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Forgiveness of Sins Raises the Dead

9/20/2021

Jan Verhas, "The Raising of the Widow's Son at Nain," 1860. Public Domain

Trinity 16
Luke 7:11-17
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 19, 2021

“What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”, cried the bereaved widow to Elijah (1 Kings 17:18). With these words, this woman displayed an astute knowledge of the Law and a troubled conscience. “The wages of sin is death,” Scripture declares (Romans 6:23). And the LORD made clear to Adam when he forbade him from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, saying, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” Death is the result of sin. Where there is sin, there is death. Where there is death, there is the corruption of sin. Where sin is hidden, death exposes it. You can’t hide from the reality of sin, because you cannot hide from the reality of death. Death is God’s judgment against sin.

Romans 5 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Death spread to all. This means that all are under God’s judgment, because all have sinned. There are three types of death: Spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death. All three of these deaths are a result of sin.

The first type of death is spiritual death. Spiritual death is the loss of the image of God and of original righteousness. A person who is spiritually dead cannot truly fear, love, or trust in God nor can he do anything to please God. It is impossible for a spiritually dead person to have faith in Christ or believe that God loves him. To be spiritually dead is to be under the power of Satan. St. Paul describes spiritual death in Ephesians chapter 2, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (vss. 1-3)

To be spiritually dead is to be a living dead man. Your body is alive, but you are dead to spiritual matters. It means to be sold under the flesh and to not be able to understand the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Everyone descended from Adam is born spiritually dead. If you remain spiritually dead, you will eventually succumb to eternal death.

The second type of death is physical death. Physical death is the death of the body, when the soul departs and the body begins to decompose. We are very aware of this type of death. The young mother experiences it when she miscarries her unborn child. The old woman faces it when her husband of decades is taken away from her. Children bury their parents. Fathers and mothers bury their sons and daughters. A widow loses her only son. Car accidents, murders, war, suicide, cancer, stroke, still birth, physical death comes in many forms and at every age. Even the aches and pains that increase with age are a reminder that each of us will eventually die.

And if the spiritual death is not reversed, that is, if you do not become spiritually alive before your physical death, then you will experience the third type: eternal death. Eternal death is not annihilation where you cease to exist or no longer have consciousness. Eternal death is eternal punishment (Matthew 35:46). Jesus describes eternal death as the outer darkness (Matthew 8:2) and to experience the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched (Mark 9:48). As awful as that sounds, the worst part of eternal death is to be separated from Christ Jesus. Jesus is the life of all mankind. If you are separated from Jesus, you are separated from life. So, to experience eternal death is to be forever separated from Christ Jesus, from God’s love and forgiveness.

All three of these types of death are caused by sin. Therefore, the only way to overcome death in all its forms is to take away sin. The only one who can take away sin is Jesus Christ. After the Lord Jesus raised the young man from the dead and gave him back to his mother, the crowd glorified God and declared that a prophet had arisen among them and that God had visited his people (Luke 7:16). They didn’t know how right they were. Jesus is the prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18, whom God said he would raise up from among the people of Israel, who would speak God’s words. And Jesus is indeed God in the flesh. Unlike the Prophet Elijah, who cried out and pleaded to God that he would raise the dead son of the widow, Jesus declared, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus is God almighty. He alone creates life.

Jesus raises the dead, because he forgives sins. Jesus forgives sins, because he took our sin away through his obedience to the Law and his innocent suffering and death. Scripture says that in Jesus we have redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7). Jesus is the only man who never sinned, the only man against whom death had no claim. And yet, Jesus bore the sin of the whole world and washed it away in his own blood. There is forgiveness only in Jesus. This means that there is life in Jesus alone. This means that if you are to be raised from spiritual death, from physical death, and from eternal death, you must be raised by Jesus alone.

Yet, how does Jesus raise you personally from the dead? The same way he raised that young man in Nain. Through the power of his word. Jesus spoke. He told the woman not to weep. He touched the bier, so that the bearers stood still. And then he spoke again, commanding the young man to rise. In Jesus’ word is the power to raise the dead, because in Jesus’ word is the power to forgive. Jesus has already defeated sin and death for us through his death and resurrection. He gives us that victory as a gift through his word.

Everyone is born spiritually dead, incapable of choosing God, incapable of loving or pleasing God, incapable of faith and good works. And you will remain spiritually dead until Christ makes you alive. Scripture states in Colossians 2, “In [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Jesus touched the bier and commanded the dead young man to live. In Baptism, Jesus touches you with water and with his word washes you clean of your sins, so that you can believe in him. To be baptized into Christ is to die and rise with Christ (Romans 6). The power of Baptism is the power of Jesus’ word, which forgives sins. Again, it says in Colossians 2, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”

In Baptism, we have the promise of the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). In Baptism we have the promise of the resurrection from the dead. And in Baptism, through faith we receive a resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life. That is, we receive faith in the forgiveness of sins and a willing spirit, who loves God.

And you experience this spiritual resurrection every day. We still sin. We must repent of our sins. But it is not the acknowledging that sin is bad that makes us alive again. It is not the shame for what we have done that brings us back to life. It is the promise of forgiveness from Christ. This is why we need the Gospel every day. When you hear the good news that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, you hear your Savior Jesus shout, “Young man, young woman, I say to you, arise!” And through faith in our forgiveness, we do!

Jesus’ word overcomes our physical death as well. As the fear of death overwhelms you, what can you do? When you are on your deathbed, and Satan brings into your memory all of the sins you are ashamed of to accuse you, how will you be comforted? Will you recount all your good deeds like a child trying to hold back the ocean tide from destroying his sand castle, by building a wall of sand? That won’t do you any good. But the Gospel that Jesus forgives you will fight back Satan. The Gospel is the message that Christ has borne your sin, so that your sins cannot harm you. The forgiveness of sins makes your death temporary. The forgiveness of sins turns your physical death from a portal into eternal death into a portal into eternal life!

Jesus told the mother not to weep. Scripture promises that at last Jesus will wipe the tears out of our eyes (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4). Why don’t we mourn as others do? Because we have hope! (1 Thessalonians 4:13) How does Jesus tell you not to weep? By preaching the Gospel to you! By declaring the forgiveness of sins that turns death into sleep. Do you weep and moan when you lay your child down to sleep and kiss her goodnight? Do you fret and cry when you kiss your beloved goodnight? Of course not! You’ll see them again in the morning after just a short rest! This is what Christ has done to physical death by forgiving your sins! He has turned our weeping into laughter. Granted this sleep of death will last a bit longer than a night’s sleep. Yet, the waking that follows will never have an end!

Jesus’ forgiveness rescues us from eternal death. As a Christian forgiven of your sins, you have no need to fear that you will be cast out into the outer darkness or that you will experience the anguish of the worm or fire. God will not cast you out of his presence! Rather, the light of Christ will shine on you. He will be your life for ever and ever.

Finally, our eternal life will put an end to our temporary physical death. Jesus will again speak his word of forgiveness when he calls to us in the grave to rise. Yet, unlike the young man from Nain, we will not rise to live a few more decades. We will rise to eternal life. The death of the body will be gone forever. Spiritual death will no longer hinder our love for God. Sin will be no more. The day will most certainly come, my dear brothers and sisters, when Jesus will declare his final and eternal absolution and raise us to live with him in righteousness and purity forever. This is most certainly true. Amen.

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Seek First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

9/14/2021

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Trinity 15
Matthew 6:24-34
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 12, 2021

When Jesus tells us not to be anxious, he is warning us against idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of a false god. A god is whatever you fear, love, and trust in most. So, if you fear, love, and trust in the Lord, then your God is true. But if you fear, love, and trust in anything else, money, job, friends, power, leisure, then you have a false god. That makes you an idolater.

Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and mammon. Mammon is earthly wealth, like money and property. Mammon is a false god, because people fear, love, and trust in it. They fear not having enough money or stuff and will monopolize their time serving the purpose of securing money and stuff. They love money and prove their love by their constant devotion. And they trust in money. It is commonly believed, even if not stated out loud, that if you have enough money, then you are secure.

But mammon isn’t a kind and loving god. It’s cold and heartless. It’ll help the thief and cheat just as well as the honest laborer. Mammon doesn’t satisfy, but rather, the more you get, the more you want. Like saltwater, it never quenches your thirst, but rather poisons you the more you drink. Mammon perishes. Everything money can buy will pass away with time. And the religion of mammon is a religion of works, leaving its followers in the constant pursuit of obtaining it. Mammon makes no promises of continued grace or providence. And for these reasons, mammon causes all its followers to be anxious. When Jesus says, “Do not be anxious,” he is telling you to stop serving and worshiping mammon.

Instead of worshipping a false god, which will fail you and will only make you more and more anxious, worship the one true God who provides for all your needs. We learn to confess in our Small Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.”

Mammon does not promise any of that. God may use money to provide you with some of these things, but the promise is not dependent on the money, but God.

To prove that God will provide, Jesus bids us to look at the birds. They neither toil nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. And this certainly is true. I put a bird feeder near our kitchen window, because we like to watch the sparrows, cardinals, and blue jays. Yet, when we returned from vacation, the feeder was empty and I didn’t immediately refill it. When I did refill it, I found that the birds didn’t quickly come back. And even now, they don’t come around as they did before. They’d rather rely on a more dependable benefactor, our heavenly Father, who never fails to provide enough insects and seeds in the field.

And Jesus then adds, “Are you not of more value than they?” Well, aren’t you? Isn’t this self-evident? Sadly, no. For those who believe that we evolved from the sludge and that we share with all living things a common single-celled ancestor, they can’t conclude that we are more valuable than the birds, or that God or nature is more concerned about your welfare than the sparrows. Our government operates on this assumption. Today the federal government is fighting to overturn a law in Texas, which seeks to protect the life of unborn babies with heart beats. It is the belief of our rulers that these babies with beating hearts are not more valuable than the birds of the air. These rulers were elected by mammon worshipers, who value the pursuit of money and stuff over the lives of children.

But our rulers in government are wrong as well as the mammon worshipers, who elected them. You are indeed more valuable than many sparrows and so are each of these little babies in danger of the abortionist’s forceps and scissors. God desires to feed them and clothe them, as he does you. But how can we know this? How do you know that God cares for you, so that you don’t need to go and serve another god?

Because God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ to die for your sins. Jesus became a little baby. Jesus’ little heart started beating around six weeks after his miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, because he came to save little babies. The iniquities of all of us were laid upon our brother Jesus, who knows our sorrows and anxieties even more intimately than we know them. Our God and brother was crucified and his beating heart was silenced, because he loves us so much and desired to save us from sin and hell. St. Paul sums it up most beautifully, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

God did not become a bird or a flower. He didn’t die for the plants and animals. Yet, he still provides for them every day, as he has from the beginning of creation and will until he makes the world new. How much more will God provide for you, for whom he has sent his Son to join your race and to die for you! How much more valuable does God find you than these countless birds and animals he faithfully feeds and cares for? Can you measure the value of God’s own blood? (Acts 20:28)

This is why Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness with the promise that all the rest will also be added unto you.

This weekend we remember the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people were killed when nineteen Muslim extremists crashed commercial airplanes into the Twin Towers in NYC, the Pentagon in Washington D. C., and, because of the efforts of brave passengers on Flight 93, who fought the terrorists, in a field in Pennsylvania. An entire country that tries to hide from the reality of death was exposed to it on that awful day. What we watched on TV was not the illusions of Hollywood. Those were real people who died. Were they worse sinners than we? (Luke 13:4) No. But this was a message for each of us that death comes to us all, and at a time we cannot know. Our mammon will not be able to help us when death comes. After that comes judgment. We must seek the Kingdom of God now, while we can.

But how do we find the Kingdom of God? God’s Kingdom is not something that we must travel distant lands to find, nor can we find it by being anxious or toiling after wealth. Rather, as our Small Catechism says, “God’s Kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” God’s Kingdom comes to you when he reigns as King in your heart. He does this through the power of the Gospel, that good message that God forgives all your sins and gives you eternal life for Christ’s sake. It is through the Gospel that the Holy Spirit comes to you, so that you live in God’s Kingdom of Grace through faith. You find God’s Kingdom in your Baptism, where Scripture promises that the Holy Spirit washed you in a new birth (Titus 3:5). You find God’s Kingdom where Christ feeds you his very body and blood in the Holy Sacrament, which was given up for you on the cross. You find God’s Kingdom wherever this Gospel is preached in its truth and purity.

And his righteousness. What is God’s righteousness and how can we find it? Romans 1:16-17 answers us, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” You find God’s righteousness in the Gospel of Christ. And you receive this righteousness and make it your own when you believe in the Gospel. God is telling us to seek him in the Gospel of Jesus, so that we know that he is our God who takes care of us today and forever.

To live in God’s Kingdom of Grace is to be freed from the tyranny of the false god mammon, which burdens its followers with anxiety. Yet, we behave as if living in God’s Kingdom is a burden that we scarcely have time for. We have started Catechism Class for the children and with it the memorizing of Luther’s Small Catechism. Sadly, learning the Catechism by heart is a source of anxiety to some students. Why is this? Because we treat Catechism class like it is math, science, or history class. Instead of the children seeing this as seeking the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, they see learning God’s Word by heart as just another deadline to repeat what the teacher says, before promptly forgetting and moving on to the next subject. Our school system teaches children to be anxious mammon worshipers, toiling at a desk with hopes that they’ll get paid to toil at a desk someday. And we catechize our children to be anxious mammon worshipers at home, by how we behave, by what we talk about, and how we spend our time. This teaches our kids to toil for mammon, to be anxious about tomorrow, and to devalue God’s Word as something not profitable to the aim of gaining wealth.

But we should not treat the Catechism as a textbook or going to church as a burden to be weighed against the mammon and pleasures of this life. The Catechism should be our book of prayer and the subject of our conversations at dinner. We go to church to be relieved from the load mammon seeks to lay on us. God’s word gives us peace. Jesus’ forgiveness gives us confidence in eternal life, let alone our daily care. And will God cause his Christians to starve or go naked? Will God cause you to lose your job and livelihood if you go to church every Sunday without excuses and have devotions each day? And even if God does permit such a thing, Scripture teaches us that if we have food and clothing, with these we should be content (1 Timothy 6:8). Why? Because we know that for us who wait for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is a crown of righteousness waiting for us (2 Timothy 4:8).

Christ invites us today to throw off the burden laid on us by the false god mammon, and to take comfort in his promise of grace and forgiveness. He promises that if you seek his grace, he will care for every other want you may have as well. Amen.

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Walk by the Spirit

9/7/2021

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William Brassey Hole, "Jesus with the One Leper Who Returned to Give Thanks" 1846-1917. Public Domain

Trinity 14
Galatians 5:16-24
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 5, 2021

You have been baptized into Christ. Your sins are washed away. You are forgiven. Through faith you are clothed in Christ’s own righteousness, so that you can stand before God without shame and confident in your eternal salvation. And yet, there is a war raging inside you! St. Paul tells us that the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit wars against the flesh. This is why St. Paul exhorts us to “walk by the Spirit” so that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Yet, even without St. Paul telling you this, you’re aware of this war. The works of the flesh are evident. Although you are a Christian, you still are tempted to sin. The lusts you have renounced rise up within you. While you try to be loving, peaceful, kind, faithful, and self-controlled, a power within you incites you to hatred, enmity, fits of anger, and divisions.

This war is present in every Christian. St. Paul himself laments, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ... For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:15, 18-19) What is this strange phenomenon of which Scripture speaks, and of which each of us has experienced? What is this war between the Spirit and the flesh?

Despite what some think, this is not a battle between your body and your soul, or between the material world and the immaterial world. Rather, by flesh Scripture means your fallen sinful nature. This includes your body, soul, mind, and will: everything that was born from your mother. Jesus says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) According to your first birth of flesh, you are a sinner. You have inherited original sin from your father. That means that from your conception, you have been a sinner. Your body, soul, and will are corrupted by sin. By Spirit Scripture means everything that has been redeemed by Jesus’ blood and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that is, your entire regenerated self. When you were baptized, your entire self was born again. That is why Christ joined water to the word. The water touches your body to indicate that your body is born again to holiness and righteousness. Yet, until you die, your sinful nature clings to you.

This means that your entire self, your body, soul, mind and will, your reason and all your senses are completely holy, righteous, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit with Christ’s blood; and that your entire self, your body, soul, mind and will, your reason and all your senses are corrupted by your original sin. You have been declared righteous by God through faith in Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit has enlivened your will to desire and pursue what is good and righteous. The works of your hands, feet, and mouth are also looked at by God through Jesus, so that he is pleased with you. Yet, in this same body, you have the desire to do evil, to turn from God, to pursue unholy desires. Yet, on account of Christ Jesus God overlooks this sin. Christians live by faith and walk by grace. St. Paul goes so far as to say in Romans chapter 7, “So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

This means that although Christians still sin, they are regarded as holy through faith on account of Christ. Yet, this does not mean that it doesn’t matter if Christians sin, or that Christians can go on sinning so that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). St. Paul declared, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!” (Galatians 5:19-21)

This passage cannot be overlooked. While indeed there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), a person cannot claim to be in Christ Jesus while he willfully persists in sin without repenting. We are saved through faith apart from our sins, but it is impossible for true faith and the Holy Spirit to abide with mortal sin. Hebrews 10 states, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” (vss. 26-27)

It is false that Christians can continue in sin without repenting and remain Christians. True faith does not continue in willful sin. A wise man once said, “You cannot keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair!” You cannot keep temptation from coming or completely extinguish the desires of the sinful flesh, but you can keep them from ruling over you. We must make a distinction between sins of weakness, which all Christians must battle each and every day, and ruling sins, in which case, the battle is lost and sin has full control.

It is indeed a false teaching that Christians can live without sin. There are some who claim that Christians can reach a point of perfection, so that they no longer sin. They’ll use passages such as 1 John 3:9 to support this claim, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” Yet, this passage does not claim that Christians no longer sin, but rather, Christians do not persist in sin. In this same Epistle St. John writes, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9) When people deny that Christians sin, they do great harm to the soul. They either drive some to despair, because of their own sins, or they create self-righteous hypocrites, who refuse to repent of their real sins.

Yet, it is equally a false teaching that Christians can continue in sin, while remaining in the saving faith. This false teaching causes people to be recalcitrant, confirmed sinners, who refuse to repent or seek forgiveness from Christ. While Scripture does not teach that Christians can live without sin, it certainly teaches that Christians do not persist in sin without repenting.

This is why the Church must be firm on what is a sin. People are offended that the Church condemns fornication, adultery, homosexuality, unionism with other religions, abortion, and other common sins. But Christians must know that those who persist in these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God! (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21). A person can claim to have faith in Christ, but if he rejects Jesus’ teaching and clings to his sin, then he is not following the true Jesus.

This is why it is necessary for Christians to repent of their sins every day, as our Lord teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer. Temptation seeks to become sin and sin seeks to rule you and produce unbelief. Sin is like yeast. It seeks to grow and spread. And Luther reminds us that sin is like a snake, if it can fit its head in, so can it fit its entire body. So, we must constantly be on guard. Furthermore, consider how closely sin clings to us! Our entire body, soul, and mind is corrupted by sin. Jesus says that out of the heart come sinful desires (Matthew 15:19)! So, Christians must be wise to the danger of besetting sins and crucify their flesh with its desires daily through repentance.

And so, you’ll learn that the Law is a helpful tool for the Christian to curb his sinful actions and to aid in daily reflection and repentance. Yet, you must be careful that you do not fall into legalism. St. Paul does not say, “Walk by the Law and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh,” but rather, “Walk by the Spirit.” Legalism teaches that you can be righteous by strictly following the Law. Yet, Scripture has already made clear that we are declared righteous by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We do not then remain righteous by works, otherwise the Bible would not say that you are justified apart from works of the Law.

In this very Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul has already made this argument. He writes, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you! It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—Just as Abraham ‘believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness’?” (3:1-6) In Chapter 5, St. Paul goes so far as to say, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (vs. 4)

The point is this: The Law kills the sinner, but not the sin; the Gospel kills the sin, but not the sinner. The Law tells you what is right, and condemns you when you fail to do it. While you might be able to curb some outward sins with the Law, the Law cannot make you love God or your neighbor. The Law does not give you the Holy Spirit, who enlivens your new self. But the Gospel kills the sin, while keeping the sinner alive. It is the Gospel that gives you the Holy Spirit, so that your whole self seeks to do what is right. It is the Gospel that Jesus Christ died for all your sins and that God forgives you for Christ’s sake that creates faith in your hearts and makes you alive to produce good fruit.

To walk by the Spirit means to walk through faith in the Gospel. You can and should use the Law to rebuke your sinful flesh, but the Law cannot give you the desire to do what is right. Only the Gospel can create love in your heart. St. Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” This is fruit, not works done by coercion. The Spirit sows the Gospel, and reaps fruits of love. This is why he writes, “And those who are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” The only way to conquer the sinful flesh, so that it does not subdue you, is to place your sins on the cross of Christ. Do not only repent by acknowledging that you are bad and the Law is good. Repent by turning to Jesus for forgiveness and the power to live in love and purity.

It is by the grace of God through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that you are justified in his sight. And it is by that same grace of God through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that you produce good fruits of love and war against your sinful flesh. He who began the good work in you will complete the good work in you. Through faith in Christ Jesus, you are not a slave to your sinful flesh nor to the Law, but you are a legitimate child of God with the Holy Spirit himself living in you. Amen.

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Two Religions of the World

8/31/2021

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Vasily Surikov, "The Good Samaritan," 1874. Public Domain

Trinity 13
Galatians 3:15-22
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 29, 2021

How many religions do you think are in the world? A thousand? Should we number every sect and cult, which breaks away from a mainline religion? How could we possibly number them? Well, in fact, there are only two religions in the world. There is the religion of works, that is, the religion of the Law. And there is the religion of grace, that is, the religion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The religion of works is a false religion that teaches that a person is justified, that is, declared righteous by God and inherits eternal life by his own good works. The religion of grace is the one true religion, which teaches that a person is justified, that is, declared righteous by God and inherits eternal life as a gift through faith alone, when he believes that God forgives his sins for the sake of Christ Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.
Adherents of the religion of works come in many forms. They call themselves Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, and even Christians. Yet, they all believe essentially the same thing when it comes to salvation. They believe that they are saved by their own good works. They think that God, or whatever power they believe in, is satisfied and will reward them for what they do in this life. In short, they trust in themselves. Adherents of the religion of grace are true Christians. They do not trust in their own good works, but rely solely on Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Christians believe that they are saved by grace, that is, as a gift from God when they believe that God forgives them for Christ’s sake.
The purpose of St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians is to teach that a sinner is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the Law. In our Epistle lesson, St. Paul argues this point by pointing out that God gave righteousness and salvation to Abraham by a promise 430 years before he gave the Law to Moses. If God promised the inheritance as a gift to Abraham, how could he then give it under the condition of works. That would be to break his own covenant. But if not even a covenant made by men can be broken, how could God’s covenant of promise be abolished by the Law. As St. Paul says, “For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”
And it is not only that God gave it to Abraham by promise, but God gave it to all people by promise. God said to Abraham, “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 22:18) This offspring is Jesus Christ, who is descended from Abraham according to the flesh and is God most high, begotten of the Father. All nations of the earth are blessed through Jesus, because he alone has paid our debt of sin and won for us salvation. Abraham was saved through faith as well as all who believe. In fact, salvation has always been a gift from God received through faith in the promised Christ. Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised salvation through the offspring of the woman, when he spoke to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) So it is abundantly clear from Scripture that no human being is justified before God by works of the Law, but all are saved through faith in Christ alone.
Why then the Law? If the false religion is a religion that teaches salvation by works of the Law, was God adding something bad when he gave Moses the Law? Or as St. Paul asks, “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?” He answers, “Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” God did not give us the Law so that we could gain life by obeying its commands. God added the Law because of transgressions, that is, because we were sinners! If we were sinners even before the Law, how is the Law going to make us righteous? It’s not! But it will certainly show us our sin. It will teach us what is righteous and what is not; what is good and what is evil. And when we look at the Law, we will recognize that our works are but filthy rags, and we need to be saved from our sin. That is why God gives us the Law.
The reason the Law cannot make you righteous or give you life is because it can only tell you what to do, but it can give you no power to do it. That does not make the Law bad. The Law is good. The Law expresses God’s eternal will. If you actually did what the Law commanded, you would indeed be righteous and have eternal life. But if you do not do what the Law commands, then you are under a curse, as it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Galatians 3:10; Deut. 27:26). Our problem is that we do not actually do what the Law commands.
Take the lawyer from our Gospel text, who asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life. Since he asked what he must do, Jesus asked him what the Law says. The Law tells you what to do. He answered correctly, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” And Jesus is right! If you would love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and your neighbor as yourself, you would have a wonderful life. Your anxiety would go away. You would be content with what you have. You wouldn’t fight with those you love. In fact, you would learn to love even your enemies. And if you did this perfectly, you would live forever.
But do you? Do you love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? The Law commanded that the Jews give ten percent of their income to the Lord to provide for the Levites. Ten percent or a tithe is still the standard amount Christians are encouraged to give to the church. Yet, you’ll notice these words don’t even mention money. It mentions your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And to love God with not ten percent of these, but all of them. Do you do this? The simplest way to show God that he is your God is to go to church. I once read a motivational poster that said that a one-hour workout is only four percent of your day. Well, if you do the math, you’ll find that going to church then works out to less than one percent of your week.  Yet, still people find other things to do instead of coming to hear the Word of God, learning from him, praying and praising him. If we each exercised an hour a day, we’d be quite fit. Yet, how many of us take even a quarter of an hour to read Scripture and pray each day. We work hard for our children. We want them to do the sports they like, to get good grades, to get a good job. But do we exert our strength to teach them to be Christians and to hold God above all else? No one wants to be considered dumb. We take pride in the power of our minds. Yet, do you seek to learn from God? Do you love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind?
Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Do you honestly do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Do you think of them as you would have them think of you? Do you speak about them as you would have them speak about you? Here is why the lawyer seeking to justify himself asked who his neighbor was, prompting Jesus to tell the well-known story of the Good Samaritan. The Lawyer seeks to lighten the burden of the Law, but Jesus’ story does no such thing for an adherent to the religion of works.
Depending on whether you are an adherent to the false religion of works or the true religion of grace will determine much how you look at the story of the Good Samaritan. If you, like the lawyer, are an adherent to the religion of works, the Good Samaritan is a devastating blow. Samaritans were hated by the Jews. The Samaritan had no reason to believe that if he were in the same situation that that man would have helped him. But despite that, the Samaritan helped his enemy. He took the injured man’s burden, treated his wounds, and laid him on his own animal and brought him to safety. He paid the innkeeper two denarii, which is two days wages, and then he offered to pay back whatever more it cost to care for him. That would be like you handing a hospital your credit card to care for a complete stranger. No one can live up to this standard. “Go and do likewise,” Jesus says? How? Here we see that the Law is not accomplished by outward show, but in that word that must begin from the heart: Love. The law commands what commands cannot bring, that you love your neighbor from the heart. The Law is good, because it reveals how we should be. We should be like Jesus. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. But when Jesus is a mere lawgiver, just an example to follow, he is terrifying.
Yet, if you are an adherent to the religion of grace, then you recognize the Good Samaritan as your Savior Jesus, who rescues you from your sin and pays for your redemption. Through this story, you recognize what St. Paul means when he says, “Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” By speaking the truth, Scripture exposes you as the beat-up man, half-dead, lying on the side of the road. You have been beaten up and robbed by Satan and your own sinful flesh. You cannot help yourself. The Law doesn’t help you. The priest and the Levite simply walk past. All they can say to you is to get up and be alive. Stop being a sinner! Yet, your Good Samaritan comes, Jesus Christ, with his preaching. He pours wine, which stings, that is, he preaches the Law to you, so that you know you need him. Yet, he pours on soothing oil as well, medicine for your sin-sick soul. He forgives your sins. He bears your burden. He paid for your sins on the cross. And his death fully atones for you. He says, “Whatever more is spent, I will pay it back.” That is to say, as many sins as you have, he forgives them in full.
It is after you have been justified by faith that you can then follow the example of the Good Samaritan, walking by the Spirit. This cannot be done under compulsion, or you will be terrified and it will never be done. But when you have been loved by your Good Samaritan, when you have received the promised blessing through faith in Christ, the Offspring of Abraham, then you will follow with a willing heart. Having loved, you will love without fear of judgment. The Law demands love. It is Jesus, our Good Samaritan, who has perfected love for us. And having received his love through faith, we too will live in love, imperfectly now, but perfectly in eternity. Amen.

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Justified before God

8/15/2021

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The Pharisee and the Publican, James Tissot, 1886-94. Public Domain.

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 15, 2021

Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. What does it mean to be righteous? To be righteous means that you are in a right relationship with God. To be righteous is the same thing as to be just. That is why Jesus said that the tax collector went down to his house justified, much to the surprise of his audience, who thought the Pharisee was righteous. Jesus was declaring that the tax collector went down to his house declared righteous by God.

When we speak of being righteous or justified, we are speaking of how we will be judged by God on the Last Day. Scripture declares, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) Christ Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. Everyone will stand before God and give an account of what he has done, both good and bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10) And God will judge. Those who are judged righteous, that is, those whom God justifies will enter into eternal life. Those who are judged unrighteous will be damned to eternal perdition. To be justified is the opposite of to be damned. This means that the doctrine of justification is the most important teaching in the entire Christian religion. I certainly can’t think of more pressing one! How do I know whether I am justified before God? How do I know whether God will welcome me into heaven or damn me to hell? This is what we are discussing when we discuss justification.

It is God who justifies. Jesus spoke this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. But you cannot trust in yourself that you are righteous. You are not the one who declares yourself righteous. It is God who justifies. Declaring yourself righteous goes hand in hand with despising others. How does the Pharisee justify himself? He compares his works with others. He despises the tax collector to prove that he is righteous. But that is no way to prove yourself righteous. If a friend is helping me build something and I ask him to cut me a board 46 inches long and he cuts me a board 38 inches long, he won’t make the board the right length by comparing it to all the scrap pieces and talking about how much further from 46 inches they are. If you fall short of being righteous, it doesn’t matter how much farther you think others have fallen short.

What Jesus teaches us in this parable is that a man is not justified before God by his own strength, merit, or works, but rather, a man is justified before God by grace, that is, as a gift from God. This is what St. Paul says in Romans chapter 3, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” God justifies freely by grace, not on account of our works. The Pharisee listed off his works, he fasted twice a week, he gave ten percent of all that he earned to the Lord. But it was the tax collector, who listed no works at all who was found righteous by God. This is because God justifies by grace as a gift. It does not have to do with our works. It is in spite of our sins! It depends on God’s grace, that is, on his undeserved love for us. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is why St. Paul, who himself was a Pharisee (and a very zealous one at that), declared all his works to be rubbish, so that he could be found in Christ not having a righteousness of his own, but one that comes through faith (Philippians 3:8-9). So, whether you are a tax collector or a Pharisee, an adulterer, thief, or liar, or every-Sunday-Christian, you are justified by grace alone. This is why Jesus concludes this parable with the statement, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The one who humbles himself does not claim his own righteousness, but accepts Christ’s righteousness as a gift. Yet, the one who exalts himself refuses the gift, because he thinks he can earn his own righteousness.

God justifies sinners. The tax collector said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And God justified him. He declared the sinner righteous. In fact, God only justifies sinners. He will not declare righteous those who have declared themselves righteous and free from sin. He only justifies those, who have admitted their own sin and unworthiness. This is why it is important to preach the law. The law tells you how to live rightly before God. This is why people think that if they try to live according to God’s law, then they will be righteous. But what does Scripture say? “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20) And this reveals the main reason people need to hear the preaching of the law. People need to know that they are sinners, so that they know that they cannot justify themselves, but can only be justified by God.

The law told the tax collector he was a sinner. The law called him a cheat and a thief. The tax collector didn’t argue with the law. He confessed that what the law said was right. He was a sinner. So, he did not seek to justify himself by means of the law, but he went to God to be justified by grace as a gift. The Pharisee did not understand the chief purpose of the law. He thought the law gave him simple directions to justify himself, so he simply did more than the directions required, he fasted twice in a week, he tithed all that he took in. But he failed to realize that the law doesn’t rule just outward actions, but the very heart. The law commands you to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. But the Pharisee didn’t love. He hated. He was a sinner, but he did not acknowledge himself as a sinner. He exalted himself instead. And so, he went home condemned.

God justifies for Christ’s sake. God doesn’t simply say that sin isn’t a big deal. No, God agrees with the law. The law is good. The law reveals God’s eternal will. When God justifies sinners, he doesn’t call good evil and evil good. No, he always and only justifies sinners for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death for sin. When the tax collector beat his breast and pleaded to God for mercy, he used a special word for mercy. The word he used meant be propitiated, that is, be appeased by this sacrifice; let your wrath be taken away from me on account of this sacrifice. The tax collector is in the temple after all during the sacrifice. Of course, a lamb on the altar is not what actually appeases God’s wrath against sinners, but rather, the Lamb whom that lamb proclaims, Christ Jesus. St. Paul writes in Romans 3 that all are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

It is Jesus’ blood that makes propitiation for our sins. Jesus’ innocent suffering and death is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Jesus is the only human being who ever lived without sin. He did not deserve to be damned. Yet, he endured damnation on the cross for sins he did not commit. As a man he lived under the law and fulfilled all the law’s demands. And as a man he suffered the punishment of all mankind for all our sins. And Jesus is God. You cannot separate the man Jesus dying on the cross for all sins from the God Jesus. This means his death is a more than sufficient price to pay the debt of all people. When the tax collector said, “Be propitiated to me a sinner,” he was confessing that Christ took all his sins away.

When we talk about being justified before God by grace, we cannot speak of it apart from what Jesus Christ has done for us. Only through Jesus’ obedience and passion for our sins are we justified before God. This is why St. Paul said in our Epistle lesson, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) This is of first importance, because without Jesus dying for us, we are still in our sins. But since Christ has died for us and has risen for us, we have peace with God.

To be justified means to be forgiven. If you are a sinner, then you are not righteous. God declares sinners righteous by forgiving them. St. Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter 4, “David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” (vss. 6-8) How does God count a person righteous apart from works? By forgiving his lawless deeds; by covering his sins in Jesus’ blood and not counting them anymore.

God justifies a sinner through faith alone. Scripture says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28) and “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5) It is through faith, so that it can be by grace. Grace means that it is a gift. Faith receives the gift. Faith means to believe and trust that God forgives you for Christ’s sake. The tax collector expressed his faith by asking God to be propitiated to him. He had faith in Christ. Faith is not a good work we do. Rather, faith is trusting in the promise that God forgives sinners by grace for Christ’s sake.

You cannot have saving faith while you are not sorry for your sins. Saving faith means that you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner, who deserves to go to hell; that you are sorry for those sins and want to do better, and that you trust that God will forgive you for Christ’s sake alone. Faith does not believe that God is indifferent toward sin or pleased with sin. Rather, faith confesses what God says is true. And God says that he has placed all our sins on Jesus. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. All people are justified by his death and resurrection. Faith alone receives this justification.

Faith itself is a gift from God given by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. It is the words of Christ that create faith in our hearts. This is why Christians go to church. The righteous shall live by faith. Faith comes from hearing. If we don’t hear the promises of God, our faith will die. If our faith dies, we lose our justification. If we lose our justification, we cannot stand before God.

If you are justified then you are regenerated, that is, you are born again. A sinner cannot by his own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts through the Gospel. He does this by giving us a new birth, so that we trust in God’s promise. To be regenerated means that you will not only believe God’s promise, but also love God and desire to do what he desires, of course, in great weakness, because of your sinful flesh. So, Christians do good works, but it is not their good works that justify them. The regenerate Christian is justified through faith alone. The righteousness that justifies the Christian is not his own righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness given to him as a gift. This gives you confidence in your justification, because it always depends on Jesus and not on you.

Finally, to be justified means that you are God’s own child. Justification is courtroom language. God is the judge declaring you guilty or innocent, a sinner or righteous. But to be justified doesn’t simply mean God declares you not guilty and sends you on your way. It means that you are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. It means that you are God’s beloved child. He loves you. And he has chosen you to live with him in peace forever. Amen.

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