Sermon

Click here to print this sermon.

October 29, 2006
Reformation Sunday
2 Timothy 1:14
Pastor Robert Raasch

TREASURE THE TRUTHS OF THE REFORMATION!

1. Justification by Faith
2. Priesthood of all Believers
3. Centrality of Holy Scripture

On the lawn outside our church is a sign that reads "Mount Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church." Can you tell me, why do we say this is a Lutheran Church? Certainly we aren't here to worship the man Martin Luther, right? We are here to worship Jesus Christ as God's Son and our savior. That's what makes this a Christian Church. But why is Mount Olive considered to be a Lutheran Church? And while we're at it, why do we set aside a whole weekend to commemorate the Lutheran Reformation? Is there anything that Luther did or said that still affects our lives today? The answer is, absolutely.

Even though Dr. Martin Luther did not formulate any new theologies, and although he would probably roll over in his grave if he knew that there were millions of people wearing his name, Lutheran, still the fact remains that God used Martin Luther to do some extraordinary things for the Christian Church. Through this monk from Wittenberg Germany, God uncovered facts which had lain buried for centuries under a cloak of ignorance and misbeliefs. God used Martin Luther to bring to light a number of truths which still form the foundation of our faith today.

This morning/evening we want to take a closer look at three of these truths. By carefully studying them, we want to grow in our appreciation of these truths, so that we can do what St. Paul encouraged Timothy to do 1500 years before Luther, namely, "guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to us." Or to put it another way, on this Festival of the Lutheran Reformation, let us, with the Spirit's help:

TREASURE THE TRUTHS OF THE REFORMATION!

We'll focus our attention on three key truths or doctrines:

1. Justification by Faith
2. Priesthood of all Believers
3. Centrality of Holy Scripture

First, justification by faith. This teaching has been called the heart and core of the Reformation and is basically the answer to the question, "How does a person get right with God?" or "How can I be forgiven by God?" For centuries, the Christian church (which in Luther's day was basically the Roman Catholic church) had provided the answer: "You get right with God by faith in Jesus Christ and by doing good works. In order for God to forgive you, you have to believe AND go to confession, go to mass, say the rosary, do penance and carry out a host of other things required by the church.

And as any good Catholic would, Martin Luther tried to do all did these things. He recognized his unworthiness before God and worked hard to earn God's good favor by spending his time confession, prayer and doing works of service. And yet, he still did not feel comfortable with God. Luther saw God as an angry judge who was never quite satisfied with Luther's good works. And so, in an attempt to get on God's good side, Luther made the ultimate step. He became a monk. Now he could devote his time to fasting, torturing himself, trying to earn God's good favor. Yet, he still had no peace with God. He still felt that God was demanding more righteousness than Luther could give.

Finally, in his quest to earn God's favor, Luther turned to the Bible. There, while reading in the book of Romans, Luther discovered a passage that would not only change his life. It would also change the lives of millions of people down through the centuries. In Romans 1:17, Luther read, "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"

You know, this was something that Luther had never really heard before, the idea that a person becomes righteous before God, not by what he or she does, but by faith from first to last, or in other words, by faith alone. Luther read on in Romans, chapter 3, "But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe. There is no difference, for 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."

Suddenly, as Luther himself describes it, it was as if the gates of heaven were opened for him. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Martin was led to see he could never earn God's favor by his own good deeds. Instead, Luther realized that Jesus Christ had already earned that favor, that forgiveness for him. God was now offering that wonderful gift to anyone who would believe that Jesus Christ has done it all.

By the grace of God, Martin Luther uncovered the precious truth that we are justified, that is, we are declared to be right with God, not by our good works, but by our faith in Jesus Christ. Friends, do you realize that's something we still cling to today? You and I are at peace with God knowing that we serve God not in the hope that God will accept us, but rather in the full confidence that he has accepted us-and we are grateful for it. That is a precious truth that we can treasure from the Lutheran Reformation.

Along with the truth that we are justified by faith, comes a second and related truth. And that is: II. We are All Priests before God. To understand the importance of this truth, we need to once again put ourselves in Luther's shoes. In Luther's day, the church painted God as an angry judge. Someone you couldn't get close to. In fact, in order to approach God, you had to be someone special. In the Roman Catholic church, that meant you had to be a priest. Only the priest could come directly to God in prayer or officiate at the Lord's Table. Only the priest had the authority to forgive sins or properly interpret the Bible.

Why did the priests have the authority to do these things? Because they were looked upon as more holy than the average lay person. They had taken a vow of celibacy and a vow of poverty and had thus earned the right to do such things as forgive sins.

To this whole concept of priests who are more righteous and granted special authority by the pope, Martin Luther said, "Wait a minute! Why does a vow of celibacy make a person more righteous than a person who is faithfully married? Why is the person who serves holy communion more righteous than the person who receives it?

The only thing that makes us righteous before God is faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith, God sees every one of us as holy, no matter whether we are married or single, no matter we are clergy or laity. In 1 Peter 2:9 God calls believers "a holy nation." Through faith we are all righteous before God. Not only that, in the same verse God refers to us as a "royal priesthood". That's right, every believer is a priest before God. What does that mean? That means that as Christians, we have the right to come directly to God in prayer. We have the assurance that the wall that separated us from God has been knocked down. Our sins are forgiven. But not only do we know that our sins are forgiven. But now we have the authority to share that fact with others. God gives us the authority to tell others that their sins are forgiven. What Jesus told his disciples 2000 years ago, still applies to us today: "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Do you realize what a blessing that is? To come directly to God in prayer? You don't need to access God through some earthy conduit like a human priest or a dead saint or a Virgin Mother. You have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. And secondly, it means that you have God's full forgiveness right now. When the pastor stands up here and says your sins are forgiven, it's not because he has some power that you don't have yourself. No, he's merely putting into practice a right that you all have. The reason he's doing it is that you have called him to do it publicly for you. But the fact is, we're all priests before God, equally important to God and uniquely gifted to carry out the work he's given us to do.

So we have justification by faith and the priesthood of all believers. But realize that those are just two of the truths which the Holy Spirit led Martin Luther to uncover during the Reformation. We could add to those, truths like the sanctity and honor of Christian marriage; the importance of Christian education for children and adults alike; the role of congregational hymn singing; the true meaning of the Lord's Supper and Holy Baptism and the doctrine of vocation. Where did Luther find all these truths? In his own mind? In a vision from God? No. Martin Luther found every one of these truths only one place: right here in God's written Word. And in that fact we find a third precious truth uncovered by the Reformation. And that is: III. The Centrality of Holy Scripture.

Martin Luther grew up in a church built on two foundations: God's Word and Church Tradition. The writings of the early church fathers, along with the official statements made by the papacy, were put on an even par with Holy Scripture. And if the word of the church contradicted the Word of God, then the Word of God was quietly set aside. This is why, by the time Luther was born, nobody knew much about the Bible. A much greater emphasis was placed on what the church says, rather than what the Bible says. In fact, it was very difficult for the average layperson to find out what the Bible did say, for a number of reasons. First, the printing press had not been invented, so there weren't too many Bibles around, and the ones that were around, were printed in Latin, which hardly anybody could read. But secondly, Bible reading was discouraged by the church. They said, "It's too hard to understand. It's full of contradictions. Just let the priests interpret it for you."

But that's where Martin Luther stepped in. God lead Martin to study the Bible first hand. Through his study, Luther came to agree with the psalmist who wrote, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Or as Jesus said to his Father, "Your Word is truth." In this book, Martin Luther found the Truth, the inspired, inerrant Word of God. Luther came to believe, as we do, that every word in this book is true. There are no errors, and there are no contradictions. That doesn't mean that every passage is easy to understand. There are passages that are difficult to comprehend. There are doctrines that run contrary to our own human reason.

Yet, in such cases we let the Word speak for itself. We take it at face value and do not subject it to our human judgment. We allow God's word and not human traditions form the foundation for our Christian faith and life.

My friends, these are some of the things that make us distinctly Lutheran. Even though there are a lot of so called Christian denominations out there, churches that talk about Jesus and read from the Bible, the fact is, the true confessional Christianity which God led Dr. Martin Luther to rediscover is marked by these three truths: 1. Justification by faith, the fact that we're all declared not guilty purely be faith in Jesus Christ. 2. The priesthood of all believers, the fact that we have the right to come directly to God in prayer and share God's declaration of forgiveness with others. 3. The centrality of Scripture, that is, the fact that the inspired, inerrant word of God is the only basis for doctrine and practice.

Dear friends, these are the treasures that God has placed into our hands by his grace. On this Festival of the Reformation, it is my prayer, and yours too I trust, that the Holy Spirit keep us faithful to these precious truths-for the comfort it brings to our hearts , and the confession it makes to a world that so desperately needs to hear it, in Jesus' name. Amen.