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In the name of our living, ever-present Savior, dear friends in Christ.
Tonight we celebrate Reformation. The hymn of the Reformation, for many of us, is “A Mighty Fortress,’ which we sang after the Epistle. The Bible book of the Reformation is the book of Romans, and so the Epistle came from that book, and is the text for this sermon. The message of the Reformation is this: People are made right with God by the gift of His grace, “apart from” God’s Law; “apart from” our efforts to keep God’s Law, or any laws; “apart from” our efforts to do good, and be good people.
And so, the title of tonight’s sermon is “apart from.” I shall apply it to our lives in three ways: We are born “apart from” the Law, we live “apart from” the Law, we shall die “apart from” the Law.
So, let’s get started. How does one become a Christian? Many speak about being born into a Christian family, being born into the Christian faith. But, to speak more carefully, more Biblically, you are never really born into the Christian faith. Rather, you and I were born into sin, spiritually blind, spiritually dead, spiritually enemies of God. Then, we are reborn into the Christian faith, through infant baptism, or through the witness of God’s Word.
Jesus Himself said, in John chapter 3: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3, ESV). All are in need of rebirth, because, as Paul explains, in verse 23 of our Epistle, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And rebirth, into the kingdom of God, comes by God’s grace, not by anything you or I do. Titus 3:5: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (ESV).
What could a baby do, to earn God’s gift? What could a baby do, to earn anything? In infant baptism you and I see so clearly – we do nothing, God does everything. And it is just as true for those who don’t get baptized as babies, but receive God’s gift later in life, through the witness of God’s Word, the Bible.
So you and I are reborn, we begin our Christian lives, “apart from” God’s Law. We should then also live our Christian lives “apart from” the Law.
Now, to live “apart from” the Law does not mean we live without God’s Law, as if the Law had no use for us. The Law does have a very important use for us. As verse 20 of the Epistle tells us, “through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
The Law is God’s medical test for finding the source of the trouble in our lives. Even more sensitive than the latest, most high-tech CT scan or MRI, it shows exactly where the disease of sin is currently causing us the most pain. It is the way God wakes us up when we start to stray away from Him, like those grooves in the pavement on the edge of the road, that go, “rrrrumph!”, and warn us, to get back on the road, before we stray into disaster.
God’s Law can also be a guide in our lives. It can show you and me how to avoid sin. Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (ESV). When you are wondering what you can do to thank God, for all He has done for you, and continues to do for you, every day, then God’s Law can be a wondrous gift list, to show us what God is pleased with.
But we must live “apart from” God’s Law. That means that we cannot place our trust, or hope, or pride, in the good things we do, in keeping God’s Law. We must always live under the cover of God’s forgiveness, as beggars before God, never deserving anything, except for His anger and eternal punishment, but expecting everything good, because of His grace in Jesus.
So what determines what you are as a Christian? Is it the Law? Is it all the things you have accomplished, at home, or on your job, in school, or sports, or in church, as part of the Altar Guild, or the Trustees, or Elders, or Voters, or other activities, or the size of the sacrificial gifts you put in the offering plate? But, according to verse 20 of our Epistle, “by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight.”
No, what determines what you and I are, as Christians, is the Gospel of God, that His holy Son, Jesus Christ, suffered and died for all failures to keep God's Law, on the cross, so that you and I might receive God's gift of faith, of trusting in Jesus, and what He did for you. Who you are , is determined by what God says. What does God say? “All … are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (vv. 23-24 ESV).
By what you and I do in life, we can never add the least little bit to our status with God, the status He has already given us, as a gift, through Jesus. All we can do is show forth, to others, what God has already given to us, what God has already done, for you, and me.
So, in our lives on earth, we must be careful about others who have their trust, hope, or pride in the good things they do, especially when they mix in religion. If there are community organizations that assure their members that they will go to heaven because of the good things they do, we must live “apart from” them, as a matter of Christian witness, to God’s true Gospel.
If there are churches that suggest that going to heaven is a combination of what God does and what you do, we must live “apart from” them, as a matter of Christian witness, to God’s real Gospel.
For when we have been reborn “apart from” the Law, and lived “apart from” the Law, then we can also have the assurance that we will die “apart from” the Law.
Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (ESV). You and I have all sinned, so we must all die. But death has been changed, for you and me.
Jesus Christ already experienced death, in connection with the Law, as punishment for sin, for all sins, including yours, and mine, so that kind of death is not the death a Christian experiences.
Instead, a Christian experiences death “apart from” the law and its punishments. A Christian experiences death as a release, a wondrous release from all our sins, and struggles, and troubles, in this life we live now.
How is this death different? Romans 8:1-2: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death,” (ESV). 1 st Corinthians 15:55-57 – “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory, through our Lord, Jesus Christ” (ESV).
So, to sum it all up, the message of Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic monk reformed by the grace of God, and the message of the Lutheran Reformation , is this: people are saved “apart from” God’s Law, “apart from” anything they do.
People are saved by the free gift of God’s grace, in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through forgiveness for all shame and failure, because of what Jesus has done for you, and me – by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake.
That means we are born, or really reborn, “apart from” the Law, we live “apart from” the Law, and we die “apart from” the Law. May every day in your life, and my life, be a day of Re-formation , a day of life shaped, and re-shaped, by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, “apart from” God’s Law, because, as was noted in tonight's Holy Gospel, Jesus has set us free. Amen.