Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the 1st chapter:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
The situation in Corinth had gotten bad. It wasn’t just a time where people in the church were fighting over how to spend their offering money. It wasn’t a time where some thought they should build a new building, but others thought what they had was fine. It wasn’t a time where one member of the church offended another. It was a rather more serious thing. It was a matter of salvation.
Imagine if I came in in the morning and told you that I had decided that instead of worshipping Jesus this morning, we were going to honor the Buddha. Or, if you will, if I came in and told you that Christ did not save you, but rather Pastor Wurm had. Or that the baptisms I had done were because it is only by my hand that you are saved. These are serious accusations, and this is what Paul heard about and the reason why he needed to correct the Corinthians as soon as possible.
You see, Paul knew, as you should know, that Jesus Christ is the one who has saved us. Not only He, but also with Him the Father and the Holy Spirit. Each had their part in the redemptive work of the cross. The Holy Spirit strengthened and preserved Jesus as He went to meet His exodus from this life. The Father accepted His sacrifice. But only Jesus died upon that cross. His death was atoned for all sin, and was a sacrifice pleasing to the Rest of the Trinity, who planned this death of Christ’s since before the foundation of the world. This Trinity are the ones who saved us, not Paul, not Apollos, not Peter.
But, the Corinthians had gotten off track. The Corinthians were believing a false gospel. In fact, the gospel they believed was no gospel at all; it would only serve to damn them. Not only this, but it would make them blind and deaf to hear the true Gospel, the Gospel that Jesus Christ has saved them by the preaching of the Word, that Jesus Christ has saved them through the waters of Baptism, that Jesus Christ has saved and preserved them in the one true faith by giving to them His, and His alone, true body and blood in the bread and wine of the Supper. In these ways, the Lord Jesus Christ preserves those who are being saved, those who are saved. For indeed, in the means of grace which Christ has instituted, He delivers the benefit of the cross to believers, a powerful cross, the cross on which the power of God was most displayed.
Paul did not save these people. Apollos did not save these people. Peter, Cephas, did not save these people. Pastor Wurm did not save these people. Pastor Polzin did not save these people. Christ saved them. Christ died for them. Christ’s hand was the one to wash them. Christ’s hand fed them His body and blood. But this is not what some of the Corinthians believed. And what they believed was causing division in the church to the point that Paul is very clearly making an accusation that those who did not place their hope in Christ had fallen away.
This is what our sin does. When we do not want to hear the Word of God, when we do not want to come to the Lord’s house, when we reject His preaching, when we think to ourselves, “Hey, I’m not such a bad person, maybe we should lighten up on the Law a little bit,” we are in the same boat as the Corinthian church.
When we do not believe that baptism saves us, as Christ promises us it does, as Peter says in his first epistle, “Baptism now saves you,” we despise the work and Word of God.
When we do not believe Christ’s words, “This is my body… this is my blood… for you, for the forgiveness of your sins,” we despise the Word and promise of Christ.
We are the same as the Corinthian church, my friends. Do not think that because you don’t struggle as much as the Corinthians did that you are any better than they were. You are not. In fact, in your believing, you often doubt. You don’t pay attention. It’s too hard to get to church. It’s too much to believe that Lord has promised to do miraculous things. You are the same. And to add insult to injury, you think yourself better than others, certainly better than these men and women who lived 2000 years ago. I’m not that bad, I say. Paul never would have written these things to me. Man, how self-deluded can we possibly be?
I must tell you, lest you think I am in a different category than you, that I struggle with these things, too. You are not alone, my friends, in your sins. Your pastor struggles, it’s true. But, just because we’re all in the same boat together does not make our sin okay. It does not negate our sin. It does not take it away from us, because at least we’re all the same.
The Law of God demands perfection. And if you are not perfect in one area, you are not perfect in any area. For in this, James tells us that the breaking of one commandment of God means that you have broken each and every one.
So, what hope is there? What hope can there possibly be? For we are evil men and women and children. We are evil, born evil, stay evil according to our sinful nature. What hope can there be?
I tell you, the only hope for a Christian, the only hope for anyone in the world, is in the cross of Christ. For on that accursed tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, firstborn of all creation, came to meet His death for all of our sins. Upon this accursed tree, Christ became the curse for us, taking away our sin and cleansing us from all our unrighteousness. Upon this accursed tree, the Lord of all creation was murdered for our transgressions. Upon this accursed tree, the one whose word could have brought Himself down said, “It is finished.”
For indeed, upon this cross the payment for all your sins, the payment for all your evilness was made by Christ. The payment was given in full, your ledger line of sin was voided out, in order that Christ would give you then His righteousness. Was Paul crucified for you? Was Apollos? Was Peter? Was Pastor Wurm? Was Pastor Lewis? No. It was only and ever the Christ.
But Christ died also for the Corinthians, did He not? Why is Paul then so agitated with them? Why does he strongly say that these Corinthians had fallen away from the one true faith? It is according to the same way that we may fall from faith. We reject the Christ. We reject His gifts. We reject His Word. We reject His baptism. We reject His Supper. Christ works through means, and when we reject these means, it matters not what else we do. When we reject the means, we reject Him. We reject Christ.
And this is what the Corinthian church was doing by their damnable confession. They rejected the baptism of Christ, the baptism that is done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the same baptism with which Christ commands His Church to baptize. Moreover, though, just as we sometimes do, just as we have seen even some do in our congregation, the Corinthians would not repent. They would not repent and turn from their evil rejection. They would not confess this as a sin, but rather demanded that they were right, that they were the sole arbiters of the faith, that their understanding was the right one. They refused to allow Scripture explain the Scriptures.
And sometimes, we do this, too. We have our sins, our pet sins, like a dog returning to his vomit, we return to them and eat them up. But then we don’t let them go. We hold on to them. We think God can’t forgive us, or worse, we don’t want Him to.
But the Lord has invited us, and He has invited the Corinthians, to repent. And so this morning, we have. Paul’s main focus in this passage is not just to keep on heaping Law on the Corinthians, nor is that my main goal. Paul’s purpose, as is mine, is that you be united, or in the Greek, restored. You are to be united in Christ, restored to the fellowship of all the saints. You are to be brothers and sisters in Christ, freed from all your sin. You are to be friends of God, and know that Christ has won for you salvation. And so, this morning, you have. You have been freed from your sin, you are forgiven.
The Law of God demands perfection, yes. But the Gospel is that the one sent by the Lord to save us has fulfilled all the Law. Law has its perfection, it has its completion. But it is not in you. It is in Christ. And this very same Christ offers you the benefit of His perfect life, and He offers it to you for free. There is nothing you need do to earn it, there is nothing you need to grasp it. It has been given to you already, when the water washed over you, and you were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It has been given to you in the words, “In the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive you all of your sins.” It has been given to you when the Lord has put His body and blood into your mouths.
We are of Christ, my friends. We follow Him. Not because it is some way that we must live to win our salvation, but we follow Him because He has freed us to do so. He has taken our chains upon His shoulders, He has won for us freedom, and we follow the one who carried our chains. We follow the one who points us to eternal life. These are free gifts. They are wonderful gifts. They are what Paul asks us to hold onto. For indeed, Paul did not come to be crucified for you. Instead, he came to preach the Gospel to you.
And this is the same today. There is not one man standing upon the earth today that can save you. Not one. But there is one who has ascended into the heavenly places, who comes to meet us every time we gather together, in order that He might be present with us, give us Himself in every way possible. And when we hear of this one, this Jesus, through Him we receive His cross, His all-atoning sacrifice that He made in our place, in order that the power of God upon that cross would be made known.
The cross comes to us how Jesus wants it to, through His means, through His Word and His Sacraments. And these things save us because they create faith within, faith given to us by the Holy Spirit, reconciling us to the Father. This is the only way that Christ works for and with us, for these are where His promises are. Baptism now saves you, the Lord’s Supper is given for the remission of your sins, the Word of God guides us into all truth: the truth that Christ is the only one who has died for your sins, the truth that you are set free from those sins in Christ, and that Christ’s cross is the power of God displayed in its full glory.
You are free, my friends. You are free from division, from eternal damnation, from quarreling, from rank heresy, from all sins. You are free. Let your heart keep you from the promises of Christ no longer. You are free. You are free for you follow Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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