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sref02
"Justified!"
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Text: John 8:31-36
Date: Reformation Day 
The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
10/27/02
On this Reformation Day, 2002, we note the
485th Anniversary of Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses
on October 31, 1517. As a result of his study of the Bible the former
law student-turned-Augustinian monk proposed a dialogue on certain
discrepancies he saw between the teaching of scripture and certain
of the current teachings of the church. I hope many of you availed
yourselves of viewing the film of the story and history of Martin
Luther last Friday evening. If you didn't, and if you don't know
the story, we may carefully lend out the videotape of the film.
It is important to learn about Luther, the Reformation, Luther's
catechisms and writings, the Augsburg Confession and other confessional
documents. Yet, it is possible to become an expert on Reformation-era
history and still miss the main thing, the truly central, over-arching
and important point of the Reformation and what we celebrate today.
For it is not as much the man we celebrate, but the fundamental
doctrine of the Bible he discovered when the church had grown dark
and blind; that fundamental doctrine that is and must be spiritually
discerned-the Holy Spirit working through the Word giving, building
and strengthening the gift of faith.
Therefore, every Reformation Day, we hear those
clearest words concerning the doctrine of the justification of the
sinner by God's grace through faith in Christ alone-the words of
the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans-the very words which,
Luther said, opened the gates of heaven to him after his long and
agonizing struggle and search for the answer to the question of
how a righteous and holy God can reconcile himself with and save
the unrighteous sinner. And these are the words: "For we hold that
one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." It is that
fundamental issue and question of our natural, sin-bound minds,
whether a person is made righteous before God by means of his becoming
good enough and doing enough good works-which is what the way of
the Law is all about. The great surprise of the Gospel is that God
has decided to simply declare a sinner righteous and acceptable
to him who puts his faith in Jesus Christ.
In our Old Testament reading from the prophet
Jeremiah, God calls this a "new covenant." Yet, it is not "new"
in the sense that God's plan of salvation had changed, but "new"
only in the sense of that plan being fulfilled in the coming of
the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. The way of the Law
is Divine letters written on stone and parchment-the Law of God
that condemns sin and seeks to make us despair of ourselves so that
we might discover the Gospel, the Good News of the forgiveness of
sins for the sake of Christ's death and resurrection. The "new covenant"
is that, with the coming of Christ, God will no longer dwell in
the Jerusalem tabernacle, but will dwell in his people, making them
the tent of his presence. He will place his torah within them by
faith in Christ who is the torah-incarnate.
The doctrine of the justification of the sinner
by God's grace through faith in Christ alone is the heart of the
Gospel. In everyday language we use the word "justified" to describe
a person or an action as being morally right according to the facts.
As a current example, we would say that the Washington D.C.-area
snipers were certainly not "justified" in killing innocent people.
No individual person is "justified" in killing anyone, even guilty
people. On the other hand, the government, as the authorized agent
of God, is justified in punishing these criminals with imprisonment
or even the death penalty.
In all the media coverage of this event, the
word "forensic" is now being spoken over and over again, as in referring
to the forensic evidence. This is an important word to know also
when it comes to understanding how a sinner is justified by God
through grace, for it is the doctrine of forensic justification.
The medical examiner or forensic pathologist is charged with the
task of scientifically and medically-according to the documented
facts-determining the cause of death. His or her findings are considered
factual and legal in a court of law. In a similar way, God has examined
the death of his Son, Jesus, and determined that his death is sufficient
payment for all sin past, present and future of every human being.
By his Word and Sacraments, God then turns and justly declares sinners
forgiven and righteous on the evidence of Christ's death and their
faith in him.
Another way we use the word "justify" is in
the sense of executing criminals or traitors. They may be "justified"
by the firing squad, justified by hanging, justified by lethal injection
or the electric chair. To be justified by faith, then, you see,
is a unique way of being killed so that you will live forever. That's
precisely what happens in the sacrament of Holy Baptism and, as
Luther says in the first of his 95 Theses, in the daily repentance
of the Christian. Or, "do you not know"-the Apostle Paul's words-"Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him
by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life…. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive
to God in Christ Jesus" [Romans 6:3-11 (ESV)]. So Luther writes
in his Small Catechism, the significance of Holy Baptism is "that
the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be
drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man
should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness
and purity forever."
Now, having said all this, we get to our text
that is the Gospel for this day, and the real point of our celebration.
These words were spoken in a highly charged context in Jerusalem
during the feast of tabernacles. There were Jews that did not believe
what Jesus was saying, and some who were beginning to believe. It
was to these that Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are
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