WE MAINTAIN JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Old Testament Lesson;
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Gospel Lesson;
John 8:31-36
Sermon Text;
Romans 3:19-28
Shortly before October 31st, 1517 a sinner by the name of Martin Luther, (by the direction of the Holy Spirit and through the leading of the Holy Spirit) rediscovered the central teaching in all of scripture. He rediscovered the chief article of Christian doctrine. Martin Luther, by the power of the Holy Spirit, rediscovered the teaching of "Justification by Faith Alone."
Martin Luther had been brought up all of his life in a church that had taught him that he had to earn his way to Heaven. He had to do good works. He had to merit and deserve his way to Heaven. And, God would not permit him into Heaven, unless he was good enough and he had earned his way.
Martin Luther took that very seriously.
He strove to earn his way to Heaven.
He strove to do good works.
He strove to be good and worthy before God.
But, Martin Luther realized that the more he tried to do good works, the more he tried to earn God’s favor, and the more he looked into his own heart, the more he realized, "I am still a sinner. I still have evil thoughts, and do evil deeds and actions."
And, he was troubled in his heart, wondering if he could ever be good enough, ever be good enough to earn and deserve God’s favor. He was totally uncertain as to his salvation.
He began to search and study the scriptures to see what scripture said. One day, it was as if a lightening bolt struck, and the doors of Heaven opened wide, when he rediscovered the central teaching in scripture. He rediscovered the chief doctrine of the Bible. Martin Luther discovered that the goodness, righteousness, and holiness that God is looking for, He is not looking for in you and me. It cannot be found in us.
The goodness, the righteousness, and the holiness that God demands are to be found in someone else. It is to be found outside of us. It is to be found in Jesus Christ.
God wants to give that to us, as a free gift.
God wants to give to us the holy, spotless, sinless life of Jesus Christ, as our very own.
God wants to give to us the full and complete payment for sin, which Jesus won on the cross, as our very own.
And there is nothing that we can add to the holy life of Christ. He is holy. There is nothing we can add to the payment of sin. Every sin has been paid for. God has declared that the holy life of Christ and the payment for all sin is ours. And that is ours simply by believing. "We maintain", scripture tells us, "that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law", not by doing good works, but by believing in Jesus as our only Savior from sin.
When Martin Luther rediscovered that in the Bible, he says, "It was as if I was reborn." That is because he was reborn. He came to know the way of salvation. And, he made it his effort to maintain that teaching, that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
Martin Luther got a piece of paper and wrote 95 theses on it. He got a hammer and nail, and went to the Wittenberg church. He nailed that on the Wittenberg church door, because he wanted to maintain, he wanted to hold forth before the whole world, he wanted to teach and proclaim that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law. And, in those thesis he wanted people to be clear, that we cannot, by paying money for indulgences, earn our way more quickly to Heaven. That is not how we get to Heaven. We get to Heaven by believing in Jesus as our Savior.
The church of his day tried to silence Martin Luther. They tried to send debaters, educated debaters, who could make a fool out of Martin Luther. Martin Luther debated with them, and Martin Luther continued to maintain. And by that we mean he defended, he defended from scripture, from clear passages in scripture, that we are justified by faith, apart from observing the law, not by earning our way to Heaven, but by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
He could not be silenced. And so, the church, in an effort to silence Martin Luther, excommunicated him. The church declared that Martin Luther was going to Hell. He was going to Hell and eternal condemnation, because he was teaching that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law. But, Martin Luther continued to maintain, to defend, and hold forth. He said no man could condemn him to Hell. No man could condemn him to Hell. Only God can do that. And, he maintained, he believed in Jesus, as his Savior from sin. A man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law."
So the church went further to try to silence Martin Luther. In 1521, they called him to a diet, or a council, in the city of Worms. There he was to defend his writings. He knew very well that if he did not take back everything he had written, if he did not recant, that his life was in danger. Just as John Huss who one hundred years before had been burned at the stake, as a heretic, because he taught salvation by faith alone, Martin Luther knew that his life was at stake.
There before him were placed all the books that he had written. He was asked, "Did you write those books?"
And he said, "Yes I did."
Then they asked him, "Do you take back, do you recant everything that you wrote in those books?"
And Martin Luther stood before all those people and he said, "My conscious is bound by the Word of God. It is neither safe, nor right to go against conscious. Unless I am shown from clear scripture, I cannot and will not recant. Here I stand, so help me God!"
Martin Luther was willing to maintain, to defend even it meant giving up his honor, even if it meant giving up his property, even if meant giving up his life, even if it meant defending with his blood, the teaching - we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
Martin Luther could not be silenced. For the rest of his life he saw to it that teaching was maintained. Not only that he believed it, but also so that it was spread to other people, so it would be maintained for generations.
He wrote it in his hymns. And those dear hymns that we still sing today, teach the basic, main, chief article of scripture that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
He saw to it that the Bible was translated into the German language, so that his fellow citizens could see for themselves from scripture that scripture so clearly teaches that we are not saved by our good works, but only by faith in Jesus, as our Savior.
He proclaimed it from the pulpit and taught it in the classroom, and wrote it in his catechisms and in his writings.
Luther was a man who maintained. He maintained, because he believed. He held forth. He defended from scripture. He defended with his blood. And, he saw to it that the teaching was maintained, that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
Luther was not the only one. In the early 1520s there were two young monks who converted to the belief that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and not by our good works. Their names were Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes. They were arrested for their belief that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law. They were threatened to be burned at the stake, if they did not take back their teaching. Those two men were the first Lutheran martyrs. Rather than give up that teaching that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law, they maintained. They maintained with their own blood and defended the teaching that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law, because our eternal destiny rests on that one central teaching in scripture.
Later, in the 1530s, the Lutheran princes of the country of Germany were told by the emperor, Emperor Charles V, they were permitted to teach in their own churches that we are saved by faith alone, apart from observing the law, however, they were not permitted to teach that outside their churches. They were not permitted to spread what the emperor called "false teaching." And if they spread that "false teaching," there was a threat of war. Those brave princes stood before Emperor Charles V, willing to be beheaded. They stood firm and were resolved to maintain, to maintain, (that is to hold forth, to defend with our honor, with our life, and with our fields, home, property and goods, and everything else that we have, and see to it that it is spread) to maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
If you look at our scripture reading for today, it does not say Martin Luther maintains that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
It does not say Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
It does not say the Lutheran princes of Germany maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing.
It says, "We maintain, WE maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law."
"We" includes the first person pronoun, "I." I maintain. I hold forth. I defend from scripture. I defend with my honor, with my life, with my property, with my goods, with my blood. I hold forth for the next generation and maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law. I stand shoulder to shoulder with all who maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law. We maintain, we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
Are you a part of the "we"? Do you stand shoulder to shoulder with us? Do you maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law?
If, in your heart, you understand, "I am a sinner. I cannot earn my way to Heaven. I cannot deserve my way to Heaven. I am worthy only of the eternal wrath of God."
If you are troubled by your sin, and if you flee to God for His mercy and His grace,
If you repent of your sin and if, as Luther says, "You do not lay your sins on your own back and try to get them off your own back by your good works, because then you are lost, but if you lay your sins on Jesus Christ,"
If, when you read the passages in scripture that say Christ died for me, and you emphatically say the words "for me, He died for me,"
If your heart is convinced, "What Jesus did, He did for me,"
If your heart troubles you, if your heart says to you, "I am not worthy of God’s mercy. Oh people like Peter and Paul, they are worthy of God’s mercy, but not me." Yet, if you look at scripture and say, "scripture says ‘God so loved the world, God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.’" and if you understand God is speaking to all people of all time, (as Luther says, "If you doubt if you are part of ‘the world’, then grab hold of your nose and see if you have flesh and blood and you are a human being, because if you do, you are a part of the world."), If you believe that God preaches to sinners, (because if it were only for the worthy, then not even Peter and Paul would be in Heaven because they are sinners, too),
If you have that firm conviction of the heart, that what Jesus did, "He did for me,"
If you believe that you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that God has justified you, God has declared you not guilty (not because of anything you have done, but because of something totally outside of you, because Jesus lived a perfect life for you, and then died on the cross in full payment for all of your sins),
Then, you are part of the "we."
Then, you stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and you say, "We, we maintain, I maintain, and I stand shoulder to shoulder with all who maintain that chief article of the Christian Church, on which all stands or falls.
We maintain that a man is justified by faith,
apart from observing the law.
Therefore, we will maintain that. And to maintain means that we will hold it forth. We will proclaim it and we will teach it. We will teach it in our homes to our children. We will maintain it. We will teach it here at church. We will proclaim it from our pulpits. We will teach it in our classrooms. We will teach it in Confirmation Class and we will teach it in Sunday School. We will teach in our neighborhoods.
We maintain,
we maintain that a man is justified by faith
apart from observing the law.
We will not give up our Lutheran hymns of great heritage. We will not give up those hymns that go to the very depth of scripture. We will not give up those hymns that say we are sinners and we are unworthy of God’s forgiveness, but also proclaim that we are saved, we are justified, by faith alone, in Christ alone. We will not give up those hymns, to be replaced by shallow hymns that do not plumb the very depths of justification by faith alone. Why? Because we maintain, we hold forth with our lips that man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
We will not give up, in our church services, the confession and the
absolution. We will not give that up. Why? Because we maintain that a man is
justified by faith, apart from observing the law. In that confession of sin
we confess that we are sinners and that we are wholly, totally unworthy of God’s
salvation. And so, we turn to Him in His mercy. In the words of absolution we
hear the words of Christ. Jesus has earned salvation for all people and He
desires that be announced to each individual. In the words of absolution, there
is the declaration, "Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." We will not give up the confession and the
absolution, because we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from
observing the law.
We will not give up that our sermons predominate in a teaching of the Gospel. We
will not be a church that teaches guidelines in Christian living and concentrate
only on that, because that is law. We will teach sin, but we will also teach
grace. We will teach the central teaching in scripture, Sunday after Sunday,
because that is what the Holy Spirit works through, to place that treasure of
Jesus Christ in our hearts. We will not give up the teaching of Law and Gospel,
because we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing
the law.
We will not give up the opportunity to give our offerings at church. It is our every intention to maintain, to see to it that the Word of God can continue to be taught and preached, not only at home, but also abroad. We will not give up our right and our privilege to give our offerings to our Lord, because we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
And, if someone chooses to reject us, because we teach salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from our good works, and if some day the world threatens us with a sword, and threatens to take our lives, we will not be silent.
We will not be silent.
We will defend.
We will maintain the teaching of justification
by faith alone,
apart from observing the law.
We will do it with our honor. We will put at risk our property, and our life. And, we will defend it with our blood.
We maintain,
we maintain that a man is justified by faith,
apart from observing the law.
As Luther said, "Someday I am going to die. I am writing to the rest of you, who will continue on, after I die. When I die, Satan won’t die. He will continue to try to put out the flame, the flame of that central doctrine in scripture that we are justified by faith, apart from observing the law. He will try to break in through the panes of the windows. He will try to burst through the ceiling and through the doors. And, he will try to take away that teaching."
Luther said that we should pray diligently and study scripture earnestly, so that we can defend and maintain that teaching, so that we can cup our hands around that flame and keep it burning, as we pass it on to the next generation, so that teaching is maintained. And so, we will not give up our responsibility and our privilege to spread the teaching to the next generation that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
And, we will hold our youth ministries to be a prime importance, so that the next generation can go forward and maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law.
That, my brothers and sisters, is the chief doctrine of scripture. It is the doctrine on which all else, including our eternal salvation, stands or falls. God help us. God help us, as we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law!
Amen.
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