"We Are All Beggars" based on Ephesians 2:1-10

4th Sunday in Lent - March 22, 2009

Pastor Troy Slater, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Herington, Kansas

I think I'm probably safe in saying that there have not been too many people in all of history who have written as much as Martin Luther did. With all his sermons and lectures, his pamphlets and books, his catechisms and letters, Luther wrote more in one lifetime than most people would if they had ten lifetimes. But there was a slip of paper - a single slip of paper that was found in one of Luther's pockets at the time of his death that I would like to share with you. Or at least I would like to share the last few words of this short note that appear to be the very last words that this great man of the faith wrote during his over sixty-two years of life on this earth. But the last words were, "This is true. We are all beggars."

I share this with you today because I think these words summarize so very well our Epistle reading for this morning from Ephesians, chapter two. For you see this reading it spells out in rather plain and simple words the chief article of the Christian faith: the truth that we are saved solely by God's grace in Christ Jesus our Lord and not by our works. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no may boast." From that it I think it certainly does follow, doesn't it, that yes, "this is true. We are all beggars."

For after all beggars have nothing to offer, do they? I mean if they did they wouldn't be "beggars" they would be "buyers". A beggar can only receive what the giver, in his grace and mercy, desires to give. What a beggar receives is but a gift. And so yes "this is true. We are all beggars." For God declares us righteous in His sight-He grants us heaven-exclusively and solely for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary's cross for us sinners.

In the Augsburg Confession - a confession of our faith that is firmly based on Holy Scripture and which Martin Luther helped to write, it states: "Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake." Justification by grace through faith in Christ Jesus is the article on which the Christian church stands or falls, for without God's gracious act of forgiving the sinner, we would be forever doomed.

In fact in our Epistle reading for this morning St. Paul says that "we were by nature objects of wrath" and we were "dead in our transgressions and sins." By nature we are spiritually dead before God and what can a dead person do? Nothing. It's as Luther says in the explanation of the third article of the Creed, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord nor come to Him." It is God alone who breathes life into our otherwise dead decaying bodies and souls.

But yet we like to think that we have a part in earning our way into heaven, don't we? I've talked to way too many Christians when speaking of the day they meet their Maker say, "I hope I've been 'good enough' to make it into heaven." "I hope I've 'done enough' to merit God's love." But you see such attitudes and beliefs - such shaky and uncertain "hopes" are insulting to Christ. It's like saying to Him, "Okay Jesus, you did your part, now I just hope that I've held up my end of the bargain well enough." It's as if we think we can some how add to or improve on Christ's perfect and all-availing sacrifice on the cross. …

But imagine for a moment that you're walking through the Louvre Museum in Paris. As you approach the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, would you think about taking a palette and a brush and touching up the painting? Maybe put some more color in her cheeks? Perhaps change her nose a little? No. "That's ridiculous!" you would say. For nearly 500 years the Mona Lisa has been considered one of the greatest artistic works of all time. How absurd to think we could add anything to this masterpiece!

But yet that's what many people try to do with Christ's masterpiece—that gift of salvation. They think they must improve on it with some work of their own. But that masterpiece - that work - it was completed with absolute and total perfection when hanging on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished." And of course He then proved that His work of redemption for you and for me was in fact finished when He rose from the dead on Easter morning. He has paid it all. It is finished and now He says, "whoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life."

Although here we say, "Ahha! See I do have to do something - I have to believe!" But where does that come from? For again, by nature we're "dead in our trespasses and sins" and again, what can a dead person do? Certainly can't believe anything. And so He comes to us. He chooses us, we don't choose Him. He comes to us and marks us as His own - as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. He gives us that gift of faith; He gives us His Holy Spirit for indeed, "no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."

It is by grace that you have been saved - it's all a gift. From Christ's life and death for us; from that very first spark of faith in Christ that we were given - probably for most of us at the baptismal font; to our growth in that faith as we grow in trust and knowledge of our Lord through His word and Holy Supper; and even to those good works that result from that same faith as we love others as we have first been loved by God, it's all a gift. It's all God's work. If any part of my salvation or even my own growth in the faith was of my doing, was of my own efforts, I would be able to rightly boast in myself. But that is not the case for as Scripture proclaims, "Let he who boasts, boast in the Lord." Yes as a dying Luther wrote, "this is true. We are all beggars." "We are all beggars" who receive from God His gifts. …

Now some might say, "Well, doesn't the fact that many have gathered here this morning testify that we have a part to play in our salvation? I mean I could have chosen to stay in bed this morning rather than coming here to hear God's Word. God didn't make us to be robots - He gave us a free will. And so don't I at least deserve some credit for being here this morning?" Well, I would say that it is certainly within our power to reject God's gifts. Sadly many people do just that; thinking they don't need Christ; thinking they don't need what they consider to be some "fairy tale" about the Son of God dying on a cross for some supposed sins that we have. It is within our power - it's within our natural human condition to reject the gift of life in Christ. Just like I suppose any of us can choose to reject that gift of physical life which the Lord has given us. But we didn't choose to begin our physical life, did we? Our gift of physical life was a gift solely from God that He gave us through our fathers and mothers. And the continuation of our life is a gift solely from God as He "richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life." That we woke up this morning and had air to breathe and food to eat - that's a gift from God.

And likewise, so it is true that God alone grants and sustains our spiritual life. And so yes, think of our coming together here this morning to hear God's Word and nurture that God-given faith in Christ that He's blessed us with. If it was up to that dead, rotting, stinking corpse we refer to as our human nature, we wouldn't be here this morning - at least not for the right reasons. We wouldn't be here gathered around God's Word, singing His praises, joining our hearts and thoughts together in prayer. We could probably all think of other things we could be doing - other things that old sinful human nature wants to be doing.

But we're here aren't we? We're here because the Lord God planted that seed of faith in us by His Word. We are here because He has caused that seed to sprout and to grow. We are here because He has granted us the desire to gather around His Word and sing His praises. At the beginning of our service this morning we started by singing the words of Psalm 51, verse 15: "Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise." If God doesn't act, we cannot praise Him, we cannot thank Him. Apart from that gift of faith we would rather curse God than praise Him. Apart from that gift of faith we would rather blame God for our problems than thank Him for our gifts. Apart from that gift of faith we would rather gossip about our neighbor than to speak well of him; we would rather look out for number one than serve and help our neighbor who is in need. That's what that old, rotting, stinking corpse of a sinful nature in us would rather do.

But with that God-given gift of faith, with that Spirit-filled life that He breathes into us, these God-given lips now pour forth God's praises as we thank Him for all of His gifts to us. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not by works so no one may boast. For we are God's workmanship," - that's right "God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God (himself) prepared in advance for us to do." Yes, "this is true. We are all beggars." We have nothing of our own to offer God. We are but beggars who only receive what He gives to us.

We are but God's "workmanship created in Christ Jesus" - His works of art. I am God's work of art. You are God's work of art. He has "created" - and here that word "created" means to make out of nothing. In other words we contributed nothing to God's work in us. He has created us to be His works of art, each of us - individually and corporately - "He has created us in Christ Jesus." For what purpose? For "good works." "Good" here means "beneficial." The Christian's "works" are beneficial to neighbor, to God, and to self. God prepared the works in advance. They come from Him, they are His work in us and through us. It all comes from God - to Him alone be the glory and the praise. For "this is true. We are all but beggars."

We are all but beggars. We are at the mercy of God. But you know, there is no better place to be, is there? No better place to be than dependent upon our God who though we were "dead in our transgressions and sins," has saved us by His grace. There is no better place to be than to be God's works made alive in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is no better place to be than in the hands of He who has spared not even His own Son but gave Him up for us all on Calvary's cross. There is no better place to be. And so thanks be to God. Thanks be to God for His grace and mercy. Yes thanks be to God, that we are but beggars. Amen.