Reformation Sunday, Title: Righteousness of God Text: Romans 3:20-24, October 26, 1997 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our message is taken from the text of Mark 10:35- 45 to which you just listened. This is the Word. You may be seated. Reformation historical We commemorate Reformation Sunday today. This is a remembrance of an event which began the Reformation on October 31, 1517. 480 years ago, Martin Luther posted the public notice of his wish to debate a set of 95 theses. These theses were statements which were critical of some of the practices of the Christian church in Europe. A major area of concern for Luther was the practice of something called "indulgences." These indulgences were sold by the ruler of the church, the pope, with the promise that it would relieve suffering of one's dead relatives who were supposedly in purgatory. By paying money, you could reduce the amount of time these people spend enduring God's judgment. The 95 Theses were an early work of Luther. Later on, Luther became even more critical of the practices of the church. The theses were the tip of the iceberg. Later Luther would so severely criticize the church that the pope would remove him as a member of the pope's church and put a price on his head. The church that Luther came out of was the Roman Catholic Church, which was the only Christian church to speak of in Europe at that time. The movement called the Reformation, of which Luther was very much a leader, resulted in the formation of hundreds of different types of denominations, synods and church bodies today. Our church body, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, has the name of Luther within it. This is perhaps unfortunate, because Luther would have been repulsed by the idea of a church named after him. It is also inaccurate, for we do not follow the ideas of Luther. What we follow are the ideas of the Lord our God, expressed in His Word, the Holy Scriptures. Martin Luther was, however, blessed with an excellent understanding of Scripture and most of Luther's writings are helpful for us today in understanding Scripture. At the heart of the Reformation, Luther felt that the Roman church was not teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ purely. They taught that a person is forgiven their sins based on something which they have done. They did not teach that salvation is a free gift of God. According to the Roman Catholic church, both in 1517 and today, only if one lives a life of good works will one be saved. Indulgences are a variation on this. The Roman church taught that if someone else gives the pope money on your behalf, then God would lessen your punishment. This idea of salvation by works misses the mark of the Gospel. Instead of salvation being a matter of gospel, salvation becomes a matter of law in Roman Catholic teaching. Law is the focal point of forgiveness, rather than Gospel. You are forgiven if you earn it, according to these false teachings. Law Doesn't Make us Righteous Our text helps us see God's truth, however. This same text was helpful to Luther. It teaches us that a law approach to forgiveness and salvation are not going to work. Going the way of the law leads to nothing but guilt in God's eyes. Our text says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law;..." Being declared righteous, being seen as one who fulfills God's laws, will never happen by our observing the law. Our attempt to remain obedient to what the Lord wants of us is doomed to failure. This is another way of saying we cannot be saved based upon our works. Law only works to lead us to see where we have failed. So says our text, "rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." As we learn of God's requirements, we see where we fall short of those requirements. Instead of the law leading us to be declared righteous, we see by the law that we are even more unrighteous than we previously thought. By applying God's law to our lives, honestly, we see that we are completely lacking in righteousness. We have nothing to offer God. We have done nothing worthy of earning salvation or forgiveness. "ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," says our text. In fact, by trying to earn our way to heaven we sink even deeper into sin. We sin further when we fail to call upon God for our salvation. We fail to turn to Him for forgiveness. See, the Lord wants us wholly dependent upon Him for our salvation. It is God's law and God's will that we turn to Him. God's Word has revealed this for quite some time. Our Old Testament reading today is taken from Jeremiah, the prophet who wrote around 600 BC. Through Jeremiah, the Lord says this, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." God is the one who will forgive. By trying to earn forgiveness, we are sinfully denying that the source of the forgiveness is God. We are trying to find righteousness inside of ourselves and by this we sin further. Righteousness from God We see the true source of righteousness in our text. "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known..." The righteousness comes from...God, not from inside ourselves. This righteousness is not based on our actions, not based on good works, and not based on the purchase of indulgences. Rather, it comes from God, and it is apart from the law. Apart from how well we might do at following God's laws. This righteousness comes from God as a gift. It comes by grace. And our text says this "righteousness from God...has been made known." Here it refers to Jesus, for He is the one who made this righteousness known. Jesus made it known that God forgives our sins and God gives us His righteousness. If you consider it, no better way exists for God to show us that our sins are forgiven, than to send His Son to take the punishment for them. God chose the best way to show us that He provides us with righteousness. Having the Lord come and take on human flesh, die on the cross, and then rise again is the supreme demonstration of God's righteousness as a gift given to us. Even before Jesus Christ came in the flesh, the Old Testament Word of God foretold of His coming. Thus says Romans, "a righteousness from God...to which the Law and the Prophets testify." The "Law and the Prophets" here means the writings of God's Word which existed at the time Paul wrote, which today we call the Old Testament. The reading from Jeremiah is a prime example. Comes Through Faith In our text it is also made clear how this righteousness reaches us. "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." Faith in Jesus Christ is the channel through which the righteousness comes to each of you personally. Now faith is something which is the creation of the Holy Spirit. Faith was created by God this morning in baptism. Faith was created in Nicole/Drew and through that faith comes the righteousness of God. By the pipeline of faith, God brings the free gift of forgiveness. See, small children need the righteousness of God just like older people do. All people need to have the righteousness of God because they cannot supply their own righteousness. As the text said, "NO one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law." "NO one" certainly excludes infants and children as well as adults. Also, "ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." "ALL" includes, again, all ages. In baptism, God is at work creating faith. We do not consider it a work of our own. Last August when we had a baptism, I shared a portion of Luther's Large Catechism with you regarding Baptism. Allow me to share another portion which speaks on the point of whose work is baptism: "To be baptized in God's name is to be baptized not by man but by God Himself. Although Baptism is indeed performed by human hands, yet it is truly God's own action. From this everyone can himself easily draw the obvious conclusion that it is a much greater work than that of any human being, even of any saint. For what action of man could be greater than an action of God's?" Luther brings out the truth from God's Word, that Baptism is not a work of ours, but a work of God. God certainly has the power to achieve what He has promised. Though it might be hard for us to understand, God can create faith in a person of any age, even an infant. Even though it is hard to think of how an infant who cannot even speak might have faith, with God nothing is impossible. The Holy Spirit can create faith where and when He wishes. God does this by the means He promises to do it: by baptism. In the same way, we understand faith carefully. It is not our creation and not our work. If faith were something which we developed inside ourselves, by our own decision and will, we would be earning forgiveness by that work of developing faith. Faith just becomes another work, and we would have something to boast about. Yet, our text tells us boasting is excluded. There is nothing which we do to bring the righteousness to ourselves. It is entirely a work of God. Thereby, we have nothing to boast about. We cannot boast about how we created our faith or how we were baptized. Instead, we say God created our faith and God baptized us. Boasting is excluded. Though we can do nothing to create faith, we certainly can destroy faith. We can reject that which is created in us through baptism. Nicole/Drew can turn down God's offer of righteousness. We each can refuse the gift of forgiveness and salvation. We certainly pray that God would keep each of you from rejecting His righteousness. God gives us further gifts in our divine services and in study of His Word to help us resist the temptation to reject. In God's Word we find revealed this righteousness from God. The Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament revealed it. Above all, Jesus Christ revealed it definitively and supremely for all to see. Though the people of God's Church strayed from the truth of the righteousness from God, by His grace God restored the people in the Reformation. Each of us needs to be constantly "Re-formed" in our understanding too. We need to dwell on the truth that our righteousness comes from God, and not from ourselves. We need to remember the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Amen. 1