He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Last Friday, Good Friday we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the Law as a curb and a mirror. Today we begin our Easter celebration and we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about justification.
The word “justification” is a great word. Perhaps you have heard me suggest that to be justified means that when God looks at us He sees us “just as if I’d” never sinned and that is our greatest desire on the day of judgment, for to be otherwise judged would indeed be hell. We live in a world where we constantly hear people who have been harmed cry out for “justice.” Unfortunately, I would suggest that in too many cases in our world today it really is not justice that people want but more often than not what they truly want is revenge. So, what is justification and why is it so important, especially to us Christians? And how are we justified?
In order to understand justification and God’s justice we must begin with ourselves. Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin. Following God’s curse in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s one command, God promised to take care of their sin by sending a Savior. Yet, their sin and corrupt nature continue to be born in each one of us. It is in our DNA and from the moment of conception we are sinful and are held accountable for our sin. If we were not sinful nor held accountable for our sin from the moment of conception, or until we should reach some age of accountability as some would suggest, then we would not die because it is sin and our accountability for our sin which brings death, notice then the importance of infant baptism.
Not only are we conceived and born in sin, but God’s demand is and has been since creation that we are perfect. That is that we perfectly obey all God’s Laws and commands. Since we are conceived and born in sin our nature is to sin, as God tells us in Genesis, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) and daily we add to our inborn sin our own sins. We sin in thought, word and deed, in our actions. We sin sins of commission by doing the things we should not do. We sin sins of omission by failing to do the things we should be doing. Indeed, we sin continually and we do not even need to practice because it comes natural to us to sin.
God promised Adam and Eve a Savior. God reiterated His promise to Abraham with the promise that the Savior would come through His family line. God added a condition to His covenant with Moses and Israel that if they would be obedient He would give them a lasting earthly kingdom, which we know they lost because of their failure to be obedient. Yet, God’s eternal, unconditional covenant with Adam and Eve and Abraham was never lost that is the eternal kingdom of heaven. So, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, God Himself taking on human flesh and blood in order to do what Adam and Eve could not do, obey one command; what Abraham and all Israel could not do, obey Ten Commandments; and yes, even what we cannot do, be perfectly obedient. Jesus, true God, born as a human, in the flesh, lived the perfect life demanded of us for us in our place.
And so we understand that Jesus, true God in perfection had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, that is to trade His perfection for our imperfection. And He did. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Last Friday we came and we were reminded of Jesus perfect life and His perfect suffering and death for us, in our place.
As we have heard said many times, God created us to love us and so He does. In His Gospel John quotes Jesus as saying, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The love of which Jesus speaks is the Greek love of “agape,” which is well defined as a self-less concern or a God-like love, truly the kind of love only God can have for us so much so that He gave His life for ours and for us.
To help us better understand that this agape love can truly only be the love God has for us and we are unable to emulate such love we have the account following His resurrection when Jesus asked Peter, “do you agape me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila” or brotherly “love you.” A second time Jesus asked Peter, “do you agape me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila you” or brotherly “love you.” Finally, the third time Jesus asked Peter, but instead this time He asked, “do you phila me?” And Peter’s response was, “Yes, Lord, I phila you.” Peter understood he could not have agape love for Jesus because, as Jesus asks him the third time he knows that three times he denied knowing Jesus. Peter knew he could only “phila Jesus.” Thus, the third time Jesus helps Peter know he has been forgiven because of God’s agape love for him. For God so loved, agaped the world. Indeed, agape love is a selfless concern for another person, the kind of love only God can have for us.
Paul helps us to better understand God’s agape love in His work of making us just and right in His eyes as he tells us, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ). We would define grace as gift. A gift is not a present such that we give someone a present and they give us one in return. A gift, a true gift is given without expectation of anything given in return. Thus, God gifts us in giving us all the gifts and blessings He has to give even knowing that not only is our nature to not respond, but we are unable to respond, at least not without His help.
Thus, we are saved, we are gifted salvation through faith which is a gift as well. Faith is that thing which takes hold of and makes something ours. Yet, not only is faith important, but so is the object of faith. Faith in faith is empty faith. Faith must have an object and it must be the right object. Faith in a tree will not bring forgiveness and salvation.
The only object of saving faith is Jesus. Because we are conceived and born in sin. Because every intention of our hearts is evil all time. Because we cannot choose Jesus. Because we cannot accept Jesus. Because we cannot dedicate our lives to Jesus. Because we cannot be perfectly obedient, God sent Jesus to do all these things for us, choose us, accept us, dedicate His life to us, live a perfectly obedient life for us. God is the one who calls us to faith and gives us faith. God calls us to and gives us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation and He does so through the means He has given, His Word, Holy Absolution and His Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. Through these very means He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith.
What does this mean? Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin and we daily add to our sin. We cannot justify ourselves. When we look in inside ourselves all we see is sin. Just as a dead person cannot bring himself back to life, just as a drowning person cannot save himself, just as we cannot choose to be born, so we cannot save ourselves, no matter how hard we try or are told to try.
Salvation, justification must come from outside of us. We must look outside ourselves and when we look outside ourselves we are to look to Jesus to see our salvation. Because of God’s great agape love for us, knowing all that would happen, He created the world and us anyway. He promised and fulfilled His promise of a Savior. He came, God in flesh to live for us, to suffer and die for us and to rise for us. He came defeating sin, death and the devil, for us. And He gives it all to us, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
As you continually hear me say, we get it right when we point to Jesus. Pointing to ourselves only brings despair, or it could bring us to works righteousness. We get it right when we point to Jesus. It is all God’s doing and gift, all our being done to and gift given. We are made just and right in God’s eyes, where it counts as He is the judge of all, by God Himself, through the gift of faith, the instrument which He gives to grab on to Jesus, for forgiveness and life.
As we once again begin our Easter celebration we rejoice in what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. He gives and we are given to. He does and we are done to. He gives faith and we are given faith. He gives forgiveness and we are forgiven. He gives eternal life and we know for certain that we have eternal live. Thanks be to God.
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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