Justified by Faith Apart From Works of the Law

Romans 3:19-28
The Church exists for one purpose and that is to clearly teach the world the way of salvation: that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And the church of Luther’s day was dead wrong about this one thing that truly matters eternally because they taught that salvation was found not only in Christ—but also in what we do.

On October 31, 1517 Luther posted 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg that challenged this false doctrine-- and that act of his confessional courage began the Reformation of the church through the restoration of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Each year on Reformation Sunday we remember with thanksgiving a man who knew the truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and restored that truth to the church-- and we give thanks for the Lutheran Church because it still clearly teaches the one thing needful: that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law.

The text we have before us today for our meditation are the words of Holy Scripture that led Luther to the re-discover the truth about the way to God and restore the Gospel to the church for the sake of the world’s salvation. Paul writes:

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.

In the church of Luther’s day—the fundamental truths of God’s Word regarding sin and grace and the way of salvation (the very heart of Christianity) had been lost. Monasticism and prayers to the saints and indulgences—as wrong as they were and still are—were only symptoms of something much worse. The real problem went much deeper. People were taught that their works could merit salvation.

God’s Word teaches just the opposite. The Bible says that “every mouth is stopped” by the law—that the “whole world” is accountable to God—and that by the works of the law (that is by what we do) no human being will be justified in God’s sight. Far from leading to salvation as the church of Luther’s day taught—the law leads to condemnation for all people because it reveals the depth of our sinfulness—which is its God-given purpose—to show our need of a savior.

Each Sunday in the Lutheran Church the Law is still preached and taught-- not so that we can justify ourselves by what we do—but so that we can see our great need for a salvation that lies outside of ourselves—a salvation that must be given to us as a gift—because the poor righteousness of our best deeds- and the perfect righteousness of God- are so far removed from one another that we cannot bridge that gulf on our own—someone else must make a way for us to God. Paul writes:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

The “righteousness of God” was a phrase—actually a biblical reality--that tormented Luther. He wrote that he hated it. He knew that if a righteousness like God’s was what was demanded from him for salvation—he was lost forever. No matter how hard he tried he could never measure up to God’s standard of holiness.

But when he came to this verse about there being a righteousness of God APART from the law--his life was changed because he discovered that the righteousness that God demanded from him in the Law—was also the righteousness that God gave to him as a free gift through faith in Jesus-and he found peace with God.

This Good News was not just something that one lone monk came up with—in fact, it was not a new teaching at all--but it was the teaching of all of Holy Scripture—New Testament and Old. It wasn’t just found in the Pauline epistles, it was found in the law and prophets as well. It is the central message of the Bible.

From the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation the Bible tells just one story—and that is the story of God’s gracious love for all people and desire to save all people by giving us his righteousness as a gift received in faith. Paul writes that:

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,

Just as surely as God’s guilty sentence falls upon all people through the condemnation of the Law-- so also does God’s justification apply to all people through the Gospel.

Now, to justify means to declare someone righteous. And that is what God has done for the world. But how did God do that? How did a perfectly holy God declare a world full of sinners right in his sight? Did he turn his eyes from our sins? NO! Did he lower his standard for our holiness? NO!

Instead, HE has fully and finally dealt with the world’s sin in his Son—laying the sins of the world upon his Son. HE has punished the world in his Son’s death on the cross. And HE has forgiven the world in his Son and justified all people in his resurrection, declaring them right in his sight. The Bible says that HE has done that:

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood

We don’t hear that word “propitiation” very much outside of the Bible. In fact, it is not even a very common word in the Bible. It means that the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross has taken away God’s wrath over our sins. Other English translations say that Christ was put forward as the atoning sacrifice that has brought God and mankind back together. And that’s a good translation too.

But the actual Greek word that we translate as propitiation or atoning sacrifice was the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant where once a year the high priest would take the blood of the sacrifice and lay his hands upon the mercy seat and so atone for the sins of Israel.

No matter how this important biblical word is translated: propitiation, atoning sacrifice, or mercy seat--the picture is the same: that Jesus’ bloody sacrifice on the cross was offered up for the sins of the whole world and has reconciled God to all people.

Paul calls Jesus’ blood our redemption because in the ancient world, that word described the price that would have been paid to set free a slave or prisoner of war.

That’s what God has done for us in Christ: the blood of Jesus Christ was the price that was paid to set you free from the condemnation of the law that your sins deserve—it was the perfect offering that removed God’s wrath from you—it was the sacrifice that has reconciled God to you—and it is the reason that God has declared you- and all the world- “not guilty” in Christ.

But it is critically important for us to remember that-- while God has done this for all people—the Bible also teaches that Christ’s atoning, forgiving, reconciling work must “be received by faith” by us, personally and individually, if we are to be saved.

Nowhere does the Bible teach “universalism”—the idea that all people will be saved irrespective of personal faith in Jesus—in fact, it teaches just the opposite: that while Christ’s sacrifice was for all people, reconciling God to mankind and justifying the world, each person must believe in Jesus for themselves if they are to be saved.

And that is why we are so grateful for Martin Luther and the other reformers—it is why we set aside this day to thank God for the Reformation of the church—because there was a time when the Gospel of salvation in Christ had become so obscured by false teaching and false practice that it was nearly impossible for people to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. The restoration of the Gospel through the Reformation of the church is why we earnestly pray that God would keep us steadfast in his Word-- so that the Good News about God’s salvation would never be lost through neglect or indifference but would always be clearly and correctly and courageously proclaimed in the Lutheran Church.

It is only in the preaching of Christ crucified for the sins of the world that people can be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth—it is only at the cross that people can come to know God as he truly desires to be known: holy and righteous to be sure—but also merciful and forgiving. Paul says that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:

…was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And so what does Paul mean when he says that “in his divine forbearance God has passed over the former sins”? After all, God sent the flood- and he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah -and he raised up the Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians to chastise his people—terrible temporal punishments indeed!

But as terrible as those chastisements were, it is only in the death of the sinless Son of God that we see what our sin deserves from God. When Jesus cried out on the cross “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” that was the cry of every sinner separated from God—except that Jesus suffered it for us—in our place—so that we will never be forsaken by God in life or in death.

That dark Good Friday afternoon was the “present time” of which Paul writes when God showed his righteousness: both in his justice—but also in his mercy--for the death of God’s own Son on the cross was not only the fullness of his wrath-- but it was also the fullness of his grace and mercy to all men.

This gracious gift of salvation was given to us in Holy Baptism as we were crucified with Jesus in his death and raised up with him in his resurrection. It is renewed in us every time we hear that our sins are forgiven and when we receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be confident that God has declared us right in his sight and innocent of all wrongdoing. What our works could never do in bringing us to God—God has done for us in his Son Jesus Christ—and so there is nothing left for us but to receive God’s gift of salvation in humble faith and thanksgiving. Paul writes:

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

The Good News for us today on this Reformation Sunday is the same as it was for Martin Luther—that while we cannot work our way to God, God has come to us in his Son Jesus Christ and brought us to himself and made us his children.

As members of the Lutheran Church we are blessed to be a part of that apostolic “we” of Christ and the apostles and the church fathers and the blessed reformers who continue to believe that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. There is no boasting in this for us because we know that it is only by God’s grace that we continue to believe the Gospel and proclaim that Gospel to the world.

But knowing the Gospel of Jesus -and having this heritage of the true faith- also lays a responsibility upon our shoulders to do all within our power to make sure that there will always be a church that clearly and courageously proclaims that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the law just as Scripture teaches. To this holy end, may God keep us steadfast in his Word! Amen.