Dear confirmands, families, friends, and fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus, the text for this morning’s message is from Romans 3:21-28, focussing especially on verses 23-24: 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 a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:23-24 ESV)
All have sinned... all are justified by grace. This is the dual-pole at the centre of the Christian faith and at the centre of what you, Chris, Danessa, Brittany, and Tammy [Kayla] have learned these last two years in our confirmation classes. All that we study points us to one or the other teaching. All that we study points us to either the Law–what God demands of us or the Gospel–what God does and has done for us.
In its context, our epistle for today is really just the crown jewel on Paul’s argument that the “righteous will live by faith”. Last week we read part of Romans 1. Romans 2-3 set up the general case that, as far as their standing before God is concerned, Jew and Greek are alike held to be guilty of the Law and, as such, alike to be sinners. This passage culminates that particular line of argument by noting that not only is this the case, but that there’s nothing else to be said for the state of humanity; in short, that ALL have sinned. All. Everyone.
We learn of this sin through learning of the Law. In general, it is true that people only know what is right and wrong when it is imposed on them. Parents have a huge responsibility this way in how their children act vis-a-vis the Law. From the time a child is conceived, they bear the marks of sin. From the time a child is born, they need to learn the Law, insofar as they can, as a way of regulating that sin–what we call the “curb” use of the Law. The Law as a way of keeping things in line in our lives and in the world. Nobody will argue against the Law as a curb. After all, what sort of life would it be if there were no prohibitions against murder or theft or rape or other such obvious crimes? This is the sort of Law which, faith or not, everyone is pretty much in agreement that we need.
The Law, we learn in confirmation class, is not just a curb, however. It is also a mirror. Here is where the fullness of the Ten Commandments comes in. The second table of the commandments—honouring your parents and other authorites, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery or other sexual sins, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t plot and scheme for things—those are pretty generally accepted as good rules for living as a decent human being. But the first table of the commandments adds to these that the Triune God is to be our only God, that we are to use His name in right ways only, and that we are to attend worship faithfully and gladly. These are not the sorts of things that a country can or should regulate. But they shine the light of God’s truth into our hearts and force us to come to grips with our own tendencies and desires. Do you desire things to be your way or God’s way? This is the fundamental question that the Law as Mirror shines into you. If the answer is your way, then you have sinned. Even if you can’t pinpoint what precisely you have done against God’s Law, the attitude of the heart is what God measures and examines. Hence, St. Paul says, right before our passage which is today’s Epistle reading:
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:9b-20 ESV)
This isn’t to say that every human being is a nasty brute who delights in stealing candy from babies and drowning kittens. It is to say that we do have a problem. That problem is sin. That problem is enough to cause you to be separated from God for all eternity. You can’t be good enough or smart enough or wise enough to undo the power of sin. It doesn’t work that way. As Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Never even had a chance of getting to that glory, if the truth be told. Whether or not you have heard the Law, the fact is that you remain guilty of it. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, as the old saying goes.
This fact that everyone is guilty of the law is not a pleasant thought. On such a day as this, where we are celebrating God’s grace as given to these confirmands, it’s not so nice to have to stare at the law. It’s not so nice to hear that each one of us is held accountable to God for sin. It’s not so nice to hear that it doesn’t matter how good a person you are, but that in God’s sight nobody’s good enough, that according to our own powers and abilities, the only destination for anyone is hell.
The question is often posed, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Since nobody is just, nobody is upright, nobody is good, in God’s sight of their own accord, we might be better served to ask, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”
The answer to this is the Gospel. If the Law shows us our sins, then the Gospel shows us our Saviour. The Gospel is, quite simply, that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, died on the cross of Calvary for you. He died in your place, to take away your sins. He did this because this is His nature—to be gracious, merciful, showering every blessing on His people quite aside from any merit or worthiness we might wish to claim. In the words of the apostle Paul, we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:24-25 ESV)
In general, the Gospel is what God does out of His mercy to care for His people. It is gospel, in that sense, that God provides for your daily needs of body and life. But the most precious Gospel is that your sins are forgiven by Jesus’ death—no ifs, ands, or buts, no provisos. God could have demonstrated His justice by wiping the human race off the face of the earth. Instead, He shows His righteousness by putting all sins on Christ, so that all who have faith in Him can be made right with Him. Full and free forgiveness is yours. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also eternal life and salvation. For where faith gladly receives God’s gracious gift of grace, there is no longer any impediment between God and you. All your sins have been put to death with Jesus on the cross. The only thing remaining is the good that God gives you and works through you. As such, eternal life and salvation from sin come through the forgiveness of sins. As John 3:16 indicates, faith in this promise, in this Jesus who forgives sins, gives eternal life. And as Mark 16:16 notes, whoever is baptized and believes will be saved.
This Gospel comes through means—through the Word, preached and taught, through Baptism, the washing of water with the Word to remove sins and save us, through Absolution, the promise that Jesus gave to His church that gives His church the right and freedom to forgive sins, and through the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood of Jesus in, with, and under the bread and wine, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Through these means God continues to work His forgiveness, work His grace in you, continues to bring the new person to life in you, continues to cause you to follow His will and walk in His ways.
It can be tempting to see confirmation day as the end of the road. After all, you’ve been going to classes on Wednesday evenings for two school years now. It’s a lot of information you’ve had to process, a lot of details to consider. The day itself is certainly full of pomp and circumstance. You’re dressed for the occasion, as you should be; you’re surrounded by family and friends who have come to cheer you on. It seems very much like a graduation, a “now you’re done” moment. But don’t look at it as an end, but rather a beginning. Now you are eligible to be a communicant at the altar, as now you have learned what our church teaches, and what it means to examine yourself to be worthy of the Lord’s body and blood. Now you move into the next phase of your church membership. Now you make your pledge to be faithful to this confession of faith and church.
These are big pledges and strong promises you are making today, and without God’s grace it would all fail. But that’s precisely why we make these pledges under God’s grace. The life of a Christian is hard, and will only get harder as time goes by. Jesus, when describing how the end of the world would come, told His disciples that the times of the end would be shortened for the sake of the elect, or nobody would escape. That’s why you need to always and only rely on Jesus. Come to church regularly, especially on those mornings when you don’t feel like coming. Be faithful in hearing and reading the Word of God. Be faithful in receiving the Lord’s Supper for the strengthening of your faith and the forgiveness of sins. That’s the Law as a guide. These are good things for you to do. But it’s only Law insofar as it points you to where the Gospel is. It takes discipline and hard work to be a believer. But you don’t do it under your own strength.
There’s no boasting, when it comes to the faith. Except to boast in Christ and what He has done. After all, faith itself is a gift of God, as Ephesians 2 points out. Even as the new person made alive in you through the Gospel delights in God’s Law, it does so only because you are powered by the Gospel. Because you are forgiven, you believe. Because you belong to God, you proclaimed His truth on Friday in your questioning. Because you have been bought by the blood of Christ, you are here this morning to once again pledge that which is already yours, to once again acknowledge what God is doing in and through you—and having acknowledged this, to become a full sharer with this congregation in the great and many gifts of God our Saviour.
God grant you His grace and strength as you live as His people and serve Him all the days of your life! In Jesus, Amen.
Last updated June 2008 by the webmaster.