Sermon for 8/21/22: Tenth Sunday After Trinity

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Deeds and Faith

Romans 9:30-10:4

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

 

 

Israel had everything. They possessed the promise to Abraham of a great and faithful nation. They had been given the Law, written by the very finger of God and given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Above all, they had the promise that, from among them, the Seed of the woman, the world’s one and only Savior, would arise. In His unfathomable grace, God had given all of this to them.

What happened? Had God’s Word failed? Of course not! No, there was a deeper mystery at work here, a mystery that remains veiled to this day to most of those who are of Israel according to the flesh. It was the mystery that was revealed finally and fully in Jesus Christ. But it was not just that most of the Jews rejected Jesus when He appeared. That was certainly true, as John so cogently reminds us in His Gospel: “He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him.” But it was not as simple as that. Israel stumbled over something else. Their great prophet, Isaiah, had warned them: “And He will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

So what happened? The Gospel, with its promise of a righteousness bestowed by God on believers, came to the Jews first. That had been the proclamation of the prophets, the message of the God who desired mercy more than sacrifice, the God who endlessly called out to His people to return to Him, to be reconciled to Him, to receive His promise of life and salvation. And now, with the coming of Jesus, it would go also to the Gentiles. But while it had gone to the Jews first, it was the Gentiles who now received it with great joy. They responded gratefully to the message that assured them of their acceptance by God through faith in Jesus Christ. And faith, just as it had been promised to Abraham, was now accounted to them for righteousness. But the Jews decided to pursue a different path to righteousness. They sought acceptance by God on the basis of their keeping of the Law—a goal they could never attain. They did not know God’s way of righteousness, but sought to establish their own. Yet, as Paul himself had found that “...Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes,” so might his fellow sons of Israel when they, too, learned the way of faith in Christ.

So why does this matter to us? Why all of this history about Israel and their failure to see the true righteousness of God in Jesus Christ? It is because a righteousness based on a keeping of the Law is a natural thing also to us. That is just how our minds actually think. That is just how our souls, darkened by sin, naturally believe that God is satisfied. Our history might be more like Israel’s than we would care to think. When religious zeal is not enlightened by the truth, it inevitably centers on self! And when zeal is blinded by self, it has no eyes for the righteousness that comes from God. How can it? We think our own thoughts and theories about how our good deeds can compensate for any ill we have done. We who would judge the sins of others will want our own disobedience overlooked. To submit to the righteousness that comes from God would mean having to give up our own righteousness, pleading our guilt before God, and acknowledging that we really are lost. And that is something we are not inclined to do.

But God has brought His salvation, and the righteousness it brings, near to us in Jesus Christ. We don’t have to climb up any heavenly steps to attain it. He comes down to save us with it. That’s what Jesus meant when He wept over Jerusalem and said that they did not know the time of their visitation, the time of His coming near to them in His saving grace. He had come down to save them. He has come down to save us! We need not plumb the depths of our souls or our conscience to find it, for He has risen from the dead to make it secure for us. It is here, now. It is present. It is available. And we receive it by faith alone—which is, itself, a gift of God. It is by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God that we believe that God raised His Son from death; it is by the Spirit that we acknowledge Christ as Savior and Lord.

This is the way of righteousness that saves, and it is open to all, without distinction. There is not one way of righteousness for the Jews, and another for the Gentiles. All who call upon the Lord in faith will receive it. To Jew and Gentile alike; to open and despicable sinners as well as sinners who are just as despicable, though their sins may be hidden—to each and to all, the gates of God’s mercy stand wide open. The full and free and forever forgiveness of God is assured, in Jesus Christ, to all who will believe it and, by faith, claim it as their own.

Jesus said as He looked over Jerusalem, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” Faith, and only faith, opens our eyes to that peace of God which is found through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other way! May God in His mercy keep our eyes open to that way unto life everlasting. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.    

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.