Blog Archives

Righteousness on the Inside

7/21/2023

Trinity 6
Matthew 5:17-26
Pastor James Preus
July 16, 2023

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What does Jesus mean by righteousness? Righteousness is an attribute of God. It is the order by which He runs the universe. Righteousness is what is right. Righteousness is the will of God. God expresses His righteous will in the Law and the Prophets, which are the Holy Scriptures. If you are to be righteous, you must conform yourself to God’s holy Word. You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees falls short, because it is superficial. Their righteousness is all outward works. Jesus calls them whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside, but filled with dead men’s bones and all uncleanness on the inside. They add rules to God’s commandments, not to become closer to God, but to make it easier for sinners to follow. And what is worse, they teach others to be like them. So, they not only refuse to enter the kingdom of heaven, but they prevent others from entering as well. But the Holy Spirit didn’t cause this to be recorded for our learning, so that we can judge and condemn a bunch of religious zealots who lived two thousand years ago. The scribes’ and Pharisees’ superficial righteousness is prevalent today. You should be concerned for yourself. Do you think you’re a good person, because you have conformed yourself to a few rules, because you have controlled your behavior? That is not the righteousness of God.
Jesus’ teaching is much different than the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus gets to the heart. “You have heard it said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.” Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Some think that by contrasting His teaching from what they had heard from of old, Jesus was contrasting His teaching from the Law and the Prophets. But Jesus is the true teacher of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.
So, for you to be righteous, you must not simply behave properly on the outside, but your very heart must be righteous. You must desire to do God’s will from the heart and to serve your neighbor out of sincere love for him. Yet, this is impossible by your own power. Scripture says in Romans 8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” God indeed made mankind in His image with original righteousness, so that the first man and woman desired to do God’s will from the heart. Yet, that original righteousness was lost in Adam’s Fall. Now, all born according to the flesh can do nothing but sin, as our Hymn of the Day states:
From hearts depraved to evil prone,
Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone;
God’s image lost, the darkened soul
Seeks not nor finds its heav’nly goal. (LSB 562:3, All Mankind Fell)
So, for you to have true righteousness before God, you must have a new heart. What Jesus says here, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” is very much what He said to the Pharisee Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) For you to have a righteousness that gains entrance to the kingdom of heaven, you must have a new heart. You must be born again.
But how can you be born again? Your first birth is after the image of Adam, the man who fell into sin. In Adam’s image you are a sinner. After whose image can your second birth be, so that you can have a pure and righteous heart? Christ Jesus is the true Son of God from eternity. He took on our human flesh without infecting Himself with original sin. In human flesh, Jesus lived righteously from the heart before God. Yet, He took on the sin of the whole world and was punished in the stead of all people. Being God in the flesh, His passion for our sins and innocent death made full satisfaction for our sins. So, in Jesus we have the image of God restored in human flesh. In Christ, mankind has access to true righteousness. So, if you are to be born again, you must be born again after the image of Christ.
St. Paul, who lived as a Pharisee and exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees according to the Pharisees’ standard, writes to the Philippians concerning his blameless righteousness under the law:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. (Philippians 3:7-11)
So, St. Paul makes clear that it is not your works under the Law that will justify you, but only faith in Christ, who gives you His own righteousness as a gift! (Romans 3:20-28; Galatians 2:16)
This righteousness is earned for you by Christ alone. Only Christ’s righteousness gains access to God and His kingdom. And this righteousness of Christ is received through faith alone. This righteousness is given through Christ’s Word and Sacraments. Baptism, which is not just plain water, but water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word gives you the righteousness of Christ. Jesus even teaches that Baptism grants the new birth by which you are born again of the Spirit (John 3:3-6). Without new birth, you cannot believe in Christ or receive His righteousness. The Absolution, where God’s minister declares your sins forgiven in the stead and by the command of Christ also gives you this righteousness of Christ, because righteousness is the opposite of sin. The Lord’s Supper too gives you Christ’s righteousness, because it grants forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The preaching and teaching of the Gospel gives you Christ’s righteousness, because it declares to you God’s grace and mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus, who died for you. All these means of grace are empowered by the same Holy Spirit through the Word of Christ. All these give the same righteousness of Christ, which He earned for you through His perfect obedience. And the righteousness these means of grace give is received through faith alone apart from your works.
This grants great comfort and assurance to the conscience stricken by its own sins. Our sins give us alarm, because we know they set us apart from God. But Christ’s righteousness can never be condemned. So, if you have Christ’s righteousness through faith, then you have certainty that God accepts you. Faith believes the promise of Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper, and the preaching of the Gospel, that God is reconciled to you for the sake of Christ Jesus. This does not depend on your works, but on Christ’s righteousness alone.
Yet, Satan and our old sinful nature always try to twist this word of comfort for their own perverted uses. St. Paul teaches that as sin increases, God’s grace to forgive sins increases even more (Romans 5:20). So, the mind set on the flesh asks, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?” If Christ gives us His righteousness as a gift and our own works don’t get us into heaven, then why not just do whatever we want, no matter how sinful it is? But this is the way of thinking of an unregenerated unbeliever. Sixteenth century Lutheran Pastor, Johan Spangenberg explains it this way, “Just as it is impossible to have fire without heat, it is no less impossible for the righteousness of faith to be without good works.” This is most certainly true. If you have Christ’s righteousness, then you have been born again. If you have been born again, then you have a new self, born after the image of Christ, which desires to do good. Your new birth has caused you to be a good tree, which bears good fruit. St. Paul explains it in Romans 6, “How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
In Baptism, our old self was crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing (Rom. 6:6). Your old self cannot believe in Christ. Only your new self, born again of the Spirit can believe in Christ. So, if you have faith to receive Christ’s righteousness, then you also have the desire to do what is right from the heart.
There is a debate whether Jesus means His own righteousness given as a gift or the righteousness done by the Christian, when He says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Yet, the righteousness of Christ received through faith and the righteousness done by the Christian through faith are so closely united as heat is to fire, that the question is almost moot. The righteousness of the Christian indeed exceeds that of the scribe and Pharisee, because it is done by the heart! God is the judge of our works, not humans, who cannot look upon the heart. Yet, it is essential for you to recognize that even your works done from a Christian heart do not earn your salvation. Only the righteousness of Christ earns your salvation. Yet, the works of a Christian can only be done if you possess Christ’s righteousness through faith.
Jesus emphasizes the close relationship between the righteousness of Christ received through faith and the righteousness done by the Christian be exhorting us to be reconciled. Don’t murder; don’t even get angry! Leave anger to God. The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. What’s more, make friends with those who hate you. Repent if you have sinned against others and forgive those who have sinned against you. Do not even offer God your gift if you are not reconciled with your fellow Christian. This is the righteous fruit Jesus desires to be produced from the heart, because He Himself came to reconcile us to God while we were still sinners.
The righteousness of Christ you hold in your heart through faith, which alone grants you access to heaven, cannot lie dormant! As fire cannot but produce heat, so Christ’s righteousness in a believer’s heart cannot but produce good fruits of righteousness. So, put to death what is sinful in you as often as it rises. Do not get angry at your brother or sister in Christ, but seek to be reconciled and live as friends. Bring your sins and their sins to the blood of Christ to be washed away forever. Don’t hold grudges or be afraid to speak honestly with each other. You have died to such unrighteousness when you were joined to Christ in Baptism. And Christ has ignited a fire of righteousness in you that desires to burn warmly, so that God is glorified by others on account of your good works. Amen.

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Leaving Everything and Following Jesus

7/13/2023

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Luke 5:1-11
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on [Jesus] to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Trinity 5
Luke 5:1-11
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
July 9, 2023

Peter didn’t work for an hourly wage. He was a business partner with his brother and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. They caught fish and sold what they caught. If they didn’t catch anything, they didn’t have anything to sell. It didn’t matter if they put in long hours of labor; they didn’t get paid anything. If you’ve ever run a business, you can imagine how these men felt cleaning their nets with sore back and limbs, with nothing to show for their labors. Perhaps fatigue is the only thing keeping them from being overwhelmed with stress over their lack of money to provide for their families. Then Jesus arrives with a great crowd of people, who have left behind their worries for a moment to listen to Jesus teach. Peter and his partners too sit and listen to the Teacher to get their minds off their worries. After Jesus finishes teaching, He tells Peter to push out into the deep and let his net down for a catch.
Peter puts aside his wisdom as an experienced fisherman, and obeys the word of his Teacher. And to the amazement of everything, he caught such a great catch of fish that James and John had to rush over with their boat to haul in the catch, yet the catch overwhelmed both their boats! They all knew this was a miracle. Professional fisherman failed to catch fish all night. Then Jesus from the shore tells them to put the nets down into the deep, where he cannot possibly see. With this miracle, Jesus proves that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. He also proves that He Himself is the Lord!
Since the fall into sin, God has cursed man to eat by the sweat of his brow. Yet, we bone-headedly think that our sweat is what gives us our bread! No, it is the Lord who provides for our needs. We work, because God has commanded it. Yet, the Psalmist reminds us, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127). It is God who prospers our work, so we should trust in Him. Moreover, we should not be overcome with worry as if our worrying can accomplish anything, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and trust that the rest will be added unto us. God feeds the birds and clothes the grass. He cares much more for you.
After providing for the bodily needs of Peter and his partners, He calls them to a much greater task than catching fish to feed bellies. He calls them to be fishers of men, to save their souls. Jesus here institutes the Office of the Holy Ministry. Our Lutheran Confessions defines this Ministry in Augsburg Confession V, “So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.”
Christ Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the whole world, so that whoever believes in Him may not go to hell, but have eternal life. “But how can they believe on Him of whom they’ve never heard?” St. Paul asks. And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-17). So, Christ solved this problem by calling and sending men to proclaim this Gospel, so that sinners may be saved through faith.
The erstwhile fishermen caught their fish with nets. How would they catch men? With the word of God. When the fish were enclosed in the net, they pushed against each other. When Jesus preached the Gospel, the crowd pushed against Jesus, so that He took refuge in Peter’s boat a little off shore. As the net captures the school of fish, so Jesus’ Word captures the hearts of men. And it is that same word which He gives to His minsters to preach. “Whoever hears you, hears me.” Jesus told them (Luke 10:16). And so, in this way, Jesus gave His disciples the net used to catch souls: Christ’s Word. And ministers today employ this same net.
The text says that when they threw down the net, “they enclosed a large number of fish.” The word for “enclosed” here is the same word used for “imprisoned” in Galatians 3:22, where St. Paul writes, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all who believe.” As their net imprisoned all the fish, so God’s Word imprisons all people under sin. Through the preaching of the Law, sinners are captured and accused of sin before God.
This preaching of the Law can take place in many ways. It can simply be teaching one of the Ten Commandments, which tell us how to live before God. Scripture imprisons you when it exposes how you should think, act, and speak compared to how you actually think, act, and speak. Sometimes Scripture uses a Bible story, where you see the righteousness of the three men in the fiery furnace, who would rather be burned alive than serve any other god, and you see that you have not been so courageous. Or how Joseph refused the advances of Potiphar’s wife, and suffered prison rather than be sexually immoral. Or perhaps the story shows the wickedness of the people of Israel, and you see that you have been just as covetous, lazy, and unfaithful. The Law did its work on Peter by showing Jesus’ immense power to provide for Him. Peter’s conscience was stricken, because He did not trust in the Lord to provide for him. Yet, here Jesus’ shows his power and willingness to do so.
Though the Law works like a net to imprison sinners, it does not yet catch men for the kingdom. The Gospel must do its work. When Peter’s conscience was stricken, he wanted the Lord to depart from Him. It was only when Jesus told him not to be afraid, and thereby forgave his sins, that Peter willingly walked and followed Jesus. So, Jesus’ ministers must preach both the Law and the Gospel to catch people for Jesus. They must preach the Law to bring sinners to repentance, and give them no way to escape. And they must preach the Gospel, which only can saves sinners, so that sinners may know that they have a gracious God, who sent Jesus to suffer and die for their sins, and who welcomes them as His children. There is no other net, which catches people for the kingdom of God than the rightly applied Law and Gospel. Gimmicks won’ work. Bating and switching won’t work. You don’t bring people into the kingdom by catering to their desires. You can only bring people into the kingdom by proclaiming the Gospel.
After Jesus called them, they left everything and followed Jesus. They brought no money or extra clothes, for the laborer deserves his wages. They left their former life and devoted themselves to learning and teaching the Gospel. Servants of God’s kingdom cannot be slaves to the passions of this world. Peter and his fellow fisherman turned fellow Apostles, and ministers who came after them, gladly forsook the pleasures of this world for the sake of the kingdom, because Christ’s kingdom is worth it.
Yet, the flesh is weak and faith does not always stay strong. You remember how Peter pledged to Jesus that he would never leave him, that he would even lay down his life for Jesus. Yet, that very night, Peter denied Jesus three times. So, on another day after Jesus’ resurrection, by that same sea, Jesus stood at the beach and called to Peter and his companions as they fished, “Have you caught anything?” “Nothing.” “Cast the net on the right side,” Jesus said. And like déjà vu their nets were filled with fish again. On that beach, Jesus called Peter into the Ministry again, but this time he didn’t say he would merely catch men, but that he would tend Jesus’ sheep. He wouldn’t just preach a sermon once and done, but he would teach, exhort, rebuke, comfort, correct, and defend. He would lead them to pasture and clean water by preaching the whole counsel of God, and he would fight back wolves by refuting false teaching. And while Peter failed to lay down his life for Jesus when he first got the opportunity, Jesus tells Peter that he will indeed lay down his life for Jesus’ sheep. And this is the charge of every minister in the Gospel.
Sometimes their preaching would result in bursting nets, like the three thousand baptized on Pentecost. Yet, other times their preaching would invite only stones and imprisonment. Sometimes preachers preach to full pews, other times few show up. Yet, Peter and all ministers of the Word are called to preach Christ’s Word in season and out of season, and leave it to God to cause the growth where and when it pleases Him.
Yet, it is not only the ministers of the Word, who are called to forsake everything and follow Jesus. It is not only the ministers who are called to willing lay down their lives for the Gospel. This is the call of every Christian. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) It is necessary for you to daily deny yourself and take up your cross to follow Jesus, because friendship with this world is enmity with God. You cannot be a follower of Satan and a slave to the riches and pleasures of the world and at the same time be one of Christ’s sheep. Being a Christian means daily repenting of your sins, learning and relearning what Christ teaches you. At times you will feel strong, like you have the faith to move mountains. Yet, at other times you may feel like Peter weeping bitter tears after denying His Lord. So, do not stray from the fold thinking that you can handle it on your own. Hold fast to Jesus’ Word and never underestimate your need for His Gospel.
There is nothing in this world worth losing Jesus over. There is nothing in this world worth risking losing your faith. Jesus has warned us of the dangers. He has sent us under-shepherds to tend His flock. Yet, we must continue to hear and follow His voice. The call to be a minister of God’s Word is indeed a call to the highest office on earth, because through it Christ catches souls for salvation. Yet, the call to be a Christian is still greater. The call to be a Christian is the call to be God’s child forever. Nothing can possibly be greater than that. Do not worry about the needs of the body, what you eat or wear nor let the care, riches, and pleasures of life distract you from what is really important. God will provide for you. Yet, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He has provided for you an imperishable treasure that will last for eternity. St. Paul when reflecting on his ministry writes in 2 Timothy 4, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
There is a crown of righteousness laid up in heaven for you. So, keep the faith. Follow Jesus. And let not the cares of this world distract you from this priceless treasure. Amen.

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Merciful Like Your Father

7/7/2023

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Trinity 4
Luke 6:36-43
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
July 2, 2023

You can’t give what you don’t have. If you are to be merciful, you must first receive mercy. Many misunderstand Jesus’ words, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” to mean that you must prove yourself merciful before God can be merciful to you. You must abstain from judging before God withholds judgment from you. You must forgive before God forgives you. But this way of thinking is backward. Jesus is not instructing us on how to become God’s children. He is instructing God’s children on how to behave like God’s children.
If God won’t be merciful to you until you are merciful to others, then to be merciful like God means to withhold forgiveness from others until they have earned it. But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus tells God’s children to be merciful even as their Father is merciful. Their Father sends His Son to die for the ungodly, while they are still sinners (Romans 5:6-8). What’s more, you cannot be merciful unless you have received mercy. You cannot behave like your Father until He first makes you His child! Jesus says, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit.” (Luke 6:43-44a) So, before you can bear good fruit, you need to be made into a good tree. Before you can behave like a son of your Father, you must first become a son. As a child of Adam, you sin like Adam. It is only when you become a child of God that you live like God.
You know that you are not saved by your own works. You are justified by grace through faith when you believe that your sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for your sins. So, your justification before God does not depend on your works whatsoever. Yet, when you are justified before God, you will do good works. When you are justified, that is, declared righteous by God, you are also regenerated. To be regenerated means that the Holy Spirit has enlivened your new self to walk with God. You cannot separate being declared righteous by God and having the desire to do God’s will. To have justifying faith means that you have put to death the old Adam in you, and you now live after the image of Christ.
Jesus tells us several stories to illustrate this. In Luke 7, when a Pharisee judges Jesus for letting a sinful woman wash His feet, Jesus tells the story of two debtors, one who owed a little and another who owed a lot. The money lender forgave them both. Which one, Jesus asked, would love him more? Obviously the one who had been forgiven the greater debt. So also, God’s children love, because God first loved them. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the story of a servant who was forgiven an astronomical debt by his master, but afterward demanded a smaller debt be paid to him by a fellow servant, and when he couldn’t pay, the ungrateful servant threw him in jail. The master then threw the ungrateful servant in prison. Did the master wait until the servant forgave before he forgave him? No. The master forgave the man before he had shown any mercy. Yet, when the servant refused to forgive, the master’s grace was taken away from him, because the servant proved himself to be ungrateful.
We do not earn our forgiveness by forgiving others. We forgive, because we have been forgiven by God. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 4, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Yet, this forgiveness can only be received through faith. If you have saving faith, then you are born again as a child of God and are being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses, because such refusal to forgive is a sign of a dead faith, which does not trust in Christ.
So, if we are to be imitators of our Father who is in heaven, what is our Father like? How does God show mercy? God reconciled Himself to us while we were His enemies (Romans 5). Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father demonstrates this love for one’s enemy by praying for those who crucified Him from the cross! God is merciful to those who do not deserve mercy. He forgives those who deserve to be condemned. He gives to those who have not worked for it. Jesus tells us that our heavenly Father is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. And Jesus says as sons of the Most High, you should do the same.
And here lies the difficulty. Jesus is not telling you to love just your friends and family. He’s not telling you to be kind only to those whom you choose to spend time with. He is telling you to be kind and tenderhearted toward even your enemies. What good is it if you love those who love you? Even unbelievers do the same. But your Father in heaven loved the world when it hated Him, so you are called to love those who may not return your love.
It is important for you to recognize that your works of love do not earn your salvation. Only the innocent suffering and death and the precious blood of Christ Jesus has won your salvation. Nothing else could have. And it would be blasphemous to say that Christ’s passion for your sins was insufficient to win your salvation. Christ’s blood is greater than all your trespasses. Jesus’ death surpasses the wages of the world’s sins. Yet, Jesus does teach of a reward in addition to eternal salvation that is given to those who show mercy. Our Lutheran Confessions explain it this way in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, “We teach that good works are meritorious—not for the forgiveness of sins, grace, or justification (for we obtain these only by faith) but for other physical and spiritual rewards in this life and in that which is to come, as Paul says (1 Cor. 3:8), ‘Each shall receive his wages according to his labor.’ Therefore there will be different rewards for different labors.” (Ap. IV. 194).
This is what Jesus means when he says that the poor widow gave more with her two mites than the wealthy gave with their expensive offerings (Luke 21:1-4). The poor widow’s reward is greater, because she gave all she had to live on. The way our Father rewards us for the mercy we give cannot be measured by any human measurement. Rather, we know from our Father’s character that he rewards more profusely than we possibly deserve. Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” How this measuring back will materialize is up to God’s good and gracious will, whether in this life or the next or both.
What that measure looks like in the next life is best left to God’s discretion than our imagination, yet we can see the measure God uses even in this life! Those who forgive instead of condemning enjoy a good conscience here on earth. Those who are generous and give rarely lack for anything, but are provided richly by God and are freer from anxiety than those who scrounge and are stingy.
Jesus tells us of these rewards, so that we will be free from anxiety. You don’t fear the judgment of others when you refrain from judging others. It costs you nothing to forgive others their trespasses against you. And your physical possessions are all given to you by God! There is nothing you can give that God can’t give more back to you.
Yet, the primary reason Jesus tells us to be merciful, forgive, and give is so that we will have a constant sign in our lives of God’s mercy toward us. Every time you forgive what another has done against you, you confess the forgiveness God has showered on you and on the whole earth. When Christ Jesus shed His blood on the cross, He washed away all guilt; your sin and the sin of your neighbor. When you forgive him who sinned against you, you confess that that blood has not runout. There is yet more forgiveness. And that forgiveness is for you too!
Yet, how do we deal with sin? What does it mean to judge not? Should we refuse to say that anything is wrong and to affirm others in their lifestyles, even if their activities are contrary to God’s Word? Do we just forgive unconditionally, even when others are not sorry and continue in their sins?
First, there is a big difference between saying murder is wrong and falsely accusing your neighbor of murder. There is a difference between saying adultery is wrong and accusing your neighbor of adultery. Jesus did not abolish the Law. We are still to hold to the Ten Commandments and call sin, sin. Yet, we are not to pass judgment on others and accuse them of sin and condemn them when we have no authority to do so or the evidence. How many reputations have been hastily destroyed, because people have jumped to conclusions, passed judgment, and condemned others for things they did not even do? This is why Luther exhorts us in the Catechism on the Eighth Commandment to explain everything in the kindest way.
Yet, this does not mean that we should always look the other way at every sin. Scripture has given us a way to deal with sin. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us that if your brother sins against you, tell him his fault between you and him alone to try to gain your brother. If he doesn’t listen, then bring witnesses, and then finally bring him to the church, which will withhold forgiveness as long as he does not repent. If your neighbor sins against you privately, deal with it privately first. If you think you see a crime or sin, deal with it according to your station in life. If you are a father or mother who witnesses your child doing wrong, you are obligated to discipline your child. A police officer or judge likewise must deal with crimes in the civil realm. And pastors too must confront public sin. If you are in a position of authority to deal with wrongdoing, you must deal with it. If you are not in a position of authority, then you should notify the proper authorities depending on the situation. And in cases of public sin and false teaching, Jesus tells us that we all should mark and avoid false teachers and judge with right judgment (Matthew 7:15; John 7:24).
So, Jesus does not make a blanket statement to never judge under any circumstance. Rather, Jesus tells you not to pass judgment on others when you do not have the authority to do so. And when you do have the authority, you should judge rightly, using evidence and witnesses before you pass a judgment.
In fact, Jesus gives us an example of right judgment in this lesson. If you see a speck in your brother’s eye, first remove the plank out of your own eye before you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Jesus here teaches us not to ignore sin, but to approach sin properly. Our goal is always for those who are caught in sin to repent and find forgiveness in Christ. So, you must first consider your own sins worse than your neighbor’s. It is your sin, not your neighbor’s, which will drag you to hell. If you do not see the danger of your own sin and your own need to repent and to be forgiven by God, then how can you help your neighbor with his sin? That would be like a blind man leading a blind man! But when your eye has been made clear by repenting of your own sin and receiving forgiveness from Christ alone, then you will see clearly to lead your brother to Christ.
Jesus’ command to be merciful, to forgive, to withhold judgment, and to give is simply His command to all God’s children to proclaim the Gospel in their everyday lives. You are God’s children through faith in God’s mercy toward you. You behave as God’s children when you show that mercy toward others. May our Father in heaven enable us to show mercy here on earth to His glory and to our eternal benefit. Amen.

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Being a Confesssor

7/2/2023

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Presentation of the Augsburg Confession
Matthew 10:32-33
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
June 25, 2023

“So everyone who confesses Me before men, I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

Today, we celebrate the Augsburg Confession, the enduring confession of the Lutheran Church since June 25, 1530. It is called the Augsburg Confession, because it was presented by Lutheran princes to Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire at a diet or meeting held in Augsburg, Germany. Martin Luther did not write the Augsburg Confession nor did he attend the meeting in Augsburg, because that same Emperor Charles declared Luther an outlaw nine years earlier at the Diet of Worms. Luther stayed in Coburg, Germany, where copies of the Augsburg Confession written by his colleague Philip Melanchthon would be sent back and forth for Luther to review and make comments. Luther didn’t write the Augsburg Confession, but until his death he claimed it as his own. Even more, all Lutherans confess it as their own.
In fact, the original signers of the Augsburg Confession were not pastors and seminary theologians, but princes, dukes, and city councils. Laymen presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V. This was a confession of the people. On June 25, 1530, laymen Dr. Christian Beyer read the confession and Dr. Gregory Brück handed a copy of the confession to the emperor and said, “Most Gracious Emperor, this is a Confession that will even prevail against the gates of hell, with the grace and help of God.” These men were not afraid of the repercussions for their confession. When the emperor insisted that the Lutheran princes not permit their preachers to preach and that they participate in the Corpus Christi festival, which the Lutherans found offensive, another prince, Margrave George, knelt before the emperor and said, “Before I let anyone take from me the Word of God and ask me to deny my God, I will kneel and let him take off my head.”
These laymen so loved the pure Gospel they had learned from Martin Luther and others, who had opened the Scriptures to them, that they were willing to die rather than lose this precious teaching, which rescued their consciences from the depths of hell and gave them certainty of their salvation in Christ Jesus.
The Augsburg Confession has twenty-eight articles. The first twenty-one articles were statements of faith. The last seven articles described abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, which the Lutherans had corrected. These included giving both the bread and the wine of Communion to the laity, permitting priests to marry, correcting abuses of the Mass and Confession, so that people would receive them in faith and piety, repudiating monastic vows, and distinguishing the authority of the Church and State, stating that the authority of the Church is to teach and preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, not to dictate civil laws and ordinances. The most famous of all the articles is the fourth, which we teach our children to memorize:
Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4).
The fourth article emphasizes what the Lutheran Reformation was all about. How are we justified before God? How can we be found righteous in God’s eyes? If we are not righteous, we cannot be saved. And if we rely on our own works to be righteous, we will only fail and fear God’s wrath. But Scripture teaches that sinners are justified before God through faith alone, because Christ Jesus has fulfilled God’s Law for us and suffered and died for our sins. This message comforts the consciences of those who are in distress over their sins. This is why so many were willing to die for this confession.
The fourth article on justification not only marked the biggest difference between the Lutherans and their Roman Catholic opponents, but it was the most important teaching of the Reformation. If we are saved by our works, then we are never certain of our salvation! But the Bible teaches that salvation is a gift received through faith in Christ. Although the article on justification was the most important and flowed into every other article, it was not the only topic in the Confession.
The objective of the Augsburg Confessions was to convince the emperor that the teachings of the Lutheran Church were grounded in Holy Scripture and were not contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, but that they had merely corrected some errors that had recently snuck in over the past few centuries. This was important, because John Eck, an enemy of Luther, had written against Luther and the Lutherans, attributing to them errors taught by heretics of that time. Eck claimed that the Lutherans denied the Lord’s Supper was the true body and blood of Christ, as did Ulrich Zwingli, and that they denied that babies should be baptized or that Baptism saves, as did the Anabaptists, or even that they denied the Trinity and Jesus’ divinity, as certain radicals began to do. So, the first article confessed the doctrine of the Nicene Creed, that God is three persons yet one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as all Christians everywhere have always taught. Article Three confessed Jesus as true God and true man, as is confessed in the Apostles’ Creed. Article Nine states:
Concerning Baptism, our churches teach that Baptism is necessary for salvation [Mark 16:16] and that God’s grace is offered through Baptism [Titus 3:4-7]. They teach that children are to be baptized [Acts 2:38-39]. Being offered to God through Baptism, they are received into God’s grace. Our churches condemn the Anabaptists, who reject the Baptism of children, and say that children are saved without Baptism.
Article Ten on the Lord’s Supper states, “Our churches teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present and distributed to those who eat the Lord’s Supper [1 Corinthians 10:16]. They reject those who teach otherwise.”
Against the accusations of the Roman Catholics that Lutherans taught that good works were worthless and unnecessary, Melanchthon wrote in Article Twenty, “Our teachers are falsely accused of forbidding good works. Their published writings on the Ten Commandments, and other similar writings, bear witness that they have usefully taught about all estates and duties of life. They have taught well what is pleasing to God in every station and vocation in life.” Melanchthon even goes so far as to write, “We teach that it is necessary to do good works.” However, he makes clear that good works cannot reconcile us to God or merit forgiveness of sins, but that we obtain forgiveness and grace through faith alone. It is faith, which produces the ability and desire to do good works, which are pleasing to God (Hebrews 11:6).
In the summary statement of the first twenty-one articles, Melanchthon wrote, “As can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church universal, or from the Church of Rome, as known from its writings.” The Lutherans did not seek to start a new church with the Augsburg Confession, but to clearly articulate their biblical and catholic faith. Catholic simply means general, the faith which has always been taught and believed by all Christians. The Lutherans hoped that the Catholics would correct the errors that had crept into the church, but more than that, they desired to confess the truth of God’s Word with a clean conscience.
Now, some may say that with this confession, the Lutheran’s have set up a new source of teaching next to the Bible. But that is not true. The Bible is the only rule and norm of Christian teaching. That means that all Christian teaching can only come from the Bible. The Church does not have the right to establish church teaching, which does not come from the Bible. Only through Holy Scripture do we know what God would have us believe and do. However, Jesus commands us to confess Him before men. What does it mean to confess? To confess means to acknowledge what God says is true. The Augsburg Confession simply declares what the Bible teaches, as does the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, which the Church has confessed universally since the 300s AD.
The Augsburg Confession is not a new source of doctrine. It is not placed next to Scripture as a secondary source. The Augsburg Confession is a creed. It simply confesses what Scripture teaches is true. We confess it, because it agrees with Scripture.
Some criticize confessions and creeds, saying that we do not need them. We only need the Bible. But they miss the point. What does the Bible say? What does Jesus teach us? Are we allowed to answer these questions? Not only are we allowed, we are required by God! Jesus says, “So everyone who confesses Me before men, I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father in heaven.” St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” And St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” We are called to confess and to make a defense of our faith! Are we allowed to confess the truth of the Bible in our own words? We certainly are! Are we allowed to use the words of our fathers in the faith? Of course! And so, Christians have done for centuries by confessing the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, each of which confront errors and false accusations against Christians, and so Lutherans have done with the Augsburg Confessions for nearly five centuries.
When you read the Augsburg Confession, you’ll notice that it quotes church fathers like Augustine, Ambrose, and Chrysostom. It doesn’t do this, because we believe the church fathers could invent teachings for the church, but rather we call upon the church fathers as witnesses of the one true faith, which comes from Scripture alone.
But why confess? And why learn the confessions of our fathers in the faith? Because confessing is the natural fruit of faith. Only unbelief prevents confession. We confess what we believe in the heart! (Romans 10:10) When we confess, we acknowledge Christ Jesus as our only Savior. Yet, some will argue that we shouldn’t confess too much, because we end up isolating ourselves and dividing the church. But Christ Jesus makes clear that it is not His voice, which divides the church, but the false teaching of the wolves in sheep’s clothing. We don’t bring unity to Christ’s Church by denying the teachings of Christ. We do not confess Christ here on earth by ignoring most of His teachings. When we do that, we prove that we do not actually trust in Christ.
Are you afraid to confess Christ? Or do you keep your confession vague, because you are afraid to offend others or that they will get angry at you for what you believe is true? Jesus tells us not to fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather to fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. This is why we need to confess and teach our children to confess. When you confess what Jesus teaches in Holy Scripture, you show that you are not afraid of what people think of you or what they will say about you or do to you. You show that you fear the one true God, who sent His Son to die for you. Reluctance to confess what Christ has taught us in His Word comes from cowardice. Cowardice comes from lack of faith. What can man do to you? Who on earth can touch your soul or overpower God? None. So, do not let your tongue be controlled by fear of those, who reject Christ. Christ Jesus has purchased your soul with His precious blood. So, honor Him with your voice by confessing Him and His teaching. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

Righteousness on the Inside

Leaving Everything and Following Jesus

Merciful Like Your Father

Being a Confesssor

Rev. James Preus

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