What
must I do to be saved? This is the question that continues to plague the hearts
and minds of men. Desperate people, seeking desperate answers, hunt anywhere,
everywhere, trying to find someone or something that provides a seemingly reasonable
answer.
If
you did a man on the street interview in Victoria, or Goliad, or Cuero, what
might people say? How might they answer that question?
You
must always strive to do your best, one says, so that in the end the ledger
leans in your favor of the good things outweighing the bad. Another warns that
if you are having bad things happening to you, it may be the result of your
parents or even grandparents moral failures – and there is no guarantee this
might not get passed on to your own children!
You
would probably find a good dose of moral relativism, to live a good life, to
make wrongs right, and maybe even the well-intended but impossible suggestion
of “Do what Jesus would do.” Unless you ran across a Muslim who would instead
cite their prophet, Mohammad, from the Quran. And, it’s possible you could find
a nihilist or an agnostic or an atheist who would say there is nothing to be
saved from – when you die, they say, that’s it. Turn on Willie Nelson, then turn
out the lights, the party’s over.
But
the men in Jerusalem weren’t asking just anyone. They were asking Peter – the
former denier of Jesus, who had been enabled to preach by the power of the Holy
Spirit who was sent by Jesus, who was Himself sent by the Father. And, with
their hearts broken and cut to the quick with Peter’s clear preaching,
realizing they could do nothing to save themselves, they were seeking an
answer: what must we do to be saved? The solution was simple and clear: repent
and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance
is not a popular message in America because it flies in the face of everything
that is our proud American ideology – or, perhaps I should call it idol-olatry
– that worships the unholy trinity of me, myself and I to the sad expense of
others. Our culture teaches us to be brash and bold, even if that means running
over the weaker. Our society teaches us it’s OK to lie about and defame our
neighbor, as long as we get something out of it. Our world worships
self-happiness, demands individual rights, and refuses to bow down to the wants
or needs of anyone else. God is there,
blessing all that we do, because he is a nebulous thing that approves and
blesses all that we want.
And Peter stands in the face of this and calls
each of us to repent.
Repentance
is humbling. Repentance recognizes that we have done something wrong towards or
against another and labels it as it is: sin. Repentance is truthful. Repentance
acknowledges that we are sinners and confesses our sins against God and against
neighbor. Repentance is submissive. Repentance admits we can’t save ourselves
and we desperately need help. Repentance is surrender. The Holy Spirit has
worked through the Law in the hearer’s heart and mind and the repentant stands
convicted concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8).
Repentance hurts and it saddens and, to one degree or another, it terrifies the
conscience because they recognize what the sinful status deserves.
If
that’s all repentance is, leaving the sinner with their own sorrow and despair,
he or she is no better off than the man on the street we interviewed earlier.
But
Christian repentance is different than what every other religion offers.
Christian repentance finds it’s answer, it’s antidote, it’s resolution in
Jesus. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of sins. Repentance without Jesus is only sorrow coupled with despair: what
must I do to be saved? But Christian repentance finds the answer to that very
question in the cross of Jesus, the place of atonement, where Jesus’ blood was
shed for sinners like you and me and the Pentecost crowd and all who cry out
with the hopelessness and helplessness of this age and who, in faith, turn to
Jesus. Confessing our sins, repenting of our sins, and like the Jerusalem
crowd, desiring a change in our hearts and minds and lives, turn to Jesus. He
hears; He forgives because His blood was shed for you. His life was taken for
you. His holiness was traded for you. His perfection surrendered for your
imperfection.
Baptism
without Jesus is just washing – literally. To baptize means to wash. But being washed
with the Word, that is baptism in the name of Jesus, is to have sins washed
away, to be united to Christ through water and word, enlivened by the Holy
Spirit, restored and connected to the Father as sons and daughters of God. In
Baptism, the Father declares our debt of sin paid in full and He bestows on us
His Spirit, enabling us with hearts to believe and with mouths to confess the
saving name of Jesus. And with newly baptized hearts, and with ever-repentant
hearts, the Holy Trinity changes us so that we no longer want to live as
children of the world but as children of God. The Trinity at work in an
extraordinary way.
Today
we celebrate the Holy Trinity: God in three persons. A few moments ago, we
confessed the Athanasian Creed[1].
It is long and it is monotonous in it’s precise language. The ancient phrasing
is a challenge for our modern ears. In the fifth phrase, we confessed that the
Father is infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit is infinite. In the
old, Jacobean language, the phrase was “incomprehensible” – the Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible, the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. It’s said that when
the British writer Dorothy Sayers read the Creed, she said, “The whole thing is
incomprehensible.” Why can’t we just stick with the Apostle’s Creed – that’s so
much shorter and simpler – or, perhaps, the Nicene Creed that has a little more
weight. Isn’t that enough? This is
important because the Church has continued to use these very words to defend
the Christian faith against false teachings for a thousand years.
I
admit – I do not fully and completely understand the Trinity. But, here’s the
beauty of it: while we may never fully and completely understand it, you don’t
have to understand it to believe it. I don’t understand nuclear fission – but I
feel the sun’s warmth. I don’t understand where wind starts – but I feel it’s
breeze. I don’t understand how airplanes fly, but I get in one to travel. I
don’t need to completely understand the mystery of the Triune Godhead – but,
since this is how God reveals Himself to us, as Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
and He tells us so clearly, I believe it.
In
fact, every celebration of holy baptism and holy communion is a trinitarian
celebration, just as every gathering “in the Name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit,” is done in union with the Sacred three. In the power of the
Holy Spirit, the Church gathers on Sunday—the day of the Resurrection—to offer
thanksgiving to the Father for Christ’s saving-life given to us at the table of
the Word and the table of the Eucharist. Listen carefully to the opening
greeting, the baptismal “formula,” the Athanasian Creed traditionally confessed
on this Sunday, the Eucharistic prayer, and the final blessing. We are
accompanied in life’s journey by a community of persons, the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, who together are the one and only living God. And so, we are not
alone. Indeed, the Church is intended to be a sign to the world of the Holy
Trinity’s unity-in-diversity.
So,
back to the question: What must I do to be saved? Nothing. Salvation is the
work of the Triune God: The Father sent the Son who delivers the Holy Spirit;
the Holy Spirit enables us to believe Jesus is our Savior, and through Jesus we
see the Father’s love.
[1] https://hymnary.org/hymn/LSB2006/319006/319
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