Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Epistle lesson (Romans 3: 19-28).
People often say "My goodness!" as an exclamation. "My goodness" you've grown! My goodness that must hurt! It's an exclamation that is relatively harmless, certainly better than taking God's name in vain. But yet, often without thinking, people assume they have some innate goodness of their own. Humanists and philosophic liberals assert that humans are born basically good and if they are just raised up right as children, they will behave in good and proper ways.
The Reformation was an attack on the "My Goodness" principle. The date was October 31, 1517. The place: The Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The action: a lowly, but gifted 34 year-old catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther nailed a sheet of 95 theses/statements for debate to the door of the Castle Church.
Luther's 95 Theses were written, not to start a new church, but in a pastoral reaction to the arrival of a Roman Catholic monk named John Tetzel. In Rome, Pope Leo X wanted to finish the remarkable St. Peter's Cathedral. To raise money for the project, he sent Tetzel throughout Germany to sell indulgences. Indulgences were supposed to spare people from the punishment after death in an imaginary place called purgatory, a place never taught about in the Bible, but created by the church's man-made teachings over the centuries. Members of the congregation where Luther was preaching bought these indulgences. As they did so, they were buying into the "My Goodness" principle. The members of the congregation believed that in buying indulgences they were actually buying forgiveness of sins. This was a very good situation, they thought. I buy these indulgences. They help my standing before the righteous God! My goodness!
Luther, the good pastor, was very concerned. He wrote 95 propositions on the question of forgiveness through indulgences. Printers reproduced them, and copies spread from person to person, village to village. The Reformation had begun and the world would be changed forever! The principle rediscovered by the reformer Luther? Salvation by faith alone, a free gift of God's grace. My Goodness? NO. God's Goodness, his undeserved goodness shown us in Christ Jesus!
Yet the "My Goodness" principle lives on today. The sign that it lives? Guilt. � � Bill was the father of two children who attended a Lutheran school. Bill and his wife Susan were Christians, but not Lutheran. They thought highly of the parochial school, so they decided to send their children there. Bill and Susan were having marital problems. Bill went to his pastor, who said that if Bill's faith was stronger, he would not be having these problems. He was told: "If you have enough faith, your problems will go away, and you will do the right things. Bill felt guilty. He felt guilty for not spending more time with his wife. And now he felt guilty because he didn't have enough faith. He spent more time and money on his family. He struggled to have more faith in Jesus, but the guilt remained.
St. Paul notes that this is the way it will be and must be, according to the "My Goodness" principle. Earlier in chapter 3 Paul writes "There is no one righteous, not even one� no one who does good" (vv. 10, 12). No more "My Goodness" principle. It just doesn't work. What do we do? What does work?
What we learn and experience is what Martin Luther learned and experienced on the basis of the Word of God and what he wanted his parishioners to learn and experience too. St. Paul introduces God's principle of grace with two of the mightiest little words in the entire Bible: "But now."
"But now a righteousness from God, apart from 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. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." Not my goodness, but Christ's goodness.
Back to Bill's story. He decided to visit the pastor at the Lutheran Church. Maybe this pastor would have some answers for him, some hope. Bill recounted his struggles in his marriage and family, his finances, his faith struggles. "Pastor, I try, but I can't seem to get rid of this load of guilt. And my family life is not getting better, even though I'm trying to do the righ things. What's God doing? Where is He is my life?
The pastor led Bill to this word in Romans and to the central teaching of God's Word. This same teaching became central in the teaching of Martin Luther and of the entire Reformation. This teaching, this good news, brought reformation � that is faith and life reformed and renewed � to Bill. It brings reformation and renewal to our lives again and again. What teaching is this? It is the principle of Christ's goodness and his good work for us.
The pastor explained to Bill that we are commanded to be good, but we cannot because of the sin in us. We need help, God's help. His help is this: we are justified (declared innocent) by grace through faith. This means that Christ, who was without sin, set things right between us and God by his good and strong sacrifice on the cross. He died for us and then rose from the dead to prove that we are forgiven � made right with God. It's not about our goodness, but Christ's goodness. It's not about our accepting him just one time into our lives, but receiving his goodness and forgiveness day after day after day. "Bill do you believe this?" the pastor asked. Bill felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted. He responded "So it's not about me, but about what Jesus has done for me!" "It's not about you; it is about Jesus." "I've never heard it explained like that before. Yes, I believe it!"
What burden of guilt do you still carry around with you needlessly? In what part of your life are you like Bill, still clinging to a hope in your own goodness? The Reformation started 486 years ago, but it is not just an event in European history. The Reformation continues as we, like Luther, and like Bill trust that we are righteous in God's sight because of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Oh, we know full well that our innocence is not really our own, but Christ's. It has been given us on free & permanent credit by God, just by trusting it. What Christ did, God counts as though we have done it. What He suffered on the cross, God counts as though we have suffered it. As we believe that Christ took our place on the cross to suffer the eternal damnation we deserve, that Luther feared, God hands down a sentence we do not deserve. "Not guilty!" he declares. Forgiveness and life and salvation are yours.
This is grace, undeserved love! There is no room for boasting, for citing even a hint of the "My Goodness" principle. God gets all the credit and thanks. This is why we put him first in our lives. St. Paul put it this way "Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." The good news here is that God declares you good. Even though because of God's law we should all be sprawled out on the floor and tormented with guilt before God in our own hearts as Luther did, God declares us innocent, totally eligible for heaven, because of Jesus and his good work for you.
Such a faith has a powerful impact on our living. Luther, in his introduction to his commentary on the Book of Romans wrote: "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it 1000 times over. This knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes man glad and bold and happy with dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God who has shown him this grace. Thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire." (Luther's Works V.35, p. 370).
And what about Bill? He left the pastor's office free from guilt. The burden was lifted. He knew Christ had borne his burden of sin on the cross. He was forgiven. He felt forgiven. Because of Christ's death and resurrection Bill knew where he stood with God. God still loved him. This gave him peace and hope, even boldness. Bill also knew that his renewed relationship with God did not remove all the difficulties of his life. There was much work to do in improving his relationships with his wife and children. He left the pastor's office knowing that he would need God's strength daily, given through his powerful Word and Spirit, to help him work things out in his family. This too, gave him peace and hope and boldness. He was not left to his own devices. He knew he had God's help.
That's the way it is for you. You have God's help, and not just a little help. You have the help that is in the strength and love of Christ. Leave behind the "My Goodness" principle. Trust another principle � God's principle: The principle of faith centered on Christ's goodness for you, on his grace alone. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)
Note: The structure and much of the content of this sermon comes from suggestions made by Rev. Scott Sailer in Concordia Pulpit Resource, October 2003.