Sermon 082210
Hebrews 12:4-24
Well, today we are looking at our last “sola” or “alone” statement of the Reformation. This one is “sola gratia” or “grace alone.” Of all the words that we use in the church, the word Grace is among the “big ones.” We understand, we acknowledge, we celebrate the fact that we are saved by God’s grace alone. No good works, no earning it on our own, no being good enough, nothing like that. Just grace. Grace won for us through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, God’s own son, on the cross as payment in full for our sins.
Grace is such an important idea, but it is one that as a preacher, get’s hard to talk about sometimes. What I mean by that is that we talk about the cross and the empty tomb, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ EVERY WEEK! The reason we do this is really simple. We are sinners who need to hear about Jesus death and every week, we are people living in a hopeless and sin encrusted world that need to hear about the hope of the resurrection every week. We all know that. But sometimes, at least I know I do, sometimes we take this message of grace, of mercy, of unconditional love from Christ for granted. We think maybe we need to talk about something different, or new, or exciting.
But what it boils down to is this. There is nothing more important to keep in front of our eyes and hearts than the suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus. There is NOTHING more important for us to know than that Jesus loves us this I know. There is nothing more essential for us to cling to than the cross of Christ, and to know that in our darkest hour, the love of Jesus is there shining on us brightly, undeservedly, and without question.
There is so much we could talk about when it comes to that simple statement, “We have salvation through Christ’s grace alone.” We could go step by step through all of scripture, we could do an in-depth study of doctrine, of the Old Testament Sacrificial System, and it’s fulfillment in Jesus Christ, we could look at the Sacraments, do year-long study of the teachings of Jesus, there are ALL KINDS of approaches to this subject.
But as I was doing my preparation for this week. One thing kept jumping out at me from studying the Hebrews passage, and also from the history of the Reformation. And that is this: The VALUE of the Gospel Message. It kept coming to mind the price that people have been willing to pay throughout the centuries so that the Gospel would continue to be preached, that the Grace of God would continue to be proclaimed, that people would be able to find hope in Christ and him crucified.
This price is laid out so powerfully in the book of Hebrews. We don’t know for sure where the people were that received this letter, most likely Rome. But we do know quite a bit about what was going on. This letter is written to a group of Jewish people who had become converts to Christianity. So there was this period of time where they were working out how to integrate with the Gentile Christian population. The Jewish Christians held Jesus to be the Messiah, but they still undoubtedly dressed like Jews, and at Jewish food, and upheld the Jewish traditions. No real problems here.
But the rub came when Emperor Nero, looking for a scapegoat to divert attention away from himself, declared Christianity a religio ilicita, an illegal religion. All over the land Christians faced horrible times. They were having their property taken from them, they were jailed without cause or trial, they were beaten, and inevitably, many were being killed for refusing to renounce their faith. It’s hard to even imagine, isn’t it.
But the Jewish Christians faced a unique kind of challenge. You see, the people persecuting the church didn’t know all the details about the Christian faith. And while they went after the Gentile Christians with rapid intensity, they were leaving the Jewish Christians alone. I guess, assuming that they were still Jewish, and not an illegal religion. But the persecutors were beginning to figure it out. We read in chapter 10:32-34 about some of what they were experiencing: “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”
This persecution was bad enough, but worse times are coming as we read in the first part of our Epistle lesson: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. The point is that the Jewish Christians had been resisting, but that soon they would be joining their brothers and sisters in martyrdom for their faith. But here is where the unique part of the Hebrew Christian situation came into play. You see, the Jewish Christians had an “out.” They had a very easy way of avoiding the persecution. They didn’t have to publicly recant their faith, or anything like that. All they had to do was quietly go back to the Synagogue, quietly abandon their Christian faith and go back to their old way of life and act like nothing had ever changed for them. Can you imagine how tempting this must have been when you continually saw your neighbors, and friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ tortured and killed for following Christ?
So what was it that kept them from going back to their old ways? Sola Gratia. Grace Alone. These Jewish Christians had come to know the all-surpassing wonder of finding salvation not by works, or by deeds, but solely in the Blood of Christ, as we read in Hebrews 10:10, “And we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” This hope was so different from what they had learned growing up, that they had to try to reach God by means of making many sacrifices over and over again and that they had to try to please God through works of the Law.
So precious was this Gospel hope, so treasured was this grace of God, so valuable was the truth of God’s love shown to sinners on the cross, that they would rather give their own lives rather than abandon this faith. When is the last time you considered the value of the Gospel message in such terms? The truth is, the Hebrew Christians had it right. The Gospel is that valuable. And in fact, because of their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of many others throughout the centuries, the Gospel has survived every persecution, every killing, every sneer and taunt the world has thrown at it. The Holy Spirit will not let the fires of the Gospel ever be snuffed out.
Sometimes I wonder how often Martin Luther went to this book of Hebrews during the darkest days of the Reformation. We know he loved the book of Hebrews, he called it, “A marvelously fine epistle.” But I can’t help but think he had a special appreciation of the plight and the temptation of those first Century Jewish Christians.
As we’ve talked about over the last several weeks, Luther had also experienced the sheer joy and awe of coming to know the freedom of the Gospel, and the unconditional, unearned love that Jesus shows us through his sacrifice for all of our sins on the cross. He had grown to know God as the church at that time was presenting him. As an angry, and vindictive God that demanded a perfection that was always out of reach, even for a monk as devoted as Martin Luther was.
He had been taught that if he even wanted to think about getting into heaven, he had better be working to try and make it happen. He had better be making every effort to ensure that he was good enough to please God. Can you imagine how horrible and scary this was for Luther? For everyone at that time? But this is what was being taught, not Christ’s sacrifice as being sufficient to pay for all your sins (The Biblical Teaching), but rather, God’s grace as starting point, but the rest you had to do on your own.
One of Luther’s teachers at Erfurt College, Gabriel Biel, said it this way: “The human will can love God above all things through its own natural powers. (You?) The sinner is also able to remove the hindrances to grace, because he is able to keep from sinning and committing sinful acts, yea, to hate sin and to will not to sin. (?) By the removal of the impediments and by the good steps toward God made by his own free will he can aquire the merit de congruo, the first grace in the turning toward God. (?)” NO WONDER Luther was terrified for his soul, wouldn’t any of us be!
So when God took a hold of Martin Luther in the Scriptures, when he shook him to his core with this truth of the Grace of God, the Sacrifice of Christ being sufficient, being all anyone needs to cover all of his sins. You can imagine how dramatic, how wonderful, how HUGE it was to know the love of God in Jesus Christ rather than fear the Wrath of a cold and distant, and unmerciful God. WOW! How those words from our reading today must have resonated anew, “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees!” How powerful to know how much God truly loves you. To know for the first time that it is GOD HIMSELF that allows us to stand before him, not as sinners, but as his forgiven, and made-holy Children. That through the sacrifice of Jesus alone, and through his Grace alone, we are counted among those “righteous made perfect” and those who live under a “New Covenant” with God.
It was for this Good News, and this Good News alone that Martin Luther was willing to face whatever oppression, persecution, even threats of death might come along. And there were plenty of all of them. But he came to know the love of Jesus that was even sweeter and more valuable than his own life. This is what lead him to make such a powerful stand on April 18, 1521. He was called before the Emperor, and princes, and the representatives of the Pope to recant his writing and his teachings that a person is not saved by good works, or by anything the Pope says, or anything at all but the Blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins.
Luther stood before this great body of authority who would later call him a notorious heretic, and forbid anyone to feed or house him, and allow anyone who saw him to murder him on site without consequence (reward!) and said these words – “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen”
Luther knew the power of the Gospel, and the importance of preaching and teaching the word of God. It made such a difference in his life that he didn’t care if it cost him his life. The Gospel is that valuable. Well, preaching the word never cost Luther his life directly (although it did take a toll on his health!). There were others who did lay down their lives for the sake of preaching the grace of Christ.
About a year and a half later, two young Augustinian Monks, who had heard the truth of salvation through Grace alone, were so moved by this truth of hope and God’s love that they went into Brussels to proclaim this Gospel Good News. They were arrested by agents of the anti-Reformation government and questioned by the university professors in the area. They were told to recant their teachings, they were told to abandon the idea of salvation through Grace Alone, they were imprisoned and interrogated time and time again. But they refused to abandon their hope. They refused to abandon Christ. The Gospel was just too important to them. Grace was just too precious to them.
So on July 1, 1523, Johann Ecsh and Heinrich Voes (never forget these names) were burned alive at the stake for the sake of the Gospel. They knew from the beginning that this would be their fate. But they also knew that Gospel, the message of hope in God’s grace alone, was sweeter than even life itself.
So to get back to the beginning of the sermon. No, the message of God’s grace will never get old. It will always be our rock as Christians. We will never tire, or grow weary of celebrating and talking about, and responding in love to the love of Christ won for us on the cross, and the hope sealed to us in the empty tomb. What more could we talk about. What better could we celebrate?
And when we do grow weary. We will remember that this message of God’s grace and mercy that has changed our lives and our eternities so dramatically is not delivered to us neatly and cleanly. No, it comes to us covered in the blood of the martyrs. It comes to us drenched in the sacrifices of countless Christians who by God’s grace know it for what it truly is. A treasure more valuable than gold or silver, a gift that will not wear out or die, a hope more important than even life itself. Our salvation, won in innocent blood of Jesus shed for miserable sinners like you and me.
Grace Alone Indeed.
AMEN.
