The Fifth Midweek Lenten Service

Jesse Jacobsen

Printed
Time-stamp: "Wed Mar 9 12:11:29 2005"

It has pleased God to save us by faith alone in His Word. Though it sounds simple, this is hard to swallow. So God repeats it again and again throughout the Bible in different ways. One of the very clear passages is in Paul's letter to the Galatians. He says we who know ``that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.''

We are not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus. By ``works of the law,'' Paul simply meant our own preparations and works, whether internal or external. They are excluded from our justification, simply because it has pleased God to save us by faith alone in His Word. There is no difference between faith in God's Word and faith in Jesus Christ, because the whole content of the Bible is Jesus Christ. That is the point.

So far, any well-catechized Lutheran knows everything I've said. But everyone, including that Lutheran, still needs God's comfort against doubt. It's one thing to know the importance of faith, and another thing to trust God's Word. As someone once said: there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Doubts come naturally to us. We doubt many things, including ourselves and God's Word. This age of technology is built upon doubts. We are products of that worldview. It was Rene Descartes, the man who laid the foundation for modern philosophy, who began by doubting everything. At that point, he doubted the existence of God and even himself. You might think that was foolish, but it's the the beginning of modern times. It's no wonder that the 19th and 20th centuries saw Christian churches deciding that they can no longer trust the Bible any more. We might like to hope that we have escaped that fate. But is that what the angels would think who see your life every day and every week? Do they see abundant evidence that you are riding the trusty steed of God's Word anywhere He wishes to take you? Or does the evidence of your life sometimes show that Descartes has been put before the horse?

Speaking honestly, we would have to say that we do have doubts sometimes --- even doubts that what God has said is true. It's no trifling matter. To doubt something in God's Word is a measure of unbelief --- maybe not total unbelief, they are both made of the same material. In time, doubts can grow into total unbelief. But in time, doubts can also be diminished by the assurance of the Holy Spirit in His Word. For that to happen, we must hear His Word.

But sometimes doubts seem to overwhelm a person. Usually, it's in a time of darkness and solitude, when those we love seem to have turned against us, rejecting our best efforts to help and serve them. These doubts spring up from the floodgates of our own hearts, and they sprinkle into us from the temptations of the Enemy. His aim is to drive us far from Jesus by keeping us away from His Word, so that we don't hear Him any more.

There are many doubts, and they are often in the form of questions. What if I don't finish my tax return before April 15th? What if I can't pay what I owe? What if my medical expenses become too great? What if I become ill and must suffer or lose my independence? Can I possibly do all the things that everyone expects of me? Is it even possible to balance family against work, work, and more work? What if I can't: should I just quit? What if I outlive my retirement income? If I give the thankoffering to God that I want to give, can my family survive on what remains?

There are doubts about home and family, work, church, and anything else God has provided. But ultimately, these are all doubts of God's good and gracious will. You see, our Christian faith is not really separate from home, family, work, or recreation. We never stop being Christians, despite whatever our employers or anyone else would like.

Faith is the basic act of worship upon which a Christian's entire life is built. Despite whatever we may think, faith cannot last for long when we don't hear God's Word, because that Word is the very thing in which faith trusts. Trusting God's Word, we trust God. Believing that Word, we believe Jesus Christ. In this way we are justified by God for Jesus' sake. So you see, everything we do and say and think is shaped by God's Word through faith.

So we may have our doubts, wondering if God will truly provide His promised blessings when we keep His Word in our actions. The world may think us foolish for trusting Him so, especially when our lives seem so fragile by worldly standards. This is exactly what happened to that man who brought his demon-possessed child to Jesus. Even the disciples could not cast the demon out. There seemed good reason to doubt. But Jesus spoke eternal words to this father: ``Jesus said to him, `If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.' '' Do you believe what Jesus said?

Do you believe that all things are possible in your home and family? At your work? At school? At your church? Now, Jesus was not saying that if we simply believe anything we like, that God will do it. He was saying that if we believe what God has said and promised us, keeping His Word in faith and life, then His Word can certainly accomplish in us exactly what He said. No matter how unlikely God's promise may sound, He can make it happen.

Jesus said to His Church: ``Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.'' Do you believe these words of God? The early Church did, and those Christians ate His flesh and drank His blood every time they came together as a church. Jesus kept His promise, for those Christians were bold confessors of Jesus, and many even gladly gave their lives for His sake, and the Church quickly grew.

But we, on the other hand, have doubts. Yet we can take great comfort in the fact that God provides all that is lacking in us. That father with the demon-possessed child understood this, though he also had doubts. Immediately after Jesus told him that all things are possible to him who believes, he ``cried out and said with tears, `Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!' '' That should be our prayer morning and evening every day. And as Jesus helped that poor man, so He will also help us.

Jesus has forgiven your doubts and washed their guilt away with His blood shed on the cross. He invites you to hide yourself in His wounds, where you will be shielded from every accusation, because His suffered for you. Jesus beckons you to the font where He baptized you, and He would have me remind you that because of that baptism, you now belong to Him. Jesus told me to direct you to the altar where He furnishes a meal that can strengthen you with the same body and blood that gives you eternal life. Trust His Word. Whatever it may bring, trust Jesus with your life.

Romans 8:32--39

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ``For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.