One Act of Righteousness
Romans 5:12-19
On Wednesday of this past week we entered the season of Lent. These six weeks of Lent are in some ways very different from other times of the church year. They present to us a real contrast in the mood, the themes and the music. You can see that the colors on the altar, lectern, the pulpit and our stoles have been changed to violet signifying a more somber mood. We have gone from the joy of Christmas, the excitement of Epiphany, and the wonder of Transfiguration, to the contemplation of our sins that caused Jesus’ to suffer and die on the cross.
As you hear the Scripture lessons for today you also see a great contrast. In the Old Testament lesson you hear about the fall into sin. Adam and Eve gave in to the temptations and lies of the devil and that changed everything about their lives and their relationship with God. In contrast to that, the Gospel lesson tells you about how Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil when He was in the wilderness preparing for His earthly ministry that would finally take Him to the cross. When you think about those two pivotal events in human history, you can see how the disobedience of Adam and Eve brought death into the world but the obedience of Jesus brought life to fallen mankind. St. Paul
As we think about that for a few moments today, may you come to a better understanding about what Jesus’ suffering and death means for your life of righteousness now. May you be so strengthened in your faith that you are able to throw off all the worldly ideas about how you might be righteous before God and may you seek to joyfully serve Him not just now in this Lenten season but throughout your life.
First you need to consider the consequences of the fall into sin that is described for us in the Old Testament lesson. When Paul says that the sin of Adam brought sin into the world, you have to understand that the consequence was more than just a rash of sinful actions that spread over Adam’s family. We are told in the next chapter about what happened to two of Adam’s offspring when Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy. Of course, there were sinful actions but what is more significant is that all mankind now was afflicted with a sinful nature. Instead of being in God’s image by being holy and completely dedicated to Him, the sinful nature spoiled that. By their disobedience, they and all those who followed after them would be spiritually blind, in other words, they couldn’t understand and appreciate the things of God. They would be spiritually dead. They could not respond to the things of God. They would also live as enemies of God. That is the condition that all human beings would have as a part of their nature from the moment of their conception.
As a result, sinful acts would then flow from that sinful nature. Jealousy, envy, hatred, murder, selfishness, and all kinds of sinful actions follow from the sinful nature that came through the sin of the first people who doubted God’s goodness and instead followed the enticement of the evil one to try and be more like God.
As if that were not enough trouble, the sinful nature leads to being separated from God. You would be lost forever unless God, in His mercy, would rescue you.
That is where Jesus’ act of righteousness becomes so important for you. God, in His mercy, promised a Savior to Adam and Eve. As we heard in the reading from Genesis 3, the offspring of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, the devil. That statement is the first Gospel promise in the Bible. God’s people lived with that promise until the promise was fulfilled when the time was right to send that Savior, God’s only Son.
That righteousness of the Son is then the theme of the Lenten season. The Son obeyed the Father’s will when He came down to earth to be born of a human mother. He was true God and true Man. As a true man, he was subject to the temptations of the devil just like all human beings are. We see that in graphic detail in the Gospel lesson for today from Matthew’s Gospel. The devil went after Him when His human strength was low. He had been in the wilderness, fasting and praying for forty days. You can imagine how physically weak He must have been. It is often in our times of weakness that we are the most vulnerable to temptation. The devil knows that and he takes advantage of it just like he did with Jesus. The devil also knew who Jesus was and why He was here on the earth. The devil was desperate to try and put a stop to the work that Jesus was going to do. But Jesus was still true God. He was going to obey His heavenly Father. He used the power of God’s Word to fight back against the devil’s temptations because of His great love for you. He obeyed His Father’s will and kept His life free from sin.
Most importantly for us, He also obeyed His Father’s will when it meant giving up His life on the cross as the punishment for your sins. His obedience, Paul says, leads to justification and life for all men. Justification means that God, for Christ’s sake, declares you righteous, not because of your own merit, but because of His grace, His undeserved love for you. That is the heart and soul the Christian faith. That is a contrast from the ways of the world. It is a contrast from human nature. It is a contrast from the ways in which you lived your life as an enemy of God to the way you live as a redeemed child of God. Paul mentions justification and life. He gives you new life now and life forever with Him in heaven.
Your sins are forgiven. That means that you no longer have to carry around the burden of guilt for past sins. It means that you no longer have to worry that those past sins will somehow keep you out of God’s Kingdom. That is what forgiveness means. Your sins are washed away through the blood of Jesus. That has a real effect on the way you live your life. Instead of living in fear that you haven’t been good enough, you can rejoice that even though you actually haven’t been good enough, God still declares you righteous because Jesus has paid the price for you. You have been set free to serve. You can serve God by serving those around you. You have opportunities to overcome the sinful, selfish nature and give evidence of the new life that you have by serving the Lord as you serve family, your church, your community and the world. You serve, not out of guilt, but rather as a joyful response to the love that God has shown to you. You serve, not in order to earn God’s favor, but because you have already received the blessings that come through the obedience of the One who was sent by the Father to be your substitute under the Law and on the cross. You have new life, empowered by the Spirit. You have been brought into the family of God through Baptism. You have heard God’s Word that gives you the power of the Spirit and you have had the opportunity to receive the forgiveness of your sins and strength for your new life of obedience through the Lord’s Supper. Through those Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, you have the power to live out that new life that is yours through the obedience of Jesus.
The blessings of your new life do not end there. Because you have been declared righteous, you also have the promise of life forever with the Lord in the glory of heaven. That is the life that will never end in contrast to the life we have here on earth. With that to look forward to, your life now has new meaning. God’s love touches everything that you do. You have power to resist temptation. You have power to serve. You have power to share your faith with those around you. What a contrast to a life that is simply lived to serve yourself. That’s the difference that Jesus makes because of His act of obedience.
Amen.
Rev. Gerald Matzke
Zion Lutheran Church
Painesville, Ohio
March 9, 2014
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