God, grace, and doggie treats

It's been a while since I've shared a video from Pastor George Borghardt of Higher Things, the confessional Lutheran youth ministry that does such a fine job. But this one is special. It makes a point American Christians and Western Christians generally don't seem to get, and with which Christians who struggle with OCD have particular problems.

First, it's special because Pr. Borghardt does such a great job of explaining something that's important for us to understand, but incredibly hard to keep straight: that the Gospel is outside of us. It doesn't call on us to do anything! It doesn't call upon you to act in order to make God gracious to you. It's the objective fact that God is going to be your gracious heavenly Father in spite of you- because of what Jesus has done. The Gospel is not an offer. It is a proclamation! It's an announcement of something that is true before you even know about it. And while it is there for us to trust and rely on, even our trust and reliance on the truth of the Gospel is God's doing in us. We can always say "no" to God. But if we say "yes" to Him, that's God's doing, and His alone.

Oh, it produces a response, all right. But it produces that response. It does not call upon us to produce it- and that's a huge difference!

You cannot make God more "for" you than He already is in Christ! No amount of trying, no amount of striving, no amount of achieving or believing or humbling yourself or jumping through any hoop whatsoever is the answer to fear or doubt or unbelief. The answer is that God already has you covered even though you don't deserve it and haven't earned it- and cannot deserve or earn it! That's what makes it the Gospel!

If you had to do something- anything- to make it true, it would be Law. But Gospel is always something that is true no matter how you respond to it. The Gospel is true even for unbelievers. That they refuse to benefit from it doesn't make it any the less true!

An unintended bonus in this video is the dog. Pastor Borghardt is trying to concentrate on saying what he has to say while his dog sits there trying to score some doggie treats. Every once in awhile Pastor Borghardt puts one on the desk for the dog to eat- but doesn't notice that it's out of the dog's reach. So the dog tries and strains and struggles- and usually fails. At the end of the video, he finally reaches one. But throughout the video, the dog is trying and trying and trying to get that treat! It's a good model of the way we see our relationship with God- as a struggling to achieve, to make something true that isn't true.

But grace is the opposite of that. Grace is something which by definition never has to be striven for or achieved. It's something that is true already- not because of what we do but because of Who God is in Christ. 

There are no "ifs" in the Gospel. The Gospel is always an "is." And faith is never something we do in order for something to happen. Good grief- the unnecessary pain that people go through because well-intentioned preachers and fellow Christians tell them the falsehood that they somehow have to make themselves worthy before God will (or even- blasphemy of blasphemies- can!) be gracious to them!

It's the news that God has us covered even in our sin and failure and unbelief- that even these, and even the obstacles we encounter in our lives, are not things it's up to us to overcome but rather things which God Himself uses to get us to where He wants to be. And the Gospel is never a set of instructions. Instead, it's Good News- not about what God will do if we do a certain thing, but of what God will do no matter what we do or don't do.

The Gospel, as Luther reminds us, is always outside of us. That's why the most Christian of all prayers, and the most believing, is always, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!"