God of Grace: By Faith Alone

Sunday, June 27, 2021
Pastor Mark Aune

Romans 1:16-17

Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace. Amen

Can you imagine what it would be like to be a person trying desperately to devote your life to God.

A person who set everything in life aside just to please God.

A person who believed that by sheer will power he or she could live a life worthy of God’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance so that God would love, forgive, and accept him or her?

And imagine if this person went to the extremes in his or her behavior and despite everything he or she did, still did not feel like it was enough, not feeling that God would accept, forgive and love.

The person I am describing to you is named Martin Luther.

And the person I am describing to you this morning might be you.

Luther was in spiritual and emotional anguish. Always feeling like he could or should do more to merit God’s grace in his life. But it was never enough.

Then the light bulb went on for him when he read Romans 1:16-17 and he heard the promise of the gospel again, but really for the first time.

He heard it with a new set of ears, and he was transformed and liberated by the power of that promise. The one who is righteous will live by faith.

The one who is in a right relationship with God will live by faith.

• That is, it.
• Nothing else.
• It is that simple and it is that hard.

For those of us who want to be in control, it is that simple and that hard.

For those of us who think we can earn God’s love and salvation, it is that simple and that hard.

For those of us who want to set conditions and expectations and place a burden of others, it is that simple and that hard.

• The one who is righteous will live by faith.
• This is the God I know, the God of grace.

The explosion of this promise blew up Luther’s life and understanding of how God treats sinners, and it blew up the church of Luther’s time as well.

Paul says it beautifully. Like a good writer, he states the theme right at the beginning.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

I was ashamed of the gospel at certain points in my life. I remember when I made the decision to go to seminary, I was worried about what my friends would think. I had this illusion of what I thought a pastor had to be like, live like, and act. How silly was that, but it was real.

Fortunately, I grew to understand that God just wants us to be ourselves, with all our gifts and all our flaws and blind spots.

To live by faith is simple and it is hard. If I were to sum up 35 years of preaching, some of it good, some of it pretty good, and some of it average, living in a right relationship with God by faith and because of faith would sum it up nicely.

One could even say you have been hearing the same sermon from me for 32 years because it is that important.

When Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, he means power. The Greek word he uses is the root word for dynamite.

• Explosive power.
• Power to change our lives.
• Power to change the world.
• Power to live by.
• Holy power.
• Power that creates ripples in our lives and through our lives and the church that spread all across the world.

When life is frightening and uncertain, the righteous live by faith.

When the way forward is dark and the questions outweigh the answers, the righteous live by faith.

When God seems absent and life is cruel and capricious, the righteous live by faith.

When our neighbor is in need and we hear the call of the Holy Spirit to respond and we do, we are living by faith.

When we show up and do the right thing as men and women, as husbands and wives, as moms and dads, as children and young adults, as people who are called to work and labor, no matter what it is, we are living by faith.

When we bury our loved ones and cry our tears, when we baptize our children and let them go into adulthood and marriage and life on their own, we are living by faith.

When our eyes and our hearts are opened and convicted to see the inequities in our world, be they racial, economic, or social and we are moved to action, we are living by faith.

When we practice generosity, extend hospitality to the stranger and love kindness, we are living by faith.

When we know, deep in our hearts, that we are loved by God and forgiven because of Jesus, we are living by faith.

And when we go forward in life, one step at a time, recognizing the gifts of love and the people God brings into your life who surround you and accept you and love you with the very presence of God, you are living by faith.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of God.

That gospel is the good news of Jesus, his death and resurrection.

This is the power Paul proclaims.

The power, the dynamite of God by which salvation comes.

It is this power and this power alone that puts us into a right relationship with God.

It liberates us from sin, death and the power of the devil..

It moves us into a future that is ever and always in God’s loving hands and heart.

This is my dear Augustana, what it means to live by faith.

Without fear, with total trust, and with the confidence that we are never alone.

Living by faith because of the God of grace.

This is the church’s proclamation.

This is the Word that sets us free to love God and serve our neighbor.

It is that simple and it is that hard.

And for that gift and hope as say thanks be to God. Amen