If you want to emphasize the effectiveness of something today, you say "It has teeth." Try to cut most steaks with a butter knife, and you’re probably going to be a while. Take out those false teeth and try to eat corn on the cob. Some things just don’t work.

Civil laws are thought to be more effective if they have some teeth. Some people who constantly drive in excess of the speed limit know that if they get caught, they will only have to pay a minimal fine. Buy if the fine is considerable, then the law has some teeth and they may rethink their policy of a heavy foot.

Ezekiel was called by God to be a watchman to the children of Israel. He went into exile along with the first wave of Israelites that were deported to Babylon as the result of King Jehoiakim’s revolt. Many false prophets were predicting that this exile would be short. Ezekiel, on the other hand, was called by God to remind the people that because of their failure to repent, their exile was going to be a lengthy one.

In Old Testament times, a watchman would stand on the highest point of the city wall and blow a trumpet to warn the people of approaching danger, an incoming messenger, or report the progress of a battle. As God’s spokesman, Ezekiel became a watchman. He was to warn God’s people of their sin.

This warning was not supposed to be issued as a mere disruption of people’s lives. It was meant to be a true call to repentance so that people would repent and then experience the new life that only God could impart. Ezekiel’s message of repentance and faith, Law and Gospel, was not to be taken lightly. God’s Word is effective. God’s Word has teeth.

God started out by warning the watchman himself. If he doesn’t warn the wicked to repent, then not only will they die, but the watchman will be responsible for their death. If he does warn the wicked and they don’t repent, even though they will still die, the watchman has done his duty.

All three of our lessons this morning have a very unified theme, and that theme is that there is salvation through, but only through repentance and faith. In our prayer of the day, we asked God to be gracious to those who have gone astray, that with penitent hearts and steadfast faith they may hold fast to the truth of His Word. Even our Psalm asks, "Will you be angry with us forever?" And the Psalmist responds, "Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him."

In the epistle, Paul reminds us that if anyone thinks he stands, he better watch out lest he fall. In the Gospel, Jesus gives a warning to those who do not show the fruit of repentance and faith.

I remember a pastor at the church where I was confirmed, in St. Charles Missouri. There were three pastors there, and the senior pastor, Pastor Heine, was one of those old school fire and brimstone preachers. He had no problem standing in the pulpit and yelling at the congregation and banging his fists on the pulpit, and telling us that we were all sinners and that if we didn’t straighten up and fly right, we were all going to hell. God’s Word had teeth when Pastor Heine preached on it. He took his job as a watchman seriously.

Of course, I must take my job as a watchman seriously too. The early church father and Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom wrote that the streets of hell are paved with preacher’s skulls. I will not go to eternity to preach. There won’t be any need for preaching then. I will go there to be judged. So, when God, through a watchman warns us of our sin, it’s a serious matter. That watchman can be a preacher, and it can be the Word of God itself. The Word has worked on my heart this week, so today, I will work on your hearts.

There can be no argument that when the wicked sin, they need to repent. The problem is that not many people see that need without someone else bringing it to their attention. That’s what preaching the Law is supposed to do. It’s supposed to make us take a serious look at our lives and our attitudes and our actions, and see if there is any room for repentance and improvement. I don’t mean a quick glance. I mean a heart rending, soul searching look.

Of course, we’re like the people of Israel. We like cop out and say that the way of the Lord is not just. We contend that God is some kind of dishonest salesman, keeping his thumb on the scale, that he’s unjust in his spiritual evaluation of is people, and unfair in his dealings with us.

We make excuses and lay the blame on other people and things, and try to minimize and rationalize and justify our actions and sin. We think too highly of our righteous deeds, as if we can earn our own salvation. It’s pretty easy to do that when we have not felt the crushing weight of God’s judgment on sin the way the people of Judah did while they were in bondage.

Hopefully, if we’re honest with ourselves, there is always room for repentance and improvement. Hopefully, when the teeth of the Word of God in the Law has done its work, and shown us that we’re sinners, we see our need for a Savior, and we turn to Him in repentance and faith and ask with the Israelites, "How then can we live?"

Thankfully, God’s Word has teeth that cut in quite the opposite way. God makes his promise to Israel and to us with an oath, with teeth! "As I live declares the Lord God." God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. His reason for using the Law is so we will turn from our sin and repent and live.

The Gospel tells us that we have new life through Jesus, our Savior. Jesus didn’t just talk about love. He put teeth in it. He put it into action. He acted in love, going the way of suffering and death on the cross.

On Calvary, Jesus suffered the just wrath of God’s punishment, the ultimate punishment, punishment with teeth, as he died on the cross, not for anything he had done wrong, but for your sin and mine. As Jesus shed his innocent blood on the cross, justice was served, as atonement for sin was made once and for all.

Jesus’ death had teeth, as we see the curtain of the temple torn in two at the moment he died. We are no longer separated from God. All believers now have access to God. It is no longer necessary for a son of Aaron to act as a mediator between God and his people. At that moment, all believers became members of the royal priesthood.

His resurrection had teeth, since no stone blocking the entrance to his tomb, not even death itself, could hold Jesus from rising from the dead.

Through his Means of Grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, God works repentance and faith in our everyday lives. God gets straight to the matter, by transplanting our dead heart, killed by the Law, with a transformed heart. The purpose of repentance is salvation, and God wants his people to "turn back, turn, back’, from our evil ways and live.

Our faith is strengthened through a life of repentance as we daily drown our sinful natures by remembering our Baptisms. Our sanctified life is uplifted as our teeth literally touch Christ’s body and blood with his assurance of forgiveness in Holy Communion.

God asks us, "Why will you die, O my beloved? I have sent you watchmen to show you your sin. When my Law has done its work, you need not despair, for ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.’ And through my crucified and resurrected Son, you have new life – with teeth in it – now and for all eternity." Amen.