The 60th Convention of the North Dakota District 

The following is a portion of my District President’s Report for the upcoming convention.  

The Convention Theme is: “Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness”

This theme is from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 with emphasis on verse 21: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Greetings to you who are clothed in Christ’s righteousness,

Many people have a scripture verse that means a lot to them, and they use it at the bottom of their email and in other ways.  For any of you who have received emails from me you have seen this verse from 2 Corinthians 5:21. This verse is known as the “Great Exchange”.  “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  I even have it on the wall in my office behind me.  For me, this verse is more personable than the “Gospel in a Nutshell”, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).  Over the years as a pastor, I always enjoyed pointing out that as you read God’s Word always watch the action verbs.  When you do that, you soon notice that God is doing all the action in saving us from our sin and giving us His righteousness through His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is my encouragement to you participants in this 60th North Dakota District of The LCMS Convention.  Let us keep before us “God made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” as we hear from our main convention presenter, Rev. Dr. Mark Seifrid, Bible studies, vote on officers of the district, and focus on resolutions.

When I think about “Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness” what first comes to my mind is baptism.  In baptism we are connected to Christ’s death and resurrection, which means that He has died the death of separation from God for sin so that we do not die that death as Christ has done it for us; thus, we hear from Jesus on the cross when He said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  He died the death of separation from God that we deserve; but now, we will not, because He took our place (a “Great Exchange”, indeed).

There are so many places in Scripture that we hear of being clothed.  Another that comes to my mind is Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  Again, another “Great Exchange” as Christ’s has washed us clean with His blood, making us white as snow.

From our text for this convention we hear, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.”  I know that pastors and congregations are being faithful as ambassadors of Christ and making His appeal through them; but I have a great concern of so many infants not being brought to baptism by their parents who were raised in the church.  I do not see a generation to generation passing on of being “Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness.”  I believe that we will be doing better with this in the future as the District Board of Directors and myself are supporting pastors and congregations with their efforts to train and raise up stronger Christians (especially Christian fathers) in what it is that we believe, teach, and confess.  This is being accomplished by assisting pastors and congregations in circuit events that are having catechizing events.  The district is financially supporting these efforts from the bottom up instead of putting on district events sponsored by the decision of a few (from the top down).  Our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has in the past functioned this way and I believe it has and will work best in this way.

“Clothed in Christ” and “God making His appeal through us” is part of the focus of this convention as we look to continue our outreach efforts in the missions of the district, such as, Wittenberg Chapel, Christ Care for Children Kenya, and support of a pastor in Chile.  In the past triennium the Lord of the Church (you His body) have blessed this effort with your offerings so well that the District Board of Directors was able and willing to give to our missions an extra $5,000 as you each, and we as a district, work toward God making His appeal through us.

May the blessing of you being “Clothed in Christ’s Righteousness” be ever before you this day and into eternity which is already yours, because your gracious and merciful God has done it all for you.

Blessings,

Rev. Arie D. Bertsch

The North Dakota LCMS District President