1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate the Festival of the Reformation is taken from Romans 3:19-28, it’s entitled, “Haunted by God?” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Are we still haunted by God? Do our sins bother us to the point that we worry about God’s righteous wrath? Does the concept of justification, how one can be right in the eyes of God, even cross our minds? Does the doctrine of justification really matter anymore? These are worthy questions to engage in as we observe the festival of the Reformation. This weekend many churches will commemorate Martin Luther’s initiation of the Reformation on October 31, 1517, when he nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church Door in Wittenberg, Germany. What began as an academic debate over the abusive doctrine of indulgences, soon became a call for the Church to return to God’s Word as the sole authority for the Christian’s doctrine and life. These were the Scriptures which taught that a sinner’s only hope in life or death is that Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection are enough to save them. Solely by virtue of His dying and rising in their place, are sinners declared righteous, or justified, before their holy God. Luther and the reformers had to fight, some to the death, to preach this gospel to Christ’s Church.
3. Luther’s road to the Reformation—a monk in despair for his eternal salvation who found a gracious Savior on the pages of the Scriptures—is a story we have heard repeatedly. But, the Reformation didn’t take hold simply because there was one talkative monk with a weighty conscience. Luther preached Christ to an entire era burdened by the guilt of their sin and the fear of God’s judgment. As the Lutheran theologian Oswald Bayer notes, “Many thousands joined his song and found in the turning point of Luther’s life the watershed of their own lives.” Oswald Bayer, Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, 2003). 56. It was this world of sinners—haunted by their sin and terrified of God’s judgment—that longed for the comfort and certainty found only in the preaching of Christ crucified.
4. But what about today? Are we still haunted by God? Do our sins bother us to the point that we worry about God’s righteous wrath? Does the concept of justification, how one can be right in the eyes of God, even cross our minds? I would argue that in the modern world, many are still haunted by God, but instead of fleeing from His wrath, they have turned the tables and are standing up to fight. With all the suffering and pain we see around us, we demand answers! Justification still weighs heavy on us. But, we have attempted to switch seats with God. We believe we are on the judge’s bench now and God needs to justify Himself to us! No longer are we concerned if we haven’t done enough to earn a right standing before God. No, we have eaten the fruit of the tree and bought the Devil’s lie that we can be gods (Genesis 3:5-7). As such, we have decided to put God on trial and judge Him! Lutheran theologian Robert Kolb writes, “Luther’s theology of the cross evolved from a concern that human creatures do not have (they cannot produce!) what God in His justice demands from them. Modern people complain because God does not produce what they demand as their rights from him!” (Robert Kolb, “Luther on the Theology of the Cross” in The Pastoral Luther: Essays on Martin Luther’s Practical Theology (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, 2009). 35.
5. We believe we are on the judge’s bench now and God needs to justify Himself to us! It is every Sunday when we come together for worship we are confronted and haunted by God, and not just on Halloween! Many people are terrified by Him, either because they fear God’s righteous wrath coming to condemn them for their sins or because they fear God is absent from their suffering and they demand answers. God is feared as a monster of wrath and judgment or as a ghost of someone who once gave people hope, but has been gone for a long time. Fear of the wrath of God and fear of indifference to the things of God and the absence of God weigh heavily on the consciences of people who take Him seriously.
6. Both of these fears are answered by the Christian teaching on the justification of the sinner and Romans 3 is a wonderful text for this. Saint Paul has just spent two and half chapters of this majestic letter to the Romans laying out the real problem we have with God: Namely, our sin and God’s law. After Paul finishes with us here, no one is left standing. All are exposed as sinners who can do nothing to earn a righteous standing before God. Romans 3:20 says, “For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” God is the judge and before His righteous Law we have no hope. The Law God gives isn’t a plan we can follow to satisfy His wrath. The Law does the opposite to us. It reveals our sins. Under the Law, our fears of God’s wrath are justified.
7. But, for those who fear this deserved wrath, Jesus comes to remove our fears. St. Paul writes in Romans 3:21-22, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” That is to say, our right standing before the holy God comes in a manner wholly different from God’s commands, in a way which is not according to law. It comes as a pure gift to be received by faith, not as a reward to be earned. Romans 3:23-25 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.”
8. In other words, Christ has removed God’s wrath by taking it on our behalf. He is our “propitiation.” The Biblical definition of propitiation means, “averting the wrath of God by the offering of a gift.” It refers to the turning away of the wrath of God as the just judgment of our sin by God’s own provision of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus is the one who stands between us and God’s wrath, so we receive none of it. We are justified because our sins lay on Jesus. God’s wrath is attracted to sin like a magnet. Jesus has taken our sins, so the wrath comes for Him instead of us. In this way, we are freed from that wrath and redeemed through His blood. All of this is given to you as a gift! It is free, by grace alone. The monster of God’s wrath is gone, for Christ has paid the righteous price for your sin, Romans 3:26 says, “So that He might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
9. This work of Christ shows God is no ghost, who people might think is absent from the sufferings of this world. No, Jesus takes the greatest suffering into Himself as He hangs on the cross to die for sinners. The whole creation is burdened under sin, but the Creator who puts on flesh, takes that burden upon His shoulders. His work of justification not only declares the sinner righteous, but it also sets the creation to rights as well. St. Paul will go on to talk about this further in Romans chapter 4. Paul writes in Romans 4:25, “[Christ] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Christ’s dying and rising justifies the sinner. Additionally, in Romans 8 we learn this justifying work of Christ is setting all creation right. Romans 8:21 says, “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Jesus takes the suffering of the world on His shoulders and is making all things new. He is not a ghost who does nothing about our suffering, but the risen Lord who will turn our sorrow into laughter.
10. Whether our fears look like those which haunted the Church in the 16th century, 500 years ago, or like those haunting us in the 21st century, Christ Jesus removes our fears. Because He has shed His blood for sinners, you stand righteous before God on account of Christ. Since judgment has been put to death in Christ, the curse of sin is removed and soon we will see all of creation made new in Him. Amen. The peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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