This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to
all of us that we may hear well. Amen.
Today’s sermon is the first of a
three-part series on the teachings of the Reformation. On 31st
October 1517—which at the end of the month will be exactly 500 years ago—Martin
Luther went to the church door in the German city of Wittenberg, and nailed there
his 95 Theses against the practice of indulgences. I won’t go into great detail
now as to what indulgences were, and what this was all about, but this event
was a kind of beginning of a series of shock-waves, which rippled not just in
Germany, but all throughout Europe, and has left a permanent impact on the
history of the world. This was also the beginning of a series of events which
led to the beginning of the Lutheran Church as a separate entity from the Roman
Catholic Church. So, you can see that the celebration this year, is a very
important one for us. And so, for these three weeks in a row, I would like to
give these three sermons about the distinctive teaching of the Lutheran Church,
and why the things that happened 500 years ago are still relevant today. So
today’s sermon is going to be about The Doctrine of Justification by
Faith Alone. This is such an important teaching, because until the time
of Martin Luther, this teaching had basically died out and was silent in the
church. Next week, we’re going to talk about the Lord’s Supper. And then
the third sermon in our series is going to be about the Victory and the
Celebration of the Reformation.
So what is “justification”?
Justification is a word that has to do with courts and courthouses, and is the
action where a person is declared righteous in the sight of God.
Let’s flesh this out a bit…
Justification is a process[1],
it is a trial that happens in a court, and this courtroom is heaven. God is the
judge, and he is seated on his throne. The accuser, or the prosecuting
attorney, is the devil. Actually, the name “Satan” means “accuser”. The person
on trial is mankind, the human race, which includes you. And so the accuser
accuses—the accuser makes his accusations. And the person on trial, the accused—this
is us, this includes you—we know that the accusation is true
because our conscience also witnesses against us. The Holy Spirit searches, and
also knows that the accusation is true. And so when the accuser makes an
accusation which is true, the person is guilty and there needs to be justice,
and a punishment. The guilt is great, and the punishment is endless—because
this is no ordinary law—this is no human law, like the law of Australia,
or the law of some other country. This is God’s law. And God’s law says:
You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. God’s law says:
Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable
for all of it. God’s law says: Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the
words of this law by doing them. And so, this is the situation we find
ourselves in, in God’s courtroom, and our sentence is ready to be pronounced.
At this point, in the court process,
something amazing happens. Into all of this, comes Jesus of Nazareth. He is the
true Son of God, true God and true man, and he is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. He is our High Priest and he is our Advocate,
our Defender. And he sees us standing there—a wretched, lost and
condemned criminal in God’s court room—and he says: I have suffered for this
person, I have died in his place, I have taken the punishment that he deserve,
I have done a great work and I have earned this person a place in God’s house,
I have won the victory over the Satan, the Accuser, and all their enemies. What
can you do in such a situation other than grab the feet of Jesus first of all in
sorrow over the suffering that we caused him, but also in complete trust in him
and gratitude, and complete joy for the wonderful blessing that he gives us.
And so, the voice of God comes from the
Most Holy Place. This voice comes out of the Holy of Holies in heaven, from
God’s mighty dwelling place, from his temple, from his throne room, and he
says: Rip up the accusation. Tear up the charge. Burn it, bury it. Because of
my beloved Son, the guilty person is free to go. You are acquitted from all
guilt, and you are set free from every punishment. You are justified, you are
set free. You have no price to pay whatsoever, because Jesus has paid
everything on your behalf. This Jesus is perfect, he is perfectly righteous.
Your sin, your guilt and your punishment is taken from your account and given to
him, and his righteousness and his innocence and his perfect atonement is taken
from his account and given to you. God does not count you guilty because Jesus’
righteousness is accounted to you.
And so, this word of God from heaven is
actually spoken here on the earth, first of all, in the pulpit. Each Sunday,
and whenever Christians gather, preachers are called to speak this word of
forgiveness to you. It is also spoken to you at the altar, when we give you the
body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and say that this is given
and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And it is spoken to you
whenever you receive the absolution, when the forgiveness of sins is directly
applied to you, whether it is in public, like we heard it today, or privately,
in private confession. All of this is the forgiveness of sins on earth as it is
in heaven. You have everything that you need. And so St Paul says: Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
This is what we’re talking about when
we’re talking about justification by faith alone. This teaching shows us where
the church is. Where there are sinners receiving the free forgiveness of their
sins because of what Christ has done, without any contributions or works of
their own, that is the church. And anything else in the whole world that looks
like a church but doesn’t have this one teaching is not the church. Because
this teaching of justification shows us the answer to the most important
question that anyone on this world could ever ask: What must I do to be saved?
The answer is: You cannot do anything. You can only make matters worse, you can
do nothing but condemn yourself further. Jesus has done everything. He
stretched out his arms on the cross and said: It is finished. He has
done everything, and he gives it all to you for free. All you need to do is put
out your hand and take the gift that he gives you. God’s word is true, and he
never lies.
St Paul says in Ephesians 2: You
were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once
lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and
the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Here
you see St Paul describing the state of affairs outside of God’s kingdom,
outside the church. This is life without justification: we are dead, and
children of wrath. But then St Paul goes on: But God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead
in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been
saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now listen to
what St Paul says: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this
is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no
one may boast. You can see how central this teaching was when Paul was
writing to the Ephesians.
Now, let’s go through this doctrine in
a bit more detail. If we want to understand this doctrine really well and much
more sharply, then we should also make sure that we understand about God’s law
and the Gospel. The Law is God’s powerful word which shows to us our sin: it
doesn’t make us a sinner, but it finds sinners. It’s like a spotlight in
the night, a laser beam, that comes and finds you, and exposes you for
everything that you are. But then there is another word which God speaks only
to sinners: it is the word which shows you your Saviour. It doesn’t find
a saint, but it makes you a saint, and not because you did anything, but
because Jesus did everything. The gospel is the word spoken to you exposed in
the dark with that laser beam, the law, and covers you over with new clothes, with
the wonderful spotless garment and robe of Jesus’ righteousness.
Now it’s not true that the Law is the
Old Testament and the Gospel is the New Testament. The Law is found in both the
Old and the New Testament, and the Gospel is found in both the Old and New
Testament. But in the Old Testament, the most important thing is where God
reveals his law on Mt Sinai. And in the New Testament, the most important thing
is where God gives up his Son, the Lamb of God, on Mt Golgotha, on Calvary.
So what does the Law say? It says: The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. It
says: We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under
the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held
accountable to God. 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 says: When
[the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin.
The Law convicts us and the law accuses
us. It shows us our sin. In Jeremiah we read: Is not my word like fire,
declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? God’s
law shatters our stony hearts, and smashes up our pride like a hammer and burns
up our self-righteousness like a fire. It shows us that we are by nature children
of wrath.
And then in the Gospel of Mark, what is
the first thing that Jesus says, when he goes out to preach? He says: Repent,
and believe the Gospel. When he says, “repent”, he is preaching to you the
law. He is saying, no matter who you are, and what you have done, you must
become different than you are now, you must change your ways. But then Jesus
says: Believe the Gospel. In other words, He says: Trust me, trust my
promises, I will save you. Before Jesus came, John the Baptist went out
preaching, and saying: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
In other words: Every valley must be lifted and every hill made low. John
says: Let your hearts be crushed, and hear about your sin. But then comes the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world. Then God’s voice will say: This
is my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. And so, the law prepares us
for Jesus. The preaching against sin prepares us to meet our Saviour, who saves
us from sin. After Jesus is raised from the dead, he commands his apostles to
go out and preach the Law and the Gospel. He says: Thus it is written, that
the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance
and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations,
beginning in Jerusalem.
So if all we do is go and preach the
law by itself, then it brings nothing but hell and despair and death. This is
what happened to Judas: he knew the law of God, but he didn’t know the Gospel.
Romans 7:10 says: For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me.
But then once the law has been
preached, the Gospel then brings consolation, and forgiveness. The door of
heaven is opened for us. And Psalm 130:7 says: With the Lord there is
steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. It doesn’t just say: redemption,
but plentiful redemption, abundant, overflowing. The Gospel affects us
and touches us in so many different ways in our whole lives that we never would
have expected. Anyone who thinks: “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the Gospel before”,
has never heard the Gospel before, because the Gospel is always
fresh, it is always new, it is always creating, it is always life-giving.
And God doesn’t just give us the Gospel in one way, but he gives it in many,
many different ways. Firstly, he gives us the Gospel through the spoken word,
through which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world. Second,
he gives us the Gospel through Baptism—he gives us the physical sign of water
on our bodies together with his word to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of light. God wants to make sure that we know that our
salvation depends not on our choosing, and our feelings, and our experiences,
but on his word, on his promise. That’s what baptism is—it is God taking
everything that Jesus accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection and he
puts it on you, right now, in your life, in the history of you. Third, God also
gives us the Gospel through the Lord’s Supper—if you thought baptism was
enough, God also wants to give you living food for the road, to strengthen you
all the way through your Christian life, by giving you the body and blood of
his Son for you to eat and to drink. He doesn’t only give you to forgiveness of
sins in the word and in baptism, but also in the Lord’s Supper too, as a living
medicine. Also, God gives you the Gospel through the Office of the Keys, when
the pastors of the church speak absolution, and open the doors of the kingdom
of heaven for you, by declaring to you the free forgiveness of your sins. And
also, God gives you the Gospel through your fellow Christians, through the
comfort and consolation and conversations that we can have to build each other
up, just as Jesus says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them. So what a generous, abundant God we have who lavishes his
Gospel upon us in so many different and wonderful ways!
So, the Gospel is the word of God that
speaks to us that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was
raised again for our justification [SA II I 1-2]. St Paul says that God raised
from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and
raised for our justification. Jesus alone is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid on him the
iniquities of us all. Now, all of us, every single person who has ever
lived, except Jesus himself, is a sinner. St Paul says: 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…by his blood. Now
what does this mean, “by his grace”, or “as a gift”? It means that the only
thing you can do is believe it. You can’t do anything to achieve this. You
can’t do anything to get it by any work, or law, and you can’t earn it, or
merit it, by anything that you do. And God won’t even give you the power to be
able to earn it or achieve it. If you pray to God, and say: “God, send me the
power to be able to work for and earn your forgiveness”, he won’t answer it.
Because you would be asking him to make yourself your own Saviour, and you
wouldn’t need Jesus. So it is faith alone that justifies us: not faith plus
love, not faith plus works, not faith plus being holy, not faith plus all your
prayers—no, just faith, just good old-fashioned faith—faith which might be
strong, or faith that might be weak. Whether faith is strong or weak doesn’t
matter, because you’re not saved by strength or weakness but by faith in
Jesus, and He is the strong one.
And so St Paul says: We hold that
one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And we must be the
most stubborn of all people when we have learnt this teaching, and we must
compromise not an inch on this teaching, or budge the tiniest amount, because
otherwise we would be mixing our Saviour’s work on the cross with our filthy
second-rate work. And when we have made ourselves into a Saviour, we have lost
the faith. It’s so easy for the sinful flesh to take over in the church, it’s
so easy for outward friendliness to want to prevail over truth, it’s so easy
for the church to drown God’s voice out by speaking the same message as
the world. But there is no other name—no other name—given under heaven by
which we must be saved.
And so God has given us a new and a
clean heart. God will and does account us completely and totally righteous and
holy because of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Mediator. When God looks at
you, he doesn’t see you and all your sin, he sees you with your Saviour, and
he’s sees Jesus’ righteousness completely covering you over. And even though we
still struggle and live with sin every day, God does not punish it or bring it
to mind, because Jesus has already dealt with it and Jesus has already paid for
it.
So take heart. Be of good
cheer! God says to you: You are my beloved son and daughter. He says
this just as he said it to his own Son at his baptism and when his face and
clothes shone in the transfiguration. You are my beloved Son, with you I am
well pleased. Amen.
Dear Jesus, how can we thank you enough
for everything that you have done for us? There is nothing that we can bring
you, there is nothing that we can offer you, that could be anywhere close to
equalling the great sacrifice that you have made for us. Strengthen our faith,
dear Jesus, and keep our eyes always fixed on you. Amen.
[1] See Wilhelm
Loehe, Questions and Answers to the Six Parts of the Small Catechism of
Martin Luther, Columbia: Duffie, 1893, p 118.
