CROWN OF LIFE EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH
Pastor John C. Schneidervin

Reformation Sunday October 27, 2002

How Are We Justified?
1. Not By Works Of The Law
2. But By Faith In Jesus Christ

Text: Galatians 2:11-16
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the
circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, ³You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

15 ³We who are Jews by birth and not ŒGentile sinners¹ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Sermon:
Can you children tell me what I am holding? I am holding a heart. When do you normally see such hearts in stores and all around you? Valentines Day, correct? Well, I am not showing you this heart because it is Valentines Day but for a different reason.

The heart symbolizes what we feel deep down at the center and core of our emotions for someone else. I am holding this heart before you because I will talk with you about what was deep down at the heart, the center and
core, of the Reformation.

The Reformation was that era in history when the Christian Church was reformed to what it had been at the time of Christ Jesus and his apostles. At the heart and core of the Reformation was the term justification. The
biblical meaning of justification is God declares, or announces, a person is righteous.

This raises the question: How are we justified? How do we become declared righteous? On the easel I will illustrate the situation we are in. Here is God in heaven. Here is you and me on earth. Now what kind of a God is he?

Look at Leviticus 19:2. There God says, ³Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.² So God is what? Holy. What does God say we are to be?  Holy. We must be just as holy and righteous as God himself is. But are we?
What does God say about us? Look at Romans 3:10 and 23. God says, ³There is no one righteous, not even one....for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.² So what kind of an individual are you and me? A sinner. How, then, can we, a sinner, be justified? For what reason will God declare you and me holy and righteous?

Many have insisted works of obedience to God¹s law is the reason God declares a person righteous. Luther was taught this in the church of his day. He thought he must do righteous things to make himself right with God.
Is this true? Look at verse 16 of the Word of God. It says: ³A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in
Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.² According to this verse a person is not justified by observing the law. In fact, by observing the law no one will be justified.
So scratch out works of keeping God¹s law as the reason God will declare us sinners righteous.

Paul originally spoke the words of verse 16 to the apostle Peter to correct the error Peter had slipped into. At the Council of Jerusalem Peter, together with Paul, James, and the other apostles and leaders of the church,
had agreed that no one was saved by observing the demands of the law. They placed no stress on observing or not observing the Old Testament ceremonies of the Jews, such as circumcision, the Sabbath day, or eating kosher foods.
So later in the church at Antioch Peter did not follow the Jewish customs according to the Mosaic law. He associated with Gentiles, non-Jewish Christians, and ate non-kosher foods with them. But then certain Jewish
Christians came from Jerusalem who still thought the laws of Moses must be followed. Afraid of what they would say if he did not observe the Jewish customs according to the law, Peter withdrew from the Gentile Christians.
Peter gave the hypocritical impression the law of Moses must be obeyed to be saved. That was when Paul opposed Peter, because Peter was wrongly doing what was contrary to the gospel of Christ. Paul reminded Peter that they both knew a man is not justified by observing the law. And Peter accepted Paul¹s reminder and correction. Clearly, then, no one is justified, declared righteous, by God on the basis of his works of obedience to the law of Moses. Again, scratch works as the reason for our being justified. To have God justify us and declare us righteous on the basis of our performing the works demanded by the law, we would have to be perfect. But we certainly are not perfect, as we heard God tell us earlier. We are sinners. As evidence of our sinfulness, haven¹t you children been selfish, disobeyed your parents, or gotten angry with a brother or sister or another child? Haven¹t we married adults lost our temper with our spouse or our children? Haven¹t we all failed to love God above all and more than anyone or anything else, including ourselves? We cannot be justified by our works.

By our works we have sinned and earned only eternal damnation in hell. So scratch out works of obedience to the law as the reason for our being justified.

How, then, are we justified? Let¹s look again at verse 16. It says, ³(We) know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be
justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.² How are we justified? By faith in Jesus Christ. So on the easel between God and us I will write the name of Christ. We are not justified by works but through faith in Christ. The Spirit led Luther to discover this truth in the Bible. Luther¹s discovery that we are justified through faith in Christ brought about the Reformation of the church.

Why are we justified through faith in Christ? Galatians 4:4,5 tells us that Christ, God¹s Son, was born under law to redeem those under law, meaning all of us people on earth. Christ was born under the law as our substitute. As
our substitute he lived a perfect life under the law. Therefore God credits his perfect righteousness to us. God declares us to be righteous, not because of anything we have done but because of what Christ has done for us.
To further explain this, allow me to use the illustration I use with the children in catechism class. Let¹s pretend that we are all children in school. Today we have to take a test. But Jesus sits in our seat and takes our place. He writes the test for us and scores a perfect 100. Since it was our test paper with our name on it, the perfect score of 100 goes under our name in the teacher¹s record book. So it was before God. Jesus took the test of life under God¹s law for us. He never sinned. He lived a perfect life in our behalf as our substitute. So in God¹s record book Jesus¹ perfect life is credited to us as though we ourselves had lived it. Jesus obeyed the law perfectly, and we get the credit for it.

But we are still sinners. The law of God demands that our sins be punished with the torments of hell. What cancels out all our sins against God? Here, too, Jesus was our substitute. He took the guilt of all our sins from
us. On the cross he suffered the torments of hell for our sins in our place. Since Jesus suffered our punishment for us, God credits the suffering of that punishment to us. As far as God is concerned in and through Jesus we suffered the punishment for our sins. God, therefore, no longer holds our sins against us. God¹s justice has been satisfied. On the cross Jesus shed his blood and gave his innocent life into death as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Look at what 1 John 1:7 tells us the shedding of Jesus¹ blood for our sins did to us. It says, ³The blood of
Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.² Jesus¹ blood purified us from all our sins. Since his blood purified us from all our sins, we are then without sin. And since we are without sin, we are righteous, holy in God¹s sight. So God declares us righteous for Jesus¹ sake.

How does this righteousness which God credits to us become our own? Through faith in Christ. God counts our faith in Jesus as righteousness. To our faith in Jesus God credits righteousness and declares us to be righteous.
We sinners are, then, in and through Christ righteous and holy as God himself is. We are, then, acceptable to God and he gives us eternal life with him in heaven. So rest easy. God is at peace with us. He is not angry with us over our sins.

This was at the heart of the Reformation. Because this good news was brought to light once again in the Reformation, we celebrate the Reformation each year. For from the Reformation has come to us this truth: We are justified, not by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen.