Faith Lutheran Rogue River

Jesus, Thy Blood & Righteousness

2026-05-17

A Sermon on John 17:4 for Easter 7 (A)

Hear again the Word of the Lord: "Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the Son may glorify you... I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do" (John 17:1, 4, ESV). In the name of Jesus, amen. Jesus' blood and righteousness. Those are the two things that matter for us, dear Christians. Today in our Gospel lesson, Jesus says, "I accomplished the work that you gave me to do." Jesus speaks to us precious words today. On the night of his betrayal, his last night alive, what does Jesus do? Does he take the day off? Does he cry and throw a pity party? Does he get drunk at the bar? No, Jesus teaches. And when he is done teaching his disciples, he prays. Through his teaching and his prayer, Jesus fulfills his priestly office. He does the work that his father has given him to do for you. I said last week that when we speak of the 10 commandments, it's important to keep in mind both the do's and the don'ts. It's not just don'ts like we usually hear emphasized. Don't do this and that. There's also do's. So don't have other gods also means have the one true God. Don't misuse my name also means use my name rightly. Sanctify the Sabbath day with my word and preaching also means don't despise these things. Honor your father and mother also means don't dishonor them. And so on and so forth. Not only does the law of God forbid and threaten breaking of the commandments, it also requires obedience to be rendered to them. We like to talk about this as things that are done and left undone. And at the end of the commandments, what does God say about all these things? "He says, 'I am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments'" (Exod 20:5-6, NIV84). Those of you that were in our adult Bible study this fall and heard me teach on that, you heard me correct this in my own teaching, but I want to correct it for you guys as well. Because for the longest time, I thought that was law and gospel, that conclusion to the commandments. I thought the promise for breaking them was the law. The promise for keeping them was the gospel. But as I taught them and meditated upon them more deeply, I realized that's not true. The second half is still the law. It's still the reward for keeping the commandments of God. It's important to be able to distinguish these things because not only does God not want us to break these commandments by doing what is forbidden, but he also demands that we keep them by doing what is commanded. And he promises blessing for those that keep them. Let's take the first commandment as an example. If we have other gods, if we fear, love, and trust things other than the one true God, what is the punishment for that? Damnation. If we have the one true God, what is the blessing of that? Eternal salvation. And we might think, ah, there we go, okay. I know the work I need to do to... wait a minute do you hear yourself there? "the work I need to do." See, even with the first commandment, it's not a work that we complete that makes us righteous before God. As we've been talking about last week and we're going to talk about again next week, faith is something that God gives to us. So the keeping of the first commandment, having the one true God as our God, that's a gift. It's something God gives to us through his word and through his work. And as we consider the other commandments, what they demand that we not do and what they demand that we do, it's important for us to keep in mind, again, what I spoke about last week, the passive and active obedience of Christ. Both of these are essential because in Jesus's earthly ministry and life, he not only refuses to sin in breaking the commandments. Not only does he on the cross take the punishment for your sin, but also Jesus fulfills these commandments in your place. All of them, all 10 of them, even the close of the commandments, he fufills in your place. You are acceptable and righteous before God because of what he has done, again, because of his blood and his righteousness, because he took the punishment for your breaking of the commandments by shedding his blood on the cross and because he has become your righteousness by fulfilling all of the requirements of the commandments in your place. This is an important distinction, dear Christians, very few denominations retain and teach this doctrine. If you look to Eastern Orthodoxy, they don't really care about justification or original sin or any of those kinds of things. They're not into that kind of thing. Roman Catholics, they believe that we need to make satisfaction for our sins. That's what purgatory and, and all the, the works and merits that they do are all about. That's what the saints are about. They think that we can work together with God to do works that make us righteous before his sight. Methodists, Pentecostals, and other holiness church bodies, even liberal Lutherans. They are going to look at Christ's obedience, his fulfilling of the law, and they will teach it only as an example. As if all we lacked was an example to follow. We just needed a little bit of inspiration and then we could do all of those things that the commandments require. Protestants of course are hard to pin down. They're all over the map depending on what influenced them. But dear Christians, we are Lutheran because we hold all these things together. Jesus' active and passive obedience: Jesus lives a righteous life before God and he does not sin and he keeps this law by being punished in your place. He the innocent and righteous one is offered up upon the tree of the cross for you the unrighteous one. He is numbered among the transgressors. He has made sin for you. He has made a curse in your place. He is treated as every sinner who ever lived must be damned, cut off, struck down, slain, and he rises on the third day, ascends 40 days later, and 10 days after that he sends his Holy Spirit to give us faith in his name. All this work that Jesus accomplishes is the work of perfect obedience to the divine law. Jesus made himself subject to the 10 commandments which he himself gave. As St. Paul says in Galatians 4:4, he was "born under the law to redeem those under the law." Jesus made himself subject to the law for you and he glorifies the father by dying on the cross for your sins. To glorify something is to make it great. Jesus does that by making a way for God the father to be both Just: Upholding the righteous divine law, and the Justifier: The one who acquits the sinner, not because of their own works, their own words, or their own attempts to reform, but solely on account of the righteousness of Christ, which is accounted and reckoned to you by faith. Jesus says today: "This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). Knowing God, the father is not just knowing facts about him, but having faith in him. And that's precisely what Jesus gives you through his word and through the gospel. You know the one true God through Jesus Christ in Jesus. The righteousness of God is displayed for you in Jesus. He accomplishes what no man could. He keeps the law whole and undefiled. He not only does not break it, he keeps it and he dies on behalf of all sinners to forgive all sin. Now in this church age, he sends his word and his Holy spirit to give you faith so that you know, dear Christians, that you have a Just and a Justifying God (Romans 3). Having been lifted up upon the cross, Jesus is forever the perfect image and icon of the father's love for you. Nothing, not even his own son was too precious a cost for God to pay for you, his enemy, but he willingly paid that price to redeem his enemies whom he now counts as his friends and as his children. The son willingly was born of the woman. The son willingly was subject to the law and he did all this to accomplish the will of his father: your salvation. Now dear Christians, we walk in that same path as our Lord Jesus. No, we do not walk in this path in order to be saved. Remember, it's Jesus's righteousness, his Holy living, his innocent suffering and death that has earned for us forgiveness, life and salvation. But now we walk in the way of our Savior. He is our example only and only and only and only to those whom he has redeemed. You see, we don't just need an example. Someone who preaches Christ as a mere example and not as the one who died for your sins and whose righteousness is credited to you before God. Someone who would preached Christ like that is not a Christian preacher. That confuses law and gospel and it preaches a different gospel than the one contained in the Holy scriptures. Let's give you two popular examples. You may be aware of. Consider for example, Gavin Newsom. He's not a Christian preacher when he appeals to Jesus's love as an example to expand abortion access. That's false teaching. Likewise, Jordan Peterson isn't preaching the Christian gospel when he says he wants people to know Christ as a reason to suffer for another's benefit. He wants to study Jesus as an example of suffering for the greater good. I hope you can hear and know dear Christians that's not Christian preaching. If Jesus is only an example, just a moral person to follow, He's not your Lord. He's not your Savior. Before Jesus can be an example for us to walk in, as we've been hearing in our readings from First Peter this Eastertide, Jesus must be your Lord who has died to redeem you. And now dear Christians that he has died, that he has shed his blood for you, He is your Lord, who has redeemed and won you with his blood and with his righteousness. And as one who has been redeemed by his blood, counted righteous because of his righteousness, you walk in his footsteps. As St. Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). But your neighbor is in great distress and need every day. I don't know who he or she is. You need to look around in your own life for who your neighbor is. But again, there is great need all around you each day. For the married, your spouse and your children need you. For members of Faith Lutheran Church, your fellow congregants need you. For the employed, the people you work with and the people you work for need you: Your neighbor needs a good coworker. Your neighbor needs their teeth cleaned and groceries on the shelves. And so on and so forth. For children, your parents need you, your siblings and friends need you to serve them and help them. For the young, the older could use your energy and strength. For the elderly, the young could use your wisdom and patience, so on and so forth. In all that you do, dear Christians, from now on, you are not earning or repaying God. Redemption is not something you can purchase (Gal. 2:21), but the life you now live, you live by faith in the son of God who loved you and gave his life for you (Gal. 2:20). Like the man in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), you're waking up in the Inn: wounds bound, bills paid, life saved. Your good neighbor Jesus has loved you to the end and given himself for you. Jesus: His blood and His righteousness. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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Filetype: MP3 - Size: 11 MB - Duration: 15:35m (960 kbps 44100 Hz)