The First Sunday after Trinity (3 June 2018)

Like the surfer dude says...

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."  But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"  And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."  And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."  And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.  Genesis 15:1-6

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!  The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.  The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.  The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.  Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.  Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.  For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.  Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.  Psalm 33:12-22

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.  1 John 4:16-21

[Jesus said]  "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.  The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'  But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'  And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house--  for I have five brothers--so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'  But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'  And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"  Luke 16:19-21

Counted as righteousness.

Such an odd phrase to our modern ears.  It was Abram's faith in God's promise was considered, by God, to be a righteous act on Abram's part.  Abram, by trusting God, kept the Commandments, trusting in God alone.

Now, this righteousness was not saving.  But the trust in the promise, the promise of the Messiah, was saving.

The same promise made to Adam and Eve.  The same promised delivered at Sinai.  The same promise spoken of by David.

The same promised the Jews rejected.

Instead of trusting God and keeping His Commandments, the Jews attempted to obey the Law in order to earn righteousness.  What they did not understand is that it is not within our power to gain righteousness.  Abram didn't earn righteousness, God granted it to him.

And yet, his descendants believed they could earn righteousness.  In attempting to keep the Law, though, they rejected the very words that taught were righteousness comes from.  In Jesus's parable, He makes it painfully clear that the person who doesn't believe the words of the Law and Prophets will refuse to believe that someone can rise from the dead.

Work that backwards for a moment.  The person who rejects the truth of the Resurrection will also reject the very Law of God.  They will not see anything wrong with murder, adultery, theft, disrespect, and idolatry.  They will invent their own standards, laws, and deity, which they will cling to vigorously.  They may even stumble upon being a "good person" in relation to their neighbors.

But they will be unpleasantly surprised when they find themselves in Hell.  A rejection of God's Christ is a rejection of His Law fulfilling righteousness, which is counted to us as our own.  Without the righteousness that completes the Law, we are all, man, woman, and child, doomed to Hell.

But to the one who believes, who clings to the Cross, the righteousness of Christ is granted, covering them and washing their unrighteousness away.  And we cannot cling to it by our own power, but by Christ's strength.