The sermons for our Midweek services this year are on our stained glass windows. This evening, we continue by considering the window with Luther’s seal. Once again, a diagram of this window is found on the cover of your worship folder.

It is a picture of a black cross, within a red heart, resting upon a white rose, with a sky blue background, encircled by a gold ring. Martin Luther himself designed this symbol as his coat of arms, and saw the essence of his theology summed up in it. This theology of Luther’s seal is also beautifully described in these words of our text. So, what I would like to do in our sermon this evening is to go through this text, using Luther’s seal as an outline.

In the very center of the symbol is a black cross in a red heart. This is to is to signify that faith in Christ crucified within our hearts is what saves us. As St. Paul says elsewhere in Romans if one believes from the heart he will be justified. That’s what St. Paul also says in the opening words of our text, “Therefore, having been justified by faith…” The word therefore points back to what St. Paul had said previously in this epistle.

In those previous chapters, St. Paul thoroughly establishes the point that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. As sinners, all people are therefore under the wrath and judgment of God. But Christ has saved us. His death on the cross has made atonement for the sins of the world.

And now the benefits of Christ’s death comes to us personally through faith, which is a gift that the Holy Spirit works in us through the Gospel and the Sacraments. All this is the teaching that our text sums up when it says “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith...” Justified means that God has declared us innocent for Christ’s sake and put us back into a right relationship with Himself. Our text says this has taken place through faith. But remember the “therefore,” which tells us that the faith that justifies is very specific. It is not just believing any old thing. It is to believe with your whole heart that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has fully paid the price for your forgiveness through His sacrificial death on the cross. That is Luther’s black cross in a red heart.

This heart then rests on a white rose. This is to show that faith in Christ gives joy, comfort, and peace. As Luther puts it, “This [faith in Christ] places the believer into a white joyful rose.”

This is also what our text goes on to say, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This peace is, first of all, peace with God. Whereas, God was once angry with us because of our sins, He has now become friendly toward us because of Christ’s redemption. This peace gives us access to God’s grace, in which we now stand. This grace means God is now our dear heavenly Father, who guards and protects us, watches over us and provides for our needs. He invites us to pray to Him and He offers help in all our times of trouble.

Knowing this, of course, gives us great comfort and joy. It gives us that “Peace of God which passes all understanding.” As Luther puts it, “It places us into a white joyful rose.” Luther said that he chose white as the color for his rose, instead of red, to show that the peace we have through Christ is different from the peace that the world gives. The peace the world offers depends on our circumstances. But the Christian’s peace depends on God.

The rose is placed on a sky blue background. This is to show the hope that Christians already have, even in this life. Although we are not yet in heaven, we have already begun to receive heavenly blessings through faith in Christ. Our text says, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Our text is not just speaking about a wish we have that things will get better in the future. The hope is heaven itself. It is the inheritance that even now awaits us as heirs of eternal life. This hope is just as certain for us as the atonement of Jesus Christ which paid the price for our sins, and led to our justification. Our text even says that as we see how God works through our trials this hope becomes clearer and surer to us. Our trials even help keep us more focused on our inheritance in heaven.

Then, finally, the outer part of Luther’s seal is a gold ring. This represents the eternal life that awaits us in heaven. Luther wants to remind us that heaven is more than gold, which for him was the most valuable of metals. The gold is in the shape of a ring, to remind us that the blessedness of heaven is eternal, it will never end.

Our text brings out the certainty of heaven when it says that “hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” In other words, this eternal life is just as certain as God’s love for us. St. Paul says this love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is a reference to how the Holy Spirit keeps pouring this love into our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel and through the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. So every time you hear the preaching of the Gospel or think of your baptism, or hear the absolution after you have confessed your sins, or receive the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, you should think of it as God saying, “I love you,” to you personally, and assuring you again of the everlasting life that awaits you in heaven.

And that eternal life is, as Luther depicts it in the golden ring, a very great treasure. Later in this epistle, St. Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us,” that is the glory that awaits us in heaven. He also writes in First Corinthians, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” It is a rich treasure indeed that awaits believers in heaven, rich beyond our imagination.

That then is the message of our window with Luther’s seal on it. It speaks beautifully of how our justification is through faith, on the basis of our Savior’s atoning death. It speaks of the peace and hope of eternal life that we now have as a result of our justification by faith.

It is appropriate that this particular window was purchased with the gifts that our congregation gave in celebration of our Synod’s 150th anniversary. For this window is specifically Lutheran. You see, it is possible that any of the other symbols on any of the other windows would be found in churches of other denominations. But it is very unlikely that this symbol of Luther’s seal would be found anywhere else other than in a Lutheran Church.

And so this window reminds us that we are unashamedly Lutheran in our confession. We are Lutheran, not out of some false pride in our heritage, but because we believe that the Lutheran teaching (doctrine), as expressed in the Lutheran confessions, is the truest form of the Christian faith, as that faith is expressed in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, as Lutherans we unconditionally subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions because they are the teaching of the Bible.

You will notice that around the gold ring in our window is a red circle. The circle is red because that’s the color for Reformation Sunday and other days in the church year when the Christian confession of faith is emphasized. This reminds us that we are united with all those who have come before us, who have stood upon the sure foundation of God’s Word. And at the heart of our confession of God’s Word is this precious Gospel of justification by God’s grace, through faith in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. It is our prayer, as we dedicate this window tonight, that God will use it as a reminder of this faith we confess, and that by His grace He will keep us always steadfast in this faith and confession, which leads to the treasures of eternal life. Amen