The QC Christian (3)

God Bless the Boys who Make the Noise on 16th Avenue

Eph. 6:14

“There was a time when I feared and hated God,” Martin Luther said.  His hatred and fear was visible because whenever he read the word, ”justice” in the Bible, he started to shake.  The shaking was caused by the words “the justice of God.”  When he read “the justice of God,” he was filled with that fear and that anger because he realized that even though he was a dedicated monk, he was a sinner and God was mad at him because God’s justice made God angry. 

“I could not love a just and angry God,” he said. 

Whenever he thought about God’s justice, his conscience began to knife him.  Whenever he thought about it, he tried harder to appease the justice and holiness that angry One.  But the thoughts kept coming, “What if what I’m doing is not enough to appease and satisfy Him?”  Worry plagued him.

Lacy J. Dalton sings a song about a group of aspiring country music song writers who meet from time to time on 16^th Avenue .  They get together and play the songs they’ve written, songs which go nowhere.  Each is hoping to hit the big time, to produce a hit.  Finally, something happens at one of the meetings on 16^th Ave. :

“But then one night in some empty room where no curtains ever hung,

like a miracle, some golden words rolled off of someone’s tongue,

after years of being nothing, they’re all looking right at you.” 

In Luther’s case it was something similar—in a tower where his room was, Luther made what history calls “The Tower Discovery.”  He later said that it was from that tower, he “stormed the Pope.”  The discovery came because Luther knew how to read the Bible in its original languages.  It was there, on “ 16^th Ave. ,” that Luther discovered, through reading the Bible, that he and millions of others had been taught wrongly for over a thousand years. 

He’d been taught that being justified meant some inner change had taken place in a person, but now he realized that justification was something outside man.  Justification didn’t come when a man had proved himself, but it was God who freely declares anyone to be righteous, to be justified, who believes in Christ.  He could read Gen. 15:6 and Romans 3:23-24: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  He could read that “Abraham had believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.”

His reading brought freedom from the tyranny of the Roman system.  With that knowledge, they could no longer threaten him with the loss of salvation; he stood justified and he knew it.  ( Rom. 4:6-7; Rom. 5:1-2; Rom. 8:1)

Before his discovery (get this), he had been in such fear that when he was too busy to pray at the required 5 different times of prayers, he would get in arrears and would stack up one, two, and sometimes three weeks of prayers that he’d missed, take off a whole Sunday and spend the day trying to catch up.  One time, he went three entire days without food or water until he caught up.  He paid a high physical price for such seeking to appease an angry God.  Religions feature an angry God that must be satisfied by works.

His problem was the same as ours—how many prayers are enough?  How do I know when enough is enough?  Fear, worry, anger consumed him and he became an insomniac. 

But on his own private “ 16^th Ave. ,” when he made the grace discovery, he knew that justification was free and that, if he hadn’t earned it in the first place, he could not “unearn” it.  He read and understood that the justice of God had been satisfied by Christ on the cross and all fear was gone. 

We encourage people to read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible because it has the inherent power to free us.  Keeping people from the Bible keeps them in slavery.

When Luther discovered that justification came by faith alone, he no longer saw God as mad at him, but as One who wanted all men to come to faith in Christ and be justified freely by His grace.  This discovery changed everything and has influenced Western Civilization to this day. 

“Justification” is one of those five words, once understood, changes lives and attitudes.  Understanding justification changes everything and it’s important to remember that when the Bible talks about righteousness.  The believer in Jesus has a righteous standing before God. 

In Eph. 6, Paul is telling the believer to remember the breastplate is righteousness. 

When you sin, your first inclination is to get off the battlefield.  “I’m not good enough,” you think and wind up useless. 

But what you don’t realize is the truth of I John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.   But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate   with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,  and he himself is the atoning sacrifice  for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.” 

This is a third class condition means: “"If you should sin,, then you have an advocate with the Father."  It’s this way: “"If" introduces a condition assumed to take place.”  When you sin, you have a Friend in court. 

In every office situation, there’s always someone who holds the power.  That’s the person about whom they say, “You need to get on his good side if you want to keep your job.”  You get on his good side by doing as many of the things he wants you to do.  So you hustle and do those things.  But the it never ends.  You have to stay on his good side. 

That’s the way most people look at God.  You have to get on His good side before you die and to do that you have to hustle and then, if you’re “lucky” enough to get on His good side, you have to stay keep hustling to stay on his good side.  But I Jn. 2:1-2 says that God isn’t angry with you; He’s satisfied because Christ satisfied His holy demands on the Cross.  God is not someone you have to “get on the good side of.” 

This idea of “getting on God’s good side” has consequences.  One of those is that to be saved from your sins, you think you have to plead with God to save you.  There are no instructions to beg God to save you in the Bible.  One of the beliefs of Islam is that in order to gain forgiveness, some times of the day are the most favorable; it’s better to come in the morning for forgiveness than at later times.  You’ll find God more likely to forgive at certain times during the day.

Other consequences of trying to get on God’s good side are frustration which leads to despair, which leads to anger.  A person keeps trying and trying until out of anger, he has to ask, “When is enough, enough?”   “How much more do You want?”  “Are You only going to be satisfied if I die trying?” 

No wonder Jesus said, “Come to Me and I’ll give you rest.”  Once you realize that God has given you Christ’s righteousness free upon faith in Christ, then you can stop trying.  Frustration?  Gone.  Anger?  Gone.  Despair?  Gone.

Once Martin Luther made that 16^th Ave. discovery, the Roman church lost control over him.  He was free.  Their system no longer controlled him because they no longer controlled his salvation; no longer could they hurl threats at him.  And that freedom changed the western world.  His confidence was now in Christ and he knew that because of Christ, he stood righteous before God.  He put on that breastplate, stood with confidence on the battlefield, and changed the world.   

On the battlefield, the believer can stand in confidence.  His sins are forgiven.  He stands without fault before God, confident in Christ, and when God calls him home, when he leaves the battlefield, he will then stand as he stands now, “faultless before the throne.”

Like the belt, every morning, you put on the breastplate of righteousness by reminding yourself that you have a  faultless before God, and nothing is going to change that. 

Truth to Take Home:

Soldiers wearing the breastplate of righteousness are certain soldiers.