It Is the Holy Spirit Who Makes Us Holy :: Isaiah 35:3-7

Before we begin please open your service book to page 323 and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. 

What is the Third Article? ... 

What does this mean? ... 

Today we are going to focus on this confession in conjunction with our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 35, where our Word reads, Behold ... [Your God] will come and save you all. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped (vv 4b-5a). 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this profound and essential article of the Christian Gospel ... that behold, it is God who opens eyes and ears ... It is God who strengthens and makes firm ... It is God who saves ... is in harmony with our confession that ... 

IT IS THE WORK, FUNCTION, AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO MAKE US HOLY. 

I. It is his work alone. 

It is almost impossible to comprehend this truth that it is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy. Our hearts constantly push back on the idea. Our minds are absolutely set against this confession. The whole construct of society’s thinking about the church is opposed to it. We are surrounded by those who think and teach that salvation is our decision alone.

We do not understand what the church is. We do not understand why the church exists. We don’t understand why we come here. We too easily simplify the idea of the church in our mind. We make the church into our image. We make our church our special place. All too often we reduce our church to an institution with a constitution and membership roles and budgets and committees and plans and works. We declare these things to be most important. But that is not the church. Neither is the church a voluntary society that exists in the heart of the believer. Nor is the church simply a gathering where we are going to show each other how holy we are ... simply as a consequence of what we do. 

Instead, as the Augsburg Confession states it so plainly, the Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are administered properly (AC VII) ... which is another way of saying it is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy. The Holy Spirit forms us into the Holy Christian church.

II. This leads us to a profound negative thought: Because it is the Holy Spirit who makes us holy, we therefore are not naturally holy. 

You will not become holy by becoming religious. You will not become holy by doing the right things. You will not become holy by going through the right motions. 

You are not more holy because you are congenial or nice. You are not more holy because you go with the flow. You are not more holy because you avoid confrontation. You are not more holy because others perceive you to be more lovable and friendly ... or generous with your time. And you do not become more holy ... or prove yourselves to be more holy ... by not making waves. Nor are you less holy because you have a bent or wounded personality. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is the work of the Holy Spirit that makes us holy. 

If the Holy Spirit is to make us holy, then we confess and we know that we are naturally not holy ... and we cannot make ourselves holy. When God declares in Leviticus that You will be holy because I the Lord your God am holy (Lv 19:2), he is not demanding that we make ourselves into something that we are not ... that is, making ourselves something out of nothing. He is not demanding that we transform ourselves from dead human beings into eternally living human beings. He is not contending you can make yourselves see and hear Jesus on your own. 

If you turn God’s Word that you shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy into a command, then what you are saying is ... to achieve our unity and peace with God, we must fly in the face of the Holy Spirit. 

Instead, today, listen once again to the Gospel of Isaiah ... who is calling us into repentance ... who is reminding us of the Gospel that you are saved by the blood of Jesus. Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong! Fear not! Behold your God. He will come with vengeance. He will come and save you (v 4). 

He comes to us to make us his very own (1 Pt 2:9). He comes to us to make us one with him. He comes to us to make us one with each other (2 Cor 5:17-20). He comes to unite his church. He comes to save. He comes to open eyes and ears. He comes to feed and nourish. He comes to deliver the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. He comes to make us holy just as he is holy because an unholy people cannot be in the presence of a holy God, who wills to be worshiped, who wills us to be like himself. 

III. This Holy God, who made his promise to save you, is making you holy in the person of Jesus. 

The work of Jesus is the work to purify ... to make holy ... by his suffering and death for us on the cross. Jesus ... the Holy One of God ... stood in our place. He alone faced the vengeance of God. On the cross Jesus paid the compensation price to save you ... his death (v 4b). On the cross, Jesus took into his own body the sin and the unholiness that we are. On the cross Jesus became sin for you. On the cross God poured out his vengeance upon the body of sin. On the cross, God punished all sin ... your sin, my sin, the world’s sin. Jesus died for your sin. 

But God is holy and just and the justifier of the one who has faith in his Gospel. So he raised Jesus! ... He is now risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! ... The eyes of the blind are being opened ... made aware ... of what Jesus has done. The ears of the deaf now hear that death has no more dominion over those who are in Christ Jesus. What was once dead is now alive. 

IV. Jesus has united himself with us through his means of grace that make us holy.

The waters in the wilderness and the torrents in the desert have burst forth (v 6b) in Holy Baptism, washing you, sanctifying you ... so that we can come worthy and well-prepared to the Lord’s Supper whenever he offers it to us. Here, he feeds us the Bread of Life and delivers to us the cup of Salvation. And you who have faith in these words ... given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins ... are worthy and well-prepared in the faith he gives you.

His will for us to be holy is identical to the will of the Father who sent the holy son, who has finished his holy work ... the work that only he could do. Through the Creator, by the power of his Word, He achieves the purpose for which he sends it. Then like a deer, the lame will leap, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy (v 6a). 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that happens precisely here as God himself gathers us into this Holy Christian Church. Here, we hear the voice of the shepherd ... the Good Shepherd ... who gathers together his holy people to announce absolution. Here, Jesus creates us into his flock ... that is congregation ... that is, the flock that congregates in him. Here, the Holy Spirit calls us into this holy congregation ... which is not simply Trinity Lutheran Church of Appleton City (or Clinton) ... but the holy congregation of God’s people. 

That flock is gathered by the Gospel ... which is being and continues to be proclaimed to you ... that it is not by works we are saved ... not because you came to church today ... not because you were simply baptized once long ago ... not because you said, yes, I am a sinner and I need a savior. Neither are you saved because you say you have something you call faith. 

You are saved on account of the holy blood of Jesus ... you are saved by grace ... God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense ... through faith, and this is not of yourselves, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8). You are saved by the blood Jesus shed. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hb 9:22) ... and therefore, no life and salvation. The blood he has shed for you ... the blood he gives to you ... saves you. It is this blood that cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7) ... and makes us holy. 

Is it any wonder that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus or come to him? But the Holy Spirit has called you by this Gospel, enlightened you with his gifts, sanctified and kept you in the one true faith ... just like he does for the whole Christian church on earth. 

If the Holy Spirit does not work through this Gospel, or if a different Gospel is used, you may have a religious society ... you may have a pious family ... you may have a charitable organization ... you may have people of goodwill who say many things about God ... but one thing you do not have is the church. 

The church is the communion of saints ... the communion of those united around Baptism and the Lord’s Supper ... the communion of those receiving and sharing the forgiveness of sins. And when all the people see that, they give praise to God (Lk 18:43).

So, brothers and sisters in Christ ... 

Be strong! Fear not! Behold, you God! ... He saves you ... in Jesus’ name.