Dear Christian friends:

The question on our bulletin is the question Jesus asked the Jews in the Gospel lesson for this Sunday: "Why do you not believe?" (John 8:46) That is a very good question, not only for the Jews of long ago but also for us today.

Much of the time we see things without faith. We look at things with our natural eyes and see sin and trouble and no hope and we are sad and not happy. We must see things with new eyes, the eyes of faith. Then we will be happy and eager and in peace with God and men.


We see Jesus as the holy innocent servant of God bearing away our griefs and sorrow. "stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." (verse 4)

Man's eyes see him as despised and rejected. Rejected by the church, state, men and even friends. Eyes of faith see Him as our beautiful Savior. "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." (verse 4) Borne means taking away the sin of someone.

Since He has carried away our sins we see ourselves as healed now: "with His stripes we are healed" (verse 5) With our natural eyes we see ourselves as very sick, dying and dead. We are guilty and afraid of the future.

But with the eyes of faith we see ourselves as healed. Isaiah did. Our sins have been carried away as far as the East is from the West. Jesus has suffered and died for us. He is our offering for sin.

We are healed. If we see ourselves as healed we will not be bothered by contrary evidence: Our falling into sin and temptation. By His stripes, not by our good works, we are healed. Daily confess your sins and believe that God forgives you. This daily habit makes you see correctly as God wants you to see.

We are healed, 100% well. We should not think ourselves half-healed. Don't be half alive, half asking, half trusting, half-serving. Love Him with all your heart; serve Him with all your mind, strength and time. He has healed you to be fully and perfectly His. Don't share yourself with the devil and sin. You are now the healed children of God.

We do not need to make excuses for our sins and faults or failures. He has already excused us. He sees us as perfect and good. We should be able to forgive ourself because He has forgiven us and He accepts us with wide-open-arms.

He has given us a high place of honor in His Kingdom, we need not race with our brother to beat him and get his place. This we often forget also here in the church.

Also we do not need to try and make ourself look good by criticising another person and making him look bad. When we criticise others we are trying to make ourselves look good.

God has made us all look good and fine in Jesus Christ our Savior. We are healed by His strips. So let us see everything new with the eyes of faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

We will be very happy with ourself and with others. We will see that God is our kind wonderful Father and that we are His dear children.

Amen.