Sermon 5-11-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Mother’s Day 1Timothy 2:8-15

Salvation Through Childbirth And More

Today is Mother’s Day. Everyone here today has a mother. But not every female here today is a mother. And I know that not everyone here today has had a good relationship with their mother. And some have had difficult relationships with their children. So for some it is a bitter-sweet day. For others it’s a good day. For most of us it’s an emotional day one way or another.  Hopefully it’s a good day.

The Ten Commandments Yahweh gave Moses on Mount Sinai can be divided into two tables. The commandments of the first table define a righteous relationship with Yahweh, our Creator God. The commandments of the second table define righteous relationships between humans. The first commandment of the second table is Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” As Paul noted in Ephesians 6:1, this is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it.

And there are supplemental commandments to Exodus 20:12. For instance, we read in Exodus 21:15, “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.” And Exodus 21:17, “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.”

The fact that Yahweh decrees capital punishment for those who violate this commandment shows how fundamental the commandment to honor father and mother is. For, Yahweh’s authority on earth is delegated to parents and all who stand in the roll of parents — like teachers and those who serve in government, especially law enforcement and judges. And hearing these commandments is reason to repent of every evil and stupid thing we ever did contrary to the righteous will of our parents.

And for those of us who are parents, it’s reason to repent of every evil and stupid thing we ever did contrary to the righteous will of Yahweh in raising our children. For raising children is only partly teaching them what to do. More importantly, it’s having them watch adults in action. Therefore, did we present the model of a life under the authority of Messiah to our children, or something different?

The good news is that those who honestly recognize and repent of disobedience toward Yahweh and their poor attitude toward Him receive the forgiveness they ask for. The sacrifice of Messiah Jesus guarantees it. So, we can be forgiven of regrets in parenting.

Now, concerning motherhood, there’s a difficult passage of Scripture that I will dare to turn to so that we might see the grace in Yahweh’s plan for motherhood. It’s from 1Timothy chapter 2. The context is Paul giving instruction to his young assistant pastor, Timothy, concerning behavior in the church, especially the church at prayer. So, advising Timothy, Paul begins in 1Timothy 2:8-10, “8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness — with good works.”

So far, so good. But now we get to something entirely against the spirit of our time. 1Timothy 2:11-12, “11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” This is Paul’s rule in the church. It’s the reason only men should be ordained. And there’s much more that needs to be fleshed out concerning these verses because they’re not quite as harsh as they may seem. But I’m going to move on because my focus today is on the immediately following verses. 1Timothy 2:13-15, “13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing — if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” 

We’ve got to do a careful dive into these verses because there are numerous mistakes that can be made. First, we have to note that Paul’s reasoning behind his teaching goes back to the Garden of Eden. When Yahweh confronted Adam and Eve on the day they sinned, Eve complained about the Serpent to Yahweh saying in Genesis 3:13, “the serpent deceived me. . . .” And Yahweh agreed with Eve’s complaint. So, Eve admitted that she had been deceived. Yahweh agreed it was true. And that’s why Paul states that it was the woman who was deceived.

Second, as a result of the action Eve took by eating of the forbidden fruit, Eve became a transgressor. She transgressed the command of Yahweh not to eat of the fruit. And that’s how all the trouble with Original Sin that we all have got started. The consequences of Eve’s transgression are extremely serious.

Third, we have to look very carefully at verse 15. It begins, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing. . .” Who will be saved through childbearing? All women? No. “She” is in the singular. This means that Eve was saved through childbearing. And how was that so?

For the answer we have to turn to Genesis 3:15. This is part of Yahweh’s curse against the Serpent. Yahweh said to the Serpent in Genesis 3:15, “‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’” The word, “woman” is in the singular. The word “offspring” is also in the singular — one offspring. And this offspring is a “he” — a male. This male offspring of the woman — the Messiah — will crush the head of the Serpent and the serpent’s offspring. The crushing of the Serpent is what will bring salvation not only to Eve, but to all humanity. But, in order for this male offspring of Eve to appear on earth, Eve had to conceive and give birth to children. This is why Paul said Eve was saved by childbirth.

Now, Eve didn’t give birth to Messiah. That privilege was given to one of her descendants, Miriam — Mary — of Nazareth. But Eve had to give birth to the family line that would eventually bring forth Jesus of Nazareth. So, it was through childbearing — motherhood — that Eve was saved. It might also be possible to say the same thing of every ancestor mother in Jesus’ line, including Mary. They all had to bear children in order for salvation — who is Jesus — to appear.

So, don’t you think this is appropriate for Mother’s Day? Just as Eve put the tragedy of Original Sin into motion by her transgression, she also put Salvation into motion by giving birth to her son, Seth, and whichever one of her daughters that Seth took as a wife. Without the motherhood of Eve and all the other women through to Mary, the mother of Jesus, there would be no salvation for the human race. That’s how important motherhood is. And I think it’s most appropriate to celebrate this on Mother's Day.

One thing remains to be cleaned up in 1Timothy 2:15. It doesn’t say that women in general will be saved by childbearing. It says, “she,” meaning Eve. On the other hand, the Apostle concludes the verse referring back to what he had said previously about New Testament women. Paul says they will be saved, “if they continue in faith, love and holiness with self-control.” So, just like New Testament men, New Testament women are saved by faith in Messiah Jesus. But to their faith must be added love, holiness and self-control through the sanctification given by the power of Lord Holy Spirit through faith in the Lord Jesus.

And notice, Paul specified the virtue of self-control for women. We’ve come to a time when too many children and young people don’t know who their father is because their mother didn’t exercise self-control. This must have also been true in Paul’s day because he put an emphasis on self-control for women while instructing Timothy. For, the preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ were bringing an entirely new dimension into the lives of their Gentile hearers. They were bringing not only the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. They were bringing a whole new way of living in Yahweh’s righteousness. Indeed, by the preaching of self-control, motherhood was lifted to a new level of righteousness through Messiah Jesus. Therefore, let all women who are called to motherhood exercise self-control until marriage, to the glory of God through faith in the Lord Jesus.

And this brings us to the continuation of our examination of the great contest Jesus engaged in as Messiah — as both Yahweh the Son, and Jesus, Son of Mary. The contest exists because of a salient fact of existence. Yahweh is the Creator of everything that exists. If there is no Yahweh, you and I simply don’t exist. Period. Therefore, our existence is not our own creation. It’s Yahweh’s creation. And that’s the root of the problems we face. For, Original Sin denies the truth that we have a Creator.

Yahweh specifically tells us in Genesis 1:26-27 that when He created us, He created us in His Image. An image is a representation of the real thing. So we are meant to represent our Creator in His many attributes. Of course, made only in the Image of our Creator, this representation can only be partial, except for some all-important attributes. First and foremost is righteousness. For a totally good, totally righteous, totally just being must — Must — remove from His presence anything made in His Image that has fallen to anything less good, less righteous and less just than He is. Don’t believe me. Believe Yahweh Himself. For He says to Israel several times the words found in Leviticus 11:44, “. . . be holy, for I am holy.”

So, there is one very specific way in which we humans created in the Image of our Creator are meant to have equality with Him. It’s in righteousness.

But there is a second way in which we’re meant to have equality with Yahweh. It’s found in many Scriptures, but here’s what is said in 1John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Love is loyalty and commitment of the highest order. When we say that God loves us, we mean that He has the highest loyalty and commitment possible to us, His beloved Creatures. And so Yahweh created us to be mutual toward Him — that we should have the highest loyalty and commitment to Him. We are to be equal to Him in love — both love for Him and for each other.

And this brings up a third way in which we are meant to have equality with Yahweh. It’s in freedom — the freedom to love. For unless loyalty and commitment are freely chosen, it’s not love. It’s stalking, or much worse, slavery. Yahweh has to be free to love us. We must be free to love Him in return. And as we have observed before, freedom is what the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was doing in the Garden of Eden. Every time Adam and Eve passed that tree without eating of its fruit, they were freely loving Yahweh, their Creator, in the highest, most inestimable way.

Now, as we’ve noted before, we humans are not the only creatures Yahweh created in His Image. There are spiritual creatures without bodies that inhabit this universe with us. Scripture tells us of the Seraphim, the Cherubim, the Sons of God and angels in general.

Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how or why one of these spiritual creatures chose against Yahweh. But he did. Thus, it’s clear that the being we know as Satan gave up true equality with Yahweh in righteousness, love and freedom and grasped after a false equality. Satan decided to displace Yahweh as Creator and attempted to usurp all of Yahweh’s attributes as Creator. Satan decided to be a being without a Creator and himself as his own creator. Of course, that’s impossible. But falling from righteousness, Satan became a liar and the father of lies. And the father of lies that Satan told himself was that it was possible for him to be his own creator. In this way Satan grasped after a false equality with Yahweh. He deceived others into doing the same, including our first parents, Eve and Adam. So, Adam and Eve became their own gods. Then, their descendants created and worshipped false gods.

Yahweh has told us that He’s jealous over us. After all, He is our Creator. He’s not willing to give us over to a rebellious creature like Satan. He’s not willing to give us over to false gods of our own creating — and that includes us as our own gods and goddesses.

Therefore, through a process that began with an ancient man named Abraham, Yahweh set in motion the process that resulted in Yahweh, the Son, being sent to earth as Jesus, the Son of Mary. Part of that process was revealing a life-script for Messiah so that we would not only know Him when He arrived, we would also know what He had to do for us to restore us to the Image of God. That life-script is found in Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.

The heart of Jesus’ work was His sacrifice on the cross. By fulfilling this part of His life-script, Jesus won forgiveness of sins, life, salvation and resurrection to eternal righteous life for all who put their faith in Him. All who put their faith in Jesus have a glorious eternal future awaiting them, fully restored to the Image of God in human bodies. They will flourish and thrive in the righteousness of their Creator.

But, as we have been noting since the beginning of Lent, in order to fully work salvation for us, Jesus had to avoid doing one thing — reaching for the same false equality with Yahweh that Adam reached for. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, Satan attempted by various temptations to deceive Jesus into grasping this false equality. The most severe temptation was when Jesus’ opponents invited Him to show that He is the Messiah by coming down from the cross using His own power. 

However, Jesus’ refused this temptation to break His life-script and so won forgiveness of sins, life, salvation and resurrection for us. He also won the highest position in the universe available for a creature. And by absorbing this bite of the old Serpent, Jesus crushed the head of the Serpent. All this is celebrated in the marvelous hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11.

Therefore, Satan is doomed to eternal destruction. All humans who follow Him are doomed to the same destruction — the Second Death. But there is rescue to the Image of God for all humans who are enabled to believe in Yahweh’s Messiah — those enabled to come to Him in faith and repentance. For such who believe, there is the inheritance of eternal righteous life with Yahweh. This is the tremendous Good News of the Gospel.

Now, as we’ve said, in this 49 day Easter season, we commemorate the transfer of the proclamation of the Gospel to the Church by our Lord, Messiah Jesus. We’ve seen how Jesus breathed His Holy Spirit upon the disciples on Easter evening so that they could understand everything about the suffering and victorious Messiah that is written in Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. And, throughout the book of Acts it’s apparent what Lord Holy Spirit did for the Apostles. For we see the understanding of Messiah’s life-script that they incorporate into their preaching of the Gospel to both Jew and Gentile.

We’ve also seen how Jesus established official eye witnesses to His resurrection by His appearance to the Apostles and then to the Apostle, Thomas. We’ve also seen in the incident with Thomas how Jesus pronounced a blessing upon all those who will believe through the testimony of the Apostles. A month from now, on Pentecost, we’ll celebrate how that blessing became fully active for all of us through Lord Holy Spirit.

We’ve also seen how Jesus made leaders out of two unlikely men — Peter, who denied Him three times and Paul who persecuted believers. Peter had a mission to Jews. Paul had a mission to Gentiles. And so, the church has covered the entire world ever since.

Now, today’s Gospel lesson includes verses that are often quoted. Jesus said in John 10:27-30, “27 ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.’”

Therefore, if you have come out of the darkness of the present age; if you have come out of your own personal darkness into the light, truth and hope of the Gospel; if by faith you see this present world through the eyes of Messiah Jesus, instead of seeing Jesus through the eyes of the world, then there is Good News for you in these verses. Despite all the temptations and evil intent of Satan and his horde to lure you back into the false equality with God promised by Original Sin, the Father’s purpose will see you into the true equality with Him of righteousness, love, loyalty and freedom that He intends for you. Indeed, by the grace of God, you have the hope of an incredible resurrected future in Yahweh through the forgiveness of your sins.

How will this be? Jesus said it in verse 30. “I and the Father are one.” This incredible statement is a double mystery. For it not only invokes the mystery of Yahweh as a Trinitarian being (one being who is also three persons), it also invokes the mystery of the personal union of Messiah (both God and man, both Creator and creature). And, these are Jesus’ perfect credentials.

Those who heard Jesus say this the first time picked up stones because they thought He was blaspheming. None of them could yet understand what is written in Moses and the Prophets — that Yahweh Himself would come as a human being to save and gather His people. But for all those who have understanding of Messiah’s life-script given by Lord Holy Spirit, these are tremendously comforting words. For by not succumbing to false equality with God, Jesus has become head of the human race. As both Creator and creature, He secures our freedom to love Yahweh forever, forever free from any desire on our part to rebel. We will be held securely in Messiah’s great love. This is great Good News for all humanity. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.