Romans 3:21-24 “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Each year Chapman University publishes a survey of America’s greatest fears. Any idea what more Americans fear than anything else? Almost two out of three of us are afraid of corrupt government officials. Other fears in the top ten include running out of money, terrorism, identity theft, and healthcare. Most of the remaining 70 fears involve things like natural or manmade disasters, crimes, or personal phobias. You might be surprised to learn that one out of ten of your fellow citizens is afraid of zombies. (And yes, these are adults who take the poll).

When we celebrate the Reformation, it is worth mentioning one fear that is notable by its absence. No one seems to mention fear of God’s judgment. If people are afraid of what will happen when life is over and they face God, they aren’t saying so. This was the fear that haunted Martin Luther’s early life, that drove his search for peace, and eventually led to his discovery in the Bible that we can face God’s judgment with confidence.

Luther’s solution for the problem of God’s judgment still needs to be discovered today. It is not by keeping his laws. God gave us his law to be our accuser. He gave us his law to make us conscious of our sins. He gave us his law to tell us, “My friend, you are a damned sinner, and you are going to hell.” I’m sorry, but there is not a nicer way to put that. God’s law can only make us guilty. And I am just as guilty as you are.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

Righteousness is not something we do. It is something we receive through faith. In the Bible such a faith is not a strongly held opinion about whether or not something exists. There are those who claim there never was a Jesus of Nazareth. He was just a legend like King Arthur, or Robin Hood, or Paul Bunyan.

They say this in spite of the fact that First and Second Century rabbis didn’t deny his existence. They criticized his teachings and questioned heritage. Second Century Roman writers like Tacitus and Pliny don’t question his existence. They complain about the ideas he has inspired in his followers. If his strongest enemies didn’t question his existence, why should we?

We have every reason to believe there was a Jesus, then, but this is not the faith through which we receive the righteousness from God. Bible faith, saving faith, is essentially trust. If Jesus speaks, we know it must be so. His ideas, his words count for more than all our own opinions, even the things we have seen with our own eyes.

Such trust does not receive God’s righteousness because he is rewarding us for making the right choice. It is not some small, inner, moral act that makes him happy and leads him to respond by giving us something. “Good job, guys! You get Jesus right. Here, let me take away your sins and give you heaven for doing so.”

That would put righteousness back on us. Because righteousness comes from God, faith can only receive God’s gifts. How does God justify us? He does it “freely.” There is no charge to us at all. There is no “if” involved, “if you do this for me,” or “if you make this sacrifice.”  It’s not, “You can have this one free if you buy three more at regular price.” There is no, “This is free if you sign up for our premium plan.” Free means free.

How does God justify us? He does so “by his grace.” God gives us a righteous, sin-free status as the working out of his love for us, love that we have not earned or deserved. The Lord looked at sinful me and said, “You know, I have decided I like you. I am going to treasure you and treat you as though you have never committed any sins at all, just because that’s what I want to do.”

The one thing in the world that is truly, absolutely free, then, is the one thing that is more important than anything else there is: to be regarded as holy and sinless by God himself, loved by him as his very own, and promised a place with him in heaven forever and ever. We don’t have to fear God’s judgment, because righteousness is a gift he gives through faith.

Matthew 9:3-7 “At this some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, ‘This fellow is blaspheming!’ Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ‘Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’… Then he said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, take your mat, and go home.’ And the man got up and went home.”

Jesus’ question is an interesting one, isn’t it. Which thing is easier to say? Forgiving sins may seem easier to say, but harder to do. Only God can forgive sins, and those he has chosen to speak for him. But can anyone challenge the statement? Sins don’t wash out like a visible stain. If I say, “Your sins are forgiven,” how is anyone going to prove it one way or another? You can’t see that they are gone.

On the other hand, it may seem harder to say, “You are healed. Get up and walk.” Healing or forgiving both take miraculous power. But the healing you can see. The person is either better or they are not. If you are going to say something like that, you better be sure you can do what you are saying, because everyone is going to know.

Jesus intended to use the second to prove the first. Have you ever wondered why Jesus did so many miracles during his ministry? Certainly, he did them because he loved people and he wanted to show them mercy.

But especially in John’s gospel, Jesus’ miracles are called “signs.” They weren’t just acts of power. They weren’t just acts of mercy. They were messages, indicators, communications from God about the real identity of the man who so easily bent and broke the laws of nature.

Miracles play a special role in our faith, then. Professor Peter Kreeft has made the observation that you can take the claims of miracles out of all the other world religions and you are left with essentially the same faith. But all the essential features of Christianity involve something miraculous: the virgin birth of Jesus, and God becoming a man; the atoning value of Jesus’ death on the cross; Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead; his ascension into heaven, to mention some of the highlights. All of these tell us that Jesus was more than a prophet, no ordinary man.

And in the healing of this paralyzed man, a miracle is more than just a fascinating act of power or demonstration of God’s love. It is a message proclaiming: “This is no ordinary man. This is your Savior. He has the power to forgive your sins and heal your soul.” The miracle was important, because it proved the power of Jesus’ words. But it still takes second place, because the needs of the body aren’t as urgent as the needs of the soul, the forgiveness of our sins.

This is still true. God may use his church to feed a hungry family or reconcile a hostile relationship or strengthen a struggling marriage. But we are still a collection of broken souls with one great need: the forgiveness of our sins.

Matthew 9:2 “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

What do you hope to find when you come to church on Sunday morning? Maybe some of you come hoping to pick up helpful tidbits on how to manage your out-of-control life. Maybe you come hoping to find a little inspiration, something to pick you up after a week of office politics, and whiney kids, and home repair projects gone sour.

Maybe you come for the people– your church has become your personal answer to the longing described in the theme song for the TV series Cheers: “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came, you want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same; You want to be where everybody knows your name.”

 And you can find some of all of that, I hope. But that is not where Sunday worship begins. Week after week, after singing an opening hymn, Lutherans start in the same place. We confess our sins, and the pastor, speaking for our Savior, forgives them. This is how it goes week after week, 52 Sundays per year. We start with forgiveness, and then we look to our Lord for the other things he has to offer.

Jesus did it the same way with the paralyzed man they brought to him. Before he did anything else, he forgave his sins. In doing so, he was teaching us something about our spiritual priorities, or rather, his spiritual priorities. By forgiving sins, he is seeing to our deepest personal needs.

Jesus calls this man “son,” literally “child” in the Greek. Maybe something inside of us rebels at being referred to that way. “Child” can make us feel incompetent, dependent, and needy. “Child” makes us feel like we can’t take care of ourselves.

But that is just how we need to feel. Spiritually, that is what we are like. Then we are ready to receive what God is giving. I have often thought that 4 years old is about the perfect age to be. So little is expected and so much is received. When I was 4 my parents took care of everything. They paid the bills, put the food on the table, put the Band-Aids on my owies, and tucked me into bed at night. They watched me to make sure that I was safe, carried me when I was tired, and held me when I was scared. I was the object of their affection, the center of their concern. Being 4 years old wasn’t too bad.

Children of God, you are the objects of his affection and the center of his concern. As children in his family, you can be sure that he is there to take care of everything. Do you know why you can be so sure? Because he forgives all your sins. This is where he starts with you. This same Jesus has taken every one of them with him to the cross. No sin stands between you anymore. You enjoy your Savior’s unchanging and unlimited love. No matter how many hurts and heartaches lay you flat on your back, you can be sure he loves you .

Matthew 22:39 “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

God’s commandments direct our love away from ourselves. With this commandment the Lord is establishing a priority of God first, others second, ourselves after that.

“But doesn’t this command say we are to love them as we love ourselves?” Some might object. “Doesn’t that put us on the same level as others?” Maybe Whitney Houston had something there when her hit song claimed, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

But no, Jesus is clear about the order: Love God first, love your neighbor second. He doesn’t say we are to hate or neglect ourselves. But “as you love yourself” is a description of how we love our neighbor. It’s shorthand for “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It is not another way to think about the priorities God has established.

So Jesus is also showing us that the law of love is generally a call away from ourselves. He calls us to be less concerned with ourselves so that we can live a life of serving others. There is a subtle temptation to take interest in commandment keeping because we expect blessing for ourselves if we do so. Paul even points out that the fourth commandment, “Honor your father and mother,” has a promise attached to it: “That it may go well with you and that you may live long on the earth.” In other words, do what your parents say, and you will have a better life. You might even live longer.

We could create a list of blessings that line up with each of the commandments God has given. Live life God’s way, and there are specific problems you can avoid. Specific blessings wait for you. Even our government’s laws work that way. Perhaps you have seen this sign in construction zones: “Don’t hit our workers, avoid 10,000 dollar fine.”

Popular preaching often approaches God’s law like this. Do what God says, and your family will work better, you will get along better with your friends, your body will be healthier, your career will take off, and your life will be blessed.

It’s not that this is entirely false. God designed the world so that when we do what he says good things happen. But if that is our main reason for doing what he says, doesn’t that reinforce our selfishness in a subtle way? If all we care about is finding blessing for ourselves, we aren’t really loving God or our neighbor. We are only loving ourselves. That is nothing like the love that passes the test.

Because we struggle to love our neighbor so, we need the one who loved his neighbor more than he loved himself, who sacrificed his life to spare ours. We need Jesus to pay for our sins and set us free from them. If these commandments help us see our need for a Savior, they have done us a far greater service than distinguishing right from wrong. They have made us ready to meet Love himself. They have made it possible to see how great God’s love for us must be.

Matthew 22:35-38 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’”

Popular atheists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris insist that people can be good without God. You don’t have to believe in God to be moral. If by “good” and “moral” they mean “live as decent citizens and good neighbors,” we don’t have to argue with them. Not every atheist is a criminal, not even most of them.

But if God exists (and we know he does), you aren’t being good by denying the existence of the One who gave you your life and everything else. Would I be a good child if I denied the existence of the mother who gave me birth, or the father who provided for me all the years I was growing up? Everything we are and have starts with God. Everything good and right starts with him as well.

That doesn’t mean it is enough to acknowledge he exists, or to give him a few moments of our time now and then. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus says. He underscores the idea that God is our first and ultimate concern. Beginning with our heart, the center of all our desires and affections; spreading to the soul, the source of our life and self-consciousness; and including the mind, our entire thinking and reasoning, God wants our love for him to permeate our entire selves. There is no part we get to hold back for ourselves or someone else.

Jesus is actually quoting Moses’ farewell speech in Deuteronomy. In it Moses gives a few practical examples of how this works. Such love for God is the first thing we want to impress upon our children. It is infinitely more important than getting them into a good school, taking them to music lessons, or involving them in sports.

When we get up in the morning, or when we go to bed at night, this is what we should be thinking about, so this is what we should be talking about. The same goes for when we are hanging out at home, or when we are traveling someplace else.

Because we love God so much we wouldn’t think of holding a private opinion that contradicts his. Instead, we might paste his words in front of our eyes to keep our thoughts in line. We might tie them on our hands so that we can’t use them without thinking of him. We might even decorate our homes with reminders of what he says.

How are we doing, by Jesus’ standards? Do we love him above all? Be honest. We can go hours, even days, hardly conscious he exists.

Whose “word” means the most to us–some politician, a friend, a so-called “expert in the field,” our own? Be honest. Do we want what he wants, no matter what we have to sacrifice, no matter what the cost? Or do we keep a reserve cellar in our heart’s basement filled with vintage vices? We may not be enjoying them at the moment, but we have no intention of dumping them out, either. Be honest.

This may be the greatest commandment in the law, but that doesn’t mean we come anywhere near keeping it. Failure to admit we fall short only compounds our failure. We are like sin addicts living in denial. We resist treatment. We fear the demands of recovery.

That is why Jesus was sitting there on that day. His love, and his love alone, passes the test. He was just three days away from the cross when he answered this question. He was in Jerusalem not so much to show us how to distinguish right from wrong, as he was to rescue us from the wrongs we have committed. He came to make us right with God.

Jesus’ dying love forgives our sins and removes our guilt. We may not love God above all, but he has loved us as though we were first and dearest to him. We have no greater reason to love him.

1 Peter 5:8 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.”

Do you see the strength of the promise God gives? There are no conditions attached. There are no words that allow him to wiggle out of this. He doesn’t say he might do this, or he could do this. He says he will.

The Christians to whom Peter wrote lived under persecution. They were slandered by their neighbors. They were considered unpatriotic, un-Roman, because they didn’t offer sacrifices to the emperor or the traditional gods. Their leaders were imprisoned, beaten, and sometimes even killed. We face one set of worries when living in a society in which it seems the criminals are out to get you. It is more discomforting when the government is worse. These people suffered.

We don’t face persecution on the same level as those early Christians. Perhaps some of us look at our lives and don’t see much trouble. We are comfortable, healthy, and optimistic.

But many have the feeling we are living in the worst times ever. We see America’s moral fabric unraveling. We see our country polarized, our economy teetering, wars around the world that threaten to pull us into the conflict.

At some time or other, we all suffer through a personal crisis. Health or money or family problems make us lose sleep at night. They haunt our thoughts during the day. We find it hard to imagine anyone has suffered more trouble than we have.

Jesus warned that only through much trouble would we enter the Kingdom of God. Peter reminds us a few verses later that “brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

But the Lord never asks us to deal with this all by ourselves. He promises a future in which he has restored us. He will take care of the work of putting things in their proper place in our lives. Through it all, he will support us so that our faith remains strong, firm, and steadfast. It’s a future he promises.

Is there a clue about how he intends to do this when Peter tells us he has “called you to his eternal glory in Christ”? That eternal glory already belongs to each one of us by faith, though we don’t full enjoy it in this life.

Death, on the other hand, may seem like one more of life’s troubles to suffer. Perhaps someone suffering chronic pain or terminally ill can see it as a deliverance from trouble. We may struggle see it that way when we are still strong and healthy.

But we who know how Jesus rose and promised return remember that death is God’s final deliverance. It is the only way to the eternal glory to which we have been called in Christ. There is no fuller restoration than the one we will find on the other side of the grave. There is nowhere we can be stronger, firmer, or more steadfast than our home with him in heaven.

So we take our suffering in stride, and we trust God’s grace to make his promise sure, and our future glorious.

Psalm 22:22-25 “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. 23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. 25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.”

Our heavenly Father does not need our words or praise to know how wonderful he is. Talk show host Phil Donahue was right when he said, “Somewhere along the way I concluded that God is not an egomaniac who constantly needs to be adored.” He was wrong to use this as an excuse not to worship.

Our Lord is delighted to hear our words of praise. It is a natural part of any relationship. We praise our children for their successes, our friends, spouses, or coworkers for a job well-done. If we truly come to know who God is and what he has done for us, praise will simply flow. We won’t be able to help ourselves. Failure to praise is a tacit admission that we don’t believe God has done anything worthy of praise.

After all that Jesus had suffered on the cross, that was not his position. These words of Psalm 22 are Messianic. They express the thoughts and experiences of Jesus on the cross by way of prophecy. All that God was accomplishing by this sacrifice produced in him this response of praise.

The inspiration for such praise becomes clearer in his retelling of God’s goodness. “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him…”

Does someone’s suffering ever make you turn away? Why? Sometimes it’s too hard to look. We have seen what happened, and we can almost feel the pain. Twice I have seen pro football players get hit in part of the leg that should not bend, but the bone gave way as though there were a joint there. It made me wince. I didn’t want to watch the reruns.

Sometimes we look away because we don’t want to sympathize. We don’t feel sorry for the one who suffers. Make eye-contact, and we will have to acknowledge that they are human and worthy of at least some pity. Maybe we were angry with them. We believe they deserve what they are getting.

Didn’t Jesus’ heavenly Father look away from his suffering? Didn’t he despise him, hide his face in those agonizing moments when Jesus called out, “Why have you forsaken me?” How the Father could forsake his own Son is something we cannot understand. But why he did so is less difficult to see. The sight of the crucified Jesus writhing in the horrors of hell would be difficult for anyone to watch. But the countless sins of mankind he carried to the cross filled God with the holy anger that made him turn away.

How, then, could Jesus say, “…he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him…”? Though for a little while the Father had to turn his face away, he had not forgotten his Son. At the end Jesus found his Father’s approval. “The reason my Father loves me,” Jesus had said, “is that I lay my life down.”

And so, he must tell us of God’s goodness, too. He “listened to his cry for help.” The Father heard Jesus’ plea to receive his spirit, to let him die and put an end to the work of paying for our sin. At last he found his relief!  He did not let his body see decay, but kept it safe in the earth for the day of Jesus’ resurrection. At last he found the reward and recognition that were rightfully his! The Father did not desert him. He delivered him.

We are the ones who stand to gain. The Father may be pleased to receive such praise, but he doesn’t need it. Jesus himself is not changed by these words. But when Messiah prays to his Father, who did not desert him, this is a blessing for God’s people. “From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.”

If Jesus was smeared in the filth of all our sins, if he suffered all that they deserved, if the Father even abandoned him to hell so that justice could be served; if after all that Father did not desert him, but heard his cry for help, delivered him from his anguish, received his soul into heaven, raised him from the dead and glorified his body, do we have reason to fear for ourselves? There is nothing left of sin, punishment, death, or hell. There is only a smiling Father who does not desert his children but listens to their cries for help. There is only blessing for God’s people, who hear their Messiah praise his Father.

Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.”

Hate is a strong word. It is a dangerous attitude when directed in the wrong directions: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” It’s okay when directed at the things God hates. “Hate what is evil; hold onto what is good.”

In this case the writer hates the very things he had worked so hard to get. That might be easy to understand if there were something defective about them. Anyone who has ever sunk money into a car that was a lemon knows how fast the initial glow of owning the vehicle you had set your heart on can give way to anger, frustration, and even hate. The same goes for other gadgets and devices and possessions that don’t work right.

The author of Ecclesiastes, however, makes no complaints about the defective spokes on his chariot wheels that the chariot dealership can’t seem to get right. He isn’t griping about the new oil lamp that is costing him a mint because it burns through the oil too fast. Why does he hate them?

“Because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.” He has come to understand the truth that there is no U-Haul behind the hearse. Ancient Pharaohs may have been buried with their royal treasures, even food for the next life. When I visited Norway, I learned that Vikings were buried in their ships with their weapons. You may be buried in your best dress or favorite suit. But all these things must still be left behind. The same goes for all the things that don’t make it into the tomb. No matter how expensive, how useful, or how enjoyable they are, we don’t get to keep the things we worked so hard to get forever.

Worse yet, we can’t even depend on them to give us a lasting legacy when we are gone. “Because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.” Some people look for their “immortality” in the legacy they leave behind. Maybe it’s a family fortune big enough to provide for generations that follow. Maybe it’s a business, a company, or even a charity that can keep the family name alive. If I can’t take it with me, maybe I can live on through my life’s work. I can be somebody, a person of significance, even after I die.

But who knows whether the person who takes over our legacy will have the wisdom to know what to do with it? Names like DuPont, Rockefeller, Ford, Disney, have survived for generations now. But whoever talks about Rob Barnaby? As recently as 1985, his WordStar software was the most popular word processing software in the world. His name should be remembered with Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Today, no one uses his work. Many young adults have never even heard of it. Many other products and companies have suffered similar fates. How many family fortunes haven’t been drunk, snorted, injected, or partied down to nothing?

If we have poured ourselves into work as though we could enjoy the things it brings us forever; if we have counted on it to keep our name and fame alive after we are gone, then God needs to show us its true meaning. Hard work is a good thing, but it is not the meaning of all life. When we let it climb too high on our priority lists, it can even hurt us. It may damage families, who suffer from neglect.

Worse yet, the person who hopes his work will satisfy the longings suggested by these verses is looking for it to provide something only God can: a source of enjoyment that never ends, a sense of significance even after we die. That turns work and wealth into false gods.

The biblical writer is inviting us to despair so that we can discover true satisfaction in the work that Christ has done. His saving work endures forever. His life and death offer real and lasting peace. His redemption gives our lives genuine value. His resurrection provides hope beyond the grave. His call and claim on us lead to a different kind of legacy measured by faith, and love, and gospel witness. This can bless us and the people with whom we share it for eternal ages to come.

Labor for God’s glory and your neighbor’s salvation. These will retain their value, and make your work meaningful.

Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

            Imagine the challenge of the charge Paul has just given us. Take a group in which each person is naturally inclined to look out for himself. Every member is sinful by birth, and therefore intrinsically selfish. Because they are all individuals, not little robots rolling off an assembly line, each person comes with his own set of ideas, his own tastes and preferences, his own way of doing things.

            Now remember that your task is impossibly bigger than the cute bumper sticker telling religious people we are supposed to “coexist.” It is not enough if we simply tolerate fellow believers–more or less grit our teeth and put up with them. It would be a miracle of Biblical proportions if we merely managed to love the other members of this spiritual family, but the call is bigger still. “Keep the unity.” Become and remain as one. Live and work together as though you were a single body.

            This is harder than herding cats. Only one force in all the Universe can bring real unity and keep it with a fallen race like ourselves: “…keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” God made peace between us and him through the gospel that forgives our sins. Instead of sin driving us away, forgiveness draws us close. Instead of judgment, God made peace, the peace he proclaimed from one end of Jesus’ ministry to another. It was peace the angels sang to the shepherds the first Christmas Eve. “Peace” was Jesus’ first word to his disciples on the first Easter evening. Peace is what people find with God when God has forgiven our sins.

            So God has connected our forgiveness of each other to his own. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” we pray. Forgiving those who trespass against us creates the bond of peace and keeps the unity of the Spirit. Forgiven people forgive each other–that’s just how Christianity works. That preserves the unity. That is how Christians can maintain peace with each other.

            “We are all Americans,” a Facebook post once complained about the divisions in our country. “Let’s start acting like it.” “You are a leader,” a Forbes magazine article once reminded the business men and women who read it. “Start acting like it.” We are Christians, sinners God has forgiven and made his very own children by faith. Start acting like it, by living in unity and peace.