Can you remember going to court as defendant?
Courtroom
Leonia
Plead it down before you get to the judge
What he said goes, that was it.
Courtroom probably not our favorite place.
I’d like you to think about something that’s not that easy or pleasant to think about.
Think about a time when you were convicted by God of your sin.
Perhaps it was circumstances
Perhaps it was willful running away from God.
Has it ever hit home for you that you are a sinner in the eyes of God?
That because of your sin, you deserve eternal death?
That you are helpless to save yourself?
At times in my ministry with you and to others this has hit home to me.
I know sometimes I’ve said the wrong thing.
Sometimes I’ve neglected to do or speak up for what was right.
I haven’t always cared for people the way a good pastor should.
Hard part for me, not only not doing a job well, but failing God and myself.
Maybe as a child, you had a brother or sister…I’m telling. You’re in trouble.
What the Apostle Paul has been teaching in the book of Romans so far is that the whole world is in trouble.
The whole world, both Jew and Gentile, both religious and non-religious persons, are accountable for their sin before God.
Because of that they suffer the wrath of God.
Says to the religious person—you judge others, do you not do the evil thing yourself as well?
What Paul says makes us want to skootch in the pew.
Is it hot in here, or what?
Truth is, God has to speak to us this way.
His Law must hit home in our hearts.
But that is not where God leaves us.
But now vs. 21-25 (NIV)
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 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. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
On our own, you and I can never be righteous before God.
God, our Father, doesn’t look only at our outward deeds.
God looks at our hearts as well.
Our hearts, according to Scripture, are deceitful and beyond understanding.
But there is one who is righteous.
God’s only Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, is the only man since the fall of Adam who was ever born without sin.
Jesus grew up without sinning.
Jesus lived in full obedience to God’s law.
When the time was right Jesus laid down his life on the cross.
There, Jesus endured God’s punishment for the sins of the whole world.
There, Jesus paid the price for your sins and mine.
I remember one time this especially hit home for me.
Away from home at a Pastor’s conference.
I was not happy with myself.
I was feeling guilty because of my sins.
I was sad, too, and ashamed of myself as well.
In the free time at the conference, I decided to take a nap.
Set the clock alarm.
First song to go off, simple
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. (repeat)
Fire alarm invisible ink, stained hands, can tell.
Alarm has gone off, hearts stained.
One who can make them clean.
Through His Holy Spirit, God gives us the faith to believe this Good and wonderful news.
God’s Holy Spirit works this faith in our hearts as we hear the message.
God’s Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through Word and Sacrament.
God, for Jesus’ sake, declares us not guilty.
In fact, in our baptism, through faith, God gives us Jesus’ own righteousness.
Jesus with his own blood has gone into the presence of God and covered our sins, once and for all.
Gift.
Grace.
God lifts the weight of sin from our shoulders.
God puts our sins where they belong—on the cross of Jesus.
There God covered our sins, once and for all.
That’s what the word “atonement” means.
There God satisfied the debt we could never pay Him.
That’s what the word “propitiation” means.
Hiking, backpack off, how good that feels.
Lay our sins on Jesus.
Rev. Dr. Tony Steinbronn, in a sermon last week, said, Luther’s writings and the Reformation revealed God the Father’s heart.
The Scriptures tell us for the sake of Jesus, God is not our enemy anymore, but our dearest friend and father.
Jesus is our dear brother.
We don’t have to try to hide our sins or sweep them under the rug.
Confess them to God, and in Jesus, know that we are truly forgiven.
The gavel in the courtroom has come down, God has declared us not guilty for Jesus sake.
This also helps us to stop trying to work our way to heaven.
It points to Jesus as our only Savior.
Directs us to him in every need.
Lutheran Catholic dialog at CGH
“You Lutherans are so lucky, you don’t have to do anything.”
We don’t have to do anything to be saved, except believe.
Faith is God’s work in our heart, from beginning to end.
But we get to share the faith.