A Confirmation Letter: His Vow for You :: Deuteronomy 6:5-6, Romans 8:38-39, Leviticus 19:2, 2 Timothy 3:14-15

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Sunday, March 28, 2021


Dear Hope, Hailey, Hunter, and Nora,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! This is an exciting day, isn’t it? Today is, in fact, one of the most important days of your life. And that makes it exciting. I know I am excited for you. And it is my hope and my prayer that today is a day you’ll always remember. I certainly remember my day way back in 1978. I don’t remember exactly what Pastor Newman told me back then, so I am going to do something different for you today to try to help you remember this day even more. 

Today, because it is Confirmation Day, instead of a sermon that you only hear, I have prepared a sermon for you to keep and read, it’s really a letter, written especially for each of you. You’ll find this letter in the gift I will present to you on behalf of the congregation. Of course, we’ll let everybody else in the room hear most of the letter I have written to each of you ... it’s good for all of us ... but there is something here for each of you that I won’t read aloud. Those messages are specifically from me for you. 

Later, when you’re reading through it, you’ll know what I mean.

I do hope you’ll keep this letter and read it again, because that’s very much to the point I want to share with you today. God has opened your eyes and ears to keep hearing his truth. He has enabled you to hear and see in ways that you once couldn’t do. What you’re doing this morning reflects that relationship that he began so that he could bring you to this important day. 

Here’s how the Holy Spirit expresses it through Moses and the Apostle Paul:

  • You will be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy (Lv 19:2).

  • You will love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul. And these words that I command to you today will be on your heart (Dt 6:5-6).

  • For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rm 8:38-39)

  • But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tm 3:14-15).

Each of you know these verses well already. The Holy Spirit helped you choose them. They are your confirmation verses, the ones God set on your heart to guard and keep, to treasure for the rest of your lives. These words are the foundation of this sermon to you, for you. If you haven’t already done so, memorize them. Know them. Love them. Live them. Guard them. Keep them. Return to them often. 

THROUGH THESE WORDS OF PROMISE TO YOU, FOR YOU, HE SAVES YOU. 

Hope, Hailey, Hunter, and Nora ... The four of you have chosen verses that are rich in Gospel. They are all promises that He is the one who makes you holy, despite your best efforts. He is the one who causes you to love him and your neighbor as yourself. He is the one who keeps you so close that nothing can separate you from him. He is the one who will nurture you with his word and sacrament, guarding your faith, and making you wise unto salvation. He has laid these promises on your heart. And I pray you will never stop allowing yourself to hear them.

Do you remember when you heard God’s word of promise spoken to you the first time? 

Hope, Hailey and Hunter ... you definitely began hearing the promise contained in these words on September 15, 2015. We know that because that is the day God set you apart by your baptism into Christ at this font. That is the day he promised to make you holy ... the day he promised that you will love him with all your heart, mind, and soul ... the day he promised to ensure that nothing can separate you from him. 

What a joy it is knowing that God has brought you back here today to confirm the good work he began in you 6.5 years ago. Today, he is now opening your mouths so that you, who believe in your heart that Christ was raised from the dead, will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and thus be saved (Rom 10:9). 

That is what baptism does for us (1 Pet 3:21). It’s what it did for all these people who have gathered with you here today to celebrate God’s service to us all. When God promises to make you holy, he saves you (Mk 16:16), marking you as one of the redeemed by Christ the crucified. In baptism, he drowns the sinner in you and raises you into eternal life with him (Rom 3:3-10). He is in you and you are in him (Col 2:9-10). Now because of it, nothing can separate you. 

I would be shocked if Nora could remember the day of her baptism like the three of you, seeing how she was only 31 days old at the time. But Nora, like Hope, Hailey, and Hunter, the fruits of the spirit are clearly evident in your life (Gal 5:22-23) that God is making you holy, too,  that you love him, too, that nothing can separate you from him, too. Yes, Hope, Hailey, Hunter, and Nora, these living and active words (Heb 4:12) are making you all wise unto salvation.

Like life in baptism, hearing the word of God’s promise is not a one and done kind of thing. It requires some cooperation. 

Today is your confirmation. It is not a graduation. It is not the end of your catechetical life. It is a new beginning in your life as a Christian. As I reminded you last Sunday when the elders witnessed the confession I have been hearing now for nearly two years, none of us ever can hear and know God’s word well enough. 

So don’t stop reading the Bible and studying your catechism; like Luther, you can never know either well enough. Don’t deny yourself the sacraments. Through these means of grace ... baptism, absolution and the Lord’s Supper, in particular ... you will continue to hear Jesus reiterate his promises to you. 

Every time you remember your baptism ... whether it was 5.5 or 11.5 years ago ... Jesus is saying, You are mine! Every time you hear absolution, you will hear, You are forgiven. Every time you receive his body and blood in the Supper, you will hear, You have eternal life! For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation, because nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Then, as you return to God’s word in your own personal study, he will make you wise that we are saved only in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12).

God keeps doing that for you. 

Did you notice that about all the verses you have each chosen? They are all present and continuous action. That is, you have each chosen verses with present and future active tenses. Hear them again: You will love the Lord your God. ... These words will be on your heart. ... And because of it, I am sure that nothing will separate us. Why? Because you will be holy ... So continue knowing these words because they will make you wise for salvation. These are all God’s promises to you. 

You should know: God cannot break those promises to you (Num 23:19, Titus 1:2, Heb 6:18). As Paul tells Timothy shortly before Nora’s verse, even if we are faithless, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13). See, your relationship with Jesus is now and always will be in him. Hearing your Good Shepherd’s voice is something that continues forever. 

It’s one reason why it is so fitting that we were able to celebrate your confirmation on this Sunday of the Passion. Your confirmation aside, this, too, is a day of joy. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he (Zech 9:9). He has come to save us in word and deed (Ps 118:25), to make us holy. 

This is why he entered Jerusalem. As Paul wrote in our epistle, Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:6-8, ESV).

We all give confession to this truth. Our Lord Jesus is the sinless one who lived a life without sin, and we poor sinners need a sinless savior. We couldn’t make ourselves holy. Instead, he does. We couldn’t make enough sacrifices for ourselves. 

Instead, he does. We couldn’t love God on our own (Rom 3:10-18). Instead, he came to us, shedding his blood for us, dying for us, so that nothing could separate us from his love for us ... Now, because he has paid the debt of our sin, and given us faith to believe this truth, he makes us wise unto salvation as we remember all he has done for us. This is true because we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4).

So, now, because he has been faithful to you, I want you to promise ... in fact, solemnly swear ... that you’ll follow him all your life. It’s an oath you will be taking, just like the vow you’ll take if you ever need to testify in court. Nothing ... not what your parents do ... not what seems more cool or fun down the line ... nothing is to get in the way of your keeping this vow. In this vow, you will promise to hold the prophetic and Apostolic Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Bible, as you have learned it from the Small Catechism, to be true and correct. You will vow to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death, rather than fall away from it. 

It is quite the promise, isn’t it? 

But don’t worry, you will keep it. Why? Because God is reminding you today that you will be holy ... you will love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul ... that nothing will separate you from his love for you, ... and that he is making you wise unto salvation. It's his vow for you.

[INSERT PRIVATE MESSAGES HERE]

The only one who can cause you now to fall away ... to lose you salvation ... is you. That’s why Christ is speaking these words to you today. He is faithful and just and he will keep his promise. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, remember this every day as you return to your baptism, as you hear his absolution, as you receive the Lord’s Supper. Remember his promises on this Sunday of the Passion. His vow to you has been fulfilled. Your sins ... whatever they may be ... have been forgiven on account of Christ. 

Hosanna in the highest (Matt 21:9). 

To his glory and our good, in Jesus’ name.

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