Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
Some years ago, Walter Carlson of
Chicago’s WMBI Radio took his show on location to Chicago’s Union Station.
While there, he asked passers-by this question: How does a person go to
heaven?
For half an hour a parade of travelers
responded with such answers as “Obey the Golden Rule,” “Be good to your
neighbor,” “Go to church,” “Do good,” “Pay your bills.”
These answers are all natural for all people,
including us.
We are born with a good opinion of
ourselves, with the idea that we are able to satisfy God with our own efforts.
This is our natural tendency. We think that we are something.
So, how can we get right with God? How
do we get to heaven?
This morning, the Apostle Paul and Jesus
teach us how only by faith we receive the promise of eternal life, forgiveness
of sins and salvation.
[Righteousness of Faith]
Really? Faith alone? Come on! Tell me
what I really need to do to receive eternal life!
As Pastor Welch mentioned last week,
there is a lot of confusion among Christians.
One of the chief confusions is “How are we saved?”
Some churches say that Christians are
saved through the concept of synergism.
Now, synergism is a theological word
that means that God and human beings work together in order to be saved.
In this false view, the only way to be
saved is to believe in both faith and works.
Picture it this way: You are standing at
the south rim of the Grand Canyon. In order to be saved, you have to get to the
north rim of the Grand Canyon. You are told that you cannot take that long trip
down and up through the canyon on a donkey. The only way you can be saved is if
you jump across to the other side.
How in the world could anyone accomplish
that?! I guess I could practice a lot by jumping further distances. But still,
how would I ever know if I could make it?
In our epistle lesson, Paul appeals to
Scripture to answer this question: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’” (Romans
4:3).
Here, Paul is deliberately appealing to
Genesis 15:6, which his fellow Jews generally assumed to be clear support of
salvation by works.
You see, many rabbis assumed that Abraham
was justified by keeping the Law perfectly. If this were true, Abraham had
reason to boast.
But, as Paul says, Abraham could not
boast before God, because Abraham was not justified by works, but instead he
was justified by faith alone.
Paul’s main point is this: We become
righteous by simply receiving God’s promise through believing.
“The promise to Abraham and his
offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the Law but
through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13).
You see, it’s all about faith!
As the Lutheran Confessions state:
“We are justified on the basis of sheer grace, because of the
sole merit, the entire obedience, and the bitter suffering, death, and the
resurrection of our Lord Christ alone, whose obedience is reckoned to us as
righteousness.” (FC-SD
III: Righteousness)
So, we are saved only by grace through
faith in Jesus Christ, with no merits of our own.
Now, do we throw out works altogether?
No! You see, we still do good works, because they flow from faith. We do good
works not for God, but for our neighbor.
[Spiritual Regeneration]
Now, when and where did we come to faith
to believe in Jesus?
Jesus answers that question in our
Gospel lesson.
Just as many rabbis were puzzled at Paul
saying that we are saved by faith in Christ alone apart from works, Nicodemus
came to Jesus in search of answers.
Now, Nicodemus wasn’t your average Jew,
he was in fact a Pharisee, one of the rulers of the Jews. Being an important
man, he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus, so he came to see Jesus in the cover
of night.
Surprisingly, Nicodemus begins his
conversation with Jesus by complimenting Jesus as a rabbi and that He has come
from God. So, in a way, Nicodemus sees Jesus as somewhat an equal to him.
Now, Jesus sees right through these
compliments. As God in the flesh, Jesus knows why Nicodemus is visiting Him.
So, Jesus cuts right to the chase.
He says: “Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John
3:3).
Nicodemus responds: “How can a man
be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and
be born?” (John 3:4)
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6).
Nicodemus is puzzled. What does this
mean?
Here, Jesus is teaching how we become
righteous. Here, He is teaching about Baptism, and not a literal second natural
birth.
You see, in Baptism, we are regenerated.
The Holy Spirit joins Himself with the water and the Word in order to
accomplish this miraculous re-birth. In this Baptismal re-birth, the Holy
Spirit gives us the ability to have faith to believe in Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior.
Now, what about those who do not have
faith in Jesus? Jesus answers: “He cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John
3:5b).
But, what if I donate to charity? What
if I join the Rotary Club? What if I save someone from a burning building?
Nope. The only way to enter the kingdom
of God is to have faith in Jesus.
Jesus cuts to the point: “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit” (John 3:6).
The one born of human flesh is flesh.
Now, flesh is our fallen sinful condition and when we are born, we inherit our
sinful condition. This is original sin. Flesh is our fallen sinful condition –
original sin.
Flesh only gives birth to spiritual
death. Now, Spirit brings us life.
Now, how does water and the Word bring
about new birth, new life, and faith in Jesus Christ? We will never fully
understand. But, by faith, we believe that through Baptism we are no longer
dead to sin, but alive in Christ!
[Faith Alone]
So, like Abraham who “believed
God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” we too, become
righteous through faith alone.
And, like Moses, who lifted up a serpent
on a pole and the people who looked at it were healed, Jesus was lifted up on
the cross as the source of our salvation. So, when we believe that Jesus took
away our sins through His sacrificial death, we are graciously saved.
Each Sunday, through faith in Christ, we
receive God’s gift of renewal as we begin each Divine Service “In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” With these words,
we remember that by faith through our baptism into Christ’s death and
resurrection, we have received eternal life, salvation, and forgiveness of
sins. We hear His Word and sing His praise knowing that by grace through faith
in Jesus, the powers of sin, death and Satan have no power over us.
“For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
