Romans
Dear
Friends in Christ,
Summer
is traditionally vacation time. Are you taking
one? Answers will vary. Some of you will go far, some will stay near,
some won’t really go anywhere.
Regardless
of your personal plans, if you’ll be worshiping at
Memorial
Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer and with it we also begin our
customary summer sermon series. In the
recent past we’ve spent time systematically reviewing the Ten Commandments and
going through the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Last summer, you may recall, we “preached
through” the stained glass windows that adorn our church building in
celebration of our church facility’s 75th anniversary.
This
summer the second appointed Scripture reading for each Sunday is a lesson from
the Book of Romans. Each Sunday (with
perhaps a few exceptions) we will turn our attention to what God has to tell us
through a text from a book about which Martin Luther had this to say: “This
epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament, and is truly the purest
gospel. It is worthy that every
Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should
occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. We can never read it or ponder over it too
much; for the more we deal with it, the more precious it becomes and the better
it tastes” (quoted in the Concordia
Study Bible).
And
by the end of the summer we will hopefully understand just exactly what he
meant.
If
we were actually spending a summer in
1.
Eternal salvation does not
depend upon what we do for God
2.
But through believing what
God has done for us in Jesus Christ
This our text makes
unmistakably clear. Let us now turn to
it, verse by verse:
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. We need to
define some terms. God’s righteousness that
Paul talks about here can be understood in two ways. One way is as a characteristic or quality of
God. God’s righteousness in this way is
a reference to His holiness.
The other way to understand God’s righteousness is not as something He
is, but as something He does – namely, God’s declaration of righteousness upon those who believe in Jesus Christ
as their Savior. This is brought out in
the statement: This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe. In effect, God says
to the believer: “Through your belief in the work of Jesus, I declare you righteous, or
holy, or forgiven, in My sight. As such,
the door to heaven is open to you.”
Furthermore we are told this righteousness from God is apart
from law. The word “law” refers to God’s commands, meaning this righteousness does not come to
us through our keeping of God’s commands or our doing something to gain
it. God’s declaration of righteousness
upon us is not something we earn through outward obedience. Salvation is not performance-based.
Moreover, this declaration of righteousness as the way in which God
saves people eternally was testified to by the “Law and the Prophets.” This is a
common Bible name for what we today refer to as the Old Testament. In other words, Jesus Christ and His
redeeming work was highly visible throughout the Old Testament with its hundred
of Messianic prophecies. Old Testament
believers were saved eternally the same way as you and me – through faith in a
Savior from sin. The only difference is
that they looked forward to a Savior who was to come, while we look back on a
Savior who has come. Jesus Christ is the
glue that holds the entire Bible together; He is the scarlet thread that is
woven from the first book to the last…
And trusting in His work and embracing Him in faith is what makes us righteous in God’s eyes. This is the only way we can be saved eternally. Righteousness through our own efforts is impossible because, as our text goes on: There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
“All” means everybody. Everybody means
you and me. Although sometimes unwilling
to admit it (or willing to admit it only on an intellectual level), these are
the facts: We are born sinful. And even as Christians we continue to sin – sometimes
in weakness, other times in ignorance, still other times in defiance. In its simplest sense “sin” means to “miss
the mark” that God asks us to hit. And
as “missers of the mark” we “fall short of the glory of God” – that is, what God intended and asks man to be:
perfect.
Our sin, therefore, disqualifies us from doing
perfectly what God asks us to do. If we
tried to get to heaven by telling God how deserving we are, we wouldn’t make
it. But we will be in heaven. Why?
The next verse… And are justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus. We need to look at a number of these words,
because each of them is significant.
“Justified” is a courtroom term that means “to declare
righteous” or to declare forgiven. This is the decision that has been rendered
by God, the Judge, upon each of us. This
decision has been done “freely,”
without cost to us, but at great cost to Him, “by His grace.” This is
key. Here is the motivation behind this
great act: grace.
Grace is often described as God’s undeserved love, and perhaps the best
we can do for a definition. The fact of
the matter is that grace transcends any description. God’s love for mankind is, quite honestly,
simply unfathomable to us because it is so far removed from any type of love we
know by experience. We human beings
generally love others because they love us in return. God’s love is different. It extends to a planet full of creatures who,
judging from their disobedience toward Him, are unlovable. Yet, He still loves us. Because of His grace. Amazing.
Grace is the motivation; here comes the method: …and are 1) justified 2) freely
3) by His grace 4) THROUGH THE
REDEMPTION THAT CAME BY CHRIST JESUS. Some translate the word “redemption” as “ransom.”
The idea is that a price had to be paid.
And it was. The price was God’s
Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ we
see in a most marvelous way the JUSTICE of God (which demands punishment for
sin) and the LOVE of God (which loves us sinners) harmonized. How was this harmony between God’s love and
God’s justice brought about? Next verse…
God presented Him as a
sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. In the Old Testament an
“atonement” was a sacrifice in which the blood of animals was shed to restore
peace between God and His people. These
atoning sacrifices did two things for Old Testament believers. First:
It told them of the seriousness of sin and how there could be no
forgiveness without the shedding of blood.
Secondly: The blood of every
animal sacrificed as an atonement pointed to the ultimate sacrifice for sin
which would be made once and for all on cross of
How are we at one with God? “Through
faith in HIS blood,” that is, through
believing and trusting Christ as the Savior who gave up His life and shed His
blood as the sacrifice for our and
the world’s sin.
We move to the last verses of our text for Paul’s concluding thoughts
on all this: Where, then, is
boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. Can we boast
about our salvation? No, because it is
God’s doing, not ours. On what principle
are we saved? By perfectly observing the
law and commands of God? No. We are saved through faith…
Which leads us to this summary statement: For we maintain that a man is
justified by faith apart from observing the law. When Martin Luther translated this passage
from the original Greek into his German translation he added the word “alone”
after the word “faith.” That word is not
in the original Greek, but it certainly does accurately reflect the
meaning. Justification is through faith.
Here ends one of the clearest explanations in the Bible on the glorious
message we simply call “the Gospel.”
But now, an important question. Does the Gospel message – which we’ve just
spent considerable time reviewing – have relevance for us now? Does this teaching apply to our lives
today? And the answer is an emphatic “yes!” It has tremendous
relevance and tremendous
application. Knowing the Gospel message transforms
our lives and our entire outlook on life.
In what ways?
First of all, the Gospel gives us assurance in death, which – unless
Jesus returns in our lifetime – is something every one of us will face. It is the promise that heaven is ours. It is the guarantee that everything necessary
for our salvation has been taken care of.
It is this message that takes the sting out of attending the funerals of
our loved ones. It is this message that
removes any sense of mystery as to knowing where we’re going the moment we take
our last breath. It is this message that
enables believers to say without a hint of arrogance or boastfulness that we
know we’re going to heaven, because heaven doesn’t depend on what we do for
God, but on trusting what God has done for us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
However, the Gospel gives us equal assurance and comfort in our daily
lives. The cross of Christ literally
exclaims God’s love for us. And we are
promised time and time again that this love didn’t die with Him, but is alive
and continuing and lives – just as the Risen Christ lives. Later in the Book of Romans (chapter 8), the
Apostle Paul asks if there is anything that can separate us from the love of
Christ. His answer: Nothing.
Not hardship or pain or suffering or disappointments or any of the other
bumps along the path of life. Nothing
shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So the Gospel message is the equivalent of a big, over-lit,
always-visible billboard on which the Lord tells us He loves us – and will
continue to love us even though He may allow pain and hardship to enter our
lives. The Gospel message is both a
declaration and a promise: a declaration
that He loved us enough to meet our greatest need, the forgiveness of sins, and
the promise that He will meet every other lesser need as well.
Finally, it is this Gospel message that moves us to live our lives for
our Lord.
It’s like the story told of a talented sculptor who, after years of
trying to fill the hole in his soul with all kinds of other things, finally, by
the grace of God, came to know of his salvation through His Savior. Filled with a joy he had never known before,
he translated his appreciation into a piece of marble and made a statue of
Jesus. Shortly after that he was asked
to make a statue of Venus, the pagan goddess of love. A handsome price was offered, but he
refused. The reason he gave was simple
and straightforward: “I have looked upon
Christ.” He was no longer interested in
being a party to anything that might not glorify His Lord. Such is the effect the Gospel has on all who
look upon it.
Which brings us back to that quote from Luther we heard at the beginning
of the sermon. Referring to the Gospel
he said: “We can never read it or ponder over it too much; for the more we deal
with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.”
Our summer in