Today You Will be With Me in Paradise

Second in a series on the Seven Last Words of Jesus

by Pastor Paul Wolff

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at (Jesus), saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 

But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
(Luke 23:39-43)

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One of the criminals … said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

There is a sarcastic saying which says, “No one is useless. You can always serve as a bad example.” In the ancient Roman empire crucifixion was the ultimate expression of this adage. “Don’t be like this guy, or else you will suffer the same humiliation and torture as him.”

The two men who were crucified along with Jesus were just such people. They were the dregs of society. Roman society had no more use for them, except to use them as a lesson for others. Jesus did not look at them that way. When Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them …” He wasn’t only talking about those who were crucifying Him, and those who conspired for his death. Jesus was praying for the forgiveness of all sinners, including those two who were crucified along with Him.

One of the criminals next to Jesus mocked Him saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself, and us!” This taunt sounds like Satan’s temptations of Jesus. “If you are the Christ … If you are the Son of God …” He said this as if he expected Jesus to do what he thought the Christ should do, instead of what God sent Him to do. “Save us!” he said. For what did he want to be saved? Did he want his sinful life restored so he could continue to lie, cheat, steal, and murder? That is not salvation.

The other criminal saw his situation, and he probably heard Jesus praying for his forgiveness, and he repented. He wanted the peace that would lead a crucified man to pray for his tormentors. Such a thing did not happen often, if ever. First, he called his friend to repentance as he confessed the guilt of his sins. “Don’t you fear God? … Our punishment is just, for we are getting what we deserve for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” The Second use of God’s Law is to show us our sin. The repentant thief recognized his sin and confessed it. The wages of sin is death. All sinners deserve to die for their sins. All sinners deserve to be there dying on the cross. The one man who did not deserve to die was Jesus. Yet there He was dying for sinners.

Then the repentant thief looked to Jesus to save Him. “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your Kingdom.” Truly this is a great example that faith is a miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was being crucified just as the thieves were. Jesus had the power and authority as the Son of God to avoid death, but He didn’t use that power to save Himself. Jesus would die like a man to rescue mankind from sin and death. “Jesus, King of Israel, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”

Jesus did not laugh at the condemned criminal. He did not treat him like an irredeemable piece of worthless human trash – as the world considered him. Jesus saw him as a beloved child of God – the likes of which Jesus had come to save. Jesus once taught, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7) Jesus rejoiced to save this lost sinner. Jesus came to save sinners. Here was one looking to Him for salvation. This man was lost, and now he was found. Jesus was not so preoccupied with his own suffering, but He gave comfort to the repentant thief. “Truly, today you will be with me in paradise.”

“Today!” There is no waiting for salvation. There is no purgatory to add to the suffering of life after death. “Today you will be with me in Paradise!” As a sinner, this thief was an enemy of God by nature, but, through faith, Jesus adopted him as his beloved child, and would share with him the inheritance of his heavenly kingdom that very day. What a joy it is to be rescued from sin and death by Jesus. It is sad that this former thief did not have the comfort of salvation earlier in his life. He was late to the party, but not too late, and better late than never.

The salvation of the repentant thief is another example of how salvation is free through faith in Jesus. This man did nothing to save himself. He was dead to the world in the last hours of his life. Yet, Jesus suffered and died to redeem him of his sin. This man’s sin only brought him trouble and hardship in life and directly led to his early death. Yet, the Holy Spirit gave him faith in Jesus and led him to repent of his sin and receive the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won for him as He died on the cross next to him.

The world has nearly as little use for Jesus as it did for the two thieves crucified on either side of him, and the world tries to get rid of Jesus, even to this day. They do this to sin more – thinking that to sin freely is freedom. Yet, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) But “if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36) Jesus forgave the repentant man condemned by the world. The world had told him how fun it was to lie, cheat, steal, and murder, then condemned him to death for learning his lesson too well. He still had to die for his crimes, but as a forgiven child of God, heaven was opened to him to live forever in paradise.

Jesus was not ashamed to suffer and die for people such as this poor thief. If Jesus could rescue him from sin and death and give him salvation that very day, then Jesus can also take joy in rescuing you from your sin and death. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” The repentant thief looked to Jesus and found salvation. Today salvation is yours through faith in Christ who rescues sinners from death to give them eternal life in Paradise.

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Articles in this series:

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
Woman behold your son. Son, behold your mother.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
I thirst.
It is finished.
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

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Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

(Part 1 of a series of 9 articles on the Beatitudes)

by Pastor Paul Wolff

“Seeing the crowds, (Jesus) went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 5:1-3)

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Blessed are the poor in Spirit (Matthew 5:3) Image from a Mosaic in the Saint Louis Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri

The beginning of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12 is called the Beatitudes. We don’t hear that word much in everyday conversation, but beatitudes are blessings, and blessings are gifts. These gifts are special because they come from God. Jesus gives a list of blessings that God gives His beloved children, but if you read what type of things that Jesus says is blessed in His Sermon on the Mount, you will see that these are gifts that no one really asks for, and wouldn’t want – except for the fact that they are blessed by God. Because of this, Christians are happy to receive them as true gifts of God.

The first beatitude is: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) No one wants to be poor, but this isn’t talking about worldly wealth and riches. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” These are Spiritual blessings, and those who are blessed here are people who recognize that they are poor in the Spiritual realm. They have nothing to give God Spiritually, because they are sinners who deserve only God’s wrath and punishment. This is true for all of us, but not all people recognize their Spiritual poverty. The people who are blessed by this Beatitude would certainly receive God’s condemnation unless another arrangement were made. Fortunately for us, Jesus has made another arrangement so that instead of punishment, we receive the blessings of God’s kingdom. Another way to say this is that these are repentant sinners who recognize their poverty of Spirit and know that they must rely on God to rescue them through Jesus Christ.

Jesus once taught people from a boat on the lake. (see Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 5)

In Luke’s Gospel he records Jesus teaching on the plain, where He gives similar blessings as He did in the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke 6:20 Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Though on the surface it may seem as if Jesus is commanding His people to be poor, but that interpretation really has it backwards. Because of our sin, we are all poor already. Those who are rich are just fooling themselves, thinking they are something when they are not. Saint Paul writes to Timothy, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10) It is because of our sin that we have nothing to offer God. All the money in the world cannot save you because it all belongs to God. It is also because of our sin that we are subject to death. All that we have is a gift from God, and there comes a time in all our lives when we must give it all back. “You can’t take it with you,” is a saying which paraphrases Saint Paul’s words to Saint Timothy. Yet, we can be content with what we have because Christians trust that God gives us the “daily bread” which we ask for in the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:9-13). Because Jesus told us to ask for this, we trust that God provides for our needs every day.

James 2:5 says, “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” Christians are “rich in faith” because Christ has promised us the inheritance of God’s Kingdom. Though this is not a worldly gift, we trust that this heavenly gift is ours because God has promised to give us this inheritance through faith in Jesus. Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) We may not be rich in this world, but God still provides us all with good things, and He has promised to share with us all the riches of His Kingdom, which is eternal. So we live by faith, and trust that God’s promises are more sure than anything that we may hold in our hands. God’s heavenly Kingdom is already ours by faith, but we must wait to see its fulfillment.

A good example in Holy Scripture of someone who is “poor in spirit” is the character of the tax collector in Christ’s Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (See Luke 18:9-14). The tax collector was in God’s house looking for God’s blessings, but he was so ashamed of his sin that he wouldn’t even raise up his head, and he simply prayed, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus said he was the one who went home justified (forgiven), because he repentantly recognized his poverty of Spirit, and looked to God to save Him.

The opposite of “Poor in Spirit” would be something like “proud in spirit” or “self-righteous.” A good example of this is the Pharisee in Christ’s parable. He was boastful before God because he thought that he was so good that he had something to offer God. He was wrong, of course, but he thought he was so good that God had to be pleased with him. He didn’t recognize the guilt of his sin and how much he deserved God’s condemnation, so he did not repent, nor did he look to God to save him. This is why both John the Baptist and Jesus were so harsh in dealing with unrepentant Pharisees. The Pharisees weren’t bad people in the civil sense, but they were (generally speaking) unrepentant unbelievers. They needed to hear God’s Law to recognize their sin, and the true poverty of their spirit, and their need for God to save them. 

 Jesus said to the Pharisees, who did not believe in Him, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43) The Pharisees admitted among themselves that they didn’t believe in Jesus (Matthew 21:25). This is why Jesus told the Parable of the Wicked Tenants against them. They didn’t want to be God’s people, and follow Him. They wanted to be in charge themselves. They were not producing the fruits of faith, because they did not have faith themselves. The fruits of faith are love, which is the good works done in obedience to God’s commandments. The Pharisees were too busy trying to save themselves that they did not do good to others. It is a paradox that those who are “poor in Spirit” are rich in good works, and those who think themselves “rich in Spirit” are poor in good works. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Repent of your sins and seek God in the Holy Scriptures because that is where God has revealed Himself, and there is where God’s Holy Spirit comes to you to bring you salvation, and God’s Kingdom.

Jesus was not so proud of Spirit that He wasn’t willing to suffer and die on the cross to save sinners, and give us the blessings of His Kingdom.

Jesus was poor in Spirit, but not quite in the same way that we are. We are humble because we are sinners who rightly are subject to God’s condemnation, and desperately need God to save us. Jesus had no sin, so He could rightly claim innocence before God, but He was certainly not “proud in spirit” so God the Father was pleased with Him in all things. Jesus knew He was innocent, and He never admitted to any sin which He did not commit, but He also never boasted that He was better than anyone else because of His holiness. Martin Luther explained that one who is “poor in spirit” “must not set his confidence, comfort, and trust on temporal goods, nor hang his heart upon them and make Mammon his idol.” * Jesus was not proud, and never made an idol of any created thing, but loved God with His whole heart, soul, mind, and strength in all that He did – and, in putting that into action in His life, Jesus also served us sinners in everything He did.

Saint Paul describes Christ’s humility this way in Philippians 2:5-8: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness … and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Jesus was equal to the Father in all things including power, glory, and all His being. However, He humbled Himself as a man to win our forgiveness and salvation. During His life and ministry, Jesus gave up all the honor, glory and riches which rightly belonged to Him as the Son of God, so that He could offer His life as the atoning sacrifice which would provide forgiveness and salvation to all who trust in Him to save them. The result of Christ’s humbling Himself like this is described by Saint Paul in this way: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) Jesus did not exalt Himself as a man, but God, the Father, exalted Him (as a man) for His faithful obedience and for winning our salvation.

The blessings that repentant sinners receive is that the Kingdom of heaven is given to them. What this means is that they are welcomed into God’s heavenly kingdom as beloved children who have been washed clean of their sins through the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sin (1 John 1:7) because death is the punishment for sin, and Jesus died in our place as our substitute. Through holy Baptism and faith we are adopted back into God’s family as His beloved children, and, having been washed clean of all sin, we will get to enjoy the full blessings of the kingdom of heaven. There we will live in eternal blessedness and peace with God, and all our needs of body and soul will be provided for us by God.

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Other articles in this series:

Blessed are Those who Mourn, For They Will be Comforted 

Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth 

Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall be Satisfied

Blessed are the Merciful, for They Shall Receive Mercy 

Blessed are the Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God 

Coming soon:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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* Martin Luther quote from Luther’s works, vol. 21: The Sermon on the Mount and the Magnificat (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works (Mt 5:4). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House. (©1956)

You Shall Not Murder

(Part One in a Series)

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God first wrote the commandments in our hearts. But after the fall into sin God wrote them on stone tablets which He gave to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The sin of murder is considered to be the worst sin that a person can commit against another. Though you have to wonder, since murder is so bad, then why is it so popular? And why is murder seemingly gaining in popularity (at least in America and several other places around the world)? As I was researching this topic I saw a news story which said that murders in the United States were up 30% in 2020 over the previous year. Though 2020 was a chaotic year with all kinds of government leaders at many levels all around the world acting like tyrannical dictators. That kind of high profile lawlessness always leads to lawlessness at every level, and murder is the epitome of lawlessness.

All sin is equally evil in God’s eyes. God is holy and sinless, and He first made people holy and sinless as He is. All mankind was condemned to live in sin because of what was essentially Eve’s sin of thievery which was combined with coveting and idolatry (the underlying sin which leads to all other sins). However, that theft was full rebellion and rejection of God, and the equivalent of murder since it has so far led to the death of everyone born before 1903 (and hundreds of millions of people since then), though one man has risen from the dead and still lives.

God gave us the Fifth Commandment (as Lutherans and most other Christians count the Commandments), “You shall not murder,” because God is the “Living God.” God is called the “Living God” not just because He is alive, but because He is the source of all life, and the only one who can give life to the dead. God gave us the Fifth Commandment because He doesn’t want anyone killing the people whom He loves (including you, your neighbors, and your enemies). So we see that this commandment is good, as all of God’s commandments are good. You don’t want your neighbor murdering you, and neither does God – so God commanded “You shall not murder.”

The sin of thievery seems to be of lesser degree than the irreversable sin of murder. But both sins need Jesus to forgive them, so we may be saved.

Although all sin is equally condemned in God’s eyes, there is something unique about the sin of murder. By contrast, we see in Luke 19 the tax collector, Zacchaeus, repented of his thievery (forbidden by the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not steal.”) and promised, “Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8) Zacchaeus was certainly a wicked sinner (though as I have written elsewhere simply being a tax collector was not one of his sins – see also Luke 3:12-13), but since his wickedness primarily consisted of thievery, he was able to pay back what he had stolen, with a little extra as penance to show the sincerity of his repentance, and compensate those he sinned against for their inconvenience. Such “penance” does not even begin to undo nor remove the guilt of the sin, but it shows the sincerity of the repentance, and it can help assuage the anger of the person you sinned against so that they may be less likely to murder you for your thievery. However, when one’s sin involves murder, then what is stolen cannot be returned for love, nor money. Once you take a person’s life, it is gone permanently, and can never be given back. This is somewhat unique in the second table of the Ten Commandments, and makes murder seem worse than other sins committed against other people.

You will sometimes hear people say, “… at least I am not a murderer.” You know that someone is trying too hard to justify their pet sins when they say this. Murder is a pretty low standard for anyone to measure up against. That person is actually saying, “I may be a dreadfully wicked person, but at least I am not the worst person (for now).” Of course, once you get to this point, the sin of murder (in one form or another) is likely to follow soon thereafter.

Despite the horrific nature of murder, there is no lack of examples of murder in the Bible. This shows the corrupting nature of sin. The first person born on the earth (after God created Adam and Eve) ended up murdering his younger brother. When I have taught the Ten Commandments I have noticed that sins against all the Commandments in the Second Table (and likely all of the Commandments in the First Table, also) can lead to murder. From this I have concluded that there are many different causes of the sin of murder, such as dishonoring parents and authorities, adultery, theft, lying, and covetousness. However, as I have studied the Holy Scripture further, I believe there is a single underlying foundational cause of murder which leads to all the other superficial immediate causes of this terrible sin.

Any sin against the Second Table of the Commandments can lead to murder because these sins are committed against our neighbor. Taken to the extreme, every sin can lead to murder because murder is the ultimate expression of the sins against your neighbor, including dishonoring parents and authorities, adultery, theft, lying, and covetousness. There are also the so-called “seven deadly sins” which are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Although not all of these are always sinful (there can be righteous anger, and possibly pride – though righteous pride is much more rare than you might like to believe), these all could be considered deadly because they can lead someone to murder, and they lead people to lose faith in Jesus or lead us to reject Christ’s forgiveness and salvation.

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan The Priest and the Levite did not hurt the injured man, but neither did they help him.

As we consider the Fifth Commandment we should recall Martin Luther’s teaching on the meaning of the Fifth Commandment. “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.” Note that there are two parts: a negative and a positive part. We should first not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body. This is the negative part. This is the wrong thing that we should not do. You should also note that what is forbidden is not only the extreme of murder, but God also forbids you from hurting or harming your neighbor in any way! However, as with all the commandments, there is also a positive good that we should do to keep this commandment. We should help and support our neighbor in every bodily need. It is not enough to avoid killing our neighbor with our own actions, but we must also help and protect our neighbor’s body and life. An example of this in Scripture is Christ’s Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The priest and the Levite did not lay a finger on the man laying on the road to Jericho to hurt him, but neither did they lift a finger to help him after the robbers left him for dead. So, in God’s eyes, they were just as guilty of murder as the robbers who beat the man and took his possessions. In another article I will show how Jesus kept the Fifth Commandment by not only abstaining from murder, but by helping and healing those who were sick, injured, and dead.

Murder may have many immediate causes such as coveting, lust, greed, envy, hatred, and others. Yet underlying all of these immediate causes there is a fundamental sin which leads all these different causes to end up with the same result of murder. That fundamental murderous sin is an idolatrous selfishness which leads people to take into their own hands the power over life and death, which rightly belongs only to God. When someone begins to justify his pet sins in his own mind he is likely to forget God’s commandments and it is sometimes a short step to think that one’s own sinful desires are good and right. Once that happens, even the lives of others become secondary to what the sinful person desires. This is what we call “hatred”. I have shown elsewhere that no racist person begins by hating others. It can begin with something as seemingly innocent (though still wickedly sinful) as wanting what is best for a group that I identify with – over and against one or more groups that I don’t identify with. Sinful desires can grow into the same murderous hatred even though they have one of several different starting points. This is why we must repent of our sins early and often. Martin Luther suggests that we use our Baptism correctly if we remember our sinfulness daily and “drown” the old sinful nature through contrition (sorrow over sin) and repentance, trusting in Jesus to forgive our sins and give us what we need, even if it is not what we necessarily desire. If we delay repenting then those sinful desires grow into actual sins of word and deed, and can lead to murder long before we realize it.

In the days of Noah, God saw that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)

Because God created us He knows full well how our hearts are set on evil, including murder. God didn’t create people to murder, but to appreciate His gift of life and also for husband and wife to create new life through their expression of love for one another. Though sin has corrupted all of this, life is still a gift from God for which we can rejoice and be thankful. Also, in history, God has used our murderous desires to accomplish our salvation. Because sinful people desire to be gods ourselves, we believe we have to get rid of the real God because to our eyes He “gets in the way”. In our sinful delusions, we think we are holy, but the ugly truth is immediately apparent when we are in the presence of true holiness. What God did was to become incarnate as a man, Jesus of Nazareth, and when the time was right He let sinful men do to Him what sinful men always wanted to do to God, which is: to murder Him. This accomplished our salvation because Jesus is truly an innocent man, but He allowed Himself to be killed as a substitute for us. Jesus took the guilt of our sin upon himself, and suffered death innocently in our place so that God’s wrath over our sin could be poured out upon Jesus, and we could be forgiven and (eventually) remade as the holy, eternal, people whom God intended for us to be in the first place. The poetic irony of using our murderous tendencies to accomplish our forgiveness and salvation and eternal life is amazing, and the love of God, which caused Him to live and die for us sinners, is so amazing and wonderful that we, who appreciate what He has done to save us, will literally love Him forever in return.

Despite the terrible finality of murder, God still forgives repentant murderers. Murder is a sin in God’s eyes, like any other sin. The number of murderers in hell is not an indication that God does not forgive murderers, but that the murderers feel so guilty that they despair and think their sin cannot be forgiven, and so they do not repent and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. In this life we think we have to pay for our own mistakes, but the sin of murder is too big. This leads to despair, and an unrepentant attitude which leads to damnation. Murder is not unforgivable, but the guilty murderer must repent and trust in Jesus to forgive him or her.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan who saved us sinners from death at the great cost of His own suffering and death on the cross.

Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ (a curse) is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22) This shows us that the sin of murder is more than just the extreme action of taking someone’s life. God gave us all life, and cares for our well being in every aspect of our life. This is why Martin Luther explained the Fifth Commandment as he did (see above).

Jesus did not murder, in any way, but helped His neighbors by healing them from all kinds of sickness, disease, injury, and even death. Then Jesus allowed wicked men to conspire against Him to have Him murdered. Jesus allowed them to murder Him as a sacrificial lamb so that He could take our place and suffer the wrath of God the Father for the sins of the world. Jesus did this so that you could be redeemed and rescued from sin and death.

Murder is a dreadful sin, and a terrible evil, but it is not unforgivable. Jesus died to pay the price to redeem murderers, as well as all sinners. If you are guilty of murder, or hatred, or neglect, or any other sin which breaks God’s commandment against murder, then repent and trust in Jesus to forgive these, and all your sins. It is a great comfort to know that the almighty and Holy God forgives even the sins of the worst sinners, that God may be praised and glorified forever for His great love and mercy.

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Other Articles in this series:
The True God Cannot Murder 
The Opposite of Murder

 
Related Articles:
Why Does God Condemn Unbelievers to Hell?
A Biblical Argument for Self Defense
Anger
Why Christians Condemn Abortion but Support the Death Penalty
The Good Samaritan
Is it Easier to Heal, or to Forgive?
Christ Has Done All Things Well
The Promise of Christ in Water And Light
Modern Molechianism
“Let His Blood be on Us and on Our Children”
The Passion of Christ
The Slaughter of the Innocents
Friends and Murderers
The Promise of the Rainbow
The True Story of a Terrorist Turned Christian
The Morality of War
Rejecting the Survival Instinct
The Leading Cause of Death in America

 

What was Jesus Like as a Boy?

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Most images of this event in Luke 2 can be somewhat misleading. The boy Jesus came to learn, not to teach.

“And the child (Jesus) grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:40-52)

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God’s Word is the greatest treasure on earth. There is nothing on earth that can give you the blessings that God’s word can give. God had the Holy Bible written to show us what He has done to save us, so that we might trust in Him and be saved through that faith. God Himself works through His Word to bring you forgiveness and salvation. Nothing else in all the world can save you from sin and death and give you eternal life in God’s paradise. That is why God’s Word is such a great treasure.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

God’s Word is such a treasure that God has made sure that from the time that Moses wrote the first five books about 3,500 years ago until now, the Holy Bible has been preserved so that at all times in history God’s people could hear it or read it and learn that God is our loving Father and creator and redeemer. God’s Word first shows us that we are all sinners, descended from Adam and Eve, and we would all be under God’s condemnation, but for God’s mercy. This is likely why more people do not appreciate this great treasure. Sinners don’t like to be reminded of the truth of our sin. We like to think we are better than we are, and more holy. The truth, however, is that we are rebellious sinners, and we all desperately need God to save us from death, which is the condemnation of sin. Every person who ever lived on earth before 1903 has died. That includes the one man who never sinned nor deserved death, but who gave His life to redeem us all from the curse of sin. That man is Jesus. We need to hear the truth of our sin, no matter if we want to or not. If we deny the truth of our sin, then we will deny the blessings God has provided for us in Jesus. But, as Saint John wrote, “If we confess our sins, (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

God became incarnate as a man to redeem sinners from sin and death.

God’s Word does not only tell us how bad we are, and how much we need a savior, but it also shows us what God has done through Jesus to rescue and redeem us from the consequences of our sin. God, in His essence, is a Spirit, and He is eternal and cannot die. In order for Him to provide for our redemption the Second Person of the Trinity became incarnate as a baby who grew into a man. He is like us in every way, except without sin. Jesus had to be a man so that He could not only keep and fulfill God’s Law, but so that He could offer His life in payment for the lives of all of us sinners. We might not know any of this, except for the fact that God had it written down and preserved for us to hear and read and know, so that we may be saved.

The Bible was not just written for you and me. God also had it written and preserved for Jesus, also. When Jesus read the Bible it was a little different! The Bible Jesus read was not different than what we read today, but Jesus is a little different than us because He is holy and sinless. Also, because the Bible is all about Jesus, it affected Him a little differently. Jesus once told the Pharisees, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)

In His state of humiliation, Jesus did not remember being equal with God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. He had to learn about God the same way we do – by reading the Holy Bible. Jesus also had to trust that the Bible is God’s Word, and is completely true. This was especially important when Jesus was dying on the cross. When He was suffering the Father’s wrath for the sins of the world, He only had to rely on God’s promises in the Holy Scriptures that this was God’s will, and that everything He was doing would work out for the glory of God, and the salvation of the human race.

God’s Law is good and righteous but it condemns sinners. Jesus had no sin and was not condemned by God’s Law.

God’s Law did not condemn Jesus – because He did not inherit the corruption of sin from His mother, and He committed no sin in His life. Jesus happily obeyed God’s Law because as the Son of God, the Commandments of God completely fit with His holy nature. Where we would naturally rebel against God’s commands, Jesus naturally obeyed God’s commands, and was happy to do so. We, too should be happy to obey God’s commands, because they are good and right and beneficial to each one of us and to our neighbors, but because we are corrupted by sin, we don’t always do so.

Also, Jesus had a slightly different perspective concerning the salvation promised for us. Jesus did not need salvation from sin, since He had no inherited sin. Also, because Jesus was sinless in everything He did, He was not condemned by God’s Law. However, Jesus was the one sent from God to pay the price for the salvation of us sinners. Though, because the price was the sacrifice of His life, the promise of salvation which gives us great hope and comfort was a death sentence for Jesus, if He was willing to endure it. Jesus would need to trust in God the Father to rescue Him from death if He accepted the Father’s will and desire that He would give His life in exchange for our forgiveness and salvation. The Father did not force Jesus to give up His life, and suffer and die for sinners, but because it was the Father’s will that Jesus would redeem us from our sins, then Jesus was willing to please the Father and do what was needed to save us from our sins – including innocently suffering crucifixion and God’s wrath over our sins, and dying to pay the price for sin.

Luke tells us that Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover. He doesn’t tell us if Jesus went with them also, but, whether He did nor not, the year he turned 12 was special. He had attained a certain level of maturity, and was likely allowed a little more freedom and autonomy than before. I’m sure it helped that Jesus was perfectly obedient and sinless, because Joseph and Mary knew they could trust Him to do what He ought to do. Though, on this occasion, what Jesus rightly did, was not particularly what they expected Him to do.

It is likely that Jesus came to learn about God’s mercy for His people in the events of the Passover.

Luke doesn’t tell us what Jesus and the teachers talked about, but an obvious topic of conversation would have been the Passover, and its meaning for Israel, and for the Messiah. He might have asked something like, “What was the Passover all about?” They would have told Him, “The Passover was the salvation of the people of Israel. God had decreed that the firstborn in every household of Egypt would die. However, among the Israelites, God would accept a substitute – a lamb – who would be sacrificed instead of the firstborn. The substitute, the lamb, would die, so that the firstborn child would live. This showed God’s mercy and love.” Jesus would have learned that it is good and right to love God with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. God is a just and righteous God, but He is also merciful and forgiving to sinners, and loves them. Because Jesus is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He also felt the same way about sinners, even as a boy, and even later as a man.

If people sin against you, you likely would want revenge, or at least just punishment. You are not likely to suffer and die for the people who betrayed you, or hurt you, or murdered you. But Jesus is different.

When the twelve year old Jesus was talking with the teachers in the temple, He might also have asked what the events of the Passover had to do with the Messiah. If they didn’t have a quick answer, Jesus likely would have quoted other Scriptures which would have led them to the correct answer. “Why does Isaiah write, ‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’”? Something like this is likely why the teachers were impressed with the questions that Jesus asked. The events of the Passover were a prophetic type of how the Messiah would come and save the world from the condemnation of their sins. The Messiah would offer His life in place of all people – like a substitutionary sacrificial lamb, so that He would take the punishment of death, and so all people would have forgiveness. Not everyone would receive the benefits of this forgiveness, only those who believe, but the forgiveness was there for everyone, if they wanted it.

What this meant for Jesus was that He was the sacrificial lamb of God who was going to have to offer His life to God the Father in place of all sinners in the world, so that He would bear the punishment for our sin, so that we would be forgiven and live. The amazing thing about the love that Jesus had for God the Father, is that when Jesus realized that He would have to endure God’s wrath for all the sins of the world, and die for wicked, rebellious sinners like all the rest of us, Jesus did not reject this plan, but agreed to do it because it was God’s Will. Jesus was willing to suffer and die as an innocent lamb to pay for the sins of every wicked sinner who ever was conceived on earth, and whoever would be conceived until the last day. This is the great love that God has for us – that He would live as a man in a sinful world, and still die to save sinners!

Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Word of God brings all this to us, but that is not the only treasure that God gives us. God also combines His holy Word with water in Holy Baptism to wash away our sins and to give us a new birth as God’s beloved children. Jesus also combines His holy Word with bread and wine to give each one of us His body and blood which he sacrificed to pay for our sins. Just as the Israelites in Moses’ day ate the sacrificial lamb who saved the firstborn from the Angel of Death, and thus received the blessings of that sacrifice, Jesus offers us His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper that we may receive the blessings of His sacrifice. These blessings include the forgiveness of sins, and victory over sin and death. Jesus shares these treasures with us to make us His children and keep us in the faith until he comes to take all His children to His heavenly kingdom where we will live forever in holiness with Jesus.

When Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem He told them that He had to be doing His Father’s business, but Jesus also submitted to His earthly parents and obeyed them like a good and holy child. All this Jesus did out of love for you, so that you may know the love of God, and trust in Jesus to save you from your sins. What a great treasure we have here today. May you treasure God’s Word as the most valuable thing on earth, and trust in Jesus to save you from your sins and give you everlasting life.

Jesus is always doing His Father’s Business

Plagues in the Bible

by Pastor Paul Wolff
 
Psalm 103:1-5 “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

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God allowed Job to be afflicted but Job's friends blamed him for his troubles.

The Bible verse above is a great comfort for Christians in times of sickness or injury. God is the Lord who forgives your sins and heals all your diseases. As I write this it is the end of the first quarter of 2020. The world has gone crazy about a deadly coronavirus (COVID-19), which nevertheless seems to only have a similar death rate as any influenza virus which makes its rounds throughout the world every year. People don’t usually panic over the flu, though it kills tens of thousands of people annually, but on account of this virus people have gone insane. It seems like most of the United States and several other countries have just about shut down over the fear of this virus. The vast majority of people who contract the disease recover from it, just like the flu, but people, reporters, and governments have still gone mad over this disease.

The world’s insane overreaction to this has made me think of Biblical plagues, so I did a study of plagues in the Bible. Every plague in the Bible comes and goes at the command of God to suit His good purposes. He is in control and that should make us fearful and comforted at the same time. Let us look at some representative examples that I found in my study.

Exodus 7:17  
“This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.”  
The purpose of the ten plagues in Egypt was to get Egypt’s Pharaoh (and the Egyptian people) to know that God is the true King over all kings and God over all gods. The Israelite people who were enslaved to the Pharaoh worshiped the true God, while the Egyptians worshiped a variety of gods which were all false. After ten plagues God showed that He is the true God who has absolute power over all false gods and even over the powerful kings in the world.

God told Moses that He would protect His people from plagues and diseases.

Exodus 30:11-12  
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.”  
God required this of the Israelites because they weren’t just another nation on earth, but they were also the visible church on earth. They were God’s representatives among the nations. Yet, the Israelites were sinners like everyone else, and no better, so God used the occasion of a census to require the Israelites to give an offering to God to ransom their lives. This was a typological prophesy concerning the messiah who was to come. He would pay the ultimate ransom to redeem the lives of all people from their sins. This periodic ransom was also a reminder to God’s people that because of our sin we are under the condemnation of death, were it not for the mercy of God who accepts the ransom of Christ in our place.

It is most likely a coincidence that in 2020, as I write this, we are in the process of conducting a census in the United States. The coronavirus plague did not come to afflict only the USA, but it originated in China, and afflicts most of the nations of the world. I don’t know how many nations are conducting a census in 2020, but I suspect that not all the affected countries are conducting a census. It is certainly not good that wicked, lawless judges prevented the Trump administration from asking how many people were U.S. citizens and how many were foreigners living here. The results of the 2020 census will be missing important information, but it is not clear that this is why God sent the coronavirus plague.

However, the coronavirus plague is a good occasion to repent of your sins, and trust in Jesus Christ to rescue you from sin and illness and death. In Luke 13:2-3, Jesus responded to a question about an incident which resulted in tragic deaths by saying, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” God protects His people from plagues and disaster all the time, but we should not grow complacent thinking that we are invulnerable or that we don’t deserve to die of the plague. We are all sinners and do not deserve life. You only live by the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ who gave His life as a ransom for your life.

Jesus is the Good Samaritan who heals the wounds of His enemy.

Exodus 32:35  
“And the Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.”
After the Israelites made a golden idol and worshiped it as their god, the true God sent this plague upon the people to punish their idolatry. However, we ought also to remember what is written in Hebrews 12:6, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” This is to keep us trusting in God for forgiveness and the blessings of life, which we in no way deserve. Scripture goes on in Hebrews 12:7, “God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” This is a great comfort in a time of trial or disease. God is treating us as his beloved children to discipline us and make us trust in Him more so that we may receive greater blessings, and testify to others that God is merciful and will rescue us from all trouble.

Numbers 14:37-38  
“… These men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord. Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.”  
Again, in the days of Moses, God sent a plague which was specifically targeted at the ten Israelite scouts who gave a bad report about the land of Canaan, and tried to turn the people against God. God had already promised that He would take the land from the Canaanites and give the land to the Israelites as He had promised to their ancestor, Abraham. All ten of the unfaithful men died of this plague, but the other two Israelite scouts, Joshua and Caleb, survived because they were faithful to God and reported that the land was flowing with milk and honey, and that God would give this fruitful prosperous land to them as He had promised.

Jesus healed many people of disease, and He raised some from the dead, like Lazarus.

Numbers 16  
In Numbers 16 Moses recounts the wickedness of Korah and his followers who started a rebellion against Moses, whom God had chosen to lead the people. God sent fire which consumed 250 men who were community organizers rebelling against God’s appointed leaders. Then God sent a plague against the people, who accused Moses of killing Korah and his followers. The plague killed 14,700 people in addition to the 250 who died in the fire that God sent. Here God targeted those who were affected, and showed the people that He is in control, not Moses, nor any other of the people.

Numbers 25
Numbers 25 recounts a plague that God sent against the Israelites when they began sacrificing to foreign false gods, and indulging in sexual immorality with women who worshiped foreign idols. The plague killed 24,000 people until it was stopped when Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (Moses’ brother), saw a man bring a Midianite woman into his tent right before the eyes of Moses and Israel. Phinehas took a spear and impaled the man and the woman, and then God stopped the plague.

Deuteronomy 28
In Deuteronomy 28 God gives blessings and curses to His people. God promises that they will be blessed if they trust in Him and do what He asks of them. God also promises that they will be cursed and have all sorts of bad things befall them if they forsake Him and turn to false gods. Among the curses are plagues and famine and all kind of trouble. God wants us to trust in Him for blessings because He is the only one who redeems us from our sin and death. We can’t do it ourselves, nor can we find any rescue in created things. Here the plagues are the Law of God put into action to dissuade us from rebelling against God. The blessings, on the other hand, are positive encouragement to trust in God in all things.

1 Samuel 6  

Jesus let Peter walk on the water but Peter lost faith and began to drown. Jesus rescued him from his troubles.

In 1 Samuel 6, in the days of the Judges, God allowed the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Covenant of God, because the unfaithful priests of God allowed it to be taken into battle without first consulting God as to whether they should do so. They were trying to manipulate God to do as they wanted, which is how the pagans view their false gods. Though God allowed the Philistines to capture the symbol of God’s presence among His people, He also used it to bring a plague to the Philistines in whatever town the Ark of the Covenant was residing at the time. The plagues did not stop until the Philistines gave an offering of gold to God and put the Ark on a cart drawn by two cows which had never been yoked, but had given birth to calves. The cows calmly pulled the cart straight to Israelite territory as if they were led by God Himself (which they were), and God stopped the plague he sent against the Philistines. Though God also struck down seventy Israelite men of Beth Shemesh because they looked into the Lord’s Ark though this was forbidden for them to do so, and they should have known better. (see also Psalm 106)

2 Samuel 24  
In 2 Samuel 24 (and 1 Chronicles 21) God sent a plague against Israel in the days of King David because David conducted an unlawful census (remember God’s instructions from Exodus 30 above). The Angel of the Lord sent a plague on Israel which killed 70,000 people. When David repented of his sinful pride the Angel of the Lord was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David then bought the threshing floor from Araunah, though Araunah offered to give it to David for pleading to God to stop the Angel of the Lord from killing him and his men, but David insisted on paying a fair price for the site. That location later became the place where Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem (See 2 Chronicles 3:1).

The Lord is my Shepherd He leads me by the still waters. He restores my soul.

There are many verses in Jeremiah’s prophesy where there is a recurring threat that God will send “the sword, famine and plague” against His people to destroy them unless they repented of their unbelief and idolatry. There are at least 15 occurrences of this formula in the book of Jeremiah warning the people to turn from their sinful ways so that God will relent from the destruction that he prophesied against them. Sadly, the people did not listen to God’s prophet, and God sent the Babylonians to destroy Judah and take the survivors into captivity and slavery in Babylon. The prophet Ezekiel picked up on Jeremiah’s formula and uses the same phrase several times to call the people to repentance in his day.

There are many other instances of plagues described and prophesied in the Scriptures. Without exception they all arrive and withdraw at the command and direction of God. He is in control of all plagues and disease at all times. This is a comfort to us because although God is the one who sends plagues, He is also the one who has mercy on His people who turn to Him and call upon Him to rescue them from their sin and death. We know that God will hear our prayer because in Jesus He became a man to suffer and die to redeem sinners from the consequences of their sin, so that they may be rescued from sin and death and be raised to life in His glorious kingdom where there is no “sword, famine, and plague” and where there is no sin and death. All who call upon Jesus to save them will live with Him in His glorious paradise forever in grateful devotion for the salvation won for us by Jesus.

May Christ keep you safe and healthy, or give you healing, as the plague comes through your town. Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ to protect your life, and He will give you His precious gift of eternal life.