Wednesday after Laetare - 2 Peter 1:2-11 - March 9, 2016
Order of Matins - Pg. 32
Hymn #426 The Lord My Shepherd Is
Hymn #297 The Gospel Shows the Father's Grace
Hymn #425 All Depends on Our Possessing
Readings
2 Peter 1:2-11
John 6:36-51
Collect for Laetare, the 4th Sunday in Lent
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Sermon 2 Peter 1:2-11
Hymn #426 The Lord My Shepherd Is
Hymn #297 The Gospel Shows the Father's Grace
Hymn #425 All Depends on Our Possessing
Readings
2 Peter 1:2-11
John 6:36-51
Collect for Laetare, the 4th Sunday in Lent
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Sermon 2 Peter 1:2-11
Grace
and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) The
Lord has given you everything you need. There is nothing you lack. You possess
it all if you possess the Gospel. So says St. Peter in today’s New Testament
reading. He writes, “His divine power
has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” (2 Peter
1:3) He is talking about the spiritual life, not the carnal life in the flesh,
not the life we live in the world. We often believe the opposite. “If only God
gave me more faith.” “If only God would give me a sign, then I would know His
will and the direction I am to go.” “If only God would give me more strength to
fight this temptation which clings to my flesh.” “If only God would give me
more peace of mind.” “If only God would make life easier, then I would be in a
better place with Him.” The human mind, tainted by sin until we are laid in the
earth, always assumes that the Lord has not given us everything we need
pertaining to life and godliness. The reason is twofold. It is either from
despair or ingratitude. Despair, because the sinful mind thinks that God has
not given it enough things pertaining to life and godliness. We despair when we
think that God is withholding gifts from us that would help us kick that pet
sin out of the house of our heart. We despair when we think that God has drawn
back His generosity and does not give us the faith we need to seek him in
prayer. When we look at our piety and see that it is not what it ought to be,
the sinful flesh seizes the opportunity and sows the seed of discontent and
despair in our hearts, so that we think surely God must be withholding
something from us. The other reason the sinful mind does not think God has
given us all things that pertain to life and godliness is ingratitude. The
flesh easily grows tired of the Gospel. This is seen in “churches” across our
great land who have abandoned preaching Christ for the forgiveness of sins and
instead preach a false gospel of “what can you do for God,” and “how you can be
a better Christian.” They want the Christianity without the Christ. But we see
this in ourselves as well when we tire of our hearing of the Gospel, when we
are ungrateful about receiving the absolution, or worse yet, when we think,
“Are we really going to hear about this justification thing yet again?”
2) But this is what
the Lord gives us. St. Peter writes that the Lord has given us all things that
pertain to life and godliness, “through
the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been
given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world
through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4) How do we receive knowledge of “Him,” that is,
Christ? Through the gospel. And it is in Christ alone that we receive knowledge
of God the Father, as Jesus says in our lesson from St. John’s Gospel. “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except
He who is from God; He has seen the Father.” (John 6:46) The Holy Gospel
contains all of the “exceedingly great
and precious promises” of God. The Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation for all who believe.” (Romans 1:16)
There is no knowledge of God the Father outside of Christ Jesus. All spiritual
roads do not lead to Rome. There are no shortcuts to the Father. There is no
other way to true life with God the Lord except through faith in Christ, for
faith in Christ alone justifies the sinner before God. And that’s what the
Gospel teaches us over and over and over again because we need to hear it over
again every week and every day. We are not saved today because of yesterday’s
faith or a so-called decision made years ago. We sin daily and so need
absolution daily. We fall daily and so need to be picked up by Christ daily.
The Devil, the world, and our sinful flesh war against our souls daily so we
need Christ as our defense and shield daily. All of this is given in the Gospel
if faith but receives the Gospel daily and uses the Gospel daily. In the gospel
the Father has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. There
is no other book we need. There is no other word from God. He speaks through
His Word and through His Word alone.
3) The result is
that we become partakers in the divine nature. We are not absorbed into the
Godhead, being transformed into God so that we share His essence. Nor is this a
Buddhist alignment of the soul with a greater power or energy of the universe.
To become a partaker in the divine nature means to become a partaker in the
life which God has by His very nature. Jesus speaks of this several times in
the Gospel lesson heard a moment ago. He says, “This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given Me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” (John
6:39). Human life is by nature transient. Every descendant of Adam and Eve must
“pay the debt of nature” because in Adam all have sinned and all keep sinning
because of the inborn sinful nature and “the
wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:34) Faith in Christ puts us ‘in Christ’
so that though a Christian die, He lives. Faith gives true life which death
cannot extinguish. Jesus says in John 11:25-26, “I
am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Divinity, by nature, does not die. Faith puts you “in Christ.” St. Paul
writes that “As
many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
(Galatians 3:27) Faith in the Gospel, given in preaching and Baptism, connects
you to Christ so that you partake of His divine life, so that though you die,
you pass through death into life immortal. This brings us back to what Christ
said in today’s reading. “I will raise him up on the last day.” To fully
participate in the divine nature is to be rid of the human flesh and raised to
new life with new, radiant flesh on the Last Day. Since Christ cannot die,
those who belong to Him are unable to truly die.
4) St. Peter then
writes, “But also for
this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue
knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to
perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8) Since we
already participate in the divine nature, that is, true life, by faith, and we
will one day by sight, Peter adds that we should give all diligence to how we
live as partakers of the divine nature. To this faith which justifies,
enlivens, and vivifies, we are to add virtue. Virtue consists in conforming
your actions to your beliefs. If you have divine life in you, and share in the
divine nature, you ought not to live in the lust of the world for fleshly
pleasures, creature comforts, ambition, avarice and wealth. To virtue we are to
add knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, which teach us ever and always the “great
and precious promises” given to us in Christ Jesus. We grow in the knowledge of
His will which is our sanctification, our holiness, and our endurance under
temptation and persecution.
5) To this knowledge we are to add self-control. Since the will of God is our
sanctification, this requires the control of the sinful self. Jesus bids us to
control our sinful selves and master our desires in Matthew
16:24, “If anyone desires to come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” We are, as
partakers of the divine nature, to fight sin in our mortal body since lust wars
against our soul to lead us away from Christ into willful sin, death, and into
the bondage of the Devil. The Christian who neglects self-control lets the
sinful self run wild and unchecked, rushing headlong into all sorts of sins,
damaging faith and salvation. To this self-control perseverance must be added.
For it is one thing to have self-control for a moment of temptation, but the
Devil does not sleep and waits for a more opportune time to return and attack with
his subtleties. To perseverance one must add godliness, brotherly kindness, and
finally love.
6) This is the aim
of the mature Christian. In his first epistle St. Peter encourages his hearers,
“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk
of the word, that you may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:2) In this, his second
epistle, he encourages us to mature in the faith and grow in our piety towards
God. All of these virtues flow from faith in Christ and participating in the
divine nature through the Word and Sacraments. St. Peter concludes, “For he who lacks these things is
shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from
his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and
election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an
entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:9-11) We are to do these
things, making them our aim, lest we fall back into our former sins and lose
our salvation. All of these virtues are rooted in faith in Christ and edify and
build up faith in Christ as He is given in the Gospel. We must not grow tired
of hearing that good news, for in the hearing, reading, marking, learning, and
inwardly digesting of His Holy Gospel do we grow in our knowledge of His will
and our piety towards God. The goal of all of this is our “entrance” into the
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe and live as ones who are partakers
in Christ’s everlasting life and as those who are heading for His everlasting
kingdom of righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. He has given us
everything that pertains to life and godliness in His Holy Gospel. May be we
thankful for “great and precious promises of God” and always hold them dear in
our hearts so that God may grant us an increase in faith and all of these gifts
which He has taught us about today. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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