Romans 8:31-39; Genesis
18:22-33
The Petitions of the Great Litany: “Spare
us, Good Lord”
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
When we pray “Spare us, good Lord,” we are
asking the Lord to save us, to redeem us, to exempt us, or to someway, somehow,
release us from the fate we will surely otherwise and deservedly suffer. This
is to say, once again, that our prayer is a confession: We confess that we have
sinned and that we deserve both temporal and eternal punishment. We confess
that this is what we have rightly earned and merited. We confess that the Lord
is just and right to punish us. Nevertheless, we pray, we petition, we ask, we
beg the Lord to not punish us, but even to spare us from our justly deserved
punishment. For, this prayer is also a confession of our faith in the Lord,
that He is the kind of Lord who will indeed act in such a way and spare us, a
Lord who even loves to spare us and has spared us, because He did not spare His
only-begotten Son as our substitute and sacrificial offering in our place.
The LORD was about to reign down judgment
upon Sodom and Gomorrah because of their notorious sin and wickedness. They
earned and merited this judgment; it was their just deserts. But, Abraham
interceded and prayed to the LORD to spare the cities and the people who lived
there. He didn’t claim that they were innocent or make any excuses for them –
they were justly condemned, and Abraham knew that – but he prayed to the LORD
simply to spare them, because of the LORD’s righteousness.
“Suppose there are fifty righteous
within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the
fifty righteous who are in it?” Do you realize how bold a petition this is?
Only Abraham could ask such a thing. Did Abraham believe for a minute that
there were actually fifty righteous persons in the city? Well, not if their
righteousness depended upon their works, obedience, and sinlessness. If that
were the measure of righteousness, then there would be not one soul in Sodom
and Gomorrah, or anywhere else, that would measure up. However, if Abraham
reckoned righteousness as the LORD Himself had regarded him as righteous, then,
yes, there might be fifty such souls, or maybe forty-five, forty, thirty,
twenty, or, well, perhaps ten? You can hear the humility and fear of the LORD
in Abraham’s questions. Abraham knew that He was asking the LORD to turn away
from His just judgment upon those cities and their inhabitants. Abraham knew that
He was asking for mercy and forgiveness that he had no right to ask or expect.
What, then, motivated Abraham to ask? Faith. Faith in God, His Will, and His
Word. Not faith in itself, but the object of Abraham’s faith, what it clung to
and trusted in no matter what – the LORD Himself. Tellingly, Abraham ceased his
petitioning with ten righteous souls. Perhaps he remembered that, for the sake
of eight righteous souls, Noah and his family, the LORD did not spare the world
in the flood. Indeed, Sodom and Gomorrah would not be spared, but the righteous
therein, Lot and his family, like Noah before, would be spared. In life, and in
death, the righteous will live by faith.
The faith by which the righteous live is
in the one whom God did not spare, His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Though
He was and is the only righteous one, righteous in Himself, innocent and
without sin, perfectly obedient, humble, fearing and trusting in the LORD, He
was declared to be unrighteous and guilty, and He was judged and condemned in
our place that we might be declared, innocent, righteous, and holy in His Name.
As our righteous father Abraham plead for and interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah
on account of righteous Lot and his family, evermore does our heavenly Father
make us to be righteous in His Son. Thus, when we pray, “Spare us, good Lord,”
we do so in the faith and confession that the LORD has already answered, He has
already spared us, and He continues to do so even now: “It is finished.”
The petition, “Spare us, good Lord,” comes
early in the Litany, and it appears only once. Following, we petition the Lord
to help us, to deliver us, to hear us, to have mercy upon us, and to grant us
His peace. The placement of this petition sets the stage right from the
beginning: All that we ask of the Lord is prefaced in our confession that we deserve
not His help, deliverance, mercy, and peace, but only judgment, death, and
eternal punishment. Nevertheless, we throw ourselves on the mercy of the Lord
and trust in His promise, particularly in His promise fulfilled in the
sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. With the Lord, it’s all or nothing: We bring
nothing; He gives all.
“What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but
gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all
things?” What wonderful rhetorical questions the Apostle has set before us!
“How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” indeed! He will!
He does! Therefore, ask Him in boldness and humility (no, those are not
mutually exclusive qualities). Ask Him boldly because the Lord is God and He
has paid dearly for you and desires to shower you with His blessings and grace.
Ask Him in humility because you confess that you do not deserve His mercy and
grace, because He is holy and righteous and, of yourself, you are not. But, ask
Him, in boldness, and ask Him in humility: “Spare us, good Lord.” And, when
your enemy lies to you and deceives you saying, “You don’t believe enough to
receive His gifts,” or, “Your sins are too great to be forgiven,” remember that
he’s right, but also remember that it doesn’t matter, because it’s not about
you, how much you believe, or how good or bad you have been. No, all that
matters is that the Lord is good and right and true and that He has done what
was necessary to make you right before Him. Do you believe that? I’m not asking
how much or how strongly, but only, “Do you believe that?” Yes! Then, you have
all that you need. Do not worry. Do not fear. But, be certain of this, “Neither
death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us for the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“Spare us, good Lord,” we pray. “I have,
and I will,” the Lord replies.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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