You Must Be Born Again: A Meditation on John 3, for Holy Trinity Sunday

The encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus in the third chapter of John's Gospel reveals a great deal about who God is, and who we are as fallen human beings.  Under the cover of night, Nicodemus crept in to have a conversation with Jesus, despite how open Jesus was in His public teaching during the light of day.  But perhaps we can appreciate Nicodemus' fear of being associated with the Rabbi of Galilee-- he was, after all, a respected member of the Pharisees, formally educated, and esteemed as a teacher of Israel.  It certainly would not bolster Nicodemus' credentials to be seen having a deep and honest conversation with Jesus, and his own peers would hold him in contempt for doing so.

If this were simply the crossed paths of two people, one a celebrated intellectual and the other a poor itinerate preacher, the story might be smiled upon as quaint.  We might think how generous it was that such an elite personality as Nicodemus deigned to visit Jesus at all, and that Jesus gained something from this encounter.  But misunderstanding just who these people are, gives a radical misunderstanding of what is going on.  Rather than just two people of divergent social classes discussing spiritual matters of their day, this is God Almighty ushering into His presence a spiritually blind and dead sinner.

The Word that Jesus had already preached is what brought Nicodemus to see Jesus.  That Word, empowered by the very Holy Spirit, broke into Nicodemus' dead and blind heart, causing him to acknowledge (with an unspecified number of other Pharisees) that Jesus actually was "a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."  It wasn't that Nicodemus was seeking God, but that God sought Nicodemus.  The comfortable pride of Nicodemus' position, education, and social prestige left him convinced of his own sufficiency.  Had Jesus not broken into his smug little cocoon of pride, Nicodemus would have remained ignorantly dead in his trespasses and sins.  Nicodemus not only didn't have the power to ascend unto God, but he didn't even have the proper desire to do so, since spiritually dead people don't do, think, aspire, or strive for pure spiritual things.

Jesus certainly doesn't treat Nicodemus gently upon his entrance, either.  Rather than exchanging bland pleasantries and platitudes, He hammers the teacher of Israel with truths he should know, even from the Old Testament Scriptures.  Direct and to the point, Jesus tells Nicodemus:  "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Nicodemus sputters about the impossibility of such a thing from a human perspective, and he is right-- there is no human way to give yourself birth even the first time, let alone a second time.  He knows that no one chooses to be conceived or born, but it is God working through His means (a father and a mother) that anyone comes into this world.  Jesus drives the point home when He says, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

As Jesus speaks these truths to Nicodemus, He is revealing more than the broken and hopeless state of man:  He is revealing who He is.  No one can come to God on their own, because all are dead in their sins, enslaved to the devil by their own sinful fault, and justly destined for an eternity in hell.  But God has never desired man to suffer and die.  God has always been the bringer of life, because He is the Author of Life.  Even in our broken and fallen world, God continued to bring new life in a physical way through parents to children, and in a spiritual way through His Word and Spirit.  From the very beginning of creation, God the Father has been at work through His Son and His Holy Spirit, bringing life and fellowship through His very being.  It is only the rebellious work of the devil, and those who choose to side with him in his wicked pursuit of deviation from the Author of Life, which brings death into the world.  As Jesus continues to teach Nicodemus, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

This is, has been, and shall always be the work of the Triune God.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all fully God and yet each their own divine Person, neither dividing the divine essence nor confusing the persons, is the Author of Life.  It is the Father's will to work through His only begotten Son, who is the very Word of God made flesh, to speak the Word of Life to all people.  And it is both the Father's and the Son's will, that the Holy Spirit would work through His Word, creating faith in dead hearts, so that all who will hear, repent, and believe might be born again unto eternal life by His grace.  This is the fundamental distinction between God and man, and it defines the relationship between them.  It is not man, the fallen creation of God, who comes to seek from God new life, but rather it is God Almighty who is Life in Himself, who originally created man in His image, and after man's free choice to fall into sin and death, seeks man once again by the power of His Eternal Word so that he might give to him eternal life.

And today, once again, the Father sends to you the Word of Life in the very person of Jesus Christ, even as the Holy Spirit works upon your heart to create a living faith which receives His grace unto everlasting life.  It is the grace won for you as the Lord of Life took upon Himself your death through His Cross, that rising again you might live forever in Him by faith.  For no one has ascended into heaven by their own power, but it is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who has descended unto us and made known to us the way of reconciliation with the Author of Life.  Hear the Gospel Word of the Father written in the Blood of His only begotten Son, proclaimed by the power of His Holy Spirit.  Be born again by repentance and faith His Word, that you may live in His grace, forgiven and free.  This is will of the Triune God for you, and for the whole world. Amen.

The Comforter: A Meditation on John 16 for Pentecost Sunday

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that

I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come

unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

As the disciples listened to Jesus explain that He was going away, they became distressed.  Soon they would see Jesus captured by the temple guards led by the traitor Judas, beaten and convicted in a mock trial by false witnesses, then hanging dead on a Roman cross.  Jesus was indeed going to leave them, and where He was going, they could not come now.  Jesus was heading for Calvary so that He might save His disciples—and the whole world—through His own sacrifice.  There was no person on earth who could do what He was about to do, because no person on earth was or ever shall be like Him:  The very Word of God made flesh.  Jesus was going away from His disciples, that He might enter the wrath of Almighty God, and having died for the sins of all mankind, to ascend unto the Father as the Eternal Advocate for us all.

Unable to fully comprehend what Jesus was leaving to accomplish on their behalf, the disciples were saddened by Jesus’ departure.  Likewise, as they stood watching Jesus ascend into heaven, the continuing doubts in their hearts seemingly answered by the visiting angels of Acts 1:  Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.  This lack of understanding of what to do in the absence of Jesus is something Christians have wrestled with throughout the centuries, and something that touches our hearts even today as we stand looking up into heaven, wondering why He ever left us.

First, we must remember, that Jesus doesn’t lie.  Though the whole world be caught up in the lies and deceptions of the evil one, Jesus is the very Truth of God.  When Jesus says to us that it is better for us that He should go away, we are called to believe Him, even if it seems to us a painful and difficult teaching.  Many Christians may be able to look back on the Gospel message and understand that it was better for us all that Jesus ascended His Holy Cross for our salvation, but how is it better for us that He has ascended into heaven?  The answer lies in the Book of Acts, and the continuing history of Christ’s Church through these last two millennia.

Jesus teaches His disciples that the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Truth and the Comforter, will be sent to us after Jesus goes.  The Holy Spirit, fully God and proceeding from the Father and the Son, is sent into the world to bear witness to the saving work of Jesus.  Thus Jesus teaches them that the Spirit does not testify of Himself, nor does He come to glorify man, but rather:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit

of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he

shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,

that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine,

and shall shew it unto you.  All things that the

Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of

mine, and shall shew it unto you.

It is the Spirit whom the Son has sent unto us at Pentecost, who leads Jesus’ people into all truth, keeping the household of faith united in the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Shortly after Jesus’ Ascension, we read the history of Pentecost, where the disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This gift is manifested in speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ in many languages unknown to them, but which the gathering people could understand clearly.  The faith of the disciples was strengthened mightily, that they would boldly proclaim Jesus as the only Name given under heaven whereby men should be saved.  Their faith cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead, stood before rulers, and testified in their spilt blood of martyrdom.  Such faith proclaimed the Word of God before all detractors and persecutors, and made them a spectacle before men and angels.  This great and heroic faith turned the world upside down, drawing people from every dark path of death into the eternal life of faith and repentance in Jesus.  The gift of the Holy Spirit at work in the disciples brought forth the New Testament as the fulfillment and continuation of the Old Testament, so that all people might have the written testimony of the Prophets and Apostles handed down in every age.

The Holy Spirit, at work in the world through the Word of God, bears witness to the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ.  And as He does this, He converts the hearts of men, giving them a new birth from above by Water and Spirit, so that they might abide in Jesus through faith in His Word.  As in the time of the Apostles, so too throughout the ages and into our own time, the Spirit working through the Word does miraculous and powerful things in His people.  The Spirit is no less capable of healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, standing before rulers, and faithfully enduring the pains of martyrdom today as He was since the beginning of time.  Today, all over the world and in our own back yard, the Spirit is at work by the Word of Christ in the people of Christ, doing all things for the glory of Jesus and the salvation of mankind.  This is the enduring gift of the Holy Spirit in the Church, working in diverse and mysterious ways, powerfully bringing eternal life where the darkness of death once reigned.

And on this Pentecost, where do you find your heart?  Has it cowered before the lies of modernity, and doubted the promises of Christ?  Has it doubted the Word Written, and thus doubted the Crucified and Risen Word?  Has it fallen into unbelief regarding the power of the Spirit of the Living God?  Hear the Word of the Lord.  It is good for us that He has sent us His Holy Spirit, that we may live in His power, mercy, forgiveness, and truth.  He has not left us orphans—rather, He has left us the very means by which we live, and move, and have our being in Him.  In this time of proclamation between Jesus’ first and second coming, we are empowered with His Holy Spirit that we might be His witnesses to ends of the earth, showing forth His mercy, forgiveness, grace and salvation in the almighty power of His Eternal Word.  Leave your timidity and fear behind in repentance, and rise up by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ might shine through you to a dark and despairing world.  Rise up, o saints of God, and meet the quaking enemy in with the omnipotent Word of Christ—for Holy Spirit dwells in you by that same Word, and before that Word and Spirit all darkness and evil must flee.  Rise up, o saints of God, and live!  Amen.

Christian Unity: A Meditation on John 17, for the Last Sunday in Easter

Sometimes called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, chapter 17 of John’s Gospel recounts the passionate words of Jesus before He is captured by the temple mob.  He gives thanks to His Father for the disciples given to Him, and then prays for His disciples to be preserved in this dark and dangerous world.  And not just the Twelve (minus Judas, who is already in the act of betraying Jesus unto death, and who will himself commit suicide shortly,) but all who will believe in Him through the testimony of His Disciples.  Calling out a distinction between the world at large and His people, He prays specifically for the household of faith across all time and space, interceding for them.

Amidst Jesus’ plea for His Disciples’ protection and being kept from the evil one, He also prays passionately for their unity.  As He and the Father are one, so He prays that His people would be one in Him, sanctified in the truth of His Word, and bearing witness through their unity to His unity with His Father.  The unity of Jesus’ disciples would be a reflection of Jesus’ unity within the Triune God, and bear powerful testimony to the world that Jesus is the Savior of all mankind.

Unfortunately, as we observe the Christian Church on earth, it appears to be anything but united.  The vast majority of the world’s Christians—1.2 billion Roman Catholics—think they have the answer to unity in their ecclesiastical structure with the Pope who sits supreme over the whole of Christendom.  The 500 million Eastern Orthodox think they have the answer through their ecclesiastical structures, with autonomous yet related national Patriarchs, and the rulings of Councils which reign supreme.  The Churches of the Reformation, several hundred million in all their various stripes and confessions, may have as many answers to Christian unity as they have different fellowships, statements of faith, and regional leaders.  In spite of so many Christian churches’ attempts to foster unity inside their own ranks, they are often found internally fractured.  Who can count the number of different kinds of Lutherans?  Or Methodists?  Or Baptists?  Or Pentecostals/Charismatics?  Who can get all the various orders and rites of Roman Catholicism to ultimately agree, as they fight even today about fundamental doctrines of the family?  Who can settle out all the regional conflicts of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox?

If one tries to observe each of these groups by stepping back, they might appear to be united by their respective beauracracies… but that rarely reflects the reality on the ground.  Person to person, parish to parish, diocese to diocese, denomination to denomination, district to district, division and infighting are rampant.  Finding one particular church body that is not itself internally fractured by sin and controversy, is like looking for needles in haystacks.  The reality is that church beauracracy never creates real unity—it merely substitutes political or institutional unity while masking deeper divides.  And when people within these churches attempt to deal with those deeper underlying issues, the quick retort is often to appeal back to Jesus, especially in John 17, and say something to the effect of, “Jesus wouldn’t want us fighting over this—we need to be united!  Oh, for the sake of our beloved church/synod/denomination/etc., we need to be united!”

Whenever men attempt to create unity in the Church of Christ, they meet with failure.  But this shouldn’t surprise us, because if we pursue Christian unity as a matter of the Law, then we know that our best attempts at keeping such a Law in perfect purity are vain.  We are not perfect in our own individual purity, let alone in the purity of our associations.  Who has achieved perfection in the purity of their families, let alone the congregations of families in a local parish?  The truth is that we cannot create Christian unity.  No matter how we try, whether we use the model of an ecclesiastical Pope who rules like a king, the model of bishops in council ruling like an aristocracy, or the decentralized model of popular democracy which rules on the whims of the ignorant mob, mankind is not capable of bringing unity to Christ’s Church, because man is not capable of bringing unity even within himself.  If the Christian lives a life divided by his own sinful nature battling against the new baptismal nature given to him in Christ, being at one time both sinner and saint, how can the Christian think he is capable of uniting the whole of Christendom?

Into our despair of trying to create the unity which Jesus prays for, we must remember that it is Jesus Himself who sets out to accomplish this great work.  It is Jesus who will, after praying this prayer, sanctify Himself through the passion of His Cross.  It is Jesus who will pour out His Most Precious Blood for the sins of the world, so that all who believe in Him might be saved.  It is Jesus who will descend into the grave, and rise again the third day to demonstrate His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  It is Jesus who will gather His disciples again on that blessed Easter day, forgiving them their sins, and sending them out to forgive the sins of others in His Name.  It is Jesus the Vine, who will graft all believers into Himself by grace through faith, and be the unity that they cannot on their own achieve.  Jesus is Himself our unity, because Jesus is Himself our salvation.  Like all matters of the Law, Jesus accomplishes perfectly what we cannot do, and gives to us the merits of His works by grace.

It is Jesus who tells us how to abide in Him, and then gives the Means to accomplish this great work.  He gives to us His Eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit to create our faith which clings to Him by and through His Word.  It is Jesus who makes us one with Him, and through Himself makes us one with each other, giving to each who will receive Him the faith and repentance by which He pours out unending forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Each person, like a branch grafted into Jesus’ Vine, is fully oriented toward the source of their life and unity, and only through Jesus and His Word then oriented to others.  This is the perfection of unity which Jesus prays for, and then accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection in our stead.

How do we recognize Christian unity?  When we see our brothers and sisters through Jesus and His Word.  It’s not something we create, but something we receive and confess.  Thanks be to God for the blessed unity of all Christ’s people through the Blood of the Lamb, and His Eternal Word which calls all men unto Him.  Amen.

The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood: A Meditation on 1st John 5

The first letter of St. John is one of those parts of Holy Scripture that shows the scars of many battles with heretics over the centuries since it was written.  It was contested during the first few centuries by various groups, especially those who denied either the fullness of Jesus' human incarnation, the fullness of His eternal divinity, or the unity of the Triune God.  Because many perceived John to be the clearest witness in his various writings to these essential doctrines of the Christian faith, it is no wonder that heretics of various stripes sought to be rid of him.

Chapter five of his first epistle shows one of these lingering scars, especially in verse 7.  Depending on which translation of the Greek you're using, it may not even show up in your Bible.  It actually begins in verse 6, and continues through verse 8 in this way:

This is He who came by water and blood-- Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood.  And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.  For there are three who bear witness in heaven:  the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.  And there are three that bear witness on earth:  the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.  (NKJV-- KJV reads similarly, based on common Greek texts.)

What precedes in verses 1-5 is the direct declaration that the Christian's victory over the world (sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil) is found by living faith in Jesus who secured that victory for us by His life, death, and resurrection; i.e., Jesus' victory becomes our victory by a living faith which abides in Jesus and His Word.  The testimony, or witness, which is born in heaven and on earth, is a testimony to this wonderful and life-giving Gospel.  This witness made by God concerning our salvation in Christ alone, is what our faith clings to for forgiveness and eternal life.  If Jesus was anything less than He claimed to be-- fully God and fully man, united in one Christ-- then there would be no witness in heaven before the Father for our salvation, and nothing for the Holy Spirit to declare.  If there is no unity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no God who has saved us from our sins.

Likewise, without the unity of testimony from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the earthly witness which is established by them, is meaningless.  The Spirit, who speaks through the Word of Christ in Holy Scripture, who seals and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth by giving and nurturing faith in Jesus, would be gone.  The witness of the water in which Jesus establishes Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, would become an empty gesture.  The witness of the blood, which Jesus pours out on Calvary and establishes in His Supper for all generations, would become nothing but an ancient tragedy.  The earthly witness of the Church, with her eternal gifts of Word and Sacrament, is nothing without the eternal witness of the Triune God.

But thanks be to God, that His witness is true!  For Jesus truly is as He declared Himself to be, and as the Prophets and Apostles bore witness of Him.  He has truly been born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assuming her human nature into His divine nature, that He might become for us the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  And having united humanity to the divinity in His one Person, He has reconciled the world to the Triune God in Himself.  Thus the Father sees the Christian who abides in Jesus by grace through faith, as one bought with the price of Jesus' blood, forgiven and free.  Thus the Spirit sends forth the eternal witness to our salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.  Thus the Christian lives in Easter joy, for as Christ our Savior is risen from the dead and shall never die again, so we shall live forever in Him.

This is the eternal witness which heretics of any age cannot destroy, be they the Gnostics and Arians of the first few centuries of the Church, or the modern Textual Critics of the last few centuries of the Church.  In every age, the unbelieving and unrepentant have thrown their infernal powers at the Word of God, and He who sits enthroned in the heavens laughs them to scorn.  The devil is defeated.  The witness is sure.  Our salvation is accomplished, and the Word of the Lord endures forever.  Be of good cheer, dear Christian, and abide in the witness of God to you, for it is your life, your sweetness, and your sure hope.  Amen.