Today’s Scripture readings include some of the clearest presentations of Gospel (good news) in all of Scripture. Ephesians 2:8 declares that our salvation comes to us by grace through faith, as a gift from God, not the result of any good works we do. We are set free from the obligation to keep the law to achieve salvation! Likewise, John 3:16-17 tells us of God’s great love in sending Jesus not to condemn the world (as we deserved) but in order to save the world. Good news and amazing grace indeed!
My sermon for this 4th Sunday in Lent, Year B, contrasts the promise of gospel with the idea of law, especially the 10 Commandments, which we heard in last week’s service. As we consider those commandments (and the rest of the law in Scripture), we recognize and confess that we always fall short of keeping them. God’s law condemns us, pointing out how we inevitably miss the mark of living righteously.
Today’s Scripture readings are Ephesians 2:1-10, Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22, and John 3:14-21. I found helpful Alicia Vargas’ commentary on John 3 at Working Preacher. This sermon also includes the video Life in Six Words: The GOSPEL from Dare 2 Share Ministries.
Here’s the sermon podcast and livestream from Living Hope.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In last week’s sermon, I started talking about the concept of Law and Gospel. Law and Gospel is the lens through which we look at the Scriptures. If you weren’t here last week, I hope you’ll go back and watch the livestream or listen to the sermon podcast on the church website, but here’s the short version.
Law is the way God calls us to live. It’s the 10 commandments that we’re supposed to follow, plus all the other instructions God gives us. Law is intended as a gift so we know how to live—don’t kill each other, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, all good things.
The problem is that we don’t do it. We don’t follow God’s law. We miss the mark—that’s what sin literally means. It’s a term from archery, failing to hit the target. The law reveals our sin; it points out how far away we are from the goal of living God’s way.
The Bible’s bad news goes something like this: You’re a dirty rotten no-good sinner, you’re going to die, and nothing you can do can change that ultimate outcome. Or as we say in Lent, remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. That’s some pretty heavy law.
But that’s not the only message of Scripture. Last week, we heard the ten commandments (lots of law); this week, we get two of the clearest presentations of the gospel in all of Scripture, with both John 3:16 and that great reading from Ephesians with God’s plan for salvation.
Here’s the good news: Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. You are forgiven and set free. That’s the gospel.
God refuses to leave you in your sin, because God loves you. God is not up there somewhere just waiting to point out every time we sin, looking for opportunities to punish. God is in the business of forgiveness!
God wants to be in right relationship with us! As Jesus says in John 3:17, he didn’t come to condemn the world; he came so that the world might be saved. Jesus came to bring salvation, to bring light and life into the world!
Law accuses and judges us with what we have failed to do; while Gospel comforts and saves us with what God has done for us. Literally, the word Gospel means “Good news.”
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has come into the world to set us free from our sin. God has come to dwell with us, being born into this world to come in-person and do what we cannot do on our own.
I want to show you a video I saw a few years ago from a spoken word artist—little different style than how I preach!—and I think he does a fantastic job of laying out both the problem of sin and the law, as well as explaining the good news of the Gospel.
God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life. Gospel.
And the good news of the gospel is that it’s a gift. You cannot earn it. Jesus says, “Whoever believes…may have eternal life.”
Are any of you familiar with Mary Macleod Bethune? Her parents had been enslaved, and as an adult, she was a national advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, a civil rights activist, and a college president.
She wrote about this Gospel reading from John:
“With these words, the scales fell from my eyes and the light came flooding in. My sense of inferiority, my fear of handicaps, dropped away. ‘Whosoever,’ it said. No Jew nor Gentile, no Catholic nor Protestant, no black nor white; just ‘whosoever.’
It means that I, a humble Negro girl, had just as much chance as anybody in the sight and love of God. These words stored up a battery of faith and confidence and determination in my heart, which has not failed me to this day.”
The good news of the gospel is that this grace—this gift from God—is for you. No matter who you are. No matter where you’ve come from. God’s love is given to everyone. Whoever you are, you are invited to faith, you are called to believe, to trust that Jesus is your savior.
Whether you’re Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, or of any other faith or no faith at all, whether you’re single or married, divorced or widowed, old or young, straight or LGBTQ+, whether you’re Republican or Democrat or Communist, Black or White or Brown or any other race, athletic or nerdy, outgoing or shy, rich or poor, God’s invitation is for you. God’s salvation is for you. The Gospel is good news for you. God so loved the world!
As Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived.” On our own, we fail to follow God’s law, and going against the source of life has consequences. We separate ourselves from God by trying to go our own way.
Verses 4-5: “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Verses 8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God–not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
I don’t care if you remember the phrase “Law and Gospel.” Ok, maybe I care a little. We are a Lutheran church, after all. But even if you don’t remember that, remember that you have been saved by grace through faith.
Trust that promise. You don’t need to earn your way to heaven. Jesus has already taken care of that. You are forgiven. This isn’t some pie in the sky future hope where we get to say, “Great, I’m saved. Who cares what happens to the world around me—I know where I’m going.” No, God’s grace changes things here and now!
The most important point of the Ephesians reading is that you have been saved by grace through faith as a gift of God, but don’t miss the last verse: We are created in Christ Jesus for good works.
As we heard last week, your good works are not for you; they’ve for your neighbor. You are saved not by the good things you do, but so that you can do good works, so that you can work to make this world more like God’s kingdom.
Because you are forgiven, because you are no longer captive to sin, you are free to work for peace, to work for justice, to show love.
This church exists to share the good news of the Gospel, the good news of God’s forgiveness and love.
Generally, I think people have a pretty good idea of the law. As he said in the video, every religion in the world knows something is wrong with the human condition. We do get to help people apply the Bible to how they live, and of course we’re going to talk about sin and the 10 commandments and morals and justice and all that, but generally people have a pretty good idea of their brokenness. People know the world is messed up.
What’s missing in the world is the gospel, the good news. That’s the message we get to proclaim!
God has not left us alone in our sin. God’s covenant is unbreakable. God has a solution to the problems of injustice, suffering, discrimination, poverty, sickness, war, the brokenness around us.
We are created for good works. Because we are set free, we are called to proclaim good news, good news in word and deed, good news of God’s amazing grace. Amen