16th Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 3.13–21 + Luke 7.11–17
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the twentieth chapter of Revelation, St. John sees an angel coming down from heaven. The angel lays hold of the dragon—the devil—and binds him for a thousand years. Those who had been martyred—who had lost their lives for the confession of Christ—lived and reigned with Christ during this period of time. But it wasn’t just the martyrs who lived and reigned with Christ. It was all who had taken part in what John calls the first resurrection. He says in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” All who are raised during the first resurrection are immune to the second death—eternal death—for having been raised by Christ, though they die, they live forever, and death has no power over them.
In today’s appointed Scripture lessons, we see the first resurrection and a picture of the second. The thousand years—the millennium reign of Christ and the saints—is not literally a thousand years; just the rest of the numbers in Revelation are not literally but symbolic. It is ten times ten times ten, a number of completeness. The thousand years in which the devil is bound—though not completely powerless—is the age of the church, the New Testament period, the time between Christ’s ascension and the period right before His return in glory. During the New Testament period, the gospel goes forth to all nations, raising men, women, and children from the death of sin to the new life of Christ, which is faith.
St. Paul describes the gospel’s effects as a resurrection from spiritual death in Ephesians 2 [:1-3]. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” You were dead in trespasses and sin. Everyone is, by nature, born spiritually dead. Born without any fear of God, love of God, or trust in God, mankind walks according to the course of this world, which values everything God hates. The prince of the power of the air—the devil—is at work in the sons of disobedience—all who live lives disobeying God’s commands and obeying the desires of their own flesh and minds. All people are born in spiritual death, which is why all people sin, living selfishly for their own desires, and this spiritual death will culminate in the second death of everlasting punishment.
But Paul goes on. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7). God is rich in mercy. God loves us greatly. And because He is merciful and loving, He has sent His only begotten Son to die for all our sins and rise from the dead so that He might justify all who believe in Him. This is the first resurrection, the resurrection Jesus speaks of in John 5:25 when He says, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”When God the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts in Holy Baptism and faith, He resurrects us to new life. Before baptism and faith, we were spiritually dead. But God makes us alive through faith. Whether St. Paul calls it the New Creation, the New Man, or, as he does in today’s epistle, the inner man, it is the same. God raises us from the death of our sins to new life, which lives and breathes in thanksgiving to the God who has forgiven our sins and even dwells in our hearts by faith, so that we may now live as sons of obedience and conduct ourselves—not in the desires of our sinful flesh—but fulfilling the will of God in our bodies and minds.
But partaking in the first resurrection by baptism and faith means tribulation. For those who have been raised from the death of sin no longer walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. That leads to conflict. Conflict with the world. Conflict with the devil. Conflict with our own flesh. Sometimes the conflict is physical persecution. Sometimes the conflict is being oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (2 Peter 2:7). Sometimes it is the inward conflict of fighting against our flesh, which lusts against the Spirit (Gal 5:17). St. Paul suffered all these, but it was especially physical persecution that led him to write at the beginning of today’s Epistle, “I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” He did not want them to lose heart and imagine that if he, the apostle who had brought the gospel to them, suffered so much for the sake of the gospel, then how could they endure their conflicts as new men in Christ?
The apostle prays that God the Father would grant them to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. He asks that God would build them up in the first resurrection, that their new natures be strengthened with the Holy Spirit, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith; that being rooted and grounded in love, they may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depths and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that they may be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul prays God strengthen the inner man—the new man within them—and the only thing that strengthens the inner man is the gospel. The new life of faith—which begins to fear God, to love Him, to trust Him above all things, and to love its neighbor—is nourished and strengthened by the same means Christ used to raise it to life. Contemplating how much God loves them, as well as the knowledge of Christ’s death for their sins because of His unfathomable love for them, is how God strengthens the inner man of faith to endure every conflict with the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh. This is how the saints live and reign with Christ now during the time of the New Testament. We reign over the sin in our bodies; we overcome every spiritual conflict, not with our own power but by the power of Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
This same almighty power by which He has raised us from the death of sin, the same almighty power by which He strengthens us according to the inner man, He will demonstrate on the Last Day when He raises all mankind from the dead. As the young man came back to life at Christ’s word, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” so will all mankind—believing and unbelieving—rise from the dead when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God (1 Thess 4:16). As Christ gave the young man back to his mother, so on the last day He will reunite resurrected believers with the family of God who, with them, had a share in the first resurrection of baptism and faith. As the widow at Nain rejoiced to have her only son restored to her, so all the resurrected will rejoice to be reunited with one another and with the Triune God Himself in perfect blessedness and joy. For “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power” (Rev 20:6).
To that end, may God grant you, dear saints, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and ground in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with the fullness of God. For He has raised you in baptism, and He raises you every day as you use your baptism to repent of your sins, believe His gospel, and live and reign as the inner man. By this power at work in us, the second death has no power. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
