Accountable To God

​Reformation Sunday – 2024                                                                                  LSB #’s 656, 566:1-3 & 6, 744
Text – Romans 3:19
 
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, & the whole world may be held accountable to God.
 
ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD
 
 
“…let us first consider our unworthiness   & confess before God & one another that we have sinned   in thought, word & deed,   & that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition.”  (LSB p. 203)    That line from our confession of sin describes the foundation upon which any human being   begins in their relationship with the holy & the almighty Creator. 
We are completely helpless & without a leg to stand on.   If that strikes you as wrong, or troublesome, even depressing, then try to calm a hurricane by saying the words, “Be still!”  Try using your “Jedi” mind powers to lift a mountain out of the sea.  Try to live just one day without making a single mistake in anything you do.   You & I are broken & we cannot heal ourselves. 
For that reason, as Lutherans who take seriously all the Word of God, we begin worship services by confessing our sins.   We enter into God’s presence in humility, admitting the depths of our depravity.    Our unworthiness is total & complete, such that you & I have absolutely nothing of value to offer to the Creator of heaven & earth. 
Yet, in our culture as a whole, it seems that the sense of guilt & sin is lost.  There is little fear or trembling at the prospect of standing before the Almighty Lord.   Many people of our nation no longer seem to believe in anyone’s authority but their own.   It’s a delusional version of “might makes right” based upon the group, or the cause, you identify with. 
And it’s not simply the unbelievers, because the disease has clearly infected Christians as well.  Skipping God’s house altogether is no longer a problem in the minds of most people who say they love Jesus.   If you never make the effort to visit someone what does that reveal about your love for them?    Of course, how much you or I love Jesus is not the measure of salvation.   How much God loves us is the only measure, & the cross of Golgotha is the sign.   Given that incredible sacrifice of love, why do the majority of Christians blow off being in God’s house each week?  Why is it that so many believers feel no sense of accountability before Jesus? 
Martin Luther had a serious problem with the church of his day.  One way of looking at it is to recognize that the Church no longer saw itself as accountable to God.   The Church was essentially teaching people that they were accountable to the Pope, the Cardinals & Bishops.  In many respects, the Word of God had been set aside & replaced with the word of man. 
Obviously, that’s only one side of the story.   If Pope Leo X were here today, he could give us his version.    Whichever side you come down on, Luther’s objections did spark a wholesale revolution in the Christian Church.   He’s especially known for restoring the Good News that Jesus died & rose from the dead in your place   & in mine. 
The reason Luther was so determined to restore the Good News is that he found an utter lack of it in the sermons being preached among the common people.   He wrote the Small Catechism in response.  Here are some words from his preface:
“The deplorable, miserable condition  that I discovered recently when I, too, was a visitor, has forced & urged me to prepare this catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form.  …unfortunately, many pastors are completely unable & unqualified to teach.  …Yet, everyone says that they are Christians… even though they cannot even recite the Lord’s Prayer or the Creed or the Ten Commandments.   They live like dumb brutes & irrational hogs.”  (An Explanation of the Small Catechism, CPH, St. Louis, MO, 2017, p. 363) 
 
Dare I ask, “Can you recite the Creed or the Ten Commandments?”     I know, memory work isn’t as revered as it used to be.  It’s not the end all & be all of Christian faith, but knowing the basics of what you trust in is important.  
Any of us who follow sports know the basic rules of any game that we follow.  As a child, I collected baseball cards.   I remember being able to recite the statistics, listed on the back of those cards, for many of my favorite players.   I was into the game & my team.    Are you into Jesus?   How do you apply His teachings to your daily struggles if you don’t have a good command of the basic teachings of the faith? 
I’m not going out on a limb to say all of you are probably sick, right now, of all the election news & TV commercials.  Thank you, Lord, for the mute button on the TV remote.   So how does your faith in Jesus Christ help you to deal with those emotions?   How you feel does impact how you interact with other people.   How do you express or moderate those feelings? 
Take the Lord’s prayer: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Part of Martin Luther’s explanation says, “We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that [God] would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much & surely deserve nothing but punishment.” 
Do you pray for our nation?   Do you pray for honest & fair leaders?   Do you hope for peace, prosperity & justice in our land?   Do you wish the elections would just be over?   Why should God consider any of your thoughts & prayers?   Not a one of us earns His consideration. 
Take the 4th commandment: Honor your father & your mother.  Luther explained it this way, “We should fear & love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents & other authorities…”  I don’t have to finish his sentence for you to get the point.  I don’t know exactly what you’re thinking, but in my mind, “Lord, how on earth am I supposed to do that?” 
We haven’t even looked at the Creed, & not a one of us, Republican or Democrat, has a leg to stand on.  St. Paul explains it well, “Now we know that whatever the law says   it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, & the whole world may be held accountable to God.”  (Romans 3:19 ESV) 
You see, our problem is not politics.  It’s not evil or corrupt politicians.  Your problem &
mine is sin – our sin.    And when it comes to that, the only thing your mouth or mine should be doing is confessing it.   And by God’s grace He is not holding a gun to our head saying, “Confess your sins or die!”   That’s sort of what was going on in Luther’s day.   People then were constantly taught that they are accountable to God for their sins. 
What wasn’t happening then is the regular preaching of the Good News that in Jesus Christ all our sins have been washed away.  God’s plan of salvation has always had two parts, & He intends for them to be balanced against each other.  We don’t need to earn or pay for the forgiveness of our sins, yet, all of us are accountable to God. 
Throughout history followers of Jesus have struggled to keep the two main teachings of Christianity in balance.  There is the Law that teaches we are accountable to God, & there is the Good News that God’s Son has been held accountable in our place.  One teaching does not work without the other, & unbelievers don’t accept either one. 
Come Judgment Day, all people, politicians & murderers included, will be held accountable to God.   Since each of us is guilty of murder, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never run for office.  If you trust in Jesus as Lord & Savior, God will not see any of your sins.   If you do not trust in Jesus as Lord & Savior, every sin you’ve ever committed will be front & center. 
In Romans 3:23, where Paul writes, “…all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God,” he’s telling us the true reality of each human being since The Fall of Adam & Eve.  God does not excuse our sin, nor does He ignore it.  He certainly does not wink at it, as we often do.  He does not explain away our sin because of the way we were damaged in childhood. 
Instead, God the Father sent God the Son to bear the curse of all sins.  Those disgusting political ads & every time you have harbored hatred or bitterness – paid for by Jesus’ suffering & death on the cross.   If you admit & confess that you cannot free yourself from your sinful condition, & believe that Jesus has already set you free, you can thank the Reformation for bringing that balanced message back into the Church.  Satan is constantly working against it, & our own sinful nature constantly resists the balance of our Lord’s Good News. 
As discouraging as it can be, God has blessed you & me with the ability to vote for the sinners who govern us.  Sinners like us, forgiven if they believe it, rule over our lives.  God has even blessed us with the opportunity to run for office ourselves.  People who lived under Stalin & Hitler, people who live under Putin & Xi right now, have died trying to achieve our freedom. 
As Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, & the violent take it by force.”  (Matthew 11:12 ESV)    He’s not simply talking about dictatorships there.   Even in nations where the people are free sin runs rampant in our lives.  Satan is trying to take us, our friends & family, by force, into his kingdom. 
One of the ways he’s doing that is through the teaching of evolution, which says there is no God.  If there is no God then we are not accountable to Him, is how the deception works.  However, we should be careful when trying to answer question like this, “Why is it that so many believers today feel no sense of accountability before Jesus?” 
When we try to measure faith in that way, we’re leaning into the Law too far.    How much God loves us is the only measure that matters, & the cross of Golgotha is the sign.   Once we believe that, then, everything about our lives does change.  That isn’t always visible to the human eye, but it is visible to God. 
That’s why it’s important, when we quote Romans 3:23, “…all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God,” to be sure & remember Romans 3:24-25 as well: “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…”  (ESV)   The Holy Spirit worked through Martin Luther & the Reformation to restore & reconnect Law & Gospel.  He did so that sinners might once again find refuge from sin in the Church & in Jesus Christ.  Amen. 
 
 
 
By grace!  None dare lay claim to merit, our works & conduct have no worth.   God in His love sent our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth; His death did for our sins atone, & we are saved by grace alone.     By grace God’s Son, our only Savior, came down to earth to bear our sin.   Was it because of your own merit that Jesus died your soul to win?   No, it was grace, & grace alone, that brought Him from His heavenly throne.     By grace!   On this I’ll rest when dying;  in Jesus’ promise I rejoice;  for though I know my heart’s condition,  I also know my Savior’s voice.   My heart is glad, all grief has flown since I am saved by grace alone.  Amen.  LSB 566:2-3, 6.