“So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.” John 4:46-54

The Scriptures tell us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). What does this mean? It means standing under and taking hold of the things promised to us in God’s Word even though we can’t see them with our eyes. It means seeing with the eyes of faith what we cannot see with the eyes of our flesh. And, indeed, we as Christians live and “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7; cf. Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; Rom. 8:24-25).

God promises to all of us who trust in Christ and His atoning sacrifice on the cross His pardon and forgiveness for all our sins. Can you see this forgiveness? Do the heavens open, and does God’s voice sound audibly from heaven saying, “I forgive you all your sins”? No, we have only the word of the Gospel in our Bibles and preached by God’s ministers telling us it is so.

When we are sick and facing our mortality, do we see Jesus on His throne of glory and God’s angels descending from heaven to carry us home? No, we have only God’s promise that His angels will carry our souls into the bosom of Abraham because Jesus died for our sins and rose again (cf. Luke 16:22; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Phil. 1:21-23).

Many, of course, do not believe this. Because they can’t see it with their eyes or understand it with their minds, they do not believe. Because they cannot see Jesus Himself announce to them that their sins are forgiven, they do not believe it when the Gospel is preached or Christ’s ministers absolve them. Because they do not see Jesus and His angels when they are on their deathbeds, they die in unbelief and despair.

But Jesus would have us trust Him and His Word and live our lives with faith in His promises.

Consider the nobleman who came to Jesus. While Jesus was in Cana, this nobleman from Capernaum came to Jesus because his son was deathly ill. He asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum (in the valley along the Sea of Galilee) and heal his son.

But what does Jesus say? “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” The nobleman had heard of Jesus and was, perhaps, ready to believe Jesus could help in this hour of desperate need … if Jesus came down to Capernaum and to his house. But did Jesus, the eternal Son of God who created all things by His almighty word need to go and be visibly present in this man’s home? Jesus desired that this man have faith in Jesus’ words even if he could not yet see it with his eyes. He told him, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.”

A remarkable thing happened. This man who had begged Jesus to come down before his son died now believed and returned to his house. Jesus’ words not only expressed a truth; they had power, power to create faith in this nobleman. And he believed and walked by faith all the way down to Capernaum, where his eyes saw the truthfulness of what he had believed. As a result, both he and his household came to believe and trust in Jesus as the Son of God and their Savior!

Though the world views Jesus as a great teacher and religious prophet, the Word of God tells us Jesus is none other than God Himself in human flesh, come into this world to redeem us from sin and eternal death. The world views Jesus’ crucifixion as a horrible death and perhaps a great injustice; the Word of God tells us that He died as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world — in John the Baptist’s words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Though the world views Jesus’ resurrection as a questionable miracle; the Word of God tells us that Jesus’ resurrection on the third day is proof that His payment on the cross was sufficient payment for the sins of all mankind (Rom. 4:23-25). Though the world would tell us we need to live a godly life to please God and merit His mercy and forgiveness, the Word of God tells us that Christ lived a perfect, godly life in our stead and made full atonement for all our sins that we might be forgiven by God and counted righteous and holy in His sight through faith alone in His name (Rom. 3:21-28).

Can you see it? Does Jesus prove it before our eyes with modern-day signs and wonders? No, He tells us it is so in His Word. And that Word has power. St. Paul writes in Romans 1:16-17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” In Romans 10:17, the Bible says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Thus, how do you know your sins are really forgiven when your minister announces God’s grace and mercy to you in Jesus Christ and, in the stead and by the command of Christ, absolves you of your sins for Jesus’ sake? It is by faith in Jesus’ words and faith created by Jesus’ words (cf. John 20:21-23; Luke 24:46-47; 1 John 1:7 – 2:2).

When you are sick and face the reality that your body will one day die, how do you know that to die is gain and it is far better to be with the Lord? It is because Jesus tells us so in His Word. Cf. John 14:1ff; 11:25-26; 1 Thess. 4:13ff.; Phil. 1:21-23; Job 19:25-27. And His Word is powerful and creates and preserves faith in our hearts to live our lives and face our deaths in the sure hope of forgiveness and eternal life.

How do we know that in our baptisms, we are joined to Christ in His death and resurrection and all our sins are washed away? It is through the Word of God, connected with the water, that we are assured these things are so (cf. Acts 2:38-39; 22:16; Tit. 3:3-7; Eph. 5:26; Col. 2:9-15).

As we partake of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, how do we know that Christ gives us “in, with and under” the bread and wine His true body and blood which were given and shed on the cross for the sins of the world that we might also receive and be assured of the forgiveness of all our sins and His gift of eternal life? Again, it is His Word that accomplishes what He says and gives to us the blessings He won for us upon the cross (1 Cor. 11:23ff.; Matt. 26:26-28).

As we live our lives in this world, Jesus would have us walk by faith and not by sight. He would have us take Him at His Word and not have to see signs and wonders before we will believe.

But, like the nobleman, when we get home, we will see with our eyes that His Word is true. When we are received into the glories of our eternal home through faith alone in the merits of Christ, we will see that indeed Christ did atone for all our sins, that God accepted His atonement as His resurrection proves, that when we have God-wrought faith in Christ all our sins are pardoned and forgiven and that, through faith in Christ, the eternal joys of heaven are indeed ours!

O God, graciously grant that we walk by faith in Your Word and not by sight, for only through faith in Christ will our eyes ever come to see the blessings which are offered and given to us in Him! Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

Luther describes the forgiveness won by Christ’s atoning sacrifice like “a chest full of gold and great treasure buried or preserved in a certain place.”

He says, “I might think myself to death and experience all desire, great passion and ardor in such knowledge and remembrance of the treasure until I became ill. But what benefit would all this be to me if this treasure were not opened, given and brought to me and placed in my keeping?”

He further explains: “So that our readers may the better perceive our teaching, I shall clearly and broadly describe it. We treat of the forgiveness of sins in two ways. First, how it is achieved and won. Second, how it is distributed and given to us. Christ has achieved it on the cross, it is true. But He has not distributed or given it on the cross. He has not won it in the Supper or Sacrament. There He has distributed and given it through the Word, as also in the Gospel, where it is preached. He has won it once for all on the cross. But the distribution takes place continuously, before and after, from the beginning to the end of the world. For inasmuch as He had determined once to achieve it, it made no difference to Him whether He distributed it before or after, through His Word, as can easily be proved from Scripture….” [Cf. Rom. 3:21-26; 2 Cor. 5:18-21.]

“If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. Nor must I hold to the suffering of Christ, as Dr. Karlstadt trifles, in knowledge or remembrance, for I will not find it there either. But I will find in the Sacrament or Gospel the Word which distributes, presents, offers and gives to me that forgiveness which was won on the cross.”

“Against the Heavenly Prophets,” LW, 40, 212-213

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Romans 3:21-22 (Read v. 9-28)

How can you and I, who are sinners, be righteous and acceptable to God? How can we escape the condemnation of God’s perfect law and be counted righteous and holy in God’s judgment? You might be surprised how many get the answer wrong, even among those who call themselves Lutheran.

First of all, it is not by our obedience to God’s Law or by any good works or righteous deeds we perform. This was the misconception with which Luther struggled, trying to be righteous before God by doing good works and living a holy life. Having been taught by the church of Rome that salvation is by holy living and righteous works which we do with God’s infused grace and help, Luther sought to appease God, even going to the point of becoming a monk and punishing himself for sins; but it was never enough!

It is as the Bible teaches us in Romans 3:9ff. We are all guilty of sin and deserving of God’s wrath and punishment. It is as St. Paul writes in v. 19-20: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

If the Law of God reveals our sin and condemns us, how can we be righteous and acceptable to a just and holy God who demands perfect righteousness, that we be holy as he is holy (cf. Lev. 19:2; Matt. 5:20,48)? The answer is recorded in Romans 3:21-22: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Luther found it in Romans 1:16-17.

A righteousness of God apart from our keeping of the Law is revealed to us in the Gospel. It is a righteousness to which the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, testify. It is “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” It is a righteousness which is imputed to us when we have faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross for the sins of the world.

The following verses (23-28) explain: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

Who are the “all” when it says: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”? We shouldn’t take these verses out of their context and from the full statement as some do. Even though all people have sinned and come short of the glory of God, the “all” in this passage is the same as the “all” at the beginning of Paul’s statement when he says: “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”

This is important if we wish to rightly understand the chief doctrine of the Christian Faith. Who is it that is justified? Is it all people? Or, is it those who believe in Jesus?

Note that the text says: “Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood”; and “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Thus, justification is by faith alone in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. And, with Paul, we conclude “that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Cf. Romans 4:1-11; 23-25; 5:1-2; Galatians 2:16.

This, of course, is in complete accord with our Lutheran Confessions (Augsburg Confession, Article IV): “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.”

So, how can we sinners be counted righteous and acceptable to God and escape His just punishment for our sins? It’s not by works of the law because we, like all others, fail and come short of what God demands.

It’s not by a supposed righteousness imputed and applied to all sinners apart from and before faith, as some teach.

Rather, it is by faith alone in Christ Jesus – it’s when we flee to the cross of Jesus and trust that God, for the sake of Christ’s perfect righteousness and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross for the sins of the world, is gracious and merciful and forgives the sins of penitent sinners for Jesus’ sake. Cf. John 3:14ff.

It’s when we place our trust in Jesus and His cross, that God forgives our sins, counts us just and holy and righteous for Jesus’ sake, accepts us as His own dear children and gives a place in His everlasting kingdom!

Your Law condemns us, O God. We are guilty and deserving of Your wrath and punishment! But we flee to the cross of Jesus and trust that, for the sake of Christ Jesus and His innocent sufferings and death upon the cross for all sin, You deal with us in mercy, grant us forgiveness, and count us righteous and holy in Your sight. Graciously keep us trusting in Christ Jesus that we might not be condemned but have everlasting life. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” Jeremiah 10:24

God, through the prophet Jeremiah, warned His people of the impending judgment which was coming upon them for turning aside from the true God and His ways into idolatry and sin. The armies of the north — the Babylonians — were coming to execute God’s wrath and judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. The people would perish from hunger, disease and the sword; those who survived would be carried away captives; and Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed.

In the midst of these warnings, Jeremiah prays (in the stead of the people), “O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.”

This prayer asks of the LORD God to correct and chasten him, but with judgment as to what is needed to correct him and bring him to his senses and to true repentance and not in God’s just anger against sin lest he be totally condemned and brought to nothing. It is a prayer for God to chasten and correct His people in love and mercy and not to totally destroy them in His righteous indignation and anger.

Are you willing to pray this prayer? Would you have God chasten you and correct you for your sins and the error of your ways?

If you stop and think about it, wouldn’t it be far better to be corrected of the LORD, even if such chastisement is difficult and painful, rather than to have the LORD deal with you in His just wrath? If God were to deal with us as we deserve on account of our sins, who among us could stand? We would all be brought to nothing! But, for the sake of Christ Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, God desires to deal with us in mercy and bring us to repentance that He might graciously forgive our sins for Jesus’ sake. Cf. Psalm 130; Ezek. 33:11; 2 Pet. 3:9.

Jesus says: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). In Hebrews 12:5-11, we read: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

It is far better to be chastened and corrected by the LORD now than to continue on in sin and disobedience and face His wrath on the day of judgment!

O LORD God, we so often fail to follow after You and obey Your commandments. Do not deal with us in Your wrath and bring us to nothing but chasten us, only in the severity needed to bring us to repent of our sins and look to You for mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus and then, as a fruit of our faith, amend our lives to live for You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12

In our catechism, we know this commandment as the Fourth Commandment: “Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. What does this mean? Answer: We should fear and love God that we may not despise our parents and masters, nor provoke them to anger, but give them honor, serve and obey them, and hold them in love and esteem.” — 1912 Catechism

This commandment of the LORD requires us to honor our parents (and all whom God has placed over us) as our God-given representatives. Children are to obey their parents; and parents — especially fathers — are to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:1-4; Col. 3:20-21; Deut. 6:4-9).

The only exception to God’s command to honor and obey parents is that we are “to obey God rather than men” when there exists a conflict between the will of parents (and authorities) and the will of God Himself (cf. Acts 5:29; cf. Dan. 3 and 6).

This means that children sin against God when they disobey their parents and do not show them the honor and respect which God requires. Parents too are guilty of sin when they do not bring up their children to know the LORD and His ways.

How thankful we can be that Jesus Christ kept this commandment perfectly for us, not only in deed but in word and desire! The Scriptures tell us that He submitted Himself to His parents and honored them (Luke 2:51; cf. John 19:25-27).

And, how thankful we can be that Jesus also bore upon the cross the just punishment for our sin! In Him, we sinners find pardon and forgiveness; and, in Him, we find strength and guidance to amend our ways and live in accord with God’s will and command.

Dear Lord Jesus, Son of God and our Savior, forgive our sins against the perfect will of God, our Maker, and give us the desire to live our lives for You. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible]