October 30, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
As long as I can remember, it has been our practice
to celebrate the Festival of the Reformation as the month of October is drawing
to a close. It has been our practice to
remind ourselves how an insignificant monk named Martin Luther, screwed his
courage to its sticking place on the evening of October 31, 1517 and went out
to nail his 95 theses or 95 statements for debate to the door of the Castle
Church in Wittenberg, Germany. It was
that hammer blow, which echoed forcefully through the streets of Wittenberg and
some might say echoed around the world that began the Lutheran Reformation as a
movement that simply would not be stopped. It was that hammer blow that
signaled the beginning of a path that would the very faith which had begun to
grow in Luther’s heart since the day he first in the Scriptures and understood
that salvation did not come from anything he could do for God; rather salvation
came from God through faith in Jesus Christ the Savior.
Since that day some 590 years ago, many churches
have celebrated the Lutheran Reformation.
Many Pastors have preached beautiful sermons about what Luther said and
did in his life, and from that, many church members have wondered why we place
so much emphasis on Luther, when he was nothing more than a sinner saved by
grace, just like you and I. In fact, I
expect that some of you are already wondering why I’ve spent so much time
talking about him this morning. Well the
answer is simple. Today is the day that
we have gathered to give thanks to the Lord that he used Martin Luther as his
servant to restore the clear truth of the Scriptures that Salvation is ours
through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior!
It is this clear message of the Scriptures that
salvation is ours through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, which the Apostle
Paul is proclaiming to us in our text today! For as he writes, he reminds us
very clearly and very vividly that our own salvation has never come to us by
anything that we have done, rather, our salvation comes only through faith in
Christ Jesus. Paul writes: “Now we know
that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that
every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law;
rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” (Romans 3:19-20)
There it is!
Right there, in those two short verses, we have the sum total and the
very purpose of God’s Law! Though our
sinful human nature proudly believes that we aren’t all that bad, God’s Law
reveals something quite different.
Though our sinful human nature believes that given enough time we could
gain our own holiness by struggling and striving to keep God’s Law, God’s law
shows us that we will never be declared righteous by observing it. We will never be declared righteous by
observing it, because God’s law has one single purpose—to show us our
sins. God’s law has one single
purpose—to silence our mouths. God’s law has one single purpose—to hold us
accountable to God.
Though we may think that God’s law cannot possibly
apply to us because we are really good people who have struggled and tried to
earn our salvation by keeping our thoughts pure, by keeping our words
blameless, and by keeping our actions impeccable, it is God’s Law that reveals
just how corrupted we have become. For
God’s law tells us that there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no
one who understands, no one who seeks God, because all of us have turned away
and have together become worthless. All
of us are incapable of doing good. Our
throats are open graves. Our tongues
practice deceit. The poison of vipers is
on our lips and our mouths are filled with cursing and bitterness. Our feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and
misery mark our ways, and the way of peace we do not know, because there is not
fear of God before our eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)
Though we might think we’re pretty great, God’s law
paints a different picture for us, for no matter how hard we try to keep God’s
law, we fail. No matter how hard we try
to be perfect, we can’t even come close.
No matter how hard we try to shed our sins and our guilt and do work
harder at keeping God’s law, we can’t because as James tells us, “Whoever keeps
the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of
it.” (James 2:10) Or as Paul tells us,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
Now, I don’t know about you, but after hearing all
that, I don’t feel all that great. In
fact, I actually feel angry. I’m upset,
frustrated, and outraged by this God who gave me this ridiculous set of rules
and regulations that he demands I keep, even though he knows I can’t keep
them! What’s the point! Why should I even bother! Why should I try to
please him if he’s just going to sit on his high and mighty throne judging me
because I have sinned and fallen short of his glory! What hope is there if I can’t possibly keep
his Law on my own! Why have I come! What more can I do if I am condemned to
eternal death in hell by the very law God demand that I keep!
I’m sure that is how Luther felt while he lived as a
monk, for the story has been told of how his fellow monks would find him passed
out and bleeding on the floor of his room.
Passed out from hunger, because he had denied himself food in order to
punish his body for its sinful desires; passed out from pain and bleeding,
because he had beaten himself and scourged himself to free himself from his
sins, which he knew kept coming back again and again no matter how many times
he confessed them to his father confessor.
No matter how hard he tried to keep God’s Law, he couldn’t, and because
of that he was entering a world of despair even worse than I what I just
expressed, until he discovered and understood the very Gospel that Paul reveals
to us when he writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has
been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness
from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He
did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
This is what the Lord our God has done for us! Though it is the Lord who demands that we
keep every detail of the Law he has given us, because he knew we could never do
it on our own, he sent his Son to do it for us.
Though we had done nothing to earn it or deserve it, we have been
justified—declared not guilty of all our sins—through Jesus Christ our Savior,
who redeemed us by his blood. It was our
God, the very God who gave me all the rules and regulations of the Law, which
he demanded I keep, who sent his Son to keep them for me. It was my God, the very God who held me
accountable for my every sin, who took those sins from me and placed them on
his Son. With a plan of which I never
would have conceived, he sent his Son, to take the place of me, his enemy. He sent his Son to keep every single rule and
regulation of his law perfectly. Then,
he, my gracious and loving God, sent his own Son to be tortured. He sent his one and only Son to be
crucified. He weighed down his own Son
with the burden of my sins, and then he, the Lord my God, turned his back on
his one and only Son, forsook him, and let him die! The very things I would never allow to happen
to my children, the Lord my God willingly caused to happen to his one and only
Son. The very things that I would rush
to prevent from happening to my children, he allowed to happen to his Son, so
that he might be just and justify—declare not guilty of sin—those who believe
in Jesus as their Savior.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, each
and every one of us has salvation.
Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, each and every one of us has
been washed clean of every spot and stain of our sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we
all have the sure and certain hope of eternal life, because we know that when
Jesus died and rose again, he did it to free us from our sins, so that we could
live with him forever in the halls of his heavenly kingdom. This is the great comfort and assurance we
all have from knowing that Salvation is ours through faith in Jesus Christ our
Savior! Though we continually see our
sins as we gaze into the mirror of the Law, as we look in to the Gospel, we see
our salvation revealed to us. As we look
into the law we are reminded again and again that there is nothing we can do to
free us from our sins, but as we look into the Gospel, we are assured that
Salvation is ours through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. Though it is the Law that condemns us, it is the
Gospel that saves us so that all our thanks and praise belong to the Lord. As Paul says, “Where, then, is boasting? It
is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that
of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing
the law. (Romans 3:27-28)
Salvation is ours through faith in Jesus Christ our
Savior! This is the heart and the core
of the Bible’s teaching, and this is the very reason why we have gathered to
celebrate Reformation Sunday. We have
gathered to give praise to the Lord that some 590 years ago the Lord used an
insignificant German monk to reveal this truth to the world. We have gathered to praise the Lord because
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is a direct result of the Lord’s use of
Martin Luther back in Germany. We have
gathered to praise the Lord because through the Reformation we celebrate today,
we have heard the truth of the Gospel which Paul proclaimed in his letter to
the Romans. Salvation is ours through
faith in Jesus Christ our Savior who gave his life to free us from the power of
the devil, so that through faith in him we would be blessed with the gift of
eternal life.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
