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.
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