“EASTER GIFTS”
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 1, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
There is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the
Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a Ransom for all men--the
testimony given at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:5, 6 (ESV)
As we approach the end of the Easter season it would be a good
exercise for us to reflect on what the resurrection and ascension of
Jesus really mean to us. The life and ministry of Jesus is God’s
final revelation to man, as the writer to the Hebrews tells us: “Long
ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the
prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom
He appointed the Heir of all things, through whom also He created the
world” (Hebrews 1:1, 2). In the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, God has said it all. There is nothing to add. What God
has to say to humanity is complete. Don’t look for any additional
revelations or teachings. The Gospel of Christ is complete and it is
perfect; any attempt to add anything to it would only corrupt it. God
has spoken once and for all; it is for us only to listen and take to
heart what He has said.
But just what has He said? What is this fullest and final revelation
of God to man? This final revelation of God is His Gift to us--the
Gift of Himself. “In the beginning was the Word,” writes John the
evangelist, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . .
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth” (John 1:1; 14). But the incarnation of God in the Person of
His Son was only the beginning. This God-Man subsequently lived a
life of perfect obedience to Law of God, revealed the mercy and
compassion of God in His dealings with people, preached and taught the
Word of God in its truth and purity, took the sin of all humanity upon
Himself and suffered its consequences on the cross, rose from the dead
to validate everything that He did and taught, and finally returned to
His heavenly glory, yet He remains present with His people in the
power of His Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament. The passage
before us this morning speaks of what it all means in terms of two
particular gifts that God has given us in this last revelation. These
gifts are “one God” (God’s revelation of Himself) and “one Mediator
between God and men” (God’s revelation of His redeeming grace) in “the
Man Christ Jesus”.
God’s revelation of Himself is a far greater gift than most people
realize or appreciate. It gives meaning to our lives--gives us a
purpose for living. In the ongoing debate between the proponents of
evolution and the proponents of creation, the most divisive point of
contention is, in essence, a philosophical one. It’s not really a
scientific one. If you really believe in any of the various theories
of evolution, you necessarily have to conclude that you are who you
are only because of a series of accidents in nature--that if any of
the conditions that contributed to making you who you are would have
been different in any way, you would be someone (or something)
altogether different. Most people who believe in evolution believe
that they are essentially no different than the animals (and the
argument has been made that the widespread acceptance of evolution may
in fact account for why so many people in our world live without moral
standards or a sense of responsibility). Knowing what God has
revealed to us about Himself in His creation tells us that we are His
special people, created in His image with the responsibility to live
according to His will as a reflection of who He is.
God’s revelation of Himself also lets us know that we are loved. If
we did not know the God who has revealed Himself in nature and in His
Word, we would most likely look at all of the beauty and the blessings
that surround us and conclude that they are ours by mere chance.
Worse yet, we might even be foolish enough to believe that these
wonderful things are ours because of some achievement or
accomplishment on our part. If some of this sounds familiar, it ought
to--because this is precisely what the vast majority of people in our
world seem to believe. They treat the environment as if it was theirs
to exploit or to destroy or to “save.” They act as if the existence
of this world depends on them. They fail to see in the fruit of the
earth and the beauty of nature the mercy and compassion of a loving
God who provides for His creatures. In revealing Himself to us God
has assured us that He is our Father--that no matter who we are or how
undeserving we may be, He loves us just the same.
But all of this is still nothing when compared to the Other of God’s
greatest Gifts, and that is the “one Mediator between God and men, the
Man Christ Jesus.” If God’s revelation of Himself in nature tells us
that we are special in His sight and that He loves us even though we
don’t deserve it, His revelation of His grace in His Son Jesus Christ
tells us that we have been declared righteous in His sight in spite of
our sin and that He loves us and has saved us even though we deserve
nothing but His wrath and condemnation. Because of our abuse of God’s
creation and because of our rejection of the Creator of all things, we
have built up a barrier of sin and hostility between ourselves and our
God. This barrier has been done away with by our Mediator--the One
who has reconciled us to the Father by His perfect life and His
innocent suffering and death.
What Christ has done for us is perfect and complete--so perfect and
complete, in fact, that we cannot in any way add or contribute
anything to it. He has done everything that needed to be done to
remove the offense of our sin that has separated us from our Creator
and made us His enemies. Having taken our sin upon Himself and having
put it to death in His own body on the cross, He has given us, in
place of our sin, His perfect righteousness, which He accomplished in
His life of perfect obedience to the Father’s will. This perfect
righteousness of Christ became ours when we were baptized into His
death and resurrection. And it is this perfect righteousness of
Christ with which we will be clothed when we stand before God on the
day of judgment. Because of everything that God has done for us and
given us in Christ, we are one with Him.
As we reflect on the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior we
are thankful for the gifts that God has given us through Christ’s
perfect life and innocent death, and for the assurance He has given us
that these gifts are ours in Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the
dead. Because of all this we know that we have a God who loves so
much that He has made Himself known to us not only as our Creator and
the Giver of everything good but also as the One who in Christ has
overcome the barrier of our sin to establish everlasting peace between
Himself and us, as the apostle reminds us when he writes: “In Christ
God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). That peace of God is
ours in our slain and risen Savior as He continues to come to us in
His means of grace to encourage and strengthen us to live in this
world, with all of its obstacles, as His redeemed people.
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great
Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting
covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work
in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you
is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.