Blameless at the Coming of the Lord
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Last week, we heard how John the Baptist told people to get
ready for Christ’s coming—through repentance and Baptism. We are to live a life
of daily repentance. In our Epistle for today, St. Paul gives us
further instructions to be ready, that we may be kept blameless at the coming
of our Lord:
Rejoice always, pray
without ceasing,
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise
prophecies,
but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from
every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it (1 Thessalonians
5:16-24).
St. Paul tells us how
to be found blameless at the coming of our Lord. In rapid fire, no less than
eight imperatives follow one after the other. Rejoice! Pray! Give thanks! Don’t
quench! Don’t despise! Test! Hold fast! Abstain!
With these eight
commands, the apostle reviews for us “the will of God in Christ Jesus.” These
are not manmade guidelines. They are from God Himself. These are the keys for
getting ready for the coming of our Lord.
So… how are you doing? Do
you always rejoice? Do you pray without ceasing? Do you give thanks to God in
all circumstances? Do you always gladly hear and learn God’s Word? Do you test
everything according to God’s Word? Do you always hold on to the good, and abstain
from that which is evil?
Of course you don’t! And
neither do I. But according to our text, these are the things that make you
ready for Judgment Day. That should give you pause.
God holds you to the
highest, holiest standards. He calls you to be blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ; yet as we have just confessed you are a poor, miserable
sinner, who justly deserves God’s temporal and eternal punishment. You are
warned to not despise God’s Word, to test everything, holding fast to
everything that is good and abstaining from every evil; yet you know you daily
sin against God in thought, word, and deed. Your life is often filled with
sorrow, frustration, and adversity; yet you are called to always rejoice, pray
without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will
for you. How can you keep yourself blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ?
Actually, you can’t.
But God does! Only viewed through the cross can this dilemma be resolved. On
the cross, Christ exchanges His perfect obedience and righteousness for your
disobedience and unrighteousness. He pays the penalty for your sins and credits
you with His holy life and His innocent suffering and death.
He must! You are a
spiritual beggar, hoping to enter the gates of heaven. You are a pauper. You
don’t have even a dime to pay toward the high fee for admission. But there is
One who has! Christ opened the gates of heaven to all believers with His death
on the cross. He purchased your admission, and for every man, woman, and child
who has ever lived or will ever live, not with silver or gold but with His holy
precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.
But that’s not all! Not
only are you a beggar before God, you are the worst sort of beggar—one filled
with pride. You’re a beggar who sits by the gates with his hands in his
pockets, not willing to accept a handout, because you think you’re too good to
accept a handout. And the fact is… you would not have the strength to reach out
your own hand if you should condescend to accept His charity. So Christ has to
pull your hands out of your pocket, open your closed fists, place His gift of
salvation into your hands, close your palms, and put your hands back in your
pocket, so you won’t drop His wonderful gift.
You cannot get yourself
ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ—but there is One Who has! Who has
done it for you, in your place! There is One who is full of joy—“the Author and
Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,
scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2). The One who rejoices with the angels in
heaven over one repentant sinner” (Luke 15:7). The One who joyfully sold all
that He had to redeem the world (Matthew 13:44).
There is One who prays
without ceasing. He often withdrew to a solitary place to pray (Luke 5:16). During
Holy Week, He prayed every night in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 21:37;
22:39). He prayed so fervently that His sweat fell like blood (Luke 22:43). In
the upper room He prayed for Himself, for His disciples, and for those who
would believe in Him through their message (John 17). On the cross, He prayed
for His enemies (Luke 23:34). Even now He intercedes on your behalf (Romans
8:34) and speaks to the Father in your defense—Jesus Christ the Righteous One
(1 John 2:1).
There is One who gives
thanks in all circumstances. He thanked His Father for hearing His prayers
(John 11:41). He thanked the Father for revealing His Word to the simple, and
keeping its meaning hidden from the wise (Luke 10:21). And He thanked God
before breaking bread and passing the cup (Luke 22:17,19).
There is One who did
not quench the Spirit, but was full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). The Holy Spirit descended upon Him in
His Baptism (Luke 3:17). The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him as He preached the
Gospel and did merciful works of healing (Luke 4:18). This One did not quench
the fire of immature faith (Matthew 12:20), but built faith up in His disciples
through patient teaching. He taught that one must be born of the Spirit through
water and the Word (John 3:5). He promised to send His Holy Spirit to guide
them into all truth (John 16:13). He breathed the Spirit into them that they
might pass on His Word of forgiveness (John 21:22-23).
There is One who never
despised God’s Word, but held it sacred and glad heard and learned it. At the
age of twelve, He could be found in His Father’s house, listening to the
teachers and questioning them. When tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He
showed that God’s Word meant more to Him than food, power, or fame. The people
were constantly amazed at His teaching because His message had the authority of
God’s Word and not the so-called wisdom of men.
There is One who tested
everything concerning Christian faith and life. He warned His disciples to be
on guard against false doctrine (Luke 12:1). He held fast to what was good. “Do
not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come
to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). He abstained from every
evil. “He was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet [He] was without sin”
(Hebrews 4:15).
There is One who does
all of these. And He does them for you! Not only does Christ justify
you—declare you right with God, He continues to sanctify you—to conform you to
His own image. The one who clothes Himself in Jesus’ blood and righteousness
will be found blameless when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead. So live
in your Baptism through daily repentance and faith.
Do you want to be able
to “rejoice always”? Christ imparts His joy to you. The One who for the joy set
before Him went to the cross, scorning its shame, teaches and enable you to be
joyful even in times of trial and tribulations that cause sorrow. You know that
Christ rules heaven and earth, so that the sorrow that enters your life is not
a matter of blind fate. Anything that causes you sorrow is something our Savior
has permitted to come and will ultimately serve your good. Sorrows draw you
closer to the Lord (Romans 5:3-5). They purify and refine your faith (1 Peter
1:17). They provide you with opportunities to confess the hope that is in you
(1 Peter 3:13-15). There is, however, one thing sorrow cannot do. It can never,
ever separate you from God’s love (Romans 8:39).
God also enables you to
“pray without ceasing,” to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Jesus intercedes
on your behalf. Jesus gives you His prayer and invites you to pray to God as
your dear Father in heaven. Praying continually means developing an awareness
of Jesus’ presence and an attitude that brings Him easily into every thought
and every activity of your life. You learn to thank God for all of His
blessings, including those “blessings” that come disguised. Giving thanks in
all circumstances means living by faith and not by sight. It is a theology of
the cross trusting that God is graciously at work for His people even in the
most difficult of circumstances.
Nor is your
thankfulness limited to words. It can also be expressed by your actions. God
doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does. The Christian mother who
cares for her children, cleans the house, cooks meals, and mends clothes is
expressing her thanks to God for these gifts. As one who rejoices in her
Savior, her simplest task is an act of faith, which God looks on as an
expression of true gratitude. That’s how it is with the simplest actions of
every Christian, whether a laborer, farmer, businessperson, police officer,
secretary, father, mother, child, grandpa, grandma, husband, wife, bachelor, or
widow. Whatever good you do, can be done to God’s glory with thanksgiving and
prayer.
In Baptism, you were
given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Your new man delights to do will of God. You
hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Everything you meet in
your daily lives is examined in the light of God’s Word. If you have found that
what you are testing is “good” according to God’s Word, then you “hold fast” to
it. If you find that something is “evil” by its nature, you “abstain” from it. Consciously
and constantly, you put distance between yourself and whatever conflicts with
His pure Word. Why? Because “a little yeast works through the whole batch of
dough.” A little bit of impurity mixed with God’s truth will eventually destroy
the truth and lead to one error after the other.
Baptized into Christ
you are united to His death and resurrection. He not only gives you His forgiveness,
righteousness, and holiness to secure your standing before the heavenly Father
and gain eternity in heaven, but He gives you His character, His identity, and
His virtues to take as your very own and lead you in your life, amid trials and
temptations, in this culture, at this time, here on this earth.
You are redeemed, purchased
and won from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil with Christ’s
holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that you may be
His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes
again on Judgment Day, He will find you blameless. You will enter eternal life
purified, for you will regain the sinless state human beings had before the
Fall. You may be certain of this because He who calls you is faithful; He will
surely do it! He’s doing it even now! For Jesus’ sake, you are forgiven of all
of your sins.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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