JC Disciples
Quid pro Quo
Jeremiah 31:31-34, Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36
Now we know whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
This Friday is designated as Reformation Day in our liturgical cycle. Reformation Day is a distinctly Lutheran holy day. While other denominations also follow the same cycles of scripture readings that we do, I am not aware of any other denomination that recognizes this particular celebration.
Perhaps the day remains a distinctly Lutheran festival because it was Martin Luther who set in motion the movement that eventually became known as the Protestant Reformation. Every year, on the week before All Saints' Day, we hear again how Luther nailed his 95 arguments, or theses, on the door of the Wittenburg castle church. In those days, that's how you opened a public debate. You would post your argument on the community bulletin board, the door of the church.
Luther was upset about the sale of indulgences. Today we think of an indulgence as a craving we satisfy or a desire we yield to, like chocolate when we're on a diet. These aren't the sort of indulgences that Luther was protesting.
In Luther's time, the Catholic church taught a doctrine of salvation which was a mixture of God's grace and human effort. God's grace would make it possible for a person to enter heaven, but the person needed to do his part to actually enter. If a person hadn't done enough good works to pay off her sins by the time of her death, she would go to purgatory for a time. Eventually, after serving the amount of time needed to pay his debt, the person would be allowed into heaven.
A few people, however, were good enough to bypass purgatory all together and go straight into heaven when they died. These people were designated as saints by the church. Saints, in fact, were so good that, not only were they good enough for heaven at their deaths, they also had extra good works left over. These extras were sort of like "brownie points" they'd earned but ended up not needing.
Now what became of these extra good works, these left over brownie points? Why, they were deposited in the church. Eventually, it occurred to church leadership that these extra good works could be loaned out -- or even sold off -- to benefit others who needed help in the good works department. The pope, as the direct successor to Simon Peter, had the authority to disburse the treasure of good works that had accumulated in the church.
So it was that by Luther's time the sale of indulgences was a booming business. People would pay money to buy certificates for deceased loved ones or even for themselves. These certificates promised the bearer a certain amount of time off of a sentence in purgatory. When purchased for the deceased, the indulgences would bring that person closer to heaven or, if the person had nearly finished her time in purgatory, into heaven. If purchased for one's self, an indulgence would come into effect at the time of death and reduce the amount of time one would spend in purgatory.
This whole concept sounds so silly to our modern ears, doesn't it? Buying a piece of paper can actually get you into heaven? What a laughable notion!
But let's think about this idea a little more. Is it really that much different from the deals we try to make with God?
"God, if you just make the lung cancer tests come back negative, I promise I will quit smoking the very day I hear the news."
"God, if you let me get this promotion, I promise I'll give ten percent of the raise to the church. Every time I get paid, I will write that check."
"God, if you heal my sick child, I promise I'll be in church every single Sunday for the rest of my life."
Sometimes we turn it around a bit:
"God, look at everything I've done for you. I've been going to church faithfully. I pray. I give my offerings. I've told others about you. Now will you please let me win the lottery?"
The words are different, but the relationship is still the same quid pro quo concept behind the sale of the indulgences in Luther's day. Quid pro quo -- that's a phrase that's still tossed about fairly often as if we all know what it means. The most literal translation of the Latin words is "what for what." In our present understanding, a more accurate translation would be "this for that." The basic idea is that of an exchange. I do something for you, and you, in turn, do something for me.
Much of life does work that way. We exchange money for the goods and services we need. The plumber fixes our pipes and we give the plumber money in exchange for his time. We do the work our employers give us to do and they in turn give us money.
It can seep into family life as a way of motivating good behavior. "If you eat all your dinner, I will let you have dessert." "If you are good while we're in the store, I will buy you a candy bar." With a more negative slant, we might say, "If you don't stop, I'll have to spank you."
Sometimes, this attitude can even effect our personal relationships. "I have done so much for you, you owe me..."
What Luther realized -- and we still forget -- is that God does not deal with us in that way. That's why we need Reformation Day each year to remember again how God's grace takes us way beyond this sort of quid pro quo relationship.
It was a long struggle for Luther as he came to grasp the true meaning of Paul's words in the book of Romans. Ever since becoming a monk, Luther had gone to incredible lengths to perfect his behavior so that he might be acceptable to God.
Then one day the light of grace broke through and Luther finally understood Paul's words. The purpose of God's law was not to show us how we could be perfect and righteous in God's sight. The purpose of the law was to show us how far we were from that standard. The law makes us aware of the presence of sin in our lives. No one can ever fully keep God's law and no one will ever be without sinful deeds in his or her life.
Since humans could never be righteous in God's sight by their own efforts, God opened a way to bestow God's own righteousness on human beings. Jesus Christ was that way. Fully God and fully human, Jesus was able to live in complete obedience to the law. By dying on the cross, Jesus suffered the punishment for sin for all of humanity throughout all the ages. This is grace. We neither earned nor deserved such consideration from God. Yet God was willing to do this for our sake.
Through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, God's grace is poured out on all people. There is nothing we have to do to earn it. The only action, if you can call it that, needed from us is faith. We need only trust that Jesus has covered the debt of all our sins. That's all. We don't need good works to merit God's grace; God has already graced us with forgiveness.
That being so, why are we here tonight? Why even try to live for one moment according to God's law? Since we're forgiven through no merit of our own, why bother?
In his commentary on Romans, Luther writes:
... While therefore they who are of the Law are arrogant and boastful, they who are of faith are humble and despise their own righteousness.
So throughout life God's believing, spiritual people pray with their hearts, their lips and their whole conduct that they might be justified by grace and kept in faith till the end. ...They finally pray that they may never regard any work of theirs as one by which they have obtained the righteousness of life. While their life remains burdened with sin, they are always seeking after the perfect righteousness of life which, so to speak, keeps waiting outside.
What Luther is saying is that, because we know that nothing we can do will ever make us righteous in God's sight, we live in humble dependence upon God. Only by God's grace, and never by our own efforts, will we be fit for the kingdom of heaven. So we pray -- not just with the words of our mouths, but with our very lives -- that God will keep us strong in faith to the end of our lives and that God, by grace, will continue to forgive our sins. Even though we continually sin, we keep striving for the perfect righteousness to which God calls us.
Why keep on with the struggle? How can we not? God has poured such great love out on us in Christ Jesus. God has forgiven us every single sin in our lives through that gracious love. We know we don't deserve it and God knows that, too. Having been loved so lavishly, how can we help but love in return? So we strive for righteousness not to earn God's favor, but to show the effects of God's favor on our lives.
The days of the quid pro quo relationship are over. We no longer give God good works in order to get God's gracious love. God has already been gracious to us. Our good works are a response to the love God has already shown, a response born, not out of sense of duty, but out of an incredible joy. May God's grace continue to be revealed in the living of our lives. Amen.