Shout the Reformation’s Cry for Freedom!

1st Sunday of End Time, Reformation Sunday, 10/30/16
John 8:31-36


Shout the Reformation’s Cry for Freedom!
I. Freedom from sin’s bondage
II. Freedom for life as God’s child


It’s not something I would want any of you to experience—the liberating feeling that washes over you when you’ve been released from prison, especially if it’s been a long stint. Once again you’re breathing free air, you’re experiencing free time, you have a hard time deciding what you’re going to do first now that you get to make that choice instead of a prison authority making it for you.

But many ex-convicts have trouble using their newly regained freedom properly. They’ve been behind bars so long where every decision is made for them, that they have trouble coping. Sadly, because positive opportunities for ex-convicts are often limited, they return to what’s familiar to them—a life on the shady edge of society. They revert to their criminal ways and it isn’t long before they’re repeat offenders.

In a way, our celebration of Luther’s Reformation of the Church is a celebration of freedom. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, read a biography of Luther’s life or watch one of the many Luther movies. No doubt you’ll be informed of the spiritual enslavement he endured because of his sins, how they tormented him, how he came to hate the God who demanded a holiness from him that he could never attain. But then he came to understand properly these words from this morning’s Second Lesson, Romans 3, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” We are righteous or holy by faith in Jesus. That’s what set Luther free. That’s what sets us free. And we rejoice over that freedom.

But, as crazy as it sounds, there are times in our lives when we struggle with that freedom and against that freedom, just like the ex-convict. We either allow guilt to crush us or our sinful pride to inflate us before God.

That’s why it’s so critical that we hold to and proclaim the freedom that Jesus talks about in today’s sermon text from John 8. On this celebration Sunday, shout the Reformation’s cry for freedom!

Part I.

Contrary to what most people think, I can’t think of a single positive result from sin. People may think that doing what God forbids will bring them happiness or some material benefit, but the spiritual reality is that God does not bless our sinful acts or words or thoughts. Scripture makes it clear that sin separates us from God. If you don’t believe it, review the results of the one transgression of Adam and Eve. It destroyed their relationship with the holy God and devastated their relationship with each other. And the final result of sin is that it places us under Satan’s power. By God’s own decree, the punishment for sin is death in hell. Therefore, Satan rightly claims every sinful soul. Sin is no light matter. It has eternal consequences.

Jesus echoes that crushing truth with these words, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” His words sound so much more palatable at first, but don’t miss the implication. Only by holding to the truth about Jesus as the world’s only Savior from sin are we set free, indicating that we’re all under sin’s lock-down. Sin isn’t a mistake we can correct; it’s a deadly spiritual disease.

The Jews to whom Jesus spoke these words didn’t miss the implication for a second. They replied, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” They resort to rebuttal we’ve heard countless times before. They are God’s chosen people, the offspring of Father Abraham. They are the people to whom God referred when he talked about giving Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. They are the people to whom God bound himself by a covenant. The idea that they were somehow enslaved was preposterous. Their very bloodline made them inherently free.

But Abraham’s blood was not the only substance coursing through their Jewish veins. So was sin. Damning, enslaving sin. Not even Abraham himself, the Father of the Jews, was exempt. The record in Genesis informs us, “Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:5). God had promised to bless all people through Abraham, which was none other than promising that the Savior would be a descendant of Abraham. That’s the truth that set Abraham free. That’s the truth that Jesus presented to Abraham’s descendants on this day in our text. There is only one solution to the damning punishment of sin and that’s Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world.

The Church of Luther’s day had that truth; the problem was that it was covered and obscured by countless manmade laws and heresies. Those deadly deceptions only enslaved weary sinners. That’s why it’s so critical to know that when Jesus speaks about “the truth,” he isn’t limiting it to one or two spiritual truths. He’s referring to everything he has shared with us in his word. That’s the truth that frees us.

On this celebration Sunday, shout the Reformation’s cry for freedom—freedom from sin’s bondage.

Today we celebrate that freedom. But do you recall that I began this morning by stating that we struggle with it? Our freedom from sin does not mean that sin is no big deal, that we can push the boundaries the Commandments set for us, that we can indulge ourselves today and pray for forgiveness tomorrow. When that’s our attitude, we’ve forgotten that sin enslaves us and the next logical denial is our critical need for a Savior. And if Satan doesn’t succeed in fooling us on that end, he goes to the other extreme. How often does guilt stand at the door of your heart, pounding relentlessly? That’s Satan’s way of locking you in sin’s shackles. Let your guilt drive you to Christ who proclaimed, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” His holy life and his sacrifice on Calvary’s cross for you won that freedom for you. Shout the Reformation’s cry for freedom—freedom from sin’s bondage.

Part II.

For about 100 years of our nation’s history slavery was an acceptable institution. Most Americans aren’t proud of that era.

Slavery was common in biblical times as well. It was quite different from the American version, but it was slavery nonetheless. Free people had opportunities and rights that slaves did not.

Jesus makes reference to one of those differences with these words, “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” In many cases, slaves were almost like a member of the family. They took on the responsibilities of a parent, brother or sister. Many slaves chose to remain such because they realized their lives were better as slaves—they lived in nice homes with good things to eat. But none of that life belonged to them and never would. As close as they might become to the family, they never became a member of the family.

What’s Jesus’ point? By nature, we don’t belong to the family of God. By nature we’re just squatters in the world God created. Contrary to what the Jews standing before Jesus thought, bloodlines don’t matter when it comes to the family of God. Neither does your outward record before God’s law. You can’t be humanly born into God’s family or claim merits to buy your way in. The problem is sin. It shackles you.

Only the Son can set you free. Only the Son can make you a member of the family of God. Only the Son can redeem you with his holy precious blood, and his innocent sufferings and death. Only the Son can break the devil’s stranglehold on you. Only the Son can bring you to himself in heaven. Only the Son can raise you from the dead, glorify your body and forever free you from death. Only the Son.

That means that by faith in Jesus you have a new life right now. It’s not a life of trying to earn God’s favor. It’s a life of living in that favor solely because your God lavishes it upon you because of Jesus—who he is and what he did. Now you have the power to live as a child of God and receive all the blessings that life entails. It means you’re free to serve the God who served you by sacrificing his Son for you. It means you have the privilege of showing your love to the God who loves you with an everlasting love. You get to do what you want to do because that’s what God wants you to do. That’s not Christian servitude; that’s Christian freedom, Reformation freedom.

Shout the Reformation’s cry for freedom—freedom for life as God’s child.

If you’re tempted to look at your Christianity as what it doesn’t allow you to do, you’re looking at it all wrong. That’s missing the eternal blessings in store for you as a member of God’s family. That’s like telling God you’d rather be a spiritual orphan, or worse, the spawn of Satan, which is what we are by nature. Jesus has set you free. It cost him his life. He did that so that you can enjoy forgiveness every day of your life, that you can experience all the blessings he has in store for you as his dearly loved child, that there’s a room in your heavenly Father’s house with your name on it. And you did nothing to earn or deserve it. That’s your Reformation freedom. Shout it! Live in it! Share it! Amen.