Why New Year's Resolutions Fail

A New Year has begun and the annual tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions and NOT following through with them has also begun.

Every Year we evaluate ourselves and lives and the verdict always comes back with pronouncements like these

You’re not disciplined enough

You’re not skinny enough

You’re not pretty enough

You’re not spending money wisely enough

You’re not spending enough time with God, with your spouse, with your children with your friends.

You get the picture....

But have you noticed that merely making a resolution and pulling yourself up by your own boot straps never seems to work when it comes to getting out of the quagmires of the consequences of sin that we all find ourselves in?

Why is that?

For all of our talk as Lutherans about salvation by Grace through Faith alone apart from works, we Lutherans, according to some, are supremely lacking in practical sermons about how to be more

Disciplined

Skinny

Successful

Frugal

Devoted

But, have you also noticed that “practical sermons” also do not work either?

After all, the general format for those sermons goes something like this...

Are you not disciplined enough? Well, here are three easy things that you can do today to be more disciplined

Are you not skinny enough? Well, here are three easy things that you can do today to start shedding those unwanted pounds.

Are you not frugal enough? Well, here are three easy things that you can do today to be more disciplined in your money management.

Devoted

Can you spot the problem with these sermons, yet? Yeah, they’re ALL Law and the law, cannot and does not give you any assistance or power in obeying its commands.

You’ll no

When pastors, even well meaning pastors, preach sermons of this kind they are dooming their congregants to failure and these pastors cease to be preachers of the Gospel and become motivational speakers and there is ZERO difference between them and the motivational speakers of the world, like Tony Robbins and others.

Our Psalm for the Second Sunday of Christmas reads,

English Standard Version Psalm 119

97  Oh how xI love your law!

It is my ymeditation all the day.

98  Your commandment makes me zwiser than my enemies,

for it is ever with me.

99  I have more understanding than all my teachers,

for ayour testimonies are my meditation.

100  I understand more than bthe aged,8

for I ckeep your precepts.

101  I dhold back my feet from every evil way,

in order to keep your word.

102  I do not turn aside from your rules,

for you have taught me.

103  How esweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104  Through your precepts I get understanding;

therefore fI hate every false way.

So what is the solution and what does this have to do with our texts for this Second Sunday of Christmas?

English Standard Version Chapter 3

3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? zIt was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly aportrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: bDid you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by chearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? dHaving begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by1 the flesh? 4 eDid you suffer2 so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and fworks miracles among you do so gby works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as hAbraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is ithose of faith who are jthe sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that kGod would justify3 the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, l“In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

16 But I say, vwalk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify wthe desires of the flesh. 17 For xthe desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, yto keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are zled by the Spirit, ayou are not under the law. 19 Now bthe works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, cdivisions, 21 envy,4 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that dthose who do5 such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But ethe fruit of the Spirit is flove, joy, peace, patience, gkindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 hgentleness, iself-control; jagainst such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus khave crucified the flesh with its lpassions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, mlet us also keep in step with the Spirit.

What on Earth does it mean to walk by the Spirit or Live by the Spirit or bear the Fruit of the Spirit?

Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings

Now, having duly considered and weighed all these circumstances and testimonies, we conclude that a man is not justified by the precepts of a holy life, but by faith in Jesus Christ,—in a word, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith; not by the letter, but by the spirit; not by the merits of deeds, but by free grace.

Accordingly, by the law of works, God says to us, Do what I command thee; but by the law of faith we say to God, Give me what Thou commandest.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, dfor that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 eAt Gibeon fthe LORD appeared to Solomon gin a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because hhe walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and ihave given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, jyou have made your servant king in place of David my father, kalthough I am but a little child. I do not know lhow to go out or come in. 8 mAnd your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, ntoo many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 oGive your servant therefore an understanding mind pto govern your people, that I may qdiscern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, rI now do according to your word. Behold, sI give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13 tI give you also what you have not asked, uboth riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, vas your father David walked, then wI will lengthen your days.”

15 And Solomon xawoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith papart from works of the law. 29 Or qis God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since rGod is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and sthe uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 2017 Edition Morning Prayer

In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say:

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Then, kneeling or standing, repeat the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. If you choose, you may also say this little prayer:

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Then go joyfully to your work, singing a hymn, like that of the Ten Commandments, or whatever your devotion may suggest.

What the difference between them is, I will briefly explain. What the law of works enjoins by menace, that the law of faith secures by faith. The one says, “Thou shalt not covet;”8 the other says, “When I perceived that nobody could be continent, except God gave it to him; and that this was the very point of wisdom, to know whose gift she was; I approached unto the Lord, and I besought Him.”9 This indeed is the very wisdom which is called piety, in which is worshipped “the Father of lights, from whom is every best giving and perfect gift.”10 This worship, however, consists in the sacrifice of praise and giving of thanks, so that the worshipper of God boasts not in himself, but in Him.11 Accordingly, by the law of works, God says to us, Do what I command thee; but by the law of faith we say to God, Give me what Thou commandest. Now this is the reason why the law gives its command,—to admonish us what faith ought to do, that is, that he to whom the command is given, if he is as yet unable to perform it, may know what to ask for; but if he has at once the ability, and complies with the command, he ought also to be aware from whose gift the ability comes. “For we have received not the spirit of this world,” says again that most constant preacher of grace, “but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”12

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Blessed be fthe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing gin the heavenly places, 4 heven as he ichose us in him jbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be kholy and blameless before him. In love 5 lhe predestined us2 for madoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, naccording to the purpose of his will, 6 oto the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in pthe Beloved. 7 qIn him we have rredemption sthrough his blood, tthe forgiveness of our trespasses, uaccording to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 vmaking known3 to us the mystery of his will, naccording to his purpose, which he wset forth in Christ 10 as a plan for xthe fullness of time, yto unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11 In him we have obtained zan inheritance, ahaving been predestined baccording to the purpose of him who works all things according to cthe counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be dto the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard ethe word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, fwere sealed with the gpromised Holy Spirit, 14 who is hthe guarantee4 of our iinheritance until jwe acquire kpossession of it,5 lto the praise of his glory.