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We often celebrate Reformation Sunday for all the wrong reasons. Yes, we rejoice in the work that Martin Luther accomplished, but he shouldn't be our focus. Yes, we rejoice in the proper realignment of Church authority, the translations of the Bible into the language of the people, the return of congregational singing and centrality of preaching, and recapturing of Sola Scriptura, but none of those things should be our focus. None of those things on their own changed the world. 

It wasn't Luther nailing his theses to the door, but God nailing His Son to the cross that changed the world. It is the recapturing of that reality, the recovery of the gospel, that turned the world upside down yet again. The gospel has that effect in history. Christ dying for our sins and rising again is what we celebrate every Sunday, and on this Sunday we remember how easily we lost sight of that gospel. Reformation Sunday isn't about patting ourselves on the back that we are right. It is a warning to us of how easily we forget. It's a reminder to us to take heed lest we fall. The sins of the past always return in the present, but they just update their clothing, their mask. 

Today, we are going to reexamine the sins of Rome, discover our own version of that sin, but then happily settle on Christ and celebrate Him. Our main point today is Only Christ can purchase our peace.

Only Christ can purchase our peace

Often when we think of Reformation Sunday, we think about what happened in Germany on October 31st over 500 years ago. Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg. Luther understanding of what needed reformation in the Catholic church was less than we might think at this point. We wasn't even totally against the indulgence system per se but more of its abuse. 

What is an indulgence? To oversimplify only slightly, it was an opportunity to buy your way into heaven. This, for Luther, was promising way too much. They had a phrase, "a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs." That sounds like buying salvation! It is false assurance. Luther himself put it this way in his 32nd thesis: "Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers." 

Surely we wouldn't stoop to something so crass! Oh, but we do. Honestly, one of the strengths of the past was people were simply more direct than we are today. We try to buy our salvation all the time today. We just wouldn't say it or even think of it like that. Instead, we think of it this way, "I am confident in my salvation because (blank)." Anything other than Christ in that blank is what you are trying to buy your salvation with whether that is a literal piece of paper or not. 

What gives you confidence is literally the definition of trust. Have you ever seen kids running around but not able to see their parents? You feel the burden of responsibility, don't you? But as soon as you see their parents round the corner, you feel that burden off your chest, right? Why? You have confidence in their parents. It works the same way with our salvation. What takes the weight off your chest when you think about your eternity? Is it Christ, or is it one of these things?  

Some of us try to buy our way into heaven by how much we know. "Surely," we good Presbyterians think, "God must be pleased with me because look at how much I know! I memorize my catechism twice a week, and there isn't a word of John Calvin that I haven't read...in the original French!" We ignore that knowledge puffs up, without love, is nothing (1 Cor. 13). Many a person has been well-read and sinned all the same. There will be pastors and seminary professors in hell. Knowledge will not save you. Knowledge will not purchase peace with God. 

On the other side of the scale, people buy their way into heaven, have confidence in their salvation, by the experiences that they've had. They push away the books as dusty collections of pride on a page and assume that their inner experiences hold the key to truth and confidence in salvation, as if this isn't pride as well. Maybe that is something mind blowing like miracles, visions, or tongues, but most often I find people confident in their salvation simply because they cried a lot when they went down an aisle one time. Experience of emotion or seemingly fantastic things with nothing but your own heart to judge ignores the warning that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). 

There are so many other false confidences. 

We can think we are saved because we have an office in the church. We can think that because we are a pastor, elder, or deacon that we are saved. After all, a whole church voted for us! Did Jesus? His vote is the only one that matters. The history of the church is absolutely filled with blots of unchristian elders and pastors. 

We can think we are saved because of the money we give or the time that we spend in the church. Being in a particular room a couple times a week shouldn't give confidence in salvation. The things you do or don't do are not confidences in salvation. 

A clear conscience isn't confidence, either. Have you ever had that argument with yourself when you realize you've sinned? You think about what you've just done and then immediately begin to try to figure out how that wasn't *actually* that bad in the first place? In fact, the more we think about it, it wasn't bad at all. As soon as we come to that conclusion, our soul relaxes once again. 

All of these and many more are false confidences. All of these things are just indulgences reclothed. "A page of the Bible to read, a soul from hell is freed." "Tears in an aisle shed, salvation in a soul is bred." "A church title obtained, a soul in paradise gained." It's all the same lie. It brings no true salvation, no true comfort. 

So what does? 

Well, that's where our passage comes in. Now, it bears remembering that Romans 5 comes after Romans 4 (you see, it's these insights that have you all coming back every week). Romans 4 talks about how Abraham receives his promise not by anything that he does but simply believing in what God does. Since it was true of Abraham, it is true of us (4:23-25: "But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.")! Salvation has always been given in the same way! 

Now, with that in mind, we get to chapter 5:1-2 "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 

Paul starts by saying, "because, just like Abraham, we aren't declared righteous by works, we have peace with God by faith, too." It isn't how much you have or haven't done. It is about what God has declared over you. 

In our times today, what matters in a legal sense is what the Supreme Court says. If the Supreme Court declares something is so, it is so. We've seen this work in both directions. Once they say it, that's it, that's what it is from a legal perspective. God is way higher than the Supreme Court. If He declares you are righteous because of what Jesus did for you, you are righteous in God's eyes. 

How is that declaration applied? Faith. How do you get this verdict? Trust in what Christ has done for you. Turn to Him and place your confidence in Him. The flip side of this process is repentance. You are turning from your sin, including confidence in yourself, to Christ. That turn will never be perfect this side of heaven, but that is it. There is no climbing to the top of a mountain, no earning of a degree, not even finishing some sort of probation period where you gotta behave for a couple weeks before Jesus will consider you. No, you come to Him now believing what He said that He would forgive all who come to Him desiring to be rid of their sin. 

Tears, titles, time, and study don't take away sin. Only Jesus can do that. Do you really think that you can erase every harsh word, every sexual glance or activity, every angry action? Think of it this way, can you remember something done or said against you? Maybe some of you have a whole list, but is there something that really hurt you? Does it still hurt or offend? Is there something that this person could do that would overcome that so much you would just have to put it aside? Maybe. What if that person did a thousand things that offended you just as much? You'd probably cut them off, wouldn't you? 

God didn't do that to you. He sent His son, not to purchase begrudging tolerance but peace, wholeness, shalom with God! Can you think of a time where you felt whole and content? That's what God has purchased for you. You two are no longer enemies. You have become a child in safe arms. You have access. What is access? 

I heard a story of a son whose father was known for his seemingly limitless hospitality. Once, when that son was an adult, called his father at 2 in the morning saying that his bandmates (whom his father had never met) were on the way to the house to stay and were hungry. His father, out of a dead sleep, paused to take a breath to ask, "do they eat chicken or fish?" When the band rolled up twenty minutes later, they found this father, dressed in pajama pants and a head lamp, hunched over a grill with chicken and fish for a bunch of guys he had never met.  

That's access. One commentator put it this way, "This peace carries with it free access to God; the former rebels are not merely forgiven by having their due punishment remitted; they are brought into a place of high favour with God—‘this grace in which we stand’." (Bruce, Tyndale)

You have that with God. Not because of how many questions of the catechism you know. Not because of the title you hold. It is only because God loves you so much. Do you really think you need to add to that love? Isn't it a little insulting to think that you could? Doesn't mean that you don't read your Bible and pray. Don't you think those bandmates would want to know as much about that dad as they could having been shown such love? Don't you think they would want to talk with him? Don't you want the same with God? Are you not moved by such an expression of love as large as a sacrifice of His Son? 

If it doesn't, maybe you don't realize what you have been saved from. Maybe you haven't spent much time with such a Father and don't realize Who He really is. Maybe you've spent so much time trying to earn a love that your own pride won't let you accept. Maybe you've done something that you think Christ can't possibly forgive. 

No, no, my brothers and sisters. Christ loves you, freely, willingly. Come to Him. Stop trying to earn Him and enjoy Him! Rejoice in the work that He has accomplished for you, and let that joy motivate what you do. 

That is what changed the world for Martin Luther. I pray that it changes your world, too. 

Photo by Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa on Unsplash
Why do so many heroes of the Bible act so poorly? All of the characters that we have met and spent some time with so far all had this tragic flaw at some point in their story. Adam was the literal first one. He was completely set up for success, but when given the temptation to sin, he did. The same went for Cain, the first born of Adam, until his brother did better than he did. Noah pursued after God for over a hundred and some years building a boat to save the world, but he couldn't escape the allure of drunkenness. Abraham started out with immediate obedience to what God commanded him, even if he did have some fits and starts along the way. 

In each of these flaws, however, it seems that they at least started well. Noah was a righteous man in God's eyes before the call to him went out. Abraham obviously started out well, and even the errors that he made along the way were only after much time of waiting and seemingly no move on God's part. 

This little episode is different. For the first time, we are getting an intimate look at these twins from the moment of their birth. We met Noah when he was already 500 years old. We met Abraham at 75 years old. Yes, we saw Isaac when he was born and again at probably 14, but there wasn't a whole lot of interaction with him. One has figured out a few things at this age. Yet here, we are meeting these men very early on. We are seeing them without the years of maturity and therefore getting to see God work on someone from the beginning. 

We will see our main point today: Bad starts don't have to have bad finishes 

Bad starts don't have to have bad finishes 

Rebekah has reached the end of her pregnancy—finally! The poor thing has had these twins duking it out in her womb for the last several months, and as the following scene will remind us, this conflict is only getting started. 

Moses, in a superb example of tight writing, gives us a peek into the need-to-know information of their respective characters. 

Birth day arrives, and Esau is the first out of the womb. While younger twins everywhere assert that being just a few minutes older doesn't matter, it does in this case. God has said that the older will serve the younger, and that definitely is here. Esau, the red and hairy one, so named because the Hebrew of Esau sounds like "hairy," enters the world first. Moses isn't including this because he is trying to give us a vivid picture, like modern journalism does. I heard this on a podcast this week where it seems that journalists instead of just interviewing someone and giving you the takeaways, they have to describe what the drive up was like and what the professor looked like! I've gotten so used to it that I didn't notice it until that was mentioned. Moses isn't doing that. In fact, the Bible never gives you something just to mention it. The Bible doesn't do tangents. It is there because it is important. Even the color of that stew in verse 30 is going to be important! Mentioning that Esau is a hairy man will be very important to the story in chapter 27. 

Next we have Jacob's entrance on the scene literally on the heel of Esau's. For this, he was named "Jacob" which can mean "heel-grabber" or "deceiver." Now, lest you feel like Isaac and Rebekah are just REALLY bad at naming children, Jacob doesn't *only* mean "liar." It could be a shortened form of a longer name that would have meant "may God protect" (Ross, 441). Because while the parents know that the younger is going to be served by the older, they don't know the future character of their sons, even if God does. 

Verse 27 skips ahead a number of years to reveal what kind of men they have become. Esau has become the man's man, the hairy hunter, master of the bow! Jacob on the other hand is called a "quiet" man. He is more your cultured guy, an indoorsy sort of fellow. His reputation is a "tent dweller" kinda guy, who, as we will see in a moment, knows his way around the kitchen. 

Now, let's pause here and think about who we might bet on (if we were given to such vices) on who is going to be the one to rule. If I were unfamiliar with God's promise to the twins that the younger would rule, my money would be on Esau. Up until the age of computers, nerds like Jacob and myself wouldn't have a chance. If you were to drop the tent-dwelling soup guy and the hairy, outdoorsman hunter into the wilderness with nothing but their wits and a bow, who are you voting to win? 

But this isn't going to go to our expectation! This next scene starting in verse 29 is going to show us how God is going to accomplish His will, and it won't be as cleanly as we would like it. 

Let's dive into the story to see why. 

Esau is coming back from a long day's unsuccessful hunt. He needs food and sees Jacob sitting there with some red stew. Jacob sees his opportunity and will only give the stew if he receives something in return, the birthright. 

Now, at first glance, Esau should have just laughed at Jacob for even thinking that this was a realistic price. The birthright was an exclusive privilege of the first born son in which they would receive a double portion of the family inheritance. Isaac, as we will find out in the next chapter, gets super rich and ends up in a similar position as Abraham in his life. Esau is set to receive two-thirds of that wealth with Jacob, as the second son by mere minutes, only getting one-third. Jacob is offering the opportunity to trade those numbers for some lentil stew and bread. In modern terms, this would be like trading real estate for a McRib. No one would be willing to make that kind of trade....right? 

Esau, however, does the unthinkable and agrees to the terms! Here is his reasoning: he is so tired and hungry that he is near to death. If he doesn't get that soup right now he is going to die. And if you are going to die, then an inheritance isn't going to do you much good, will it? You can't take it with you, so you might as well pawn it off for some soup. And that's exactly what he does! 

Verse 34 records that this is the way that Esau has despised his birthright. Obviously, he thinks so little of his place in the family and what he will inherit, that he will trade it for some soup. 

Can you think of anyone else who has traded the blessings of God for some food in Genesis? That's right, Adam and Eve. They looked around at all the blessings that they had in the garden, yet they thought that God was holding out on them. They wanted something that God said that they couldn't have and chose sinful knowledge over all the blessings of literal paradise.  

Let's get practical for a minute. What can we take away from this story? 

We rightly shake our heads at such bad trades, but we best not shake them too hard because we do the same thing every time we sin. Every time we sin, we despise the our new birthright in heaven. We have been granted an inheritance in heaven, the blessings of fellowship with God here on Earth, yet we often trade them for things far less valuable than soup. How many marriages have we seen sacrificed for the pleasure of pornography pixels? How many friendships have we sacrificed for a juicy bit of gossip? How have we traded our honesty for a few more dollars at the bottom line? 

Honestly, even these things are trivial examples of bad trades. The saddest trade is our joy in Christ for lesser things. Do you remember those times of consistent devotions? Do you remember what that joy was like? It felt like you were coming across water in a desert, but as time went on it became something that you just didn't have time for anymore. The longer it went, the guiltier you felt, and once the guilt set in, you stayed away. It has been well said that "this book will keep me from sin, but sin will keep me from this book." 

This can happen with seemingly good trades. We sacrifice our own joy with God in order that we might teach our children. I've seen ministers think that their ministry job ensures their spiritual growth when it doesn't. I've seen people sacrifice their ability to come to church because of youth sports and travel ball. Don't let the good take the place of the best, and that requires attention to your soul. Airlines will tell you that if the plane loses oxygen, you have to take care of yourself first before helping others. The same is true in Christianity. Attend to your soul first, and then out of that provision go and help others. We can't forget either half of that. 

This requires frequent check ins as well. Most of the time, we don't show our despising of our birthright in a single choice like we see Esau do. Once Esau sells his birthright, there is no real taking it back unless Jacob willingly gives it back (which he kinda does later, but we'll get there). This is a one time choice. Now, sinful choices like that CAN be made where everything is sold in one fell swoop, but most of the time, it is a slow fade. It's a gradual wandering away rather than a decisive sprint. 

As a practical measure, it would be a good practice once a quarter, four times a year, to sit down with your family and see where your priorities are. I don't mean restate that you think Church and family devotions is important. That should be a given. I mean four times a year look back at your calendar and your checkbook to discover where your priorities actually are. 

Are there busy seasons in your life where it is extremely hard to do personal and family devotions? Absolutely! There are seasons of caregiving of either small children or adult parents where there is hardly any energy much less time in a day. Even if all you are able to do is a verse of the Bible and a couple paragraphs a Daily Bread devotional, I don't want you to feel guilty. You need as much as you can get, especially in those times, but don't compound guilt because of life circumstance that are, and this is the key, truly out of your control. You have a new baby that keeps you up all hours of the night, and the only second to yourself you've got to give to a nap. Take the nap. Jesus slept, too. But if you are in a place where your screen time stats are WAY higher than they need to be for work, if you can tell me where every college football team ranks in the standings, if you can tell me the ins and outs of every political story, then you better be able to do just as well in explaining to me the ins and outs of your Bible reading. 

I'm not trying to make you feel guilty just so you feel guilty. I'm only trying to spur in you a realization that there is more to the Christian life than the weekend. There is more joy than what is found in the verse of the day app on your phone. Quit eating crumbs off the floor when there is a full meal on the table just above your head. 

Jesus doesn't just offer forgiveness; He offers Himself. If you have turned from your sins and put your trust in Him, you find forgiveness. Now lean into that gospel, see the beauty of Christ Himself and enjoy Him both now and forever!