Category: Trinity 11

Two Religions

8/17/2024

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14; Genesis 4:1-15
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 11, 2024

There are only two religions in the world. There is the religion of grace and the religion of works. The religion of works teaches that a person is justified before God by his works. The religion of grace teaches that a sinner is justified before God freely as a gift through faith in Christ. And these two religions have been opposed to each other from the very beginning. Two brothers, Cain and Abel brought offerings to the LORD. Where did they learn to offer sacrifices to God? Their father Adam taught them. Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God spoke to Satan in Adam’s hearing, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal.” (Genesis 3:15) This was the first proclamation of the Gospel. A descendent of Eve would be born, who would defeat Satan and end his rule over humanity, yet He Himself would be bruised in the process. Then God clothed Adam and his wife in animal skins. By slaughtering an animal and clothing sinful and naked Adam and Eve in its skin, God foreshadowed how Christ would be slaughtered for the sin and shame of mankind, so that all who believe in Him could be clothed in His righteousness. This is what St. Paul teaches in Galatians 3, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And St. John speaks of this in his vision of heaven in Revelation 7, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The religion of grace was established by God Himself immediately after our first parents fell into sin. He did this by promising a Redeemer from sin. And it is this religion of grace which Adam taught to his sons. That is why Cain and Able brought sacrifices to the Lord. Adam taught them to do this to confess their faith in God’s promise to send a Redeemer. God looked with favor upon Abel’s offering, but He did not look with favor upon Cain’s offering. Why? Because Abel offered His offering in faith. Hebrews 11:4 states, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.” When Abel offered the firstborn of his flocks and their fat portions, He was confessing that God would provide His Firstborn Son as a sacrifice for our sins, the very best He had to save us.
Why then was Cain’s sacrifice rejected? St. John writes in his first epistle, “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.” (1 John 3:12) Cain’s deeds were evil, because he did not have faith. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Cain rejected the religion of grace and instead trusted in the religion of works. That is, he thought God should consider him righteous because he deserved it.
Many assume that Cain must have offered rotten vegetables to God, while Abel offered more valuable livestock. However, it is more likely that Cain offered the best of his crops. The problem was not in the outer expression of his worship necessarily, but what was in his heart. Likewise with the Pharisee. His outward works weren’t bad. He wasn’t a thief or an adulterer. He practiced self-control and self-discipline. He’s the type of guy you’d want as a neighbor or a member of your church. He tithed even that which the Law did not command him to tithe. A congregation full of Pharisees like him wouldn’t worry about keeping the budget.
But the Pharisee went astray in his heart, like Cain did. He trusted in his works. He did what St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Cain and the Pharisee rejected Christ and pursued their own righteousness based on their works. But the problem is, our works are always sinful. Isaiah calls our works filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). There is no one who does good and never sins (Eccl. 7:20). Most people think that they’ll be okay on Judgment Day, because their good deeds will outnumber their sins. People think that to be a Christian means to be a good person, and most people think they are good people.
But our good deeds cannot outnumber our sins. Our sins are worse than our good deeds are good. Because none of the good we do is without sin. Even if our best deeds were judged on their own merits, they would still be riddled with sin. Even when we do good, we still sin. Yet, our sin is only bad. So, the idea that you can make it to heaven by your own good works is a delusion. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) If you are to stand before God’s judgment throne with only your own good works, you will be condemned to hell.
Yet, this is the natural opinion of all mankind. Even after God wiped this religion of works away in a global flood, it still arose out of the people’s hearts. People think they can earn their salvation. This is what every religion invented by mankind teaches. If you are good enough, you can be saved. But it is a lie. And what does it lead to? Those who trust in themselves that they are righteous treat others with contempt. Cain killed Abel. They treat them with contempt, because they do not know God’s love and they do not know their need for God’s love.
Abel offered an acceptable offering to God through faith. And so did the tax-collector. But wait, you say. The tax-collector didn’t offer anything? He just beat his breast and said, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” Yes, the tax-collector did not offer anything of his own. Rather, he offered the only thing that can appease God’s wrath against sin: the atoning death of Jesus Christ.
The word the tax-collector used for “have mercy” is a different word than is normally used to ask for God’s pity. It means, “be propitiated” or “accept the sacrifice of atonement for my sake.” The tax-collector is not simply asking that God have pity on him, because he is so helpless, he is appealing to the only sacrifice that can ever take away sin: the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. He and the Pharisee are in the temple where lambs are sacrificed to make atonement for sins. The lambs themselves do not make atonement, but they point to Christ who does. The religion of the Old Testament looks forward to what the religion of the New Testament looks backward: Christ, the promised Redeemer, who makes atonement for our sins by His death on the cross. This is what adherents to the religion of grace offer to God instead of their works. They appeal to Christ’s sacrifice for them.
This is why the religion of grace depends on faith. Faith does not earn your salvation. Faith clings to the promise and appeals to Christ, who has earned your salvation. This is why the religion of grace is opposed to the religion of works. Not because good works are bad. On the contrary, it is faith in Christ which enables you to do good works that are pleasing to God, as God’s grace enabled Paul to work harder than any of the other Apostles (1 Corinthians 15:10). But the religion of grace opposes the religion of works, because if your salvation is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of your works, otherwise grace would not be grace (Romans 11:6). Trusting in your own works for salvation hinders your faith in Christ, who alone can save you from your sins.
This is why faith requires repentance. St. Paul, after listing all his righteous credentials, declares in Philippians 3, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (vss. 7-9) Paul doesn’t simply repent of his most evil deeds. He renounces all his works. He won’t bring a single one before God’s judgment throne. The only righteousness he will appeal to is Christ’s righteousness.
This is exactly what the tax-collector does. He says, “Have mercy on me, the sinner.” He doesn’t list off every sin. He doesn’t simply apologize for what bothers his conscience most. He acknowledges that he is a sinner and that all his works are riddled with sin. The only way he can be justified is if God forgives him for Christ’s sake. And that is what He does.
This is why we poor sinners have such confidence in our salvation. We come to church truly remorseful over our sins. We have offended God by our thoughts, words, and deeds. We look at the Pharisee and see how we have failed to take God’s Word seriously, how we have been greedy, lazy, lustful, and undisciplined. We have regarded the Ten Commandments as suggestions instead of what they truly are, God’s commandments for how we should live our lives. Yet, Christ Jesus has not only suffered and died for our worst and most embarrassing sins, the sins that bother our conscience and make us ashamed. He has made atonement for our entire sinful nature. God is fully satisfied by Christ’s obedience and sacrifice for our sins. And so, we do not offer our works to God to make us righteous before Him. Instead, confessing ourselves to be sinners deserving of His wrath, we appeal to Christ and plead that God find us righteous for His sake. And He does.
The religion of works, whether it comes in the form of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Atheism, or legalistic Christianity is a false religion. It will not produce good works pleasing to God nor will it cultivate true love toward your brother. The religion of works only results in condemnation. The religion of grace, which was founded by God Himself when He offered us a Savior from our sins is the only religion that saves. The religion of grace is only revealed in Christ Jesus, who made atonement for our sins. We are justified before God and saved, not on account of our works, but through faith in Jesus Christ, who has appeased God’s wrath against our sin. And the religion of grace actually produces good works, which please God and cultivates true love toward your neighbor.
If we were honest with ourselves, we would humble ourselves before God, because we have nothing to offer Him, but our sin. Yet, when we humble ourselves, we appeal to Christ alone. And it is Christ, our gracious Savior, who makes us righteous in God’s sight. So, take courage dear sinner. Cast your sins behind you and cling to Christ Jesus, who makes atonement for them. And you too will go down to your house justified before God. Amen.

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What Does It Mean To Be Humble?

8/30/2022

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James Tissot, "The Pharisee and the Publican," 1886-94. Public Domain.

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 28, 2022

    “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Few statements so succinctly articulate the Christian religion as well as this. But what does it mean to exalt oneself? And what does it mean to be humble? To exalt oneself means to lift yourself up high. To humble yourself means to bring yourself low. Well, Jesus isn’t talking about riding on the elevator. What does he mean by this? Jesus tells this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. That is what it means to exalt yourself, to lift yourself up high. To exalt yourself means that you trust in yourself to be righteous before God. You think your works are good enough. You think God ought to be impressed with you and that you deserve to go to heaven. That is what it means to exalt yourself. And it is no surprise that those who exalt themselves treat others with contempt, meaning, they hate others and look down upon them. They elevate themselves by imagining that others are far beneath them.

To humble yourself then means that you do not trust in yourself to be righteous before God, rather, like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable, the humble confess to be sinners, which is the opposite of righteous. Yet, we must learn a bit more about what it means to be humble. It is only the humble who will be saved. And there are many forms of false humility.

One of the cognates of the word humble is humiliation. When I ask my confirmation students what it means to be humiliated, they always say, “to be embarrassed.” And it is true, to be embarrassed does feel like you are being brought low. That is why we use the word humiliated when describing being embarrassed. But to be humble in the Christian sense does not simply mean to be embarrassed over your sin. Indeed, you should be embarrassed over your sin. We should have shame. That is one of the faults that God found with his people in Jeremiah 8, the prophet writes, “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.” So, we should not forget how to blush. We should certainly be ashamed of our sin. Yet, shame is not enough. We must acknowledge our shame before God. Too often when people are embarrassed over their sin, they refuse to acknowledge it. They deny that they’ve sinned, because they’re too embarrassed. It is as Psalm 32 goes, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” So, to be humble, we must not only be embarrassed over our sins, but we must acknowledge them to the Lord, and ask for forgiveness.

Next, to be humble does not mean to continue in sin as if good works don’t matter. Often, people will say, “Oh, yeah, I’m a sinner.”, or “I’m not a good person.”, but they don’t actually show any repentance. They call themselves sinners as if despairing that they could be anything else. Or worse, people who call themselves sinners will criticize good works like those listed by the Pharisee. The Pharisee was not justified, but not because the things he listed were bad things! It’s evil to steal or extort money. The Pharisee was right about that. It is evil to lie and treat people unjustly. The Pharisee was right about that. It is not good to commit adultery or to fornicate. The Pharisee was right about that. Fasting is good for bodily preparation. It teaches your body that it is not in control of your soul. The Pharisee is not wrong to fast.

The Pharisee tithed, that is, he gave a tenth of everything he got to the LORD. That certainly isn’t a bad thing. If every Christian tithed, we would be able to build more churches and establish more missions. We learned at our last district convention about how many Lutheran schools have closed over the past few decades, so that Lutheran parents have little choice but to send their children to public schools where atheistic evolution is taught as fact, where God is not the center of history, where the Ten Commandments and prayers are never heard, and where Jesus’ Gospel is silenced. If every Christian tithed, perhaps we’d still have some of these Lutheran schools to strengthen our children in the faith. And even now, when church attendance is much lower than it has been in decades past, many congregations are still chugging along on account of the tithes of the few faithful who are left. Our children and grandchildren may yet have churches to attend after we’re gone because of those who tithe. Thank God for tithing Christians. But it is not tithing that makes you a Christian or justifies you before God! Of course, you should tithe! If it was commanded of Israel, how much more should we freely give, who have been set free from the commands of the Law and have been granted eternal life?

And of course, you should discipline your bodies and not be gluttons and drunks. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. And of course, you shouldn’t commit adultery or fornicate. Why would you even think of such a thing. And of course, you shouldn’t be unjust or an extortioner. What are you thinking to brag to God about such things. What do you want, a cookie? The Pharisee foolishly exalts himself before God for doing what he should be doing anyway. Rather, Jesus teaches, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)

The Pharisee was mistaken, because no one will be justified before God by works of the Law (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20). While the Pharisee took care to list his own good works, he forgot that God looks upon the heart and sees in secret. Scripture says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” (Eccl. 7:20) If the Pharisee sought to see through God’s eyes and not through his own, then he would have recognized that he was as bad of a sinner as that tax-collector. But we don’t need to tear down good works to prove that. A humble spirit lifts up good works; it doesn’t tear them down. However, a humble spirit does not trust in its own good works.

To be humble does not mean that you doubt God’s Word or your own salvation. To be humble means that you do not trust in yourself. It means that you do not boast in yourself. But it does not mean that you do not boast at all. Scripture says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17) Often times Christians think that they should not make a firm stand on God’s Word, because they don’t want to appear arrogant or prideful. But it is not arrogant to stand on God’s Word. God forbid you to waver on God’s Word. The Lord says through the Prophet Jeremiah, “but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:24)

This means that you should not doubt your own salvation. You should not be afraid to confess that God has forgiven you, that you are God’s own child, and that you will go to heaven. You are not being humble if you deny these things, rather, if you deny the Gospel, you are exalting yourself above God. It is not being humble to doubt that Baptism saves. God declares that Baptism saves you. It is not being humble to doubt that the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s true body and blood. Jesus clearly tells you that they are. It is not being humble to suggest that maybe you need to do some good works in order to be saved. That is denying what Scripture clearly teaches, that we are saved by grace apart from works of the Law. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23-28) It is false humility to doubt and waver on God’s Word. That is not humbling yourself, but looking down on God’s Word.

This also means that to be humble means to seek to learn God’s Word. If you are humble, you stand firmly on God’s promises. That does not mean that you claim that you already know enough. To be humble means that you acknowledge that you are still a sinner, who has a lot to learn. The Proverb says, “The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” (15:33) So, to be humble means that you recognize that you must be taught to keep yourself on the right path and to stay clear of Satan. The humble are not content in being simple and ignorant. The humble desire to learn.

To be humble means to trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When the tax collector prayed, he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” Yet, interestingly, the word he used for be merciful is not the word commonly used to ask for mercy. The word used by the tax collector means, “Be propitiated to me.” To propitiate means to take away wrath. We know the word from 1 John 2, “Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins and not our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world.” The tax collector and Pharisee are standing in the temple praying during the time of the sacrifice. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. And the shedding of blood in the sacrifice points to the shedding of blood of Christ Jesus, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. So, what the tax collector is praying is, “God, forgive me for the sake of the atoning death of your Son.”

When we ask God to forgive us, we are not throwing a Hail Mary, hoping that perhaps God will be in a good mood. No, we hinge our hope on Christ Jesus alone, who suffered and died for all our sins. This is why the humble are confident. The humble do not trust in themselves that they are anything, but they trust in another, namely, Jesus Christ to make them righteous with his own blood.

Christ Jesus has taken our sins away. The Father is satisfied with the sacrifice of his Son. To be humble means to trust in Christ’s righteousness to save you and not your own righteousness. And that gives you confidence that you truly are righteous before God.

The tax collector was a real sinner. He betrayed his family and countrymen. He cheated people out of money and used the power of the government to bully people to obey him. Yet, Jesus declares to us that he went home justified. That means God was at peace with him. God saw him as a sinless saint. It means that he was saved and lifted up high to his heavenly home. You are a real sinner. To be humble means to admit that. You’ve committed real sins for which you should be ashamed. You can’t point to anyone worse. You can’t blame anyone else but yourself. You deserve to go to hell. Yet, what does Jesus say? He who humbles himself, confesses his sins, trusting in the atoning sacrifice of Christ goes down to his house justified. God forgives even your sins. Trusting in the blood of Christ, you are exalted by God to live with him forever. Amen.

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Justified before God

8/15/2021

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The Pharisee and the Publican, James Tissot, 1886-94. Public Domain.

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 15, 2021

Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. What does it mean to be righteous? To be righteous means that you are in a right relationship with God. To be righteous is the same thing as to be just. That is why Jesus said that the tax collector went down to his house justified, much to the surprise of his audience, who thought the Pharisee was righteous. Jesus was declaring that the tax collector went down to his house declared righteous by God.

When we speak of being righteous or justified, we are speaking of how we will be judged by God on the Last Day. Scripture declares, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) Christ Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. Everyone will stand before God and give an account of what he has done, both good and bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10) And God will judge. Those who are judged righteous, that is, those whom God justifies will enter into eternal life. Those who are judged unrighteous will be damned to eternal perdition. To be justified is the opposite of to be damned. This means that the doctrine of justification is the most important teaching in the entire Christian religion. I certainly can’t think of more pressing one! How do I know whether I am justified before God? How do I know whether God will welcome me into heaven or damn me to hell? This is what we are discussing when we discuss justification.

It is God who justifies. Jesus spoke this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. But you cannot trust in yourself that you are righteous. You are not the one who declares yourself righteous. It is God who justifies. Declaring yourself righteous goes hand in hand with despising others. How does the Pharisee justify himself? He compares his works with others. He despises the tax collector to prove that he is righteous. But that is no way to prove yourself righteous. If a friend is helping me build something and I ask him to cut me a board 46 inches long and he cuts me a board 38 inches long, he won’t make the board the right length by comparing it to all the scrap pieces and talking about how much further from 46 inches they are. If you fall short of being righteous, it doesn’t matter how much farther you think others have fallen short.

What Jesus teaches us in this parable is that a man is not justified before God by his own strength, merit, or works, but rather, a man is justified before God by grace, that is, as a gift from God. This is what St. Paul says in Romans chapter 3, “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.” God justifies freely by grace, not on account of our works. The Pharisee listed off his works, he fasted twice a week, he gave ten percent of all that he earned to the Lord. But it was the tax collector, who listed no works at all who was found righteous by God. This is because God justifies by grace as a gift. It does not have to do with our works. It is in spite of our sins! It depends on God’s grace, that is, on his undeserved love for us. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is why St. Paul, who himself was a Pharisee (and a very zealous one at that), declared all his works to be rubbish, so that he could be found in Christ not having a righteousness of his own, but one that comes through faith (Philippians 3:8-9). So, whether you are a tax collector or a Pharisee, an adulterer, thief, or liar, or every-Sunday-Christian, you are justified by grace alone. This is why Jesus concludes this parable with the statement, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The one who humbles himself does not claim his own righteousness, but accepts Christ’s righteousness as a gift. Yet, the one who exalts himself refuses the gift, because he thinks he can earn his own righteousness.

God justifies sinners. The tax collector said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And God justified him. He declared the sinner righteous. In fact, God only justifies sinners. He will not declare righteous those who have declared themselves righteous and free from sin. He only justifies those, who have admitted their own sin and unworthiness. This is why it is important to preach the law. The law tells you how to live rightly before God. This is why people think that if they try to live according to God’s law, then they will be righteous. But what does Scripture say? “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20) And this reveals the main reason people need to hear the preaching of the law. People need to know that they are sinners, so that they know that they cannot justify themselves, but can only be justified by God.

The law told the tax collector he was a sinner. The law called him a cheat and a thief. The tax collector didn’t argue with the law. He confessed that what the law said was right. He was a sinner. So, he did not seek to justify himself by means of the law, but he went to God to be justified by grace as a gift. The Pharisee did not understand the chief purpose of the law. He thought the law gave him simple directions to justify himself, so he simply did more than the directions required, he fasted twice in a week, he tithed all that he took in. But he failed to realize that the law doesn’t rule just outward actions, but the very heart. The law commands you to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. But the Pharisee didn’t love. He hated. He was a sinner, but he did not acknowledge himself as a sinner. He exalted himself instead. And so, he went home condemned.

God justifies for Christ’s sake. God doesn’t simply say that sin isn’t a big deal. No, God agrees with the law. The law is good. The law reveals God’s eternal will. When God justifies sinners, he doesn’t call good evil and evil good. No, he always and only justifies sinners for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death for sin. When the tax collector beat his breast and pleaded to God for mercy, he used a special word for mercy. The word he used meant be propitiated, that is, be appeased by this sacrifice; let your wrath be taken away from me on account of this sacrifice. The tax collector is in the temple after all during the sacrifice. Of course, a lamb on the altar is not what actually appeases God’s wrath against sinners, but rather, the Lamb whom that lamb proclaims, Christ Jesus. St. Paul writes in Romans 3 that all are justified by God’s 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.”

It is Jesus’ blood that makes propitiation for our sins. Jesus’ innocent suffering and death is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Jesus is the only human being who ever lived without sin. He did not deserve to be damned. Yet, he endured damnation on the cross for sins he did not commit. As a man he lived under the law and fulfilled all the law’s demands. And as a man he suffered the punishment of all mankind for all our sins. And Jesus is God. You cannot separate the man Jesus dying on the cross for all sins from the God Jesus. This means his death is a more than sufficient price to pay the debt of all people. When the tax collector said, “Be propitiated to me a sinner,” he was confessing that Christ took all his sins away.

When we talk about being justified before God by grace, we cannot speak of it apart from what Jesus Christ has done for us. Only through Jesus’ obedience and passion for our sins are we justified before God. This is why St. Paul said in our Epistle lesson, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) This is of first importance, because without Jesus dying for us, we are still in our sins. But since Christ has died for us and has risen for us, we have peace with God.

To be justified means to be forgiven. If you are a sinner, then you are not righteous. God declares sinners righteous by forgiving them. St. Paul makes this clear in Romans chapter 4, “David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” (vss. 6-8) How does God count a person righteous apart from works? By forgiving his lawless deeds; by covering his sins in Jesus’ blood and not counting them anymore.

God justifies a sinner through faith alone. Scripture says, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28) and “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5) It is through faith, so that it can be by grace. Grace means that it is a gift. Faith receives the gift. Faith means to believe and trust that God forgives you for Christ’s sake. The tax collector expressed his faith by asking God to be propitiated to him. He had faith in Christ. Faith is not a good work we do. Rather, faith is trusting in the promise that God forgives sinners by grace for Christ’s sake.

You cannot have saving faith while you are not sorry for your sins. Saving faith means that you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner, who deserves to go to hell; that you are sorry for those sins and want to do better, and that you trust that God will forgive you for Christ’s sake alone. Faith does not believe that God is indifferent toward sin or pleased with sin. Rather, faith confesses what God says is true. And God says that he has placed all our sins on Jesus. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. All people are justified by his death and resurrection. Faith alone receives this justification.

Faith itself is a gift from God given by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. It is the words of Christ that create faith in our hearts. This is why Christians go to church. The righteous shall live by faith. Faith comes from hearing. If we don’t hear the promises of God, our faith will die. If our faith dies, we lose our justification. If we lose our justification, we cannot stand before God.

If you are justified then you are regenerated, that is, you are born again. A sinner cannot by his own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts through the Gospel. He does this by giving us a new birth, so that we trust in God’s promise. To be regenerated means that you will not only believe God’s promise, but also love God and desire to do what he desires, of course, in great weakness, because of your sinful flesh. So, Christians do good works, but it is not their good works that justify them. The regenerate Christian is justified through faith alone. The righteousness that justifies the Christian is not his own righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness given to him as a gift. This gives you confidence in your justification, because it always depends on Jesus and not on you.

Finally, to be justified means that you are God’s own child. Justification is courtroom language. God is the judge declaring you guilty or innocent, a sinner or righteous. But to be justified doesn’t simply mean God declares you not guilty and sends you on your way. It means that you are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. It means that you are God’s beloved child. He loves you. And he has chosen you to live with him in peace forever. Amen.

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Trust in the Lord

8/24/2020

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The Pharisee and the Publican, James Tissot, 1886-94, brooklynmuseum.org, No Known Copy Right Restriction

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
August 23, 2020

When Jesus saw that some were confident in themselves that they were righteous and held others in contempt, he taught a parable to show who really is righteous before God and who is not. And to the surprise of his listeners, it was not the Pharisee, but the tax collector who went down to his house justified, that is, declared righteous by God! It was a surprise that the Pharisee did not go down to his house justified, because Pharisees were known to be good outstanding citizens. We heard it from the Pharisee himself. He didn’t cheat, steal, or commit adultery. He gave a tenth of all that he received to the LORD. He was a good pious man. Yet, God did not find him righteous.
And it is common to relate this story to our time and place to find out who is the Pharisee among us. In Martin Luther’s day it was the pope, the priests, and the monks, whom everyone thought were the most righteous men on earth and closest to God. Families would actually send one of their sons to the monastery to become a monk, so that his extra good works could be counted in their favor, so confident were people in the righteousness of these monks.
Who would be the Pharisees in our day? Perhaps the leaders of the church, the preachers and teachers, who seem good on the outside, but probably have some hidden sin? Maybe those Christians who are always at church helping out, making others look bad? Of course, there are a lot of self-righteous celebrities, who lecture people on how they can live a better life. Yet, the reason Jesus chose the Pharisee as the one who was not righteous was because he was the last person they would expect to be unrighteous. So, who is the last person you would expect to be unrighteous?
Is it you? Do you, like the Pharisee, justify yourself, so that you never admit you’ve done wrong? Do you hold others in contempt for not being as righteous as you think you are or because you perceive them to be self-righteous? You see, the point of Jesus’ parable is not for you to determine whether other people are hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees, but rather whether you are righteous before God or not. To be declared righteous by God is a very personal thing. It doesn’t regard others. It’s between you and God. You can’t prove yourself righteous before God by tearing others down. When you hear Jesus speak of the self-righteous Pharisee, you should ask yourself whether you are the Pharisee.
The Pharisee was not righteous, because he trusted in his own righteousness instead of the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. He did not humble himself before God. He did not repent of any sin. He thought God should accept him because of how good he was. He was self-righteous. And you don’t need to be a religious big shot to be self-righteous. To be self-righteous means that you think you are righteous before God and you do not need to repent of any wrong doing. Have you refused to admit doing wrong? Have you brushed it off when a fellow Christian has confronted you with your own sin? Do you make excuses for everything, so that the blame falls on anyone else but you? That is what the Pharisee did. You must not be like the Pharisee, or you will never be righteous before God. You must be like the tax-collector.
The tax-collector was an unlikely character to be found righteous before God. Tax collectors were known to be cheats, who enriched themselves by collecting more money than was required of them. Jesus couldn’t have picked a more unlikeable character than a tax collector. Yet, again, the point of Jesus’ parable is not for you to look at how bad the tax collector is as if he’s worse than you. The point of Jesus’ parable is for you to identify yourself with the tax collector. Do you think you are more worthy than the tax collector to stand before God and look up to heaven? No, we must do as the tax collector did. Do not focus an anyone else’s sins. Rather, confess to God that you are the sinner. And pray for mercy.
It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast than the prayer of the tax collector and that of the Pharisee. The Pharisee used many words glorifying himself. The tax collector simply called himself a sinner. Yet, the most important distinction between the Pharisee and the tax collector is that the tax collector had faith and the Pharisee did not.
We know that the tax collector had faith, not only because he admitted that he was a sinner and showed himself to be sorry, but because he trusted in God to show him mercy. And the tax collector did not simply ask for mercy. The word he used means, “Be propitiated.” He prayed that God would be propitiated to him. To be propitiated means that God’s wrath is taken away. It means to be appeased, to be satisfied. God no longer demands anything from you. It is sacrificial language. God is propitiated by sacrifice. The men are in the temple where lambs and other beasts are sacrificed and their blood is poured on the altar. The tax collector knows that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Yet, he also knows that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. The sacrifices in the temple point to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That sacrifice is the basis by which the tax collector asks God to be propitiated to him.
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 3, “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.” It is through faith in the blood of Jesus, which propitiates, that is reconciles God to us that makes us righteous in God’s sight. The Pharisee did not trust in the blood of Christ. The tax collector did. That is the great difference.
In our Old Testament lesson, we heard how Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices to the Lord, but God did not accept Cain’s offering of fruit from the ground, but God did accept Abel’s offering of the firstborn of his flock and its fat portions. Now, this is often understood that Cain didn’t offer the best crops he had and that is why God did not accept his offering. But that is not what the text says. And it would hardly make sense for Cain to be upset at God for not accepting his offering of rotten vegetables and bruised fruits. Much more likely is that Cain offered the best he had, yet God did not accept it. That’s what made Cain so mad that murder arose in his heart!
So, why didn’t God accept Cain’s offering, if Cain offered his best? Because Cain had no faith. He offered his best to God just like the Pharisee, thinking God should accept his offering, because of how good it was. Yet, St. Paul teaches us to consider all we have as rubbish, so that we can be found not having a righteousness of our own, but one that comes through faith in Christ. Abel had faith. He offered the first fruit of his flock and its fat portions, because he believed that God would send his Firstborn to shed his blood for his sins, as God promised his parents in the Garden after they sinned. This is why Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.”
God was propitiated to Abel through the blood of Christ, which makes propitiation for all sins. This is the only way to be found righteous by God. St. John writes, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” To be justified by God means to be forgiven. Only by being forgiven of your sins can you be found righteous before God. And only Jesus by his suffering and death can forgive you.
You might have noticed that the Scripture says that Jesus is the propitiation not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. Indeed, Jesus died for all people and for all sins. This is why the tax collector could be so bold as to pray that God would be propitiated to him. He knew the promise. There is no one whose sin is so great that Jesus’ blood does not wash it all away.
This also shows the great tragedy for the Pharisee. Jesus shed his blood for the Pharisee too. Jesus made atonement for his sins. God is propitiated to the Pharisee by the blood of Christ! God loves the Pharisee! Yet, the Pharisee will not receive this forgiveness. He doesn’t want God’s righteousness as a gift. He traded in God's righteousness through faith for his own righteousness, which was rubbish. This is the danger of unbelief. It throws away a gift that God has won for all people.
The Pharisee’s righteousness fell short. And it showed. He held others in contempt. This is the fruit of self-righteousness: hatred. If you trust in yourself to be righteous, your righteousness will lead to hating others. You will try to make others seem worse than you in your own mind. You will despise those whom you think are worse than you and you will malign those, whom you fear are better than you. But the fruit of the righteousness through faith in Jesus is love. Because Jesus’ righteousness is given to those who in humility repent of their sins and consider others more significant than themselves. Faith in Christ means that you recognize that all people like you are in need of Jesus’ righteousness and that Jesus indeed died to save all people. And the righteousness that you receive through faith in Christ is real righteousness. Through faith, Jesus dwells in you. God now works in you to do works of love. This is why Jesus says, “They will know that you are my disciples, by how you love one another.”
This parable might look like it is about the Pharisee and the tax collector, those who are self-righteous and those who in faith repent of their sins and ask for forgiveness. But this parable is primarily about God and his great mercy for us in Christ Jesus. God is more willing to hear than we are to pray. He is more willing to forgive than we are to ask for mercy. God’s desire is for you to be righteous in his sight through faith in his Son. God is ready to exalt those who humble themselves, even as he is ready to humble those who exalt themselves. Jesus sacrificial death, which propitiates God to us gives us the courage to ask God for the greatest things imaginable, even eternal peace with him, no matter how terribly we’ve sinned against him. May we learn from the tax collector to be confident in our God’s mercy. Do not be afraid to confess your sins and humble yourself before God. By the merits of Christ, God will raise you up. For Christ’s sake you are righteous in God’s sight. Do not trust in yourself that you are righteous. Trust in God that you are righteous for Christ’s sake. Amen.

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God justifies sinners through faith alone

9/3/2019

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Luke 18:9-14
September 1, 2019

Jesus directs this parable at those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. He tells of two men, who go to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now, we generally think of Pharisees as bad, because they frequently clash with Jesus. But we have to remember, at this place and time in history, Pharisees were good. They were devoted to God’s word and worship. They followed the rules. They were the prime example of good Jewish citizens. You wanted your son to be a Pharisee. That would make a mother proud.
Tax collectors on the other hand were hated by everyone. And not for no reason. Not only did they collect taxes for the much-hated Roman government, but they frequently stole, collecting more than was required, making themselves rich by burdening their countrymen. Yet, to the certain surprise of those listening to this parable when Jesus first told it, Jesus declares that the tax collector went down to his house justified and the Pharisee didn’t!
To be justified means to be declared righteous by God. The Pharisee trusted that God would find him righteous because of all his good works. He thought his works were good enough to earn the approval of God. The Pharisee was works-righteous.
Now, that’s not to say that these aren’t good works to do. He says that he is not an extortioner, a liar, or an adulterer. He makes a point that he is nothing like that low-life tax collector. He fasted twice a week, showing that he was not a greedy glutton or drunkard, but disciplined his body for the sake of his religion. He tithed, meaning, he gave ten percent of all of his income to God. If you were to place him into today’s society, he would be the most loved citizen and member of the church. It would be great if we all did these things listed by the Pharisee.
Yet, Jesus tells us that all these good works were no good and failed to please God. Why is that? Because these were only outside works, while the Pharisee’s heart was far from God. Jesus teaches us that these two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself; sum up all Scripture. Yet, the Pharisee showed that he loved neither the Lord God nor his neighbor.
He showed that he hated his neighbor. He despised the tax collector. He didn’t pray for him. He didn’t show pity to him. He didn’t consider that he was as miserable a sinner as he was. No, he hated the tax collector and all sinners who failed to set up the righteous veneer that he did.
Of course, Scripture teaches us that you cannot love God and hate your brother, because whoever loves God must also love his brother. And the Pharisee shows that he does not love God, because he does not give God the glory. Yes, he “thanks” God that he is not like other men, but this is more of a pretense than an actual prayer of thanksgiving. He then continues to say, “I, I, I.” He doesn’t actually confess that it is God who leads us out of temptation and delivers us from shameful living. He performed a bunch of outward works, but he didn’t actually love God and his neighbor.
If the Pharisee were truly righteous, he would have prayed for the soul of the tax collector, spoken with him and restored him to God in a spirit of gentleness, as St. Paul writes, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” But the Pharisee did his works without love, so God was not pleased with his works.
Scripture also says, “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Romans 13:9) So, if you do all that the Pharisee did and more, and live the perfect outward life, yet you do not love, then your works are worthless. Your motivation for all good works must be love.
Those who trust in themselves to be righteous treat others with contempt, because they are insecure. The Pharisee needed to live up to a certain standard to prove that he was righteous. Well, he obviously could not live up to God’s standard. God’s standard is that you be perfect, even as he is perfect. So, instead, the Pharisee compared himself to others. That’s easy. Just find others, who mess up more than you do and judge yourself compared to them. Yet, this is not how God will judge you. And, this leads only to hating those, whom you are commanded to love.
We love, because God first loved us. You cannot love, unless you are confident in God’s love. But you are not confident in God’s love, if you trust in yourself to be righteous. Rather, you must always find excuses for why God should love you.
Works-righteousness not only produces the opposite effect of God’s desired righteousness, which is love, but it is foolish. Scripture tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). No one is righteous, no not one. All fail to keep the commandments perfectly. God makes no distinction between Pharisee and tax collector. They both fall short of God’s glory.
And this is why the tax collector behaves much wiser than the Pharisee and goes home justified by God. The tax collector does not try to justify himself. He does not bring God a list of his accomplishments or good works. Rather, he acknowledges that he is a sinner. In fact, while the Pharisee pointed out the sins of others, the tax collector calls himself the sinner. He does not point to the faults of anyone else. He doesn’t compare himself with others or blame others. He takes ownership of his own sin, he strikes his breast in shame, and he begs God for mercy.
And this is not just a desperate appeal by a man, who has nothing else to lose. The tax collector prays to God in faith. The word he uses for mercy here actually means, “be propitiated to me” or “make atonement for me.” It is the same word used for the Mercy Seat, which is in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, where God himself sits. From the Mercy Seat God accepts the sacrifices of Israel and makes atonement for their sins. And every sacrifice points to Christ. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 3 that God put forward Jesus Christ as a propitiation, that is, a sacrifice of atonement by his blood. When the tax collector said, “God, be propitiated to me the sinner” he was pleading to God for mercy for the sake of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, to which every sacrifice in the temple points.
“God, be merciful to me a sinner.” are words of faith. The tax collector believes God’s promise that he will make atonement for the sins of his people. Every sacrifice made in the temple is a sermon that preaches that Christ will make atonement for sins. With these words the tax collector confesses his faith in Christ. He uses almost the exact words as Psalm 79, which state, “Atone for our sins for your name’s sake.” The tax collector holds God to his promise. God cannot deny him atonement of sins any more than he can deny his own name. God must keep his word.
And God has kept his word. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ to make atonement for our sins. Jesus is the only human being, who truly is righteous of himself. He loved God perfectly with all his heart, soul, and mind. He loved his neighbors to the very end, as he died for their trespasses. Jesus paid the price that the blood of countless beasts sacrificed in the temple could never pay. Jesus paid for our sins with his own precious blood. That is what it means to make atonement. That is what it means for God to be propitiated. God is no longer angry with sinners, but pleased with them for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death.
When the tax collector prayed to God to be merciful to him, he prayed that God would credit this sacrifice of atonement to him too. He showed that he trusted not in his own works, but only in the merits of Christ. And it is only the merits of Christ that can justify a sinner. This is why Scripture 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, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:4-8)
None of us can stand before God by our own works. In Psalm 130 we hear, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” God knows all your sins. Standing before God isn’t like going to a job interview where you present a resume filled with all your best achievements and hope that the boss doesn’t find out about anything embarrassing in your past. No. God already knows everything about you. You can’t hide from him. The Pharisee couldn’t. And the tax collector knew he couldn’t. Yet, God is merciful. He sent his Son to make atonement for your sins, to forgive you, to give you a righteousness that is not your own, but is a gift from Christ to you.
The tax collector is a good example to us of humility. Jesus says that the humble will be exalted. Humility and faith go together. Through faith, you receive a gift. You don’t work for it. You believe it and you receive it. For this you must be humble. You don’t try to earn it, like the Pharisee did. You don’t claim that you deserve it. Rather, you let God exalt you according to his promise and mercy in Jesus Christ. This is why repentance and faith go together. It is impossible to have saving faith in Christ while not having sorrow over your own sin. We have faith is Christ, because we know what our sins have earned us. And we desire to receive from Christ what can only be received by grace.
This lesson is a severe warning to those, who think that they do not need God’s forgiveness and that they are righteous by their own works. No one is righteous of himself, except Jesus Christ alone. Yet, this lesson is a great comfort to those who know their own sin and unworthiness. There is no sin for which Christ has not atoned. There is no sinner so terrible that God cannot forgive. We poor sinners have a gracious God, who is merciful to us for the sake of Jesus Christ. Each of us can go home justified by God today, not because any of us is better than anyone else, but because we have received Christ’s righteousness as a gift through faith. We come to God empty, and we go home full.
This righteousness that we receive through faith will also bear fruit. Not rotten hypocritical fruit, like the loveless works for the Pharisee. But true fruits of love, which come only from a heart made clean by the blood of Christ. Yet our confidence remains always in Christ’s righteousness, even as St. Paul confessed that he would be found by God not with a righteousness of his own, but one that comes through faith in Christ. That is our righteousness too. Let us pray.
I have naught, My God, to offer,
Save the blood of Thy dear Son;
Graciously accept the proffer:
Make His righteousness mine own.
His holy life gave He, was crucified for me;
His righteousness perfect He now pleads before Thee;
His own robe of righteousness, my highest good,
Shall clothe me in glory, through faith in his blood. Amen. (One Thing Needful, J. H. Schroeder, ELH 182:6).

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