Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation - Rom 3:19-28

 

          Reformation

                                                                                                Rom 3:19-28

                                                                                                12/27/24

 

            “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Paul makes this statement later in Romans, and it explains the setting and circumstances in which we need to understand what he says in our text today.  The apostle tells us that on the Last Day we will stand before God as judge.

            Now this is not like the court room setting that we see in a tv show.  We expect a court room to have a judge who runs the court room and makes sure they are done according to the law.  Then there is the prosecutor who makes the case against the accused.  There is the attorney who defends the accused and seeks to prove his or her innocence.  Finally, there is the jury. They are the ones who really have the power, because they will decide the guilt or innocence of the individual.

            However, none of this is present in the setting Paul describes.  Instead, there is only God the judge, and the individual who is being judged.  And here it is God alone who makes the judgment. He decides whether a person is guilty or innocent.

            Scripture teaches us that God is just.  This means that he judges in a way that is completely in accord with his will that he has revealed in the Law.  And Scripture repeatedly tells us that God shows no partiality.  He shows no favoritism.  Everybody receives the exact same just treatment.

            Paul says in the previous chapter, “He will render to each one according to his works.”  God judges on the basis of whether you have kept his law.  If you have, then you are justified. This means that you are declared to be righteous.  You are declared to be innocent and in a right standing with God. As the apostle says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

However, if you do not keep God’s law, then you will receive God’s eternal judgment.  Paul describes it as the “day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.”  He says that “for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”

            Now this basic framework makes sense to us.  You do something to get something.  After all, there is no such thing as a free lunch. It also appeals to us because it gives us a role to play.  And if we have a role to play, then we can get some credit for what we do.

            This way of the law appeals to our reason.  It also appeals to our pride.  It’s not surprising then that it is the basic principle upon which every religion in the world is based. They are all religions of works – religions of the law.  They all say that you must do something in order to have the blessing of god or the gods.

            However, at the beginning of our text Paul declares that the way of the Law will not work for those who wish to have fellowship with the one and only true God.  The apostle says, “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.”

            Paul says that instead of providing a way to live with God, the law holds us accountable to God.  Rather than bringing the means to be justified before God, it gives the knowledge of sin.  He says that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.”

            The problem is not the law. Instead, we are the problem.  Earlier in this chapter Paul says, “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” The apostle describes the fallen existence of man that has been true since Adam.  We are sinners who keep on sinning in thought, word, and deed. As Paul says in our text, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – where the Greek verb is a present tense indicating that we are continually falling short.

            The way of works – the way of the Law – will always appeal to fallen man.  And there is always the danger that the Church will be tempted to include it in the understanding of the faith. This is what had happened in medieval Christianity.  God’s grace and the saving work of Christ were not denied.  But human works became included in the process by which a person was saved.

            In particular, the practice of penance put human effort at the center of experiencing the blessing of salvation.  The Church taught that absolution forgave the guilt of sin.  However, this did not change the fact that a person had offended God.  He or she still owed God the penalty for their sin, and this penalty could only be paid off by penance – by doing various religious activities.  The problem was that if the penalty was not sufficiently paid off before death, then the person had to receive purification in purgatory which was described as place of great suffering. No one wanted to spend thousands of year in purgatory.  So they bought indulgences, and went on pilgrimages, and paid for Masses to be said.

            If you were really serious about your salvation, you entered the “religious life” – you became a monk or a nun.  Here all of life was considered to be a form of penance.  This was where you had the best chance of receiving salvation and spending as little time as possible in purgatory.

            Martin Luther was very serious about his salvation.  He entered a rigorous Augustinian order that was also known for its intellectual excellence.  He applied himself as fully as a person could to living out the theology he had been taught.  Yet he found that the theology of works could not bring him comfort.  He was always left asking whether he had done enough; whether he had done it well enough.  The exertion of human effort could never provide the assurance of peace with God.

            As Luther studied Scripture he began to understand what Paul says in our text about sin and its impact upon us.  He began to recognize why works could not be involved in a right standing with God. More importantly he gradually came to understand God’s own answer to the problem.

            After describing how no one will be justified by works of the law because of sin, Paul announces in our text that God has done something radically new.  He says, “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.”

            The saving action of God to put all things right has been revealed now in Christ.  It takes place apart from the law, though the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.  Paul declares that we are justified by his grace as a gift. The apostle says that we are declared to be righteous – that we are declared to be innocent and in a right standing with God.  But of course, as we have already discussed, as sinners we aren’t.  So how can the just God do this?

            Paul says in our text that we 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.”  We can be declared righteous because of the redemption – the freedom from sin – that we have received through Christ.  And God did this by putting Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood.  He put forward Jesus as the sacrifice for sin on the cross.

            God is the just God, and so sin must be judged and punished.  God did this when Christ bore our sin upon the cross.  Our sin was judged and condemned in Christ on Good Friday.  Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death, God is now the one is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

            Luther came to understand that this justification is purely a matter of God’s grace and gift.  And he learned that it was received by faith alone – faith in Jesus Christ who is the crucified and risen Lord.  This faith is not a new kind of work.  In fact, in the next chapter Paul uses Abraham to define this faith as the opposite of doing.  He says, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

            This truth stands at the heart of the Reformation that we are celebrating today. We are saved by grace alone. Salvation and forgiveness are God’s unmerited gift.  We are saved by Christ alone.  His sacrificial death on the cross has won forgiveness for us and made it possible for God to declare us justified.  We are saved by faith alone.  Belief in the crucified and risen Lord is the only thing that receives the precious gift of justification.

            The Reformation break through - the return to the biblical teaching of Paul – has two important implications for how we now live.  First, it drives away uncertainty.  There is never place to wonder about whether we are forgiven or have salvation.  As Paul says later in Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We live in the confidence that by God’s grace we are justified through faith in Christ.

And second, our works and effort are now freed and redirected.  We no longer seek to do things in order have a right standing with God.  We don’t have to worry about that.  Instead, faith in Christ created by the Holy Spirit now seeks to work in ways that serve our neighbor.  We live in faith toward God and love toward our neighbor.  God doesn’t need your works.  However, he has placed the neighbor in your life – your spouse, parent, child, congregation member and co-worker – who does need them.  So help, assist, and support the people that God has placed in your life.

The apostle Paul tells us in our text this morning that we are justified.  We have been declared righteous and innocent by God.  This is the verdict that we already have now.  It is the verdict that will be spoken on the Last Day. We live in the joy and confidence of grace alone, Christ alone, and faith alone. And because we have received this gift, our faith never remains alone, but instead is active loving our neighbor.