The promise doesn’t come through Law but through faith. Today’s Epistle encourages us to take a good look at Abraham as the exemplar of what it means that the promise comes through faith. Perhaps we need to back up a few verses in order to get the full impact of what the apostle is telling us in today’s Epistle. Allow me to read for you Romans 4:1-8 at this time:
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." (Romans 4:1-8 ESV)
Abraham was the great patriarch, the great father of the Israelite nation. Abraham was the one whom God chose to be His own, the one to whom God made the great three-fold promise that He would make of him a great nation, that he would have a land of his own, and that the whole world would be blessed through him. That’s promise language. Yet, in the Jewish community of Jesus’ and Paul’s day, the dominant way of looking at Abraham is that he was a man who was held to be right with God on account of his actions–that Abraham was justified before God because he was a holy and pious follower of God’s Law. There was a lot of stock put into holding God’s Law as being the basis of their righteousness.
Now, to be fair, this was not without cause. Certainly the way that the blessings and curses attached to the Law in Deuteronomy read, there was a lot to be said that way. God did say that those who kept His Law would be blessed, and those who rejected His Law would be cursed. But what the Pharisees missed is that the heart of the Law was not what you had to do or didn’t have to do, but why you do it. The problem comes in where you put your trust. This is Paul’s chief argument in this section of Romans, and one that still needs to be made today.
Having said that, it does matter how you live, when you are a Christian. It matters because it shows where your allegiances lie. As Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Of course, it is not possible as sinners in a sinful world to avoid all sin. We can’t do it. We will fall short of the glory of God time and time again. But God’s Law still stands as our curb, mirror, and guide. It still counts as something to use as the yardstick for how we live. If people say that we live in a way which is indistinguishable from those without faith, then we do need to reconsider our lifestyles and habits. We have been bought with Christ’s blood to live according to His Word, after all.
But do you put your trust in how you live or in how God graciously sees you? The Jews of Jesus’ and Paul’s day, especially the Pharisees, were trusting in how they lived, in their sense of morality, in their lifestyle. It wasn’t a bad thing that they were so into the Scriptures. Jesus never condemns them for being into the Word. When He calls them out, it is invariably for something they are doing which is not commanded by the Scripture or something which is getting in the way of placing faith in God alone.
This is such a subtle thing, and one for which every Christian needs constantly be on guard. Who is your faith in? Is it in Christ or in your faith in Christ? Do you believe in God or do you believe in yourself as the interpreter and means to get to Him? Do you trust in Jesus for your salvation or do you trust that Jesus is salvation, but it’s up to you to do your part? One survey of Lutherans commissioned by one of the Lutheran life-insurance providers in the United States, taken about 20 years ago, noted that about 80% of those who claimed to be Lutheran believed they would go to heaven because they were good people. It’s easy to be deceived and trust in your good works. It’s hard to get yourself out of the way and trust in Christ alone. But to trust in anything other than Christ is to trust in the Law—and the Law saves no one.
In our Women’s Study in Zion, we’ve been looking at the book of Acts. One of the groups which caused trouble for the early church from within the church was the group called the Judaizers. They were devout Jews who believed in Jesus for their salvation, but who insisted that in order to be a follower of Jesus you first had to sign on to be a follower of the Law, too. In order to believe in Jesus you first had to follow Moses. In order to claim Christ as your Saviour, you had to be circumcised and follow the dietary rules of the Torah.
What was wrong with this approach? Precisely that it turned God’s promise, God’s gift, into a set of rules that had to be followed. You might have seen Scripture tracts with the “Four Spiritual Laws” printed in them. Again, the problem with the “Four Spiritual Laws” approach is that it turns Gospel into Laws, things you have to do in order to be saved.
It’s subtle, to be sure, but the devil loves to subtly work on us to turn us away from the only source of salvation—Christ alone. None of our works or our thoughts or our preparations or our anything can save us. Only Jesus can do that. Faith is simply the vessel which receives that gift of salvation. As one Bible commentator has noted, faith is only as good as the God it is placed in. If your faith is in Christ, it is saving. If your faith is anywhere else, no matter how charming or appealing, then it is not the saving faith.
Today is Synod Sunday, so called because our national church convention for our synod—the word means, “walking together”—is on this weekend in Winnipeg. I have the privilege of being a delegate to this convention. In the process of the convention we discuss many things and make many decisions, but it is all with an eye to keeping the faith—keeping Christ at the centre. Our congregations of Lutheran Church-Canada have banded together into one church body so that we can encourage and support one another in proclaiming Christ truly, purely, and fully.
Our synod serves as a way of offering mutual rebuke when congregations or pastors fall away from their divine calling to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments in accordance with the Lord’s institution. Our synod serves as a way of providing resources for congregations to carry on the work of reaching out with the Gospel into their communities. Our synod serves as a way of training pastors and other church workers so that we are all of the same confession and understanding of what the Scriptures teach and confess. Our synod serves as a way of carrying out missions in other places that a single congregation would not be able to undertake, but with the grouped resources of the larger body, we are able to do. But this is all, again, to ensure that everything we do points to the fact that we do not trust in our works but in the God who justifies those who have faith in Him. Our synod exists to ensure that as a group, all our 319 congregations and 386 pastors are counting on the promises of God and not trusting in works of the law.
Today is also our picnic Sunday—which, sadly, I’m going to have to duck out on as I have to get back to the convention to carry on with the work of our church body. The unity of faith which we have as two congregations sharing the same pastor is exemplified in this chance we have to share a service this Sunday and rejoice in the good news of the forgiveness of sins we have, through the promise of Baptism of which we are reminded in our invocation, through the words of Absolution, through the Lord’s Supper of Jesus’ own body and blood, given and shed for us. These means of grace convey that Gospel, that gift of grace, which faith receives and rejoices in.
And it is for this reason that faith is credited to us as righteousness. For our faith receives what God gladly gives. Just like Abraham did, trusting in God and being credited with righteousness, so it is for us. We trust in God because He calls us and makes us His own through His Gospel given in the Word preached and taught, given in Baptism. We trust and are credited with righteousness. As such, we give God glory, as our convention theme for this year says. For God has called us with the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the one true faith. That’s His work. And He gives it to us through the Gospel that we might be His own and live under Him in His eternal kingdom.
Enjoy the blessings of being part of God’s kingdom, both now and eternally. For your faith in Christ is credited to you as righteousness, and if you have that on your credit, your eternal deposit is secure, awaiting you on the last day. God keep you in Him and in that true faith from this day unto His Son’s return! Amen.
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