"By Grace I'm Saved!"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Has Scripture ever falsehood taught?
No! Then this word must true remain:
By grace you too will life obtain (LSB 566.1).

By grace you have been saved, freely and boundlessly. It is by grace alone that you are a child of God, an heir of the kingdom of heaven. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Believe this, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are saved, apart from any boasting or merit of your own.

Believe this, because it is the central truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have been justified – declared not guilty – by grace through faith for Christ's sake alone. This is the Gospel message. You are no longer under condemnation, no longer under the sentence of death, no longer in slavery to sin and the devil. All this has come about not by your own reason or strength, but because God loved you in this manner, that He sent His Son to bear your sins and be your savior.

This is also the central theme of the Reformation. The reason this passage is the Epistle lesson for Reformation is because this is where Martin Luther stumbled upon the pure, comforting words of the Gospel message in his search for comfort and hope for his poor, miserable, sinful soul. So, as we celebrate this Feast of the Reformation, we go back to basics. We go back to the heart of Christianity, to our heart and our starting place.

This message is what theologians call “the article upon which the Church stands or falls.” There really is no other word more important, more central to the Christian faith than this. You have heard of the Reformation-era slogans: sola gratia, sola fide, sola Scriptura. Well, these all are the tools by which you arrive at the most important part: solus Christus. Christ alone gives salvation by grace alone through faith alone, as proclaimed by the Holy Scriptures alone. There is no other way; take out one of the links in that chain, and the whole thing collapses.

So why do you stagger at this truth? Why does the world stumble when it comes across this Gospel message? You stagger because of the magnitude of the message, because your sinful mind and heart cannot wrap themselves around it and contain it in your neat little system of thinking and living without God.

Are you a sinner? St. Paul says you are. The Law of God accuses all people of the sin which lurks in your hearts, which you have inherited from Adam and to which you yourself have added since. But the world, the devil, and your sinful nature want you to answer no. You do not have sin, only some failings and foibles. Maybe it is a problem with your genetics, or your upbringing. At worst, it is really only a matter of correcting some defects by living a good life and thinking positive.

What does God say about you, though? According to the standard of God's Law, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is not one man on earth who is righteous, not even a little bit. You have sinned. You have failed to live up to the standard of the Law. You are not perfect. You are not even capable of perfection, not through your own efforts. God's Law says “You shall have no other gods” but you have feared, loved, and trusted above all things in something else. The Law says “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” but you have horded your time, talent, and treasure while your brother is taken to prison, starves, and freezes. Sin is more than just a few failings and frailties. Sin leads to death. Eternal death.

Can you fix it? The world, if it wants to admit the problem, says yes – you can repair yourself, or you can find another man to fix your situation for you. If you just find the right program, the right set of principles, the right prayers to say or charity to relieve you of your money, then you offset the bad things you have done and balance the scales in your favor. Just think positively and tell death to buzz off.

But what does God say? “For by works of the law no human being will be justified.” By the works of the Law you cannot earn heaven, because you cannot do the works of the Law. Since you cannot do the works of the Law, you cannot stand blameless and holy before the holy and righteous Judge of heaven and earth. And since you cannot stand blameless, you cannot be justified. Despite what the world says, you cannot fix your own problems. No human being can. There is no one righteous, no one holy, no one without sin. If you want a reckoning of accounts, your bottom line comes out deep in the red.

This word must remain true. What God declares in His Word stands forever. And what He says, by the mouth of St. Paul, is this:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

You have sinned. You have fallen short, and continue each and every day to fall short of the glory of God. And you are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus, who offered Himself up as the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for your sins and the sins of all humanity. All this you have received by faith alone, without any merit or worthiness in you.

You have received the all-availing sacrifice of Jesus' blood on your behalf. His righteousness is credited to you, because He Himself lives within you. You live in the benefits of the New Testament, because the New Testament lives in you. For you have received the New Testament in the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the center and source of your life. His life is presented to you from this altar, placed on your tongue and poured through your lips. The forgiveness of sins, which brings with it life and salvation, has been accomplished, and is now delivered to you, not as payment on a debt but as a free gift to you, to be received by faith.

You cannot fulfill the Law or satisfy its demands. The perfection of the Torah, the instruction of God, is beyond your reach. But Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Torah for you. He has fulfilled the Torah because He Himself is the Torah. Jesus Christ is the eternal Gospel which the angel flies overhead proclaiming. Jesus is the whole message of Scripture. The story of salvation is the story of mankind. That story is told here, for you. Jesus is here, for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. That story is your story, because salvation is yours. Christ Jesus is yours, because you are His.

Christ alone gives salvation by grace alone through faith alone, as proclaimed by the Holy Scriptures alone. You can never get past the basics of the Christian faith. For the same basic truth has been the foundation of the holy Christian Church for all time: Jesus Christ justifies sinners freely by His grace. By grace you are saved, grace free and boundless!

By grace to timid hearts that tremble,

In tribulation's furnace tried,

By grace, in spite of fear and trouble,

The Father's heart is open wide.

Where could I help and strength secure

If grace were not my anchor sure? (LSB 566.5).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.