Sermon Audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

On this the Sunday when we celebrate our Savior’s return to heaven, we pray that that same Savior would continue to shower each of us with his grace and peace, until he returns to take us home. Amen.

Dear Fellow Christians:

I walked outside early one morning this week and thought to myself, “What a perfect morning.” No wind, the trees are putting on their summer coats, lilacs starting to bloom, temperature just right, gardengrowing nicely, lawn freshly mowed, no traffic noise, no bugs yet, birds singing—just flawless. And then suddenly it wasn’t. There were weeds in the garden and in the lawn. The sprinkler system needs work. My pickup has a strange surge I haven’t been able to figure out. And the neighbor’s cat still regards our garden as its own private kitty litter box.

Life is like that, isn’t it? There’s always good, and there’s always not-so-good. How we feel often depends on where we focus. We can choose to ruin the good by focusing on what isn’t, or we can learn to appreciate the good and just deal with the bad how and when we must. One thing in particular we need to come to terms with: True perfection, true flawlessness, is almost non-existent.

This morning we examine two things that prove both parts of that statement: non-existent, and almost non-existent. The text that will guide and instruct us this morning is found in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, the first chapter:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you aspirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

This is God’s Word. Because it is God’s Word, we can with full confidence base our entire existence—for time and for eternity—upon these words alone. God’s Word, in fact, represents one of the few things in this life that truly is flawless. With such confidence in these holy words, we pray, “Sanctify us by Your truth, O Lord. Your Word is truth. Amen.”

The term “perfectionist” is deceptive, isn’t it? It seems to imply not only the possibility of perfection, but that “perfectionists” actually achieve it on a regular basis. In reality, perfectionists are just those who tend to be more frustrated by life than others. They typically do great work, but they push themselves harder in an attempt to get where pretty much no one can go.

Don’t get me wrong. I love perfectionists. Their houses are typically immaculate and well ordered, their yards enhance property values, their dishes are spotless, and their craftsmanship is usually awe-inspiring. Yet perfectionists are usually the first to tell you that they never really achieve perfection. What they do is never flawless. They just tend to get closer than the rest of us.

But then there was this one guy…

This morning we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, which occurred 40 days after his resurrection from the dead. Since the date of Easter varies from year to year, no one claims to know the actual date of the Ascension. We do know that since Easter is always on a Sunday, and since Ascension is always 40 days after Easter, Ascension always falls on a Thursday. What we also know about the Ascension is that it represents one of the few examples of perfection and completion in this profoundly imperfect and incomplete world—the perfect end to the flawless life and the ultimate “job well done,” once and for all.

And speaking of “a job well done,” have you ever plopped down on your favorite chair after a long, hard day and thought that to yourself, “A job well done!”? It’s interesting to hear how many never have that feeling. To many, the end of the day just represents a break, a resting period, before “the job” starts again the next day. Harder even than thinking in terms of “job well done” is to look back at the day and think in terms of perfection, even near perfection. What has anyone ever done during their entire life that couldn’t have been done better?

One thing: the perfection that Jesus Christ came to earth to accomplish, the work he came to do. For human beings, death brings an end to our work, but that end represents only the termination of an unbroken chain of imperfections. There is really nothing that we do that is truly flawless. That’s why it is so hard to comprehend not only the life of Jesus Christ, but exactly what the Ascension represents. Christ’s Ascension was the perfect end to his flawless life. It was Jesus, returning to heaven, knowing that he had completed his work perfectly, sinlessly, flawlessly. Understand that that work was a lifelong process. From the moment he was born, he had to fulfill both the positive and negative of every commandment. That means he had to avoid what the commandments prohibited and he had to carry out (do) everything they commanded. It’s one thing, for example, to avoid the construction and worship of an idol. It is quite another to consistently fear, love, and trust in God above all things. It is one thing never to kill, another to “help and be of service to your neighbor in every bodily need.”

That was the process of our salvation. The hardest part, of course, was Good Friday, but the process spanned Jesus’ entire lifetime. Jesus returned to heaven at his ascension knowing that he had flawlessly completed all that needed to be done—for us. What he offered on the cross as our sin payment was nothing less than absolute perfection in every conceivable way. It is just astounding when you stop to think of what Jesus accomplished, on the one hand, and just how ridiculously impossible it would have been for us to supply such perfection for ourselves. And yet that is exactly what we would have had to provide if we were to save ourselves.

Ascension is the day Jesus got to go back to his Father’s side in heaven, got to return to the perfect peace, harmony, joy, and contentment that he had before he left heaven to enter this sick, broken world. What a great day for our Lord! His work was not only done, but done absolutely perfectly. It could not have been done any better. That is exactly why God the Father did for him what he did upon his return to heaven. Our text described it: “God the Father… seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

So then on this day we stand in humble awe of just what our Lord accomplished, we thank him for it, and we rejoice in the fact that he got to go home—his work on earth flawlessly completed.

Yet just as the disciples had to shift their attention back to earth after they had watched their Lord ascend, so we too must now lower our eyes and see that we are still here. We are still passing through this sin-broken world, still forced to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12) knowing that “the devil, like a roaring lion, still prowls about, seeking whom he may devour.”(1 Peter 5:8) From this we need to learn a valuable lesson—that life for the child of God is also a process.

The Apostle Paul understood this, didn’t he? He knew that even after we are brought to faith, life will always be a process or progression. We continually strive for perfection, but we never get there on this earth. We just keep pressing on. Paul’s words from Philippians 3:12-16: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

That’s what Christians do, isn’t it? We press on. We continue to learn and grow, struggling to be more and more like our Savior Jesus—knowing that not only could we never do what he did, we will never stop growing, learning, struggling… and consistently falling short.

One of the key truths of the Christian faith is the acceptance of the universal imperfection of humanity. Jesus didn’t do what he did because man was good but because man was fatally flawed. Romans 3:9-12: All, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Jesus Christ came to earth to do what man could not do, to offer what man could not produce— flawless perfection. In fact, it’s a terrifying perversion of the Christian faith to imagine that we need to make ourselves worthy and lovable in God’s eyes, knowing that a holy God can accept nothing less than perfection into his heaven. It’s challenge enough for us just to have consistently good intentions, let alone perfection.

The good news that we learn from God’s Word is not the perfection of man but the perfection of Jesus Christ. It is only because of the flawless work of our Savior, credited to sinners by God’s grace through faith, that we are saved, rescued, redeemed.

But just here we find one other startling example of flawlessness in this world. In fact, we see it in every single Christian who has been brought by the Holy Spirit to trust that Jesus Christ provided the full payment for their sins. Every single Christian is, in fact, absolutely sinless, and therefore absolutely righteous, in God’s eyes.

How could such a thing possibly be true when everything we do, say or think is tainted by sin? The Biblical truth is that sinlessness is ours in the eyes of our God because God equates faith with perfect righteousness. This is the amazing beating heart of the true Christian faith. Jesus got our sin; we got his perfection.

The incredible message of the Christian faith is that no matter how much sin we see in our lives, God the Father has punished his Son for every last one of those sins. Every last sin. God the Father “has laid on (his Son) the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) Therefore when God looks into our hearts and there finds faith in Jesus Christ, he credits Jesus’ perfection to us, having placed our sins on Jesus. He looks at us, in other words, as he once looked at his Son, declaring before the world, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5) Now, through faith in that very Son of God, you and I have inherited the flawless perfection, the sinlessness, of Jesus Christ. That means that to all who trust Jesus Christ to have supplied all the goodness necessary to cancel their debt of sin, God says exactly the same thing to us that he once declared to his own Son—“You are my beloved child, in you I am well pleased.” “Well pleased” not because of any human achievement, but because of the sin payment supplied by Jesus Christ, and then gifted to us as an act of God’s undeserved love.

Comfort your hearts with this truth as you wait for your Savior, who has gone ahead, but is ready to return at any moment. In the meantime, carry on the struggle—the process that is the life of the child of God, until that Savior returns to take you home. Amen.

—Pastor Michael Roehl

St. Paul Lutheran Church
Bismarck, ND

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Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.