Grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
The
Epistle lesson, what a marvelous doxology that shout of thanksgiving! The
Apostle repeats Himself over and over (and over) to make sure you get the
point. 10 times we hear the phrase, “in Christ” or “in Him.” 10 times we hear
that the Lord Jesus Christ makes us complete. 10 times Christ is pointed out as
the source of enduring hope and joy. 3
times God’s purpose, literally his “good pleasure” is highlighted. 3 times
God’s “good pleasure” is named as the source of all our blessings. 3 times we hear
God’s good pleasure is to save you. And 3 times we hear the reason that we
received Christ’s great mercy – for the “praise of His glory.” The entire
doxology, the form of the doxology, is filled with our Lord gifts, resulting in
our contemplation of Him, with thanksgiving.
Paul puts contemplation of God where it belongs – not in speculation or
sinful invention. A right contemplation of the Living God becomes doxology.
Why do we praise our Creator and
Redeemer? Not because God needs it, being somehow insufficient without our
honors; and not because we must do it to be received by Him. We give praise
because God is great and good, good to us, to His creatures, to His fallen,
estranged, needy and broken-hearted creatures. Not only is He our Creator, for
a fallen race He became our Saviour, forgiving our sins, bringing us back from
the captivity of our rebellion. He is love, and justice, truth, holiness which
He brings us into as sons. We are enabled to praise Him because He names us as
His and unites us with Himself. It is a done deal in the Triune God’s eyes. It
is His completed work, what He accomplished before He returns in glory, before
our baptism, before our birth, before His resurrection or the cross, before the
fall, before He created all things (He is eternal). This fact, the work completed
before we even existed, this fact revealed in out text, and by the prophets and apostles, ought to evoke our
trembling praise.
Sadly, few praise the eternal God for
a terrible reason: our race is one of fools.
The world thinks this Trinitarian God too little or too big, too
accusatory or too forgiving, too far away, too close, too frightening, too
comforting. We prefer other gods. Our perverted natures are put on exhibition
before the world especially in what calls itself church, what says it belongs
to God. For example, six years ago the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted in
national assembly to find “fresh ways to speak of the mystery of the Triune
God” to “expand the church’s vocabulary of praise and wonder.” Oh, that sounds like doxology. Oh, that
sounds so good… if our ways are God’s ways. But they continued, our talk about
God must be gender-inclusive, adapted to our needs (to our image). They said,
the name Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is patriarchal, oppressive. We now call
God “Mother, Child and Womb.” And doxology became blasphemy. What a tragedy,
what tragedy when world and worldly church says jam the revealed God into a
shoebox of antiquated doctrines and toss him in the attic. Treat him like
second hand clothes too good to throw out, but not good enough to wear. Take
what’s holy and sell it as dollar-store leftovers. So too we ask ourselves in
our synod, our church, our personal life, do we act as if the gifts of God belong to us (Lord, grant us to repent)?
It has always been so among fools and
will be until Christ returns. So the false priest Amaziah told Amos to no
longer call for repentance, to warn rebels of their end. This is the world we
live in, a world where most claim to believe in God but treat the 10
commandments as the 10 suggestions. And you, also born in sin, how often do you
agree with this world? How often is the contemplation and doxology of God
absent from your lips or heart? Is there a remedy for our hard hearts? Return
to our Epistle reading, and marvel, wonder, that the True God chose you. He
saves you. He gave you a new heart.
That’s why we praise Him. For examples
from our readings… how did a farmer named Amos come to speak God’s word? He was
called, by God. How was the Baptist who lost his head the greatest OT prophet?
He was called, by God. Consider that just a few years before Paul wrote this
doxology a deceived Jewish leader named Saul attacked the Unity in Trinity and
the Trinity in Unity. His hatred for
Jesus caused him to drag Christians to prison and to death. But you know what
happened. Out of the blue, Christ appeared and called Saul to be His, and then
to be one of His apostles. That rebel, the persecutor, that despiser of Christ
became Paul the Apostle, and among other things, wrote this doxology of praise.
The same Triune God found you. Perhaps
your call wasn’t as dramatic, but with water and Word it was just as real. You
left the foolishness of sin to see aright. You see the glory of God on a cross;
you believe Jesus is the Savior of the world, that your sins are forgiven, that
you have a future in Him… in Him. That is clear evidence that the true God
found you, chose you in his good will for the purpose of His favor, and gives
you doxology. In Christ, in the Beloved, He chose you and me, sinners like all other
foolish sinners, for the riches of His grace. This grace is not “just get along
with God.” Grace is not “stop being so hard on yourself.” Grace is not “love
more.” Those misconceptions of grace are just a form of the law. Nor is grace
an infusion of energy, like jump starting a battery so that after a jolt of
God-power you can run on your own, you can run to please God. Grace is like
this acrostic: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. G.R.A.C.E. is the Triune God’s unmerited
favor, His undeserved love, His call out of the blue. Grace is radical, unasked
for, unexpected interference by God on your behalf. Grace is God sticking His
nose in your affairs to make you righteous in his sight. God’s grace is like a
king forgiving the murderer of his only Son to adopt that killer, and then
giving him an inheritance despite his cocky adolescent inability to grasp the
value, meaning, and purpose of all that was done for him.
God’s glorious grace loves us
precisely because we don’t deserve it. For knowing what sinners we would be, He
loved us before we even existed. He
blessed us with every spiritual blessing… He chose us in Him... He predestined
us for adoption… according to His purpose of will. He will complete His plan for the fullness of
time… He works all things according to the counsel of His will. That’s how
Paul, formerly a Christ-hater, now gives doxology, sharing all the blessings of
son-ship. It wasn’t Paul’s choice. He was predestined
for adoption as a son. Hearing that word “predestine” don’t make a wrong-headed
conclusion. Don’t wonder “am I chosen for heaven or hell?” Don’t foolishly think, “If I’m chosen, my
faith doesn’t matter?” Don’t sinfully
imagine, “If not all are saved, then God’s a monster.” Predestination to
damnation is not what Christ revealed on the cross for all to see. Scripture
says God desires all to be saved. Further, if we get stuck on “why predestination,” the answer is not
revealed. So don’t seek God’s hidden will because you will only find trouble
and come to error. Seeking what God has
hidden ends in making a God of our own design. Seek the revealed will of God,
the glory of Christ crucified. Seek
where we are told to look, to Christ lifted up. Third, even if our salvation is
God’s choice and work, Scripture tells believers to contend for the faith. We
are called to call upon Him to resist sin, to live lives of mercy, to live in
fellowship with each other, even if He is the one who accomplishes all these
things in us. Finally, the revelation that God choose you in Christ leads to
doxology.
When He takes estranged rebels, the
living dead, enemies of God: forgives, reconciles, restores, and re-births us
into Christ as adopted heirs, what is more natural than praise? We, who
otherwise would stuff Him into a shoebox, call him mother, womb, child, and
then accuse, “where is God when you need Her,” He names as dear heirs… and he
opens our eyes to see the glory of God on a cross, in how He chose to reveal
Himself for life. He did this before the foundation of the world, choosing us to
be holy and blameless before Him. In His
plans for the fullness of time, He included us to be united to Christ our head
and to break forth in thankful praise, in doxology. By grace, by the gift of predestination, by
the gift of adoption we are His. If you adopt a child there can be years of
paperwork, interviews, home-inspections, thousands of dollars in fees,
etc… When God adopted you He paid an
eternity of cost, an infinite cost. He paid by pouring his righteous wrath upon
His beloved Son. The Son was deserted under our sins. And in that gift of His
Son, we are blest with all heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus. He extended grace toward us... He forgave
us… He redeemed us… He adopted us... He seals us with the Holy Spirit… He
unites us all in Christ… He gives us an inheritance… so that through
baptism into one revealed name, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we were
joined to Christ. In Him we died to sin and share in His resurrection life.
Do not run back to the old, cruel
master. You were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who works through the Word to
confirm and strengthen what He began. He brings you to join Paul in praise as
one body, one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one doctrine. Today we share in
Christ’s very body and blood, in a holy communion, sharing in the most holy
things, in the most Holy God. We share the same spiritual life and eternal
blessing. As the beloved children of God we will share in His glory. How appropriate Sunday after Sunday we sing “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Spirit” and “Glory be to
God on high and on earth peace, good will toward men” and “We praise Thee O God; we acknowledge Thee to
be the Lord” and “alleluia” and “For my eyes have seen Thy salvation.”
This is our contemplation, our doxology, filled with the gifts of the Triune
God, we who are in Christ because of God’s good pleasure for the praise of His
glory.
The peace of God which
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Amen.)
