Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Peter 3:3-14; Daniel 7:9-14
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” What does this mean? It does not mean that when Scripture says God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in them in six days, that we are to understand day to mean millions of years. That is a clever sophism of the devil, who delights in twisting God’s Word to deceive you and lead you into unbelief.
Christians eager to appease the world and human reason are often willing to embrace this teaching to make evolutionary theory appear compatible with Scripture. But evolutionary theory and the Word of God are not compatible. To embrace it is to do violence to God’s Word and ultimately overthrow its plain meaning. If day does not mean an ordinary day, then what about incarnation, virgin birth, and resurrection? Did God really become man? Did a virgin conceive and bear the Son of God? Did Jesus really rise bodily from the dead, and will you likewise be raised in a glorified flesh and blood body? The devil always seeks to undermine God’s Word, beginning with what God has plainly said.
No, that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day does not mean that God’s Word is metaphorical or cannot be taken literally. It means precisely what it says. The Lord does not experience time as we do. He is the Creator of time. He is not bound by time, but He stands outside of time and sees every moment of time at same time. He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He is YHWH, the great I AM, the source and Creator of all things. Everything that exists continues to exist through His sustaining Word.
And this means that the Lord knows you intimately. He formed you in your mother’s womb and He knows your lying down and your rising up. Before you were conceived and born, He knew you and loved you. He had already set in motion His plan of redemption, purchasing you from sin, death, and the devil through the holy, innocent blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Keep this in mind as we consider today’s readings concerning the judgment on the Last Day, when Jesus returns in glory and great power as King. In a very real sense, this judgment has already occurred. Before you were conceived and born in sin, before you committed your first actual sin in thought, word, or deed, the Lord had redeemed you in Jesus. That is why Job could confess centuries before Jesus’ birth, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Abraham was called and Israel was chosen in Jesus, who alone is the Chosen and Elect One. All who are called, chosen, predestined, and elect are so in Him.
That is also why, when you show mercy, love, and compassion to the least of your brothers, you do it to Jesus. To reject your brother is to reject Jesus, and to reject Jesus is to reject the Father who sent Him. The end for those who reject the Lord is eternal punishment in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
The Lord’s judgment was rendered at the cross. There He judged Jesus guilty and condemned Him to death for your sin, my sin, and the sin of the whole world. Jesus bore the full debt and punishment until it was finished. His death was God’s judgment, “Not guilty!” upon humanity in Jesus Christ, but only in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Book of Life. Those whose names are written in Him were written there before the foundation of the world and will never be blotted out.
Some devise from this a doctrine of eternal security, or “once saved, always saved.” But that is the product of fallen human reason. Our confidence is not in some supposed guarantee that we cannot fall away, but in Jesus Christ alone, received through faith. Many who once believed have nevertheless rejected Jesus and no longer believe. Others who did not believe have been brought, or will yet be brought, to faith in Him. The Lord knows His own and has called and chosen them in His Elect One, Jesus Christ.
Thus, you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. And this is true freedom. Nothing is required of you to earn your salvation. It’s all grace, all gift, freely given without strings or conditions. Therefore, you are free to love and serve your neighbor. Indeed, you must, for the love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness of Jesus fill you and flow through you.
But there is always the temptation to be greedy and selfish, concerned only with your own interests. The deceiver would have you believe that the Lord is not coming, at least not anytime soon, and that this life and its pleasures are all there is. Don’t believe it! St. Peter warns that scoffers will come in the Last Days, asking, “Where is the promise of His coming?” But the Lord “is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
The Lord’s apparent delay is not indifference, but patience and mercy. Yet do not mistake His patience for a promise that this world will continue forever. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief,” and the heavens will pass away, the heavenly bodies will be dissolved, and the earth and the works done upon it will be exposed.
What will be exposed are your works. But you need not fear that exposure, nor should you put your trust in your works. They are not meritorious, but are the fruits of faith in Jesus. Indeed, they are the Lord’s own work performed through you. You are a branch grafted into the True Vine, Jesus, and His life flows through you, producing His fruits.
That is why the righteous in Jesus’ parable are surprised when the King commends them for feeding Him, giving Him drink, welcoming Him, clothing Him, and visiting Him. They do not remember doing these things for their Lord. But He answers, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Their works were not performed to earn a reward. They were the natural fruits of the faith and love Christ had created in them.
When the Lord returns in glory on the Last Day, He will reveal what is already true: those who belong to Him are His sheep, and those who reject Him are goats. He knows the difference, even when it is difficult for us to discern. His sheep are known by their fruits of love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. They simply love and serve their neighbors without keeping score, counting the cost, or calculating their reward.
The Lord sees you and knows you. He sees your faith and the fruits of that faith, which His Holy Spirit creates and sustains in you. But He did not elect you because He foresaw your faith. Rather, you have faith because He has called and chosen you in His Elect One, Jesus Christ.
Once you were lost in sin and death, but the Lord has called you to be His own. He has washed you clean in Baptism, feeds and strengthens you with His holy Word and His body and blood, and equips you through His Holy Spirit to be His hands and heart, His mouth and voice in the world. You have been called and chosen to dwell in His kingdom now and to inherit it as an heir when the King comes in power and great glory on the Last Day.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Come.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment