Our competence is in Christ.

Sermon for Trinity 12, September 8, 2019

Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, who was, and who is coming.  Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:4–11  ⁴Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God.  ⁵Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God.  ⁶He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament (not of letter, but of spirit).  For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.  ⁷If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look directly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (though it was fading), ⁸how will the ministry of the spirit not be much more glorious?  ⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory.  ¹⁰In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it.  ¹¹Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent! (EHV)

Our competence is in Christ.

            Statements some people have made in rejecting Christianity: God loves us no matter what, and that’s all we need to know.  What gives you the right to judge?  You Christians think you are better than everyone else!  Your religion oppresses people!  Get your cross out of my face.  What makes you think your God, or your religion, is better than any others?  You’re just a bunch of white supremists trying to hold on to your privileges.  I don’t need your God, or your church, to have a good life!  The world would be better off without your kind! 

Dear friends of the living Lord,

            What kind of accusations, misdirections, red herrings, and outright lies are being thrown against you as you try to serve the living Lord with honest reverence?  Since the world is growing ever more hostile to the Word of God, it seems to be ever-increasingly harder to share the Gospel with our friends and neighbors.  Pop culture fights against us.  Much of our media fights tooth and nail against the ideas put forth in Scripture.  Our own lack of confidence doesn’t help.  Even among many churches, some calling themselves Lutheran, we are becoming a pariah for not going along with the in crowds that have taken over our culture, our schools, and the politics of our times.

As harsh as that sounds, and as difficult as it might sometimes feel to talk about what Jesus has done for us, it really isn’t all that different from what Paul’s opponents were saying in Corinth.  There too, accusations were made that Paul, and other faithful Christians, didn’t have the proper credentials, or weren’t giving proper heed to other teachers, or simply weren’t telling the full story.  Paul’s answer, and our confidence, as well, is that Our competence is in Christ.

Paul wrote to his dear friends, “Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God.  Not that we are competent by ourselves to claim that anything comes from us; rather, our competence is from God.”  The first thing to remember is that we do not, and we must not, preach ourselves.  We have done nothing to earn salvation.  We didn’t find God on our own.  We certainly have never lived holy lives.  Instead, God picked us up out of the gutter of sin and death to give us new life.  He cleansed us by the water and Word of Baptism.  The Holy Spirit worked faith in our hearts by pouring the Gospel over and around us. 

My friends, our greatest badge of honor is simply that “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5)  Thus, because God worked His love in us, Our competence is in Christ.

When God rescued us from the gaping jaws of hell, as He reconciled Himself to us by the holy life and sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, “He also made us competent as ministers of a new testament (not of letter, but of spirit).  For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.”  According to the letter of the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, all of us should have been eternally condemned.  However, it was never God’s plan that all should die.  He would far rather die Himself to save as many as will believe. 

Therefore, it is Christ Jesus—living, dying, and rising again in our place—who made us worthwhile servants of the living God.  Furthermore, Jesus gave us our marching orders when He told His disciples, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)  After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus further instructed, “Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven.  Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (John 20:23)  So, whoever refuses to hear, what God gives us to say as servants of Christ, are really condemning themselves by their arrogant refusal to repent of sin or to be forgiven by the Savior who died for all.

Now, there are many in the world who think themselves worthy of praise for the lives they lead.  Many of those also use a standard of their own imagination as to what is right or wrong.  Numerous forces, politicians, activists, and non-Christian theologians try to force self-exalted behaviors on their neighbors.  That’s the driving force behind many laws, environmental movements, and political campaigns of our present age.  And, many people think themselves good for supporting those efforts, but the truth is, no matter how noble the law, no matter how honorable the intent, none of this will bring anyone one inch closer to heaven.

The Ten Commandments that Moses carried down from the mountain, inscribed in stone by God’s own hand, so glorious was that meeting with God that Moses’ face shone for weeks after, and those laws are God’s will for our lives and relationships.  Yet, the law never does anything to help us.  It always condemns and brings death, because none of us ever live up to the demands, and the penalty is eternal separation from God.  Yet, this is the glory many people throughout history have sought—how can we live to be holy?  But honestly, how we live, no matter how glorious the cause, leads only to death and eternal hopelessness.

Our obedience of law doesn’t lead to righteousness but to condemnation, and those who don’t know Christ have no chance at being saved, which means no chance of heaven.  This is why it is so important that Our competence is in Christ.  It is Christ’s righteousness, credited to us by faith, that makes us acceptable to God in heaven, and it is Christ’s righteousness working in us that motivates us to desire to live according to God’s will.

Now, many of our world don’t want to hear that.  Even many Christians, today, have become ashamed to stand up and say it.  A major denomination, that still calls itself Lutheran, declared at their synod convention this summer that we can’t know for sure how to get to heaven, therefore they would recognize all faiths as equally valid.  What absurd, absolute arrogance it is to stand before the Lord and declare that they don’t know how we are saved.  They claim to be Christians, but they deny the words of Christ Himself who clearly said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6)  This, we might say, is the sum of all holy scripture.  Every part of the Bible points to Jesus as God’s answer to the sins of the human race. 

Everything Jesus did and said declares the love of God for a fallen humanity.  It is the same for every person on earth no matter their parentage, upbringing, religion, or race.  There is no pleasing God and no entering heaven apart from faith in Christ Jesus.  If we love anyone, that is the message we simply have to share.  Because if we don’t share all that God has said, we have left people adrift in their self-absorbed lives leading to death in the hell prepared for the devil and his angels.

As Christian believers, we know that we do have to preach the law.  However, we also know that we can’t save anyone with the law, for it mainly shows the need for the sinner’s rescue.  Therefore, law preaching lacks the glory it has often been thought to have.  Preaching the Gospel, though, is far different and far better.  Paul wrote, “For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory.  In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it.  Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!”  The glory of law fades fast in comparison to the blessings received in the Gospel, and the promises of the Gospel last forever.

By preaching Christ Jesus, and Him crucified for us, we have the honor of reaching out with the hand of the Holy Spirit to lift lost souls out of the darkness of death.  What greater glory could we hope for than to see some lost, hurting friend, who once had been hurtling toward hell in a broken-down body of sin, enter the gates of everlasting life to be seated in Jesus’ presence forever?

By holding on to Jesus, alone, as the source of salvation, and to the Bible, only, as the divine message to a fallen humanity, we are walking side by side with Jesus who the world rejected but God has declared His beloved and perfectly holy Son.  By walking boldly with Jesus through every trial and tribulation, we are walking in the footsteps of Paul and Barnabas who conceded, "We must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God," (Acts 14:22)

Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another, which doesn’t refer to our feelings for each other but means that we must always do what is best for the other person’s life and health.  Jesus then said, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you.”  (John 15:18-19)

This is our reality as Christian believers—though the world may reject us, we will remain true to Him who loved the world enough to die for it—and we will walk with our Savior in sure confidence that though the world may hate us, our Father in heaven loves us with an everlasting love, a love poured out for us through the blood of His own dearly loved Son.

What the world says against us may hurt our feelings, but it can’t hurt our status with the Father above.  They may even kill the body, but they cannot take away our place at the throne of glory in heaven.  This is our hope, our joy, and our confidence—Our competence is in Christ.  Amen.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.