They brought to Him a man sick with paralysis, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.” Matthew 9:2 (Read v. 1-8)

In private confession and absolution, and each Sunday in corporate worship, sinners confess their sins to the Lord God and look to Christ Jesus and His cross in faith for the forgiveness of sins; and, the pastor announces unto them the grace of God and, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgives the sins of penitent sinners.

“But who can forgive sins but God alone?” some may ask.

This is what the scribes asked within themselves when Jesus forgave the sins of a man, sick with paralysis. They thought Jesus was guilty of blasphemy because He, seeing the faith of this paralyzed man and his friends, said to the man, “Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.”

Of course, anyone can say the words, but if they lack the authority to forgive sins, those words are but a deception, a lie, a sham.

But Jesus proved His authority to forgive sins. He said, “‘For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you” or to say, “Arise and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, pick up your bed, and go into your house.’”

And, what happened? The paralyzed man “rose and departed to his house.” Jesus’ proved His authority to forgive sins, and He proved that His words to this man were indeed true. This man’s sins were forgiven! He could depart in peace.

And what about the words of your pastor when he hears your confession and points you to Christ Jesus and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross for the sins of the world and tells you to “go in peace; your sins are forgiven”?

He may not be able to heal the sick or raise the dead, but Jesus did, and it is Jesus who commands him to preach “repentance and remission of sins” in Christ’s name (Luke 24:47).

It is Jesus who commands His disciples and His pastors to forgive the sins of penitent sinners and to retain the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent. He told His disciples, “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained” (John 20:23). It is Jesus who said, “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18).

And notice that pastors do not forgive – or baptize, or administer the Lord’s Supper, or even preach – in their own name and by their own authority. Rather, it is “in the stead and by the command” of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus healed the paralyzed man, proving His authority to forgive sins. Jesus even rose from the dead, proving the sufficiency of His sacrifice on the cross to satisfy God’s just wrath against all sins (cf. Rom. 4:23-25; 1 Cor. 15:1ff.; John 1:29). Certainly, He who paid for our sins with His blood and then rose again from the dead on the third day has the authority to forgive the sins of all who look to Him in faith.

So, when you confess your sins to God – whether in corporate worship or in private confession – and the pastor, based on your confession and your profession of faith in Christ Jesus, announces unto you the grace of God and proclaims to you that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, you can depart in peace, in good cheer, for indeed your sins are forgiven by the Lord Jesus Himself – He has the authority to forgive sins! (Cf. Luther’s Small Catechism on Confession.)

O gracious and merciful God, forgive our sins for Jesus’ sake and grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may believe and rejoice in the pardon and forgiveness won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ and promised and assured to us in Your absolution spoken by the pastor. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.]

When the Pharisees heard that He silenced the Sadducees, they came together. One of them, who was a lawyer, tested Him by asking Him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40

“Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

And, indeed, this is in accord with God’s law which commands us: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4-5).

Jesus also said (Matt. 22:39-40), “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

St. Paul wrote in Romans 13:8-10: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony, You shall not covet,’ and if there are any other commandments, are summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love works no evil to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (cf. Lev. 19:18).

If we did love the LORD God with all our heart, soul, and mind, would we worship or serve any other God but the true God? Would we abuse His name and neglect to use it rightly in ways that give God glory? Would we despise or neglect His Word and the services of His house?

And if we did genuinely love our neighbors as ourselves, would we disobey our parents and others in authority over us? Would we do anything to hurt or harm our neighbor? Would we seek to use our neighbor or his or her spouse to fulfill our own selfish and sinful desires? Would we speak evil of our neighbor or gossip about him? Would we covet or take our neighbor’s property or goods?

Therefore, obedience to God’s commandments requires true love for God and our neighbor and, without such love, our obedience is nothing but a sham (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1ff.)!

The question is: Do you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind? And, do you love your neighbor as yourself?

We might claim to love God and neighbor, but have we truly kept all of God’s commandments in our thoughts, desires, words, and deeds? Our failures to keep God’s commandments are proof of our failure to love God with all our being and to truly love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves! And without perfect love for God and neighbor, God’s law curses and condemns us as guilty sinners, deserving of the eternal punishments of hell (cf. Gal. 3:10; Rom. 3:19-20).

And that, of course, is why we need Christ Jesus. He “was in every sense tempted like we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He loved and honored His Father in all His thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. He prayed and gave thanks even when it appeared that there was not enough (cf. John 611). He loved God’s Word so much that, at the age of 12, He stayed behind in Jerusalem to learn more of it from the teachers of God’s Law (cf. Luke 2:46). Praying “not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42), “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). And Jesus certainly loved His neighbor – each and every one of us – because “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

And, our Lord Jesus Christ paid the price and made atonement for our sins that we might have pardon and forgiveness through faith in His name.

The Bible tells us that “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2; cf. Gal. 3:13; 4:4-5; Rom. 4:23-25). Therefore, when we confess our sins and look to Him and His cross in faith, He forgives our sins and cleanses us from the guilt of our unrighteousness (cf. 1 John 1:8-9; John 3:14-18; Psalm 32:1-5).

So, when we consider the commandments of God to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we see by His commandments our sins, our shortcomings, and the just wrath of God upon our sins. But when we see Jesus’ perfect obedience, His genuine love for God and neighbor, and His great love for us – a love which moved Him to take the guilt and punishment for our sins and make full atonement, rising again on the third day – we look to Him and His perfect sacrifice on the cross in faith, trusting that in Him we have forgiveness and in Him we have life.

God grant that we repent of our self-centeredness and lack of love for God and neighbor and that we look in faith to Christ Jesus and His holy life in our stead and His bitter sufferings and death for our sins and the sins of the world. And God grant that we, as a fruit of our faith in Christ Jesus, begin to truly love God and our neighbor. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17; cf. Deuteronomy 5:21

This commandment of the LORD teaches us that God requires not only outward holiness but inward holiness, as well. Not only are our actions to be pure, but our thoughts and desires.

Thus, we learn that we not only sin when we commit adultery or take our neighbor’s property or goods; we sin when we desire what belongs to our neighbor and is not rightfully ours.

As the commandment says, we are not to covet or desire our neighbor’s house, his wife, his servants or employees, his stock, or any of his property. Rather, we are to trust in the LORD God and be satisfied in Him and in that which He has given us.

The Bible teaches us that “each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and when sin is finished, it brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).

We may not realize it, but our hearts, as they are by our fallen nature, are filled with evil thoughts and desires. When we entertain these thoughts and desires, they grow and often lead to sinful words and actions.

Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immorality, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man” (Matt. 15:19-20).

This is why God warns against the sin of covetousness; it is contrary to God’s will and desire for us, and it often leads to acts of disobedience and rebellion. The Bible is filled with examples. David lusted after Bathsheba and took her, even murdering Uriah to cover up his sin of adultery. King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard and murdered to get it. Judas desired money and betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

Rather than coveting, which leads to death, the LORD God would have us trust in Him and be satisfied with what He gives us. The Bible tells us: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6; cf. Psalm 37:3ff).

From this commandment, we are taught that God commands and desires that we be truly holy as He is holy — in our thoughts, desires, words, and deeds (cf. Lev. 19:2; Matt. 5:48).

Though we have miserably failed to keep God’s holy commandments, Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son made man, has fulfilled them for us by living a holy life in thought, word, and deed. And, He also went to the cross and suffered there the full punishment for our sins and the sins of the entire world that we might have God’s pardon and forgiveness, and life everlasting in heaven through faith in His name (cf. 1 John 1:5 – 2:2).

God would have us repent of our sinful desires and thoughts, as well as our sinful words and deeds, and look in faith to Jesus and His perfect sacrifice on the cross for pardon, forgiveness, and life everlasting (cf. Acts 3:19-21; John 3:14-18).

O dearest Jesus, forgive me for my evil thoughts and desires as well as for my sinful words and actions. Cleanse my heart and give me a genuine desire to live for You. I ask this for the sake of your holy and precious blood, shed for me upon the cross. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.]

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Look, your house is forsaken. Truly I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Luke 13:34-35

God’s judgment was about to fall upon Jerusalem. The time of mercy – the people’s opportunity to repent and turn to their Messiah and Savior – was almost gone. In fact, judgment was much closer than any dared to think.

Why? Because the people had rejected and stoned the prophets sent to them in the generations before Christ, and they were rejecting Jesus, their Messiah and Savior who had been sent into this world to redeem them.

Elsewhere, too, Jesus warned of Jerusalem’s coming destruction under the hand of the Roman armies because the people did not recognize the time of their visitation and believe on the name of the only-begotten Son of God and their Savior.

In Luke 19:41-44, we read, “When He came near, He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had known even today what things would bring you peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you, and press you in on every side. They will dash you, and your children within you, to the ground. They will not leave one stone upon another within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation’” (cf. Luke 23:27ff.).

Did Jesus desire Jerusalem’s fall? No. He wept over Jerusalem. He had compassion for its people, and He desired that all would repent of their evil ways and turn to Him for mercy and forgiveness. But because they would not repent and turn to Him for pardon and life everlasting, judgment was coming – and it did come in 70 A.D. when the Roman armies laid siege to the city, broke down its walls, and burned the city, killing or taking captive the city’s inhabitants.

It is as Jesus said, “How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Once again, God’s Word in Ezekiel 33:11 had application: “As I live, says the LORD God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, O house of Israel?“

These words, as well as the words of Jesus, also have an application to you and to me. Jesus, first and foremost, desires that we repent of our evil ways and turn to Him for forgiveness and life everlasting. He seeks to gather us to Himself as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings so that we might be spared in God’s judgment.

The people of Jerusalem would not come to Jesus, and God’s judgment came upon them. But what about you and me? Will we, too, stubbornly resist God’s call to repentance and faith? Will we refuse to be gathered under the safety of Jesus’ wings?

If we will not come to Jesus, God’s judgment will fall upon us as well – both now and in eternity! Our Lord Jesus, who first and foremost desires to deal with us in mercy and forgiveness, will have no choice but to deal with us as we deserve on account of our rebellious and sinful ways.

It is as Jesus said to Nicodemus, “He who believes in [Christ Jesus] is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

But, if, by the grace of God, we turn to Jesus and are gathered to Him, taking shelter in the shadow of His cross, we will not be condemned but have everlasting life. Under the wings of His mercy, we will find forgiveness and life eternal.

Again, Jesus tells us in John 5:24: “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life.”

Dearest Lord Jesus, grant that I not turn away from You and Your mercy but repent and look to You for forgiveness and life eternal. Hide me under the shadow of Your wings. I ask this for the sake of Your holy life and innocent sufferings and death in my stead. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.]

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20

First and foremost, this commandment requires witnesses in any court of law to be truthful in all they say; and it forbids any false witness or testimony against another (cf. Ex. 23:1-3).

The Bible plainly warns: “A false witness will not be unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape” (Prov. 19:5).

Under Old Testament civil laws, false witnesses were to be punished with the same punishment the one they falsely accused would have received if their witness were true (cf. Deut. 19:15-21). Those who were not punished by man would come under the judgment of God Himself, who knows all!

Most people think little of speaking evil of others, saying things to destroy people’s names and reputations, and spreading rumors and gossip about others, but this commandment condemns such.

Again, the Scriptures say: “Do not speak evil of one another, brothers” (James 4:11); and, “A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter” (Prov. 11:13).

When a brother commits a trespass, we are to first go to him privately in an effort to bring him to repentance (cf. Matt. 18:15ff.); we are not to go and tell everyone else what evil he has done.

The prophet Zechariah writes: “These are the things you will do: Speak truth each to his neighbor, and make judgments in your gates that are for truth, and justice, and peace. Let none of you consider evil plans in your heart against your neighbor, and do not love false oaths, for I hate all these things, says the LORD” (Zech. 8:16-17).

Rather than bearing false witness against our neighbor, speaking evil of him, or impugning his name and reputation, we are to love him and defend him against false accusations and gossip.

The Bible says: “Open your mouth for the speechless in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Prov. 31:8-9). Peter writes: “Above all things, have unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).

When we examine our own lives – our thoughts, words and actions against this commandment of the LORD – we see again that we have fallen short and are in need of repentance and forgiveness.

Messiah Jesus, God’s own dear Son in human flesh, has kept this commandment for us; and He suffered our just punishment when He shed His blood for us on the cross.

Acknowledge your sins and failings and turn to Him for forgiveness and life everlasting! Cf. 2 Cor. 7:9-10; Psalm 51:1ff. And then, as a fruit of faith, do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Dear Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, forgive me for speaking evil of others, spreading rumors and gossip, and failing to love my neighbor and defend him against the evil words of others. I ask this for the sake of Your innocent sufferings and death in my stead and because of Your glorious resurrection and ascension. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.]