Romans 6:23 * Reformation Sunday 2009 * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our circles it is customary for us to think about Martin Luther on this Sunday, and for good reason. He was one of the many individuals used by God for His purposes during that period of time we call the Reformation.

But what about Martin Luther? Who did he think about during his life?

One of the people Luther was undoubtedly familiar with was a man named Benedict. Benedict lived way back in the sixth century and was the founder of a religious order of monks known as the Benedictines that is still in existence today. He established a number of guidelines, or “rules,” that were to govern the life of his followers. One of the “rules of St. Benedict” is this: “Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die.”

We can be pretty sure that Martin Luther did this. That’s why he took such an interest in spiritual matters. He knew that one day he was going to die.

Contrast that thinking with today. It’s a much different time, wouldn’t you say? Let me give you an example.

Anyone paying attention to current events knows there is a lot of talk and debate over health care these days. Last Sunday our local paper devoted a lot of space to this issue, and specifically to the topic of death and dying.

Under the headline “Doing death better” one featured story was an essay written by an experienced Milwaukee area cardiologist. He begins with these statements: “We struggle with death. It frightens us and drives us, causes us as a culture to fight it with a vengeance.” Then a few sentences later he draws this conclusion: “In our culture, we have some work to do in coming to terms with death.”

That may be true, but the work of “coming to terms with death” is a lot easier when we understand there is an antidote. The antidote to death is eternal life. And the secret to eternal life is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. That’s the understanding Martin Luther came to. It gave peace to his soul, and it gives peace to our souls as well.

We sometimes refer to something we feel to be very important as being a matter of life or death. When it comes to the Gospel this is more than just a saying. On this Reformation Sunday and using passages from the book of Romans let us consider just exactly how

THE GOSPEL IS A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH

A moment ago we heard these words: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” That pretty much says it all. Sin brings death. Jesus brings life. For a review of how all this works, let’s turn to another portion of the Book of Romans. Listen to Romans 3:21-24. Then we’re going to work our way through it verse by verse, phrase by phrase. Not only is understanding and embracing this Gospel message our Reformation heritage; it’s truly a matter of life and death.

²¹But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. We need to define some terms. The righteousness of God 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. In other words, it is God’s pronouncement or 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.”

Let this sink in. In effect this is what God says to the believer: “Through your belief in the work of Jesus I hereby declare you righteous, or holy, or forgiven, in My sight. As such, the door to heaven is open to you. Yes, you will die. But death is now the gateway to eternal life.”

Furthermore, we are told this righteousness from God is “apart from law.” “Law” refers to God’s commands. Meaning, this righteousness does not come to us through our keeping of God’s commands. God’s declaration of righteousness upon us is not something we can earn through outward obedience or performance.

Moreover, this declaration of righteousness as the way in which God saves people eternally is not something that was first revealed to the Apostle Paul in the first century. Rather, he says it is something to which the “Law and the Prophets testify.” This is a common Bible name for what we today refer to as the Old Testament. The point is that Jesus Christ and His redeeming work was and is highly visible throughout the Old Testament with its hundreds of prophecies and predictions about the promised Savior.

It’s good that Paul tell us this, because sometimes this causes confusion. Sometimes we may wonder about all those people who lived before Jesus lived and died and rose again. What about them? How were they saved? Here’s the answer: the same way we are – 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.

So whether you lived in Old Testament times or New Testament times (like us) doesn’t make any difference. Righteousness and salvation is bestowed upon those who believe in the work of the promised Savior.

And that is the only way of eternal salvation. Paul knows how easy it is for us to transfer the “there is no such thing as a free lunch” mentality to spiritual matters, so he wants to make sure we’ve got this right. 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. The verdict is in and the consequences are reported every time we open the newspaper or listen to the news or are struck by man’s inhumanity to man: we sin. And the reason Scripture makes clear: it is within our nature. We are born sinful. Because of this, even Christians who desire not to sin nevertheless continue to do so.

To “sin” in its simplest sense 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.

That’s bad news. But now comes the good news. Sinners though we are, we “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 the motivation behind this great act.

We commonly define grace as “God’s undeserved love.” Perhaps that’s the best we can do. The truth is that grace transcends any description. It is incomprehensible because we have nothing on this earth to which we can compare it. We human beings generally love the loveable. In contrast, God’s love extends to a planet full of creatures that, according to any definition, are unlovable because they routinely bite the hand that feeds them.

Yet He loves us because of His amazing grace. 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.

He paid out the price by being perfect for us in our place and then dying for us in our place. He satisfied God’s demand for our perfection with His sinlessness, and He satisfied God’s demand for the wages of sin by His death in our place.

The result: God in His grace forgives us freely for Jesus’ sake. The work of Christ is credited to those who trust in Him. Consequently, eternal life is not a hope, a dream or an aspiration. It is the reality of those who embrace Christ as Savior. Which means God is not an ogre to be appeased, but a Heavenly Father to be worshiped and adored.

The church father Augustine is attributed with the statement that “from head to toe the Christian’s life ought to be one big alleluia.” Makes sense. For those who understand the Gospel, how can this not be?

Here ends one of the clearest expositions in the Bible on the glorious message we simply call “the Gospel.” If you can imagine or pretend you are hearing it for the first time, it will literally stun you. Just like it did a man in the 16^th century named Martin Luther who said that when he came to understand the Gospel, it was as if the gates of heaven had been opened up to him.

Really, that wasn’t an overstatement. Because that’s what the Gospel does. It literally opens up the gates of heaven.

As wonderful as this good news is about our death (whenever that may be), it is equally good news about our present life. Later in the Book of Romans (chapter 8), the Apostle Paul asks Who or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? His answer: Nothing. Not hardship or pain or suffering or disappointments or any other personal bumps we endure. 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 series of large and well-lit billboards that we consistently see as we travel down the freeway of life. The message on each billboard is that Jesus loves us – and will continue to love us even though, as He has told us, pain and hardship may enter our lives just as it did His while on earth. Those things may come, Jesus says, but don’t misinterpret them. I may have my reasons for letting them happen which you may or may not know on this side of heaven, Jesus says. But here – in the Gospel message – is where our relationship is defined.

Bottom line: The Gospel message is both God’s 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.

All of which is to say, once again, that the Gospel is a matter of life or death. Thanks to Jesus, death – and the need to fear it – has been conquered, and life – both a fulfilled and cared-for life in the present and eternal life in the future – has been guaranteed. And it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Lord, keep us steadfast in that Word. Amen.