“LIVING BY FAITH”—ROMANS 1:16-17
Besides the saints of the Old and New Testaments, I have several heroes of the Faith. These include such people as John and Charles Wesley, Francis Asbury, Phillip William Otterbein, Peter Cartwright, and Martin Luther. It was exactly 487 years ago today, Saturday, October 31, 1517, that Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg (“vit’-en-berk”) Church., only twenty-five years after Columbus had discovered the New World. Thus today we celebrate Reformation Sunday in the Church.
Luther, a devout Augustinian monk, agonized many long hours and sleepless nights over the questions of his relationship with God and his eternal destiny. A faithful Catholic, he had diligently practiced everything his Church prescribed for him to do, but he continually struggled for the assurance that he had made peace with God. A sense of divine forgiveness eluded him while his soul was continually tormented by guilt and condemnation.
In 1515 he gave a series of lectures at Wittenberg University on the Book of Romans; it was then he had a spiritual break through, as the Holy spirit brought the message of Romans 1:16-17 home to him. His life was changed, and his relationship with God became real:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is
the power of God for the salvation of everyone
who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,
just as it is written: ‘The righteous (i. e., the just)
shall live by faith.”
The Great Reformer experienced salvation when he finally realized that one is saved by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and not by any of his own personal effort or works. He came to accept God’s free grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
Although a loyal Catholic since his birth in November of 1483, Luther, along with many others, had come to recognize the vial corruption that plagued the Roman Church of the sixteenth century. Popes, cardinals, bishops, and many parish clergy were corrupt. Noblemen of Europe would often purchase bishoprics and even the papacy for their younger sons. Even if forbidden to marry, Roman clergy kept mistresses and fathered illegitimate children. Although devout clergy were to be found in the rank and file, many priests were not true Christians and often did not believe in Jesus, the Bible, or the orthodox doctrines of the Church.
The Church’s practice of selling indulgences outraged Luther and many faithful Christians. The Roman Church taught that when people sinned, they had to confess their sins to a priest. However, they could not be totally forgiven until they performed an act of penance. The priest would give the confessor homework to do in order before receiving forgiveness, so many prayers to pray or a good deed to perform, but the requirement of doing penance could often be cancelled if the confessor would buy an indulgence, a papal certificate that abolished the need for doing penance. Indulgences could also be purchased to free your deceased relatives from suffering in purgatory. In other words, the Church taught that divine forgiveness could be bought and sold.
Pope Leo X financed the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by selling indulgences. One of his best indulgence salesmen was a German, Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel. Tetzel went throughout the German countryside proclaiming that when one would purchase indulgences from him, he would instantly be freed from all punishment for his sins and any of his deceased relatives in purgatory would spontaneously be released to go to Heaven. Tetzel actually declared, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs” [--George Thompson and Jerry Combee, World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed. (Pensacola: A Beka Book, 1997), 247.].
The entire Book of Romans, but particularly our text, brought Martin Luther to saving faith and assured him of his salvation. We have his personal testimony: “My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning. . . .This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.”
[--A. Kenneth Curtis, J. Stephen Lang, and Randy Petersen, the 100 Most Important Events in Christian History (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Co., Fleming H. Revell, 1991), 97.].
Coming to that divine moment was the result of agonizing spiritual warfare. Thankfully he had a mentor and spiritual father in John von Staupitz, the vicar-general of the Augustinian order. Luther would often unburden his soul to his friend, confessing his fear of eternal damnation, his endless attempts to make himself pleasing to God, and his hopeless sense of not being able to justify himself before God and earn the assurance of his salvation. Staupitz encouraged his young friend, “Look not on your own imaginary sins, but look at Christ crucified, where your real sins are forgiven, and hold with deep courage to God.” It was Staupitz that led Luther to trust the crucifixion of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins” [--Edwin P. Booth, Martin Luther, the Great Reformer, ed. Dan Harmon (Ulrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1995), 48.].
Today many of us face the exact same spiritual struggles that Luther faced almost 500 years ago. God’s plan of salvation is so simple, but we make it something so complicated. We are simply programmed to pay for everything we receive and to be skeptical about anything that is advertised as being free. Salvation is a free gift received by faith, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus the ultimate price.
As he attempted to win his salvation and God’s approval, Luther worked hard—fasting for days, praying all night, doing acts of penance hour after hour. He came to the point that he hated God, as he realized everything he did to justify himself in God’s eyes was insufficient. This awareness brought such discouragement “that he was often seen at the foot of the altar weeping, earnestly beseeching pardon for his sins” [-- George Thompson and Jerry Combee, World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed. (Pensacola: A Beka Book, 1997), 247.].
Like Luther we are prone to feel we must work our way to heaven, but “The just or the righteous, the two words are the same in the Greek, still live by faith.” We are all sinners, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” Salvation is by grace. It is something I cannot earn and do not deserve. Paul’s words to Titus in Titus 3:4-7 are the only way anyone can find peace with God:
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous
things we had done, but because of his mercy.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and
renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out
on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might
become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Living by faith means we are saved by God’s mercy, not because of
righteous deeds we have done, for God and God alone is righteous. The Bible continually confirms that not one of us is righteous. Look at Isaiah 64:6:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Or take Romans 10:10-11: “As it is written:
‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
“‘There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.’”
Living by faith means I stop depending upon my own ability
to achieve salvation. I acknowledge that no act of piety, no moral goodness, nothing else can save me. I place my complete trust in what Jesus has done in His death on the cross to save me and give me eternal life. Living by faith means I “hook up and hang on to Jesus with all my heart.”
For me, an acrostic helps personalize today’s message. Faith means:
Forsaking
All
I
Trust
Him
I am justified by faith through forsaking all thoughts that I can ever hope to in any save myself. I forsake all ideas that somehow I can be saved by: living a good, moral life; obeying the Ten Commandments; abiding by the Golden Rule; or working at trying to be the best person I can be. In place of all such futile works I put my trust in Jesus as my personal Saviour and Lord. When I come to that place of total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, He justifies me. He treats me “Just as if I Had Never Sinned.” John Wesley includes the doctrine of “Justification by Faith Alone” Article IX in our historic Articles of Religion: “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works of deservings; wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.”
We go to the polls for the General Election in two days. I am certain you all have noticed Julie Curry’s advertisement for Bob Flider in his campaign for election as Illinois General Assembly Representative from the 101st District. She says something like this, “I am here because ten years ago Penny Severns asked you to put your trust in me. Now I am asking you to put your trust in State Representative Bob Flider.”
That is an example of faith. We put our faith, our trust in a person. I am asking you to put your faith, your trust in a Divine Person, the Saviour of the World Jesus Christ. An old chorus that I used to sing in Vacation Bible School says it so well:
“Look to the Lamb of God,
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you,
Look to the Lamb of God.”
This is the only way you can be “made right with God.” “The just still and always do live by faith.”
When Martin Luther accepted the simple Biblical truth and looked to Christ crucified and His finished work for us all on the cross, “this passage of Paul became to him a gate to heaven.” Has it had that same impact on you? If not, it can right this very moment. Start looking and trusting only in Christ crucified as your salvation; Jesus, our Church family, and I as your pastor and friend invite you right now to begin “Living by Faith.”
