One of the fundamental teachings of the Reformation is that we are saved not by our works, no matter how great we may think they are, but by faith alone. If you grew up in the Lutheran church, no doubt you have heard this in some form for most of your life. It gets ground into you. Faith alone, Sola Fide, faith in the works of Christ, faith that trusts in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord is the means by which you can be sure of your salvation. And for those who came from other spiritual traditions, it is often this central confession that drew them to this fellowship. Your works are not the means of gaining eternal life. Your works, no matter how holy and precious they may seem, always fall short of the requirements of the Law, and so they fail. This means there is no assurance in your deeds. The confidence of salvation is found in the trust of what Christ has done, and this is given by faith alone.

This gift of faith is what Saint Paul is focusing on in our text today. He says, “The righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into Heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim).” The Word of faith that is proclaimed is what we receive. The Word declares the promises of God to you, and to trust in this Word, to believe the Word, to say “Amen” when the Word is declared is the great act of faith. In other words, your faith has an object, and that object is the great deeds of Christ, deeds done for your salvation.

So, Paul goes on and says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” This Word of faith you have received leads to your confession of that faith. The Word of faith which you have received, the Word that proclaimed to you the promises of God, the assurance of salvation in Christ alone, not only does that Word fill you, not only does it give you hope and confidence, but it spills out of your mouth so others might hear and believe. Your faith is not just for you. It turns out it is for your neighbor as well, for your brothers and sisters in Christ, for your friends and coworkers.

The dynamics of faith include a preacher and a hearer. There is the one sent to proclaim the Word, one who is to make the promises of God here and now. And there is the one who needs that external Word. They are the one who receives it, perhaps as a corrective to life lived without repentance or maybe as a comfort to the broken-hearted and hurting. The journey of faith is not a solitary reality. It demands fellowship, a community gathered around the Word. The Word of faith is heard and confessed. It is received and spoken. The Word of faith has called us into a relationship with one another.

We hear Paul say in our text today, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” And we think primarily about the pastor, about the one who has been trained and formed for this singular task, to be a preacher of the Word of faith. Of course, that makes sense. After all, I am the one standing in front of you right now. I have been engaged in this work for over 23 years. This is my vocation, my job. Pastors do lots of things. They are sometimes viewed as counselors, teachers, leaders, and I have even heard that some are good administrators (though I do not exactly excel at that), but above all they are preachers of the Word.

Yet, this action of proclamation is by no means limited to the pastoral office. One of my favorite experiences as a pastor is when I go to see a shut-in or visit a member in the hospital, and I discover one of you has already been there. Sure, you may have stopped by simply because you were thinking about them. Perhaps, you wanted to cheer them up a bit, remind them that they are not alone. But over and again in that moment you speak to each other the Word of faith, you speak about the promises of God, about the assurance of our faith in Christ. You confess to each other the hope you have, and in so doing, the Word of faith continues to go forth. And this is not limited to hospital rooms. It happens in your homes, in those private conversations with good friends, even around coffee and doughnuts after church.

Paul boldly declares, “So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” Faith comes from hearing, not from works, and not from some sort of perfected life that is marked as righteous by the demands of the Law. No, it is the hearing of the Word which creates and sustains faith. Faith is the trusting of the Word of promise. But this also means faith does not come in isolation. Faith does not come apart from one another. There is one who proclaims and one who hears. And those who hear become those who proclaim. We need each other. We have a duty to one another. We live together in a dynamic reality of receiving and confessing the Word of faith. The very gift of faith, for which we give thanks and rejoice, binds us together.

So, Paul calls us to be a people of proclamation. It can be easy to see that we need one another to maintain this place. After all, we need the volunteers who give so graciously of their time and energy, ensuring all the details of running and keeping this congregation afloat are done well. And we all benefit from the generosity of each other’s offerings to pay our bills and plan for the future. None of this is done in isolation. We are in this together. But even more than that, we need each other to regularly and consistently hear the Word of forgiveness, the promise of salvation in Christ alone. We need one another to continue to confess our faith, to proclaim what we have heard. Therefore, rejoice in the working of your God, take a look around, and continue to confess what you have heard and hear what is confessed.