The text this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the third chapter:
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.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Reformation Day is such a wonderful day to celebrate in the Church year. There really is nothing like the atmosphere. You feel joyful. You feel mighty. You feel victorious. Those things are all true this day. This day that we celebrate means that it was the beginning of a reclaiming of the Gospel. No longer would the Church just sit back and let the vile and immoral leaders shove the Gospel into the background, making us subservient to their authority, their man-made laws. Now, we could claim the Gospel and proclaim the Gospel in the name of Christ. Now we were justified. Now, we were free.
But, it would be a long time until that freedom was really felt. Oh, sure, the Gospel preachers like Luther and his friends had victories along the way. And the depth of their writings, the depth of their teachings, it turned hearts and heads right away back to the truth of the Scriptures. But, there always seemed like another mountain was coming on the horizon. One more to climb; one more to conquer. There would literal battles and wars fought over the Gospel. There would be death around every corner. There would happiness, but there would be great sadness, too, when men, putting their hopes on victories in this world, would take their eyes off the Scripture, and go off in erring ways, further fracturing the Church.
What must Luther have felt when his friend, Carlstadt, began destroying any statues or pictures in the churches that would remind people of the goodness of God through the lives of the saints? What must he have felt like when he discovered that Zwingli was teaching the Lord’s Supper was only symbolic, and the body and blood of Christ weren’t in it? What must it have felt like when you discovered the emperor was bringing war against you and your churches for believing the Gospel? What must it have felt like when the whole world seemed to turn against you?
This is what I mean. This day, we celebrate the Reformation as Lutherans, with a great amount of religious liberty. We’re not under the pope’s authority anymore. We’re not under an emperor’s authority, telling us what we must believe. We are free to preach the Gospel. We can make this day militantly special. We can feel like conquerors this day. And, we should, to an extent. But we should never forget that this day isn’t about just a couple of historical events; this day is about the Gospel. This day is about truth. This day is about Jesus.
We have before us the text of Paul to the Romans. And this is a beautiful text, not in the eloquence of its speech, but in the content of its meaning. This is freeing. This is wonderful. There is, probably, no better summation, of all that the Scripture contains than here in this text. We start at the beginning: the Law of God commands that those who are created by God follow it. No one has an excuse. No one has an out. All are going to be held accountable by God. And how’s that going to go? Not well. God has not only given the world His written Word, but He has gone so far as to write His Law on each of our hearts, and the law stands and condemns us all. Not one person has kept it perfectly. And the breaking of even the smallest part of it is worthy of condemnation.
This is where the seed of the Reformation began, in that the Word of God convicted Martin Luther so harshly that could not hold up under its weight. He suffered. He was burdened. He was trying to fulfill the Law so badly, but he read Paul saying that no human can be justified by the works of the Law. Luther knew he was separated from God forever because he was a sinner. There was no hope for him. He knew that he was a sinner, he knew that he sinned, and even if he could live perfectly the rest of his days, it wouldn’t be enough. He would always be distant from God because of what he had done.
Luther’s big problem started, though, in the next verse, that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law. He thought that he had to work to become righteous, to look like God’s demands. He thought it was up to him. So he disciplined his body, he abused it, he made himself pay for his own sins to try and avoid committing future sins. Luther knew what it was to look into oneself and discover nothing but shame and guilt. Appropriately, he knew the depth of his sin. I wish we all would feel like Luther did; he wasn’t wrong. There is nothing in you that can make God love you. You have sinned and fallen short of His glory. You are dirt and dust and ash and there is no worth in you. The Law looks at you and condemns you. You have broken every single law and you’re going to hell.
That’s where Luther was; and that’s where we should be. But, Luther misunderstood this verse about the righteousness of God. Through that misunderstanding, all he could do was dwell on his sin and how far he had to go. He doubted the love of God for him because of this misunderstanding. But you don’t need to doubt anything. The right way to look at this verse is to see that the righteousness of God comes to you, apart from the Law’s conviction. The righteousness of God is the righteousness of Jesus, that perfect life He lived while upon this earth. He gives that to you. That’s the righteousness of God. The Law condemns you, but Jesus looks at you and says you are righteous. You are holy. Paul says this is the whole point of the Scripture, all the Law and the Prophets bear witness to this coming Christ who would do all things for you. And this all comes to you through faith, again, a creation by God, not of your own work. The righteousness of God comes to you through His own gift to you. You are holy because He has given you faith. You are holy because He has redeemed you. You are holy because He has declared it so.
This applies to all people. All people have fallen short of the glory of God through their sin, and all people are justified by His grace as a gift, through what Jesus did for them on the cross. And what did He do? He was put forward as a propitiation against the judgment of God. I like to think of propitiation as a giant, unfailing, unassailable sand bag against the rising flood. No matter God’s wrath against you, no matter how great it is, the blood of Jesus stands as a bulwark against it all, turning it away from you and keeping you safe.
And what an incredible thing this is, that this is God’s plan from before the foundation of the world. God waited until the proper time to send His Son that Jesus might make satisfaction for the entire world before God, that Jesus might die to save everyone and that all might hear of His grace and His mercy. By all of this, Jesus turns us away from looking at ourselves to fulfill the Law to looking to the One who fulfilled it on our behalf. We aren’t even made righteous through a new law, but through all that Jesus has gone for us. We are justified fully apart from our works, only on account of our faith.
It took a while before Luther understood this. He had worked hard to obey the Law, but he knew he couldn’t do it. To get out of that system took time. It took patience. It took diligent study of the Word of God. It took faith. It took enlightenment by the Holy Spirit. And thank God that He directed it all. If it were up to Luther, or, really, any man, it would have utterly failed. Perhaps we’d still be under the system of Rome today. Perhaps not. Perhaps God would have had someone else rise up and bring the Gospel to the world. Who knows. But God brought Luther to show us that the Gospel had been abandoned for the sake of the law. The Gospel had been forgotten to make it so that you had to earn your salvation. God sent us Luther to show that there was a better way. God sent us Luther to show us Jesus.
And show Jesus he did. He went back to the Scriptures and discovered the truth of God, that Jesus Christ has reconciled the world to Himself, even you. He has save you, redeemed you, brought Himself to you that you might believe, that you might have His righteousness, that you might be holy as He is holy, that you might live forever. We hold onto that sure and certain hope because there is no greater good news than that. There is nothing better than knowing that Jesus is going to raise you from the dead and give to you eternal life. There is nothing better. There is no law that you can obey to earn you salvation. There is only the good and gracious mercy of Jesus Christ, and you have it. You have it, and you have Him forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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