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Date: Lent 2
Text: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Theme: As God Sees Us
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
About eighteen months ago Alicja and I attended my 25th High School Reunion. The fact that I graduated from High School some twenty five years ago made me feel old to begin with. But when we got to the reunion, they took a picture of Ala and me. They were going to publish it in the reunion book and the photographer hoped that we would buy copies of the pictures. This was my first photograph since my wedding day, some four years earlier.
After six weeks or so an envelope arrived at the house; I opened it up and out came the proofs of our photographs. My mouth fell to the floor. I took one look at me in that picture and almost fainted. I was fat--a real lard bucket. Now, I realized that I had gained a little weight after getting married; I realized that I had gained a lot of weight after getting married. I went from a 36 waist to a 38 to a 40. But it was only after I looked at that photo did I realize how big I really was. And I didn't like it. Not the fact that I was a lard butt but the fact that the photo showed it. I didn't like what I saw in my photo. It wasn't anything like the way I pictured myself.
In today's epistle lesson, St. Paul, by inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, paints a picture of us. And we often do not like the picture he paints. The truth is, this passage of scripture is one of the most difficult biblical passages to grasp and take to heart. It's not difficult because the of the language Paul uses; it's not difficult because the Bible is beyond our understanding. It IS difficult because, in this passage, Paul, by inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, paints a picture of us that we don't particularly like.
It is this section of the Bible that has caused so many people to turn their backs upon Biblical Christianity and take up something else. Why has this section caused so many people to turn their backs upon Biblical Christianity? Is it because Paul lays down a code of conduct so severe that people despair of ever living up to it? No. Is it because Paul lays out of system of morality of the things that we must do to earn God's love? No. Is it because Paul gets so philosophical, so high minded, that he leaves us so far behind that we don't think we'll ever catch up? No.
So what DOES Paul do in this section of Scripture that has caused, and still causes, and will continue to cause, countless people to turn their backs upon Biblical Christianity? Paul paints a portrait of us. Paul paints a portrait of us the way God sees us and not the way we would like to see ourselves. And, in this portrait, Paul gets to the very heart of our relationships with God and our relationships with one another. He lays them bare and shows us how God sees us. And when we see ourselves as God sees us--we may not like it. We may object to it--and countless people have objected to it--and they continue to object to it--and they turn away from Biblical Christianity.
Why is that? Because Paul, in his truth, in his truth about how God sees us, is so seemingly insulting.
Verse five of today's epistle lesson paints our portrait the way God sees us. In verse five, St. Paul writes, "however, to the person who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." Paul lumps every single person who ever walked the face of the earth, except for Jesus, in this verse. Paul includes himself in this verse. Paul includes you in this verse. Paul includes me in this verse. He includes us in this verse and he calls us WICKED.
How about you? Do you like to think of yourself as wicked? I sure don't. Other Bible versions translate this word as "ungodly." I don't that description either. This word is used to describe people who do not stand in awe of God. This word is used of people who do not like the way God paints their portrait in his Word, the Bible.
We live in a society, among people who do not like to be told that they are sinners; we live among people, a lot of people, the majority of people, who do not like being told that their actions offend a holy God. We live among people, the majority of people, who do not believe that their actions offend a holy God and deserve only his wrath and punishment. We live in a society, we live among people who deny the sinfulness of their situation. We live in a society where sin depends upon what our definition of is is. And that attitude invades the church; that attitude infiltrates our own hearts and minds. I've been told on more than one occasion that I shouldn't talk about sin and punishment at all but only about God's love instead. But we can only understand and appreciate God's love for us and for the whole world when we understand our situation; we can only appreciate it when we see ourselves as God sees us.
Now, I have to admit, that when I came to Christ I was totally and completely aware of my sinful state. I had enough Sunday School and Church when I was growing up to know that I was doing wrong when I did the things I did. Oh, I had an excuse. I was away from home, in the Army; I was becoming a man. But I knew it was wrong to have sex outside of marriage. I knew it was wrong to indulge in drugs and alcohol. I knew it was wrong to do a whole lot of things. But I did them anyway. And I ran away from God.
I had the benefit of the vestiges of a nominal church upbringing. I knew right and wrong. But that's not the way it is today. My generation turned its back upon God and his Church and his standard of right and wrong and our kids paid the price. And now people don't really care; they don't really care about sin; they don't really care about God. They feel they're doing alright and who am I to tell them what's right and wrong--what's right and wrong for them.
But how about it? Are we willing to open our lives to the light of God's holy law and have him paint our portrait the way he see us--the way we really are? Are we willing to look at sin and see it not as a character defect but for the damnable thing it really is? Are we willing to look at our lives the way God does and see ourselves deserving his wrath, his anger, his punishment, his damnation? Are willing to do that? If we're not, we abandon Biblical Christianity.
And there's a second thing in this verse that has caused people to abandon and reject Biblical Christianity. And it's illustrated by a story I read a while ago. The story stated that Jay Leno had finally been forgiven for a misdeed he did in school thirty years ago. Leno's high school principal didn't think speeding was a laughing matter and suspended Leno for three days after he "burned rubber" in the school parking lot. But all has been forgiven. Leno made amends by donating $250,000 worth of Microsoft software to the school in exchange for having the black mark erased from his school record. While Jay Leno's donation to his school is admirable; the truth is, he wasn't forgiven. Leno PAID to have the black mark removed from his record. That's how many people view their relationship with God. And that's why so many people abandon Biblical Christianity. And we see why they do this in this section of Scripture.
This section of Scripture centers on Paul's message that there is nothing, there is absolutely nothing, I can do to make up for my sins. I can't make up for them by giving more money to the church--although I'm tempted to tell you that sometimes. I can't make up for them by fasting for forty days and forty nights during Lent. I can't make up for them by not eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. I can't make up for them by doing good things to balance out my bad things. Paul tells me that there is nothing I can do to make up for my sins. And people rebel at this idea. They don't like to be told they are sinners. And they don't like being told that God has provided the only way out of their sins.
But that is what Paul does in this section of Scripture. Paul looks at the life of Abraham, the entire life of Abraham, and uses Abraham, the epitome of Old Testament faith, and declares that God unilaterally chose Abraham, called him out of pagan idolatry, and blessed him. And all Abraham did was believe God's promise. Paul contends that Abraham was in a right relationship with God not because of the things Abraham did but because Abraham believed God.
And that is the point Paul wants us to believe. Like it or not, I am a sinner; by nature I am godless--just as Paul says--and all I deserve is God's punishment, God's eternal punishment. But our of his great and overwhelming love for you and for me that is not what God did. Out of his overwhelming love for all of humanity, he sent his Son Jesus into our world to die on the cross in order to forgive all of our sins.
I cannot work my way up to God. I now know that. God always knew that. That is why God came down to me; that is why God came down to me in the person of Jesus, to live the perfect life I cannot live; to live the godly life I will not live; to be the perfect person I am not; to be the godly person I am not. And you know the rest of the story. You know the story of how Jesus took our sins upon himself and went to the cross and paid their price in full. You know how God the Father damned his Son on the cross so that he wouldn't have to damn us instead. You know how God the Father raised up Jesus on the third day as proof that our sins are forgiven us. You know the story.
And you also know the implication of the story. We, you and I, sinners to the core, are now the apples of God's eye. Not because we are good; not because we are great; not because of anything we've done. But because Jesus is our Savior who died on the cross to forgive our sins and rose from the dead as proof, as God's own and only proof, that our sins are indeed forgiven and that we are in a right relationship with him. Not because of who we are and what we do but because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus and his death and resurrection on our behalf.
Like Abraham, we believe God; we trust in God's promise that we are saved not because of us but because of Jesus. Like Abraham, we believe God and it is credited to us a righteousness. God puts his stamp of approval on us through faith in his one and only Son in whom we are declared sinless and perfect and godly--because of all that he did for us.
We are like the four year old boy at the doctor for a check up. As the doctor looked in his ears with an otoscope, the doctor asked, "Do you think I will find Big Bird in here?" The boy was silent. Next, the doctor took a tongue depressor and looked down his throat. He asked, "Do you think I will find the Cookie Monster down there?" Again, the boy said nothing. Then, the doctor placed a stethoscope to his chest and said, "Do you think I will hear Barney in your heart?" The boy looked up and said, "Oh, No. Jesus is in my heart. Barney is on my underwear". The boy had it straight. He saw himself as God saw him and he knew what God did to bring him to himself. May we all have Jesus in our hearts as we experience God's overwhelming love for us and may we believe in that love and our Savior who died and rose again for us. Amen.
And may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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