Sheep or Goats

            Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord.  I forgot to tell you a funny story in yesterday’s post.  Last Friday morning, I got the privilege of meeting one of my adopt-a-student sponsors.  For those of you who do not know what that is, there are good people who send money to the seminary to the Adopt-A-Student program and then the seminary pairs them up with a student.  Their financial gifts go to the student’s account to help pay for school.  However, besides the money, most student and sponsor pairs build a relationship through thank you letters and cards.  I have built a pretty good relationship with all of my sponsors through me sending them letters about how life at the seminary is going and what I am all doing while I am here.  Then most of them have been very good about sending Christmas cards or letters in return.  I had one set of sponsors last year that now he is enrolled as a student here this year.  It has been fun getting to know him and his wife as they live here and begin their own journey to the ministry.  Well anyways, my one sponsor who is from California was going to be on campus for a meeting.  He worked it out through advancement that we would meet over a cup of coffee to get to know each other a little better.  We met Friday morning at 7:30.  His meeting began at 8, but we had a really good visit for the half hour.  Advancement had the kitchen staff put out a whole spread of coffee, orange juice, bagels, and danishes for us to eat and drink while visiting.  We each had some coffee and a bagel.  After we were done, I went downstairs with him and we said our goodbyes and I said thank you one more time.  This is the funny part.  As soon as he left for his meeting, I went right back upstairs and grabbed all the left over bagels and danishes.  I also drank a big glass of the orange juice and refilled my coffee.  As I stuffed my coat pockets with the bagels and danishes, I felt kind of like a homeless person and could not help but laugh.  Moral of the story is if you leave food out for a broke seminary student, do not expect any to be left when you come back.  I did thoroughly enjoy the visit and am very grateful for all the help this sponsor has given me, but thought I’d still share my funny story with you. 

            My thought for the day comes from my Acts and Pauline Epistles class.  This is by far my favorite class this quarter.  It is a lot of work keeping up with translations and small daily papers, but Dr. Kloha is definitely in my top three of favorite professors and he just has such great insight into Paul’s letters.  He is from Chicago and one of the things he says most that makes me laugh every time, is that if he thinks something is non-logical or just ridiculous, he sweeps his hand in a motion of dismissal and says, “That’s just stupid!”  He also has a very cool definition of the term “gospel”.  To him, the gospel is the entire narrative, from creation to the second coming, of everything and anything that shows or expresses God’s grace within that narrative. Right now we are working through Galatians and looking at things like the New Perspective on Paul which is a pretty big debate in the Christian church right now, including Lutherans.  If you do not know what the New Perspective of Paul is and are curious, let me know and I will try to explain it and its applications and ramifications in a separate post.  So while looking at Galatians and going through all the important stuff we are learning, he asked the question of what is justification.  He then used the example of the Matthew 25:31-46.  This is the parable of the sheep and the goats.  Jesus separates the sheep and the goats.  He puts the sheep to His right and the goats to His left.  He praises the sheep for all that they did right and He curses the goats for all that they did not do.  Some theologians have made the wrong assumption that the sheep were put to the right side because of the acts that they did that the shepherd is praising them for.  They say the goats were cursed because of the things they did not do and that is why the shepherd put them to the left.  However, Kloha showed us very clearly that this is not true at all.  The sheep were already sheep and the goats were already goats before He separated them.  It’s not the acts or the lack of acts that makes them sheep or goats.  He praises the sheep for the things they did right, not because this is what made them sheep, but because they are already sheep and placed on the right side so He praises them for the things they did right.  Just like He curses the goats on the left side, not because the lack of works is what made them goats, but because they are already goats on the left so He is cursing what they did wrong.  You see our works or actions in this life are not the determining factor of our salvation.  Faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior is the only thing that matters for our salvation.  So using this parable of the sheep and the goats, and then using the New Perspective on Paul (NPP), Dr. Kloha asked, “When are we justified?”  I did not raise my hand but he called on me anyway.  I said that if we look at the NPP, then we are justified when we belong to the chosen race of God who is still in the saving covenant He made with them, and the factor that determines if we are part of that chose people or race is no longer circumcision or anything other than faith in Christ.  And if we say one has to have the Holy Spirit to be able to receive this faith in Christ as our Savior which brings us into the chosen people, then we were justified when God gave us His Spirit.  Dr. Kloha surprisingly seemed to agree with me.  So you see, when God gives us His Spirit and we accept the receiving of the faith in Christ as our Savior, we now belong to His chosen people and are therefore justified.  This is when we become sheep instead of being goats.  So now that we are sheep, we are to live a God-fearing life serving everyone around us.  These works do not make us a sheep or save us, they are just what we will be told we did right because we are sheep and placed to the right.  If you remember back to last year when I explained two kinds of righteousness (2KR), which I hope you do because in my mind this is one of the most important things every Christian needs to know, this fits perfectly with 2KR.  God gives us our salvation, our passive righteousness, and then we do our works for our neighbors, our active righteousness.  You see our passive righteousness is what makes us sheep that will be put to the right, and then our active righteousness is what we will be praised for.  The lack of the passive righteousness for those who are not part of the chosen people because they do not have the faith in Christ, these people are the goats that will be put to the left and cursed for the lack of their active righteousness.  Works and actions are simply what we will be told we did right or did wrong, but this comes only after we are already separated between those being saved and those who are not.  God does not need our works, but our neighbors do.  All praise Him who makes us His sheep by giving us His Spirit and bringing us to the faith in Christ as our Savior which brings us into His chosen race or chosen people who will be saved and have eternal life. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for sending Your Son as our Savior, our Savior who lived, died and lives forevermore for us.  We also thank you for sending You Spirit to us so that we may have this faith that brings us into Your chosen People.  We ask that You give us the strength and guidance to help us live out our active righteousness, but always remembering it is our passive righteousness that is our salvation.  Keep us in the one true faith until You call us home; the one true faith in our Holy Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit.  Amen.