Raised For Our Justification

THE 1ST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

The season of lent is distinguished by two fixed points, one at the beginning and one at its end. These two points are death and resurrection, two points that are wholly antithetical to the other. Lent begins in the dust or in the dirt (if you will). We are confronted with death, with our own mortality as signified in the marking of the ashes upon the forehead: "from dust, you came and unto dust thou shalt return." Ash Wednesday reorients us to the reality that every human life begins in death. Lent begins with an unnerving awareness of sin and its unnatural effect- for man was not created to taste death. Adam and Eve began in a state of justice or righteousness by which they would enjoy perfect and unimpeded fellowship with one another and with their Creator. This morning's reading from the Book of Wisdom tells us that "God created man to be immortal and made him to be an image of his eternity." And yet, Adam and Eve willfully brought death upon themselves, and every person born unto this day. 

We begin in desolation; everyone is born east of Eden, wandering in the barren wasteland of original sin. The Gospel appointed for the very first Sunday in Lent begins with these words: "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness." We begin with Christ in the wilderness. And yet, Lent's pilgrimage isn't an endless wandering in the desert. Not at all! There is direction; there is a destination. The Lenten journey ends in a garden. In the twentieth chapter of St. John's Gospel, we learn that "in the place where [Jesus] was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid" (Jn 19:41). We also find Mary Magdalene on that first Easter day, alone in the garden, weeping as she peers into Jesus' empty tomb, and, turning, encounters a man she believes to be the Gardner! And yet it is none other than the risen Lord himself, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, standing in the garden.

Jesus' journey from the wasteland into the garden is the salvific story of every sinner estranged from God and graciously brought back fellowship with the Father by the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. From the wilderness to the garden, from sin to mercy, from endless toil unto grace, from death into eternal life; these are the two fixed points of Lent. Without death, there can be no life, a Divine mystery and truth that completely contradicts man's understanding which isn't surprising for "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor 3:19). Did not our Lord say that "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24). God's ways are not our ways. Death doesn't remain in death. In the Divine economy of salvific power and grace, death produces life.

We prayed this truth earlier in today's collect, saying, "ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification." There it is: Jesus died for our sins to rise again- from death to life, from desolation to garden. He died for our sins because we couldn't save ourselves from the effects of the fall; no one can recover the perfect state of justice and righteousness that our first parents squandered, like Ishmael giving up his birthright for a bowl of stew! No man can justify himself before God. Man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part nor in the whole. This is the greatest arrogance and presumption of man and the craftiest device the Devil set up against GOD: to affirm that a man might, by his own works, take away and purge his own sins and justify himself. 

The allure of self-justification or taking righteousness into our own hands, was this not an enticing aspect of the serpent's temptation? You shall be like God- who alone is righteous, who alone is just and the justifier of all? Try as we may, we cannot justify ourselves in the sight of God. Man is forever constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification outside of himself. But God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And visit our iniquities upon his Son he did. Jesus was given to die for our sins and rose again for our justification, implying a time when we were not justified or righteous in the sight of our heavenly Father. But St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, delivers to us the good news of the Gospel: that "[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Rom 4:25).

Since we find our justification solely based on Christ, it was necessary that he first be raised for His own justification. He had claimed to be the Messiah, the promised Anointed One, who would deliver God's people from their sins, which seemed baseless when he was condemned to death. It may sound strange to talk about Jesus' need for justification, but justification is first and foremost a declaration; it is a vindication. How could a convicted blasphemer be the Messiah? Yet the one whom the people rejected was accepted by God. Jesus' claim to a unique relationship to the divine Father as the equally divine Son was vindicated when he was raised from the dead. However, His Resurrection should not be thought of as simply proving his deity. Indeed, if his death was simply a death at the hands of wicked men of one who was God's Son and the Messiah, why was it permitted? Why should there be such a death at all? The short but fundamental answer is that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3). You see, there was a divine purpose in his death. God did not spare his own Son but delivered him up (Rom. 8:32) without any last-minute reprieve, as was the case for Isaac and Abraham (Gen. 22). Peter put it this way: "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23). It was God's will that his Servant should suffer, but it was for our sins. The punishment that brings us peace was laid upon him (Isa. 53:5, 10).

Accordingly, the fact that the Father raised him means that Jesus' death is attested as accepted and effective, and Jesus is declared to be the righteous one. By his death, he destroyed death since by his death, he became no longer subject to it. As the sinless one in our nature, Jesus acted as our high priest. He offered himself, and his offering was fully righteous and fully meritorious. Therefore, the Father raised and glorified him. We are justified not only by Christ's death but by his resurrection; St. Paul is very clear on this, stating, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. (1 Cor 15:17). Beloved, the empty tomb testifies to Jesus’ justification in which, by faith, we participate and are made righteous.

God gave his only Son to die for our sins and raise us unto justification. In the words of St. Paul, we "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:24). Grace: it is all grace and gift. Our justification is an ornament of the soul beyond our nature, not attained by any human virtue or good works we have done or will do, but by faith in the meritorious faithfulness of Christ himself. We cannot justify ourselves; this is the Lord's work. Our work is to believe that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The Devil, our enemy, wants us to forget the lessons learned during lent, the hard-fought work of self-examination and repentance- turning from dead works to the Living God. He wants us to quickly forget that Christ saved us, is saving us, will save us. Christ who was raised as the first fruits of all who will follow; Christ who being justified makes us righteous. Not you. Not me. Beloved, in Christ, we stand before our heavenly Father without shame, without guilt, without the dread of destruction.

So, the next time you are compromised by sin or allow those voices of doubt to creep into your ear, resist. Resist the accuser who wants nothing more than to destroy God's children. That old serpent accuses us relentlessly before our God day and night. He hates God and all that God is, which means he hates when God extends mercy and forgiveness to sinners like you and me.  The accuser stands before God feverishly, attempting to somehow lessen or diminish God's love and mercy. But his accusations fall on deaf ears: "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33). Salvation belongs to the Lord, and His justification cannot be reversed. God is greater than our accuser, for, in Christ, we have overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

Therefore, take heed. Don't give the enemy anything he can hold against you by your sinful choices. Tend to the garden of your soul- remember the words of God who said, "if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it." Mastery over our sins always begins with humility, a humility that recognizes an utter inability to justify oneself before God- we're no more capable of doing this today as baptized Christians than before we knew Christ. But this humility is confident as well; assured by God’s uncompromising promises. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). Beloved, being sure of your justification before our Heavenly Father, serve Him in holiness and truth; soberly and purely; fully alive in Christ. Never let the world, the flesh, or the Devil condemn you. For, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom 8:1). Beloved, you are children of the living and eternal God who "is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). Amen+