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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the epistle reading. You may be seated.
Pa, I’m getting weary of this then life. And Ma says, well, yes indeed, Pa, I’m getting weary too. We can all grow weary of this world and we can all grow weary of the things in this world, but there is a difference between how you as a believer grow weary and how the rest of the world grows weary. You see, the rest of the world grows weary because it knows only one thing. It wants to move from the pain and suffering to pleasure, even if it’s fleeting. Now you and I are tempted to have the same point of view, but what separates our hearts groaning is that we groan to be released from this world because we know we already have been released from this world.
Paul is frank and honest. He loves to paint for us reality, not pie in the sky, not some holy righteous thing. He talks very authentically about the Christian faith. The climax of this pericope, or this text in the epistle reading, is the very last verse. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, and that means to have been baptized into Christ, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. It’s not a remodel job with the dust all over and half of it done and not the other half completed and you’re waiting. No, you are a new creation now, not a remodel project. You are a new creation now. What you were is dead. What you are is what you are now.
Now, he says that as the climax of this section. But then at the very beginning, he says we groan. In fact, he says that not just once, but twice. In this tent, we groan, longing. We groan, being burdened, because we walk by faith, not by sight. It’s different than the rest of the world. The rest of the world groans just like we do, but it groans for something fleeting. We groan for something sure and certain and eternal. Two different groanings. They seem very similar, but they’re not. But you as a believer know that they’re different. We groan so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. The same Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 15 this way, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by immortality. Same thing, the resurrection.
And he makes it very clear, he who has prepared us for this very thing is God. Amen. So he acknowledges very quickly your life and my life, that we’ve grown in this world and are burdened by the things of this world, not because we’re like this world, but because we’re unlike this world. We have been baptized into Christ. We’re different, set apart. But it doesn’t look like it, does it?
Move on to the gospel reading for a moment. That seed that was sown on the ground in the first parable that he mentions says, “A man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, and he knows not how,” just like you don’t know how. But the seed that God planted in you in your baptism has continued to grow. Satan loves to tempt you to reflect upon and think about how it has grown, and then all of a sudden God reminds you to be humble, and you realize that it has grown, but it’s imperceptible. Imperceptible. That’s what this parable was about. He knows not how. He sees that it grows and he knows that it’s going to be harvested, but he knows not how. That is how it is with you. That’s why Paul in this epistle says, we walk by faith, not by sight.
Would that we would never be able to see. Then we would have to rely upon our ears far more, wouldn’t we? And in that, that’s the vehicle, isn’t it? Your ear is a very vital organ, for it is in your ear that God plants his seed of faith through that word proclaimed. It is in your ear that God gave you life eternal. It is in your ear that he said, “Take, eat, take, drink, this is my body, this is my blood.” For it was in the ear of your Lord’s mother, “You shall bear forth the Son, and you shall call him Immanuel.” She heard it and believed and became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
We walk by faith, which means it is not as it appears. And the rest of the whole world judges reality according to its eyes. You and I struggle with that, let’s be honest. But at the end of the day, our faith trumps it and says, but this is what God said, period. So though he says twice, we groan, he also says twice this proclamation: we are of good courage. We are always of good courage. And then he says again, we are of good courage. Why? Is that just some exhortation that’s vacuous in content? No, it’s a substantive declaration. It is not a vacuous exhortation. A substantive declaration has substance to it. It is not a pep talk. God is not about being a pep talk. That’s the power of positive thinking; that is not the gospel and the power of salvation. Two different things.
You are different because God gives you substantive declaration. You are of good courage. Why? Because he said, he’s prepared us for this very thing in Christ. He says, you are of him. And then he says this, verse 11, “You know the fear of the Lord.” And then in verse 11, it says, “What you are is known to God.” Now that’s important. That’s what makes “we are of good courage” substantive. If you are known to God, who cares what you think of yourself? Right? Because God doesn’t. God declares to you what he thinks of you. And for you and me to allow Satan to get us to think other than what God declares about you and me is wrong. What you are is known to God.
What you are is known to God. Not what you will be. Not what you were. What you are is known to God. It’s always present tense and it never changes day by day. It is always present tense. 30 years from now, if you’re still alive, you can still say, “What I am now is still known to God.” Even if it’s your cruddiest day that you’ve ever had. And on your best day, when you’re the proudest and most pompous of all things, like I, what you are is still known to God. That’s like a parent who knows a child, isn’t it? No matter how good that little girl can be, she will not become a better or more of your little girl by her actions. She is who she is because you are her mama or her dad. And that little boy will not become more your son by his actions or less your son by his lack thereof. He is because you are his daddy and you are his mama.
That ties in the first thing that he said. We know the fear of the Lord. The world does not know the fear of the Lord. They have their definition of fear to mean complete fear. Silence against him. They don’t want to anger him or they’re afraid that they’ll never be right in his eyes. That’s the world, and that’s what Satan wants you and I to think about our relationship with our Father. The fear of the Lord is this. It is the proverbial little boy who’s outside playing after he’s come home from school, and he’s having a fantastic time, riding his bike everywhere, tearing around the neighborhood, and his daddy comes to the door and yells out, “‘Suppertime, time to come home.” Well, like most little boys, he doesn’t want to come home because he’s having too much of a good time. So he stomps his feet and sasses his father and yells at him, and his father, as he passes the threshold in the door, swats him on the rear.
Now crocodile tears come flowing down and then with crocodile tears comes lots of snot out of the nose. And it’s a heck of a sight. He plops down in the chair and sits and eats his food respectfully, pouting. Food is finished. He asks to go back outside, and off he goes. Outside, he rides his bike and he slides in some sand and rips his knee apart and his knee is bleeding down its shin. And do you know to whom he comes for mercy and for strength and for help? The very same man that popped him on the bottom. That’s fear of the Lord. It is respecting his might, but never stopping trusting his mercy.
At the self-same time, unbelievers do not have that. You do by faith. Unbelievers do not because you have a relationship with your Father. That’s why he said, knowing the fear of the Lord is, “What we are is known to God.” Having said all of that, now let’s tackle that really confusing verse in this pericope. We’ve already established who we are. We’ve already established what God thinks of us. And we already established how we’re totally different than the rest of the world.
Then let not this verse confuse us. That verse would be verse 10. We confessed this in the Athanasian Creed the other day, remember? For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. If you cannot make yourself more a son of God by what you do or fail to do, then you have nothing to fear. If you think you can make yourself more a son or daughter of God by what you do or by what you fail to do, you’re denying that you are your Father’s son or daughter. Because Christians believers do good works.
And if you remember, of the two in the parable, of the sheep and the goats, only one of them made sure that God knew what he had done. And that was not the believer; that was the goat. The goat said, “When did we not feed you? When did we not clothe you? When did we not visit you?” But the sheep were like, “Ah, when did we, Lord? We don’t remember doing it.” That’s you and me. We’re going to be that dumbfounded one on judgment day going, “I don’t remember.” And God goes, “It’s okay. You’re my child.” That’s what that text means.
And the climax of this pericope, that 17th verse, “If we are in Christ, we are a new creation,” is the summary. Look at verse 14. “The love of Christ controls us.” The love, not the command. The love, not the demand. The love, not the guilt. The love controls us. And why? We conclude this: One has died for all. That’s John 3:16 by Paul. One has died for all. Therefore, all have died. And he who died for all, the only one whom the Father turned his back on, the only one who the Father denied, the only one who could never, ever be removed from the presence of God was because he had your and my sin. He died for all that those who live, live by faith, not by sight, live. Believer, live. You live no longer for yourself but for him who for your sake died and was raised.
That’s gospel again, guys. That’s good news. That’s hope, not shame or fear. It’s fear of the Lord, like we mentioned in that example. Yes, God does discipline us, but we know where to go when we are grieving, sorrow-filled, whether over our sin or what’s been done to us by other people. We go back to the Father who says, “Come here, come here,” and all is right and well when we are embraced by his arms. Here you are embraced by his arms because you are in Christ Jesus. You are a new creation. Not will be, not have the potential to become. You are. The old has passed away. Not will pass away. Not has the potential to pass away. Has passed away.
The new has come. Not will come. Not has the potential to come. Has come. Is present now and will continue for the future. This is the life of faith in Christ, that we walk by faith, not by sight. And this love of Christ controls us all the way to the grave. God be praised. In the name of Jesus, amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus. Life everlasting. Amen.
