Romans 19: Let's Not Forget Luther's Major Contribution

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS [19]

Analytical Commentary on Romans

LET'S NOT FORGET LUTHER'S MAJOR CONTRIBUTION!

The Audio MP3 of this lecture is available via this link: http://www.bripodcasts.com/Romans/Lecture19.MP3

Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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"Get on fire for God and men will come and watch you burn" - John Wesley

"Leadership is Influence: Nothing More, Nothing Less" - John C. Maxwell

THE CONTRIBUTION OF MARTIN LUTHER
October 31, 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic monk, Martin Luther, came to an enlightened knowledge of the Pauline article of "Justification by Faith" and in his newly discovered freedom in Christ nailed his "95 Theses" to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, October 31, 1517. This action (largely in a rejection of indulgences) launched the Protestant Reformation and changed the world forever. And, without the Protestant Reformation it is highly doubtful that the world would have ever rediscovered the Messianic Faith.

We Messianic Christians all know well enough that Martin Luther was an old rabid anti-Semite. Messianic rabbis and teachers remind us often enough of this fact. And, yes, he certainly was such an ignominious individual. A product of his times and culture, his personal hatred of Jews followed him through centuries until those same antagonistic views blossomed anew under the Nazi regime , where his thoughts found welcome European "intellectual" soil , which plunged the Jewish people through a horrific Shoah: a "calamity" foreshadowed by God even in the Torah as well as in the Prophets.

His contribution to Jewish history was in a word "horrendous." But having said that, his sincerity toward God is often overlooked or purposely ignored by Messianics with an agenda. That is, focus on the anti-Semitism of Luther and so take their "followers" eyes off the Grace of God in the principal act of Justification by Faith and concentrate attention on the necessity of observing the bondage of the Mosaic Law , and brethren it IS a form of bondage! While keeping the 613 regulations of the Sinai Torah has its advantages in a physical way (and I for one do not decry it as such; although the 613 are radically reduced when we take into account mitzvot associated with the rituals of the Temple) the Messianic Torah with its 1050 commandments (mitzvot) deal with the Spiritual Man and his character inwardly. [I am in the preparation stages of putting together those 1050 regulations in 800 categories with textual references, but please be patient as it is soon to be released.]

We ought also to add that Luther was not a lone voice in his opposition to the practice of priestly indulgences. While a Catholic priest known as Johann Tetzel quipped the refrain "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from Purgatory springs" the selling of indulgences was considered theologically dubious by many Catholics and finally Pope Pius V abolished the practice in 1567. Needless to say the practice survived in real terms even in this country (Australia) with pressure placed on certain Catholic families we knew who had lost loved ones and whose souls were deemed by the priest (I have a particular man in mind) to be released from Purgatory with payments collected weekly over a period of some years. Shocking and revolting but true!

LUTHER RESTORES A FORGOTTEN PAULINE ARTICLE OF FAITH
Susan Verstraete has written, "It was the moment [Luther] had been waiting for. His father was in the audience watching, as were his fellow monks. It was time for Martin to offer his first mass, and he was overwhelmed with the solemnity of the event. He led the congregation, saying, "We offer unto Thee, the living, the true, the eternal God." Suddenly Martin froze. He couldn't go on. He later wrote:

"At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, "With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up my mine eyes or raise my hands to the Divine Majesty? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and true God.'" This glimpse of truth about the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man changed Luther forever" (Susan Verstraete, By Faith Alone. The Conversion of Martin Luther, 2017., Christian Communicators Worldwide Inc.).

She adds, "He was already a monk, and spent his days in prayer and service. Still, as he looked at his life closely, he found sins in thought, word and deed. In the monastery, Luther spent up to six hours a day confessing his sins to a priest. But later, he would always remember sins he had forgotten to confess. Questions nagged at him. If only confessed sins were forgiven, what would happen if he forgot one? What about all the sins he might have committed in ignorance? Luther began to see that his sinful actions were like smallpox pustules , nasty, external manifestations of the internal, systemic disease of sin" (emphasis mine).

Six hours a day in the Confessional confessing his sins -- hours relating every sinful act and sinful degenerate thought and motive -- that is a definite reflection of a profoundly abysmal abiding disease of spiritual narcissism. At the very least it's a lot of deep-seated navel-gazing. If nothing else such a record reveals that Luther was a very troubled individual. Not only is this the case, it is said that when priests saw Luther coming to the Confessional they would bribe other priests to take their place to hear his confessions. And really, who would blame them?

Susan Verstraete continues, "He fasted for days and refused blankets at night, believing that he earned merit with God through self-imposed suffering. One day he would proudly say, "I have done nothing wrong today." But on reflection, he wondered if he had indeed fasted enough, prayed enough, suffered enough and served enough. During a visit to Rome, he climbed a staircase on his knees, saying a prayer on each step. The Catholic Church promised that this was a means of grace. But when he got to the top, he wondered aloud, "Who knows whether it is so?" Luther later described this time: "I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair, so that I wished I had never been created." He was in torment.

"Luther threw himself into study, hoping to distract himself by preparing a series of lectures on the Psalms and Romans. And there, in the Word, he found the answer" (end of quotation).

The answer Martin Luther sought was a solution to his own spiritual crisis of faith. How can a sinful man be right in the sight of a holy God? The thought of an eternal hell created a grovelling spiritual leper who had no place anywhere in God's love. Indeed, in Luther's own words: "I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, "The justice of God,¦ Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that "the just shall live by faith." Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace... GOD JUSTIFIES US THROUGH FAITH. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise" (Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, 1950, emphasis mine). With the penetration of a powerful statement in Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians Luther's heart was suddenly set free.

"For therein [in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written [in Habakkuk 2.4], The Just shall live by [his] faith" (Romans 1.17).

In a flash of conversion the holy Spirit emphasis on the finished Work of Christ alone swept aside Luther's doubts and sensual pursuit of rites, sacraments, penances, pilgrimages, vows, and papal expectations that failed utterly to spiritually satisfy the sincere hearts of a Catholic laity searching eagerly for a peace with God. Armed with Romans 1.17 with a hammer and a singular nail Martin Luther single-handed launched the Protestant Reformation.

"Between 1515 and 1519... [Martin Luther] found the peace of soul that he had not been able to find in rites, acts of asceticism, or in the famous German Theology of the mystics... A reading of Romans 1:17 convinced him that only faith in Christ could make one just before God... it was his study of the Bible that led him to trust in Christ alone for his salvation" (Earle E. Cairns, Christianity through the Centuries, 1996, 282).

There can be absolutely no question as to whether Almighty God used Martin Luther to restore the lost Pauline article of Justification by Faith. And, further, God used Martin Luther to actually add a word to Scripture for a qualification and a clarification: "Alone" , "Justification by Faith Alone" , for such is indeed the case for each and every one of us who name the Name of Christ as Our Lord and Saviour.

The fact of the transmogrification of Christ should make us all very confident in that our salvation is centered entirely in him. Christ IS our salvation! In the CRUCIFIXION event, as Yeshua became Reprobate Man, we and our sins have perished. In the RESURRECTION event we and our new Nature have also arisen. Christ as our future Man has become us and we are following where Yeshua leads us, as his disciples, into his Rest.

MOST HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
I have spoken with many men and women (including ex-Christians) over the past 4+ decades who have bemoaned "the Judgment Seat of Christ." I have witnessed the terror of some for that inevitable (and for them) frightening period and I have sat stunned at the belligerence of others who have scoffed at the way they may yet feel as they stand before the Lord of All Glory at His return.

The truth is that if we carry the Salvific Name of Christ within our hearts WE HAVE BEEN JUDGED ALREADY at the cross. Our carnal selves no longer exist as far as God the father is concerned. Our sins , and our PAST IDENTITY (as theologian Barth explains) , have been washed away in the shed blood of the Messiah who died for each and every one of God's children (called at this present time). Yes, the entire world was justified at Golgoleth, but it remains true that the vast majority of those now alive and who have lived since the dawn of time are NOT a part of the "Firstfruit brigade" and their justification will not be activated until the Great White Throne Judgment period still future to us now.

I recall one man writing to me in a response to a lengthy correspondence I had shared many years ago with a universalist association on the Internet. He wrote: "When I get there and sit on his knee I will grab hold of his old white beard and pull it hard and scream into his face and poke out his eyes because of all his hatred for me!!!" Due to his reputation in that particular circle of "faith" nobody on that Discussion Board had the nerve to challenge him in any way. Some tried to encourage him but to no avail. I finally wrote a simple reply. "Dear M., When you stand before the Lord of All Glory you will not pull His beard, and you will not scream into His face. Rather, you will simply see your own face looking back at you, and you will behold His scarred wrists and riven side and you will melt at His loving smile."

There was zero response. This silence, however, may have been quite deliberate in a positive way.

Notes lecturer Alva McClain, "In a human court, when the charge has been made and the prisoner is given a chance to speak for himself, sometimes (when he feels greatly the tremendous burden of his guilt and his sin) he will only bow his head and say, "I have nothing to say" (Alva McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace, 1973, 98,99).

"Nothing to say." That was and is and remains the honest view of each and every one of us who names the Name of Christ: yet if we believe in Christ, adhere to Christ, cleave to Christ, trust in Christ, rely on Christ, and have faith in Christ as Our Lord and Our Saviour , summed up in the text "Believe on the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and you shall be saved" which is what the Greek word pisteuo actually means , then the great and the wonderful fact happens to be that none of us will ever face the judgment seat of Christ. Our "Firstfruit" judgment was at the cross two-thousand years ago. (The Greek for  "Judgment seat" in 2 Corinthians 5.10 and expressed in 1 Corinthians 3.13-15 concerns only rewards at Messiah's bema. Contrary to all expectation, we shall not appear before the "Judgment seat of Messiah," for we have ALREADY passed from judgment to "THE Life" as in John 5.24. Rather, we shall appear as immortals after the resurrection at the return of Our Lord Yeshua when we shall have been "changed" from corruptible flesh into glorious spirit before the bema or dais of the Lord where our works are tried and tested in our characters , see Romans 14.10-12. The works are tried but not the person. Please cf Romans 8.1 Greek.)

McClain continues: "When the apostle Paul brings the whole world before the judgment bar of God (Jew and Gentile), it is not a blustering, noisy world. It is a silent world! Mark the words [in Romans 3.19]: "That every mouth may be stopped!" The mouth of the heathen idolater, the mouth of the man of exemplary morals, the mouth of the proud Pharisee, even the mouth that was full of cursing and bitterness; every mouth is stopped!

"There is a foregleam here of the day of judgment. There is no defense! Men have wondered what that day will be like. Some men have been so presumptuous as to declare when that day comes they will stand before the throne of God and make their own defense. The great French infidel Rousseau, a man who shunned wedlock and sent his children to an orphanage said, "I will stand before God and defend myself." When I hear a man say that, I think, "Poor fool!" When men stand before that dread bar of God, there will be no defense, no alibi, no excuse. Their mouths will be stopped!

"There is only one reason why human courts permit a defense. That is to protect against a mistake. Therefore, in order to protect everyone, we say, "You have an opportunity to make your defense." But when God brings a charge against a man, He makes no mistakes! There will be no defense in that day; the day of judgment will be a day of silence! Only one voice will speak, the voice of the Judge. Every mouth stopped! That is guilt! God will not stop the mouth. Every man will be free to talk but will know in his heart that he is guilty!"

BACK TO THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS
In the crucifixion of Christ , and in the transmogrification of the Messiah , God's JUSTICE provided lost sinners with a righteousness that is and was apart from God's Law, God's Torah. The righteousness of the Torah would kill us all. We would stand no chance of escape.  But this righteousness is from our God. This righteousness is God's GIFT -- a righteousness that is entirely FREE. And make no mistake! This righteousness is an ACTUAL righteousness that God gives through the Gospel and outworks through the traumatised, crucified Messiah nailed in twisted, grotesque fashion to the bloodied tree of Golgoleth. God is righteous at the same time that He gives freely righteousness to humankind.

Paul tells us that this righteousness from God as God's GIFT to human beings is "without the Torah" , without the law.

"But now, quite apart from Torah, God's way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear -- although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well -- and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, since all have sinned and come short of earning God's praise. By God's grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua. God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God's righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past; and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua's faithfulness. So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting. Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles; because, as you will admit, God is one. Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting. Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah" (Romans 3.21-31).

The word "without" in the Greek means "absolutely apart from." Law, Torah, commandments, rules, regulations and such like have nothing to do with this righteousness. This righteousness has nothing to do with the Law... BUT it is witnessed by the Law and also in the Prophets.

Writes McClain: "The whole sacrificial system bore witness to the righteousness of God in Christ. When a man took his sacrifice as a sin offering to the Temple, laid his hand upon the animal, confessed his sin, then killed the animal, he witnessed by that very act to the fact that he had faith in a righteousness that was not his own; and by faith he looked forward to the cross of Christ where the righteousness of God was manifested.

"How do the prophets witness? The prophet Isaiah says, "All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). So the prophets as well as the law bear witness to this righteousness, though they have nothing to do with bringing it. It is without the law.

"In Romans 4:3 Paul proves that this righteousness is without law. "For what says the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." We read about Abraham in the law.

"The sixth verse in the same chapter refers to David, one of the prophets: "God imputed righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin." As one of the prophets, David knew something about this righteousness, just like Abraham did in the law. Paul proves what he is talking about" (ibid, 103).

We shall come to our Father Abraham in our next lecture. But right here we need to contemplate the fact that God pronounced the world guilty before Him and could have obliterated our entire planet with the hot breath of His lips. After all, there is evidence from NASA that God has destroyed entire galaxies in the past, and only recently we have witnessed two galaxies colliding in space. What an awesome "incident" this is. But instead of destroying the planet, God justified a sinful humanity. And why?

Because God is by nature JUST, and equally God is by nature SALVIFIC. The whole world, as we have seen in Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians, was (and is) subject to the JUST VERDICT of God. God in His wisdom knew from eternity that the only way any of us can become just before Him is by becoming partakers of His righteousness.

And, the channel through which we may obtain this righteousness is the faith of Yeshua the Messiah. Only the Lord Yeshua, out of all of teeming humanity, observed God's Torah the way it was intended to be kept, and only the Lord Yeshua BELIEVED God even when the Lord smote him for OUR sins. Just as Yeshua was David's Greater Son, so also was he Our Greater Job , for it was the suffering servant Job who uttered those frightening words: "Even though He slay me yet I will trust and hope in Him" (Job 13.15 Hebrew).

You see, it is out of His faith for our faith (Romans 1.17).

BACK TO LUTHER
When Martin Luther penned his hymn A Mighty Fortress he did so basing his choice of words on Psalm 46 and while the tune is reminiscent of some of the Gregorian chants we also owe to Luther our rhythmic modern style-hymns and sweet choruses heard each Sabbath meeting or Sunday church service. We have them because Luther was later exposed to circles of hidden Messianic Faith in such non-Catholic Christians as the Bohemian Brethren (Unitas Fratum) and he brought many of their delightful songs and tunes back to Germany proper with him. Any volume on the history of music will tell you this.

Whatever the case in relation to the sweetness and loveliness of the songs of the Bohemian Brethren in direct contrast to the colourless and depressing chants of the Roman Church, Luther's Mighty Fortress exudes his intensity of character, sincerity and faith.

A MIGHTY FORTRESS
1. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

2. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth, his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.

3. And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

4. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.

A SECRET REVEALED
Finally in this particular lecture let me share a secret which very few believers have understood. I am not suggesting its something only I know, for that would be arrogant and facetious. It would also be a lie. But in the entire argument about justification by faith most Christians (i.e., those who even know anything about the subject of justification by faith) focus on their justification. And, shouldn't they do so?

Listen! Listen! Listen! In this letter Paul is stressing that it is not OUR justification which the apostle has primarily in mind , but GOD'S! How can this be the case? Simply due to the fact that it is GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT WE RECEIVE.

Notes Knoch, whom I am usually hesitant to quote: "In Israel He had made provision for atonement, or a shelter from sins. This was not strictly just, for the penalty for these sins was still due. The answer to this, as well as the answer to His present work is found in the blood of Christ. That settles for sin, past, present and future. That vindicates God's justice and makes it possible for Him to be the Justifier of all who are of the faith of Jesus. Such a deliverance, entirely on the ground of grace, bars all boasting, unless it be in Christ and in His God, Who has become our Justifier" (A.E. Knoch, Concordant Commentary on the New Testament, 1968, 233 Emphasis is Knoch's).

Bottom line: We cannot be saved unless we are firstly justified. Justification means receiving THE RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT BELONGS TO GOD ALONE.

Without the cross, God's unleashed JUSTICE or RIGHTEOUSNESS upon humanity as a whole would have exterminated each and every one of us. And rightly so. But with the cross a Place has been provided for humanity as a consequence of God's loving GRACE , God has shown Himself JUST by justifying the world. As we as "Firstfruits" of the Greater General Harvest have responded NOW we have made our justification A MATTER OF ACCOMPLISHED FACT. Humankind ought to have been condemned by God, and so it was. But the verdict of guilt was transferred to the IMAGE OF GOD (even Yeshua His Son) and IN HIM that sentence was executed, and the Lord Yeshua died, perished in ignominy, shame, disgrace. "Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree." On Yeshua was the ENTIRE RAGE, FURY AND ANGER OF GOD unleashed. It was truly the death of God. For, was not the Lord Yeshua the human form of the JEHOVAH within? Jehovah was IN Messiah (God's very own Image) reconciling , and not alienating ,  the world unto Himself. God in the cross event turned His righteous indignation and anger and wrath into His own heart and inward into Himself... for you and me and for all sinners who have ever lived and who will ever live.

All will be created new in accord with God in righteousness and authentic holiness (Ephesians 4.24) for our old humanity (which theologian Karl Barth identified as our original selves before our renewal in Christ) was crucified together with Him (Romans 6.6).

In other words, put quite simply, the salvation of the sinner will JUSTIFY God.

And, being COMPLETELY justified we can now go on into sanctification, the quest to develop stable moral character by being transformed from this state and condition of carnality into the SPIRITUAL dynamics of GOD'S OWN EXTRAORDINARILY BOUNDLESS MIND. Justification is the first stage of our ongoing spiritual development.

Lecturer Alva McClain is justifiably emphatic when it comes to understanding the meaning of justification. In concluding this present lecture let me quote him freely. "Justify means to pronounce a man righteous and to treat him as such... justify means to pronounce and treat as righteous. It is vastly more than being pardoned; it is a thousand times more than forgiveness. You may wrong me and then come to me; and I may say, "I forgive you." But I have not justified you. I cannot justify you. But when God justifies a man, He says, "I pronounce you a righteous man. Henceforth I am going to treat you as if you have never committed any sin." Justification means sin is all past and gone , wiped out , not merely forgiven, not merely pardoned; it means clearing the slate and setting the sinner before God as a righteous man, as if he had never sinned, as if he were as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself" (Alva McClain, op.cit., 107).

We are prepared now to read what Paul had to say about Abraham.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 19

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