Faith's Rose - Romans 10:1-13

Jesus, Grace, and Faith

What are you depending on for a right relationship with God? As a Christian? It’s not a trick question. And it shouldn’t be hard. But as we think about the Luther Rose this morning, I look at that rose and I think so many are missing this. What is it that keeps God from sending us all to hell? What is it that is going to get us to heaven?

The easy answer is Jesus. I think we’d all agree he’s in the mix. And I think we’d all use the word “grace.” That’s in there. And then there’s the word “faith”. I think we would all agree that’s in the mix. But what ultimately are you depending on for your salvation? What is it that gets you to heaven?

There are many people who would say “grace” and “Jesus” and say it’s not by works. After all that’s what St. Paul said. It’s not by works. But then they say this: I’m going to heaven because “I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.” That’s what I was taught. In fact, saying the sinner’s prayer was like a magic potion. Say this prayer and you’re in. “I repent of my sins, please come into my heart.”

Who is doing all the action in all of that? Who’s the hero. This is exactly what Luther is arguing against, and ultimately fighting against when he had an artist draw up that rose. Because it’s none of those things. And I know some want to begin an argument about the semantics of “accepting Jesus as my Savior”, but the reality is that more often than not, when that statement is made, the person making the statement is saying “I accepted”. I did this. In fact, a few weeks ago I saw someone celebrating a salvation birthday with the claim it was 29 years ago told I made the best decision of my life. I decided to follow Jesus. You know what the person didn’t say? “29 years ago Jesus saved me and there was nothing I could do about it.”

It’s not our decision

That rose that Jose and Ayar painted on our back wall are saying exactly that. We’re trained to believe we made a decision. The Scriptures say otherwise. But before we get into this, let me say this: faith is not something that we do. So many Bible verses talk about faith… and we are trained to believe and even talk like faith is how we participate in our salvation but we still get to call it all grace. If faith is something we do, something we contribute, it’s not grace, because grace has “zero” to do with our participation.

Let me also say this as well… does faith feel like we’re making a decision? Yeah, absolutely it does. And I think that’s where begin going down that road. But faith is passive. Faith receives what Jesus has done for us, outside of ourselves. And faith is a gift. Jesus gives us faith through His Word and through His Sacraments. Faith believes Jesus and HIs Promise to forgive, his Promise to give us life, His Promise to save us. But all of the saving stuff… that’s Jesus. He gives us the faith we need to believe in Him.

Luther and Romans 10

Luther is in the fight for his life when he explains the rose. A friend of his had written to him asking for clarification about the seal. Luther answers the letter while under a lot of duress. His theology is on trial in Augsburg, Germany and he’s been banned from the trial because he’s an outlaw and a wanted man. He’s not allowed to attend. His friends have to be there on his behalf. He’s holed up in a town about 160 miles to the north of Augsburg and while he’s there, he writes a letter explaining the Luther rose. He cannot defend himself at Augsburg so he channels his defense into the explanation of the rose. The rose is why he and his theology of salvation by grace are on trial.

Luther has been reading Romans 10… it shows up in the letter. Romans 10 is St Paul’s explanation for how his way of thinking about salvation is different from the Jews. And in Paul’s explanation, Luther sees his own explanation as to how his way of thinking about salvation is different from Rome and what we now know as Roman Catholicism. Of the Jews and St. Paul’s opponents, Paul writes this:

Romans 10:3 They are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.

The Jews of Jesus and Paul’s day believe that salvation was by grace… but that our works were also necessary. Anything that involves us is an attempt to establish our own righteousness. Paul also says this:

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

That verse alone is worth its own sermon. But we’ll summarize it by saying Jesus is the end of trying to come up with our own righteousness. Trying to justify ourselves before God. Thinking that we can try to please God. This isn’t just about conversion. This isn’t just about going to heaven. This is about all of salvation, including our Christian life. This is our identity. Jesus is the end of us and any attempt to get good with God or stay good with God.

Then he gets down to verse 10, which he quotes in his explanation of his rose:

Romans 10:10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

Being right with God, or righteousness, comes from faith. Full stop. Righteousness doesn’t come from works. Righteousness doesn’t come from deciding or making the right choice for Jesus. From faith… a faith that is a gift, a faith that passive receives the Promise given and spoken through the Word and Sacraments… which is a little further down in Romans 10.

These are Luther’s thoughts as he explains the rose. Luther is giving a summary of the Gospel, a Gospel that is on trial at Augsburg. If you want to know what’s at stake, if you want to know what we mean by the Gospel, if you want to know what Jesus and his love and grace are all about, consider this white rose with a heart and cross in the middle.

The black cross: Faith in the Crucified One saves us

So what is Luther saying? First, the black cross is at the center of all of it. Without the cross, there is no Gospel, there is no rose here. The cross, where Jesus was killed as he himself, killed sin, death, and ultimately the devil. The cross kills the power of sin and sin itself. The cross is where salvation happens for us. People want to know why we talk so much about the cross… because the cross is dealing with our greatest need: forgiveness.

The red heart: Faith is alive

But there’s also this: Jesus dies so we don’t have to. The heart is given faith to believe. Faith is alive because of the cross. The cross is aimed at the heart and and as it does its work on the heart, the heart wraps itself around the cross. Faith clings to the cross as its only hope. We have a confession of faith here that expresses this in terms of confidence. Our heart’s confidence is in Jesus and His promises. And our confidence is there because Jesus has already created in us the confidence necessary to cling to the cross.

The white rose: Faith gives joy, peace, and comfort

White is the color of life. Luther says in his explanation that white is the color of angels. And what is the message of angels. Luther says the white symbolizes the joy and peace and comfort that comes from faith. We could spend all day on that thought as well. That is the paradox of a symbol of death. But that’s the language of the Bible. The cross, an instrument of death, is producing faith in the heart and in doing so produces joy, peace, and comfort. We highlight those 3 words at Christmas and it is good to do so. But it’s also good to remind ourselves that in dying for us, Jesus has given all of us the joy, peace, and comfort that we crave. We spend so much time looking for peace, joy, and comfort in so many things of this life. Luther is reminding us that we will only find joy, peace, and comfort, in Jesus.

The blue background: Faith is the stuff of heaven

But the blue is where Luther is most potent, and it is here where the Gospel turns everything upside down. Remember how I said, the Gospel is not me accepting Jesus as my savior? The blue background says it all: Jesus, my savior, accepts me. That’s the Gospel. Jesus, my Savior, accepts me. There is no me accepting Jesus… that’s all backwards. Faith does not have its source or origin in my heart. I cannot say that loud enough or be more emphatic about it because there is so much garbage out there about faith originating in our hearts. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the sentence in talking with someone… “if only I had enough faith.” And I want to scream… who told you that you don’t have enough faith? And why were they telling you that? Nobody has enough faith for anything. Faith is not something we somehow conjure up from inside of ourselves. The moment there is anything human about faith, that’s the moment that salvation is no longer by grace… it’s by works. If you don’t have enough faith, I have a word of absolution for you, I have the Gospel for you, I have the Lord’s Supper for you because Jesus promises to give you faith here. This is where faith finds you. Faith comes from heaven itself… it is born there… a gift from God himself delivered through Jesus and His Holy Spirit to our hearts through His Word. Heaven itself has come to reside in the heart… filling it with hope, a hope that is oriented toward Jesus. Once you see that blue background in this way, you cannot unsee it.

The gold ring: Heaven’s blessedness lasts forever

And the gold ring is the seal… it’s the cap. Luther is so right when he says heaven’s blessedness, found in Jesus and the cross, and received in faith, will last forever. The heaven that has come to reside in our hearts is eternity in the present. What is future is already presently ours. And all this pain, all this suffering, all this evil… it will not last. The cross made sure of it. And heaven is the final end of it. The gold ring reminds us that this is not all there is. Don’t you begin to believe it. Don’t you believe the devil’s whisperings that there is no end of all this misery and suffering. That gold ring encompassing the entire faith conversation is hope. It’s not a pie in the sky hope. It is hope grounded on the cross, grounded on who Jesus is for you. The heaven we have will be the heaven we finally experience. With Charlie and Bob and many many others we know.

Which brings us back to the center… the cross and the heart… when you look at that rose… the heart looks like a valentine. The original looked more like a heart organ, but the valentine could still be seen. The modern versions are all valentine. And that’s OK. Because when it’s all said and done… that rose is telling you that Jesus loves you. Jesus unconditionally loves you. There’s never a moment he doesn’t. there are no strings to his love and his grace. And that love and that grace aren’t just for you. They’re for your neighbor. That rose is also our mission. The gospel it symbolizes is a gospel for everyone. The joy, peace, and comfort that Jesus provides for us is joy, peace, and comfort our neighbors long to hear about and know. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves them. There is unconditional forgiveness to be received in faith. All symbolized in faith’s rose.

Let’s Pray

The Table

Everything about that Rose is proclaimed right here. It is here at this Table that Jesus creates faith in us to believe in His Promise. This Table is that Promise… His promise to forgive, provide life, provide grace, and provide salvation. This Table isn’t something you do. This Table is something done to you. FOR YOU. Every time we receive it in faith.

Benediction