Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. That is to say, not that you simply recall and think about the Old Testament Sabbath (which has been fulfilled and superceded in Christ Jesus) — nor that you merely give a nod to this or that day of the week — but that you receive and rest yourself in the Word that God speaks and the Gifts that He bestows upon you in the place where He causes His Name and His Glory to tabernacle with you for the sake of your Life and Salvation in Christ.
So, then, as Dr. Luther has so clearly and simply explained: In the fear and faith of the Lord your God, do not despise the preaching of His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. For it is by this way and means of preaching that God grants you His perfect Peace and Sabbath Rest through the forgiveness of all your sins. And it is in the receiving of these good and gracious Gifts of God, in faith and with thanksgiving, that you worship God the Father in His incarnate Son and by His Holy Spirit. Indeed, that is how you live and do not die, body and soul, now and forever.
The way you live and work and go about your days and weeks hinges on whether and how you keep this Sabbath rest. Do you think of that rest as the due reward of your labors? Or do you recognize your work to be a way of living in the peace and rest that God gives you by His grace?
When you realize, understand, and trust that your entire life in body and soul is from the Lord your God — that your real life, now and forever, is found in Him and with Him, in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus — and that you are always living in His presence (Coram Deo) — and when your heart, mind, body, and soul are thus turned toward the Lord in repentance and faith — then you have true peace and genuine rest, even as you work hard to do your job, and even in your death.
But when you work as though to make a life for yourself by your labors, and when you live for the accumulation of wealth and riches on earth, then you have no peace and no rest. Not even when you call it a day and go to bed and try to sleep. Not even when you’re living it up on vacation.
These are the chronicles of life and death and everything in between. For the way your life begins — and the way that it will end — certainly ought to inform the way that you live all of your days in between, the way that you approach your job and go about all your working and your resting.
And the fact remains that your whole life comes entirely from God; and when you die He will be your Judge. So, consider that you were naked when you were born into this world, and so will you be naked before Him when He raises your body from the dust of the earth for the final judgment.
Whatever it is that you may hold in your hands in the meantime, every last bit of it is a gift, pure and simple, not according to any merit of yours, but all by the mercies of God. And all such things are temporary, besides; you can’t take any of them with you, so how should you be using them?
Who or what is it that you worship with your body and life? Who or what do you serve with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? What is it that occupies your thoughts and your attention? And where do you invest your time, your energies and affections, and your financial resources? Where and how you spend your money is often the best way to discern who and what your god is.
So, do you worship the one true God in faith and love, according to His Word? That is to say, do you fear, love, and trust in the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by repentance and by faith in His Gospel, by hearing and receiving His Gifts in the Liturgy, in the sacred Preaching and Holy Supper of Christ Jesus? If so, then you are alive, and you are living by the grace of God, come hell or high water against you; and even though you die, yet shall you live forever with God.
For your Life in God’s Kingdom does not originate with your works, nor does it consist of your wealth, but it is received by faith in His Gospel, and it is lived in love for the sake of Jesus Christ.
But if you do not love the Lord your God above all, and if you do not serve and worship only Him, then you are dead and dying in your false belief and sin, which is idolatry, even as you go about your temporal life on earth, no matter how healthy, wealthy, and wise you imagine yourself to be.
To put it another way, What is it that rules your life? What is it that has dominion over you? Who or what is your lord? Whom or what do you obey? And what, then, does your life look like as a consequence? For that is “the kingdom” to which you belong, whether it be of God or the devil.
Make no mistake, there are lots of wealth and riches of all kinds in this fallen and perishing world, to which you are tempted and prone to cling, and for which you hunger, strive, and fight, as though your life and happiness derived from and actually depended on such things. It might be money, your house and home, or your vehicle, by way of some common examples. Or it might also be intangible things, such as friendship and popularity, power and prestige, knowledge and ingenuity, or entertainment of one kind or another. All such things are good and gracious gifts of God, which are to be received in faith and with thanksgiving and sanctified by His Word and prayer. But your sinful and guileful heart is rather inclined to take His gifts and make them into false gods and idols — thus worshiping the creature instead of the Creator, the gifts instead of their Giver.
There’s any number of different ways by which you count your “coins” and compete with your neighbors in this body and life. But whether you “have” or “have not,” whether a lot or a little, it is not possible for you to enter the Kingdom of God by your wealth and riches of whatever sort.
In fact, not only will your “wealth and riches” not get you into heaven, they present a temptation, a covetous desire that actually threatens to consume you; which makes it that much harder and all the more impossible for you to enter into the Kingdom of God at all. Your stuff gets in the way.
Where, then, is the promise of real Peace and Sabbath Rest? That is yours only in Christ Jesus, in His Cross and Resurrection; and it is granted to you by His grace in the preaching of His Gospel. The one true faith is conceived and born within your heart and life, within your body and soul, by the way and means of that preaching, as you are thereby given to hear, receive, and trust the Word of God in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of all your sins and the free gift of eternal Life in His Body of Flesh and Blood. Thus do you have Peace and Rest in the incarnate Son of God by faith in Him.
Listen, then, and hear His Word to you. He has already made Peace for you by the reconciliation of His Cross. And He has established Sabbath Rest for you in His Resurrection from the dead, which is your righteousness in the presence of God. All of this that He has done for you, He also desires to share with you, and He does so here and now — Today! — with His voice of mercy.
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was first established with the finished completion of Creation — and then again with the Exodus from Egypt, whereby the Lord, the one true God, bestowed rest upon His people by way of His works on their behalf, by His mighty arm and outstretched hand.
So did the Lord God create His people out of nothing, and redeem them from out of death into life, from out of slavery into freedom. He set them free to worship Him, to fear, love, and trust in Him, not for His benefit, but for their present and eternal welfare, even the Life everlasting with Him. So did He bring them through the desert wilderness, across the Jordan River, into the good Land that He had promised, wherein He gave them Peace and Rest from all their enemies on all sides.
And all these things, which the Lord God did for His people then, He has fulfilled in Christ Jesus for you and for all people. By His Holy Cross and Passion He has redeemed you from death and damnation, and He calls you out of your slavery to sin into the freedom of faith in His forgiveness. That is the Sabbath Rest that remains for you and all His people in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.
By His Resurrection and Ascension Christ Jesus brings you through the waters of Baptism out of Egypt into the heavenly Canaan, into the Kingdom of His God and Father, in and with Himself, as a member of His own Body and Bride, the Holy Christian Church (on earth as it is in heaven).
It was surely not easy for Him to accomplish this great Salvation on your behalf. Indeed, how costly and painful it was! And yet, He has done it gladly and willingly in His divine and holy Love — for all people, yes — but in His divine and holy Love for you, for each and every one of you.
And what He has thus done and established by His hard work, by His bloody sweat and labor, He grants to you as Peace and Rest in His Means of Grace, in His means of forgiveness and Life: In the waters of Holy Baptism, wherein you have died with Him, and by which you also rise and live with Him. In the Holy Communion, wherein He feeds you with His own holy Body and precious Blood, that He might abide in you and you in Him, both body and soul, now and forevermore. And, really, everywhere in His Holy Gospel, He is consistently forgiving your sins, day after day. Thus do you have Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus, even as you go about your works of love within your own stations in life, and even as you face your death. For not the devil, nor hell, nor even the Law of God have any right to accuse or condemn you any longer, since Christ has given Himself for you, atoned for all your sins by His Sacrifice, and still graciously forgives you by His Word.
As you have died with Christ Jesus and given up everything in your Baptism — for that is what happened there, in those waters; that is what you promised; and that is what Christ did for you by His Word and Holy Spirit — as you have died with Him there, relinquishing everything else in the waters of Holy Baptism — renouncing the devil, all his works, and all his ways, and the world with all its pomp and circumstance, and, yes, even your own sinful flesh, with all your sinful lusts and desires — and there laying hold of eternal Life in Christ Jesus, in His Father and His Holy Spirit — so do you now live and work on earth, in the place where God has stationed you, by faith in Him, by faith in His Gospel, in the hope and confidence of His Resurrection from the dead.
So, too, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is your Peace and Rest, here in time and hereafter in eternity. For all things in heaven and on earth are yours in Him, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, in the Liturgy of His-Word-preached-to-you and His-Body-and-Blood-given-for-you.
This Lord Jesus Christ has finished once-for-all His perfect work on the Sixth Day, Good Friday, atoning for the sins of the world and reconciling the world to His God and Father. And He has rested on the Seventh Day, that Holy Saturday, the Sabbath, in order to sanctify your rest in Him, so that even your grave and the graves of all His saints are made holy by His own rest in the tomb.
In His Resurrection, His Body has become the First Fruits of the New Creation, and His Flesh and Blood are the New Passover; for He has accomplished the new and greater Exodus, bringing His people out of death into eternal Life in and with Himself, the One who is greater than Moses. For all things are fulfilled, perfected, and made brand new in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood.
Therefore, do not harden your heart by setting it upon your own works or your own wealth, but worship the Lord your God by faith in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus. Remember His Sabbath and keep it holy unto yourself by hearing His Gospel, by receiving His mercy and grace here within His Church, in His own Liturgy, and by eating and drinking His Body and Blood here at His Altar, according to His Word, in faith and with thanksgiving for all that He has done.
For He does remember you with His free and full forgiveness of all your sins; He sanctifies your body and your soul for the Life everlasting; and He gives you Peace and Rest in Himself forever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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