THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION:

Almighty and everlasting God, whose Word is living and active and as sharp as a two-edged sword: send forth Your Holy Spirit, we pray, to wield Your Word upon our hearts. Deliver us, we pray, from spiritual slumber, and set our souls on fire with the Word of the gospel; that we may more truly live as Your redeemed people, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of Your name. Amen.

THE SERMON

On this day, October 31, in 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed a document known now as The Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Luther was calling for theological debate on some doctrines being taught by the church at that time, which he believed were contrary to the Scriptures. But he neither intended to destroy the Roman Catholic Church, nor to start a new church. His intention was to reform the church, according to the Word of God. But as the debate heated-up, and conflict arose between Luther and his superiors in the medieval Roman Church, Luther became convinced that what was at stake was the very heart of the gospel: the pure grace of God in Jesus Christ.

The question which drove Luther to his convictions, and which propelled him through perilous times in which he risked not only his reputation but his very life, was: "How can a sinful man stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God?" By what means, on what grounds, are sinful human beings reconciled to a righteous God who holds them accountable to and judges them by the perfect standard of His Law? In short, how are sinners saved? Once Luther began to answer that question according to the Word of Scripture, there was no turning back. A revolution had been set in motion. And, indeed, what became known as the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was just that: a revolution. Just as the Copernican revolution brought about a new way of understanding the universe (with the sun at the center of the universe rather than the earth), so Luther’s re-discovery of the Biblical gospel brought about a revolution in the life of the church, with the sovereign grace of God through Jesus Christ at the center of faith, rather than the works and merits and religious rituals of sinful men and women. The Protestant Reformation, based on the Bible, was intended to call the church back to a Christ-centered faith, a grace-based faith, rather than a human-centered, works-based religion.

We should understand, however, that our celebration of Reformation Sunday today is not an anti-Roman Catholic celebration. It’s not an "us" against "them" thing. As a matter of historical fact, it is true that the medieval Roman Church was in dire need of reformation according to the Bible. And on some important points, we would say that the Roman Church is in need of reformation today. But it is just as true that Protestantism today is in dire need of reformation according to the Word of God, not only in the more liberal mainline denominations such as our own, but also and especially within evangelicalism today, with which we here in Rivermont identify ourselves.

Though we say we believe all the right things, evangelicalism today is corrupted by worldliness, self-centeredness, spiritual shallowness, and a cheap grace which has erased the fear of God from our minds, and removed respect for the Law of God from our hearts, and has robbed God of His glorious, sovereign majesty and once again exalted "Man" — me and my personal experience, me and my personal preferences, me and my personal opinions, me and my morality, me and my values, me and my will — at the center of the faith. We, too, are guilty of creating a god in our own image, rather than worshiping, serving, obeying, and cleaving to the one and only true and living God revealed in Jesus Christ, whose Word is written in Holy Scripture. We, as individual Christians, and as a corporate part of the Body of Christ, are in need of reform according to the Word of God, and we always will be, until the Church of Jesus Christ is perfectly sanctified in the fullness of the glory of His eternal kingdom. So, as we give thanks for and celebrate our Reformation heritage today, we do so with humility and with repentance, or else this very worship service will be an abominable stench in the nostrils of God.

Now, back to the question which haunted Martin Luther: "How can a sinful human stand in the presence of a holy, righteous God?" For Luther, this was no academic theological question; it was a question which drove him to despair. Luther agonized with the realities of his own sinfulness under God’s holy righteousness, until he re-discovered the glorious gospel of the pure grace of God freely offered to sinners in Jesus Christ. When Luther studied the Letter to the Romans, he re-discovered the glorious promise of a righteousness from God apart from the Law, a right standing with God that depended not upon his works but upon God’s work on the cross of Christ, and Luther then understood that God justifies sinners by His pure grace and mercy received through faith in Christ, and he said, "I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into Paradise."

And so the doctrine of justification by faith was, for Luther, the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls. If our salvation is secure because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, then we stand. But if our salvation depends only a smidgen upon what we do for ourselves, then we fall, and our fall will be into the eternal abyss. If we reject Jesus Christ and the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we are cast back onto ourselves, and left to ourselves, and we are left alone with the dreadful and impossible burden of finding a way to save ourselves, contriving a way to atone for our sins, striving to merit for ourselves the blessing of acceptance by God and peace with God, and always seeking to justify ourselves before God. And it simply cannot be done, and so we are left striving and struggling and anxiously worrying, "Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Am I spiritual enough?

In the first three-and-a-half chapters of The Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sets forth the tragic truth about fallen humanity: the way things really are, the way we, as fallen sinners, really are: helpless and hopeless; with darkened minds hostile toward God and hardened hearts full of hate; with corrupted souls addicted to idolatry, and enslaved wills bent on self-destruction. The truth of the fallen human condition, writes Paul, is that human beings are guilty without excuse and without exception and without defense, accountable to God according to His holy Law, and utterly hopeless and helpless to do anything to save themselves from His righteous wrath. Case closed.

"But ... ." ... ... "But... ." At Romans 3:21, we find one of the most important words in the whole Bible. It is one of the most important words in the vocabulary of a Christian. Mark it well, and remember it. It is that little word ... "but." Fallen human beings are guilty without excuse, without exception, and without defense, are accountable to God according to His Law, but are helpless to do anything to save themselves from His wrath because all have broken His Law, and "no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law" (Rom.3:20). Case close. BUT. "But now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known. ...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

This is the good news, the glorious good news of the gospel: that our right-standing with God does not depend upon what we do, but on what God has done for us through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel is that God freely gives this righteousness, this right-standing with Him, as a gift of grace to be received through faith in Jesus Christ. This gospel applies to everyone and is for everyone to hear and believe and receive; for as the Scripture says: "...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood" (Rom.3:23-25).

Our justification by God’s grace is the fruit of our redemption by the blood of Christ. In the Bible, the word "redemption" refers to the purchasing of freedom for slaves. When a slave was "redeemed," he was truly a free man, no longer a slave; he had a new status in society as a free man. His status as a free man was real and objective. So, likewise, "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" believers receive a new, real, and objective status in relationship with God — set free from the slavery of sin, no longer under the curse of guilt, reconciled to God and justified before God, made right with God.

But here’s the really great thing: it is not simply as though God turns a blind-eye to our sin and guilt, or overlooks our sins, and lets us off the hook, as though God were infinitely tolerant of our sins. No! God does not deny the reality of our sin and guilt. Nor does God go soft on sin and compromise His justice and contradict His holiness. No! Our sin is actually and effectively done away with in His sight. On the cross of Jesus Christ, God has actually, really and truly, effectively dealt with our sin and guilt.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, provided by God the Father to punish our sins, to satisfy the demands of His own justice, and to absorb His own wrath against our sins. The cross shows us that God does not deal lightly or frivolously with sin, nor can He. The cross shows us that God does not compromise His holiness or circumvent His own justice when He justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Our sins, yours and mine, were dealt with on the cross of Jesus Christ. Holy justice was served and satisfied as the righteous wrath of almighty God fell upon our sins. Yes, His righteous wrath fell upon our sins, yours and mine; but His righteous wrath did not fall upon us. It fell upon our substitute: Jesus Christ. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross (1^st Peter 2:24). It was our sins — yours and mine — it was our guilt — yours and mine — it was our condemnation — yours and mine, that was dealt with, once and for all and for all time on the cross. On the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s holy justice and God’s free mercy, God’s righteous wrath and God’s everlasting love, God’s perfect Law and God’s infinite grace, came together in a perfect unity, a perfect harmony, in a way that only God could bring about, in a way that proves that He is a holy God whose justice is satisfied by His grace for all who believe and receive His gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. On the cross, the divine exchange took place: Jesus claimed our sins as His own, and He gave us His righteousness to be received through faith.

And so you see, dear Christian friends, our forgiveness, our redemption, our justification is not a charade! It is not a not a false or illusory forgiveness, or a cheap pardon. It is not an easy way out! It is a justification, a righteousness, a right-standing with God rooted in the reality that Jesus Christ has satisfied the justice of God for all who believe and receive the free gift of His grace through faith. For when we receive and embrace Jesus Christ through faith, we receive not only His grace and mercy for the forgiveness of our sins, but we also receive His righteousness, His right-standing with God; that too is His free gift of grace to us, and so we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ."

And if there be anyone here present today who does not know the joy of salvation through Christ — the joy of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone — I would invite you now to look to Jesus Christ and to embrace Him as He is freely offered to you in the gospel, and to receive His precious promises and to rest in Him alone as Your Savior and therefore to follow Him alone as Your Lord.

And to those who have been Christians for years, and who know all the right doctrines in their heads, but who still have a hard time believing the gospel in your hearts and are still haunted by the memory of perhaps one particular sin which plagues you with guilt — you cannot turn back the hands of time, but you can turn to Jesus Christ, and look to Him for mercy, and be assured that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

And just to illustrate what it really means to have our sins forgiven, and to receive a right-standing with God through faith in Jesus Christ, I want you to imagine — and maybe we really ought to do it — but just imagine what it would be like if I stopped right now and asked the ushers to distribute spiral notebooks and pens to everyone in this sanctuary, including me, and our assignment was to write down every sin we had ever committed, every sin of thought, word, and deed, every secret sin hidden in our hearts that no one else knows about, including that dreadful sin which still haunts us because we can’t do anything about it to make up for it and too many people are already suffering the consequences of it — yes, imagine writing down every single sin you had ever committed, though it wouldn’t really be possible because we don’t have enough time or enough paper or enough ink, but suppose that we could ...just suppose that we could make a list of all our sins ...that list which we would dread and shudder to see on the Day of Judgment. And then suppose that after you had filled page after page after page, you had to sign your name, as evidence of confession and repentance and a plea for God’s free mercy through Jesus Christ. Imagine that you had to sign your name onto a list of your every sin, of thought, word, and deed, without excuse and without exception, and without hope except in God’s free mercy and sovereign grace. And as soon as you signed your name, truly turning from your sins, and truly turning to Jesus Christ for salvation, there immediately and miraculously appeared beside your name these words: "Justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."

That is the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, the sure promise of God’s Word, for all who believe. Let us hold fast to this great and glorious gospel. Let us hold fast to Jesus Christ, in all His grace and mercy and righteousness. And let us give all praise, honor, and glory to Him, now and forever more. Amen.