“The Present--A Gift from God"
Ezekiel 33:7-20
The 3rd Sunday in Lent
In the Name of Jesus
It’s always been a bit confusing being a Christian. On the one hand, we’re always having it pounded into our heads from Ephesians chapter 2, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast.” Okay, good, great, I get it. We’re saved by faith in what Christ has done for us. Because He died on the cross, our sins are forgiven. Simple. To the point. That’s the good news of the Gospel. But on the other hand, along comes James, the brother of Jesus, who says in his Letter to the Christian Church, chapter 2, “Faith without works is dead.” He says, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith BY my works…Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed BY his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:18, 21-24). So St. James tells us we’re saved by faith which is active in good works, while St. Paul reminds us that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith. These two apostles, which we believe were BOTH writing the inspired words of the Holy Spirit, seem to be contradicting each other!
But today, the Lord makes the point clear to us as He speaks to the prophet Ezekiel. We’re saved by where we put our trust. Let me repeat that: We’re saved by where we put our trust.
Do you figure God will save you by how good you’ve been all your life? Your parents started bringing you to church when you were a little baby and you were baptized then. They continued bringing you to church faithfully, and when you were old enough, you started going to Sunday School every Sunday. You were taught about the love of Jesus, and all through the years, even through Confirmation and now as an adult, you’ve never disagreed with one point in the Bible. You even try to share the love of God with others in your life. You give a portion of your income to the Church, and you try to live the way God wants you to live. So where do you look? You’ve been pretty good in the past—is that what’s going to save you? No. Your past obedience will not save you.
On the other hand, you might look into your past and see that you have a lot of sins and failures in your life. There are lots of times you knew the good that the Lord wanted you to do, but you failed to do it. There are other times when you knew you shouldn’t do that bad thing, but you went ahead and did it anyway, almost like spitting in God’s face. And you wonder if God could forgive you, because you’ve been a rebellious child. So where do you look? You’ve been pretty bad in the past—is that going to condemn you forever? No. Yesterday’s sins and failures will not condemn you if you listen to God’s call to repent.
But just as looking back to past obedience will not save you, nor will past disobedience condemn you, in the same way we might look to the future. This year I’m going to do better. I’m going to read my Bible more, I’m going to pray more often, I’m going to be more faithful in my church attendance, and I’m going to look for opportunities to tell others about Jesus. So, where do you look? Are your “campaign promises” to God going to save you? Of course not. Tomorrow’s good intentions won’t save you today.
But looking to the future, you might have every good intention of being faithful to the Lord, but at the same time, you know you’re a sinner. You may try to read your Bible more often, but things come up and you get busy, and the more you feel guilty about it, the more it just robs the joy out of spending time in God’s Word, because you feel you have to do it out of obligation and you feel bad when you don’t do it. You try to pray more often, but you always seem to get distracted or fall asleep when you’re praying. You try to look for opportunities to share Jesus’ love with others, but when the time comes, you don’t really know what to say and you “chicken out.” So, where do you look? Are all your failings of tomorrow going to keep you out of heaven? No. You may fail God tomorrow, but that won’t condemn you today.
Today is the day God has given you as a gift. That’s why it’s called “the present.” Today God calls you to seek His mercy. Today God holds out the gift of forgiveness in Jesus. Today God wants to wipe your slate clean from all of the mistakes and failures of the past. Today God wants to offer His reassurance that He will be with you tomorrow, and will forgive you for the mistakes and failures you will commit then. But it’s today that He takes you by the hand and guides you, helping you by His Holy Spirit to walk the way He wants you to go. You can bet that you’ll stumble and fall occasionally, or maybe a lot, but the Lord will be there to catch you.
So, where do you look? In our Ezekiel reading, the Lord says, “The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins” (v. 12). Do you look to your own good deeds to save you? If you do, then you’d better be perfect! Because when you commit one sin, then it’s enough to cancel out every single good thing you’ve done. It’s all or nothing. On the other hand, do you look to your own wickedness, figuring that you’re such a sinner that God could never forgive what you have done? God says that it’s not your wickedness that will make you fall, but when you look to Him for forgiveness and are sorry for what you’ve done, you’ll be forgiven.
Where do you look? If it’s to yourself and how good or bad you’ve been, then you’re looking to the wrong place. If you’re looking at your performance in the past or counting on your performance in the future, that’s not how the Lord judges. He looks at your heart today, right now, and sees whether you are focused on yourself or are looking up to Him and trusting in Him. That’s why the Lord says in the las verse of our Ezekiel reading (v. 20), “I will judge each of you according to his ways.” But what are your ways? Where do you look? Where do you place your trust?
Now, if your trust is in God, as it should be, who sent His Son Jesus to die for your forgiveness and life, then the way you live your life is going to reflect that. You’re going to be kind and forgiving of others, considering them more important than yourself. You’re going to go out of your way to help others. You’re going to have a relationship with God, because you know how much He loves you, and you’re going to want to spend time with Him, listening to His Word and sharing it with others. I’ll be able to look at how you live your life, and see your faith in action. That’s what St. James was talking about when he said, “Faith without works is dead.” We’re saved by a faith that shows itself in actions. But a faith like that is always looking up to God, not focusing on ourselves, not trusting in the past or the future, but receiving God’s gift of today, the present, as a precious gift of love. That’s being saved by grace—that’s the faith St. Paul was talking about when he said, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith.”
So it shouldn’t be confusing at all being a Christian. God keeps saying the same thing in slightly different ways throughout the Bible. But the promise is always the same, “Look up to Me and trust in Me for every good, and I will forgive your sins and give you strength and guidance in your walk with Me. Turn from your ways, look to Me, and live. Today I make this promise and hold out My gifts to you—the present day, today, is the day of my gracious good gifts.” That’s why the very center chapter of the Bible, Psalm 118, encourages us to say, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
To God Alone Be Glory