Who Do You Say That I Am?

Today, Jesus is called many things; revolutionary, social activist, best bud, moral crusader, good teacher. In the picture above, the artist has drawn on the now famous image of Argentinian Marxist Che Guevara. It has became vogue to mislabel Jesus as a social reformer, battling against the oppressive socio-political structure of Israel's Roman occupation. But to call Him anything other than the Christ is to border on blasphemy! In the Gospel of Matthew, Simon Peter is asked this simple, yet profound, question by Jesus, "who do you say that I am?" Peter replies with "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter clearly identifies Jesus as the promised Messiah.

As Christ, Jesus fulfills three distinct roles: Redeemer, Reconciler, and Mediator. In His redemptive role, Jesus pays the price we owe, not with silver or gold, but with His blood. Luther says it this way, "Those tyrants and jailers [the devil, sin, death, God's wrath] now have been routed, and their place has been taken by Jesus Christ." (Large Catechism). Paul writes to the Galatians that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." (3:13) So Paul is saying that Jesus became sin on the Cross and by bearing the rightful punishment for our sin, we are now free from it's curse.

Jesus as Reconciler re-establishes a harmonious relationship between man & God. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:19 "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." Jesus Christ reconciles us to God by His merits, not our own. He fulfilled the Law by living a sinless life and as the Lamb of God He took away the sin of the world. Revelation 1:5 affirms and comforts the reader by saying that Jesus has "freed us from our sins by his blood."

His final role as Christ is Mediator. A mediator is one who intervenes for the guilty and pleads their case.  God was angry because of our sins, and as poor wretched sinners, we did not have the strength nor the will to atone/propitiate/mediate/reconcile on our own behalf. God the Father sends His one and only Son to make satisfaction for the sins of the world.

An obvious question is 'How do I use Jesus Christ as Redeemer, Reconciler, and Mediator?" The answer is simple: faith. In Romans 5:1, Paul writes "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The Apology of the Augsburg Confession presents it this way "faith (by which a man believes that because of Christ his sins are forgiven him, and because of Christ God is reconciled and sees us favorably) gains forgiveness of sins and justifies us.

May we always look to Jesus as the Christ, proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name!

Just Hang On!

"Just hang on!" the people shouted from the icy shore line. The lady at the end of a long line with a life preserver tied to it was losing strength. But if she could just hang on, if she could just muster enough strength to grasp that life ring she would be rescued. Her life depended on it, haven't we all heard of those stories where a mother lifts a Schwann truck off of her trapped child, freakish strength is possible. "Just hang on!"

It was obvious to all that unless someone did something she would slip below the surface of that nearly frozen river for the last time. And someone did act, Lenny Skutnik jumped into an icy Potomac River on January 13, 1982 after an Air Florida plane crashed shortly after takeoff. He managed to save Priscilla Tirado from certain death.

I would love to ask Mrs. Tirado what exactly she did to get saved. Did she will Lenny into the water? Did she say some magic word? Perhaps she had earned this life giving gift through a good moral life. Maybe it was a combination of her actions and Lenny's big heart.

The reality is...she did nothing to merit this great gift. It was an act of compassion that pulled her from those icy depths and certain death. This is such an interesting story because of what it says about our nature, or more importantly, what Scripture says about our nature and where our salvation comes from. David exhorts in Psalm 51:5 that he, like all, "was sinful at birth." Paul expounds on this in Romans 5:12 where he states that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men." Bluntly put, we are dead in our sins. Dead is dead, not alive, not living....dead.

So what does this have to do with a plane crash some 30 years ago? The temptation is to think of ourselves as Priscilla grasping to the ring of Jesus' salvation. We aren't doing much, just holding on (and holding on for dear life at that). Jesus is doing all the real work; the towing, the flying, the important stuff. But this idea of salvation is ALL wrong. We must ask ourselves 'What role do we play in our salvation?' and be prepared to look to His Word for the answers.

I immediately think of Lazarus in the tomb; dead, decaying, rotting. Jesus, upon arrival to the tomb, commands dead Lazarus to "Come out!" in verse 43 of John's 11th chapter. But verse 44 says it all, "The dead man came out." Like Lazarus, we are all dead in our sins, cursed from Adam since birth, rightful heirs to God's wrath through our sinful actions. Going back to Paul and his proclamation to the Romans in Chapter 5, he continues in verse 18 "Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life to all men." And in verse 21 "just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Lazarus did not chose to accept Christ's restoration of life. Christ found him and saved him from the grasps of death itself.

We have life because of Jesus and His death and resurrection. There is no mention of good deeds (not even just a little bit). Salvation, as the Scriptures speak, are solely through Christ (Sola Christus) and His atoning blood. If it's up to us to hang on, what hope is that?! How can a dead person do anything, let alone reach out and grasp a floating ring?

So back to the helicopter rescue. Can we redeem this story, perhaps norm it by Scripture? From a Biblical perspective it would look something like this: Priscilla Tirado lay dead in the water, succumbed to the freezing temps. Her body floating along the river mostly submerged, face down. In the distance you hear a helicopter and begin to see that this helicopter doesn't have a jimmy-rigged life ring tied to a string but a large basket attached to a winch. Precisely, the helicopter maneuvers into position and lowers the basket. Priscilla, being dead, does nothing. The pilot masterfully positions the basket under and around Priscilla's floating body and begins to raise it back to the safety of of the hovering aircraft. The basket has her safely in it's grasps, no frantic grasping, no shouts of "Just hang on," no effort from this dead soul. As the basket is brought onboard, paramedics perform CPR and literally bring her back to life. She was lost but now is found, she was dead but now alive!

May we continue to look to Christ on the cross and see His sacrifice is sufficient!