Today's Reading: Small Catechism: Apostles' Creed, Second Article part 3

Daily Lectionary:  Proverbs 25:1-22; John 19:23-42 

That I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. (Small Catechism: Apostles' Creed, Second Article) 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Our Small Catechism teaches us that the Second Article of the creed is about our redemption. It tells us who the Second Person of the Trinity is and what He has done for us. It tells what He has accomplished for us on the Cross with those words of finality, "It is finished!" So we know the "Who," and the "what." Part three of this article tells us, "why." 

God does nothing without purpose. He is not random. He doesn't just tinker with things to satisfy His own curiosity. We are told that before the foundation of the world, God loved us in Christ. As He spoke us into existence and formed us out of the dust of the earth, He loved us. As we slithered our way to the Tree of Knowledge and consumed the evil that should have never been ours, He loved us. He loved us to the point of the Cross and back, paying for our sins with His precious blood. He would make atonement for us because we could not make it for ourselves. He would rather go through hell than live for eternity without us.

And so the "why" of it all, the "why" of the atonement, the "why" of the incarnation, the "why" Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, the "why" of everything is so that we would be His once again. So that we would be wrestled from the deadly hands of sin and live in His kingdom: a kingdom of life, not of death.

He did all of this by granting us His righteousness in exchange for our sinfulness, His innocence in exchange for our guilt, His blessedness in exchange for our curse. He did all of this so that we may live forever with Him, serving Him by loving our neighbors and declaring to them the atoning love that Christ Jesus has for them. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

We all believe in Jesus Christ, His own Son, our Lord, possessing An equal Godhead, throne, and might, Source of ev'ry grace and blessing; Born of Mary, virgin mother, By the power of the Spirit, Word made flesh, our elder brother; That the lost might life inherit, Was crucified for all our sin And raised by God to life again. ("We All Believe in One True God" LSB 954, st.2)

-Rev. Eli Lietzau is pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.

Audio Reflections speaker: Rev. Duane Bamsch

Come on an adventure with author Eric Eichinger as he unpacks the saga of Jesus' Hero Journey. You'll see how aspects of this journey are seen in popular stories, and how God used Jesus to create the most action-packed one with a real Savior for all. Now available from Concordia Publishing House.