Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Epistle lesson (Romans 3: 19-28) read earlier.

Most of you know that in my career prior to my seminary training and becoming a pastor, I was a college professor, teaching psychology and counseling.

But I don't believe that many of you know that one of my specific areas of expertise was "career counseling and planning." I really enjoyed that aspect of counseling, helping students and adults determine their interests, abilities and values, helping them learn to make wise long-term career decisions. I spent many hours talking and listening, to groups and to individuals about what kinds of jobs they might find stimulating, what kind of lifestyles they wanted to have. I taught students that, broadly speaking, the terms "career" and "life" were very interchangeable, since one's choice of professional career would effect one's personal life so deeply. In a very real sense, I am still a "career counselor."

But now the talking and listening that I do is not about jobs or economic lifestyles. The counsel I provide is not about how Jane or Joe College Student might earn a living or pursue their interests, as important as those things are. No, in fact the career/life planning I help people with now is even more important, because it is eternal career and eternal life-planning. The career counseling I use to do was important because it might influence how Jane or Joe college student might spend the next 40-50 years of their earthly life. The career counseling I do now is even more crucial, because it has to do with how Jane or Joe Junction Citizen will spend the rest of their eternal lives.

In the career counseling I use to do I used instruments of words, instruments like interest inventories and aptitude tests. Those are very helpful instruments of words, inventories and tests that can help people to understand and change their lives. In the career counseling I do now I am privileged to use the most powerful instrument that uses human words, an instrument that is actually God's Word, the Scriptures He has given us. Through His words our lives are changed, often times in ways we do not understand. Through His Word we become consciously aware of the burden that death, the devil and our own sinful flesh place upon us. Through His Word He gives us new life, eternal life, forgiveness and freedom in His Son Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate Reformation Sunday. In a sense we celebrate the career of the reformer Martin Luther. Now Martin didn't use interest inventories and aptitude tests to choose his career. In fact, he was studying to be a lawyer, what his father wanted him to be, until one day he was caught in a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning knocked him to the ground. Luther prayed that he would become a monk and serve the church if he didn't die in the storm. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that if I had been the career counselor for young Martin, who was then a 21 year-old college student, I probably would have suggested that he reconsider his hasty career decision made under duress. I would have been very wrong.

You see, God used His Word, the Scriptures, to form and shape the career and life of Martin Luther, and to use Martin as an instrument to reform and restore the church. The church at Luther's time had become highly secularized, politically influential, but had neglected its primary calling, to proclaim the love and forgiveness found through faith in Jesus Christ. The church at Luther's time was teaching that eternal life could be purchased, that good works and following the law could earn one's salvation and heavenly career. Luther's rediscovery of the main message of the Bible, especially as found in the book of Romans and our text here today, changed the church and the world forever:
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified (that is, declared innocent) freely by his grace through the ransom that came by Christ Jesus.
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. …
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

For the first five years that Luther was a monk, it was an agonizing career choice for him. He cringed under verses like "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." He knew, better than perhaps any of us, that he was a sinner that did not deserve to have eternal life with God. He agonized to find ways that he, Luther, could somehow earn God's favor. He pursued holiness with a passion during those first five years as a monk. But it was not until the Holy Spirit opened his mind to our text today (along with several others) that he discovered that the righteousness necessary to stand before God doesn't come from within us, but from Jesus Christ. Being a faithful Christian is not about earning God's favor by following God's laws. We are unable to. Being a faithful Christian is about receiving God's favor because of His Son Christ Jesus. In this revelation of the Gospel, God doesn't say "Thou shalt", but He says "I will" in Jesus Christ (Franzmann). The principle of works says to us "Do what God commands", but the principle of faith says "God, please give me what you have promised in Jesus Christ" (Augustine and Luther paraphrased, Luther's lecture on Romans, p. 251)

I said earlier that I was a career counselor, and in a sense I still continue to be. But the counsel I provide today is not to make our own earthly careers our main focus. Now don't get me wrong. Our earthly careers are important to God. He wants us to be competent and dedicated to the vocations we are in, so that others will see the good that we do and be drawn to this Gospel message. 1 Peter 2: 12 - Live such good lives among the unbelievers that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. God wants us to be good workers, parents, children, and citizens, but not because those good works earn any merit with God. He wants us to live lives changed by his Gospel message so that others will be drawn to that same Gospel. When Luther taught his listeners about these verses from Romans 3, he ended with these thoughts that I would like to end with today. He warned all of us that the devil is frightfully clever, a master of a 1000 tricks and leads us away from this Gospel in four primary ways. First, he leads some away by involving them in open and public sin. But others, who think of themselves as righteous, he brings to a stop, makes them lukewarm (Rev. 3: 14ff) and prompts them to give up the desire for Christ's righteousness. A third group the devil seduces into a false desire for holiness, so that they follow after other groups, superstitions and sects. They do not grow cold like the first two groups, but they feverishly engage in works, thinking they can somehow earn God's favor. A fourth group the devil also urges on to more and better good works, to the point that they believe they might be able to be perfect on earth. But then they realize their own sin again, and the devil so frightens them with judgment and wears out their consciences with their sin that they all but despair. Luther went on to say that our sin should displease us, even though we will in this earthly life never be entirely rid of it. But we can know, from God's Word, that the career of Christ carries all our sin, as long as they are displeasing to us, our sins become no longer our sins, but His carried to the cross. His career of righteousness then becomes our career, our life.

So, am I still a career counselor? You bet, and so are you. We are all counseling ourselves and others to follow the career of Jesus Christ, and his righteousness. May we do that now and throughout the rest of our lives. The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always. Amen.