Second Sunday after Trinity
Trinity • Sermon • Submitted
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Grace Mercy and Peace be to you from our God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
My Brothers and Sisters it is with great joy that i can begin a sermon with those words of grace and peace, and bring to you that blessing in this moment. For Christ have been won for us by the blood of Christ, who brought an end to the hostility that God had towards sin and sinners and has granted you access to God your heavenly father and given to you access to Him through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In order to understand and appreciate what Christ has done for us and the wonderful gift that it is, we must first understand God’s wrath toward sin and sinners, that we might learn what a precious gift it is that we have from Christ. This has to do with the fundamental two teachings that we have in the Scriptures the Law and the Gospel without understanding these two teachings the Holy Bible will remain a closed book for you forever you will read it but not understand it, but never understand for it will appear to contradict itself in terms of salvation.
So let us learn first about God’s wrath towards sin, and then we will hear of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now when we talk about sin, we need to understand what it is. Sin in action is disobedience of God’s Word and doing those things which God has forbidden that mankind does. This is easily seen in the 10 Commandments which forbid lying, stealing, adultery, coveting, misusing God’s name, trust in idols, and the like. That is the first way we need to understand sin, but we must also understand that sin is a corruption of our being and this is something we have inherited from Adam.
This is the reason that the world is as flawed as it is. If you look at the 10 Commandments, all people will acknowledge that they are good. If you then ask do they live by them, they will might say that they try, or they should, but they admit they don’t. So if they commandments are good, and people don’t do them. It means that people are in the wrong. How you handle this next part is where there is a difference between the Christian faith, and all other religions in the world. The other religions of the World believe that a person just needs to try harder to get it right and improve, but if a person tries hard enough they can be a good person. Christianity on the other hand says, that Law was added to show us that we are sinners, and that there is nothing good inside of us.
If you understand this part, this will help you whenever you turn to Holy Scripture and come across a passage of difficult Law, that shows you that how you have been living is wrong. Some will deny this, for they know that wicked and evil people should be punished, and so they never want to be seen as evil or wicked especially in the sight of God. For they know that, the Law also tells us that God who is Good and Holy is hostile towards sin and will punish that which is evil, which is to say sin, and sinners.
Now if you know that you do not live according to the commandments of God, and therefore are not good, but evil, then what hope do you have? You like Paul will confess that there is nothing good in you. For that is why the Law was given to show that we are sinners, and to show that we can not live good lives and get to heaven by what we do. That is why everyone of us is called to repent, it doesn’t matter how good you might think you are, you have fallen short of God’s glory and do not measure up to God and are subject to his wrath.
Now this is not at all how the world paints the picture of God as a kindly grandfather who pats them on their head when they don’t do what they should, but winks at their sin. The reason the world loves that picture is that the true God terrifies them. For their conscience accuses and brings to mind the moments when they failed to do what was right. But you must see God in His wrath to understand, the other great teaching in Holy Scripture, which is about the great love that Jesus has for you, and what Paul is talking about here in our Lesson.
The other teaching that we find in Holy Scripture is the Gospel, or the Good news, and the lesson here really lays before it us plainly, look with me at the Bulletin Insert and see what is said there. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Now if you only know God in wrath that is at first terrifying to hear that you are brought near to the one who has wrath by the blood of Christ. But let’s keep reading and see what Jesus by His Blood has done for us in the very next verse.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. So Jesus in his incarnation stood between God and man, for only He could do what needed to be done. He being both fully God and fully man, what we confessed in the Athanasian creed a few weeks back. For the Law that was laid down by God could only be kept by God, and that is why Jesus came to fulfill the Law, and he did it as a man so that He might break down that wall of hostility and wrath that separated God and mankind. Lest mankind perish.
For look at what it says next, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Now when it says there that Jesus created in himself one new man, he is talking in particular about the division between Jews and Gentiles, but in Christ we are all united as the family of God. For just as through Adam we are all one race, through Christ we are united in One Church, that is Christian.
Now you will notice that it doesn’t say that Jesus made peace, or was making peace, but making peace it is in the present, which means He is still doing that to this day, He is keeping the peace and reconciles all mankind through His Cross, and brings an end to the hostility that God has towards sin.
That is why the Church throughout the Centuries preaches the Cross of Christ, for there upon the Cross of Calvary you see God’s love made manifest for you. For the Law condemns us and says that we should be the ones on that Cross, we are the ones that have failed, we are the ones who are meant to suffer God’s wrath against sin, but there Jesus has taken your sins upon himself. He is there to become sin for you, to suffer in your place, that’s how Jesus brought an end to the hostilities between God and man. He was condemned that we might forgiven.
That is why through Him we have access in one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to the Father. You are no longer strangers nor enemies of God, but look at what it says there, you are fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God. You have a place in the kingdom of God not because of anything you have done, or accomplished, but the Son of God became flesh to save you. That is why we have this hope of salvation, not a fanciful dream, or an idle wish, but a sure and certain hope that is sealed by the blood of the Son of God.
This is the peace that we get to preach and the great joy that we have in this life. That Christ has saved us, and that is why our faith is built upon that foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, in which the whole structure here talking about the household of God, that invisible Church that stretches across the globe and the history of the world is held together and you are being built into the temple of God.
Even there there look at that language, in him you are being built, are you or I building the church, are our children building the church. No! Jesus is building the Church.
Now if you lose either one of those teachings, you lose it all. For if we forget God’s wrath and hatred towards sin, then you won’t understand why Jesus had to lay down His life to save us. However, if we lose the Gospel, and the only thing we are left with is God’s Law, you will be left as a sinner with nothing to hope in, that is why many fall away without the hope of salvation and your only option will be to give up for why not eat drink and be merry if you are to be punished.
But when these two things are present, you understand not only the danger we are in, but the great joy we have for Jesus has made us a Citizens of a kingdom, which has no end, but where we have peace with God all our days, and there will be no more death, no more sorrows and he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, these two teaching must remain pure and undefiled, let the Law condemn and terrify us in all its fury lest we trust in ourselves, in our neighbors, or in some kind grandfather in the sky, but when the law has done its work, may we lift up our eyes and see that we have been shielded by Cross of Christ and that his precious blood of Christ has covered all our sins, and know that He will continue to build up the Church through Word and Sacrament until he comes again. In Jesus name. Amen.