Scripture: Galatians 2:15-20; Luke 24:1-9; Philippians 3:12-14
Salvation is not a crown we earn by our own faith or effort but the gift of the faithfulness of Christ, who saves us through the cross and the empty tomb so we live as free, reconciled children of God.
Illustrations: sports-final-score, french-arbre-cross, rhyme-across-languages, influencer-supplement, child-tie-shoes-by-myself, pull-up-by-bootstraps, andrew-of-crete-cross, and-can-it-be-hymn
October 12, 2025
The Crown of Salvation
Galatians 2:15-20
Luke 24:1-9
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:15-20
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. - Luke 24:1-9
There are many aspects of life where I don’t like ambiguity. I want clarity. One of the things I appreciate about sports is the clarity at the end of the game There’s a winner and a loser. Even if everybody can find an excuse about what should have happened on this call or that call, the record is set at the end of the game: the winner and the loser can move on to the next event.
A lot of people expect clarity from the Bible in every line. One of the reasons for this is that translators, over the last century, have translated towards clarity. They paraphrase the Greek and Hebrew into English in order to make it sound good in English.
And yet, there are some problems here, because if you have ever studied another language, translation is always about a choice. There is no perfect translation or else there would be no need for a translation because it would be the same language. When translating, you have to choose between words.
For instance, in French, the word for tree is arbre, but it’s not exactly the same word in English. In French, the second meaning of arbre is the cross on which Jesus died. In English, it is the fourth.
There are other aspects in translation concerning more poetic elements of a style. That is, different languages have different stylistic norms. Even just rhyming, tree rhymes with bee or see. Arbre rhymes with marbre, the French word for marble.
Another level of complexity concerns syntax, with Greek as a perfect example of this. In the Greek in which the New Testament was written, the word order of a sentence does not matter grammatically as it does in English. In Greek, we understand which part of speech each word represents through its prefix or suffix, but word order is only about emphasis. There are other languages, like German, where word order matters tremendously more than even in English.
You don’t have to be an English major or study Greek to be a Christian, but you should understand that words matter in this life. One of the greatest tricks someone can do to deceive us is to transform choice into necessity. They didn’t choose to do this, they had no choice. When we take away choice, we take away agency and accountability. This works for everyday life. That is, we should always be wary when someone describes something as necessary. An influencer telling you “You need this supplement.” As well, when we read the Bible, whenever something sounds confusing or out of step, it is good to confer with another translation and not just assume the translator is smarter than you. Confer with a brother or sister in Christ.
So when we come to our first reading from Galatians, there are two words in Greek that are translated in radically different ways and matter tremendously for our faith. pistis christou. They are commonly translated as faith in Jesus Christ we are saved by faith in Christ. If you have been in the church before, you have probably heard this line. And yet, an equally valid reading grammatically is that “we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
The first translation makes us justified by something we do, we have faith in Jesus Christ. The second translation makes us justified by what Jesus has done, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who justifies, who makes us righteous and holy. Jesus is the one who saves.
Series Intro
My friends, we are continuing our series on the stained class windows at Covenant with this window, The Crown of Salvation.
The question for us today really is: who wears the crown of salvation? Does Jesus give us a crown that we can wear because of our faith in Jesus? Or is Jesus the crown offering salvation for us? Is salvation something we earn? Or is salvation something done for us by Jesus?
Paul in his letter to the Romans is clear that we are saved by faith and not by works, and yet many traditions in the church, many readings of scripture turn faith into a work, an action that we do, and this can become slightly contradictory.
In the more common reading of Galatians 2, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Well, that kind of turns faith into a work because we’re the ones who do it. Yet, if we were saved by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we are not the ones who do it; it is gift all the way down.
Now, many of us have a big bootstrap ideology going on where we want to take care of our own business. As our youngest child used to say, I do it by myself. He was learning how to tie his shoes and really wanted to finish it.
Sometimes we can drift into this sort of understanding of God. I do it by myself. Thanks, Jesus, but I’ve got this.
This is the definition of hubris. We don’t got this. We can’t got this. On our best days, we can’t save our selves. We can’t save our loved ones. We can’t make the world right. We need to be saved. We don’t need to wear a crown, but to worship the one who wears the crown through his actions on the cross.
An early church father, Andrew of Crete, described the centrality of the cross in this beautiful manner:
Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled. -Andrew of Crete
Christ was faithful even to the point of death, death on a cross. This is how we are offered life today. Not because of what we have done. Not because of our bootstraps, but because Jesus did not shun us nor shun the cross.
Christ has won the victory, still we must run the race. As Paul says in Philippians 3
“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 NRSV
Our clarity is in this heavenly call. Our clarity is in Christ’s victory.
It is worthwhile living a life in response to Christ’s great act, because to live otherwise is to live a life of lies. It is a lie to think we can save ourselves or save the world. Christ is the one who acted. Christ is the one who has offered himself for us.
We have heard the great Charles Wesley hymn, And Can it Be, two different ways this morning. It is my favorite hymn with a deep understanding of Christ’s action on the cross to save us.
And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?
For me? Really? He did it for me? How amazing is that?
’Tis mystery all! Th’Immortal dies! Who can explore His strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries To sound the depths of love divine! ‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore, Let angel minds inquire no more.
Who can explain the strange design of God to give up his son, Jesus, for us? How deep are the depths of divine love?
He left His Father’s throne above, So free, so infinite His grace; Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race; ‘Tis mercy all, immense and free; For, O my God, it found out me.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
Our spirits lie imprisoned when we give in to the lie of the world, that we must save ourselves through our jobs or our families or our politics or our retirements. The encounter with God that shakes us from that lie frees us, as if chains fall off. Then finally,
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach th’eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
The crown is only offered through Christ and after being justified, after being clothed in divine righteousness.
This is the power of the empty tomb
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body.
They did not find it because he wasn’t there for us.
When you come into this holy place and see this window, may you remember that the tomb is empty. He is not there. The faithfulness of Christ has justified us and reconciled. So let us live as free and reconciled children of God, and not children of lies.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.