Why do Confessional Lutherans and Revisionists come to a different understanding of Grace?

The key to understanding Luther's theology is the insight that one simple statement cannot cover all of the truth ("the unchangeable truth of the divine Word", Preface to the Book of Concord).

You do not get a full picture of a mountain by just looking at it from one side. It takes photos from at least three sides to see the entire mountain. These three photos, although they are different, do not contradict each other because they are different. They compliment each other to show what one snapshot cannot show, namely the whole mountain.

Likewise, good holistic theology understands that there is more to the truth than can be said by one doctrine such as the teaching about grace. You also have to talk about repentance and changing our sinful ways. Otherwise grace becomes what Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace".

Luther affirmed that Jesus was totally (100%) God and also totally (100%) man. Both statements are true although they are logically exclusive of each other.

We are totally sinners and totally saints. Left-brainish, logical, linear thinking cannot comprehend that.

The problem with the Jesus Seminar (Marcus Borg et al) and Revisionist Theology is that those who adhere to it have succumbed to a simplistic left-brainish approach to theology. They have discovered:
- grace but they suppress repentance,
- the gospel of love but they suppress the law,
- justification but they suppress sanctification,
- that Jesus accepts all sinners but they suppress "Go and sin no more".
Revisionist Theologians cannot accept the apparent contradiction of living under grace and still needing to live with daily repentance. Left-brainish thinking rejects anything that does not make sense

Revisionists select one insight such as "grace". They proceed to say that grace is unconditional, it covers all. Therefore, logically, grace is all we need. They talk about "radical grace", meaning grace only at the expense of repentance and change. The first part of Revisionists theology is indeed correct, but it becomes a heresy when it suppresses the other side of the truth.

Revisionists emphasize that the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor (Mark 12:31) and that love is the greatest (1Corinthians 13:13). They conclude that, logically, we do not need the law. The first part of Revisionist theology is indeed true, but it becomes a heresy when the other side of the truth is suppressed. "But it is foolish to dream that this love by which we act toward human beings justifies us before God." (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, The Book of Concord (Kolb & Wengert), p. 154). It makes no "sense" that we should both "fear and love God" as Luther admonishes us to do. Revisionists solve that problem by chopping off the law. Confessional Lutherans believe that we need both, the gospel and the law.

Every heresy has some truth in it. It becomes a heresy when the truth is twisted or when it highlights only a part of the truth and suppresses other aspects of the truth.

The result is often Universalism, the false teaching that by the grace of God all people are saved.

Revisionists feast on a feeling of intellectual superiority because they do not have to accept by faith what their reason cannot comprehend. Lutherans know that, just like "the peace that passes all understanding", there are dimensions to the truth that only faith can grasp.

The problem with this type of rational or logical theology is not new. Luther, already in his days, fought the Antinomians, those who claimed that we do not need the law. Antinomians also had discovered the wonderful teaching about grace, and then employing reason and logic Antinomians went overboard.

Luther believed that we are both sinners and saints. Therefore we need both, the law and the gospel. (In an ideal world we would need no police forces or courts of law, unfortunately people do sin.)

Luther had little respect for left-brainish theology (although recent neurological insights into how our brains function did not exist yet). He spoke of the "Hure des Verstandes", the whore of reason. In his small Catechism he said, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason (aus eigener Vernunft) or effort believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord or come to him".

According to the Book of Concord (The Lutheran Confessions), traditional Lutheran beliefs embrace the whole truth of sin and salvation, justification and sanctification, law and gospel, grace and repentance, and the Bible as a whole; not just some verses while discounting other words of Scriptures. The Revisionist Theology that undergirds same-sex blessing is based on a pick-and-choose approach that selects those passages of Scriptures that support what it wants to prove while discrediting other parts of Scriptures that are not to its liking.

Revisionists always begin by pointing to parts of Scriptures we do not practice anymore. They continue to argue that, since we do not, for example, practice certain parts of Leviticus, therefore, logically, we do not have to follow everything that Paul says about homosexuality. The Church has changed its position on the role of women in the Church; therefore, Revisionists claim, it is reasonable to change our position on homosexuality.

The "Living the Questions" DVD series presents a theology that does not require faith because everything has to make sense to left-brainish thinking. According to such thinking, Jesus Seminar theologians have reconstructed a Jesus that portrays him as a wandering wisdom sage who did not establish a religion or rise from the dead. Lutherans believe in their risen Lord Jesus (1.Corinthians 15: 14, 17). People who are weak in faith find it "liberating" to subscribe to a Revisionist Theology. They are easily taken in by a theology in which reason has replaced faith. Revisionists present themselves as "progressive Christians" implying that all those who do not agree with them are dreadfully out of date and out of touch with current theology. They are absolutely amazed that there are Lutherans who actually believe what the Lutheran Church has taught and what pastors have preached for generations.

Confessional and traditional Lutherans believe that faith is greater than logic. Logically it makes no sense that God should love sinners. Love makes no sense. It is not reasonable that a man should love just one woman. Faith defies logic when we assert that we are simultaneously sinners and saints. As Lutherans we embrace the whole truth, not just the parts that we like or want to use to prove a point.

Revisionist Theology and Lutheran Theology have no common ground in the way they interpret Scriptures. Some members of the ELCIC, who promote Revisionist Theology, are beginning to admit that these different theologies cannot co-exist in the same church. To accommodate Revisionist Theology the ELCIC would have to rewrite Article II of its constitution. Since Article II of the ELCIC Constitution is "Unalterable" and cannot be changed without voiding the whole constitution that will be an interesting challenge!