Priceless Treasure: The Gift of Salvation

If God Himself Be for Me (LSB 724, st. 2)

I build on this foundation,
   That Jesus and His blood
Alone are my salvation,
   My true, eternal good.
Without Him all that pleases
   Is valueless on earth;
The gifts I have from Jesus
   Alone have priceless worth.

If the first stanza of this hymn questions how anything can separate us from God, the second stanza gives the reason why we can have such confidence.  We as humans are failures:  we try (or sometimes not) to be kind to those around us.  We try to be the best that we can be at everything we do, but we will inevitably make mistakes, unintentionally offend someone, and not live up to even our own standards and expectations.  We are sinful, and if trusted with our own salvation, we will fail to rescue ourselves from the destruction of our own making.  Thanks be to God that He does not hold us accountable:  Christ Jesus is our salvation!  With the author of Hebrews, we, too, can look "to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).  And because Christ died to redeem us and rose again and ascended into heaven, we can be sure that we will one day rise to eternal life.  These then are the gifts given to us through Christ: forgiveness, life, and salvation.  They are priceless because unlike the gifts of this world, they will not pass away.

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Today is Good Friday, when we remember what Christ paid on the cross for our freedom.  Tonight, at the Tenebrae service I attended, we sang LSB 451, "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted".  I leave you with the forth stanza, which mirrors the one above.

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451, st. 4)

Here we have a firm foundation,
   Here the refuge of the lost:
Christ, the Rock of our salvation,
   Is the name of which we boast;
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
   Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
   Who on Him their hope have built.

Sources:

Lutheran Service Book (CPH, 2006)

The Lutheran Study Bible (CPH, 2009)