Justification in Jesus’ Death - March 30, 2018 - Good Friday - Text: Apology to Augsburg Article IV

This year during the season of Lent through to Easter Sunrise and Easter morning we are continuing our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as we did at Advent through Christmas. During Lent through Easter we are covering what is considered the most important doctrine of the Church and the Lutheran Church, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Article IV is the article on Justification and how we are made just and right in God’s eyes. Indeed, this article is the article on which the Church stands or falls, because we are saved either by ourselves, our good deeds, our obedience, and so forth or our salvation comes from outside of us, namely it comes from Jesus, who has earned and paid for our sins by His suffering and death and the cross and which He gives freely to us with out any merit or worthiness within us.
 

In the beginning God. In the beginning God created all things out of nothing. At the end of each day of creation God saw what He had created and said it was good. At the end of all that He created He said that it was very good, indeed all that God created was perfect. God’s demand on His creation was to remain in perfection. Well, that lasted for the first two chapters of the Bible.
 

When we get to Genesis chapter three, after God had completed His work of creation, and we move on to hear about what humans are doing, just three chapters in, and we do not know exactly how long that was, but when humans came on the scene that is when everything began to degenerate into sin. Satan, Lucifer, the light bearer who may have been one of the higher ranking angels, if I may speak as such, thought more highly of himself and rebelled against God. God cast him and his host out of heaven. Indeed the very reason God created hell was not for humans but for the devil and all his evil angels. At any rate, the Devil took the form of a serpent whom we are told was more crafty than the other animals and came tempting Eve and Adam. The devil’s temptation was to question God, His Word and the authority of His Word, much like he still does even today. Eve and Adam, being perfect and holy and only knowing good, listened to the devil, disobeyed God and brought sin and imperfection into the once perfect world.
 

Because God knew this was going to happen even before it did, and because God created humanity to love and because He loves His creatures, He immediately stepped in and promised a Savior for all His creation. He was not specific as far as time frame or events, simply His promise was that He would send One who would bring humanity back into a just and right relationship with Himself. He did not impose anything on humanity, but on Himself and His work.
 

Latter on, as God designed to bring forgiveness, He chose Abraham to be the one through whom the Savior of all would be born. Abraham did not choose God, as a matter of fact we are told how he had to put away his foreign gods and idols. God chose Abraham and promised that through his earthly line, the earthly DNA of Abraham the Savior of all people would be born. This covenant and promise came with no conditions, but was a reiteration of the promise made in Eden. God did however add certain conditional promises, earthly promises, all of which pointed to the ultimate heavenly fulfillment of His Word and as we know today promises that Israel never fulfilled, thus promises they lost.
 

Finally, at just the right time in human history God chose Mary and Joseph to be the parents of God in flesh. Notice again, it was not Mary and Joseph that chose God, but that God chose them. God chose them to be the one’s who would bring to fulfillment the promise He made in Eden and reiterated to Abraham.
 

The whole Old Testament, as well as all of history, which is the Old Testament, pointed to this moment in time, the time of the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ. The One promised was born true man, born of the woman. He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute. As we say today, you do not substitute dislike for dislike, apples for oranges, rather you substitute like for like, humans for humans, so Jesus was truly a human man.
 

Yet, not only was He truly human, He was also truly God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to be perfect, for us, because God’s demand is that we are perfect and we are not and cannot be perfect.
 

So, Jesus was truly God, born in true human flesh and blood, one hundred percent God, one hundred percent human. The fullness of the Gospel is not simply that He died for us, but that He lived for us, in our place, in perfection. All that we could not do He did, perfectly. We cannot perfectly obey the commandments, but He did, for us. Not only did He live in perfection He also fulfilled all the promises and prophecies concerning the coming Savior.
 

Jesus lived a perfect life. He was perfectly obedient, both passively and actively. He passively allowed Himself to be put on trial, convicted and crucified. He actively obeyed all God’s commands and promises perfectly.
 

After living in perfection He then, freely because of His love for us, He took our sins and the sins of all people, of all places, of all times on Himself. He suffered. He suffered the eternal spiritual death, hell for us in our place. He suffered the complete and total price for our sins, the price set in Eden. He suffered and died and paid the complete price, once and for all.
 

And Jesus died. Yes, our God died. While some people have a hard time believing and understanding that God died we might think about it the same as our dying. We have a soul that when we die the soul departs from the body and such was the case with Jesus. He is God who took on human flesh so that when He died His soul left the body. And yet, we know the whole story, death and the grave had no hold over Him as on the third day He rose from the dead.
 

What does this mean? As always, God is the prime mover. God does, God gives and we are done to and we are given to. God’s demand is perfection and we live in imperfection. Imperfection can never regain perfection in and of itself. Perfection must come from outside of us, it must come from One who is already perfect, it must come from God. In and of ourselves, when God looks at us He sees us in our imperfection.
 

We sin, God forgives. Because we are conceived and born in sin every inclination of our hearts is evil all the time. Our desire from conception is to sin. Our will has been tainted by sin so that we cannot do good nor can we will ourselves to do good. Good must come from outside of us. Forgiveness must come from outside of us.
 

God loves and we are loved. God created us to love us. God created us knowing that we would sin. God created us knowing He would have to save us. God’s great love and the mystery of God is this fact that He loves us and created us to love us even knowing our frailties.
 

While some people would espouse an attempt at perfection, or at least an attempt at trying to appease God, thinking in themselves that they might have the ability to do so, we glory in the cross of Christ. We rejoice in the God’s great love for us, a love seen in the giving of His life for ours. We rejoice in the forgiveness earned and paid for by Jesus on the cross. In the cross of Christ we glory because in the cross we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness is life and salvation.
 

The price for sin was set in Eden and that price was set at death, eternal spiritual death and physical death. Apart from Jesus, apart from Him paying the price for our sins, the sin would remain on us and we would have to pay that price. Jesus paid the price for our sin and for the sin of all people. By faith in Jesus, faith given to us by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, when God looks at us He sees Jesus’ perfection and so we are just and righteous in His sight. By faith in Jesus He has paid the price of death, eternal spiritual death, so that we have eternal spiritual life in heaven. And He has paid the price of physical death so that although we may pass on from this world, we may die in this world, that death is merely a falling asleep in the Lord, a movement from earth to heaven. In the cross of Christ I glory giving thanks for His love for us and moving us to rejoice and say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Justification in the Lord’s Supper - March 29, 2018 - Maundy Thursday - Text: Apology to Augsburg Article IV

This year during the season of Lent through to Easter Sunrise and Easter morning we are continuing our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as we did at Advent through Christmas. During Lent through Easter we are covering what is considered the most important doctrine of the Church and the Lutheran Church, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Article IV is the article on Justification and how we are made just and right in God’s eyes. Indeed, this article is the article on which the Church stands or falls, because we are saved either by ourselves, our good deeds, our obedience, and so forth or our salvation comes from outside of us, namely it comes from Jesus, who has earned and paid for our sins by His suffering and death and the cross and which He gives freely to us with out any merit or worthiness within us.
 

This evening we will fittingly address the Lord’s Supper, however, before we get to the Lord’s Supper it is most expedient that we look at the event that pointed to the Lord’s Supper and the feast that Jesus was celebrating when He gave us His Holy Supper that is that we look at the Passover celebration. The first Passover was celebrated in Egypt. The children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for some 500 years. The Lord heard their cry for deliverance and God sent Moses to bring His people out of slavery. God’s instructions were quite clear as to how He would deliver them and even following their deliverance the Lord gave specific instructions as to how to celebrate and commemorate this great event each and every year. This celebration, this commemoration continued on even to the time of Jesus and even continues in the Jewish community of today.
 

The children of Israel were given instructions to select a lamb that would be slaughtered, sacrificed and eaten. The lamb was to be a spotless lamb, one without spot or blemish. The lamb was to be as close to a perfect specimen of a lamb as possible. The lamb was then to be sacrificed for the people. Its blood was to be shed. Throughout the time of Israel, as prescribed by God in Leviticus the ceremonial laws prescribed the sacrifices which truly did nothing as far as earning or paying for sin, rather the blood sacrifices merely pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice which would be Jesus on the cross. However, that would be a future event.
 

The lamb was sacrificed, slaughtered and the blood was caught in a basin. The blood was then painted on the door post and the lintel of the house with a branch from the hyssop tree. This blood was used to mark the house, to identify the house as one in which there were the people of God, the children of Israel so that when the Lord sent the angel of death he would pass over these houses and not kill the first born child, as he would do in the land of Egypt where the houses would not be so marked.
 

The family, either one family or if it was a small family, two families were to eat the lamb. They were to completely consume the lamb so that none was left until morning. If any was to be left until the morning it was to be burned in the fire. They were to eat standing up, not reclining at the table, that is not laying down. They were to be standing ready to leave in a moments notice. This was not your regular evening meal.
 

God, through Moses is giving these instructions to His people, the children of Israel. They were to obediently follow His instructions because this was how He would deliver them from the slavery and bring them out of Egypt and ultimately guide them to the land that He would give them. They followed the Lord’s instructions and were delivered from slavery and Egypt, yet as we know their history, they continually messed up, disobeyed God, were chastened, delivered, forgiven and so on and on in their history.
 

Fast forward to the time of Jesus. The children of Israel were still celebrating this Passover celebration at the time of Jesus. Jesus began celebrating the Passover when He was yet a young boy as well. Yet, on the night in which He was betrayed, as He celebrated the Passover with His disciples, with the twelve apostles, from this very Passover meal, which pointed to Him and to this very moment in history, He takes and gives us something new, a fulfilled celebration and meal.
 

In the Passover a spotless lamb was selected, pointing to Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Indeed, the disciples had selected and slaughtered the lamb for the Passover celebration with Jesus and they had enjoyed the Passover meal. As the Passover meal continued at one point in the celebration Jesus took bread. The bread He took was the middle matzah of three that were set aside in what is called a burse, a covering with three pockets. This middle matzah had earlier been broken and half hidden. It was this hidden part that was now brought out that Jesus took blessed broke and gave to His disciples to eat.
 

In the Jewish community there is still the question of what this three sleeved burse and matzah mean. Some suggest it symbolizes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but no one is sure. Certainly we understand the three sleeved burse to mean the trinity of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We acknowledge God the Son as the middle matzah and if you have ever seen matzah bread it is pierced and has cooking stripes on it as in He was pierced for our transgressions and by His stripes we are healed. He died, was buried, hidden and rose again. It is this bread that Jesus blessed, broke and gave to His disciples with the words, “Take and eat, this is my body.” The sacrifices of the Old Testament were consumed so they became a part of the one offering the sacrifice. Jesus body is consumed so He becomes a part of His disciples and today a part of us. This is no mere symbolic or spiritual act, but this is an eating of His body as He says.
 

Jesus then took the third of four cups of wine in the Passover celebration, the cup known as the cup of Redemption. He blessed this cup and gave it to His disciples to drink with the word, “Take and drink this is my blood.” Just as the blood of the lamb marked the doorpost and lintel of the houses of the children of Israel, so the blood of Jesus became a part of Jesus’ disciples and becomes a part of us through the drinking of His blood, not as a symbol, not in a spiritual way, but in a very real way.
 

Jesus takes what He, as God had given in the very first Passover and what pointed through history to Him and He gives us what is now His Holy Supper, the Lord’s Supper. In His Supper Jesus gives us His Word and His instruction. We are to take bread and eat His body, in, with and under the bread. We are take and drink His blood, in, with and under the wine, so that He physically becomes a part of us.
 

What does this mean? The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace, a way in which God imparts and gives to us the good gifts and blessings He desires to give. Yes, these earthly things of bread and wine give to us the heavenly things of body and blood and forgiveness of sins.
    Notice Jesus words. He does not say that the bread and wine are changed into His body and blood, He does not say that the bread and wine symbolize His body and blood. He says the bread and wine are His body and blood, as He says this is my body, this is my blood. As the bread and wine are still present so is His body and blood. As one cannot eat and drink spiritually so we can not partake of Jesus spiritually. Although we may not fully comprehend what Jesus is giving so we simply believe His word and the gifts that He gives. We may try to use fancy words as an explanation, but the bottom line is that Jesus said what He said and gives what He gives and that settles it.
 

Finally, in the Lord’s Supper as well as through all God’s means of grace God gives and we are given to. God gives faith, forgiveness and life. And we are given to. As we partake of the bread and body of Christ, as we partake of the wine and blood of Christ they become a part of us. His life, His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His suffering and death becomes our suffering and death. His resurrection and life become our resurrection and life. His eternal life becomes our eternal life. This is no mere symbolic or spiritual act, this is God’s true and living gifts.
 

As we come to the Lord’s table this evening and whenever we come to His table we come with repentant hearts ready to be given the gifts the Lord has to give. The Lord is the Host and the gift. The Lord gives and does and we are given to and done to. Indeed, the Lord makes us just and right in His sight through this salutary means. We have no part except to be given to in repentance. We rejoice in this great gift from God, His Son, His body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Our response is a loud Amen and to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(An Martyr is . . . )

A martyr is defined as “a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion. A person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle a martyr to the cause of freedom” (online dictionary).

Although there are not too many martyrs in our society, there are more often self imposed martyrs. These martyrs are those who put themselves in a position, taking a position or a stance in order to be made a martyr. This martyrdom is not true martyrdom. A true martyr does not put himself/herself in the position and does not seek to be martyred.

In our own minds we may believe we would suffer martyrdom, true martyrdom, being martyred for our faith, rather than give up our faith. Perhaps we may not be so hasty in our bold proclamation. Until it should happen, we really cannot say distinctly what we would or would not do. The good news is that God has never asked us to be martyrs, at least not outright martyrs. And prayerfully we will never have to find out whether or not we would be willing to die for our faith.

Having said what we just said, the more difficult thing is to live for the Lord. Dying might be easy as in one is dead and in heaven enjoying complete perfection. Often it is more difficult living one’s faith as in living may mean persecution, pain, suffering and affliction. And God does ask us to live lives of faith, to live as priests, to offer our lives as living sacrifices in our vocations. Indeed, this living may be a more difficult task than dying.

Perhaps it is best to live, not seeking or fearing martyrdom but living a life of faith being filled with the gifts of God, being strengthened in faith through His means of grace, so that should the necessity of martyrdom presents itself, we may be ready, not only to live for the Lord, but to die for our faith as well. And finally we are convinced in our hearts that whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

10 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

Your King Comes - March 25, 2018 - Palm Sunday - Text: Isaiah 50:4-9a

It is the tradition in many of our Lutheran Churches to celebrate confirmation on this day, or as some do on Pentecost Sunday and as others do, on a certain day of the year. This year here at St. Matthew, although we do follow this tradition, today we do not have any of our young people ready for confirmation, but we will again next year, if the Lord is willing. With that said, even though today is not a celebration of confirmation, it is a day of celebration as this is the day of Palm Sunday. This is the day we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week. This day for Jesus marked the beginning of a rather long week as began His journey to the cross. This week we would do well to take the time to remember what was happening in the life of our Lord each day. To help you do that I have included in the bulletin a list of scripture readings for each day. I would encourage you to make use of this information for your daily devotions this week.
 

Our text for today is the prophecy of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We begin at verse nine, “9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.10I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth” (v. 9,10).
 

Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem begins Holy Week. Our text is a prophecy foretelling of this triumphant entry and begins by telling us that the One who is coming is the King. It does not say that He has come to be declared King. He is, already, before He comes, our one true King. Our text describes our king with four words; righteous, having salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey. Our King is righteous, there is no wrong in Him, He is true perfection. Our King is one who is having salvation. Literally this word is “victorious.” We know, even before the battle begins, our Lord will come out victorious. Our King is humble. Actually this word is more degrading than humble. Our King is lowly, poor and afflicted. He is described as being like one of the beggars we see out on I45. Of course, we do not like that type of description for our God. We would rather talk about Him simply begin humble. The reality is that He came, lowly, poor and afflicted to save sinners, us included. And our King is mounted, that is He is riding. He is riding on a donkey. The Lord’s chosen “chariot,” if you will, is humility. Our Lord, the King of Kings, has lowered Himself to the lowliest of lows.
 

Jesus comes to bring peace. He does that, not through the bearing of arms, not through the defeat of many or even any nations. He comes bringing peace through His suffering, through His blood shed on the cross, through His death. He comes to restore the broken relationship of humanity to God. He comes to undo what was done in the Garden of Eden and to undo the sins we daily commit.
 

His victory will confirm that His dominion is over all, over heaven and earth forever. His victory will be over sin, death and the devil. His victory will be a complete victory and His victory will be an eternal victory. His kingdom will have no end.
 

Our text from the Old Testament lesson proclaims what our Epistle lesson confesses. Our Epistle lesson is thought to be one of our earliest Christian creeds or at least a part of an early Christian creed. This creed confesses that we believe that Jesus gave up the glory of heaven, which was rightfully His as true God, in order to take on human flesh and blood, to become one of us.
 

This creed confesses that we believe that Jesus took on flesh and blood, that is, He became truly human. Thus, Jesus was both true God, as we confess in our creed, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and true man, again as we confess in our creed, conceived of the human woman, the virgin Mary. We know that He had to be truly God in order to be born sinless and in order to lead a sinless life and He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, in order to trade His life for ours.
 

And this creed confesses that we believe that Jesus gave His life for ours. Jesus humbled Himself, He became the lowest of low in order to give His life for ours on the cross, so that we might have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we might also have eternal life. Notice that Jesus did not come in power. Jesus had nothing to do with power, although all power was His. He gave up His glory and power to become one of us. This is where I believe we have so many problems in our society, in our families, and even in our churches and in our own church today. So many people want power. Everyone wants to know who authorized this or who authorized that. Instead of the question being, how is this helping in our mission, rather it is why am I not being consulted. We have become the new Pharisees who asked Jesus, “show us by what authority you do the things you do?” Our Epistle lesson reminds us that our attitude, instead, should be the same as Jesus’ attitude. Instead of coming in power, Jesus came to serve. Instead of asking, “who authorized,” Jesus asked, how can I serve and how can I save.
 

Our text from the Old Testament lesson also proclaims what is happening in the Gospel lesson. In the Gospel lesson we see Jesus, the sinless, righteous Son of God, on trial for our sins. We see Jesus lowering Himself to suffer for our sins so that we might have salvation. We see Jesus’ active obedience in that He fully obeyed all God’s Laws and commands perfectly, all the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, perfectly. We also see Jesus’ passive obedience as He allows Himself to be arrested, put on trial and condemned.
 

In the Gospel lesson we also see guilty, treacherous, murderous Barnabas released, as we sinners are released, because Jesus takes the blame for us. Jesus came as our substitute. He came to live for us and He did, perfectly obeying all God’s Laws and commands, including being perfect as His Father in heaven is perfect as God demands of us. He took our sins. He suffered the eternal spiritual death penalty of hell for us. He gave His life for ours. He shed His blood for us, in our place.
 

In the Gospel lesson we see that Jesus is the Son of God. We hear the witnesses confess that they believe He is the Son of God. We see the curtain in the temple tear in two from top to bottom as our Lord, through Jesus’ death, removed the barrier that was between He and the people, the barrier that we have put up with our sins.
 

Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of what we call Holy Week. For the past six weeks we have been in the Lenten season being reminded that it was because of God’s great love for us, and because of our sins, that Jesus came to live, suffer, die and rise for us. This week we move toward the finale, if you will. On Thursday we celebrate Maundy Thursday, the day our Lord celebrated His last earthly Passover with His disciples and from that Passover celebration He gave to us a new celebration, His Holy Supper. Just as the lamb was slaughtered and the blood covered the doors of the Children of Israel as they prepared to be delivered from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, so Jesus is the Lamb of God who offered Himself to be slaughtered on the cross so that we might be covered by His blood so that we might be delivered from our bondage of slavery to sin. And just as the Children of Israel ate the lamb so that it was a part of them, so too, we eat the body of Christ, the Lamb of God in His Holy Supper so that He might be a part of us.
 

On Friday of this week we will be reminded again of our sin and our part in putting Jesus on the cross. We will hear of Jesus’ suffering and death as we have our Tenabrae Service, our service of darkness. As is our custom we will carry the cross down to the cemetery and then we will wait. We will wait through Holy Saturday and prepare ourselves to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday morning. Indeed, we continue to worship on Sunday because Jesus rose on Sunday and so every Sunday for us is a mini Easter celebration. I would encourage you to take the time during this Holy Week to slow down and contemplate all the events that are taking place. Traditionally Holy Week was a week without other distractions, meetings, and the like so that we could contemplate Jesus love for us. Again, I would encourage you to do the same.
 

So, today we celebrate Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where He came to give His life for ours, to pay the price for our sins so that we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we know we have life and salvation. Thursday we celebrate Jesus’ gift of His body and blood in His Holy Supper. Friday we are reminded of God’s love for us in the giving of His Son and His Son’s life for ours. Our response of faith is simply to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Apology to Augsburg, Article IV. Justification, Part 5 - Role of Love (Good Works) - March 21, 2018 - Lenten Midweek 6 - Text: Apology to Augsburg Article IV

This year during the season of Lent through to Easter Sunrise and Easter morning we are continuing our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as we did at Advent through Christmas. During Lent through Easter we are covering what is considered the most important doctrine of the Church and the Lutheran Church, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Article IV is the article on Justification and how we are made just and right in God’s eyes. Indeed, this article is the article on which the Church stands or falls, because we are saved either by ourselves, our good deeds, our obedience, and so forth or our salvation comes from outside of us, namely it comes from Jesus, who has earned and paid for our sins by His suffering and death and the cross and which He gives freely to us with out any merit or worthiness within us.
 

We believe, teach and confess that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone. We are saved not by works but by grace. So, what role do works play in the life of a Christian? And what are good works? How do we define works of faith? As we have said, there are those who believe that a person is saved by faith and good works, that is that some actually state that a person must do good works in order to be saved.
 

On the other hand, as we have said, there are some who state that they believe that a person is saved by grace through faith but then they inadvertently, or on purpose add works as a condition when they say, “and all you gotta do is” and then fill in the blank, in order to be saved. These two beliefs are the same because anytime anyone adds anything to faith alone it is no longer the faith alone that saves. Certainly God does not do fractions nor math, indeed, He always gives the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more. Yet, we can use a mathematical equation to understand grace alone is zero plus anything is always the anything. Thus grace plus anything is always the anything. Grace is zero and to remain zero, nothing can be added.
 

The problem with either of these two belief systems is that good works are added before faith or with faith meaning that something is added that need not, should not, and cannot be added. So what is the role of faith, love and good works?
 

Now you just heard me equate good works and love and indeed good works are the action of love. The reformers talked about the role of love. The role of love is not necessarily an inborn response or reaction, rather it is often a learned action. Indeed, the role of love is saying “Thank you” which we know is something that we must all be taught because saying “Thank you” does not come natural to any of us. You remember how it was as a child, you would be given a gift and your mother would prod you, “What do you say?” “Thank you.”
 

To say “Thank you” is a response. It is not a have to because the giver does not expect or at least a true giver does not and should not expect something in return, even a “Thank you.” To expect something in return removes the gift from being gift and makes it something to be earned, merited or deserved. However, on the part of the one being given to, a response of thanks is something that is learned and spoken.
 

When it comes to God. God gives and what is our response? Is our response an attempt to repay Him? Is our response a condition we put on ourselves thinking we must do something to earn what God has given because we simply are not in any position to be given His favor?
 

When God gives our response is simply that a response, a thank you. Our “Thank You” may indeed come in the words of a prayer of thanks which wells up inside of us because we know we are undeserving and yet we rejoice in God’s great love for us and we cannot help but thank Him. Our response of thanks may indeed be a joyous response of a change of life, behavior, and love. Whatever our response is, it is just that, a response, not based on any condition, but based on an outflow of love to the one who is giving to us. Indeed, it is simply a reflection back to the One who first loves us, so we reflect His love back to Him.
 

As a Christian, being forgiven, being saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, faith that is given to us, in Jesus alone, our desire, moved and stirred in us by the Holy Spirit is to live a life of love. Remember, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We love God because He first loved us. It is very much like the sun and the moon. The moon has no light of its on but merely reflects the light of the sun. We have no love of our own we merely reflect the love of the Son of God. Our lives of faith and love are simply a response, a reaction, a get too and cannot help ourselves because of God’s great love for us. As God loves us so we love Him. Thus, we know that it is always from Him to us and then back to Him.
 

God loves us and we love God and He stirs in us to love our neighbor even to love our neighbor as ourselves. What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all you mind. And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27). We cannot love our neighbor except that God first loves us and as He loves us we reflect His love to our neighbor. Indeed, if we are not loving our neighbor perhaps it is because we are rejecting God’s love for us.
 

God loves us, we love God and we love our neighbor. Indeed, we love God by loving others. As we talk about the various vocation we serve in life, we know that we serve God by serving others. In the same way we love God by loving others.
 

What does this mean? God is the prime mover, He acts first. We do nothing except that God does first. We see God as the prime mover in that He is the one who created all things out of nothing. God created. God gives. God created us and He created us to love us. Our purpose in life is first and foremost to be loved by God. As He loves us so we cannot help but overflow and love Him and others. The opposite would also be true, that is that we do not love others and we do not love God as we refuse and reject the good gifts and blessings He has to give. Quite assuredly we may assess the lives of those around us as we look at how others live. Does one live in love toward their neighbor and God or in fits of not love toward others and God? As we understand that the desire of a person having faith is to be loved by God, to be where the gifts of God are being given out, and to love God and others we might well surmise that those who refuse and reject the gifts of God are indeed rejecting God’s love.
 

As we have said before, when it comes to our salvation, our justification we do nothing in and of ourselves. It is God who makes us right with Himself. And yes, even when it comes to our sanctification, to our good works, to our love, we do nothing in and of ourselves as well. It is God who loves us and stirs in us to love in return.
 

As always we are reminded that God gives and we are given to. God gives us life at conception, new life through the waters of Holy Baptism, forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution, strengthening of faith and forgiveness through His Holy Word and His Holy Supper. God loves us, He gives to us, He does for us.
 

And God stirs in us a response of faith. We love because He first loves us. We do because He first does for us. God gets the credit and the glory. When we mess up it is our fault. When we get it right it is because God gets it right in us. Thanks be to God.
 

The role of love, of good works is always a role of response and reaction, a role of reflection and gratitude. There are no conditions on God’s love and forgiveness. Even so, our desire, the desire stirred in us by the Holy Spirit, working through the means of grace is to rejoice and give thanks and praise to God through our thoughts, our words and our actions, giving praise and glory to His Holy Name, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(An Evangelist is . . . )

The word evangelist comes from the word evangelism. Whereas evangelism is the system, practice or philosophy so to speak, an evangelist is one who participates in or practices the system. In other words, an evangelist is one who evangelizes. But we still have not answered the question of what is an evangelist.

The word evangelism simply means sharing the good news and in particular the good news of Jesus. An evangelist is one who shares the good news of Jesus.

It is said that 90% of people are witnesses and only about 10% are truly evangelists. Whoever said that must have been attempting to make those who fail to share the good news feel good about themselves because the Bible tells us that we are all witnesses and we are all truly evangelists. It is just that sometimes we are not good evangelists.

When we understand that a witness is one who sees (an eyewitness) and then bears witness of what they saw (perhaps in a court of law), and when we understand that with the eyes of faith we see Jesus in His Word and Sacraments and then bear witness of what we see in our lives through our thoughts, our words and our actions, we then truly understand we are all witnesses and evangelists.

But again, very often we are bad witnesses and evangelists especially when we refuse and reject seeing Jesus by absenting ourselves from where He is, reading our Bible, attending Divine Service and so on and when our lives are lived in a way that is not in line with what we see in our Bible. Thanks be to God there is forgiveness, and very often our Lord can and does work even in spite of us and through our poor witnessing efforts.

You are a witness and you are an evangelist, not necessarily only by what you say, but by what you do, how you live, and as you are asked and as you are given the words to speak, by what you say. The rest, the giving of faith is not your work, but that of the Holy Spirit. So, after giving our witness through our words and actions of evangelism, we leave the rest to the Lord.

9 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

The Time Is Coming - March 18, 2018 - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Only fourteen more days until Easter. Only seven more days until Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. And for those of you who are counting, there are only 282 more days until Christmas. We are people who like to count. We like to have count downs for days. We like to have count downs as we look forward to some big event. If you are graduating from Jr. High, from High School, from College, if you are getting married, or if you are having a baby, you like to count down the days until the big event. Counting days is a natural thing to do as we look forward to something. Even in the Bible, in our text for today, Jeremiah is counting down. He says that “the days are coming.”
 

Jeremiah’s count down is for the making of a New Covenant. We read beginning at verse thirty-one, “31Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord” (v.31-32).
 

Our text says that the “the days” are coming. The days that are coming are the days of the making of a new covenant, the days of the sending of a Savior, and the days of eternity. This is a text that is looking forward to the beginning of the end of the world and the beginning of life in eternity, in heaven.
 

Our text tells us that there will be a new covenant. For there to be a new covenant means there must have been an Old Covenant. Why do we need a new covenant? What happened to the Old Covenant? Is this a different covenant? And if it is a different covenant, how is it different? We need a new covenant because the children of Israel were disobedient to the old covenant. The old covenant was a covenant initiated by God and was based on faith, faith that a Savior would come. The old covenant was a covenant that God would be the God of the children of Israel and they would be His people. Unfortunately, the children of Israel gave up their covenant by running after other gods who were not God. God did not break the old covenant, the children of Israel broke the old covenant, so that it was no longer in effect, at least the earthly part of the covenant, the part about an earthly land and property.
 

The new covenant is very similar to the old covenant, because it is also a covenant based on faith. The old covenant looked forward to the sending of a Savior and was based on faith that He would come. The new covenant is looking back at Jesus and faith that Jesus is the Savior who did come. The new covenant is based on faith that Jesus is our Savior. Just as the old covenant was initiated by God, so this new covenant was also initiated by God. God sent His Son to be our Savior. At our baptism we were made a part of this new covenant. The question we might ask ourselves today is: Are we any different from the children of Israel? Are we faithful to the Lord, or are we disobedient and do we go running after other gods that are not God?
 

Our text continues with a description of the New Covenant. We pick up at verse thirty-three, “33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (v.33-34).
 

The Lord, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah tells the people that “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” He will do this instead of setting it before them externally, instead of merely presenting it in writing through inscribing it on some durable stone, like He did the first covenant. This writing the covenant on their hearts will distinguish this new covenant from the old covenant. But a bit more subtly, the Lord is reminding us that for change to take place, it must take place in the heart.
 

Note that this new covenant is very much like the old covenant. God tells us that He will be our God and we will be His people. As always, God is the initiator, God is the giver and we are the given to. Both covenants are based on faith. The first covenant was based on faith that God would fulfill His promise and send a Savior. The new covenant is also based on faith, not faith in a coming Messiah, but faith that Jesus is the Messiah promised by God.
 

We noted earlier that this is a text which talks about the last days. As we approach the last days our text tells us that no longer will there be a need to tell others about the Lord. This is because the Lord will so fully do His work that all people will know Him. This does not mean that we are off the hook when it comes to personal evangelism and witnessing. Our text is referencing first, the fact that the Gentiles will more readily hear the message of the Lord and second that there will be an abundance of the Word of the Lord. This is where we understand that to know and experience the grace of God implies that God’s gracious will in Christ Jesus has already been proclaimed. In other words, there will be no need to tell others about Jesus because they will know about Him by the very fact that we will be living as witnesses of the faith that is in our hearts.
 

All of this takes place because the basis for the new covenant is the forgiveness of sins. Last week we were reminded that God did not take the venomous snakes from the children of Israel when He gave them a cure. This week we notice that, this side of heaven, we will not be sinless, but we will be forgiven. Only when we reach heaven will we be forgiven and then sinless for eternity.
 

Why did God need to give a New Covenant? God needed to give a new covenant because of the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel. God needed to give a new covenant because the children of Israel broke His first covenant. God gives us this new covenant because of our unfaithfulness. The children of Israel could not live up to the demands of the law and neither can we live up to the demands of the Law.
 

This new covenant came about as a consequence of God’s faithfulness. God knew we would never be able to live up to the demands of the law so He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to be born as one of us, truly human, truly divine. Jesus fulfilled all the Law perfectly for us, in our place. Jesus lived up to the demands of the Law for us. Jesus fulfilled all the promises and prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, perfectly. Jesus obeyed God perfectly which is His demand, “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” because we cannot.
 

Now I want to take a moment to summarize the differences and similarities of these two covenants, to make sure we understand the differences and similarities. Both covenants were instituted by God. As always we see that God gives and we are given to. Both covenants save by faith. The old covenant looked forward to the coming of a Savior, the new covenant looks back at the Savior who came.
 

The old covenant was filled with ceremonial laws that demanded sacrifices, daily sacrifices. These sacrifices did nothing except remind the people of the price for sin, that blood must be shed for their sins. In the new covenant we see that Jesus has fulfilled all the ceremonial laws because He was the sacrifice, the once for all sacrifice. Jesus gave His life, once for all, on the cross for our forgiveness.
 

The old covenant was written on stone tables. The new covenant is written in our hearts through the means of Grace, the Word and the sacraments, through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. The new covenant is written in our hearts when we are baptized or when the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the means of the Word.
 

Both covenants were given by God’s grace. We had nothing to do with initiating, keeping, or completing the covenants. They were initiated, kept and completed by God for all people of all times of all places.
 

Our text for today is quoted in Hebrews chapter eight. In the footnote in my self-study Bible it makes this interesting note about this passage in comparing the two covenants. About the new covenant it says, “Its superior benefits are:(1) God’s laws will become inner principles (v.10a) that enable his people to delight in doing his will (cf. Eze 36:26-27; Ro 8:2-4); (2) God and his people will have intimate fellowship (v. 10b); (3) sinful ignorance of God will be removed forever (v. 11); and (4) forgiveness of sins will be an everlasting reality (v. 12).”
 

And one final note concerning the time of this new covenant. Jesus birth ushered in the new covenant and the end times. We are living in the last days of this world. Yes, God waited some four thousand years from creation and Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and His promise to send a Savior, for the sending of Jesus as the Savior. That does not necessarily mean that He will wait some four thousand years until He comes again. So far we have waited about two thousand years. We may wait another two thousand years, but perhaps not. The point is, we are living in the end times and we need to be ready at all times for His return.
 

So, as we approach the end of our Lenten Season we continue to be reminded that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. We are also reminded that no matter how unfaithful we are, God is faithful to His promises and because He is faithful He has established His new covenant with us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, the new covenant is not based on us and what we do or do not do, rather it is based on Jesus and what He has done, does and will continue to do for us. We continue our Lenten Season in solemn preparation as we continue to contemplate our part in putting Jesus on the cross and the fact that it was because of us and our sin that Jesus came to die on the cross, to shed His blood, to give His life, because of His great love for us. We are also reminded that death and the grave have no power over Him, but He rose victorious over sin, death and the devil and even now as we move through this Lenten Season we look forward to our joyful Easter celebration and Easter season. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Apology to Augsburg, Article IV. Justification, Part 4 - Forgiveness by Faith - March 14, 2018 - Lenten Midweek 5 - Text: Apology to Augsburg Article IV

This year during the season of Lent through to Easter Sunrise and Easter morning we are continuing our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as we did at Advent through Christmas. During Lent through Easter we are covering what is considered the most important doctrine of the Church and the Lutheran Church, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Article IV is the article on Justification and how we are made just and right in God’s eyes. Indeed, this article is the article on which the Church stands or falls, because we are saved either by ourselves, our good deeds, our obedience, and so forth or our salvation comes from outside of us, namely it comes from Jesus, who has earned and paid for our sins by His suffering and death and the cross and which He gives freely to us with out any merit or worthiness within us.

Today we take up the most important issue of forgiveness of sins. Indeed, forgiveness of sins is our greatest need because without forgiveness our sins would remain on us and we would be eternally condemned, but as we know with forgiveness is life and salvation. So, what is our situation in which we find ourselves in need of such forgiveness. We need forgiveness because we are conceived and born in sin. Sin is in our DNA, it is in our genes, it has infected our entire being. As David reminds us, we are conceived and born in sin. We are born selfish, rotten to the core sinners. We are born spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God, every intention of our being is evil all the time.

Because we are conceived in sin, because sin permeates our genes, it has also affected our will, our physical, spiritual and mental will. Our will has been so tainted by sins that all we truly can do is reject the gifts God has to give and that is exactly what we do. This total rejection can be seen on any given Sunday when, in our own congregation, in congregations across the country and even across the world more than fifty percent of the population refuses and rejects the gifts of God by absenting themselves from the Divine Service. And yes, that is what absence from Divine Service truly is, refusing and rejecting the gifts of God. Could you imagine anyone refusing bodily food? Yet we do not seem to have a problem rejecting the most important spiritual food.

Our nature is sin. We are conceived and born in sin. Sin permeates our DNA. Sin affects our will so that our will is in contradiction to God. How then are we to come to any type of reconciliation? How can we be brought back into a right relationship with God, a relationship in which we are pleasing in God’s eyes.

God’s demand on us is that we are perfect. “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). As we have seen, we are far from perfect. So how do we restore our perfection? For some the thought and what is taught and believed by some, even by many people, is that forgiveness is something that must be earned. It is thought by many that one must work off one’s sins. A person must do so much good to counter the sins one commits. The two extremes, if you will, are the teaching that one is saved by faith and works and the other is that one is saved by grace and obedience, which is truly another way of saying the same thing, even though it is denied that this is the same thing. After all, what is obedience except a personal work.

It is thought by some that one must pay a price for one’s sins, that is that one must suffer while living in this world for the sins they commit. This misunderstanding of forgiveness always points to self. When we point to ourselves for paying the price for sin the accusation then is for what reason did Jesus die on the cross. Was Jesus’ suffering and death not enough, so that more needs to be done? This teaching obviously contradicts Jesus’ Word that His sacrifice was once and for all.

It is thought by some that forgiveness is a do-it-yourself job. Do a good deed, plant a tree, help a friend, say a prayer, give a token, even purchase an indulgences and the sin is covered. Perhaps we would do well to be reminded that the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden and the price was death, physical death for sure and apart from Jesus, eternal spiritual death, or hell. Thus, any token offered on our part simply is not enough, only our blood would be enough.

Indeed, none of these options brings any certainty of forgiveness because there is always the question, how much good counteracts how much evil? Personally, if I were to buy into this system of forgiveness I would want a chart so I could match up my sins with my good deeds to see if I had done enough. And quite frankly, one trip through the Ten Commandments would easily remind us that we are always in arrears when it comes to reconciling our account with God. We always owe.

The good news is there is true forgiveness. True forgiveness must and does come from outside of us. Just as a drowning person cannot save themself so we cannot do enough, pay enough, pray enough, and so on to work off the price of death for our sins.

Not only must our forgiveness come from outside of us, it must also come from someone who does not owe. How can one person pay for the sins of another when they owe for their own sins? Before I can offer to pay for your sins I am liable to pay for my own sins, and I cannot even pay for my own.

The answer is in Jesus. Jesus is true God and He had to be true God in order to be born without sin. Jesus is perfect. Jesus has no sin. Jesus owes nothing for sin because He is perfect and holy. Jesus had to be God in order to be perfect and holy. As God He was and is perfect and holy as well as all powerful and in heaven being given all glory, yet He gave up the glory of heaven as well as much of His power so that while He was on earth He did not use His Divine power to its full extent.

Not only is Jesus truly God He is also truly human. Jesus had to be a human in order to be our substitute. Just as in making comparisons and just as making trades, one must trade like for like, as in apples for apples and oranges for oranges. Jesus had to be a human being in order to trade His perfection for our imperfection. If He were not a human He would not be able to trade His life for ours. The good news is that Jesus was born as a man, as we confess being conceived of a woman, and yet He was still God, again as we confess being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus was truly God and truly human, and it is not that He was half God and half man, rather He was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man. Jesus was born in perfection and lived a perfect life never sinning even once. The fullness of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a perfect life for us in our place because we cannot. Jesus perfectly obeyed all God’s Laws and commands perfectly for us because we could not and cannot. Jesus fulfilled all God’s promises, all His prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Christ. Jesus then took all our sins as well as the sins of all people of all places of all times upon Himself. He suffered the complete punishment of hell for all sins and He died. He paid the price set in Eden for all sins. Yet He did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead defeating sin, death and the devil.

What does this mean? As we have used this illustration many times so we bring it up again, just as a drowning person cannot save themself, so we can do nothing to gain forgiveness for ourselves. As a matter of fact when we offer our seeming good works before God as an offering for our sins, Isaiah reminds us that our good works before God are seen as filthy rags. Yet, by faith in Jesus, faith that He gives to us through His means of grace, His life, His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His perfect death and resurrection becomes our perfect death and resurrection. His eternal life becomes our eternal life. By faith in Jesus He robes us with His robes of perfect righteousness so that when God looks at us He sees our perfection and He is satisfied.

As always we get it right when we point to Jesus. And we do point to Jesus. Jesus forgives us because He paid the price for our sin and He gives the forgiveness to us without any merit or worthiness within us. Thus we rightly say that Jesus saves us.

Again we are reminded, it all comes from outside so we have this certainty, sins forgiven, eternal life given. We can never be certain of ourselves, that we have done enough, prayed enough, anything enough, but we can be certain that what Jesus did was enough, because He did it.

As we confess quite boldly in the explanation of the second article of the Apostles’ creed, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,  that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness,  just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.” To God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Lutheran Difference in Justification)

Justification is the heart and soul of Christianity. Justification means to be made just and right in God’s eyes. When we acknowledge that we are “brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5), that “every intention of the thoughts of [our] heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5), that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), indeed that we are truly sinful human beings, we then realize there is nothing within us of redeeming value. Just as a drowning person cannot save himself or he would not be drowning, just as a dying person cannot save himself or he would not be dying, just as we did not choose to be born, so we do nothing to justify ourselves before God.

If we were to attempt to put forth any merit on our own part as Paul so well reminds us (Rom. 7:21ff), if we attempt to justify ourselves by keeping the Law, such as being obedient (James 2:10), we then would be held accountable for keeping the whole law. After the fall into sin, the world was cursed. Adam and Eve no longer knew only good; now they knew good and evil, so their and the will of all has been tainted so that our will is truly at odds with God. Our will is only to do what is evil. As Paul reminds us, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).

Our right standing before God does not come from ourselves as we are not and cannot be the people He would have us to be. If we could be the people He would have us to be, then we would have no need of Him. What a fool we claim Jesus to be for sacrificing Himself when we point to ourselves for any iota of our own justification and salvation.

Justification is all Jesus. The fullness of the Gospel is that Jesus did what He did for us in our place as our substitute. Jesus lived the perfect life demanded of us, for us, in our place making us just and right in God’s eyes. This is Justification, and this God freely gives to us because it is His to give. We do not get it as if we “get saved,” nor do we claim it as if it is our claim. Rather it is given to us from the One whose it is and Who can give it to us.

8 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

Look at the Cross and Live - March 11, 2018 - Fourth Sunday in Lent - Text: Numbers 21:4-9

Paul got it right when he said, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). At first we might think that Paul had our same Bible readings and was preaching on the texts that we have before us today when he said those words. Our Old Testament text reminds us that sin earns death for us and the Gospel lesson, which is Jesus explanation of the Old Testament Lesson, reminds us that Jesus has earned eternal life for us by giving His life for ours on the cross. The background of our text is that the children of Israel had been delivered from slavery in Egypt and it would appear that their question now is, “what have you done for me lately, God?” Our text begins at verse four, “4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way” (v.4). I guess this is the spot where we can relate to the children of Israel. How often do we find ourselves growing impatient with our Lord as we go through life. How often do we find ourselves saying, “yes, God has been with me and blessed me to this point in my life; yes, Jesus did die on the cross for my sins; yes, I know that heaven is mine, but what have you done for me lately, God?”
 

The impatience of the children of Israel leads to their complaint. We read verse five, “5And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food’” (v.5). Things are not what they want them to be so they reminisce about the “good old days” in Egypt. They ask the question, “Why have you brought us here, to die?” It was not that long ago that they were complaining about how bad it was in Egypt and wondering why God would not deliver them from their slavery in Egypt. How quickly their hearts have changed.
 

Really, they are no different than we are today. Their impatience brought on an exaggeration of the circumstances in much the same way as our impatience brings similar exaggerations of our own circumstances today. They said, we have no food, but then they clarify that and said, we detest this miserable food. They had food. The Lord provided them daily with manna from heaven. They had food, they had enough food and they had food that was good for them. God provides according to His promise to give us all that we need.
 

They cried, we have no water. They had forgotten that the Lord was continually providing them with all that they needed, food to eat and water to drink. It is like a child standing in front of a full refrigerator with the door wide open and saying, “I can’t find anything to eat.” Or like a child with a closet full of games, a computer loaded with games, video games, personal video games, a back yard full of toys and saying, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do.”
 

Their complaint leads to their punishment and their plea for help. We read verses six and seven, “6Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people” (v.6-7). Paul is right, the wages of sin is death. The children of Israel complained against Moses, the Lord’s chosen leader and actually then their complaint was not just against Moses, but their complaint was against the Lord Himself. Their sinful complaint earned for them the wages of poisonous snakes which bit the people and killed them. Here we are reminded that although, by faith in Jesus we will never have to suffer the eternal punishment for our sins, there may be times when we will have to suffer some temporal punishment, that is we may have to suffer the earthly consequences for our sins. And what is more, we may even have to suffer the temporal punishment, the consequences, not just for our own sin, but for the sins of society in general. It is like the child who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. He is suffering, not from His own sin, but for the sin of society.
 

Suffering the consequences for their sin, the children of Israel immediately turn and beg for forgiveness. It is amazing how quickly the consequences of our actions can make us change our tune. They come to Moses and ask that He go to the Lord and pray for them, that He be their mediator. Really, there is nothing like being punished to make you realize that you are doing wrong.
 

So Moses prayed for the people. Can we find a more righteous man than Moses? He was spoken against and yet he still intercedes for the people to ask for their forgiveness. Most of us would want to tell the people, “too bad.” Most of us would rejoice that the people were getting what we believed they had coming to them. Not Moses. Moses was a righteous man, even if the people did not recognize this fact.
 

We said Paul got it right. John got it right too. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8,9). The people confessed and God sent a cure. The cure God sent is what we call a type of Christ. We read verses eight and nine, “8And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ 9So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (v. 8-9).
 

The first thing we notice is that the snake killed. This reminds us that we are born in sin and literally, left to ourselves we would kill ourselves. We are born spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. By ourselves we are left in sin and cannot be saved.
 

Next we notice that God did not remove the snakes from the people. God does not remove sin and temptation from our world. Instead, God sent a Savior. God told Moses to put up an image of the snake which reminds us that Christ came as one of us, yet He came without sin.
 

Next, we see the image on the pole. Moses was to put a bronze image of the snake on the pole so that when anyone was bit, if they looked at the pole and believed, they would not die. Likewise, Jesus Christ died on the cross and when we look to the cross and believe, we will not die an eternal spiritual death.
 

Finally, notice the importance of faith in each situation. Faith is to acknowledge sin and be given forgiveness. Faith is a gift from God. Faith is that thing which God gives to us to use to grasp all the other gifts and blessings that He has to give to us.
 

This scenario that we see in the lives of the children of Israel is the same scenario that we see in our own lives on a daily basis. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. Last week we our text was the Ten Commandments. As we worked our way through the Ten Commandments we were reminded, not if we sin, but how often we daily sin. We daily become impatient and speak against others, against those in authority over us, against our pastor, and against God. We sin in thought, word and deed. Sin begins in our eye, in our thought, in our mind, as we envy, covet, lust and think evil of others. Sin finds its way to our lips as we speak evil of others, as we fail to put the best explanation on everything, as we speak hurtful and hateful words and as we fail to encourage and build each other up as brothers and sisters in Christ. And sin is acted out as we hurt and harm others through actually inflicting bodily harm or by not helping in any way we might be able to help.
 

Daily we sin much and are in need of forgiveness and just as daily we seek forgiveness. We hear God’s Word of Law which reminds us that the wages of sin is death, physical death and eternal spiritual death. We hear God’s Word which reminds us that we are guilty and are in need of forgiveness. In our Epistle lesson for this morning Paul reminds us that we are dead in the trespasses and sin in which we once walked. He reminds us that we are children of disobedience.
 

Thanks be to God that we also hear God’s Word of Gospel which reminds us that our Lord is ready and waiting to forgive us ours sins and even more, He is continually working through the power of the Holy Spirit to move in us to repent and be given forgiveness. Again, Paul reminds us, “4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7). In our Gospel lesson Jesus reminds us, “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).
 

Daily we look to the cross. Our cross is one of the main focal points in our church. The cross is where we point people. Look at it. It is here to remind us that Jesus took our place on the cross. It is here to remind us that Jesus gave His life for ours on the cross. It is here to remind us that Jesus shed His blood for ours on the cross. The cross reminds us that the price for sin is death, is blood and that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and no salvation. Today our cross reminds us of the cross with the bronze serpent in the desert and how as the children of Israel looked to the cross and believed, they did not die. So, too, with us, as we look to the cross and believe, we too will never die. Because Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place as one of us. Because Jesus took our sins upon Himself. Because Jesus shed His blood. Because Jesus paid the price for our sins, we have forgiveness and with forgiveness we have life and salvation.
 

I would like to leave you with Jesus words from the Gospel lesson as He talks about our text. Jesus says, “14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God” (John 3:14-18). To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Apology to Augsburg, Article IV. Justification, Part 3 - Justifying Faith - March 7, 2018 - Lenten Midweek 4 - Text: Apology to Augsburg Article IV

This year during the season of Lent through to Easter Sunrise and Easter morning we are continuing our celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation as we did at Advent through Christmas. During Lent through Easter we are covering what is considered the most important doctrine of the Church and the Lutheran Church, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Article IV is the article on Justification and how we are made just and right in God’s eyes. Indeed, this article is the article on which the Church stands or falls, because we are saved either by ourselves, our good deeds, our obedience, and so forth or our salvation comes from outside of us, namely it comes from Jesus, who has earned and paid for our sins by His suffering and death and the cross and which He gives freely to us with out any merit or worthiness within us.
 

We believe, teach and confess that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. So, what is this faith through which we are saved? Faith may be understood in different ways. Faith may be understood as head knowledge, that is simply knowing something. I believe, I have faith, I know the sky is blue. One example of such faith is that of the Pharisees, Scribes, Teachers of the Law, Sadducees, and so forth. These people had faith in the Bible, they knew their Bible, at least the laws of the Bible, but they did not have saving faith. The faith they possessed was that they knew the content of their Bible. They knew the Laws and the commands of God. They may not have believed or trusted in the Word of God but they knew it.
 

Another example of such head knowledge faith is that of the Devil. Of all creatures the Devil knows the Bible probably better than you and me. You might recall that at the temptation of Jesus the Devil was quoting bits and pieces of the Bible in an attempt to tempt Jesus. Of course we know that he was not so much quoting the Bible as he was taking passages out of context and misquoting the Bible. Thanks be to God that Jesus knows His Bible better than Satan, after all, He is the author.
 

Certainly we might understand that we have such head knowledge type faith as well and that is not a bad thing. It is good, mete, right and salutary that we know the history and facts of the Bible. It is good that we know the history of the Bible, not as stories, but has history. Certainly Biblical knowledge is important but we must understand that simple Biblical knowledge, simple head knowledge of the Bible is not saving faith.
 

Another type of faith is a faith of emotion, a good feeling that I am saved. One of the tactics of the revivalist movement was to stir one’s emotions so that one might have a spiritual awakening brought on by sorrow for sin, confession and a decision for Jesus. We might call this an experiential faith, that is a faith of experience, but to be sure this is not necessarily saving faith.
 

A similar experience might be had when one attends a rather moving emotional or spiritual weekend conference. We might have what has been called a mountain top experience, an experience in which one might feel exceptionally close to God for the weekend. The trouble with this emotional type faith is that one day I might feel saved and the next day I might not, so does that mean I am saved today and not the next. Jesus addressed this type of faith in His parable of the sower and the seeds. Jesus expressed this emotional faith as the seed that sprang up immediately, but the cares and concerns of the world choked it out. Certainly one attending an emotional weekend gathering understands the descent from the mountain after the weekend and the temptation to loose what was gain. The same is true for the emotional revival, or experiential faith.
 

Faith that is saving faith is faith that is complete faith. Faith that is saving faith is faith that is complete trust, head and heart trust. Indeed, we know in our head and we trust in our heart that Jesus lived for us, took our sins, suffered and died for us and rose again from the dead. As we learn in the great love chapter of First Corinthians Thirteen, these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. With that statement in First Corinthians we understand that faith is what is based on the past, on actual events, as in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Hope is based on the future, our certainty of heaven. Indeed, our hope as Christians is not a wishy-washy hope, but a certainty. And love is based on the present, understanding that love flows out of faith.
 

Faith may also be described as an instrument and a gift. Faith is that thing that God gives and that thing that takes hold of and makes the rest of the gifts of God ours. When God gives He gives the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more. God does not do fractions. He does not say, “I will give you some of my gifts now and some later.” No, He gives us all of His gifts and then showers us with even more. You have heard me describe faith in this way, it is like your friend giving you ice cream. He does not say stick out your hand and then plop it down in your hand. No, he gives you the ice cream in a bowl and a spoon to use to move the ice cream from the bowl to your mouth. And so it is with God. He gives us all the gifts and blessings He has to give and the faith to take hold of those blessing to make them yours. The faith is the spoon that is the instrument to take hold of those blessings.
 

What does this mean? Faith is not something one gets or claims, you know how your friends talk about the time they got saved. One does not get saved or get faith as the saying might go. Faith is not something one gets rather faith is a gift that is given with no work or merit from the one being given the faith. For one being given faith to claim any part in gaining the gift would mean it is no longer a gift but a merit. Kind of like a drowning persons suggesting they helped in saving themself. The only way a drowning person can save themself is if they were not drowning in the first place. Or to claim faith would be like you giving someone a thoughtful gift or present and then that person holding it up and announcing, “Look what I got for myself.” Faith is gift given through the means that God has of giving it, His means of grace.
 

For faith to be a gift it must come from outside oneself. One does not give oneself a gift. Certainly we have heard of people giving themselves a gift, but that is truly not a gift for one has purchased, earned or merited that which they have given themself. Faith is gift that comes from God, or better said, from the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, either Holy Baptism or the Word of God. And that faith is also strengthened through the means of grace as well, through our Baptism remembrance, through confession and absolution, through the word of God and through the Lord’s Supper. Indeed, just as an apple seed cannot plant itself in the ground so one cannot plant faith in their own heart it must be planted by an outside source, by God Himself.
 

And as we said, faith is gift which is also instrument. Faith is that instrument, that spoon which takes the gifts of God that He gives and makes them ours. Yet all the while we continue to point to God as the one doing the doing and doing the giving. God is the prime mover. God does and gives and we are done to and given to.
 

Indeed, our confidence is in God’s giving and doing. Certainly we might like to think of ourselves as big people, doing it ourselves. We may even like to think that we are good people, that we are good enough, that we have been obedient, that we have made a decision for Jesus, that we have made Him the Lord of our life, but can we truly be sure of ourselves. Can we be sure that we were obedient enough, that we made a sincere decision, that we have enough faith or the right faith. I do not know about you, but I cannot depend on my self, on my own reason or strength. I can only be certain and I am most certain when God is the one in control, doing the doing. When I profess that God gives and we are given to in this I have the most confidence.
 

When it comes to faith, saving faith, the explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ creed sums it up best, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason our strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.” To God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Where Do You Get Your Answer?)

So, Peter tells us to “always be(ing) prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:5). How is it that we prepare ourselves? Where do we get the reason, the answer, the defense for the hope that is in us?

We get the answer from God. Jesus tells us, “And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit that will give you the words to say so that it is the Lord who is speaking and not you. But again, where does the Holy Spirit get the words He speaks through you?

There is no such thing as a coincidence; it is just God’s unseen hand in our lives. Have you ever noticed that the question you were asked had its answer in the devotion you read that morning? Coincidence? No, the hand of God gives you the answer He will speak through you at the right time.

Thus, we see the importance of being in the Word, reading the Bible on our own, having personal and family devotions, being in Bible Class and Divine Service. It is as we make regular (each and every day) and diligent (careful, conscientious, and purposeful) use of the Word of God that He fills us with the very Word He will use to speak through us to give an answer for the hope we have in Jesus.

Remember, Jesus gives us His authority to speak. He gives us His promise that He will be with us when we speak, giving us the courage to speak. And now we hear Him giving us His promise that He will also speak through us giving us the words, His Word to speak to give an answer, a defense for our faith and hope in Himself.

Just as an athlete or musician, or anyone who needs to hone their skills for their work and play, we Christians we need to hone our faith and knowledge so that we are ready to give an answer. And we rejoice that our skills are honed best by the One who is able to bring all things to fruition, the One who promises to speak through us.

7 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

The Lord’s Law and Gospel - March 4, 2017 - Third Sunday in Lent - Text: Exodus 20:1-17

Our text for today is what we grew up calling the Ten Commandments. As we learned these Ten Commandments we often thought of them as a list of “dos” and “don’ts”. Even today, there are many “opinions” about the Ten Commandments. The opinions range from “Are you kidding?” to “I do not take them seriously.” to “I think rules were made to be broken” to “I’m glad we do not have to keep them anymore.” to “I think God loves us an awful lot to give them to us.” In answer to some of these opinions I guess I would suggest that we should be careful in our assessment of the Ten Commandments. I say that because, if we throw them out then we throw all of the Bible out, even the part about being saved by Jesus’ death on the cross. More often than not we see the Ten Commandments as harsh rules, and we do that because we are constantly breaking those rules. I would suggest that rather than being harsh rules, the Ten Commandments are God’s way of giving us the ability to respond to His great love for us. Notice how our Lord begins as He gives us the Ten Commandments. Our Lord begins by telling us what He has done. We begin at verse one, “1And God spoke all these words, saying, 2‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’” (v. 1-2). Today the slavery out of which our Lord brings us is our slavery to sin. So, it is because of what the Lord has done for us that He gives us the Ten Commandments and only because He works in and through us that we occasionally live according to these commandments.
 

The Ten Commandments can be divide into two tables. The first table deals with our relationship with God. We read at verse three, “3You shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy,” (v. 3-11).
 

We are not going to go through these commandments in depth this morning, or we might be here all day, but I do want to say a word or two about each one as we go. The first commandment reminds us that we are to worship God alone. And why do we worship God alone? Because He alone created the world and all things. We are to worship Him and not His creation. We are to worship Him alone because He is a jealous God. He is jealous, not in the sense that you and I think of being jealous, not that He is envious. He is jealous in that He demands our complete attention. Notice too, how He shows us that He is a God of love more than a God of harsh rules. He says that He punishes ‘the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, but how He shows love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.’ God’s Law and justice lasts a short time, three or four generations, compared to His Gospel, His grace and love, which lasts for a thousand generations. God’s grace always for outreaches His law.
 

Continuing on, we are to honor and not misuse God’s name. This is one of those commandments that makes us hang our heads. It is not if we misuse God’s name, but how often in a day we misuse God’s name, and how often in a day that we thoughtlessly misuse God’s name. There was an article in the paper a while back in the Religion section, discussing whether or not it was a misuse of God’s name to text the letters “OMG” which stand for “Oh, My God.” That shows how thoughtless we are in our use of God’s name. Instead of misusing God’s name, we are to call on the Lord and use His name in prayer, in praise, in giving thanks and in times of trouble.
 

We are to honor and worship the Lord on His Day. God knows how hard it is for us to keep His commandments, that is why He gives us this commandment. Because it is so hard to keep the commandments we need all the help we can get. Our Lord gives us His help through the means of His Holy Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible to help us to keep the commandments, even if it is only that we are able to keep them somewhat. Thus, as it is God’s will, as often as it is offered, we attend Divine Service and Bible Class, we have personal and family devotion and prayer time, and we read and study God’s Word as often as possible, to not do so is to refuse and reject the gifts God has to give.
 

The second table of the commandments deals with our relationship with each other. We read picking up at verse twelve, “12Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13You shall not murder. 14You shall not commit adultery. 15You shall not steal. 16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (v.12-17). As we look at this second table of commandments we see them first and foremost as gifts from God. In looking at them as gifts from God we will realize our guilt in not seeing them as gifts of God and in our refusing them as gifts from God.
 

The first commandment in this second table sets the stage for all the rest. The first commandments is God’s gift of the family. The family is the basis for our living together as human beings in this world. Certainly there are those in our world who would like you to believe that they have in mind what is best for your family, but do not believe them. The only one who knows what is best for families is God, the giver of families. And interestingly enough, this commandment is the basis for all authority in our world, because God gives authority to our world through our families which includes our extended families, our work, and our government. God is the one who gives His authority through these people to keep good order in His world. It is only with good order that we feel safe and can have peace. Thus we are to honor all those in authority over us.
 

God gives the gift of life, all life, which we know, scientifically speaking, and theologically speaking begins with conception. Here we are reminded that the taking of life is not something we do only by actually killing another person. No, killing another person, in God’s eyes, begins with the thought and can be carried out with hurting, hating, or harming another in any way. Instead we are to help others in any way we can.
 

God gives us the gift of marriage and fidelity, which means faithfulness. The consequences of a world run amok with sexual promiscuity is seen in the many diseases with which we must now contend. Marriage is a beautiful gift which God has given to us and unfortunately many in our society have thrown this gift back into His face and said, we do not want it. Instead we are to honor God’s gifts of sexuality and marriage.
 

God gives the gift of possessions, not that God wants us to accumulate a bunch of things, but He does not want us to take the things which He has given to others. Here again, as with killing, we do not steal merely by taking something. We steal by the mere thought of stealing. Instead we are to rejoice with what others have.
 

God gives the gift of reputation. Here we are reminded that even if something is true, that does not mean we can go around sharing it with others. Instead we are to build up others and look for the best explanation in all situations.
 

God gives the gift of contentment. To be content is a difficult thing in our capitalistic society, yet it is a virtue that makes life so much more bearable.
 

I want to go back for a minute to verse five and to the part about God’s jealousy. Remember, God’s wrath is but for three or four generations. As we daily sin much and break these commandments, God is still only angry with us for a short time. And that does not mean that we have a right to keep on sinning and breaking His commandments, for to do so shows that we are not sorry that we have broken His commandments.
 

Yet, God’s mercy is for a thousand generations. God is a loving God who wants to love us. God does not want to punish us. God wants only what is best for us, His love for us. He is always right there waiting, even moving in us to repent and to be ready for His forgiveness.
 

I like to think of these Ten Commandments as God’s gift of boundaries. As a parent you know how important are boundaries. We set boundaries for our children telling them they are not to play with stray animals because we know if they do play with a stray animal they might get bitten. Boundaries set limits, not because we want to be restricting of the freedom of others, but because we love others. Boundaries are set in order to make us feel safe. Certainly we test those boundaries, but we do so to make sure they are there. In a classroom, children will test the rules because they know that if they get away with breaking a rule, then the rule means nothing and they do not feel safe. The Ten Commandments are boundaries concerning how we relate to God and how we relate to each other. They are given to us so that we might feel safe in a world that would make us feel something other than safe.
 

The summary of the commandments is “love.” Love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. The summary of the commandments is love, because if we could love God, exclusively, then we would not break any of the other commandments. And if we could love our neighbor as ourselves we would not break any of the last commandments. The problem is that we cannot love perfectly, thus we cannot keep the commandments perfectly.
 

Thanks be to God that there is another way. For you see, God knew that we would not be able to keep the commandments perfectly, that is why He sent His one and only Son, Jesus. Jesus is true God and true man. He lived perfectly. He obeyed the commandments, all the commandment perfectly for us, because we cannot. Then He gave Himself. He suffered and died on the cross for us. He shed His blood for us. He gave His life for ours, so that we might have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And once again we see how God’s Gospel love so much out weighs His Law. And to that we say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.