The Faith that Justifies
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
A dishonest lawyer, named Murphy, once bribed a man on his client's jury to hold out for a charge of manslaughter, as opposed to the charge of murder which was being brought by the state. The jury was out deliberating for several days before they finally returned with the manslaughter verdict. When Murphy paid off the corrupt juror, he asked him if he had a very difficult time persuading the other jurors to see things his way. “I sure did,” the juror replied. “The other eleven wanted to acquit him.”
That poor defendant. He wound up being convicted, when he could have been acquitted. He was found guilty, instead of being declared innocent. You know my friends, it’s the exact opposite of the position that you and I are in. On the one hand, we are truly guilty, caught red-handed transgressing against the holy Law of God. In particular, we are guilt not must of manslaughter, but of murder – of willingly crucifying the Righteous Son of God, by our sinful thoughts, words and deeds. And as a result, we ought to be convicted and condemned. We ought to have the book thrown at us. But instead, the miracle is that the charges against us have been dropped we have been exonerated. Not only have we been found not guilty, we’ve been declared righteous and innocent of all our sins. Not because of a crooked juror, but because we have the best Defense Lawyer there is – Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Such is the thought behind our Epistle Lesson for today, where St. Paul writes: “TO THE MAN WHO DOES NOT WORK BUT TRUSTS GOD WHO JUSTIFIES THE WICKED, HIS FAITH IS CREDITED AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” What an amazing word of Gospel – God justifies the wicked! He doesn’t just overlook our sin, as if it’s no big deal. Nor does He prorate our sin, letting us off the hook, because somehow what we did was not as bad as someone else. No, He justifies us, that is, He acquits us, in spite of the fact that we are wicked.
Now, the word ‘wicked’ is a Greek word that literally means: ‘ungodly, without any awe or reverence for God and His laws.’ And that’s exactly what our heart is like by nature. Instead of fearing, loving and trusting in God above all things, we trust in ourselves and put our needs and wants and desires first. Which is why we transgress God’s holy Law, by taking His name in vain and failing to worship Him like we should, by disrespecting authority and hurting our neighbor, by giving into lust and greed and selfishness. As a matter of fact, the word ‘transgress’ in our text actually means: ‘to step across the line,’ like a free-throw shooter in basketball, who commits a lane violation. Only in this case, when we step across the boundary line of God’s holy Law, we don’t just lose a point, we lose the game altogether – we wind up destroying ourselves and one another, and find ourselves condemned to hell.
Back in October of 1990 the Associated Press carried the following news item: “More than six decades after Ettore Bugatti produced the car that became a symbol of the Roaring 20s, a company is reviving the Bugatti. The new car goes 220 mph, has six gears, and costs up to $600,000. It can be purchased only by people whom the company deems worthy. Romaro Artioli, chairman of the board of Bugatti Automobile, states, “’You must, of course, have the means to acquire one. But above all you must have the right moral qualities. Otherwise we don’t sell to you?.’”
Dear friends, if God poured out His blessings based on that same criteria, if we had to be morally worthy to receive His salvation, we would be eternally lost. Which is to say, that there is no way we can justify ourselves by keeping the Law. It would be like asking a broken car to fix itself and start running again. It’s impossible, for you and I are inherently broken and flawed by sin, and so there is no way we can make ourselves holy in God’s sight by observing the Law. For as St. Paul says in our text, the Law only brings God’s wrath and anger, His righteous judgment and condemnation against us. Or as Article XII of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: “?But without Christ this law is not kept. It always accuses the conscience, which does not satisfy the law and therefore flees in terror before the judgment and punishment of the law?.”
Therefore, the only way to be justified, acquitted of our sins and declared innocent and not guilty in God’s sight, is not by doing works of the Law, but simply as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. For instance, in Aledo, Ill., some years ago a circuit court jury convicted James Gibson, an 18-year-old high school senior, of voluntary manslaughter for stabbing his teacher to death. The jurors fixed the punishment at one to seven years in the state penitentiary. Then all went to shake his hand and wish him well. Seven jurors were weeping. Some embraced him, and one said, “?God bless you, my boy.?” The farm-raised student, who had remained poker-faced during the nine-day trial, had tears in his eyes. The jurors were moved to sympathy and compassion over the fate of the boy, but not one of them said, “?Let me serve your sentence.?”
But this is exactly what Jesus Christ did for you and me. He served our sentence, dying a terrible death on the cross, suffering the agony of hell, and then rising victorious from the grave. Because of that, God can now say to us, “?You are exaempt from the penalty; your punishment and your guilt have been transferred from you to Jesus Christ. And You are now free to go.?” That’s what the word ‘justify’ means. And that’s what we receive as a free gift, by faith in Jesus’ name.
In our text, St. Paul likens it to the faith of Abraham, where he says: “‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ NOW WHEN A MAN WORKS, HIS WAGES ARE NOT CREDITED TO HIM AS A GIFT, BUT AS AN OBLIGATION. HOWEVER, TO THE MAN WHO DOES N0T WORK BUT TRUSTS GOD WHO JUSTIFIES THE WICKED, HIS FAITH IS CREDITED AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Because the Jews mistakenly believed that Abraham was the primary example of salvation by works, St. Paul takes great pains here to point out that Abraham was saved by faith. In fact, this quote from Genesis 15:6 shows that God poured out His righteousness to Abraham a full 14 years before he was ever circumcised. In other words, Abraham had kept no law, rendered no serviceto God and performed no ritual to earn His favor. Instead, God simply credited to his account by faith.
Now, by nature credit is a gift, like when you go to the store and get something on credit. They give it to you, even though you can’t pay for it. Of course, they assume you will eventually pay for it. God assumed no such thing. He knew that we could not pay the debt of our sins. So He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay off that debt for us and to cancel it out completely by nailing our sins with Himself to the cross and destroying them once and for all. In short, we can cash the checks of God’s forgiveness, love and salvation, and they will not bounce, because Jesus has applied His righteousness to our heavenly bank account, so that we can receive the full redemption of our souls as a credit by faith in Jesus.
Sadly, some people think that this faith is some work we do in deciding to follow Jesus. But nothing could be further from the truth. Even our faith is a gift from God, poured out in our Baptism, when the Holy Spirit called us into God’s kingdom and made us believers in Christ. And only the Holy Spirit can strengthen and keep us in that faith, as we daily study and pour over the Scriptures, and reguarly feast on Jesus’ body and blood in the Holy Supper, and as we frequently renew our Baptism by confession our sins and letting Jesus blood cleanse away all our guilt. For that is how we are justified in His sight.
A poet and an artist once examined a great painting representing the healing of the blind men of Jericho. To the poet everything about the portrait seemed excellent — the form of Christ, the grouping of the individuals, the expressions on the faces of the leading characters. The artist, however, viewed it in a different light. “? Do you see the discarded cane laying there? When the blind man heard of Christ, he was so sure of being healed that he let his cane lie there, firmly believing that he would need it no longer.”
Dear friends, the artist saw something the poet did not. He saw the confident faith of the blind man. You know, so often we hold on to the canes and crutches of our own works and all sorts of other means for help instead of coming directly to Jesus Christ our Savior. But only He can heal us of the sin-sckness of our soul. Only He can justify and acquit us in God’s sight. May God the Holy Spirit convince us each day to discard the canes and crutches of our works and deeds, and to put our full that is the faith that justifies. Amen.
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03/03/2005