Church Sermon - February 20, 2005

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Genesis 12:1-5
Gospel Lesson; John 4:5-26
Sermon Text; Romans 4:1-17

The other day I went to the freezer door, opened it up, and there in the freezer, I saw a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream, with caramel ripples and big chunks of chocolate in it! I took it out, put some in a bowl, and ate it. It was so good I could not stop! I had to eat another bowl!

Now, why did I like that ice cream so well? It was because there was something in it that was attractive to me. That’s how our world operates, isn’t it?

I was driving down the road yesterday, with some of my boys in the car, when I saw a brand new, 2005, black, Ford Mustang. I said to my boys, "Boy! Is that a cool car!" Why did I like that car? It was because there was something about it that was attractive to me.

Our world works that way, when it comes to relationships, as well. Why do young girls choose certain young boys to be the ones that they like? It is because there is something in those young boys that they are attracted to. Maybe it is their looks. Maybe it is that they are strong. Maybe it is that they are good at athletics. Maybe it is because they are smart. Maybe it is because they are funny. Maybe it is because they are easy to talk to. But, there is something in those young boys that they are attracted to, and that makes them acceptable.

The whole world seems to operate that way. Just turn on your T.V., watch the movies, or go to the mall. What is the message the world gives us? The message is,

then there is going to be something about you that is attractive to other people. That is the way our sinful nature works. Our sinful nature, in its vanity, wants people to be attracted to us. Our sinful nature, in its arrogance, only wants to be with people who are attractive to us.

One of the greatest sins that the human race has ever fallen into is to assume that God operates the same way. We assume that we are attracted to people, because there is something attractive in them, and our sinful nature assumes that God operates the same way. Our sinful nature assumes that I am acceptable to God, because there is something attractive in me. In fact, we even have a Latin theological phrase for that. We call it the Opinio Legis. The Opinio Legis is the Latin phrase that means the opinion of the law. It is an opinion that my sinful nature is born with. My sinful nature has the opinion that if I can just keep God’s Law, if I can just keep the Ten Commandments good enough, then there will be something attractive in me, that will attract God to me, and I will be acceptable to God. That is the way our sinful nature believes God operates.

Let me give you some examples from society. It is all over the place. Several years ago, on the radio, there was a popular song. It was about a young man, whose girlfriend had died in a car accident. He was lamenting the fact that she was dead. He was looking forward to seeing her again in Heaven, and so the refrain of his song was that he wanted to see her again. He sang, "So, I have got to be good."

I have got to be good. What was he saying? He was saying, "If I am good enough, if I do enough good works, then God will find me attractive enough to let me into His Heaven." That is the way our sinful nature thinks that God operates.

Another example, maybe some of you have seen the movie ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven’. There are some interesting things in that movie. And, there is even some good theology, but there is some bad theology, too. In that movie, a man, kills a little girl, (unbeknownst to him). He doesn’t even realize he did it.

He ends up stuck in a job, all of his life, and it is a job that he does not really want to be in. It is his job to keep rides safe at a carnival.

When he dies, he gets to Heaven, and finds out the reason he got stuck in that job taking care of rides for little children. He was making right for the fact that he had killed that little girl, (unbeknownst to him). And so, for the rest of his life, his job was to keep little children safe. The impression is given that he was doing good things that made him acceptable to God, and paid off the bad things he had done. That is the way our sinful nature operates.

You can go to a funeral and talk to someone who has known someone who died. Often, you will hear the comment, "I am sure they are in Heaven because he/she was a good person."

What is the impression that is being given? The impression is God accepts us because there is something attractive about us. We have done enough good things to earn our way to Heaven. That is the Opinio Legis. It is the sinful opinion that we are all born with. It is always going to be there in our hearts. We might call it the Pharisee Heresy.

You remember the story Jesus told of the Pharisee, who went into the temple, and said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or tax collectors. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get." He was of the opinion that God operated by saying, "Well, you are a pretty acceptable guy. You have done a lot of good things and so I am going to take you to my Heaven."

The Pharisee Heresy

That is not how God operates. In fact, in scripture, God is very, very, very clear to us that our ‘good works’ cannot make us acceptable to God. There is a Bible passage that talks about what we think are ‘good works’. It says,

"All of our righteousness

are like filthy rages."

The Hebrew word for filthy rags is a word that means they are so repugnant, that God would not even want to get near them! So, what I think is a ‘good work’, a God-pleasing thing, to God it is repugnant. It still has sin in it. God does not find it, or me, attractive in any way, whatsoever. In fact, the Bible says, God says,

"There is no one who does good,

not even one".

That is what God thinks about us. God does not see something attractive in us. That is not how God operates.

There is another scripture passage that says,

"They have altogether become worthless".

There is nothing, in any of us, which God finds attractive. In fact, the Bible tells us that if you want what you deserve from God, it is very simple. The Bible says,

"The wages of sin is

death."

You want what you deserve from God? What you deserve from God is not to be accepted by God. God doesn’t see something in you or me that says, "Wow! You are a special person. You have earned your way. I am obliged to let you into my Heaven, because you are so good." God says if you want what you deserve, if you really want your wages, what you have earned, that is death, eternal and physical death, forever. That, of course, is a troubling concept.

So, how does God operate? If God does not deal with us by saying, "I am going to find something attractive in you". How does God operate? That question leads us to our scripture reading for today. God talks about someone who by this world’s standards did ‘good works’. If we were to look at Abraham, we would say, "Now there is a man who really did some ‘good works’. He really must have earned God’s favor". After all, Abraham did some things that you and I probably never would do.

Now, we would certainly think that those things were ‘good works’ that would earn God’s favor and would make Abraham acceptable in God’s eyes, but what does the Bible say? Listen to our scripture reading. It says,

"What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God. What does the Scripture say?"

It quotes Genesis 15.

"Abraham believed God,

and it was credited to him as righteousness."

What then was credited to Abraham as righteousness? Faith. Abraham believed God’s promises.

You see, the awesome message of scripture is that God is not pleased with us when we make ourselves acceptable to Him. The awesome message in scripture is that God creates what is pleasing to Him. He creates what is pleasing to Him. It says that Abraham was credited with righteousness. That means he didn’t have it, himself. It was not some holiness, some righteousness, some good things he had done, himself. Someone else had done them and they were credited to Abraham, as his very own. It was something outside himself, something outside Abraham that God found pleasing and attractive.

What is that? It is Jesus. In Jesus, God created what you and I cannot create. God created something that is totally, absolutely pleasing and attractive to God. In Jesus, who is God and Man in one person, God created the one human being that is absolutely attractive to God. Jesus lived an absolutely holy and perfect life. That is the only human being that could be attractive to God. The Bible tells us that God has taken Jesus’ holy life, (God created that righteousness, not us) and He has declared Jesus’ holy life to be yours, as a free gift. That is a promise from God. God tells us in scripture, that in Jesus, God was pleased. God was pleased when Jesus went to the cross, when Jesus died on the cross, when Jesus took our sins.

You know, a million years of me suffering in Hell, cannot satisfy God for my sin. It can’t happen. But Jesus’ suffering on the cross, the holy God-Man, pleased God. Jesus’ payment for sin was totally pleasing and acceptable to God. We don’t create what is pleasing to God. Jesus created what was pleasing to God. God, in scripture, announces that the perfect life, and the payment of sin that Jesus made on the cross, is not something we have to earn, it is not something we have to deserve, but by grace, God gives it to us, as if it were our very own.

Grace is something we don’t deserve in any way, whatsoever. Grace is in God’s heart! Grace is the very nature of God. Grace is the fact that God loves a world that hates Him. Grace is the fact that God desires that all who deserve to be condemned should be in Heaven with Him. Grace is a gift, and God desires that we be attractive to Him, in His grace. In His grace, He gives us Jesus’ holy life and His death on the cross, which makes us attractive to God.

How do we benefit from what Jesus did for us?

Our scripture reading goes on and says, "Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed, guaranteed, to all Abraham’s offspring (talking about anybody who believes)."

There is an awesome word there – and it is the word guaranteed. You know, if I thought that I got to Heaven by making myself attractive to God, by doing good works, I would have no guarantee, absolutely no guarantee that I would be in Heaven, because how many good works do I have to do, to get to Heaven? Do I have to do 20% good works? And, how would I know if I have ever done 20% good works? Or, do I have to do 50%, or 80% good works? And, how would I ever know if I had done that many good works? There would be no certainty. Life would be nothing but fear and terror that I may not make it to Heaven.

But here, scripture says we have a guarantee. A guarantee means I can be 100% certain I will be in Heaven, because I do not depend upon what I have done. I depend upon what someone else did.

There is certainty. There is absolute certainty. God gives it to us, not by our works, but He gives it to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That is the treasure we have in scripture.

All of us should realize that our friends, many of our friends and a great portion of the world still operates on the Opinio Legis, on the opinion, the sinful opinion, the heretical opinion that God is pleased with me, when I make myself attractive to Him. So much of the world is still living in great uncertainty. "Will I be in Heaven?"

We have an awesome message! The awesome message that we take out to this world is there is a way we can be certain that we will be in Heaven. Let’s spread that message!

Amen.

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