“The Sheep and the Goats—Which
One Are You?”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. We consider today’s Gospel Reading under the theme: “The Sheep and the
Goats—Which One Are You?” “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I
was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing
to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and
you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’” The purpose of those words is to convince us that it is impossible for
us to save ourselves by our good works. For, in order to save yourself,
you would have to live a life of perfect sacrifice; you would have to never once
say “no” to anyone in need. And, if just once you have ever failed to help
anyone, then you haven’t done enough, you aren’t worthy to enter the kingdom.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” By nature we are
all, every one of us, part of the goats, we all deserve the judgment of eternal
damnation: “Depart from me into eternal fire!” “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.”
The sheep who enter the kingdom are called “the righteous.” How can you be
one of the sheep, how can you be one of righteous? The Greek word used here for “righteous” does not mean righteous in and
of yourself, not inherently righteous or self-righteous, but declared righteous,
pronounced righteous by someone else. “Come, you who are blessed by my
Father.” “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his
only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . . he
loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Jesus fulfilled God’s Law, perfectly, for you; Jesus died as a
sacrifice to pay for your sins; Jesus rose from the dead for your justification,
to make you right with God. That is how you become one of the sheep, that
is how you become one of the righteous. You are declared righteous,
pronounced righteous by God, not because of your own good works, but through
faith in Jesus. You are saved by Christ’s good works on your behalf.
Paul puts it this way: “Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes
from God and is by faith. . . This righteousness from God comes through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. . . he saved us, not because of righteous
things we had done, but because of his mercy.” But, if we are not saved because of our good works, what does Jesus
mean when he says: “Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’”? You could get the
idea from those words that we will be saved on account of our good works.
But, actually, the exact opposite is true: It’s not that we are saved because we
do good works; rather, we do good works because we are saved. Good works
aren’t the cause of our salvation, but evidence of our salvation. It’s like saying, “It’s raining outside because the sidewalk’s wet.”
Is the wet sidewalk the cause of the rain or evidence of the rain? Or,
“It’s getting cold because the thermometer’s dropping.” Is the thermometer
the cause the cold or evidence of the cold? In the same way, when Jesus
cites the good works of the righteous, he does not mean our good works are the
cause of our salvation but evidence of our salvation. We can see this is in the surprised attitude of the righteous. If
they were expecting to earn their own salvation, when the Judge says, “Take your
inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you,” they would answer, “Yes, Lord, we’re
gettin’ what we deserve!” But, instead, “Then the righteous will answer
him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and
go to visit you?’” You can see from the surprised reaction of the
righteous that we are not to look upon our good works as racking up points to
earn our way into heaven. God does expect us to do works of Christian love, not to earn
salvation, but out of gratitude to him, in response to his love for us.
John says, “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . . Let
us love not only with words, but also with actions.” Our works of
Christian love are a confession of our faith, as Jesus says, “I chose you and
appointed you to go and bear fruit. . . By this all men will know that you
are my disciples, if you love one another.” This morning we confess our
Christian faith with WORDS, by what we say, in the Apostles’ Creed. Every
day we confess our faith with WORKS, by what we do, our works of Christian love. It is only because you have this motive behind your works that Jesus
says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did
for me.” Because you do it FOR him it’s just as if you do it TO him.
Because you did it as a confession of your faith, out of love for him, in
response to his love for you. Without that motivation, without faith in
Jesus, the exact same action would not be a good work in God’s eyes, but
actually unacceptable to him. Computer software often has what’s called a translation filter. A
translation filter takes incompatible data from one kind of software and
translates it for use with a different kind of software. Isaiah says, “All
our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” The bad news is, we cannot
fulfill God’s Law perfectly; we are not worthy to enter his kingdom, and even
what seem to be our good works are incompatible with his perfect holiness.
But, the Good News is, God forgives your sins, he declares you righteous.
And for Jesus’ sake he also accepts your works, as thank-offerings to him in
response to his love. He accepts your works, not because your works have
any merit in and of themselves, but he takes your works and puts them through
the “translation filter” of Jesus’ blood and righteousness, so that your works
become acceptable in his sight. That is why at the Final Judgment, Jesus
will commend you saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come, take
your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you.”
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