Declared "Just As If I Never Sinned" - Romans 3:21-28

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is from the Epistle lesson, Romans 3:21-28.

St. John Chrysostom once wrote, “No other religion has a God who serves his people rather than demanding service of them” (as cited in A Year With the Church Fathers: Meditations for Each Day of the Church Year, © 2011, CPH; p. 343). Let me say that again: “No other religion has a God who serves His people rather than demanding service of them.” This is a remarkable truth of the Christian faith: that God, in His grace and mercy, chose to deliver His perfect Son to save imperfect sinners, and through the hands of those very sinful people, His Son would be sacrificed to redeem them. Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28).

This is what Paul is describing in this morning’s Epistle lesson – the righteousness of God is shown apart from the works of the law. How could one attain God’s righteousness by him- or her-self? Can you possibly be good enough, clean enough, holy enough, sinless enough – there’s an oxymoron for you, “sinless enough.” Ninty-nine point forty four is good enough for Ivory soap, but it is not perfect as the Lord our God is perfect. How can a person hope make himself or herself righteous in God’s eyes.

Oh, we sure try, don’t we? Humans are so good at self-justifying and being self-righteous. Mostly, we do it through comparing ourselves to other sinners to show we’re not that bad. The other day, I heard a husband and wife comparing themselves to each other – they were playing with each other, but this proves the point – and she said, “I know I’m a sinner but my husband is worse.” We do this, too – not just husbands and wives. You notice how we always use a really terrible person as our litmus test of being “better?” “Well, yeah, I blew off the afternoon from work, but at least I didn’t embezzle.” The funny thing is that just because we say we’re better than, it doesn’t fix the issue at hand. I still blew off the afternoon from work, stealing fours work from my boss. My self-justification, my self-righteousness doesn’t make me just or righteous. The proof is that someone, somewhere, might be using you as their own litmus test. “Well, at least I’m not as bad as…you.”

Self-justifying and becoming self-righteous is a dangerous business. When you are the do-er of the justification, you are always left wondering – but, am I justified enough? Am I righteous enough? In China, stretching across a valley between mountain peaks in the Hebei Province, there is a bridge 3,800 feet in the air. It’s a unique bridge because the floor of the almost 900 foot long bridge it is made entirely of glass and steel. When you walk across it, you can see the three quarters of a mile below you to the canyon floor. I understand the view is spectacular. But the architect of the bridge has a terrible sense of humor. It is designed to deliberately appear to crack beneath the feet of the pedestrian. Unsuspecting travelers walking along the bridge suddenly hear the recorded sound of glass cracking as, it seems, the glass floor spider-webs as though it is about to break. Pedestrians panic at the prospect of plunging to their doom.

This is the image of self-justification and self-righteousness. You think all is under control, that you have everything just fine and then the Law crashes in. Like the terrified travelers on the glass bridge, you are left with nothing secure on which to stand. “There is no distinction,” Paul writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Here is the remarkable truth. Paul doesn’t give seven steps to the sanctified life. He doesn’t give five ways to impress God. He doesn’t lay out a plan where you can become less of a sinner. Instead, immediately after declaring that all are sinners, Paul takes the sinner straight to Jesus. Even though all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, “you are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propititation by His blood.”

When God declares one justified, it is true. Immediately. There’s no working up to it, or getting there. It’s not a process. It’s done – fully and completely. God says it and it happens. Just as God said, “Let there be light, and there was light… and God saw the light and said it was good,” so also when God says, “You are justified because of Jesus,” it is done.

What does it mean to be justified? When I was in confirmation, Pastor Rossow taught us to think of it this way: Justified means “just as if I never sinned.” There is no comparison. It’s declaration: this is most certainly true.

You sometimes hear the expression, “Forgiveness is free.” That is true in the aspect that you do nothing to earn or merit it. It is feely given to you by God. But forgiveness came at great cost. God offered His own, only-begotten Son as the payment price. Paul uses the word “propitiation.” In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word was used to describe the covering over the Ark of the Covenant, the place where the High Priest would sprinkle sacrificial blood. The Hebrew Old Testament calls this covering the mercy seat or the mercy place. When the animal’s blood was poured out there, God’s mercy would flow over His people.

This is the same description for the cross of Jesus. It is THE mercy seat from where Christ’s blood, innocently shed, was poured out upon the sins of the world. The gift, freely given, is likewise freely received by faith in trusting Jesus died for you. You didn’t earn the gift – if you earned it, it wouldn’t be a gift. It would be wages. The only wages we earn is death because of our sinfulness. It takes God’s declaration of righteousness through faith in the blood of Jesus, which we receive through faith. Don’t think faith is something you have to do, either. God even gives the gift of faith to trust the gift of Jesus’ blood!

This morning, we were reminded of this incredible gift of God in Christ. You saw a child brought to the font. With water and word, Emmy was baptized into Christ. Baptism takes the truth that Jesus died for the sins of the world and it imparts it individually. Baptism allows the individual to say I am Christ’s and He is mine. Baptism delivers the goods of the cross. By faith, Emmy was washed in the blood of Christ and all of her sins – past, present and future – were covered. The Father in Heaven declared, “Emmy, you are my dearly beloved daughter and with you I am well pleased.”

Lest anyone wonder how a child can have this kind of faith, remember, faith is a gift of God as well. And, truthfully, it’s not about our faith. It’s about the one in whom our faith rests. Christ’s faithfulness, perfectly delivered for us to the point of His death, is yours.    

You notice that, thus far, I haven’t said anything about Martin Luther on this Reformation Day. While we thank God for Luther’s work in allowing the Gospel to shine forth into the world, ultimately this isn’t about the man who nailed 95 theses to a church door 500 years ago. This is about the One who was nailed to the cross 2000 years ago and still declares us forgiven.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Inheritance of Adoption - Mark 10:17-22

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I do believe the rich young man’s question is honest. I don’t think he is trying to trick Jesus or trap him in some minutia of the Law. St. Mark doesn’t give us any reason to think there is something hinky going on. I think the question is an honest question, but it does give us some insight into the man. He comes from privileged means. He is used to making the big deals, getting his way, and negotiating his opponent into submission. He’s used to getting what he wants. So, he brings that with him to the conversation: “What do I have to do? It’s how the world works. What do I need to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus?”

Don’t be too hard on him. If you stop to think about it, we ask “what do I have to do?” quite often in a lot of different settings. This is part of the give-and-take of all sorts of relationships that we have in our daily lives and vocations. I’ll tell you what I want, you tell me what you need, and let’s see if we can’t meet in the middle. Students ask teachers, “What do I have to do to get extra credit?” Teachers ask students, “What do I have to do to get this into your heads?” Kids ask parents, “What do I have to do to go spend the night at my friend’s house?” Parents ask, “What do I have to do to get you to clean your room?” Teenage boys ask their buddies, “What do I have to do to get her to like me?” Teenage girls ask their friends, “What do I have to do to get him to leave me alone?” The salesman asks, “What do I have to do to get you to buy this today?”

But the focus is on the “I,” the initial maker of the request. “What do I have to do?”  It implies that I can bring something to the conversation, that I have something to offer, something of value to persuade you to move towards me.  

Let’s go back to the rich man’s question - what must I do to inherit eternal life? What does the rich man have that he can offer? What can he bring to the table to negotiate with Jesus? He’s prepared to offer his good life, his track record of commandment keeping.

You notice that Jesus addresses commandments four through ten. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Don’t take your neighbor’s life or wife, don’t steal the neighbor’s belongings or their good reputation, don’t manipulate someone in the business world, and don’t forget to love your mom and dad. The rich young man thinks he has this licked: I imagine he is nodding at each commandment that Jesus mentions and thinking he’s got this under control. 

But then Jesus turns to the first table of the Law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” A god is anything you fear, love and trust. Jesus, who is able to see into this man’s heart, knows that man’s god – lower case g – is his wealth. Jesus loves the man – He doesn’t want to see the young man perish into eternity by chasing after a false god. He calls the man to repentance, to stop worshipping the false god of his wealth and love the Lord your God instead. “Go, sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.” It’s as if Jesus is asking, “What does your fear, love and trust rest? Is it in me, or in your wealth?” The man’s actions serve as the sad conclusion: “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

“What must I do?” It’s a loaded question, one we must be very careful of asking. It’s one thing to ask your spouse or your parent. It’s a whole ‘nother thing if we think we can approach God with our grocery list of good deeds, as if we can somehow negotiate our way into God’s good graces. We’re quick to make our suggestions: I gotta go to church, I gotta give my offering, I gotta be a better parent, I gotta be a better student, I gotta be better in my Bible reading, I gotta pray more, I gotta…” Have you noticed that list always grows? There’s never an end. There’s always something else we think we gotta do:  I gotta watch my mouth, I gotta keep my eyes from wandering, I gotta…” The list never ends; the list is never accomplished; the list is never perfected. The list tells the tale.

In hopeless abandon, we cry out, “What must I do?” You know what Jesus wants from you? Your sins. That’s all. He doesn’t want your perfection, or your best of intentions. He wants your sins. That’s what He came for. He came to be your Savior. He came to trade His perfection for your imperfection. Don’t put Jesus out of a job! He came to take your sins from you. Instead of trying to do better, and then when you fail try even harder – as if you could somehow attain perfection that way – instead, confess your sins. Surrender them all to Jesus: all of the I gottas, the I wouldas, the I couldas, the, shouldas turn them all over to Jesus and trust that His once-for-all death on the cross pays for your sins. You do nothing; Jesu does it all. You have nothing to negotiate with, so out of His great love for you, Jesus speaks for you with His Father in heaven. Jesus says, “My life for his; My life for hers.” The answer to “What must I do to inherit eternal life” is found at the cross. At the cross, in His dying breath, Jesus declares: There is nothing left for you to do. “It is finished.”

I started this sermon by saying that the man’s question was an honest one. While it may have been an honest one, it was a misguided question. Go back to the question with me one more time: “What must I do to inherit eternal life.” What must I do to inherit? Answer: you do nothing to inherit anything. Inheritance is something that is given by the head/s of the household to those who in the family. You don’t earn inheritance by something you do. Inheritance is a gift. You don’t buy it, you don’t negotiate for it.

Inheritance is yours by nature of who you are: a son or daughter. Inheritance is yours by nature of whose you are: a son or daughter of the giver. Inheritance implies family.

Friday morning, I was privileged to be a witness at a family’s joy at the adoption of a child into the family. When the family was called forward to stand in front of the judge, I listened to every word. The attorney asked the parents-to-be a series of questions, culminating in this simple question “Do you want this little girl to be your legally and lawfully adopted daughter?” The parents’ answers were as clear as our church bell: “Yes!” What was remarkable was that the little girl wasn’t asked a single question – not by the attorney, not by the case worker, not by the judge. She had nothing to offer. No one asked if she wanted to be adopted; no one asked if she could earn her way into the family. She was made a part of that family by the loving choice of a man and woman to adopt her, by the authority of the judge, and with the joyful blessing of the State of Texas. With the tap of a gavel, the girl was no longer a Jane Doe ward of the State. She became a beloved daughter of two parents, who were willing to sacrifice greatly to make this child theirs and who gave her their name: Mary Elizabeth Kate Heller.

This is what God has done for you in Christ Jesus. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5).

So there is no doubt in your mind of your adoption into the family of God through Christ, you are given Jesus’ name. You are called “Christian,” which means “Little Christ.” It’s not something you negotiated with God. God declares it; you simply respond in faith: Yes, Lord, I believe. There is no negotiation.

Friday, after the adoption, Mom and Dad were walking down the hall. Little Emmy was following along after. That’s the image I leave you with. Christ calls; we follow in faith.

Divorce: Is It Legal? Mark 10: 2-10

[Note: I'm now podcasting my sermons for easier audio access. You can listen, subscribe, etc. at https://podpoint.com/woodencrosses. Feel free to share!]

I begin with a bit of a prelude. This morning’s Gospel lesson must be handled with gentleness, love and compassion. It must be preached faithfully, and it must be heard with prayerful humility. It needs to be carried by the Spirit of God from the words in Scripture to the hearts and minds of all of us gathered today. While this is true every day we open the pages of God’s Word, it is especially true today for this morning our Lord speaks of marriage and of divorce.

 “Is it legal?” Lawyers, accountants, cops – even pastors – we get this question all the time. What does the Law say? Inquiring minds want to know. It’s a question that seeks to define and determine the boundaries. How far can I go? It’s also a question that determines the exceptions to the rule, the case studies when it’s acceptable to step over the line – for a good reason, of course. The pharisees want to talk about divorce. “Well, Jesus – what do you say? Is divorce legal?”

Divorce was allowed by Moses – you can read it in Deuteronomy 24 – if the husband found out about an indecency on his wife’s part, then he could write her a certificate of divorce. I said, “indecency,” think indecent exposure, not necessarily adultery. Adultery would not have needed a divorce – that was handled by stoning. Gives new meaning to, “Til death,” doesn’t it? Divorce was intended to be the exception to a faithful marriage because unfaithfulness was also the exception.  But by the time of Jesus, it had gotten to the point where the Pharisees would allow this to happen: Couple A and Couple B are neighbors. Husband A grows dissatisfied with his own wife – maybe she’s a terrible cook, or she can’t get the stains out of his good robe, or her mother drives him nuts – so he writes a divorce against her. In the meantime, he notices how great Wife B is and how much happier he would be with her at his side. So, he gets another friend to make a charge against Wife B – maybe she was showing off too much ankle at the community well - so, to save his own honor, Husband B divorces Wife B, now freeing her to marry Husband A. That mindset might make sure things are legal, but make no mistake: Lawful is awful.

The Pharisees said it was legal, but Jesus calls this exactly what it is: hardness of heart. The heart is where compassion, mercy and grace are to flow from. If a heart is hard, these cannot flow free and freely. This is true of the pharisees and this is true of our own hearts. A compassionless heart is an unloving heart is a hard heart. Hard hearts do not receive the gifts of God, including the husband or wife God has given you.

 “Not so from the beginning,” Jesus says. He jumps from the accommodating loophole to the gift. “But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” That’s what Moses said about husbands and wives in the beginning. Before there was sin. Before the Fall. Before Adam and Eve become self-absorbed, self-oriented, self-justifying rebels. Before the notion of divorce even existed.

And then Jesus adds His own personal clincher. “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Back to the original question. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Answer: No. They are one flesh by the word of God, and that cannot be undone. They may divorce, and Moses even accommodates and legislates their divorcing, but divorce is never lawful no matter what the circumstances. It may be tragically needful, it may be inevitable, it may not be possible even for two baptized children of God to put marital Humpty Dumpty back together again. But it is never lawful.

The disciples asked Jesus about all this privately, behind closed doors. They were clearly bothered by this. Troubled. And Jesus doesn’t pull any punches with them. Instead, he turns up the volume. “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” That goes beyond Moses. Jesus just sealed Moses’ loophole shut. No divorce. No remarriage. Gifts refused. Hardened hearts. You remember how the vows go: Until death us do part. Death, not divorce, is what ends the one flesh of husband and wife. Anything else is adultery.

I imagine that there are some of us who are starting to squirm a bit. Please – know you are not alone, that most of us have been touched, directly or indirectly, by the dissolution of marriage. Our children, our parents, our siblings, our grandchildren, our friends, we all know the pain that sears the heart when what God has joined together is torn apart by the rap of the judge’s gavel.

And in case you are sitting there smugly with your happy marriage and thinking, “I thank God I’m not like those losers,” well, remember what Jesus said about that stray look and that adulterous thought. You’ve already committed adultery too. And maybe now it’s beginning to sink in just a little more about this fearsome Law that has no loopholes, that crushes the sin-hardened heart to pieces, that brooks no arguments or self-justifications.

Think about how far Sin has corrupted the good that God gives. Think about how Sin has dulled that joy that Adam spoke of when he first laid eyes on Eve and said, “Finally – bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” Think about how Sin takes the joy of the wedding day and turns it into a drudgery and weariness so that religious people can come up to Jesus looking for a reason to divorce their wives. That’s Sin at work in our old Adam who turned his back on his bride and left her alone and isolated, who pointed the accusing finger and blamed her for his own sin.

It’s played out in so many broken homes and in families just barely glued together. What a great and deep sadness it is, uprooting families, leaving children without father or mother. Husbands and wives, who are one flesh, at each other’s throats, looking for a way out. And even in homes that appear to be intact, there are the undercurrents of discontent, boredom, complacency, neglect, abuse. Affections alienated by pornography and dulled by alcohol and drugs. “It was not so from the beginning.” This is not the gift God had given.

In Ephesians chapter 5, St. Paul quotes this verse from Genesis, “that a man leaves father and mother and clings to his wife and the two become one flesh,” and he says a remarkable thing. This is about Christ and the church. That might not be immediately obvious on first reading. Or even second. This Adam and Eve thing is about Christ, the second Adam, and His Bride, the Church.

It was the strangest wedding celebration in the history of the world. There was the perfectly faithful Groom who was given to the perfectly unfaithful wife. She constantly demands her rights, she selfishly takes what isn’t hers to take, she misuses the freedom her Husband lovingly gives her. She cheats on Him with other lovers, none of whom really love her, only using her for their own twisted pleasures. Adultery, remember, deserves death. So, there stands the Groom, dressed in His finest. The bride isn’t dressed in the finest of white – she’s soiled and dirty and filthy and deserves to be taken outside the city and put to death.  The Groom loves the bride too much. He goes down to her. His fine linens are removed from Him and He assumes her guilty verdict. Her adultery is charged to him; her death sentence is given to Him. His life is given her. His faithfulness is charged to her. His holiness is poured upon her. Her filthy rags are lovingly stripped away and His white robes of righteousness are wrapped around her. And she takes His name. The transformation is so complete that the Groom’s Father cannot see her tainted past. All the Father sees is His Son’s love for her.

Here we see God in action, redeeming, restoring, raising up from the dead. Christ is the one who leaves Father and mother at the cross. He is forsaken by the Father, and He gives His mother to John. He leaves His Father and His mother in order to cling to His bride, the Church, who is created out of His own sacramentally wounded side in the water and the blood.

Marriage can’t save us. Marriage is not a means of grace; it is in dire need of grace. And marriage is not eternal. In the resurrection, we neither marry nor are we given in marriage. But there is a marriage that does save. There is a one flesh union that cannot be destroyed. The marriage of Christ and the Church. The union of Christ with His baptized believers. The communion of Christ with His communicants who share in His Body and Blood and so are one Body with Him Not sexually, as in our marriages. But sacramentally, in the one marriage that counts for eternity.

There, not in Moses, not in legalistic loopholes, not in the Law, is your hope and your certainty. In Christ and His marriage to His Church.

In the name of Jesus,
Amen