To all of you at Epiphany who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)

O Holy Spirit, come to us in your comforting Word, which alone can drive away our doubts. Build us upon the foundation of your inspired Scriptures. Work faith in us in the Savior, Jesus Christ, who presented himself to God as a sacrifice of atonement. May we trust with our whole heart that we have been justified, redeemed, atoned for, and saved all through the blood of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today is another joyous occasion. Last Sunday God blessed our congregation with six young confirmands joining our church. This morning God is again blessing our congregation with visible growth with Kristina being baptized into the Christian faith and six adults who are becoming members of our Lutheran church.

I think that this is then a wonderful opportunity to ask ourselves the question, "What is a Lutheran?" What makes someone a Lutheran? And how do you know you are Lutheran? Here are some way to tell if you might be a Lutheran. If you have an uncontrollable urge to sit in the back of any room, you might be a Lutheran. If you tap a church visitor on the shoulder and say, "Excuse me, but you’re in my seat," you might be a Lutheran. If it’s 110 degrees outside and you still have coffee at the church function, you might be a Lutheran. If all of your casserole dishes have your name on the bottom, you might be a Lutheran. If you believe that Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there will be a potluck," you might be a Lutheran. If your house is a mess because you believe you are saved by grace and not by works, you might be a Lutheran. If you’re watching "Star Wars" and when they say, "May the force be with you," you have the urge to answer, "and also with you," you might be a Lutheran. If someone asks you, "How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?" and your answer is "Change? What’s change?" you might be a Lutheran. We can laugh at those, probably because most of them are so true. But I don’t think that they ever really answer the question of what is a Lutheran?

In case you hadn’t noticed, the world has already tried to answer that question. You’ve probably heard some of the things that Lutherans have been called. We’ve been defined as stodgy and conservative, close-minded and intolerant. We’ve been told that we don’t like women, or that we don’t do anything with anyone other than Lutherans. We’ve been called the "frozen chosen," because people think they see a lot of talk and no action. Maybe you have heard the old joke about a new person being shown around heaven, passing a closed door and told to be quiet, because behind that door are the Lutherans, and "they think they’re the only ones up here."

Are those accurate descriptions of Lutherans? Is that what Lutherans are? I don’t think so.

Today we begin summer sermon series on the book of Romans. We are taking a summer trip to Rome. I believe that the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, gives us a good description of a Lutheran. This morning as we examine "The Faith of Faith" we see that faith saves. A Lutheran is very simply someone who knows sin and someone who knows grace.

There are a lot of people today who try to ignore sin. Some churches think that talking about sin makes people feel bad, and the church should be in the business of making people feel better about themselves, so they won’t even talk about sin, they won’t even use the word "sin." Others will cover sin with some sort of syndrome, or addiction, or something else to let them think that it’s not their fault. People drink because their parents drank, and people are sexually immoral because they were born a certain way, and people are abusive to their kids because their parents were abusive to them.

Now I’m not saying that there isn’t truth to those claims, but do you notice what all of those ideas do? They make it not my fault. Sin suddenly becomes not so bad, because it’s just part of who I am. It removes all responsibility. And if I’m not responsible, then God can’t hold me accountable for anything. Sadly, many churches today have swallowed this line of thinking, and they have churches full of people who think that they’re all right with God, because they think that their sins are no big deal.

A true Lutheran, though, understands what Paul is talking about in these verses. Paul certainly doesn’t gloss over sin because it makes people feel bad. Actually, he says that God intends to make us feel bad about ourselves. He tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Literally, all have "missed the mark." God has set up the mark of perfection, and we aren’t even close. We’ve fallen short. All of humanity has done evil in God’s sight. We have lost God’s approval. We have been born in sin. We live in sin. We deserve to die eternally because of our sin.

This proper understanding of sin is critical to understanding anything else that God has told us. If we don’t think we are sinners, then we have no need for a Savior. Without the bitterness of the law, there is no sweetness to the gospel.

An African convert to Christianity put it this way: "When the story of Christ’s death was first read to me, I cursed Judas and Pilate, the Jews and the soldiers. But when I understood it, I cursed myself, for I, too, have crucified Christ."

As Lutherans, it is important for us to know that we are sinners, and be aware of the sins that we commit in thought, in word, in action. To recognize the sin that is part of our very nature. It is important for us to not overlook our sins. And so we need to spend some time looking into the mirror of God’s law, and examining the reflection we see – a reflection of a poor, miserable sinner, who has fallen short of the glory of God, and who can do nothing to please God or appease his anger. We dare not harbor any pride in ourselves because we are Lutheran or because of anything else, because we are sinners. We killed Christ. It was because of us that Jesus was on that cross. It is our fault that Jesus was sacrificed. The first part of the answer to what is a Lutheran is that a Lutheran is someone who understands sin, sin in the world, and sin in themselves.

But that cannot be all that we understand. For years, that was the condition Martin Luther found himself in. Luther was painfully aware of his sin. He knew he was a sinner, he just didn’t know what to do about it. He repeatedly talked about how the words "just" and "righteous" were like thunder and lightning in his conscience, and just hearing them terrified him, because he thought that was God demanding that we be righteous, and he knew that he wasn’t righteous. So he became a monk to try to please God. He fasted, prayed, beat his body – all in an attempt to show God how sorry he was for his sin, and why he should be forgiven. Then God opened Scripture to him, and Luther became what we would call a Lutheran. He not only understood sin, but he also understood grace.

This text makes it very clear what we are to do to be saved. "This righteousness from God comes through faith … all are justified freely by his grace that came through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus … A man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." What do we have to do to be saved? Nothing. It’s a gift. We can’t do anything to earn it or deserve it, and we don’t have to. Jesus already did it all.

I once met a woman who believed that when she died she would have to spend hundreds of years in purgatory – a supposed place between heaven and hell – where she would have to pay for her sins with her suffering. I shook my head in disbelief and then told her: "Don’t you think that you are cheapening Christ’s sacrifice by saying that he didn’t do a good enough job for you on the cross? That he paid for most of your sins, and you have to pay for the rest? That is not what my Bible says. Let me share some really good news with you." And we turned to Romans chapter 3.

Sadly, this woman left my house, still believing that she had to pay for some of her sins before she could enter heaven. That is how many people view their salvation. They think Jesus did a big part of it, but now we have to finish the job. We still have to be good people, to live a certain way, to do a certain amount of good works, before God will let us into heaven.

But if that were true, then salvation wouldn’t be a gift, and this text and so many others in the Bible, say that forgiveness and salvation, is a gift from God. It’s not something we can work for, not something we can earn. Its something that’s given to us freely, only because of God’s grace, only because of what Jesus has done. Lutherans know this. Lutherans know sin, but they also know God’s undeserved love – his grace.

Look at these wonderful Bible verses. Romans 3:21: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known …This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ." We are not righteous on our own. We are not right with God because we can’t keep God’s law. Instead, Christ kept God’s law in our place. Jesus was righteous. And on the cross, he exchanged his righteousness for our lawlessness. We are now made right with God – through faith in Jesus Christ.

Even though we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Though we are guilty of sin, we find ourselves "justified" – declared innocent of any wrongdoing because of Christ Jesus. This verdict of innocence was given to us "freely" – as a gift, free of charge, no strings attached. "By his grace" – by God’s undeserved love for miserable sinners such as us. "Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" – literally, through the ransom price that was paid by Jesus on the cross.

God is a holy God that can’t just wink at sins or dismiss the sinner’s many infractions as if they didn’t matter. God, in his Word, is clear and direct on that matter: "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) Sin had to be paid for with a life. Again Scripture is clear: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews 9:22) Sin carried a heavy price that had to be paid – and it was! God sent his very own Son to be the substitute to die in our place. Christ became true man so that he might shed his blood as a sacrifice and die the sinner’s death, so that we might be atoned for – made "at one" with God. Or as Paul puts it: "God presented [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood."

Look at all of these wonderful things that Christ has done for miserable, wretched sinners such as us. What should we do to take hold of all of these wonderful blessings of salvation? Give Jesus money? Say lots of prayers? Be nice to your pastor? No. All you need to do is believe. Simply have faith that Jesus is who is said he is – the Son of God, our crucified and resurrected Savior. Simply have faith Jesus did what he said he came to do – pay the ransom price for us with his blood, declare us innocent of any wrongdoing, make us at one with God and righteous in his holy eyes. Paul puts it so eloquently: "A man is justified by faith." Sola fide – Latin for saved by faith alone.

So what is a Lutheran? It doesn’t have anything to do with what color your skin is or what type of music is in your church services, or whether or not you like coffee or potlucks. It has everything to do with knowing sin, and what we deserve because of our sin. It also has everything to do with knowing grace, and how God’s undeserved love has set us free. To be a Lutheran means to be a Christian, a believer in Christ. We believe that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

To God be the glory for our salvation. Amen.