Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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As a father or a mother, you must ask yourself, does it really matter how rich or successful or athletic or intelligent your children are if, when you get to heaven, you don't see them there? As a son or a daughter, you must ask yourself, does it really matter how much my parents have given me or done for me or left to me, if when I get to heaven, I don't see them there? As a brother or sister, you must ask yourself, does it really matter how well you all got along or how much you argued with your siblings, if when you get to heaven, you don't see them there? As a husband or wife, you must ask yourself, does it really matter how happy or wonderful my marriage has been if, when you get to heaven, you don't your spouse there?

That's the best I can do to frame the concern of Paul for his fellow Israelites that he expresses in chapters 9, 10 and 11 of Romans. When Paul considers the possibility that when he gets to heaven, he may not see many his "kinsmen according to the flesh" there, in chapter 9 he says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I was cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." (Rom.9:2-3).

"Paul desires to be damned so the damned might be saved." (Luther) Jesus said, "no greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend."

Certainly, Paul knows that it would do no one else any good if he were accursed and cut off from Christ. He knows that there is only one man who can save his brothers and sisters by being accursed and cut off from God, "the man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all." (1 Tim. 2:6). The Son of God took on our flesh and was cut off from the Father for the sake of His kinsmen according to the flesh. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here's the answer to Jesus' terrible question. He was cut off from God for you—His kinsmen according to the flesh, so that you would not be forsaken, so you would not be cut off from God, so that you would become His kinsmen according to the flesh and the Spirit, so that you would be saved.

Now, Paul begins the 10th chapter of Romans by saying, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." So, the Christian life is a mixed bag of joy and sorrow. It's the greatest joy to know that Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God who has come down from heaven to be bear our sin and be our savior, who has risen from the dead, ascended into heaven to prepare a place in paradise for you.

But it is also the greatest sorrow to know that some reject Christ and will not be saved. And how intense and real is that sorrow when it is your kinsmen according to the flesh.

The question that stands before us this morning and that St. Paul intends to answer for the Christians in Rome and Waterville is this, "how is a person saved?" In particular, how are the Israelites to be saved? But in general, how is anyone saved, whether he be Israelite, or you or your loved ones? For as we will hear in a minute, "there is no distinction between Jew and Greek."

Now before you raise your hand and asked to be called on, let me warn you that the answer is not what you think. The prophet Isaiah has warned us that we dare not assume that God thinks and acts like we do. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Is.55:8-9). And nowhere is it more obvious that God's ways are unsearchable and beyond our searching out, than in this most important question of our life, "how is a person saved?"

The reason that there are so many different religions in the world, is because so many try to answer this question according to their own thoughts and ways. Each thinks it knows how a person is saved. Each one reaches up to heaven and down to hell, collects the data and makes their observations, applies their logic and produces a plan for salvation. As if to say, "If I were God, this is how I'd do it."

Israel's problem was certainly not that it was not religious. Paul writes, "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." On the whole, they were very religious people. But being religious is not the same as being righteous. You may know some people who are also very religious. But their religion is not according to knowledge, that is, the knowledge of God.

"For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish a righteousness of their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." Paul spells it out as plainly as it can be spelled. There's God's way to be saved and man's way to be saved. Israel did not submit to God's way. They rejected God's way. They insisted on going about it their own way.

For all of the different religions in the world, there is always one, common thread that runs through every one of them. As different as each religion is from the other, this one, common thread makes all of them more similar to each other than different. The one common thread is this; men and woman are saved by keeping God's law. The un-gospel in a nutshell is this, "God so loved the world that He gave His law, that whosoever obeys it will have eternal life."

Now, for all serious practitioners of the religion of the law, the first question that arises is this one, "how much of the law must I keep to be saved?" Surely not all of it. Not even Israel, as zealous for God as they were, believed that a person had to keep all of God's law to be saved. Even they knew that no one was perfect and no one could keep the law perfectly. Certainly there were some basic, minimum standards that must be met, like circumcision, no eating meat with the blood still in it, and no flirting with the Hittite girls.

But after that, it all boiled down to a rather complex set of rules to follow to insure that one did enough good works to outweigh the bad. After all, God is gracious and merciful. He couldn't possibly expect perfection. He is sure to be satisfied with us as long as we are sincere, try hard and are basically good people.

Religions of the law tend to be very popular religions. Their great appeal is that they offer their followers the opportunity to stand before God with some dignity and self-respect. There's a measure of personal pride in being able to stand before God and present Him with your merits and virtues, even if it's simply by comparison to some other poor slob whom you have obviously out-performed.

Paul drops the big bomb on all of this when he writes in verse 4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." An entirely different plan of salvation is unveiled in Jesus Christ. It's based, not on your keeping the law, but on Christ's keeping it for you, in your place, on your behalf. And not just that part of the law that you couldn't manage to keep. He kept all of it because you couldn't keep any of it.

In chapter 3, Paul spoke the honest to God truth when he said, "For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since, through the law comes the knowledge of sin." (3:20). As if to say, if you're serious about impressing God by keeping His law, go ahead and give it your best shot. But be aware, God says, "there is no difference, all fall short."

And don't kid yourself by thinking that God will appreciate your sincere effort. He has given you a Savior in His Son, Jesus Christ who is the end of the law for righteousness. Your sincere efforts in keeping His law to be saved is a total rejection of God's righteousness through faith in Christ.

Christ is your righteousness before God. Through Holy Baptism, you were hidden in Christ. When God looks at you, He does not see you. You are hidden in Christ. The worst thing you could ever do is to stand before God on the basis of your performance and sincere efforts. It is Christ who stands before the Father. And He is holy, and righteous and perfect. And you are hidden in Christ.

So as you can see, this plan of salvation is diametrically opposite to all the others. It is based not on your good works and worthiness but on your wickedness and unworthiness and your complete and total dependence upon Jesus Christ. Or as Jesus put it, "whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it." (Luke 17:33)

Paul writes, "For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them." Or, as experience has taught us, die by them, because we cannot keep them. "But the righteousness based on faith says, 'Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, or who will descend into the abyss?'" Look to Christ, fix your eyes on Him, set your hope upon Him. Stop trying to do the impossible. Christ has already done it. He has already been raised from the abyss and ascended into heaven. Take the easy way out. Do nothing. Remain right where He has hidden you.

Put all your trust in His Word which is in your mouth to "take and eat, take and drink." You are not giving yourself to God, He is giving Himself to you. He has given you His Word and planted it in your heart, creating and strengthening your faith, that you may confess your sin and cling to His righteousness.

So, for all of the distinctions between religions that we are accustomed to make, there are really only two religions in all the world. One preaches and teaches that a person is saved by the keeping of the law. The righteousness based on the law says, "this I must do," and "look what I've done." The other preaches and teaches that a person is saved apart from the keeping of the law and solely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness based on faith confesses with the mouth, "I can do nothing," because believes in the heart, "it is finished."

Paul says, "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him."

As I say in the Inquirers Class, I imagine that when we arrive in heaven, we will be quick to inform our Lord that were Lutheran, and Missouri Synod Lutheran at that. Someone else will say, "I was Roman Catholic." Another will say, "I was Presbyterian, an Orthodox Presbyterian no less." And somewhere in the course of all of this boasting, Jesus will silence us all with a shout and say, "honestly, I've never heard of any of these things, and I have no idea what you're referring to. I only know believer and unbeliever."

For the Scripture says, "everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved."

Tags: Righteousness, Romans, Salvation

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