CHRISTMAS DAY
Text: Titus 2, 11-14
Source from Back to Luther with German archive reference. Back to Walther's Epistle Sermons.
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Amen.
Quote the text here: Titus 2, 11-14.
Why, my friends, why is all Christendom so gay and excited these days? and why does it seem as if even the world is carried along by this powerful joyful stream, which rushes through the hearts and homes of all Christians? You know it is the birth of a little child 1958 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea; today hundreds of thousands of bells from city to city, from nation to nation are pealing loudly; today from hundreds of thousands of pulpits that birth is being praised; and millions of voices in all parts the earth are today raised in hymns of joy and praise over that birth.
And who is that Child whose coming into this world all Christians greet with joy? You know; he was a real child, a child like our children, made in the likeness of a man, but -- oh wonder of wonders! -- a child in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, God incarnate himself, the God-man, God and man in one person! He was born in a dark stall, wrapped in wretched swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger upon hay and straw; yet outside on the fields of Bethlehem the angel of the Lord shining with divine glory said that this Child is God the Lord himself; thereupon the frightened and amazed shepherds heard a multitude of the heavenly host celebrate this event in heavenly harmonies. " God was made man " briefly related the mysterious story of our today’s festival.
We have gathered here in the sanctuary of the Lord to celebrate that greatest of all divine mysteries in heaven and on earth; what shall we do? Shall we delve into the great mystery, "God was manifest in the flesh," in order to sound its very depths? Alas, human language is unable to explain it fully; human reason cannot grasp nor think it out; even the angels who desired to look into it can only wonder at and praise it. It is a mystery which is to be seized alone in childlike faith and worshiped with holy awe.
Yet we can be happy! From the dark, fathomless depths of this mystery there streams forth a bright and gentle light in which even the blindest person can take delight; it is that blessed Christmas light which Paul, enlightened by the Holy Ghost, has kindled for us in our today's text, when he shouts for joy, " For the GRACE of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." And oh, what a message! An entire sea of Christmas joy pours forth from its sweet words. These words are the heavenly key to the incomprehensible Christmas miracle, which took place on earth today; it shows us that once in Bethlehem all the gates of grace, heaven, and salvation were opened wide, wide to all men for all times and into all eternity, Well now, may our hearts take some delight in St. Paul's blessed Christmas sermon:
"THE GRACE OF GOD THAT BRINGETH SALVATION HATH APPEARED TO ALL MEN"
We will direct our devotion chiefly to two things:
1. The Word, "The Grace of God That Bringeth Salvation Hath Appeared," and,
2. The Words, "To All Men."
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I.
In our text we see the apostle standing, as it were, in a high pulpit before the stall at Bethlehem, from which he preaches to the whole world. And how does he begin? — Does he perhaps say, The stern righteousness of God hath appeared? or does he merely say, The eternal love of God hath appeared? No! He says, " The GRACE of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared."
Had the apostle said, The stern righteousness of God hath appeared, this would not be have been a joyous but rather a frightening sermon for mankind. For are we not all sinners and is not God’s righteousness that attribute by which God hates all sins and must punish the sinner? Didn't all Israel become frightened and flee when God's stern righteousness really appeared upon Sinai? If we today would hear, The stern righteousness of God hath appeared, would not all of us in terror have to say to one another, Woe to us sinners! Come on, fellow sinners, the great righteous God has appeared on earth to visit our sins upon us; let us flee; oh, let us flee in haste!? But we can be happy! The apostle's Christmas sermon is not; The stern righteousness of God hath appeared.
Nor does the apostle say: The eternal love of God hath appeared. Of course, this would not be a frightening but really a most endearing call. What can sound more lovely than: Love, eternal love!? But since we all are sinners, of what help would it be if only the love of God had come to us and appeared among us? Do not diligent parents chastise their disobedient children the more earnestly the more dearly they love them? And if only God's love had appeared, would we not have to fear that it has come with the rod in order to punish us disobedient children?
Of course, the whole world comforts itself with God's universal, fatherly love while it continues to live without him. But oh deceived world! It comforts itself in vain with God's love; what does it avail the world that God's eternal love wants to save them, but God's righteousness without a reconciler can not save but must rather condemn it?
But how happy we can be! How really happy! The apostle's Christmas sermon is not: The stern righteousness of God hath appeared; nor: The eternal love of God hath appeared; but rather: " The GRACE of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared." " Grace ! Grace !" In one word that expresses the theme, the whole content of Paul's Christmas sermon. And that, yes, that is the sermon which we need.
To be sure, it would have been enough for the holy angels, if only God's love and not his grace had appeared among them; they are holy and God finds no guilt in them; they need no grace; divine love not only wants their salvation but it also can save them and already has done so. And there was a time when God's love would have been enough for us men; that was while mankind was in that state in which God had created him, the state of innocence. However, we have transgressed all of God's commands; we have all fallen from God into sin; we have thereby all become the foe of the righteous and holy God; and as the result, before God we are all burdened with a debt which we can never pay off by ourselves in all eternity. Nothing in heaven and on earth but grace, free undeserved grace could deliver us; and grace can save us because it deals with sinners, and with not one else but sinners; this grace it is which today appeared in the world.
Perhaps you will say: Must not grace itself become silent, when righteousness confronts it? For example, how is the debtor helped who can not pay his debt if his judge is gracious? If even a gracious judge does not want to
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deal unjustly, can he not absolve a debtor from his debt only if he has paid his debt to the last penny, or if he has given bail for the payment? 1 answer: Yes to be sure! But hear, oh hear what the apostle preaches in our text. He does not say merely, " The grace of God hath appeared.” but, " The grace of God THAT BRINGETH SALVATION hath appeared." What does the apostle mean to say? Nothing else than this: In Christ there has appeared a grace which brings with it the payment of man's debt of sin and at the same time salvation.
How can that be? you ask. Come with me to Bethlehem; there you will see the wonder of the " grace of God THAT BRINGETH SALVATION " with your own eyes. For who is the little child who lies there in the manger in deepest misery? Is he not, as the angel of God told us, God the Lord himself, the Lord of glory, "God manifest in the flesh?” What does it mean that this great God became a wretched man, that this Lord of dll lords became a servant of all servants? It means nothing else than this: God had to humble himself that deeply in order to pay our great debt of sin. Of course, in the manger he just began to pay for them, but he did not rest until after unmentionable suffering he hung on the cross, bleeding, thirsting, yes, forsaken by God and could, after he had paid our debt to the last penny, triumphantly cry out: "It is finished!" The great of sin is paid; the sinful world is pardoned; man who had become God's enemy is reconciled with God; heaven was opened to him! You see, that is why the apostle could, as it were, triumphantly shout in our text, " The GRACE of God THAT BRINGETH SALVATION hath appeared."
Oh, come then; let us all go in spirit to Bethlehem, and although we are sinners, enter the stall fearlessly, yes, joyfully, and in adoration fall on our knees before the manger; see, there the most beautiful drama in heaven and earth is offered to us: Here lies God's grace, yes — oh joy! — even more; here lies the very " grace of God " which "brings salvation." Hallelujah!
II.
But now let us direct our devotion to the second part of the apostle's Christmas sermon. Briefly it reads, " To all men."
Only three little words make up the entire second part of Paul's Christmas sermon; but what little words they are!
Tell me, what would it avail us if today all the angels flew throughout the whole world and in great joy sang in every place: " The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared," if they did not say right away or if they could not say to whom this grace appeared? What person would dare or could joyfully exclaim: Praised be God! God's saving grace has appeared also to me! So you see, the three little words, " To all men," which the apostle adds to his Christmas sermon, are really its heart and center; they give his sermon its great sweetness; they make his comforting sermon truly comforting to us.
In this connection remember also; The apostle does not say: To all pious men, nor even: To all the penitent or to all believers. Then this Christmas sermon would not concern many millions! And then, would not many of you have to think that this sermon does not in the least concern them? Verily, my friends, if I today would have to say that some, or even only one, of you is excluded from the grace of Christmas, it would have been better that I would not have entered this pulpit today.
But, praise God! What does the apostle say in our text? He rejoices: " The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared TO ALL MEN !" There is
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person, not even one, in the whole wide world, from Adam the first person created to the last one to be born, who is excluded from God's saving grace. The heathen is not excluded because he is a heathen; the Jew is not because he is a Jew; the poor man is not because he is poor; the rich man is not because he is rich; you children are not because you are still unwise children; you young men and women are not because you are still so young; man and wife are not because you have not yet finished your lives; you elderly men and women are not because you are already so old and the grave is so near at hand; you respectable sinner not because you are respectable; nor you coarse sinner because you have sinned too greatly; yes, nor you who have fallen because you have fallen and have already received so much grace in vain. No, no; no one is excluded; only he who excludes himself. Wh e n God's grace appeared here on earth, the whole world became a dwelling place of grace for all dwellers of the world, and when God's grace suffered in this world for 33 years the whole span of your life on this world is a period of grace.
If God's grace, when it wanted to become a man, had brought a new human nature from heaven, we could rightly think that it does not concern us; but as certainly as Christ's human nature also stems from Adam, so certainly do all the children of Adam share in this grace. If. the grace of God had been born in the home of any person, we could think: It came for you alone, for grace began to dwell in your home! But since it was born where animals live, we know that this grace does not concern only one person but all, all people alike, and therefore every human being should accept it and rejoice in it.
Oh my dear friends, what a day of grace this day is! Oh do not be captured by earthly gifts and joys so that you despise God's saving grace because of them. Nor should you let your sins and unworthiness depress you that because of them you forget this saving grace which today is preached to all men and therefore also to you.
Nor should you say, "I feel no grace." Simply bear in mind, that God's saving grace did not appear in your hearts; it appeared outside of them, in God's heart; it lay there in the manger in Bethlehem, and today it reigns everywhere at the right hand of God the Father. You therefore need not first seek it; it has sought you out. Oh, just accept it with joy.
Nor should you say: Yes, if my name were expressly added to the divine Christmas sermon, I would believe that God's grace which brings salvation has appeared to me as well. What a foolish thought! Supposing your name would be in the Bible, would you not have to fear anyhow that another, who had the same name was meant, but not you? Be happy therefore, that the apostle says, " TO ALL MEN." See then, you are called by name after all. Are you not also a man ? Therefore this grace which has appeared is also yours as certainly as you are a man.
In conclusion pray with me: Oh grace of God which brings salvation! we can not come to you; you must come to us. Even after you have come to us we still can not grasp you; you must seize us. Oh draw us all to your heart; hold us fast; let nothing pluck us from your hand until we finally see you face to face and in safety praise you in your have of grace forever and ever. Amen, in Jesus' name. Amen!