Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Text today is the Epistle Lesson, with special emphasis on verse 24. “For all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”
Brothers and Sisters in Christ. 491 years ago, on October 31st, 1517, an unimportant monk in Wittenberg Germany nailed 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg Germany. These theses were about 95 problems that this monk saw in the church. Now today, because of this monk’s actions, we along with thousands of others are looking back to the beginning of the protestant reformation. We are looking back to the beginning of the Lutheran Church. But in our look back, we have to ask, why is this even really that important? Why does it really matter that almost 500 years ago, a monk named Martin Luther, nailed this list of churchly problems to a door? What difference does it make for us here today?
To know the answer to that, we have to know what the Reformation was about: theology. The reformation was about how we people can stand in the presence of God. It is about how sin is atoned for and how we can know for sure that we are saved. The reformation is about Christ. Christ is the center of the holiday that we celebrate today, just as Christ is the center of all our theology.
Just because today Christ is the center of our theology doesn’t mean that is the way it always was. In fact, people throughout the ages have struggled to keep Christ as the most important part of their faith. Because of our sin, other things often take Christ’s place in our lives. Instead we focus on our own feelings, or on our own works. We trust that we can save ourselves. We don’t look at the cross; in fact we don’t look outside ourselves.
This problem was also the problem 491 years ago when young Martin Luther nailed up the 95 theses on the church door. There was a problem in that was removing Christ from being the reason for our salvation. The problem was indulgences. Another monk named John Tetzel was selling these indulgences. These indulgences were small pieces of paper which claimed that they would forgive all the sins of whoever bought them. People were buying them by the hundreds and can we blame them? Which is easier, to live your entire life trying to be holy, or to spend a few dollars to get an official document that says you are?
These indulgences came directly from the papal offices in Rome. They claimed that, under the authority of the Pope, the bearer of the indulgence would be granted full and complete pardon. The money that was raised by the selling of these indulgences was used to build St. Peter’s basilica in the Vatican City. The problem with these indulgences was that they bypassed Christ. The people were not pointed to the cross of Christ for forgiveness of sins; instead they were pointed to a piece of paper signed by the pope. They were told that each and every sin they committed would be forgiven by this piece of paper, apart from Christ. Once you bought an indulgence, you were free to commit any sin you wanted, and not worry about the consequences.
Don’t we often times try these “get forgiveness easily” schemes in our everyday lives? Don’t we try to bypass Christ in our lives? We don’t like to think about Christ on the cross, so instead we look to ourselves to get forgiveness. For example, I am sure that all of us at one time or another have read a book about how to be a really good person and to stay completely away from sin. For example, when I was in Junior High, all my “good” friends read the book, “I kissed dating goodbye,” so I did also. It is a book which has good intentions, to keep people from premarital sexual sin, but in the end it requires you to trust in yourself. You are supposed to keep yourself away from sin. Just like an indulgence, it takes our eyes from the cross of Christ, and instead focuses them upon something else. We don’t look for forgiveness of sins, but instead trust that we are sin-free in ourselves.
There are hundreds of other self help books, some about how we need to be Christian with our money, or how we need to be intentional in our faith lives. Each and every one has good intentions, but almost all of them take our eyes off of Christ on the cross. We look at ourselves instead of Christ who forgives our sins.
Even if we don’t take our eyes off of Christ in self help books, there are other ways that we can do it. For example, in this day and age, many churches require you to accept Jesus to be a member. In other words, Jesus did 90% of the work, and you have to do the other 10% to earn forgiveness. We like to trust that we can do things to earn our own salvation. Just as people in the reformation time went and earned money to buy an indulgence, so too we believe we can earn forgiveness of sin. In all of these ways we take our eyes off of Christ and put them on other things. When we do this, we show our own sin.
Today’s text tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We see this clearly when look at our works. Everything we do shows our sin. We read the self help books and try to do what they say, but we fall terribly short of their ideals. We might accept Jesus into our lives, but then an hour after church we have already broken several of the Ten Commandments. This is the way everything in our life goes, sin. This sin leads to death. We are guilty before God, and we cannot stand in his presence. There is not an indulgence that we can buy or anything we can do that will put us right before God’s eyes.
Martin Luther knew this also. He had tried everything imaginable. He had become a monk to try and take away his sin. He had tried all the latest self help ideas from his day and age. He prayed to the saints, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, he even beat himself when he thought about sinning, but in all of these attempts to earn indulgence from God, he failed. There was nothing he could do to take away his own sin. He could not follow the law to earn salvation.
That is where today’s text comes in. Verses 19-20 say “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” The law does not save. There is not a way that we can buy or earn our salvation. There is not a way that we can do it on our own. The law only condemns, the law only tells us that we are guilty. We need something else to be made righteous. And when our eyes are kept on Christ, we see that other way to be made righteous.
“Now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to you and to me. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” It is not earned by what we do. It is not bought by our money. Instead it is earned by Christ. He lived a perfect life where we couldn’t. He did not sin in anything that he did. It is earned not with gold or silver, but with Christ’s holy and precious blood, by His innocent suffering and death. That is what earns forgiveness for me and for you. Christ crucified for the sins of the entire world.
God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. That means that where we fall short, where we cannot earn anything for ourselves, Christ instead does. His blood washes over each and every one of us, and makes us holy before God. Martin Luther realized this, which is why on that fateful day 491 years ago he nailed those 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church. Not to bring attention to himself, but rather to refocus the attention upon Christ crucified.
We too have our eyes on Christ. In the waters of Holy Baptism, we were washed in the very blood the spilled from Christ’s side on the cross. That washing opens our eyes to the life giving grace which Christ freely pours out upon us. We also partake in the very body and blood that was nailed to a cross for the forgiveness of all our sin. In these sacraments, and in the hearing of God’s Word, God places our eyes upon Christ crucified. With our eyes upon the cross, we are given the gifts of forgiveness of sin, life eternal, and salvation. These gifts are not something earned, but they are given.
This is the message that the reformation is all about. Martin Luther fought against indulgences so that the message of Christ would return to the forefront. That is the main reason for the reformation. That is why we celebrate it today. Even today we have to fight to keep Christ in the forefront. All sorts of challenges present themselves, trying to make us trust things other than Christ. But the message of Christ crucified overcomes all of these challenges.
491 years ago, a lowly monk nailed 95 theses to the door of a church for the very purpose of putting the Son of God back in the forefront of people’s hearts. Today that fight is continuously being fought through the church and world. While sin tries to take our eyes off of Christ, the Holy Spirit is pointing back to Christ. But while we fight, we know what the end outcome is. Christ has risen, and the victory is won.
Amen
