Romans 6,3-8 3822
6. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 52
Christina, Virgin, Martyr, beginning of the 3rd c.
24. Juli 2022
1. ℣ Yahweh is the Strength of His people:
℟ He is the saving Strength of His anointed. (Psalm 28,8).
O God, Holy and Righteous, let us speak joyfully: for we are baptized Christians, who in human infirmities yet are Your children. No earthly treasures compare to the heavenly treasure we possess, which has brought us salvation and makes us eternally blessed. Amen. (Lasset mich voll Freuden sprechen Erdmann Neumeister 1718 elkg 214,1 2021).
2. »Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.«
3. Jesus taught in The Beatitudes: »For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven« (Matthew 5,20). But how do we become more righteous than the very people who boast to Jesus that they have kept the law and have earned their righteousness? How can we out-pharisee the Pharisee? A: we cannot exceed the Pharisees’ righteousness, and that is the vey point Jesus wants us to realize. Jesus teaches that righteousness is not a thing to be earned under the law but a gift of grace that is given; righteousness is thus received by faith.
4. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Romans how this righteousness is given. Our Baptism gives us righteousness; our Baptism justifies us. Paul teaches that Holy Baptism connects us to Jesus, to His crucifixion and to His resurrection. Martin Luther said it this way: „God has placed the forgiveness of sins in the Holy Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper and in the Word. Yes, He has put it into the mouth of every Christian so that when they comfort you, and promise that you have God’s grace through the merits of Jesus Christ, then you should accept and believe it, as though Christ Himself, with His mouth, has promised it to you“ (Luther, St. L. XIII,2440). [1]
5. The Pharisees want to earn their righteousness under the law. Christ wants to give us His righteousness under the gospel. Paul succinctly points out the error of the Pharisees: since knowledge of sin comes through the law, no human being will be justified in God sight by works of the law (Romans 3,20). Paul argues that to attempt to justify oneself by the law is unbiblical. To follow the path of the Pharisees is to reject the promise God gave to Abraham and to misunderstand the intent of the Sinai covenant God made with Israel.
6. Paul proclaims: the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … the righteousness of God is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3,21-22). This righteousness is given to us in Holy Baptism, for in our Baptism God unites us with Jesus Christ. Luther teaches in his Small Catechism: Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the Devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.
7. The Law and the Prophets bear witness to this righteousness given to us by God (Romans 3,21». Moses tells us: »Abraham believed Yahweh, and He counted it to him as righteousness« (Genesis 16,6). Yahweh told Habakkuk: »the righteous shall live by his faith« (Habakkuk 2,4). Paul comments on this and then declares: »For the death Christ died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace« (Romans 6,10-11.14). »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. But if Christ is in you, then although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.« (Romans 8,1-4.10-11.16-17).
8. Paul brings everything back full circle to Abraham. Yahweh promised Abraham that He would redeem all the nations through his Offspring (Genesis 12,2). Abraham believed Yahweh, and He counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15,6). That Offspring of Abraham is Jesus Christ, and we have been united to Him in our Baptism. That makes us sons and daughters of Abraham; we are the heirs of Abraham’s inheritance. God the Father counts us as righteous because we believe in Jesus, and Jesus is the Cornerstone of our salvation and righteousness. These blessings are given to us in our Baptism.
9. The God of Abraham praise,
Whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my pilgrim days
In all my ways.
He deigns to call me friend;
He calls Himself my God
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesus’ blood (The God of Abraham Praise, Thomas Olivers, 1725-99 lsb 798,3)
This is most certainly true.
10. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
11. Let us pray. We give thanks to Thee, Almighty God, that Thou wilt refresh us again this day with Thy salutary gift of the Lord’s Supper; and we beseech Thy mercy to strengthen us through the same in faith toward Thee, and in fervent love among us all. Amen. (Martin Luther; AE 53,138)
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol.53. Ulrich S. Leupold, Ed. Copyright © 1965 Fortress Press.
Stratman, Paul C. Prayers for the Evangelical-Lutheran Heritage. Copyright © 2017.
[1] Luther, St. L. XIII,2440: „Gott hat Vergebung der Sünden in die heilige Taufe gesteckt, in das Abendmahl und in das Wort. Ja, er hat sie einem jeden Christenmenschen in den Mund gelegt, wenn er dich tröstet, dir Gottes Gnaden durch das Verdienst Jesu Christi zusagt, daß du es nicht anders annehmen und glauben sollt, denn so es Christus selbst mit seinem Munde dir hätte zugesagt.“
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