. . . Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
—2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV)
Christ alone accomplished our salvation. He did this by his perfect life (active obedience) and His substitutionary death (passive obedience). Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is our only source of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Do not be anxious about anything. The Lord is at hand. For the same body that was born of the Virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lain in the manger; the same body that hung upon the cross, rested in the tomb, was raised from the dead; the same body that ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, this same body is at hand and given to you as a feast in the Holy Communion. And this body takes away your sins, gives you His own divine life, and peace with God and one another.
So let our cry continually be sola Scriptura—Scripture is sufficient. And it is sufficient because it is God breathed. It is sufficient because it is God’s Word that does not return to Him empty, but always accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it. It is sufficient because it is the Spirit-filled and life-giving Word of God.
Do not be afraid of what shall be. Rather, rejoice. For the Lord is at hand. Your king is coming to you, just as He promised. For the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. So also, is the Christ, the promised coming one, raised from the dead.
Faith in Christ is sufficient for salvation because Christ’s atoning work is sufficient. For we confess that we cannot be justified before God by our own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when we believe that we are received into God’s favor and that our sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God reckons to us as righteousness. Thus we receive the righteousness of Christ are seen as righteous in God’s sight by faith, by trust in Christ’s atoning work. We are saved and forgiven on account of Christ and we receive this by faith alone.
Ironically, though, our Lord does not instruct us to watch and look for these signs in the world. He doesn’t tell us to keep an eye out for the signs of the end times, to look for messages in the sun, the moon, and the stars, to watch for the distress of nations, etc. He instructs us, rather, to watch ourselves, so that we are not weighed down with dissipation, that is with self-indulgence, and drunkenness and the cares of this life.
When we speak of grace, we must first ask the question: What is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners. Grace is God’s unmerited good intention, His loving disposition toward those who have gone astray and are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1, 3). Grace, then, is something that resides in God and not in man.
And as you continue to struggle against your flesh and this world, remember that your King is coming to you. For He did not just come once in the past. He is coming for you in the future, even as He continually comes to you now in His Word and Sacrament. He rides into your presence every Lord’s Day upon humble means to forgive you sins, to speak you righteous, to give you strength for today and courage and hope for tomorrow. He is your king. A new day is dawned.
Those wise virgins fell asleep, the same as the fools. They were not saved because they were good or better than the others. They were not good. They were not better. But they believed and trusted, nonetheless, that the Bridegroom was coming for them. They believed and trusted that He was good and merciful, that His Word was true, and He would bring them in. So He did. So He will also for you – whether you are awake or asleep, He has not destined you for wrath but for Himself. He has set a bound to everything – nations, earthquakes, family squabbles. Come home to the Altar – to your Lord and your God. Here find nourishment for the wait and a foretaste of the Feast to come.
Ours is a faith built upon history, the historic fact of Christ crucified, the innocent and pure desolated as an abomination for the vile offenders and sinners who deserved what He endured. Let us gather around that reality like vultures around a corpse. Let it draw us like cream draws kittens. The cross is the source of our Life in Christ. Look the cross. Leave everything else behind. And don’t look back.