“For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Romans 7:15

Some would have us believe that, when we become Christians, all our struggles in life go away. But, actually, the opposite is true. When the Holy Spirit washes away our sins and regenerates us through the preaching of the Gospel and by means of Holy Baptism – bringing us to trust in Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for our salvation – the struggle begins.

When the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ, He also takes up residence in our hearts and continues the sanctifying work which He has begun in us. He regenerates us and creates in us new natures which trust in God and His promises and love God and seek and desire to be pleasing to God and do His will. This new nature trusts in Christ’s death and resurrection for salvation and, as a fruit of that faith, seeks to do all that God commands and teaches in His Word.

The problem is that we still also have our old sinful natures inherited from Adam which do not trust in God and His promises and seek, rather, to gratify our old sinful longings and desires. And so, though we according to the new man – the new natures created in us by the Holy Spirit of God – will and seek to do what God commands, the old sinful nature in each of us would rather do its own thing and wills and does what it pleases to gratify its sin-corrupted self.

The result is that what we will to do we do not practice; and what we hate and do not wish to do, that we do. And how frustrating this is for us as Christians! We trust in Christ alone for pardon and forgiveness and, as a fruit of faith, we seek to be pleasing to Him in all things. Yet, we fail again and again. We don’t do the things we know we should be doing, and we do the things we hate.

With the apostle, we say: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

In fact, that is why we begin our worship services each Sunday acknowledging and confessing our utter sinfulness and our inability to free ourselves from our sinful condition, and it is why we ask God, Sunday after Sunday (actually, each day), to deal with us in mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus and His innocent sufferings and death for us upon the cross.

And the Apostle Paul also tells us the solution to this wretchedness: “I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25); and, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). He explains that when we walk according to the Spirit, we are not condemned because, through faith in Christ, we have the pardon and forgiveness Christ won for us on the cross and we are clothed with His perfect righteous and holy life.

Some might assume that walking by the Spirit is our own endeavor to live a righteous and holy life, but walking by the Spirit is walking in the truth which God’s Spirit reveals to us through God’s Word. Walking by the Spirit is acknowledging and confessing the sins the Spirit reveals to us through the preaching of God’s Law, and it is taking comfort in the Gospel message of mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s holy life for us and His innocent sufferings and death for the sins of the world. Cf. 1 John 1:5 – 2:2.

Tomorrow, as we come to worship and to receive the body and blood of Christ Jesus which was given and shed for us on the cross, we confess our wretchedness – that we have sinned against the Lord God in our thoughts, desires, words and deeds and that we are truly deserving of God’s wrath and punishments, both temporal and eternal.

But we flee to the cross of Jesus for mercy. Through the preaching of the Gospel and through God’s word of absolution, we take comfort in the fact that “Jesus Christ the righteous … is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1,2). We have a certain hope of God’s forgiveness and of a place in God’s everlasting kingdom because Jesus gave His body into death for us and shed His holy and precious blood on the cross to establish a new covenant in which our sins are forgiven and we are accepted as God’s people. We are comforted with pardon and peace as we partake of Christ’s sacrifice in this covenant meal!

And, for Christ’s sake, we have the assurance that when we awake on the last day, it will be without sin to serve our God forever and ever in righteousness and holiness. We confess with David: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken. Luke 18:31-34

If Jesus had not died for our sins and rose again, you and I could not be saved. It is as the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 15:17-19): “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

Though Jesus told His disciples this, they did not understand. In fact, even after Jesus had died on the cross and risen again, they failed to understand; so, “He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…’” (Luke 24:44-47).

And many remain blind to this truth today, as well. They imagine that the cross was unnecessary and think that they can merit their own salvation by following the examples left for us by Jesus. For them, it really doesn’t matter if Jesus died on the cross and rose again bodily on the third day – His death was only an unfortunate end of Jesus’ life. They believe Christ lives on if we carry His love and concern for the poor and downtrodden into our age by following His example of meeting the physical needs of the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the blind.

Though Christ had perfect love for His neighbor and indeed met the physical needs of those who came to Him, that’s not the most important reason for His coming. He came into this world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15); and, to save sinners, it was necessary for Him to be mocked, scourged, beaten, crucified and buried, and then to rise again from the dead on the third day. This is what the prophets had said He would do, and this is what was necessary to redeem us from our sin and the death we so deserve.

And this is what the Scriptures promised. He was the Seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent but was bruised in His heel (Gen. 3:15). He is the promised Son of David who would redeem Israel from all his iniquities (Ps. 130:7-8). He is the Lord God Himself in human flesh and blood that He might take our place under the law and fulfill it perfectly for us and then suffer and die upon the cross to bear our iniquities (Isa. 53; Ps. 22).

“His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14). “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5-6). Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). “When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10-11).

It was necessary for the promised Messiah, the Christ, to suffer and die for the sins of the world and to rise again on the third day; and it is necessary that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,” that we might place our faith in Him and be saved!

We thank You, O Christ, for going to the cross, bearing our sins, and redeeming us to God. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

A Series of Devotions by Pastor Randy Moll

Colossians 1:1-8
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.” Colossians 1:1-8

Though the Apostle Paul may never have visited the church in Colosse, when he heard of the believers’ faith in Christ Jesus and the resulting love they had for their fellow believers, he, together with Timothy, gave thanks to God for giving them the confident hope of eternal life in heaven through Messiah Jesus.

The good news of God’s pardon and forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life in heaven because God the Son became true man and redeemed mankind reached the ears of the Colossians through Epaphras (and perhaps others, too) and faith in Jesus was kindled in their hearts through the hearing of the Gospel.

As the good news of God’s gracious gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven for Jesus’ sake was used to generate faith in the hearts of the believers at Colosse nearly 2,000 years ago, so this same message generates faith in human hearts today. The same Gospel, that Word of truth, tells us of the certain hope laid up for us in heaven, not because of anything we have done or can do, but because God’s own dear Son, Jesus Christ, came into this world and suffered and died for the sins of all people and rose again in victory. God’s Word tells us that His gift to us for Jesus’ sake is life everlasting in the mansions of heaven.

Such a gracious gift of God – the forgiveness of all our sins because of His own Son’s holy life and innocent sufferings and death in our stead and the assurance that we have a place in His eternal, heavenly kingdom – will also move us to selfless love for other believers and fellow heirs of eternal life in heaven, but this love is the result of God’s loving gift of salvation to us, not the cause of it.

What a comfort to know that, though we have sinned and come short of the holy demands of God’s good law, Jesus fulfilled it for us and then took our sins upon Himself, paying the just penalty upon the cross that we might have forgiveness and life everlasting! And this hope which we have is not an uncertain hope, but simply a waiting for of the things assured to us by the promises of God.

God has offered and promised to us a place in heaven through faith in His Son. That place has been made certain to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We await that day in confidence and assurance that heaven is ours for Jesus’ sake.

When we face the end of our lives here in this world, we need not doubt and wonder if we will make it into heaven. Heaven is guaranteed to us because Jesus shed His blood for us and paid in full for all our sins. If our salvation depended upon us or anything we did, we could have no certainty and no hope; but because it depends upon Jesus and His atoning sacrifice for us, we have every assurance and hope of everlasting life in the mansions of our heavenly Father’s house!

Paul wrote this letter, while he himself was a prisoner, because there were those who were seeking to rob these believers of the assurance and hope they had in Jesus by placing other demands upon them – suggesting such things as the worshiping of angels, eating of certain foods or observing certain days. Today, too, there are many false teachers who would suggest and say that, to be true Christians, people must exercise certain gifts, eat certain foods or observe certain days.

The apostle’s message, the true Gospel, is that we are complete in Jesus – our salvation and everlasting life are certain in Him – there is nothing we need add to His redemptive work!

Dear Father in heaven, thank You for graciously bringing to us the word of truth, the saving gospel of forgiveness of sins and life everlasting for the sake of Your Son, Christ Jesus. By Your Spirit, move us to believe and take heart and be assured that, for Jesus’ sake, our sins are forgiven and, for Jesus’ sake, we have life everlasting with You in heaven. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Luke 8:5-8 (read v. 4-15)

From Jesus’ parable of the sower, we learn that not all who hear the Word of God with their ears rightly receive it in faith. In fact, some who initially hear it and come to faith in Jesus fall away again; but, by the grace of God, some of the seed of God’s Word falls on good ground – prepared by the Lord – and grows and produces faith and its fruits.

As we read the parable of the sower and its explanation, we are quick to identify people we know with the poor kinds of soil and ourselves with the good ground. But, when we do this, we miss the warning and comfort of this parable for ourselves.

This parable certainly warns against being like one of the three poor kinds of soil. We may think of ourselves as the good soil, but how often do we not also fit the descriptions of the poor ground?

Many times we are like the hard ground. The Word of God is sown upon us, but it doesn’t sink in and produce fruit in our lives because we have either been uninterested or inattentive. Then the Word is snatched away by the devil.

Often we are also like the rocky soil. In times of trouble, affliction or persecution, we shrink back from a bold and faithful confession of the truths of God’s Word because we have not let that Word sink its roots deep into our lives.

When trouble comes, or persecution, we turn away in doubt and unbelief.

And how often, like the thorny ground, we let the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things in this life keep us from faithfully hearing and learning God’s Word! These things choke out the Word and keep us from living our lives by faith in Christ Jesus.

When we are good soil, we can take no credit. We must say with Jesus that it is a blessing of the Lord when the Word sinks in, grows and produces fruit in our lives (Matt. 13:16).

It is the Lord who cultivates the soil of our hearts, breaking up the hard ground, removing the rocks and pulling out the weeds, that the Gospel of forgiveness of sins and life eternal for the sake of Jesus Christ and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross might be heard and believed by us and produce fruit in our lives.

Almighty God, Thy Word is cast like seed into the ground; now let the dew of heaven descend and righteous fruits abound. Amen. The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn #49, Verse 1

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” 15 Then Nathan departed to his house. 2 Samuel 12:1-15a

It is, many times, so much easier to see the sin in others than to see our own. We recognize the wickedness of sin in those around us in this world but fail to see the wickedness of our own sins.

After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband Uriah in battle to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11), the Lord God sent Nathan the prophet to David with the story of the rich man with many flocks and herds who took his poor neighbor’s one little ewe lamb to feed his guest.

And David was furious! He recognized the wickedness of this rich man and said, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

Yet, David did not get the point of the story until Nathan said to him, “You are the man!”

And how often we are the same way! We read a Bible text or hear a sermon preached, and we say, “So and so sure needed to hear that message. He is guilty of sin and deserves to die!”

But God’s Word says to us, “You are the man!” While it may be true that our neighbor is guilty of sin, God’s Law reveals to us our own sin and wickedness.

Even if we haven’t sinned like David by committing adultery with a neighbor’s spouse and then covering up our sin with murder, who is innocent of sinful thoughts and desires? What man is there who has not committed adultery in his heart as Jesus defines it in Matthew 5:28: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”? And who has not been “angry with his brother without a cause” or called his neighbor a fool or emptyheaded (Matthew 5:21-22)? God says we are “in danger of hellfire”!

When we read and hear God’s holy commandments, it is not just so that we can pass judgment upon others; it’s so that we can examine ourselves and see our own sin and guilt before God. Cf. Matthew 7:3-5.

The Bible says, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). God’s Law says to us: “You are the man!” We are guilty and deserve only God’s eternal wrath and punishment!

When David confessed his sin to Nathan, saying, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan told him, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Though there remained consequences for his sin in this world, God pardoned and forgave David of his sins for the sake of the coming Messiah and Savior who would “redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:8). David would not suffer eternal death and condemnation for his sin because, when He confessed his sin unto the Lord, the Lord forgave the iniquity of his sin (cf. Psalm 32:1-6; Psalm 51).

As God sent Nathan the prophet to David, so God sends pastors today to preach and proclaim God’s Law and say, “You are the man!” But God’s purpose and desire in sending men to preach the Law of God is that we see our sin and confess our guilt before God that the Gospel of God might be proclaimed to us and we receive in faith God’s mercy and forgiveness for Jesus’ sake. For, when we acknowledge our sinfulness before the Lord, when we acknowledge that we “have sinned against the Lord,” God’s ministers proclaim to us, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”

God’s ministers proclaim to us the Gospel – that Christ Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). They proclaim to us that through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross, we are “accepted in the Beloved,” that “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:6.7). They proclaim to us that we shall not die eternally but have everlasting life (cf. John 5:24).

And, in the Supper of our Lord, Christ gives to us, through His ministers, to partake of His very body and blood which were given and shed for us on the cross for the remission of all our sins. He gives us to eat of His body which was broken for us and to drink of His blood of the new covenant which was shed for us that we might be assured our sins are forgiven for the sake of His sacrifice and that, instead of death and damnation, we have life eternal in heaven for Christ’s sake.

So I ask you before God: Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner and have sinned in thought, word and deed? Do you confess and agree with God that you are guilty and deserving of his wrath and punishment? Do you trust that Christ Jesus has truly redeemed you and made atonement for all your sins? Do you also believe that Jesus, in His Supper, gives you to partake of His body and blood which were given and shed that your sins might be forgiven you? And, as a fruit of your faith, do you truly desire and seek God’s help to amend your life and live it in accord with God’s Word?

If you are truly sorry for your sins and look to Christ and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross for pardon and forgiveness, I announce unto you the grace of God and, in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Amen.

O LORD God, by the gracious working of Your Holy Spirit through the Word, grant that we see our own sin and wickedness and not just that of others, and grant that we truly repent of our sins and look to You in faith for mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ Jesus, our Savior. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]