Who can reserve for him- or herself proper justification to make judgements for justice? After a long discourse on law and judgement, both human and divine, St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 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. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-16 – ESV).
Christianity has been in a quandary since the resurrection of Christ. When sinful humanity crucified the Son of God according to its misinterpretation and misuse of the law, even divine law, it demonstrated its fatally flawed understanding of judgement and justice. Nonetheless, God revealed his judgement against humanity by demonstrating his righteousness. How? Apart from the law! How? By putting Christ Jesus forward as a propitiation for sin (place of sacrifice and atonement) by his blood! How? To be received by faith alone!
In other words, God has reserved judgement for himself, and such judgement is not exercised according to human expectations or standards. By faith alone, God declares sinners to be righteous. What kind of judgement is that? It is God’s judgement. What kind of justice is that? It is God’s justice.
Well, what about all those sinners who are sinning in a world full of sin? Does not such “justice” also effectively mean that God is declared powerless and thus useless, especially against human sin? Has not the notion that God justifies sinners apart from the law led sinful human beings to believe that they paradoxically can and should employ the law to justify their own godlessness and ungodliness? If that is the case, what should we make of human sin?
For better or worse, those are not quite the right questions. The perhaps more correctly posed question is: What does our human sin make of us? Quite simply, it makes hypocritical judges of us unable to differentiate between good and evil according to the law, even divine law. Knowledge and realization of this disability comes, likewise, not through the law but only through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, apart from the gospel, sinful human beings legalize each other to death. From whom, however, does humanity receive the gospel?
Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses Against Indulgences on All Hallows’ Eve (31 October 1517) was a bold attempt to communicate to the church and to the world that our human sin is too deep and too vast for humanity to handle alone. Our human sin and its deleterious effects cannot be addressed or redressed by human efforts, either by the law or exemptions from it, and certainly not by contrivances like papal indulgences. Furthermore, our own reliance upon our own efforts leads only and inextricably to our own self-righteousness which is the antithesis of the godly life. Thus, Luther began his 95 Theses by stating, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
The judgement and justice of our world and of ourselves cannot save us from our sin nor help us in anyway in our relationship to God. By calling us to repent, Christ calls us to be turned away from our self-righteousness by being grasp solely by the word of his cross as vivified in the power of his resurrection. His voice comes thereby to us in law and in gospel through holy scripture, through Christian teaching, and through Christian preaching. With each new day, Christ calls us through the waters of Holy Baptism to die to our sinful selves and to be raised to newness of life. Christ then calls us to gather in Holy Communion where he puts himself forward by his promise as the forgiveness of sin for those who partake of his body and his blood.
In, with, and under the power of Christ’s word, God calls penitent sinners to belief and thereby to be saints, to be given an alien righteous from God alone as a gift of his grace. In that light, All Hallows’ Eve gives way every day to All Saints Day. So, how do we communicate this good news to the unbelieving world which surrounds us?
