Sermon: Wittenberg Academy - Jan 11

11 January 2022

Text: Rom 3:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul explains what it means to be a Jew in the New Covenant.  First of all, the Jews, as a nation, were chosen by God to be the Old Testament Church.  The promise was made to Abraham and his Seed – through his son Isaac, and through his son Jacob.  Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and the Israelites became a great nation, chosen by God to bring salvation to the world through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is both King of the Jews, and Lord of the Universe. 

As St. Paul, himself a Jew, points out, “the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God,” that is, the revelation and the preservation of the Holy Scriptures.  The fact that they are sinners who often violated the covenant does not “nullify the faithfulness of God.”  And in a strange kind of way, their acceptance by God in spite of their unfaithfulness is evidence of God’s grace and mercy, that is “the righteousness of God” which is a free gift.

And the same is true for us, dear friends.

But this is not to say that we should “do evil that good may come.”  This is a slander that people have said about the Church and the Gospel since the beginning.  It is to misunderstand and show contempt for God and His mercy to mankind, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek.

But at the same time, St. Paul dispels the notion that in the New Covenant, Jews are “better off” than Gentiles, as if their nationality were a shield that protects them from their need for forgiveness and grace through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  For as the Hebrew Scriptures themselves proclaim: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”

So all of us are in need of a Savior – a Savior who has come as the Seed of Abraham, as the descendant of Israel, as the Son of King David, as the Redeemer of the world: to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.  He saves us by means of His blood, which we receive in faith – no matter what our nationality or ancestry is.

Thanks be to God, now and even unto eternity!

Amen.

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