A sermon preached by the Dean of Melbourne, the Very Revd Dr Andreas Loewe, on the First Sunday in Lent 2025.
On Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten journey by reflecting on what I called ‘heart work’—the inward transformation that God seeks to bring about in each of us. I contrasted the ‘heart work’ of Lent to which we are invited with the ‘hard work’ of outward religious observance and the targets and achievements celebrated by our society. Today, as we continue our journey through Lent, our reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans invites us to explore this theme further, and to delve more deeply into seeing how when we let God work in our hearts, we are changed; how brings about righteousness and salvation.
Paul’s letter to the Romans is addressed to a community of Jewish and Gentile Christians—people with very different understandings of how people should relate to God. For Jewish believers, the law of Moses had been the path to righteousness for generations. For Gentile converts, this was alien territory. The message of our patron saint to both groups is revolutionary: ‘Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes’ (Romans 10.4).
What does Paul mean when he declares that ‘Christ is the end of the law’? The Greek word Paul uses—τέλος (telos)—carries a number of meanings. The word can mean either ‘termination’ or ‘conclusion,’ but it can also mean ‘goal’ or ‘fulfillment’. In Jesus Christ, God’s law reaches both its culmination and its conclusion; in Christ, God fulfils his law.
Let me explain. For centuries, the people of God had striven to attain righteousness by their meticulous obedience to the law. Paul reminds us how Moses, in Leviticus 18, had told the people of Israel: ‘Those who do these things’—God’s laws that Moses gave the people—’will live by them’ (Rom 10.5, citing Lev 18.5). Such an approach to righteousness required hard work—constant vigilance, scrupulous attention to detail, rigorous self-discipline.
The path of hard work is a path many of us still instinctively follow. We believe that if we just try harder, pray longer, study more deeply, give more generously, or serve more sacrificially, we will somehow earn God’s approval. When we engage in spiritual ‘hard work’—we attempt to achieve salvation through our own efforts. And inevitably, we find ourselves exhausted, discouraged, and still falling short of what God has set out in his laws.
That’s where Paul’s message is so liberating. He tells the Jewish and gentile followers of Jesus in Rome that Christ has put an end to this futile struggle. Because Christ has fulfilled the law’s demands on our behalf. The hard work that you and I could never complete has already been accomplished in him. In the cross, all was accomplished. When Christ breathes his last, he exclaims, ‘Τετέλεσται’—’It is finished’. The law is fulfilled. Hard work is accomplished, so that heart work may begin. And that work begins when you and I enter into the path of discipleship: by taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.
Or to use the language of our lesson from Romans: heart work begins when we open our own hearts to God and his Word.
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God’s word is never far from us, Paul assures the Romans. And again he quotes Moses; this time from Deuteronomy 30. He frames his argument by way of a rhetorical question: ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (Rom 10.6), he asks his Roman readers. In its original context, Moses was telling the Israelites that God’s commandment ‘is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us?”’ (Deut 30.11-12). Moses made clear that God’s word was much nearer than heaven, or the abyss. It was right there; fully accessible to God’s people.
And now Paul takes the words of Moses, spoken at the end of the forty year sojourn through the desert on the way to the Promised Land, to speak of the work of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to ascend to heaven ourselves to bring Christ down or descend to the depths to bring him up from the dead. God has already done the impossible for us. The incarnation has happened: Christ was made flesh and born a human child laid in a manger. The resurrection is accomplished: Christ truly died and was raised from the dead. God’s living word is much closer to us than heaven and hell—it’s in our mouths and in our hearts.
This is what heart work is about. Rather than do the hard work of trying to move heaven and earth, and possibly plunge hell as well in order to gain Christ, we need to look inside us. Hard work says: ‘I must work harder to reach God’.
Heart work, on the other hand, knows that God has already reached down to us. Hard work is based on our own achievements; heart work is based on God choosing to come close to us.
Let me explain. The heart surgeon doesn’t ask the patient to perform their own operation. That would be impossible. Instead, it’s the surgeon who undertakes the complex, delicate work of repair. Our role as patients is to trust in the expertise and skill and then to participate actively in the rehab process. While the surgeon does the essential healing, our cooperation in rehabilitation is crucial for full recovery. In the same way, God has already accomplished the work of our salvation. Our role is to trust in his salvation and grace, and then live out of the strength, and into the power, of the healing he provides.
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At the heart of Paul’s letter to the Romans stands this affirmation: ‘If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved’ (Rom 10.9-10). Paul here highlights both the inward and outward dimensions of our faith. Believing is something internal, it’s a reality that rooted in our hearts. But true faith doesn’t remain private—it needs to find expression in public confession and public service.
On Ash Wednesday, we reflected on the prophet Joel’s call to ‘rend your hearts and not your garments’ in response to God’s invitation to turn to him (Joel 2.13). We were invited to interior conversion, not outward ritual. In our lesson, Paul makes an important further connection. The rent heart—the heart that is opened to God’s grace—naturally leads to confession. The heart that has been transformed by God’s work can’t help but speak.
That is a pattern we can recognise throughout Scripture. Isaiah cried, ‘Woe is me!’ when he beheld God’s holiness, but on encountering the transformational power of God we call ‘grace’ he then declared: ‘Here am I, send me!’ (Isaiah 6.5, 8). In the same way at the beginning of his own journey with Jesus, Peter fell at his knees trying to turn Jesus away: ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’, he exclaimed. But later, as he encountered more and more of the grace-filled acts and teachings of Jesus, he boldly confessed him as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (Luke 5.8, 9.20). Heart work always manifests in outward expression. The heart that has experienced God’s grace cannot do other than become a heart that confesses God’s goodness.
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You may say to yourselves: ‘I can see how this may be true for the heroes of faith: Isaiah was a powerful prophet, and Peter the rock on which the church is built. But I am not a powerful prophet, or the rock on which the church rests’. Well, Paul has good news for us. The same grace that is at work in the heroes of faith like Isaiah and Peter is also at work in each one of us. There is no essential difference. All are included; regardless of background, even regardless of past experience or action. As Paul explains in our lesson: ‘For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”.’ (Rom 10.12-13). That is indeed good news: heart work is open to all.
Where the path of hard work always creates distinctions, heart work is accessible to all. Where hard work distinguishes between those who achieve more and those who achieve less, between experts and novices, between the disciplined and the struggling, the path of grace eliminates these distinctions. The same Lord is Lord of all, and he responds with equal generosity to all who call on him, Paul knows.
I think that this is perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Paul’s message. In a world that—then and now—is divided by ethnicity, culture, social status, and religious background, Paul proclaims a level playing field. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. Because Christ took down all division into himself at the cross, and broke all barriers by letting himself be broken, we may approach him with confidence—confidence that each one of us may approach and ask for grace. Because each one of us, regardless of our background or achievements, stands in need of God’s grace. And we are assured that each one of us, who calls on our loving God in faith, will receive the same generous response.
Heart work isn’t reserved for church leaders, biblical heroes, or spiritual giants. It’s the everyday transformation that happens in ordinary lives—the office worker who prays for colleagues, the parent who demonstrates forgiveness to their kids, the student who stands for justice among peers. Where God’s word dwells in our hearts, each of us can become a unique expression of his grace, regardless of title or position. The beauty of Paul’s message is that the same Lord richly blesses all who call on him—from cathedral Deans to first-time visitors, from lifelong believers to those who are just beginning their journeys of faith.
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As we continue our Lenten journey, you and I are invited to move deeper into heart work—to allow God’s word to dwell richly within us, transforming us from the inside out. We’re called to set aside the exhausting path of hard work, of striving to earn what can only be received as gift.
As we travel with Christ this Lent, I hope that we may come to realise more deeply that he has already accomplished what we could not do. Christ has fulfilled the law’s demands. He has made God’s saving presence accessible to us. He has opened the way for all people to experience God’s grace.
Our response to such good news is faith. We are called to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. Our response is to receive the word that is near us—not distant or inaccessible, but as close as our own heartbeat. Our calling is to open our hearts wide to God’s grace and to live into the reality that of God’s transforming love, so freely gifted us.
This Lent, I hope that you and I will make time to allow God to continue the heart work he has begun in us. May we set aside our striving and instead rest in his finished work. May we open our hearts to the word that is near us and allow that word to transform us from inside out. As we journey through Lent, may we, grow in our understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done, so that our confession becomes not just words on our lips but the deepest conviction of our hearts.
Gracious God,
We thank you that you have drawn near to us in Jesus Christ,
bringing your word not to distant heavens or remote depths,
but close to our hearts and on our lips.
We confess that we often fall into the trap of hard work,
striving to earn what you freely give,
exhausting ourselves in pursuit of your approval.
This Lent, open our hearts to receive the gift of your grace.
Help us to believe deeply in Christ’s finished work
and to confess boldly the sovereignty of Jesus in our lives.
Transform us from the inside out,
that our hearts might be places where your word dwells richly.
Make us witnesses to your generous love that knows no distinction,
that embraces all who call upon your name.
As we continue our Lenten journey,
may we set aside striving and rest in your grace,
finding our righteousness not in what we do,
but in what you have already accomplished
in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.