Believe and Love - April 21, 2024 - Forth Sunday of Easter - Text: 1 John 3:16-24

Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter, already. Can you believe it, Easter was four weeks ago? Today is also what has been traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today gets the name “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the Gospel reading is the account of Jesus telling us that He is our Good Shepherd. Four weeks ago we witnessed just how good a shepherd Jesus is in that He did lay down His life for us as He suffered and died on the cross. In our First Lesson for this morning we hear Peter and John bear witness of Jesus and the fact that it is only by faith in Jesus that we have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. In our text John helps us to understand what it means for us to be Christians and how, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we are to be imitators of Christ.
 

First, John sounds a little like James in telling us that faith shows itself in action. We begin at verse sixteen, “16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (v. 16-18).
 

Notice again as we have said many times before, God is the prime mover, or better said, as we hear in Hebrews, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith”(Heb. 12:2a). It all begins with God. God loves us first and this love is seen in Jesus who gave His life for ours. Jesus did not have to give His life, but He freely gave His life. Because of His great love for us, a love we really cannot even fathom, He gave up the glory that was His in heaven, took on human flesh and blood, being born as a man, lived a perfect life, doing all that we are to be doing and cannot, obeying all the commandments perfectly, fulfilling all the promises and prophecies, perfectly and then He took our sins upon Himself, all our sins and all the sins of all people of all places of all times and He paid the price for our sins. This love is indeed a great love.
 

God loves first and our response of love and faith is that we are to be willing to do the same for others. As Christians, being loved by God, being given faith by God, being forgiven by God, we respond by loving others and our love shows itself in this, that we are willing to give our lives for others as Jesus gave His life for ours.
 

Certainly God knows that this giving of our lives for others is almost impossible, and so, as John tells us, we respond by doing even less than giving our lives, that is, we respond by simply giving help to others. We help others by offering kind words, by offering words of encouragement. We help others by offering to help with giving of our time and our talents. At times, we even help others by offering our financial resources.
 

God loves us and we love Him and others. We love, not simply in words, but in actions. This reflects what James tells us when he says that “faith without works is meaningless.” Even Martin Luther who worked to reform the church which believed one was saved by faith and works, helps us understand that we are saved by grace, through faith apart from works, even Luther reminds us that the natural response of forgiveness and faith is to do good works.
 

John reassures us that God knows what is in our hearts. We pick up at verse nineteen, “19By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him”(v. 19- 22).
 

How well we understand that as human beings and as adults we tend to be harder on ourselves than others are on us. Likewise as Christians, as we grow in sanctification we tend to be harder on ourselves, thinking we should do more. And perhaps there are times that we should do more, yet, always remembering that God never asks more of us than He knows we can give.
 

God knows what is in our hearts. God knows if we are cheerful givers or if we are giving begrudgingly. God knows if we are refusing to help others because we really cannot help or if there is some other reason. It may be frightening to know that God knows so we might also remind ourselves that God also knows that Jesus died to pay the price for our sins.
 

Our confidence, then, is in God, not in ourselves. We cannot do enough to save ourselves. We cannot give enough to save ourselves. We cannot earn or pay for our salvation. Our salvation, our faith, our forgiveness come from outside of us, not inside of us. Our confidence is in God who knows all things and who has taken care of all things for us.
 

With confidence we pray to God, knowing He will answer according to what He knows is best for us, according to His good and gracious will. Interestingly enough, I believe we do not have so difficult a time praying for God’s will to be done, but I do believe we have a more difficult time accepting God’s will, whatever that will may be. So, perhaps we would do well to pray, not only, “Thy will be done,” but also, “Lord, help me to accept Your will, even and especially when You say ‘No,’ And when Your will is not what I desire.” And all the while understanding that God does know what is best for us, even more than we know what is best for ourselves.
 

John talks about obeying God’s commands. What are God’s commands? We pick up at verse twenty-three, “23And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (v. 23-24).
 

Normally when we hear about or think about the commands of God we think in terms of the Ten Commandments. And certainly as we go through the Ten Commandments we cannot help but understand the fact that not only can we not keep the commandments, but we fail miserably and we are indeed quite sinful. And yet, there is more to the commandments than simply being a list of dos and don’ts. In our text, John summarizes what Jesus summarizes; God’s command is to love Jesus and one another. Love is the fulfillment of the law. If we could love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength and mind then we would not break the first three commandments. If we could love our neighbor as ourselves, then we would not break the last seven commandments. The difficulty is that in and of ourselves we cannot do either of these things.
 

John reminds us of God’s command, that we believe in Jesus and love one another. At the same time, notice that it is God who loves first. God loves first, giving us the ability to love. Here again we see God as the author and perfecter of our faith. God loves and we are loved. God gives and we are given to. God does and we are done to. God loves and He gives us the ability to love.
 

As God loves us and gives us the ability to love others, interestingly enough, then, as we love, God loves even more. Here again, as we always know, we cannot out give God. We cannot out give Him financially speaking, understanding that He is the one who gives to us in the first place. And now, here we understand that we cannot out give God in a loving way. We cannot out love God, remembering that He first loves us and He gives to us to be able to love others.
 

God is the beginning, the alpha, the author of life. He gives, strengthens and keeps in faith through His means of grace. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who continues to care for us today, He is the one who gave His life on the cross and the one through whom all good things are given.
 

What does this mean? God does first, He loves, He does, He gives. And we are loved, we are done to and we are given to. Apart from God we are lost and condemned persons.
 

God loves first and then God works in us to respond. Yet, even here John gives us a warning. Back in verse seventeen we were reminded that if we do not respond, if we do not love, if we do not give, these are ways we refuse the gifts God has to give. As John says, “How does God’s love abide in him?” How does God’s love abide in one who does not respond to all the Lord has to give? It does not. Thus, we see that a response of faith is not only natural, but also necessary. To not respond, then, is truly to refuse the gifts God has to give. To respond, however, means even greater blessings.
 

John reminds us that as we respond, God loves and gives even more. Here again we are back to that old cliché, “You cannot out give God.” It is amazing when you think about it, God first loves us, then He helps us to love others and finally He loves us even more. God first gives to us, He gives us life at conception; new life, even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism; the ability as well as gifts and talents and a job in order to work, to earn a wage and He moves in us to return a portion to Him. And the more we return to Him, the more blessings He has in store for us. This then may and hopefully will become a reciprocal cycle, that of the Lord giving, our returning, the Lord giving more and our returning more.
 

As this reciprocal cycle continues we are then even more reminded of the importance of regular and diligent use of the means of grace. As Luther attested, the more he knew he had to do in a day, the more he knew he needed to spend time in prayer at the beginning of the day. The Lord provides, not only for our physical well being, not only by giving us life and treasure, but also by giving us talents and time. In all areas of life, we cannot out give God. The more He gives to us, the more we return to Him, the more yet, He still gives to us. And in Malachi He asks that we test Him in these things.
 

There is, what I call a camp song, and I know it is not the greatest song from a theological point of view, but I believe the chorus somewhat summarizes this text for this morning. I know you have heard it, it says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” John is telling us this morning that the world will know we are Christians by our love, but even more, by our response of faith, the giving of our whole lives over to the Lord as He has first given His life for ours. May the Lord, the Good Shepherd of the sheep, of us, who gave His life for us, continue to work in and through you so that you might show your faith through your life, in response to all that He has done, does and will continue to do for you. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

He Is the Atoning Sacrifice - April 7, 2024 - Second Sunday of Easter - Text: 1 John 1:1 - 2:2

There is a story about a Greek man who brought his wife to America following World War II. He and his wife settled in a Southern city. Although they spoke little English and had very little money, they set out to open a restaurant, which unfortunately quickly went broke and to top it off his wife was pregnant. When things seemed the worst he went up the street to the local Christian church and asked several of the elders if they would lend him enough money to try once more at his business. He promised that he would pay the men back even if it meant mowing their lawns. The businessmen of the church, who themselves were still picking up their businesses, after the war, dug deep down into their pockets and came up with the money. The Greek worked twenty hours a day to get his restaurant started. As time went by more and more people came to his restaurant. Over four decades later the Greek retired and his sons run the corporation that runs a chain of restaurants. The Greek and his wife occasionally serve as greeters in one of the restaurants and always greet the people coming in the door with the words, “God bless America.”
 

That is a nice story. Whether it is true or not I cannot tell you, but I can tell you this, it is the kind of story that we often hear and the kind that makes you proud to be an American. But before you stick your chest out and hold your head high we should look at our text and see where God fits into this picture, other than the words, “God bless America.”
 

Our text begins with words that remind us of the beginning of our Bible as well as the beginning of John’s gospel. “1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (v.1). John reminds us that the Word of life was from the beginning. The Word of Life is our Bible, Holy Scripture, the Word which proclaims God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Word of Life is True God. God is that Word which said, “Let there be,” and there was, the creation of all things. The Word of Life is that Word which never changes. Theses, hypotheses, theories, all these come and go and change from time to time, but the Word of Life never changes.
 

The Word of Life is also Jesus Christ. Jesus is the oral Word of God, that Word of promise first made to Adam and Eve and the beginning of the Christian church. Jesus is the written Word of God, that Word given to Moses and the prophets. Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies from of old.  Jesus is true God born in human flesh. The Word of life is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary.
 

The Word of Life is the one who John says he has heard, seen, looked at, and touched. With these words, John gives a fourfold witness of who is Jesus. We remember that no case can be made with only one witness, at least two witnesses are needed. Here John gives us a complete fourfold witness that Jesus is the Word of Life because he has personally heard Jesus, seen Him, looked at Him and touched Him. Jesus is the Word made flesh.
 

Moving on to verse five of our text John says, “5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (v. 5). Here John uses the two extremes of light and dark to make his point. The symbolism of darkness is that of chaos, evil, sin, and so on. Darkness is literally absence from light. People who do evil do not want to be seen doing the evil they do so rather than do their evil in the light they do it in the absence of light, in darkness.
 

The symbolism of light is that of being pure, holy, perfect, like God, and so on. Light reveals imperfections. Light dispels the darkness. Light brings life. Light helps us to see where we are going, to help us to stay on the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life. God is light and in all these examples we can exchange the word God for light and we can say that God reveals imperfections. God dispels the darkness. God brings life. God helps us to see where we are going, to help us to stay on the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life.
 

Light overcame darkness. On the cross, Jesus Christ, true God, the Light of the world, and true man, suffered and gave His life for the sins of all people of all times of all places. More importantly, Jesus gave His life for you and for me, personally.
 

Now comes the crux of the situation as John tells us in verse eight (8) to ten (10), “8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” First, you may recognize these words as a part of our liturgy on Sunday mornings. These words remind us that, if we claim to be without sin we claim we do not need a Savior. Unfortunately this seems to be what many people want to claim in our world today, or at least that some people believe they are not that big of sinners. This claim is the implication of our opening story, not that we need anything from God, but that we are self made people, that we got to be where we are by our own designs and that we do not need anyone, let alone any god, to help us out. Yet, we still want to profess some type of religion, maybe even Christianity, by saying, “God bless America!”
 

Maybe the question we all want to ask is, “How sinful do we need to claim to be?” If we only need to claim to be a little sinful, then, that we can do. We are a very proud people here in America.  We really do not want to believe that Jesus had to die too much for us, we really are pretty good people. Jesus had to die for the other guy, maybe even a lot for the other guy. It is similar to the comments that are made when, on the way out after the service, someone says to me, “You really told them, pastor.” The implication being that I am not the sinner to which you were speaking. The point really hits home when I hear statements like, “I did not like what you said about, and you name the sin, it sounded like you were talking to me.” How sinful do we need to claim to be? In a past issue of the Lutheran Witness Dr. Moellering talked about our need to remember Psalm 22:6, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.” This is what we sing in hymn 437, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed, And did my Sov’reign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?” Interestingly enough, as a side note, the Lutheran Worship hymnal changed that last line to “For sinners such as I?” Thankfully our Lutheran Service Book changed it back.
 

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” If we claim to have done nothing for which we need forgiving, how can God forgive us? And to claim to be without sin is gift refusal so that our sin remains on us. But, “if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And confess our sins we do. I hope and pray that as we read and speak the words of confession in our liturgy that we hear and mean the words, “we poor sinners confess unto you that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against you by thought, word, and deed.” And I hope and pray that as we use the words of the other service of confession we hear and mean the words, “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment.” Yes, Jesus has already taken care of our sins. He has already earned their forgiveness. By denying our sins, by claiming to be without sin we can deny claiming that forgiveness as our own. Denying our sins is denying forgiveness and then we are be left to our own devices to save ourselves, then “we would deceive ourselves and the truth would not be in us.”
 

The very reason John is writing is so that we might confess our sins and be given Jesus forgiveness as we read in the last two verses of our text, “1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:1,2). We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ. Jesus pleads our case before God the Father, our eternal judge.
 

Not only does He plead our case, He is also our atoning sacrifice, that is, He gave His life for ours. When we claim our sins, when we confess our sins, when we admit our wrongs, Jesus freely takes the punishment for our sins so that we might be seen as sinless before the Father in heaven.
 

All this He does because of His pure love for us, for all which it is our privilege to respond by thanking and praising, serving and obeying Him, so that we may live under Him in His eternal kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. Simply put, it is all God’s giving and all our being given to, and anything else is considered work righteousness.
 

What does this mean? This means that instead of living our lives as if we have anything to do with where we are, and that means for all our circumstances of life, whether physical or spiritual, that we live our lives sincerely giving thanks and praise to God, not like the couple in our opening story. This means that we readily and freely admit and give credit where credit is due, to our Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This means that we give God the glory for putting us where we are and giving us His Holy Spirit so that we might serve Him in all we thank, say and do, so that His Kingdom may be extended, that His people may be strengthening, and that above all praise and glory may be given to His Holy name.
 

Finally this means that we give thanks and joyfully respond as the Holy Spirit works in us our response of faith; to be in Divine Service and Bible class as often as offered; to volunteer to serve according to the gifts and abilities He has given us to serve and sometimes even to learn new abilities; to invite especially our unchurched family and friends to Divine Service and Bible Class to hear God’s Word; and ultimately to live lives to the praise and glory of His Holy Name. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Sanctification - Easter Day - March 31, 2024 - Text: Third Article; 1 Cor. 2:14; 1 Cor. 12:3

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
 

Last Friday we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the Law as a curb and a mirror. Today we conclude our series by being reminded of what we believe about sanctification, that is about how, following our being justified, being made just and right in God’s eyes, how He continues to work to make us and keep us holy, saints, at least while we remain sinners in this world.
 

February 14 we began the Lenten Season with our Ash Wednesday Service. On Ash Wednesday we were reminded of God’s work of creation, how God created all things in six days and rested on the seven day, giving us a day of rest. As a part of God’s perfect creation He created a perfect Garden, the Garden of Eden in which He put the perfect man and woman He had created so that they might work tending the Garden. Adam and Eve were perfect and had free will.
 

God also placed two special, important trees in the Garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In order to give Adam and Eve a way to “give back” to God He gave them one simple rule, not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with the threat of punishment that the day they eat of the fruit they would die. They would begin to die a physical death and apart from God’s promise of a Savior they would die an eternal death in hell. God set the price for sin, for disobedience at death, human death for human sin.
 

Of course, we know the history. We know that Adam and Eve did disobey God. They did eat from the tree and with that sin God entered and cursed the world. God’s curse means we know live in a sinful world. The curse means that we are destined to die from the moment of conception. The curse means that our will has been tainted so that we no longer have a free will to do good. Thanks be to God that He immediately stepped in and with the curse promised a solution, a Savior, a Messiah, a Christ, thus the birth of the Christian church.
 

Some four thousand years later God fulfilled the promise He made. He sent Jesus, true God being born in human flesh, being true man into the world. Jesus came to do what Adam and Eve, what God’s chosen people, the children of Israel and what we, His children cannot do, live a perfect live in word and deed. Jesus obeyed all of God’s Laws, ceremonial, moral, and civil, perfectly. He fulfilled all of God’s promises, perfectly and then He took all our sins, all the sins of all people who have ever lived, and all the sins of people who ever will live on Himself and He suffered the eternal punishment of hell for us in our place. He paid the price for sin and makes us right before God, justified.
 

As you have heard me say time and time again, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We are justified, we are made right and just in God’s eyes by the faith God gives to us in Jesus as our Savior alone for our salvation. Our salvation has been completely accomplished for us by God Himself in Jesus and given to us. Thanks be to God for His gift of forgiveness.
 

Now that we have been forgiven and justified before God, He continues sending His Holy Spirit in order to sanctify us, that is in order to stir in us to be the people He would have us to be, although continually being His people imperfectly. We understand sanctification as being made holy in God’s eyes, yet we continue to understand that this side of heaven we will continue to be at the same time a sinner as well as a saint.
 

So, our lives of sanctification are our response of faith. Our sanctification is simply a response of faith. We must always be clear that our living lives of faith is not something we do in order to gain any favor from God. And actually our sanctification, our living lives of faith is not something we naturally do, rather this too has at its heart what God is doing.
  

Our sanctification is the work of God in us, that is the Holy Spirit working in us through His usual means, Word and Sacrament. Through the waters of Holy Baptism and God’s name being put on us the Holy Spirit forgives our sins and puts faith in our hearts. Confessing our sins and hearing the words of Absolution the Holy Spirit forgives our sins. Hearing the Word of God read and proclaimed the Holy Spirit works through that very word to strengthen us in our faith. Partaking of Jesus’ body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, the Holy Spirit again forgives us and strengthens our faith. God is at work in us in our living lives of faith.
 

As you have no doubt heard before, only Christians can do those works that are considered good works in God’s eyes, because only Christians do those good works that are motivated by God, worked in and through us by God and done to His glory. Yes, there are those in our world who are motivated to do what we call civil good works, but those are not truly good works in God’s eyes.
 

Which means that more often than not when we actually do a good work that is a good work in God’s eyes we understand that it is done in and through us by God, and we probably do not even notice. So, here again, as with justification, we get it right when we point to Jesus, so too with sanctification, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Perhaps you may have noticed that in all of Scripture we do not hear a lot about the Holy Spirit and His work. The reason is because the Holy Spirit always points us to Jesus.
 

What does this mean? In the Third Article of the Apostles’ creed we confess what we believe about the Holy Spirit and His work. We confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” Indeed, because our will has been tainted by sin all we can do is refuse and reject Jesus. Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts through Holy Baptism and His Holy Word to give us faith.
 

But we continue and further confess about the Holy Spirit that “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” Here again, we believe that not only is the Word of God inspired, inerrant, and infallible, we also confess that the Word of God is sufficient, clear, efficacious and powerful, such that through the very Word of God the Holy Spirit works in us and gives us faith. This faith is not something we choose or get for ourselves, and we know this fact because we are born spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God such that we cannot bring ourselves back to life or have any part in our being given faith. It is all the doing of the Holy Spirit, thanks be to God.
 

And we continue confessing the work of the Holy Spirit that is that He “enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” The gifts the Holy Spirit uses to enlighten us are Holy Absolution and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. Through these very means the Holy Spirit gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith, pouring out on us and lavishing us with all the good gives and blessings He has to give. And again, thanks be to God.
 

This morning we rejoice, not only in our justification, being made just and right in God’s eyes as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and defeat of sin, death and the devil, but we rejoice in God’s gift of sanctification, that God gives us to be His people, living lives of faith through the means of grace as well.
 

And we rejoice that God keeps us in faith through those very same means of grace. As we remember our Baptism and God’s name put on us, that our sins are forgiven we are strengthened. As we confess our sins and hear those most beautiful words, that our sins are forgiven, we are strengthened. As we hear God’s Word read and proclaimed and as we partake of our Lord’s body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins, we are strengthened. Indeed, as we are strengthened so is our desire to be given even more of the gifts He has to give.
 

Once again, as always, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Jesus does all and gives all. Jesus makes us right before God and keeps us right before God. Although we may not be able to trust ourselves, our own doing, our own thinking, our own reasoning, we most certainly can trust Jesus, His doing, His giving, His work in and through us. Thanks be to God.
 

Once again we come and we celebrate what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Justification - Easter Sonrise - March 31, 2024 - Text: Second Article; John 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
 

Last Friday, Good Friday we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the Law as a curb and a mirror. Today we begin our Easter celebration and we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about justification.
 

The word “justification” is a great word. Perhaps you have heard me suggest that to be justified means that when God looks at us He sees us “just as if I’d” never sinned and that is our greatest desire on the day of judgment, for to be otherwise judged would indeed be hell. We live in a world where we constantly hear people who have been harmed cry out for “justice.” Unfortunately, I would suggest that in too many cases in our world today it really is not justice that people want but more often than not what they truly want is revenge. So, what is justification and why is it so important, especially to us Christians? And how are we justified?
 

In order to understand justification and God’s justice we must begin with ourselves. Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin. Following God’s curse in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s one command, God promised to take care of their sin by sending a Savior. Yet, their sin and corrupt nature continue to be born in each one of us. It is in our DNA  and from the moment of conception we are sinful and are held accountable for our sin. If we were  not sinful nor held accountable for our sin from the moment of conception, or until we should reach some age of accountability as some would suggest, then we would not die because it is sin and our accountability for our sin which brings death, notice then the importance of infant baptism.
 

Not only are we conceived and born in sin, but God’s demand is and has been since creation that we are perfect. That is that we perfectly obey all God’s Laws and commands. Since we are conceived and born in sin our nature is to sin, as God tells us in Genesis, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) and daily we add to our inborn sin our own sins. We sin in thought, word and deed, in our actions. We sin sins of commission by doing the things we should not do. We sin sins of omission by failing to do the things we should be doing. Indeed, we sin continually and we do not even need to practice because it comes natural to us to sin.
 

God promised Adam and Eve a Savior. God reiterated His promise to Abraham with the promise that the Savior would come through His family line. God added a condition to His covenant with Moses and Israel that if they would be obedient He would give them a lasting earthly kingdom, which we know they lost because of their failure to be obedient. Yet, God’s eternal, unconditional covenant with Adam and Eve and Abraham was never lost that is the eternal kingdom of heaven. So, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, God Himself taking on human flesh and blood in order to do what Adam and Eve could not do, obey one command; what Abraham and all Israel could not do, obey Ten Commandments; and yes, even what we cannot do, be perfectly obedient. Jesus, true God, born as a human, in the flesh, lived the perfect life demanded of us for us in our place.
 

And so we understand that Jesus, true God in perfection had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, that is to trade His perfection for our imperfection. And He did. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Last Friday we came and we were reminded of Jesus perfect life and His perfect suffering and death for us, in our place.
 

As we have heard said many times, God created us to love us and so He does. In His Gospel John quotes Jesus as saying, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The love of which Jesus speaks is the Greek love of “agape,” which is well defined as a self-less concern or a God-like love, truly the kind of love only God can have for us so much so that He gave His life for ours and for us.
 

To help us better understand that this agape love can truly only be the love God has for us and we are unable to emulate such love we have the account following His resurrection when Jesus asked Peter, “do you agape me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila” or brotherly “love you.” A second time Jesus asked Peter, “do you agape me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila you” or brotherly “love you.” Finally, the third time Jesus asked Peter, but instead this time He asked, “do you phila me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila you.”  Peter understood he could not have agape love for Jesus because, as Jesus asks him the third time he knows that three times he denied knowing Jesus. Peter knew he could only “phila Jesus.” Thus, the third time Jesus helps Peter know he has been forgiven because of God’s agape love for him. For God so loved, agaped the world. Indeed, agape love is a selfless concern for another person, the kind of love only God can have for us.
 

Paul helps us to better understand God’s agape love in His work of making us just and right in His eyes as he tells us, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ). We would define grace as gift. A gift is not a present such that we give someone a present and they give us one in return. A gift, a true gift is given without expectation of anything given in return. Thus, God gifts us in giving us all the gifts and blessings He has to give even knowing that not only is our nature to not respond, but we are unable to respond, at least not without His help.
 

Thus, we are saved, we are gifted salvation through faith which is a gift as well. Faith is that thing which takes hold of and makes something ours. Yet, not only is faith important, but so is the object of faith. Faith in faith is empty faith. Faith must have an object and it must be the right object. Faith in a tree will not bring forgiveness and salvation.
 

The only object of saving faith is Jesus.  Because we are conceived and born in sin. Because every intention of our hearts is evil all time. Because we cannot choose Jesus. Because we cannot accept Jesus. Because we cannot dedicate our lives to Jesus. Because we cannot be perfectly obedient, God sent Jesus to do all these things for us, choose us, accept us, dedicate His life to us, live a perfectly obedient life for us. God is the one who calls us to faith and gives us faith. God calls us to and gives us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation and He does so through the means He has given, His Word, Holy Absolution and His Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. Through these very means He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith.
 

What does this mean? Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin and we daily add to our sin. We cannot justify ourselves. When we look in inside ourselves all we see is sin. Just as a dead person cannot bring himself back to life, just as a drowning person cannot save himself, just as we cannot choose to be born, so we cannot save ourselves, no matter how hard we try or are told to try.
 

Salvation, justification must come from outside of us. We must look outside ourselves and when we look outside ourselves we are to look to Jesus to see our salvation. Because of God’s great agape love for us, knowing all that would happen, He created the world and us anyway. He promised and fulfilled His promise of a Savior. He came, God in flesh to live for us, to suffer and die for us and to rise for us. He came defeating sin, death and the devil, for us. And He gives it all to us, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

As you continually hear me say, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Pointing to ourselves only brings despair, or it could bring us to works righteousness. We get it right when we point to Jesus. It is all God’s doing and gift, all our being done to and gift given. We are made just and right in God’s eyes, where it counts as He is the judge of all, by God Himself, through the gift of faith, the instrument which He gives to grab on to Jesus, for forgiveness and life.
 

As we once again begin our Easter celebration we rejoice in what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. He gives and we are given to. He does and we are done to. He gives faith and we are given faith. He gives forgiveness and we are forgiven. He gives eternal life and we know for certain that we have eternal live. Thanks be to God.
 

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.