Why Didn't We Think of That?

Trolling through the Internet, I was led to the web pages of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (September 29 is the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels -see North Woods Anglican for a discussion of that.) The folks down in Lake Charles have a Fall Educational series going on and are posting the class notes on-line. The Christian Education page can be accessed by clicking here. They are studying the 39 Articles of Religion and if you start now you will only be 2 weeks behind because they have only posted the first 2 weeks of notes. Here is a teaser from week 2,

"Of the Justification of Man

We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Reformation Background

At the time of King Henry VIII’s death in 1547, the English Reformation was focusing on three things: Holy Scripture as God’s Rule of Faith, Original sin and the results of sin, and the Salvation of mankind through justification. In so far as the church in England needed to differentiate itself from the teaching of Rome, English thinking on justification mostly urgently needed clarification.

Expressed simply the righteousness we receive by way of justification owes nothing to human effort or human works. Justification is God’s work about us as opposed to God’s later work within us, how as persons we stand in God’s sight. It has to do with how God reckons or counts us as righteous, how God takes the merit and righteousness of Christ’s death and imputes that righteousness to us. Our justification is completed by reason of Christ’s death alone. Justification neither grows nor increases beyond this fact."

As Wednesday p.m. family services at ECOOS are but a dim receding memory, it might be good to take a virtual class at St. Michael and All Angels this fall. Let us hope that they continue to update the class notes.