THE REFORMATION FESTIVAL, ??06 (10/29) 
Sir, we would see JESUS!
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Asheville, NC
Romans 3: 19-26 

?¨God??s Perfect Deliverance?Æ
by Rev. Frederick Stiemke

In the Name of JESUS!

Beloved will you pray with me? Gracious heavenly Father, as we today give You thanks for restoring Your Church to hold to the Bible alone as the sole source and norm for all Christian teaching and practice, we praise You that in Jesus Christ, Your Son, You have done everything necessary for our eternal salvation. Your grace also gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Through Your Spirit??s power help us to respond to Your love with renewed commitment to trust Jesus alone as our Savior and Redeemer to Your glory. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, our merciful Savior, precious people of God:

Today Lutheran churches throughout the world are pausing to give thanks to almighty God for the great reforming work our Lord brought about in the Christ??s Church through a sinful, but searching Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther. For on October 31, 1517, Luther posted his 95 Theses for debate. Among other items nailed up for debate on that date, Luther stated it was not acceptable for the church of his day to sell papers, called indulgences, as a means of forgiving the sins of the people since believers in Christ already had full and free pardon won for them on the cross. The forgiveness of sins is totally God??s free gift in Jesus Christ. Luther??s belief came as a result of his study of the Holy Bible. 

Ultimately the process God started with Luther??s posting of his 95 Theses forced Luther as a teacher of doctrine and the Bible at the University in Wittenberg, Germany, under the Holy Spirit??s guidance to come to three key understandings of God??s revealed truth based on his Biblical studies. They were that the Bible alone should be the one and only source of the Church??s doctrine and practice. Secondly, Luther saw clearly that a person??s salvation is a free gift of God, i.e., that we are saved by God??s grace alone. Thirdly, an individual is acceptable before God solely by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, though a Christian who believes in Jesus as the Savior in thanksgiving will strive to lead a God-pleasing life with God??s help, that individual??s works and the morality of that person??s life can in no way earn or contribute anything to earn the Lord??s forgiveness or favor. God alone does the saving!

Luther??s Biblical studies brought about other subsequent returns to Biblical doctrine as well. For example, he learned from the Bible that the bread and wine in the Lord??s Supper are not changed into the body and blood of Jesus, but that along with the bread and wine Christ actually shares His true body and blood with the communing Christian as the Savior??s guarantee of God??s forgiveness and as a means of strengthening faith. The powerful Word of Jesus, ?¨This is My body,?Æ and, ?¨This is My blood,?Æ accomplishes what the Lord promises, granting us the assurance of forgiveness. Thus, we do not worship and adore the bread and wine, but rather our Savior who comes to us with His body and blood as we receive the physical elements in Holy Communion. 

Luther also came to see that one does not need a pastor to forgive one??s sins. Anyone can pray directly to Jesus for pardon, and his sins will be forgiven. However, Luther knew that to the penitent sinner because of Jesus?? promise and command, that person also receives Christ??s own forgiveness when the pastor proclaims in the Savior??s name pardon for sins. Absolution is another gracious way of God??s bringing His saving love to believers. When proclaimed by the pastor in public worship, this is as valid and certain as if spoken by Jesus Himself. Our Lord has already said this is so in the Bible. [E.g., John 20:23] These are just a few of the wondrous rediscoveries that our gracious God gave to Dr. Martin Luther and through him to us. We are humbly thankful for all the many, many truths the Lord restored to His Church through His servant, Dr. Martin Luther.

So what are we to do with all this? Well, one thing Satan and our sinful flesh would like us to do is think that we Lutherans are better Christians than other believers. If we go that way, we immediately put ourselves into direct opposition to the teaching of Scripture and under God??s judgment. There??s no such thing as a ?¨better Christian?Æ ?± only forgiven Christians! That wrong course of response would immediately put us under the curse of God??s Law. We cannot claim any merit before God on the basis of what we are, do or believe. As the Spirit tells us in today??s Epistle reading: ?¨Every mouth must be silenced and all the world be held accountable to God.?Æ [Romans 3: 19] As Paul states earlier in this same chapter, apart from our faith in Jesus, ?¨All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.?Æ [3: 12] In His faithful love the Lord prods us to accept His judgment as reality by adding in today??s Epistle reading, ?¨. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, . . .?Æ [3: 23]

The place to begin when we recognize God??s extraordinary mercy in preserving so rich a heritage and these wondrous truths among us is once again to confess that, in spite of all our knowledge, we sin and come short of God??s glory. The only place we can go is to flee daily to our heavenly Father for His mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. Then we can with the help of Holy Spirit rejoice in so great a deliverance by our Lord. He has revealed to us that Christ??s own righteousness is then our very own. [3: 22] That alone can quiet our guilty consciences. 

Being fully aware of our sinful slowness to grab hold of this glorious truth and our hesitancy to trust the Lord totally to do everything for our deliverance, the Spirit led Paul to repeat this reality in our text today. He wrote that we ?´are justified freely by His (i.e., God??s) grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him (i.e., Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice . . . at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.?Æ [3: 24-26] What amazing, astounding love! The Lord is the one who acts to deliver us! God??s perfect salvation to us is 100% free! That was not so for the holy Son of God, Jesus! For Him it meant intense suffering far beyond what we can imagine and ultimately His atoning death on the cross on our behalf. But for us, it??s free! Now through the blood of Christ we are one with our God ?± ?¨just like He wants us to be?Æ ?± totally cleansed of the taint of all sin through His declaring us just in the Lord??s eyes day after day. 

Precious children of God, bought by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, I earnestly pray that the Spirit of the living God, who has revealed these glorious truths to us and brought us to this one true saving faith, will ever preserve this trust in our hearts and minds and souls. For then alone will we know God??s peace; for when God acts, He does so perfectly and completely. Thank the Lord! God??s radical, perfect deliverance is 100% the Lord??s saving act. In fact, even our faith in Jesus and His saving work is also completely the free gift of the Holy Spirit. [1 Corinthians 12: 3,b] Trusting Jesus, we are not under God??s condemnation! [Romans 8: 1] Relying on Jesus alone as our Savior, we can shout, ?¨Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty! I??m free at last!?Æ Indeed! Free from sin, free from the curse of the Law, even free from the powers of death and hell! ?¨Thank God almighty! I??m free at last!?Æ

To God Alone Be the Glory!

© Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD, Vacancy Pastor