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It does seem a bit unfair, putting me in the same category as Hitler, Stalin, or some of our more recent bad boys such as Osama bin Laden and his cronies. It does seem unfair to equate my own few failings with the level of their crimes against humanity. It is unfair to say that my sins can in any way be compared to theirs. They are evil and I am just a simple, frail human being, hardly worthy of being lumped with them into the same category. Yet, it is the apostle Paul, a man who knew a few things about sins and failings, about murder and mayhem, who states the obvious to us when he says "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (vv. 22b-23). All have sinned. Can you believe it? All have sinned. You, me, everyone! Yet we who live in the old Adam of our flesh, we who live in denial, willing to point out the log in the eye of another without being willing to see the log in our own eye, we are the ones who are so reluctant to admit our sinfulness. We confess our sins at the start of our service. We admit that we are, by nature, sinful and unclean. We pause to confess our sins and ask for God's forgiveness. And it may even be that we have said we are willing to recognize and accept the fullness of our sinful, human life. Deep in our hearts, we are always reluctant to accept the fullness of our sin. Deep in our being, we refuse to accept the reality of our existence. Deep in our hearts, we just think that sometimes we have messed up a little and we can fix that!

But that is not what Paul preaches to us on this Reformation Sunday. That is not the central message of the gospel as taught by Martin and the Reformers. That is not what we, as inheritors of the Reformation tradition, should be embracing. There is a culture out in the world today that does not want to talk about sin. It wants to downplay sin and say that really it is only the human faults and failings which we have inherited from our families, our friends, and even our bosses. So don't worry about it. Just get yourself to a good therapist or a friend who is willing to listen. Talk it out and make the changes in your life that you need to, then everything will be okay. If you just make the effort, you can turn things around in your life and make it all better. And if you believe that you have offended God in some way, just say you're sorry and everything will be fine. So, says our world, don't compare me to those other sinners, those lost souls who have committed great evil. I'm willing to admit that I have my frailties and perhaps even my faults, but there is a difference between them and me.

There is no distinction, says Paul, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is the recognition and acceptance of our sinful state that is at the heart of the good news that we hear today. We have sinned. We are in bondage to sin, as the confession tells us, and we cannot free ourselves. We are sinners and nothing we do of our own merit or action can save us. We did not just mess up, make a mistake, or do something silly. We are bound in sin and in that sinful nature our relationship with God is severed and we cannot, of ourselves, make it right. For those who live in the darkness of this world, this seems to be bad news. To those who live without hope in Christ, this seems as though there is no hope. We are sinful, lost, and alone.

But now, as blessed Martin puts it in our great battle hymn:

But now a champion comes to fight,
Whom God himself elected.
You ask who this may be?
The Lord of hosts is he!
Christ Jesus mighty Lord,
God's only Son adored.
He holds the field victorious.1

Into the midst of our seemingly lost cause comes Jesus to make the broken relationship with God right again. "For while we were yet sinners," as Saint Paul tells us, God chooses to save us through the unmerited grace poured out upon us in the death and resurrection of his only Son, Jesus the Christ. Listen again to the words of Paul this morning: "They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith" (vv. 24-25). You are justified, says Saint Paul, that is you are made right with God, purely by grace through faith.

Why would God do this for us? What had we done to merit it or deserve it? Very simply, nothing! We were not able to do anything. We cannot do anything now. And we will not be able to do anything. By ourselves we are incapable of saving ourselves, of making the relationship right with God, of healing and making whole that which was broken. Rather, God does these things out of his own righteousness, his mercy, his grace, and his love. In that grace and love, God chooses to overlook the undeniable reality of the bondage of our sin and from the sins we have committed. In his divine patience, God chooses to put aside the corruptness of our human nature and to restore us again to the fullness of his grace. Through the blood of the sacrificial Lamb that has been poured out for us on the cross of Calvary, we have been redeemed, set free, restored, and made whole. It is our faith in Jesus alone that brings this new life and restores us to the fullness of life with God. Yet even this faith of ours is not something we do but rather it is that which we receive as a free gift from the Holy Spirit.

I cannot boast and say that my life is better than that of another. I cannot claim that I am somewhat less sinful than this or that person, no matter how evil they appear to be. I cannot say that I have led a better life, that I have overcome my faults and failings or that I have pulled myself up by my own bootstraps and made myself a better person. No matter what I do, how often I do it, or how much I try, I simply cannot do that which God has done for me in Christ Jesus our Lord. I cannot save myself. I cannot make the broken relationship with God whole again through my actions alone. I cannot by my own merits redeem that which was lost.

But all that does not matter. "For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law" (v. 28). It is Reformation Sunday and so once again we come to celebrate this good news -- that we are made righteousness before God by grace through faith. From the rooftops and across the land, in the churches and in the fields, the reformers proclaimed that indeed we are sinners, corrupt, and broken. It is not our works that will save us, heal us, or make us whole. It is not our own doing, for indeed we cannot do anything to save ourselves. Instead, it is the work of God alone in Christ Jesus who has come to atone for our sin, to heal the breach, to make us one with him. We sing in praise and thanks to this God of mercy and grace. We sing as a people freed from sin by his Son. We sing as restored children of the Father, loved and beloved for all the ages to come. We sing, "A mighty fortress is our God, a sword and shield victorious. He breaks the cruel oppressor's rod and wins salvation glorious."2 Amen.


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1. "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," words by Martin Luther, 1529. In the public domain.

2. Ibid.