Author: Jack Kilcrease

Jack Kilcrease is a Lutheran lay theologian and member of Our Savior Lutheran Church (LCMS). He is currently a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Jack was born in Texas, but grew up in Oregon. He went on to receive a B.A. from Luther College and an M.A. from Luther Seminary. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and Ethics from Marquette University in 2009. Jack’s theological work explores the gift of God’s self-donation in Jesus Christ. He is the author of several books including the most recent volume of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series on Holy Scripture and the forthcoming Justification by the Word (Lexham Press). Jack is currently Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Institute of Lutheran Theology’s Christ School of Theology. He is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor teaching philosophy at Aquinas College. Jack lives in beautiful West Michigan with his lovely wife, Bethany, and his two energetic daughters, Miriam and Ruth. When he’s not thinking about theology—and even when he is—Jack enjoys running, hiking, and hanging out with his family and cat. He’s passionate about BBQ, whiskey, jazz, movies, and theological discussion.
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ILT Receives ATS Accreditation!

Great news! The Association of Theological Schools has voted to accredit ILT’s Christ School of Theology.

ILT President Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt writes, “The Commission on Accreditation of the Association of Theological Schools just voted to grant ILT’s Christ School of Theology an initial accreditation of seven years, the maximum that they give.

ILT joins Kairos University (formerly Sioux Falls Seminary) as the only other ATS accredited institution in the five state area: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.”

The Institute of Lutheran Theology was already accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education and will maintain both accreditations. Additionally, in order to ensure high academic standards via distance education, ILT is a SARA-participating institution.

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The Royal Priesthood and the Authority of the Church

The Royal Priesthood possesses access to the truth of Scripture through the sacraments in a manner analogous to how the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father.  Just as the persons of the Trinity contain the same divine ousia, so likewise the Bible, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism all contain the same gospel message.  Similarly, just as there is a Son and a Spirit as self-communications of the Father, so too there is a sacrament of the Spirit (baptism) and a sacrament of the Son (the Eucharist). Likewise, just as the Father is the fount of divinity and therefore the source of the Son and the Spirit from all eternity and as well as the sender of Son and Spirit in their missions within time, so too, the Bible authorizes baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Finally, just as the Son and the Spirit are the exegetes of the Father in eternity and in the history of redemption recorded in Scripture, they also serve as exegetes for the Royal Priesthood gathered around Word and Sacrament. 

In baptism, the Spirit gives the Triune Name to believers so that they might call on the Lord in faith and repentance.  Such faith and repentance invariably leads the believer to the Son and his work.  Because the believer has called upon the Name of the Lord given in baptism for repentance, he now gains access to the Son’s sacrificed body and blood given in the Eucharist for the forgiveness of sins.  Hence, faith and an encounter with Christ in the unilateral promise of the gospel through the public ministry of the Church gives the Royal Priesthood of believers an accurate perspective from which to read and understand the Bible. It also therefore provides a means of testing all teachers and ministers in the Church.1

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Reconciliation through the Spirit in the Means of Grace

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead works through the Word and Sacrament ministry of the Church to share the universal and objective “not guilty” verdict of the Father. This verdict comes through the message of the death and resurrection of the Messiah.  Those who receive the proclamation of justification by faith secure the very presence of the risen Jesus in the power of the Spirit.  As the great cosmic judge, the Son of Man, Jesus now mediates the same verdict and presence he proleptically shared with the eschatological Israel in his earthly ministry through the Church. 

The Church is defined by the means of grace to which Jesus has attached his Name, that is, his presence.  Therefore, to be in contact with the means of grace is to both be in contact with the risen Jesus, and his body/bride the Church.  The Church and the Divine Service (Gottesdienst) is the replacement for the Temple (Eph. 2:19-22) and its service. This is because the Church and its Divine Service are now the body of Jesus, the true eschatological Temple in the flesh (Jn. 1:14).  As the Son of Man, Jesus proleptically elected and worked justification in the midst of the outcastes of Israel.  He told his hearers beforehand what verdict he would render on them in light of their belief or unbelief in his words of judgment and grace.1

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The Death of Christ as a Revelation of Sin

Christ’s regal and sacerdotal activity find their ultimate fulfillment in his prophetic office.  Christ’s prophetic office does not merely encompass his teachings prior to his crucifixion, but is finally and most supremely fulfilled in his actualization of the testament of the gospel.  The saving testament of the gospel is the message of his salvific cross and empty tomb. The cross and the empty tomb are the supreme act of revelation of the Triune God.  St. Paul tells us that the omega-point of God’s revelatory activity, and the center of all proper Christian teaching, is the death and resurrection of Christ: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).  Martin Luther echoed this in his slogan: “The cross alone is our theology” (crux sola est nostra theologia).1  In his Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle summarized the content of the revelation of the cross as: “[Christ] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

Although the message of the cross’s ultimate telos is salvation, in Scripture salvation never comes apart from a corresponding act of judgment.  Hence, the cross is not only a revelation of grace, but it is the means by which “[God] will destroy the wisdom of the wise [and] the intelligence of the intelligent” (1 Cor. 1:19).  Jesus is “The stone that the builders rejected [that] has become the cornerstone” (Matt. 21:42).  Hence, the crucifixion and empty tomb not only reveal the hidden plan of redemption, but also expose the true depths of human sin.  The New Testament emphasizes that the exposure of the true depths of human sin in the cross occurs on two horizons: coram Deo (i.e., the divine-human relationship) and coram mundo (i.e., the human-human relationship). 

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Speaking on the Authority of Scripture in Wittenberg

I am excited to be speaking at the North European Luther Academy‘s 2023 Annual Theological Symposium in Wittenberg, Germany. This year’s symposium topic will be “Inspiration, Authority, and Leadership.” I will be speaking on the “The Authority of Scripture and Tradition in Light of the Lutheran Confessional Paradigm” and “The Doctrine of Scriptural Inerrancy in Confessional Lutheran Perspective.” Other speakers include Daniel Johansson, Knut Alfsvåg, Rune Imberg, and Fredrik Sidenvall. If you can make it, I’d love to connect!