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SERMON
SECOND
PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
460 East Main Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
One for All and All for One
“Furlongs of Faith” #4
October 28, 2012
Romans 5:1-8; Ephesians 2:8-10
Rev. Dr. Daniel T. Hans
Today is Reformation Sunday and the start of the home stretch in our sermon series on
Reformed Theology which is our Presbyterian take on the Christian faith. The first three
furlongs of this six furlong race included: 1) God’s sovereignty with God being in control
even when things seem out of control; 2) holy scripture since we are people of the book
because the Bible points to Jesus who is the revelation of God’s love; and 3) human sin that
leads to life being not the way it’s supposed to be. Today brings us to one of the central
convictions of the Protestant Reformation which is justification by faith.
I
Most of us are familiar with the movie Saving Private Ryan. I use that film as the starting
gate for this sermon. The story begins in a cemetery in Normandy, France. The Stars and
Stripes wave in a breeze above long rows of white crosses marking the graves of fallen
American soldiers. An elderly man kneels before a cross with this inscription:
Captain John Miller
Army Ranger - Pennsylvania
June 14, 1944
The kneeling man is James Francis Ryan. With his wife, children and grandchildren standing
behind him at a distance, he dissolves into tears.
When his wife approaches, he says pleadingly, Tell me… tell me I'm a good man! You are,
she whispers, you are. In deep reflection, James Ryan measures his long life against the
memories of those who died young to save him.
Fifty years earlier, Ryan, one of four sons from an Iowa farm, parachuted into France on DDay. Unknown to him, but known to General Marshall and his staff, Ryan's three brothers
have been killed in action. General Marshall orders that Ryan be found and sent home. His
staff protests. Risks to the rescuers are too great and completely unjustified. The General
counters by quoting a letter written to a mother who reportedly lost five sons in another war.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave
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you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be
yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. - Abraham Lincoln
As the letter is read, the scene shifts to a mother in Iowa washing dishes at the kitchen sink as
she watches an army staff car approach the farmhouse. Out step an army officer and a
minister who have come to tell her the sad news about her three dead sons. Back in
Washington, General Marshall demands, I want Private Ryan found and sent home!
Hours later, Captain John Miller and his squad of soldiers begin their dangerous search for
saving Private Ryan. Casualties soon mount. One by one the squad's number in diminished.
With each loss the survivors question the worth of the sacrifice. This guy Ryan, wherever he
is, says one soldier bitterly, had better invent the world's greatest light bulb! But what
accomplishment by one man could be worth the sacrifice of so many others?
Private Ryan is eventually found, but the remnant of the rescuers is lost.
His final deliverance follows a bloody battle on a bridge. When the fighting ceases, Private
Ryan bends over the mortally wounded Captain Miller who utters two words to him: Earn
this. Earn it. The message seems clear: Freedom purchased by the dying must be earned
by the living.
And so, fifty years later an elderly man remembers and cries and wonders: Has he earned it?
Tell me… tell me I'm a good man!
II
At the movie's end I couldn't help but wonder: Was Private Ryan a good man? Was his one
life worth the deaths of so many? Such questions need not be answered for they are
immaterial. It didn't matter whether Private Ryan was a good man or a bad man, whether he
would invent the world's greatest light bulb or be an Iowa farmer. Captain John Miller and
his squad did not have the luxury of determining who was worthy to be rescued and who was
not. They were sent on a mission to save Private Ryan whoever and whatever he was,
whoever and whatever he might become. They were under orders from on high. In the end,
all died for the one to be saved - all for one.
From that battlefield where all died for one, it's not a big step to another battlefield of sorts
where one died for all. From the cross-laden cemetery in Normandy where James Francis
Ryan kneeled to assess his life before the sacrifices made for him, we have opportunity to
bow at the single cross standing before us to assess our lives before the sacrifice made for us.
Living under the shadow of the cross, who among us doesn't want to be told: You are a good
person; your life is worth the death of the Son of God?
But, again, such statements are immaterial. It doesn’t matter whether you and I are good
people or bad people, whether we become movers and shakers or live our lives in relative
obscurity. Jesus Christ did not have the luxury of determining who was worthy to be saved
and who was not. He was sent on a mission to save all of us, whoever and whatever we are,
whoever and whatever we might become. He was under orders from on high. In the end, one
died for all to be saved - one for all.
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With Saving Private Ryan it was all for one and with the saving Lord Jesus it is one for all.
Salvation is not something to be taken lightly; it requires deep gratitude. And salvation is not
automatic; it requires a personal response. Private Ryan knew this; do we?
III
The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s reminded the church that its basic identity lies in the
biblical message that we are justified by faith. Paul declares in his Romans letter: Since we
are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:1); and Paul
declares in his Ephesians letter: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is
not your own doing, it is the gift of God. (2:8)
Justification by faith means that we, who are sinful people, are declared righteous and
acceptable by God, and therefore are reconciled to God. This happens not on the basis of
whether we are good people and not on the basis of whether we will go on and earn our
forgiveness and new life. Our salvation is based solely upon the love of God who sacrificed
Himself for us through his own Son - one for all.
Our salvation has nothing to do with what we do for God and everything to do with what
God has done for us. Paul understood this better than anyone else when he wrote: For while
we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone
die for a righteous person- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to
die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
(Rom. 5: 6-8)
Justification by faith is a fancy way of saying that which anyone who has ever tried to live a
perfect life knows to be true: We can't save ourselves.
Seminary professor Len Sweet has said: The movie “Saving Private Ryan” is a powerful
testimony, not to the onward march of civilization through time, but to the fact that we stand
in need of a Savior. (Soul Tsunami, p. 304)
We need a savior because we can't be right with God by our own efforts.
A young man from Texas tells about his last college exam- a final in a logic class notorious
for hard exams. To assist the students, the professor told them they could bring as much
information to the exam as they could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students
crammed as many facts as possible on an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper. But one student walked
into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor and had a graduate student in
philosophy stand on the paper. This grad student stood there and told the undergrad
everything he needed to know. He was the only student in the class to ace the exam.
(Leadership, Vol. 15, No. 3) We need a savior to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us a savior.
In Jesus Christ, God gives us one who dies for all.
Such a gift of God’s abundant grace requires a personal response. Without the acceptance of
a gift, the offer of a gift is incomplete. Without accepting salvation through faith in God,
through trust in God, the offer of our salvation is incomplete. As Paul states in Romans: we
are justified by faith and in Ephesians: by grace you have been saved through faith. Without
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faith, without trust in God, without giving our lives to God, there is no justification before
God, no salvation in God, no peace with God.
IV
Staring into the face of such an undeserved gift, what can we do but open our hearts to accept
the gift and begin to live the new life we are given!
The only reasonable and faithful response to the gift of salvation is a life of commitment and
stewardship. Earlier in our worship this morning after we confessed our sin together and
received the assurance of God’s forgiveness in Christ, we sang the words of commitment
from the hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross": Love so amazing, so divine demands
my soul, my life, my all.
Our salvation is expressed in the words: one for all; and our stewardship is expressed in the
words: all for one. All for one! All of us- living in faithful service to our one Savior. All
for one! Each of us- using all that we have been given for our one Lord. We cannot earn the
gift of our salvation, but we can live our lives of faith in such a way that we honor the
sacrifice of the one who gives us life.
What could Private Ryan possibly do with his life that would earn the sacrifices made for
him? Inventing the world's greatest light bulb wouldn't do it! Nor would finding the cure for
cancer earn the price those young soldiers paid for him. And yet, he could live his life in a
way that demonstrated profound gratitude for the gift. He could live his life in humble awe
of the sacrifices made for him. And maybe, in that way, he could earn it!
Maybe the simple act of kneeling down on the ground with tears flowing and with a hunger
to hear that his life has been a blessing to someone showed that he did “earn it”. Not "earn
it" in the sense that he did some act that proved him worthy; but "earn it" in the sense that he
humbly accepted the unmerited gift offered to one who was completely unworthy.
There is nothing you and I can do to merit God's gift of salvation to us. But there is
something we can do to receive this unmerited expression of God's saving grace for us. We
can open our hearts to accept it. In Paul's words: For by grace you have been saved through
faith. (Eph 2:8) Through our faith in God, we can live in such a way as to say: thank you.
How might that be? Again, in Paul's words: For we are what God has made us, created in
Christ Jesus for good works… to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:10)
What better time to remember our call to be stewards of God's grace, to be humble and
grateful servants of God, than on Reformation Sunday at the midpoint of this sermon series
and in the midst of our stewardship campaign! We are justified by grace through faith! We
are made right with God through our trust in God’s sacrifice for us.
Our salvation is born from the sacrifice of one for all and our salvation lives in the sacrifices
of all for one. Salvation is a great gift and a great obligation. Private Ryan knew this; do
we?