The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the 8th chapter:
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.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It is a blessed thing to celebrate the Reformation, especially this 501st anniversary of its beginning. And this isn’t because it was started by Luther and we call ourselves Lutheran. We don’t celebrate just for the sake of celebrating. We celebrate this day because it was the Church’s return to the preaching of the Gospel, the free forgiveness of sins, justification by grace through faith. This is huge.
It’s huge because we are constantly tempted to turn away from the truth. We are constantly tempted to forsake our Lord’s teachings. We are still the church of the Reformation, we are still in the Reformation, not that we are constantly moving toward something theologically, but that we are constantly moving back to what our Lord has taught us. We want to wander away from His words, but He continues to call us back home.
Remember Abraham from the Old Testament. He lived in the land of Ur, a servant of false gods, gods who demanded the sacrifice of children, gods who demanded appeasement, gods who would have sent him to hell. He was far away from what would be the Promised Land, yet the one true God called him out of it, through his wandering, to a place where he could be home. Remember Israel, enslaved for 400 years in Egypt, surrounded by the gods of frogs and plagues, gods of the sun and the moon, gods of rivers and livestock, gods who were demonic in their demands. They were long enslaved, long removed from the land God had promised them, yet He called them out of it, set to wander in the desert as they approached His holy place.
God calls those whom He has chosen always back to their home, the place He has chosen. And it is no different for those in the Church. God continues to call us out of our slavery, away from the gods around us. The gods of the world demand the lives of the unborn children in our wombs, demand we call men women and women men, demand the most vile and heinous acts and demand that we not only tolerate such things, but accept them, embrace them, love them, celebrate them. But our one true God calls us back home, back to set our eyes upon the Promised Land.
Yet, when we look back when see our chains, the chains of our enslavement. Our fathers and mothers may have been slaves, but certainly, we are not, right? Yet, all those who sin are slaves to sin. We do as our master tells us. We must follow his commands else we receive a double lashing. That lashing comes through the Law. Sin accuses us with the Law, telling us of our sin, showing us how enslaved we are, how dirty we are, how we cannot free ourselves from our condition. And when we rebel against it, it comes down hard with the punishment of the world and of God; we suffer both temporally and, unless something changes, eternally.
That’s the sting of the Law. The Law is good and righteous and holy; it teaches us the ways of God. But, on this side of eternity, the Law will always stand to accuse us, showing us how far we’ve fallen from the ways of righteousness, how far we’ve fallen from God. And if we care, we grieve. The world, however, has taught us not to care, not to respond. It’s no big deal. Everyone does it. It’s just a little white lie. It’s all good.
But, it’s not all good. The Law’s accusations stand as testimony that it’s not all good. We are so lost, we are so enslaved to sin, we cannot even begin to comprehend the depth of our depravity. We cannot see how our actions affect everyone and everything around us. Things decay because of us. The world is in turmoil because of us. People are being shot in their places of worship because of us. People are being sent bombs in the mail because us. There is strife and grief and pain and enmity and horrible things because of us. People die because of us. We die because of us. We should go to hell because of us.
But, and that’s a big but, the Son has come to set us free. He points us to the Promised Land. He goes before us to prepare a place for us. He’s expecting us there. He came to set us free, He died to pay our price for freedom, He rose to show us our eternal life, He ascended to get it all ready. The Son has set you free, and you are free indeed!
The Law’s accusations are still true, but the Son says, ‘No, accuse me. Punish me. Let me take all that he owes, all that she didn’t do.” And He does. He takes it all. He wins for you salvation, and almost even more than that, He welcomes you into His family. He gives you a share of the inheritance. He gives you your place standing before the Father because He gives up His own. He does it all and He gives it all to you. He is the only Son of God and he dies to make us all sons and daughters of the King.
And here’s the thing, He didn’t just do this for good people. He did it for you, He did it for all, He did it for all of us, even though we had sold our bodies and souls to enslavement to sin, He still came and did this. This is like an Orthodox Jew dying to save a Muslim terrorist. This is like, well, and Orthodox Jew dying for the Nazi who killed his mother. This is a Sunni laying down his life for a Shiite. This is like a 9/11 widow dying for Osama bin Laden. Except more. This is the God of all creation, coming into the creation to die for His beloved creatures who told Him to get lost and went whoring after other gods. This is God Himself laying down His life for His creatures.
And this is good news, for if Christ died for one such person, one such evil, horrible, nasty person, then you can be assured that person is you, and it’s me. If He died for one, He died for all, and so He died for you. He died and rose and ascended for you, all to bring you back to Himself, that you may be set free from sin and welcomed into eternal life. And if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!
This is to what the Reformation is constantly coming back. This is to what we’re always returning. We are always returning to the Promised Land, we’re always returning to the goodness of God that He has promised to enjoy with us in the resurrection from the dead. Without this, everything in the Church falls down. We can seek other gods, we can sin however we want, we can love or not love our neighbor. If Christ is not the Redeemer, then it’s all up to us. But, if Christ died for all, and if it’s our duty and joy to preach such a message, then the Church stands by the power of His might. We must constantly return to such a thing, for we wander, we stray, we look for our old master, Sin. But, our new Master, our first Master, our Lord Jesus Christ will not, by His power, by His will, let us fall. He will bring us forth into His promise. And we must keep returning to this understanding, for without it, nothing else in the world or eternity matters.
And so, this church, this congregation, will be a Church of the Reformation, returning to what our fathers and mothers have taught us, returning to what our Lord has taught us, returning to justification, salvation, by grace alone through faith alone. And we shall hold fast. We shall hold the line. If nothing else, we shall be faithful, even until the end. May God grant it. To Christ be the glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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