LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 112

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

ed to answer, “Pesticides?” But I didn’t know him
well, so avoided what may have been cute but might
have offended. At any rate, I answered his question
somehow and spent the next four hours answering
other questions about God, eternal life, heaven, the
resurrection, and a number of other topics. As it got
to be late in the afternoon, I was getting ready to
go back to my dorm and pack and get ready for my
flight home. As I prepared to leave, he said, “Daniel,
I want you to know how much this conversation has
meant to me. I think when I am done in the military
I’m going to become a rabbi.”
It took me a moment to register what I had omitted in
my conversation with Steve. And I was ashamed when
I realized that in four hours of conversation I had not
talked about Jesus. I changed my plans on the spot. I
would just get to bed late. I spent another four hours
with Steve, and I spent all of it talking about Jesus.
The next morning, I took him to a Lutheran service
done in English in Frankfurt, and the pastor had the
best sermon I ever heard him preach—and he
preached about Jesus. I then took Steve to the Frankfurt Zoo and continued our conversation, all the while
directing his attention to the person and work of Jesus.
And then I really had to leave, or I would have missed
my flight back to the States. But before I left, Steve said
to me, “Daniel, I believe everything you have told me.”
The point is that when we make our confession to
others, in whatever form we make it, it is absolutely
essential that we remember to keep the person and
work of Jesus at the center of our confession. As the
hymn declares:
Christ alone is our salvation,
Christ the Rock on which we stand.
Other than this sure foundation will
be found but sinking sand.
Christ, His cross and resurrection,
is alone the sinner’s plea.
At the throne of God’s perfection
nothing else can see him free.
5

Nothing else! There is no access to the Father, there is
no salvation, there is no hope apart from the person of
Jesus. That’s why we sing, “My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” That’s why St.
Paul says, “For no one can lay a foundation other than
5

that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
That’s why St. Peter says, “There is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved” (Acts 4:12). That’s why we sing, “On Christ, the
solid rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.”
It is about Him that we speak when asked about the
hope that is in us. You see, in Jesus and only in Jesus,
God’s grace was poured out upon us and is always
offered to us. For He alone is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world. Mohammad never
did that. Christ alone has kept the Law for us perfectly.
Buddha never did that. Jesus alone was our substitute,
punished in our place. He alone bore the full wrath of
God at sin and died for every sinner that ever lived. No
Hindu god has ever done that. Christ alone has, by His
own power, risen from the dead, proving that He alone
has the power to save all that trust in Him. No one else
has ever raised himself from the dead. Salvation comes
through Jesus alone. In Him alone is grace. For this
reason, President Harrison has identified the phrase
“It’s still all about Jesus” as the theme for the Missouri
Synod’s celebration of the 500th anniversary of the
Reformation. Indeed, it is still all about Jesus!
There is one more aspect of this topic of our confession that I need to address before I conclude. Jesus
says, “Whoever confesses me before men, him will
I confess before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt.
10:32). As I was preparing a sermon about six months
ago, I was reading these words of Jesus, and they hit
me with great impact. “Him will I confess.” One day,
I will stand before the judgment seat of God, and my
Savior, Jesus, is going to confess me before the Father.
He is going to point to me and say, “Father, this is
one of Your dear children. He confessed Me before
men; I confess him now before You. Receive him into
the kingdom which You prepared for him before the
world began.” And the Father will look at me, and
He will say, “Come. I cannot refuse him whom My
Son confesses. So, come, enter the place My Son has
prepared for you. Come, receive your inheritance.”
This is what you and I look forward to as the Last Day
approaches. It will be the day on which Jesus confesses
you and me to the Father.
What joy to know, when life is past,
The Lord we love is first and last,
The End and the beginning!
He will one day, oh, glorious grace,

The Lutheran Hymnary, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1935), 81.

112

|

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Essay

“Built on the Rock—Confess”