Commemoration of Martin of Tours, Pastor

 

Today we remember and give thanks to God for Martin of Tours, Pastor.  Born into a pagan family in what is now Hungary around the year A. D. 316, Martin grew up in Lombardy (Italy). Coming to the Christian faith as a young person, he began a career in the Roman army. But sensing a call to a church vocation, Martin left the military and became a monk, affirming that he was “Christ’s soldier.” Eventually, Martin was named bishop of Tours in western Gaul (France). He is remembered for his simple lifestyle and his determination to share the Gospel throughout rural Gaul. Incidentally, on St. Martin’s Day in 1483, the one-day-old son of Hans and Margarette Luther was baptized and given the name “Martin” Luther.

Collect of the Day:

Lord God of hosts, Your servant Martin the soldier embodied the spirit of sacrifice.  He became a bishop in Your Church to defend the catholic faith.  Give us grace to follow in his steps so that when our Lord returns we may be clothed with the baptismal garment of righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

Commemoration of Martin Chemnitz, Pastor and Confessor

 

Today we remember and give thanks for Martin Chemnitz, Pastor and Confessor.  Martin Chemnitz (1522– 1586) is regarded after Martin Luther as the most important theologian in the history of the Lutheran Church. Chemnitz combined a penetrating intellect and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and the church fathers with a genuine love for the church. When various doctrinal disagreements broke out after Luther’s death in 1546, Chemnitz determined to give himself fully to the restoration of unity in the Lutheran Church. He became the leading spirit and principal author of the 1577 Formula of Concord, which settled the doctrinal disputes on the basis of the Scriptures and largely succeeded in restoring unity among Lutherans. Chemnitz also authored the four volume Examination of the Council of Trent (1565–1573), in which he rigorously subjected the teachings of this Roman Catholic Council to the judgment of Scripture and the ancient church fathers. The Examination became the definitive Lutheran answer to the Council of Trent, as well as a thorough exposition of the faith of the Augsburg Confession. A theologian and a churchman, Chemnitz was truly a gift of God to the Church.

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, through the teaching of Martin Chemnitz, You prepare us for the coming of Your Son to lead home His Bride, the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed we may finally enter into His eternal wedding feast; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

 

Commemoration of Johann von Staupitz, Luther's Father Confessor

 

Today we remember and give thanks to God for Johann von Staupitz, Luther’s Father Confessor.  Johann von Staupitz (ca. 1469–1524), vicar-general of the Augustinian Order in Germany and friend of Martin Luther, was born in Saxony. He studied at the universities in Leipzig and Cologne and served on the faculty at Cologne. In 1503 he was called by Frederick the Wise to serve as dean of the theological faculty at the newly founded University of Wittenberg. There he encouraged Luther to attain a doctorate in theology and appointed Luther as his successor to professor of Bible. During Luther’s early struggles to understand God’s grace, it was Staupitz who counseled Luther to focus on Christ and not on himself.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty, everlasting God, for our many sins we justly deserve eternal condemnation.  In Your mercy, You sent Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who won for us forgiveness of sins and everlasting salvation.  Grant us a true confession so that dead to sin we may hear the sweet words of Absolution from our confessor as Luther heard them from his pastor, Johann von Staupitz, and be released from all our sin; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Feast of All Saints - Rev 7:9-17

 

All Saints

                                                                                      Rev 7:9-17

                                                                                      11/7/21

 

          A book of the Bible that fascinates people is the Book of Revelation.  I can’t tell you how many times during the course of my ministry I was asked about when we would do a Bible study on Revelation. My answer was always that we would, but I would only lead a study of Revelation when I could do it right.

          I think there is something to be said for knowing enough to know what you don’t know.  For me, doing it right meant reading two commentaries on Revelation that amounted to over eighteen hundred pages of material. One of the commentaries is three volumes – twelve hundred pages of small print.

          I had always wanted to this this, and so I launched into the work with great enthusiasm.  Along the way, two things happened that delayed the work so that I just finished the Bible study last week.  First, it turns out that when you work carefully with the text, Revelation is just really challenging.  I mean, it was hard work.

And second – perhaps appropriately since I was working with Revelation – a worldwide pandemic broke out.  This disrupted everything at church, and for an extended period of time my efforts had to be directed towards ministering to members who were not able to come to church when services resumed. 

Thankfully, the Bible study is now completed.  I have worked my way carefully through all of Revelation.  The thing that I find striking about Revelation is that you have chunks of the book that are challenging to understand.  But then at the same time, you have some texts in the book that are so incredibly clear and comforting. The text assigned for the Feast of All Saints is certainly one of those.

In chapter six, John had described how Christ the Lamb had opened the first six seals of the book which reveal the tribulations of the end times.  He has seen the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” who bring war, famine, and plague. He has heard the souls of the martyred Christians cry out from under the altar, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

The sixth seal had been opened and there was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, the sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.  Indeed, the powerful ones of the world hid themselves in the caves, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”

This is frightening stuff! But then, in chapter seven, we encounter something that is a recurring feature of Revelation. Sections that describe the harrowing end times, are followed by interludes that offer great comfort and encouragement. First John sees the 144,000 who have been sealed by God.  The number is symbolic of the fullness of Christians who are protected by God in the midst of the end time tribulations.  Christians will be martyred and die, but God promises that a fullness of his Church will be protected and survive the tribulations.

In the second half of this interlude, we hear in our text: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” 

In chapters four and five, John had seen God on the throne, and Christ the Lamb surrounded by the four living creatures – the cherubim, and the twenty four elders.  These twenty four elders are the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, and most likely they represent the whole of God’s people from the Old Testament and New Testament eras.

Now once again, John sees them. But this time he sees a great multitude of individuals clothed in white robs with palm branches in their hands who are praising God and the Lamb. The angels surrounding the throne join in praising God.  And then one of the elders asked John: “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”

Now if I were John, I think my response would have been, “How should I know? I just got here.”  But the apostle replies by saying: “Sir, you know." Then the elder said to John: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

It is a great irony that Christianity has often focused on something that God’s Word says very little about.  We tend to be focused on the question of what happens to a Christian when he or she dies.  However, this is not a major concern of Scripture.  Instead, without any question, the emphasis of Scripture is the final outcome.  Again and again, God’s Word talks about the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the new creation.  The Last Day and the things that will occur as Gods’ saving work arrives at its consummation is the repeated focus of Scripture.

Now on the one hand, this means that we need to adjust our way of thinking.  We need to let God direct our attention to what he thinks is most important.  And on this, the matter is clear.  The events of the Last Day are the goal.  When your team has won the World Series – and I actually have experience with this now - do you think about what happened in game fifty nine of the regular season, or do you remember what happened in the games of the World Series that produced the championship?  In the same way, our attention should be on the final outcome that God has promised, and has guaranteed by our Lord’s resurrection and ascension.  Our prayer should be, “Come Lord Jesus!”

While this is so, it is also impossible for us not to think about the status of our loved ones and all other Christians who have died before our Lord’s return.  The Bible speaks very rarely about this. But when it does … wow, what is says is clear and comforting.

The Feast of All Saints is about the Christians who have already died in Christ.  In our text, John sees a great multitude in white robes, bearing palm branches as they gather at the throne of God.  Now strictly speaking the timing in the revelation given to him is near the end of the great tribulation of the end times. Nevertheless, we do see here a depiction of Christians who have died before the return of Christ, and so what is said of them is true of the Christians we remember today.

The elder says, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” They have come out of the great tribulation into God’s presence, and they are no longer in the midst of the fallen world with its suffering, pain, and death. 

The elder says that they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. If you stop and think about it, this is a very odd image.  We know that blood stains.  But of course, Jesus’ blood is a reference to our Lord’s death on the cross for our sins.  In the first chapter, John describes Jesus as “the firstborn of the dead,” and as the One “who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood.”  Later Christ is praised by those around the throne as they say, “you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

Christians, both who are now living and those who have died, have been made holy by the saving death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  He has taken away our sins, so that in God’s eyes we are saints – holy ones.  Our sins have been removed so that we can be in the presence of the holy God.

That is what the Christians who have died experience already now.  After describing the saints as those who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, the elder goes on to say, “Because of this they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.”

We learn that those who have been called to be with Lord in are in God’s presence. We find that because they are: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

What amazing words of comfort! This is what the Christians who have died already experience now.  This is what we will experience if we die before our Lord’s return.  We will because of baptism and faith in the crucified, risen and ascended Lord.  Death is the enemy, but it is a defeated enemy. It cannot separate us from God because of Jesus the Lamb.  Instead, in death we experience a life with God that surpasses all we know now.  With good reason, St. Paul told the Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

But at the same time, the very language in which John describes this blessed existence points to something even better. Our text says that Christ the Lamb “will guide them to springs of living water.”  Literally, in Greek this is “springs of the water of life.”  In chapter twenty one John sees the new heaven and the new earth.  He sees the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. We receive a description of the city. Next John tells us, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.”

John sees the Garden of Eden renewed as part of the new creation.  His words direct us toward the fact that when Jesus returns on the Last Day he will raise the bodies of the dead and transform the bodies of those living to be like his own resurrected body. He will give us bodies that can never die again as we live in the new creation that is very good, just as God intended it. Jesus will do this.  When John sees the exalted Lord in all his glory at the beginning of the book, he tells John: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

The experience of the saints now who are with God reflects the final peace and joy that we will know when Christ returns.  When John sees the new creation and new Jerusalem, he reports: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’”

On the Feast of All Saints, we are called again to faith in Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain to take away our sins, and then rose from the dead.  Because of him, we know that our brothers and sisters in Christ who have died are with God in joy and peace. And we pray “Come Lord Jesus” as we look for our Lord’s return when we with all the saints will share in our Lord’s resurrection as we live with him in the new creation forever.  

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Jonathan Farris Memorial Service - Rom 8:31-39

 

Jonathan Farris Memorial Service

                                                      Rom 8:31-39

                                                      11/6/21

 

          Jonathan Farris was a character. And I mean that in the best sense of the term.  He was always joking – always ready to laugh … and to laugh at himself.  He was a very positive, engaging, and fun person to be around.

          But Jonathan was also very serious when it came to faith in Jesus Christ.  He didn’t just attend the Divine Service each week.  He attended Bible class.  He read Scripture during the week. He read books about the Bible and the Christian faith. And Jonathan was certainly no generic Christian – he confessed what is in the Small Catechism as his faith.  Jonathan was a Lutheran because he knew what he believed, and he knew why he believed it.

          When Jonathan showed up at Good Shepherd, and told me that he had moved to Marion, I was thrilled.  Here was someone who was going to be at the Divine Service and Bible class every Sunday.  You knew that he would be actively involved in the life of the congregation.  He was going to be a great addition to our congregation for many years to come.

          And then Jonathan had to go to the emergency room because of a pain in his side.  As a result of that trip and ensuing tests, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  And everyone knows that pancreatic cancer is generally very bad news. 

Jonathan began treatment, and the news went from bad to worse as it was discovered that the cancer had spread to other parts of his body, including his spine.  Because of the nature of his cancer, the treatments were very hard on Jonathan.  But in the midst of it all, two things remained constant.  Jonathan remained very positive, which was remarkable, given the circumstances.  He never ceased to joke around and remained the same character he had always been.  And Jonathan never ceased to be very serious about faith in Jesus Christ.  I have met few people who have demonstrated such deep faith and trust in the Lord in the face of suffering, pain and the imminent likelihood of death.

In the end, it became clear that Jonathan was going to die.  He was experiencing severe pain, and the cancer was advancing. Confident in his Lord, Jonathan entered into Hospice care, and we learned that on October 20 the Lord called Jonathan to himself.

I look at what happened to Jonathan and part of me wants to say that its not fair.  He shouldn’t have died that young. He should have had more time with his family.  We should have had far more time with him as a member here at Good Shepherd.

But the reality is that what happened to Jonathan was entirely fair – it was entirely just.  It is exactly what God’s law says must happen to every sinner – he died.  It has been happening ever since the sin of Adam. Paul tells the Romans in chapter five, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” The apostle lays it out in plain words in chapter six: “The wages of sin is death.”

Sin brought death to Jonathan.  And while I am glad that Jonathan is no longer suffering, don’t ever give death the credit for ending his suffering. It was sin and death that caused it in the first place  Because of sin, we are always in the process of dying.  As I said recently in a sermon, once you get past your teenage years, you realize that getting older does not mean you are getting better.  Instead, you are on a trajectory of decline that can only end in death. Unless Jesus Christ returns first, like Jonathan, you will die.  And like Jonathan it will be entirely just, because you are a sinner.

In the section before our text, Paul has been reflecting upon the presence of suffering in our lives.  He has said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  He has stated, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”  He has just written the famous verse: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” 

As we think about Jonathan’s death and the sin that caused it, the apostle Paul gives us words of encouragement and hope. He writes, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

What Paul says certainly has the sense of: “Duh!?!” If God is for us, who can be against us?  If God, the Creator of all things is on our side, what is there to fear?  After all, God is the One who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.  Paul has said in chapter five, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  God the Father sent his Son into the world in the incarnation in order to die for us on the cross. He did this for Jonathan.  He did this for you.

 And this leads Paul to ask the question in our text: “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.”  The ultimate issue is not simply death, but the fact that we all must stand before the judgment seat of God. Paul asks: Who is going to bring a charge against God’s elect when God – the judge – is the One who justifies?  As we heard last Sunday from Romans chapter three, God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This means that because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our place, we know that Jonathan will be declared just by God on the Last Day.  We know that God will do the same for you, because like Jonathan, you believe in Christ.

Finally, Paul asks, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”  Our Lord died on Good Friday. But then on Easter, God raised him from the dead.  He has won forgiveness and defeated death.  Now as the ascended Lord, he intercedes for us.

Jonathan was baptized into the death of Christ.  Paul says about baptism in chapter six, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” The apostle says that because Jonathan was baptized, he will share in Jesus’ resurrection.  Paul says this because through baptism Jonathan received the Holy Spirit. In this chapter he writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” That is why Paul says just before our text that “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

In Christ, Jonathan had justification and the assurance of resurrection.  That is why Paul can say about Jonathan and about us: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Death has not separated Jonathan from the love of God in Christ.  It has not separated him from Christ.  It is in this same letter that Paul says, “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

Jonathan has not been separated from Christ. Instead, he is with the Lord.  He is justified and ready to stand before the judgment seat of God.  On the Last Day, the Lord Jesus will return and raise his body, for Paul told the Philippians, “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”  The Lord will do this to us as well. We will stand with Jonathan on that day, as we live in bodies that can never die again.  We will live forever with our Lord and with Jonathan in the new creation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feast of All Saints

Today is the Feast of All Saints, the day in the Church year when we remember and give thanks for all the saints who have died in Christ and are now with the Lord.  The early Church commemorated all the martyrs on a specific day that varied throughout the Church.  In the ninth century, the date of November 1 was fixed in the western Church as the day to commemorate all of God’s saints who had died in the faith. 

Scripture reading:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)

 

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together Your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Grant us so to follow Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together with them, we may come to the unspeakable joys You have prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Reformation

                                                                            Rom 3:19-28

                                                                           10/31/21

 

          “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”  That’s what Paul tells the Romans later in this letter.  In doing so, he was sharing a basic truth of Scripture.  And it is a presupposition of all that the apostle says.  God is the judge.  He is the holy and just judge.  All people will stand before the judgment seat of God on the Last Day.  He will declare a person to be just or guilty.

          This is definitely a legal setting.  But when we hear about judgment in a legal setting, we must set aside our conception of what this means.  In our law courts there is a judge. There is a prosecutor.  There is a defendant. And there is a jury.  Ultimately, it is the jury that makes the final judgment, and the judge is there to make sure that all is done in a proper and legal fashion.

          However, in the ancient world there was only one individual who made the judgment.  It could be the king as he sat on his throne.  At the time of the first century A.D., it was the Roman governor in a province who sat on the judgment seat. An individual appeared before this one judge, and the judge determined guilt or innocence. The judge determined the punishment that was to be enacted.  Think about Jesus’s trial before Pontius Pilate, and you have a classic example of what this looked like.  This is the way God’s Word describes the setting of God’s judgment – the individual standing before God the judge.

          God’s Word has revealed that God is the one judge who will judge all people.  God is holy and just, and he will judge all people on the basis of his law.  He will judge people on the basis of his divine will by which he has ordered this creation.  Now in the last twenty seconds of human history, this idea has been found to be absurd.  There is no such thing as “truth” we are told.  There are no eternal standards by which a person can be judged.  And for that matter, we are told that there is no personal God who would judge us anyway. But, the psalmist replies: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  And as for their being no eternal truths … God laughs, and he gets the last laugh.

          The medieval world was not so foolish.  It knew perfectly well that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.  It knew that God is the holy and just judge.  It knew that we are not holy or just – we are sinners. So the question was, how could an individual be justified? How could an individual be declared just – innocent - by God at the judgment?

          Of course, the Church knew that Jesus Christ had died on the cross and risen from the dead to win the forgiveness of sins. You can’t read the New Testament and miss this completely.  But in the actual application of this saving work to an individual the Church’s theology said that God’s grace equipped you to participate in the process – to do your part – that led to final salvation.

          And the Church said that while Christ’s forgiveness covered the guilt of sin, you still owed God a penalty because you had offended him.  This penalty was addressed by penance.  If the penalty was not sufficiently paid off, then the individual ended up in purgatory where a painful process of purification would prepare the individual for full salvation.  Since people were always sinning, they were always racking up more penalty – more than their penance could address.  In this book keeping mentality, individuals thought that they faced hundreds or thousands of years in purgatory.

          What was a person to do?  They went on pilgrimages, and paid for masses to be said, and bought indulgences because these all helped to pay off the penalty owed.  If you were really serious about your salvation, like Martin Luther was, then you entered the “religious” life – you became a monk or nun because here the whole life was one of penance.

          But what Luther discovered was that no matter how much you did, you could never know if you had done enough.  As he studied Scripture he realized that this was because the whole system was set up on the basis of the law – on the basis of doing.  And this can never be a way that sinners can deal with the holy God. The apostle Paul says in our text, “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.”

          Works of the law – doing the law can’t bring the status of being declared just by God.  Instead, the law only reveals that we are sinners who sin.  Ever since the Fall, sin is a power that has controlled us.  Earlier in this chapter, Paul said, “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. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”

          The problem is not the law. As Paul says later in Romans, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”  After all, the law is an expression of God’s divine will and ordering for life.  Instead, we are the problem.  We are fallen sinners from the moment of our conception.  We have lost the image of God and are not capable of living in a holy way.  Paul says in our text, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

All Ten Commandments show us our sin, but you don’t need to be beyond the first one to see this: You shall have no other gods.  In our thoughts, our words, and our deeds we put other things before God.  We trust in them more. We value them more. We think about them more. We find our peace and security in them, instead of God.

For sinners – for us – the law can never be the means by which we can have a righteous standing before God.  What Martin Luther rediscovered for the Church is the fact that God’s saving action to put all things right is a gift.  It is purely a matter of God’s grace – his unmerited loving favor. It is something that God gives on account of Jesus Christ’s death. And he gives this by faith – faith in Jesus Christ.

The apostle says in our text: “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.”  This saving action that gives us a righteous status before God does not occur through the law.  But it is something that God’s Word in the Old Testament had promised. 

          Paul says that God’s righteousness has been manifested now – a righteousness that is through faith in Jesus Christ.  It has been manifested now because God has acted in a dramatic and definitive way through his Son. The apostle reveal in our text that “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.”

          God has redeemed us in Christ Jesus – he has freed us from sin.  He did this by putting Jesus forward as the sacrifice to atone for our sin.  The Greek word that is translated as “propitiation” recalls the mercy seat that was the cover of the Ark of the Covenant.  On the Day of Atonement, the blood of animals that had been sacrificed was sprinkled on the mercy seat in order make atonement for Israel’s sins.  This was necessary so that the holy God could continue to dwell in Israel’s presence at the tabernacle.

          Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice that atoned for our sins.  Paul had said in the first chapter, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”  The holy God pours out his wrath and judgment against sin.  That’s what he does. That’s what God the Father did to Jesus Christ on the cross in your place.

          Now you receive the redemption won by Christ through faith in him. There are no works involved. As Paul says, we are “justified by his grace as a gift.”  This faith is not a work.  In fact, in chapter four the apostle defines it as the opposite of doing.  This faith worked by the Holy Spirit simply receives the gift from God.

          Paul says in our text that God has done this “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.”  God has shown himself to be just because he has judged sin through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. But he has also justified us – he has given us justification – through faith in Jesus who died on the cross. This means that already now, we know the verdict of the last day. Indeed, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. But because of faith in Jesus Christ we have been declared by God to be righteous.  It is true now.  It will be true on the Last Day.

          In our text we hear about the death of Jesus.  But of course, when Paul talks about faith in Christ, he means faith in the Lord who died and rose from the dead.  Paul began Romans by referring to the “Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Or as he will say later in chapter ten, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

          On this Festival of the Reformation, we give thanks to God for his servant Martin Luther.  Through Luther, the Gospel was returned to the center of the Church’s life – the truth that we are justified by grace, on account of Christ, through faith.  This is a truth that Luther confessed at the risk of his own life.  It is a truth that each one of us must also believe and confess in our lives. 

It is the truth – the good news – that we need to confess by sharing it with others. That’s what Martin Luther did. That’s what the apostle Paul did. As he told the Romans at the beginning of this letter: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In the Gospel we find the assurance of salvation – that we are justified and ready to stand before the judgment seat of God. That is good news that everyone needs to hear.