“Many are called, but few are chosen.” Not everyone goes to heaven. The Lord has atoned for the sins of the whole world. All are invited. No one need pay for his own sins, go unclothed or hungry, but some choose to anyway. They refuse the invitation and they stay out of heaven.
We’re called put off our old natures. The old nature is the old Adam. And put on the new nature by the renewing of our minds. The old Adam, your old nature has been put off in the putting on of the new. The new man, the new nature is the sanctified, redeemed child of God. Your new life, body and soul, is a life forgiven and restored. This is given in Baptism, when the death dies, and the Holy Spirit kicks the Devil out.
The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Matthew 22:34–46 Audio only.
Of course it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was never God’s day off. It was simply the day for men to rest: to rest and be refreshed by His Word and gifts. Our Sabbath never ends, for in Christ all days are the same, every sunrise is a reminder that death is dead and Jesus lives. The work is done. The healing complete. Jesus Christ is your health, your rest, your security, and your future. Soon the heaven’s will part and all creation will hear God say to you: “Friend, move up higher.”
Two great processions meet at the gate of Nain: one of death and one of life. Which of them will prevail: The boy by sin’s wages slain or the Prince of Life Himself? We know the answer. But knowledge does not always comfort when thoughts and feelings come to bear as we ponder those loved AND lost.
There are only two masters. And the question is not whether you will have a master, whether you will be ruled. The question is which of the two will be your master, which of the two will rule over you?
The questions we ask also reveal something about us. That is, they reveal what our assumptions are.
What Jesus did for the deaf mute is precisely what He does for each of you, now. Jesus brought the life of the deaf mute into conformity and in captivity to His Word.
So while the rich man is rich, and Lazarus is poor, while the rich man feasts sumptuously everyday and Lazarus longs for the scraps from the rich man’s table, while the rich man is covered in purple and fine linen, and Lazarus is covered in sores … while all this is the case, Lazarus is not without some earthly comfort. For Jesus adds this, “Moreover the dogs came to lick his sores.” The dogs, who know their master, come as God’s ministers to give what comfort they can, on top of the comfort that Lazarus already has in the Word and promises found in Moses and the prophets.
God’s works are indivisible just as His essence is. The most holy Trinity works as one for the salvation of mankind. He does this by loving the world. How does God love the world? He loves the world in this way, that the Father sent His Son so that whoever believes in the Son by the call of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Son’s death and resurrection will not perish but have eternal life.