“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:19-26

Can anyone be saved by doing good works? by living a good life? by obeying God’s commandments? What does God say in His Word?

Consider the Scriptures quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-18:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

The Bible makes clear the fact that all people have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (v.23). Not a single one of us can be saved on the basis of our own life or works.

It is as the Bible tells us: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

How then can we be saved? God, in His Word, gives us the answer: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (v.21-22).

There is a way to be counted righteous in God’s eyes for those who have sinned and do not measure up to God’s perfect law. It is a way to be saved apart from our own perfect obedience to all of God’s holy commandments. It is a way described in the Old Testament Scriptures, as well as the New. It is “the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” It is righteousness imputed to those who trust in Christ Jesus and His holy life and in His innocent sufferings and death on the cross in our stead.

And it is a way of salvation available to all people. “For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus …” All have sinned and have come short, and Christ died and made atonement for all — that God might be just in forgiving the sins of those who trusted in Christ before He came into this world and also in forgiving the sins of those who now look to Him in faith for pardon and forgiveness (cf. v.23-26).

The only way to be justified, forgiven and accepted by God is through faith in Christ Jesus “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Are we righteous before God on the basis of God’s law? No, we’ve all come short and stand guilty and condemned by God’s law! Can we still be righteous in God’s sight? Yes, through faith in Christ’s perfect obedience to God’s law in our stead and in His blood shed for us on the cross!

God, grant us such faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:34-40

Which commandment is the great commandment in the law? Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

And, indeed, this is in accord with God’s law, which commands us: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4-5).

Jesus also said (Matt. 22:39-40), “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’”

St. Paul wrote in Romans 13:8-10: “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (cf. Lev. 19:18).

If we did love the LORD God with all our heart, soul and mind, would we worship or serve any other God but the true God? Would we abuse His name and neglect to use it rightly, in ways which give God glory? Would we despise or neglect His Word and the services of His house?

And if we did genuinely love our neighbors as ourselves, would we disobey parents and others in authority over us? Would we do anything to hurt or harm our neighbor? Would we seek to use our neighbor or his or her spouse to fulfill our own selfish and sinful desires? Would we speak evil of our neighbor or gossip about him? Would we covet or take our neighbor’s property or goods?

Therefore, obedience to God’s commandments requires true love for God and our neighbor and, without such love, our obedience is nothing but a sham (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1ff.)!

The question is: Do we love God with all our heart, soul and mind? And, do we love our neighbor as ourselves?

We might claim to love God and neighbor, but have we truly kept all of God’s commandments in our thoughts, desires, words and deeds? Our failures to keep God’s commandments are proof of our failure to love God with all our being and to truly love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves! And without perfect love for God and neighbor, God’s law curses and condemns us as guilty sinners, deserving of the eternal punishments of hell (cf. Gal. 3:10; Rom. 3:19-20).

And that, of course, is why we need Christ Jesus. He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He loved and honored His Father in all His thoughts, desires, words and deeds. He prayed and gave thanks even when it appeared that there was not enough. He loved God’s Word so much that, at the age of 12, He stayed behind in Jerusalem to learn more of it from the teachers of God’s Law. Praying “not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42),” “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). And Jesus certainly loved His neighbor – each and every one of us – because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

And, our Lord Jesus Christ paid the price and made atonement for our sins that we might have pardon and forgiveness through faith in His name. The Bible tells us that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2; cf. Gal. 3:13). Therefore, when we confess our sins and look to Him and His cross in faith, He forgives our sins and cleanses us from the guilt of our unrighteousness (cf. 1 John 1:8-9; John 3:14-18).

So, when we consider the commandments of God to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves, we see by His commandments our sins, our shortcomings and the just wrath of God upon our sins. But when we see Jesus’ perfect obedience, His genuine love for God and neighbor, and His great love for us – a love which moved Him to take the guilt and punishment for our sins and make full atonement, rising again on the third day, we look to Him and His sacrifice on the cross in faith, trusting that in Him we have forgiveness and in Him we have life.

God grant that we repent of our self-centeredness and lack of love for God and neighbor and that we look in faith to Christ Jesus and His holy life in our stead and His bitter sufferings and death for our sins and the sins of the world. And God grant that we, as a fruit of our faith in Christ Jesus, begin to truly love God and our neighbor. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath, that they watched him. 2 And behold, there was a certain man before him who had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?” 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, healed him, and let him go, 5 And answered them, saying, “Which of you having a donkey or an ox fall into a pit would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath?” 6 And they could not answer him again to these things. 7 And he put forth a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose out the chief places, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by any man to a wedding, do not sit down in the highest place, lest a more honorable man than you is invited by him, 9 And he who invited you and him comes and says to you, ‘Give this man place,’ and you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you shall have honor in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11 For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Luke 14:1-11

It was the Sabbath Day and Jesus was invited to a meal in the home of one of the prominent Pharisees, a sect of the Jews who believed one could please God and be acceptable in His sight by a strict and legalistic keeping of God’s commandments. But Jesus, however, was being put to the test in regard to His keeping of the commandment regarding the Sabbath.

The Pharisees and experts in the Jewish law were watching Jesus because a man was there with dropsy, a condition in which fluid would build up in the extremities, causing pain and discomfort. We might call it edema today, a condition often caused by congestive heart failure.

Jesus didn’t have to ask because He most certainly already knew the answer, but He wanted His hearers — experts in the Jewish laws — to consider the truth. “And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?’” (v. 3).

They didn’t answer Jesus but, quite obviously, they considered it a violation of the commandment for Jesus to heal anyone on the Sabbath because they regarded such acts to be work forbidden by the commandment in Exodus 20:8-11: “Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work — you, your son, your daughter, your man-servant, your maid-servant, your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore, the LORD blessed the sabbath-day and hallowed it.”

What they failed to see and understand in their efforts to outwardly obey God’s commandments so that they might be deserving of God’s favor and eternal life is that “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God had commanded man to rest from his labors on the Sabbath in order that he might have time to consider God’s Word and God’s works and ways.

In Isaiah 58:13-14, we read: “If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”

They were to sanctify and set apart the holy day, but it was never God’s intent that the Sabbath be legalistically observed as nothing more than a day in which all work was prohibited.

And, since the Sabbath served as a shadow of things to come, pointing to the fact that we are justified and obtain eternal rest by faith alone in Jesus Christ and not by our own works and merits (cf. Rom. 4:4-5; Heb. 4:1ff.), Christians are no longer required to observe a specific day.

St. Paul wrote to the Colossians in Colossians 2:16-17: “Let no man therefore judge you in food, in drink, in respect of a holy-day, of the new-moon, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” To the Romans, he wrote in Romans 14:5-6: “One man esteems one day above another, but another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He who regards the day, regards it to the Lord, and he who does not regard the day, to the Lord he does not regard it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.” (Cf. Gal. 4:10-11.)

And, God said: “For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings” (Hos. 6:6). He’s not looking for a legalistic system in which one can commit this sin and offer that sacrifice, but He’s looking for genuine repentance and faith which moves believers to love their neighbors and do what is good for them.

The Bible says in Romans 13:8-10: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not kill,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love works no ill to one’s neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

So, I ask you, what do you think God desires? To love one’s neighbor and help him on the Sabbath day? Or to refrain from loving and helping a neighbor because it is the Sabbath day?

Jesus healed this man “and answered them, saying, ‘Which of you having a donkey or an ox fall into a pit would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath?’ And they could not answer him again to these things” (v. 5-6).

And how could they answer Jesus or accuse Him? Jesus showed their hypocrisy and guilt in regard to God’s law. None of them would even hesitate to pull one of their animals out of a pit on the Sabbath Day, and yet they considered it wrong to help a human being on the Sabbath and were ready to condemn Jesus for showing love and mercy to this man on the Sabbath!

Jesus also told the Pharisees and experts in Jewish law a parable when he noted how they chose for themselves the prominent seats at the table, “saying to them, ‘When you are invited by any man to a wedding, do not sit down in the highest place, lest a more honorable man than you is invited by him, and he who invited you and him comes and says to you, “Give this man place,” and you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, “Friend, go up higher.” Then you shall have honor in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted’” (Luke 14:7-11).

Not only did this parable have a practical application for them to avoid being humiliated if asked to give place to a more-honored guest, and to be honored before all if asked to move up; it also has a spiritual application: “For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (v. 11).

If we exalt ourselves before God and seek to enter into the glories of heaven on the basis of our own legalistic system of works and worthiness, we will be humbled when we are removed from our place and it is given to one counted worthy by the LORD God for the sake of the perfect life and innocent suffering and death of Christ Jesus.

If, on the other hand, we count ourselves unworthy sinners and take the lowest seat and trust in nothing but the merit of Christ Jesus, who gave His life a ransom for our sins and the sins of the world, we will be exalted when God graciously receives us into His kingdom and glorifies us for Jesus’ sake!

God calls upon us to humbly confess our sins and receive from Him forgiveness and life for the sake of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Think of the parable that Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14. Who went home justified? Was it the Pharisee who boasted of his own righteousness or the tax collector who begged God to show him mercy and forgive his sin? It was the humble tax collector who went to his house justified.

The Bible tells us: “The LORD is near to those who are of a broken heart and saves those who are of a contrite spirit” (Ps. 34:18); “For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17); and “For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’” (Isa. 57:15; cf. 66:2).

And again, St. John writes (1 John 1:8 — 2:2): “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you so that you do not sin. And if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus’ point? It will merit us nothing before God to legalistically follow the letter of the commandments when we miss the spirit of the law — love for God and love for neighbor. And, most importantly, rather than depending upon our own works and merits under the law, works that are so far short of what God requires, we would be wise to humble ourselves before the LORD God, confess our utter sinfulness and unworthiness in His sight, and flee to the cross of Jesus, trusting alone in His perfect righteousness in our stead and in His innocent suffering and death on the cross for the sins of the entire world!

Remember: “For whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” — The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn 370

[Scripture quotations are from the Revised Common Version of the Bible.]

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:1-6

As we confess in the Apostles Creed, there is only one body of Christ, one Church — the communion of saints — made up of all who trust in Christ Jesus as Savior. And, there is only one Savior, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all who dwells in the hearts of His children by the Spirit.

It is the Spirit of God, working mightily through the Word of God and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, who brings us to faith in Christ Jesus and keeps us in that faith. He brings us into the family of God and unites us with Christ our Savior. Thus, when we have faith in Christ Jesus and are baptized in His name, we are united to Him and are one with all other true believers in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:26ff.; Eph. 2:11ff.).

We do not create this unity; the Spirit does, through the Word. Such unity does not occur through church mergers and outward cooperation; it occurs where the Spirit brings people to faith in Christ and keeps them in that faith through Word and Sacrament. So then, this oneness, this unity, is of the Spirit’s working, for He brings us to faith in Christ and keeps us trusting in our Savior.

It is as Luther says in his explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith: in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers, and will at the last day raise up me and all the dead, and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.”

The way, then, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is to continue in the faith created in us by the mighty working of the Holy Spirit through the Word. If we are one with Christ Jesus and members of His body, the Church, we will also be united to all other true believers of all time (cf. 1 John 1:3ff.).

And, we endeavor to live in this Spirit-created unity by continuing in the Word and holding fast to the truth (cf. Matt. 28:18ff.; Eph. 5:22ff.; 2 Tim. 3:14ff). We are long-suffering, enduring one another’s sins and shortcomings with all patience, forgiving our fellow believers as Christ has forgiven us (cf. Eph. 4:32; Gal. 6:1f.).

We consider and remember that Christ is our Redeemer and that He has brought each and every one of us to faith. Therefore, we encourage each other to continue in that unity by encouraging each other to continue in the Word and hold fast to Christ Jesus, our Head.

O gracious Father, thank You for bringing us into Your family and Church through faith in Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for giving us unity with all other true believers. Grant that we continue in that unity in Christ, and move us to dwell within it in patience, with longsuffering and forgiveness, and in the bond of peace with our brethren. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so that iniquity is not your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore, turn, and live.” Ezekiel 18:30-32 (Read Ezekiel 18)

Ezekiel was a priest and a prophet, sent by God during the years of the exile to call upon God’s people to repent of their wicked ways and look to God for mercy at a time when the judgment of God was falling upon His people for their turning aside from true worship and service to God into idolatry and disobedience to God’s Word. Ezekiel warned of and illustrated the judgment of God which was coming upon the people for their evil doings — a judgment they would not escape unless they repented and returned to the Lord God!

So also, in chapter 18 of Ezekiel, he warns a people who considered God unfair in His judgments, saying they were suffering for the sins of their fathers and not for their own rebelliousness and sin. They accused God of injustice rather than acknowledging their own wickedness and sin.

Ezekiel’s message? “The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:20). The father who rebels against the Lord and lives in disobedience and sin will die for his sin. So also the son. But those who repent of their wicked ways, whether father or son, will be pardoned and live!

And these words certainly apply to us today. Every one of us will be judged by God according to our ways. If we turn aside from the Lord God and His Word, we will die in our sins and be judged by God. Even if we have lived good Christian lives all our days but then turn aside and live in sin and disobedience, we will die in our sins. All the good we have done will be forgotten!

If, on the other hand, we see the error of our ways and the sin and disobedience in our lives and repent and turn to the Lord God for mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus — trusting in God’s promise of pardon and forgiveness for the sake of Christ and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross for the sins of the world — all our sins will be forgiven of God and we will be counted righteous and holy in God’s eyes for Jesus’ sake. And, if we truly repent, we will, as a fruit of faith, also seek to amend our lives and live for Christ and in accord with His Word.

Again, God calls out to us, warning us that God will judge each of us according to our ways and there will be no escaping His judgment.

But God also tells us: “‘Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so that iniquity is not your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘Therefore, turn, and live.’”

God does not desire to condemn us to eternal death and suffering in hell. Rather, He desires that we repent of our sinful and rebellious ways and look to Him for mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all! God grant that we heed His voice!

You are holy and just, O God. I have sinned and gone astray. Forgive my sins for Jesus’ sake and move me to walk in Your ways. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the Revised Common Version of the Bible.]