LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 85

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through our persevering study of and daily meditation
on His Word.

Il. Grow in Union with Christ to Obtain
the Full Measure of Grace from Christ

Now, it is important further to note, as far as the
Scripture’s teaching is concerned, that the Spirit’s
pestowal of the knowledge from Christ is ever for the
purpose of effecting a God-glorifying change in conduct.
This knowledge rightly received and lodged in the
Christian’s heart and spirit is a powerful, moving force,
compelling his trust in, love for, and obedience to the
truth. Paul wrote to the Colossians: “We. ..do not cease
__.asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of
His will in connection with all wisdom and spiritual
understanding, so that you walk worthily of the Lord in
all respects, bearing fruit and increasing in every good
work by means of the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9-10).
Peter speaks of this same thing in our text when he bids
his readers, “Keep on growing”—or keep increasing—
“in grace ... from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The grace to which he refers is, of course, God’s own
unmerited favor, His undeserved kindness toward us
sinners, according to which He forgives us our sins and
grants us the blessings of salvation despite our un-
worthiness. It is this plus the concrete gifts which
proceed from this divine favor, the saving blessings He
bestows upon us, including especially—and this is the
particular point in context—the capacity to do, and the
doing itself of, what we learn to be His holy will for our
lives. Though knowledge is mentioned second in Peter’s
listing, it is by the increasing acquisition of knowledge
that the steady increase in the grace of godliness and
righteousness of life comes about.

In referring to Jesus Peter adds the words “to whom
belongs the glory both now and for eternity.” He in this
way reminds us that the final purpose of all of the Lord’s
saving activity in our behalf is that we might be and live
to His glory both now and forevermore. Christ is
glorified when we praise Him with our lips for all His
blessings and when we do in our lives those good works
of heart and hand and voice that please Him. For such
glorification of the Son of God (and, we may add, of the
Father and the Holy Spirit) God has elected us in
eternity, and we have been redeemed by Jesus in time,
we have been born physically and reborn spiritually, we
have had our faith and life preserved until this present
afternoon.

All of this shows how vital it is for us once we have
come to know the will of the Lord to act upon it. James
writes: “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves” (1:22). Jesus instructs the
church to make disciples of all nations (in part) by
“teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Ihave
commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). A persisting problem
with us Christians is that, besides overtly sinning by
way of commission, we so frequently hold out on the
Lord, refuse in the face of better knowledge to carry out
certain facets of the divine desire, and therefore
experience troubles in life as God judges us according to
our works. We have not prayed as we should, and so
various difficulties still beset us. We have not trusted in

CONVENTION SERMON 85

the Lord and His promises with all our hearts, and
therefore we continue to be burdened with worry. We
have not faithfully discharged our stewardship of time,
toil, talent, and treasure, and God has not been able to
bestow upon us certain blessings, material as well as
spiritual, that otherwise would have been ours in rich
abundance. We do not witness for Christ, engage in
brotherly admonition, and promote the work of the Lord
as we ought, and the result is that we miss a good deal of
Christian joy that could be ours and at the same time
contribute to our church’s diminishing effectiveness, its
weakening outreach for souls.

And who will calculate the cost to our Synod in terms
of opportunities for the expansion of Kingdom work lost,
members not built up in faith and life as they should be,
potential professional church workers not serving in the
Synod, and other serious consequences because in recent
decades congregations, District and synodical officials
have not exercised proper, divinely enjoined supervision
of doctrine and practice and necessary evangelical
discipline in the church? Who will measure the spiritual-
ly debilitating influence on many in the Synod the
embrace of doctrinal error and participation in
fellowship relationships and activities not sanctioned
by the Scriptures has had? Oh, the marvel of the love of
God, that He is still as merciful to us as He has been!

We have sinned against God! Let us penitently
confess our transgressions and look to Him who was
centrally crucified for us on Calvary for pardon, peace,
and help. Never in one lifetime or a hundred could we
make up or pay for our sins, on account of any and all of
which God ought to direct His condemning wrath
against us throughout our earthly days and for the
whole of eternity. When, however, in the strength of the
Spirit we embrace Jesus our Redeemer in faith, then He
who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for
our iniquities; then He on whom the Lord laid the guilt of
us all will speak to us, each one in the church, and say,
“Son ... daughter .. . be of good cheer, your sins are
forgiven you. They are sent away from you as far as the
East is from the West. They are drowned in the depths of
the bottomless sea, never again to rise and call forth the
righteous retribution of a just and holy God.”

More than this. Beautiful, wonderful Savior that He
is, He also supplies us with the power to overcome allour
recognized sins for which we obtain His pardon. He does
so by way of our spiritual union with Him, the union
effected already for us in Holy Baptism, when we died
and rose again with Jesus spiritually and put on the new
man, who after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness. “Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom.
6:14), declares the Lord’s apostle, and we therefore ought
to realize and believe that our Savior, without whom we
can do nothing, has placed at our disposal His own
invincible, sin-defeating might, so that we, each one of
us, can exult in full assurance of faith, “I can do all
things in union with Christ, who strengthens me” (Phil.
4:13). To grow in Christ means, then, also to grow in
union with Christ, that is, to grow by virtue of ourunion
with Him, drawing on the Savior’s strength to defeat sin
and produce the fruits of righteousness that glorify God.
Now, in the Lord’s power, we can increasingly occupy