Justified by Faith
Romans 5:1-5
June 6, 2004
A motorcycle patrolman was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. The doctors operated and advised him that all was well. However, the patrolman kept feeling something pulling at the hairs on his chest. Worried that it might be a second surgery the doctors hadn’t told him about, he finally got enough energy to pull his hospital gown down enough so he could look at what was making him so uncomfortable. Taped firmly across his hairy chest were three wide strips of adhesive tape, the kind that doesn’t come off. Written in large black letters was the sentence, “Get well quick! From the nurse you gave a ticket to last week.”
I think there was just a little latent hostility there. Apparently the nurse was still angry with the officer for giving her a ticket. In all actuality, though, he’s the one who should’ve been angry, because he hadn’t done anything wrong. In a way, that gives us an interesting insight into our relationship with God. Like the nurse, we too have broken the law – God’s Law. We have blatantly transgressed His commandments by what we do and by what we don’t do.
For instance, every time we gossip about someone, we’re breaking God’s Law. Every time we take God’s name in vain, we’re breaking His Law. Every time we fail to help someone in need or neglect our study of God’s Word, we are breaking His Law. As a result God has every right to be angry with us because of our sin. He could certainly find us with the worst ticket of all – His eternal wrath and condemnation in hell. And yet, amazingly enough, He has not done that. Instead, He has come up with a way to let us off that hook. For as St. Paul tells us in our text: “THEREFORE, SINCE WE HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED THROUGH FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!”
What a comforting message. God is no longer angry with us for our sin. Instead, He wants to make peace with us. In fact, He already has made peace with us, because Jesus took away God’s anger at our sin. That’s the thought that is summed up in that beautiful word justified. In Greek, it’s a verb that means: ‘to set right, or to deem as righteous.’ And that’s what Jesus did for us by His death on the cross. He erased all our sins and shortcomings in His blood and set things right between us and God. Which means that for Jesus’ sake God now deems us as righteous in His sight. He does not view us as His enemies to be destroyed, instead He considers us as His sons and daughters, forgiven and free. In short, He has given us a change of status from sinners to saints.
It’s a little bit like the old fable of the kings two sons, who came to him with the question: “Is a gentleman born or made?” The one son believed that a gentleman was born, but the other son thought a man could become a gentleman by training and discipline. So the king issued them a challenge: “Prove your case by presenting me an example. I give you a week to return with your proof.” And so the two sons departed in different directions. The son who believed a gentleman was made, not born, found his proof in a tavern. He ordered a cup of tea and was amazed, when he saw that the waiter was a cat. This cat had been trained to stand on his hind legs and carry the tray in His forepaws. He wore a tiny uniform and hat and was proof that a creature could overcome his nature with training and discipline. So he purchased the animal and took him to the court. The other son was not so fortunate. He searched the kingdom high and low, but was unable to find any support for his theory. He returned home empty-handed. What’s worse, word had leaked out about his brother’s discovery. News of the cat made him doubt his convictions. But then, just hours before the two were to appear before the king, he saw something in a store window that made his smile. He made the purchase, but told no one. The two sons entered the king’s court, each one carrying a box. The first son announced that he could prove that man could overcome any obstacle and become a gentleman. As the king watched, the son presented the cat, dressed in miniature court dress, who gave the king a tray of chocolates. The king was stunned, his son was proud, and the court broke into applause. What excellent proof! Who could deny the evidence of the walking cat? But the second son was not discouraged. With a bow to the king, he opened his box, releasing several mice into the court. Instantly the cat scampered after the mice!
The point, of course, is quite clear. You can put clothes on the cat, teach him tricks and train him to walk, but he is still a cat. And the same is true with people. You can’t change a man simply by changing his clothes. You have to transform his nature. Well, that’s exactly what God has done for us through Jesus Christ our Savior. He has transformed us from sinners into saints by justifying us in His sight. He has changed us from His enemies into His friends by making peace through the cross. And all of that is ours without any merit or worthiness on our part. We don’t have to work for it and there is no way that we can earn it. But we receive it freely as a gift by faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what Paul was talking about in our text, when he said that, “WE HAVE ACCESS BY FAITH INTO THIS GRACE IN WHICH WE NOW STAND.” By faith in Jesus we have direct access into God’s heavenly kingdom, both now and for eternity. Now the word ‘access’ means ‘to bring near,’ and in the LXX it was the technical term for the sacrifices at the temple, which brought the people near to God. Jesus, of course, was the ultimate sacrifice, because He gave up His life on the cross to bring us near to God, to bring us back into His good graces, to give us access to God’s throne-room for mercy and help any time we need it.
Which is why in our text Paul said that, we can rejoice even in the midst of our sufferings. He didn’t mean that we will necessarily happy when bad things happen to us. But when they do come, we can still rejoice, because we have access to God’s grace to help us through them. It is said that one of the first adventurers to sail around the cape at the bottom of South America ran into a storm that almost tore his ship to pieces. So he called the place Cape of Storms. Later the explorer Vasco da Gama came to that same place and changed the name to Cape of Good Hope. He looked past the cape and saw ahead of him the jewels and treasures of India.
In a similar way, we can look at our troubles in this life and call our existence here a Life of Storms, or we can look ahead at the future glory we have in Christ and say this is a Life of Hope. For as St. Paul put it in our text: “WE REJOICE IN THE HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD. AND HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT US, BECAUSE GOD HAS POURED OUT HIS LOVE INTO OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOM HE HAS GIVEN US.” Yes, God has actually poured all the fullness of His love directly into our hearts, by giving us the Holy Spirit in our Baptism, to wash away all our sins and give us saving faith in Jesus.
My friends, that’s why this text is such a perfect text for Trinity Sunday – because it shows how each person the Holy Trinity works for our salvation. God the Father initiated the plan of salvation, by lovingly giving up His only begotten Son, to make us His precious Sons and Daughters. God the Son, Jesus Christ, carried out the plan of salvation by dying for our justification, that we might be deemed righteous in God’s Sight. And God the Holy Spirit completes the plan of salvation, by using the Word and Sacraments to bring us to bring us into a saving relationship with Jesus and draw us ever closer to Him. May that strengthen us, then, in our faith in our Triune God and inspire us to serve Him with great zeal, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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06/29/2004