Richard Davenport
October 29, 2023 – Reformation Day
Romans 3:19-28
It’s been several years ago now, I don’t really remember where I was or who I was with. It must have been on a vacation or day trip or something like that where we happened to be at a courthouse. At any rate, I remember walking by one of the courtrooms and hearing a snippet of what was going on. A man was being sentenced after being picked up for driving under the influence. The judge commented on how the man didn’t have so much as a parking ticket on his record. I couldn’t tell you how old the guy was, but he was at least old enough to be drinking.
Still, the whole thing struck me. Here’s this guy who has presumably been driving for quite some time. All this time he has followed the rules. He has never been in an accident. He has never been caught speeding. He has never run a red light or even parked at an expired meter. A perfectly clean record. Yet, here he is before the judge. His good record now gets him nothing. He got caught committing a crime and now he faces the punishment for it.
It’s sad, really. All of that work that went into following the rules that ultimately amounted to nothing. If he breaks the law again, no judge will look at his record and see it completely clean. You’d think it wouldn’t really be that hard. One area, just one area in your life that could be entirely free of imperfection. You go to your death bed at a ripe old age knowing, that at least in one part of your life, you had done everything perfectly. I don’t mean that you had just never been caught, but that you had honestly never stepped out of line at all. Not just, you did a really good job, but that you did it perfectly.
I know it’s happened for me a number of times. You look back on something you did and you reflect on what a good job it was, only to discover some of the things you said or did had a negative effect on the people you were working with or who were the beneficiaries of your work. Not just mistakes, but places where you clearly broke the rules.
Another driving example comes to mind. I remember back in Cincinnati were out driving rather late. One of the roads near our house was quite hilly and winding. I ended up driving behind a little old lady who was fastidiously driving the speed limit. She sped up going up the hill just enough to make the speed limit and she rode the brakes down the hill to ensure she absolutely did not go over the speed limit going down the hill.
From a “following the traffic laws” standpoint, what she did could be seen as commendable. I honked at her a few times anyway. When I finally pulled up next to her at a stoplight because I was turning, she just looked at me and shook her head. She clearly thought I was telling her to speed up because I was in a big hurry. In actuality, I was honking at her because in her effort to maintain the speed limit she was swerving all over the road and was very lucky no one ever came the other direction.
I’m pretty confident I haven’t completed any long term project without ever stepping out of line where God’s law is concerned. I can think of the time writing my dissertation and the unkind thoughts I had toward the professors who were tasked with reading my edits and how they apparently weren’t bound by the same deadlines I was, or some of the seminary classes where I really just wasn’t that motivated to pay attention.
I say I’m pretty confident, because the very nature of the problem is how often you transgress God’s laws without thinking about it. Either the thought occurs to you as you’re doing it but then is forgotten or you don’t even think about it at all. We have a hard time not breaking the civil laws of our country, even if it’s only in minor, seemingly inconsequential ways. When confronted with the laws of God, which govern every single moment of our lives, the amount of transgressions we have to answer for is staggering, especially if you were to be confronted with all of those little lies, malicious thoughts, not-so-innocent rumors, envious glares, and uncounted other infractions you commit, intentional or not.
There are the recent Progressive Insurance commercials we’ve seen periodically because they tend to come on during football games. Usually they show two people arguing over whether something happened. In one I saw recently, a mom and a daughter are talking with the neighbors. Mom tells the neighbor she should come over to watch the game. The daughter helpfully reminds her mother that she said she didn’t want them over because they never stop talking. The two dispute their recollection of the events until the daughter throws the challenge flag and the helpful man comes out with the recording so everyone can review the events as they actually happened. It’s at this point the mom’s dirty laundry is on display for all to see and she has nothing left to offer except lame excuses.
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” That everyone is under the law is a given. We are all subject to the laws of God, every single command, ordinance, and regulation.
“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” You may not have realized it at the time, might not have thought about it when you were in the middle of it, but when the law is presented to you and you are confronted with exactly how many things you do on a regular basis that are against that law, the realization should be a humbling one. Of course, you could argue that the vast majority of infractions you have committed hurt no one and never made any major impact on anyone’s lives. After all, that kind of rationalization is a regular part of life. We don’t argue whether we’ve broken the letter of the law, we argue instead whether breaking the law in that particular instance matters, or whether, perhaps, something else is more important.
You can try those things here in the world. Perhaps you can persuade the police or the judge or whoever you’re dealing with. But, those arguments don’t work with God. Every aspect of God’s law is not just intentional but vital. A world and a people that perfectly kept every part of the law would never know death. It would never know conflict or sadness or anger or pain any other bad thing. That means every instance of any of those things is brought about by our failure to follow God’s law.
The only way we can act like we are in any way righteous and innocent before God’s law is by passing off every failure, every infraction, every instance where we have broken that law as something trivial, inconsequential, unimportant. But every one of those infractions, those trespasses, those sins, is the reason there is grief in the world, the reason there is pain, hatred, sorrow, and death. Each and every one, proof that we don’t deserve to be here in God’s well-ordered world.
St. Paul’s words turn all of our assumptions around. Even when you think you’re doing well, you’ll find that there are plenty of terrible things you’re doing that you either forgot about or that you never really noticed. It’s a losing battle. It always will be. In fact it’s so bad that even at your best you’re still sinking deeper and deeper in the hole. It isn’t a matter of “two steps forward, one step back.” It’s more like, “one step forward, maybe, and four or five steps back.” And that’s on a good day.
Your sinfulness condemned you from the very moment you were conceived and there’s nothing in your power that could ever change it. That’s what the Law does. The Law is so extensive, so comprehensive, that you have nothing to brag about. You have nothing to hold up as proof of how great you are. All of the good things you’ve done, however many you have actually accomplished, have done nothing to offset the crushing weight of the law.
The flaw of every human being since Adam and Eve is that we look around at everyone else. We see their faults, their failures. We the evil they do when they can’t quite hide it. We see them and think, “I can do better. I AM better. Look how much better I am at following all of the laws.” We judge ourselves by worldly standards. We measure ourselves against other flawed people. But the Law reminds us that our standards are not THE standard. There really is only one. Perfection or nothing. The Law shows you how you rate. For as well as you think you’ve done, you still haven’t come close.
The example that Jesus gives during his life should be a humbling one. When we compare ourselves to each other, we can find all sorts of reasons to think highly of ourselves. When we compare ourselves with Jesus, our faults become glaringly obvious. We aren’t even in the same league.
The presence of Christ, the perfect man, in the world should put to rest anything thoughts we have of being saved. After all, who can measure up to that? It’s certainly why the Pharisees and others of Jesus’ day saw him as a threat. With him around, they suddenly don’t look so righteous and holy anymore, not when compared with the real deal. God’s Law is being declared just by Jesus standing there.
That would seem to be the end for us as well, but where God’s Law is proclaimed, so too is his Gospel, the good news. You can’t compete with Jesus. If you try, you’re doomed to fail. That isn’t to say you should just give up trying to live according to that standard, but it also means that measuring up to Jesus will never save you from the judgment of the Law.
Instead, for those who recognize their own faults, their own culpability in all of the evils of the world and the grief and pain that are a part of their own life, the ones who know the only option left is to ask for mercy from the judge, to admit we are guilty and that we deserve the penalty of death demanded by the Law.
The Law has nothing to bring against Jesus. He has no reason to stand before the judge at all. Yet, every time we ask for mercy he is there. He intercedes for us. He doesn’t argue that what we did wasn’t really that bad. He doesn’t argue that the Law should be lenient here because, deep down, we’re good people. None of it would work. Instead he simply offers to take the punishment. He takes the full weight of the law’s condemnation. Each and every infraction and transgression you commit is worthy of death and each time Jesus is there to take it on himself. He never shrinks away or is afraid to take it.
Jesus sees the sad state of his creation, all of us floundering about, some who try to keep the law and fail, repeatedly. Others who care nothing for the law and have no desire to keep it. He made them all. He loves them all. He knows that unless he intervenes directly they will all be lost. He knows they can’t all be saved because they don’t all want to be saved. But some do. Even if it were just one, it would be enough for him to come to earth, to take the law’s punishment, to die on a cross. But he didn’t come to save just one. He comes to save all who trust in his salvation.
He offers this promise to us over and over again. The Gospel, the good news that he has taken our sins away by taking the law’s condemnation on himself. Every time you hear that good news it is a call to remember what Christ has done for you, to ask for mercy, knowing that you will receive it.
He offers baptism as well, his promise in the water to wash your sins away. As Luther says, we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation here. Here you receive the righteousness that comes only from Christ Jesus. Your life is joined to his. His death is counted as yours and his resurrection becomes yours.
He also offers communion, where he gives you his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. His grace and forgiveness going with you wherever you go. His life within you. His forgiveness covering you every moment of every day. All of these provided to give you his grace, to take the condemnation away from you, to take death away from you. To give you life. To give you perfect life once more.
His righteousness is already at work in your life. You have his grace. You are righteous before the judge. You won’t achieve perfection in this life, for God has decreed the Last Day as the day when all sin will be purged from his creation. But even now his Word is active, both through the good news of the Gospel and through the promise given in his sacraments. He is showing you how to be a better Christian, giving the example of his own life, and strengthening you to live in the righteousness he has given you.
The evidence of his love is all around you. He came here for you, a lost and condemned creature with no hope of being free from the law’s demands. Luther’s explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed continues to be a perfect summary of what Christ has done for us, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”