FREEDOM IN JESUS
John 8:31-36
Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2007
Stephen H. Becker, M. Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
For us Lutherans, today is an especially important day, as today is Reformation Sunday. It’s the day in the Church year where we remember the events that lead up to the “Reformation”—the things that were going on and the things that Martin Luther did to eventually RE – FORM the church, to help God’s earthly Church, which was definitely heading in the wrong direction, to change course, and to lead Jesus’ flock in the direction that the Lord Himself had described. You see, before the Reformation, the Church, it’s leaders and the people in the Church were all being help captive—were all being made slaves as it were to sin. Now those of you who know my theology know that I am a big teacher of Grace—being saved by believing in Jesus’ work on the cross as the only way to God. Yet, before the Reformation, there were few people in the church, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, who understood what FREEDOM IN JESUS meant. They were being taught to work hard in any way they could to try to “earn” their way into heaven, instead of relying on Jesus’ work as a completed task, relying on Jesus’ death on the cross as the guarantee of freedom from the bondage of slavery. For Jesus said, “if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Amen! So today, on Reformation Sunday, I’d like to take a look at what it means for us Christians to be a slave, and what it means to be free. How we go from one status to another. How others have done it before us, and how Jesus has set the way for us into stone. Let’s open with prayer…
My ancestors immigrated to America in 1952, right in the middle of the civil rights movement. And as Lutherans we typically talk about Dr. Martin Luther today on Reformation Sunday—I’ve already mentioned him, but I want to mention another very great Dr. Martin Luther, but this time I’m talking about the great civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior: a great American who had a vision—a dream of freedom for all people. Dr. Martin Luther King gave up his life for what he knew to be right…the freedom of all people, regardless of color, religion, or ethnicity. You see, Dr. King knew that without such freedom, we Americans were being held captive as slaves to ways that fall not only outside of human decency, but certainly outside of God’s laws as well. Dr. King knew that as slaves, we were just like Jesus said in our reading tonight: “A slave has no permanent place in the family” “but a son belongs to it forever.’ Dr. King was fighting for the civil rights of those oppressed in America during his time, which were mostly black people. But I honestly believe that Dr. King’s looked past that fact that it was his own race that was being oppressed. He was looking to the fact that people—any people—God’s people—were being oppressed, being held as slaves as it were to a society that wanted to hold them back. And so this became Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s life’s mission. One that ultimately cost him his life.
Dr. King was a great American. But he was no god or no prophet. Just like Dr. King, his name-sake, Dr. Martin Luther, was also a great person. About 450 years before Dr. King, the Reformer of the Church, Dr. Luther, saw the wrongs there and, without fear and through the power of God the Holy Spirit, set out to publicize those wrongs in order to set them right. As I mentioned, during the time of the Reformation, Luther knew that the teaching of the Church during that time had gone grossly wrong. So on October 31, 1517—exactly 490 years and three days ago, Luther wrote down what he believed to be wrong with the Church’s teachings and nailed those ideas—those theses—to the door of the most famous church in town—a church called the Castle Church. Just like Martin Luther King Jr., the great Reformer of the Christian Church, Dr. Luther wanted God’s ways to be emphasized and to be put first. Where Dr. King saw so many of America’s people being held captive, being held as slaves as it were, to a social system that put them down, Dr. Luther saw that Christians everywhere were being held captive by a Church that refused to teach them the truth about Jesus Christ. You see, the Church and its human leaders of 1517 were interested in only one thing…keeping the people in their place by scaring them. The Roman Catholic Church of that time taught that we were all sinners, doomed because of God’s Law. True enough, and I agree with that teaching ; however instead of then teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ—that He died for you and for me—they instead taught that the only way one could get into heaven was to be a member of that specific Roman Catholic Church, by paying certain amounts of money to the Church, and additionally by doing other things, one could theoretically earn their way in God’s heaven. The leaders of the Church of 1517 were holding Christians as slaves to fear of the Church. And so on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther wrote down these gross errors and put them in a public place for everyone to see. And the Church that you and I are worshiping in tonight is here because of that teaching of Martin Luther. But it’s not Luther’s teaching. It’s Jesus’.
In our reading tonight, Jesus was speaking to a group of Jewish people who acted as though perhaps they were following His teachings, but when we look at John’s syntax, we can see that, in fact they were only acting as though they believed in Him. So to the Jews who “had believed him,” Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But these people didn’t believe the Lord. They believed in themselves and their own ways of trying to earn heaven. In fact, they were so sure of their own methods of working their way into heaven, they were literally blind to the fact that they were in reality slaves … slaves to sin and death. They were happy with the status quo. Just like many African Americans of the mid-20th century were used to the status quo, of being “put into their place,” Dr. King went out of his way to remind them that they are God’s children, and are worth far more than that. And just as Dr. Luther went out of his way to remind all Christians everywhere that sin is no obstacle to God, if we have Jesus Christ in our lives. With the burden of slavery to sin out of the way, Jesus emphasized that we now have the truth…”Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So friends, what is that truth that Jesus was talking about?...a truth so powerful that both Dr. Luther and, 500 years later, Dr. King went out of their way to talk about? That truth is Freedom. So let’s take a look at what freedom means, especially freedom in Jesus Christ: we’ll do that by first looking at what freedom does not mean:
Being free in Jesus Christ does not mean that were are miracously going to stop sinning. Being sinners, living in a sinful world, there is sin all around us and Satan will continue to try to lead us to sin every day of our lives. In fact, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is no in us.” Knowing that we sin, and are prone to sinning, we can take our sin to God, asking for His forgiveness and asking God to help us to avoid the same sin in the future. “If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God loves us. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son into this world to die for us, and through our faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven our of sins. So freedom in Christ is knowing that we are sinners, knowing that God will help us to avoid sin, but also knowing that when we do stumble and fall into sin, God will forgive us. We don’t go looking for sin, but when we do fall into it, God is there, and in His justice He will forgive us of our sin because of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 5 that God’s gift of forgiveness of sins isn’t a license to go and sin more, but rather a license to be freed from the influence of sin, being free in the truth of Jesus Christ, being free to ask God to help us to be strong, even when Satan’s temptations are the strongest. So, for us Christians, freedom begins and ends with Jesus Christ.
500 years ago, Dr. Luther had no idea what his protests against the false teachings of the Catholic Church would end up doing. I wonder if, fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Junior could have seen how far America has come in the matter of civil rights. Are we at that place that Dr. King dreamed of? A place of complete freedom for all people? I don’t think so, but we have come far. Is the Christian Church today as Martin Luther had envisioned it some 500 years ago? Again, I don’t think so, but we’ve come far. And we are, where we are, because of the Grace of God. You see, it’s like Jesus is talking about in verse 34: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” The early Church, because of the events of the Reformation that were triggered by Luther’s protests, the Church saw its “sins…” its wrong ways. And the Catholic Church of 2007 is far removed from the Catholic Church of 1517. America saw its sin in the middle of the 20th century and many people…of all colors…set out to do something about it. Because they understood that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” America saw how the civil injustices were holding it back. It took a while, but the Catholic Church saw how its wrong-teachings were holding back the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, when Jesus is talking about “everyone who sins is a slave to sin,” He’s not saying that we’re going to get it perfect; He’s not saying that today we can make the choice to never, ever sin again. We are sinners. We are going to sin. But the difference is that we are FORGIVEN SINNERS who turn away from sin. And because of Jesus Christ, God no longer holds our sins against us. Just as Dr. Luther and Dr. King wanted to leave the old, wrong, hurtful ways of the past behind them, Jesus was teaching that because of Him, and because of His sacrifice on the cross and our belief in His work, we too could leave our hurtful, sinful ways of the past behind us. And without sins, we become part of God’s family. Not because of who we are or what we’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done for us.
Verse 35 tells us that a slave has no permanent place in the family because a son belongs to it forever. That’s a pretty packed verse of Scripture. You see, when we are serving our sins, meaning when we are giving in to what we want to do and what Satan is tempting us to do, instead of leading a life that Jesus has put before us, we basically are worshipping a new god: the sin. But when we allow God and Christ to pull us out of sinful ways, we worship God and God alone. We are no longer slaves to the sin that is pulling us away from God. Now as I said, that temptation will always be there, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that each one of us receives when we become part of God’s family, God gives us the ability—His ability—to turn from being slaves to sin, to being a permanent part of God’s family—forever. And how does this work? What’s the “secret” as it were? Well really, it’s no secret at all. In fact, it’s all about Jesus, His public ministry, His real life, His real death, and His real resurrection. You see, when Jesus sets us free from the slavery of sin, when God “the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” That’s the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who has come to set us all free from the bondage of sin. That’s the message that Dr. Martin Luther spent his life, some 500 years ago, writing and preaching and talking about. And that’s the same message that Dr. King was trying to tell not only those who society was trying to hold as slaves, but to that society itself: when we follow God’s way, the way of truth, remembering that God is love, we will be set free to do the right thing, and in doing the right thing, we are set free from the bondage of sin. My friends, Jesus Christ is that key—He is that truth that opens the door to a life, free from sin, for each one of us. Many good Christians of the past like Dr. Luther and Dr. King understood Jesus’ message and dedicated their lives to teaching it. I hope tonight in our reading from John 8 we can also see Jesus’ precious message, and that is because of Him—because of the Lord Jesus Christ—“you will be free indeed!.” When we bring the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives, all of the burdens of this life fall by the wayside because of the Grace and Peace we find through the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through that faith, through that Grace and Peace of Jesus Christ, living a Godly life and treating all people as God’s children becomes natural to us when we see everyone as just that: children of a loving, almighty God. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” My friends, we are free indeed because of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the true faith…
