Reformation Sunday

CJ: Today is reformation day. So what better way to celebrate the reformation than by reading through all 95 of Luther’s 95 Thesis. …

Chris: Uh, excuse me Pastor, but what are you doing?

CJ: What? What do you mean?

Chris: You said that we were going to celebrate the reformation

by reading through the 95 Thesis, but what will that accomplish?

CJ: Well, I figured that since that is what was nailed to the door of the church in Whittenberg, and that event marks the beginning of the reformation, that by reading these statements we would be celebrating the reformation.

Chris: OK. But they may not be all that easy for everyone here to

follow. What is going on?

CJ: Well Luther is giving these statements as an invitation to debate indulgences.

Chris: What about indulgences?

CJ: You see the church at that time was saying that being right before God was something that the church was able to give to whomever it wished. So they figured, if we can give it away, we can also sell it. So people can be assured of their salvation, and the salvation of their loved ones with a receipt.

Chris: Surely you can’t be serious?

CJ: Of course I’m serious. And don’t call me Shirley. This is more or less what was going on. And Luther was bringing this up for debate because he knew better. He knew that God’s salvation was a gift given freely by God without cost. That means no one can buy it with money, and no one can buy it with good deeds.

Chris: Ok, so what you are saying then, is that when

we celebrate the reformation we are celebrating that Luther

nailed these 95 Thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg?

CJ: No. Although I think it can sometimes come across that way. When we celebrate the reformation we are celebrating the Gift of God’s salvation freely given to his people by him. This is what Luther rediscovered in his studies and this is the idea that brought about the challenges that he has written in the 95 Thesis.

Chris: These are the conclusions that he came to as a result

of his study of Scripture. Romans is really important here. It was

even our second lesson for today. Wow. That’s convenient.

CJ: Yes exactly. Why don’t you read it for us?

Chris: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those

who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the

whole world held accountable to God.”

CJ: This is one of those the Law shows us our sins kind of things. It is saying that the law works like a mirror when we look at it, we see our sin. We know that God wants us to keep the law perfectly, and when we look at the law and see just how imperfect we are we are silenced. No one can say that they are good enough for God, because we are all sinners. And this point is continued with the next verse.

Chris: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight

by observing the law, rather, through the law we become

conscious of sin.”

CJ: Exactly.

Chris: And it goes on “But now a righteousness from God, apart

from law has been made know, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.”

CJ: Righteousness means to be right before God, or in the eyes of God, or in his judgment. That is because we are sinful then we cannot through our works become right before God. We can not be deemed worthy of salvation because of what we do.

Chris: That’s pretty bleak. Pretty much rules out everyone

doesn’t it? I mean we are all sinners…

CJ: Exactly! And this is where the Gospel comes in. Or as Jesus said, “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” This verse is saying that there is a righteousness that comes from God. He gives it as a gift. And this new righteousness has been testified to by the Law and the Prophets, that is, it has been testified to by the Old Testament.

Chris: Yes. We see this all over the Old Testament. It’s pretty

amazing. Like when Jeremiah 31 talks about God making a new covenant.

CJ: Yes when there is the mention of the new covenant, and the mention of the forgiveness of our wickedness and remembering our sins no more. This is a prime example of the Old Testament talking about this righteousness from God that is Paul writes about in the Romans passage. That means that this idea of righteousness coming as a gift from God is not something that Paul pulled out of thin air. But it was actually spoken about in the Old Testament, in the Scriptures, the word of God.

Chris: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in

Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by

his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

CJ: Now I know this sounds a little redundant, but when something is important it is worth repeating. And with these verses a little more detail is given. The righteousness that comes from God, comes from him because it is a gift. And this is important because since it is a gift it is not something that we earn or are worthy of. We also see how we receive that gift

Chris: Exactly. “Through faith in Jesus Christ to all who

believe” Because faith isn’t a work that we do.

CJ: No it’s not. Rather faith is what holds onto the promises of God. Faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit. And he works faith in us through the word and through baptism and holy communion.

Chris: The means of grace.

CJ: Right. The Holy Spirit uses the means of grace to give and strengthen faith in us. And that faith then holds on to Jesus Christ. And since it holds on to him, than the righteousness of God is given to the one who has faith.

Chris: It all comes from God.

CJ: Yes. And because this is all something that God does, then we can always be sure of our salvation. We can know without a doubt that we will live forever with our Lord. Not because we are good enough, but because he has given this gift to us. And when God does something, he does it right. So we know it is true.

And when we see the “falling short” part in these verses, well that again reiterates how we cannot save ourselves. We are not good enough to earn God’s favor or his salvation. No matter how hard we try, or how good we may actually be, we will always without a doubt fall short. But the good news here is that even though all may fall short, all are freely justified. That is all are freely given this righteousness of God because of the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Chris: And that redemption is a reference to his Death on the cross.

CJ: Bingo. Through his death and resurrection we have forgiveness of sins, everlasting life and salvation, for wherever there is forgiveness of sins, there is everlasting life and salvation. And to say that this is by grace means that we are be given something that we do not deserve. So again the point is being hammered home that we can’t earn salvation, but it is give to us by our God who loves us very much. Read the next two verses.

Chris: “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through

faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in

his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished

—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be

just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

CJ: So where we had just seen a mention of the redemption that came by Christ Jesus in verse 24, now Paul tells us exactly what he meant by that and what he was talking about there was Jesus death on the cross.

Chris: A sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

CJ: That paints quite a picture doesn’t it. But we know that because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we have been made right before God. It is all about what he has done. And God sent his Jesus to show both his justice and patience. His justice in the sense that sin had to be punished, or paid for. And so instead of demanding the payment of you and me, he took it from his son, from Jesus. Therefore God is both just and the one who justifies. He demands righteousness and he gives it to those who have faith in Jesus.

Chris: And that makes sense because if it is God who makes us

right before him than we can’t take credit for it. And since he does

it for us, than none of us can claim to be better than anyone else.

And that is what this next verse says, “Where, then, is boasting? It

is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No,

but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith

apart from observing the law.”

CJ: And we see here that Paul is repeating himself in order to make his point. God makes you and me right before him. He does this by grace, that is he does it even though we don’t deserve it, he does it because of his love for us, and so being right with God is something that is a gift from God, not something that we earn.

Chris: Of course this doesn’t mean that we don’t need

to have anything to do with the law.

CJ: Oh no. The law is good. It tells us how to live a godly life. The difference though is that we do it because we love God and want to show that in our lives. We don’t do it in order to get to heaven.

Chris: So then when we celebrate the reformation we are

celebrating this fact that God has given us salvation, we don’t earn it.

CJ: And that is where the 95 Thesis come in. Because here Luther is saying that this idea that people can be forced to buy something that God has already given them is nonsense. And what he is doing with the 95 Thesis is making that point.

Chris: Sweet. Well, then I guess you better get back to it. You

only read a couple of them before I interrupted you. By all means

continue. Would you like me to help you read some of them?

CJ: Thanks, Chris. But I think we’ve made the same point that they do make. We are right with God because he loves us enough to have made it so through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ. And we thank and praise our God for this wonderful gift.