He's By Your Side Upon the Plain

The Kingdom of God is at hand in Christ Jesus, and His Baptism has become your Holy Baptism.  Thus, you are a beloved son of God the Father, and you are well-pleasing to Him, because Christ has bound Himself to you, and you to Him, by and with His own Name.  The Father has opened heaven to you in the Body of the incarnate Son, and He has poured out His Holy Spirit upon you.

Consequently, in this mortal life on earth you now find yourself in the arena between God and the devil, and you are driven into personal conflict with the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh.  Day after day, you are tempted by these enemies of God to doubt, deny, and disobey His Word.

At the same time, your dear God and Father in heaven would test you, as He tested Abraham.  He does not tempt you to sin, nor to any evil, but He does try your heart and mind in order to test, instruct, and strengthen your faith in His Word and in the promises of your Holy Baptism.  So it is that you are daily being put to death, and daily being raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus.

Life is a battlefield when the Kingdom of God invades the devil’s stomping grounds.  Which is why — because the Lord Jesus has been baptized to be your Champion and your Savior — He is immediately driven by the Spirit of God from the waters of His Baptism into the wilderness, there to be tempted by Satan, in order to engage that wicked foe in a strange and dreadful contest.  Thus, the Son of David goes out to meet a bigger, badder Goliath than this world has ever dreamed of.

The wilderness is where Christ contends with Satan, because the wilderness is where you also are tested and trained.  The wilderness is where the fallen children of Adam & Eve learn how to live in Paradise again, that is, by faith in the Word and works of God, to rest in His gracious promises.  The wilderness is that long stretch of desert between Egypt and Canaan, wherein the children of God are catechized to enter the Good Land that He will give them according to His tender mercy.  And it is where you are taught to live in the Kingdom of God by faith, and so also to work in love for God and for your neighbor, instead of trusting and loving only yourself.  To that end, it is in the wilderness that you are called to repent and believe the Gospel.  But, of course, it is especially at those points of repentance, faith, and love that you are under attack and assaulted by the devil.

The Lord your God tests you and tries you, in order to clarify and strengthen your faith and your confession.  The devil tempts you into all kinds of evil, in order to rob you of life and bring you to death and condemnation.  So it is that Satan wickedly entices you to disobey God’s Word; and then, in craftiness and spite, he is also the first in line to accuse you and bring charges against you.

At every point in your life on earth, this battle is waged: In your successes, and in your suffering and failures.  In what you have, and in what you lack or lose.  In what God has promised, and in what you covet for yourself that God has not given you.  Always the devil is tempting you to question and contradict, to ignore and despise what God has spoken, both the Law and the Gospel.

But now, let God and His Word be true, and know that everything else is a lie and a deception.

Trust the Lord, your God and Father in Christ Jesus. Cling to His Word, come hell or high water against you.  Do not despair of His goodness, nor despise His good gifts of body and soul.

Do not be deceived or misled into evil, which has merely the appearance of “good,” yet leads only to death.  Beware the assaults and temptations of the enemy: the lies, the flattery, the questions, and the accusations of the devil; the enticements and attacks of the world; and the lusts and desires of your own mortal flesh, which are the rotting cesspool out of which all sin and death proceed.

Sometimes crass, sometimes subtle, the devil is always crafty, and every sin to which he tempts you is dangerous and deadly.  Do not kid yourself.  It is not true that “all sins are equal,” but all sin, by definition, is contrary to the Word of the Lord, and that is always to your detriment.  Every denial, and every disobedience of what God the Lord has spoken, is a refusal and rejection of the Life that is found only in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That is why the soul that sins shall die.

Where, then, shall you live?  In the Kingdom of God by His grace?  Or with the devil in his prison house of death and despair?  That is what it comes down to, finally.  You cannot have it both ways.

Repent of your sins and sacrifice your idols.  Worship the Lord your God by faith in His Gospel.  Not that He needs anything from you, but that you need Him for everything.  Rest your hopes in Him and call upon His Name.  Rejoice in His forgiveness, and know that He well provides for you.  He saves you from every evil of body and soul.  He raises you up, even from death and the grave.

Remember that you are baptized, and remember what God has said to you and done for you by that washing of water with His Word.  As father Abraham clung to the Covenant of Circumcision and persevered in the promises of God — even when he was tried and tested so poignantly in the case of his beloved Isaac — so cling to the Word and promises of God in Christ Jesus, in whose Name you are baptized, whose Cross you bear, and whose Resurrection from the dead you also share.

Renounce the devil, all his works and all his ways.  That’s not a one-time deal, it’s a lifelong battle and a deadly serious business.  But your life and your allegiance belong to the Holy Triune God.

See here, you will not starve.  The Lord your God will feed you according to His mercy.  And you shall not go naked, for God the Lord will clothe and shelter you in peace.  Nor shall you die alone.  The Lord is with you, in death as in life, and in the Resurrection.  He is your sure and certain hope.

There is no temptation with which you are tempted that He has not also endured and resisted on your behalf — in flesh and blood like your own — even in the wilderness of your sin and death.  And there is no suffering that you suffer which He has not also suffered in your place, so that by His Cross and Passion He should overcome them.  He has defeated your enemies.  He has atoned for your sins.  He has conquered your death.  His Resurrection from the dead is God’s own pledge and promise to you, which stands fast and forever, as Christ Himself lives and reigns to all eternity.

He has set Himself to be your Champion.  He’s by your side upon the plain!  He has taken His stand against the roaring lion that threatens to devour you; He has smashed his teeth and broken his jaw.  He has crushed the serpent’s shifting, hissing head beneath His own bruised and bloodied heel.  He is faithful, and He does what He has promised.  There is no shifting or turning with Him.

The devil is always shifting and turning.  When one strategy fails, he simply switches to another.  He’ll tell you one thing in the morning and another thing at night.  From one day to the next, from one week to the next, the devil is full of nothing but constant lies and deceptions.  He cares nothing for the truth, but only for your death and your damnation by whatever means he might employ.

Your own sinful heart is likewise full of guile, and the world is also deceitful and dishonest. But not so with your Father in heaven.  He speaks from His heart in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son, and His Word is always the Truth.  He will not change His mind concerning you.  What God the Father says to you in Christ is and always shall be so.  You are sheltered under the shadow of His wings.

Christ be praised, the Kingdom of God does not rest upon your faithfulness.  It does not even rest upon your repentance or your faith.  It does not depend on you at all.  But the Kingdom of God is at hand for you in the Body of Christ Jesus.  It is as sure and certain as His Nativity, His Baptism, His Life, His Death, and His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  So it is that your repentance and your faith, your life and your salvation, rest firmly upon Him.  And He shall not be moved.

Consider the example of your Lord Jesus Christ, therefore — though it is always much more than just an example — because everything He does, He does it all for you, that you might live in Him.

Amid the wild beasts and the wicked assaults of the devil, the Lord Jesus, in humility and faith, relies upon His Father and receives the ministry of His Father’s holy angels.  So, too, He sends His ministering spirits to care for you, both His holy angels and His mortal preachers of the Gospel,  in order to preserve your faith and life in both body and soul, unto the Life everlasting.

He provides the sustenance that you need in the midst of the wilderness.  Not miraculous bread from desert stones, but the Living and Life-giving Bread of His own Body, which is given for you.  And as He thus serves you with Himself, will He not also freely give you every good thing?

It is most certainly true.  You are beloved of the Lord.  You are a son or daughter of God the Father in Christ Jesus, and He is well pleased with you.  That is the truth.  Your sins are all forgiven, and God holds none of them against you.  From the waters of your Holy Baptism He has clothed you in the righteousness and holiness, the innocence and blessedness of Jesus, the incarnate Son.  He cleanses and restores you with His holy and precious Blood, which is poured out for you to drink.

By Himself He has sworn, He has bound Himself to you.  He is yours, and you are His forever.  The heavens stand open, and the Kingdom of God is here for you.  Amen, Amen, it shall be so!

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

By Faith in the Word and Promise of the Father

Whatever the Lord God did for ancient Israel, He has done all the more so for you.  And all that has been written concerning His people of old has been written for your instruction and edification.

God has brought you out of Egypt by the mighty hand and outstretched arms of Jesus Christ.  And He has brought you through the waters of your Baptism — through the Red Sea and the Jordan of your Baptism — into the Good Land that He promised, into His Holy Church.  And here it is true that Milk and Honey flow, the pure spiritual Milk of His Word, which is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.  And as God the Father has not withheld His only Son but given Him up for you, there is no good thing that He withholds from you; for He is your Father, and you are His child.

Along with the preaching of His Word, He provides all that you need for body and soul, now and forever.  To this day He has not allowed you to perish, and He continues to feed and clothe, shelter and protect you.  He surrounds you with good gifts and with people who love and care for you.

Offer to Him in return, therefore, the first fruits of His gifts to you.  Not as though to buy Him off or bribe Him (as if you even could), but in order to give all thanks and praise to Him who loves you, to confess your faith and trust in Him, and to entrust yourself to Him in whom you have life.

As His first and best gift to you is His Word, offer the first fruits of that sacred gift by the prayer and confession of His Word.  Use His Name rightly, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism.  Call upon Him in every trouble.  Pray, praise, and give thanks.  Confess what He has spoken.

Seek Him in the place where He causes His Name to abide with you in Peace.  Seek Him in His Holy Church, in the preaching of His Gospel, in the remembrance of your Baptism, in the Body and Blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ.  And from the priest whom He has called, ordained, and given to you, hear the Word of Christ by which you believe and pray and are saved.

And so also with the material gifts that God the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship — with the money that He has provided, with the abilities that He has bestowed upon you, and with all the means that He has placed into your hands — support His Church and Ministry on earth to the glory of His Holy Name, not only for your own benefit, but for your neighbors’ benefit, as well.

Thus do you worship the Lord your God, just as it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him; not only with your thoughts, words, and deeds, but also with your stuff, and with your whole body and life.  Refrain from every kind of evil, and be quick to do good to your neighbors, to your family and friends, to the Levite, stranger, and alien, and even to your enemies on earth.

Receive what God has given to you, whatever it may be, and use it to glorify Him by loving and serving the people He has set beside you.  Live where He has stationed you in charity and peace.

Do not take or even covet what the Lord your God has not given to you, but be content with your own place and purpose and possessions, and live in love according to your calling as a Christian.

Do not test the Lord your God, but do fear, love, and trust in Him, according to His Word and all His promises. Worship Him in the beauty of His holiness by living in holy faith and holy love.  Give all glory, honor, thanks, and praise to Him, because He has shown His mercy to you.  That is your life, even here and now on earth, as you live with God in Christ Jesus by faith in His Word.

Yet, even so, although you live with Him in His Kingdom by such faith in the Gospel, there is still this wandering in the wilderness between the Red Sea and the Jordan, between your Baptism and the completion of your Baptism in death.  And this wilderness can be scary.  It is a trial, and there are many tribulations.  There are temptations on all sides, within and without.  And there is the constant threat of danger to life and limb, body and soul, possessions and reputation.

Still, God does not lead you through the wilderness in order to destroy you.  It is rather the place of repentance and catechesis, wherein He teaches you to call upon His Name, to trust in Him and rely upon Him, and to live by faith in His Word and promises, even when you go without bread.  He disciplines you in the wilderness, as a father disciplines a child in love, so that you might live.

But the devil tempts you in the wilderness; certainly not because he loves you, but because he hates you and despises you.  He is furious that God has redeemed you, and he hates the promises that God has given you.  The devil knows no mercy, but he will do anything to hurt and destroy you.

To that end, the devil tempts you to doubt and despair, and he tempts you to idolatry, in which you find not life but only death.  The devil tempts you to take what God has not given you.  But as he masquerades as an angel of light, so does he disguise his temptations to appear good and right.

The devil tempts you to make gods out of the things of this world, whether by coveting what you have not been given, or by devoting your body and life to whatever you have been given, putting your trust in those things, as though they were the source and substance of your life and salvation.  Thus would the devil turn you away from the Lord and His Word to the perishing things of earth.

He tempts you to reckless bravado in doing such things as the Lord has not given you to do, while tempting you to cowardice and negligence in those duties and responsibilities that God has given; so that, far too often, you do what you should not, and you fail to do what you should.

Repent of all such ways in which you have fallen prey to the devil’s temptations.  Rather, resist the devil, firm in the faith of Christ, as the Scriptures have taught you, and he will flee from you.

Indeed, the Holy Scriptures have taught you to put on the full armor of God, that is, to arm yourself with His Word, that you may stand fast against the assaults and the accusations of the old evil foe.  Thus do you resist his temptations, as often as they come; and where and when you do fall into sin, the gracious Word of the Gospel heals you, defends you, and raises you up to new life in Christ.

Thus do you fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.  And thus do you live and abide in the place where the Lord your God causes His Name and His Glory to dwell with you in grace, mercy, and peace — that is to say, in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

For one thing, you do find a good example today in your Lord Jesus Christ; for He has lived perfectly in faith and love, and He has left you an example, that you should follow in His steps.  In His refutation of the devil’s temptations you find a sure and certain way to proceed in your resisting of the devil’s temptations.  The Lord Jesus relies upon the Holy Scriptures, He relies upon the Word of His Father, in order to know the Way He is to go, and to avoid the way He is not.  And He trusts the Word and promise of His Baptism, even when His experience may seem to deny it.

His Father has declared, “You are My beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.”  So, that is what Jesus believes and clings to.  He will not listen to the devil’s “if.”  He listens only to His Father.

And all of this, you should also do.  Hear and heed the Word of your God and Father, and trust the promises of your Baptism; for you are His beloved son in Christ, and with you He is well pleased.

But do not kid yourself!  You are no match for the devil.  On earth is not his equal.  He is stronger than you, to be sure.  As a creature of God, he was a holy angel before he fell, and he retains the powers that God has given to him.  So, if you consider what the holy angels can do, you know the strength of Satan.  But his strength is not his greatest trick.  It is his craftiness and cunning, his lies and deceits.  It is by such words that he seeks to destroy you; for the devil is not the Creator, but he can only mimic the Creator.  As God does all things by His Word, the devil uses words, as well, and in this way he twists, distorts, and perverts what God the Lord has said and done and given.  Satan will even quote the Holy Scriptures, selectively, in order to trick you and trap you.

Notwithstanding all your best efforts and good intentions, you will not survive the wilderness on your own.  You’ll not go toe-to-toe with the devil and win.  “On earth is not his equal.”  Thanks be to God, therefore, that your dear Lord Jesus Christ is far more than just a good example.  He is your Savior and Redeemer, your merciful and great High Priest, and your own great Champion.

Remember that Jesus has taken His stand with all the people in the waters of the Jordan.  He has bound Himself to you there in His Baptism.  And He has bound you to Himself in your Baptism.

It is for your sake that He is out in the wilderness.  It is for your sake that He is led by the Spirit and tempted by the devil.  It is for you and your salvation that He remains faithful and steadfast as the true Man, even unto death upon the Cross.  He does not give in to the devil’s temptation, but rather submits Himself entirely to the good and gracious Will of His Father.  All that He does, He does it all for you in love, to the glory of His God and Father, to the praise of His glorious grace.

He hungers after forty days of fasting in the wilderness; so His Body knows hunger like yours, and His tummy has rumbled for the food that is needed to survive.  And yet, He hungers far more to do the Will of Him who sent Him; which is the good and gracious Will of God for your salvation.

He proceeds in perfect faith on the Way of the Cross, and He will not turn aside, neither to the left nor to the right.  He goes where God has called Him and sent Him, and nowhere else.  And He worships the Lord, His God and Father, with all His thoughts, words, and deeds, with all His stuff, and with His whole Body and Life. With everything He is and has, He offers Himself up as the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And by His death He crushes the devil’s head, because He thereby atones for the sins of the world and shatters all the power of death.  Those are the devil’s two greatest weapons — sin and death — but Satan is now utterly stripped of both.  For Christ has atoned for all your sins, and Christ has trampled death beneath His feet.  The Lord has gotten this great Victory for you and for all people

Relying on His Father, praying to Him and trusting that He would be able to save Him out of death, the Lord Jesus receives the promise of His Father in His Resurrection from the dead.  And having by His Cross reconciled the world to God, He rises from the dead as the First Fruits of the New Creation.  In rising and ascending to His Father, He brings you also to the Father in Himself.

How is it that His Victory, Life, and Salvation become yours?  And how do you go about putting on the Armor of Christ Jesus and His Cross and Resurrection?  It is by the prayer and confession of His Word.  And that is not beyond your grasp.  It is true that by your own reason and strength you could neither know nor believe His Word, nor could you pray it and confess it.  But the Lord has spoken and revealed His Word to you, and with it He has opened up your lips to show forth His praise.  Indeed, His Word is not far away from you; it is drawing near to you even now.

It is in this very preaching, this preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, that His Word of Life is very near you.  It is in your heart and in your mouth, because it is first of all in your ears.  And as you hear His Word, so do you believe.  And as you believe, so do you confess and pray.

The Word has drawn near to you in the Person of your Lord Jesus Christ, as He has drawn near to you by His Incarnation and Holy Nativity, by His Baptism in the Jordan River, by His Fasting and Temptation, by His Agony and Bloody Sweat, and by His Holy Cross and Passion.  And so does He also continue to draw near to you within the Liturgy of His Gospel in Word and Sacrament.  He draws near to you, and He abides with you, and He shall never leave you nor forsake you.

With this Ministry of His Gospel He offers you up to His Father as the first fruits of His Salvation.  That is how St. Paul speaks of his ministry to the Gentiles, namely, that by his Gospel he offers them unto God.  And so, by this Gospel, Jesus offers you to His Father, that you may have Life.

You are no longer a wandering Aramean.  You are no longer a stranger or an alien to God.  But you are a member of the Body of Christ, His Church, a member of His Family and a resident of His Household.  And here you also rejoice in the Good Gifts that your own dear God and Father showers upon you in Him who is your Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, your Lord.

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

All Things by the Word of God in Christ Jesus

As St. James and Dr. Luther have both taught us, God tempts no one to sin or to engage in evil.  He does, however, test and try His people, His sons and daughters, according to His good and gracious Will, in order to demonstrate, exercise, and strengthen their faith and life in His Word.

As we’ve been hearing over the past several weeks in the case of Job (in daily catechesis), God does permit the devil to assault the righteous with various afflictions and temptations — though always within the bounds and limits that God has set.  But whereas the devil seeks to undermine the faith of God’s people in these ways, the Lord purposes to strengthen and preserve them in His Word and faith in the midst of their adversities, even unto death, in the hope of the Resurrection.

The Word of God is the hinge on which everything turns, the foundation on which faith and life and all things depend.  So that is the point at which the devil attacks you, but it is also the way and means by which the Lord your God defends you, upholds you, and guards and keeps you from all evil.  His Word determines and reveals what is holy, good, and right, and likewise what is sinful and unclean; not your wisdom, reason, or feelings (nor anyone else’s), but God’s Word does that.

So, for example, when the Lord brought His people out of Egypt and led them through the desert to the Promised Land, He tested them by way of the Manna He provided, as to whether they would gather it according to His Word and rely upon that gift of daily bread according to His promise.  And that testing and training of faith and life in His Word was an echo of His Word concerning the trees in the Garden of Eden, those that were for eating and the one tree that was not for eating but for the worship of the Lord by way of reverent obedience to His command.

If it seems absurd that the eating of the forbidden fruit should have such deadly and devastating consequences for Adam and Eve and all their children down to the close of the age, it is because of God’s Word, which determines the significance of all things.  That seemingly inconsequential eating was for sin and death, because God said so.  Whereas the Lord gives you to eat and drink that which likewise seems inconsequential and insignificant, otherwise ordinary bread and wine, which at His Word are the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the Fruit of the Tree of Life, given and poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of all your sins unto Life and Salvation.

So, too, it is God’s Word that makes the otherwise unthinkable sacrifice of Isaac an exercise of faith and worship on the part of Father Abraham — both the command that God gives him, and the promises of God to which Abraham clings in the certainty of the coming Seed, Christ Jesus.

What would ordinarily be a heinous and evil act is good and right and true, in this singular event, because of God’s Word; and then it is God’s Word that stays Abraham’s hand at the last moment and gives the Ram in place of his beloved son.  It is God’s Word at all times that does all things.

Now, to be sure, while sin is determined by the Word of God, sin itself does not originate at all with God, but, as St. James has clearly written, sin emerges out of your own desires — out of your covetous heart and your own selfish will, set in opposition to the good and gracious Will of God.

And because sin originates from within yourself — because you are a sinner from the inside out, prior to and apart from any of the sinful things you do — it is impossible for you to fix the problem or save yourself.  Indeed, without God’s Word, it is impossible for you even to know what is right and what is sinful.  You cannot trust your own thoughts, feelings, or judgments — and yet, you do so all the time.  You do trust in yourself, in your own reason and strength, your own wisdom and experiences, your own feelings and opinions, over and above — and against — the Word of God.

Time and again I talk to people who assert their own convictions and opinions with absolute and utter confidence, quite apart from any Word of God.  And when I must speak the Word of God in correction of someone’s self-assured feelings and attitudes, that Word of God is typically rejected and denied, whether blatantly or simply through neglect.  For no one likes to be told that he or she is wrong, not even by God.  And so it is that sin continues to perpetuate itself and get worse.

But whereas sin originates in your sinful heart and mind and then emerges in your sinful actions, what originates from God — from out of His own great heart of love — is grace and mercy and forgiveness for sinners at the cost of His own Son, who is the only answer and solution to your sin.

That point is emphasized by St. Mark, even by the very simplicity and brevity of his account of the temptation of our Lord Jesus.  He does not provide a description of the several temptations, in the way that St. Matthew and St. Luke do.  Instead, St. Mark records only the raw fact that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness.  And because this same Lord Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God in the flesh, His confrontation with Satan is decisive — not only as a good example for you to follow, but especially as His Victory on your behalf and for your benefit.  For the Lord has entered the fray as your great and mighty Champion against Satan, sin, and death; and the truth is that He alone is able to survive that battle and overcome any and all of those enemies for you.

So it is that, in Christ Jesus, the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand.  His Victory over Satan is the very thing that has made your repentance possible.  And His own Victory on your behalf is the very Gospel that is preached and given to you, here within His Church in the midst of the wilderness, that you might believe in Him, fear, love, and trust in Him, and so be saved.

It is important to recognize the way that Jesus obtains His Victory over Satan on your behalf.  It’s not by a crushing show of strength and power, but by submitting Himself to be tempted in every way as you are, save only without sin.  It is in your place, as the true Man, that He lives as you are called and catechized to live — as you should live (but you don’t).  By the Spirit of God, in faith and love, Jesus entrusts Himself entirely to the Word and Will of His own God and Father, even unto His death upon the Cross as the sacrificial Lamb who is given in place of all the sons of man.

It is no coincidence that this temptation follows immediately after the Baptism of Jesus, when God the Father declared Him to be His beloved Son and the Spirit descended visibly upon Him.  Indeed, it is the Spirit who drives Him directly from the waters of His Baptism into the wilderness, in order to be tempted by the devil.  This belongs to that great exchange of which I have often spoken, whereby Jesus assumes your place under the Law, and He bears and suffers all that you must face as a fallen child of Adam and Eve, so that what He achieves and obtains is for you and for all the sons and daughters of man.  He is tempted just as you are, so that His Victory over temptation is now your victory by faith, just as His Cross and Resurrection are your forgiveness and your life.

Now, then, as you are baptized into Christ Jesus, and as you have been given to share His sonship and His life as a beloved child of God, you are likewise assaulted by the temptations of the devil, who is all the more desperate to lure you away from God and from your faith and life in Christ.

The most dangerous, dire, and basic temptation of all is to doubt and reject the Word and works of God, and to focus on yourself and your own works instead of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is obvious enough in the case of God’s Law, but it is also the case with respect to His Gospel.

Where God the Lord has declared that you are forgiven, and that you are His beloved child, you are tempted to look at yourself, to consider your circumstances, to recall your many and various sins of thought, word, and deed, and to focus on this or that within yourself, and so to conclude that God could not really love you or forgive you, and that you are not His dear child in Christ.

Because the Lord has chosen and determined to speak and act through your pastors, you might conclude that His Word to you — including especially His Word of Absolution or forgiveness — is merely the word and opinion of man, and that the real situation between you and the Lord your God is still up for grabs, something to be worked out in your own heart and on your own terms.

Whether such attitudes and conclusions lead you to pride or despair — the twin ditches into which a Christian falls too easily and often — either way, you have fallen prey to the dangerous sin of doubting the Word and work of God.  Either way, in looking at yourself and your own works, you turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ, your Champion and Savior, the Word-of-God-made-Flesh.

From the first to the last, it is the Word of God the Lord — both to you and concerning you — which determines who and what you are and where you stand.  That reality is utterly contradicted by the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, but it remains the only truth that really matters.

Not only “good and evil” in general and in particular, but who and what you are and where you stand with God the Lord, is determined by His Word.  It has been accomplished for you and for all people by Christ Jesus, the Son of God.  And it is given to you by and through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the Ministry of His Gospel in Word and Sacrament.  The devil, the world, and your flesh have nothing to say about it, nor anything to do with it.  For the Lord your God has spoken.  And as in His creation of the heavens and the earth, His Word accomplishes whatever He says.

To be sure, the Law of the Lord declares and determines that you are a poor, miserable sinner, and that you deserve nothing but death and damnation, both now and forever.  There’s no arguing with that Word of the Law, no bargaining with it, no denying it, and no escaping it.  You can’t do it.  But Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, the true and perfect Man, He has taken your place under that Law.  He has allowed that Word of God to determine His reality, His life, and His death in your stead.  And His perfect keeping of that Law, His fulfillment of that entire Law, and His innocent suffering and death under that Law, have become for you God’s Word of the Gospel.

His Gospel forgives your sins.  His Gospel give you His Life.  His Gospel fills you with His Holy Spirit and makes you His beloved and well-pleasing child.  His Gospel is His last and better Word for you in Christ Jesus, in the forgiveness of His Cross, in the righteousness of His Resurrection.

That Word of the Gospel is not simply what is written once and for all in the Holy Scriptures, though it is certainly revealed there in its absolute truth and purity.  It’s far more than “John 3:16” on a bumper sticker, a billboard, or a poster in the stands at a sporting event.  The Gospel is chiefly the Word of Absolution or forgiveness that God the Lord speaks to you by name, and for you, personally, especially through your pastors in the here and now, within His Church on earth.

Thus, for example, His Word to you in Holy Baptism — by which He has named you with His own Name, united you with Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, in His Cross and Resurrection, and given you His Holy Spirit — that is His Word of the Gospel to you, which tells you who and what you really are and where you stand before Him: You are His child; He loves you, and He is pleased with you.

And His Word of Holy Absolution, spoken in His Name and stead by His called and ordained servants of the Word — that is His Word of the Gospel to you, which not only means what it says, but it does and gives exactly what it says.  It forgives you all your sins for the sake of Christ Jesus.

And His Word to you again this morning, here at His Altar — “Take, eat; this is My Body, which is given for you. Take, drink; this is My Blood, which is poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins” — that, too, is His Word of the Gospel to you.  It is most certainly true.  It is real.  And as the Catechism has taught you, these Words of Christ, “for you,” call you to believe and trust what He says and does and gives to you.  For as God speaks to you in Christ Jesus, so it is, absolutely.

His Word of the Gospel is your Mighty Fortress, your Shield and Strength against all the assaults and accusations of the devil.  By that Word He guards and protects you from all evil.  And as often as you have fallen prey to temptation and sin, He raises you up again and again with that Word of forgiveness.  For the Word of God to you in Christ Jesus is your Life and your Salvation forever.  This is most certainly true.

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