Category: Reformation Day

Can't Justify Yourself

11/1/2022

Reformation 2022
Romans 3:19-28
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
October 30, 2022

The greatest task of the Lutheran Reformation was to properly distinguish between the law and the Gospel. If a person does not understand the difference between the law and the Gospel, then he cannot understand the Bible.

The law is what God commands of us: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Do not misuse God’s name. Don’t commit adultery, steal or gossip. This is the law of God. The law tells you to do, but it is never done. Therefore, the law condemns you as a sinner. Therefore St. Paul writes, “No human being will be justified by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

The Gospel does not command works, but rather tells you what work Christ Jesus has done for you. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. Being true man, yet without sin, he was able to suffer in our place. Being true God, his passion for our sins is a sufficient price for the sins of the whole world. The law tells you to do, but it is never done. The Gospel tells you to believe, and it has already been done for you.

The purpose of the Lutheran Reformation was to keep these two teachings unmixed. The law condemns. The Gospel saves. The law demands works. The Gospel demands no works, but faith alone. Works must not be mixed with faith, otherwise faith is no longer in Christ alone. Yet, the purpose of the Lutheran Reformation was not to eliminate the law. Both the law and the Gospel have their proper place in the teaching of the Church. The law brings sinners to repentance, telling them that they have fallen short of God’s glory. The Gospel rescues sinners from despair by promising eternal life for Christ’s sake as a gift.

Today you will not hear so many direct attacks on the Gospel, at least not by those who want to be considered Christians. However, you will hear many attacks on the law. Have you noticed that the moral standard today is not the same as the moral standard fifty years ago? People have grown soft on the law. And why shouldn’t they? Isn’t the Gospel more important? So, the Third Commandment may still say that you should not despise preaching and God’s Word, which means that you should not skip church for frivolous reasons, but gladly hear and learn God’s Word at every opportunity. But we want to be a church of the Gospel, not the law! So, people skip church without qualm of conscience. The Sixth Commandment still forbids adultery, fornication, and homosexuality. But that doesn’t make us sound like a very loving congregation. Besides, everyone moves in together before they’re married. We can’t expect people to hold so strictly to God’s Law, when after all, we’re a Gospel church.

And of course, this brings faithful Bible-believing Christians to respond that we need to preach the law more! And they’re right. But we must remember what is most at stake: the Gospel. Why do people reject the law? No, it’s not because they prefer the Gospel. They reject the law, because they reject the Gospel. And in rejecting the Gospel, they become twice as much slaves of the law as they were before.

The chief use of the law is to show us our sin and need for a Savior. If you read through St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, you will notice that he spends the first two and a half chapters condemning everyone on earth, both Jew and Gentile, as sinners falling short of God’s glory. Why does he do this? In order to get them to despair of their own works and trust rather in the work of Christ Jesus. Your works are not good enough. If you trust in your works to be justified before God, you will be condemned to hell! You must stop trusting in yourself and trust rather in Christ Jesus, who alone has lived a perfect life and has paid for all your sins.

So, how is it that law-rejecters reject the Gospel? They don’t actually reject the law. Rather, they try to chip away at the law so that it becomes more manageable. Why do people now say that it is not a sin to skip church? Because they don’t want to be called sinners when they skip church. Why do people now say that it is not a sin to fornicate, cohabitate outside of marriage, practice homosexuality, gamble, get drunk, and so forth? Because they don’t want to be called sinners. Why don’t they want to be called sinners? Because they want to justify themselves!

To justify means to declare righteous or just. It means to declare a person innocent of sin. It is the fallback position of mankind to justify themselves. But in order to justify themselves, people don’t simply throw out the Law; they change the Law in their favor. They simply cut out those commandments that they break or change their meaning, so that they do not need to repent of their sins. In this way, they can continue in their sin with a clear conscience.

But all this is really a rejection of the Gospel. They justify themselves, because they don’t want to be justified by Christ. Those who supposedly reject the law are legalists, who block out the Gospel. You are not saved if you justify yourself. You are only saved if God justifies you. And Scripture says that no one will be justified by works of the law, even if you bend and shape the commandments, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. You will not be judged according to your loose interpretation of the law, but according to God’s strict interpretation of the law. Therefore, we should read the law in its clearest sense and not try to escape its judgment.

There is no other Gospel than that sinners are justified by grace, that is, as a gift, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Only Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. Only Jesus is righteous. Only Jesus can grant us His righteousness as a gift. Therefore, St. Paul writes in the first chapter of Galatians, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” There is no other Gospel. You can’t find a better Gospel by cutting up the law and claiming that you aren’t that bad. You can’t find a better Gospel by trusting in your works. The only Gospel worth confessing is the one which proclaims Jesus Christ alone as the Savior and is received through faith alone. This is the only Gospel which saves.

In our Epistle, St. Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” Why does he say that the righteousness of God is apart from the law, but then he says that the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it? He uses the word law in two ways. The first time he means the Commandments. There is a righteousness of God apart from us doing the commandments, the righteousness that is received through faith in Jesus. The second time, he means the Holy Scriptures. The Law and the Prophets refer to the Old Testament. The Scriptures teach of a righteousness gained apart from the law, that is, apart from the commandments. Lutherans hold to Scripture alone. Only Scripture can tell us how to be saved. Therefore St. Paul says that even if an angel from heaven should preach a contrary gospel, don’t believe it, because Paul preaches the Gospel of Holy Scripture.

St. Paul says that God put Christ Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood. The word propitiation can also be translated as Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was placed upon the Ark of the Covenant on which the blood of atonement was sprinkled once a year for the sins of the people of Israel, as Moses writes in the book of the Law (Leviticus 16). So, Paul teaches us that the Law and the Prophets, Holy Scripture, bear witness that God would put forth Jesus to be the Mercy Seat by His blood and in that way, he would make us righteous. This is the righteousness apart from the law, which the Law and the Prophets bear witness to. This is the only Gospel which saves.

The problem with justifying yourself is that it is a lie. You must be just in order to justify. But Scripture makes clear that all have sinned and therefore are unrighteous. So, how can the unrighteous make rules in order to declare themselves righteous? That’s absurd! Yet, that is what every other so-called gospel does. Every false gospel is unjust people declaring themselves just for doing unjust works. But the true Gospel as revealed in Scripture shows the just God proving Himself to be just, not by condoning sin, but by making atonement for sin through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ the Righteous.

The most important article of the Lutheran Confessions, which really sums up what it means to be a Lutheran is Article Four of the Augsburg Confession, written in 1530:

Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight (Rom. 3, 4)

The Gospel that sinners are justified before God, not by works, but through faith, when they believe that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who made satisfaction for our sins, was the center of the Lutheran Reformation. It was why so many were willing to be imprisoned and die rather than deny it. Yet, this Gospel is still the most important issue in the church today. If we lose this teaching, we lose our certainty of salvation. If we lose this teaching, we lose our faith in Christ, who alone can set us free from our sins. That is why we must hold to God’s Word so diligently now as ever. We can’t lose the law and hang on to the Gospel. If you lose the law, then you lose the Gospel. The law tells you that you are a sinner. The Gospel is only for sinners. If you refuse to repent of your sins, then you refuse to let God justify you with the Gospel. There is no other Gospel. Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. No one is justified before God the Father except through faith in Jesus.

Beware not to justify yourself with excuses that try to tame the law. Rather, let the law in Holy Scripture condemn you as a sinner. Then look to Scripture alone for the only Gospel which saves, the Gospel that proclaims that the just God declares the ungodly to be just through faith for the sake of Jesus’ precious blood.

Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, remove from us the delusion that we could justify ourselves, open our eyes to our sins that we might repent of them, and open our eyes to Jesus, who has saved us from our sins through His death on the cross, that we might be saved through faith in Him. Protect this faith among us, so that we might inherit eternal life. Amen.

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Righteous before God

11/1/2021

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Anton von Werner, "Luther vor dem Reichstag in Worms," 1877, Staatsgallerie Stuttgart, Public Domain.

Reformation Sunday
Romans 3:19-28
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
October 31, 2021

“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.” Romans 3:21-22

Five hundred years ago this past April, Martin Luther stood trial before Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, king of Spain and archduke of Austria, along with many other princes and bishops of the Church. This trial was no small matter. This was not being sent to the principal's office or going to court for a traffic violation. No one here has experienced the intimidation Martin Luther felt as he stood before the highest human court on earth. What could this lowly friar have done to cause himself to be brought before the emperor himself to stand trial? He wrote and taught God’s Word based on Holy Scripture. That doesn’t sound bad, but Luther was found to be criticizing the councils and decrees of the church and pope! In other words, Luther taught the Word of God instead of the words of men.

Luther was asked two questions in his trial: First, whether the books and pamphlets collected with his name on them were indeed his writings; and second, whether he would recant any of them. Luther admitted that they were indeed his writings. To the second question he answered, “Since then your serene majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand; may God help me. Amen.” And for this answer, Luther was declared an outlaw.

How did Luther make such a strong confession and stand firm before the emperor himself? What gave him the ability to endure this intense trial and stand on what he had confessed? Because, while this was indeed the greatest human court Luther had ever stood before, Luther had been put on trial by a much greater judge than Charles the V. Luther had been put on trial by God, and had been found righteous.

Righteous is a word we don’t use much anymore. Yet, it is perhaps the most important word in any language. The Bible speaks at length about what it takes to be righteous. If you are to go to heaven, then you must be righteous. If you are unrighteous, you will go to hell. There is no greater question than, “Am I righteous before God.” Charles V had the authority to cast Luther’s body in jail or hang him at the gallows. God has authority to throw both his body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28). To be righteous means that you are in a right relationship with God. To be righteous means that God finds no fault in you, that you are innocent of all sin. Righteousness is the opposite of sin, so if you want to be righteous you must be without sin.

There are two ways that righteousness of God is revealed in the Bible: First, by the Law. This is the first righteousness Martin Luther learned. And it terrified him. Because the Law simply tells you what to do, but it gives you no power to do it. The Law is good. The Law is the eternal, immutable will of God. Do you want to know what God wants? Look at the Ten Commandments. God wants you to do them, not just outwardly, but with your whole heart. God wants you to love him with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And he wants you to do this with your thoughts, words, and actions. If you do this, then you are righteous. If you do not do this, then you are unrighteous and stand condemned before God.

This is what Luther wrestled with. He knew the Law of God. He knew that it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous, but the doers of the Law who will be justified (Romans 2:13). (Justified means to be declared righteous). And this made him terrified of God. He didn’t fear God with the loving fear of a child toward his father. No, he feared God with utter hatred. “How could God demand such things of me? It’s impossible to accomplish them! How can I love God, when he constantly threatens me with death and hell?” This is how Luther thought. His friends and teachers would try to comfort him with a frequently repeated saying, “If you do what in you lies, God will not deny grace.” In other words, if you do your very best, God will do the rest.

But could Luther be sure he did his best? Have you done your best? Are you a good Christian? Sure, you’ve failed. We all do. No one is perfect. Certainly, God knows that! But have you at least tried your best? Could you have tried to be a better husband or wife? Could you have tried to be a better father or mother, son or daughter? Do you always do your best at school and work? Are you the best Christian you could be?

Do your best is not comforting, because it still depends on you! And if it depends on you, then you will always doubt whether you have done your best. And if you look at God’s Law, you see that even your best is not good enough. Scripture says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) The Law reveals God’s righteousness in the form of God’s wrath against all sinners, as St. Paul says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their ungodliness and unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18) Yes, Luther had already been on trial before God’s Law. And his Law found him utterly unrighteous, a walking damned man.

Yet, Scripture reveals God’s righteousness in a second way, apart from the law, the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. This righteousness is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, our God and Lord, took on human flesh and was born under the Law for us. Unlike us, however; he fulfilled the Laws demands. Jesus truly was righteous in human flesh, the only man ever to live a truly righteous life. Yet, to remove the cloud of God’s wrath against all unrighteousness and sinners, Jesus took the sin of the whole world upon himself. The only righteous man ever to live became the only sinner. And God’s wrath poured out upon the sinner Jesus, not that Jesus himself sinned, but he clothed himself in our sins. And the righteous Jesus, our human substitute and God, satisfied God’s wrath against sin. This is what St. Paul means when he says, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Propitiation is the act of taking away wrath, to turn anger away. Propitiation means that God’s righteous wrath against sin is satisfied, so that his wrath no longer threatens the sinner.

This is what Jesus has done for us in the Gospel. This is a righteousness that depends not on our works, but on Christ who fulfilled all righteousness. And this righteousness is given to us as a gift. That is what grace means. Grace means that this righteousness is given to you as a gift from God.

This righteousness is received through faith. When you have faith in Christ Jesus, God counts that faith as righteousness. Not because faith is some noble work that you do, but because faith holds onto Jesus. God is pleased with your faith, because he is pleased with Jesus. If your faith is not in Christ Jesus, then God is not pleased with your faith. This is also why we must not trust in our works, otherwise, we would not be trusting in Jesus. When you stand before God’s judgement throne, nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness will rescue you from hell. We cling to Jesus and his cross alone.

Christ Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus is righteous and he gives his righteousness to us. We are sinners, and we give our sins to Jesus. This is a great and blessed and strange exchange. But it is the only way we can be saved. We repent of our sins and turn to God for forgiveness, and he forgives us for Jesus’ sake. When you are forgiven, you are declared righteous. When you are declared righteous, you are forgiven. This is God’s doing, out of his own fatherly grace and mercy, for the sake of his Son, whom he sent to save us.

The Law cannot make you righteous. It can only reveal your unrighteousness. Yet, this is good. You must repent of your sins and look to God for forgiveness. The Gospel alone makes you righteous through faith, because Jesus alone is your righteousness. This is the Gospel Luther became convinced of. This is the righteousness that saved Luther in his trial before God. Having felt God’s harsh condemnation, he now felt God’s sweet friendship and peace. Luther was righteous through faith in Christ alone. God said so. No human court, not even an emperor, could make it otherwise.

St. Paul warned the Galatians in chapter one of his Epistle to them, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Luther held to the Gospel preached by Paul, the only Gospel of the Bible (Galatians 1:6-7) He was convinced that Scripture alone taught the true faith. Not an angel from heaven, or an emperor, or Pope Leo X, or all the popes and church councils in the world could stand against this Gospel that a sinner is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, apart from works.

No other book in the world can claim to be God’s book. No other book in the world can claim to show the way of salvation, except the Bible. Unless our teaching is firmly rooted in Scripture, it is no good. Luther was convinced with the Psalmist who spoke to God in Psalm 119:46, “I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.”

This is what it means to be Lutheran. It is to know the truth declared by Jesus and to be set free by it (John 8:31-32). It means to hold on to God’s Word and trust that God has justified us for Christ’s sake. Our sins are forgiven. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are confident that we will stand righteous before God in the heavenly courtroom. Even if we are condemned by men here on earth, God justifies us for Christ’s sake through faith alone, apart from our works.

Verse nine of Salvation unto Us Has Come states:
Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone
And rests in Him unceasing
And by its fruits true faith is known
With love and hope increasing.
For faith alone can justify;
Works serve our neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living.

May our faith abound in fruit, so that we may show love to our neighbors and so glorify our Father who is in heaven. Amen.

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The Freedom of the Christian

10/26/2020

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Luther burns the Papal bull in the square of Wittenberg year 1520, Karl Aspelin, 1885, Public Domain

Reformation Day (Observed)
John 8:31-36
October 25, 2020

“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36

Reformation Day commemorates October 31st, 1517, the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany to question the practice of selling indulgences, which were treated as a kind of ticket to heaven. Of course, that was only the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation. Martin Luther, as well as his evangelical colleagues continued to produce important writings, which more clearly articulated the Christian faith as it is taught in Holy Scripture. Five hundred years ago in 1520, Martin Luther wrote such a devotional titled, “The Freedom of the Christian”, which clearly articulated the Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins and salvation won by Christ and given to all who believe. Luther sent this devotional to Pope Leo X along with a personal letter, with hopes of calming the tension between the papal see and Luther as many were calling for Luther’s excommunication. Luther treated the pope kindly and wrote to him as a pastor would write to a Christian under duress from the devil and false friends. The thesis statement of Luther’s The Freedom of the Christian was this:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
These two sentences at first sight seem to absolutely contradict each other. Yet, Luther quickly points out the words of St. Paul from 1 Corinthians 9, which state, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave of all” and from Romans 13, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” He also brings up the fact that Christ Jesus, the Lord of all, was “born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4) and although he was “in the form of God” he came in the form “of a servant.” (Philippians 2:6-7). So, Luther’s two statements are certainly biblical and true. But they certainly need some explanation. So, let us first examine Luther’s first statement:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
This statement is made absolutely true by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we heard in our Gospel lesson, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” Jesus Christ sets you free from the bonds of sin. If Jesus has set you free, nothing can enslave you! If nothing can enslave you, then you are a lord of all. Your sins cannot condemn you. Satan cannot harm you. Death is a defeated foe. And since this freedom comes as a free gift from Jesus to be received through faith and not by your works, there can be no work demanded of the Christian.
Jesus says that if you abide in his word, you are truly his disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. God’s word is our most precious treasure on this earth. Food, drink, clothing, house, car, and so forth, these things cannot benefit our soul in any way. As Scripture says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Only the word of God can grant us salvation, because our faith can only grasp God’s word and promise. And Luther points out in his treatise that it is the Gospel which is that word of God, which promises salvation, as Romans 1 states, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to all who believe.” And so, it is faith in Christ’s promise of forgiveness and salvation that sets you free, not your works.
Luther goes on to say that faith is the greatest honor you can give God. To have faith in the forgiveness of sins is to believe that God is true, that his promises are trustworthy, that Jesus is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world. Yet, to disbelieve is to dishonor God, to call him a liar. So, Luther calls faith the greatest honor and glory a person can give to God.
Finally, concerning faith, Luther compares faith to a wedding ring. Through faith we are joined in a holy marriage with Christ. He is the Bridegroom, we the Church are his holy bride. The wedding band symbolizes that all that belongs to the bridegroom is the bride’s and all that belongs to the bride is the bridegroom’s.
This means that our sins belong to Christ. He took ownership of them as certainly as he has claimed us as his bride. And he washed them away in his blood. They are forgiven and forgotten forever. Our debt is paid. This also means that all that belongs to Christ belongs to us. So, if Christ is the exalted Lord of all, under whose feet God the Father has placed all dominion, then we also are exalted lords of all. We share with Christ in his victory, as Scripture indeed proclaims in Ephesians 2 where it says God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And again in 1 Corinthians 15, “Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Through faith Christ’s righteousness covers us. Through faith we honor God our Savior. Through faith our souls are joined to Christ Jesus in a holy union whereby all Christ possesses is given to us. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are perfectly free lords of all, subject to none.
Here, Luther addresses the question that Pope Leo certainly wants explained. If faith alone makes one righteous without works, then why do any good works at all? Luther answers this by pointing out that we still live in our sinful bodies. Our new man, that is our reborn self, who is joined to Christ through faith, certainly desires only good, to love and honor God and do good to everyone. But the old Adam, that is, our old self born in sin, desires only to satisfy its own desires, to follow after lusts, and in short, to do the bidding of the devil. St. Paul sums this up in Romans 7 when he says, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin.” And so, in order to keep oneself from becoming captive to sin and losing one’s faith in the Gospel, a Christian must constantly drown the old Adam through repentance and discipline himself with good works. This is what Scripture also says, “But I discipline my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” 1 Corinthians 9) and “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5)
Here Luther argues his second point:
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
Christians must do good works. Idol fingers are the devil’s playground. Christians should be busy helping others, serving their neighbor, and considering others more significant than themselves. Luther makes clear that this is not in order to be justified by God. You are already justified through faith in Christ apart from your works. Luther compares one who after faith seeks to be justified by his works to a dog, which has a piece of meat in its mouth, but looking at its reflection in the water thinks it sees another dog with meat. So, in an attempt to get that piece of meat as well, it opens its mouth and drops the meat into the water and ends up with nothing. And, so it is with a Christian who tries to justify himself by his works instead of through faith in Jesus Christ. He loses his righteousness through faith while striving after righteousness through works.
Luther uses Jesus’ own words to explain this. “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad.” (Matthew 12) It is a good tree that bears good fruit, not a good fruit that bears a good tree. When God put Adam in the garden, he had already made him good. Yet, he commanded him to work the garden. His work did not make him good. His work was good, because he was already good. It is faith in Christ that makes our works good. Through faith our inner self becomes alive and desires to do what is right. And through faith, God does not look at our sins, but counts our works as beautiful in his sight. None of this means that our works justify us, but rather that our faith produces good fruits.
Martin Luther pointed out to the Pope that both Christ and John the Baptist told people to repent as well as believe in the Gospel. They first preached the Law of God, that is, God’s commandments so that sinners would come to a knowledge of their sin and repent. Then they preached the Gospel, that is, the promises of God, which offers forgiveness of sins and salvation to all who believe. This, Luther says, describes the work of faithful preachers today. All must preach repentance and then salvation by grace, otherwise, the preaching of good works will be in vain.
Now, why should you as a Christian consider yourself a servant to all? Simple, this is Christ’s example to you. Luther cites Philippians 2, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.” So, a Christian through faith in Christ is Lord of all, yet, like Christ serves all. The life you live, you live not to yourself, but to Christ. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. As Christ did not see equality with God a thing to be grasped, because he already was in the form of God, so we do not seek to grasp God’s majesty, but follow in our Savior’s footsteps and serve others.
This means that we should be subject to the governing authorities and should pray for them. Children should honor and obey their parents. Christians should submit to the authorities in their lives, both physical and spiritual. Christians should help those in need, speak out for the defenseless, and consider others more significant themselves.
Luther concludes, “a Christian lives not to himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.” This is what led Luther to humbly write to Pope Leo X, to call him his father, and to ask for an intervention on his behalf. He humbled himself to every human institution out of love. Yet, in that same year 1520, when Pope Leo ordered all the writings of Martin Luther to be burned and threatened Luther with excommunication, Luther in response on December 10, 1520 burned the pope’s books and the writings of those who claimed the Pope had authority over the whole church. Luther chose rather to abide in the words of Christ, which set him free, than be a slave to a man, who condemned the righteous. The Pope’s order to burn books that confessed the Gospel had no authority over a Christian whatsoever.
And so, it is for us today. We Lutherans are free, because Christ has set us free through the Gospel. Yet, we ought to out of love for our neighbor follow in Christ’s footsteps and serve everyone in humility. Yet, we must never forget that Christ has set us free. When persecution comes, and it will and has; when our faith is under attack; when the devil comes with his lies, we must remember that we are free lords. We have the truth. So, let us abide in the words of Christ, knowing that through faith we are free from sin, death and hell. And let us serve our neighbor in love after the likeness of Christ while never forfeiting God’s Word. Amen.

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The Chief Article of the Christian Faith: Justification by Grace through Faith alone

10/28/2019

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Martin Luther Preaching, Lucas Cranach, St. Marien zu Wittenberg, 1547, The Bridgeman Art Library, Public Domain

Romans 3:19-31
October 27, 2019

This Reformation Day on October 31st will mark the 502nd anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. These 95 Theses would lead to many debates and further writings by Dr. Luther which would result in his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church and his condemnation as an outlaw by Emperor Charles V. We celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st, because the posting of these 95 Theses is considered the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation, the event which formed the Lutheran Church and separated us from Rome.
Yet, few of you Lutherans have read all 95 of these theses. And they are not included in our Lutheran Confessions. And yet, we celebrate a day, which resulted in our separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Why do we celebrate this? Why do we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation? What really was the Lutheran Reformation all about?
During the Lutheran Reformation, Martin Luther and a few other theologians wrote against abuses of the Catholic Church while writing what they were convinced was the true teaching of the Bible. A number of these writings were collected to form the Book of Concord, also known as the Lutheran Confessions. Within the Book of Concord are some writings you are familiar with: the Large and Small Catechism, and the Augsburg Confession for example. In one of these writings, the Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther wrote in just a few lines what the Lutheran Reformation was really all about. He writes,
“The first and chief article is this:
Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. As St. Paul says: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28) That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:26) Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31). For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) And with His stripes we healed. (Isaiah 53:5) Upon this article everything that we teach and practice depends, in opposition to the pope, the devil, and the whole world. Therefore, we must be certain and not doubt this doctrine. Otherwise, all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all adversaries win the victory and the right over us.” (Smalcald Articles Part 1 Article 1).
The Lutheran Reformation is about the teaching from the Bible that Jesus Christ died to save sinners and that sinners are justified by faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the law. I emphasize this, so that you know that we are not celebrating 500 plus years of rebelling against the Catholic Church or religious liberty or finding our own traditions. We are celebrating the Lutheran Reformation, which confessed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be the foundation of the Christian Church.
In Galatians chapter 1 St. Paul writes, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8-9) It was in obedience to this word of God written by the Apostle Paul that the Lutheran Reformation took place. When Martin Luther wrote and preached against the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, he did not oppose the Church of God nor did he try to establish a new church with a new teaching. Rather, he sought to be faithful to the Gospel delivered to us through the Holy Scriptures. The Gospel of the holy Scriptures teaches us that sinners are saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone apart from their works. Even if an angel from heaven were to preach a different Gospel, we Christians are charged to reject that teaching and cling to the Gospel which saves. The Roman Catholic Church taught that people were saved not by faith alone, but also by their good works. This is the teaching Martin Luther opposed
Even though the visible head of the church on earth, the pope himself taught a different gospel, even though bishops, emperors, and councils confessed this new gospel and had done so for hundreds of years, Luther held to the Gospel delivered in Scripture, the Gospel, which St. Paul taught, the Gospel that declares free forgiveness through faith in Jesus apart from works of the Law.
And this is the Gospel we hold to today. This is what it means to be a Lutheran. We reject any teaching from men or angels, no matter how lofty they might be, and we cling to the teaching of holy Scripture. “We hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28)
To be justified means to be declared righteous by God. It means to be found innocent by God, to be forgiven of all your sins. Not only the Roman Church, but every religion invented by man teaches that you are justified by your own works. Even the non-religious, but spiritual types say things like, “As long as you are a good person, you’ll go to heaven.” But Scripture makes clear, that we cannot be justified before God by works of the law, because through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The Law is good. It tells you what you need to do to be righteous. But Scripture clearly says that it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous, but the doers of the Law who will be justified. (Romans 4:13) The Law tells you what is right, but it does not give you the ability to do what is right. Instead, it condemns you as a sinner. Sinners fall short of the glory of God. Everyone is a sinner. The Law doesn’t justify anyone. Rather, the Law imprisons and condemns everyone.
This is why you must be justified by faith and not by works. Those who say that you can be saved by your own good works lie. It is impossible. We all fail. It is only through faith that you can be justified before God. Faith is not your work. Rather, through faith you receive the gift of salvation by grace. “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 to be a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” This means that God declares you forgiven of all your sins for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. This forgiveness is received through faith, that is, when you believe that God receives you into favor and forgives your sins for Christ’s sake.
Faith is not a special work you do to earn God’s favor. Faith is simply trusting in the promise God gives you in Jesus Christ. In this way, faith always points you to Jesus. The religion of works righteousness, which says that you must earn your salvation through your own good works sounds very pious and proper. Yet, it takes your eyes off Jesus and onto your own works. The religion of works righteousness makes Jesus optional. Yet, faith makes Jesus indispensable. When Scripture says that we are justified by faith apart from our works, it says that we are justified by Jesus. Our hope is in Jesus, in his death and resurrection that took away our sins!
This Gospel of justification by faith apart from our works points us always to Jesus. In this way, the Lutheran Reformation is really all about Jesus and what he has done to save sinners. The Reformation was not about inventing a new Gospel, but uncovering the Gospel, even as you don’t put a lamp under a basket, but on a lampstand to illuminate the whole room!
This Gospel of justification by faith apart from works determines how we teach every other part of Christian doctrine. We look at the Ten Commandments not as the way to heaven, but as God’s tool to show us our sins and need for a Savior. We don’t simply look at God as the creator of the universe, but as the one who sent his Son to die for us and give us eternal life. We see the Holy Spirit as the one who proclaims this saving Gospel to us and gives us the power to believe it. When we look at Baptism, we see how God justifies us by washing us in Jesus’ blood. We receive justification through faith when we eat and drink Christ’s true body and blood in the Sacrament. We believe that the Church is made up not of those, who are without sin and better than everyone else, but of those, who have washed their sinful robes and made them white in the blood of Christ.
By keeping this teaching of justification central in the Lutheran Church, we keep Jesus central. This is Jesus’ Church.
We are all sinners. We know this because the Bible says so. We know this because we know our own sins. Jesus says that whoever sins is a slave to sin. But, if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. The word for free in the Greek is ελευθεροι (eleutheroi). Notice how it kind of sounds like Luther? Luther was known to play around sometimes with the spelling of his name and would even write it in Greek, so that his name would mean free. He rejoiced that Christ Jesus, God’s own Son set him free from sin, death, and the devil. When we call ourselves Lutherans, we are not claiming some German guy, who lived 500 years ago as our Savior. Rather, we are confessing the same faith as that poor sinner did. We confess that the Son has set us poor sinners free, not by works done by us, but through his own suffering and death. We receive this freedom from sin, this justification, through faith alone. Through this faith we receive Jesus. May nothing in heaven or earth or under the earth separate any of us from it. Amen.

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Reformation Sunday: Justification by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ alone

10/29/2018

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Romans 3:19-28
October 28, 2018

The law of God is good and wise and sets his will before our eyes. The law of God is good. To say that God’s law is not good is to say that God is not good. The law is quite simply, what God desires to be done. Jesus summarizes the entire law as, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Love. Love is what God desires to be done. The law reveals to us the essence of who God is. God is love.
The law commands that you conform yourself to be like God. Scripture is very clear that this is the aim of the law. God speaks in Leviticus 19, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Likewise, our Lord Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Every one of the Ten Commandments is a command to love. You shall have no other gods. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not comit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. The purpose in all of these commands is for you to love God and your neighbor; put their needs before your own. And if you love perfectly, then you are like God. This is what it means to be righteous. God is righteous. He is the standard for what is right. So, if you want to be righteous you must obey the law and do what it says, as Scripture says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:13)
Only those who are justified by God, that is declared righteous according to his standard, will enter heaven. And so, it seems clear that if you want to go to heaven, then you must obey the law. It must depend on your works. Yet, we heard in our Epistle lesson, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The law of God is good. We must never blaspheme against it. Yet, the law of God gives you no hope of salvation. Rather, each command, which discloses to you God’s good and holy will, reveals your sin.
“Now the law came to increase the trespass,” St. Paul writes (Rom. 5:20). This is because we are sinners. Everything we think, say, and do is tainted with sin, as God himself said way back in Genesis 6, “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” So, instead of showing the way to righteousness and eternal life, the law brings death. It doesn’t justify; it condemns. It shows that you do not love as you ought. So, because we are sinners, who cannot help but sin, and because the law is holy, righteous and good and exposes sin to be sin, we cannot be justified by the law in God’s sight.
Yet, what did we just hear? “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, … the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” It is faith, which justifies sinners, not the law! “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” This is great news! This means that we can go to heaven despite our sins.
But it is important for us to understand what justifying faith is. Faith is not simply historical knowledge; as long as you believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose, then you are saved. No, justifying faith trusts in Jesus. Justifying faith banks on the belief that God is pleased with you on account of Christ’s sacrifice and forgives your sins on account of Christ. Our Lutheran confessions expresses it this way:
“Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight.” Romans 3-4 (Augsburg Confession IV)
We are received into favor and our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. This is the faith that justifies. Justifying faith trusts in the fact that God is pleased with you, not because of anything you have done, but for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.
Justifying faith is by grace alone. Grace is a gift from God, which means that it is not by works. Many believe that we are saved both by faith and by our works. This is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which is the reason the Lutheran Church formed and why we are celebrating Reformation Day today. And many others besides the Roman Church teach that you must do good works in order to be saved. But grace removes your works from the equation, as Romans 11:6 declares, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” And our Epistle lesson says that we are “justified by grace as a gift.”
You are justified by grace apart from your works, because Christ Jesus has completed all the work that needed to be done. To be saved by grace through faith means to be saved by Jesus. Again, faith is not simply historical knowledge of events. Who doesn’t know that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day? It is one thing to know these events really happened. It is another thing to trust that God is pleased with you because of them.
The law must be fulfilled. And if the law is not obeyed, God demands punishment. Our God is a just God. He doesn’t simply ignore sin and pass lenient judgments. No, God demands justice be served. So, as St. John says, Jesus took upon himself the sins of the whole world. The Lord laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. And Christ was punished for our sins. The righteous one was punished for the sins of the unrighteous ones. And by Christ’s suffering and death, he made satisfaction for our sins and appeased God’s wrath against all sinners.
Two people can look at the passion of Christ and see two different things. One can see the law, while the other can see the Gospel. One looks at Jesus suffering and sees God’s anger against sin. It’s a terrifying thought that drives one to hide from God. This is why it is important to recognize that Christ’s death on the cross was for your sake and on account of his sacrifice, God is pleased with you. God is not angry at you because of your sins. Jesus has taken that anger away. In Christ’s resurrection you see that all your sins truly are gone forever, nailed to the cross. This is how you are saved by grace apart from your works. This is the most comforting message in the world, because it gives you confidence that you will go to heaven. You can know for a fact that you are justified before God, because Christ has made atonement for your sins. Your works bring doubt, because they are imperfect and tainted with sin. But Christ’s work gives certainty, because God cannot fail or lie.
The crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ show that our God is just. He is righteous. Yes, he looks over sins for a time, yet, he demands justice be served. If he didn’t, he would not be loving. God requires love. Hatred must be punished. Yet, in this great act of justice Christ shows perfect love. Jesus demonstrated perfect love throughout his life as he obeyed the commandments, loving God and his neighbor throughout. Yet, nowhere is Christ’s love displayed more fully that in his passion for our sins.
Jesus obeyed his Father’s will out of love for him. No one took Jesus’ life from him. He laid it down of his own accord and he had authority to take it up again. Jesus’ death was not an accident. Our Lord and brother willingly suffered and died out of love and obedience to his Father. He put his Father’s will before his own, as he himself said at the beginning of his passion, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:41) Jesus perfected his love for his neighbor by bearing the burden of every last human being. He died for all sins. This is not an impersonal task. This is very personal. The wrong you know you have done, that has burdened your conscience, so that your heart sinks into your gut, that is the wrong Jesus has placed upon himself out of love for you. There is nothing more personal than that. There is nothing more loving than that.
In the crucifixion and death of Christ, we see God’s love on full display. God is love. What does this mean? It means that he sent his only begotten Son to die, so that whoever believes in him might live. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to the be propitiation for our sins. The Gospel is not an overthrowing of the law. The law demands love. The Gospel is the perfection of love. God upholds the law of love forever through the death and resurrection of his Son.
To be a sinner means that you lack love. But through faith in Christ’s perfect love God only sees love in you. He is totally and perfectly pleased with you. He credits to you for Christ’s sake the perfect love, which his law demands. This is why St. Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We do continue to sin as long as the old Adam hangs around our necks, that is, as long as we live on this sinful earth. Yet, God does not count these sins against us. He only sees Christ’s righteousness shine through our faith.
Yet, because of the wickedness of unbelief many assume that this means that Christians can therefore go on sinning, since we are saved by faith and not by works. They fail to see, as the Jews did in our Gospel lesson, that those who sin are slaves to sin. The gospel sets us free, not to become slaves again to sin, hatred, and death, but to be free to righteousness, love, and eternal life.
Scripture says, “We love, because he first loved us.” This means that God’s love for us, which we witness in Christ Jesus and receive through faith, produces love in us. Faith is a living active thing. Through faith we are justified. This means that through faith God makes us into good trees. Good trees bear good fruit! Yes, even now in these sinful bodies, imperfectly, clumsily, with lots of repentance and forgiveness along the way, we love. We seek to please God because we love him. We seek to help our neighbor, because we love our neighbor. How couldn’t we? The same blood shed to wash away our sins was shed to cleanse our neighbor!
The Lutheran Reformation proclaimed to the whole earth that sinners are justified by faith apart from their works. And for this, we have been slandered and accused of rejecting love. That is nonsense. The Gospel that Jesus Christ saves sinners is a teaching that cannot help but produce love. Let us love with confidence, not fearing that our works are imperfect, but trusting that even our imperfect acts of love are sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Amen.

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