What does God think of me?
Romans 3:19-28
October 29, 2023 anno Domini
“What does God think of me?” That was the question which plagued the members of Martin Luther’s congregation 500 years ago. It plagued Luther as well. It was the question by which they judged their lives and the church’s answer gave them no comfort.
What question do you ask to judge your life? I’m going to speculate that it isn’t “What does God think of me?” but rather, “What do I think of me?” Am I pleased with my life or tired of it? Do I love my family or am I dreading Thanksgiving? Am I a success or a failure? Am I looking forward with hope or wallowing in despair?
The evidence indicates we are an unhappy and unsatisfied lot. Our technology has left us increasingly isolated from one another. Since the Government locked us down for COVID suicides, drug abuse, and mental illness are up. Our nation is angry and divided. What do you do when you don’t like you? or life? or the world? If you don’t like your job, what do you do? Complain about your boss, co-workers, the direction of the company. If you don’t like your marriage, you call your wife your ex-wife. If you don’t like yourself, you change your self-identification. My name is Bruce, and my pronouns are. If I struggle as a pastor who gets the blame? You do. And if things aren’t going well in a congregation who is the easiest target? The pastor.
Do you know what all of that is? It’s called justification. You might not be justifying yourself before God, you’re justifying yourself before you. You want your life to be right, worthwhile, respected and rewarding. You want to see yourself in that way and, truth be told, you want others to see you that way. Justification is what sparked the Reformation.
But here’s the problem – Luther knew it, the German people knew it, and Paul knew it when he wrote his letter to the Roman. Your words cannot make it so. You can shout at the top of your lungs. You can complain about all those people making your miserable. Tear everyone to pieces with your tongue, but you will still be you. By your word you cannot make life or the world right.
There is only One whose Word makes life right. The good news is that He does this for you at absolutely no cost to you. The bad news is that it might not be the change you want because it is you He changes – not your wife, your work, your boss, your enemy, but you.
The text begins, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” (Romans 3:19, ESV)
There’s two starting points for justification in those verses – the first is “stop your mouth” from talking about you. If you cannot even please yourself you certainly cannot please the perfect and holy God. You can self-identify as living, but you are dying. You can think you’re good, but God’s Word reveals you as evil and sinful. Be quiet. Stop talking about you. Life isn’t right because humans are sinful and take this personally – that means you.
The second truth is that you are accountable to God for your sin. That’s a financial word but you don’t need to be an accountant to understand it. God has given you everything. Everything with your name on it comes from His storehouse in heaven. You’ve got skills to earn a good living – that’s God. You’re married – your husband or wife is from God. Children? God’s. Retirement savings? God’s. Food in the cupboard – that’s not from Coborn’s. They just deliver it. God provides food for all. What have you done with God’s gifts? with your body? to your neighbor? at your work? with his children in your care? As we learned in last Sunday’s Gospel, we haven’t been good tenants in the Vinyard. You know what you owe God. The wages of sin is death. You deserve His eternal anger. That’s the Law. That’s what accountable means.
There’s no defense. You have no assets to pay the debt. You’re guilty as charged. Then Paul uses that little word, “but.” That little word should give you great hope. The Highway Patrolman says, “You should get a ticket, but…” Your dad says, “I wasn’t going to buy you a car, but…” Saint Paul write, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, …. the righteousness of God through faith in Christ for all who believe.” Your mouth needs to be silent, so you can hear God speaking and speak He does. Your Word has no power to make your world right, but God’s Word does what it says, “Let there be light” and there was light. “Lazarus, come out” and the dead man came out alive.
This is how God justifies you. He spoke His only-begotten Son into the flesh of Jesus. This Jesus, true God and true man does everything right, always. He cleans his plate, eats his broccoli, picks up his room, does his memory work and obeys his mom and dad always. He loves politicians and prostitutes and even pastors, the poor and the powerful. He was born sinless and never sinned. His account before God was righteous.
Then the Father spoke His righteous Son onto the cross. This is the other side of making us right. Jesus who had no sin became sin for us. Paul says it like this, “God put [Jesus Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Jesus on the cross is the person and place where your sin is forgiven. His perfect blood, the blood of God, is the price pad for your sin. Here we come back to accounting. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting your sins against you. (2 Cor 5:19). God has set your account in order. Your sins are debited to Jesus. His life and death is credited to you when you are baptized, when you believe.
This is so because God said so and He did so. He spoke Jesus into the world and onto the cross and He pours that justification onto your head in Baptism, into your ears through His Word, and into your body with His Supper.
This is the answer to what others think (or don’t think) about you and what you think of yourself. Stop the introspection (I know that’s hard – I could get a doctorate in navel-gazing.) Stop looking at yourself, talking about yourself and listening to yourself. You are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You don’t need to live for the approval of the world or even your own approval. You have God’s favor. That changes everything. You’re not dying but living. Your time isn’t running out to get what you want. God has given you everything you need and there’s more to come. No pleasure on earth will satisfy, but God is pleased with you. You don’t need to blame others to gain favor. Christ took your blame because God favors you. You are all right. God says so and He did so, for you, as a gift. In the name of Jesus. Amen.