✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Romans 14,17-19 4916
18. Sn. n. Trinitatis 063
Cleopas, Luke 24,18
25. September 2016
1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father: We are poor, miserable sinners; we know Your will, but cannot fulfill it because of the weakness of our flesh and blood, and because our enemy, the devil, will not leave us in peace. Therefore we beseech You, send Your Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that, in steadfast faith, we may cling to Your Son Jesus Christ, find comfort in His passion and death, believe the forgiveness of sin through Him, and in willing obedience to Your will lead holy lives on earth, until by Your grace, through a blessed death, we depart from this world of sorrow, and obtain eternal life. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for 18. Sn. n. Trinitatis).
2. For the reign of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is favorable to God and respected by men and women. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building.
3. The Apostle Paul differentiates between religion and faith in today’s Epistle Lection. Religion is concerned about what a person does to please God and to obtain a sense of security of His disposition for us. Take the other two monotheistic Abrahamic religions, for example. Modern Judaism is a religion of dietary laws, Sabbath observance and high holy festivals. Keeping the law and traditions is very important for many Jews. Islam, likewise, is a religion of laws summarized in their Five Pillars (its creed or shahadah):
1. „There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet“;
2. five daily prescribed prayers;
3. the month of fasting (Ramadan);
4. at least one pilgrimage in one’s life to sacred places in and near Mecca (hajj);
5. and giving alms to the poor.
Both are religions focused on works and keeping religious laws.
4. Christianity, however, is vastly different from religion, for Christianity is established upon Jesus and faith in Him. Like, Judaism and Islam, Christianity has commandments, laws and traditions, even sharing commandments and Scripture with Judaism, but those items do not make one a Christian. A Jewish person follows the law of Moses, and a Muslim submits to Allah, but a Christian believes on Jesus. Earlier in his epistle, St. Paul writes: »If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved, for with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved« (Romans 10,9-10). Thus Paul concludes: the reign of God is not a matter of complying with religious laws that dictate eating and drinking but the reign of God is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
5. The apostles are clear in the New Testament Scriptures that a person is righteous only on account of Christ. Paul is particularly verbose about this when he proclaims: »A person is not righteous by works of the law but is righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, thus we also believe in Christ Jesus, in order to be righteous by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because no one will be righteous through works of the law« (Galatians 2,15-16).
6. The gospel proclaims that we are righteous on account of Jesus and His merit. The gospel promises us the assurance of salvation, and the decisive mark of this gospel is the promise of forgiveness which does not have any conditions (Martens 19). This righteousness before God thus leads to peace and joy: peace, because our sin is forgiven, our salvation is assured and we are justified before God solely upon Jesus, joy, because when we see the resurrected Jesus no one will take away our happiness (John 16,22).
7. The Apostle Paul tells us that since our salvation is based upon faith in Christ and not conditioned on the works of the law we are set free to pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building. Jesus taught: »Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God« (Matthew 5,9). The gospel is a proclamation of peace between God and mankind. Christians share this peace to those weighed down by the guilt of their sin. We also seek to establish peace where sin has wrecked human relationships, neighbors and communities. This fallen world will give us numerous opportunities to be peacemakers.
8. As peacemakers, we also mutually build up others. Jesus calls us the salt and the light of the world so that our words may be seasoned with gentle criticism or sympathetic encouragement as the situation requires, and our actions that help others may show them that there are still people who respect and love them. For Jesus taught us: »Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven« (Matthew 5,16).
9. Jesus proclaimed: »Seek first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all the necessities of this earthly life will be added to you« (Matthew 6,33). God’s righteousness is found in His Son, Jesus Christ. His righteousness is our righteousness. The promise is sure and certain; believe, for it is yours.
10. »May the God of endurance and encouragement grant each of us to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, so that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope« (Romans 15,5-7.13). Amen.
11. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Friend of sinners, help us to proclaim the new covenant You have made, the covenant that is built upon Your death and resurrection for the salvation of the world, so that all who hear it may believe on You. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
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.
Martens, Gottfried. Certainty of Salvation. LOGIA, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Eastertide 2005).
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