Good Morning All!
Titus 3:4-5; “But when the
goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he
saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to
his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
“Veni,
vidi, vici.” This short phrase is
the “official” report that Julius Caesar gave after a very short
rebellion. Caesar told, in these three
words, how the war went. “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Short and
sweet, a complete report of a war that barely was. Caesar told it in a simple matter-of-fact
method. He arrived at the region, he
surveyed the situation and then he launched his attack. The efficient general gives an efficient
report.
As we look at our text, this is an apt
description of Jesus. Jesus
appeared. The word used here is our word
“epiphany” or to make known or to come to light. Jesus came into the world bringing the light
of hope. He came bringing the wondrous
news of God’s new covenant where God himself paid the bill which we owed. He came as that wondrous covenant. He came to bring the reconciliation of man
back to God through his grace and his mercy.
He came to bring life to sinful man by removing the stain of sin.
He saw.
Jesus came into this world to live the life of a man. Jesus was like us in every way except for
sinning. He experienced the same pains,
the same fears, and the same uncertainties of our life. This is a tremendous blessing to us. We have a God who has experienced our
life. He knows what it means to be
human. He knows what makes us weak and
where we need the most comfort and the most support. When we cry to him in our
pain and anguish; he knows our pains and comforts us.
He conquered. Jesus came and defeated the devil, sin, and
the power of the world. He overcame all
those things which separated us from God.
He conquered so that we might have life.
He conquered so that we would have hope.
He conquered that we might have peace.
We no longer live in fear of tomorrow.
We no longer need to live a life struggling to try and earn eternal
life. We have it as a free and precious
gift from Jesus our Savior. He conquered
so that the victory is ours given to us as we are marked with the sign of His
Baptism where he washes away our sins and regenerates and renews our soul.
So, as we wait the time we celebrate the
birth of our Savior, we want to remember why he came. He came to conquer; to conquer the devil and
to rescue us from his control. He came to
claim us as his own dear brothers and sisters.
We are his by virtue of our Baptism through which God claims us with the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came, he saw, and he conquered that we
may have eternal life and the hope for his comfort in this world.
Dear
Father in heaven, we give you thanks for coming to be a man and conquering for
us so that we might have life. Keep us
strong in the knowledge of our salvation and give to us the peace which only
you can. In Jesus’ precious name we
pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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