February 25, 2016

Justification by Grace through faith is the single most important theological concept in the Lutheran church. All things flow out of the Grace that comes through the cross of Jesus Christ.  We have Scriptural support for this important understanding:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8

“The doctrine of justification,” insisted Luther, “is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness.” Luther struggled with finding the G-d of love. Luther came to understand justification as being entirely the work of God. Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are done to earn the love of God, Luther asserted that Christians receive that righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ, it actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us (rather than infused into us) through faith. “That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law,” said Luther. “Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ”. Thus faith, for Luther, is a gift from God, and “. . . a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”

What is most important to understand about Grace and Faith is that they are both a gift – Grace a gift from Christ through the cross – Faith a gift through the Holy Spirit that comes to us through means including word and Sacrament. Our response is to do the works of Christ, not so that we earn G-d’s love, but because G-d loves us so much, this joy drives us to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Pastor Dave