Disciplined in God’s Grace

January 26, 2024

Disciplined Towards the Goal of Grace

Septuagesima T 1 Corinthians 9-10; Matthew 20

INI

The kingdom of God is one of pure grace. There’s nothing we can do or grasp for that can make a holy God ours. Rather, freely out of love and mercy towards His creation, God came down in the form of a man to make us members of His kingdom of grace. Bathed in this grace through Word and Sacrament, His grace becomes a part of our being as His children. Now, God’s free grace isn’t a stagnant pool upon which we idly recline. Rather, it’s a rushing river that propels us toward a holy life.

Our texts today teach us a bit about being Christians in God’s kingdom. It’s a kingdom of grace – that is, unearned favor from our Lord. Yet it’s a kingdom in which there’s a lot of work to engage in – not only for the sake of others, but ourselves – to protect us from falling prey to the evil one. These next three Sundays have weird names, but they prepare our hearts to enter the season of Lent. A time when we discipline ourselves with prayer and fasting – not so much to earn favor with God, but to curb the impulses of our corrupted flesh. Because if there’s one thing mankind is good at doing, it’s taking God’s wonderful, beautiful, self-giving gifts, and making them into idols.

Paul’s message to the Corinthians serves as a timely reminder for Christians, especially as we approach the season of Lent. Because like the Corinthian church, faith is tempted toward slothfulness and cheapening God’s grace. Their mishandling of God’s grace led to all sorts of misconduct in the church. There was false worship, sexual immorality, a confusion of roles within the church, and even doubt concerning the Lord’s resurrection. As Luther writes about the church, He says, “In short, things got so wild and disorderly that everyone wanted to be the expert and do the teaching and make what he pleased of the gospel, the sacrament, and faith. Meanwhile, they let the main thing drop – namely that Christ is our righteousness and salvation.”

To combat this unrestrained evil, Paul tells the Corinthian church to treat their faith as an athlete would treat competition. He tells them, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.” Of course, Paul isn’t saying that we compete with others for heaven. But what He is saying is that as Christians, it is good to restrain fleshly desires, lest we invite evil to gain a foothold in our soul.

When making this analogy, many commentators believe that Paul had in mind the Olympic games near Corinth. It seems as if Paul was so impressed and impacted by the physical stature, stamina, and dedication of athletes, that He found this the perfect analogy for how Chrisitan’s should regard grace and faith – it’s something to be practiced and used, having our hearts and minds set on the goal and prize of faith, which is life with Christ!

As a western culture, most of our heroes are actually athletes! And I think it stems from a recognition and admiration of the hard work, dedication, and discipline it takes to become so great at their dedicated sport. For example, as much as I cheer against him, Tom Brady demonstrated to the highest degree what sort of dedication and discipline it took to play in the NFL for 23 seasons and retire at 45 years old. His genetics didn’t win him 7 Super Bowls, it was the discipline that he gritted through EVERY DAY. Everything He did in his life was dedicated to goal of being the greatest quarterback ever. For this goal, he did all sorts of weird things – He ate plant-based meals with no processed sugars. He drank little to no caffeine or alcohol. He didn’t eat inflammatory foods in season. He drank over half his body weight in ounces of water per day. His workouts were based on reducing inflammation, so he did a lot of unorthodox exercises to keep him strong. All these crazy things he did because He had one specific goal in His mind.

Christians should have the same attitude. Everything we do should be in service to one goal: life with Christ. Self-control is a necessary virtue to get there. Afterall, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5. In 2 Peter, he says that we should “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control.” Self-control is essential for the Christian, to prevent the unchecked dominance of our fleshly desires, which lead us away from our goal of having life with a holy God.

Paul warns the Corinthians to not be like the patriarchs who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They had God’s grace. God had done everything to give the Israelites freedom. He killed the enslaving Pharoah and his minions in the Red Sea. He led them in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. He even provided manna out of thing air in the mornings, and made water come out of a rock that His people may eat and drink. Grace in Christ sustained the patriarchs, through a sacramental eating and drinking. But even though they had this great gift of God as they journeyed in the wilderness, there’s one thing that they lacked: faith. For Paul writes, “nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” They had God’s grace in their mouths and stomachs, but not their hearts.

Likewise, we can’t think that there’s some spiritual benefit in Word and Sacraments by just going through the motions. Faith must be present to receive God’s grace in the Sacraments. For without a faith whose eyes are set on the goal of a holy life with Christ eternally, this eating and drinking is to our condemnation.

This was Paul’s warning to Corinth. Don’t take advantage of God’s grace as the Israelites did. Discipline your bodies, and thus, your lives, to attain your eternal goal. For he who knocks, the door will be opened. Whoever seeks, finds. Join us this Lent in prayer and fasting. Come confess your sins in individual confession and absolution. Discipline your lives of faith in God’s grace.

But let not all this talk about disciplining our bodies confuse you on how the Kingdom of God comes. The Gospel lesson keeps our hearts in check lest we forget that the prize is something we receive based on God’s grace. It’s His to give, not ours to earn. Jesus teaches us this with the parable of laborers in the vineyard. No matter if you were hired in the morning, or the 3^rd, 6^th, 9^th, or 11^th hour of the day, the prize is the same. God distributes the prize of heaven equally among the workers. Just because the guys in the morning worked 12 times more than the last workers, they don’t receive a heaven that’s 12 times better. Even if we may work longer than others in God’s kingdom, that doesn’t mean that we have a claim to more than what He has already promised.

And so, the Lord humbly reminds us: the prize is His to give. We haven’t earned a right to it. Out of His grace, He freely gives the kingdom to us due to the merits, actions, and faithfulness of His own son Jesus – most highly demonstrated in His innocent suffering and death on the cross. All of which, we will hear about this Lenten season.

So, as we prepare for Lent, let’s heed Paul’s word of warning to the Corinthians against slothfulness and cheapening God’s grace. Just as athletes intentionally train and discipline their bodies, let us do likewise. Let’s exercise self-control and discipline the passions of our corrupted flesh, focusing on the goal of a holy life with Christ. However, let’s also remember that our journey is not about earning God’s favor by our disciplines. Rather, it’s about receiving God’s grace by faith. But even though our disciplines earn us nothing, they’re still good for us spiritually. For they turn our focus from our stomachs and earthly pleasures that satisfy me, towards a life that’s disciplined in holy things through which God’s grace comes.  So, let our fasting, prayer, and confession have it’s goal set on the prize of our faith: life with our Gracious Lord.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston