"What makes a Christian a Christian?" Trinity 6 2025

27. December 2025
Trinity 6
Matthew 5:20-26

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:17–21).

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

What makes a Christian a Christian? Jesus Christ, sending you a preacher to declare to you: Upon this, your confession, I, as a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his authority, declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN. That’s it. Don’t believe me? Believe Jesus. Believe the Word spoken by the Spirit through the Apostle to Galatia and Rome. Take it up with Jesus and His Apostolic Church. Or if you want something more parochial, read the Lutheran Confessions and it’s treatment on the righteousness of Christ and good works.

So what about the Ten Commandments? What about doing, saying, even thinking the right things? First off, God gave them to Moses for Israel, and we’re not Israelites. We’re dog-Gentiles, so the commandments aren’t for us. They don’t make us a Christian. They belong to the old covenant, not the New Testament. And, in any case, Jesus died to fulfill the entire law. We learn the Commandments chiefly that we come to know our sin and, in faith that is worked by the Spirit through the Gospel, repent, and live in Christ.

But again, what about living a certain kind of life, a good life, a moral life? Don’t I have to live a certain way to be considered a Christian? Do and do not and all that? As scandalous as it sounds to the old Adam, no. “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Ga 5:18). The way we live is all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t and can’t have any control over that. Or as the Apostle writes: “The Holy Spirit has mercy upon whom He has mercy” (Romans 9:15ff).

The way we choose to live is the way sinners have always chosen to live: selfishly. In fact, there’s nothing worse than someone acting like a Christian. We call that hypocrisy, or in the language of Jesus today, the righteousness of a Pharisee and scribe, not the righteousness of Christ, faith, or the Christian.

You’re either baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins or you’re not. You either live by faith in what Jesus does for you, or you don’t. How you talk, act, dress, or carry yourself has no effect on that whatsoever. Rich or poor, short or tall, fat or thin, male or female, Jew or Gentile, all are the same in Jesus Christ. At least, that’s what the apostle writes to the Galatian Christians. But, maybe you know better than God’s chosen preacher what makes a Christian a Christian?

So let’s recap: “The Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Ga 3:22–29).

So if it’s not about the commandments anymore, and it’s not about living a certain kind of life to get into God’s good graces, then what’s left for us to do? Nothing! There was never anything for us to do to become Christians. It’s all done for us by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are baptized into Christ by the will of the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit. Or to say it the Apostolic way, “we are sons and heirs of the promise!”

And then, Jesus Christ is preached to us, giving Himself to us through the words of His preacher, and that’s entirely His choice. We bring nothing with us that contributes to the preaching or the hearing of God’s promise to us: not the right attitude, attentive ears, or saying, “Nice sermon, pastor,” after the fact. Again, let’s take what Scripture says seriously. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Ro 6:3). We are dead in sin. Dead! Sinner! What can dead people do? At best, all we can choose to do with God’s words is reject them because they don’t invite us to help God with His works.

Receive Jesus in the Sacrament. The body and blood of Jesus don’t depend on our acceptance of them. The only altar call that we will ever hear at this church from this pastor is: All is ready. Come and eat. Jesus now accepts you as His personal sinner, and He forgives you.

On the Last Day, we will not do anything to climb out of our coffins. We will not be expected to say the right words when Jesus calls us out of the grave. No, He will call us by name. We will not have to press our shirts, shine our shoes, or put on our Sunday best. As the prophet Job said, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Jesus will show up with clothes already in hand. Clothes that mark you as an honored guest of the Bridegroom who has chosen you to be his bride. Clothed in Him, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.

What makes a Christian a Christian? It’s not complicated: Jesus Christ died for your sins and was resurrected for your justification. But how do you know this is true? Because He sends you a preacher to declare it to you for the sake of faith, because you’re not even capable of having the right faith. As the apostle writes: “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). To the Word and the Sacraments! That’s precisely where the Spirit working through the Word drives you.

On the other hand, you may think you have something like faith. You may believe what you believe about God, and Jesus, and the Church, and what it means to be a Christian. But if it’s without a preacher declaring the forgiveness of sin to you in Jesus’ name, without Baptism, without the body and blood of Christ given to you, you don’t have true faith. You don’t have the real Jesus Christ. Luther calls this “a poor deluded soul.” You only have yourself, and that’s not good because apart from the Spirit, you can only be a bad theologian, a self-righteous Pharisee.

In fact, that’s why you think that what makes a Christian a Christian is obeying the law, doing your best, showing up to church every so often, and hoping that when you die, you go to heaven. Believe in God. Behave yourself. Belong to a church. It all sounds good. But that’s not Christian faith, that’s the theology of every false religion ever invented. And even then, the Mormons or the Muslims do it better. It’s just garden-variety sin dressed up as godly worship and devotion.

There’s only one thing, one person, who makes you a Christian, and it’s not you. It’s Jesus Christ alone through the work of the Holy Spirit for you because the Father wants it. That’s the only thing that translates sinners into Christ’s kingdom.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That righteousness comes only in Christ for you. You’re either a baptized sinner, or you’re not. You’re either hearing God’s preacher or you don’t have true faith. You’re either at the Lord’s Supper, receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, new life, and eternal salvation, or you’re nothing. Because apart from Jesus Christ and Him for you, you have nothing: not true faith, not the living God, not a Savior who died and rose for the sins of the world. You only have yourself, standing alone or with others who also delude themselves into thinking one can choose how to be a Christian apart from Christ, his preacher, and his gifts of salvation.

And so, for those of you who have been called and gathered here by the Holy Spirit: As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin