To Live by Faith: A Reformation Day Meditation on Romans 3

Therefore we conclude

 that a man is justified by faith

 without the deeds of the law.

 

If the Reformation could be said to have been inaugurated by any human author, I would argue it was St. Paul.  Like the Church Fathers of the first five centuries who leaned heavily on the Prophetic and Apostolic writers to combat heresy and develop the ancient Creeds, Luther came to understand the clarity of the Gospel against the murky corruption and semi-Pelagianism of medieval Rome through a close reading of St. Paul’s Epistles—not least his magisterial letter to the church at Rome.  While all of Paul’s inspired writings are worthy of deep meditation, as is every word of the Holy Scriptures breathed out by God through their human authors, this letter to the 1^st century Christians gathered in the capitol of the Roman Empire and sitting in the shadow of brutally pagan emperors, is a magnum opus of theology.  Pastors and laity have been radically transformed by their close reading of Romans even since Paul penned it, and it will transform our age as well, if we will listen to it.

 

Anytime one sees the word, “therefore,” in a writing, one should ask what it’s there for.  Paul had spent the past two and half chapters explaining in inescapable detail why the whole world, Jew and Greek, Roman and barbarian, slave and free, of every tribe, tongue, and tradition, stood guilty before the Law of God.  God is holy, righteous, perfect, all powerful, all knowing, and all present; what God speaks creates reality, as His Word framed the cosmos, and breathed life into every creature of this world, including mankind.  When our first parents rebelled against the Word of God, they rebelled against their own life, falling into the condemnation of sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil through their own fault in separating themselves from God, and bringing upon themselves the deadly justice of their crimes.  And not only did our first parents fall by their own free will, but they bequeathed to every one of their children afterward a corrupted nature that was constantly inclined toward sin and rebellion against God—a sinful nature that was damnable before it could even turn its evil inclinations into wicked thoughts, words, or actions.  As St. Paul would sum up, in Adam, we all died, becoming creatures of wrath under the just curse of our sin, condemned to an eternity of separation from our Creator.

 

I think the reason St. Paul spends so much ink to explain the fallen situation of mankind before the holy Law of God, is that misunderstanding sin (either Original Sin which we inherit, or the manifest sins which we individually commit) will lead us to misunderstand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If all have sinned, by nature and by deed, falling short of the glory of God from the moment of our conception, then no one has any standing before God to present their works as merit for redemption or salvation.  No matter what good we think we may do, which are more often than not self-serving designs of our own pride, greed, lust, or avarice, no corrupted works of sinful people can erase the justice we are due for the corruption which reaches to our very core.  We stand before a holy God whose standard is perfection against the absolute commands of His Law to love Him before all things, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And yet, as we spurn His Word and abuse our neighbors, we show forth in both our fallen nature and our practical works that we are creatures of wrath, deserving our judgement into a hellish prison built to contain and torment the devil and the rebellious angels forever.  This is the reality of fallen man’s condition, and the severity of his need.  By no works of the Law can a man be justified before God, because no fallen man can keep the Law of God whole and entire, for the entirety of one’s existence.  We are conceived in sin, born into sin, and by our own works, all we can do is die in our sins.

 

Thus our only hope of salvation is that which comes to us, apart from our works.  The debt we owe is an eternal debt, and only God who is infinitely righteous and holy, could pay that debt even for one of us, let alone the whole of humanity across every age and place.  Thanks be to God that while we were yet sinners He first loved us, not desiring that any should perish in their sins, but have everlasting life in a blessed and restored communion with Him.  This love of God moved Him to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the satisfaction for our sins, to take upon Himself our justice and our judgment, so that we might no longer stand in the eternal calamity of our own works, but in the infinite magnificence of His Works, whose merits are given to us by grace alone.  These are the Works of Jesus which no man could do:  to be the incarnate God, fully human and fully divine; to live a perfect human life in fulfilment of the Law on our behalf; to teach mankind to see the Kingdom of God for what it really is, and our desperate need for His redemption that we might partake in it; to be the Word of God made flesh, dwelling among us full of grace and truth; to suffer unjustly on our behalf upon a Roman cross, abandoned and betrayed by his own countrymen, with the sins of the whole world placed upon Him; to be the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of every man, woman, and child who would ever be conceived upon this globe; to die, to descend triumphantly into hell, and to rise the third day from the dead; to show forth His eternal victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil; to call all men to faith and repentance, that everyone who believes and is baptized shall be saved; to send forth His disciples in the power of His Holy Spirit to proclaim His saving Word of Gospel to every creature; to abide with, enliven, and empower His people in every generation, even as He promises to come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; to be the King of a Kingdom which has no end, in which death is swallowed up by Life, and evil is forever chained; to be the Savior of the world.

 

It is these works of Jesus which the Reformers hailed as the Vicarious Atonement, and in which all Christians are called to place their faith, rather than in their own paltry works.  These works of Jesus which only He could do, accomplish the salvation of every soul who puts their trust in Him, so that eternal life and the forgiveness of sins comes to each of us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, known to us most surely and incontrovertibly by His Holy Word alone.  Thus the Solas of the Reformation do not come by the dreams of philosophers or mystics, but from the teachings of Christ through His Prophets and Apostles, perhaps nowhere quite so clearly presented as St. Paul’s letter to the 1^st century church at Rome.  And so we are called to conclude with St. Paul, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law for Jesus’ sake, called into a new and eternal life in which we are enlivened to bring forth fruitful works worthy of repentance, which reflect the love and grace we have first been given.  In this blessed Gospel we give thanks to God Almighty for His Word and Works of Redemption through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and for sending His servants to proclaim His Gospel in every generation.  Here we stand in Christ alone, alive by faith forever.  Amen.

Rendering to God and Caesar: a Meditation on Matthew 22

 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel

how they might entangle him in his talk.

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying,

Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth,

neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou?

Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

 

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said,

Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

 Shew me the tribute money.

And they brought unto him a penny.

 And he saith unto them,

Whose is this image and superscription?

 They say unto him, Caesar's.

Then saith he unto them,

Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's;

 and unto God the things that are God's.

When they had heard these words, they marveled,

and left him, and went their way.

 

The reading for this Sunday from Matthew 22, records the Pharisees’ attempt to entrap Jesus not only for His religious teaching, but to set Him up as a rebel against Roman authority.  Had they succeeded, they might have cast doubt upon Jesus among His disciples, and gained a ground to turn him over to the governor for prosecution.  Then, as today, threatening to withhold taxes from the government is a quick path to imprisonment, as politicians love little more than the power to take and use other people’s money.  Politics hasn’t changed much in several thousand years, and Jesus was not about to be trapped by the sophistry of the Pharisees.

 

In Jesus’ response to render unto Caesar what belongs to him, and unto God what belongs to Him, Jesus not only escaped the false dichotomy presented by His challengers, but also revealed a clear teaching of Scripture that there are two legitimate domains of authority in the world.  Both God and government have their proper roles in the world, though one is inferior to the other:  it is God who delegates His authority among people to establish just and virtuous communities and governments, not governments who have authority over God.  All human authority, whether in the bedrock human community of the family, or in the aggregate of human families in local, regional, or national governments, are still occupied and exercised by humans.  Thus all human governments are accountable to God for the conduct of their offices, and have no authority over God, anymore than a creature has authority over its Creator.  While human government is legitimate because it is ordained by God, it is also subordinate to the Word and will of God, which stands in unassailable and inescapable judgement over it.

 

In our own time, this principle has been challenged often.  Across the world, various governments presume to tell the churches in their lands what they may teach, how they may gather, what their worship shall include or exclude, and how they will be organized.  Particularly in communist regions, the government presumes to persecute the churches into total obedience to the political philosophy of the state, or face extermination.  Until this year, such open hostility and persecution of Christians was unknown in America, but with the rise of materialist socialism and atheistic communism combined with totalitarian politicians and a public health crisis, our churches now find themselves pressed to submit to government regulation and control.  Increasing calls to suppress Biblical teaching on human sexuality as “hate crimes,” or to attack the gathering of Christians in worship as non-essential “super-spreaders” of an infectious disease, have revealed a contempt for the separation of religious and political authority which Jesus clearly teaches.  Indeed, it shows such a contempt that it would invert the principle of divine supremacy to the supremacy of the state, leaving any notion of individual liberty based in divinely endowed rights behind.

 

Before such an onslaught of political hubris, far too many churches have acquiesced.  Having allowed the state to take from them the high holy days of Holy Week and Easter, they have pressed through the Pentecost season with many still huddling in pathetic fear and submission.  While politicians consider how to extend their totalitarian emergency powers through the end of 2020 and into 2021, Advent and Christmas will be the next holy seasons to be attacked for suppression.  And why not?  For pagan, atheist, materialist, or communist inspired tyrants, what greater victory might they perceive than crushing the will of Christians to gather for their most revered holy days?  If the churches will not insist on exercising their God-given rights and authority to obey the Word of God over the dictates of men, then the tyranny of politicians will be complete.  This is how the tyrants of the 20^th century bowed the churches of their respective lands, from Maoist China, to Stalinist Russia, to Nazi Germany, and a host of others in between.  To be sure, God retained a remnant of faithful people even under the harshest of tyrannical political regimes, but the failure of the people to stand up and insist upon the divine right of the church to function beyond the human authority of the government, brought for whole societies the deep darkness of bloody oppression and martyrdom.

 

And so, in our time and place, we have opportunity to remember once again the teaching of Jesus, that there is a distinction between the divine authority of God in the Church, and the human authority of men in political community.  As Christian citizens of a political nation, we have a duty to support and serve our government according to the laws of our land—to render unto Caesar that which properly falls to his authority and domain.  Yet as Christian people, we do not give to Caesar that which belongs to God alone, for when human authority attempts to coerce people into violation of God’s Eternal Word, we must declare with the Prophets and Apostles of old that we will obey God rather than men.  The understanding of this divine right given to all human beings is declared in our country’s founding documents as the free exercise of religion, a truth which all American citizens have inherited, and are duty bound to hand on to our posterity.

 

Where our churches and individual Christians have wrongly given to human authority that which properly belongs only to God, the Word of Jesus calls us to repentance.  And with faith and repentance, Jesus promises to all penitent hearts His grace of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Hear the Word of the Lord, that we might boldly be both faithful Christians and dutiful citizens, properly discerning the legitimate natures of the Kingdom of God and the governments of men, giving to each their due.  Amen.

Many are Called, but Few are Chosen: A Meditation on Matthew 22

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king,

which made a marriage for his son,

And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding:

 and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying,

Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner:

 my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready:

come unto the marriage.

But they made light of it, and went their ways,

one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

And the remnant took his servants,

and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth:

and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,

and burned up their city.

 

Then saith he to his servants,

The wedding is ready,

but they which were bidden were not worthy.

 Go ye therefore into the highways,

and as many as ye shall find,

bid to the marriage.

 So those servants went out into the highways,

and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good:

and the wedding was furnished with guests.

 And when the king came in to see the guests,

he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

And he saith unto him,

Friend, how camest thou in hither

not having a wedding garment?

And he was speechless.

Then said the king to the servants,

Bind him hand and foot, and take him away,

and cast him into outer darkness,

 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

There are few concepts which rile modern sensibilities like the concept of exclusion.  In today’s world, far too many see themselves entitled to everything, even those things that nature and creation have denied them in their very genetic construct.  The desire for equality of outcomes to all people has become a political rallying cry of those who see themselves excluded from opportunity by others, and not necessarily as a consequence of their own choices and actions.  As so often is the case, Jesus’ Word pierces to the center of mental and spiritual maladies both ancient and contemporary, teaching everyone who will listen how to think rightly on such things.

 

In Jesus’ parable of the King and the Wedding Feast, He noted a peculiar arrangement:  the King, who had no obligation to invite all his subjects of a particular city to the wedding party of his son, did so anyway.  The King’s subjects apathetically rejected this offer of unmerited grace, refused to come, and prioritized their own menial activities over those of the King.  The King increased his urgency in the call, pleading with them to come by noting all the preparations long promised were ready, but the subjects instead abused and killed the King’s messengers, returning insult and injury for grace and compassion.  Ultimately the King sent justice to that city of murderous and disrespectful people, slaughtering them all and burning the city to the ground.

 

As if that scene were not peculiar enough, Jesus added another.  The King then sent his invitation out to the whole countryside, and to the furthest reaches of His domain, noting that since those originally called to the wedding feast were unworthy, He would extend the call to everyone.  Thus the servants of the King went throughout the kingdom, calling everyone who would come to the feast, and the banquet hall was filled with guests of every kind.  And yet, as the King walked among his guests, he found one there without a wedding garment, apparently an interloper who was speechless at the King’s inquiry.  Then, in a scene most terrifying, the King commanded his servants to bind the errant guest and cast him into the outer darkness, declaring for all to hear that many are called, but few are chosen.

 

The displays of unwarranted grace and severe judgment in this parable are jarring to the ear, but they are worth consideration by every generation.  In its direct application, Jesus is referring to the Jewish nation and specifically the city of Jerusalem, who had been the beneficiary of all the messianic prophesy of Jesus’ coming and the wedding of God and man which the King of the Universe had been preparing since the fall of mankind.  However, this advent of grace was rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, and it was in the environs of Jerusalem that Jesus would be betrayed, beaten, and slain on a Roman cross.  For this horrible rejection of God’s gracious calling, judgment would fall upon the city of Jerusalem within that same generation, as the Romans would utterly destroy it less than 40 years after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Yet even before that judgment would fall, Jesus extended the calling and inclusion in His wedding feast, the reconciliation of God and man by grace through faith in His Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the whole world upon that same Roman Cross, by sending His Apostles out into the world to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name alone.

 

Even so, this calling continues to this very day, and will continue to the end of time.  The messengers of Jesus’ Gospel of salvation and redemption continue to carry the invitation of God to His wedding feast of reconciliation and eternal life into the whole world, making no distinction of the peculiar circumstances of any given soul—not by race, by wealth, by advantage, or prestige.  Every soul receives the same calling of God to come in Faith and Repentance to the wedding feast of His only begotten Son, where His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil is consummated for eternity.  Everyone is called to the wedding feast of Jesus, just as He has died for the sins of the whole world, and of every person of every time, tribe, and place.

 

And yet, what are we to make of the conclusion of the story, that many are called, but few are chosen?  How is one to ensure that as the King surveys His banquet, he is not singled out for exclusion, bound hand and foot and cast into hell with every form of evil and malicious rebel against the King of the Universe?  The key is to understand the principle of the wedding garment, something only the King could give, and which a person could only possess by grace.  Only a guest who has heard and responded to the call of faith and repentance, and who arrives not clothed in his own merit to be judged by the works of the Law, but clothed in the robes of Jesus’ righteousness by grace and forgiveness through faith in Him, is found to be at the wedding feast according to the terms of the King.  We must never forget that the wedding feast belongs to the King, and He alone sets the terms for those who would participate in His bounty.  And it is this King who has declared that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved, except Jesus Christ alone.

 

It is certainly true that many are called, and few are chosen, for though the Gospel goes out to every soul of every nation, not all will respond with faith and repentance to receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Such are the terms of inclusion and exclusion set by the Word of the King, so that no one may stand before Him on the merits of their own works of the Law and demand payment for their labors.  For as all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so all need the grace and forgiveness of Jesus to be reconciled with God, so that our salvation can only be by grace through faith in Him.  No other wedding garment of our own construction can match the infinite beauty of the garment made by Jesus through His life, death, and resurrection, and no other garment of our own making is worthy to be worn in the King’s presence.  We stand reconciled to God by grace through faith in Jesus, or we fall before His judgment seat to receive the condemnation we have earned on our own.  Thus our inclusion or exclusion in the wedding feast is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, which we know for certain through His Eternal Word alone.

 

And so the call of the Gospel comes to you, and to every soul in every community and nation across this globe.  Hear the Word of the Lord, turn in repentance from your path of evil and delusions of entitlement, and in faithful trust of Jesus receive the free gift of His grace, that you might have forgiveness, life, and salvation in Him forever.  Come to the wedding feast of the King which has been prepared from before the foundation of the world to reconcile God and man forever in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  Come, but only on His gracious terms, that you might never present yourself before His holy Law to be judged upon your own corrupted merits, and thus be sentenced with all the wicked to the eternal fires of hell’s inescapable prison.  Come to the feast of gracious redemption, where all who repent and believe, shall live.  Amen.

The Vineyard, The Owner, and The Husbandmen: A Meditation on Matthew 21

Hear another parable:

There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard,

and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower,

and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:

And when the time of the fruit drew near,

he sent his servants to the husbandmen,

that they might receive the fruits of it.

And the husbandmen took his servants,

 and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other servants more than the first:

and they did unto them likewise.

But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying,

They will reverence my son.

But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves,

This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh,

what will he do unto those husbandmen?

 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men,

and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,

which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

 

In Matthew 21, Jesus began by entering Jerusalem in fulfilment of Old Testament prophesy, a heavenly King seated on a lowly donkey, with crowds chanting thanks and praise to God for His arrival.  He entered the temple, purged it of the profane profiteers who had turned it into a house of merchandise, and received the sick and the lame to heal, teach, and comfort them.  The rulers of the temple, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, were enraged and sought some way to capture Jesus, but they feared the multitude who held Jesus to be a prophet sent from God.  Of course, not many days hence, those temple rulers would find a way to betray Jesus, and have him crucified before the Roman governor on false charges and slander.  But before the betrayal of the Jewish leaders sent Him to the Cross, Jesus taught both them and the people several profound truths, including the parable above.

 

The Owner of a vineyard in the ancient world, as would also be today, was entitled to the produce of his property.  He had the freedom to hire workers for an agreed upon wage, who would tend to the vineyard according to their duties, that the produce might be shared among them—or perhaps better said, the produce of the vineyard was what provided for the payment of the workers and the owner alike.  The owner was free to hire whomever he wanted to tend to his vineyard, and the workers were free to accept or reject this offer of work.  Once in a covenant together, both were entitled to what was to come: the workers to their wages, and the owner to his vineyard’s fruit.

 

In an almost inexplicable case of rebellion and theft, the workers in the owner’s vineyard became mutinous, demanding to take what was not theirs to take.  They were employed by the owner to tend the vineyard and to receive wages worthy of their work, but instead demanded that they take it all.  In an equally inexplicable act of grace, the owner sent emissaries and messengers to the workers of the vineyard, pleading with them to stop this evil and return to their covenant.  Repeatedly, the workers of the vineyard abused the owner’s emissaries and rejected their overtures for repentance and grace, until at last the owner sent his only son to intercede with them.  Having now risen to the heights of their wickedness, they determined that if they could kill the owner’s heir, they could seize the owner’s vineyard forever.

 

It was, of course, a ridiculous plan.  The workers did manage to kill the owner’s son, but the owner did not bow in acquiescence to the murderous and mutinous mob.  Rather, as Jesus’ interlocutors observed, the owner would return with vengeance and wrath, slay the unfaithful stewards, and give his vineyard to others who would keep his covenant.  This observation which was so obvious to the people who followed Jesus, was also obvious to the temple rulers.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees perceived that Jesus was teaching against them, and still, they plotted to murder the Son of God anyway, just as their forefathers had plotted to abuse, persecute, and murder the prophets who came before Him.  Jesus’ warning to them, and to every age of mankind, is that the Lord will not be mocked; His calls for mercy and grace have an end, and judgement will fall upon those murderous rebels who persist in rejecting Him and His covenant.

 

There is much here that the church in our time must learn.  We have been entrusted with the Lord’s Vineyard, which He alone created, and to Him alone are due the fruits thereof.  Those who have heard His Word of Law and Gospel, who have been called by grace through faith into the covenant of forgiveness and mercy through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, have been entrusted to work in the Lord’s vineyard.  Our terms of service are the grace earned by Jesus, which are to us eternal life and salvation from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  In our covenant with God, we receive the wages of Jesus, while God takes the penalty of our wickedness upon Himself—a grace that is free to us, but which cost Him everything.  Then we are sent into His vineyard, his whole world and the communities into which we are placed, to bear witness to this Gospel of salvation in Jesus alone, and to give to others forgiveness, life, and salvation just as freely was it was given to us.  This is the love of God which first loved us, and that we carry into a dark and dying world, that the Lord would receive the fruits of His Gospel in due season.  This Word of the Living God, His whole counsel of Law and Gospel in the Holy Scriptures, is the living trust Christians are given to love and serve their neighbors, that God may be glorified in all things.  Neither the Church nor the World belong to men, but all are called to live and work therein according to the Creator’s covenant of grace.

 

To our generation, and to us individually, the Word of the Lord comes to bring us to faith and repentance.  It is the Gospel truth that God alone calls us into His fellowship through faith in His Son, and that God alone sets the terms of our service in His Kingdom by grace through faith in Christ alone.  It is also the truth of the Law that those who would corrupt His Kingdom, abuse His servants, discard His Word, and attempt to seize what is not theirs, shall be consigned to the flames of hell forever, so that the grace once offered to them will be given to others.  Thus we all stand in the presence of both a Just and Merciful God—to those who reject and betray Him, judgement; but to those who repent and believe in Him, grace.  This is as true for the people in Jesus’ time as it is in our own, and shall be until the Lord returns.  Hear the Word of the Lord today, that you may abide in his grace by faith in Jesus, and escape the judgment which is quickly coming upon an unfaithful and rebellious world.  Amen.