This weekend gives us a unique opportunity to consider our independence.
On July 4th we will celebrate our 250th year of independence from the English King. That independence had to be won by armed men with muskets battling an organized, well trained army that took years. It was finally achieved when the British signed the Treaty of Paris September 3rd 1783. Even then, we had to retain it by repulsing their aggression during the War of 1812.
A far greater independence was won for us by Jesus on Good Friday with His sacrificial suffering and death on the cross to redeem us from our sin debt. Yet this independence went far beyond just a freedom from sin. In His salvific work Jesus restored us to the divine familial relationship we were created for (
Ephesians 4: 1-16). We are no longer servants but children of the heavenly Father who adopted us for the sake of Jesus. In our baptism by water (the created) and the Word (the divine) we were joined to Jesus. In that blessed water we died a death to sin and were raised up in true, eternal and abundant life in Him (
Romans 6: 1 – 14). God the Father AMEN'ed Jesus sacrificial suffering and death on the cross by raising Him up on the morning of the third day. God owns us as His own children by putting His name upon us and declaring we are His beloved children with whom He loves and is well pleased. We were then no longer slaves to sin but co-heirs with Jesus Christ (
Romans 8: 16-18) and stewards of the means of Grace (Holy Scripture and the Holy Sacraments -
1 Corinthians 4:1-2). We are free to enter God’s presence with excitement and joy that our heavenly Father and Creator, our Lord and Savior and our Helper and Comforter delight in calling us His beloved both here in time and then in eternity with angels and archangels and all the faithful departed (
1 Corinthians 15:51-53). We now do the good work God daily gives us in our various vocations (child, sibling, spouse, parent, neighbor and co-worker) in agape love that fulfills the Law because it frees us from the letter (curse) of the Law.
Then on the Last Day we can rejoice for our enemy, sin, is not only defeated but will be finally and completely destroyed. We will live the life we are created for: to live in the heavenly Father’s house and feast and fellowship with Him and all His holy ones at the wedding feast of the Lamb that will know no end (
John 14: 1 – 4). We AMEN these promises daily and then joyfully gather with all our brothers and sisters on Sunday where God promises to meet us and AMEN them as His family.
While we live in this time of grace we joyfully do the good work God places into our hands. While this work is joyful it is also spiritually and physically exhausting. Yet, we rejoice knowing our weariness and labor as children of God who reject and renounce the evil that assaults us daily is finite and has an end. On the final day (either our individual or creation’s) God will raise us up and bring us into eternal, peaceful and joyous fellowship with Him, His angels and archangels and all the faithful departed.
Tragically, those who refuse to believe Jesus is the King of kings, Lord of lords and their Savior will also be raised on Judgement Day with an immortal body. God the Son/the son of Mary will be their divine Judge who will cast them into the outer darkness where they will suffer the wages of their sin eternally. An eternity of torment and anguish, without hope, devoid of peace and joy, or rest knowing that God patiently, graciously and faithfully offered them true, abundant and eternal peace and joy in His loving fellowship during this time of grace (
Luke 16: 19-31). Therefore, let us not weary of praying that they would repent (turn to Jesus -
Galatians 6:8-10) and receive the free gift of grace that God offers them daily (
Romans 6: 23). Then we can rejoice and enjoy eternal peace, joy and rest also with them as our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Amen and Amen
