St. Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

In our text it says, God is going to repay each person according to what he has done. Right away, your radar is up, right; because every Sunday you hear the message, that your salvation isn’t dependent on your works, on what you do? We know all of us have done evil, and can’t claim any saving works of our own. Rather, salvation is dependent on what God has done on our behalf.

St. Paul wrote it like this to the Romans: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law (3:28), and like this to the Galatians: a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (2:16).

Those are the things Martin Luther rediscovered in the Bible some 500 years ago in the Reformation, that changed the whole direction of the Christian church, right? It restored it to what Christ had intended. That’s the truth of Scripture regarding the basis of us sinners being saved.

Couldn’t really be any plainer. Works of the Law—our accomplishing goodness in the things we do—doesn’t save us; God’s grace in the goodness of His Son Who died for us—our believing of that, our faith in being forgiven because of Jesus Christ—does save us.

And Paul writes those truths for the comfort of his readers. He wants them to be relieved, knowing their guilt is rightly laid at the cross of the one Who already was punished for it. They need not agonize over their sins any longer. You need not agonize over your sins any longer.

So…what does Jesus mean when He says God is going to repay each person according to what he has done? Not being justified on the basis of works—on the one hand/repaid according to what he has done—on the other; don’t those two things contradict each other?

Those words what he has done are the puzzler, aren’t they? They appear to have a tremendous amount of weight; we need to examine what they mean. We’ll do that here this morning.

A couple of important things had happened just before our text. First of all: St. Peter had given a powerful confession of faith in Jesus—proclaiming Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. He was saying he believed Jesus is the one God had promised to send as Savior, that He’s the anointed one, the one whose sacrifice becomes righteousness for all sinners.

Jesus had commended him on the confession, and said the truth of that confession is the basis of the Church He was building (Mt. 16:16-17).

But then, that same Peter had demonstrated the frailty of a sinner. When Jesus had said He’d have to suffer and die (and rise) in order for God’s will to be done, for His kingdom to be built, Peter had balked at it. It wasn’t happening, he’d said. And when he’d said it, it was in that I don’t care who knows it kind of way. It was almost as if to say, it isn’t happening no matter what God has in mind. Well…

Where Jesus had commended Peter’s confession in the previous paragraph, in this, He’d rebuked his lack of faith. “Get behind me, Satan!”—He’d said. “You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (22-23).” He would speak similarly to Peter in the Garden at His arrest, after Peter’d cut off a soldier’s ear in His defense: “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me (John 18:11)?” He didn’t want to be defended; this was what He was here to do!

Peter’s mistake on both occasions was his thinking (in those moments), that what happens in this world, in this life, to this body are the most important thing, are the thing to be protected and preserved at all costs. Thinking this way would come to be a real hindrance to him.

“Though they all fall away because of you, [he would later go on to boast] I will never fall away (26:33).” But then, when it was tested, in the high priest’s courtyard, in terror over being exposed as one of Jesus’ followers, Peter would choose to save his life in this world, denying in exchange, his Savior.

He hadn’t thought about it a lot; it was happening in a hot moment. But what it amounted to was monumental when you stood back and looked at it. It amounted to him trading his eternal soul for this body, this life, this world. Of course, he wept over it afterwards, and repented, and was restored to Jesus.

We can see why Jesus would follow Peter’s statement, this shall never happen to you, with what opens our text. He’s teaching His disciple whom He knows has this weakness that would lead to a moment like that, when He says: “If anyone would come after me [in other words, wanting eternal life, wanting to be with God in His kingdom], let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Were those very words (among others) coming back to him as he wept outside the high priest’s courtyard? Quite possibly.

It isn’t hard to understand Peter’s perspective, though, is it? This recently retired fisherman was used to dealing with hard realities—things he could see and feel and touch in this world—like a net full of fish, and all of the hard work that went into it. Once, when it hadn’t been happening; nothing had been caught all night long by these profession fishermen, and Jesus had performed a miracle that filled Peter’s and his companions’ two boats, Peter’d been faced with a supernatural reality beyond the concrete one he’d known; and it was too much for him in that moment. He’d said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord (Luke 5:8).”

We’d started out talking about the statement Jesus makes in our text, about God repay[ing] each person according to what he has done. And it occurs to us, that our instinct—even as believers—to cling to this world, and this life, and this body might just have something to do with the way we think about our sins.

Peter’d been put in a position out there on the Lake, in which God’s eternal kingdom couldn’t be thought of as theoretical anymore.

Isn’t that the way you sometimes think about it; as something we talk about, but that doesn’t seem as real as what we can see and feel and touch in this world?

Peter’d been hearing Jesus talk about about God’s eternal kingdom; but he’d had his feet planted pretty firmly in the soil of this world. Any time things seemed to be approaching eternal reality he’d braced himself against it, opting for what he’d known in this world instead. But having seen, now, the clear evidence of it out there on the lake, seen God in front of him doing His thing, seen for sure that there’s more than this,  it brought him to the quick conclusion, that his sins had real consequences. And it made him shudder, thinking: if God fills two boats with fish where there’d been none, then He certainly sees through me. He certainly knows my sinful thoughts, and the things I’ve said to people, the things I’ve done that other people don’t know about, even.

If you’ve ever thought about facing God on Judgment Day, and wondering what He might say about your sins, wondering whether your salvation is a done deal or not, then you know how Peter was feeling in that moment.

We talk so much this morning about that other text, because it helps us see what Jesus is getting at in this text. Peter has such a strong tendency (like we all have), to cling to this world, and this life, and this body, that it endangers his soul. It endangers the thing that really lasts forever, what follows this temporary existence.

It’s important we talk about what it means that you are connected to Christ through faith.

When St. Paul writes that in being baptized into Christ [you] have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), he means that when God looks at you, He sees Christ’s perfection. He sees it because it’s what He wanted to see.

But it couldn’t have been accomplished just by Him wanting it. A payment needed to be made for your sins. So, He made it. He made the payment by putting your sins on Christ, by punishing Him for them. Those animals being sacrificed for the peoples’ sins in the Old Testament are a picture of it. The animals had to be unblemished, perfect sacrifices, too, as a stand-in for the Savior they were picturing. The Savior, Christ, doesn’t have any sinful thoughts, or any sinful words to people, or anything He’s done that He wouldn’t ever want anyone to find out about. That’s all of us; but it isn’t Him. So, covered with Him, as you are by faith, God sees only His perfection.

So, when He rewards you according to what you have done, He’s rewarding you according to what Christ has done. You need not agonize over your sins any longer. And you need not cling to this world, and this life, and this body anymore, as if there’s something to be afraid of in what comes beyond all of this. God sees you as perfect because He has forgiven you in Christ. What happens in this world, in this life, to this body aren’t the most important thing, aren’t the thing to be protected and preserved at all costs. For all of their joy and blessing, they’re only what gives way to the true eternal joy and blessing with God in His kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.