Romans 1:16-17

William F. Schnell

June 1, 2008

     Today we begin a six sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Romans.  I have largely steered clear of Romans until I could dedicate a series to it because its spiritual gems are very deep and not easily mined.  To add to the difficulty, Paul’s writing style is rather convoluted with lengthy run on sentences that are difficult to follow.  As fellow-apostle Peter diplomatically put it, His letters contain some things that are hard to understand (II Peter 3:16).

     Paul admits his awkwardness with words to the Corinthians: When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God….   I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power (I Corinthians 2:1&3-5).

     Paul was concerned with people’s faith in God—not their faith in Paul or Peter or any of the other apostles.  We are going to explore what Paul meant by faith in our brief introductory message to our series of sermons.  Biblical scholars regard our text for today as a thesis statement for the letter which is to follow.  Our confirmands and graduating seniors know what a thesis statement is from their studies at school.  It is a statement that sets forth the theme of all that is to follow.

     That theme is summed up in our text by a quote Paul borrows from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk: The righteous will live by faith (Verse 17).  Paul also quotes this text in his letter to the Galatians and his letter to the Hebrews.  This is a big text as far as Paul is concerned, and it has remained a big text throughout church history.  Martin Luther--the fellow after whom Martin Luther King was named, and the fellow after whom the Lutheran church was named—this same fellow began the Protestant Reformation in 1517 with this text and Paul’s understanding of it clearly in mind.

     In fact, if you will Google “By Faith Alone,” the very first hit you will see is a book by that title written by Martin Luther.  The very next hit you will find is a book written by a Roman Catholic author entitled, “Not by Faith Alone.”  Needless to say, this has been a running controversy between Catholics and Protestants ever since.  The question is: can we earn salvation by the good works we do, such as donating our money or time or talent to the church or other good causes, or is salvation a gift from God that can only be received by faith?

     Imagine dying and standing at the judgment seat that determines whether or not we get into heaven.  Imagine making a case before the Judge about why you are justified for getting into heaven.  Imagine representing yourself without an attorney present saying: “Sure, I wasn’t perfect, but who is?”  I put some money in the offering plate, maybe not a tithe but not chicken feed either.  I went to workcamp one summer.  I did lots of good deeds actually.  You owe it to me Judge.  I’ve got heaven coming.  I’ve paid my dues.  I’ve earned it.”  But there is a world of difference between being righteous and self-righteous according to Paul, and here he speaks from the voice of experience.

     Before Paul was an apostle, he was a very religious fellow named Saul.  He advanced beyond all his peers in Judaism.  He was the most zealous Jew you could find.  When Christians entered the scene, Saul regarded them as anti-Jewish and anti-God.  To protect God from such infidels, Saul dragged them out of their houses and incited his fellow Jews to stone them to death.  Saul thought he was doing God a favor.  Saul thought he was doing good work for God.  Saul thought he was earning his way into heaven by doing such nasty things, much like some suicide bombers think they are earning their way into heaven by killing infidels.

     But one day Saul realized how blind he had been.  He realized that these infidels he was killing were God’s other children.  He realized that he had been committing ungodly things in the name of God.  He realized that no matter how officially religious he was, how zealous he was to protect God (as if the Almighty needed our protection), how hard he worked he could never earn his salvation.  After his best efforts he was the worst of sinners because he brutalized God’s innocent children.

     But in his deepest despair he experienced the Lord’s amazing grace.  Although Saul deserved the death penalty, The Lord said, “I forgive you Saul.  I will save you from yourself Saul.  From now on I will show you how you may truly be of service to me and my kingdom.”  That is when Saul began to build up the body of Christ on earth, instead of tearing it down.  That is when he changed his name from Saul to Paul because his identity had changed so dramatically.  That is when he became an Apostle whose writings, as hard as they sometimes are to understand, became part of the New Testament.

      Nowhere in his writings will you find Paul suggesting that he or anybody else can earn their salvation.  Quite the contrary, Paul regarded himself and everyone else as hopeless sinners.  That was the bad news.  The good news of the Gospel was that, in Christ, God forgave our sin and offered salvation to us as a gift of his amazing grace—a gift that can only be received through faith.  Which begs the question, what exactly is faith?

     We often misuse the word “faith” when more properly speaking of doctrine, dogma or theology.  We say, “I belong to the Catholic faith,” or “I belong to the Protestant Faith,” or “I belong to the Muslim Faith.”  That is what faith was to Saul—in his case a set of Jewish legalisms and commandments and rules and regulations that he tried to observe but that ultimately led him to commit ungodly atrocities in the name of God.  If that was faith, it was not good for much--certainly not good for his salvation.

     But that is not what faith was to the apostle Paul.  Faith was a relationship with God characterized by trust and obedience—trust in God’s promise of salvation, and obedience to his will as he makes it known to us.  Faith thus understood was something a Jew might have (a Jew like Paul), but it was something a Jew might not have (a Jew like Saul).  What is more, faith thus understood was something a Gentile (or non-Jewish person) might have like a Roman Centurion named Cornelius in the Bible to mention one of many.  It is strange where you find faith in this world, and where you do not.

     The question is: can faith thus understood be found in you and in me?  Do we trust God’s promise of salvation?  When we get ourselves into a jam in life, when we make a big mess out of life and when we cannot save ourselves, do we trust in God’s promise to save us?  Do we trust in his promise enough to obey what he calls us to do?  Because he might call us to do some really hard things.  He may call us to do the absolute hardest things imaginable.

     He might call us to admit, for example, that we have made some mistakes.  He may call us to say that we are sorry, and not just to him.  He may call us to apologize to someone else.  That’s hard!  Why, if we apologize then everyone will know that we are not… perfect.  Everybody else will be perfect except us.  Everybody will rub our nose in our imperfections.  It would be horrible.  Where’s the salvation in that?  God would never expect us to do that?  Would he?  He did expect a sinful Saul to admit the truth about himself, which was his salvation from sin.

     If we truly trust God’s promise of salvation we will obey the hard things he calls us to do.  Then we will find out if God can be taken at his Word.  I have seen aging brothers and sisters who have been estranged from one another for decades over something as silly as a few dollars reconcile because one found enough faith to say, “I’m sorry,” and it shamed the other into tears of remorse and forgiveness.  “I’m sorry” is one of the most miraculous sentences in any language.  It has the power to save marriages and other family relationships, it has the power to save friendships and it has the power to save our relationship with God.

     That is why we come to this table, to say we are sorry for our sins so that God can save us from our sins.  I do not know if our confirmands will remember all the doctrines and history they studied in their confirmation class, or if our graduating seniors will remember all the Bible stories they studied in their church school classes along the way.  I suspect some things they will remember and others they will forget.  Some things they will add and some things they will discard.

     I hope that they will keep the faith.  When they make a mess of life, and they will because they are no different than the rest of us who regularly make a mess of life, I hope they will trust God’s promise of salvation enough to obey the hard things he calls them to do.  Then I hope they will discover lasting happiness as befits those who have been saved from themselves by the power and promise of God as revealed in Jesus.  “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”