Oh, how ambiguous ambiguity can be! “In my opinion, you will be fortunate if this person will work for you.” Tell me, what can this statement mean? The person is a hard worker. No, whoever can motivate him enough to work is lucky, for he is lazy! “Never did I eat such a cake!” The cake can either be delicious or foul to the tongue. The hearer must wade through the murky message.
So, what does the translator do with a Bible verse with more than one possible meaning? Most times, he picks and chooses and you, the reader, are oblivious to the potential, various meanings. Reflect on this. “Now, apart from the Law, God’s righteousness is revealed.” How? “Through faith in Jesus,” which someone can also translate as “the faithfulness of Jesus.” Those words can cut both ways.
Consider which may be correct. Does your confidence in Christ deliver you—or does His faithfulness bring you into divine glory? Well, if Jesus didn’t carry out what He came to do, your belief in Him doesn’t matter. So, one hinges on the other. Of course, you must believe. Still, you can only do so because Your risen Lord is faithful.
Ponder this. In the first century, the Jewish Christians held on to a work-righteousness mindset. Oh, Jesus saves! Still, you are required to do your part if you are going to be a real disciple. So, become circumcised, do this deed or another. How crazy! A person can turn faith into something he must do to enter heaven. How so? The Lord Jesus saved you, and all you need to do is. Fill in the blank. Say this prayer. Walk down the aisle. Bring your heart to trust and believe.
Remember, if something is demanded, the One doing the work is God, not you. Did Christ’s faithfulness save you? Yes! Must you believe this? Yes! The imprecision of words, which can mean “the faithfulness of Jesus” or “faith in Jesus” is deliberate. Such a swath of meaning keeps you from taking credit for believing. For if you are saved because of your faith, you are trusting in your faith, not Jesus.
The faithfulness of the promised Messiah and faith in Him go together. For someone only believes because the enfleshed God is faithful—past, present, and future. So no one should boast in his faith but in the faithful One, who died to give you life.
Examine how you approach God. Do you expect Him to welcome you based on what you do? Don’t insist He must because you put your trust in Him. Regardless of what you do, whether claiming to choose Christ or deciding to be a Christian, your deeds will fail you. For you’re expecting something you did to bring you into heaven’s gates.
How should you answer the hypothetical question of why God should allow you into heaven? Any reply beginning with “I” will leave you outside the door. “Lord, my heart trusts in You, and I accepted You as my personal Lord and Savior.” So what, you are still pointing to what you did. Nothing you do will suffice. Please recognize this.
The book of Romans reinforces this truth. “Now if [salvation is] by grace, it cannot be by works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace” (Rom 11:6). So, if you are counting on anything you did, your rescue and redemption depend on you. Don’t point to yourself, “I placed my faith in You, God.” So, you are telling Him to let you into the realms of paradise because of you. The right response is because of Jesus Christ.
Never start with “because I”; no, begin with Jesus. “The flesh-and-blood Christ died for me and forgave me.” Ah, now the response shows true faith because you are relying on Him, who is trustworthy from all eternity. The confession itself testifies to faith in Him, not faith in your faith. The faithfulness of Christ brings you to believe in Him!
The Redeemer is Jesus, who delivers forgiveness, cleansing you into righteousness. Only He exalts you to resplendent beauty and divine radiance, for He alone justifies. Some explain the word, justification, as “Just as if I had no sin.” The phrase reveals the result of the All-Holy One declaring you righteous—as if you are without sin.
For many of us, we often neglect the potent truth about our life with Jesus—He justifies the sinful. On the Last Day, when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, you’ll either be someone who will enjoy everlasting bliss or never-ending torment. Without Jesus, you’re as guilt-ridden as Satan.
This day’s Epistle from Romans teaches the infection of sin affects us all.
Whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, which silences every mouth and holds the whole world accountable to God. For no one is declared righteous before God by the works of the Law. No, through the Law we become conscious of our sin. [Rom 3:19-20]
The Apostle Paul prepared his case well, preceding today’s reading with 62 verses, exposing everyone to be under the shadow of evil’s guilty verdict. Of those, he directed the first 15 to Gentile sinners; the next 47, focused on the religious.
A 3-to-1 ratio, with three times the amount devoted to the devout. Perhaps, those passages to the Gentiles are a sneaky way to speak to the pious. For they listened to his letter at Church. How easy to forget we need rescue as much as the pagan! To another group of believers, Paul wrote, “The Word of the cross is God’s power to us who are being saved” (1 Cor 1:18). So, you never outgrow your need for eternal deliverance, which is why Jesus still comes to us today.
In those few words, referring to the nonreligious, we find some of their transgressions listed. “For they are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness, full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice” (Rom 1:29). The list goes on with 12 more, which is not all inclusive but a sampling.
Next, comes the barrage, dealing with the works-righteous folks. “Each of you who passes judgment is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, are doing the same” (Rom 2:1). The condemnation comes because the person judging is also guilty of those same offenses.
Many of you, at one time, needed to be admitted to the hospital. The technician sticks those pads to your skin, showing what is going on in your body. Now imagine someone connecting some instrument to unmask your hidden thoughts and longings.
Don’t think God is clueless about what’s going on inside you. United to your inmost being, He misses nothing, catching what you are, including warts and saggy skin. Like He does for those whom we may regard as “sinners,” He also spots your every sin. The Psalms reveal, “No one living is righteous in Your sight [O God]” (Psalm 143:2).
Thank the Father above for His Son, who justifies, taking your depravity into Himself, which separates you from God. The incarnate Christ gave Himself into death to bring you into life, into His Father’s blessed splendor. Let your ears again take in our text.
By His grace, [we] are justified through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Through His faithfulness, God presented Jesus as the place where atonement through His blood would take place, demonstrating His righteousness. In His restraint, God passed over previous sins, revealing His righteousness today. So He is righteous, justifying someone with the faithfulness of Jesus. [Rom 3:24-26]
Be emboldened by how Luther describes all this on this Reformation Day.
[The Lord] freed me, a lost and condemned creature, acquired and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. Not with silver or gold, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.
No quantity of gold or silver, mutual funds or money markets, can redeem you. Like any other created item, we use gold and silver in proper stewardship—but they don’t make us right with our heavenly Father. Only Jesus does.
Why did Jesus justify, declare you as righteous? Listen to Luther. “All this He did to make me His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” The Christian faith is all about Christ!
The saving Son took your broken spirit and gave you life, setting you on a new course. The empty hole in your soul, He filled, which you tried to gratify with the items of creation instead of the Creator. All your faults and wrongdoings, He forgives, including those, which weigh you down and crush your spirit. No longer must you shoulder the burden by yourself, which is one reason why Christ established His Church.
In 1546, Luther languished in bed, dying. Soon, the Father called his soul to heaven, and someone spotted a crumpled bit of paper in his stiff, cold hand. A note, few in words, encapsulated Luther’s theology, scrawled with the last remaining energy still left in his fallen flesh. The messy letters read, “We are beggars, this is true.”
In the presence of a perfect God, we are spiritual vagrants. For we can offer nothing in exchange for forgiveness and immortality. Yes, this is harsh, at first—because you can give nothing to God to atone for your misdeeds. So being so weak and powerless requires you to rely on Jesus, not yourself. The hidden Gospel inside the Law!
In His faithfulness, your saving Lord lavishes His gifts to exonerate you. Through His life, death, and resurrection, He secured what you cannot, which He gives to you in His Word and Sacrament. So, we are made right, justified with God. Though we may be beggars, we are also more than beggars! For Christ’s faithfulness makes us into God’s treasured sons and daughters. Amen.
