Sermon for the Feast of the Reformation
(Observed on the Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost)
ALL Are Justified by His Grace as a Gift
Theme: Jesus forgives EVERYONE of ALL their sins EVERYWHERE. He does this so
that YOU can be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN about your forgiveness.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. In today’s Epistle from Romans, Paul is speaking about all people
everywhere, whether they are Christian or not. “There is no distinction,” Paul
declares,
for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and [ALL] are justified
by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.
Dear Christian friends:
The key Word for you in today’s Epistle is the Word justify. “All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and [all] are JUSTIFIED by His grace
as a gift.” On those occasions when I go to the Morgan County jail or to one of
our state prisons to visit the inmates, I often use a ratty old playing card to
teach the men what it means for you when God justifies you.
1. First, I explain to the inmates that the word justify simply means “to
bring something into alignment.” Then I hand my playing card around the room,
asking the men each to take a turn in justify the playing card by aligning the
card perfectly straight up-and-down at exactly 90 degrees to the table. It
usually takes these guys a minute or two to figure it out, but eventually they
realize that, no matter how carefully they hold or position the card, they
cannot get it to stand perfectly upright. They cannot justify the playing card.
2. So I justify the card for them. I take the crooked old playing card
over to the wall, which we all know is an honest 90 degrees to the floor, and I
justify the card by pressing it completely against the wall, being careful that
every part of the card, from corner to corner and edge to edge, is pressed
against the wall. The wall is the perfect standard for playing card’s
justification. The playing card is fully justified—that is, brought into
completely alignment and made perfectly upright—when the card is pressed firmly
against the wall.
ALL ARE JUSTIFIED…
This would be a good way for you to think about God’s great gift of
justification, which He has accomplished for you and for all people in the
death and resurrection of Jesus. As you hear Paul declare, “ALL have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God,” and when he uses the word ALL he is speaking
about all people everywhere, including you and me. “All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.” Stated another way, all people are ratty old
playing cards that cannot stand perfectly upright no matter how hard anyone
tries to make it happen.
What has God your heavenly Father done for you all? He has taken
you—and at the same time He has taken all of humanity—and He has made us all
the playing card that He presses up against the wall that is Christ. Yes,
indeed, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” EVEN MORE SO,
“ALL are justified by His grace as a gift.” ALL have be pressed up against
Christ; ALL have been forgiven every sin “through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus”; ALL have had every debt of sin fully paid on their behalf in the
“propitiation [or the avenging satisfaction that was paid] by His blood.” There
is NO ONE for whom Christ did not die; NO ONE whose sins have not been
forgiven; NO ONE who has not been promised bodily resurrection and eternal life
in the world to come. What your God has done for one, He equally has done for
ALL.
It is for you personally—for your assurance and for your certainty—that
God your Father has justified ALL people by pressing them up against your
perfect Lord Jesus, just like a playing card against a wall. For you God has
done this for all people, because you cannot deny and it is impossible for you
to doubt that you yourself are included in the word ALL. ALL means EVERYBODY
EVERYWHERE, so ALL obviously also includes YOU. When God says through His
apostle that ALL are justified and pressed up against the wall that is Christ,
He wants you to hear and understand that YOU are justified and pressed against
the wall that is Christ; You are now perfectly in alignment with God’s demands
and requirements because YOU are stuck to Jesus and held in place there by your
heavenly Father’s gracious and loving hand.
…JUST AS ALL HAVE SINNED
That is good news for each of us, because there is not a single one of
us whose lives look very much like they have been justified and brought into
perfect alignment with Christ. It is easy to see that “all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.” It doesn’t matter whom you meet: the more time you
spend with that person, the more thoroughly convinced that he or she is just as
sinful as everyone else is. (On the other hand, you can rest assured that, the
more time people spend with you, the more convinced they become of the same
thing.) Even if you cannot agree that ALL people have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, it should be relatively easy for you and I each to admit that
we ourselves have most certainly sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Goodness gracious! Just think about:
· The way you have treated the people in your life, either out of anger
or simply because of the opportunity;
· The words you have allowed to come out of your mouth, even after your
lips have been purified in the sin-cleansing water of Holy Baptism.
· The selfish, evil thoughts that go shooting through your head; or
· Those thoughts that you invite to sit down and stay for a while.
JUSTIFIED AS A GIFT… TO BE RECEIVED BY FAITH
In the same way that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God,” so too ALL “are justified by His grace as a gift.” Sometimes Christians
feel a little uncomfortable when they hear that God has justified all people,
forgiving all sins in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Such talk sometimes raises
the question, if God justifies all people, does that mean all people are
automatically going to be saved, whether or not they believe in Jesus?
By no means. All are certainly justified, but not all will believe
this. This is why Paul has added in today’s Epistle that justification is God’s
gift “to be received by faith.” The gift of forgiveness and life is for all,
but only those who hear and believe (Romans 10:17) receive the benefits of this
gift.
As a way of understanding this, let’s go back to the Morgan County Jail
or to one of the state prisons for a while. Think about the announcement the
warden has just made over the loudspeaker: “ALL inmates are hereby set free.
Please gather up your personal belongings and exit the prison. You are now free
to go.”
As you gather up your deck of cards and your toothbrush, you notice a
man sitting off to the side, reading the newspaper as though he has no plans to
go anywhere at all. “Didn’t you hear the good news?” you ask. “The warden has
released us. We are all free to go.”
“I have no need of the warden or his freedom,” the man replies. “You
can do what you want. I am staying right here and I will not be fooled by such
silly announcements.” The poor slob! The great gift of freedom is his as much
as it is anyone else’s—but he will receive no benefit from it. The foolish man
simply has no use for the gift, no interest in it, and no confidence in its
promises.
In much the same way, God’s apostle Paul declares to you today, “[ALL] are
justified by His [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus… to be received by faith.” Just as the benevolent warden has set
free all the inmates in the prison, so God has justified all people everywhere.
Just as the foolish inmate who rejected the message did not receive the
benefits of the gift, so all those who reject the message of Christ will
likewise miss out on the benefits of His inestimable gift.
“To be received by faith.” Use these Words from God as a way of thinking about,
and rejoicing in, the SECOND great gift your God has given to you, above and
beyond justification “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” What is
the second great gift God has given to you? It is the miraculous,
divinely-created gift of faith. Stated another way, not only does God give you
amazing promises, but He also gives you the ability to hear, understand, and
BELIEVE His promises.
· This is the value of your Baptism: that you would be born of the Spirit
(John 3), given by God a faith that you did not previously possess.
· This is the value of hearing the Word preached to you in worship,
because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ”
(Romans 10:17).
· This is the value of your communion here with your fellow saints: that
Jesus would help you overcome your unbelief (Mark 9:24) and create faith for
you by strengthening and nourishing you with His Body and Blood to life
everlasting.
No matter who crumpled or wrinkled or unaligned your daily life may seem, DO
NOT BELIEVE IT. Your Lord Jesus wants you to know in today’s Epistle that
everything has already been straightened out for you through His death and
resurrection. It is indeed true, “[You] have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.” Rejoice and give thanks to God that the second part of the
sentence is as true as the first: “[YOU] have been justified by His grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Every part of you,
corner to corner and edge to edge, has been pressed up against Jesus and God
will not let you go.
___________________________________________________________________________
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