Christ For Us

He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him. But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:11-12). Amen.

"On the 300th anniversary of the Reformation (1817), one of the most powerful rulers in Germany attempted to unify both Lutheran and Reformed churches into one Evangelical church. The government mandated a common confession that blended Lutheran and Reformed beliefs. Those who opposed the policy had two choices: establish a free church, deprived of government financial support, or leave Germany. Some of them left and sought religious freedom in the United States. They were known as the Old Lutherans, or Strict Lutherans, and wanted to be free to practice their Lutheran faith" (Christ Through Us, p. 4).

"When they came to the American West, they carried their German Bibles, hymnbooks, and copies of devotion books from the old country and gathered in homes for worship, hymn singing, and Bible reading. Often there were no pastors to teach them or conduct services. Someone would be chosen to lead the singing and perhaps also to read. With so few pastors on the frontier, differences in doctrine were ignored. The German Christians, Reformed and Lutheran, simply agreed to disagree. The Lutheran Confessions remained silent protests to set aside for the sake of unity and convenience When the people established congregations, sometimes they were gatherings of both Lutheran and Reformed protestants" (Christ Through Us, p. 5).

"In reality, opposing doctrines often stood side by side in silent opposition and tension. The sound of axes and the struggle to create families, homes, and productive farms were more important" (Christ Through Us, p. 5).

Three pastors - John Muehlhaeuser, John Weinmann, and William Wrede – founded a new synod called the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Wisconsin," which later became the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The official founding of the synod was on May 26, 1850, at Salem Lutheran Church in Granville, which is now part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Though Strict Lutherans had fled Germany because of religious persecution, these three pastors did not care for the restrictive views of the Strict Lutherans. They preferred a Mild Lutheran synod that would allow them to also minister to the Reformed in their communities. The founding of our church body was not with strong, doctrinal, confessional Lutheran convictions. The beginning of the WELS was indeed small, even weak. We will discover over these three sermons and our ten-week Bible study on the history of the WELS, that this young Wisconsin Synod did something almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. By God's grace, it grew more biblically sound over it's 175 years.

Today we examine the blessing of Christ for us. It's a rare blessing from the Lord that any church body teaches the gospel with remarkable clarity, much less for 175 years. We haven't done anything to deserve this blessing. Instead, Christ has done everything for us. He died for us, he rose for us, he saved us, and he reconciled us to God the Father. St. Paul lays all this out for us in Romans 5.

Paul writes, "God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Paul explained earlier that what makes us sinners is that we are "ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Being godly means doing the will of God. But we do the opposite of God's will. We don't put God first in our lives. We take his holy name in vain. We don't worship God. We don't honor God's representatives in the home or government. We allow our temper to get the better of us. We lust, steal, covet, and gossip. All this makes us ungodly sinners.

And yet, while we were ungodly, Christ, the perfect God-Man, died for us. In our place. As our Substitute. Look at Jesus hanging dead on the cross and then think of all the biblical stand-ins – the ram that spared Isaac (Genesis 22:13); the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21); the scapegoat of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:21), the Suffering Servant of Isaiah: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Christ is the stand-in for sinners. Christ is the vicarious Victim.

Paul explains that being ungodly sinners, we are God's natural-born enemies. "Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life" (Romans 5:9,10)

You may consider yourself a good, decent, hard-working, church-going, right-decision-making Christian. Still, even you are an ungodly, sinful, enemy of God. Yet, this is how God shows his love for us – while we were still sinners and God's enemies, Jesus Christ died for us. He took the place of his enemies. Not his family. Not his buddies. He died for those who wanted him dead. For those who wanted nothing to do with him. That's you and me.

One life in exchange for another. He becomes the sinner in place of every sinner; and we in him become the saint – holy and righteous before God. That's what Paul means when he says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him." By saving us from God's righteous wrath, Jesus changed our eternal destination from hell to heaven. When God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin any more, but he sees the blood of his Son covering your sinfulness. He sees only little Jesuses. Even though your sins are many and great, Jesus' divine blood is greater. He became your sin in his death, and you received his life.

St. Paul continues, "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation" (Romans 5:10-11).

"Reconcile" means to win enemies over to friendliness. When I was playing soccer in college, there were players on a certain team that were taking me out. I was slide tackling them, too. It was rough! The ref had to get involved. But after the season was over, the players on that team invited me to their college to play indoor soccer on their intramural team. We had been sworn enemies. But we were reconciled.

Most of the time, when there is reconciliation between bitter opponents, warring nations, fighting spouses, or arguing neighbors, each party has to give a little to get a little. That's not the way it worked with our reconciliation with God. We were God's bitter enemies. While we remained enemies, Christ made peace with us. We weren't doing the work that was assigned to us. We cheated on God. We were unfaithful followers and disloyal children. Still, Jesus entered our world to restore peace between us and God. We didn't give up anything ... except our sins. Christ is the One who gave up everything – he gave up heaven to suffer hell on the cross; he gave his perfection to us; he who cannot die as God, became Man so that he could die.

On Good Friday, in the darkness of Jesus' death, God said to the world, "I am at peace with you." In your Baptism, when water was poured on you in the Name of the Triune God, the Father said, "I am at peace with you." In the Supper, with Jesus' own Body and Blood as his gift to you, God says again, "I am at peace with you."

Brothers and sisters, take the time right now to bow your head and repent of your being God's natural-born enemy – an enemy that killed the Son of God with your sins.

Silence for private confession.

Reconciled children of our Heavenly Father, you are forgiven. Your name is written in the wounds of Jesus. Christ has dipped his pen in the crimson ink of his divinely human veins and written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Jesus promises, "I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels" (Revelation 3:5). Jesus has engraved your name on the palms of his hands. God promises, "Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16). Jesus has now set up his divine kingdom within your heart. That means he rules over your soul, mind, and body. Jesus says, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).

You were once at war with your heavenly Father. Like Adam and Eve, you ran away and tried hiding from God. But Jesus came as the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent-Crusher (Genesis 3:15). You are the flesh that will return to dust. But the Son of God is the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Jesus did all this to reconcile you to your heavenly Father. He has forgiven you. You are now God's friend. God's saint. God's child.

You did nothing to bring about this reconciliation. God did it all through Jesus Christ. In Baptism, you didn't commit yourself to Christ; he committed himself to you. In those waters he crucified you with himself, laid your body with his in the tomb, and he carried you forward into the light of eternal life. Jesus promises, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). That faith is not a conviction you created but a gift you received. By the Holy Spirit you confess, "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

Reconciled. Do you realize the implications? It isn't a matter of you "getting right with God" but of you believing that Christ has made you right with God. You weren't reconciled and made a Christian because you were so great a person, or had a heart that was so pure, or because you were so awesome that God just had to have you. Nope. It was because you were so unrighteous that Christ covered you with the clothing of his righteousness. It was because you were living for yourself that Christ lived for you, and then died for you, and then lives for you again. It wasn't because you asked Jesus to be your Savior that you were saved. It was because while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you, chose you, called you, and washed you clean in his own divine blood.

You might have heard people say, "God loves you just the way you are." That sounds nice and loving. But when people say that they are often using those words to excuse someone's sinful lifestyle and harmful choices.

A better way to speak is to say, "God loves you just the way you are. ... But he also loves you too much to let you stay that way."

God loved you while you were still a sinner and his enemy. But he didn't let you remain in your sin or continue as his enemy. You were an enemy that Jesus saw needed changing. He didn't leave you the way you were. What would be the point in that?

If you were going to stay the same, then what would have been the purpose of Jesus living and dying for you. No, while you were still an enemy of God, Jesus reconciled you to himself. He chose you while you were his enemy so he could make you a child of God. He chose you when you were a sinner so he could remake you into a saint. He chose you while you were still friends with the devil so he could remake you into a brother or sister of Christ.

By God's grace, this is the message of Christ for you that generations of Lutherans in the Wisconsin Synod have been blessed to hear for the past 175 years from pulpits in our churches, learn in the classrooms of our grade schools and high schools, receive from the water in the baptismal fonts, and accept in the Body and Blood at the Lord's Table. By that same grace of God, this is the message of Christ for you that has been proclaimed here at Lord of Lords for the past 45 years.

In this small church body we call the Wisconsin Synod, God has done something that is almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. "While most other church bodies have merged into larger bodies and lost their bodies and lost their distinctiveness or simply folded and disappeared into the mists of history as the decades have passed. But not the Wisconsin Synod" (Christ Through Us, viii). Our little Wisconsin Synod has grown more biblically sound over the past 175 years. That has only happened because we, always by God's grace, continue to proclaim a message of reconciliation – of Christ for us. Amen.

The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Amen.