Proper 5 Sunday Year A 6/7/2026
Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 33:1-12; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Good morning!
Today and through the summer we will focus many of our sermons on the Book of Romans.
As it will be our second reading each Sunday for many weeks.
Now the part that I want to focus on today is the bit from the last of our reading in Romans, where St. Paul writes:
Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also.
In the passage, Paul is talking about Abraham…
The patriarch who showed up in our first reading from Genesis.
Abraham believed in the promise of God…
That despite their old age and difficulty having any children…
God’s promises would be made true.
Abraham believed.
Abraham had faith.
Abraham trusted in God.
And that faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.
And then Paul makes the astonishing claim…
That the words “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also.
And he goes on to say:
It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
That belief, trust, faith… are important for us, today, as well.
And there are two words we will highlight today.
Faith and justified.
Two really important words to understand… important for what we mean when we talk about salvation in Christianity.
The first word is Faith.
Faith is a word that is used a lot in our Christian lingua.
And it has two nuances that are important for us in our Bible text today.
One is faith as a belief.
That is an intellectual belief.
In this way the question may be asked what do we believe in?
What do we have faith in?
And Paul answers that in our reading when he writes that we believe:
in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was handed over to death for our trespasses
and was raised for our justification.
This is what we believe…
This is what we have faith in…
Not just in the existence of God.
That is called Theism.
But in our Christian faith we believe in the one and true God who sent his Son Jesus the Messiah into the world…
This Jesus was handed over to death and was raised from the dead.
More specifically, it says his death was for our trespasses…
Our sins…
In his death we can have the atonement for our sins…
We can receive forgiveness because of his death…
He was also raised to life for our justification…
Our salvation…
Eternal life.
So, we believe in God who sent Jesus Christ…
who died for our sins and was raised for our justification.
Faith though is not just intellectual…
Faith is also trust.
It is trusting in someone who is reliable, trustworthy, capable of keeping their promise.
This is part of Paul’s position in our reading…
Not only do we believe in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
We believe that God is capable of delivering on his promise of eternal life.
This is why Paul takes the time to tell Abraham’s story…
Focusing on Abraham’s unwavering faith in his trust in God to fulfill what he promised…
Paul writes:
Hoping against hope,
he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body,
which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God,
but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
So by faith we mean trust in the faithfulness of God and belief in God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
One scholar writes:
The biblical authors generally do not make a distinction between faith as belief and faith as trust, but tend to see true faith as consisting of both what is believed and the personal commitment to a person who is trustworthy, reliable, and able to save.[1]
One can see this idea illustrated in that old game often done at youth groups and office team building events.
Where one person is blind folded or with their eyes closed…
stands straight with their arms out…
Another person stands a few feet behind them and when the person says go… the blind-folded person just falls backward keeping their feet on the ground and hoping the person catches them.
Anyone ever done that game?
Both ideas of faith are present…
First, is the person capable of catching the falling person?
Do I believe in the person behind me?
Are they strong enough, big enough?
Do I believe in them intellectually…
That is have I analyzed the situation?
Are they powerful enough to do the work needed?
But secondly, the person may be strong enough and fully capable…
But are they trustworthy, are they faithful…
What’s their character like?
I have some good friends that I would never play this game with.
Faith in God is specific in what we believe, and it is trusting in who we believe in.
And this brings us to our second word…
Justified or Justification…
Paul writes:
Jesus was raised for our justification.
Justification is a forensic term and is related to the idea of acquittal.[2]
In Biblical usage it refers to the divine act whereby God makes humans,
who sin and become worthy of condemnation…
And yet, he makes them acceptable before a God who is holy and righteous.[3]
Justification means that although I have sinned and deserve punishment…
God has made me clean…
He has justified me…
He has made me justified…
Meaning: just as if I never sinned.
He has given me a clean slate…
He has forgiven and pardoned my sins…
He has renewed me…
And he did this through His Son, Jesus Christ…
Through his death and resurrection…
Again, as Paul writes:
Jesus our Lord was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
And often our two words faith and justification are brought together.
Justification by faith…
An important phrase in our tradition…
In our theology…
It is a Reformation principle that has guided the Protestant Church for 500 years…
In the English Reformation…
Which is our tradition in The Episcopal Church…
Justification by Faith was critical for our reformer Thomas Cranmer as he wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.
We can still see its implications in the Prayer Book…
In Article XI (written in 1552, in our BCP, 870) it states:
We are accounted righteous before God,
only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith,
and not for our own works or deservings.
Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only,
is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort…
Justification by faith is in our confessions…
It is in our prayers…
Like the Prayer of Humble Access when we pray:
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.
The late Anglican theologian in Canada, J.I. Packer, wrote:
Prayer Book worship is, first to last, justification by faith set forth in liturgy.
But in all of this let us take solace in the words of the article of faith…
Where it says about Justification by Faith:
It is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort…
It is here that we find our strength…
Our comfort…
For the promise of God for us is true…
He has the power to heal us and forgive us because of the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And He is reliable, trustworthy, and faithful to keep this very promise of being justified by faith.
We are not justified because we are good enough.
We are not justified because we are innocent.
We are not justified because of who we will be, who we are, or who we were.
God through Jesus Christ justifies us by faith through His grace because he loves us.
Rest in his power and comfort…
Rest in his faithfulness…
For our God is mighty to save.
Amen.
[1] Grenz, Guretzki, Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove: IVP, 1999), 50.
[2] Ibid., 69.
[3] Ibid., 69.
