Christian, You Are Free!

Reformation Sunday, 10/30/22 Galatians 5:1-6 Christian, You Are Free! I. Free from work-righteousness II. Free to serve the Lord in love Freedom. It seems to be a timeless topic of concern. As the mid-term elections draw near, we’re hearing voices of concern for the freedoms that are ours as citizens of the United States of America, freedoms guaranteed by our US Constitution and defended by our country’s military. Go back in time 505 years ago as the Lutheran Church will officially celebrate tomorrow, and freedom was on the mind of the Reformer Martin Luther. In the years following the posting of his famous 95 Theses, Luther realized that there were powerful religious and political forces that opposed the freedom of the gospel. But Luther stood firm on God’s word, and for his stance he was declared an outlaw and threatened with death. Go back nearly 1,500 years before Luther, and that same freedom of the gospel was front and center in the Apostle Paul’s mind as he endeavored to safeguard that freedom among his beloved Galatian Christians. Years earlier, on his first and second missionary trips, Paul had proclaimed the saving gospel to these people—the message that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. That salvation had nothing to do with our own good works. But, in the years since then, false teachers had infiltrated their ranks and were proclaiming a different gospel than the gospel Paul shared, a message which Paul declared was no gospel at all. As we’ll soon see, it was a rejection of Jesus as their Savior from sin. And that tension between the freedom of the gospel and what we need to do to earn our forgiveness and eternal life is still a nagging and faith-destroying issue in the Christian Church on earth today. And that struggle is not just out there in the other countless church bodies around the world; because of our sinful nature, the seeds of that struggle are planted in our hearts and minds as well. Thus, we need to pay attention to our Lord’s words through the Apostle Paul. We need the reminder on this celebration of Luther’s Reformation of the Church that we are free. Christian, you are free! Let’s see how and why as our Lord shares his word with us this morning. Part I. “You get what you have coming to you.” Millions of people in our world today would call that karma, and there is good karma and bad karma. Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths. In other words, your future—your eternal future—depends on what you do today. The concept of karma is closely associated with eastern religions such as Hinduism. And it’s unfortunate that more than a billion people inside and outside of the Hindu religion believe it’s true. But it gets worse. The deadly seeds of the false teaching called karma have been sown and are growing inside the Christian church for as long as it has existed. That shouldn’t surprise us. The last thing Satan wants anyone to believe is that they are saved through faith in Jesus alone. He is filled with satanic joy when people put their confidence in the good things they do. Paul addressed that very situation with the Galatian Christians. These believers were most likely located in what today we call central Turkey. As I mentioned earlier, Paul had proclaimed the gospel—the good news of salvation through faith alone—to these people on his first and second missionary journeys. But in short order, the truth of the gospel came under attack by false teachers. Paul doesn’t name them, but these false teachers have come to be known as Judaizers. They were Jewish men, quite likely from Jerusalem, who claimed to believe in Jesus as their Savior from sin. But their Christian faith was mixed with false teaching. As men who had lived as good Jewish people for decades before coming to faith in Jesus as their Savior from sin, they had difficulty letting go of their Jewish beliefs. You see, in the Old Testament, God demanded that that his people observe things such as circumcision, eating kosher, and observing special days such as the Passover. In the Old Testament, he also stated that if Gentiles came to faith in the God of the Jews, and they wanted to be fully recognized as members of God’s kingdom, they needed to observe the same Jewish laws. These Jewish men, commonly called Judaizers, came to the churches in Galatia and were telling the Christians there that they needed to observe some of these laws as well as believe in Jesus if they wanted to be sure of eternal life in heaven. And they did so in spite of the fact that all the apostles had condemned them and their teaching. So why would they continue teaching salvation by faith plus good works? It’s likely there were several reasons, but the most influential reason was that this teaching—faith in Jesus plus good works gets you heaven—is exactly what every sinful person would like to believe. Theologians call it the opinio legis—it’s my firm opinion of myself that I can keep God’s law in such a way that he will be pleased with me, and I will earn my way to heaven. You hear versions of this opinion constantly. “Well, I know I’m not perfect, but I’m a good person. Surely that’s worth something to God. I’m sure he’ll let me into heaven.” In general, that was the teaching of the church of Luther’s day. Here were the things you must do to earn your way to heaven, plus believe in Jesus as your Savior. Luther, however, took his firm stance on the gospel. He took to heart these words of Paul, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” Trying to be justified by the law is trying to earn your way to heaven. It’s called work-righteousness. Christian, you are free—free from work righteousness. By God’s grace, Luther took a firm stance on the gospel. And by God’s grace, so do we. We believe, teach, and confess that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone. Our good works add nothing to our salvation. We are free in Christ. But, like any freedom, our spiritual freedom in Christ needs to be defended, because there are those who want to limit it and remove it completely. About whom am I speaking? First, myself. My own sinful opinion of myself is that I’m not all that bad. In fact, I’m quite good, better than most even. And I reveal that opinion of myself when I think I deserve a better life than I’m experiencing. God’s not being fair to me, as if God owes me something good for the “good” things I do. Second, our sinful world opposes our freedom in Christ. It photoshops Christ out of the picture because it wants nothing to do with him and urges all of us to be as good to others as we can be simply for our own sake, so that we can take pride in ourselves. Third, and most obvious, it’s Satan himself who opposes our freedom in Christ. He stokes the fires of our natural sinful pride, constantly assuring us that we don’t need Christ in our lives. Christian, you are free! Free from sin solely by the life and death of Christ. Heaven is already yours by faith in Jesus. Your own efforts to please God earn you nothing. Part II. But that doesn’t mean we are free to live as we please. Paul stated, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” After the Lord called Martin Luther home to heaven, there were two unfortunate fallouts to the truth of the Reformation that we are free. One was that some Lutherans began teaching that doing good works was actually detrimental to your salvation. Another group of Lutherans began teaching that if we are freely forgiven, then it doesn’t matter if we sin or how much we sin. Paul’s words present the true narrow Lutheran middle. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” First, we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Whether or not we do good works adds nothing to our salvation nor takes anything from it. Forgiveness of sins and life in heaven come by faith in Jesus. Second, that faith in Jesus will naturally bear the fruit of good works. There’s the connection between what we believe and how we live. Jesus spoke about being the vine and that we are the branches. Those branches will bear fruit. Later in this chapter of Galatians, Paul states that those fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (5:22, 23). Who of us doesn’t want to be like that? The good news is that’s who Jesus has created you to be and empowers you to do by faith in him. And we bear those fruits of faith freely, not expecting anything in return, because they are a response of thanks to everything our Savior already has done for us and has given to us. Christian, you are free—free to serve your Lord in love. That means, Christian, you don’t have to. You get to. You get to serve others because Jesus has served you. You get to love your neighbor simply out of love for Christ and expect nothing in return. In fact, you can sacrifice what you are and what you have knowing that you already have it all by faith in Jesus. The world can’t take anything away from you that really matters. What really matters Jesus has already won for you. So let your love for Jesus and others flow! Live in freedom! Serve in freedom! Ask yourself, “In what new way will I serve others this week?” May our risen Lord Jesus empower you to do it! Amen.