Repent or Perish

Monday after Reminiscere 

  

There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?  I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)

Jesus constantly refocuses those to whom He preaches from their preoccupation with themselves, to what is truly important – Him. The question asked of Jesus here is reminiscent of the question asked of Him by His disciples regarding the man born blind. (John 9:1-5) Then, the disciples asked Jesus to tell them who’s sin was responsible for the man’s blindness: his, or that of his parents. Jesus’ answer surprised His disciples. He said neither. Jesus said that the man was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:3) This came as a shock to the disciples who, like most others in that culture, saw such things as blindness and other tragedies of circumstance, as God’s punishment for sin. They wanted to know why the terrible thing happened; they probably wanted to know for the same reason that we today cry out, “Why, God?” when bad things happen to us and to those we love. They were trying to justify themselves.

We might be bad, but we’re surely not as bad as that man; after all, God struck him with blindness. The very best spin one could put on one’s motives for knowing why would be that they wanted to avoid sinning, so that they weren’t punished in a similar way. But that isn’t really it. We want to compare ourselves with others so as to prove that we are, if not actually good, not completely bad and worthy of damnation. Such an attitude is the likely motivation of the ones who questioned Jesus about the Galileans.

Jesus sets them straight right away. They are focusing their eyes on their neighbor. In order to get their eyes focused on Him, He must first focus their eyes on themselves. “Do you suppose That these Galileans were worse sinners than other Galileans, because they suffered such things?” says Jesus. He answers His own question immediately and tells them no. “But unless you repent you will all likewise perish,” Jesus tells them bluntly. Don’t worry about what kind of sinners your neighbors are. There is only one sinner who will cause you to be separated from God forever, and be cast into hell where their worm does not die, and their fire never goes out – you. You, along with with every other member of the human race have been poisoned with the toxin of sin from the time you were conceived. (Psalm 51:5) The imaginations of your heart have been evil from your youth, just like everyone else’s. (Genesis 8:21) Is this sinner worse than that sinner? Are tragic events punishments for our sin? Why do bad things happen to good people?

These questions take our focus off the real issue. There are no good people, at least from God’s perspective. Terrible things that happen may or may not be direct punishments for individual actual sins, but only God knows that; they are definitely punishments in the sense that terrible things that happen to us, like death, are the result of our sin, and we experience all types of consequences of sin because we live in a creation which is fallen, cursed, and full of sin. From God’s perspective, we all are the worst sinner. We all deserve the things that happen to us. We all deserve death.

Jesus calls us to repentance, that is, He calls us to recognize and be horrified by sin, and to believe in Jesus as our savior from sin, death, and the devil. (Luther 2005) Jesus tells us that He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by the shedding of his own blood. (Mark 10:45; John 1:29)

“Brutal murders, shocking accidents, death in whatever form – all are sermons of God’s law: the soul that sins will die. Death is one way God calls people to repentance, lest they perish eternally. Some falsely conclude that if nothing really bad happens to them in life, it is a sign that they have been living good lives. Jesus is teaching that not only certain very wicked people need to repent but repentance is necessary for everyone.” (Prange 2000)

He calls us to endure the suffering we experience in this fallen world with an eye on the coming new creation, “…for here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” (Hebrews 12:14) The purpose of the Lenten season is to help us understand our circumstances, to repent of our sin, and to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning it’s shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) ###

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Bibliography

Luther, Martin. 2005. Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Prange, Victor H. 2000. Luke. Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

Jesus speaks this parable to His disciples after teaching them about the coming of the Kingdom of God, recorded in the previous chapter.[1] In that teaching, Jesus compares the time before the Last Judgment to the time of Noah before the flood. His return will be like lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven and shines to the other part under heaven. It will be no secret; it will happen quickly, and without warning. He warns His disciples to beware of those false teachers who would lead them astray to follow false Christs: The kingdom of God does not come with observation. One gets the impression from the disciples’ response, “Where, Lord,” that they were, perhaps, spooked by what Jesus said to them.

Jesus spoke the parable of the persistent widow to the disciples to show them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. To make His point, Jesus compares the petitioning of God by His Elect to a woman seeking justice from a corrupt judge. The judge doesn’t do right by the widow because it is the right thing to do under the law, or because he is compassionate and feels sorry for her; he grants her petition because of her persistence. She brings her petition before the judge constantly and, because he doesn’t want to be annoyed by her “continual coming”, he grants it.

At first, we might think the lesson here is that if we are persistent and tenacious enough in our prayer to God, He will eventually relent and give us whatever we ask of Him, lest by our continual coming we weary Him. This is not the lesson. God is not like the corrupt judge of the parable. I should be greatly disturbed if our God was the type of god who would give us whatever we pray for, regardless of what He has previously said in His word, simply because we prayed persistently enough. That might work with beleaguered parents dealing with cleaver and persistent children scheming to get their way, but it isn’t how God operates with mankind. St. Paul was surely persistent in his prayers to God to remove his thorn in the flesh. God, far from relenting because of St. Paul’s persistent and fervent prayer, told him, “My grace is sufficient for you. For My strength is made perfect in weakness.”[2]

No, the lesson here is similar to the lesson Jesus teaches in His Sermon on the Mount:

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him![3]

Or, to His parable of the persistent friend:

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.[4]

Jesus uses the illustration of the corrupt to magnify the goodness and love of God. Even the sinful Pharisees know how to answer the petition of the people they love, their sons and daughters, in a way that benefits them. Don’t you suppose the God who created the universe by speaking it into existence, who describes Himself as love[5] knows how to do that better than they do?

Justice for the widow in the parable was anything but certain. It depended on her persistence in bringing her petition before the corrupt judge. It depended on how effectively she could annoy him. God’s justice, which will be revealed in the form of Christ’s judgment of the living and the dead on the Last Day, is assured. Still, He encourages us to pray persistently, along with all those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held, who cry out with a loud voice, saying,

“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”[6]

St. Peter tells us that it won’t be long; God isn’t being slow, even if that’s what it looks like to us. Christ hasn’t forgotten about us. He isn’t waiting for all the geopolitical puzzle pieces to fall into their proper places before He sets His return to earth in motion. He could return any time. That’s why He tells us to wait expectantly, like the servant who works diligently while his master is away on a journey, and is found so doing when his master returns.[7] That’s why he compares Christians waiting for His return with bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom with lamps trimmed and burning.[8] No, His delay means salvation for men:

But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.[9]

So we, Jesus’ disciples, always ought to pray and not lose heart. Even though we pray with our sainted brothers and sisters in heaven, “How long, O Lord?”, we know that God is faithful and will keep His promises to us. Christ died for our sins, and rose for our justification; He gave us a pledge to assure us of the forgiveness He won for us on the cross in the Lord’s Supper. And, not only to assure us, but to actually deliver it to us. In that meal Christ gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins. It is His New Testament in His blood. It is a living proclamation and distribution of His saving death and all its blessings.[10] Just as He saved eight souls through water by shutting them in the ark in the days of Noah, so Christ brings us into the ark of His Church, through the waters of Holy Baptism,[11] and saves us from the flood of fire that is to come upon the earth when He returns. All the time He waits to return in judgment is time for men to hear His Word, repent of their sins, receive His gifts, and be saved.

Just because He has waited this long, however, does not mean He will continue to wait forever. We know that,

“…the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”[12]

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? The tone of Jesus’ question is ominous. After all, out of the entirety of mankind, only Noah and his family were saved from the flood. The flood, which serves as a type and shadow of the Last Judgement, suggests things will be similar when Christ returns. Yet we, heeding Christ’s words, remain persistent in our prayers, trusting that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church,[13] just as He has promised.

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[1] Luke 17:20-37

[2] 2 Corinthians 12:7-9

[3] Matthew 7:9-11

[4] Luke 11:5-13

[5] Genesis 1:1-29 - 2:1; 1 John 4:8

[6] Revelation 6:9-10

[7] Mark 13:33-37

[8] Matthew 25:1-13

[9] 2 Peter 3:7-9

[10] Luther, Martin. Luther's Small Catechism, with Explanation. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005. p. 236, question 294. See also 1 Cor. 11:26.

[11] 1 Peter 3:18-22

[12] 2 Peter 3:10-13

[13] Matthew 16:15-20

Jesus Warns of Offenses

Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him” (Luke 17:1-4).

Because we are fallen, sinful creatures living in a fallen and sinful creation, Jesus tells us that sin is inevitable. There is no escaping it while we are in the world. Scripture shows us that unregenerate, unbelieving man is, by his nature, sinful and unclean; we are, by nature, objects of God’s wrath who do not, and cannot accept the spiritual things of God, because we are spiritually blind and dead in our sins. The believing Christian as well, who has been washed clean of their sin by the waters of Holy Baptism, though joined to Christ in His death and resurrection, must still contend with sin in their own flesh. St. Paul describes this struggle in his letter to the Romans:

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do…For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and brining me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.[1]

Jesus warns unbeliever and believer alike to take heed.

But we are to deal with sin differently than the unbelieving world, which looks for payback for wrongs done to it. Jesus says we are to rebuke sin, and we are to forgive it: If your brother sins against you, rebuke him (Law); if he repents, forgive him (Gospel). This would be difficult enough to do when the sins against us were relatively small, but Jesus makes no distinction between big and little sins. He also doesn’t put a limit on the number of times we are to forgive the penitent sinner. “Seven times a day” isn’t meant to be a forgiveness limit, but rather an illustration that we are to constantly forgive those who repent. That is, after all, how God deals with us. That is why Jesus teaches us to say, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” when we pray. God the Father deals with us and our sins this way, in Jesus. We constantly sin against God; yet, for the sake of Christ, the one who gave His life as our ransom on the cross while we were still His enemies, forgives us. He forgives us every time we repent. We don’t deserve such treatment, neither could we earn it. Likewise, our brother who sins against us does not deserve such treatment from us, nor can he earn it. Yet, we are compelled by the love of Christ, to allow His forgiveness to overflow from us to our brother. Freely have we received God’s gifts in Christ, freely shall we give.

The response of the Apostles is one of astonishment: Increase our faith, they plead. Indeed. It is impossible for us by the strength of our own will, to forgive offenses against us the way God forgives our sins, in Christ. Our sinful nature cries out for justice to be done to the transgressors, all the while ignoring the uncomfortable fact that, by this standard of justice, our transgressions also deserve to be punished. Our new nature, rather than crying out for God’s justice, pleads for His mercy, because it knows that it cannot stand before God without the covering of Christ. The Psalmist writes,

If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.[2]

We certainly must, along with the Apostles, pray for the increase of our faith, for our faith is tinier than a mustard seed. The prayer of the father with the demon-possessed son should constantly be on our lips: Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Isaiah, speaking about the Servant of the LORD, Jesus the Messiah, says this: A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench.[3] Bruised reeds and smoking flax that we are, Christ calls us to repentance. Christ died for the sins of the world according to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again for our justification on the third day. It is through the preaching of this Gospel, this Good News, that He strengthens the bruised reeds, and fans the smoking flax into flame: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.[4] This is why we Christians are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, even though the unbelieving world would ridicule and persecute us because of it. It is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.[5] Christ answers our prayer for increased faith every time we gather with our brothers and sisters in Christ to hear His Word proclaimed, and to eat His body and drink His blood, as He instructs us to do. Through this means Christ gives us the gifts He won for us on the cross, forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and He strengthens and preserves us in the one true faith.

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[1] Romans 7:15, 22-23

[2] Psalm 130:3-4

[3] Isaiah 42:3

[4] Romans 10:7

[5] Romans 1:16

Leaving All to Follow Christ

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Despite what it may look like, Jesus is not telling His disciples to hate their families; to understand Jesus’ words this way would be to read them out of context, and to misrepresent what Jesus is trying to teach. It would be odd and inconsistent for Jesus to say here that, in order to be His disciple one must forsake house and home, wife and child, land and animals, and even body and life. This is what the Pharisees did, or at least what they appeared to do; Jesus rebukes them for it. They forsook their families, denying care to their own parents in order to devote the money they would’ve otherwise spent for that purpose as a gift to God. How pious! That type of denial and sacrifice seems to be what Jesus is calling for here, but it is not. He rebukes the Pharisees for “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.”[1] The Word of God says that we are to honor father and mother. The Pharisees were not doing so; they were breaking God’s command by not caring for their parents, even though they took the money they would have used to care for them and diverted it for “holy” purposes. It isn’t a good work to give a monetary gift to God, if in doing so we break His command. Rather, we should give the gift, and at the same time fear and love God, so that we may not despise nor anger our parents and masters, but give them honor, serve, obey, and hold them in love and esteem.

The reformers dealt with the same type of issue. People viewed those who took monastic vows as a kind of “first class” Christian. Those monks were much better than the average layman. They were doing an especially good work; they were forsaking the world and devoting themselves to serving God. In his Smalcald Articles, Luther answers this mindset bluntly:

He who makes a vow to live as a monk believes that he will enter upon a way of life holier than ordinary Christians lead. He wants to earn heaven by his own works, not only for himself, but also for others. This is to deny Christ.[2]

So, what does Jesus mean when He says we cannot be His disciple unless we hate our father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and our own life? We know He wants us to care for our parents; we know He doesn’t want us to make up our own traditions to follow, which make us look holier than the average Christian for the purpose of earning our way into the Kingdom of Heaven by our own inadequate works. So what does He want?

Jesus wants us to know what is ultimately important. He wants us to know that what is ultimately important is not this body and life, our goods, fame, child, or wife. He wants us to know that, though these things all be gone, our victory has been won; the kingdom ours remaineth. The Kingdom of God, into which we entered by the blood of Christ is ours – now. We who are connected to Christ, to His death and resurrection in our baptism, have what He promises us, and it is the most important thing ever: the forgiveness of our sins, and eternal life, resurrected from our grave in our own perfected body, with Christ forever, in the new and restored creation, where we will be forever free from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Jesus wants us to understand what is ultimately important. Our families, our possessions, our lives…these are all good gifts from God. But,

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me.”[3]

By telling us to hate our father and mother, Jesus is pointing us back to His Law, given to Moses:

“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.”[4]

God and His Word is the most important thing. God’s Word is the means by which He converts us, forgives us, and makes us alive in Christ, who is the Word incarnate. Here God tells the people that He is more important to them than the bonds of friendship or family, so much so that even if our family members try to lead us astray from the faith, we should choose Christ over them. Thankfully, since we no longer live in the theocratic nation of Old Testament Israel, like Moses and the Israelites, we are no longer bound by the civil law of that country, and we are therefore not obligated to put our heretic relatives to death. The obligation of the moral law, however, does remain binding: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, and love, and trust in God above all things. This is what Jesus means when, explaining that He has not come to bring peace, but a sword, says,

“For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”[5]

This is why He tells us not to fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul – our enemies in this world, who hate the Gospel and seek to tear down Christ’s Church. Instead, Jesus says we should fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell – God. The unbelieving world may be able to persecute us. They may be able to mistreat us, and steal our property, and even murder us. Christ says, so be it. Those things, good as they may be, are not ultimately important. If you think they are and are not willing to let them go, you have already received your reward. In Christ, the kingdom ours remaineth. They can’t take away from us what God the Father has promised us in Christ, that which is of ultimate importance – the forgiveness of sins, and our life everlasting. Because He lives, we shall live.

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[1] Mark 7:11

[2] SA III XIV 2

[3] Matthew 10:37

[4] Deuteronomy 13:6-9

[5] Matthew 10:35-36

Leaving All to Follow Christ

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:25-33).

As Jesus continues on His way, great multitudes follow. These are not Jesus’ disciples. They are following Jesus out of curiosity. They want to see Jesus the miracle worker. They want to see him heal, and cast out demons, and multiply loaves and fishes. He tried to teach His disciples privately but, as soon as word spread, the multitudes sought out Jesus.[1] Every time the multitudes came to Jesus, he had compassion on them. He did heal the sick and feed the hungry. More importantly, he taught them about the kingdom of God. The people were more concerned with meeting their physical needs. Jesus will demonstrate that this is not what we should worry about. We should worry about eternal life. Multitudes would continue to follow Jesus throughout his ministry. So little do they understand Jesus and His purpose, that they will meet Him as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, hailing Him the Son of David; by the end of the week they will stand before Pilate and call for Him to be crucified, asking for a murderer in exchange.

Jesus clarifies what is really important. He says to them that anyone who would come to Him must hate his father and mother. What does this mean? Are we not taught by Holy Scripture that he who does not love does not know God, for God is love?[2] How can Jesus tell us we must hate our families? Jesus is the same God who gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. Is Jesus now contradicting The Fourth Commandment, which says thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother? If He is, He is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as he claims.[3] God does not change, and He does not lie.[4] No, Jesus is admonishing the multitudes to examine themselves. Following Jesus would demand, from an earthly perspective, great sacrifice. Christ Himself said that he came to bring division;[5] in other words, some people would believe in Him, and some would not. Even families would be divided over faith in Christ. If anyone would follow Jesus, his love for Christ must precede all other love, even the love of family and friends.[6] He can have no other gods. Jesus shows this to the rich young ruler. The man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, something which cannot be done perfectly. The young man answers that he has kept them, but Jesus exposes his idolatry. He calls the man to sell all that he has and distribute to the poor. The man loved his wealth more than God. He went away sorrowful.

We, too, belong to the multitudes. We would treat Jesus as our own personal bread king. We want Him to grant us health, money, love, success, and all manner of other earthly blessings. We think these things are the most important things. Jesus would show us otherwise. We are working for food which perishes, and for treasure which will rot away.[7] Jesus would have us seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.[8] He teaches us to pray, not for piles of wealth so that we can live our best life now, but for our daily bread.[9] It was our sin which put Jesus on the cross. We, along with the multitudes, delivered Jesus up to death; we killed the author of life.[10] We justly deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. But it was to save mankind from such punishment that Christ came into the world. While we were still his enemies, Christ came to earth in human flesh, kept God’s law perfectly, lived a sinless life, and went to the cross to die for us, the ungodly.[11] He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God, in Christ.[12] And though He died on the cross, on the third day Jesus rose again. Repent, and believe the Gospel. Jesus did not come into the world so that we could be rich and successful; Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom we are the worst.[13]

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[1] Luke 9:10-11

[2] 1 John 4:8

[3] John 8:48-59

[4] Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; Number 23:19; John 17:17

[5] Luke 12:49-53

[6] Kretzmann, Paul E. Popular Commentary of the Bible. Vol. 1. 2 vols. St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.

[7] Matthew 6:19-21

[8] Matthew 6:33

[9] Luke 11:1-4

[10] Acts 3:14-15

[11] Romans 5:8

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[13] 1 Timothy 1:15