God’s Name is Holy

Advent Devotion on the Lord’s Prayer 

by Pastor Paul Wolff 

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Jesus said, “Pray then like this, … ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’” (Matthew 6:9)

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God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. It is a paradox, but this is how God reveals who He is.

You might sometimes hear people talk about the “names of God”. Hopefully you will never hear a Christian saying such things because the Holy Bible never speaks of the “names of God”. The Scriptures frequently speak of God’s “name” in the singular, but never in the plural. This seems peculiar because, although Scripture is clear that there is only one God, yet Jesus revealed that God is Triune: three distinct persons united in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Even in the Old Testament, the generic word for the true God is in the plural form, as if it were to say, “gods”, yet when referring to the true God, the pronouns (and accompanying verbs) for this God are all singular – “he”, “him”, and usually “I” (generally not “we”, though Genesis 1:26 does say, “Let us make man in our image…”) which shows that God is singular and masculine.  

In the days of Moses, God told Moses His name by saying, “I am who I am.” (Exodus 3:14) At first glance, we might think this begs the question, “Then, who are you?” Yet, this does tell us a few important things about God. The true God who spoke to Moses is the God who exists (“He is”), as opposed to the false gods, who do not exist except in the perverse imaginations of their followers. This name also shows us that God is eternal and does not change. This is also why we read in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He is who He is – eternally. This is why the Jews wanted to stone Jesus when He told them, “Before Abraham was, I am!” (John 8:58) They recognized that Jesus was claiming to be the eternal God who was Abraham’s God two thousand years earlier. This would have been blasphemy if it weren’t true, but it is.

The True God is the one who would live and die to redeem you from your sins and rescue you from death. This is why His name is hallowed among us.

When Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Holy Baptism He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Notice that the “Name” (singular) of God is “the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Jesus doesn’t say “names”, but “name”. This isn’t because Jesus did not know grammar. He certainly did, but was teaching us something profound about God. God may be triune, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, not three, yet three distinct persons. It is a mystery, but this is how God reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures.  

You will never hear me speak of the “names of God” except when teaching against it, as I am doing here. Those who speak of the “names of God” are either being imprecise in their language or they are trying to give the false impression that “all religions are alike”, or that ‘all roads lead to heaven”, or some such lies that try to diminish the unique character of God. The different worldly religions cannot all be different aspects of the same religion and god because all the world religions contradict each other. Rationally we can see that they may all be false, but they cannot all be true. At most, only one may be true. Christianity is the only religion of grace where God does all the work to save sinners, and then gives forgiveness for free through faith. All the other world religions (and false teaching in Christian churches) make you save yourself or do something to aid in your salvation. Which religion do you think is true? This is why God’s name is holy, and hallowed among true believers within all Christian denominations. 

It is also easy for people to be confused about God’s Name because the Holy Bible describes God in many different ways. Each distinct “name” that the Scriptures use to describe God shows a different aspect of God’s nature or personality. They are all true descriptions of God, but each one only shows a partial picture of God’s Name. In the Old Testament God is called such things as the Lord, the Ancient of Days, the Eternal God, the Living God, the Eternal Father, and many more such things. In the New Testament God is revealed through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who also has several distinct titles. Yet we still do not say that “God has many names.” Why? Each of these names for God describe a certain aspect of His personality as He has revealed it to us. Each “name” shows us a part of who God is, but does not show us the fullness of God. It has been said that the entirety of the Holy Scriptures are an explanation of the Name of God. This is a good way to look at it. The Bible tells us who God is and what He has done to save us from our sin through the incarnation of God as a man, Jesus, and His lifetime of work to win our salvation, especially His innocent suffering and death on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

In Matthew 1:20-21 An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph of Nazareth in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The name, “Jesus” means “savior”, and that is His ultimate work. God’s name is truly hallowed among us because of all that God has done to save us from sin and death. God did not have to come down to earth to save us. He could have punished us as our sins deserve, and would have been justified to do so because we deserved punishment for our sins. Yet God preferred to take the hard road and sent His Son to become incarnate to redeem the world from sin through His life, death, and resurrection. 

God is both perfectly just and unfailingly merciful. These characteristics would seem to oppose each other when it comes to God wanting to save us from our sins. God’s holy desire to punish sin with death seems at conflict with His loving desire to rescue us from sin’s necessary consequence of death. Yet, in Jesus, God found a solution. God accepted Jesus as a substitute who would die for sinners and win our salvation. The Second Person of the Godhead became incarnate as a man, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life in obedience to God’s Law, which we failed to do in our sinfulness, then Jesus offered His life as the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world. The life of Jesus is sufficient to pay for sin because His life is God’s life, and His blood is God’s blood, given and shed to redeem us all from our sins. God’s name is truly holy, because He found a way to rescue and redeem you from your sins while being perfectly just in punishing the sin of the world through the death of Jesus. In the life and death of Jesus, God found a way to be perfectly just in punishing sin, and perfectly merciful and loving in redeeming us through the sacrifice of the life of Jesus. This is why we will praise and thank God for all eternity for the Salvation He won for us sinners. 

We call the holy family “holy” not because Mary and Joseph are holy, but because Jesus is holy.

There is nothing in all the world more precious than the love of God. He has redeemed us and calls us His children, though we do not deserve it. Yet, because Jesus paid the price for the sins of the world we are happy to receive His forgiveness and salvation as a most wonderful gift, and praise God forever for His unending love. 

This Petition in the Lord’s Prayer in closely related to the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” The commandment and the petition both deal with God’s name. Because God’s Name is holy, we should use it properly and not misuse it. This is not easy to do. As time went by after God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Israelite people of the Old Testament put too much emphasis on God’s Law and, for fear of misusing God’s Name, they stopped using it altogether. Instead of using the Name that God gave them to use, they instead spoke the general term, “lord”, even in their worship and when reading the Bible. If God had not wanted the people to use His name, then he wouldn’t have given it to them, but God gave us His Name so that we might use it. In Psalm 50:15 God says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” It is for Bible verses like this (and many others) that Martin Luther explains this petition by saying that it is our duty to “Call upon God in every trouble, pray, praise, and give Him thanks.” 

In the Advent season we especially remember God’s name because God sent His Son to be our savior, to rescue us from sin, and to bring us back into the household of God as His beloved children – for the sake of Jesus. God’s name truly is holy, as is everything He has done to give us good gifts in this life, and for the salvation that He has prepared for us through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

God is Your Great Reward

by Pastor Paul Wolff

“The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’” Genesis 15:1

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Abram Believed God and He credited it to him as Righteousness

It is natural for people to think that we have to do something to make God think favorably toward us. This is yet another way that our sinful nature has corrupted our thinking and our attitude toward God. This is the pagan way of thinking about God. The pagan must manipulate his god in order to get something good, but in doing so, the pagan thinks he is greater than his god because if he gets what he wants, then the pagan is telling the god what to do. Then he views his god as his servant and he is the master.

The True God is much different than the pagan view of god. God tells Abram (later renamed “Abraham”), “I am your shield.” That is to say that God is the one who protects His people, of whom Abram is one. God needs no protection because God is almighty, but in His mercy and love He protects His people who are weak and vulnerable to the evil plans of sinners in the world.

God also tells Abram, “I am your great reward.” In the context of Genesis 15 Abram had just rescued his nephew Lot after he was kidnapped by evil armies. Abram assembled a small army of his household workers and defeated the armies of the four kings that overthrew the five kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby kingdoms. Abram did not accept a reward for this valuable service, but gave honor and praise to God who gave him the victory. In return, God tells Abram, “I am your great reward.”

Abram recognizes that God is saying that He will give Abram some great blessing, but Abram knows he is old, and whatever good thing that God gives him will pass to his heir, of which he has none, and because of his advanced age, and the age of his elderly wife, he is not likely to produce an heir. Yet God promises Abram that his wife, Sarah, will give birth to a son and Abram’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Then the Scriptures say that “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Jesus said, “Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.” Jesus is our very great reward.“”“”

The blessing that God promised Abram was not only worldly wealth, though Abram was a somewhat wealthy person in worldly terms. The great blessing God gave to Abram was God, Himself. God said, “I am your great reward.” One of Abram’s descendants would be God in the flesh who would be the savior of the world – the salvation of all who trust in God to save them from their sins. This promise was first made to Adam and Eve on the day that they rebelled against God and fell into sin, and here it was repeated to Abram.

Scriptures say “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” This is why Christians look to Abraham as our Spiritual ancestor, even though he may not be our physical ancestor. We believe in the same God that Abraham knew and trusted. We recognize Jesus as the Christ, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all faithful people since Adam and Eve fell into sin.

God, Himself is our great reward. He is our savior from sin and death. He became incarnate as a man to take the punishment that we deserved because of our sin. Jesus endured God the Father’s wrath over our sin, and suffered the death that we deserved. He did this to rescue you from that same fate. We receive this salvation through faith, just as Abram was considered righteous by believing God’s promises. Do not be afraid. God is your shield and your very great reward.

Is Christmas Offensive?

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Christmas is the celebration of God’s gift of a savior to redeem us all from our sins

In a Pennsylvania town near Gettysburg, a family was asked to remove a Christmas decoration from in front of their house which prominently displayed the name, Jesus, because one of their neighbors described it as “offensive.” Is Christmas offensive?

I suppose there are many ways to answer this, but the truth is that yes, Christmas can be offensive to some, but the reality of Christmas celebrates the least offensive event in all of history.

First, there are people who misuse the name of Jesus only as a vulgar exclamation. If they see the name of Jesus as vulgar, then they would certainly see His birth as offensive. However, those who only use Christ’s name as a curse word are misusing it, and any offense they give or receive at the name of Jesus is their own fault, and not something that Jesus Himself is responsible for.

Likewise, there are people who would never use Jesus’ name as a vulgar exclamation, or as a curse, and in fact see themselves as good people, and who still might be offended by Christmas. Jesus is God who became incarnate as a person because that was the only way He could redeem us from our sins. Those “good” people who don’t admit to being sinners are offended that the birth of Jesus shows that they aren’t nearly as good as they think they are. They think they don’t need a savior, much less do they think that God Himself had to die to save them from their sins. They think that if God had to die for sinners, it must have been for “other people” who are worse than them. The birth of Jesus offends them because it puts them in the same category as people they despise nearly as much as Jesus.

The temptation to idolatry is the most common temptation that we face. We usually think of idol worship as bowing down to a man-made statue or some kind of false god. However, the most common form of idolatry is to think of one’s self as god. This, in effect, was the temptation which seduced Adam and Eve when they were still in the Garden of Eden. If this temptation corrupted Adam and Eve when they were still innocent, we, who are already corrupted by sin, are much more likely to fall for this temptation and see ourselves as our own god. Wherever this is true, we see the true God as a rival and we take offense at Him in His person, and in His word and works.

Mary heard the word of God and she believed.

In reality, the coming of God into our world as Jesus Christ was the least offensive thing ever to happen in the entire history of everything. At first it was known only to Mary when she heard and believed the words of the angel, Gabriel. Then Mary went to visit her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, who was the recipient of a slightly lesser miracle, but one which was just like the gift of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 21. Elizabeth (and her unborn child) rejoiced the moment she heard Mary greet her (see Luke 1:44).

After three months, when Mary went back to Nazareth and told Joseph the news, he did not rejoice. He was rather offended. He had been faithful and chaste and knew that he had not fathered any child, so when Mary shows up pregnant, he assumed that she had been unfaithful. This was a logical (though wrong) assumption. Ever since the creation of Adam and Eve, all people have been conceived the same way. No virgin, before or since, had ever become a mother. Matthew 1:19 tells us that Joseph had made up his mind to divorce Mary quietly, so as not to put her to shame, but I am sure that in their conversations that day there was more than a few tears shed by both Mary and Joseph. Such was the supposed offense.

That evening and angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” To Joseph’s credit he believed the word of God from the angel, even though it was essentially the same thing that Mary had told him earlier which he did not believe. The offense that he had presumed from Mary was so great that he couldn’t bring himself to believe her, at first, because she had every reason to lie if she was, in fact, unfaithful. Yet, when Joseph heard God’s word from the angel, he repented of his disbelief and kept Mary as his wife and continued to refrain from intimate relations with her until an appropriate time after Jesus was born.

The actual birth of Jesus was also most inoffensive. Joseph and Mary had to travel South to Bethlehem to comply with a decree from Caesar Augustus about registering in a census. Even though the Davidic dynasty of kings had ended several hundred years before the days of Joseph and Mary, there were likely many, many Jews of that day who could trace their ancestry back to King David. Remember that David’s youngest son and heir, Solomon, alone had 300 wives and 700 concubines, and surely also fathered more than his fair share of children, though the Scriptures don’t tell us how many children came from these arrangements. Even acknowledging that over the years some of David’s descendants may have lost track of their ancestral line, there surely was quite a crowd that was coming to Bethlehem to register for Caesar’s census. Yet, the birth of the Son of God didn’t put anyone out the night He was born. Instead, Mary and Joseph apparently stayed in a barn (or its equivalent), and placed the newborn baby Jesus in a manger as his first crib. This humble birth was the very opposite of offensive.

Joseph protected his family by taking them to Egypt until the death of Herod

That same night after Jesus was born, angels from God appeared to shepherds near Bethlehem and told them the good news about the birth of God’s Son, and they weren’t offended at all and came and worshiped Him. Likewise, when the Magi saw the star, and interpreted it to mean that a king was born to the Jews, they came to worship Him. However, they logically assumed that the new king was born in Jerusalem and first went there to find the royal baby. King Herod was not a descendant of David, nor a Jew, nor a Levite, nor even a descendant of Israel. When Herod heard about the birth of the King of the Jews, he took offense. Herod didn’t want a Jewish king. He wanted one of his sons (one whom he hadn’t yet killed) to succeed him as king, not a descendant of Judah born in Bethlehem. After the Magi left town without even saying goodbye and identifying the newborn King of the Jews, Herod sent soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the baby boys younger than two years.


The murderous insanity of Herod shows the tragic foolishness of taking offense at the birth of Jesus. Yet it also reminds us that we shouldn’t be surprised when people take offense at this wonderful event.


The birth of Christ is such an important event in human history that when the Roman empire became a Christian empire after Constantine legalized Christianity, they eventually made an effort to count the years from the birth of Jesus. They likely weren’t perfect in this, and we now believe Jesus was born around 3-4 B.C. as we count the years. The description of the years as B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini – year of our Lord) also offends people who don’t recognize Christ as Lord and they would rather describe the years as B.C.E. (before the Christian era, or before the “common” era) and C.E.

Jesus was rejected in Nazareth

Besides the birth of Jesus, people took offense at Jesus many times during His ministry. Luke 4:16-30 records the first time Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth after He was baptized by John and had endured 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, He read an appointed reading from Isaiah and then said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The men who heard this took offense at His words and took him out and intended to throw Him off a cliff, but this was not His time to die, yet, so He somehow miraculously and gently didn’t let them do Him harm and “passing through their midst, he went away.”


John 5 tells of a time when Jesus healed a crippled man on a Sabbath day, and the Pharisees took offense at this. They ought to have rejoiced that Jesus had mercy on this poor man who had been crippled for 38 years. Instead, they were offended that Jesus broke their man-made laws about Sabbath work. They were also offended that such a great miracle would draw the people’s respect and admiration to Him instead of them. Jesus was not breaking God’s laws about the Sabbath because as He told those who were offended, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” They also took offense at this because He was calling God His Father, and showing Himself equal with God. Though they ought to have recognized the evidence that Jesus is God, they instead sought to kill Him.

The idolatrous Jewish priests took offense at Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Some hard-hearted people even took offense at the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11). John 12:9-11 tells us that the chief Priests intended not only to kill Jesus, but to kill Lazarus as well because on account of this wonderful miracle many Jews were going away from their false teaching and following Jesus. They saw Jesus as a threat to their authority among the people and so they were offended.

The bottom line of Christmas is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Sinners who resent being reminded of the truth are offended by this. On the other hand, sinners who recognize their desperate situation and see the hope and comfort in God coming to save us from our sin rejoice in the birth of Jesus along with His life and death and resurrection from the dead.

This past year (2017) was one of the most painful years that I have ever experienced. You know it is bad when a broken leg (and subsequent recovery and rehabilitation) was not the worst thing that happened. Yet, the blessings of Christ and His forgiveness and salvation were a comfort to me in sickness and in health, in pain and in pleasure, in sorrow and in joy.

May the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won for you give you joy and peace and all blessings this Christmas season. May you never take offense at Christ or any of God’s work to redeem you and make you His beloved child. Merry Christmas.

The Promise of Christ in Water & Light

by Pastor Paul Wolff

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Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-16)

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Fish graphic supplied by GospelGifs.com. It is copyrighted and used with permission.

The early Christians had a clever way to describe Jesus. They made an acronym out of the phrase, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior,” which in Greek spelled the word for “fish.” This is one of the reasons why the fish became a symbol for the Christian faith. The fish is still a popular symbol for the Christian faith. The second century Church father, Tertullian, used this image in an essay on Baptism where he said, “We are born in water as little fish in the way of our fish Jesus Christ.” Tertullian was responding to a false Gnostic–influenced teacher who was trying to abolish the practice of Baptism in the church. Tertullian explained that the little fish can only survive in the water. If the little fish leave the water of Baptism to follow a false teacher, then they will perish.

This is a wonderful image of the life-giving and sustaining power of Holy Baptism, but it doesn’t seem to work well with our Scripture from Genesis 9. Man is not a fish, and in the great flood every person on earth drowned except Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and each man’s wife – eight people in the whole world survived the flood.

The story of the flood is frightening because in it we see a just God rightly bringing judgment to a world full of sinners. Yet, we are all sinners. We have all sinned against God and deserve His wrath and punishment. What is more, we are born sinners. We are guilty from the moment of our conception – having inherited the sinful condition from our parents. Even if there was something we could do to make up for our actual sins (there isn’t) there is nothing we can do to change our inherited sin.

How do we know that God won’t bring His righteous judgment down on us? Well, that is exactly the question which is answered in Genesis 9.

Noah trusted in God’s promise of a savior.

The first thing we need to remember is that God spared eight people from the flood – along with two of every kind of living creature, and seven of all the ‘clean’ animals. Now, you may ask, “What is eight people among the thousands, perhaps, millions of people on the earth at the time?” In response I will ask a more pertinent question, “Why did God bother to save Noah’s family at all?”


Scripture describes Noah as a righteous man (Genesis 6:9), but the scriptures also show that neither Noah, nor his sons, were sinless. After the flood God said, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is is evil from his youth; nor will I destroy every living thing as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21) This is almost exactly what God said before the flood. (See Genesis 6:5-7) So, if God did not eliminate sinners from the world, then why did He save Noah and his family? It was purely out of His grace for the sake of a promise God had given Adam and Eve that one of their descendants would crush the serpent’s head and bring redemption to all people. Christ had not yet come in the days of Noah, so God saved Noah’s family in order to keep His promise and bring salvation to the world through Christ.

God keeps His promises, so when He says, “Never again will I destroy every living thing as I have done,” we can rest assured that God will keep this promise. Also God designates the rainbow as a sign of this promise. A rainbow is nothing but raindrops and light, and although it is one of the most beautiful things in creation, it is not the colors which make it a symbol of God’s promise, but its shape. It is shaped like a bow – a weapon of war. But instead of shooting arrows, the rain was God’s weapon to destroy all the unbelieving, violent people on earth.

God has set his bow in the clouds, and has promised never to use it against us again.

Then, after the flood, God said, “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” (v. 13) Here God is saying that He is hanging up His weapon – out in the open, for all to see. Though you should notice that when God establishes the rainbow as a symbol of His promise that it isn’t primarily a symbol for you and me. It is a reminder for God Himself! He says, “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” (v. 16) This should be a triple comfort for us. 1) God promises not to destroy us, despite our sin. 2) The sign is not for us to remember, but for Him, and He will never forget, even if we do forget. 3) God is not up in heaven somewhere far away, but that He is right here with us, because rainbows are only visible on the earth.

That third comfort is a little hard to imagine for us who are used to seeing rainbows here on earth. I remember one time I was in an airplane in the middle of the day. We were flying above the clouds, and I looked out the window and saw the shadow of the airplane on the clouds beneath us. Surrounding the shadow of the plane on the clouds was a circular prism of light. It wasn’t shaped like a bow, but a perfect, full ring of light. If we imagine that God is somewhere in the heavens, high above the clouds, then He would not see a rainbow, but a full circle of light. For God to see the rainbow (as He said He would), He must be down here with us, standing on the earth. God is not far away – high above the clouds. He is right here with us at all times. 

If you remember that I said earlier that the image of the fish didn’t seem to work so well with this story, but in St. Peter’s first Epistle he makes the connection between the flood and Baptism. He says,

“God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” (1 Peter 3:19-21)

You should remember that Noah took two of every kind of land animal and bird, but he did not take any fish on the ark, because the flood was not a great danger to the fish. (Though we can see from the fossil record that some fish were caught in the sediment from the flood, but it wasn’t a great extinction threat compared to the land animals.) But God treated Noah and his family as if they were fish. God spared Noah and his family for the sake of our fish – Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our savior.

Noah and his family trusted in God. They built the ark and they went inside with all the animals trusting that God would not only bring the flood, but would protect them and see them safely through it. Their trust in God to save them made them little fishes belonging to our savior Jesus Christ.

It is very sad that there were likely no believers that drowned in the flood. St. Peter also called Noah a “preacher of righteousness,” but no one besides his immediate family joined him on the ark. The way of the world is that sinners do not acknowledge their sin. We do not see the great peril that we are in, nor acknowledge that the judgment of God is just. The way of the world is seductive. The world thinks that its wicked ways are great fun, and tries to lure the little fish away from the protection of the Baptismal waters. But the little fish cannot survive if lured away from the water.

Jesus was baptized into the guilt of your sin so you could be baptized out of it.

If you have been baptized you have salvation in Christ. Would you live in God’s Baptismal grace as a child of Christ your savior, or would you rather follow the ways of the world? If the whole world decides to abandon Christ, is it wise to follow only for the pleasure of the moment? In the days of Noah the whole world did abandon God as their savior, and they all perished. But Noah and His family were saved on account of Christ, by believing God’s promise to send a savior (Jesus).

The covenant God made to not destroy the world again with a flood was made on account of Christ. God has every right to punish us for our sins, but He poured out His wrath on Jesus instead. Jesus suffered and died on the cross, taking the punishment for the sins of the whole world so that we need never fear the wrath of God. Through Holy Baptism, not only are our sins washed away, but we are given a new birth as God’s Children. Like Noah, we are saved by God’s grace for Christ’s sake. If “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” is the fish, then through Baptism we are born as little fishes. We need not fear the coming judgment, nor the wrath of God. We are safe in the waters of Holy Baptism. Even if the whole world turn away from Christ, we will remain with Him, both now and for all eternity – little fish under the protection of our one, true fish Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Our Savior.

The Seductive Danger of Lies

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus called the devil the “father of lies”
and did not fall for the temptations.

When I first began teaching religion classes at the Lutheran school connected with the church where I was first called to be the pastor, I was really shocked at how freely and easily lies passed over the lips of the beautiful, precious children whom I was called to teach. I don’t know if that was something peculiar to Detroit or if it was just the wickedness of the time. It could have been related to the fact that many of our students were not Lutheran, but were members of neo-Pentecostal churches. I have since come to realize that the so-called “charismatic Christians” are very practiced liars. They all pretend to have special “gifts” like speaking in tongues, or hearing God talk to them, in order to make others think that they are closer to God. They claim this comes from the Holy Spirit, but that is a lie. Many charismatics will not think twice about contradicting the true Word of God found in the Holy Scriptures in favor of what they “feel in their heart”. I don’t recall now if those children who lied to me so frequently were all Pentecostals (I didn’t treat them any differently than anyone else – both Lutherans and charismatics need to hear the same Biblical teachings of Law and Gospel), but it is likely that this may be an explanation. Either way, I seem to recall that when I was in school lying was actively discouraged so that it was fairly infrequent, rather than being the normal thing to do. It still happened, (Lutherans lie, too) but the first use of the law did its work and lying was infrequent.

The temptation to lie comes from a desire to gain advantage over others which we wouldn’t have if the truth were known. We lie to try to evade punishment for a wrong we have done. We lie to flatter someone so they will think we are nicer than we are and so will favor us with their friendship. We lie to otherwise make ourselves seem better than we really are.

It is commonly said that the truth hurts. This is only because as sinners we are far too comfortable with lying and the ill-gotten “benefits” of those lies. Holy Scripture says something much different about the truth. Jesus says, “I am the truth.” (John 14:6) This explains a lot about the prevalence of lies in this world. Sinners, by nature, are inclined to follow the lies of the devil rather than the truth of Jesus. Jesus identifies the devil as “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

Our susceptibility to lies goes back to the Garden of Eden when Eve believed the lie of the devil who said, “You shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4), when God had said, “The day you eat of (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Eve believed the lie because the lie made it seem as if she would then be in control like God. By believing the lie Eve – and soon thereafter, Adam – brought sin and death not only to themselves, but also to all their descendants.

The prophet Jeremiah lamented the prevalence of lies among God’s people when he prophesied this: “‘[My people] make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,’ declares the Lord. ‘Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:3-6) It is very instructive that the lies are portrayed as deadly weapons shot from the mouth as arrows are shot from a bow. God is not being cynical, He is lamenting that the truth seems foreign to His people and the lies are destroying them.

The 20th century German Lutheran theologian, Hermann Sasse, noted the destructive nature of lies in a 1936 Essay titled “Union and Confession”. He wrote, 

“The lie is the death of man, his temporal and his eternal death. The lie kills nations. The most powerful nations of the world have been laid waste because of their lies. … Where man can no longer bear the truth, he cannot live without the lie. … For the power of the lie extends right into the church. … For men in the church are and remain poor sinners until their death. Lies have been told in the church because of cowardice and weakness, vanity and avarice. But beyond all these there is in the church one particularly sweet piece of fruit on the broad canopy of the tree of lies. There is the pious lie. It is the hypocrisy by which a man lies to others and the intellectual self-deception by which he lies to himself about what he actually believes. … What a fearful thought it is indeed that things are taught in the church which are not true, under the guise of the eternal truth entrusted to her. No atheism, no Bolshevism can do as much damage and destruction as the pious lie, the lie in the church.” 

Sasse was focusing on a lie which said that disagreements in doctrine are insignificant for unity in the church, but what he said could apply to any lie in the church. Lies kill.

You would think logically that if lies are so destructive that people would tend to avoid them out of a desire for self-preservation, but that is not the case. Jeremiah 5:30-31 says, “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so.” We are tempted to believe that lies give us some benefit or advantage, and that makes us afraid of the truth, and fear leads to cowardice because of weakness. The lies told in church often are told to make the people think that their sinfulness is not as bad as it is in reality. Since no one takes pleasure in admitting his sinfulness, people love to hear the pious lies. It is much more comfortable to believe a lie which says that I am not such a bad person.

Political commentator Ann Coulter observed this, “People don’t get angry when lies are told about them; they get angry when the truth is told about them.” Coulter writes about politics, but what she observes comes from sinful human nature and has consequences in many aspects of life. Proverbs 29:12 says, “If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.” When such political considerations find their way into the church (and they always do find a way in) that is when the church gets into trouble. In a sinful society, such as our own, pastors feel great pressure not to preach the truth of God’s Law about the sinfulness of the people. If the pastors can make the people feel good about themselves then the people will reward the lying pastors and make their lives comfortable and easy. However, if the pastors persist in telling the truth, then the unrepentant people will turn away and go find some slick, lying, charlatan pastor who will tell them what they want to hear. The lie may be more comfortable to hear for the moment, but there is no salvation in the lie. If we think that our sin is not too bad then we will not feel a need for a savior and will only have contempt for Jesus.

Preaching Jesus as the savior for sinners is the very definition of the Gospel that God has revealed in Holy Scripture – the same Gospel which saves those sinners who hear it and believe it. The problem is that the Gospel presumes the Law. If Jesus is only the savior of sinners, then that condemns me if I would rather listen to the lies that tell me that I am really a pretty good person and my sin is not such a big problem. If I prefer the lie to the truth, then I will only hear the Gospel as condemning law. Even the pure, life-giving Gospel of Jesus will be a damning law to me if I believe that I don’t need a savior who had to die to redeem me. That is why the lie is so dangerous.

“Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.” (Proverbs 23:23) Those who sell out the truth harm themselves along with those who pay so well for their own destruction. But the truth of Jesus as our savior from sin is so valuable that we should treasure it and “buy” it no matter the cost. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matt 13:45-46) In one way, Jesus is “The Truth” which is the precious treasure more valuable than all the riches of the world. However, in another way, Jesus is the merchant who considered us to be such a great treasure that He gave up all He had to redeem us from our sin, so that we may be His own.

Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. … So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 9:31-32, 36) Jesus is the Truth who sets us free from our slavery to sin and lies.



* * *
Herman Sasse quote from The Lonely Way, p. 266-267, “Union and Confession” (1936), Concordia Publishing House, 2001.
Ann Coulter quote from How to talk to a Liberal (if you must) P. 10, Crown Forum, 2004.

Shepherd Visitors

The Shepherds worship Jesus

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:8-20)

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There is quite a history of shepherds in the Bible. Faithful Abel was a shepherd. Abraham kept flocks, as well as Isaac, Israel (Jacob), and Israel’s twelve sons. Perhaps the best known shepherd in the Bible is David. When the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem to anoint his youngest son as God’s choice to be the next king of Israel, David was out in the fields tending the sheep.

Though David would become the most faithful and successful king in Israel’s history, he is equally well known as the author of Psalm 23:

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Jesus: The Good Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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It is neither an accident, nor a coincidence that Jesus was born in the same town as King David. God is perhaps the greatest poet in history, linking historical events, prophesy, and the historical fulfillment of prophesy together through Christ. Though the Holy Scriptures frequently use the metaphor of the people as the sheep and God as the shepherd, there is no passage in Scripture more memorable than Psalm 23. It shows us the proper attitude we all should have toward God that a great king such as David would consider himself a lowly lamb who dutifully follows where God leads as his shepherd. This also shows why David is considered a great king, despite his great wickedness and sins. All of David’s success came from God, and he remembered that his whole life.

Jesus: the Lamb of God

God had promised David that one of his descendants would be the long-awaited savior of the world. Jesus is the fulfillment of that long-awaited promise. Jesus is both the Good Shepherd, who cares for the sheep, and Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who endures the punishment for the sin of the world. God was with David throughout his whole life. From the time he was a lowly shepherd to when he was king of Israel, God cared for David as a shepherd cares for his sheep. And when David committed great wicked sins, God was there to rebuke David, but only to bring him to repentance so that David would know that all his sins were forgiven for the sake of the promised savior (Jesus). That is the kind of a God we have.

The shepherds who were near Bethlehem on the evening when Jesus was born surely knew God’s promises to send a savior. When they heard the message of the angel they hurried into town to see their savior in the flesh. The shepherds believed the Word of God from the angel though the baby Jesus was seemingly a helpless infant, and Mary and Joseph had to place Jesus in a manger because no one had sacrificed their own comfort to make the incarnate God more comfortable for his first night out of the Blessed Virgin’s womb. When the shepherds returned to their fields they praised God that He had kept His promises and had come to earth in our flesh to redeem us from our sins.