Category: Trinity 21

The Source and Strength of Faith

10/23/2024

Trinity 21
John 4:46-54
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
October 20, 2024

Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee. You know that town from the story of Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine. When a nobleman from Capernaum heard that Jesus was in Galilee, he went to Cana to ask Jesus to come to Capernaum with him to heal his child, who was dying. Cana and Capernaum were both near the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum had become Jesus’ adopted hometown after he was rejected in Nazareth. So, this nobleman knew of Jesus. He had heard of Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine. And so, he believed that Jesus could also heal his son. Yet, when he asks Jesus to come down and heal his son before he died, Jesus gives him a harsh rebuke, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
Why does Jesus give such a harsh reply? Does not the man already believe? Why else would he ask Jesus to come and heal his son? And did not Jesus’ disciples believe in Him after they saw the miraculous sign of Him turning water into wine? There are two reasons for Jesus’ harsh rebuke. First, faith does not come by miraculous signs. Faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ, as St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “[Saving] faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” This maxim must be learned by all Christians. Saving faith comes through hearing the Word of Christ.
Now, you might counter and say that the disciples believed Christ when they saw the miracle of turning water into wine. That’s true. Christ uses that miracle to confirm their faith. Yet, they already had faith in Him. That’s why they were called His disciples. They heard His preaching and followed Him. But miracles are not the ordinary way that a person is brought to faith or kept in the true faith. The divinely ordained means by which an unbeliever is made a believer and a weak Christian is made into a strong Christian, is through hearing the Word of Christ.
Jesus shows this with His story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man languishing in hell, begs Abraham to send Lazarus, who is in heaven, to his five brothers, so that they would repent. Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” Moses and the Prophets means the Holy Scriptures. And when the rich man protests further, Abraham says, “If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if a man should rise from the dead.” And these words proved true at Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus appeared to those who had believed in Him before His crucifixion, and they believed in Him again. Yet, the chief priests who refused to listen and believe Jesus’ Word bribed the guards to be quiet, when they reported that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Signs and wonders do not produce saving faith. The Holy Spirit produces saving faith through the message of Christ. Jesus shows this again, when He rebukes Thomas for his unbelief before seeing the risen Christ, saying, ‘Do you believe because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” In other words, the vast majority of Christians will not see the risen Christ before they die. Instead, they will be brought to faith and kept in the faith through the Word of Christ.
This is the constant example of faith in Scripture. Abraham, whom Scripture calls the father of our faith, was called by God when he was seventy-five years old. God promised to make him into a great nation and to give him an offspring through whom all families of the earth would be blessed. Yet, his promised son Isaac was not born until Abraham was one-hundred years old! For twenty-five years, Abraham walked by faith and not by sight, holding on to God’s promise. And through that faith, he was accounted righteous by God (Gen. 15:6).
And this is a warning to our generation today, which seeks salvation outside of Christ’s Word. We will not find saving faith in wonders and signs. We will only find faith in Christ through humbly listening to His Word. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) and again, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
People find the Word of Christ insufficient. Perhaps, you find the Word of Christ lacking. Maybe there is something else that will be more effective in making you a better Christian or bringing your children or grandchildren back to Church. But there isn’t. “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will never believe,” says Jesus in rebuke of the man. And so, He rebukes everyone who seeks Him apart from His Word. If anyone is to have saving faith, He must listen to the message of the cross. You must see your sins cause Jesus’ pain and torment and death upon the cross, and see how He alone pays your ransom. You must learn from the Godman, from His own words, how to repent, how to trust, how to endure trials and temptations, how to recognize God’s love. Speaking in tongues, miraculous healings, emotional manipulation, eloquent wisdom, social science, none of these things can grant saving faith. Only the Word of Christ.
The second reason Jesus rebuked this poor nobleman, who begged Him to heal his son, is because the man needed his faith to be strengthened. And so, Jesus teaches us that we are always in need of stronger faith. The man had faith. At least, enough faith to take a day’s journey to another town and ask Jesus to come down and heal his son. And most people would think that is enough faith. I do believe most people think they have enough faith. And it is true, that even faith like a mustard seed can move mountains and even a smoldering wick He will not snuff out. So, a weak faith is still a saving faith, if what you have faith in is true. If you have a weak faith in Christ Jesus, then you still possess all of Christ’s righteousness, forgiveness, and kingdom, because it is not the act of believing which saves, but the content of the faith which saves. So, if you have a million dollars in a wet paper bag, you have just as much money as a person with a million dollars in a steel safe. Yet, whose million dollars is more secure?
And so, everyone thinks he has a strong enough faith until that faith is put to the test! Peter thought he had faith to walk on water, until he was frightened by the wind and the waves. The twelve disciples thought they had great faith until they cried in terror on the stormy sea and Jesus rebuked them for their little faith. Yet, when Jesus rebuked His disciples for their little faith, He did so out of love for them, so that they would see their need for a strengthened faith. And when Jesus rebuked this father for asking for a sign, He was showing him kindness, by training his faith to grow.
You may think that your lungs are fine and you are in decent shape, until you are forced to run and realize you’re not in as good of shape as you used to be. You may breathe easy sitting on the recliner, but that doesn’t prepare your muscles, heart, and lungs to do what is hard. Your faith holds your most precious treasure: Christ Jesus, and eternal life with Him. If your faith cannot withstand the test, you may lose that treasure when you need it most. So, Jesus teaches us to get training. To strengthen that faith, so that we hold onto Him more securely.
This man was hardly ready for this test. He begged Jesus to come down before his son died after Jesus rebuked him. What strengthened his faith in this trial? It was the Word of Christ, “Go, your son lives.” Although the nobleman had not seen it to be true, although Jesus did not do what he asked Him to by going down with him, the man believed Jesus’ words and went home in peace. And so, it is with us. Do you see the forgiveness of sins? Can you see the guilt for your many sins washed clean from your conscience? Can you see the robe of Christ’s righteousness covering all your imperfections? Do you see Christ’s body and blood before you? Can you see the gates of heaven open before you with angels and saints rejoicing at your repentance? No. But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed.” As Abraham journeyed from his home for twenty-five years, believing a promise without seeing it fulfilled, so this man walked a day’s journey home confident that what he heard from Christ was true. And so, we believe the words of Christ, “Your sins are forgiven,” “This is my body given for you; this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” “Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” “Depart in peace.”
Your faith will be put through the test by temptation, by falling into sin, by suffering, and by the hatred of this world. You don’t need a wet paper bag faith, which will do when times are easy. You need a full armor of God faith, which can withstand every flaming arrow of the devil. So, when times are good and easy, take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. When times are hard, listen to the word of Christ. Never assume that you do not need stronger faith, because it will not be worth it when you find out that you overestimated yourself.
Finally, the Gospel lesson teaches us not only to listen to Jesus’ Word, but to continue to learn it. When the man heard from his servants that his son had recovered, he inquired of them, that is, he learned from them what hour his son got better. And when he heard that it was the same hour that Jesus said, “Your son lives,” he believed again, and his entire household. This teaches us that we should learn God’s Word. We should inquire of God’s Word. We should test our faith by asking questions and searching for their answer in the Words of Christ. We should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Holy Scripture, so that we may believe again and again and know that Christ’s Words are true. And we should speak of what we have learned in our household, so that our entire house may believe and be saved.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us take Jesus’ rebuke to heart, so that we diligently listen to His Word and find the source of our faith there. In this way, we may be strong in faith to endure every temptation, trial, and flaming dart of Satan until finally our eyes see what our faith has believed. Amen.

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The Triune God created man in His image and He restores man in His image.

10/25/2021

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The Creation of Adam, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, c. 1642, Italian. Public Domain

Trinity 21
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
October 24, 2021

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Which God? The Triune God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear, O Israel. The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” There is no oneness like the oneness of God. He is perfect in his unity. And yet, there are three distinct persons in the Godhead. This is impossible for our minds to comprehend, yet Holy Scripture teaches it from the very beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Yet, in the original Hebrew it states Elohim, “Gods” created the heavens and the earth. Yet, it uses a singular verb for this plural noun. And this is how Scripture speaks of God throughout the Old Testament. Where you read “God” it usually reads “Gods” in the original Hebrew. Yet, it was always understood that God is one, even though the plural form of the noun is used.
God is one, yet the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters when God said, “Let there be light. And so, there is one God, yet we have multiple persons: the Father, whom Moses calls God, the Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Spirit of God, and the Son, who is called the Word of God. This is what St. John teaches us in the first chapter of his Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So, when Moses wrote, “God said”, he is teaching that God the Father created through his Son, the eternal Word.
In the Apostles’ Creed we confess that God the Father Almighty is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Yet, he does not create apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit. St. Paul writes of Christ, the eternal Son of God, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16)
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are three distinct persons, yet, one God, sharing in the one divine essence, created the heavens and the earth. God did this in six days, as Scripture repeatedly declares. Some assert that this is only a myth, intended to be taken allegorically. But that is not true. Moses clearly intends us to understand this as history. And Jesus himself calls this history, along with all of Scripture. Our all-powerful and all-knowing God created the world in six regular days and rested on the seventh. And he caused his prophet Moses to write accurately the account of how he did it.
Scripture makes clear that the Triune God created man as well. God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Us? Our? Who are these? Again, this speaks of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who alone creates. These three are one, as the next verse makes clear, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” We are a special creation of the Holy Trinity, the one and only God.
Yet, God creates us differently than he did the light, the sky and seas, trees, fish, birds, and animals. God has saved the creation of man for the end. And he takes special care in how he creates this crown of his creation. He says, “Let us make man in our own image.” So, God makes man in his own image; male and female he creates them in his image. This means that man and woman shared in God’s image. This is why St. Peter tells husbands that their wives are “joint heirs of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7)
Yet, what does it mean to be created in God’s image? Many have discussed this question at great length. Theologians and philosophers have speculated that it includes incredible intelligence, power over the creation, a healthy mind, immortality. And to be sure, Adam and Eve did have all these things from the time of their creation. And what else they enjoyed in that pre-fall world, we can only imagine, because we live in the fallen world and God’s image we have lost. But to speak narrowly, the image of God is original righteousness. Adam and Eve were created righteous. This means they were in a perfect relationship with God, who is righteous. They desired what God desired. They delighted in what God delighted. They perfectly feared, loved, and trusted in God with all their heart, soul, and mind. This is why in the Garden, they were naked, yet unashamed. They had no shame. They were without sin.
And every other blessing flowed from this righteousness. They were immortal as was the whole creation. They had dominion over every living creature, not with spears and clubs, but by the command of God they exercised dominion by sheer will. They were intelligent, strong in body and mind, and many more things we simply do not know, because we have lost this righteousness.
When Adam sinned, having failed in his duty as husband by permitting his wife to be tempted by the serpent and having eaten of the forbidden fruit his wife gave him, he lost the image of God. Adam became a transgressor, and so we all became transgressors. While Adam and Eve were created righteous, all their children were born unrighteous, because of their fall. So, while Adam and Eve were created to be the Lord’s delight, his favorite and best creation, we are born children of wrath, dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2).
This is why we do not love God as we ought. This is why our sinful desires often get the better of us and we can’t control our own actions. This is why we along with all mankind must be governed by laws and rules, keeping us in check lest we break out with our own selfish aims. We have lost the image of God. We have lost original righteousness. And in its place is original sin, that is, the sinful condition we have inherited from Adam. This is why our will lashes out against God’s will instead of living in perfect conformity with it. We are inclined to sin as a hornet is inclined to sting. And this unrighteousness is why we are frail and weak in other ways. We are forgetful and slow to learn. Our eyes grow dim and our ears dull. Although, we still exercise dominion over the creation, we do this only with powerful tools and at the cost of many casualties. Left naked as Adam and Eve were, we are the weakest of all God’s creatures. We get sick. We die. Even if we were placed in Eden, it would be no paradise. We’d turn it into a hell. This is a direct result of our sin. This all proves that we have lost the image of God.
We cannot regain the image of God by our own will or strength. Only God can restore his image in us. As God the Father created man in his image through His Son and the Holy Spirit, so does he restore that image in us. God the Father sent his own Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. God the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and formed in her womb Christ Jesus. Christ, who is the eternal Son of God took on human flesh, the same human flesh once formed out of the ground. And in the incarnation of God, the image of God was rejoined to the human race. Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God in human flesh (Colossians 1:15). Christ was conceived and born without original sin; having been conceived by Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, he did not inherit Adam’s unrighteousness. So, Christ was and is perfectly righteous. His will conforms to God’s will; he delights in what God delights. In fact, Christ is true God as he remains truly human, so that it is impossible for his will to act contrary to God’s will.
And the will of God was that Christ should die for our transgressions. By Adam’s disobedience, we were made sinners. By Christ’s obedience are made righteous. (Romans 5) This righteousness has been won for us by Christ, but we must receive it. And the Holy Trinity does this for us as well.
Out of water, the Triune God formed the earth. And with water and dust he formed the first man. So, through water and the Spirit God grants you a new creation. He says, “Let us restore man in our own image.” And by passing you through water and placing his name on you, he washes you clean of all your sin, and breathes into you the Spirit of Life. Through Baptism you are regenerated after the image of Christ, the image of God. In Baptism, you are made righteous by virtue of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross for your sins.
This righteousness and image of God is certainly given in Baptism. And it is received through faith alone. And so long as your faith holds fast to the promise of the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, you clothe yourself in Christ’s righteousness.
We retain the image of God through faith alone. Yet, as long as we live in this life, we carry around the burden of original sin. Our old Adam still clings to us. And we still sin. So, it is important to know that our righteousness does not depend on our works. Our righteousness depends on Christ Jesus. When God looks at you through your faith in Christ, he sees an even more splendid reflection of his image than he did when he looked upon Adam when he first created him. Yet, sin does not lie harmless. The sinful flesh constantly rebels against God and his will. Unbelief gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to unbelief. This is why we must repent of our sins each and every day. We must put off the old self with its practices and desires, and put on the new self after the image of Christ. We do this by turning from our sin, asking God for forgiveness for Christ’s sake, and believing in that forgiveness.
Only by believing and trusting in the forgiveness and righteousness Christ gives you, can you retain the image of God. But you cannot believe and trust in God by your own strength. Rather God continues to create and strengthen faith in you through the Gospel. It is by the means of Grace: the Absolution, the Sacrament, and the proclamation of the Gospel, that God continues to give you Christ’s righteousness and strengthen your faith, so that you are renewed after God’s image.
In this life we see only little of the fruit of being restored after the image of God. Our love indeed is kindled, but still in great weakness. We still struggle with sin. We’re still frail. We still die. But through faith we look to that day when we will finally shed this old Adam with its original sin and rebellious nature. And we will finally see ourselves like God (1 John 3:2), after his likeness. Our trust in God will be perfect. Our love for him will not fail. And our bodies will be transformed to the splendor of his glorious resurrected body. And we will never lose the image of God again. Amen.

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Trinity 21: God Speaks; Faith Receives

10/22/2018

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John 4:46-54
October 21, 2018

“Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”

Jesus spoke. The man believed what Jesus spoke. And then the man saw that what Jesus spoke was true. This is not the way we normally operate in this world. “I’ll believe it when I see it” is not only an old adage, but it is generally a good rule of thumb. Yet, this is not the way with faith! “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And Jesus spoke to Thomas after he was raised from the dead, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) In the kingdom of heaven, you believe it before you see it!
Now this can be greatly misunderstood. Faith is not simply blind optimism; you believe that everything will work out for the best. Rather, Jesus spoke and the man believed the word that Jesus spoke. Faith is grounded in the word of God. Faith doesn’t believe what it sees. Rather, faith believes what it hears. It believes before it sees. True faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And it is on this word that faith trusts, even before seeing.
You cannot have faith apart from the word of God. It is through the proclamation of the Gospel that God creates faith in your heart. Apart from God’s word, you have nothing to rest your faith on. This is important to mark, because God both reveals himself and he hides himself. God reveals himself in his word, where he tells us that he loves us so that he sent his Son to die for our sins and raised him to give us new life. Yet, God also hides himself. We don’t always know what the will of God is. Why is my child sick and at the point of death? Why did my husband have to die? Why is my mother stricken with cancer? How could God let her children be taken from her at such a young age? Why did God let a hurricane destroy the panhandle of Florida, etc. We don’t know. And there are many other things hidden in the mind of God, which are beyond our knowledge and beyond our business.
Satan wants us to seek the hidden God through speculation and seeking signs and wonders. This leads us to casting judgment on God or making for ourselves a god out of our own image. But when God hides himself, like at times of immense suffering, he does not want you to seek him where he is hidden, but to seek him where he reveals himself. God reveals himself in his word. In his word God gives you answers that your eyes will never find elsewhere no matter how hard you look. In his word God gives you assurance of invisible things that can only be hoped for.
Through the word of God you find purpose in your suffering. It brings you to repent of your sins and to have faith with patience. It teaches you to trust in God and to look to his promises for comfort.
Faith must be grounded in God’s word. Otherwise, it is a false faith. Faith does not make anything true. God’s word is not true, because you believe it. It’s true, because it is God’s word. If you believe something false with all your heart, it does not make it true. It just means that you are believing a lie. And this can be frightfully dangerous, if you are believing a lie about God or salvation.
We use the word faith in two ways: how one believes and what one believes. If I say, “I have a strong faith.” I could mean that I believe very strongly, or I could mean that the faith I believe in is trustworthy. If the faith in which you believe is not true, then it doesn’t matter how strongly you believe. You want both to believe strongly and to have what you believe be true.
Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead whether you believe it or not. Yet, it is those who believe it that receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice, namely, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Likewise, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s body and blood whether you believe it or not. Because Jesus said, “This is my body” and “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” It doesn’t become Christ’s body and blood when you believe that it is, even as Jesus’ death and resurrection did not become true when you believed it. Yet, when you believe the words of Christ, you receive the benefits of what Christ gives you.
Yet, if you were to go to a church, which denies the bodily presence of Christ in the Supper or changes the words of Jesus, so that they mean something different than what Jesus said, you couldn’t make it Christ’s body and blood by believing really hard. It is Christ’s body and blood, because of the word. But without the word it is not Christ’s body and blood no matter how hard you believe.
Likewise, if someone were to doubt that the Supper were Christ’s true body and blood where Jesus’ words remain, that would not make it just plain bread and wine. It would remain Christ’s body and blood even if an unbeliever were to eat it. That is why St. Paul warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)
Your faith does not make anything true or false. Rather, your faith can receive what is true, if it is a true faith. If it receives what is false, it is a false faith. When you believe the words of Jesus, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” then you receive the Supper of the Lord to your own benefit with the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, an increase of faith toward God and of love toward your fellow Christian. Faith does not make God’s word true, but it does receive the power and benefit of God’s word.
We believe a lot of things we have not seen. We believe that God the Father almighty made the heavens and the earth. None of us were there when he did it, but Hebrews 11:3 states, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” By the power of the same word, which created the universe out of nothing we believe this truth, although we did not see it. We believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died and was buried, rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven. None of us have seen any of that! Yet, we all believe it, because God’s word says it is true.
Furthermore, we believe in a Holy Spirit we have never seen. We believe in the Holy Christian Church, that is, the Communion of Saints. Is that what we see? Is the church holy? It seems rather that Christians mingle with the unbelieving world so much, they are indistinguishable from it. They don’t live exceptionally holy lives nor keep themselves from sin. Christians are supposed to love each other, yet, the love of many has grown cold. The Communion of Saints implies that we are actually united in fellowship, yet the Christian church is scattered throughout the world, divided into sects and various denominations. Even the Lutherans, who believe the Bible is God’s word, are not united in doctrine and practice on all fronts. Yet, day after day, week after week we confess the one, holy Christian Church. Because we believe the word of God that he has washed us with the water and the word and presented us holy as Christ’s spotless bride. So, despite our sins and schisms, God has united his own invisible church around his holy word and Sacraments through faith.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins; just think about that. God, who knows your every secret. He knows the sins you haven’t told your wife or husband. Everything that shames you, that causes your conscience fear and pain, even the sins you’ve forgotten about God knows them full well. And yet, we confess that God forgives all these sins. Because God says so. We are like the father walking home with no evidence that his dying son has recovered, except the word of Jesus, and so do we walk to our deaths confident that we will stand sinless before the throne of God.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting, even though none of us has ever seen a single dead person rise from the dead, nor have we known someone who continues to live without aging. For all of us it’s just a matter of time before we die. Yet, based on God’s word alone, we believe what we have not seen.
Now the word of God is no fairy tale or compilation of unverifiable events like the Book of Mormon or the visions of Mohamad, which are uncorroborated, baseless claims made up out of thin air. The Bible is not this way. The four Gospels are complementary and corroborating accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus written by men, who saw Jesus in person. Hundreds of people witnessed Jesus alive after his resurrection. The apostles faced beatings, prisons, and death confessing the life and resurrection of Christ with nothing material to gain by it. And the writing of the New Testament, written by ten different individuals are historical proofs of the Scripture’s legitimacy. And there are several writings outside of the bible along with other archeological evidence that supports what both the New and the Old Testaments claim.
Yet, this is not why we believe that the Bible is true. We believe the Bible is true, because the Holy Spirit caused the Bible to be written and continues to work through the Bible to create faith. The power of the Bible is not that it can be verified by multiple human witnesses, but that it is indeed the word of God. St. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) God’s word is uniquely powerful to create faith, which we ourselves can see evidence of as millions of people throughout the world and throughout generations continue to confess this same Gospel. And some confess it even in the face of persecution and death!
St. Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to all who believe. And so, we should continue to hear this word of God, so that our faith becomes stronger. Consider the official in our lesson. He already had faith in Jesus. That is why he went to him for help. Yet, when he heard Jesus’ words his faith increased. The word of God continues to increase your faith even after you believe, so that you not only have a faith that is trustworthy, but have a faith that believes strongly.
This is why we continue to hear Jesus’ word and receive his pledge of forgiveness from his body and blood given to us. It is so our faith would continue to grow, so that we might believe with confidence those things, which our eyes do not yet see. And by God’s grace we will see what our faith holds dear, as St. John says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) Amen.

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

The Source and Strength of Faith

The Triune God created man in His image and He restores man in His image.

Trinity 21: God Speaks; Faith Receives

Rev. James Preus

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