13TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

"Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This is what a lawyer in our today's Gospel asked Christ. We find this question in many other places of the New Testament. When Peter had declared in his Pentecost sermon that God made Jesus whom they crucified both Lord and Christ, we are told that these words, pierced their heart and they said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Acts 2:37. When Saul, breathing threatenings and slaughter, was on the way to Damascus in order to persecute the Christians there, we are told that a light from heaven suddenly shone down upon him, the Lord appeared to him, and said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Acts 9:5. Saul, falling to the ground, replied with fear and trembling, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" When in despair the jailer at Philippi wanted to kill himself and Paul cried to him, "Do thyself no harm," we are told that the jailer fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30.

My friends, this question is beyond doubt the most important and necessary one a person can ask. In just this respect man differs from the animals; his expectations and hopes go beyond this short earthly life. Can a person act more foolishly than to ask what he must do in order to be happy for a short time on earth, but be unconcerned about his fate in an endless eternity? Though he may otherwise act ever so wisely for this life, he has sunk to the level of the irrational animals, no longer even deserves the name of a human being, to say nothing of the name of a Christian.

Though the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" is important and necessary for each person, it is seldom asked earnestly. Mockers and blasphemers do not ask it because they are ashamed of this question. Those swallowed up by earthly things do not ask it, for they forget it because of the cares, or goods, or joys of this world. Most of the others who ask this question are not in earnest because in their opinion they do not need it. They deem the answer to it a well-known matter which they had already learned in their school, which they have known from their youth, and which is superfluous at least for them. Still others earnestly seek the way to eternal life, but sad to say, they forsake God's Word. It is not the only lamp for their feet nor the only light for their way. They make their own answer to this most important question, or in false trust they accept the answer of men and thus miss the heavenly goal in spite of all the zeal which they use.

Oh that I might have the high hope of at least all of you who have appeared here today to hear God's Word, that you have earnestly asked this important question of yourselves and have sought and found the answer to it in God's Word and have applied and still apply it daily to your salvation! But how many of us have read and still read the Scriptures and other Christian books with earnest sighs, prayers, and petitions to God, in order to experience for their person what they must do in order to receive eternal life? How many of us enter the house of the Lord each Sunday with this silent question in their hearts? How many of us are greatly concerned that they do not go astray on the way to eternity, and that they are not deceived as far as their hope for the future life is concerned, that,

in short, they might become, be, and remain certain of their salvation? Must not perhaps many of us rather confess, if they want to be honest, that the questions, What must I do to become rich, purchase a house, get a profitable business, or earn my daily bread? have hitherto been more important and have received more concern than the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Now since this question is and remains of the greatest importance for us all, also for those who have long since earnestly pondered it, let us once again take it into consideration this morning since our today's Gospel presents us with the opportunity to do so.

The text. Luke 10:23-37.

On the basis of the Gospel just read permit me to show you:

WHAT A PERSON MUST DO IN ORDER TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE

Examining our Gospel more closely we will find that it teaches us two things on this point:

I. The Person Must Recognize, That He can do Nothing to Save Himself, and

II. He Must Believe in Him Who has Done for him What he should have Done.

Oh Lord God, if you do not grant success, the planting and watering done by your servants is fruitless and lost. We, therefore, pray, give your. Word power to prosper in the things whereto you send it. Not only let these souls be shown simply and clearly the way to eternal life but through your Word also step before each one with your Holy Spirit, knock on the hearts of each, graciously visit and enlighten each one, awaken and move each one, that we all not only learn to know the true way but also enter upon and remain on it until finally we are completely freed from eternal death and hell, enter into life, and there praise and glorify you forever and ever. Amen.

I.

That man cannot earn eternal life himself, that it is rather a gift of the free grace of God, is written so clearly on all pages of Holy Writ that no attentive Bible reader can deny it. However, there are not a few sentences in Scripture which at first glance seem to teach the very opposite. If these passages are examined more closely according to their context, the doctrine of salvation by grace is contained no less positively. It is evident that God often speaks, as one might say, in proverbs, in order to incite us to search the more earnestly in his Word and to reprimand those proud spirits who despise and find fault with it. Such apparently contradictory words of Scripture become an offense to them, yes, a savor of death unto death.

Our today's Gospel is one of these passages. Even this has become for many enemies of Scripture a savor of death unto death. In this passage Christ with clear words seems to teach than man can earn eternal life through love, hence by his own works. When a lawyer, as Luke tells us, asked this question of Christ, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ said to him, "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" V. 26. The lawyer answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." V. 27. What does Christ hereupon answer? He says, "Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live." V. 28. How can Christ answer that way? Does he not clearly contradict himself since in other passages he says,

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Jn 14:6; "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Jn 11:26.

To be sure, the enemies of faith use Christ's words in our text to show that even according to Scripture not faith but the works of man save. They say, doesn't Christ clearly say that the correct answer to the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" is: Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself?

I admit that a cursory consideration seems to bear this out, but let us consider our text exactly in its context. Christ had, as Luke relates, just before called his disciples blessed because they saw and heard him. A lawyer had indignantly listened to this benediction. He might have thought in his heart: How dare this miserable Jesus call those blessed who see and hear him? Is it not enough to hear Moses and his divine Law? Why do I need this man if I do what is commanded in the Law? When he therefore, asked Jesus, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" he did not ask out of an honest desire to learn the truth, nor from concern for his salvation. Luke says expressly, that the lawyer wished rather to tempt Christ with this question. He wanted to see whether Christ would speak in such a way that afterwards he could accuse him as an enemy and blasphemer of the divine Law.

Christ who looked into his heart, therefore, answered him as he asked; he directed him to the Law, and when he had summed up the Law Christ answered."Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live." V. 28. With these words Christ has spoken the absolute truth. It is indeed true, that if a person keeps the Law perfectly, he would receive eternal life. But where does Christ say in our Gospel that in this world there is a person who can enter this way into eternal life? Of that Christ utters nary a word. To be sure, he says that man must keep the Law, but not that he can. Between "the can" and "the must" is as great a difference as between heaven and earth. Therefore, whoever wishes to prove from our text that man can save himself by his works does not take this teaching out of our Gospel but rather reads this into it.

Perhaps you will say, if man cannot be saved through keeping the Law, why did Christ say to the lawyer, "This do and thou shalt live?" Why doesn't he rather say, Believe in me, and thou shalt live? My friends, his great wisdom moved Christ to do that, in order to bring the lawyer first of all to the knowledge that he can do nothing to gain eternal life. Had Christ said to him pointblank, You cannot be saved through the Law but only through faith in me, the lawyer would have laughed at him. He supposed that he had already done everything which he was obliged to do. But when Christ says to him, "This do, and though shalt live." that is, go ahead and try to keep the Law perfectly, he would in just that very way run into trouble and through his experience finally be convinced that he could not keep it.

That this is the correct explanation we see beyond a shadow of doubt from the following words. "But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?" V. 29. Is it not clear from this question that Christ had replied as he did in order to take away from the lawyer all hope that he could justify himself, that this was also the reason why Christ in the following verses told the parable of the Good Samaritan? Undoubtedly. Christ wanted to show him that he hasn't fulfilled even the command to love his neighbor, much less the command to love God above all things; that he in this way could never inherit eternal life and would, therefore, have to look around for another way.

Every person must come to the knowledge that of himself he is able to do nothing to inherit eternal life. To this knowledge Christ sought to bring the lawyer. This knowledge is the first rung on the ladder up which alone man can climb

to heaven. It is the narrow gate through which alone a person, who wishes to receive eternal life, must squeeze. Whoever does not come to this knowledge does not come to eternal life.

Do not suppose, my friends, that it is easy and common for a person to learn that he can do nothing to inherit eternal life. To be sure, nothing seems to be easier than for one to despair completely of himself, but it only seems to be so easy. As blind as the lawyer was that he thought he could justify himself, so blind are all men by nature. By nature each one hopes to be able to manage some day with his pretended love to God and his neighbor. Even the most notorious transgressor of the Law commonly comforts himself with the thought that he has kept the Law at least to some extent. In the main even those who say with their mouth that they make Christ their only confidence without suspecting it build in the depths of their heart their hope of .salvation alone on their Christianity.

According to God's Word the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Man builds either on his own works out of stubbornness, that is, out of pride, because he does not want to humble himself before God and be a beggar. Or he builds on his work works out of despair, because he does not dare to hope and receive the great gift of eternal life merely by grace. There are not a few who concede the doctrine that they can do nothing to inherit eternal life, and yet without knowing it are firmly bound with the bands of self-righteousness. What else can the source of the enthusiastic striving and running and chasing be than self-righteousness? That is why they pray; that is why they struggle; that is why they wrestle. They want to be able to say: I have done this or that; first of all I prayed, wrestled, and struggled in this way or that; that is why I now believe that I am a Christian and an heir of eternal life.

My friends, believe me that this is not even the beginning of true Christianity; yes, it is nothing but a refined Phariseeism. If I should briefly describe to you the beginnings of the true way to eternal life it is this: Man. must enter the school of the Holy Ghost; he must implore him really to show him that he cannot fulfil the divine Law, cannot of himself love God above all things and his neighbor as himself, and can do absolutely nothing to inherit eternal life. Whoever is in earnest with this prayer, and whoever uses God's Word faithfully to come to the living knowledge of his corrupt heart, his heart the Holy Spirit will soon open and enlighten his soul with heavenly light. Finally, if he arrives at the point that he sees himself forsaken by all his supposed good works, as a person who cannot swim is hurled into the sea and is forsaken by all human help; if with terror he sees that if God does not extend his gracious hand he must necessarily be lost; if he then thinks that it is all over with him, that he must go to hell, then the very hour of deliverance and salvation has struck. He is on the true way; he is then in the proper state in which God not only will but also can have mercy on him.

However, one more thing is necessary; permit me secondly to speak to you of that.

II.

Clearly the next point which Christ has in view in the parable of the Good Samaritan was this: the scribe was to examine himself according to this example and come to know that he does not have this love toward his neighbor as he imagined, that his love toward his neighbor is not at all pure, and, therefore, that he could not stand before God. Undoubtedly, Christ had another purpose in telling that beautiful parable. If the scribe had learned to know and be

ashamed of his loveless, selfish, biased, cold heart from the example of the Good Samaritan. He should be led to the knowledge of Christ's love through this same example. For no one is really a truly merciful Samaritan; Christ alone is that. He saw the whole human race which God had created in his own image suddenly attacked by Satan, the hellish robber and murderer, stripped, and lying helpless in his sin. No person, yes, no creature could help fallen mankind; as the priest and Levite, they had to pass by on the other side. But God's Son took pity on our misery, he came into the world to us and by his suffering and dying for us, he bound the wounds of our sins; by having his Word preached to us, he, as it were, poured in the oil and wine of his heavenly comfort; and by taking us into his kingdom of grace through holy baptism he led us into the inn of his holy church, where we should be cared for through Word and sacraments until we are forever cured, either by a blessed death or until he will visibly return to judge the living and the dead and take his own into his blessed kingdom of heaven.

See from this Christ's love of sinners. Although the scribe only from hypocrisy had asked him about the way to eternal life with the purpose of tempting him, Christ nevertheless answered him in such a way that he could very well have known not only his error but also the way of salvation in Christ. If the scribe would not have hardened his heart against Christ's Word, he would now, as one redeemed and elect, triumph in heaven. But since he did not; let himself be brought first to a living knowledge of his helplessness, he also did not come through the beautiful parable of the Good. Samaritan to a living knowledge of that grace which should and could have helped him.

May this not be the case today among any of us!

According to the parable of our Gospel, what is the second thing a person must do so that he can inherit eternal life? Clearly nothing else but this, that he must give himself up as a helpless wretch to the merciful, heavenly Samaritan; that is, that he believes in Christ who already has done for him what he should have done.

As important and indispensable as the knowledge of his helplessness is to receive eternal life, this knowledge is not the most important; the chief thing is faith. By that knowledge man should first be emptied of all false comfort, through faith he will then be filled with the true comfort; through that knowledge man should first learn to give honor to God, ask only for grace from him, through faith he should seize it; through that knowledge he should be driven as a sick person to the physician, through faith he should be healed as though with the correct medicine; through that knowledge he should be stripped naked in his thoughts as far as his soul is concerned and learn to be ashamed of himself before God, through faith he should be clothed with the garment of salvation and righteousness; through that knowledge he should become hungry and thirsty, filled with a yearning and longing for salvation, through faith salvation should be appropriated.

Perhaps this also will cause many to think: Oh, if receiving eternal life depends mainly upon faith, what an easy matter! But my dear friends, as easy as it is to get a pretended faith, that is, mere thoughts about faith, just so difficult is it truly to believe.

True faith is a living confident trust in God's grace in Christ, a certainty for which one is ready to die; it is a heavenly light which glorifies Christ in the heart; it is a divine power, a relying so firmly upon Christ that one would not let go of Christ even if all the world, yes, death and hell rage against the

believer. True faith is a holy, mysterious bond whereby the believer is most intimately united with Christ as the grapes with the vine. True faith is a divine seed from which an entirely new, godly, and holy mind grows up in a person which reveals itself in an entirely new true pious life, in hatred of and constant struggle against sin, in conquering the world, in denial of one's own will, and in true zeal in sanctification before the whole world.

Such a faith man receives only in the school of the Holy Spirit, and no one remains in this true, living faith who does not at the same time remain in the schools of the Holy Spirit, who does not try to strengthen and preserve his faith through the diligent use of God's Word and the holy sacraments and through daily prayer.

Thus I have briefly shown you from God's Word the correct way to eternal life. Now go and do likewise. Really learn to know your impotence and Christ's gracious omnipotence, exercise and strengthen yourself in this knowledge, and persevere in it until your end. Do not think that all these things are old, well-known matters which you knew long ago; he who thinks that certainly has nothing but a literal knowledge; his soul, however, is still dead in darkness and sin. A Christian who actually is upon the way to eternal life has the directive to learn to go this way until his death; he remains an eager student of the Word and, therefore, he must always regard himself as a mere beginner; he will never become surfeited with the Word; the old Word is, therefore, always new, always precious, dear, and lovely to him.

So may Jesus Christ, the merciful Samaritan, look on each of us in mercy, bring us all to feel the feverish wounds of sin, and heal our soul through his Word and his holy Sacraments; some day may he bring us into his heavenly home. Amen.

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