“Reformation Superlatives”
A Blessed Reformation Day to you. We commemorate this year, as every year, the beginning of the great Reformation of the church in the year 1517, when on October 31st, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther sparked a firestorm by posting 95 statements for debate, or theses, on the church door of Wittenberg, Germany. It could have been easily forgotten but for the theological issue it raised – which struck at the very heart of Christian teaching. Truth be told, Luther himself didn’t quite see it so clearly at first. He mainly knew that the sale of God’s forgiveness by indulgences was untenable. But as he got blowback for raising his complaints, he dug deeper into the Holy Scriptures, and eventually re-discovered the very Gospel itself. It had never gone away entirely, of course. After all, the Gospel is an eternal Gospel as we read in Revelation 14 today. But the truth had been obscured, muddied, and polluted with man-made teachings that took away from the clarity and and therefore the comfort of Scripture.
In the final analysis, it wasn’t Luther, or any of the reformers that are the real heroes of the story, but rather the Holy Spirit who worked through the Word of God. And one of the most important passages for the Reformation, and for the Christian faith itself, is found in Romans 3, our Epistle for today.
Paul’s letter to the Romans is really the New Testament’s book of Christian Doctrine 101. Apart from the Gospels, it may even be considered the chief book of the New Testament. And here in Chapter 3, Paul gets to the heart of the faith – after building up for the first few chapters a case about just how bad off we are in our sins – now, chapter 3 is the turning point. It is the great revealing of the righteousness of God that comes by grace through faith. The refrain of the reformation is our refrain today. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
There’s so much here to talk about, so many riches to mine from God’s word in this passage. Today, I’d like to focus on one little word, a key word in the text: “all”. And related to that, the superlative claims made by Paul as he teaches us what this faith is all about: All have sinned. All have fallen short. But all are jusfitied freely by grace through faith in Christ. Let’s consider today the Reformation Superlatives of Romans 3.
All have sinned. All. All people. All individuals, all groups, all races, all stations. Every last human being that ever was or will be, that descends from Adam – bears Adam’s sin. We both inherit it and participate in it.
This includes the “whole world” – believers and unbelievers alike. Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not. You have a sin problem. All have sinned. It’s a superlative claim. There is no exception (besides Jesus Christ himself).
And he also says that the law, therefore, stops every mouth. Every mouth. All of them. There is no one that can say a word in excuse of their own sin. There is no rationalization or explanation, no fancy argument we can use to squiggle or squirm out of the law’s accusation. It exposes us entirely, thoroughly, through-and-through for the sinners we are. We are not just mostly bad or somewhat culpable. This problem goes to our very core. The corruption is complete. We wreak of death. All of us. Everyone.
And anything else someone may claim about our predicament is just a plain old lie. Whether they say you can buy your way out of the law with money, or good works, or the right lineage, or a firm commitment. The law won’t have any of it. The law shows your sin, and now amount of human effort can divert that pointing finger of accusation. We are dead to rights.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. And yet there is still hope.
There’s another superlative. Just as all have sinned and fall short, so too all are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. And here is the blessed, sweet, pure and free Gospel.
All are justified! A superlative. There is no one that Jesus leaves out of his saving work. There is no one who is not redeemed – bought and paid for – by the blood of Christ. All are included. Everyone.
Every tribe, nation, people and language. Every rank and station of men and women, young and old, rich and poor, slave or free – there is no distinction when it comes to the Gospel. Every human being under the law, sinner though he is, should rejoice in the redemption God has prepared for us in Jesus Christ.
Only Jesus could do it, of course. Only he had the perfect righteousness that God’s law demands. Only he could lay down his life as a sacrifice, fully sufficient, once-and-for-all. “For God so loved the WORLD…”, that means everyone in it. “Make disciples of ALL nations”, Jesus says.
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, Peter preached, for the forgiveness of your sins.”
God desires ALL to be saved, and come to the knowledge of truth.
How all-encompassing and entirely thorough and full and freely given is the grace of God in Jesus Christ!
And if the Gospel is for ALL, then the Gospel is for YOU. No sin is too dark or deep. No guilt can keep you out of the boundaries of his grace. No skeleton in your closet puts you outside of the “all are justified”. Nothing disqualifies you from salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
But wait, there’s more! It’s not just that it is given TO everyone, but the grace of God itself is a superlative. For by grace God accomplishes our salvation in its entireity. You bring nothing to the table. Jesus brings everything. You have nothing but sin. He gives you everything by grace.
That’s exactly what grace is. It means you do nothing, God does everything for you in Jesus Christ. You don’t save yourself, in whole, or in part. Jesus is the one and only Savior. And thanks be to God that he is! For I would be a terrible savior of myself. I could never fully trust in my own devices, my own commitment, my own reason or strength. But the blood of Jesus? That’s the stuff! His sacrificial death on the cross for me? That does the job. And it is certainly, surely, 100% enough! It is the superlative salvation that only he could accomplish.
But what about good works, then? Aren’t they important? This was, and is, of course, the objection of many who would limit the “all” of salvation by grace. Surely my own good works must count for something! Surely I can boast a little, that I contribute something, that I can do something, even a little, to take part in this salvation! Ah, Paul would say no. Boasting is excluded. Entirely. Your good works of the law are are not part of your justification. They don’t make you good or right or holy. Jesus does all of that. He does the saving. You have nothing to boast about, except what he has done for you.
This is not to say that we don’t do, or encourage, or teach good works – those are also false accusations lobbed at the Reformers, and even at Lutherans today. Of course the Christian does good works. These are the fruits of faith. But they are not the cause. They flow from the faith that saves us, the good works themselves count for nothing. Or as Luther once put it, “God doesn’t need your good works, but our neighbor does”.
A blessed Reformation day to you. May all of you sinners rejoice in the all-availing sacrifice of Christ, and be comforted again today, by the superlative grace by which we are saved through faith. His salvation is for all, and that means it is also for you. And let us ever confess that he has done it all, that it is by grace you are saved, not by works of the law. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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