Reflection on Romans 3:19-28

 

What if I told you that the words you just heard have the power to heal the broken and save the un-savable?  What if I told you that the power of faith from the past and the promise of faith of the future just passed by your ears?  What if I told you that the words that have the power to change broken lives were just uttered in these walls? 

Would you want to know what they are?  Would you want to hear them again?  Do you yearn to allow them to penetrate your soul?

Alright, I will not torture you any longer before I share with you these life-saving words.  I will not make you wait until the end of the big show in order to get to the final reveal.  I will not prolong the anticipation with senseless words that continue, on and on, and on, and on. 

Alright, here they are: “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Life changing words, right?

Well, they could be if they were maybe a little more understandable.  Let me take a crack at them: “Since every single person on the face of this earth can be a real jerk sometimes, and can make some pretty epic mistakes, especially when compared to the goodness of God; we are made right and holy and acceptable in God’s eyes, not because we did something to deserve God to look on us with love, but because God simply wants it that way, and God made it happen through the cross of Jesus Christ.”

Do you want an even shorter way to say it?  “You are saved, and loved, and accepted by God anyway.” 

Did you say or do something horrible to someone you love that you regret even to this very day?  Did it ruin everything?  Do you feel like you are worth no more than the dust on the bottom of your shoe?  “You are saved, and loved, and accepted by God anyway.” 

Did two paths separate in the woods, and you took the one less taken, and you wish over and over again that you could redo that choice because it actually was the wrong choice?  Like the day that you said to yourself, “You know, I bet my stomach will do just fine eating Taco Bell with ‘Fire’ sauce.” Like that day, but even worse!  Do you lay there at night with a gut ache over your terrible decision, and there is nothing you can do to fix it?  “You are saved, and loved, and accepted by God anyway.” 

And, that is precisely the good news that is needed in our world today.  We live in a world that tells us every day that if we just worked hard enough, and owned enough really awesome makeup, and put it on right, we would be the desire of everyone.  I have tried it.  For some reason, I was not the desire of everyone.

We live in a world that tells us every day that if we just lose some weight, or wear better clothes, or live in a nicer house, or clean up our act, or get the best grades, we can save ourselves from the worst that life has to offer.  If we just try harder, and be better, and be more than better, and chew the right gum, then everything will be great and people will swoon over you and you will be an influencer!  I have tried it.  No one swoons when I chew gum.  In fact, I was once told by my aunt that I looked like a cow.

We try though.  We have been sold the lie that if we try hard enough we can save ourselves.  More than that, some people actually deceive themselves into thinking that they have even accomplished it.  They are so full of themselves that they cannot see that the very fact that they are full of themselves means that they have failed at this thing that we call life and love. 

Paul makes the claim quite clearly that “All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God,” and he is right.  Sin, is this force – this power - that seeks to rob people of abundant life.  And, it is a condition in which we are trapped.  It is a state in which we are continually anxious that we are not safe, not sufficient, and not worthy of love and respect.  It is a state of constant insecurity.

When Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, they sin.  But, even before they eat the fruit, there were already underlying insecurities.  The serpent slithers his way through these insecurities, making Adam and Eve feel as if they lack.  The serpent makes Adam and Eve feel as if God is holding back from them.  Why does not God want them to eat of the fruit of knowledge?  Adam and Eve feel as if they are not loved by God as they should.  In other words, they are insecure.  They are in a state of sin. 

When we confess that we are “captive to sin, and cannot free ourselves,” we are confessing that we are insecure, and we would try to save ourselves if we could.

Why do certain people seek drugs or alcohol, or seek to gamble and get more money, or seek to work constantly, or seek to be away from those who love them, or seek only bodily satisfaction, or seek to eat and eat and eat, or seek to exercise until they hurt themselves, or seek more clothes and more stuff, or seek a more perfect grade when they have already received a perfect score, or seek the attention of more and more people, or seek any number of addictions and behaviors that demand that they be something different than who God created them to be?  Insecurity.  Sin.  We are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.  We are insecure.

We are bound to sin.  It is in our skin.  It is in our souls.

Because of this, our attempts to free ourselves fail.  No matter how much wealth I have, I cannot buy love. No matter how many hours I work or awards I garner, I have no guarantee that they will give me meaning and purpose. No matter how much power I accumulate, power does not equal acceptance and love.

How do we fix our sin?  Do we try harder and do better?  Or is that just another symptom of our insecurity and sin? 

This is what drove Martin Luther crazy in his little cell in the monastery.  He would pace back and forth, searching for a way to escape this sin, this insecurity, and be pure and holy before the Lord.  But, he failed again and again, crumpling to the floor when he failed to find goodness and righteousness in himself.  He was broken. 

We are broken.

And then one day Luther read the promise from Romans, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified (made right) by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” 

We are not accepted because of what we do.  We are not loved because of all that we have accomplished.  Our identity is not some hard earned award but rather a sheer gift of grace. And our destiny is secured not by our own achievements, but rather is secured and guaranteed by the one who died on a cross and was raised again, proving once and for all that God’s love is more powerful than our insecurity.

To put it simply and bluntly, God knows us and loves us.  Period.  God knows our insecurities and loves us anyway.  God knows our sins, and forgives us anyway.  God knows our struggles, and loves us anyway.  God loves us, accepting and loving the insecure, wayward persons we are. Not the person we have tried to be or promised to be, but the person we really are.  You are a child of God, as you are, right now.  You have been saved by God through Jesus Christ, because God wanted to, not because you figured out how to become a complete, secure soul.

You want to know what faith looks like?  Faith is the man who looks at his gut and says, “Sure it does not look healthy, but while I have it, maybe God can use it as a pillow for a child.”  Faith is the woman who looks at her tattered life and says, “Yes, I’m a mess, but at least I am God’s mess.  Lord, show me how to use this mess.”  Faith looks like Marin Luther, who whenever in affliction or stress, shouted out, “I am baptized!  I am baptized.”  Why?  Because, we are not our insecurities.  Our insecurities are not what define our lives.  Yes, we may be broken children, but we are God’s broken children, by grace.  And, no one can take that away from us.

And, that message of hope and salvation is precisely what this broken world needs to hear.  God’s attitude of loving first is the balm that heals the broken soul.  Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for those who are not worthy is the message of love that will heal the world.  That word to the broken is the gift that God has charged us to bring to the world. 

When we give money and time to the church, we are not doing it to support a really nice social club; we are doing it as an act of faith that trusts that the money and time devoted to this saving word of grace will be able to save a wretch like me, and you, and our neighbor. 

May the entire world hear the good news of Jesus Christ, that through the power of the cross “you are saved, and loved, and accepted by God, anyway.”