Grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Let’s
talk about aging. As Mr. Flores says, “It
ain’t for sissies.” You might even say,
oh, that I was just a half-century old again. Meanwhile I say, if only my body
was like my children. But they talk about physical hurts and weakness too,
although they’re so young. This life’s a one way street. From the day we are born we slowly pay the
terrible price of sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed, they brought death and
futility into the world. Oh, That Adam and Eve! They bit the apple and our teeth
ache. That is, those of us who still have teeth. Adam and Eve bit the apple, or
whatever fruit it was, and we go on a munching too, children of Adam as we are.
Being a child of Adam, the Apostle
Paul knew about dying too. He also knew Jesus – and wished Jesus would return
in his lifetime, so Paul would not die in the body. On the other hand, Paul accepted decline unto
death, not because it is so-called “natural,” since as God created the world
death was un-natural; Rather, Paul viewed it through the central event of all
history. He understood our universal weakness by that central event. He saw the
healing of our weakness in that same event. He knew that event proves time is
not a meaningless repetition of life to death, but moves toward a grand finale
that is grand and final. Do you know what event I mean? Christ’s death and
resurrection changes everything. It gives meaning to the darkest corner, 6’
under. We too shall rise. That’s why Paul confidently said if our earthly
body should be destroyed, we have a building made by God. If Christ
returns while we live, he shall transform our bodies. If we die before He
returns, He shall provide a body made not by Detroit
That’s a wonderful promise, a promise
originating not in myth or human opinion but in a divinely revealed truth grounded
in a divinely powerful event. Jesus Christ died and rose. He promises we too
shall rise, and He
shall give us transformed bodies, heavenly
buildings made by God, cured from sin’s curse… from death’s futility. New
bodies await us, eternal in the heaven, like a new car in the showroom waiting
for an owner to drive it off the lot. (Vs 2)
We still drive
the old clunker. It rattles and shakes, coughs and lurches. Who knows if it’ll
start in the morning? As accustomed as
we are to the old model, maintenance is not enough. We need a new car and a new
kind of car. So we groan for the eternal model. (Vs 3) We wait for that day. We wait to be swallowed up by life. (Vs. 5)
What
a picture… death swallowed up by life, like a big bass gulping a minnow. That
is God’s plan for those who trust in Him. It is going to happen! We will be
swallowed up by life, by something
bigger than death. Like Jonah and the
whale, like Jesus and the grave, like drowning in baptism, like nothing we’ve
known yet like all we believe by faith, life will swallow death… so faith
clings to the event: the defining
event in all history, the purposeful event, the transforming event, the
reconciling, redeeming and restoring event.
Faith
clings to Him who swallowed up death by dying to proclaim this truth: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed
away; behold, the new has come. Faith
clings to Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, who with the Father and the
Spirit, one God, has a plan for our future, a restorative plan, a new life
plan.
Christian, even now while our body is
receiving it’s punishment due to sin, he swallows up our dying with His
life… while we suffer afflictions in our
body, and while we bear the cross of denying our
fleshly desires, our Lord renews us day by day, giving us life through the Holy
Spirit, enlivening our spirit. He who forgave our sin also gives the benefits
of that forgiveness. Or did He not fulfill the just requirement of the law for
us? Or did He not declare us righteous because of the death of His Son? He did
indeed justify sinners like you and me freely, so that we live. He works faith
in your heart, hearing this marvelous word. And
faith receives salvation. Salvation gives many benefits, including the
beginnings of spiritual renewal, participation in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ our Lord. Sinners justified, blest with faith, are supplied with peace
and life, God’s peace giving us
confidence that He is our dear Father; our life-giver. To say it again, we were
declared righteous while yet sinners, and then are given a share in the righteousness
of Christ, a share in His life. That
means, not only do we share in His death in dying to sin, we also share in the
power of His resurrection. The Holy Spirit abides in us. We have a promissory
note in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, a guarantee that the
loan will go through, the new car will be ours. He’s like the title to the
vehicle. We know this because the Word of God says so. Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know
the things that are freely given to us by God.
Which things we also speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches,
but which the Holy Spirit teaches: (I Cor. 2:12 , 13a)
There are other indicators too that
the Holy Spirit works within us… chiefly, faith. There is also faith’s fruit of
love. These, like frosting, indicate the cake is underneath. We thank God for
faith and love, hope and joy, these being His gifts. We know He is working in
our lives because these are present. At the same time, if we want confidence we
don’t say the whole is in the frosting. We don’t pat ourselves on the back
because faith and love are present. If we trust in the frosting, we’ll give
into the temptation to say, “Ah, look what I’ve done” and the sin of pride is
manifest. Or, we’ll look too closely at the quality of our faith and the
quality of our love, the devil will point out the percentage of insect specks
and hair in the frosting. And we’ll be downcast because of the impurity of our
character and life. The law will condemn us. That’s the problem with being
Adam’s offspring. So let us daily repent
our sin and return… to what? Not to ourselves for comfort, but to Christ
crucified, risen and ascended. Listen to Him who says “forgiven.” Call on Him
who gives life. We are simultaneously sinner and saint. In that condition we’re
never good enough… but then again, we don’t have to be. Christ has done it all.
That’s why we come to this Divine
Service as often as possible, because we need to hear Him, the law for
repentance and especially the gospel for faith. In our falling-apart bodies
bearing the curse of sin we need to receive the cleansing of that curse through
the life-giving Word with the Holy Spirit’s touch. We need to receive our
Lord’s ascended body and blood in a Holy Communion with Him, hearing the
promise “for the forgiveness of sin.” Here we are strengthened in faith, as He
promises to be present and to help us. We are renewed with hope in the
resurrection unto eternal life. Then despite, and to spite sin in us, we walk
through faith, not through appearance. Faith
hears God’s Word in Baptism say we drowned to the Old Adam and his ways, raised
to new life (see Rm.
That is why we wait eagerly for the
Day of the Lord, and if we’re lucky, before we pass through the shadow of death
into the brilliance of His light. Meanwhile, as saints who are also sinners,
when discouraged, anxious or pained for resisting sin, we know where to look…
to Christ crucified and risen. How do we look to our Saviour? How can we count
the ways laid out for us in Scripture? Consider what we receive in the Divine
Service: we confess our sins and are
absolved. We sing the Psalms that are both the church’s cry and promised help.
We pray the creeds… confessing what we believe as we lay hold of Scripture’s
promises. We pray the Lord’s Prayer,
knowing each petition is not only a request, but what the Father promises to
answer. We hear the Word of the Lord that gives what He promises. The Holy Spirit
applies that word to us. We remember the promises given us by God in Holy
Baptism, and call upon our Lord to fulfill them. We confess Christ’s death,
receiving His very body and blood under bread and wine for forgiveness of sin,
life and salvation. In these ways we receive what the Son of God made
man accomplished; He who shares all our afflictions and temptations,
made like us in His death and raised
from the dead.
We shall follow Him, raised in the
same way. When He visibly returns in glory, we will receive new bodies,
incorruptible, eternal. Death will be swallowed up in life. The Holy Spirit
assures us God’s promises are yes and yes when baptism placed the title of life
into your hands. You’re almost to the showroom now! (Vs. 6) Believer, you will pass through
mortality to receive the fullness of life.
The peace of God which
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Amen)
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