saved.  Though we do not take joy over the schism, we recognize that the Reformation was necessary, we still take our stand on the Gospel teaching as discovered and proclaimed by Martin Luther, we still insist that we are the church catholic which teaches and confesses the apostolic word, and we pray that the Lord of the Church will continue to send faithful Gospel preachers into the world so that people can be confident and comforted by salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, based on Scripture alone, and in Jesus Christ alone.