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Lutheran Classical Education III - Three Purposes of Classical Lutheran Education
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Lutheran classical education is rooted in the Word of God and the means of grace. The goal is for students to see and understand the glory of God through general revelation and special revelation. Through scripture, they learn about God's holiness and love. The aim is for students to be transformed and become more like God through this knowledge. The education includes subjects like literature and logic to help students discern the glory of God. Friends, it is so good to be with you again today, thinking about things that matter the most and talking about them. We in our previous two episodes talked about two of the big R's of classical Lutheran education. Classical Lutheran education is rooted in the Word of God in all three senses, Jesus is the Word of God, the gospel of Christ given for the forgiveness of sins to reconcile us to a holy God, as rooted in the Word of God, and the scriptures, what we normally refer to as the Word of God, as being rooted in the Word of God. Lutheran classically educated students need to constantly be in contact with Christ, constantly be in contact with his gospel, being taught and nourished by his Word. Jesus said, abide in me and you will bear much fruit. We also focus on the means of grace, the external visible places that we can go to, to know assuredly that God is there for us. As Lutherans and as Lutheran classical educators, we are not primarily to depend inwardly on our own feelings of who God is to us, our thoughts trying to figure out who God is to us, God's workings and providence that is in the external world to determine who God is to us, though we can know some things. Now if we would discern God's ultimate will for us and for our salvation, we would go to the means of grace, the scriptures, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the forgiveness of sins given therein, and we would discern that God desires first and foremost our salvation, that his will towards us is one of eternal life, that he has given Christ for the full forgiveness of our sins, and that he gives himself to us practically, externally, tangibly in the means of grace. These are two of the foundational principles of Lutheran classical education. Now I want to talk about, maybe we can think about the third perspective of what makes up the total triangle of the basics of Lutheran classical education. The third thing I want to talk about is where we're aiming. What's our goal in Lutheran classical education for the classically Lutheran educated child? We have lots of secondary goals. We want them to be able to think well, speak well, we want them to be able to read well and do math well, we want them to be physically fit and all the rest, but there are really I think three higher goals that we have for our students, more broadly, more generally, that applies to every single teacher and that we're basically trying to get every student to when we see them in the morning, when we see them in the midday, when we see them in the afternoon. In the first, we want our kids to see God, right? The motto for Grace Lutheran Academy is, Videre Deum, to see God, it's the infinitive in Latin, Deum in the accusative, to see God. We care that our students ultimately would see God in himself as he's revealed himself, I don't mean like the naked vision of God, at least in this life, but I mean through Christ as he's revealed himself in his word. If you recall in the book of Corinthians, Paul says that we, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed from one degree of glory to the other. You can think about Moses there who had to veil his face after he saw the backside of God's glory on Mount Sinai, but he existed to see the Lord. That was his highest joy, to see the Lord. You remember David in the Psalms where he says that his great desire is to be in the temple of the Lord, beholding the glory of the Lord, beholding the weightiness of God. If you recall in 1 John 3, John gives this glorious declaration of his hope as a Christian and our hope as Christians, and it says, one day we shall be made like him, for we shall see him as he is. Theologians in the medieval period, I think they may have even said this in the ancient period, but in the medieval reformation period, even down to today, called this ultimate sight of God in his glory, the beatific vision. They called it beatific because it's beautiful and because it beatifies, it makes happy, it makes joyful. What we're aiming for, friends, we're looking ultimately to see Jesus who reveals the glory of God to us for our perfection, and that's one of the goals, probably the highest goal, I will say, of the highest goal of Lutheran classical education, that our students would see the glory of God. Now, where do they see the glory of God? Two ways, both in God's general revelation, that is his revelation given to all men in the creation, God also called this his natural revelation. They see the glory of God in mountains and rocks and trees, and in mathematics and in glorious works of literature, and in all the rest, and we want our students to see God's glory there. We want them to appropriate and to become good at these various areas of reality, to discern the deep principles of being, of reality, in order that they might see the glory of God there. Dear friends, if all they saw was God's glory manifest in general revelation, the question is, would that be enough? Romans 1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God, except Psalm 19. Romans 1 says that the heavens reveal the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So, David, in Psalm 19, says that the heavens reveal the glory of God, and in Paul, Romans 1, says that the heavens reveal the wrath of God. How do we make sense of this? Well, Paul is talking about people perceiving God in the world and through the world, apart from Christ, the mediator, apart from the forgiveness of sins, in his majesty, without being able to discern him. And when they discern God, they discern themselves, and they notice that they are suppressors of God, they're idolaters, they're sinners. And so, though the general revelation reveals the glory of God, it reveals the glory of God in relation to our sin, and thus condemns us apart from Christ. And so, in addition to this general revelation of the glory of God that all men have some access to, you don't have to be a Christian to do math, you don't have to be a Christian to read great works of literature, you don't have to be a Christian to participate in natural philosophy and natural science, but if you're discerning it correctly, it will reveal to you the existence of God, but it will reveal to you a God who is your enemy. And for that, we need another word from God, and another word from God doesn't come from his general revelation, but from his special revelation. And by special, we mean primarily that not everybody gets it, but also that it is supernaturally revealed. And for the sake of conversation, for the sake of keeping it short, we'll say the special revelation that we're referring to is primarily the scriptures. We receive knowledge from God through the holy scriptures. And the holy scriptures indeed reveal to us the same things that we learned about God from general revelation, albeit in a clearer way. The scriptures reveal that God is holy. The scriptures reveal original sin to us, that we are sinful beyond measure, and it's not just that we sin, it's that we're sinners. It gets down to the heart. All this we could have learned from general revelation, and we learn in an even clearer way in special revelation in the scriptures. But the scriptures also reveal to us something about God that is even more significant. Through the folly that is the perceived craziness of the cross, God reveals to us his love as well. God reveals to us through the gospel that his ultimate will towards us is not wrath or hell or damnation, that he desires the justification, the salvation, the forgiveness, the eternal life of all men. From the created order, we can indeed discern that God is glorious and beautiful and majestic, and we can discern that we are sinners, and we can hope for a salvation. Maybe God will grant it. But in special revelation, we learn of God's salvation revealed to us in Jesus Christ, and we see the glory, the distinctness, the majesty of the God who calls himself not only I am who I am, but who also calls himself love. We want our students to see the glory of God both in the mirror of nature, but also through the spectacles of holy scripture, and in holy scripture, we see God revealed to us as holy under his opposites. Though we would expect God to come in triumph, he comes in the virgin's womb. Though we would expect him to come guns-a-blazing, taking over Rome with an army, he comes to die for his enemies, you and me, and rise for them on the third day. So we in the first, as Christian classical educators, want to blow that up on both sides. General revelation, special revelation, we want our students, we have the high excitement of being conduits, vehicles that are there to reveal the majesty of God in both general revelation, creation, and also in scripture, and we want to just show them that. We want to show them that over and over again. We read works of literature like Plato in order that they might see the glory of God. We teach them logic in order that they might discern the glory of God. We teach them rhetoric that they might speak forth the wisdom and the counsel and the glory of the eternal God. Number two, closely related to this. So if you remember those scripture passages I was referencing, especially in 1 John, it says when we see him, we will be made like him, and in Corinthians, Paul says, we, with unveiled face, beholding, that is looking and understanding and knowing the glory of God, are being transformed from one to great glory to the next. So how is it then that someone gets to be more like God? At least one way that the scriptures talk about us being more like God is by seeing God for who he is. You often hear people say things like, I saw a car crash, or I saw the Grand Canyon, or I saw this movie, or I see what you're saying there. And those experiences of sight, or even mental sight, lead to a transformation of soul. And so the second goal of Lutheran classical education at a fundamental level is that our students would be like God. We want them to see God. We want them to be like God. In order to see God with the eye of the soul, they have to see God, or in order to see God with the eye of the soul, when they see God with the eye of the soul, they will be made like God. So we want them to not only see God with the eye of the soul, but we want to see their transformation through that soul sight. And then lastly, we want them to serve God. So see God, be like God, and serve God. In Lutheran theology, we call this our vocation, that God has called us into the world. He called us to himself and our justification, and has freely forgiven us by grace and grace alone, and he has called us to live not in ourselves, but in our neighbor through love. Now, let us distinguish. The primary way that vocation is discussed about in most education philosophy today is self-centered. The primary question that people are answering through their vocational question is, what job I can do to make the most amount of money so that I can increase my own happiness by buying and buying and buying, dealing with number one. Vocation in the classical Lutheran sense is all about pouring oneself out to serve one's neighbor. Let me put it to you like this. Jesus took upon human flesh in order to save you. Jesus lived the perfect life that you couldn't live. He died for you in love that he might reconcile you to God. He rose for you triumphantly on the third day, assuring you and angels and men that his favor towards you is ultimate. He ascended on high, and he promised you that he would come again to save you. More than that, he said to you that as you seek first the kingdom of God, these things, physical things, will be added to you. Then neither life, nor death, nor struggle, nor sadness, nor anything else that you come across will separate you from the love of God. If that's the case, everything is taken care of in my life. My main problem was solved 2,000 years ago on the Roman cross in a grave where my righteousness triumphed over all my problems. He has therefore relativized my problems, and though they are real, they can even be my servants. I'll put it that way. My sufferings can be used to make me more like Jesus. The struggles that I go through can be used to make me of more use for the kingdom of God. If I'm trusting Christ by faith, I don't have to primarily worry about myself. I don't have to worry whether or not people like me. I struggle with that too, but I don't have to worry about that as much. I don't have to worry about whether or not I've been productive enough today as long as I'm doing my duty. Through our justification, through our calling unto God, we've been free from the burden of having to justify ourselves and are now free to serve our neighbors in love with no expectation of something in return. You get that? So, we are not primarily, when I was in high school or middle school, the primary motivation that everybody gave for why you should be educated and why you should learn everything, it wasn't to see God. It wasn't to be like God. It was to make money. Boring, right? The primary vocational calling for us is that we would serve our neighbors in love. And that might look a lot like the rest of the world. We might do math, we might go to Penn State to get a degree in engineering, but the Christian motivation is much different if they're living consistently with the gospel. Their motivation is not for themselves, it's for their families, it's for their nation, it's to serve their neighbors in love. So, to recap, three ultimate things we're aiming at when we serve students in the morning, when we serve students in the midday, we're not feeling like it, we're cranky, right? Three things we're aiming at. I want them to see God. I want them to be like God. I want them to serve God in their vocations. May God bless you.
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