Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 7

7 January 2020

Text: Romans 1:1-17

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul writes to the Church at Rome, the eternal city, the capital of the empire – the center of the known world.  He is taking the battle for the Christian faith right to the enemy – to the seat of Caesar himself.  And it is the apostle’s earnest desire and intention to come to Rome to minister to the saints there.

St. Paul wishes to “reap some harvest” among the Roman Christians, as well as “the rest of the Gentiles” that he is evangelizing.  He wishes to “preach the gospel” to the Romans, as the Lord has called him to do, and as this letter is preparing them for this preaching.

The Book of Romans is indeed a beautiful presentation of the Gospel in its fullness, beginning with the law and the painful reality that we do not keep it, that we cannot save ourselves, and that apart from Christ, we are doomed.  But of course, along with the Law comes the Gospel, the good news that our Lord has indeed come to rescue us by means of His blood, by grace and through faith. 

The very first theological statement that St. Paul makes in this letter sums up the entire Christian faith, that the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  Salvation’s power, dear friends, lies not in our own righteousness, our own struggle to achieve holiness, or even in the Law.  It has nothing to do with our ethnicity or station in life.  Salvation’s power is in the Gospel, the good news that Christ has come to redeem us poor, miserable sinners.  Paul’s letter to the Romans is not only a systematic theological treatise, it is a joyful epistle that celebrates the Lord’s victory over sin, death, and the devil, and proclaims this Good News unabashedly, even as the apostle has said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.”

And his next sentence put Dr. Luther into the trajectory of rethinking the Gospel, even as we Lutherans are known as “Evangelicals” in Germany, meaning, we are the confessors of the Gospel!  For Luther contemplated Paul’s assertion that “The righteous shall live by faith.”  And that one powerful verse from the Word of God and the pen of St. Paul changed Luther’s life, and the lives of millions who were liberated by the Gospel.

Let us savor the Word of God, dear friends, for in the Word, we receive the gift of everlasting life, through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.