March 12, 2017 Text: Romans 4:1-8, 13-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Back in the eighteenth century, the mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg sarcastically described the Lutheran as a man locked up in a dark room pacing back and forth repeating to himself: “I am justified by faith alone. I am justified by faith alone. I am justified by faith alone.” Justification by faith alone – is it really such a big deal? Or is it a merely a threadbare mantra chanted with monotony with no real purpose? After all isn’t there more than one entrée at the biblical buffet. This morning the Apostle Paul asserts that . . .
“JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE REALLY IS A BIG DEAL”
For us justification by faith alone means either being under a curse or blessing. Justification by faith alone means condemnation or acquittal. Justification by faith alone means it is a matter of life or death.
To bring this all home to his hearers, Paul showcases Abraham. Was Abraham made righteous because of his faith or his works? Here is the forefather of the Jews who had done works that were worth boasting about. But not before God.
The question of justification is quite inescapable for Abraham and for us. If you are not justified by faith, you will seek it elsewhere. Pay attention to the way people speak. Pay attention to your own language. No one wants to be wrong. We will find whatever words we can to declare ourselves and our actions and our attitudes as right. All of us are continuing to justify ourselves to each other that we talk right past one another.
Listen to eulogies at the funerals of unbelievers. Isn’t it curious that those who claimed not to believe in God are so pressed in the face of death to declare that the life now ended was right and good? They are feeble attempts to reckon the deceased as righteous with an appeal to his virtues as a husband and father, his athletic allegiance to The Illinois State University, his membership in the Kiwanis and his work on the board of the local bird sanctuary. Eulogies like this are empty and shallow at best; they do nothing to account the person as righteous before God. It works well in the obituary, but obituaries never get the dead out of the grave.
Here are just a few snippets from one day of obituaries in The Pantagraph. “He greatly enjoyed helping others, serving on the ESDA, camping, and gardening.” “He was an avid White Sox fan. He was a high school star athlete in football, basketball, and baseball. He coached Little League and was also a Boy Scout leader for many years.” “She enjoyed playing games with her grandchildren, quilting, and spending time watching wildlife at her home in Wisconsin.” “She was a hard worker who loved to make others happy with her delicious meals and helpful nature.” What would go in your obituary? Ours would read the same way. But how many of them have anything to do with saving faith?
Circumcision would not cut it for Abraham. Faith was there before circumcision. It is by faith, not the cutting of the flesh, that Abraham is reckoned righteous. Likewise to us, the righteousness that is ours is through faith in Christ Jesus and not by works of the Law.
And what is this faith that justifies? Trust, not in our works, which we sometimes use as measuring rods to make it clear we are in the right. Faith lets go of that and throws it in the garbage heap. In its place is trust in God, who justifies the ungodly. Listen to verse 5, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
Please remember this is not faith in faith. Faith must have an object outside of itself. It is faith in the promise. Abraham was the model of one who believed in the coming Messiah and so his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
It does not end with Abraham. For God who accounted him righteous does the same for you. Paul says these things were written not for Abraham’s sake alone but also for us, for the promise extends through Old Testament history into your hearing right now, for faith comes by hearing and the hearing, not of any word, but the Word of Christ, the words of the cross.
Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where our work as parent and spouse does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where are allegiance to a university does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where are work in a service organization does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where our helpful nature and meal making and athletic skills do not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts where were always having to be right does not. Faith in the cross of Jesus counts today in our daily life and tomorrow in our life to come. The cross of Jesus points to our righteousness.
Let’s make a deal – a big deal – out of justification by faith alone!
Amen.