Midweek Advent II
The grace of God has appeared, bringing AND training!
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! Last week, God declared that His “hope of eternal life” gets “manifested…
through preaching” (Titus 1:2-3). Tonight God speaks in a very similar way,
declaring that “the grace of God has appeared.” (“Manifested” and “appeared”
are very similar Words.) “The grace of God has appeared.” These Words mean that
God miraculously manifests, reveals, and makes plain His grace toward you, in
the same way He manifests to you His “hope of eternal life,” as you heard last
week.
Listen again to the two things God does for you because His grace has appeared:
“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people and training
us…”
Dear Christian friends,
In order to help people understand certain passages from God’s Bible, Martin
Luther talked about two totally different kinds of righteousness, or holiness,
which God has given to you through Christ and His Word.
• The first kind of righteousness is the righteousness that Christ Jesus
has laid upon you like a blanket, covering your sin and allowing you to stand
before God without fear. This righteousness is not a righteousness or holiness
that is inside of you, but it is the righteousness and holiness that God has
wrapped around you—like bacon around a Little Smoky.
• The second kind of righteousness deals not with God, but with your
neighbor. This second kind of righteousness has to do with the way we live our
everyday lives: the choices we make, the actions we undertake, and the words we
speak. You might call this a “civil righteousness” or a “public holiness,” if
you will. The second kind of righteousness does not give you any status or
benefit before God. (The first kind of righteousness—that is, the righteousness
of Christ laid upon you like a blanket—takes care of that.) The second kind of
righteousness gives you certain benefits with regard to your neighbor. The
second kind of righteousness is the stuff you build your reputation upon. For
example,
o If you treat your neighbor kindly and generously, he will not feel the
urge to spit whenever he hears your name.
o If you pay your taxes and obey the laws of the land, your government
will consider you a good and upright citizen—and you will have nothing to fear.
As God says in Romans 13, “Would you have no fear of the one who is in
authority? Then do good, and you will receive his approval” (Romans 13:3).
In tonight’s reading, God speaks about two good things that He does for you,
now that His grace has appeared. The two gifts that result from the appearance
of God’s grace are two different kinds of righteousness!
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training
us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
upright, and godly lives in the present age.
• The Words “bringing salvation for all people” describe the first kind
of righteousness—Bacon-Wrapped-Around-a-Little-Smoky Righteousness—that God has
given to you! This is the righteousness of Christ that covers you, by which all
your sins are now forgiven. This is the same righteousness of Christ that God
delivered and made personally certain for you through Baptism; the very same
righteousness that God confirms and assures to you through preaching and
through Holy Communion; the righteousness to which you now cling by faith. The
Words “bringing salvation for all people” indicate that the first kind of
righteousness is for everyone everywhere—even though many people ignore or
refuse or stomp upon this righteousness, preferring instead their own
unrighteousness (Romans 1:18, 2:8, 2 Peter 2:15). “The grace of God has
appeared” and that grace is Christ Jesus Himself, who is the salvation of the
entire world. “The grace of God brings
salvation for all people” and God has wonderfully, miraculously enlivened you
to that salvation by giving you your Baptism.
• The first righteousness is not the only gift God gave to you when His
“grace appeared”! God has a second kind of righteousness for you, and this
second kind of righteousness is also yours by the miraculous power of His
grace. “For the grace of God has appeared … training us to renounce ungodliness
and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.”
With these Words, God is telling you that His grace will patiently,
miraculously produce in you that second kind of righteousness, which helps you
to treat your neighbor decently, to curb your poisonous tongue, and to avoid
living as if you had no God.
The Word “training” is a very sweet and lovely Word from God! This Word speaks
about the way a parent patiently and lovingly would train a beloved child:
• Think of the way a mother might train her son to walk. The little boy’s
balance is not yet developed and his legs are not yet ready to support his
weight, so momma holds her son’s hands in her own. Momma walks along and holds
the boy up while he practices his walking.
That is what God likewise does for us when His grace trains us in the second
kind of righteousness. “For the grace of God has appeared … training us to
renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.” Just as a mother attentively and
painstakingly walks with her toddler child, so God’s grace likewise attends to
us, training us to live decent outward lives among our neighbors.
• Think of the way a father might likewise teach his daughter to catch a
fish. Most of the time, young children slap the water with their fishing pole,
tangle the line, and constantly threaten their father’s safety with fishhooks
whipping through the air. What does dad do? He patiently repeats himself. He
continually sets the line straight for his child. He lets his little girl
practice and practice and practice until a sunfish accidentally lands in the
boat.
In a comparable way, “grace of God has appeared…training us… to live
self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Things are not
going to work out perfectly for you—no more than a fishing trip with an
adolescent child ever works out too well. But God is patient with us. God is a
good and gentle Father and a forbearing Elder Brother. In this second form of
righteousness God has given to us—the righteousness that has to do with the way
we live our lives and treat our neighbor—God has all the time in the world to
help us get it right. By His grace and by His patience—miraculously given to us
through His Word—we eventually learn how to minimize the damage we might to do
each other.
Both kinds of righteousness come completely and entirely from God! Both kinds
of righteousness redound to His praise and glory. God have even gone so far as
to keep these two kinds of righteousness separate and distinct for us, so that
our forgiveness and life might not be destroyed by the foolish things we do.
Praise be to God! God goes on to explain in tonight’s reading that, not only
does His grace bring us salvation and train us to live decently, but His grace
also allows us to rest secure—“waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.”
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