Reformation Day 2017

What in the world was this all about? We see all the 500 year anniversary stuff and I wonder if we really know what happened and why it was important? Some will assert that it was just trivial discourses of Bible doctrine. Some will assert that it was a rebellion thing. Some will assert that it was over nothing. Some scholars have said… the reformation is over. Luther may have been right in the 16 century but he is not today. It has all been worked through already. Its already resolved. Family, do we realize that it was the very Gospel of Jesus which was at stake?

Some of us would acknowledge that we are protestants and we know that much. But when I ask what it is that we are protesting, many do not know. But here is something troubling… Why do we not know? Is it because we were never taught, or do we just not care? I wonder because there is a problem. There was rejoicing in the protestant world to see the Roman Church fracturing theologically… many priests today will affirm justification by faith alone and we are finding out that many Roman Catholics actually believe in justification by faith alone even though the council of Trent declares that if you do you are anathema. Here is the problem… there are many protestants today who do not believe in justification by faith alone and when asked how we are saved will sound more like a Roman Catholic than a Protestant.

In our day, however, most Protestants are not even familiar with this doctrine. With either stern rigor or happy tips for better living, conservatives and progressives alike end up smothering the gospel through constant exhortations to either personal or social transformation. More concerned with a better life than with salvation. Moral transformation instead of the gospel. Focused on becoming good people then transformed christians. Being good citizens than being good christians. Sure many of these principles will keep you out of jail, but it will not keep you out of hell.

Why is this important? We need to get the Gospel right. It is important to get it right before we get it out. To not preach the gospel right is to preach another gospel.

Galatians 1:9 NLT

I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

This is serious. It is eternally serious. It was eternally serious in the 16th century as it is eternally serious today. It is not just a matter of life and death, but one of everlasting life and everlasting damnation. The reformation does give us a great platform to get things straightened out in our minds as we look at the scripture that started it all. We need to rediscover what happened with the reformation and justification by faith alone.

Romans 1:17 ESV

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

The Gospel according to Rome

Justification by Faith Alone

Salvation Belongs to the Lord

The first thing we will look at is the setting right before Luther nails his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door. Lastly, we will see why Martin Luther said that, “justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.” We will look at the Salvation of the Lord that He graciously presents to His people.

Thesis: Even though our society is confused by the inherent need for justification that we will seek it in various places that bring no peace with an unreachable standard, our Lord Jesus who is the ultimate of perfection is our righteousness; our justification that we receive though faith and through faith alone.

I. The Gospel According to Rome

How are you saved in Roman Catholicism?

A. Well let start it off by making one thing perfectly clear. Rome does indeed believe that we are justified by faith. You have to have faith in Christ to receive the gift of grace. It is necessary for salvation. You cannot be justified without it. So then what was the problem?

B. Though it is necessary… it is not sufficient. It is not enough. You need to have more. So the best way to illustrate this is by saying, it is possible to have saving faith and not be save. Gotta have faith to get it, but thats not all. Rome taught that it is possible to have faith, but commit mortal sin and actually lose the grace of God in our souls. And all the while still believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. You see it cannot be faith alone.

C. When a person is saved… the first instance is Baptism. It washes away original sin and we are infused with the righteousness that makes us capable of being the righteous people God required. But if we sin, we lose our justification. We lose the grace given to us. Therefore there is something that needs to happen, since we all sin all the time. There is the sacrament called penance. There are several parts to penance. Lots will sound familiar.

D. First of all we need confession. “Forgive me father for I have sinned… list all the sins we committed.” And after that, we hear the assurance of our pardon. Now remember that confession and assurance is not the problem. We all should always confess our sins to our Elders and we all should be assured of the Lord’s forgiveness and be encouraged by the mercy of Christ.

E. The problem was the next thing… it was called satisfactio “work of satisfaction.” Works that we need to do to be restored again to the state of grace. So here we see what the reformers were calling faith plus works. These works will satisfy God’s demands for righteousness. They are things like so many hail Mary’s, so many our Fathers, giving alms or buying indulgences…ahhh bingo things are starting to tremble.

F. Here is the next step. There are two kinds of works. Condign merit and congruous merit. Condign merit was works that you did that was so amazingly awesome that it demanded a reward from God. Congruous merit was works that when done it would be fitting that the Lord would restore you to grace. It didn’t demand restoration, but it would be normative. Scary.

H. Rome makes clear that God will never ever ever ever declare a person just unless righteousness actually inheres in the person. God will never say that you are just until you actually are just. You cannot become inherently righteous without faith, you cannot without grace, and you cannot without Christ, you can become inherently or actually by our own efforts righteous and if you want to go to heaven you must be inherently righteous. According to Rome, if you die and you are inherently righteous, you will go straight to heaven.

I. This is where getting your last rites before you die come into play. The priest will make sure you are inherently righteous before you die at the last moment. This is why it was super important to get the last rites and how awful it would be for someone to die before they got the last rites. All it took was there to be one tiny little speck of sin on your record before you die and you will not go to heaven. You first have to go to the purging place. To make sure that all the imperfections on your soul is purified before you can go to heaven. Purgatory.

J. Now this is a quick summary of the Gospel according to Rome. And in my opinion, this is not good news at all. If we have to be inherently or actually righteous by our own efforts righteous then all it would take is one bad day in Denver traffic or one really bad Denver Nuggets basketball game and I would be in purgatory or a million years.

K. So now… Luther comes in. Remember we have congruous merit, we have condign merit, and now we also have supererogation merit. Works of supererogation is so meritorious because one goes above and beyond the call of duty. They did things so awesome that there was a surplus of rewards given to them. If they needed 5 points to get in … they did something so awesome that they were given 20 points. They only needed 5 so they have 15 points left over. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine, the Virgin Mary, St. Teressa.

L. All the extra merit from these saints, go into what is called the treasury of merit… a bank. Rome has the key to that treasure chest. This is how indulgences worked. If you gave money to the church or money to build St. Peters Bacillica in Rome then you will receive an indulgence which will give you some of the left over merit of the saints to get you or your loved one out of purgatory. Tetzel… when a coin in the copper cup rings a soul from purgatory springs.

M. Martin Luther reads and everything changes. The just shall live by faith. We are talking about that by the grace of the Lord that He gives me that I receive the moment I believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God and that by believing I will have life in His Name!

N. I am declared righteous before God when I have faith in Christ and Christ alone because The Lord will put the perfect righteousness of Christ on my account. This is why I can say, in accordance with the scriptures, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I say this not because of anything I have done for I have done nothing, but because of what Christ has done and He has done everything. My hope is not in what I have done or what others have done, but what the King of kings and the Lord of Lords has done for His people. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.

O. But think about this… The Roman church will call this legal fiction. It is merely fiction to believe that the Lord would put an alien righteousness from Christ on our account. That we are foolish to believe that the Lord would do this. That He would cover us with the blood of Jesus and wash us whiter than snow because of the work Christ had done. But you don’t think it fiction that sinful man can do works so abundant that it would demand a reward from God (Unworthy Servant). And it would be so abundant that it there would be leftovers. And it would be stored in a treasury. And it would be controlled by the pope. And that if you give money, you can buy this merit. And with the signing of a piece of paper their merit would be put on your account or on the account of a person of your choosing?

II. Justification by Faith Alone

- We all have a standard by which we live and none of us will ever meet it. Even the standards we have for ourselves. This is why we sound like Rome.

Genesis 15:6 NLT

And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Genesis 15:6

A. Justification/Righteousness - To help us understand it in today’s terms it is a performance record. Like a Resume… if you are looking for a job you should submit a resume or fill out an application. This is your performance record. If you are wanting to go to a ivy league school for your Master’s Degree you send your grades and test scores. It is your performance record. What does this do? It justifies why you should be accepted and why you should be hired. This is why we are worthy of this position

B. The problem is in life we are all seeking justification for our existence and we are looking to meet it somehow. Always looking to meet it with some kind of performance. And because of all of this we all believe that it is the same with God. Therefore, if we are good enough, if we have a good performance record, the Lord will let us in. All we know and have known is a righteousness and justification that we have to get on our own.

C. Many people today look to justify their own existence. Movie mogul Sydney Pollack fears he will never retire - because he couldn't justify his existence if he stopped making films. He explains, "Every time I finish a picture, I feel like I've done what I'm supposed to do in the sense that I've earned my stay for another year or so.

D. It is ingrained in us. That is why we always cling to it. If we want to experience stuff we gotta be worthy enough. Want to go to the movies we gotta have a ticket. Want to have a meal with good service, we need to pay a lot of money for it. We want nice things we gotta have what it takes to get it. In all things in life, we gotta be worthy enough for it.

E. But Sydney Pollak is giving us a clue to the problem we all face. We will never feel like we did enough. We will always feel like we could have done sooo much more. Because the reality is… whether we will admit it or not the standard is the standard that the Lord has instilled in all of us. And we will always come up short and we will always fail. God is way too Holy for our good works and our good works are way to filthy for our Holy God.

F. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to the Lord

Isaiah 64:6 NLT

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

G. This is why we have no hope in the gospel according to Rome. The scriptures give us a completely different story. Our only hope is a righteousness that is not our own. The only righteousness that will satisfy our Holy Lord is the righteousness of the Son of God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our hope in not in our works, but in the works done by the Son.

H. Our assurance is not in ideologies, our efforts, the merit of the saints, penance, indulgences… it is in the grace of God alone not the merit of the saints, through faith alone not dependent on any of our works and in Christ alone and not in Hailing Mary at all. Our hope is in Christ and His Gospel. It is not in the Roman Church it is in Christ Alone. Our Justification is by faith alone. You can do nothing to help your situation or salvation. It is by grace through faith and not by works.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

I. Shane you can’t preach like this… if you do then people are gonna do what ever they want to do. If they do then they are not Christians. They do not love God.

John 14:23 NLT

Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.

J. If your Dad told you that no matter what you do I’m gonna love you and will accept you. Nothing will change no matter what you do. What child who loves their father is gonna now do all that they know the father does not want. No we are now gonna want to do moreso now what our father desires.

K. Yes we do sin. Yes all have fallen short of the glory of God. Yes our works do nothing but condemn us even more daily. We need grace. We need mercy. We need salvation. We have it.

L. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures… The saying is trustworthy… He became sin who knew no sin...

M. All who call upon the name of the Lord. If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts.

N. Rejoice today. The Lord had brought back the truth of the Gospel to his church in the reformation. We thank the Lord for the scriptures that do declare justification by faith alone. So this week we should celebrate October 31st 1517 Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the Wittenberg door. We celebrate Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria.

   I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.