Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. . .
Martin Luther's experience is still very alive.
None of us has met him. None of us has had a conversation with him. Distanced in time from us by about 465 years, none of us has walked down to the local Starbucks to meet up with him and see how his week is going, or in his case, walked down to the closest place that brewed beer. (Beer was his favorite). If we know anything about him, it's most likely from a history book, or old church sermons, or perhaps from the movie, Luther, the 2003 film about Martin Luther's life.
We've never met Martin Luther.
But Martin Luther's experience is still very alive.
Martin Luther lived as a monk at the turn of the century - specifically the end of the 15th century into the beginning of the 16th. He was a dedicated monk. Some would say absurdly dedicated. By dedicated, I don't necessarily mean that he was putting in hours and hours of work (though that was probably true also). I mean that he was absolutely dedicated to outward forms of spirituality, striving to perfect himself, to be good enough to be safe with God. And he needed this desperately because the God Martin Luther believed in was rather scary. . . This God was ready to punish, destroy, and smite at a moment's notice - if not in this life then certainly in the life to come. As a monk, the young Martin engaged in hours upon hours of confession, fasting, prayer, and pilgrimage all to try to make it right, all to make himself acceptable.
And it got be an absurd amount of dedication. At least, that's what Martin's superior monk, Johann von Staupitz, came to believe. He believed that Martin's "dedication" was destroying him, causing him a great deal of distress and heartache. Because he believed it would help him, Johann von Staupitz sent Martin to Wittenberg to begin an academic career there in the university. In 1507, he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508, Martin began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.
And Martin's 'Aha' moment came at an odd time. I imagine that a lot of thoughts, emotions, and spiritual questions were already at work in him, but the precise 'Aha' moment probably came exactly when he wasn't expecting it. If you will permit to me to be rather crude, I'll simply state what happened, without trying to clean it up or make it prettier than it is. I think it shows us that 'Aha' moments can happen at any time! Martin Luther went to use the bathroom. We went to the latrine, but while he did, he did something most of us probably don't do. He brought his Bible with him and opened it up. He opened it to the beginning of Romans, to words that theApostle Paul sent to the church at Rome many centuries before:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to theGreek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith to faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith."
'It is the power of God'. . . 'For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith to faith'. . . 'The one who is righteous will live by faith'. . .
Eureka! The 'Aha' moment changed everything. Perhaps it seems simple. (It certainly seems like an odd setting for such an 'Aha' moment!) And perhaps we've heard these words before too, and they've never quite washed over us in the same way.
But Martin heard amazing news for himself and for the world. He heard that salvation - personal healing, restoration of relationship with God, the love of God, the working of God, the promise of life together with God, both in this life and in the life to come - was precisely that, God's work. It isn't up to us! God gives this. God wants to give us this!
We don't have to seal the deal on anything to make those realities real, real for us and real for the world! For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. . . We don't have to earn God's gift of love and salvation. We don't have to perform - to work hard and harder and harder to be righteous enough to earn it. We don't have the seal the deal on anything! We are given unearned righteousness. We are given the unearned righteousness of God, and as righteous people - those who have been clothed and gifted with such righteousness, we are called to live by faith. We're called to live as though this is true!
We can see why this was such an 'Aha' for Martin Luther. He never felt secure with God. He was constantly looking for a way to be acceptable, to be safe, to be loved, but as dedicated as his actions were, they never seemed to be enough. How could he know when he had done enough? And what if he blew it all - messing up again and putting himself outside of God's love and care?
The 'Aha' changed everything. God gives us righteousness. God gives us love. God claims us and makes us God's own. It isn't up to us. There's nothing we can do to earn that righteousness and love. And as God's gift, there is nothing we can do to nullify God's love for us. Nothing. Nothing!
Wow.
That's incredible. And while that understanding can bring us to awe and wonder, it can also make us uncomfortable. Why? It means that we aren't in control. . . It isn't up to us to secure God's love and favor. God's love and favor is a gift, and that means we are invited to trust it. But for some reason, it's easier for us to put the pressure on ourselves (or assume that we can 'seal the deal' with a particular set of actions) than to simply trust and rest in God's amazing love for us and this world.
And our scripture passage above continues along the lines of this amazing 'Aha.' 'Since we are justified by faith'. . . .'Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand'. . . 'God's love has been poured into our hearts through theHoly Spirit that has been given to us'. . . 'God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us'. . . 'For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. . . '
God gives us righteousness. God names us and claims us as human beings who are endlessly loved. We can't earn righteousness. We can't earn God's love. We don't need to seal the deal. God is the free giver, giving us a free gift.
And upon that 'Aha,' a Reformation was born in the church. Martin Luther and others preached this free gift of God. Righteousnessdoesn't come through a laundry list of deeds. It is a gift by faith.
It is a gift by faith.
An amazing message. But sadly, Martin Luther's early experience and early understanding is still very alive. His pre-'Aha' thinking continues to plague our understanding of God and our understanding of ourselves.
And why is this? We've taken a particular understanding of 'faith,' and we've plugged it into this very same way of thinking. The Protestant tradition and conviction is strong in many of us: We are not justified by works, but by faith! That's a good conviction. The problem is that we've come to understand faith in such a way that it still requires us to justify ourselves. We still need to seal the deal.
For many, it works like this: God is very angry. God is angry with our sin and our misdeeds. But God is also loving, and since we have earned destruction through our thoughts and deeds, God has made a way of salvation possible. God sent Jesus - the very Son of God - to die for our sins, and if we will only accept him - if we will only receive the gift - we have a way to avoid this immanent destruction. We don't have to engage in a laundry list of works to earn this gift. We can receive the gift and be saved if we will onlybelieve, that is, have faith that this way of making salvation possible is true.
That's a dominant form of Christian theology in our American faith context. And even if that's not the sort of language I would use to describe salvation (and I'll be honest, it's not the language I tend to use) I don't want to knock it completely. It does acknowledge that we've lived in ways that aren't true to who we've been called to be, and it does honor Jesus' love for us. It also unburdens us from that laundry list of works.
But. . . I believe it burdens us too with an understanding of 'faith' that isn't ultimately what the scriptures describe or personally freeing for our lives together. We've taken a particular understanding of 'faith' - a cultural one - and we've plugged it into a pre-'Aha'-Martin Luther type of thinking.
What is that cultural understanding?
In our context, we tend to define faith as belief, and by belief we mean an intellectual assent to propositional truths. Do you believe in God? If you think there is a God - that a God exists, you then 'believe' - you intellectually assent to that proposition. "I believe in God." - Check YES! Do you believe in heaven? Check YES! Do you believe in the Trinity? Check YES! Do you believe in evolution? Check YES! (Or for many, NO). These propositions don't even have to come from religious lines of questioning. Do you believe in aliens? Check YES!
This is unfortunately how we tend to understand faith - as an act of 'belief,' and by belief we mean 'the act of intellectually assenting to a particular proposition.'
And from this way of understanding 'faith,' Martin Luther's experience is very much alive.
We are saved by faith. And since we understand 'faith' in a particular cultural way, we must intellectually assent to a list of propositions - in this case, theological convictions of the Christian tradition. And as we intellectually assent, as we say 'yes' to God and to these convictions, we are saved.
But this is a problem. It still makes God's favor of us up to us! Like Martin Luther, if we have to get it 'right,' it's all up to ourunderstanding and our affirmation of theological convictions. We are the ones who seal the deal on salvation! In this way of thinking, God has made salvation possible, but God is waiting on us to solidify what has been made possible. It's all based on our 'yes.' God is just waiting for us to say 'yes.' And if we don't say 'yes', God is going to destroy us. How can we trust a God who ultimately wants to destroy us?
And can you imagine how this affects us? On one hand, it can make us terrified. After all, if we're Christians, and we begin to have questions about faith, particularly if we have tough questions with no easy answers, we might begin to feel extremely afraid. Maybe God will be angry with us if we give voice to our questions, even if we acknowledge them inwardly within ourselves. Maybe we will begin to fear that our salvation isn't secure. Perhaps like Martin Luther, we will fear that personal healing, the love of God, and promise of life together with God now and in the future can be thrown away by us - even just by asking questions! We might never feel grounded.
Of course, the opposite extreme is true as well. Since we've sealed the deal on salvation and since we've done what we're supposed to do by saying 'yes' to these theological convictions and positions, we might feel entirely too sure of ourselves. We might begin to think that we have all the answers, that we're called to go to people with our answers and try to convince them to say 'yes' too - to intellectually assent to what we already know is true. And when we see that others have different convictions, or when we see that others have tough questions, we may begin to despise them. These people may begin to seem like the opposite of who we are. We're saved. They're the enemies of God.
Both types of reactions to 'seal the deal' theology - both fear and arrogance - seem extreme, and yet, I imagine that you and I both know people who are affected in these ways. Perhaps we've been affected in these ways too. Perhaps we are even now.
But here is some good news. Here is some profoundly good news. A 'check yes,' you-must-intellectually-asset-or-else understanding of faith is not the scriptural understanding of faith. Let me say that again. This understanding of 'faith' is cultural. It is not scriptural. Jesus was convicted, more convicted than most of us probably are, but where do you read that he was walking around trying to convince people to say 'yes' to particular propositions, to make sure that they had their theology right so they could seal the deal on salvation? I just don't see that.
Jesus does care about what we think. Jesus does care about how we conceptualize God. But why is that? Faith isn't about intellectual assent. Faith is about trust! Who is God, and how can we trust that very God - this God who loves us when we are enemies, this God who nurtures us and gives us grace even when we aren't looking for it, this God who is constantly taking our convictions and our questions and using both to form us and nurture us into who we're called to be?
In the New Testament, the Greek word for 'faith' is often followed by a simple proposition that rarely makes it into our translations. That proposition is 'into.' We are called to a life of faith that leans 'into.' That is, we're called to trust this very God who is saving us apart from ourselves. Faith is trust. It involves leaning, putting our weight on what we can trust - and that trust is ultimately in a WHO and not in a theological proposition, which is ultimately a 'what'.
And here is some more good news: In stepping away from a seal the deal type theology, we are in no way saying that theological convictions don't matter, or that we need to move in the opposite direction where theology and ideas about God become willy-nilly or insignificant. No, they're powerfully and meaningfully significant! They allow us to learn and play and discover and rest in the very God who loves us before we can ever seal the deal on it. Instead of using our theology and convictions as tools to bolster our safety or as weapons to secure the destruction of others, we can let them shape us and become the occasion for celebration of a truth which needs no intellectual asset to be true: We are held securely and firmly and lovingly in the arms of a God who won't let go of us, in the arms of a God who is not threatened by our questions.
And since we're not going to fall, what are we waiting for? Let's revel in the faith we've been given as a gift. Let's trust. Let's rest. Let's be saved. Let's become. Let's voice those convictions. Let's ask those questions!
Renee Roederer
Director of Young Adult Ministries
PPC L.I.F.T.
At Pasadena Presbyterian Church, we aim to be a "sacred space for the city," and for that reason, we desire to learn about opportunities for service in Pasadena and to support and celebrate what non-profits, ministries, and charities are doing right in our midst.
