He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Last Friday we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the Law as a curb and a mirror. Today we conclude our series by being reminded of what we believe about sanctification, that is about how, following our being justified, being made just and right in God’s eyes, how He continues to work to make us and keep us holy, saints, at least while we remain sinners in this world.
February 14 we began the Lenten Season with our Ash Wednesday Service. On Ash Wednesday we were reminded of God’s work of creation, how God created all things in six days and rested on the seven day, giving us a day of rest. As a part of God’s perfect creation He created a perfect Garden, the Garden of Eden in which He put the perfect man and woman He had created so that they might work tending the Garden. Adam and Eve were perfect and had free will.
God also placed two special, important trees in the Garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In order to give Adam and Eve a way to “give back” to God He gave them one simple rule, not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with the threat of punishment that the day they eat of the fruit they would die. They would begin to die a physical death and apart from God’s promise of a Savior they would die an eternal death in hell. God set the price for sin, for disobedience at death, human death for human sin.
Of course, we know the history. We know that Adam and Eve did disobey God. They did eat from the tree and with that sin God entered and cursed the world. God’s curse means we know live in a sinful world. The curse means that we are destined to die from the moment of conception. The curse means that our will has been tainted so that we no longer have a free will to do good. Thanks be to God that He immediately stepped in and with the curse promised a solution, a Savior, a Messiah, a Christ, thus the birth of the Christian church.
Some four thousand years later God fulfilled the promise He made. He sent Jesus, true God being born in human flesh, being true man into the world. Jesus came to do what Adam and Eve, what God’s chosen people, the children of Israel and what we, His children cannot do, live a perfect live in word and deed. Jesus obeyed all of God’s Laws, ceremonial, moral, and civil, perfectly. He fulfilled all of God’s promises, perfectly and then He took all our sins, all the sins of all people who have ever lived, and all the sins of people who ever will live on Himself and He suffered the eternal punishment of hell for us in our place. He paid the price for sin and makes us right before God, justified.
As you have heard me say time and time again, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We are justified, we are made right and just in God’s eyes by the faith God gives to us in Jesus as our Savior alone for our salvation. Our salvation has been completely accomplished for us by God Himself in Jesus and given to us. Thanks be to God for His gift of forgiveness.
Now that we have been forgiven and justified before God, He continues sending His Holy Spirit in order to sanctify us, that is in order to stir in us to be the people He would have us to be, although continually being His people imperfectly. We understand sanctification as being made holy in God’s eyes, yet we continue to understand that this side of heaven we will continue to be at the same time a sinner as well as a saint.
So, our lives of sanctification are our response of faith. Our sanctification is simply a response of faith. We must always be clear that our living lives of faith is not something we do in order to gain any favor from God. And actually our sanctification, our living lives of faith is not something we naturally do, rather this too has at its heart what God is doing.
Our sanctification is the work of God in us, that is the Holy Spirit working in us through His usual means, Word and Sacrament. Through the waters of Holy Baptism and God’s name being put on us the Holy Spirit forgives our sins and puts faith in our hearts. Confessing our sins and hearing the words of Absolution the Holy Spirit forgives our sins. Hearing the Word of God read and proclaimed the Holy Spirit works through that very word to strengthen us in our faith. Partaking of Jesus’ body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, the Holy Spirit again forgives us and strengthens our faith. God is at work in us in our living lives of faith.
As you have no doubt heard before, only Christians can do those works that are considered good works in God’s eyes, because only Christians do those good works that are motivated by God, worked in and through us by God and done to His glory. Yes, there are those in our world who are motivated to do what we call civil good works, but those are not truly good works in God’s eyes.
Which means that more often than not when we actually do a good work that is a good work in God’s eyes we understand that it is done in and through us by God, and we probably do not even notice. So, here again, as with justification, we get it right when we point to Jesus, so too with sanctification, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Perhaps you may have noticed that in all of Scripture we do not hear a lot about the Holy Spirit and His work. The reason is because the Holy Spirit always points us to Jesus.
What does this mean? In the Third Article of the Apostles’ creed we confess what we believe about the Holy Spirit and His work. We confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” Indeed, because our will has been tainted by sin all we can do is refuse and reject Jesus. Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts through Holy Baptism and His Holy Word to give us faith.
But we continue and further confess about the Holy Spirit that “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” Here again, we believe that not only is the Word of God inspired, inerrant, and infallible, we also confess that the Word of God is sufficient, clear, efficacious and powerful, such that through the very Word of God the Holy Spirit works in us and gives us faith. This faith is not something we choose or get for ourselves, and we know this fact because we are born spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God such that we cannot bring ourselves back to life or have any part in our being given faith. It is all the doing of the Holy Spirit, thanks be to God.
And we continue confessing the work of the Holy Spirit that is that He “enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” The gifts the Holy Spirit uses to enlighten us are Holy Absolution and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. Through these very means the Holy Spirit gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith, pouring out on us and lavishing us with all the good gives and blessings He has to give. And again, thanks be to God.
This morning we rejoice, not only in our justification, being made just and right in God’s eyes as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and defeat of sin, death and the devil, but we rejoice in God’s gift of sanctification, that God gives us to be His people, living lives of faith through the means of grace as well.
And we rejoice that God keeps us in faith through those very same means of grace. As we remember our Baptism and God’s name put on us, that our sins are forgiven we are strengthened. As we confess our sins and hear those most beautiful words, that our sins are forgiven, we are strengthened. As we hear God’s Word read and proclaimed and as we partake of our Lord’s body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins, we are strengthened. Indeed, as we are strengthened so is our desire to be given even more of the gifts He has to give.
Once again, as always, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Jesus does all and gives all. Jesus makes us right before God and keeps us right before God. Although we may not be able to trust ourselves, our own doing, our own thinking, our own reasoning, we most certainly can trust Jesus, His doing, His giving, His work in and through us. Thanks be to God.
Once again we come and we celebrate what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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