To Be with the Lord Jesus Where He Is

The Lord Jesus has come down from heaven, and He has come down from the Mountain, in order to raise you up from death to life; to set you free from your slavery to sin; to bring you into the good land that He has promised and prepared for you; and to bring you to His God and Father in and with Himself.  For that is the divine purpose of man, namely, to live with God in Christ Jesus.

You have been created for this divine Life, to abide with the Lord your God, receiving all good things from Him by His grace, even forevermore.

Yet, for now, you are distanced from God, lost and alone, threatened and afraid.  Not because you are a finite creature, but because you have preferred creation over the Creator.  Not because you are flesh and blood, but because you hunger for the flesh more than you hunger for the Lord.

You fear, love, and trust your flesh, even in its frailty and weakness, more than God and His Word.

So you worry about getting sick, and you work to fill your belly, but you doubt and question and too easily forget about the Word and work, the promises and providence of the Lord your God.

Even so, it is for you — with all your doubts and fears and misplaced loyalties — it is for you that Christ Jesus has come.  Not because you have been so faithful or even well-intentioned, but because He is faithful and just, and because He loves you.

And in His love for you, He has entered the wilderness to be with you.  He has hungered and thirsted in His mortal flesh and blood, just like yours, so He knows exactly how you feel.

But, above all else, He has hungered and thirsted in both His body and soul for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, even to the point of His suffering and death for the Glory of God.

To save you for God, He has borne your sins and sickness, all of your iniquities, and all your griefs and sorrows in His flesh; so that by His stripes and by His wounds you are cleansed and healed.

He has passed through the waters of the Flood, the Red Sea, and the Jordan, in order to make a way for you, an Exodus from death into life.  He has gone alone, first of all, in order to bear the wrath and judgment of the Law of God in your stead.  And as the Passover Lamb of God, He has been sacrificed in your place, so that His blood covers you, and so that death passes over you.

Now, what the world perceives in this Sacrifice of Christ is nothing but utter defeat and hopeless despair, as though all were lost.  How, then, shall it ever suffice, or really do any good at all?

And how easily do you also give up hope and suppose that there is no help to be found?

Do you count the cost, and add and subtract appearances and variables, and come up empty?

Repent of such unbelief.  And do not despair, but believe the Gospel.  For Christ is risen from the dead and has returned to the Father in His glorified Body, and this He has done for your salvation.

He has taken His seat at the right hand of God the Father, and He has seated you with Himself there.  So that, where He is, there you are also — in the Body of Christ on earth as it is in heaven.  Indeed, He has brought you into this good land, with Himself, through the waters of your Baptism.

Recline yourself here at His Table, then, as He invites you, and rest yourself here in His Feast.  For He feeds you with Food that shall not perish, so that you shall not perish, either.  And there is more than enough:  Take and eat!  Drink of it, all of you!  And give thanks to the Lord your God.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ

Jesus comes down from the mountain, in order to bring you up the High Mountain to God.

Generations earlier, Moses had also come down from the mountain — with the two stone tablets of the Testimony — and, having spoken with God on the high and holy mountain, he commanded the people all that God had told him.  By this Word, the Lord established His Covenant with Israel, that He would be their God and they would be His people.  The Ten Commandments defined the character and content of that relationship, comprising faith in Him and love for Him and others.

There was also given, in great detail, the Lord’s instructions for the Tabernacle and its furnishings, the Priesthood and its vestments, and the foundations of the sacrificial means of grace, by which the Lord would abide with His people and cause His Name and His Glory to dwell among them.

As the instrument and minister of this divine revelation, the face of Moses shone with the Glory of the Law.  It was transfigured by his speaking with God, so that it radiated the light of the Lord.  That frightened the people when they saw it.  They were threatened by it, as by the thunder and lightning, fire and smoke of Mt. Sinai.  But it also enticed, intrigued, and impressed them, quite rightly, for it demonstrated that what Moses spoke to them was the Word of the Lord their God.

He veiled his face afterwards, each time, until he next went in before the Lord to speak with Him.  And St. Paul tells us why: namely, so that the people would not see the fading away of that Glory.

The Glory faded from the face of Moses, because Moses himself was fading away.  Though he was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, he too was from the dust and returning to the dust in his sin and death.  The mortal flesh of fallen man is not able to bear or sustain the Glory of God; not even that of great Moses, the Lawgiver.  Indeed, the Law itself brings death to sinful man.

The Law is not fulfilled in Moses, nor in the ancient people to whom it was given at Mt. Sinai.  Thus, the Glory of God does not remain with them forever, but fades away, time and time again.  It must be restored — and it can only be restored — by the preaching of the Word of the Lord.

But, apart from Christ Jesus, the veil remains, hiding both the true Glory of God and the sin and death that it exposes and exacerbates.  Minds are blinded and hearts are hardened against the Law, so that it is either misused or abused: ignored, or disobeyed outright, or else relied upon for life all the while it destroys you.  In your sin you can neither fulfill nor escape the holiness of the Law.

In Christ Jesus, though, the veil is removed.  The Light of the revelation of the Glory of God shines upon us in His face and does not fade away.  For though He takes upon Himself and suffers the full burden of sin and death in His own Body of flesh and blood, He does not relinquish or let go of the divine Glory, but fulfills and completes it in perfect faith and in holy love for God and man.

The Glory of God is established and revealed in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, first of all by His Incarnation, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and then also by His Holy Cross and Passion, His innocent suffering and death.  That is where and how the veil is removed.

But what you see in the flesh of Christ is scary, isn’t it?  Overwhelming and confusing.  As it was for Peter, James, and John on the Mountain of Transfiguration; and as it was for all the disciples when they saw the Lord Jesus arrested, hauled away, condemned, beaten and mistreated, and cruelly put to death upon the Cross.  His Glory confronts you with the Cross that kills you, and it reveals that fulfilling the Law is not only beyond you but is altogether other than you supposed.

The Glory of God is good and right and wise, but, precisely so, it brings to light all the ways that you are not.  And it has already been established that the true divine Glory of the Law is, in fact, a ministry of death for you and for all who are not holy and righteous but sinful and unclean.

Removing the veil to reveal the righteousness and holiness of God — in the face of Jesus Christ, in His Body and His garments — exposes all the dirt and filth that fill your heart and mind, infect your perishing flesh from the inside out, and stain your garments with all the damn spots of your thoughts, words, and deeds.  Removing the veil uncovers the nakedness and shame of your sin.

As painful and scary as that is — and, make no mistake, as devastating as that is to every pretense of self-righteousness or do-it-yourself-ness — it is not the whole story, but only the beginning of that which is perfected in Christ Jesus.  For He is not another Moses or Elijah, but He is the One to whom they have pointed and for whom they have waited in hope, as do all the people of God.

He does not simply speak or reveal the Word of the Lord, but, as you know, He is the very Word of God, who has become flesh to dwell among us, to reveal the Father to us, to shine upon us in Love with the Light and Life of the Holy Trinity.  He is not “on par” with Moses and Elijah, but far above them, residing from eternity in the bosom of God the Father, though He has also come down from heaven for all of us and our salvation, in order to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus does not simply preach and teach the righteousness and holiness of God, nor simply reveal the Glory of God, but He is all of these things, and He embodies them all in His own flesh for us.

As such, He removes the veil which covered the divine Glory and darkened the hearts and minds of man, by submitting Himself to the Law’s “Ministry of Death” in your place and on your behalf.

He bears your dirt and filth and stain in His own flesh and blood, as though all of it were His own; as though He were the One (the only One) who had done what He should not and failed to do what He should; as though He were the Guilty One.  He is publicly exposed and put on display before God and the whole world in your naked shame upon the Cross.

And here is the wonder of all wonders: His divine and holy Body is transfigured by His Cross and Crucifixion, so that He thereby enters into Glory — with our human flesh — by way of His death.

The indestructible Power and Glory of His Resurrection, anticipated here in His Transfiguration, is the divine Glory that He accomplishes and establishes for you and for all people by His Cross.

Which is why it cannot be preached or even told until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

In this light, therefore, are at least two reasons why Peter’s confused suggestion is misguided and wrong, no less so than when he took it upon himself to rebuke Jesus and refute His coming Cross:

First of all, Jesus does not need anyone to build a tabernacle for Him to abide with His disciples, because He is Himself the Tabernacle of God among men.  And, second, He actually becomes that true divine Tabernacle in His human flesh and blood — for all who believe and are baptized into Him — by coming down from the Mountain and going the Way of His Holy Cross and Passion.

He is the Tabernacle, the Temple of God, the merciful and great High Priest who remains forever, and the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, because He lays down His own life and sheds His own holy and precious blood for the salvation of all the children of Adam and Eve.

As the one perfect Mediator between God and Man, because He is both true God and true Man in His one Person, the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us in His own flesh and blood, He comes down from the Mountain — as He has come down from heaven, and as He went down into the waters of His Baptism, even to death and to the grave.

He comes down to offer Himself up, in order to raise you up with Himself from death unto life.  For in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, the Glory of God in His face and in His flesh shall never fade away.  He has satisfied the Law completely, both meeting its demands and suffering its punishments for the sins of the world.  And having risen from the dead, He is never to die again.

What He has thus accomplished and achieved in Himself, in His own Body and Soul, in all His thoughts, words, and deeds, He now also gives to you, and bestows upon you, and makes it your own by His grace, through His Word of the Gospel, which is a Ministry of the Spirit and of Life.  By that Ministry, by that New Covenant in His Blood, you receive His mercy and forgiveness.

Through your Baptism into Christ, into His Cross and Resurrection, you have passed through death into life, and you have entered into the Glory of God with your body and soul and all that you are.

To be sure, it does not yet appear what you shall be, but everything that Christ Jesus has received in His Body of flesh and blood, in His Resurrection from the dead, is now also yours in and with Him.  Therefore, when He appears in all His Glory for the Judgment of the living and the dead, then you shall see Him as He is, and you shall be like Him: Radiant, glorious, and beautiful.

As the veil has been lifted by the Cross of Christ, for now you behold the Glory of God precisely in the Cross: Not only in the Gospel of Christ — in the preaching of His Cross, and in His Body given, His Blood poured out for you — but also in yourself, bearing the Cross as a disciple of His.

That is the part that is still so difficult and hard to understand, but you are not left to yourself, to figure it out or handle it on your own.  You are catechized and cared for by the Word of Christ, and by the care and catechesis of His Church, which He has established on earth as it is in heaven.

The crucifix above the Altar artistically confesses and declares the Body and Blood of Christ that are given and poured out for you upon His Altar.  Historically, that is why Lutherans have always preferred the crucifix, that the body of Christ on the Cross should confess His Body in the Supper.

This, indeed, is the majestic Cloud that now surrounds you, the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, in which you behold the glorious power and presence of God among us.  For the Body of Christ, crucified and risen, and given for you to eat, His Blood for you to drink, truly is the Tabernacle of God among men.  Here is where and how Immanuel is God-with-us.

And this Sacrament of Christ is the mirror by which you are given to see the transformation — the transfiguration — of your own body of flesh and blood into the same Image of God, from Glory to Glory.  For the Cross that you bear and suffer in the Name of Christ Jesus, the blessed Fruits of which you here and now receive, is a participation in the divine Glory of the Lord, as well as the means by which you are being transfigured with His Glory unto the Resurrection of your body.

Here is mercy for you in the one Lord, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, do not lose heart, but rest in Him.

Already now, though you cannot see it, you are clothed with His radiant garments of righteousness and holiness, pure and clean like no bleach or laundry soap on earth could ever hope to manage.  As He has taken the stain of your sin, your nakedness and shame to be His own, so are you covered with Christ Jesus and clothed with His grace and His Glory by His Gospel of forgiveness.

So, too, as He feeds you here with His Body and His Blood — transfigured by His Cross, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting — so does He gather you up, both body and soul, into His Body of flesh and blood, and bear you up the High Mountain to His God and Father in heaven.

Thus do you behold by faith the true divine Glory in the Fruits of His Cross, given and poured out for you and for the many.  You eat and drink in His presence, and you do not die, but you live.

Dear Christian, listen to Him, and hear what He says:  Take and eat this Bread.  It is My Body, which is given for you.  And drink from this Chalice, which is the New Testament in My Blood.  It is poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Come, find your peace and rest in Him, and receive your inheritance, which shall not fade away.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Redemption of the Lord

We have been returned, as it were, to Christmas once again—on this fortieth day of Christmas, which is really the conclusion of the Christmas cycle.  In just a few weeks, with the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, we will be turned toward the glory of His Cross and Passion, in the hopeful expectation of His Resurrection.  But for the moment, the Word of God has called us to behold and receive the infant Lord Jesus in the courts of His House, His Holy Sanctuary.

This festival day actually recalls and celebrates two different events, which coincided in the visit of the Holy Family to the Temple in Jerusalem.  In accordance with the Law of the Lord, there is the purification of St. Mary following the birth of her firstborn Son, and then also the redemption of the same little Lord Jesus, who was not a Levite but from the tribe of Judah.

We acknowledge that the Blessed Virgin Mary is indeed a saint by God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ Jesus, her Son, but that she was, to begin with, a sinner in need of such forgiveness—in need of cleansing and purification.  That much is simple and straightforward enough.  And yet, it is profoundly ironic that she would be required by the Law of God to undergo purification for bearing the spotless and holy Son of God!  She a virgin undefiled, who conceived by the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Savior of the world, had to be purified for that very reason.

To be sure, such requirements of purification were not unique to St. Mary.  They belonged to the ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God, whereby He sanctified and set apart His people (Israel) from the pagan nations of the world.  His Law, in this regard, dealt not only with sins per se, but also with other aspects of natural life.  This ceremonial Law drew strict boundaries between what was pure and clean, whole and complete, on the one hand, and what was flawed or blemished, diminished or incomplete, on the other hand.  And again, the purpose was to sanctify and set apart the chosen people of God, and thus to reflect the absolute holiness of God Himself.

In addition to these lines of purity, the ceremonial Law of God attached special and particular significance to bodily functions pertaining to procreation and childbirth.  It is in this category, of course, that St. Mary’s purification falls today.  To consider what this means, think back to the Garden of Eden and to the consequences of the Fall into Sin:

In the first place, God cursed the woman with pain in childbirth; but then He also promised a Savior Who would be the Seed of the Woman.  Thus, both the Law and the Gospel, the curse and the blessing, the consequences of sin and its forgiveness are all centered in the Woman precisely as Mother: centered in her ovaries and womb.

From Eve onward, then, especially among the chosen people of God, every aspect of a woman’s fertility and childbearing was both a proclamation of the curse of sin and a proclamation of the promise of the Gospel.  And in a very real sense, the bleeding that follows childbirth and continues for roughly six weeks (or forty days) is likewise both a consequence of the Fall into Sin and a foreshadowing of the blood that would be shed by the Woman’s Seed, that is, by the Savior Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who would bleed and die for the forgiveness and salvation of the world.

The same sacrificial blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was signified by the requisite sacrifice of a lamb—or, in a case of poverty, the sacrifice of a turtledove and a pigeon—for the purification of a woman following childbirth.  Indeed, like everything else in the Old Testament, the point and purpose of this ceremonial and sacrificial Law of God was to prepare the people for the coming of the Christ.

Therefore, if the fertility and childbearing of each and every other woman recalled the Fall into Sin and the promise of the Gospel, all the more so, the childbearing of this Woman, in particular, that is, the childbearing of this Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, was the ultimate fulfillment of both the curse and the promise of God in the Garden.  Through her, through the very pain and process of childbirth, God has given Himself to bear our sin and to be our Savior, to sacrifice Himself and to shed His own blood for the sins of the world.

Far from being exempt from the requirement of purification, St. Mary was the Mother, above all others, whom this Law of God was really all about.  Not as though she had sinned in giving birth to the Son of God, but because His birth encompassed and dealt with the whole reality of sin and its forgiveness, for the salvation of all sinners languishing under its curse.  Indeed, as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us!  In very much the same way that our Lord’s circumcision on the Eighth Day fulfilled the covenant of circumcision, so does St. Mary’s purification on this fortieth day fulfill the first promise of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden.  It is a declaration, in accordance with the Law of God, that the promised Seed of the Woman has arrived to crush the serpent-devil’s head.

Likewise, the same principle and significance are also at work in the Presentation of our Lord, which is the other ceremonial Law that is fulfilled on the fortieth day of Christmas.  It goes back, not to the Garden of Eden, but to the Exodus from Egypt.

Most of you will no doubt recall the devastating tenth plague, which the Lord brought against Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt: The Lord God sent the Angel of Death by night to slay all the firstborn sons of both man and beast, from the firstborn of mighty Pharaoh on his throne all the way down to the firstborn of the lowliest captive in prison.  The firstborn sons of Israel, however, were spared from this plague of death, because they were covered and protected by the blood of the Passover Lamb.  Where the Lord’s Angel saw the blood of the lamb, he passed over the home.

Henceforth, the Lord commanded that the firstborn sons of Israel (both man and beast) would belong to Him by right.  Indeed, it needs to be understood that all the Children of Israel belonged to the Lord, even as all the earth is the Lord’s and all the fulness thereof.  But even more so, the firstborn sons belong to Him, because He spared them from death and sanctified them for Himself in the Exodus.  Thus, all the firstborn animals among the people were to be sacrificed to the Lord, and all the firstborn sons of the people were to be given to the Lord for His service.

Now, as part of the Covenant that God established with Israel at Mt. Sinai, He set aside for Himself the entire tribe of Levi to serve Him as priests among the people.  And as such, He established that all of the other tribes would redeem their firstborn sons from service, for the redemption price of five silver shekels.  For the people to pay this price for the redemption of their firstborns served as a constant reminder that both they and their sons and daughters, and their animals, and all of their earthly goods, belonged in fact to the Lord their God.  And all the while, then, the tribe of Levi was responsible for the priestly Divine Service of God, including the offering of the many and various sacrifices that He had commanded, all of this in preparation for the coming of the Christ.

Which now brings us to the Presentation of that very Christ in His Temple on this day:

The Lord Jesus Christ, Who is not only the firstborn Son of Mary, but also, from all eternity, the “Firstborn,” the only-begotten Son of God the Father.  In Him we behold the love and mercy, the grace and peace, and the divine Glory of the one true God in the flesh.

In contrast to the Israelites in Egypt, this firstborn Son of God will not be spared the plague of the Angel of Death.  On the contrary, He has come to bear and suffer that plague in His own Body on the Cross.  Indeed, this one Lord Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of God, has come to be the Passover Lamb, so that His own holy and precious blood might cover His people from death and release them from the bondage of sin.  Accordingly, it is the very Body and Blood of this same Lord Jesus that are set before you and given to you as your Passover Meal, your Feast of Salvation.

What is more, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Mary’s Son, is the merciful and great High Priest who supercedes and replaces the Levitical Priesthood of the Old Testament, once and for all, by His own voluntary sacrifice (of Himself), and by His innocent suffering and death on the Cross.

In keeping with the Law, Jesus would have been “redeemed” by Joseph and Mary at the cost of five silver shekels, since He was not from the tribe of Levi.  Yet, St. Luke does not mention any such payment or redemption, implying instead that the true theological significance of our Lord’s Presentation was not a redemption from service but consecration for service unto God.

To say it another way, the little Lord Jesus, less than two months old, was consecrated to become both the Priest and the Sacrifice, and thereby, also, the Temple itself in His own flesh and blood.

Bearing all of this in mind, you may see that the Presentation of our Lord is the fulfillment of the Passover, the Exodus, the Priesthood, and the entire Old Testament Liturgy, for the redemption of all people—yourself included—from the slavery and eternal punishment of sin, death, and hell.  Not with any silver, but with His own body and life!

It is in that Body of Christ Jesus, here within His Church of the Gospel–Word and Sacraments, and especially in His sacrificial flesh and blood—in this, the New Testament Passover Feast—that you now meet the Lord Himself, as did St. Simeon there in the Temple.  In this Lord Jesus Christ, in His own flesh, you behold your Light and your Salvation, indeed, the Savior of the world.  And as you take Him up into your arms, as you receive Him into your own body, you also may depart in peace, according to His Word of the Gospel.

For He has become like you in every respect, save only without any sin of His own.  And He has taken all of your sin upon Himself, and carried it in His Body to the Cross.  He has suffered all that you must suffer; He has been tempted in every way that you are tempted; and He has borne the judgment of God and the damnation you deserve, so that you may be covered by His blood and spared eternal death.  Indeed, He has sacrificed Himself for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins; and here and now He gives to you Himself, His Body and His Blood, for Life and Salvation in Him.  And this true Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will strengthen you and keep you steadfast in the true faith, unto life everlasting.  Depart in His Peace.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal

Jesus has come and has entered in.  But what does Jesus have to do with you?  Why has He come?  Is He here to destroy you?  No, not really.  But it may seem that way; and in a sense He does.

He has come to set you free, to save you, to cleanse and heal you and give you life.  But, as all of that requires the drowning, death, and destruction of the old Adam in you, the washing away of your unclean spirit, it is painful and difficult, even deadly.  It cuts you to the quick and slays you.

The unclean spirit is in the synagogue, right there in the church, in the midst of the congregation.  And there is an unclean spirit in you, too, as you rightly confess that you are sinful and unclean.

The unclean spirit knows something about the Holy One, but it does not know as it ought to know.  It knows the holiness of the Law, at least in part, but not the holiness of the Gospel.  It knows the threats of punishment, but not the promise of grace and every blessing; the fire and brimstone of God’s righteous wrath and divine judgment, but not His patience, steadfast love, and mercy.

Therefore, the unclean spirit does not trust, and it does not love, neither God nor man, because it does not know the Lord Jesus rightly, that is, according to the divine Self-sacrifice of His death upon the Cross, and according to the indestructible power of His Resurrection from the dead.

Thus, you are afraid, and out of your fear derives anger, accusation, or apathy; either competition with instead of compassion for your neighbor, or a lazy complacency that does nothing at all.

But, now, be quiet.  Close your mouth and hush your thoughts.  Listen, first of all, and learn from the Lord, who is your Teacher, before you presume to know or to speak anything about Him.

The Lord Jesus comes, and with His Word He kills you, to be sure.  But He does so in order to make you alive, to raise you up from sin and death to righteousness and life everlasting in Him.

For He is the Prophet like Moses, who speaks the Word of God most high.  But He is more than a prophet.  He is the incarnate Word, the Lord Himself, who has become your Brother in the flesh.  And He has the authority, the power and ability, to put you to death and raise you to life, to call you to repentance, to redeem you, and to justify you with His own perfect righteousness, holiness, innocence and blessedness; because He has borne your uncleanness in Himself, and put it to death in Himself, in His own Body on the Cross, and washed it away forever and ever with His Blood.

Now, then, just as He is risen from the dead and ever lives to make intercession for you, so does He cleanse you in body and soul with His Holy Spirit by the speaking of His Word, His teaching or doctrine, which bears and conveys the power and authority of His Cross and Resurrection.

Every spirit speaks and acts, and it is known, by its words and actions, by what it says and does.

So, for example, your unclean spirit is not just a cancer hidden inside of you, in the secret thoughts of your heart and mind, in the words you mutter quietly under your breath to no one but yourself; but it also emerges in toxic words and hurtful deeds that actually attack and destroy your neighbor.

By your accusing, criticizing, gossiping, and harsh speech, you lash out and rail against the Lord Jesus Christ.  And when you sin against your brother or sister, for whom Christ Jesus died, you sin against the Lord Himself.  Thus, your unclean spirit is manifest and exposed for what it really is.

But so does the Holy Spirit emerge and proceed in and with and through the good Word and good works of Jesus Christ, which He does for you and speaks to you in the synagogue of His Church.  And His Spirit is also then present in the good words and good works of His Christians, as they are rescued from sin and death and brought to life by the Ministry of the Gospel.

With what sort of voice will you speak?  What will you say?  What spirit shall you breathe?  The unclean spirit of guilt and shame, of doubt and fear, of anger and despair?  Or the Spirit of Christ?

Here and now is the confrontation of the Word and teaching of Jesus with the voice and violence of your old Adam, the puffed-up knowledge and sacrilegious blasphemy of your unclean spirit:

“Be Quiet,” the Lord Jesus declares, and “Depart, unclean spirit!”  Shut up and go away!  And make room for the Holy Spirit!  That is what happens in Holy Baptism, and in the lifelong daily significance of your Baptism into Christ Jesus.  It is the divine work of repentance and forgiveness, which results in a wrenching separation of the old man from the New Man in you.

Little wonder that you convulse and cry out, as you are ripped and torn apart at the seams, as it were; turned completely inside-out, entirely emptied of yourself, and refilled with new stuffing.  So entangled and deeply-seated is your sin within every part of you, body and soul, that you must die and be reborn as someone altogether new.

The daily death of contrition and repentance is painful and scary.  But this doctrine and authority of Jesus is for your rescue and salvation and life.  He destroys you in order to save you forever.

The Word of the Lord Jesus commands your sin and death, and they must obey.  They must depart, because He has atoned for sin and swallowed up death by His sacrifice upon the Cross.  He has suffered Himself to be destroyed on account of your unclean spirit.  And it is in His Crucifixion that you are now put to death, to yourself and to your sin: Far better to die with Him than forever!

So it is that the Word of Jesus, who was crucified for you and raised again, also raises you up and gives you a brand new life in and with Him.  As He has become like you, so does He recreate you to become like Him.  He is your New Man, and you are a new man (or woman) in Christ Jesus.

He cleanses your spirit, and He fills your body and soul with His Holy Spirit, by whom you live, through His forgiveness of all your sins.  He does not hold anything against you.  He does not accuse or condemn you.  He does not count or consider your sins at all.  He removes them with His Word, His Holy Absolution, and at that Word of Christ, sin, death, the devil, and hell are cast out.  They have no choice but to obey Him.  They cannot remain or stand before Him.

Whereas you are raised up to stand fast in Him who is risen and stands fast for you forevermore.

Therefore, you have a new word to speak: to and about the Lord, to and for your neighbor; and you have a new way to live and to act; because you are known by God in grace, mercy, and peace.

As He knows you in His love for you, in the intimacy of the flesh and blood that He shares with you unto the life everlasting, so do you know Him rightly, even now, by faith.  And by such faith you love Him, according to the new and right spirit that He has granted you; and knowing Christ Jesus, you know the Father and the Holy Spirit, and you love the Lord your God as you are loved.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Receive the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus

Ready or not, the Kingdom of God is at hand.  It comes to you here and now in Christ — as it has come, and as it will — with or without your prayer.  But the Lord has taught you to pray, each and every day, that His Kingdom would come to you in peace; not for destruction, but for life and salvation in Him.  And for the sake of Christ Jesus, your Father in heaven hears and answers that prayer by pouring out His Spirit upon you through the preaching of the same Lord Jesus Christ; so that, by His grace, you believe His Holy Word and lead a godly Christian life according to it.

You have heard again this morning, as you did last Sunday in the calling of Philip and Nathanael, that Jesus takes the initiative in seeking out, finding, and calling disciples to Himself.  So has He done for you, and so He continues to do, by calling you daily to repent and believe the Gospel.

In the case at hand, the calling of Andrew and his brother Simon Peter, and of James and John the sons of Zebedee, it is no mere coincidence that Jesus makes His move after John the Baptist has been taken into custody.  As the Forerunner, St. John has necessarily gone before the face of the Lord to prepare His way by the preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And along with that, his suffering and finally his death for the sake of the Word that he preaches anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to His Holy Cross and Passion.

Indeed, it is by the death of Christ upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection from the dead, that the Kingdom of God is established for you and for all, on earth as it is in heaven; and that the way of repentance is opened for you to enter that Kingdom in the Body of Christ Jesus.

The old regime of sin and death is ended in His Body on the Cross.  He crucifies and buries the reign of the old Man, the devil, the world, and fallen flesh.  And all things are made brand new in His flesh, in His Resurrection from the dead.  He is the New Man, the King of the New Creation.

The Kingdom of God is at hand, therefore, in the preaching of the crucified and risen Christ, which is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name.

There are two sides to this repentance; both of them are necessary, and both sides are demonstrated by the people of Nineveh when they are turned away from their past wickedness and sin, and they are turned toward God in faith, to call upon His Name in the hope of His mercy and forgiveness.

Such genuine repentance in both of its aspects — that is to say, both the dying of contrition and the rising of confidence in Christ — moving from sorrow and regret over your sins to faith and hope in God — it is the Lord’s work, not yours!  He not only calls you to repentance, but He works it in you by the preaching of His Word, the Law and the Gospel, the Cross and the Resurrection.

It was for this purpose that God sent the Prophet Jonah to Nineveh.  And despite that man’s initial reluctance and subsequent pettiness, the Lord worked through his preaching to bring the people of Nineveh to repentance.  He turned them from their wickedness to Himself and His mercy; not only in their hearts and minds, in their feelings and emotions, but also in their words and actions.

The same Lord has had mercy on you, and has called you to repentance, and has raised you up to new life in the Gospel.  In fact, He calls you daily to these things, as He calls you here and now.  He calls you to follow Him as a Christian disciple — to live, now, by faith in His Word — to and from your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection, by the ongoing catechesis of His preaching.

His Law and His Gospel are still at work, to this very day, in this very place, to call you from sin to forgiveness, from unbelief to faith, from false belief to the worship of the true and living God.  By the preaching of His Cross and Resurrection, He calls you day by day from death to life, from darkness into light, and from eternal damnation unto everlasting salvation in Him.  He calls you to enter the Kingdom of God by His Blood, as that divine Kingdom comes to you in His Body.

Repent, therefore, and believe the Gospel.  Cease and desist from your wickedness and violence.  Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.  Fast and pray.  Hunger for the Lord your God, and call upon His Name for mercy and forgiveness.  Trust not in yourself, but in Him, in His Word and the gracious promise of His Gospel.  Die to the world, to yourself, and to your sin, and flee unto God in Christ.

Find your life in Him alone, above and beyond everything else.  Not in this world, nor in its kings and kingdoms, be they big or small, but in the Kingdom of God, which is at hand; which is here.

What such repentance means for you and looks like, practically speaking, is that you hold on loosely to your life on earth, as you have heard from St. Paul in his letter to the Church at Corinth.

That is to say, hold on loosely, but don’t let go.  Live in the world, but not of it.  Neither demonize nor idolize the creation, which is God’s good gift.  Receive it with thanksgiving from His hand, and sanctify it to yourself by His Word and prayer.  In faith and love, make use of whatever God gives to you, but not as though your life depended on anything other than the risen Lord Jesus.

Likewise, discipleship does not mean that you escape from your place in the world, but that you follow Christ Jesus, according to His Word, in the particular place to which He has called you.

Neither the example of those first disciples, who were called away from their boats and their nets, nor the challenging words of St. Paul concerning marriage and its demands, should be taken as a rule that you are to abandon your family and your God-given stations in life.

On the contrary, it is from within your vocation as a child of God, in your own proper office and station, and within your family, such as God has given you — it is right there, and in those very ways, that you are called to follow Jesus in repentant faith and holy love.

It may be that some of you men will be called to the Office of the Ministry in the Church on earth in these last days.  Others of you may be called to some new vocation of service to your neighbors in the world.  But in any case, for each and all of you, there is a newness to all of your vocations and stations in life.  It is a daily newness, as striking and remarkable as death and resurrection from the dead.  For all of your relationships, and all the ways you deal with the world and with your stuff, are all placed under the Cross of Christ, and are now perceived and approached in the hope of His Resurrection, in the Light of the Kingdom of God.

Love and serve your neighbor, then, including first and foremost your own family, and forgive those who trespass against you, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Be faithful to your spouse and children, to your family and friends.  Keep your word.  Fulfill your duties and responsibilities.  And whatever your particular job may be, carry it out in the fear and faith of God, as one who has died and risen with Christ, whose life is hidden with Christ in God; for that is surely who you are.

Where you have fallen short and failed in what the Lord has given you to do, and wherever you have done what you should not, repent of your sins, return to the Gospel of life and forgiveness, and live unto righteousness in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  For the Kingdom of God is at hand in Him who has come, not to condemn you, but to save you by His grace.

Not only once upon a time, long ago and far away, but also here and now He continues to come — in His own Body of flesh and blood, conceived and born of St. Mary — with His personal and powerful Word, spoken by the mouth of His servants.  He comes to serve you with His free and full forgiveness of all your sins, and with all the fruits and benefits of His Cross and Resurrection.

It is by this Ministry of His Gospel, with Spirit-wrought faith in His Gospel, that you live by the grace of Christ in the Kingdom of God, in the eating of His Body and the drinking of His Blood, in the righteousness, innocence, and blessedness of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

Here, then, in His Church on earth, in the Liturgy of His Word and Holy Sacrament, is the answer to the prayer He has taught you to pray.  For here in the fullness of time God’s Kingdom comes to you with grace, mercy, and peace, with life and light and salvation, for now and for eternity.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Heaven on Earth

Location. Location. Location.

It’s a matter of where to find God, of where and how you shall be able to see Him and know Him.  Not for the sake of idle curiosity, but for your life and salvation.  For the true and only God is not simply a helper or a means to some other end, but He is the point and purpose of your existence and of your place in the whole scope of creation.  To know Him and to love Him, to live with Him, and to worship Him with all that you are and have, that is why you are here and what it’s all about.

The dilemma is that you can’t see Him, know Him, or live with Him by any prerogative or power of your own, because you are utterly blinded by your sin and cut off from God by death.  And that is not unique to you.  It is the condition of the whole wide world apart from the Spirit of Christ.

The Word of the Lord is rare in these gray and latter days.  Visions of the Truth are infrequent, as they were in the days before the Prophet Samuel.  Eyes have grown dim, unable to see well.  There is a hunger for insight, for revelation, and for a kind of spirituality; a longing for security, which is met with lots of false and failing words, all making a pretense of wisdom, perhaps even piety and holiness, but presuming upon the Lord and offering lies.  For all of that, the fallen world and sinful man are unable to recognize the one true God.  He is hidden in, with, and under the Cross.

No one has ever seen God before, but the only-begotten Son who abides in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him to us by His Cross.  The Word of the Lord has been fulfilled, as He spoke by the mouth of His Prophets, in the Incarnation of the Son, who has come down from heaven and established Himself among us here on earth in His own flesh and blood.  By His death for our sins and in His Resurrection from the dead, His Body has become the Temple of God.

He has seen you and known you.  He has sought you out and found you.  And He now calls you to Himself, to come and see the Father in Him.  For He is the very Image and Likeness of God.

Neither you nor anyone else will ever be convinced of the one true faith by rational arguments, by scientific proofs, or by the logic of so-called common sense.  Rather, you are confronted with the Word of this Word-made-Flesh, and you are called to come and see the heavens opened and the Glory of God in the Body of Christ Jesus, which is to say, in His Church and Holy Sacrament.

The Body of Christ Jesus is the location, the real estate of God Himself, the very heart of heaven, and the center of gravity for all of Creation.  The Holy Spirit rests and remains upon His Body, and God and Father is revealed in the flesh and blood of this incarnate Son, in His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  His Holy Sacrament is truly heaven on earth.  How awesome is this place!

For the one Lord comes and stands, and He calls to you in His Temple, where His Ark is located, that is to say, where His Word is preached in its truth and purity, and where His Body, conceived and born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and risen from the dead, is given to you in His Name.  So does He remember you in love, with mercy and compassion and forgiveness of sins.

Hear and heed His Word, and come to Him, to find Him here, to see and know the true and only God in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to behold the Glory of the Father manifest (epiphanied) in Him.

Rest yourself in His Body, and live as a member of His Body in all your going out and coming in.

The Lord your God has come down from heaven and taken for Himself the same human nature as your own from His Mother Mary.  Thus, the very Son of God has a Body of His own, in which He lives and dies for you and for all, and rises and ascends and lives forever, for you and your salvation.  He is and remains your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.

So it is that the same Lord Jesus Christ comes to you and stands before you in His Church: In the waters of His Holy Baptism; in the preaching of His Holy Gospel and in His Holy Absolution; and in His Body given and His Blood poured out for you and for the many in the Holy Communion.  Notice that all of these means of grace and salvation are given and received in and with the body.

The fact is that your body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for your body, as St. Paul has written.  Not in the way of carnal desire, neither the idolatrous passion of lust nor the gluttony and drunken-ness of perishable food and drink, but as the incarnate God who is your Meat and Drink indeed, whose flesh and blood are the truly Spiritual Food of eternal Life for both soul and body.  It is in and with His Body that you receive from Him and share with Him the Holy Spirit of the Father.

Flee immorality and sin, therefore, and follow Christ Jesus in and with your body.  Discipline your flesh and your behavior, your words and actions.  Not as though to justify yourself, which you cannot do, but to live as a Christian, as a child of God, in the righteousness of Christ your Savior.

Confess His holy Name; serve the Lord with gladness; worship Him in the beauty of holiness; and glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in His Spirit and His Truth.  Do it first of all by listening to and learning from His Word in the place where He is found, and then by serving your neighbor in your own place according to the Lord’s Commandments.  That begins with your own home and family, as a son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife, father or mother.  It also includes your office and station within the life of our congregation, as well, whether you are an usher, a trustee, a musician, or an elder; in the choir, on the altar guild, or one of the youth.

As the Lord Jesus is your Rabbi, pay attention to His teaching, and put it into practice.  Believe and obey the Word that He speaks to you.  Live under Him as your true and only King.  Worship Him, the incarnate God, in His Body and His Blood; and worship the Father in Him.  Lift up your heart and mind to heaven by giving attention to the Word and Sacrament of Christ Jesus here on earth.

It’s not that you mentally and emotionally ascend to His Body up there, “somewhere over the rainbow,” or whatever, as if you could ever manage such a thing.  But, no, it is in His Body here with you in His Church on earth, that you ascend with Him in body and soul to God the Father in heaven.  So it is also from His Body, in which you are united with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, that you descend, as it were, to your neighbor in divine and holy love.  Not that you look down on your neighbor, but that you bend down to serve and care for him or her in humility.

This is what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple, to be where He is, to go where He goes, and to live as He lives: in faith and love toward God, in love for your neighbor, and in the sure and certain confidence that you are safe and secure in the Body of Christ Jesus, both now and forevermore.

For as God the Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead, who was crucified for you, so has He forgiven you all your sin and justified you; and so shall He raise you from the dead unto the life everlasting in your body and your soul.  Your body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for your body, not only here and now, but forever and ever in the resurrection of your flesh to the Glory of God.

By His Sacrifice upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection from the dead, He has opened heaven to you: to pour out His Spirit upon you and to bring you to His Father by the preaching of His Gospel.

Come and see!  Hearken to the Word that He places in the mouth of His servant at His Holy Altar, the Word that He will not permit to fail or fall to the ground.  The Lamp of the Lord has not gone out, nor shall it ever be extinguished.  For Christ is risen from the dead, and here, by His Word, heaven stands forever opened to you in His Body and His Blood, the Ark of the New Covenant.

How wonderful is this Man, Jesus, whose holy Body is none other than the House of God, and whose flesh and blood are the very Gate of Heaven!

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The New Creation in the Baptized Body of Jesus

So this is the beginning of the New Creation in the Body of Jesus.  When darkness shrouds the whole world, and thick darkness permeates the hearts and minds, the bodies and souls of all the people; when the chaos of Satan’s wicked lies and savage tyranny seems to have the upper hand; when all appears to be for naught, the Spirit hovers over the waters and God the Father speaks.

And in the baptized Body of the incarnate Son, the Holy Triune God brings forth new Life from out of death and causes the true Light to shine forth in the darkness.  Instead of doom and gloom and deep despair, He gives hope, new confidence, and courage in the promise of the Resurrection.  For all of Creation, all things in heaven and on earth are made new in the Body of Christ Jesus.

This divine good work of the New Creation is brought about through the repentance of St. John’s preaching and baptism unto faith in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting with God.  And be sure of this, across all these many years and all the many miles, you also are called to this same repentance and faith, as you are baptized into this New Creation.

But it is first of all accomplished for you and for all by the Lord Jesus, the Son of God and Mary’s Son from Nazareth in Galilee.  He who is true God and perfect Man, the very Word made Flesh — all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us, sinless and holy, flawless in every way, without any blemish or defect — He humbles Himself and takes His place with all the people, with you and all the other sinners.  He comes and numbers Himself with each and all of us in the waters of the Jordan, and submits Himself to St. John’s preaching and baptism of repentance.

This is what it means for Him to be the sacrificial Lamb of God, as you sing to Him in the Liturgy, in the Agnus Dei, in the Holy Communion.  Namely, that He takes upon Himself and repents for the sins of the world; He drowns and destroys them in the waters of His Baptism; He puts them to death with His own flesh and blood upon the Cross.

He is baptized for the forgiveness of all our sins.  Though none of them were His to begin with, He makes all of them His own, and He makes Himself accountable for them in the River Jordan.

So does He also achieve and establish repentance concretely in Himself, in His Body of human flesh and blood, in His dying and His rising, for you and for all the people of all times and places.

His going into the water is already His Crucifixion, death, and burial, wherein He bears the full responsibility for all of the sins of the world, from Adam & Eve to the close of the age.  Although He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, it is as though He were the worst of all the sinners, indeed, the only sinner ever.  As though He were the One, the only One, who had actually committed all of your sins.  As though He alone were guilty of all the bad stuff in you.

Hence, the profound paradox of the “happy exchange,” as Dr. Luther loves to call it: The dear Lord Jesus goes into the waters of His Baptism all clean and sparkly, absolutely perfect in every way, and He comes out of the water all dirty and dying, stained and stinky with the whole world’s sin; whereas you go into the waters of Baptism dirty and dead, and you come out alive and clean.

Now, then, you wanna tell me what’s “fair,” and what’s “not fair,” in your experience of life?

It is for your sins of thought, word, and deed; for your unbelief and false belief; for your refusal to love anyone as much as yourself; for your selfishness and greed, your covetousness and bitter envy; for your laziness and neglect, and your unfaithfulness in your vocations; for your cheating and shortcutting; for your apathy and anger, your antagonism and arrogance — for all of that, and for everyone else’s sins, all of which Jesus receives in His Baptism — it is for all those sins that Jesus suffers and dies.  Which is why His Baptism is an immersion in His own Cross and Passion.

Yet, even bearing the sins of the world under the judgment of the Law — and even though your sins alone are a crushing and damnable weight, which daily threaten to take the very heart of you and drive your conscience to despair — yet, the Lord Jesus remains faithful and obedient, holy and righteous, even unto death.  He does not whine or complain.  He prays and confesses.  He does not waver or fall, but walks forward.  He does not balk or resist, but He lays down His life willingly.

As the true and perfect Man — and this is what it means to be truly human — He lives by faith in His Father, in the Word and Promise of His own God and Father.

I especially want you to take careful note of this: Although He is thoroughly soaked and saturated with the sins of the whole world in the waters of His Baptism, Jesus emerges and arises from those waters and receives the Word and Spirit of His Father from a heaven that is torn open to bless Him and receive Him.  The heavens are rent and the Spirit comes down, not for the condemnation of the nations, but for the demise and destruction of death and the grave.

The true Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens, is opened to the One who is both Priest and Sacrifice; so that all of the people of God may enter with Him through the Veil of His Flesh, by the cleansing of His Blood, to live by His Holy Spirit in the presence of His Father.

This Promise He receives from heaven, by and with and in the Word and Spirit of His Father, as He who bears the sins of the world comes up out of the waters of the Jordan.  It is thus already the Promise of His Resurrection from the dead, which is the proclamation of forgiveness for all those sins that He carries, and of justification and sanctification for all who are members of His Body.

It is, in short, the Pledge and Promise of the New Creation in the baptized Body of Christ Jesus.

Jesus lives, and He goes to His death upon the Cross, in this faith and confidence; which is to say that He lives in the significance of His Baptism.

So are you likewise called to live in the significance of your Baptism; which is to live by faith in the Cross and Resurrection of this same Lord Jesus Christ.  And what does this mean for you?  The Word of the Lord has taught you, and tells you again this morning: Daily to repent of your sins, not only in your heart and mind, in your thoughts and feelings, but in your words and deeds, in your body and your soul.  You are to become altogether new, altogether other than you have been; to live and die righteously; to confess your sins, and to rely upon the Absolution of the Gospel.

It is a completely false understanding of Holy Baptism to suppose that it sets you free from any accountability or responsibility before God.  It does not save you from God, but sets you free from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  It is the fountain and source of your identity and calling to be and to live as a child of God, that is, according to His Word, by faith in His Word and Promise.

Your Baptism calls you to trust the Lord your God, to rely upon Him for all that you need and for all good things, and to pray to the Father in the Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ.  It calls you to flee from sin and every evil, and to do as the Lord commands within your own station in life.  It calls you to confess His Holy Name, and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it.

To be baptized in the Name of the Lord also means that you belong, not to yourself, but to Him, and to His people, His Church.  For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, one Holy Spirit, one true faith, one Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and one God and Father of all Christians.  As you are baptized into Christ, you are a member of the one Body of Christ Jesus, and therefore a fellow member with all His brothers and sisters.  You are not a free agent, but a servant of the Lord.

You live in this significance of your Baptism, as a child of God, by faith in His Word.  There is no other way to live, not really.  As all of Creation is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, the Author and Giver of Life, so also do you live by the Spirit of Christ Jesus.  You can’t catch the Spirit or keep Him by any power or intelligence of your own, but you receive Him in the Ministry of the Gospel, in the water and the Word of Holy Baptism, and in the Body and the Blood of Christ Jesus.

It is the gracious good work of God that, day by day, He separates the Light from the darkness in you by calling you to repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.  Though you wander and get lost in the wilderness, and you keep returning to the same old, same old bad habits, to the sinful lusts and wicked desires of your fallen flesh, and to the deadly patterns of your inheritance from Adam, the Lord continues to send His messengers to preach to you in the wilderness, to call you back, again and again, to the significance of your one Baptism into Christ Jesus, so that you should die to sin, to yourself, and to the world, and that you should live unto righteousness in Him.

Not that you should pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!  But that you are raised from death to life by the grace of God, by the Word and Spirit of the Father in the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  For His free and full forgiveness is given to you in His means of grace.  Not as permission or license to keep on sinning, but as genuine freedom from sin and death, and from the tyranny of the devil, so that you are free to live in Christ as the true man or woman that God created you in love to be.

Your sin no longer has the upper hand, because your dear Lord Jesus is risen from the dead, and the Spirit of His God and Father has come down upon Him, upon His Body of flesh and blood.  God and Man are permanently reconciled and united in harmony in that baptized Body of Christ; and as His Baptism, His Cross and Resurrection have become your Baptism and your repentance, so is His crucified and risen Body your Justification, and His Holy Spirit your Sanctification.

In the bodily Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead is the fulfillment of His Baptism and the restoration of the Image of God in Man.  He is Himself the Image of God in His Incarnation, because He is the Word made Flesh, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  But you are recreated in the Image of God by your Baptism into the Baptism of our Lord; for so do you share His Cross and Resurrection, His faith and faithfulness, His Righteousness and Holiness in your own body of flesh and blood, in the life that you now live by faith in Him.

So it is, by the Ministry of the Gospel, by the preaching of His Word, and by the Holy Sacrament, that God raises you from the dead, from the dust of the earth, and breathes His Holy Spirit into you through His forgiveness of your sins.

And you really do live in the true Light of His Salvation, in righteousness and purity before Him.

Indeed, His Word to you in Christ Jesus is that you are His own dearly-beloved son or daughter, and that you are well-pleasing to Him.  For His forgiveness of your sins is not a joke or let’s pretend or wishful thinking, but is as tangible and certain as the waters of your Baptism, and as real and complete as the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead — in whom all of Creation is made brand new and is perfected, and in whom you also are a New Creation, now and forevermore.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.