October 28 Sermon: Apart from Works of the Law

Consider these questions as we look at Romans 3:19-28:

1. What pivotal event on October 31, 1517, marked the beginning of a movement led by Martin Luther, and what was the central aim of this movement in relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ?

2. How did the practices of the church during the middle ages, particularly conducting services in Latin, contribute to a significant challenge in effectively conveying the message of the gospel to the people? What impact might this have had on their understanding of their faith?

3. According to Pastor Mark, what crucial distinction does the passage in Romans emphasize regarding the role of the law in relation to righteousness and salvation? How does this distinction shape the understanding of God's justice and mercy in the context of the gospel?

Transcript:

On October 31, 1517 the hammer of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the castle church at Wittenberg began a movement. To some it was seen as rebellion against the establishment of the church but for those who became known as the Reformers it was a just rebellion because they were reclaiming the truth and glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. At that time in history there were many problems in the church. We know many of the problems. One of the most glaring problems that we know is that their services were in Latin. The people in the churches did not know Latin and in many cases even the priests did not know the language. They were merely repeating as best they could what they had been given.

‌We see and know the problem with that pretty clearly. If Christianity is passed from generation to generation without by words and yet the words were never the actual words of scripture in your language how could anyone possibly know what they believe and why they believe it. If faith comes by hearing how was the message of the gospel getting to the people.

‌This is just one of the problems that developed through the middle ages and in the process the church became less about hearing the Word and the proclamation of the gospel and more about rites and rituals that became ways in which grace was supposed to come to the people so that they could be saved.

‌The Protestant Reformation was about reclaiming the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus we are not only forgiven of our sins but we are declared righteous. This was significant in the 1500’s and it is still the most important thing you can hear today. Salvation comes to us apart from works of the law but instead by grace alone, through faith alone, because of the work of Christ alone.

‌The book of Romans helps us to understand this important distinction. It informs us that the gospel is not some message of how to earn the approval of God but instead, right from the beginning, says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. As the book unfolds it lets us know what that means and the passage that we come to today is so important to a true understanding of the grace of God.

‌As we come to this part of Romans it is important that we understand that there has been a progression so far in the book. Paul lays out that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. He then talks about idolatry and the sin that is involved with that and how those involved with those things know who God is but they have suppressed the truth. But as he goes on he lets us know that it isn’t just those folks who are guilty it is Gentiles and Jews alike who are rebels against almighty God. In fact, earlier in chapter 3 Paul tells us that there is no one who is righteous. Not even one.

‌​I regularly talk about the importance of reading the Bible in context and we can see here that having this in mind as we read our passage for today is extremely helpful. Not understanding this fact and trying to understand what our passage for today is would be like trying to watch an episode of Gilligan’s Island without understanding they are castaways stuck on a deserted island. Knowing the details just makes everything fit together so much better.

‌‌As we come then to our passage for today we drop into verse 19 and we get some important information about one of the purposes of the law of God. It is to silence us. What does this mean? It means that the law exposes that we are sinners and so we do not have any claim before God to be righteous on our own. Us humans are a rather self-righteous bunch. We tend to be pretty self absorbed and we think that we are pretty good folk. And even if we acknowledge that we aren’t perfect we are certain that we are far more righteous than so and so over there. And so and so over there is pretty sure that they are more righteous than someone else. In fact, they may be thinking it about you. I don’t know of anyone who isn’t wired this way. When we read verse 19 here we see that the law is designed to silence us before God. We can’t go before God and suggest to him that we are pretty good people and at least we aren’t like the sinners out there. The law exposes that we have violated the law of almighty God and our sin is not merely an oopsy daisy or a mistake. It is treason against the King of the universe and we are guilty of it. But there is more to it than just this straight forward fact.

‌​We have been told that the law silences us but there is something else that is very important that Paul lets us know. The solution to our lack of law keeping is not to keep the law. In general people see their eternal destiny as an old fashion scale. On one side our sin and on the other we see our law keeping. As long as the scales balance to the good in the end we are good to go. But what Paul is saying is that no one is declared righteous by keeping the law. Instead, the law shows us our sin.

‌If we want to go along with the popular scales imagery it is like us having the scales and the law comes to us and drops a boulder the size of this church building on the side that is the case against us. We then go about picking up pebbles and put them on the good side trying to balance it out in our favor.

‌Paul is letting us know that the law isn’t about keeping points or meriting the favor of God on our own. Instead, it stands over us and lets us know that we are sinners and there is nothing that we can do on our own to change this depressing state of affairs.

‌​The word does not leave us hanging there at the point of condemnation. There is good news and we are going to see the salvation of our God in all of its splendor in the next few verses. But now there is a righteousness from God. This is important. Notice what he does not say. He does not say that Jesus has come so that you can earn your own righteousness. He says that it is a righteousness from God. Why is this so important? Because God has righteousness to give. As we have seen I don’t have any and so I need to get it from someplace else. I need a righteousness that is from outside of me to come and rescue me because it is absolutely impossible for me to rescue myself.

‌And we also see here that this is not a new idea. It is what the Old Testament was pointing to all along. The phrase the law and the prophets is a way of referring to the writings of the Old Testament. What Paul is saying here is this. Remember when the nakedness of Adam and Even was covered in the garden by the skins of animals. It was pointing to salvation through Christ. Remember when Noah was granted an ark of salvation by the grace of God. It was pointing to Jesus. Oh, and remember when the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry land and the army of Pharaoh was overcome by the waters. Yeah, that was pointing to salvation by grace alone. And when King David defeated Goliath it was pointing to the descendant of David, Jesus, who would one day with victory over our greatest enemy, sin and death.

‌I could go on and on with examples of how the law and prophets testify to salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone but for the sake of brevity and your ability to watch the Viking’s game later, and yes, I know the play the Sunday night game, I’ll keep it to those few, well-known examples.

‌We see here that this righteousness come through faith to all who believe. As I said before this is not a righteousness that is earned. It is a declaration of a fact. If you have been given the gift of faith then you are declared righteous. Christianity does not teach that being forgiven gets you to a zero balance and now you have a second chance to do things the right way so that God can be pleased with you. Instead, you are declared righteous. You have gone from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You are not longer guilty but instead you are seen as though you had not only never sinned but because you have been given the gift of Christ’s righteousness it is as though you have perfectly kept the law. Again, a declaration of a fact. Not a speculation. If you are in Christ, you have the perfection righteousness of Jesus because you have been united to him.

‌And this passage continues to drive home this idea to us.

‌​All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory but this problem is remedied by the fact that we are justified freely by his grace. To be justified means to be declared righteous, as I was talking about before. We are declared righteous and this is all through the work of Jesus for us. But this message does not stop with these two verses.

‌​We see again in verse 25 that this was the work of God for us. The wrath that we deserve for our sin is taken care of by God himself. Jesus is our sacrifice of atonement. He makes the payment for our sin and turns aside God’s wrath.

‌This is absolutely so important for our understanding of the gospel. God does not just look at our sin and say, ah, it’s no big deal. Give it another shot. He does not just toss our sin aside casually as though it is insignificant. Instead, the punishment for my sin was poured out on Jesus Christ. The only one who never deserved punishment took his punishment upon himself and it was done for your sake.

‌And we see that this was done to demonstrate his justice. Verse 26 spells out for us what this means.

‌‌It was so that he would be just and the one who justifies.

‌Why is this important? God is holy. Sin is an affront to that holiness and it is rebellion against him. If God just looks the other way at our sin then he is not just because the evil we commit goes unpunished. By pouring out his wrath against sin on Christ sin is being punished but it also shows that God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

‌Without this fact God would either be unjust by letting sin go unpunished or he would not be merciful in given his creation forgiveness for their sin and unbelief. Praise be to God that his justice and mercy are made perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ.

‌You can see here why the gospel is such unbelievably good news. God has done everything to bring us to himself. He has satisfied his wrath against our sin but at the same time has shown us his mercy.

‌This is the gospel that the Protestant Reformation reclaimed and I would argue it is the gospel we need to reclaim in our day. The confusion of what Christians actually believe is everywhere and the range is astounding. From strict legalism on one end of the spectrum to absolute lawlessness at the other end. In our culture and in our churches we need to have the gospel proclaimed clearly once again. God in Christ has reconciled the world to himself through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Repent and believe the gospel.

‌At the same time, I know the struggle between legalism and lawlessness is something that each of us can struggle with personally. Even though we have heard the message so many times we fall back to thinking that we somehow save ourselves with our own works. That can be our law keeping or even our thinking that we need to be nice to others. Regardless, it is not just the culture and our churches that need to reclaim the gospel. Each and every day we need to be reminded that God has saved us not by what we have done but by his mercy and grace shown to us in Christ. The gospel is not a hear is once affair. Every day we need the gospel to center us on Christ to direct our lives.

‌We do this by understanding our sinfulness and our need for God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We then trust in the grace and mercy of God and in response we love our neighbors because God has first loved us. This is the shape and form of the Christian life. Through the Word, by the power of the Spirit, may we live our lives in this way to the glory of our great and merciful God.

‌And we are blessed this morning to have a picture of this mercy set in front of us. A visible and tangible way for us to grasp who God is and what he has done for us. When we come to the fount to baptize, we are not only celebrating the baptisms that we do but also remembering our baptisms. That God in his mercy comes to us and washes us clean by his mercy and grace. There is nothing magical or saving about the water in this pitcher. Instead, it is a sign and a seal of God’s grace that was shown to us in Christ. In these waters we trust that we do not save ourselves but instead we trust that God, through the proclamation of the gospel, by the power of the Spirit brings us to faith. We are trusting that God will use these means to bring his children to faith just as he always has. So we come to the fount trusting that this gospel is true and that we are saved apart from the law. We trust in the sufficiency of the Word and the power and the spirit to save.

‌This gospel of Jesus Christ is what we trust in because it is the only righteousness that we have. May we daily reclaim the gospel in our lives and trust in that just as he always has God saves us by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of the work of Christ alone.