EASTER - WEEK 4 - TUESDAY

LESSON: HEBREWS 10:26-31

Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Christ has come and proclaimed the truth that everything we do apart from the Holy Spirit, no matter how great it is and how lovely it appears to be, is sin. We cannot do anything good gladly and willingly without the Holy Spirit. Christ came on earth to take our place. He has taken away all our sins. As a result of this, we have received the Holy Spirit through whom we have also obtained love and the desire to do what God wants us to do.

This entire work of Christ is God’s free gift to us, so that we should never presume to come before God with our own works, but solely and only through Christ and His merits. Through the work of Christ, it also comes to pass that sin for us is no longer what we have done contrary to God’s Law. The Law played no part at all in making us righteous and acceptable before God, because by nature we cannot do this.

What then is “sin” in view of the work of Christ? It is nothing else but the rejection of the Savior and the refusal to accept Him who can remove our sins from us. Where Christ is present, there is no sin. He brings with Him the Holy Spirit, who enkindles faith in our hearts and the desire to do what is good.

The world is no longer convicted or condemned because of any other sin, for Christ has destroyed all sin. In the New Covenant, however, the only thing that is sin is failure to recognize Christ and to accept Him.

SL 11:868 (8-9)

PRAYER: Of Your mercy and grace, O God, imbue us with such knowledge and understanding of Your wonderful love in Christ that we never allow ourselves by any deception of self-love or the devil to be withdrawn from the circle of Your grace and mercy, in Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:110-124.