Romans 1:17

{Prayer}

Reformation Sunday is a time when we reflect on how blessed we are to have God’s Word available to us—in a language we can understand and at our fingertips with modern technology, accessible any time, day or night.

But this hasn’t always been the case. During the 1500’s, during the time of Martin Luther, the Bible was written primarily in Latin, a language only priests and scholars could understand. The common person had no direct access to Scripture, and even if they did, they couldn’t read or understand it.

As a result, people only knew the portions of Scripture that the priests chose to emphasize. What the people knew were the facts about themselves. They knew that they are poor miserable sinners and they need to seek forgiveness from God in order to escape His wrath. In order to seek forgiveness, the people would confess their sins over and over again to God. After they confessed their sins, the priest would offer forgiveness but it was attached to a penance, to an act of devotion to show true repentance for sins or to atone for a wrongdoing. While Luther as a monk would physically punish himself as a means of trying to earn God’s favor … wrestled with this belief of doing penance to earn favor.

You see, Luther knew that something was missing. As he continued to dig in and study God’s Word, Luther discovered exactly what was missing. He discovered that the heart of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, it had been lost in translation. The people weren’t hearing that their sins were laid on Jesus at the cross and that forgiveness was a free gift. When Luther read Romans 1:17, his understanding changed forever: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Luther’s discovery of Romans 1:17 changed everything for him. But the battle was far from over. The church continued its promotion of its sale of indulgences but now, armed with the truth of Scripture, Luther was ready to confront these false teachings head-on

Armed with this truth, Luther confronted the false teachings of his day. Luther developed and nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg. Seeking a discussion, Luther wrote pamphlets explaining in simple language that Jesus came to save us, not through any actions on our part, but purely by grace. Luther emphasized salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. To help families, he wrote the Small Catechism, enabling parents to teach their children the faith with a focus on God’s love in Christ.

In his commitment to making God’s Word accessible, Luther translated the New Testament into German while hiding at Wartburg Castle. This opened the door for ordinary people to read the Bible for themselves and discover that God loves them and sent Jesus to save them.

Luther’s work of translating the Bible into the common language led to others translating the Bible into their native tongues. If Luther had done nothing else during the Reformation time, we have the Bible in our own language. And we can not only read it, but we can dig into its truths and apply them to our daily lives.

Once Luther opened the door to the truth that we are saved by grace through faith, more and more passages from God’s Word came to light and were embraced. Precious verses like:

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespass, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14

“{God the Father} has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35, 37-39

“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:53-57

God’s Word grounds us in our faith. It strengthens our belief that Jesus is Lord, that our sins are forgiven, and that we are saved to live with Him forever.

Hearing this, it’s possible to think, “I can do whatever I want from now on since my sins will always be forgiven by Jesus and by the grace of God.” Not so fast. Paul has something to say about that in Romans 6. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (6:1-4). Though we are saved by grace alone, God’s grace also calls us to a new life, a new life of repentance and faith. In Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit who helps us walk in newness of life, seeking to love God and neighbor.

As forgiven followers of Christ, we aren’t motivated by selfishly satisfying our own personal desires. No, the Holy Spirit moves us to live outwardly, to live for God and for others. We aren’t number one … Jesus is. Then others, then ourselves. JOY helps us remember: Jesus, Others, Yourself.

Joy … this is what we as Christians have deep in our hearts. When Jesus and others are our first and second priorities, an outpouring of love is what occurs. We cannot help but love Jesus because He first loved us. We cannot help but love others because we know that Jesus loves each of them as much. Jesus even said to disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Christians are known for their love and concern of others. It all is overflow of the love Jesus has for us that we learn about through God’s very own word.

When Luther was asked to recant, to take back what he had said about the Gospel, he boldly declared: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God! To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I therefore cannot, and I will not recant! Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God.” For you and me who believe in the Word of God and who are held captive by its message of forgiveness in Jesus and the new life we have in him, we too stand firmly upon it. Let God’s Word, the rock of our salvation, be “living and active” in you. May it remind you daily that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt 16:16). As Luther would say, “This is most certainly true.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.