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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament Reading’s account of humankind’s fall into sin and the Gospel Reading’s account of our Lord Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness are likely familiar to you; less familiar may be the Epistle Reading’s contrast between Adam and Jesus. At first these three Readings appointed for the first Sunday in Lent in this year’s cycle of our three-year lectionary series may appear to be about Adam and Jesus, but, ultimately, of course, they are about us, who were made sinners by nature through Adam’s sin and who were made righteous by nature through Jesus’s saving work. In fact, the spiritual struggle of our daily lives can be characterized as the death of what the Small Catechism calls the “old Adam” and the resurrection of what the Small Catechism calls the “new man” (Small Catechism IV:12). In short, this morning we consider “Adam and Jesus in us”.
As the Old Testament Reading reminded us, the serpent—that is, the devil—tempted the woman about God’s Word, what His Word said and what His Word meant. She and her husband ate of the tree that God had forbidden, and they suffered the consequences of their sin, first in their relationship to God and to one another. They put themselves and their offspring at odds with the devil and those with him; they made their lives more difficult in other ways, too; and, finally, they brought about their own temporal death. They were created “good” out of dust, but, because of their sin, they would and did return to dust.
You and I inherited the consequences of the man and woman’s sin. That original sin corrupted our human nature and leads us to countless actual sins of thought, word, and deed—all of which apart from faith in Jesus Christ merit death now in time and torment in hell for eternity. The Divinely‑inspired St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading put it this way: “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”. Frequently the devil also tempts us about God’s Word, what His Word says and what His Word means. Like the first man and woman, we may disobey a provision of God’s moral law, or we may doubt that His saving Gospel is sufficient for our disobedience. Yet, God calls and enables us both to turn in sorrow from all of our sin—whether disobedience or lack of faith—and to trust Him to forgive all of our sin—whatever it may be—for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
As the Gospel Reading reminded us, the devil also tempted Jesus about God’s Word, what His Word said and what His Word meant, especially as it pertained to Jesus’s being the Son of God. Specifically, the devil tempted Jesus over His trusting in God the Father’s provision, Jesus’s not testing the Father, and Jesus’s receiving glory through suffering on the cross for us. The God‑man Jesus, Who as true God could not sin and Who as true man perfectly trusted in God, did not succumb to the devil’s temptations. After later making a different command about bread, Jesus obediently allowed Himself to be borne (or “lifted”) up on the cross, and there Jesus gloriously cast out the devil and drew all people to Himself (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:27-36). Yes, in some sense Jesus “reversed” the woman and man’s free choice to disobey God (Marquart, CLD IX:7), but Jesus’s victory over the devil is more than Jesus’s resisting the temptations we heard about today and all the others that came throughout His earthly life. Jesus’s victory over the devil includes Jesus’s death on the cross for us, and also Jesus’s resurrection from the grave. All of Jesus’s casting out demons in between the temptation and crucifixion are “skirmishes” that indicate the outcome of the much larger battle!
As today’s Epistle Reading put it, Adam was a “type” of the One Who was to come: Adam stood at the head of the fallen race, but Jesus, the “antitype” (or “fulfillment”), stood at the head of redeemed humankind (Nocent, 2:71). There is some comparison, but there is mostly contrast. St. Paul writes the free gift is not like the trespass. Through Adam’s trespass, many (or “all”) died, but, through the grace of God and the free gift of forgiveness and salvation by the grace of Jesus, many (or “all”) can live. So, the result of the one man’s sin is not like the result of the free gift. The judgment following one trespass of disobedience brought condemnation to all, but the free gift of obedience following many trespasses brought justification for all. Because of Adam’s trespass, death reigned through him, but much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus reign in life through Him.
When we repent, then we have the free gift: forgiveness of sins—forgiveness for our sins of disobedience and lack of faith and for all our sins—forgiveness which is given to us through God’s Word in all its forms—read, preached, and administered in the Sacraments with water in Holy Baptism, with the words and touch of the pastor in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in Holy Communion. As was the case with Jesus, so it is with us. After our Baptism the Holy Spirit leads us into the wilderness of this life to be tempted by the devil, not only through an annual forty‑day fast of Lent but through every day of every year. Because Jesus was tempted but remained without sin, He sympathizes with our weakness and is able to help us who are tempted, so we with confidence draw near to His throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our times of need (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15-16). Jesus’s pastors individually Absolve those who privately confess the sins they know and feel in their heart, and they give them the food for the way through wilderness of this life: bread and wine commanded to also be the Communion of His Body and Blood, for forgiveness, life, and salvation.
We believe, teach, and confess that our baptisms indicate “that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (Small Catechism IV:12). We believe, teach, and confess that in part on the basis of what St. Paul writes in the chapter of Romans that follows today’s Epistle Reading (see Romans 6:4). Nevertheless, in the chapter after that, St. Paul describes well the struggle that we all experience in this regard, writing that, while he and we delight in the law of God in our new man, our redeemed nature, our Old Adam, our sinful nature, wages war against that redeemed nature (for example, Romans 7:22-23). So, Paul asks “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” and he answers, as should we, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24‑25).
Essentially with “Adam and Jesus in us”, we follow St. Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians (6:11) that we heard in today’s Appointed Verse: to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We rejoice when we face temptations (James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:6), and we know that no temptation overtakes us that is not common to all people and that our faithful God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability to endure it with His help (1 Corinthians 10:13). In view of our defenselessness on our own, we watch and pray that we may not enter into temptation, praying especially the Lord’s Prayer with its petition that God deliver us from evil, ultimately giving us a blessed end and taking us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (Small Catechism III:20; see also 1 Corinthians 15:22).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +