[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon THIRD MIDWEEK LENTEN VESPERS 20 February 2008 "Resting on Grace" Romans 4:1-8,13-17 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Our catechumens are required to know the definition of the Sacraments as the Lutheran Confessions define them:

A sacrament is a ceremony or work in which God presents to us what the promise joined to the ceremony offers. [Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIV.18]
"If we define the sacraments as rites, which have the command of God and to which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to determine what the sacraments are, properly speaking. . . Therefore, the sacraments are actually baptism, the Lord's Supper, and absolution (the sacrament of repentance). For these rites have the command of God and the promise of grace, which is the essence of the New Testament. [Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII.3,4]

We have a hard time getting it through our heads that this is not how it works in the kingdom of God. To be sure, many denominations are actually built upon the merit system, that is, the system of the Law. And to be sure, not a few Lutherans are fatally infected with this disease even though they have been taught that everything depends upon grace. The Old Adam doesn't want to believe that he is unable to effect his salvation even in the smallest way.

Of all the New Testament documents this letter by Paul to the Romans spells out most carefully and most fully the fact that our salvation has nothing whatsoever to do with merit or keeping the Law. In these two readings tonight, the first two readings for the Second Sunday in Lent, Abraham occupies a central place. In the first reading is the call of Abram. God called Abram to go to the land that he would show him and promised that through Abram all the world would be blessed. At this point, there is no description of Abram's person. He isn't presented as a great moral example or even as a righteous man. He's simply a man with a wife, part of a larger family. God singled him out for something particular. Through Abram would come the Savior. More promises would be made, but none of those promises was dependent upon the good works of Abram, thank God! Moses mentions no good works that Abram does, but he does mention some of the lies that he told, particularly the one about Sarai being his sister, not his wife, because he was afraid that the Egyptians might kill him to have her.

While Abram, later Abraham, has no works to commend before God, he does have faith. That's what gets commended in these readings. Listen to Paul:

"What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."" (Romans 4:1-3, ESV)

"That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring-not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all . . ." (Romans 4:16, ESV)

Think about the stark reality of what Paul says when he writes that God "justifies the ungodly." "The ungodly!" That removes any boasting from any human being. No one is godly so as to gain God's favor, not even Abraham. "Ungodly" tells us how far our condition extends. It tells us that we are sinners. In fact, we are born into this condition. That's what Jesus told Nicodemus in Sunday's Holy Gospel. We are born dead spiritually speaking. Whatever good happens happens because of God's grace. Grace might be defined as undeserved mercy. No thought of worthiness can enter into this because sinners are never worthy. The Collect of the Day contains this descriptive phrase:

" . . . of ourselves we have no strength."

How ironic that we so value our privacy in our day, yet privacy as we have known it may soon cease to exist. Nearly everything about you can be found out from the internet! We are perhaps afraid of being found out, but others steal our identities without too much effort. For all their technological abilities, naive young people never seem to imagine that their actions might end up on the internet for all the world to see! They think that others don't see their misguided, downright embarrassing actions, and then have the stupidity to deny that they have done them! Of course, there are those fools who want all the world to see their actions because they are so narcissistic.

Yet, God sees and knows! Standing upon the false pretense of one's supposed goodness is sheer madness. Even worse is claiming to have something to offer God in return for one's sins. Not even saints like Abraham could claim that! Here is what makes Christianity Christian: God justifies you, not because of anything you have or are or what you have done, but he justifies you by grace, for Christ's sake. This is received by means of faith. Faith rests upon grace, not upon works. Faith rests upon grace, not upon ourselves. Christianity, genuine Christianity, differs from every other religion in the world, which are all based on works, because God justifies us not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what his Son Jesus has done.

So Christianity is not a religion of works among all the others, but a religion of gratitude that everything has been given to us by grace. Nothing rests upon what you have done or can do. Everything rests upon Christ and what he has done, distributed to you in Word and Sacrament. That's the faith of Abraham. That's the faith of all those who are Abraham's true children, whether you are physically descended from him or descended from him because you believe as he did. Finally, it matters only that you believe what God has done in Christ, not in what you think you might have done for yourself.

Dear friends, everything rests on grace, not on works. Rejoice in this great good news! While you have no strength of yourselves, you have the strength of Christ who conveys his righteousness to you!