(Sundaycast) “Advent 2” Saved By Faith In God’s Work And Not Ours (Psalm 106:6; Romans 3:28)

The Second Sunday in Advent reminds us of the need for Christ to come to us. We are people who need to be saved by the work of Christ not our own. As many people watch football games, the commentators will often say “he redeemed himself.” This comment is made after a player has made a mistake, like a fumble or a missed field goal, and then later scores or kicks the winning field goal. As each of us knows (and we will learn from today’s podcast) this is never true in our relationship to God. People who are wicked, and evil and destructive will never be able to do enough to redeem themselves. All of our efforts to do this are based on our wicked need to prove to God that we are good enough after all. But our motive is evil. So God has to do a cleansing from the inside out. And then we are clean. Then we are free. That is the work of our Lord. Only God can do this. You will hear this promise for you in the hymn for today.