Romans 3:19-28; Reformation, October 27, 2019;
Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN;
Now we know that
whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by
works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through
the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness
to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who
believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his
righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is
excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Ro
3:19-28, ESV)
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
We don’t see it very much these days… It really seems to be a picture from the
past… I mean this picture of a young man (like Martin Luther) struggling to be
good enough so that God won’t send him to hell.
In fact, we all may look at that picture and think that it’s rather old
fashioned. We may ask ourselves why anyone
would ever be afraid of such a thing. Certainly,
few of us have had any fear about that kind of thing. We are an enlightened mature society. Religion is about love. If it’s about god at all it’s a god whose
great love for people would never allow him to send anyone to punishment forever.
It is often expressed in phrases like this: “The god I know would never punish people that
way.” Or “How can a loving god deal out
eternal punishment?”
I mean, if hell isn’t a reality for people then the question
of being good enough to avoid it is really a non-issue. Isn’t it?
It all kind of makes the Reformation that began with the struggle of a
young German monk over sin and hell, a mute point. After all Luther’s struggle
was against God, wasn’t it? He looked at
himself and saw an imperfect person who didn’t “love God with his whole heart
and soul and mind.” He looked at God and
saw a judge who demanded perfection, not just in the way things were done, but
in the motive and the thought too! His thorough
study of scripture led him to the unmistakable conclusion that he was hell
bound. That was then, this is now. The whole
fear-of-hell thing seems like a leftover from a previous time when people
thought differently.
The way it is now, the way we prefer to look at the world, and
life, and God is completely different. We’ve
made up a god of our own that doesn’t match with what the Bible tells us. Our new god is a doting grandfather that
gives us whatever we need and want, and he simply ignores our shortcomings and
failures. It could even be said that he
doesn’t even care that people don’t believe in him or even out and out reject
him. “They’re only human,” He coos, “and
nobody is perfect.” This god looks
lovingly at struggling humanity and with a twinkle in his eye says, “They try
so hard… that’ll be good enough.” It’s
the picture of god giving an “A+” for effort, regardless of the results and
regardless of the motives that lie behind the actions. He gives people a purpose in their lives and
rewards them as long as we live in that purpose.
It’s no wonder people don’t fear the consequences of their sin
anymore. The god we’ve invented acts and
sounds just like one of us. He sweeps
sin under the carpet just like we like to do.
That’s just the way we live, as if sin wasn’t a problem, sweeping it
quietly under the carpet. Letting it
stand where we find it. Just think a
moment about these issues since 1973 in just the United States alone we have
killed over 61 million helpless children through abortion. It’s a staggering 1
in 4 pregnancies that end in murder. Or
how about this issue that hits closer to home because we all have it in our
families. You know that that 90% of
young couples (both Christian and non-Christian) live together before
marriage. They ignore the stats that
show those who do have an 80% higher risk of divorce. God, the true God, speaks clearly about these
issues. Killing human beings at any
stage of development is murder. He says
sex outside of marriage is wrong, that means it is wrong for couples to live
together before they are married, no matter how good the reasons seem. Test yourself on these issues: How many people know you are Pro-Life? Do you consider unborn children when you
stand in the ballot box? How many young
couples have you told that living together before they are married is wrong? We spend a lot of time and effort saying that
God’s will for our lives is whatever we want it to be. And that God’s standards for living are quite
flexible, more like suggestions that can be set aside when they are
inconvenient or don’t match up with our “feel good” philosophy of life.
Luther’s struggle was about the difference between God and
human beings. God is holy. People are not. God is perfect. People are not. God knows everything. God can investigate the very depth of the
human heart. When Martin looked honestly
into his own what he saw there frightened him.
It frightened him because he didn’t find an inner core of good. He saw an inner core of evil and darkness and
hatred of other people and even of God. And
when he realized that God saw that same heart, he knew that he was lost. With
the law comes the knowledge of sin. St.
Paul
That’s the real problem isn’t it? It’s what’s in here that we can’t get rid
of. We can only ignore it or pretend it
isn’t there. Or invent a god that
doesn’t care about sin, a god of our own making that hides his eyes to what we
know is there. Because the real God, the
one we learn about in His Word does care about sin. That same Word tells us all the truth we
already know: For by works of the law no human being will be justified in
his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. No
amount of keeping the law is going to fix what’s in here. The more we try to do what is right the more
we see how we don’t do it perfectly, “with our whole heart.”
But it is precisely
because the true God cares about sin that we are here today. It is because God really does love human
beings beyond our understanding that He doesn’t just sweep sin under the
carpet. He sees what sin does to us, how
it tears our relationships apart, how it makes a mess of everything we try to
do. And he knows above all how we are
powerless to do anything about it. For there is no distinction: for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s what the law makes very
plain to us. But God goes beyond that he
also says that we are justified by his grace as a gift… Well, it would have to be a gift wouldn’t
it? We can’t scrub it clean; we can’t
work it out on our own, and we can’t end sin in our hearts by any other
way. We need a righteousness that we
don’t have. Righteousness is exactly
what God has. It is what God is. In fact, the best definition of righteousness
is Jesus.
Now when we compare
Jesus heart to ours, we know that what we need is His…
It’s the most amazing thing… it’s really beyond our
understanding… it’s so utterly different than anything our experience can
understand… But Jesus is exactly what
God gives to us. Our sinful prideful mind
and heart immediately jump to the conclusion that we must have earned it,
somehow. “I must have done something
good!” But the God’s law is right there
to show us that there is nothing we can do.
Its real purpose is to show us our sin, because we will not believe in
Jesus, we can’t have true faith, until the law shuts us up, and puts anything
we would do out of the picture. We get
this wonderful totally free gift of Jesus righteousness, God’s perfection, by
faith. What Paul means by that is seeing
that Jesus righteousness is now yours. In
Paul’s words: we receive the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.
That’s where that young monk’s struggle ended… in faith. When Martin Luther saw that the righteousness
that he needed was his as God’s free gift he did what faith does. Be believed… he received… he hoped… and he
lived in faith every day of his life from that moment on.
My dear Christians friends, it is
just so for you and me. The very same
gift is ours. We can’t earn it; we can
work our way to deserve it. It is a
gift. It is the most amazing thing in
the whole world. Our sin, both the
things we do, and the things we think and feel, that blackness and evil in the
deepest part of our heart is covered up by righteousness of God, through faith
in Christ Jesus. We do what faith does… We believe… we receive… we hope… and we
live in faith every day, from this very moment on. For we hold that [a person] is justified by faith apart
from works of the law. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment