St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 4 – June 13^th and 16^th, 2002

Dear children of God,

Let's start this morning with a question. If you would die right now, would you go to heaven? God willing we would all answer with a loud and bold, Yes! But you don't think I was going to let you off that easy, DO YOU? Why do you think you are going to heaven? This question gets us thinking doesn't it? We come to church and we hear God's Word and we study God's Word and we know God's Word, but how do we answer the question that I asked about why you are going to heaven? The answer to this question is a very important one. If we don't know this answer our hope is weakened drastically. In this answer lies the whole picture of what God has done for us. In this answer we find total confidence and comfort. The answer to why we know that we will go to heaven is found in the fact that God has sent his Son who lived and died for the sins of the world to justify us. Because of Jesus’ death, God has declared the world "not guilty" of its sins. The fact is accomplished! It is finished and it is done perfectly! This we know from God's Word, and this we believe by the faith worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This morning we will follow the path that God has given to us as we look at our home in heaven. We will study this path as we use the theme:

This section of Romans is considered to be the section that takes the teaching of our Justification and shows us all the blessings we have from this completed fact. In the verses before us it tells us that we now have hope, peace and joy. Our text continues this thought and expands it further to show us all the more what God has done for us. The first verse of our text tells us the first part that we encountered on our journey to heaven. Paul writes, "You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." And later on Paul writes, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There are some words that jump out at us in these verses from Paul. There are three that we will look at now. First the word "powerless." What do we think of when we think of something that is powerless? We think of that 90-pound weakling on the beach. We think of something that has no power. We think of a car that has a dead battery or is out of gas. We think of something that cannot move no matter what it tries. About a month ago, a group of elementary age students went for a class trip. They went canoeing on a lake. The all got in their canoes and began to paddle, but they were not going in the direction they were paddling. Someone in charge forgot to check the weather and they were paddling against winds that were gusting up to 40 mph. Needless to say they were powerless and ended up stranded out in the lake and needed to be rescued by people who had boats with motors on them.

That is much like the picture that Paul had in mind, as he tells us that Christ died for us when we were powerless. There is no arguing this fact. We were born into this world powerless. We were stuck or out of gas or had dead spiritual battery. We were powerless because of the sin we inherited from our parents from the time we were conceived. We were powerless to do anything to please God. We were powerless to accomplish anything that would be pleasing to God. Isn't this a funny way to describe our sinfulness? Satan would have us and all people believe that if we follow him and our sinfulness, we will be powerful and will be able to do all we want. Isn't that quite the opposite of what God shows us here? Sin doesn't make us powerful. It only makes us think we are powerful.

But Paul doesn't stop there. He wants to really kick the sand in our faces and make us see our sinfulness. He wants to make sure there is no mistake about our sinfulness. He goes on to call us the "ungodly" and "sinners." Yes, we were powerless because of our sin. Yes, we could not do anything because we were made powerless because of our sinfulness. Some would argue this point and say that this is not our fault, and for this reason God would not hold this against us. But this is not true. It is 100% wrong. It is our fault and we were ungodly. Because of our sin we were sinners and were considered ungodly. We were despicable in God's eyes. We were living in the state of sin. We stood before God as weak, ungodly and sinful human beings.

Paul takes it to the extreme of writing, "For if when we were God's enemies." The word enemy is not usually a good term to be called. We don't like to be called an enemy. It means that were fighting against someone or something. And Paul tells us that our sinfulness, ungodliness and weakness make us an enemy of God. This means when we were sinners we did every thing in our power to defeat God and his ways. We weren't trying to be his friend. We were not trying to build God up. We were not trying to follow his ways. We instead were bent on destroying God and his teachings. We were on Satan's side fighting against God. We certainly didn't do anything to deserve his love and mercy.

2. "Justified" by Christ’s death

This brings us to part two in our life as Christians. God didn't overlook our sins. God instead felt sorry for us and our sins. God didn't condone what we were doing in our sinfulness, but God loved us enough to send a Savior to take away our sins. God didn't end the words of our text with the fact that we were powerless, ungodly, sinners and enemies of God. He goes right on to next point of Christ's death for us. Just think of the love that was involved as Christ did this for us and all people. Paul puts this picture of love to an earthly test. Would you die for someone else? Would you give up your life for the life of someone else? Paul tells us that rarely would this happen, maybe in an extreme case for a very good person. But we know that is exactly what Christ did for mankind. We know that his love is beyond the comprehension of our minds. John in his epistle tells us what true love is, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." God demonstrated for us what true love is. He has shown us that his love was there for us even though our love was no where to be found. What a love this is! This is love that cannot be measured by us as sinners. This is a love that will never be surpassed by anyone on this earth.

Paul goes on to use a picture to describe what Christ gave us. Before we said that we were enemies of God. But Christ came and "reconciled" us to God. Paul writes, "For if we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of Christ." To reconcile means, "to put to an end hostility towards someone else". If you are angry with your brother or sister, you reconcile your problems between each other. If you have an enemy, you reconcile your differences to become friends. We were enemies of God, and God had every right to destroy us in his wrath. But Christ came and bridged the gap between us and our Heavenly Father. He saved us from the wrath that we deserved because of our sins -- a wrath that is real and is powerful. We are no longer God's enemy but we are his friends through faith. Our relationship with God is now changed from that of enemies to that of friends. Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Colossians 1:21-22, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies...but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation." Paul uses the extreme to make his point. If God would love us enough to send his Son to die for our sins while we were sinners and enemies, then how much more we can be certain that God's wrath will not come on us. There is certainty in these words. These words are pointing to the blood of Christ and the sacrifice he made for our sins.

This brings us to a key point in the text. We haven't really answered the question of why we are certain that when we die we will go to heaven. Justification is the key word. Jesus came and died for all people. He did not just die for sinners or just for believers. He came for all people which includes us. This is a fact that has happened in the past, namely on the cross at Calvary. But the effects of Christ's death are still here with us living thousands of years after Christ's death. The fact is accomplished that Jesus died for our sins. And that fact that Jesus has died is the key to all our hope. All the benefits of Christ's death are brought to us as believers through faith and faith alone. Just think about! The hardest part is already done. Jesus came and died for the sins of the while world. Now the easy part has come that promises us that we will on the Last Day be with God in heaven. We don't have to look to heaven for our hope. We need to look back to the past to what Christ has already done for us. The more firmly we are rooted in the fact that we are justified, the closer we are to heaven.

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that our justification or Jesus' death is the first step and the final goal is heaven. Yes, heaven is our goal, but heaven is already ours right now through faith. There are not steps. Heaven is already ours and we don't have to wait. It is in our hearts through faith in Christ’s death. We don't have to wait to the end to think of heaven. The account is already settled and heaven is ours, and our justification is the guarantee that it is waiting for us. Our hope is definite. We don't have to have any apprehensions, instead we can rejoice in what Christ has given us in his infinite love and mercy. And the only way that we can rejoice is if we look back at what Christ has already done. We can trust 100% that heaven is ours and that all has been accomplished for us.

Will you go to heaven if you die today? Through faith in the fact that Jesus has died to take away all your sins, you can answer I will go to heaven when I die. Let this wonderful hope rest firmly in us through faith in Christ's death and resurrection. Let the Holy Spirit continue to guide us to remember God’s justification. Keeping in mind that the more firmly we are rooted in the fact of our total forgiveness. The more we are assured of heaven and the more we are eager to live for Christ in all that we say and do. Yes, we are not perfect in this love. We still have doubts and we still forget at times to look fully to God’s justification, but through it all we have the assurance that Christ has died for all these sins, and the many sin we will commit the rest of our time on this earth. Thanks be to God for this and thanks to Christ for coming to save us as lost, condemned sinners who were enemies of you our Savior. How can we ever thank God enough? The answer is that we can never thank him enough. All we can do is to thank him in everything we do and say. Let our lives be one big thanks to him for sending his Son to die for all our sins. Amen