✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Romans 14,7-13 3516
4. Sn. n. Trinitatis 049
Gervasius and Protasius, Martyrs in the 1st c.
19. Juni 2016
1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father, who is merciful, and through Christ did promise us, that You will neither judge nor condemn us, but graciously forgive us all our sins, and abundantly provide for all our wants of body and soul: We pray, that by Your Holy Spirit You will establish in our hearts a confident faith in Your mercy, and teach us also to be merciful to our neighbor, so that we may not judge or condemn others, but willingly forgive all men, and, judging only ourselves, lead blessed lives in Your fear, through Your dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for 4. Sn. n. Trinitatis).
2. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written: »As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.« [Numbers 14,21.28; Isaiah 45,23] So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
3. As the Apostle Paul begins to draw his epistle to a close, he highlights another aspect from an important statement he made earlier in the letter. He wrote in Chapter 6: »Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life« (Romans 6,3-4). From this baptisms reality, Paul concludes in Chapter 14: »If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.« Holy Baptism makes us the Lord’s, and we are His in this life and also when we die.
4. After death comes judgment. St. Paul says of this: » For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. [Numbers 14,21.28; Isaiah 45,23] So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.« And again in his Epistle to the Corinthians: »For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what he has done in the body, whether good or evil« (2. Corinthians 5,9).
5. The Greek word Paul uses is βηματος which can be translated as judgment seat or court. The bema is the tribunal of the Roman magistrate, raised high above the level of the basilica, or hall, at the end of which it stood. (Comp. Matthew 27,19; Acts 12,21; Acts 18,12.) No one wants to stand before the judge, even with our Republic’s guarantee of innocent until proven guilty. How much more do we want to avoid standing before God knowing that we have not lived up to His law. Standing before the judgment seat of God often fills us with terror or uncomfortable uncertainty. Even the most hard-hearted atheist who has spent his or her entire life demanding that God simply does not exist has pangs of uncertainty and fear about death, for they cannot excise completely from their heart and conscience that deep-seated truth that God Himself placed in every human being that God truly does exist. Scripturally, Jews believe in the resurrection and eternal life for the righteous, but the common attitude of many modern Jews is to live life now because there is no afterlife. Muslims believe one must submit to God (i.e. Islam). Eternal life is obtained by obeying the Five Pillars of Islam: 1. Confess that only Allah is god and that Mohammed is his prophet; 2. Pray five times each day; 3. Give alms; 4. Fast during Ramadan; and 5. Complete the hajj at least one time in Mecca. They have no certainty that all this will guarantee salvation, so they hope that all these works done under the pillars will be enough to outweigh their wicked deeds on judgment day. To counter this uncertainty, Muslims believe that pursuing jihad guarantees entrance into eternal life, for jihad is the ultimate submission to Allah. This is why Muslims are willing to fight for Allah and die for him, because this is their certain guarantee of meriting His favor and eternal life. Christianity is the only religion that believes that eternal life is obtained by believing in Jesus and not by any works we perform. Christianity is a religion of the gospel, not the law. And yet, many Christians believe like the Jews and Muslims: that we must earn our way into heaven by adding works to faith to secure our good standing before God.
6. The Apostle Paul emphatically proclaims: »For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.« (Ephesians 2,8-9). When Christians stand before the judgment seat of God, we stand before our Lord Jesus Christ confident of His verdict upon us because we have already stood before His judgment seat and heard His decision.
7. The bema is the tribunal of the Roman magistrate, raised high above the level of the basilica, or hall, at the end of which it stood. When basilicas were turned into churches, the word was transferred refer to the throne of the bishop, and in classical Greek architecture this throne was not the judge’s seat, but the orator’s pulpit where bishops and ministers proclaim God’s Word to His people. What is preached from Christian pulpits is this: »Hear, O man, and give ear, O woman; for the Lord has spoken: „I have reared and brought you up, but you have rebelled against Me. Ah, sinful people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! You have forsaken and despised Me, you have despised the Holy One of Israel; you are utterly estranged from Me. So now draw near to Me, let us reason together: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool“« (Isaiah 1,2.4.18). Our rebellion is acquitted and our sins wiped clean through Jesus the Christ who took away the sin of all the world. Behold, this Savior is our Judge, and each Sunday we hear His verdict of „Not guilty.“, for we stand before Him as redeemed children of God the Father.
8. „Jesus is the Lamb who was slain (5:6). The victory is won by Christ the Lamb in his death on the cross and his resurrection. It is a victory that is shared with his faithful followers, the people of God (e.g., 12:11). It is a victory that guarantees life forever with God (2:26). And it is the victory that guarantees life forever with God (21:7)“ (Brighton 137). Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Judge Most High, we give thanks to You and sing praises to You, for You have redeemed us and delivered us into everlasting life. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Brighton, Louis A.. Revelation. Copyright © 1999 Concordia Publishing House.
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