Question 001
Question
So long as my church confesses the truth about the Gospel and rightly administers the Sacraments of Jesus, can I take comfort in the reception of both Christ’s Word and Sacrament when taught and administered by a man who (as it turns out) is an impenitent or hypocrite?
What We Believe, Teach, and Confess
Properly speaking, the church consists of true believers (penitents), not hypocrites and other impenitents, but in a broken world we can expect that detecting such hypocrites and impenitents within the church may not be possible today, nor is that required of us to be the true church. And so, a mixture of true and false believers in the church (as we participate in that church on earth) is possible, as Jesus taught.
{31}“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. {32}All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. {33}And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-33 NKJV)
{24}Another parable [Jesus] put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; {25}but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. {26}But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. {27}So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ {28}He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ {29}But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. {30}Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13:24-30 NKJV)
Thus, even if, unknown to true penitents in the church, one’s pastor who rightly administers the Sacraments is himself a hypocrite, it is lawful for penitents still to use the true Sacraments of Christ despite their being administered by such a hypocrite.
And the express reason for this is that the Sacraments remain valid and effectual because Christ Himself instituted and commanded their use, and it is His promise of the Gospel that is attached to them and which gives them their power, notwithstanding the sins of hypocrites.