Reflection on Romans 3:19-28

 

Romans 3:19-28 (NRSVue)

19 Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26 it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus. 

 27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith. 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. 

 

Reflection

In his book, “When Christ Comes,” Max Lucado recounts a true story that occurs immediately after a horrific earthquake.

“Moments after the deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: ‘No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.’

Driven by his own promise, he found the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children.

‘It’s too late,’ they told the man. ‘You know they are dead. You can’t help.’ Even a police officer encouraged him to give up his task.

But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit. Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, ‘Arman! Arman!’ And a voice answered him, ‘Dad, it’s me!’

Then the boy added these priceless words, ‘I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’”

(https://www.irontontribune.com/2021/05/16/he-has-promised-he-will-always-be-there-for-you/)

This beautiful story demonstrates one of the primary biblical truths that drove the Protestant Reformation: we are saved by God’s “grace as a gift” (Romans 3:24).   Just as the child had faith that he and his friends would be rescued because of his father’s love, we also know that we will not be lost to the rubble of life because we have faith in Jesus’ promise to rescue us and make us right.  We are in the rubble.  We cannot possibly get ourselves out.  Whenever we try, another piece of rubble falls to pin us under.  But, rather than despair, we trust the promise given to us, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.”  We urge others in the rubble to trust that promise as well.

This very biblical truth was a mind-blowing revelation to the young monk, Martin Luther. His life changed when he cracked open the Bible and read: “We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans 3:28).  The idea that a person is made right by trusting in the saving power of Jesus Christ, rather than trusting in our own power was something that had never occurred to Luther. 

Luther constantly struggled to be good enough for God.  He tried to be perfect.  He really did, but every single, simple mistake would make him believe that he was pushing God further and further away.  He would confess again and again and again, hoping to be good enough for a God who he imagined was constantly upset with him.  He visited the confession booth and spilled his sin so often that the poor priest became sick of listening to him. 

In his own words, Luther describes this life: “As a monk I led an irreproachable life. Nevertheless I felt that I was a sinner before God. My conscience was restless, and I could not depend on God being propitiated by my satisfactions [he could not trust that he had gained God’s favor by doing all that God expected]. Not only did I not love, but I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…Thus a furious battle raged within my perplexed conscience…” ("Weimarer Ausgabe" 54. 183-185).

There is so much pressure on us to be a certain type of person; to be a good person. There is so much pressure to be acceptable and accepted. 

I think of the teenage girl whose face was disfigured by a genetic disorder.  She was not pretty by the world’s standards.  In fact, most people averted their eyes when looking at her for the first time.  But videos on YouTube convinced the teen that if she was just able to perfect her makeup, people would finally love her and accept her and see her as beautiful. 

She watched video after video, practicing her makeup technique again and again in front of a mirror as she strove to perfect the law of good looks.  She was obsessed.  The obsession was beginning to affect her homework.  Her parents were worried and did not understand; she just wanted to be loved.  She just wanted friends.

So, she trusted in the law of makeup; the rules that lead to beauty.  Unfortunately, following the rules of beauty had no effect.  Sadly, most people did not even notice the makeup.  She tried so hard.  But trying hard did not make her life better.  It only taught her a hard lesson: she could not save herself.  She could not make people love her.  She could not make people see her as beautiful. 

The apostle Paul teaches that no one will be made right by trying hard.  “No human will be justified before [God] by deeds prescribed by the law.”  Instead, the law only shows us how weak and ineffective we are, “for through the law come the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

But never underestimate the power of “Up religion” on our lives.  “Up religion” encourages you to save yourself, make something of yourself; be a better self.  “Up religion” says that you must climb up to finally catch God’s attention.  “Up religion” requires that instructions be followed precisely and laws be kept.

And the thing that is so confusing about the laws of “up religion” is that the laws are good.  As Paul says, “we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19).  Rules are good.  There are ways that makeup can be done to make you look glamorous. 

Laws are good.  God’s expectations of us are good.  Our expectations of one another are also very good.  We should follow good laws because what we do truly affects other people.  Lying hurst others.  Stealing hurts others.  Killing, I hear, hurts others.  Laws against all these things are good. 

But the problem with “up religion” is that trusting in the rules cannot save us.  We trust that the proper makeup will get us the attention and love that we seek.  And it may get someone to look our way, but it cannot get anyone to love us.  Maybe I am speaking for myself, but wearing makeup has never gotten anyone to love me.

Trying to work our way to earn God’s love is no different.  Have you ever felt like you have prayed enough to make God like you?  How many of you feel as if you have loved your neighbor enough?  Praying and loving neighbors are really good things to do, do not get me wrong.  The law is good.  But being reminded of what is expected of us often causes us to only see how we have fallen short.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  The law is a mirror, revealing us to be failures.

This is where the good news starts to break in.  After years of struggling to keep the law, only to be exposed as weak and a fraud, Luther made the discovery in God’s Word that changed his life.  In his own words, “Then finally God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is a gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely faith, and that sentence: The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel, is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise” (Ibid. 183-185).

Luther finally discovered the gift that God had hidden in plain sight the entire time.  He discovered the gift of “down religion.”  “Down religion” is God’s promise to “come down” to us, to heal us, to feed us, and to save us.  Like that father who digs down through the rubble to save his child, Jesus Christ, the very hands and feet of God, comes down to dig through the rubble of our lives to save us.  This grace is God’s gift of love.  

Since we cannot go up, Christ comes down.  “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” (Romans 3:23-24).  We are people of “down religion.”  We trust in the one who wants the best for us and who goes to any length to make things right for us, even all the way to a cross.  In the cross we see that first and foremost that we are loved by Jesus, and this love is a gift.  To earn God’s love and attention, we had to do nothing.

“Why do you put on so much makeup?” she asked the teenage girl.  It was a girl from her algebra class. 

“I just want to be pretty,” she admitted.

“You are pretty, and smart. That’s why I cheat off your tests,” she laughed.  “Not really, but I notice everyday just how smart you are, and that is beautiful to me.” 

And that was the beginning of a life-long friendship.  It was a friendship, coming out of “down religion,” where no one had to work hard to gain love in the end of the story, but where the gift of love was the beginning of the story.

Everyone strives for “up religion.”  The dark corners of this world want to convince us all that it is up to us to do more and be more and save ourselves.  “Look pretty.”  “Be the best.”  “Find God.”  But we are people of the reformation.  We are people of “down religion” where we do not go up to save ourselves, rather God’s gift of grace comes down to save us. 

The gift of “down religion” is the undercurrent of the poem, “Stepdad.”  I first presented this poem to you a couple of years ago, but I want to present it to you again so that you can see the dynamics of “up religion” and “down religion” in people’s lives.

Stepdad

Everything he does, he does to make his father proud. 

The ceramic volcano that he made in school,

that he handed over to his father in pride,

was thrown into the corner of his Father’s apartment,

collecting piles of dust inside. 

 

I am his stepdad. 

He doesn’t want me,

but I was there to hold him,

he needed to know someone was there to see. 

 

The time that he devoted to the gym,

gaining an impressive, muscular frame,

was not seen by his father

who focused on women’s bodies with his gaze. 

 

I am his stepdad. 

He doesn’t want me,

but I was there to spot him as he lifted those weights.

I will be there, because that is what he needs. 

 

The touchdowns and the championship

were done to spark his father’s pride. 

But staring at the stands, his father was not found,

and his tears he had to hide. 

 

Instead, his eyes fell upon his stepdad. 

He doesn’t want me,

but I smiled and raised my thumbs up high anyway,

because the day will come when he will see, 

 

that while grieving his father

whose pride he was never able to find,

he will see the dad

that he had the entire time. 

 

But, until that day,

I vow to be at his side,

to show him that he has always been loved,

and has never needed to do anything to gain my pride.

 

Christ has been there for you the entire time.  There is no need to do more or work your way up.  Christ has come down to you.  May Christ’s very present love for you, blow your mind, and may he continue to reform your life.