Bryan Wolfmueller, pastor of St Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran Churches in Austin, TX, author of "A Martyr's Faith for a Faithless World", "Has American Christianity Failed?", co-host of Table Talk Radio, teacher of Grappling with the Text, and theological adventure traveler.
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I’ve been looking forward to this. Thank you.
A lifelong Lutheran myself, I sincerely appreciate the distinction between Law and Gospel (which is discussed in the video beginning at about 6:04). But I have also come to believe that describing the content of God’s message to us in only those two terms is inadequate in at least one important way: Much of Scripture is rich in loving exhortation and instruction, that we might be blessed and fruitful in the Lord this side of heaven.
Some scholars refer to the Greek word paraenesis to describe this. The word is discussed briefly in Michael Middendorf’s paper, “The New Obedience,” which is available at https://scholar.csl.edu/cj/vol41/iss3/4/. Dr. Middendorf is on the faculty at Concordia University, Irvine, California.