Redeemer Lutheran Church Blog

RLS Chapel Devotion, April 7, 2017 - St. Matthew 16:13-20

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Posted: Friday, April 7th, 2017 by Pastor Westgate

It’s that time of year again. People are coming up with all sorts of ideas of who Jesus was. Sometimes it’s a new claim out of left field, like something that aired recently that claimed the events of Holy Week actually happened over about a half year. Sometimes it’s an old one. Here’s the right answer: Jesus is 100% true God and 100% true man.

That’s what Peter confessed when He said this Man Jesus is The Christ, The Son of the living God. Why does it matter? Because that’s the only way we could ever be saved. That’s the only way we could be rescued from sin and death and from the power of the devil.

There is nothing more sure in life than death and taxes, they say. We pay taxes because government needs money to run things for us. We have death because we sin. Our first father Adam listened to the devil and ate a fruit he wasn’t supposed to eat, and death entered the world. We’ve been sinning and dying ever since.

So Jesus came. He’s the answer to our sin and death problem. Humanity had to pay for sin, but sinners couldn’t do it. Only God is holy and strong enough to do it. So He became a man, just as human as you or me, except He never sinned. He bore our sins on The Cross. He was punished for them all. He suffered hell itself for us. He died. But then He rose. Now God says our sins are pardoned. We no longer need to suffer hell. We will rise from the dead.

That’s the rock Jesus is talking about. It isn’t any mere human being. Christ is our Cornerstone. Our salvation is built on Him. We trust He died and rose for us, and we are saved – our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life. This truth is strong as a rock – it can never be shaken.

Categories: Pastor Westgate's Sermons

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