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The Freedom of the Christian

10/26/2020

Luther burns the Papal bull in the square of Wittenberg year 1520, Karl Aspelin, 1885, Public Domain

Reformation Day (Observed)
John 8:31-36
October 25, 2020

“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36

Reformation Day commemorates October 31st, 1517, the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany to question the practice of selling indulgences, which were treated as a kind of ticket to heaven. Of course, that was only the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation. Martin Luther, as well as his evangelical colleagues continued to produce important writings, which more clearly articulated the Christian faith as it is taught in Holy Scripture. Five hundred years ago in 1520, Martin Luther wrote such a devotional titled, “The Freedom of the Christian”, which clearly articulated the Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins and salvation won by Christ and given to all who believe. Luther sent this devotional to Pope Leo X along with a personal letter, with hopes of calming the tension between the papal see and Luther as many were calling for Luther’s excommunication. Luther treated the pope kindly and wrote to him as a pastor would write to a Christian under duress from the devil and false friends. The thesis statement of Luther’s The Freedom of the Christian was this:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
These two sentences at first sight seem to absolutely contradict each other. Yet, Luther quickly points out the words of St. Paul from 1 Corinthians 9, which state, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave of all” and from Romans 13, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” He also brings up the fact that Christ Jesus, the Lord of all, was “born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4) and although he was “in the form of God” he came in the form “of a servant.” (Philippians 2:6-7). So, Luther’s two statements are certainly biblical and true. But they certainly need some explanation. So, let us first examine Luther’s first statement:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
This statement is made absolutely true by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we heard in our Gospel lesson, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” Jesus Christ sets you free from the bonds of sin. If Jesus has set you free, nothing can enslave you! If nothing can enslave you, then you are a lord of all. Your sins cannot condemn you. Satan cannot harm you. Death is a defeated foe. And since this freedom comes as a free gift from Jesus to be received through faith and not by your works, there can be no work demanded of the Christian.
Jesus says that if you abide in his word, you are truly his disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. God’s word is our most precious treasure on this earth. Food, drink, clothing, house, car, and so forth, these things cannot benefit our soul in any way. As Scripture says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Only the word of God can grant us salvation, because our faith can only grasp God’s word and promise. And Luther points out in his treatise that it is the Gospel which is that word of God, which promises salvation, as Romans 1 states, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to all who believe.” And so, it is faith in Christ’s promise of forgiveness and salvation that sets you free, not your works.
Luther goes on to say that faith is the greatest honor you can give God. To have faith in the forgiveness of sins is to believe that God is true, that his promises are trustworthy, that Jesus is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world. Yet, to disbelieve is to dishonor God, to call him a liar. So, Luther calls faith the greatest honor and glory a person can give to God.
Finally, concerning faith, Luther compares faith to a wedding ring. Through faith we are joined in a holy marriage with Christ. He is the Bridegroom, we the Church are his holy bride. The wedding band symbolizes that all that belongs to the bridegroom is the bride’s and all that belongs to the bride is the bridegroom’s.
This means that our sins belong to Christ. He took ownership of them as certainly as he has claimed us as his bride. And he washed them away in his blood. They are forgiven and forgotten forever. Our debt is paid. This also means that all that belongs to Christ belongs to us. So, if Christ is the exalted Lord of all, under whose feet God the Father has placed all dominion, then we also are exalted lords of all. We share with Christ in his victory, as Scripture indeed proclaims in Ephesians 2 where it says God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And again in 1 Corinthians 15, “Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Through faith Christ’s righteousness covers us. Through faith we honor God our Savior. Through faith our souls are joined to Christ Jesus in a holy union whereby all Christ possesses is given to us. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are perfectly free lords of all, subject to none.
Here, Luther addresses the question that Pope Leo certainly wants explained. If faith alone makes one righteous without works, then why do any good works at all? Luther answers this by pointing out that we still live in our sinful bodies. Our new man, that is our reborn self, who is joined to Christ through faith, certainly desires only good, to love and honor God and do good to everyone. But the old Adam, that is, our old self born in sin, desires only to satisfy its own desires, to follow after lusts, and in short, to do the bidding of the devil. St. Paul sums this up in Romans 7 when he says, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin.” And so, in order to keep oneself from becoming captive to sin and losing one’s faith in the Gospel, a Christian must constantly drown the old Adam through repentance and discipline himself with good works. This is what Scripture also says, “But I discipline my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” 1 Corinthians 9) and “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5)
Here Luther argues his second point:
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
Christians must do good works. Idol fingers are the devil’s playground. Christians should be busy helping others, serving their neighbor, and considering others more significant than themselves. Luther makes clear that this is not in order to be justified by God. You are already justified through faith in Christ apart from your works. Luther compares one who after faith seeks to be justified by his works to a dog, which has a piece of meat in its mouth, but looking at its reflection in the water thinks it sees another dog with meat. So, in an attempt to get that piece of meat as well, it opens its mouth and drops the meat into the water and ends up with nothing. And, so it is with a Christian who tries to justify himself by his works instead of through faith in Jesus Christ. He loses his righteousness through faith while striving after righteousness through works.
Luther uses Jesus’ own words to explain this. “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad.” (Matthew 12) It is a good tree that bears good fruit, not a good fruit that bears a good tree. When God put Adam in the garden, he had already made him good. Yet, he commanded him to work the garden. His work did not make him good. His work was good, because he was already good. It is faith in Christ that makes our works good. Through faith our inner self becomes alive and desires to do what is right. And through faith, God does not look at our sins, but counts our works as beautiful in his sight. None of this means that our works justify us, but rather that our faith produces good fruits.
Martin Luther pointed out to the Pope that both Christ and John the Baptist told people to repent as well as believe in the Gospel. They first preached the Law of God, that is, God’s commandments so that sinners would come to a knowledge of their sin and repent. Then they preached the Gospel, that is, the promises of God, which offers forgiveness of sins and salvation to all who believe. This, Luther says, describes the work of faithful preachers today. All must preach repentance and then salvation by grace, otherwise, the preaching of good works will be in vain.
Now, why should you as a Christian consider yourself a servant to all? Simple, this is Christ’s example to you. Luther cites Philippians 2, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.” So, a Christian through faith in Christ is Lord of all, yet, like Christ serves all. The life you live, you live not to yourself, but to Christ. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. As Christ did not see equality with God a thing to be grasped, because he already was in the form of God, so we do not seek to grasp God’s majesty, but follow in our Savior’s footsteps and serve others.
This means that we should be subject to the governing authorities and should pray for them. Children should honor and obey their parents. Christians should submit to the authorities in their lives, both physical and spiritual. Christians should help those in need, speak out for the defenseless, and consider others more significant themselves.
Luther concludes, “a Christian lives not to himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.” This is what led Luther to humbly write to Pope Leo X, to call him his father, and to ask for an intervention on his behalf. He humbled himself to every human institution out of love. Yet, in that same year 1520, when Pope Leo ordered all the writings of Martin Luther to be burned and threatened Luther with excommunication, Luther in response on December 10, 1520 burned the pope’s books and the writings of those who claimed the Pope had authority over the whole church. Luther chose rather to abide in the words of Christ, which set him free, than be a slave to a man, who condemned the righteous. The Pope’s order to burn books that confessed the Gospel had no authority over a Christian whatsoever.
And so, it is for us today. We Lutherans are free, because Christ has set us free through the Gospel. Yet, we ought to out of love for our neighbor follow in Christ’s footsteps and serve everyone in humility. Yet, we must never forget that Christ has set us free. When persecution comes, and it will and has; when our faith is under attack; when the devil comes with his lies, we must remember that we are free lords. We have the truth. So, let us abide in the words of Christ, knowing that through faith we are free from sin, death and hell. And let us serve our neighbor in love after the likeness of Christ while never forfeiting God’s Word. Amen.

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Our Most Pressing Need

10/18/2020

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Le paralytique descendu du toit, James Tissot, 1886-94, Brooklyn Museum, No Known Copyright Restrictions

Trinity 19
Matthew 9:1-8
October 18, 2020

Four men bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus on a bed to be healed by him. To be paralyzed is one of the worst ailments you can suffer in this life. He could not move his limbs. He could not work. He depended on others to provide for his most basic needs. He couldn’t feed himself, dress himself, or use the toilet by himself. He likely developed bed soars from lying down all day. This man had great need to be healed. Yet, what does Jesus say to this poor guy in such misery? “Take heart, my son! Your sins are forgiven!” This might sound disappointing to some. “He didn’t come to have his sins forgiven. He came to be healed by the great healer!” Yet, Jesus performed the most important task first. He forgave the man’s sins. That was his greatest need.
Indeed, the forgiveness of sins is always our most pressing need, because without the forgiveness of sins we remain enemies of God, separated from Christ, doomed to death and hell. But with the forgiveness of sins, we have life and salvation, peace with God, and a certain home in heaven! And Jesus demonstrates by first forgiving the sins of this paralytic before he healed him that the forgiveness of sins is always our greatest need, no matter how great our other needs are. I’ve prayed at the bedside of many sick people, from broken bones to cancer. Some have gotten better. Some have not. But the most important need we prayed for was always answered, the prayer for forgiveness.
2020 has been a rather difficult year. The spread of the coronavirus has caused panic in governments and among civilians around the world. People fear for their loved ones and even for themselves, because of this virus. And the response to the virus has added all sorts of other difficulties to our lives. Many lost their jobs and continue to suffer from lower wages. Many still fear the loss of their income. People couldn’t see their family and friends in nursing homes and hospitals for months at a time. Many churches were closed. Besides all that, our state was hit by a freak storm, that has ruined many farms and properties over a third of our state. Rising violence, riots, looting, and arson in many of our cities have wreaked havoc and raised stress around the country. And the tense election has set many on edge as we fear for our children’s and our nation’s future. Of course, all these added difficulties have not taken away all the other sorrows that hits us in any given year. People are still getting cancer, having strokes and heart attacks, falling and breaking bones. Our loved ones continue to get sick and die. Marriages continue to struggle; children continue to stray. And throughout this tumultuous year, through the sickness and fear, the storms and fires, the violence and chaos, the loneliness and frustration, our greatest need remained the same. Forgiveness of sins. And so, our greatest need has continued to be to hear our Savior’s word and believe his promise of forgiveness and salvation.
Some of the Scribes were offended that Jesus forgave the man’s sins, because only God can forgive sins. Jesus proved his authority to forgive sins by demonstrating that he is not only a man, but also true God. He did this first, by reading the Scribe’s hearts, as the Scribes had only spoken to themselves and not out loud. As Jesus could see the faith in the paralyzed man’s heart, so he could see the hatred in the hearts of these Scribes, something only God can do. Secondly, Jesus proved himself to be God by curing the paralyzed man from his paralysis. The crowd then glorified God that he had given such authority to men.
And yes, it is a wonderful thing that God gave the authority to forgive sins to men. This is the greatest authority one can wield, the authority to raise from the dead, to rescue from hell and bring to heaven. Yet, this fact that man has the authority to forgive sins, which amazed the crowd and angered the Scribes, was the only way it could be!
God does not forgive sins according to absolute grace. That is, God does not just decide that our sins are not a big deal and that he will just forget about them. Our God is a just God. Sins must be atoned for. This is why the Prophet Isaiah prophesied that “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all” and “by his stripes we are healed.” In order for our sins to be forgiven, our sins needed to be paid for. The only one, who could pay for our sins is God. So, God needed to become man.
Yes, it is a marvel that a man forgave sins. Yet, it was indeed the only way. Jesus prayed in the Garden to this Father, that if it were possible, to take the cup of suffering away. Yet, it was the will of the Father for Christ to bear our sins with bitter suffering and death. Not, because he is cruel. Not, because he wanted his Son to suffer. But because he desired our salvation. Our salvation could only be obtained by our sins being atoned for. Only Jesus, true God and man, could atone for our sins in our place.
Because of Jesus’ atonement for our sins on the cross, forgiveness is freely given. Note, forgiveness is not free! It came at the cost of Jesus’ bitter, suffering and death! Yet, Jesus freely grants us forgiveness. This is also why the authority to forgive sins is given to men. Not only to the God-man Jesus, but to men. Yes, the authority to forgive sins is given to sinful men! Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven.” and “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you withhold forgiveness from any it is withheld.” Jesus is able to give this authority to men, 1. because he is God. If he commands people to relay a message from him, that message is as true whether it’s coming from a donkey or an angel. And 2, because Jesus has already purchased the forgiveness of our sins. When the minister forgives your sins in the stead of Christ, he is relaying the fact that Christ Jesus has purchased your release from hell and your entrance into heaven. Jesus has given his church on earth the authority to forgive all sins by the merits of his own suffering and death.
This necessarily means that forgiveness of sins is received through faith. Since it is only Christ, who paid the price for our sins. We cannot do anything to deserve forgiveness. Forgiveness is given as a gift. And those who relay this gift do so through words, words given by God himself. So, those who receive this forgiveness do so, not by their works, but by believing the words of Christ. This is why Christ, after seeing their faith, said, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Now, this man truly was paralyzed and was suffering greatly. And Jesus truly did heal the man, so that he took up his bed and walked in the sight of many witnesses. Yet, the fact that the man was paralyzed and then walked after his sins were forgiven, signifies something to us about the forgiveness of sins and faith.
The man was paralyzed. That is as close to being dead you can be while still being alive. The man could not do anything for himself! He was living almost like he was dead, waiting to die! This is how St. Paul describes our spiritual condition before faith in the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write 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 mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”
So, you see the spiritual condition illustrated by the paralyzed man. He could not work. He could not walk. He could not follow Jesus. And so, in our sin, without faith, before we receive forgiveness, we are spiritually paralyzed. We’re dead to any good work. We cannot please God. We cannot love God. We can't believe in God. Yet, when Jesus speaks words of forgiveness to us, he makes us alive. First, he forgives our sins. Then, our arms and legs start working. Our heart loves God. We walk not in darkness, but light. We do good works, which were prepared beforehand for us to walk in them.
This also helps us understand our Epistle lesson from Ephesians 4, where St. Paul tells us to put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Our old self is spiritually paralyzed, incapable of doing good or loving God and rather follows the course of sin in this world. Our new self is renewed by the forgiveness of sins and made alive by God’s grace, like that paralyzed man, who rose and walked after his sins were taken away from him.
In order to be empowered to put off the old self and put on the new self, you need to be forgiven. Satan has deceived many to believe that since the forgiveness of sins is given freely apart from our works that we can continue in sin without any consequences. Yet, as St. Paul says, “That is not the way you learned Christ!” Christ made us alive by forgiving our sins! He freed us from the bondage of sin, that left us spiritually paralyzed by taking those bonds off of us. How can we respond to such freedom by returning to sin and spiritual paralysis and then claim to be free and alive! No, if we return to sin, we return to death and slavery, we return to being a spiritual paralytic, who cannot even lift his arm to Jesus.
Therefore, we must avoid lying, which comes from the father of lies, the devil, who seeks to murder our souls. Instead, we must always confess the truth, from the truth of our own sinful condition to the truth of Christ’s forgiveness and Lordship over us. We must avoid anger and wrath, and instead have a zeal for the Lord, his truth, and love. We must not steal or cheat in any way, but rather work hard so to provide for those in need and support what is good. Yes, these are works that Christians ought to do. Yet, you do not do them in order to be forgiven, but you do them because you are forgiven. You find the power to do these good works by receiving the forgiveness of sins through faith, just as the paralytic found the strength to carry his bed and walk home by first receiving the forgiveness of sins.
Our most pressing need at all times remains the forgiveness of sins, because without the forgiveness of sins, we cannot please God. We can only continue in sin. Our most pressing need at all times is the forgiveness of sins, because we still live in sinful bodies in a sinful world where we may encounter death any day. Our most pressing need at all times is the forgiveness of sins, because only through the forgiveness of sins can we enter heaven. Our most pressing need is the forgiveness of sins, because only through the forgiveness of sins can we speak the truth in love and love our neighbor rightly. And God richly provides us with this most pressing need through his word and through the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. May God awaken in us an awareness of this most pressing need, so that we never despise it. Amen.

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The Law and the Prophets Depend on Christ

10/13/2020

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The Pharisees Test Jesus, James Tissot, 1886-94, Brooklyn Museum, No Known Copyright Restrictions

Trinity 18
Matthew 22:34-46
October 11, 2020

A lawyer asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the Law, and our Lord answered by quoting the Law in Deuteronomy 6, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This commandment summarizes the first three of the Ten Commandments (You shall have no other gods; you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God; remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy), and it really explains what it means to have God as your God.
Love the Lord God with all your heart. This means that you should love God will all your senses, your feelings, and emotions. This commandment excludes any pretense or hypocrisy. You cannot fulfill this command by outward show, by simply going to church and sitting in a pew or by putting a fish sticker on your car or wearing a cross around your neck. With all your heart the Law requires you to desire to be with God, to serve him, to praise him, to hear his word, and to devote your very being to him.
Love the Lord God with all your soul. Your soul is your life. The commandment requires that your entire life be devoted to the one true God. From the moment of your birth until your death, your whole life should be one of service and adoration to the one true God. Whom you marry, how you raise your children, how you work, how you relax, how you live, and how you die: all this shall be done out of love for the Lord God. Tithing mint and cumin or dollars or volunteering spare time, unless something comes up, will not suffice. This commandment demands your whole life.
Love the Lord God with all your mind. This commandment requires you to learn. Don’t just assume that you already know enough or that God’s word is not important. Listen to the Scripture readings in Church and meditate on them. Listen to the sermon and try to learn what you don’t understand. Attend Bible study. And at home, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the holy Scriptures, which are able to make one wise unto salvation. This is why the Proverb says, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” (Proverbs 4:7) This commandment requires that you be a theologian. A theologian is someone who studies, learns, and discusses God’s word. Everyone, not just pastors, should be a theologian.
This answer convicted the Pharisees and priests of Jesus’ day, who liked to put on a show of loving God with their outward actions and services in the temple and synagogues. And our Lord’s answer convicts all of us. The Commandment, “You shall have no other gods” is not fulfilled by a nominal confession, but by full devotion in heart, life, and mind.
The commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind is the greatest commandment and all other commandments are subordinate to and follow out of this great commandment. Yet, Jesus still adds a second commandment, which he says is like the first. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This commandment is like the first, because it also commands you to love. While you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, you love your neighbor as yourself. This again convicts the religious elites in Jesus’ day. The New Testament gives us plenty of examples of the chief priests and Pharisees despising their neighbors, while professing to love God. Yet, Scripture declares, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
This shows how serious this second commandment is. If one fails to keep this second commandment, he has failed to keep the first and greatest commandment. This teaches us that if we desire to serve and adore God in our lives, we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. If you do not want your name to be slandered behind your back, then do not speak ill of others or spread gossip. You do not want to be cheated on, so be faithful to your spouse. You would not want to grow up in an unstable household, so control your desires and wait until you are married in order to honor the marriage bed. Don’t steal or even desire to do it. As you cherish your own life, cherish the lives of others. This means you should also be an advocate for those weaker than you, especially the unborn, who are in danger every day of being killed with approval from the government. They have no voice. If you had no voice, you’d desire someone to speak for you.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. So, you can’t skirt around these two commandments. They cannot be ignored or cut out of the Law. If you remove these two commandments, you lose all of the Scriptures! This is why Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.
These two commandments show irrefutably that we have failed to fulfill God’s Law. It is exactly as St. Paul writes to the Romans in chapter three, “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) These two commandments demonstrate to us that we are unrighteous, and therefore deserve God’s wrath. Yet, St. Paul goes on, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22)
Likewise, Jesus continues on from his lesson on the two great commandments by asking, “Who is the Christ? Whose son is he?” Of course, the Pharisees answered, “The Son of David.” Every Jew knew that God promised the Christ to come from the lineage of David. Then Jesus asks why David prophesied in the Spirit saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet?” Jesus then asks how the Christ can be the son of David if David calls the Christ Lord.
Indeed, how could King David call anyone but God himself Lord, sins David was the very king of Israel? The Pharisees could not answer this question. Likely, because they found the answer so offensive. The Christ is David’s son according to the flesh, yet he is David’s Lord, because he is true God. The Christ is the Son of God, the Second Person in the Holy Trinity: God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made. This is the only explanation to why the Holy Spirit caused David to prophecy that the Christ is his Lord! This means that the Law and the Prophets, which depend on the two great commandments bear witness to the fact that the Christ is David’s Son and David’s Lord, true man and true God.
And who is this Christ, this God-man? Jesus is no longer keeping this a secret. He entered Jerusalem to crowds praising him, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” When Jesus entered the temple, children cried to him, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” When the chief priests and scribes got angry and said to Jesus, “Do you hear what these are saying?”, Jesus responded, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Jesus declared that God himself caused these children to confess him to be the Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David and the Lord of David, true man and true God!
Yet, David’s prophecy from Psalm 110 does not stop at calling the Christ Lord. It says that the Lord will set the Christ on his right hand until he puts his enemies under his feat. This refers to Jesus’ triumphal resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of God the Father after Christ vanquished sin, death, and Satan. Jesus defeated these enemies by living in human flesh in perfect obedience to God and by dying for the sins of all people.
Jesus truly loved the Lord his God with all his heart. He desired always to be with him. When he was twelve years old his parents found him after a three-day search in the temple, and Jesus responded, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Jesus frequently went to a desolate place to pray, to colloquize with his Father. Jesus loved the Lord his God with all his soul. He devoted his entire life to his heavenly Father’s will, even bearing bitter torment and death innocently on our behalf, because it was his Father’s will. Jesus loved the Lord God with his whole mind. He grew in knowledge as a child and spent his ministry teaching young and old the Word of God. And Jesus loved his neighbor as himself. As he himself said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) And that is exactly what Jesus did. He loved your body and your soul instead of his own, so that he laid down his very life for you. In Jesus the Christ, David’s Son and David’s Lord we see the two greatest Commandments fulfilled. We see that on which all the Law and the Prophets depend fulfilled!
This is why St. Paul says that the righteousness of God is revealed apart from the Law. Not in opposition to the Law! But rather, apart from our works of the Law. No, the Law must be fulfilled. Scripture depends on it! But our works do not depend on it. Rather, we receive Christ’s righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus, David’s Son and Lord, who is seated at God’s right hand having defeated sin, death, and hell! Through faith in Christ we receive the credit for the fulfillment of the Law, even though we ourselves have not fulfilled it!
So, it is clear that Christ Jesus loves God with his whole heart soul and mind and loves his neighbor as himself. But an important question remains. Can you as a Christian truthfully say that you love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself? The answer seems to be a resounding, “NO!”, as we have already heard. And it is important for us to see that we have broken God’s commandments, that we deserve God’s wrath, and that we need a Savior and must repent of our sin. Yet, it is also important that you confess that you do love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And that you do love your neighbor as yourself.
How can this be? Because through faith, you have a new man! It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. So, while your body of sin will continue to rebel against God’s commandment of love, your new man desires to be with God, to serve and obey him, to learn from him. Your new man desires to help your neighbor, to defend him, speak well of him, and support him. This seems confusing as we battle our sinful flesh our whole life through, but through faith in Christ who loves you and in the Holy Spirit, who has made your body his temple, you do love. Your new man cannot sin, even as your old man tries to drag you down. And the day will come when you will shed your old man and sin and death with him, and you too will rise above your enemies victorious.
Psalm 110, which Jesus quoted as saying, “The Lord said to my Lord.” continues, “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments.” Through faith in Christ, we certainly do offer ourselves freely. And in eternity, clothed in garments washed white in Jesus blood, we will willingly love God with all our heart, soul, and mind without sin. Amen.

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Humility Before God Is Confidence in His Salvation

10/7/2020

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Trinity 17
Luke 14:1-11

Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
October 4, 2020

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

With these words our Lord Jesus not only sums up his parable, but he sums up one of the most common lessons throughout Holy Scripture. In his parable he explains that it is wise to pick the lowest place when invited to a wedding feast, because it is better to be told to come up higher than to be humiliated by being told to give up your seat for someone more important than you and walk blushing to a lower seat. This seems like good practical advice. There is no sense in trying to exalt yourself. It’s much better to let others lift you up. If a young man trying to impress a girl brags about how he can dunk a basketball, the girl will think much less of him if he then fails to reach the net than if he had never bragged at all. We can think of many more examples of how people are humiliated, because they claim to be something that they are not. Yet, if you work hard and let your work speak for yourself, you are much more likely to have others praise you. Yet, Jesus is not simply giving practical advice on how to deal with people. Jesus is giving us the most important lesson for how we should behave before God and how God acts toward us!
The entire Bible is filled with examples of God exalting the humble and humbling the proud. Cain was the first-born man on earth. His mother praised him at his birth. Yet, God accepted his younger brother Abel’s offering and rejected the offering of proud Cain. God chose Abraham, a man who called himself “dust and ashes,” to be the father of his chosen people. God chose Abraham’s younger son Isaac instead of the older and prouder Ishmael. God chose the younger brother Jacob over his older and favored brother Esau. God chose stuttering Moses to lead his people against mighty Pharah. God let the armies of Israel be defeated when they marched against their enemies confident in their great numbers. Yet, he gave Israel victory when they went out with much fewer soldiers trusting in the Lord for victory. God didn’t choose Jesse’s older, taller, and stronger sons, but the meek young boy David to be king over Israel. He didn’t choose a queen in a fine palace, but a poor Galilean girl to give birth to His Son in a stable in the lowly town of Bethlehem. This is why the Virgin Mary herself sang “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly.”
Why is this the consistent pattern throughout Scripture? Why does God humble the proud and exalt the humble? Because he saves by grace, that is, he saves as a gift apart from works. We do not save ourselves. Only God can save.
And this also teaches us what it means to be humble before God. To be humble before God means to repent of your sins and trust in God for forgiveness and salvation. This is why we begin our worship by confessing our sins before God, acknowledging that we are poor, miserable sinners, who deserve both temporal and eternal punishment. It does you no good to deny your sinful condition. It does you no good to defend your sins or explain them away or make excuses. To be humble before God means that you acknowledge your sinful condition and acknowledge real sins that you have committed. To refuse to repent, to refuse to say sorry to God for what you have done wrong is to exalt yourself. It is to lift yourself up to a higher position, to sit at a higher seat. Yet, God will still see that you are a sinner. He will humble you. And the humiliation that comes from refusing to repent is damnation.
Yet, to be humble before God does not only mean that you are sorry for your sins. It includes faith in God’s forgiveness. Indeed, unless you have faith in God’s forgiveness, you cannot truly humble yourself. And it is a lack of faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness that drives so many to try to exalt themselves. Why do they try to lift themselves up? Because they are afraid to wait on God’s mercy! They doubt that God will actually forgive them if they were to acknowledge how far they fall short. But to humble oneself before God involves waiting on the Lord, knowing that he will indeed forgive, rescue, and restore you!
Yet, it is also important not to confuse humility with uncertainty. Often times people will interpret a Christian’s confidence in the Gospel with pride. And worse, Christians will think that their own confidence in God’s Word and promise is prideful. So, in an attempt to be humble, they will doubt God’s word. They’ll be timid and say they are not sure whether Baptism really forgives sins and saves or whether Jesus’ true body and blood are really present in the Lord’s Supper. They’ll doubt whether the pastor actually has authority to forgive sins. They’ll be unsure whether Jesus really is the only way to heaven, or whether we can actually know the truth. They’ll doubt whether salvation is really a pure gift or whether they must do enough good works to be save. This uncertainty and doubt are falsely interpreted as humility, but it is nothing of the sort! Rather, it is arrogant pride that would cast doubt on the true words of Christ and subjugate Holy Scripture to the fickle thoughts of men.
True humility is to stand on the Word of God, to believe God’s promises in Christ and to hold on to these promises even against the whole world and every devil of hell! This is why Scripture says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” And why St. Paul writes, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” St. Paul is strong, because he holds on to God’s word and promise against all attacks and persecutions. When you boldly confess your faith in Christ, in the Baptism with which he washes you, in the Supper he feeds you, in the forgiveness he declares to you, yes, in every word he teaches you in Scripture, your boldness is not pride, but humility; you trust not in yourself, but in Christ your Lord.
True humility produces true love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Yet, we know that we cannot fulfill the law. Rather, the law exposes us as sinners and condemns us for our sin. This is why our faith requires humility. We acknowledge that we have fallen short. We acknowledge that we are sinners. In humility we receive forgiveness and salvation as a gift, which we have not earned. Yet, this faith produces fruits of love that those who refuse to humble themselves can never produce.
If you trust in yourself to fulfill the law and to please God instead of humbly repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ, then you will fail to love. Look at the Pharisees, who despised the man suffering from dropsy. They thought they were righteous. They thought they had fulfilled the law. Yet, they lacked love! They arrogantly sat themselves at the high table and Christ humiliated them.
This is the story of Satan. Satan was an exalted angel. Yet, it is said, he attempted to usurp Christ’s high position and as a result was cast down from heaven. This is why Jesus tells his disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18) And so, everyone who tries to exalt himself follows in Satan’s steps. And as Satan was cast down to hell, so will everyone who refuses to humble himself.
Yet, as Satan sought to exalt himself, Jesus did the exact opposite. No one had claim to a higher position that Jesus the Son of God. Yet, he humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant. And although he had no sins of his own, he took on our sin in human flesh and died the humiliating death of crucifixion on a cross. The guilt of all mankind, including all your guilt, clung to Christ Jesus and he took responsibility for it all. No being ever has or ever will endure such humiliation. And as a result, Scripture says, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
Therefore, everyone who has faith in Jesus follows in his humility, not in an attempt to make atonement for his own sins, but in confidence that as God the Father raised up Christ, so he will raise up everyone, who trusts in the atonement Christ. As we follow Christ in his humiliation, so we follow him in his exaltation.
This humility produces true love, because it receives the love of Jesus. You can count others more significant than yourself, because you trust that God will make up for anything you lose here on earth. As Jesus out of love for you humbled himself, so you have the desire out of love to humble yourself to your neighbor. Imperfectly, yes. In this life you remain tainted by sin in your actions. Yet, faith still produces its fruit to demonstrate who you really are in Christ Jesus.
When Jesus says, “he who humbles himself will be exalted,” he is promising us that God will exalt us to heaven if we repent of our sins and trust in Christ. As Jesus endured the greatest humiliation, even laying his body down to death, confident that God will exalt him out of the grave and into heaven, so we humble ourselves before God confident is his promise to lift us up. In humility we acknowledge our salvation as a free gift, which we have not earned, but which God gladly and willingly bestows on us for Christ’s sake. Amen.

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The Evidence of Saving Faith

9/14/2020

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James Tissot, The Healing of the Ten Lepers, 1886-94, No Known Copyright Restrictions

Trinity 14
Luke 17:11-19
September 13th, 2020

“Your faith has made you well.”, Jesus says to the cleansed leper from Samaria. How did Jesus know that the leper had faith? Faith is an activity of the heart. You cannot see faith. Only God can look at a man’s heart. So, you would probably answer that Jesus is God, so he is able to look into the heart of the leper and see his faith. And yes, Jesus is God! Yet, Jesus did not need to be God to see the leper’s faith. Anyone standing around with eyes and ears could clearly perceive that the man had deep faith. How could they perceive his faith if they could not look into his heart? Because the man cried out to Jesus for mercy. And when he saw that his leprosy was cleansed, he turned back to Jesus glorifying God with a loud voice and falling on his face at Jesus feet, he gave thanks to God. One would literally need to be blind and deaf to not know that this man had faith!
Faith is invisible. Only God can see faith. And yet, this man’s faith was clearly visible. How is this? Because faith produces fruit. We heard this from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” And of course, this is not an exhaustive list of the fruit of the Spirit, which is the fruit of faith.
We know the leper had faith in Jesus, because his faith caused him to cry out to Jesus for help! He cried, “Have mercy!” along with the other nine lepers. He used his voice to shout praises and thanksgiving to God. Faith starts in the heart, but it does not lie dormant there. It works its way through the mouth. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32) And why St. Paul writes, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:10)
Public worship is evidence of saving faith. When Christians sing the Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy), confess the Creed, sing hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and come to bow before Jesus, they make visible the faith dwells in their hearts, just as apples on an apple tree gives proof that a tree is an apple tree.
Yet, strangely, it is common for those who do not go to church yet identify as Christians to pass judgment on those Christians who do regularly go to Church. They’ll say things like, “I don’t want to go to church, because churches are filled with hypocrites.” And as with many bad ideas, there is a little bit of truth in that. There are hypocrites who go to church. There are people who go to church, not to receive God’s grace through faith, not to worship Christ, but to make a show and to prove how good they are. And Scripture attests to this. Last week we heard the parable from Jesus of how the priest and the Levite, who devoted their lives to public worship, yet proved that they had no faith, because they neglected to love their neighbor lying bloody on the side of the road. And that goes to show that public worship is not the only fruit of faith, but also love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
The fruit of faith is not what saves, but the faith itself is what saves. Yet, fruits are bound to follow. This is what it says in our Lutheran Confessions, “Good works certainly and without doubt follow true faith—if it is not a dead, but a living faith—just as fruit grows on a good tree [Matthew 7:17].” (Epitome of the Formula, IV) And if good works follow a living faith, then it follows that bad works follow unbelief. This is why St. Paul admonishes us, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” He goes on, “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.” Works like these make evident a lack of faith. St. Paul even goes on to say that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! This is why our Lutheran Confessions also say, “We also reject and condemn the teaching that faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not lost by willful sin, but that the saints and elect retain the Holy Spirit even though they fall into adultery and other sins and persist in them.” (Epitome of the Formula, IV)
So, while faith remains an activity of the heart which ultimately only God can see, both unbelief and faith can be made evident by outward actions. This is why Christians should flee from what is evil and cling to what is good. Continuing in sinful behavior without repenting kills saving faith and gives evidence of unbelief. Continued practicing of the fruit of the Spirit, including love, joy and public worship gives evidence of a lively faith and blocks the sinful flesh from accomplishing its evil desires.
What did the leper’s outward expression of faith demonstrate about the faith that dwelt in his heart? When he cried out for mercy, it shows that the leper trusted in Christ to heal him, not based on the leper’s own worthiness, but according to Christ’s own compassion and goodness. Today, we rarely look at a disease as a consequence of sin. Yet, that is very much the way people viewed leprosy at this time. Likely, because the Old Testament frequently connects leprosy and punishment. God punished Miriam the sister of Moses with leprosy for seven days, because she rebelled against Moses. God punished King Uzziah with leprosy on his face, because he offered incense in the temple when he was not authorized to. And clearly, the leprosy on these ten lepers is a symbol of their spiritual uncleanness. Yet, the lepers do not consider their unworthiness. They trust in Jesus to heal them. Their shout for mercy demonstrated the faith in their hearts.
While the other nine lepers did not return to Jesus, this Samaritan did, with shouts of praise to God and thanksgiving as he bowed down at Jesus’ feet. This outward action demonstrated that the leper considered Jesus his God and Savior. Jesus sent the lepers to the temple, to show themselves to the priests. The priests would have performed a ceremony for the lepers for their ceremonial cleansing and would have offered a sin offering to make atonement for them. The temple is where God dwelt. The temple is where God made atonement for sins. Yet, this leper did not go to the temple, he gave glory to God at his feet. At God’s feet! At Jesus’ feet. He demonstrated with his outward actions that he believed in his heart that Jesus is God, his body being the temple where God dwells. He demonstrated with his worship that he believed that Jesus would make atonement for his sins, because he is the fulfillment of all the ceremonies in the temple. By the leper’s outward actions, we see clearly what his faith held to in his heart.
And this is what we do when we come to worship. We confess our sins before a God, we do not see. We do not claim to be worthy, but to be poor miserable sinners, who deserve temporal and eternal punishment. But we pray to God to have mercy and forgive us for the sake of the blood of his Son. We sing, “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.”, because we believe that we receive all good things of body and soul from the only God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, out of His love for us. We confess the Creed confessed by the whole Christian Church throughout history, which confesses that the Son of God for our sake and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, so that he could suffer and die for our sins. We stand for the reading of the Gospel as we would for our Monarch when he speaks to us. We kneel before bread and wine, believing that this is the body and blood of our Lord, which was given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We say clearly, “Amen” to every prayer and blessing, because we believe it is true. We sing with joy supplications, praise, and thanksgiving to our God. All these things we do with our bodies, our ears, eyes, and mouths, because that is what is going on in our hearts. Our faith becomes visible and audible when we worship him in Spirit and Truth.
“Your faith has made you well.”, Jesus says. What does Jesus mean by "made you well”? Well, in fact, Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” Bible translators translate the word for save as “made well,” because it can mean made well, and in the context, the leper was healed of his leprosy. Yet, all ten of the lepers were made well, and only one returned to give thanks to God at Jesus feet. To only one did Jesus say, “Your faith has saved you.” after showing disapproval that the other nine did not return to demonstrate such faith.
The nine other lepers went to the temple where the priests would offer a sacrifice to make atonement for them. The one Samaritan leper returned to Jesus, who would make atonement for his sins on the cross. The leper’s faith did not simply heal him. His faith saved him, that is, gave him eternal life.
How did the leper’s faith give him eternal life? Because faith receives what God promises us through Jesus: forgiveness of sins, peace and acceptance from God, and eternal life. Faith is not our work. Faith receives. This is why faith must be an activity of the heart. It by grace, not by our works. Yet, faith receives something that is outside of us: the promise of salvation through Jesus. This is why faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
We come to church to worship Christ, because we have faith. Our faith receives God’s blessing and forgiveness. And our faith cannot help but break through from our heart and into our words and actions. We do not come to church to make a show of our faith or to earn our salvation, yet our public worship does publicly declare the trust we hold in our Savior in our hearts. Our cries of supplication, our confession and singing of glory, all these come from a heart that trusts in the Lord. We come to church to hear our Savior say to us, “Your faith has saved you.” And by hearing this, our faith in our Savior grows. Amen.

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

The Freedom of the Christian

Our Most Pressing Need

The Law and the Prophets Depend on Christ

Humility Before God Is Confidence in His Salvation

The Evidence of Saving Faith

Rev. James Preus

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