C, Advent 4 - Hebrews 10:5-7,10 "God's Mighty Arms"
These are the strengths of God in our lives: For Jesus to
save us, and the Holy Spirit to help us!
From his mighty arms he gives us all we need in this life. Salvation and sanctification are two arms of
love outstretched toward us, from the Father of light, through Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit. For God to save us and
make us holy, is his will for all people on earth. God’s will is your forgiveness of sin, and
his will is for you to believe you are forgiven.
Not only is salvation through Jesus and being made holy by
the Holy Spirit, God’s strength in our lives; it also pleases God when we take
every opportunity to immerse ourselves in his salvation and holiness.
When we do this, it’s a “win win” situation for us. When one is immersed in salvation and
holiness, God the Father is justified in his power and plan, and we are
forgiven. This forgiveness comes through
the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of his Son, Jesus
Christ. And the Holy Spirit continues
bringing forgiveness, first at Pentecost, then through the Word of God and
through baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection and through his body and
blood in the bread and wine.
When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “your will be done”, it
pleases God no end, to hinder and defeat every evil scheme and purpose of the
world, the devil, and the old Adam within us.
In fact, when God’s will is done in heaven, he forgives us, sin is
conquered by Jesus in his death and resurrection. He has victoriously ascended
to the right hand of God the Father, finishing our separation from our Father
in heaven. Jesus now stands as the
embodiment of the resurrection as the first born from the dead for all people
who trust in him. This includes you and
me!
Although God’s will is done in heaven by God forgiving us
our sin, and the devil has been conquered and thrown out of God’s presence, the
devil still has limited power on earth.
And because of this, God’s will continues to be done on earth.
This makes earth the testing ground for humanity, where
within each of us the battle rages between the will of God and the will of
fallen humanity. With his plan and power
of salvation and holiness, God seeks to work forgiveness and good will as we
live together. Yet, the old Adam within
each of us struggles to dominate with its knowledge of good and evil, driven by
the devil. And the devil is delirious and
riddled with rage because he knows he is judged and is heading for eternal
destruction with limited time left to deceive the world.
However, the contest between the devil and God is
unbalanced. God is not going to lose. He is going to win, and it pleases him when
we choose to remain with him. It’s no wonder
evil causes so much fury within those who desire to be in control and do not
want to be delivered from evil by God into eternal holiness.
Not only is the devil on the losing side and is limited for
a brief time in the restricted realm of creation amongst humanity, but he can only
be in one place at one time. On the
other hand, God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. This means God is present everywhere, he
knows all things and he is all-powerful.
And the devil is not, nor is humanity, nor is the old Adam within each
of us.
Furthermore, this evil axis of the devil, the world, and
our sinful self, is up against the three-fold divinity of God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The
Trinity is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere in creation and
outside of it.
Since God’s will is done in heaven, we know it is done on
earth. Jesus is at the right hand of the
Father doing his work of interceding on behalf of you and me. The Holy Spirit is at the left hand of the
Father being our help, giving us the words to pray and leading us into
knowledge of our sin and salvation in God’s Word. The Holy Spirit also brings us into
fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ and with each other.
The good news for you and me is that the Triune God
embraces all who trust in him with the steadfast love of salvation, intercession,
and holy help. And this pleases God when
we allow him to love us with his Trinitarian holy hug.
Mary declares God’s love as an embrace of mercy. Mercy is for those who fear him from
generation to generation… in remembrance of his mercy. In his mercy, he helps, fills, and exalts
those who look to him. But dismisses
those who won’t receive his mercy, but rather, trust in their thoughts,
thrones, and treasures.
But, our thoughts, our thrones, and our treasures all come
from God in the first place! It doesn’t
please God when we trust in them instead of him. Nor does it please him if we give him what he
first gave us as a sacrifice for our salvation.
Both trusting, in what God has given us, and, giving it
back to him, is a feeble attempt to justify the human spirit, the old Adam
within or the collective spirituality of worldly humanity. And it’s a deception of the devil seeking to
have us believe we can deliver ourselves out of evil into the holiness of God by
doing such things!
But God has a Mighty Righthand Man praying for us. Jesus Christ is the almighty power of God’s
right hand! God has fought and won the
battle with the strength of Jesus’ love, faithfulness, and submission unto
death. And even despite God giving the
knockout punch to sin and death in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit also proceeds
from the Father and the Son to help us, and deal with the human spirit with
which the old Adam seeks to control and deliver us into self-destruction and
death.
God’s will for you is to give you life, today and into
eternity! Psalm 80 testifies to God’s righthand
man, the son of man, Jesus Christ, who is made strong for God’s good pleasure, for
our salvation, and for goodwill amongst humanity.
Yet, in our existence it might not always be apparent that
God’s will for you is to give you life.
In fact, most of the time it appears God has delivered us over to death
and decay.
Similarly, when you look at Jesus’ ordinary entrance into
the world, his life of struggle and opposition received, it looks like Jesus
was not God’s righthand man. That God had
left him to die and decay also.
Still, as Jesus stared death in the face, as the cross and
crucifixion awaited him, he was faithful and steadfast towards God’s will, which
is your forgiveness.
You too are called to faithfulness and steadfastness,
despite what might appear as if you have been left for dead. But just as Jesus was raised, you too are
called to see your resurrection in Jesus’ resurrection. It pleases God when you see and hear his plan
for your salvation fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
For God to give you life, he needs to show you darkness,
destruction, and death within yourself, so you might willingly receive his
restoration and let his face shine on your darkness so you might be saved.
Hear Psalm 80… But
let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have
made strong for yourself! Then we shall
not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name! Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! (Psalm 80:17–19 ESV)
Jesus now shepherds you in his forgiveness. His face shines on you in his good
pleasure. But it also shines in the
darkness to show the way of peace. Jesus,
together with the Father, sends the Holy Spirit to guide you and help you
remain within his boundaries and to live, the life he won for you, in
peace.
God promises Jesus will shepherd you in his church. The prophet Micah declares on God’s behalf, “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in
the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall
be great to the ends of the earth. And
he shall be their peace.” (Micah 5:4–5a ESV)
In God’s mighty arms there is peace and love, to the ends of the earth. Amen.
