Justified by Faith in Christ
Romans 3:19-28
Reformation Day
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for Reformation Day is the epistle reading Romans 3. For my fortieth birthday the Ladies Aid at my first call at Ash Grove decided to give me a wooden plaque with a Bible verse engraved on it. They wanted to make sure that they put a verse on the plaque that I really liked so one of the ladies in the church asked me if I had a favorite passage from the Bible. That was a difficult question. There are so many wonderful verses to choose from. I have many that I really like. But after thinking about it for a while I told her that if I had to pick just one I would pick Romans 3:21-28. That passage is our epistle reading for today. I picked Romans 3 because it summarizes the heart of the Christian faith in very clear words. I picked Romans 3 because it was one of the passages that moved me to become a pastor. A few days before my birthday the ladies did indeed give to me a beautiful wooden plaque with a cross carved in it and next to the cross the words of Romans 3:21-28. The plaque is hanging up in my office right now. I encourage you to stop by some time during the week and take a look at it. Romans 3 is a wonderful passage because it brings out in very clear words the message of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the central message of the Bible. It is what I was called to teach and preach.
But we might ask ourselves do we need to hear this message all the time? Every week we hear about salvation through Christ alone. Every week we hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. But why do we have to repeat it so much in the church? Shouldn’t we talk about other things?
The reason that the message of salvation through Christ must be repeated is because it directs us towards God. As people we have a tendency to take our eyes off the Lord and focus on our selves. This should not surprise us. The message that we hear from the world is that we should always look to ourselves. We are told that we should focus on our own will and our own strength. We are told that we should look upon on our own actions. It sounds good. It is a message that appeals to our human ears. But it is a disaster to completely focus on our selves. It leads to two bad things happening. It will either fill us with gloom and despair or it will make us self-righteous. Both lead to spiritual death.
If we look to ourselves for strength it can lead us down a path of despair. That is what happened to Martin Luther. In the time of the middle ages the church proclaimed the message of God’s wrath against sin very well. But the message of God’s grace through Christ Jesus was hidden. Early in Luther’s life he decided to become a monk. He understood that God would judge sin but he did not understand grace. Because of this he lived in constant torment. He would go to the priest and confess all of his sins. After being dismissed he would get about half way to his room and remember another sin and go back and tell it to the priest. The priest would eventually insist that Luther return to his room. In his room Luther would remember more sins that he had committed and he would lay there in anguish fearing God’s judgment. When Luther evaluated his own strength and his own actions he saw very clearly that he was falling short. Even when he did something good it was still tinged with sin.
It is the same with us. If we take an honest view of ourselves in thought, word and deed we will see that we fall short of God’s perfect standards. If anyone came to me and said that the Gospel is preached to much in the church, I would say to them that they must not be trying very hard to live a Christian life. If they were actually trying to live a Christian life, they would find out that they are in definite need of God’s grace. As we strive to be faithful to God, show love to our family, be a supportive friend, and be dedicated to our job we will find that we are far from perfect. As we strive to live a Christian life, we find ourselves in constant conflict with our sinful flesh that by nature is selfish, lazy, temperamental, and weak. When we look at our own thoughts, words and deeds we can become discouraged.
It is a disaster to completely focus on ourselves. It leads to two bad things happening. It will either fill us with gloom and despair, like it did with Luther or it will make us self-righteous. Self-righteousness is a problem that all of us can also fall into. We all want to be a good person but the problem that we run into is sin. When we see our sin, we will be tempted to justify ourselves and in doing so become self-righteous. When we are self-righteous, we will make excuses for our sins. One of our favorite tactics is to pay attention to other people’s flaws in order to make ourselves feel better. We may admit that we are not perfect, but we talk ourselves into thinking that our offences are not nearly as bad as others. We delude ourselves into thinking we are good people based upon our own self justification. Yet we must realize that our self-righteousness does not make us right with God. Let us turn away from self-righteousness. Let us repent of our sins and turn to our Savior!
When we focus on ourselves it will lead to two bad results. We will either fall into despair or we will become self-righteous. Both lead to spiritual death. That is why the church is called to preach God’s Law and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ every single week. That leads us to our epistle reading from Romans 3. Recall what Paul said in our reading. “For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in His site (God), since through the Law comes knowledge of sin”. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Those words inspired by the Holy Spirit destroy any self-righteousness that we might have. Because of our sin we can never be made right with God based upon our own works. These words from the apostle Paul remind us that without the Lord there is no hope. We cannot free ourselves from the bondage of sin. On our own we cannot overcome death or be rescued from hell. The Law of God needs to be preached every week to make us aware of our sins and destroy the self-righteousness in us all.
The Law of God shows us that we need a Savior. It is the Gospel that shows us our Savior. Let me read to you the words from our reading in Romans 3. “For there is no distinction: 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”. Those words inspired by the Holy Spirit wipe away any despair that we might have. It is the message that God forgives us our sins through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the message that we have been made right with God by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Martin Luther eventually left the monastery and went to the university in Wittenberg to study the Bible. When He started reading the Bible He found the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was given understanding that God is merciful and forgiving. Luther was filled with joy. For the rest of His life he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.
We will be tempted to focus on our selves. We will be tempted to look to our own strength and our own actions. But to focus on ourselves will only lead to despair on one hand or self-righteousness on the other. That is why we do need to hear God’s Word every week. For it is the word of the Lord that destroys self-righteousness with the Law and wipes away despair with the Gospel. At the center of God’s Word is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the message that we are justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
So as Christians we walk humbly with our God knowing that we are saved purely by His grace. We walk humbly with our God receiving peace and joy in our heart knowing that we have been forgiven through Christ Jesus our Lord. We walk humbly with our God knowing that the Lord has restored us and that He now works through us as we live our Christian life. Indeed because of Christ we are not condemned but saved and thus we are freed up so that we can be faithful to God, show love to our family, be supportive to our friends, and be dedicated in our work. We walk humbly with our God knowing that we have eternal life. We look to the Lord Jesus and trust in Him. Amen.