Most people today probably aren't very troubled about how they stand with God. Probably most people don't even give it a second thought. But we ought to think about it. We ought to be concerned that God sets forth the standard by which we should live and we don't even come close to measuring up. As St. Paul says in the epistle, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That should bother us terribly, that we don't measure up in God's sight. It bothered Martin Luther nearly 500 years ago. In fact, his sins bothered him so much, he joined a monastery because he figured if he prayed all the time and did lots of chores and things, he could work off his sins. That is until he began to study the scriptures and learned that you CAN'T work off your sins. You CAN'T do enough good things to overcome the bad. You CAN'T just keep the commandments and everything will be OK. Rather, what Martin Luther learned, as he read the Bible, was that God's Word reveals to us a different way to be holy. We don't get holy, we don't get right with God, we don't get rid of our sins by any means at all. Rather, it is GOD who gets rid of our sins through His Son Jesus Christ. For Martin Luther, and the Lutherans who have come since, it's all about the forgiveness of sins we have in Jesus that makes us right with God and able to stand before Him.
Even though our standing with God may not be on our minds at every minute, we tend, like the world, to drift into a sort of “scorecard” religion. If you do something good, like go to church or give to charity, you get points. If you do something bad, like lose your temper or skip church, you get a penalty that takes off points. Then, on the Last Day, you hope like crazy that your points are on the plus side! That's pretty much how the world thinks. It measures things out in terms of “what do I have to do to pay for what I've done.” Or it just avoids the question altogether. As Christians, we're not immune from these bad ideas creeping into our way of thinking. When we feel bad about something we've done, instead of confessing it and being absolved, we try to hide it or work it off. Instead of admitting how doomed we are because of our sins, we instead try to reason out how we can get away with it. Sometimes, in our deeper, darker, innermost thoughts, we might try to make a deal with the Lord or even begin to despair that we can every truly get rid of our sins. What if, in the end, we have to stand before God and answer for every little thing we've thought or said or done! That though SHOULD terrify us. Apart from Christ.
But St. Paul has told us clearly: There's a way of righteousness that isn't about the Law any more. You can't get holy that way. Instead, the Bible—the Law and the Prophets—reveal a different kind of righteousness, through Jesus Christ. Your standing with God isn't based on YOU. It's on Jesus. Paul says that Christ is our redemption. He's the price paid to bring us back from our sins to being God's children. He's our propitiation. Propitiation! Awesome word! Use that at your next party. A “propitiation” is a mercy place, the place where you go to grab a hold of and then God can't strike you down. The propitiation is the place where the blood gets poured out so that you don't die for your sins. Jesus is our propitiation on the cross. The cross of Christ is where God says our sins don't count against us. Where they are not held against us. Where they are removed and washed away and wiped out. Christ's holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death are the price paid for your release from the slavery of sin. His body and blood, crucified and risen for you, are the place to go to be safe from God's judgment against sin. That's a righteousness that doesn't come from what we do but from what Christ has already done for you!
And how do we know about this salvation? Where is this righteousness given? St. Paul tells us it is revealed in the Law and the Prophets, that is, in the Scriptures, in the Word. Jesus doesn't pay this price and then leave it for you to figure out how to get a hold of it! He doesn't set it before you and await your choice! No, He reveals it and gives it out in His Word and gifts. He gives it in Baptism before you even know what's going on. He gives it in Holy Absolution when you can't even remember all your sins. He gives it in His Body and Blood where we know that He is present as our propitiation, our blood-covering, our mercy seat. When we stand in Christ's church, all deal-making and worrying is done for. There is no more keeping score, trying to overcome our sins with our good works or anything else like that. No thinking God is going to pay you back. The water, the Word, the Body and the Blood are declare that you are justified, that you are declared righteous, that your standing with God is a perfect done deal in Christ.
So what to brag about? Nothing! Paul says, “Where is boasting? It's gone. Left out. Because of the Law of faith.” Here's where our salvation matters in our day to day lives. Not because we think about it all the time but because how we are saved affects how we treat our neighbor. If getting right with God is about what you do, and how much you do, then the way you live toward others is just going to always be a display of how holy you are and how godly you are. If being right with God is based on you keeping the commandments, then your life will be a constant effort to show others that's exactly what you are doing. And who does that benefit? No one. But if you have nothing to boast about, if your standing with God is all on Christ, then it doesn't matter what the world says or what others think. You can serve your neighbor with no thought for yourself. No worries about whether doing good is canceling out your sins. No messing with the scorecard. Just loving and serving your neighbor—husbands and wives and parents and children and bosses and employees and friends and family and so on—is all you need to worry about. Not for your sake. You're in with God! But for their sake, because you already in with God and the things you do aren't for Him but for those who need them done. No boasting there. Nobody likes a braggart. It's just those redeemed by Jesus' blood doing what others need done to help them out.
It should matter to you how you stand with God. But it should matter because your standing is on account of Christ. It is on Christ so that you are saved from it being on you. You are saved from it being on you so that you can be something useful for those around you. You don't get squared up with the Lord by what you can try to do. You are already squared up with the Lord by Jesus Christ, His Son whom He sent for that very purpose: to redeem you, be your propitiation, and justify you. All just fancy words that mean that because of the blood of Jesus, you are in. That's what Martin Luther discovered in God's Word. And that Word is for you too. Happy Reformation in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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