Sermon for October 7th, 2018 - Revision history

Iraneal at 02:19, 6 October 2018

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Iraneal at 00:35, 6 October 2018

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Iraneal at 00:01, 6 October 2018

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Iraneal at 23:48, 5 October 2018

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Iraneal at 22:53, 5 October 2018

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Iraneal: Created page with "==Romans 3:21-31== 21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through fa..."

2018-10-05T21:16:41Z

Created page with "==Romans 3:21-31== 21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through fa..."

New page

==Romans 3:21-31==
21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

==Sola Fide==

How does God save us? The classic reformed answer is "by grace, through faith." Grace is what happens in God, and Faith is what happens in us.

Works, however, are not a cause of forgiveness but a result of forgiveness. Faith alone justifies but faith is never alone. It is followed by works.

"Works are necessary for salvation but they do not cause salvation; for faith alone gives life." --Luther

Pope Benedict XVI summarized the Catholic position as "...Luther's phrase: "faith alone" is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. ... St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (cf. Gal 5: 14).

"Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Chapter XI. Of Justification—Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)

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 But belief is not the same thing as faith.  In fact, there's a word in Latin for belief--it's "credo" (where we get the words creed and credibility).  The Reformers did not articulate a doctrine of "Sola Credo."  No.  It was "Sola Fide."
-So what is Fide?  What is faith, if not belief?
+So what is Fide?  What is faith, if not belief?  To get at that, we need to go even further back in time.  Paul, in verse 26 of today's scripture passage (and in many other places in his writings) speaks of "faith in Jesus."  Which we usually translate in our minds to "belief in Jesus."  But in Greek, that's only two words: πίστεως Ἰησοῦ.  Both words are in the genetive case--they could be translated as "faith in Jesus" but the more common way to translate the genetive case would be "faith of Jesus."  And that opens up a whole different range of meaning.  The faith OF Jesus can mean Jesus' faith, or faith like that of Jesus.
-chesed = loving kindness, goodness, faithfulness
+But as 21st century Americans, many of us have spent that last two weeks arguing (or listening to others argue) about whether or not we should "believe her" or "believe him."  What if that's the wrong question altogether?  What if instead we are called to love and be kind, regardless of belief?
-Pope Benedict XVI summarized the Catholic position as "...Luther's phrase: "faith alone" is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. ... St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (cf. Gal 5: 14).
+Yes, we've been pretty slow in embracing that, and often we take one step forward and two steps back.
-"Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Chapter XI. Of Justification—Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)
+But just ten years ago, Pope Benedict XVI said this: “Luther’s phrase ‘faith alone’ is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St. Paul speaks of faith that works through love.”

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 Sola Fide and Sola Gratia are attempts to answer the question, "How does God save us?"  I'll talk more about grace (Sola Gratia) next week, but in a nutshell, Grace is something that happens in God, while Faith is something that happens in us.  So when the Reformers said "Sola Fide" or "Faith alone" what they meant is that salvation comes from faith alone, and not from anything else, like working really hard, paying money to the church, going on a crusade to the holy lands, obeying all the rules and laws, all those things that Paul called "Works."
-It's important to know that the Reformers still believed that many of these things were good things to do--they wanted people to work hard, give money to the poor and to support their churches, and to do their best to follow just laws and rules.
+It's important to know that the Reformers still believed that many of these things were necessary--they wanted people to work hard, give money to the poor and to support their churches, and to do their best to follow just laws and rules.  Martin Luther famously wrote that "Works are necessary for salvation but they do not cause salvation; for faith alone gives life."
-chesed = loving kindness, goodness, faithfulness
+But belief is not the same thing as faith.  In fact, there's a word in Latin for belief--it's "credo" (where we get the words creed and credibility).  The Reformers did not articulate a doctrine of "Sola Credo."  No.  It was "Sola Fide."
-Works, however, are not a cause of forgiveness but a result of forgiveness. Faith alone justifies but faith is never alone. It is followed by works.
+So what is Fide?  What is faith, if not belief?
 Pope Benedict XVI summarized the Catholic position as "...Luther's phrase: "faith alone" is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. ... St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (cf. Gal 5: 14).
 "Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Chapter XI. Of Justification—Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:01, 6 October 2018
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	Religion is also an effective tool for controlling human behavior, so it wasn't too long before those comforting words began to have strings attached. The medieval church in Europe taught that in order to guarantee your spot in this blissful afterlife, you had to behave in certain ways, contribute to certain causes, support certain religious leaders, and in general DO a growing list of things--not just for yourself, but also for your loved ones and ancestors who were already dead, waiting in limbo because they hadn't done quite enough, because YOU hadn't done quite enough to tip the scales in their favor in God's eyes.		Religion is also an effective tool for controlling human behavior, so it wasn't too long before those comforting words began to have strings attached. The medieval church in Europe taught that in order to guarantee your spot in this blissful afterlife, you had to behave in certain ways, contribute to certain causes, support certain religious leaders, and in general DO a growing list of things--not just for yourself, but also for your loved ones and ancestors who were already dead, waiting in limbo because they hadn't done quite enough, because YOU hadn't done quite enough to tip the scales in their favor in God's eyes.

−	Incidentally, there is actually plenty of support for this idea in the Bible (and in most world religions). Fortunately, there is just as much support in the Bible arguing against it. And that's what the early leaders of the 16th Reformation did -- men like Martin Luther and John Calvin delved into the scriptures, and found as their champion the Apostle Paul~~, who~~ wrote in passages like today's from Romans 3 that redemption in Christ (which ~~they~~ and everyone else in 16th century Europe equated with getting into heaven) was not dependent on anything a person might DO (Paul called ~~this~~ works) but instead had everything to do with faith and grace.	+	Incidentally, there is actually plenty of support for this idea in the Bible (and in most world religions). Fortunately, there is just as much support in the Bible arguing against it. And that's exactly what the early leaders of the 16th Reformation did -- men like Martin Luther and John Calvin delved into the scriptures, and found as their champion the Apostle Paul.
		+
		+	Paul wrote, in passages like today's from Romans 3, that redemption in Christ (which Luther, Calvin and everyone else in 16th century Europe equated with getting into heaven) was not dependent on anything a person might DO (Paul called these "works") but instead had everything to do with faith and grace--God's free gifts to humanity through Jesus Christ.
		+
		+	Sola Fide and Sola Gratia are attempts to answer the question, "How does God save us?" I'll talk more about grace (Sola Gratia) next week, but in a nutshell, Grace is something that happens in God, while Faith is something that happens in us. So when the Reformers said "Sola Fide" or "Faith alone" what they meant is that salvation comes from faith alone, and not from anything else, like working really hard, paying money to the church, going on a crusade to the holy lands, obeying all the rules and laws, all those things that Paul called "Works."
		+
		+	It's important to know that the Reformers still believed that many of these things were good things to do--they wanted people to work hard, give money to the poor and to support their churches, and to do their best to follow just laws and rules.
		+

−	~~How does God save us? The classic reformed answer is "by grace, through faith." Grace is what happens in God, and Faith is what happens in us.~~

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 ==Sola Fide==
 Long ago, somewhere out west in a little frontier church, an energetic young preacher ended his sermon with an enthusiastic plea: "Raise your hand if you have believe!  Raise your hand if you have faith!  Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven!"
 To his great joy, every hand in the room instantly went up in the air, and he marveled at their great faith.  Every hand, that is, except one--there was a grizzled old cowboy at the back of the room, who now stood up and said, "Preacher, that was too easy.  How do you know if these folks truly have faith?  I guarantee I can prove to you that they don't."
-Confident of his flock, the preacher said, "Go ahead, stranger, put their faith to the test.  Ask them anything you want." At this, the cowboy pulled his twin six shooters out of their holsters, turned to the congregation and said, "Raise your hand if you believe!  Raise your hand if you have faith!  Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven...today!"
+Confident of his flock, the preacher said, "Go ahead, stranger, put their faith to the test.  Ask them anything you want." At this, the cowboy turned to the congregation and said, "Raise your hand if you believe!  Raise your hand if you have faith!"  Then pulling his two six-gun revolvers out of their holsters, he said, "Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven...today!"
 How does God save us?  The classic reformed answer is "by grace, through faith."  Grace is what happens in God, and Faith is what happens in us.