“Reformation:  Changing Change”

Romans 3:19-28

10-26-08


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    One of the big buzz words for the upcoming election is the word “change.”  Obama’s campaign slogan is “Change we can believe in.”  With his use of this word, Obama has honed in on the desire of many Americans today for things to be different in our country.  From the economy to the war in Iraq, people want change.  They want change, because things aren’t going well.  People are losing their money, they’re losing their homes, they’re losing their lives.  What we’re doing isn’t working; something’s got to be changed, and when someone comes along and promises change (whatever that change may be), people flock to him.
    Now, the desire for change isn’t necessarily bad.  If you didn’t change your clothes, you’d start to smell pretty ripe after a few days.  If you didn’t change the oil in your car every once in a while, you’d soon have some major car problems.  Lots of things need to be changed, and sometimes change is fun, like a change of scenery or a change of activities.  But in some cases there are things that people want to change but that shouldn’t be changed - a sex change, for example, or a change in a spouse on unbiblical grounds, or a change from a good habit to a bad one.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is another example.  The message of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins is a message that is not supposed to change.  It is to be proclaimed until the day Christ returns.  People are to hear this message clearly, in all of its truth and purity, in every element of the divine service, including both the liturgy and the sermon.  Everything that happens as we’re gathered together in God’s Name around His Word and His Sacraments must deliver the Gospel unchanged and uncompromised.  It must remain pure and unadulterated, because the Gospel is (as the Apostle Paul puts it) “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes [it].”  To change the Gospel - to compromise it, to water it down, to weaken or revise its message in any way - is to take the Gospel away and exchange it for something else, something that is less than the Gospel, something that is another gospel, something that doesn’t deliver Christ and Him crucified for our salvation, and therefore something that doesn’t save.
    But this is exactly what many people want to do in the Church today in the name of reformation.  Reformation for them means “change.”  People want to change the message of the Gospel, because they don’t see it at work; they don’t see it producing any results.  It’s not bringing in the numbers and new members into their congregations.  It doesn’t speak to people today, they say, or it’s message is irrelevant to today’s culture.  Many Christians want to change the historic Christian liturgy, which delivers the Gospel, because that old stuff, too, has grown irrelevant and fails to speak to people today.  Plus, it’s too difficult to understand.  We need something modern, something more attractive, exciting, and entertaining.  Unfortunately, the modern stuff often compromises the Gospel, or at the very least dumbs it down and weakens it.  Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins no longer remains the central message.  It’s more about praising God for His majesty and glory.  It’s more about improving your walk with God.  It’s more about getting in touch with the spirit.  It’s more about feeling God’s presence and listening to His voice.  This is the kind of change that people want in the Church, and yet it’s this kind of change that the Reformation meant to hinder.
    The Reformation was about change, all right, but it was about changing the stuff that had changed the Gospel.  The change that the reformers (including Martin Luther) were interested in was getting rid of any- and everything that jeopardized the Gospel and hindered it from being proclaimed in its truth and purity.  It’s the changes that the Roman Catholic Church had brought in, in both doctrine and practice, that had turned the message that we are justified freely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone into the message that we are justified by our faith plus our works.  The Gospel was no longer solely the good news of what Christ has done for you, but now the focus was on what you do for Christ.  People were even led to believe that they could buy their way into heaven through the purchase of indulgences.  They were not directed to Christ and His good works alone for salvation, but to the saints and their good works, which were put up for sale.  People were also led to believe that they could work off their temporal punishments by joining a monastery, by doing penance, or by praying the rosary.  And if they didn’t want to do any of that, they could work them off later in Purgatory.  
    And today is no different.  We may not hear of people purchasing the forgiveness of their sins with money anymore, but many still believe that they are justified by their good works, rather than through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  The Gospel has been changed in many Christian congregations, and as a result people are no longer listening to the words that the Apostle Paul speaks in today’s Epistle text:  “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.”
    Instead of confessing these words to be true and relevant for us today, many say they need to be changed.  The vocabulary, after all, is too difficult to understand; we need to use different words.  Not only that, but all this talk about sin has to be gotten rid of.  It’s too negative; it hurts people’s self-esteem; it turns people off.  And then there’s this stuff about the blood of Christ.  Nobody wants a bloody, messy, dead Christ hanging on a cross as the sacrifice for our sins.  And if there’s no sin, what need is there for the crucifixion?  Let’s talk instead about Christ as our example, or our psychologist, or the one who teaches us how to love, or our best friend.  All of these changes appeal to our fallen human reason, but in the end they destroy and replace the Gospel.
    Instead of changing the words of God, however, or doing away with the ones that are offensive to us, let’s explain and teach them.  The divine service, after all, is not for the uncatechized but for the catechized - for those who have been baptized and are taught the Christian faith.  Let’s explain, for example, what this word “justify” or “justification” means.  Paul uses it five times in today’s text.  What does he mean by it?  First, we should make clear what it does not mean.  Justification is not about you and your good works.  Justification does not mean you earn your righteousness before God and your way into heaven by following the ten commandments or by being a moral and upright person.  Justification isn’t about you and what you do for God, but about Christ and what He does for you.  The Bible even tells us that apart from faith in Christ, our so-called good works are as filthy rags to God.  And here in today’s Epistle text Paul makes it clear that by the works of the Law no person will be justified in God’s sight.  Rather, through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.  
    Sin, however, is one of those words that no one likes to hear, at least they don’t like to hear it in reference to themselves.  But we can’t strike out a word from the Scriptures just because we don’t like it or agree with it.  If God says we’re sinners, then we’re sinners.  And His Law, or the commandments, don’t help us to be less sinners; they actually accentuate our problem and show us that we are greater sinners than we ever thought we were; we’re chiefs of sinners, who have sinned against God in our thoughts, words, and deeds, both by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  The Law, then, doesn’t help you to get righteous before God; it reveals that you aren’t righteous before God.  It declares you to be a sinner.
    And being a sinner is not a matter of how you feel about yourself.  Some people think justification is about your feelings.  If you feel particularly guilty, then perhaps you’re not justified.  Conversely, if you feel pretty good about yourself, then you probably are justified.  Some people, instead of directing you to the Word of God, direct you not only to your emotions but also to your experiences to determine whether you are justified or not.  This is especially true when trying to determine whether you have the Holy Spirit or not.  Instead of directing you to your Baptism, they’ll direct you to some sort of supernatural gift that you should expect to have, as proof that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.  But just as you are not justified by God on the basis of your good works, so you are not justified by God on the basis of how you feel about yourself or what kind of personal experiences you might have had.  Feelings and experiences come and go; they change, but the Word of God does not; it remains forever.
    So, justification is not about you and your good works, and it’s not about how you feel.  Neither is it about your faith.  Now, you might say, “But Pastor, St. Paul here talks about faith.  He says that the righteousness Romans 3:19-28
“Reformation:  Changing Change”
    One of the big buzz words for the upcoming election is the word “change.”  Obama’s campaign slogan is “Change we can believe in.”  With his use of this word, Obama has honed in on the desire of many Americans today for things to be different in our country.  From the economy to the war in Iraq, people want change.  They want change, because things aren’t going well.  People are losing their money, they’re losing their homes, they’re losing their lives.  What we’re doing isn’t working; something’s got to be changed, and when someone comes along and promises change (whatever that change may be), people flock to him.
    Now, the desire for change isn’t necessarily bad.  If you didn’t change your clothes, you’d start to smell pretty ripe after a few days.  If you didn’t change the oil in your car every once in a while, you’d soon have some major car problems.  Lots of things need to be changed, and sometimes change is fun, like a change of scenery or a change of activities.  But in some cases there are things that people want to change but that shouldn’t be changed - a sex change, for example, or a change in a spouse on unbiblical grounds, or a change from a good habit to a bad one.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is another example.  The message of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins is a message that is not supposed to change.  It is to be proclaimed until the day Christ returns.  People are to hear this message clearly, in all of its truth and purity, in every element of the divine service, including both the liturgy and the sermon.  Everything that happens as we’re gathered together in God’s Name around His Word and His Sacraments must deliver the Gospel unchanged and uncompromised.  It must remain pure and unadulterated, because the Gospel is (as the Apostle Paul puts it) “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes [it].”  To change the Gospel - to compromise it, to water it down, to weaken or revise its message in any way - is to take the Gospel away and exchange it for something else, something that is less than the Gospel, something that is another gospel, something that doesn’t deliver Christ and Him crucified for our salvation, and therefore something that doesn’t save.
    But this is exactly what many people want to do in the Church today in the name of reformation.  Reformation for them means “change.”  People want to change the message of the Gospel, because they don’t see it at work; they don’t see it producing any results.  It’s not bringing in the numbers and new members into their congregations.  It doesn’t speak to people today, they say, or it’s message is irrelevant to today’s culture.  Many Christians want to change the historic Christian liturgy, which delivers the Gospel, because that old stuff, too, has grown irrelevant and fails to speak to people today.  Plus, it’s too difficult to understand.  We need something modern, something more attractive, exciting, and entertaining.  Unfortunately, the modern stuff often compromises the Gospel, or at the very least dumbs it down and weakens it.  Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins no longer remains the central message.  It’s more about praising God for His majesty and glory.  It’s more about improving your walk with God.  It’s more about getting in touch with the spirit.  It’s more about feeling God’s presence and listening to His voice.  This is the kind of change that people want in the Church, and yet it’s this kind of change that the Reformation meant to hinder.
    The Reformation was about change, all right, but it was about changing the stuff that had changed the Gospel.  The change that the reformers (including Martin Luther) were interested in was getting rid of any- and everything that jeopardized the Gospel and hindered it from being proclaimed in its truth and purity.  It’s the changes that the Roman Catholic Church had brought in, in both doctrine and practice, that had turned the message that we are justified freely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone into the message that we are justified by our faith plus our works.  The Gospel was no longer solely the good news of what Christ has done for you, but now the focus was on what you do for Christ.  People were even led to believe that they could buy their way into heaven through the purchase of indulgences.  They were not directed to Christ and His good works alone for salvation, but to the saints and their good works, which were put up for sale.  People were also led to believe that they could work off their temporal punishments by joining a monastery, by doing penance, or by praying the rosary.  And if they didn’t want to do any of that, they could work them off later in Purgatory. 
    And today is no different.  We may not hear of people purchasing the forgiveness of their sins with money anymore, but many still believe that they are justified by their good works, rather than through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  The Gospel has been changed in many Christian congregations, and as a result people are no longer listening to the words that the Apostle Paul speaks in today’s Epistle text:  “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.”
    Instead of confessing these words to be true and relevant for us today, many say they need to be changed.  The vocabulary, after all, is too difficult to understand; we need to use different words.  Not only that, but all this talk about sin has to be gotten rid of.  It’s too negative; it hurts people’s self-esteem; it turns people off.  And then there’s this stuff about the blood of Christ.  Nobody wants a bloody, messy, dead Christ hanging on a cross as the sacrifice for our sins.  And if there’s no sin, what need is there for the crucifixion?  Let’s talk instead about Christ as our example, or our psychologist, or the one who teaches us how to love, or our best friend.  All of these changes appeal to our fallen human reason, but in the end they destroy and replace the Gospel.
    Instead of changing the words of God, however, or doing away with the ones that are offensive to us, let’s explain and teach them.  The divine service, after all, is not for the uncatechized but for the catechized - for those who have been baptized and are taught the Christian faith.  Let’s explain, for example, what this word “justify” or “justification” means.  Paul uses it five times in today’s text.  What does he mean by it?  First, we should make clear what it does not mean.  Justification is not about you and your good works.  Justification does not mean you earn your righteousness before God and your way into heaven by following the ten commandments or by being a moral and upright person.  Justification isn’t about you and what you do for God, but about Christ and what He does for you.  The Bible even tells us that apart from faith in Christ, our so-called good works are as filthy rags to God.  And here in today’s Epistle text Paul makes it clear that by the works of the Law no person will be justified in God’s sight.  Rather, through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. 
    Sin, however, is one of those words that no one likes to hear, at least they don’t like to hear it in reference to themselves.  But we can’t strike out a word from the Scriptures just because we don’t like it or agree with it.  If God says we’re sinners, then we’re sinners.  And His Law, or the commandments, don’t help us to be less sinners; they actually accentuate our problem and show us that we are greater sinners than we ever thought we were; we’re chiefs of sinners, who have sinned against God in our thoughts, words, and deeds, both by what we have done and by what we have left undone.  The Law, then, doesn’t help you to get righteous before God; it reveals that you aren’t righteous before God.  It declares you to be a sinner.
    And being a sinner is not a matter of how you feel about yourself.  Some people think justification is about your feelings.  If you feel particularly guilty, then perhaps you’re not justified.  Conversely, if you feel pretty good about yourself, then you probably are justified.  Some people, instead of directing you to the Word of God, direct you not only to your emotions but also to your experiences to determine whether you are justified or not.  This is especially true when trying to determine whether you have the Holy Spirit or not.  Instead of directing you to your Baptism, they’ll direct you to some sort of supernatural gift that you should expect to have, as proof that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.  But just as you are not justified by God on the basis of your good works, so you are not justified by God on the basis of how you feel about yourself or what kind of personal experiences you might have had.  Feelings and experiences come and go; they change, but the Word of God does not; it remains forever.
    So, justification is not about you and your good works, and it’s not about how you feel.  Neither is it about your faith.  Now, you might say, “But Pastor, St. Paul here talks about faith.  He says that the righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, and that the redemption that Christ worked through His bloody sacrifice on the cross is received by faith.  How can you say that justification isn’t about my faith?”  Well, the answer lies in the question.  It’s not faith in your faith that saves you, but faith in your Savior that saves you.  Paul never praises faith as if it were some good work that we do to get ourselves saved.  Besides, in another one of his letters he even calls faith itself a gift of God, which God works in us through the hearing of the Gospel about Jesus crucified for us.  Even when Jesus on occasion told people that their faith had saved them, the kind of faith He was talking about was the kind that took hold of Him and clung to Him as Savior and Lord.  Today people say, “You just gotta have faith.”  For them, it doesn’t matter who or what your faith is in; you just gotta have faith.  But faith is never faith in itself, and the faith which receives God’s justification never trusts in anyone except Jesus Christ alone, who was crucified for your sins and for whose sake you are declared righteous by God through faith in Him.
    And that is what justification is:  It is God’s declaration to you that through faith in Jesus Christ you are righteous, holy, and blameless before Him.  This declaration is the word of the Gospel, and it is true, regardless of how good or bad you are, regardless of whether you feel like it’s true or not, regardless of whether you believe it or not.  Of course, if you don’t believe it, you don’t benefit from this declaration.  Justification is a gift, and gifts are either received or they are rejected; they are neither earned nor deserved.  Faith simply receives the gift given.  Where there’s no faith, the gift remains with God.  But the gift doesn’t change.  It will always be God’s declaration that you, a sinner, are righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, crucified for your salvation.  Jesus Christ died for sinners, and you qualify (as one professor has rightly said).
    And that’s the Gospel.  That’s the message that was given by Christ to His Apostles and Prophets to deliver to us in the proclamation of His Word.  It’s this message that the reformers sought to keep clear and intact, and it’s this message that never changes.  If anything needs to change, it’s the stuff that compromises, weakens, or obscures the Gospel.  It’s the philosophical and psychological stuff that pastors preach instead of Christ that needs to be changed, not the message that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake and that God declares you righteous through faith in Him.  It’s the fluff that many congregations use today to try attract people to church but which doesn’t deliver Christ and His gift of redemption clearly and purely that needs to be changed, not the historic Christian liturgy, which does deliver Christ and His gift of redemption clearly and purely.  This is the reformation that must take place in the Church today and must continue until the Lord returns.  God doesn’t change and neither does His Word.  The Gospel that God declares you righteous through faith in Christ crucified for you must be proclaimed unchanged and uncompromised, so that you might always be able to hear what Jesus has done for you, hear His forgiveness, and learn to trust in Him alone for your salvation.  Amen.
of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, and that the redemption that Christ worked through His bloody sacrifice on the cross is received by faith.  How can you say that justification isn’t about my faith?”  Well, the answer lies in the question.  It’s not faith in your faith that saves you, but faith in your Savior that saves you.  Paul never praises faith as if it were some good work that we do to get ourselves saved.  Besides, in another one of his letters he even calls faith itself a gift of God, which God works in us through the hearing of the Gospel about Jesus crucified for us.  Even when Jesus on occasion told people that their faith had saved them, the kind of faith He was talking about was the kind that took hold of Him and clung to Him as Savior and Lord.  Today people say, “You just gotta have faith.”  For them, it doesn’t matter who or what your faith is in; you just gotta have faith.  But faith is never faith in itself, and the faith which receives God’s justification never trusts in anyone except Jesus Christ alone, who was crucified for your sins and for whose sake you are declared righteous by God through faith in Him.
    And that is what justification is:  It is God’s declaration to you that through faith in Jesus Christ you are righteous, holy, and blameless before Him.  This declaration is the word of the Gospel, and it is true, regardless of how good or bad you are, regardless of whether you feel like it’s true or not, regardless of whether you believe it or not.  Of course, if you don’t believe it, you don’t benefit from this declaration.  Justification is a gift, and gifts are either received or they are rejected; they are neither earned nor deserved.  Faith simply receives the gift given.  Where there’s no faith, the gift remains with God.  But the gift doesn’t change.  It will always be God’s declaration that you, a sinner, are righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, crucified for your salvation.  Jesus Christ died for sinners, and you qualify (as one professor has rightly said).
    And that’s the Gospel.  That’s the message that was given by Christ to His Apostles and Prophets to deliver to us in the proclamation of His Word.  It’s this message that the reformers sought to keep clear and intact, and it’s this message that never changes.  If anything needs to change, it’s the stuff that compromises, weakens, or obscures the Gospel.  It’s the philosophical and psychological stuff that pastors preach instead of Christ that needs to be changed, not the message that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake and that God declares you righteous through faith in Him.  It’s the fluff that many congregations use today to try attract people to church but which doesn’t deliver Christ and His gift of redemption clearly and purely that needs to be changed, not the historic Christian liturgy, which does deliver Christ and His gift of redemption clearly and purely.  This is the reformation that must take place in the Church today and must continue until the Lord returns.  God doesn’t change and neither does His Word.  The Gospel that God declares you righteous through faith in Christ crucified for you must be proclaimed unchanged and uncompromised, so that you might always be able to hear what Jesus has done for you, hear His forgiveness, and learn to trust in Him alone for your salvation.  Amen.

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