Sermon for Trinity 1, June 7, 2026
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Ephesians 2:4-10, 19-22 4But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 7He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. … 19So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. 20You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (EHV)
Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.
Dear fellow redeemed,
“Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3) These are the words St. Paul uses to introduce us to the blessings of God’s mercy and grace. It truly is amazing, astounding really, when you consider how we, who deserved only God’s wrath and condemnation, have been richly blessed by the mercy God shows us through the power of His Word as provided by the Holy Spirit who worked in us to bring these gifts into our hearts which caused Paul also to exclaim, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways!” (Romans 11:33) In view of the love of God for us, we celebrate how we are Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.
Now, many may ask, why would we be considered objects of God’s wrath? Why does God count children as guilty before they have even begun to cause trouble in the world? Why does God have the right to judge us or rule over us? In answer, we must recognize that people polluted by sin cannot produce pure and holy offspring. Plus, the devil has certainly continued to influence people with his lies. Therefore, sin infects every one of us.
But, why does God have the right to judge us? Even though so much of our modern world imagines that the world created itself, this world has become a society of fools, because regardless of what the educated elite might imagine, God created this world and everything in it and still sustains it. Now, He has been kind enough to allow even those who reject Him to live and have opportunity to come to faith and be saved, but when the end comes, God, as Creator, will exercise His rightful authority to judge all people.
Why then, does God count even newborn babies as objects of wrath? Again, we must recognize the truth that children are born of the same flesh as their parents and in that flesh, they inherit the same weaknesses, faults, and natural rebellion against God. Because sin has corrupted all parts of creation, not one child has ever been conceived without sin except Jesus who is the Son of God. Everyone else has needed to hear the Good News about Jesus and all He has done for us before having any faith or trust in the God who has given us physical life in this marvelous creation. Consequently, David rightly observed, “Certainly, I was guilty when I was born. I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)
So, why were we all once counted as objects of God’s wrath? Because we all have sinned against Him. Our inherited sinful nature leads us away from trusting God. From birth, our desires are selfish. Even in our best moments, selfishness creeps in keeping us impure before our holy God.
All of this should make it obvious to us how amazing God’s love truly is. St. Paul observed, But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!” Oh, the words we could explore here. God is so rich in mercy, so overabundantly kind to people who don’t deserve it, that He sent His Son Jesus to live holiness on our behalf and to suffer the ultimate torment of hell in our place so that the Holy Spirit could work forgiveness and redemption in our hearts. We remember how God had promised to give new hearts and new spirits in His people. This is what He has done for each of us. God shows how one sided His love for us really is, in this, though we were dead to Him in sin, He washed us clean and enlivened us through the power of His Spirit in Word and Baptism.
“He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” What an amazing promise the Holy Spirit gives us, and what God promises is always immediately as good as done. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead that first Easter morning, so God already counts us as having been raised to new life and a new home in heaven.
Justified (that is declared righteous) by faith in His Son, God counts His people holy, innocent, and prepared to dwell in His presence forever, not because of anything good in us, but because Jesus has already accomplished righteousness for us all. Just as Paul was moved to write to Titus, we have this confidence, “based on the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:2)
Again, all of this is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father and the Son to work faith and sanctification in us. In his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” This is perfectly in line with what the Holy Spirit breathed into Paul as he wrote, “Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.”
Grace is undeserved kindness that moves God to give us what we don’t deserve. Instead of condemnation for our guilt, God charged our misses, shortcomings, transgressions, and rebellions against His own dear Son, so that by the death of Jesus, He could count us free of all guilt. Faith is that confidence and trust in the Triune God that the Spirit grants to us through the hearing of the Gospel. When hearing what Jesus in His great love for us downtrodden sinners has done for us, the soul sorrowing over sin and repenting of faults and shortcomings receives, through the action of the Holy Spirit, a breath of life and a stream of cleansing, life-giving water that drowns the old man of sin and raises us up for immortality.
Through the hearing of the Good News and the washing of Baptism, the Holy Spirit is building up a new temple for God crafted of the souls of the newly spiritually alive believers as living stones. If you look at the outside walls of our church made of brick, you will see that the bricks all look pretty much one like the other, other than a slight variation in color. However, when constructing this magnificent temple for the Lord God Almighty, the Holy Spirit takes of a wide variety of stone-dead hearts from every land and nation all over earth, gives them life, and chipping away any rough edges, then by molding and shaping, He aligns them into a perfect fit in the holy temple for our God, perfect in His design.
Consequently, Paul writes, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. … So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone.” Jesus alone aligns us so that His goals become ours. His righteousness makes us righteous and perfect in the eyes of God who commissioned this temple. Furthermore, a person’s background, nationality, color of skin, or previous guilt do not matter, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)
It is by Jesus’ holy life and innocent death, that the Father in heaven has dealt with the sins of the world. With a love that considered only our need for salvation, He sent Jesus to be the Holy One of God. Then, the Father counted Jesus as sin in our place. All our guilt piled on Jesus left us clean and holy before God. Thus, it is in this temple of sanctified souls that the Holy Spirit continues His work of calling, gathering, enlightening, and enlivening the formerly lost and condemned sinners still roaming the earth.
Again, explaining the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, Luther wrote, “In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.” This is our hope and our salvation, that through faith in Christ, God has justified all who believe in Him. He counts each Christian believer as righteous and holy and welcome in His presence for eternity. None of this came because of actions we might take. Rather, it is in the Church He has built, through the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, that the Lord continues to gather souls for His Father’s glory.
From everlasting to everlasting, God is God. From everlasting, He has been working all things so that His Church, the assembly of all true Christian believers, might be brought into His eternal glory through faith. Only faith saves. Faith in Christ Jesus, alone, who is “the way and the truth and the life,” (John 14:6) is what transforms the unrighteous into the righteous, holy ones of God, perfectly aligned and mortared together into a holy temple for the eternal glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As holy, precious, and beautiful to God as the gems and precious stones of Solomon’s temple, from everlasting to everlasting, may we celebrate how we are Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy. Amen.
Now to him who is able to strengthen you—according to the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, . . . to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.