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I. There Is No Difference – All Fall Short Ten people are trapped on the roof of a 10 story high burning building, and you're one of them. The only way to safety is to jump across a 25' chasm that separates this building from the one next to it. One person jumps ten feet and falls to his death. Another jumps 12 feet and falls to his death. One jumps 15 feet and falls to his death. One jumps 20 feet and falls to his death. "There is no difference. All fall short…"
It does no good to compare one person to another. One may have jumped twice as far as another. One may have tried a lot harder than another. One may have been much more sincere than another. One may have worked all his life getting ready for this jump while another never gave it a thought until the very last minute. "There is no difference. All fall short…"
And do you want to know the really crazy thing about all of this. It's not that we all fall short. The crazy thing is, we keep jumping. We keep thinking that if we just do this or do that, if we try harder, if we really, really mean it, if we are sincere, then we'll be able to make it. But "there is no difference. All fall short…"
There are basically two places we keep trying to jump so that we won't crash and burn. We either jump into self-righteousness and try to convince ourselves that we made it, or convince ourselves that God will be impressed enough with our efforts that He'll save us. Or, we jump into self-pleasure because we suspect there just may not actually be anyone out there who can actually rescue us and therefore we might as well "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we crash and burn." More realistically however, we neither jump into one or the other, but rather we try to land with one foot in self-righteousness and one foot in self-pleasure just in case there really is a God and just in case there really isn't. But "there is no difference. All fall short…"
St. Paul shuts off every escape route we try to take to save ourselves. "All have sinned and therefore all fall short." And so in our desperation we cry, "What must I do to be saved?" Which is the first smart thing we've said so far.
This was Luther's question and Luther asked it like a man on the roof of a burning building about collapse. Not like we do. We've pretty well relegated the whole question of whether or not we'll fall short and burn to the category of medieval myth. Our enlightened and modern minds have done away with all of that. Now its heaven for everyone, accept maybe Genghis Kahn, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot.
But for Luther, the fear of facing the wrath of an angry God, and burning in hell forever kept him awake at night and in the confessional most of the day.
In Luther's day, the Church was telling everyone who cared, (and lots more cared then than seem to care today,) "Jump!" "Jump further." But Luther was terrified because he knew he couldn't make the jump. (Oh, that we would be more terrified of the jump than we are.) Luther said, "I was more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wished I had never been created." Today we say, "oh well, it can't be that bad."
II. A Righteousness of God. And then Luther heard a voice from the abyss. Not the abyss from below but the abyss from above. The voice of God the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul, to all who are terrified because they know they can't make the jump.
"But now a righteous from God, apart from the law, has been made known… This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."
"But now…" God is taking the universe by the corners and shaking it out like a sheet in the wind. The heavenly announcement is proclaimed, God is breaking into this world with a new and completely different remedy for the human dilemma. A new day has dawned. A new era has begun. A new wine is bursting the old wine skins, and the wine is being poured out for all who fear to take and to drink.
The voice from above says, "Don't jump!" "Stop trying to jump!" "I will rescue you." "I will deliver you." "I will lift you up as on eagle's wings." "I will carry you in my arms." "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today… You need only stand still." (Exodus 14:13).
God is doing a new thing. "New" not as in 'new and improved' or as in, a 'better way' to save yourself, but "new" as in 'unheard of.' 'New' as in totally different than anything you could have ever imagined. "New" as in, there is no other way to be saved and every other way is futile.
God rescues you "apart from the law." "For by works of the law shall no human being be justified." It's not about what you must do. It doesn't matter what you have done. It doesn't depend upon how hard you've tried or your circumstances or on whether or not you're a good person.
"You are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The voice from above declares the truth loud and clear to all who fall short and have ears to hear – "This is my Son with whom I am well pleased."
"There is only one who is good." And it's not you. It's Jesus Christ. It's not about what you must do, its all about what He has done for you. It doesn't matter what you have done, the only thing that matters is what He has done for you. He is the One and only One who has made the jump. He jumped down from heaven to bear our sin and be our savior. "With HIM I am well pleased."
You fall short of the glory of God. But He is God of God, light of light, true God of true God. He is the "radiance of the glory of God" (Heb.1:3), and He sheds His blood and hangs on the cross for all who fall short of the glory of God.
So, "we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." This is radical. It changes everything. It makes all your good works and good deeds count for nothing toward your salvation.
Lot's of people don't like that, religious folks especially. Sadly, it was "those who believed in him" that had the hardest time accepting Jesus' offer of freedom, freedom from the demands of the Law and the futility of always jumping, jumping, jumping and always falling short. We all want to contribute something, even if it's just a little something. You mean it all counts for nothing?
How can it count for something when it costs you nothing? Free means free. No deposits or down payments. No hidden fees, no IOUs, no time in Purgatory to pay off the balance due. It's total, complete, perfect. "It is finished."
Can you begin to see now why those good works you waive in God's face is really insulting to Him. You think they're worthy of consideration but He thinks they're filthy rags worthy of burning. You think you're pleading your case but you're really make things worse for yourself. The way God hears your boasting in yourself, it sounds like you don't really need His Son, who suffered and died for you. What an insult. What a fool. Repent. "Let every mouth be stopped." For once in your life, shut up and listen to God. He has a better word to speak to you than you will ever have to speak to Him.
This is, after all, God's Word. God wrapped His Word in human flesh to show you His righteousness, at the present time, and there's never any time like the present to see it. See your only hope of being saved in the person of Jesus Christ, "whom He put forward as a propitiation by His blood."
"Propitiation" is one of those $100 theological words that we have to stop and explain because it's far to precious to let it pass by. "Propitiation" has to do with a blood sacrifice for sins. We are the sinners and we sin against God and God demands perfect justice. Yet, God is perfectly merciful and so He carries out His justice on another who pays for our sins with His blood. But just because justice is done, doesn't necessarily mean that the relationship is restored. But a "propitiatory" sacrifice means that not only is your debt paid in full, but it also means that offended One is so pleased with the payment that He is pleased with the offender, who is the sinner, who is you. He calls you, "my beloved, in whom I delight." This is the righteousness that God has shown to you in Jesus Christ "whom He put forward as a propitiation by His blood."
So, when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and turns our hearts so that we do the unheard of thing, and dangerously risky thing of giving up on ourselves turning to a Word that is outside of us, what we find something far more comforting, more satisfying, more wonderful than we could ever find inside ourselves.
What we find is that our "righteousness is from God," not from us. It's radical. It's unheard of. We'd never have guessed. We'd never have done it this way. We declare the righteous to be righteous and the sinner, hopeless. But God declares the sinner to be righteous and the one who thinks that he's righteous, hopeless.
"This righteousness from God is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." The whole time that you've been trying to make this jump on your own, Jesus has been holding you tenderly in His almighty arms, lifting you up to His Father in heaven, interceding for you, saying to His Father, "Father, here is one of Yours just as I am Yours. This is one whom I left You for. This one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. I was crucified, died and was buried for this one. Prepare a room in your house for this one Father because he is coming to live with us."
What does it mean to live by faith then? What does it mean to believe? What else but to stop trying to be saved? Just be still and listen to what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. Be still, even as the world crumbles under your feet and as society collapses and as bombs fall and storms surge. "Though hordes of devils fill the land all threatening to devour us, we tremble not, unmoved, we stand." We don't jump. Because we believe that God's Word is true, that God's promise is sure, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. "Blessed are all who wait for the Lord." (Isaiah 38:18.) "Wait for the Lord. Be strong, take hear and wait for the Lord." (Psalm 27:14). He will rescue you and He has already done it.
So faith says, "But wait…" and Paul says, "But now…" Faith says, "Wait on the Lord!" Paul says "But now, the righteousness of God has been made known…"
Not later, but now! "NOW is the time of God's favor. NOW is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2). "There is therefore NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom.8:1) Now you are forgiven all of your sins. Now you are justified. Now you are reconciled to God. Now you are alive and living in Christ. Now you have received mercy. It's all NOW.
But WAIT. For this is just a foretaste of the feast to come.