I’ve only spoken to Bob a few times on the phone. And you can probably imagine what some of those conversations entailed. Bob would explain to me that he and Sally were planning to come back to church after they sold their store in Lampe. And that in some way defined the last few years of Bob’s life. He wanted to sell the store and retire for real. He was old and he knew it. He didn’t want to work all the way to the grave.
A couple of months ago, one of the ladies in church told me that Bob’s health had taken a turn for the worse and that I should go and see him. So, I called and finally had a chance to visit. And the visit surprised me. I expected to visit and then get what so many pastors hear: an excuse for not being in church.
But that’s not what happened during the visit. Oh, we visited a long time, until Bob became tired and it was time for him to rest. He told me about his younger years, about growing up. He showed me pictures on the wall at his home. I learned that he was related to a U.S. Secretary of War, Henry Stimson. I found Bob to be a delightful person and I was delighting in our visit.
And then out of the blue as we sat back down, he apologized for not coming to church. This wasn’t someone making excuses; no, he was apologizing and saying that he had been wrong. He hadn’t honored the Sabbath Day and kept it holy.
Luther explained what that meant in the New Covenant: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not dishonor His Word, and the preaching of it, but hold it as sacred and gladly hear and learn it” (Small Catechism). This Bob told me was what he hadn’t done. He had repented.
I had not only met a delightful man, but a humble one, someone who could call something what it was, who could say he was wrong when he was. Bob told me that he had let work take over his life–even though it provided a good-enough living for him. He then wanted me to visit him every month and bring him Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. After such a delightful visit, how could any pastor not want to visit with him more?
That brings us to the truth that the Apostle Paul and Pastor Timothy tell us in our Epistle reading: “Now is the favorable time, now is the day of salvation.” That’s how Bob was acting when we visited, even if he may not have realized it. The day I was visiting him was also his day of salvation.
We often live with the idea that once you’re saved, that once you’re baptized, God has sealed the deal. And that is true. God does something wonderful through baptism. The Apostle Peter tells us in his first Epistle that “baptism saves you” (1 Peter 3:21). And the funeral liturgy that we heard and spoke today, from the book of Romans, tells us that we are buried with Christ in baptism.
And so baptism is a death. It’s the Holy Spirit working through the water and Word to attach our sin to Christ, so it dies Jesus’ death on the cross, and then is buried in His tomb. That’s why baptism forgives sins, as Peter preached on Pentecost Day in Acts chapter 2 (Acts 2:38). That’s why baptism saves us.
But salvation is also a continuing reality, not simply a one-time act. It’s true that someone is baptized only once. Yet, it’s never that someone was baptized; no, it’s that he is baptized. Now, what does that mean and what’s the difference anyway between “was” and “is”?
Think of Bob being married to Sally. Imagine Bob telling someone that he was married to Sally. What would that mean? It would mean that, at one time, he and Sally were married but no longer. That was something in the past that had no relevance for his life today. But that’s not what marriage is. That’s why a husband never says, “I was married,” as if his marriage was some ceremony long ago that now has no relevance for his life right now. That’s why a husband says, “I am married.”
Baptism is also a continuing reality for the Christian, just like marriage. That’s why a Christian doesn’t say, “I was baptized” but “I am baptized.” Being baptized is a present-tense reality that shapes how the Christian continues to live his life.
That’s why Luther wrote this about what being baptized means:
It means that the Old Adam in us, with all its evil deeds and desires, is to be drowned and die by daily sorrow and repentance. Day after day, a new man is to emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. [Small Catechism]
You see, living in one’s baptism is returning to it every day. It’s turning away from sin, death, and the devil–every single day–and turning toward Christ. That’s why Scripture talks about salvation, not simply as a past event, but a present-tense reality, even a future reality.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “For the Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, [now mind you, Paul wrote these words to Christians] but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). So, even those within Christ’s Church, those who are saved, are still being saved.
When Bob told me that he was wrong for not coming to church, he turned away from sin and turned toward Christ. Someone has to have faith already in his heart to do that. And so that was also “the day of salvation” for Bob, for although he was saved, the power of God was still saving him at that very moment!
So what does that mean for Bob right now? It means that he’s with the saints and angels in eternity, worshiping God who shines in all His brilliant glory. That’s what the New Testament book of Revelation shows us. So, Bob is saved and now in heaven.
And yet, Bob, even like you and me, is still awaiting the fullness of his salvation. How so? Right now, only Bob’s soul is in heaven. Bob is not yet fully complete. He’s still awaiting the fullness of his salvation because he, like us, is still awaiting the body’s resurrection on the Last Day, when Christ returns (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).
Today is the day of salvation. That wasn’t only true for Bob; it’s also true for you. Every day, you are to turn away from sin, death, and the devil and turn toward God. Benefit from Bob’s wisdom as he reflected on his life: don’t work yourself into the grave. You work to live, not live to work. Benefit from Bob’s wisdom: don’t regret not coming back to church and having that as part of your everyday lives. Yearn to receive Christ’s body and blood His Supper, for you don’t get that on Table Rock Lake, but where Christ’s faithful gather to receive the gifts of salvation that Christ gives you.
And besides, the Lord’s Supper is the one place where you can join Bob and be with Him as he worships God in eternity. It may sound crazy, but it’s true. The Lord’s Supper is the one place where you can join Bob and be with Him as he worships God in eternity. The book of Hebrews tells us that, when we gather here at the Lord’s Table. It reads:
You [that’s we, the saints on earth at the Lord’s Supper] have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect. You have come to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. [Hebrews 12:22-24]
Yes, today we grieve that Bob is with us no more. Death is unnatural. And although God works something tremendously good when we die, bringing us into His eternal presence, from the beginning, God never created us to die. That’s a result of humanity’s fall into sin.
It’s only because God does work good from our death that we can rejoice in some small way. For we can rejoice that Bob is now with the saints and angels in heaven. Even more, we can rejoice with him when we come to receive the body and blood of Christ in His Supper.
Although our eyes cannot see that reality–that we are with Bob and that he is with us in the Lord’s Supper–by faith, we know that it’s true. Bob is at the marriage supper of the Lamb in eternity that has no end. We join with him, here, at the Lord’s Supper. Bob is on the other side of the rail in eternity; we are here in time. By faith in Christ Jesus, being baptized into the Triune name of God, we meet Bob every time we meet Christ in His Supper.
And that is enough, until God calls us home to eternity, “to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” Amen.
