Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 28 – July 1996
Absolution? Absolutely!
Sermon by Rev. R. M. Brenton on Romans 4:7-8
Scripture Reading: Romans 3:20 – 4:8
Tell me, boys and girls, when was the last time you complained to your mum or dad about something your brother or sister said or did to you? Do you remember what happened? It happens in our house, too. It goes something like this: in the next room you hear two voices – teasing voices – which turn into name-calling voices, which become angry shouting voices. Then the sound of a scuffle and the thud of two bodies hitting the deck. I know what’s coming next. Number two son is at my door with a complaint against number one son.
For the next five minutes I am treated to a recital of the mean and nasty things said and done to this innocent victim. It sounds awful. When the recital is over I say to number two son: leave; send in your brother. Number one son comes in, and I face him with the facts. Number one responds in utter disbelief: Dad, did he say that? You believe that? Let me tell you what really happened. I listen to another brilliant recital.
Then I call in number two to join number one. We hold court. I cross-examine the accuser and the accused until the sorry mess is sorted out and the whole truth becomes known. Do you know what I do next? I judge – I declare – who is in the right and who is in the wrong. And I say what number one and number two must do to repair the peace.
Our family court works something like the long-ago courts of Israel. Way back in Old Testament times when someone had a serious complaint against another person, he would bring that person with him to the city gate where the city fathers sat and ruled and judged right and wrong. Whenever two people appeared before the city fathers it was up to the fathers to sort out what happened and decide who was in the right and who wasn’t. The case could go either way. The one with the complaint – the accuser – is not always found to be in the right. Sometimes the person being complained against the accused – is falsely accused. Just like at home.
So, a city father has to listen carefully to the case. He must judge. He must decide. He must come out and say who is right and who is wrong. But how can he know? Well, the one whose behaviour is shown to be most in keeping with the norm (the standard of behaviour) is declared to be right. Or righteous. Back in those days a righteous person was one who almost always lived by the norm that each life-relationship called for. He was brotherly to his brother, she was neighbourly to her neighbours; she was motherly to her children; a husband to his wife; a giver to the needy; a defender of the pressed-down and put-off.
See, we relate to all kinds of people in different ways, don’t we? We parents love and provide for our children as fathers and mothers should do. We children honour and obey our parents as sons and daughters should do. We workers earn our pay by doing all the work that our employer gives us to do. We rugby players maintain good relations on the field by fair play within the rules. See, we do what each relationship calls for. When we do that, we are being what the Old Testament calls righteous.
People like David, Israel’s King and great song-writer, thought of themselves as righteous. They even spoke of their own righteousness. In fact, David once prayed: Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness (Psalm 7:8). Why did David pray like that? Is it because he thought that he was so good as to have earned God’s approval? No! That’s not it. When David prayed he was being harassed by wicked enemies who were trying to tear him to shreds. All David wants from God is justice. He wants God to listen to his complaint and take notice of the fact that his enemies are not living by the norm. David wants God to rule against his enemies – and for him. So, Lord, Look at my righteousness; and rule accordingly.
Don’t think it strange, then, when you hear an Old Testament David talking about his own righteousness. Such people are not bragging about how good and perfect they are. They are simply telling us that they care about the norm and are committed to keeping it. They are saying that they are for the right, that they are on the side of those who care for others; who are brotherly, neighbourly, motherly. These righteous ones, remember, looked to the Lord (as David did) and trusted his good judgment even as they called upon him in faith. For it was important to them not only to be right, but to be seen to be right in the sight of everybody.
Being seen as righteous by everybody around you is not the same, though, as being righteous in God’s sight. As Paul reminds us in Romans 3:20: No one will be declared righteous in his sight by keeping the Law, which is his norm. Regardless of everybody’s sins and shortcomings, society must make up its mind when two people stand before the judge. One of the two must be seen to be in the right. Usually the one whose behaviour is shown to be most in keeping with the norm will be declared to be right.
So, in society it is possible for you to be judged as righteous. People may even say that you’re a pretty good person. But in God’s sight this is impossible. No one will be declared righteous by his norm. Why? Because our God is holy, holy, holy. Because our Father in heaven is perfect. His norm is a reflection of his own holy perfection. In spite of our sins and shortcomings, our God requires perfection of us! For you to be counted as righteous in God’s sight, you must be holy as he is holy; perfect as he is perfect. Nothing less than this can pass as righteous.
As you can see, no one measures up to God’s norm. We all have sinned along the way. We all fall short of God’s glory, his righteousness. That’s the way it is. Nothing we say or do can change that fact. We have failed. We have not met God’s norm. On the basis of his norm, he cannot declare us to be righteous.
If that’s the case, where do we go from here? We have basically two choices; two ways to choose from.
1.
You can try hard to atone for your sins and overcome your shortcomings. So, you sinned! So, you came up short! So what! You can always do better the next time. Right? That’s how a lot of people see it. Some say: if I really try hard, God will take note and come to my aid; he will somehow reward me for making a good try. Church people used to see it this way; many still do. God is obliged to graciously step in – yes, to infuse his grace, put within the hard worker the divine power to overcome sin. Isn’t it true that God helps those who help themselves? That’s the idea. A lot of people – even today – like that idea. Show God you care, that you are trying, and he will help you out; he will put his grace in you and make you a good person – righteous in his sight.
Did you know that Martin Luther (the first Protestant) was taught that notion in church! At first he believed it. So he tried with all his might to make up for his sins. But try as he might, he couldn’t overcome his shortcomings. They kept popping up all over the place. Luther couldn’t keep up with his sins; they were always getting out of hand. How miserable Martin Luther felt! What a guilty sinner! Bad enough to know such guilt. Worse than that was the unbearable thought that One Day the Truly Righteous One was going to sort things out and settle the score. When that happens, what will become of Martin Luther – the man who tried his hardest but didn’t do good enough?
How about you? Do you give your very best, try your hardest, in the hope that you’ll measure up in the end – God helping you? Is this the way you have chosen? Does God help those who help themselves? Does he really?
God has never said so. God has never promised to reward you with righteousness just because you work so hard to make up for your sins. You may choose this way as your first choice, but remember this: it’ll be your own choice. God has not given you this choice. God has never said that you may go this way.
What has God said? Listen to these words from Romans 4:5, which open up the other possibility – the real possibility: to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
2.
Not working but trusting God who justifies the wicked! Herein lies real possibility.
Everybody knows that when two people stand before the judge it is up to the judge to clear the innocent one and condemn the guilty one. How else can there be justice? How else can the right prevail? It would not be right to do otherwise. To clear the guilty and condemn the innocent: is not right. Such justice is detestable, as Proverbs 17:15 tells us. The Lord especially detests such perverted justice. Yet, to make it possible for people to be righteous in his sight, the Lord justifies the wicked! Get this: he does the very thing he claims to detest. He puts the wicked in the right!
How does God do such a thing? He does it by choosing to not count sins against the sinner. That’s what God does – by choice. That’s the way, the possibility, he has opened up for wicked people. Surprisingly, it is David – the very one who prayed for God to judge him for his own righteousness – who sings of the blessedness of the one whose sins are covered and not counted against him (Psalm 32).
What does David know? He knows that we are all ‘goners’ in the sight of God, should we determine our destiny on the basis of our own holy perfection. David knows the only real possibility for standing alive with head held high before the Lord is for God himself to do what he hates: clear the guilty.
This is no way to hold court! Who does God think he is? What gives him the right to cover sins of wicked people, not even counting those sins against them? You know, a lot of people have been deeply offended and put off by God for being this way. They say: God, it’s not fair; you can’t let the wicked pass as righteous. Look at us who have given our all, done our best. Surely we have worked our way into your good graces. Haven’t we? How dare you overlook us and put the wicked in our place!
Yet, that is what God does. He overlooks the righteous every time because in his sight no one is declared righteous for any good that he has done. No one’s good is good enough. So, it pleases God to declare the wicked righteous. This is God’s choice. For us.
You may rail against God’s good pleasure all of your life, saying: unfair! unfair! You call this justice? All your railing, shouting, and fist-shaking won’t change what God has done. God has already decided to not count your sins against you. You might say: Nice try, God, but I’m a pretty good person, hard-working, sincere; I’m going to do my bit and then I expect you to do your bit by giving me the grace to succeed. You might say that to God. Join the crowd. People talk that way to God all the time.
A few days ago I met someone who said that she was a member of such and such a church. She went on to recite a long list of good things she had done for others (considerably longer than my own list, I’m sure). What a good worker she was. She put in overtime, too. Then she said: All of that should get me in good with God. I said: Are you sure? Isn’t it the other way around – his grace that counts?
Indeed it is the other way. Our merciful and compassionate God says: I have decided to not count your sins against you. I can say that because I have put them all on my Son, Jesus. I have punished all your sins in him. I gave him up in a death of sacrifice, a death to which he went willingly: in fact, that going-to-the-death of Jesus was the one truly righteous deed ever done by anyone. By that deed Jesus was shown to be the Truly Righteous One. Even so, God made Jesus out to be sin (who we are), and treated him like sin (as we deserve to be treated), so that the likes of you and I might become the righteousness of God (who Jesus is).
If you can picture what really happened, you will understand that God was not in the least bit unjust. He did punish the wrong-doer, the wicked: in his Son. Because of his great love for us, God made the great exchange: Jesus for us. Jesus traded places with us so that justice could be done and so that we could be saved from our sins. Instead of counting our sins against us, God credited them to Jesus. Not only that, he credits Jesus’ own righteousness to those who do not work but trust him who justifies the wicked.
Have you trusted God for all of this? Even though you have sinned, even though you fall short of God’s glory, even though you may have given your best try – you may be blessed because you may trust in God who does not count your sins against you.
My brothers and sisters: the Lord God has done this for you and for me. He found a way through for us. Today he comes to you with the best piece of Good News you will ever hear. Though you are wicked (in his sight) and as guilty as sin, I nevertheless absolve you. You are in the clear now. Not guilty! Now righteous in my sight.
I say to you today: believe this good word. It is your freedom. Humble yourself, if you must. Give up the notion that God helps those who help themselves. Stop helping yourself. Stop trying. God has done it all for you in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, be bold! Dare to live by this word of absolution. No matter how much you now sin, how great your guilt, dare to stand before your God absolved. In the clear! Believe it. God has promised. God has done it.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them.
God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Corinthians 5).
Absolved?
ABSOLVED?
ABSOLUTELY!
Your God counts on it.
Amen.