Friday, April 22, 2011

Seeds of the Atonement of Jesus


And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." Mark 4


In this tiny parable, Jesus tells us that the Good News of salvation is to be spread without a care as to who hears it. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that produces the faith in us. We hear the good news of forgiveness of sin, and we believe.

We cannot explain how it happens as we are not told how. In fact, in this little parable it says the man that scatters seed does not know how it happens, and that the earth produces by itself. It is the Holy Spirit using the Gospel that does the work.

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12


In this parable, Jesus speaks of his own death, burial, and resurrection. It is He that bears fruit, it is He that brings us life. We are the fruit that Jesus has borne. It is because of Father's great love for us that Jesus fell into the earth and died. After three days in the earth, He rose to life. We have heard the gospel, it has killed our old man, and raised up the creature of faith.

Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

http://fivepintlutheran.blogspot.com/2011/04/jesus-our-mercy-seat.html
http://luthermatic.blogspot.com/2011/04/cross-and-idolatry_22.html

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Forgiveness


The gospel is the good news that your sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus. There is nothing to add on to that good news. Not even a "if you repent". Our forgiveness does not depend on our reaction to it. It already is. We are forgiven.