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᛭ INI ᛭

(5. Oops!: Return, repent, runaway from your sins!)

“Return to the LORD your God!” (Joel 2) From where? You know, don’t you? “We all like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way.” (Is 53) So, which dead-end have you landed in? What dark trail of worry and doubt? What prayer-less avenues? Which pit of anger and grudge and fighting have you fallen into headlong? What places of gluttony or lust, adultery, and self-abuse? What alleyway of shortchanging, waste, and lack of generosity? What tollway of gossip, lies, and tattling? How do you spend your time and money? Judas had his thirty pieces; what’s your price? (What’s the monthly payment?)

Repent! They won’t just land you in the final dead-end of life—your grave. They put you into the eternal dead-end, where there’s no escape, no getting out until you’ve repaid the very last penny, the outer darkness, the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, the lake of unquenchable fire, the second death, where their worm doesn’t die, the pit of torment prepared for the devil and his angels—hell!

Run away from your sins! Faster than the Ninevites! Not just with sackcloth and ashes—“rend your hearts, not your garments,” says the LORD. Flee faster than Lot! Don’t turn your eyes and heart backward. Becoming salt is the least of your worries…

(4. Ugh!: Hear again 2 Peter’s true words: vv. 5–9!)

But don’t just run away FROM your sins; run TOWARD righteousness! Hear again 2 Peter’s true and faithful words:

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord ΙΗϹ Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone’s a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” (James 1)

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “’Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” (Eph 4)

Abstain from sexual immorality; that each…possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God… (1-Thess 4)

“What God has joined together, let not man separate.” “From the beginning [divorce] was not so,” (Mt 19) Christ says. Divorce is adultery, save for sexual immorality. (Mt 19)

“Let [the thief] steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, [to] have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth…” (Eph 4)

Repay no one evil for evil…If it’s possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. (Rom 12)

“If your enemy’s hungry, feed him; If he’s thirsty, give him a drink…” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12)

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.(1-Cor 6)

Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Col 1)

(3. Aha!: THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS.)

“Return to the LORD, your God.” (Joel 2) Repent. Run away FROM your sins and TO the LORD. Not only because it’s the righteous thing to do, but because the LORD has everything you need. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”

We’re easily convinced of the 1st Article, that God has “granted all things that pertain to life.” He really does have “all that you need to support this body and life.” But the second part is harder for us, who are weighed down by a sinful nature, to believe—that He’s “granted all things that pertain to godliness.” Old Adam likes to save himself…

You really have nothing that pertains to godliness, not in yourself. You’ve got everything you need for sin and unrighteousness. You’ve got your flesh and blood, your Old Adam, your corrupt and bound desires. We daily sin much, and we also do not attain to the glory of God.

Whatever you lack, God has for you in Christ ΙΗϹ. THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain godliness.” As the Catechism says: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His Holy Word and lead godly lives.” (SC-III 2P) THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS.

That’s why the LORD cries out “Return!” “Return to the LORD your God, For He’s gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He’ll turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him—A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God?” He does! “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,” says the LORD, “And you will be satisfied by them.” THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS!

(2. Whee!: It is received sola fide (διὰ ἐπιγνώσεως).)

So, how do you get it? Well, 2 Peter’s really clear on that to. It’s “through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” That is, through “faith.” For “God our Savior, wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth, for there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ ΙΗϹ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1-Tim 2)—a ransom even for you.

Indeed, “He bore our sins in His own body, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1-Pet 2) “For all we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has gone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all!” (Is 53)

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2-Cor 5) “Of Him you are in Christ ΙΗϹ, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’” (1-Cor 1) After all, THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS. And you receive it by faith.

(1. Whee!: It is given through “the great and precious promises”!)

So, you receive it by faith, and He does give it, but how does He give it? Well, By [His own glory and excellence] he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. It’s through “through [His precious and very great promises] that you become partakers of [His] divine nature,” and thus partaking, ““His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”

Through His Word and Sacraments, the Great Promises of God, THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS. Apart from the Word and Sacraments there is no Holy Spirit. Apart from Him there is no faith. Apart from the Holy Spirit and faith there is no godliness. And thus apart from the Word and Sacraments there is no godliness.

If you never hear Christ’s Word and preaching, if you never receive Holy Absolution, if the Son’s body and blood never touches your lips, you’ll never achieve godliness. In fact, since it’s all by faith alone, you never achieve godliness. “My Word doesn’t depart from Me empty, declares the LORD, but it accomplishes the thing for which I sent it.” (Is 55) His Word makes you holy. His Absolution sanctifies you. His body and blood unites you with Christ the vine, that you share in all that He is, even His divine nature.

And then through Him alone does the fruit of the Spirit abound: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control,” (Gal 5) even “virtue and knowledge and brotherly affection,” too! For by baptism through faith you “have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

“What do you have that you did not receive? If you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it?” (1-Cor 4) Rather, “Let Him who boasts, boast in the LORD,” (1-Cor 1) for that’s the godly thing to do, and THE LORD REALLY DOES GIVE YOU EVERYTHING FOR YOUR GODLINESS.

᛭ INI ᛭