Life in Tension: A Meditation on Romans 7 for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:

 for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,

and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;

but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

The Christian life, as St. Paul would describe it to the Christians in Rome, is one that is always in tension while in this world.  The Mind, refreshed and renewed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, seeks by faith to reciprocate the divine love it has received by grace, first to God then to neighbor.  Yet the Body to which Paul refers, seems to be at war with this Gospel, constantly lusting after that which is against the Word and Will of God.  Paul would go so far as to say that he finds nothing good in his flesh, that it is a Body of sin and death, and that only Jesus could rescue him from it.  The Law of the Mind is the Word of God Incarnate, crucified for the sins of the world, offering all people the same eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  The Law of the Flesh is the condemnation which comes to all people according to God’s Justice—a Law of Sin which can only have one outcome before the holiness and righteousness of Almighty God.  And so, Paul reconciled the tension between these two impulses and two outcomes in the individual human life, by appealing to the triumph of life over death found in only in Jesus.

 

It is important to remember that Paul was not adopting the old philosophy of the Gnostics, who reduced human existence to a righteous life of the Mind, and where a careless life of debauchery in the flesh was meaningless to the soul.  Instead, Paul recognized the tough reality of Christians being at the same time both sinners and saints:  by the Law, legitimately condemned to death, and by the Gospel, freely given the gift of eternal life by the imputed righteousness of Jesus.  The human person is created to be a body and soul in union, an incarnate creature of flesh and spirit, which is why death is so terrible a fate for human beings.  When our soul is separated from our body that no longer functions according to the material principles of the universe, that death is a breaking of our created design.  Left unaddressed, a human soul detached from its body would be an eternal aberration, debasing what God had originally created good.  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ after the victory of his Cross was the first fruit of a new creation, an unalterable testimony to God’s intention to restore full life to all people suffering under the curse of death.  The Gospel which Jesus gave to His Disciples was to preach eternal life and the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Him alone, so that even as a person died in this world, they would live forever in Him.  This was not a separating or reduction of the human person, but a restoration of the full created glory of man, through the God-Man Jesus Christ.

 

And yet, this creates a tension in the Christian life, and in the world at large.  A person apart from grace is destined to die not just once, but twice—first as their soul is separated from their body in physical death, and second as their soul is separated from God for all eternity.  The second death, as St. John would note it in his Apocalypse, is the horror of being judged under the Word of God’s Law because they had rejected His Word of Grace, and so even with a resurrected body unable to die through separation from the soul, such a one would be cast into hell forever.  Without the grace and love of God through Jesus Christ, the first death would always lead to the second death, because no man can stand before the Law of God justified by their own works.  Only in Jesus could a person who dies in this world escape the second death, and rise up on the Last Day to inherit a new Heaven and new Earth forever devoid of sin, death, and the devil.  Thus the Christian who lives by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone while still in this world, lives presently in the promise of eternal life even as they face the first death.  This is why Jesus could tell His Disciples that whoever believes in Him will live even though they die, because the forgiveness and life that Jesus brings to His people is one that transcends temporal death, and rescues from judgment in the next world.

 

What this means for the Christian is that Life is greater than Death, and that God has proved it so by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  In this world before the Lord’s final return, we live in a real tension, where our Mind and soul cling to the Gospel promises of Jesus and strive to live in His Word by grace through faith, while our fallen nature still lusts after all the things which are leading to its eventual death.  Only when the Christian has finally laid down his sinful nature in the first death, can the dross be refined from the pure gold, and his eternal life shine forth the reflected glory of his Savior.  In this world, we wait in this tension, working the good which God has ordained for us since before the advent of time, fighting the good fight of faith and repenting daily for our sins against His righteous Word.  But in the next, we wait victorious over sin, death, hell, and the devil, knowing that the Resurrection is as sure to come as the Cross has already occurred at Calvary.  On that great Day when the Lord culminates all the work which was ordained for this epoch of time, the dead in Christ will rise first, and those still here on earth will be caught up with them, transformed in the blinking of an eye to leave our sinful nature behind and rise up fully restored forever.  This tension, this war, which so consumes our lives and tortures our Minds is only for a little while, and then the glory of eternity dawns.

 

Today, the Word of the Lord calls us to faith and repentance, that we might have life and have it abundantly in Jesus Christ our Lord.  The individual cross He has given us to bear is the sinful nature we carry until we leave it in the grave, so that we might rise up with Him in His New Creation, forgiven and free, forever.  The Christian has no fear of the first death, because the terror of the second death is already overcome by the Vicarious Atonement Jesus made for the sins of the whole world.  Rather, though the first death is a judgment all people must face as a consequence of our first rebellion against the Author of Life, for the Christian even that first death is transformed into liberation.  While the road may seem long and the fight daunting as we live out these few years of our life in this world, it is the promise of Jesus which not only gives us love and strength to endure, but grace and mercy to glimpse an unimaginable eternity prepared for all those who love Him.  Take courage, dear Christian, and fight on—for our Lord has already done everything needful for the totality of your salvation, and your eternal life is as unassailable as the immutable Word of the Living God.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Conflict Which Saves the World: A Meditation on Matthew 10 for the 5th Sunday in Pentecost

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,

him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

But whosoever shall deny me before men,

him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:

I came not to send peace, but a sword.

For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,

 and the daughter against her mother,

and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:

 and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

 He that findeth his life shall lose it:

 and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

 

In some times and places, it would be easier to allegorize this teaching of Jesus to His disciples and frame the conflict Jesus speaks of as something mild or inconvenient.  Only a few decades ago in America, being a Christian might evoke a little derision or condescension in elite circles, or a little ostracization from the rougher crowd that enjoyed bawdy environments Christians generally avoided.  Sermons thirty or forty years ago might have focused on not being downhearted when your teacher poked fun at you, your boss passed you over for promotion to prefer someone of more flexible moral character, or the bowling league only wanted you as the designated driver—conflict with the world was inevitable, and you just had to buck up little camper, and bear that cross.  But in a society largely informed by Christian principle and virtue, these small sufferings were like minor irritants compared to the outright persecution, torture, and death Christians faced under Communist, Islamic, and pagan regimes.  In these places, Christians were raped, flogged, torn apart, burned alive, enslaved, and even had their organs harvested while alive.  What Christians have suffered in India, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, is now spreading into western societies, as the influence of Christianity wanes and these other destructive ideas take deeper hold.  As this reality approaches, it is important that Christians hear Christ’s Words plainly, and step back from shallow or sentimental understandings.

 

Jesus makes it clear that he has not come into the world to make peace with its evil, but to overthrow that evil by the power of His Gospel.  The Law already stands in judgement over every evil deed and actor who has ever walked upon this globe, and so the war of men with God over good and evil is not abolished.  To the contrary, the evil world is always standing on the precipice of perdition as it moves in more or less aggressive unbelief, with every variation of overt or clandestine wickedness it can imagine.  Jesus’ Advent in Israel was not an abolition of the war between good and evil, but a victory over evil through His own Vicarious Atonement.  To abide in evil and unbelief still brings the consequences of divine judgment according to the Law, but now there is a path of Life that reconciles God and man through the Cross of Jesus.  Thus the disciples were sent forth to preach repentance and faith in Jesus, and that confession of the Gospel was to be held against all challenges.  This confession was not a political philosophy or epic poetry, but a declaration that Jesus is who He says He is, has done what He says He’s done, will do what He promised to do, and accomplished mankind’s salvation as only He could.  The presence of Jesus in the world is not peace with the world, but the reconciliation of man to God by grace through faith in Him alone.  This confession declares a divine reality made manifest in the real world, both in history and the present moment, that God has come to save sinners.

 

To deny this confession is to deny Jesus and the salvation He bought for us by His blood.  Knowing that Jesus is the only Way, Truth, and Life—the only reconciliation with God that rescues us from the judgment and condemnation we have earned by our own most grievous fault—is the faith which turns from the world’s evil ways of death into the paths of light and righteousness.  That turning of repentance and life of faith is what generates such hostility from those who prefer rebellion and death and self-idolatry. The world still at war with God, whether they be people of high or low station, people in our communities and associations, or in our friend groups and families, will from time to time try to silence the Gospel confession of Jesus.  There will be times when love of family and friends, community and nation, will be tested before the saving Truth of the Gospel, but to remove ourselves from that good confession is to remove ourselves from its saving grace.  Worse still, to deny the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ alone is to take away from those we love the only witness to salvation they might have.  Our cross to carry the Gospel and bear witness to Jesus is the primary means by which the Holy Spirit moves in the world to resurrect dead hearts, convert corrupted minds, and create faith in unbelieving souls, because the Word of God cannot be separated from the Spirit of God.  When Christians suffer all things to bear witness to Jesus, they retain not only the grace and faith with saves them, but testify to that saving truth even to those who persecute them.  The bloody testimony of the martyrs of yore is not an exercise of defeat but of victorious love, and their witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of those who heard them, echoes throughout eternity.

 

The days are upon us where the testimony of Jesus Christ and life by His Word may cost us everything a temporal world holds dear.  Professions and livelihoods, friends and family members, equal protection under the law, freedom from incarceration or violent mobs, are all good things Christians have enjoyed in the West for generations, but as good as they are, they are nothing compared to the magnificence of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The reality of the Gospel and the Eternal Word of God make all other pursuits and associations small by comparison, because the things of this world are passing away, but the Kingdom of God abides forever.  Even our most beloved attachments in this world are subordinate to the Savior who seeks to save all people, and who has dignified His people by calling them to be witnesses of His saving work.  For certain, we do not repudiate our unbelieving friends and family, nor our communities and nations, but we are called to love them so dearly that we would not take away from them the testimony which could save them, no matter how much it might cost us to do so.  As Jesus was willing to lay down His life for the life of the world, we are called to follow Him in His cruciform ministry, knowing that our lives are so secure in His grace that we can fearlessly face even the greatest evils with compassion and faith.  For we know that nothing can separate a soul from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and moved by the gift of divine love, we would see this truth born out in every soul we meet.

 

Our time and place is not the first to experience real and violent challenges to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and like those who have born faithful witness in similar times and places before us, we know that our victory is already accomplished in the life, death, resurrection, and promises of Jesus.  We trust in a real Savior who has really trampled down the evil one by His sacrifice on the Cross, and who really did rise from the grave to declare the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation to all who abide in Him by grace through faith.  He has spoken His Word which creates the reality it declares by the power of His Holy Spirit, so that faith comes to all by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  May our faith be bolstered by courage and compassion in this our time, so that the Gospel which saves us, might save all who hear it through our testimony.  Soli Deo Gloria—amen.

 

Laborers for the Harvest: A Meditation on Matthew 9 for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,

teaching in their synagogues,

and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,

and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them,

because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith he unto his disciples,

The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,

that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

 

The Gospel reading for this week begins at the end of Matthew’s 9^th chapter where Jesus shared with His disciples the urgent need of laborers in the Lord’s harvest of souls.  The power and challenge He would give them directly in chapter 10 are in some ways particular to their Apostolic ministry, and in other ways typical of those sent out in ministry after them, though no messenger to succeed the Apostles is their equal.  But the observation of Jesus when He looked upon the world and saw people straying like sheep without a shepherd, and too few of His servants out there working to help guide them to salvation, remains with us in every generation.  There are always so many more souls to care for than there are faithful servants of the Eternal Word, that we can always pray to God that He would send more.  It is, of course, in God’s wisdom and providence that He sends whom He sends in the times appointed for them, but knowing the urgency of the mission and motivated by the love God pours out upon us through His Son, the Church never stops petitioning God for more servants of the Divine Word.  We know that sheep without shepherds are in mortal danger every moment of their lives, and love seeks their salvation in Jesus Christ alone.

 

The compassion which Jesus had upon the people was neither feigned nor exaggerated, nor the imagery inappropriate.  Two metaphors are used:  people as sheep needing shepherds, and a harvest that needs laborers.  What is common to them both is the condition and danger of the people, and the preservation of them through those sent to them by God.  A sheep is a defenseless creature in the wild, and many are the predators who seek to consume them.  A sheep without a shepherd is a meal waiting for suppertime, whose fate is to be torn apart by wolves and lions on a day that the sheep is oblivious to until it happens.  For wheat in a field, if it is ripe and ready for harvest, it will be lost if it is not gathered in.  Just as wheat is incapable of reaping itself and sheep incapable of saving themselves, someone must come to do the saving for them.  Since Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has laid His life down for the sheep, and the One by whom all the wheat shall be gathered, the only hope of salvation in the world is through Him.  No other shepherd is going to lead people to salvation in any other Name, and no laborer is going to rescue the wheat from the decay of time apart from Jesus.  Thus the people the Lord of the Harvest sends into the fields of His world, are sent by the Word of God to bear witness to Christ alone, and in Christ alone do they offer the salvation which He has secured for the world through His Cross.

 

The laborers are always fewer than they seem to be.  In our time there are plenty of people wearing the titles and vestments of pastors, just as there were in 1^st century Judea.  There are plenty of people who want the prestige of being called teachers and scholars, or to wear marks of a divine office as if divinity bows to them.  Many are those who would speak for God, substituting their own opinions, observations, research, or ambitions for what God has actually said.  Some of these people think they are rescuing God from His Word spoken in other times which might offend hearers in our time, adding to it or subtracting from it until it is a watered down reflection of the contemporary world.  Some of these people are pompous, bloviating bags of wind that presume their word is greater than the Eternal Word, or that their experience and education make them greater lights to follow than the Light of the World.  In every generation it is often a minority of those who appear to be shepherds and laborers, that are in fact servants of the Word of God, submitting their own opinions and will to the Spirit of the Living God.  Just as in Jesus’ day the people had plenty of Pharisees and Sadducees who would lead them into perdition, so too does the Church today have plenty of “reverends” who will do the same.

 

Yet the Lord of the Harvest is always aware, always at work, and always raising up for His service those who will bear faithful witness to His Word.  The Church prays for what the Lord has willingly promised to provide, and receives from Him those emissaries who would bring them the light and life of His Law and Gospel.  Certainly there are those congregations and even whole church bodies which prefer the preening self-righteousness of false shepherds and corrupt laborers, but they, too get what they ask for.  It is His Church which Christ established to raise up new under-shepherds and laborers for the Lord’s work of tending to souls by His Word, and His Church to whom the Lord sends His servants in His Name.  This Church, founded upon Him and His Word, has always existed from the beginning of time to this day, and shall continue every day throughout eternity, regardless of the false churches and false servants that pepper the world’s landscape.  And it is this true Church, founded upon Christ alone, baptized in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, abiding in His Word and Spirit, that is sent into the world to bear witness to where eternal life and salvation may always be found.  The Lord knows the needs of the people, and He has provided everything for their salvation through His Son.  The Word of the Lord endures forever, and it is forever the life and salvation of lost sheep and helpless wheat.

 

Lift up your eyes to see the great work which lays ahead of us, and the souls who so desperately need Jesus.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you, raising you up to labor in His fields and to tend to the souls given to your care by the duties of your various vocations.  Trust the Lord of the Harvest to raise up servants of His Word whom He will send into the harvest of the world, working in His power and might by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  Pray to the Lord for what He has promised to provide, and rejoice that His Word will always bring light and life to all who will receive it.  Rise up, O Church of the Living God, to be the servants of the Word He has called you to be.  Soli Deo Gloria—amen.

Eating With Sinners: A Meditation on Matthew 9 for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

And as Jesus passed forth from thence,

he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom:

 and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house,

behold, many publicans and sinners came

and sat down with him and his disciples.

 

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples,

Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them,

They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

But go ye and learn what that meaneth,

I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:

for I am not come to call the righteous,

but sinners to repentance.

 

In the modern Western church, there are few texts as maligned and misapplied as our reading in Matthew 9.  Read directly, it records the instance where Jesus called Matthew to follow Him, leaving his corrupt occupation as tax collector behind to be Jesus’ disciple.  As Jesus ate with Matthew, other sinners of various types and sorts came to Jesus, and Jesus ate with them as they sat with Jesus’ disciples.  The tenor of the conversation between Jesus and these gathering sinners is shown in the sidebar discussion with the Pharisees, who took offense in a perceived violation of the Law Jesus was committing by having fellowship with such people.  Jesus made it clear to the Pharisees that He had not come to participate in sin, but as a Physician treating those with a sickness, He was applying the spiritual balm of calling sinners to faith and repentance where grace and mercy could be found.  The Pharisees were big on sacrifices at the Temple, particularly when they could make a show of their holiness to bolster their social standing.  On the contrary, Jesus reiterated the declarations of the Old Testament Prophets, that God desired mercy over sacrifice—authentic, living faith turning from evil and working in love, rather than a focus on religious ceremony.  The ceremonies were good and right as they were instituted, but apart from faith it is impossible to please God, since by faith alone comes the grace and mercy which God desires to pour out upon mankind.

 

What this text most certainly does not mean, is that the Church should join in the evil of unrepentant people.  Jesus never encouraged tax collectors to continue extorting and fleecing those over whom they had authority, just as He never condoned continuing in sexual sins such as adultery.  Jesus is still the very Word of God Incarnate, so He cannot be separated from the Books of Moses and the Law revealed within them.  The Ten Commandments are still holy and good, even if fallen man at his best fails to keep them.  Idolatry, broken vows in God’s Name, profaning of the Sabbath, dishonoring parents, murder, adultery and all sexual activity apart from a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman, theft of another person’s property, speaking lies about another person, and covetous lust for the property and people given to others, is all just as evil now as it was when God gave His commandments against such evil at Mount Sinai.  Extrapolations of these laws throughout the Mosaic writings help refine the point that witchcraft, necromancy, homosexuality, swapping gender roles or identities, disregard for the poor, abuse of power, false judgments, crooked scales of justice, taking advantage of others by cleverness or deceit, insurrection and rebellion, and a host of other nuances are also always evil, while faith, hope, justice, truth, love, fidelity, temperance, self-control, wisdom and the like all continue to be good and virtuous pursuits.  When Jesus ate with sinners, He didn’t destroy or invalidate any of the moral Law—instead, He confirmed it.

 

The problem with all mankind is that we’re fallen into sin and can’t get ourselves out, because deep down in our fallen nature we don’t want to leave evil behind.  The same pride and self-love which motivated the devil to rebel against God and take a third of the angels with him, infects us, too.  Our pride resists a full devotion to God that we might rightly love and trust Him above all things, even though we know by His Word that He alone is worthy of such love as the only Creator and King of the Universe.  Likewise our love of self contorts our minds into subjugating our neighbors, always seeking our own best interest at the expense of others rather than loving them as ourselves.  Jesus noted rightly that the whole Law hangs upon these great commandments to love God and love neighbor, and that doing so would result in a keeping of the Law testified by Moses and the Prophets.  What the Pharisees of Matthew 9 couldn’t see was that they were just as sinful (if not more so) than the tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, and political malcontents who came to Jesus, because the Pharisees had absolved themselves of the need for mercy and love so as to nurture their pride and selfishness.  Jesus was and remains the Great Physician who comes to heal the sin-sick souls of mortally wounded people, but He does so by calling all people to faith and repentance by His Word.  The Pharisees declared themselves perfectly well and thus missed the healing absolution of Jesus’ grace, while the tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, and other malefactors heard Jesus’ Word, trusted and believed in Him, and thereby received His healing absolution.  Jesus desired mercy rather than sacrifice, and He would be both for all who trusted in Him.

 

Jesus’ eating with sinners was not an abrogation of the Law, but a fulfilment of it.  Jesus knew He would be taking these people’s sins upon Himself as He made His way to Calvary, and He knew that the grace which He would pour out through His Vicarious Atonement would be their forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation.  Jesus called sinners to repentance because only authentic, living faith in Him could bring such sinful souls to turn from the death of evil paths, and to walk with Him in the way of virtue and life.  If the Law had been abrogated or removed, then the Cross would not be necessary.  On the contrary, it is the severity and justice of the Law which drove our Savior in selfless love to embrace the Cross for us, so that we might not receive the hellish justice we have earned by our pride and selfishness.  Yet what was true in first century Judea is still true today:  only faith brings about repentance, and such faith alone receives grace unto salvation.  We must not forget that the same Jesus who sat with sinners and verbally jousted with religious authorities, was the God who poured out wrath upon the world through the great flood in Noah’s time, poured fire out of heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s time, destroyed Pharoah’s kingdom with plagues and drowned his army in the Red Sea during Moses’ time, caused the land of Canaan to vomit out its previous wicked inhabitants during Joshua’s time, routed the armies of the Philistines during King David’s time, brought calamity and captivity upon Israel for their unfaithfulness during the times of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and judged the rising and falling of empires since the dawn of man to this day.  God will not be mocked and men still reap what they sow—which makes the Gospel proclamation so imminently urgent in every generation.  Judgement always falls upon unrepentant evil, and grace always rescues every repentant sinner.

 

It is a blessing beyond measure that the Lord of Hosts, the Savior of the World, deigns to eat with sinners like us, calling us to faith and repentance that we might receive His healing grace unto eternal life.  Let go the antinomian heresies of our day which only end in destruction, and the blasphemous wrapping of sin under the rainbow covenant given to Noah after the terrible judgment of the deluge.  For the faithful and repentant, there is mercy, healing, and life in the Gospel Word of the Lord—but for the unrepentant and unbelieving, the Law still comes in all its fury to demand inexorable justice.  Rest well in the grace you have been given, O Christian, and heed not the call of those who would lead you to destruction.  Rather, may the Word of Jesus so richly indwell you, that you might in Jesus’ Name call other sinners like ourselves to the saving table of the Lord.  Soli Deo Gloria—amen.

 

 

  

Go Make Disciples: A Meditation on Matthew 28 for Holy Trinity Sunday

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

 Teaching them to observe all things

whatsoever I have commanded you:

and, lo, I am with you always,

even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

On the day we celebrate the biblical revelation of the Most Holy Trinity (One God in Three Persons, indivisible yet distinct, the perfect and quintessential unity in community, undivided and unconfused, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever) it is important to hear what He has spoken to His people.  To honor God is to believe Him, to trust Him, to love Him above all things because He is above and before all things, and to Him all created things return.  This God has met our human race in Creation, traveled with us to preserve us through our Fall into sin and death, was Incarnate with us to satisfy the Law on our behalf through His Vicarious Atonement on Calvary, and sends His Spirit to abide with His people until the end of time.  In the course of this one, true God engaging with His creation, He has left a record of His Words—His Commands and His Promises—to be remembered in every generation.  Holy Scripture is the written record of the Divine Word, setting down for all people what the Holy Spirit spoke through the Prophets and Apostles, as well as what Jesus taught and did during His time on earth.  Before the Only Begotten Son ascended to the Father and sent His Holy Spirit to abide with His people to the end of the age, He gave a specific charge to His Apostles:  Go… disciple all nations… baptizing them… teaching them…  The Covenant of Holy Baptism is established by Jesus’ command and promise in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and His teaching to be passed on is everything He taught His Apostles.

 

The underlying Greek for make disciples or teach / disciple, is a verb of action.  Making disciples is what Jesus told His Apostles to do, and it is exactly what they did, as recorded in the Book of Acts by St. Luke.  But the process of making disciples / disciplining was not left up to subjective measures of individual perspectives, as if any feeling or emotion or whimsy about Jesus would suffice in making someone His disciple.  On the contrary, Jesus commanded that the Apostles baptize in only one Name (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,) leaving no alternative names or conventions to mark His New Covenant of grace and salvation.  Said another way, a disciple of Jesus is baptized into the Name of the Holy Trinity, and apart from the baptism established by Jesus, no person can claim to be His disciple.  To be sure, there have been many erroneous conceptions of baptism across the centuries of Christian history (some more egregious than others,) but the Words of Jesus haven’t changed.  True Christian Baptism is still just what Jesus established it to be, still requires water and the Triune Name, and still provides exactly what He promised:  forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  Baptism still does all this by the power and authority of Jesus alone, so that the good gifts of Baptism are received as grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.  Baptism grafts a person into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, creates the faith to receive grace, and marks a person with the sign of the Cross forever.  No human work could accomplish this, but Jesus did, does, and will continue to do so until He returns on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead.

 

Likewise, just as there is no disciple of Jesus who is not baptized according to His Promise and Command, there is no disciple of Jesus who refuses to learn everything Jesus has taught His people by His Word.  To make a disciple, or to go about the process of discipling, requires that a person be inducted into the New Covenant established by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that a person be taught everything Jesus commanded.  Jesus, who is the Eternal Word of the Father, the Word through whom all things were created and by whom all things shall be judged, is the Word which is studied by those who would be disciples of Jesus.  No person who rejects the Word of Jesus can be a disciple of Jesus—they might be a critic, an observer, a general well-wisher, or even an adversary, but no one can claim to be a disciple of someone who’s teaching they reject.  Thus, while Baptism might be a singular experience of a person in a particular place and time where they are inducted into the New Covenant, learning from Jesus and His Word is a life-long endeavor.  To be a disciple is to be a student of a Master, which is an ongoing and active living out of that relationship.  A student of a human teacher might one day exceed the capacities of their teacher and move on to someone else, but a student of Almighty God can never hope to reach the end of such study.  Just as a human mind is finite and limited while God is infinite and unlimited, the human pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through the study of God’s Word is inexhaustible.  There is no end to the study of God and His Word, as the wisdom and knowledge of God exceeds all human capacity and potential.  A disciple of Jesus is a servant of the Word of God now, and forever.

 

While this might sound daunting in an age of instant gratification, sloppy intellectualism, and ridiculously short attention spans, it is actually a truth of great comfort to those who ponder it.  Rather than blowing up the human mind or overwhelming individuals by His omnipotent power, God comes to each and every soul to woo it to Himself by His Word and Spirit.  God approaches every soul with the goading of His Law and the comfort of His Gospel, pointing all people to the One who’s burden is light and whose company is eternal life.  We may each live in a present moment, but we all live for eternity, and where we choose to live out that eternity is premised upon whether or not we are disciples of the Savior of all mankind.  Each new moment we are given is another opportunity to hear the Word of the Lord, to receive it in faith and repentance, and to rise up to new life walking alongside our God and King.  And if this is true of us, it is true for all people, no matter where they may be or how confused their thinking.  Everyone is on a journey, and everyone is being called by God to life in His Son, because God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.  We cannot look at our neighbor any differently than we look at ourselves, knowing that God alone saves every soul who puts their trust in Him, and that the path of discipleship is one that starts now but continues forever.  We may only walk alongside some people in this world for a short time, but it is the Lord who has sought them just as He has sought us, and it is He who sends just what we need in every moment to live in Him by grace through faith in Christ alone.

 

Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for though our work of discipleship is urgent and long, our promise is secure.  It is God alone who makes disciples of us by His Word and Spirit, and it is God alone who will make disciples by the same means of every soul that will put its trust in Him.  Remember the undeniable and irrevocable Covenant into which you were born through Holy Baptism, and the Most Holy Name which marks you as a child of God forever.  Hear the Word of the Lord every day, meditating upon the Holy Scriptures as you study to be conformed more each day to the image of your God and Savior.  When you fail, rise up again in faith and repentance, receiving again the Word of Absolution and the return to discipleship.  And as you are going about your life, sent into all the world according to the work of your vocations, make disciples of all you meet through your word and witness of Jesus, pointing them to where He can always be found in His Word and Sacraments.  For it is Jesus alone who saves all who put their faith in Him, and upon His disciples He pours out rivers of life and grace forevermore.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Living Water: A Meditation on John 7 and Psalm 25 for the Day of Pentecost

In the last day, that great day of the feast,

Jesus stood and cried, saying,

If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,

out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

 (But this spake he of the Spirit,

which they that believe on him should receive:

for the Holy Ghost was not yet given;

because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

 

…

 

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed,

let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed:

let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.

 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:

for thou art the God of my salvation;

on thee do I wait all the day.

 

Jesus’ teaching in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles was significant, and His declaration on the last day of the feast was instructive.  While ancient Israel gathered on this feast to re-affirm the Covenant of Sinai, the God of our Salvation which David wrote about a thousand years earlier, was in the midst of the people that day.  The Word of the Lord Incarnate stood and spoke the Word of the Lord to the people, and taught them that life and salvation came by no other means than faith in the God who spoke to them.  The living water of which Jesus spoke, which would flow out of those who believed in Him, was that very Gospel Word which brings life and refreshment to all who will receive it.  It is also noteworthy that this pouring out of the Holy Spirit by the Word of the Lord came when the people of God were surrounded by their evil enemies, and when all hope in human strength was shown pointless:  as Noah saw salvation through the flood, Abraham in the giving of the Covenant, Moses before the Egyptian army or the wilderness wanderings, David living on the run in the desert, Elijah before the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel, or the disciples huddled first in a dark room on Easter then only 120 huddled on Pentecost, Jesus standing in the midst of the Pharisees who sought to kill Him was a demonstration of divine power.  No matter how much evil people surround the people of God, when God is in their midst, His people are always preserved by His Gospel Word.

 

This principle is good for the Church to remember in our own times, as evil rises in every quarter of society.  It would be easy for Christian people to despair in the face of public schools corrupting youth, politicians selling out the nation for private gain, academics embracing the dreadful delusions of Marxism, celebrities advocating for nihilistic hedonism in every medium, and family structures crumbling under the encouragement of selfish ambition.  Indeed, who would think that human strength will prevail against the powers of wickedness in high places, who have now moved broad swathes of Western society to define Biblical Christians as terrorists, purveyors of hatred and intolerance for daring to resist homosexuality, transsexualism, adultery, fornication, the murder and mutilation of children, the freedom of individual conscience and mind expressed in word, speech, and worship, and the equal moral accountability of all people before their Maker.  The rising tide of evil in the world should make it clear that salvation will not come by human power or strength, but by the Word and power of God alone.  God’s people have never been their own saviors, as much as the devil might woo fallen minds to believe otherwise.  On the contrary, whether it is the life of His Word which He spoke into the void to bring forth Creation, or the Word of forgiveness and grace He speaks into the fallen world to bring forth Redemption, it is always God who saves.

 

And if it is God alone who saves by the power of His Word, then the fundamental principle by which we receive that salvation is faith.  Only faith can stand alone in the darkness, surrounded by evil and deadly machinations, and show forth the power of God unto salvation.  Only faith upheld Noah as he stood alone before his evil generation, he and his family saved through the flood which swept multitudes away; only faith upheld Moses before the mightiest empire of his time, so that the people of God might be rescued from slavery and death while Pharoah’s chariots sank into the sea; only faith upheld David before the pagan giant Goliath, the murderous psychosis of King Saul, and the nations which beset him with war from all sides; only faith upheld Elijah before the evil aspirations of Queen Jezebel and her army of pagan priests bent upon his destruction, even as the fire of the Lord came down upon Mt. Carmel to prove only Elijah’s God truly reigns; only faith upheld the Disciples of Jesus while He hung dead upon that Roman Cross, betrayed by the rulers of His own people, but revealed alive again that glorious Easter morning; only faith gathered them together on that first Pentecost, and received from the Lord His Holy Spirit to testify to the eternal life found only in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.  It is faith alone which receives the Word of God, and the Word of God alone which pours out upon His faithful people the grace and power of His Holy Spirit to drive back the darkness, putting all evil to flight.

 

Thus it is that salvation for mankind must be by grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone.  For there is no other Name given under heaven whereby men must be saved, and there is no other Champion who has stood in the midst of every gathered evil, of death, of hell, and of the all the power of the devil’s horde, and stood alone victorious.  Only Jesus conquered all the enemies of mankind, because only Jesus is the Divine Word of God made Flesh to dwell among us, that we might behold His glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.  Just as there is no other God through whom the whole universe has its existence, so there is no other God through whom the whole cosmos must be saved, and no other God to whom all creation is accountable.  Those who embrace evil have nowhere to run, for they cannot overthrow the Word of God anymore than they can overthrow God Himself, and they cannot escape the reality of their own nature as creatures in a created universe.  Those who stand with God by grace through faith in Christ alone, stand in the awesome power and presence of the King of the Universe, gathered into the yet unseen ranks of a countless and mighty host, all with tongues of flame upon their heads and rivers of living water flowing out from the midst of them.  The darkness of this little world might rise and fall in little times, but the glory of the Lord endures forever, across and beyond all time and space.  The evil in our land is dwarfed and doomed before the majesty of the Eternal King, and the more it rises in impudent arrogance upon our small globe, the more it calls forth the brilliance of Christ and His Spirit poured out upon His faithful people.

 

Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for you do not stand alone in this time of trial.  You are washed in the Blood of Jesus, baptized into His death so that you might rise into His eternal life.  You have been given His Word of Law and Gospel, that by faith in His Word you would receive His forgiveness, life, and salvation, even as you stand in His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  You are surrounded in this grace by a countless host of witnesses, who live forever in the company of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and who cheer you on in this day of valiant struggle.  You are the people saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ and His Word alone, and upon you has been poured out the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, that you might live forever, testify forever, sing forever, in the Name of Jesus.  Rise up, O People of God, for the strength that saves you is not your own, but that of the Almighty Lord of Hosts.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Keep My Commandments: A Meditation on John 14 and Acts 17 for the 6th Sunday of Easter

 

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,

that he may abide with you forever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,

because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:

but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more;

but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father,

and ye in me, and I in you.

 He that hath my commandments,

and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:

and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father,

and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

 

…

 

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said,

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions,

I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God.

Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

 

Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in John 14 continued with a theme of both faith and revelation:  to love Jesus is to keep His Word, and by that love will the Holy Spirit be given to reveal Jesus ever further.  As Jesus is the Eternal Word of the Father sent to us, so abiding in Jesus is to abide in His Word, and abiding in the Word of Jesus is to also abide in the Father who sent Him.  That restored relationship of mankind with God by faith in His Word creates all the renewal of life man had lost by his fall into sin and death, because in Jesus alone is the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from the judgment all men earn by their evil.  Added to this, Jesus noted that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive in unbelief, would be not only given to those who believe in Jesus, but that Spirit would indwell all those who believe.  The economy of God’s salvation of man reunites him again in the fullness of his Maker, restored by the Word to the Father, and empowered by the Spirit to live forever in His Trinitarian fellowship.  The fullness and unity of God in His Holy Trinity, is brought forth to mankind that all people might be restored in Him, taught by Him, enlivened by Him, empowered by Him, and preserved in Him forever.

 

Yet if this inestimable gift is brought to man by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, what remains for those who are without faith?  St. Paul’s sojourn into Athens, recorded in Acts 17, is a fitting example:  superstition, misdirected religious piety, and esoteric philosophical speculation.  Paul started by debating with the Jews in Athens, where some believed, and many did not, despite having the testimony of the Old Testament Prophets which all pointed forward to the Christ.  Outside the Jewish synagogue, the majority population of Athens were devotees of the pagan gods of Greece and Rome, or of a philosophical school which gravitated either toward the lustful living of the Epicureans, or the rigorous discipline of the Stoics… or some blend of all three.  It was these Athenians who brought Paul before the Areopagus—a council of philosophical and religious judges who heard disputes and debates among the people for centuries prior to Paul’s arrival.  Educated and aware of the perils of Athenian debate, not the least of which were described in the trial of Socrates some four centuries earlier, Paul began his proclamation of Jesus and His Word.  Not lost on him was that he stood on Mar’s or Ares’ Hill, the gods of war to the Romans and Greeks respectively, in full site of the magnificent Acropolis not far away, with all its idols and statues to the Olympian deities.

 

Paul met them where he found them, which is to say, he engaged them in language they understood and the context in which they lived.  He identified among the vast number of idols one that was dedicated to the Unknown God, as if something in the back of the Athenian mind knew that for all their vaunted education and history, there was something very important they still could not see.  Paul declared that Unknown God to them, beginning with the Creation of the universe, the nature of man made in God’s image, and culminating with the redemption of all mankind through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Paul’s witness to the Gospel was more than fanciful legend cast forth by poets, morality tales that supported a political or social order, or philosophical school that tortured logic and reason to justify a desired lifestyle.  Paul’s Gospel was one that happened in real time, with real people, and had real consequences for all mankind, because the God whom Paul proclaimed made it clear that He alone was the one and true God from whom all things came forth and to whom all things shall return.  Some of those Athenians received Paul’s Word of Jesus, and many did not… at least at first.  Dionysius the Areopagite, one of the judges gathered to hear Paul, followed him together with others.  Celebrated now as a saint in both eastern and western churches, Dionysius is often remembered as the first Bishop of Athens, in a country that would later become synonymous with eastern Christianity in the whole Greek speaking world.

 

Our world is not so unlike the first century AD, with rising tides of pagan religions and philosophical confusion bringing increasing darkness to many cities around the world.  But the Light of Jesus and His Word still shine forth, dispelling the demons who cloud men’s minds and enslave their souls.  Yet it does not come by speaking to pagan audiences as if they were well schooled in the Hebrew Prophets and the Apostolic faith set forth in Holy Scripture, because this is simply not where they are.  Neither does it come by watering down the Word of God until it is indistinguishable from the sophistic soup of modern intelligentsia, like one other path to therapeutic moralism or political utopia.  Rather, what cuts to the quick of our modern malaise is the reality of the world as God has made it, which testifies to the nature of the Creator and His creatures; the reality of good and evil, of truth and error, of life and death, of time and eternity; the reality of the only One who could conquer all darkness by His life, death, and resurrection, so that He might offer forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation to all who would trust in Him.  The inescapable reality of Jesus and His Gospel stands by the divine power of His Incarnate Word, and moves all people to either receive Him in faith or reject Him in unbelief.  Yet by that Word works the Holy Spirit, so that all who believe do so by the grace of God, and in that faith which itself is a gift of grace, receive grace in abundance together with the indwelling of God’s Spirit to lead, enlighten, empower, and preserve them in God’s fellowship forever.  The task of the Christian in evangelism is not to seek out new and crafty words to woo people into the church, but rather to present to Living and Eternal Word to all people, that all who might repent and believe in Jesus would live in Him by His Word.

 

We must not be daunted by the peculiarities of our age, nor the hills upon which we are called to testify.  The same Word which gave life to the world at creation, is speaking and breathing life into the world today, and shall continue to do so until it speaks in judgment on the Last Day.  That Word of Jesus is the Means by which He has sought and saved us, and the Means by which He continues to seek and save all who will put their trust in Him.  Have no fear to stand atop the war-god’s hill and proclaim the saving reality of Jesus, for there is nothing in all creation that can overthrow the Eternal Word of God, and that Word alone is the fellowship of life to all who will abide in it.  Solid Deo Gloria.  Amen.