Romans 3:19-28
The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation + Treasure Valley Circuit Reformation Service
The Brandt Center + Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho + October 29, 2017
Pastor Tim Pauls
The Legacy of Luther
Rap, rap, rap.
A hammer strikes, blow after blow, long ago and far away. Five centuries ago this Tuesday, an obscure professor at a university of no repute nails a paper to a door. It’s been done before and it will be done again. Yet those hammer blows echo down the streets of Wittenberg and across the countryside. They reverberate long and far enough that, well, here you are.
Rap, rap, rap.
What Luther posts on the door of the church is not meant to be a fiery act of defiance, but a basis for some probably drowsy academic conversation. His thoughts are rough – there are plenty of things in his 95 theses that need work. But there’s an underlying theme that moves his pen, and we might find it in the first thesis, a thesis which reads, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” And lest anyone think that Luther is calling for a life of sadness and drudgery, it is really quite the opposite. Within those words is a hidden joy for Martin Luther: he is no longer angry with God.
He has been. He’s been near despair for a good part of his life. He has taken so seriously the righteousness of God and His wrath for sin, and rightly so! He has sought within his life to tame his soul, control his thoughts and sanctify his actions – Luther has worked ceaselessly to cleanse himself of sin, and he has punished himself severely for little sins that you and I would dismiss as too small for God to care. He firmly believes the truth – the absolute, divine truth – that God is holy and demands that His people be holy. He believes the Bible when it says that sinners will be eternally condemned.
He knows God’s commandments. He has studied God’s laws. He is haunted by the truth that the only way to keep them well enough is to keep them perfectly.
All this is not popular today. But it is still just as true.
So Luther has grown angry, angry at God. What kind of a God demands holiness but makes it impossible, and then condemns sinners for failing? What kind of God demands the impossible without mercy?
If he’s got the question right, you really have three options: delusion, defiance or despair.
You can delude yourself that God doesn’t really mean what He says in His law. Maybe He’s trying to throw a good scare into you so that you do your best, but He doesn’t seriously expect perfection. Maybe when He says “hell” in the Bible, He doesn’t mean “outer darkness” or “lake of fire,” but really means a pleasant middle-class suburb on the outskirts of the City of God. Maybe when God says, “Be perfect,” He really just means “Eh, do whatever’s convenient.” If that’s true, then this Luther character is taking God way too seriously; but to do otherwise, to give into such delusions, you simply have to deny the truth of Scripture. Many did then, and many do today.
If not delusion, then perhaps you’ll choose defiance. Defiance demands, “Who is this God to tell us what to do, with all of His impossible laws? Why does He get to define what’s right and wrong?” When sinners get angry and opt for defiance, it’s never pretty. In order to justify themselves, they have to overthrow God and make their own rules. There’s plenty of that in history: God tells sinners to wait at Mount Sinai for His law, so they worship a golden calf and rise up to “play.” God wants them to worship Him alone, so they fill His temple with a bunch of idols and then gush about how those dead monuments coexist so well. Such defiance is no different now. God declares that He ordains marriage to be between a man and a woman, so sinners deconstruct the institution to suit their appetites. God says that He creates people male and female; and after inventing sixty-plus genders (as of yesterday) the defiant say, “We sure showed God.”
Here’s the kicker: God gives His Son to be born of Mary, and sinners literally kill God in an attempt to justify themselves and their rebellion. It’s a sad truth, demonstrated time and again in history: left to themselves, sinners will defy God and do away with all that is holy. Getting rid of what is holy is the constant, because sin always looks better in the dark.
It goes without saying, of course, that you don’t have to do some spectacular sin to be defiant. You’re either holy or you’re not, and your own favorite little socially-acceptable pet sin is enough to leave you condemned.
If delusion and defiance are not your cup of tea, there is always despair. It’s the most honest of the three. The sinner who despairs is the one who says, “God is God and God is holy. I am not God, I am not holy, and God is far bigger than me. I cannot stop sinning, and so I am eternally condemned. Wretched man that I am!” This is the despair that Luther has known. He has pursued holiness frantically and painfully. He’s studied, he’s fasted, he’s flogged himself to get rid of his sin; and do you know what all that study, fasting and flogging has gotten him? It’s made him a really smart, hungry sinner who has to sleep on his stomach.
But he’s still a sinner.
After all of his toil, all that God’s law has done for Luther is show him how much of a sinner he is.
But here’s the marvelous thing: that means that the law has done exactly what God has given it to do.
You heard it before, in our text from Romans 3: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
That’s worth repeating: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Through the law comes knowledge of sin. God doesn’t give His law to save you. He gives His law so that you know – so that you know your unholiness and that you cannot save yourself. He gives you His commandments to show you how much you need a Savior.
It’s that stunning realization that leads Luther to the door with his 95 theses in Wittenberg. Remember that first one again: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Repent! Literally in the Greek, change your mind. Stop thinking one way and start thinking another. Stop believing what is wrong and start believing what is right! In this case, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, stop deluding yourself that your sin is acceptable and God doesn’t mind. Stop defying God and poking Him in the eye, because He is holy, He hates sin, even the ones you find useful, and He is far bigger than you. And stop despairing as if God is playing the cruelest of cat-and-mouse games, toying with miserable you until He packs you off to eternal condemnation.
Stop believing those lies; and by the grace of God, believe this: there is a way to be holy and righteous. It’s just not by what you do. It’s by what’s been done for you. And what has been done for you?
Rap, rap, rap.
Another hammer strikes, long ago and far away; and these echoes never fade. They are harsh and brutal blows: they are driving nails through the hands and feet of an innocent man.
Innocent. Not just “not guilty of the crime of which He is accused,” but innocent before God. Holy. Righteous. Sinless. Never sinned once from eternity, never will. And if He hasn’t sinned, the wages of sin are not for Him. He doesn’t have to die.
But here is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and nailed to a cross. The Son of God has become flesh for this very thing. He has numbered Himself with the transgressors. He has borne your iniquities, infirmities and all the curse of sin to the cross. There, He is the perfect sacrifice for sin. There, He is forsaken by His Father, condemned for the sin of the world. There, as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God! We have the righteousness of God in our epistle as well, and what good news is this!
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. For 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, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.
This is the Gospel, right? For you and for your salvation, the very Son of God has paid the price for your sins. You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so He took your place in judgment that you might be forgiven. You and I will never comprehend the enormity of that sacrifice. God is just, and so God must punish sin; but so that God might justify you, He both deals out the wrath at the cross and He bears it. The Son suffers and dies in your place, so that you might be forgiven, so that in Christ you might become the righteousness of God. And if it’s Jesus who does it, you know He has gotten the job done. Finished! If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
You are free indeed! And risen from the dead, Christ gives this forgiveness as a gift – you are saved by grace, not by works of the law. How free? Imagine this: imagine that someone near despair because of sin has wandered into this service. And as we sing those rich verses of the sermon hymn, it dawns on him that Christ has died for him and that God no longer holds his sins against him. He hears and he knows he is forgiven. Just then, before he thinks another thought, before he and you are subjected to this sermon, the earthquake hits, the roof caves in and kills us all. So is this man saved? There is no time to do good works, to give offerings, demonstrate contrition or even pray a little prayer.
Ah, but the Word has gone into his ears, and the Spirit has worked it into his heart. He knows Christ has saved him. And by the grace of God, he dies believing in Jesus.
That’s how free is this forgiveness. It is so apart from works that God gives it to infants in Holy Baptism, long before they can do anything but eat, sleep and fill their diapers. It is given by the same Word of God that once declared, “Let there be light,” and so light was bestowed upon creation without the works of man. Likewise, with every Gospel proclamation, the Lord declares, “Let there be faith!” It is given to you in His Supper as you receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins; and when you depart that Holy Communion, you do not say, “I must now do good to pay for the meal.” You say, “I am fed and set free from sin to do what God has made me to do – love Him and love my neighbor.
All this is unfolding when Luther writes in that first thesis, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Repent. By God’s grace, turn from deluding yourself that your sin is okay.
Turn from defiance and confess your sin for the offense it is to holy God.
Turn from despair and rejoice that God has given His Son to die for you so that you might be free.
Free from sin. Free from death. Free from hell.
Free for life. Free from the anxiety of wondering if you’re good enough for God. Free in the certainty that God has made you His child. Free to serve Him and those He puts in your life.
What joy!
If it’s all right with you, maybe we won’t get through the other 94 theses today. But as we wrap this up, two closing thoughts.
The first is that a 500th anniversary brings a lot of discussion about the legacy of Martin Luther, and all sorts will lay claim. Linguists attribute to him the modern German language. Some historians call him the father of the German nation. Educators credit him with starting public school systems. Feminists give him a nod for his enlightened view of women … just not enlightened enough.
Progressives extol him as a rabble-rouser who defied the institution and stuck it to the man. At the same time, right-wingers praise him for nationalism and respect for authority.
Capitalists say he opened the door for free market economies; on the other hand, Marxists say he’s a hero of socialism.
Everybody wants to claim Luther as their own, it seems, whether he would agree or not; and to the claims just listed, his responses would probably range between, “I don’t care,” “Oops,” and “Why aren’t you talking about Jesus?” We ought not ignore how momentously the Reformation changed the world, nor how pivotal a figure Luther is in the history of the world. But what was Luther’s intention? Why did he do what he did, and what is his legacy for the Church?
For all the change and advancements of the past 500 years, we live in chaotic, darkening and fearful times, yes? Given the wars, violence and persecution throughout the world, as well as the crass apostasy, immorality, and the collapse of reasonable discourse in our own culture, we may be on the cusp of a dark age indeed. And as the realization of how bad things are grow, so do the cries that we must do something. So what shall we do? What of the legacy of Luther shall we continue?
His answer is predictable enough: he’d tell us forget the old bag of worms named Luther and stick with sola scriptura. Stick to Scripture alone and keep saying what Christ says.
This is the Christian legacy of the Reformation: repentance. We repent and live repentant lives. We do this because, though evil manifests itself in this world in all sorts of frightening ways, the cause is always sin; and the battleground is always the conscience, the heart of man. Sin has already been defeated at the cross, and people are rescued from its control by forgiveness. The legacy of the Reformation is nothing else than maintaining the same message in a changing, dying world: the message of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
So what are you to do? You confess your sins and you trust in Jesus.
You run to the Word and the Supper to strengthen your faith against the daily, incessant attacks of evil.
You speak up for just laws in society, because even the just laws of man deliver the knowledge of sin.
You help the poor and the helpless. You do what you can, in service to God and to others, in the callings God has give you.
You keep God’s laws as much as you’re able. You extol virtue and model it in your life. You confess your sin and hypocrisy when you fail.
You joyfully confess the Gospel. You put it in each other’s ears in worship. You teach it to your children. You share it with your neighbor.
You do not lose hope, because the Lord does not cease to be faithful.
You pray for reformation in our nation and in the Church; and better yet, you pray, “Lord, come quickly.”
Because the Lord is coming again and … rap, rap, rap.
There is one hammer yet to be heard. It is the gavel of the Last Day, the Final Judgment, when you stand before the Lord of all – you, the sinner, before the holy Son of God. If you are still lost in the delusion, the defiance or despair of sin, that will be a fearful day. But that fear is not for you. This is the legacy of the Reformation: you already know the verdict of Judgment Day. The Lord does not keep you in suspense, wondering if have you earned the kingdom of heaven; there is no need for anxiety, because your righteousness comes not by the law but by faith in Christ. If Christ has done the work, there is no doubt. When that gavel falls on Judgment Day and you stand before the Lord, you will hear the same verdict you have heard, time and time again, throughout your days. He says, “As to the charge of your sin and sinfulness, the price is paid. I declare you ‘not guilty.’”
He says it even now, just with different words. Church words, not court words. The verdict of judgment day now sounds like this:
“I forgive you all of your sins.”
A blessed Reformation to you all.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen