Lent is about repentance of sin and faith in God’s forgiveness. When we confess our sins, we normally think about the wrongs we have committed, whether in thoughts, words, or deeds, as well as the good things we have failed to do. But sin is no simple or temporary issue. Sin is a matter of life and death; as we were reminded on Ash Wednesday, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ultimate punishment for sin is death. God’s ultimate salvation is, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Already in the Old Testament, the hand of the Lord raised individuals who had died, as at the hands of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Everyone believed that the Messiah, the Savior, would raise the dead when He came. Today we hear of one such incident: Jesus raising the widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7). When Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the tomb, it could no longer be denied who Jesus is. Jesus finally proved that He is, as He said, “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) by His own resurrection. In the resurrection, God has turned death from enemy into the remedy in our deliverance from sin. The risen, ascended, and reigning Lord promises to raise us daily in repentance and faith, and on the Last Day, free us from sin in eternal life in our human bodies. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25–27).
Isaiah 12:1-6
2 Corinthians 5:16–21
Luke 15:1-3;11-32
