SOLA
In the winter of 1530, Wittenberg’s pastor, John Bugenhagen, was once again called away on a business trip for the church. And as had happened before, Martin Luther was asked to take over the preaching duties in the town since he was a professor at the university there. Which meant that for the next two years Luther began to preach on Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings and Saturday evenings in addition to his full teaching schedule. On those Saturdays nights he decided to preach a sermon series on the gospel of John. And in one of these sermons, as he was expounding on the final verses of the sixth chapter, talking about salvation by grace through faith in Christ, he quoted Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” And after reading these well-known verses in front of the congregation Luther then said, “This is the essence of true Christianity.” And it is. Salvation by the grace of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, in the Scriptures of the Holy Spirit - this is the essence of true Christianity. And Ephesians 2:8-9 sums it up beautifully! In fact, you would be hard pressed to find another passage that combines these truths of our salvation is such a clear and succinct way. It is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture because of it. And for our purposes today it is a passage that shows us that these Latin phrases we have been using in our worship service this afternoon are nothing other than what God tells us in the Bible. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura: “By grace alone, through faith alone, in Scripture alone.” This is the essence of true Christianity.
Which means these concepts are not just Lutheran teachings. They weren’t merely conjured up by a few theologians in the territory of Saxony during the time of the Reformation. No! Sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura are timeless teachings of Scripture itself. Because that is what Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly says. doesn’t it? We know in this Scripture passage that by grace we have been saved through faith. Don’t let the Latin fool you. The teachings of sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scripture were around long before Luther ever posted those 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in the city of Wittenberg.
In fact, this teaching about our salvation was around long before the New Testament was ever written. Ephesians 2:8-9 was not the first time that the concept of “sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura” was ever mentioned in the Bible. It’s all throughout the Old Testament as well. Maybe not in such a nice straight-forward way as it is in Paul’s letter to the believers in Ephesus, but salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Scripture alone is revealed in the countless stories of the Old Testament believers.
The story of Adam and Eve is a great example. They had everything, didn’t they? A perfect world in which to live, perfect weather every day, perfect food to eat whenever they wanted, a perfect marriage to enjoy, a perfect life in every respect. And then they gave all of that perfection up by eating some fruit from the one tree they weren’t supposed to eat from because they wanted even more. But what happened next? Did God instantly destroy them as he should have? Did he send the fury of his wrath upon their heads for doing such an ungrateful thing? Did he turn his back on them and leave Adam and Eve to wallow in their sinfulness for the rest of eternity? No! He came down to talk to them! He reached out to them! And then he promised to send them a Savior that would clean up the mess they had made - one of their own descendants who would undo what they did and make it possible for them to go to heaven instead of hell. Adam and Eve, just minutes after they had ruined God’s entire creation and his plan for their eternity, were rescued by that same God! And why did God save them? Sola gratia - by grace alone. There was no other reason for God to save them. In fact, everything they had done should have prompted God not to save them! But they are both in heaven right now, enjoying perfection once again - by grace alone.
Samson is another good example. You remember him, don’t you? A powerful judge of the nation of Israel, blessed with superhuman strength but hindered by a hot temper and a weakness for ungodly women. He was also supposed to be a Narzarite - which meant he was not supposed to touch dead bodies, among other requirements. But, as you know, he touched plenty of dead bodies - including a lion’s carcass without any qualms. He also routinely murdered Philistines just to get revenge, he destroyed their crops in anger, he married unchristian women from that nation - an act that went directly against God’s Word for the Israelites, he slept with prostitutes, he was arrogant, he was selfish, and he was a poor spiritual leader. But if you would read the “Heroes of Faith” chapter in the New Testament - Hebrews 11 - there alongside the names of Abraham and Moses and Noah, you’ll find the name of Samson. Because at the end of his life, when he was captured, blinded, and mocked by the enemies he had harassed throughout his life, he finally trusted in the Lord and relied on him for his strength. And so Samson too is in heaven right now. Why? Sola fide - through faith alone. It certainly wasn’t because of what he had done throughout his life! He was a terrible Christian! In fact, it is debatable if he even was a Christian before the very end of his life. But he believed in his Savior at his death and because of what his Savior would one day do for him on the cross, Samson is enjoying life with him right now - through faith alone.
Josiah, a king of the southern land of Judah, was only eight years old when he took the throne. He had grown up in an ungodly household, under a father who worshiped false gods and was even assassinated by his own officials. Josiah didn’t know the Lord or anything about his Word. But when he was 26 years old, the high priest at that time found the lost Book of the Law - another name for the Bible at that time - in the temple of the Lord. And when Josiah read the words of the Book of the Law he tore his clothes in grief because he realized how sinful he and his people had been. He then called all of the people of his kingdom together and he rededicated himself and the entire nation to the Lord and his Word. He promised that he would uphold the words of the Lord and believe and do everything in it. Josiah began to celebrate the festivals, offering the sacrifices, and listen to the reading of Scripture once again. Josiah came to know his Savior who would one day come from his own family tree. And right now, King Josiah is in heaven enjoying life with The King himself. Why? Sola scriptura - in Scripture alone. Josiah wouldn’t have known that he had been sinning or what his Savior would do about his sins without that very special Book. And now he is one of the people in that very special Book so that others might read and believe and be saved - in Scripture alone.
Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. This is how God saved his people in the Old Testament. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. This is how God saved his people in the New Testament. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. And this is how God saves you right now: Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone. Everything about your salvation rests on him. Nothing about your salvation is up to you. And that’s a good thing because you aren’t good enough to be saved.
Has anyone every told you that before? You aren’t good enough. And I’m serious! You aren’t good enough to be saved. You aren’t likeable enough to be saved. You aren’t pretty enough to be saved. You aren’t honest enough to be saved. You aren’t nice enough to be saved. You don’t try hard enough to be saved. You don’t want it badly enough to be saved. You are incapable of being the kind of person or doing the kinds of things to gain salvation. And so, in the end, you are not even worth saving.
I’m sorry to have to tell you that you aren’t going to get some kind of motivational, self-esteem, confidence boosting speech today. I’m not going to stand up here and tell you about the potential you have inside of you or what great things you can do if you just put your mind to it. Because that’s not what Scripture is all about. The Bible isn’t written to tell us how good we are on our own. On the contrary, the Bible oftentimes lets us know how bad we are, how rotten we are, how totally and completely corrupted we are. Are you corrupted? Yes you are. Am I corrupted? You better believe it! And that is something we have to come to terms with before we go back to Ephesians 2:8-9. We have to understand how sinful we really are. We have to swallow that. It’s just hard to get that lump down the throat, isn’t it? It’s hard to admit that we are so saturated with sin in every aspect of our lives and even in every aspect of our personalities that we can’t possibly do anything to gain God’s favor; we can’t do anything to get on his good side; we can’t do anything to make him want to save us in any way. Because he demands perfection and nothing we do or say or think is even close to that standard. We are failures! We are sinners to the core. And because of that, not one of us here is worth saving. But “by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” You are not worth saving, but you are saved anyway - sola gratia - by grace alone.
Grace is a familiar word to all of us. We hear it here in church all the time. And it’s usually defined as “undeserved love,” but it’s not something that we as human beings can grasp all that well. Because we aren’t used to grace. Nothing in this world really comes all that close to the grace that God has shown to us. Some might say that a mother loving her newborn child is undeserved love: the infant doesn’t earn it, the infant doesn’t give it back, the infant even cries in the middle of the night and is incessantly demanding and is completely self-centered. But even that kind of love for a child isn’t really grace. Grace is loving someone who is actually your enemy. Someone who isn’t just vile and hateful, but someone who has been vile and hateful to you! Someone who has hurt you and doesn’t care; someone who goes out of his way to cause you harm. Welcome to Jesus’ life on this earth! He was surrounded by those kinds of people. He was plotted against by those kinds of people. He was betrayed by those kinds of people. He was crucified by those kinds of people. And while he was being hammered to a cross like piece of paper what did he say? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus actually loved those who hated him. And Jesus actually loved us when we hated him too. When we were unbelievers we were no better than those who nailed Christ to the cross. We were his enemies. We were his adversaries. But God loved us anyway. And he loved us so much he died for us. That’s grace. And that’s why we’re saved. By grace alone. And through faith alone.
There is only one way we can believe in that grace of our God: through faith alone. And even that faith is a gift from God! We don’t decide to have it, we don’t accept Christ into our hearts, we don’t choose to let him come into our lives… Christ decides to save us, Christ accepts us; Christ chooses us. “By grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” It’s free. It’s without obligation. It’s not earned. Faith is a gift of God. Without it we wouldn’t be saved. Without it we wouldn’t believe. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone. In Scripture alone.
There is only one way the Holy Spirit gives us that faith: in Scripture alone. He does not come to you when you are sleeping in your bed or meditating under your backyard tree or peacefully sitting in your recliner at home. The Holy Spirit comes to you only through the Word. And yes, it is true that he comes to you in baptism too. But it’s not the water that is so powerful, it is the Word of God connected to that water that supplies the power on a human heart. In Scripture alone can baptism do such wonderful things. In Scripture alone can you be brought to faith. In Scripture alone can you be saved.
Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. These phrases were not just an ancient rallying cry for German Lutherans under the hand of the Roman Catholic church. They were not some deep theological categories that make no sense today and make even less of a difference. They are not just some cute and concise words used for a worship theme on a late afternoon in Grand Junction, CO. These words are a summary of the Words of God. These phrases speak of the way to eternal life. They are your salvation. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. By grace alone you are saved. Through faith alone you are saved. In Scripture alone you are saved. To God alone be the glory.
Amen.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers [and sisters]. Amen.” - Gal. 6:18
Monday, November 01, 2010
10/31/10 - Reformation - John 8:31-36
WE ARE FREE
Three years after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door, the pope issued an official document called a “papal bull” against Luther and those who agreed with him. In this public proclamation the Roman Catholic church listed 41 teachings Martin Luther promoted that disagreed with Catholic doctrine and they concluded that, “We condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected… under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication.” This same papal bull also prohibited anyone in the kingdom to read, print, or defend anything that Luther wrote or taught as well as including a command to Luther himself to stop preaching, teaching, or carrying out any of the duties of a minister.
Two months later, because Luther did not take back any of his writings or bow to the authority of the Roman Catholic church, he was officially excommunicated along with anyone who supported him. The next year, at the Diet of Worms (the meeting in the city of Worms) Luther was placed under the imperial ban by the Holy Roman Emperor, a decree that condemned him as an outlaw, stripped him of his rights as a citizen, and made it legal for anyone to rob him, injure him, arrest him, or even kill him without any repercussion. Soon after that event, some of his friends “kidnapped” him and took him to the Wartburg Castle where he was not allowed to leave for a time because his life was in so much danger. In 1530, when the Lutheran leaders gathered together in Augsburg to present their confession of faith, Luther himself was not in attendance. He was back at a place called the Coburg Castle 160 miles away because he was still under the imperial ban and he could have been killed if he had made the trip. Throughout his life Luther was prevented from doing what he wanted to do, going where he wanted to go, and in fact he wasn’t even supposed to say what he wanted to say. And so why, after all of the freedoms that had been taken away from him, would Luther say to his students in Wittenberg in one of his classroom lectures on Psalm 45, that “We are free”?
Free? Luther and those with him didn’t seem to be free at all. He was still under the imperial ban (a civil sentence he would live under until he died), his life was still in danger if he left certain parts of the kingdom, he was still under the excommunication of the only church that called themselves “Christian” in the world at that time, and he was still technically not allowed to preach or teach or write anything in any place for any reason. Free? I think if we were to describe his situation and the situation of all those involved with the Reformation of the 16th century, we would probably say that they was more oppressed and confined and restricted and subjugated rather than being “free.”
Because if anyone knows what freedom is, we do, don’t we? We as people living in the United States know what it’s like to be free. We love being free. We fight to be free. And we complain and kick and scream when any of our freedoms seem to be impinged upon in any way. And in our expert opinion: those Christians during the time of the Reformation weren’t free at all! They had none of the liberties that we enjoy in this country and none of the rights that we take for granted. The Roman Catholic church and the governing authorities of that area had made it impossible for them to live in freedom because they were declared to be enemies of the state. “We are free”? It seems like a strange thing for Luther to say to people who were anything but free.
But the freedom Luther was talking about, of course, was of a different kind. The freedom he was referring to had nothing to do with what was happening in the world around them; it had to do with what Jesus did on the cross a millennium and a half before. This is the fuller version of what Luther said to his students on that day in 1532, “Through baptism and the Word we are free from death, sin, and the devil.” And what Luther taught his students in a Wittenberg classroom on Psalm 45 was really just a repetition of what Jesus teaches all of us in John 8:31: “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” Jesus, of course, wasn’t talking about the freedom to say what you want to say or the freedom to go where you want to go or the freedom to have the rights and privileges that you think you are entitled to. He was talking about freedom from sin and guilt, freedom from the punishment and consequences that we rightly deserved. A freedom not given to those born in the right place at the right time, but a freedom given to those who are born again in the water and Word of baptism. A freedom not brought about by any flag or any country, but a freedom brought about by the Truth of God’s Word. A freedom not obtained by privilege, but a freedom given to those who had no right to have it at all.
Because the fact of the matter is: we were not born free; we were born chained. We were not born in a neutral place at a neutral time in a neutral way; we were born as prisoners in a maximum security facility automatically on death row. We were not born with guaranteed rights and privileges; we were born with a sentence of death hanging over our heads. And we deserved it! We were sinful human beings from the very start and nothing but unbelievers when we entered this world. Which means we were more than indifferent; we were indignant! We were directly opposed to God before we even had a conscious thought float through our minds! “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” David says in Psalm 51:5. We were shackled in sin while we were still in the womb. We were sealed behind the iron doors of eternal death that wouldn’t open and trapped behind towering walls that we could not climb. And there was no way out. There was no possibility of pardon or release or escape. There was no hope, no prospect, no chance to be set free.
Remember what you used to be. Remember where you used to live. And remember why you enjoy the freedom that you have right now. It wasn’t because of your efforts. It wasn’t because of your desire. It wasn’t because you were so good or so determined or so stubborn. You are free today because the Truth of God’s Word has set you free. And what is that Truth? The Truth is this: Jesus took the shackles of sin that were tightly clamped around your wrists and ankles and he placed them on his own. He took that sentence of death that was hanging over your head and he placed it over his. He took the guilt and the punishment and the responsibility and the blame that was weighing on your shoulders and he placed it on his. And he lifted it up onto a cross and he carried it down into hell and he bore up under it while his own Father left him there to suffer all alone. Jesus let his hands and feet be pounded through with nails so that the chains could fall from your own hands and feet. Jesus bound himself in the torments of hell so that you would be released before you ever got there. Jesus underwent his Father’s just anger so that you could be free to experience his Father’s merciful love. That is the Truth about your freedom. And that is the Truth that can only be found in God’s Word.
That’s what the Reformation was all about. It wasn’t about a leader’s strong personality. It wasn’t about a group of Christians simply standing up to a religious bully. And it wasn’t about bucking the system or refusing to conform. It was about the clear Truth of God’s Word. The Roman Catholic church at that time had hundreds of years of traditions and big-name theologians and grand cathedrals and lavish ceremonies and countless commands and rules and laws, but the Christians of the Reformation had the true Word of God. They had the Truth about what Christ had done and what Christ had won. This is why the Reformation is so important to us as Christians living in the 21st century. And we celebrate it each year not because of the people back then, but because it was the place in which the Lord brought his people back to the Word of God. It was the time during which he revealed to them the Truth. It was the way with which Christ and his cross and his tomb were finally brought back into focus without any of our works or any of our efforts getting in the way of what Jesus did to set us free.
Not that this was the first time that the Lord had to bring his Word back into focus. The people Jesus was speaking to in John 8 about this kind of freedom didn’t quite understand it either. Just like the Roman Catholic church that excommunicated thousands of Christians during the time of the Reformation, some of the Jews during Jesus’ time didn’t comprehend that freedom really had nothing to do with them either. “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone,” they said to Jesus, “How can you say that we shall be set free?” They figured that because they were of Jewish origin, because they were blood relatives of Abraham himself, they were good! They didn’t have to be set free because they already were! They were guaranteed a spot in heaven simply because of their lineage! Of course, that wasn’t the way it worked. They were not free from the consequences of sin and the punishment of eternal death just because of their ancestry. Nor was that the way it worked for those in the Germanic states in the 1500s or the way it works for us today either. Just because you call yourself a Lutheran doesn’t mean you have a ticket into heaven. Just because you grew up in a Christian family doesn’t mean you have an automatic spot in Paradise. Christ does not give out family passes. He does not base heaven’s membership list on a membership list of any congregation here on earth. Now, it is certainly very important to belong to a church that teaches the true Word of God; you want your faith to be fed with the uncontaminated words of Scripture on a regular basis, and you want to worship and interact with like-minded Christians. But to think that eternal life has something to do with you or the list your name is included on or the group to which you join together with is a dangerous mistake. Eternal life has only to do with Christ and what he has done to set us free.
Martin Luther preached quite a few sermons on this very topic: the freedom we receive from Christ and his Word in John 8. And some of his words are worth repeating here: “We who believe in Him are promised a good conscience, salvation, a merciful God, and freedom from all harm. But we must advance beyond the position of beginners or novices, who never reach the point where they taste and experience that God is a Man who can deliver from both physical and spiritual need…. The divine Word alone is the cornerstone, the I-beam, the girder, the stanchion, and the pillar undergirding our constancy. Therefore it is imperative that we hold to the plain Word of God, that we cling to the words of Christ. Then we will experience God’s help in the midst of danger and upheaval.” There are few Christians in this world who knew how important God’s Word was “in the midst of danger and upheaval” than those Christians did during the time of the Reformation. They had to hold on to God’s clear Word and the freedom that it offered because they had nothing else; they had no other allays, they had no other freedoms.
I would pray that a day like today and a worship service like we have this morning would remind you of your freedom in Christ and the Truth of God’s Word that made it possible. Remain in that Word. Continue to read and to hear and to study that Truth. You were once chained and barred and shackled by sin. But those days of imprisonment are long behind you. Because you have heard the Word of Truth about Christ your Savior who was imprisoned for you, who was sentenced for you; who was executed for you. You are pardoned. You are released. You are free.
Amen.
“May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he never leave or forsake us.” - 1 Kings 8:57
Three years after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door, the pope issued an official document called a “papal bull” against Luther and those who agreed with him. In this public proclamation the Roman Catholic church listed 41 teachings Martin Luther promoted that disagreed with Catholic doctrine and they concluded that, “We condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected… under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication.” This same papal bull also prohibited anyone in the kingdom to read, print, or defend anything that Luther wrote or taught as well as including a command to Luther himself to stop preaching, teaching, or carrying out any of the duties of a minister.
Two months later, because Luther did not take back any of his writings or bow to the authority of the Roman Catholic church, he was officially excommunicated along with anyone who supported him. The next year, at the Diet of Worms (the meeting in the city of Worms) Luther was placed under the imperial ban by the Holy Roman Emperor, a decree that condemned him as an outlaw, stripped him of his rights as a citizen, and made it legal for anyone to rob him, injure him, arrest him, or even kill him without any repercussion. Soon after that event, some of his friends “kidnapped” him and took him to the Wartburg Castle where he was not allowed to leave for a time because his life was in so much danger. In 1530, when the Lutheran leaders gathered together in Augsburg to present their confession of faith, Luther himself was not in attendance. He was back at a place called the Coburg Castle 160 miles away because he was still under the imperial ban and he could have been killed if he had made the trip. Throughout his life Luther was prevented from doing what he wanted to do, going where he wanted to go, and in fact he wasn’t even supposed to say what he wanted to say. And so why, after all of the freedoms that had been taken away from him, would Luther say to his students in Wittenberg in one of his classroom lectures on Psalm 45, that “We are free”?
Free? Luther and those with him didn’t seem to be free at all. He was still under the imperial ban (a civil sentence he would live under until he died), his life was still in danger if he left certain parts of the kingdom, he was still under the excommunication of the only church that called themselves “Christian” in the world at that time, and he was still technically not allowed to preach or teach or write anything in any place for any reason. Free? I think if we were to describe his situation and the situation of all those involved with the Reformation of the 16th century, we would probably say that they was more oppressed and confined and restricted and subjugated rather than being “free.”
Because if anyone knows what freedom is, we do, don’t we? We as people living in the United States know what it’s like to be free. We love being free. We fight to be free. And we complain and kick and scream when any of our freedoms seem to be impinged upon in any way. And in our expert opinion: those Christians during the time of the Reformation weren’t free at all! They had none of the liberties that we enjoy in this country and none of the rights that we take for granted. The Roman Catholic church and the governing authorities of that area had made it impossible for them to live in freedom because they were declared to be enemies of the state. “We are free”? It seems like a strange thing for Luther to say to people who were anything but free.
But the freedom Luther was talking about, of course, was of a different kind. The freedom he was referring to had nothing to do with what was happening in the world around them; it had to do with what Jesus did on the cross a millennium and a half before. This is the fuller version of what Luther said to his students on that day in 1532, “Through baptism and the Word we are free from death, sin, and the devil.” And what Luther taught his students in a Wittenberg classroom on Psalm 45 was really just a repetition of what Jesus teaches all of us in John 8:31: “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” Jesus, of course, wasn’t talking about the freedom to say what you want to say or the freedom to go where you want to go or the freedom to have the rights and privileges that you think you are entitled to. He was talking about freedom from sin and guilt, freedom from the punishment and consequences that we rightly deserved. A freedom not given to those born in the right place at the right time, but a freedom given to those who are born again in the water and Word of baptism. A freedom not brought about by any flag or any country, but a freedom brought about by the Truth of God’s Word. A freedom not obtained by privilege, but a freedom given to those who had no right to have it at all.
Because the fact of the matter is: we were not born free; we were born chained. We were not born in a neutral place at a neutral time in a neutral way; we were born as prisoners in a maximum security facility automatically on death row. We were not born with guaranteed rights and privileges; we were born with a sentence of death hanging over our heads. And we deserved it! We were sinful human beings from the very start and nothing but unbelievers when we entered this world. Which means we were more than indifferent; we were indignant! We were directly opposed to God before we even had a conscious thought float through our minds! “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” David says in Psalm 51:5. We were shackled in sin while we were still in the womb. We were sealed behind the iron doors of eternal death that wouldn’t open and trapped behind towering walls that we could not climb. And there was no way out. There was no possibility of pardon or release or escape. There was no hope, no prospect, no chance to be set free.
Remember what you used to be. Remember where you used to live. And remember why you enjoy the freedom that you have right now. It wasn’t because of your efforts. It wasn’t because of your desire. It wasn’t because you were so good or so determined or so stubborn. You are free today because the Truth of God’s Word has set you free. And what is that Truth? The Truth is this: Jesus took the shackles of sin that were tightly clamped around your wrists and ankles and he placed them on his own. He took that sentence of death that was hanging over your head and he placed it over his. He took the guilt and the punishment and the responsibility and the blame that was weighing on your shoulders and he placed it on his. And he lifted it up onto a cross and he carried it down into hell and he bore up under it while his own Father left him there to suffer all alone. Jesus let his hands and feet be pounded through with nails so that the chains could fall from your own hands and feet. Jesus bound himself in the torments of hell so that you would be released before you ever got there. Jesus underwent his Father’s just anger so that you could be free to experience his Father’s merciful love. That is the Truth about your freedom. And that is the Truth that can only be found in God’s Word.
That’s what the Reformation was all about. It wasn’t about a leader’s strong personality. It wasn’t about a group of Christians simply standing up to a religious bully. And it wasn’t about bucking the system or refusing to conform. It was about the clear Truth of God’s Word. The Roman Catholic church at that time had hundreds of years of traditions and big-name theologians and grand cathedrals and lavish ceremonies and countless commands and rules and laws, but the Christians of the Reformation had the true Word of God. They had the Truth about what Christ had done and what Christ had won. This is why the Reformation is so important to us as Christians living in the 21st century. And we celebrate it each year not because of the people back then, but because it was the place in which the Lord brought his people back to the Word of God. It was the time during which he revealed to them the Truth. It was the way with which Christ and his cross and his tomb were finally brought back into focus without any of our works or any of our efforts getting in the way of what Jesus did to set us free.
Not that this was the first time that the Lord had to bring his Word back into focus. The people Jesus was speaking to in John 8 about this kind of freedom didn’t quite understand it either. Just like the Roman Catholic church that excommunicated thousands of Christians during the time of the Reformation, some of the Jews during Jesus’ time didn’t comprehend that freedom really had nothing to do with them either. “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone,” they said to Jesus, “How can you say that we shall be set free?” They figured that because they were of Jewish origin, because they were blood relatives of Abraham himself, they were good! They didn’t have to be set free because they already were! They were guaranteed a spot in heaven simply because of their lineage! Of course, that wasn’t the way it worked. They were not free from the consequences of sin and the punishment of eternal death just because of their ancestry. Nor was that the way it worked for those in the Germanic states in the 1500s or the way it works for us today either. Just because you call yourself a Lutheran doesn’t mean you have a ticket into heaven. Just because you grew up in a Christian family doesn’t mean you have an automatic spot in Paradise. Christ does not give out family passes. He does not base heaven’s membership list on a membership list of any congregation here on earth. Now, it is certainly very important to belong to a church that teaches the true Word of God; you want your faith to be fed with the uncontaminated words of Scripture on a regular basis, and you want to worship and interact with like-minded Christians. But to think that eternal life has something to do with you or the list your name is included on or the group to which you join together with is a dangerous mistake. Eternal life has only to do with Christ and what he has done to set us free.
Martin Luther preached quite a few sermons on this very topic: the freedom we receive from Christ and his Word in John 8. And some of his words are worth repeating here: “We who believe in Him are promised a good conscience, salvation, a merciful God, and freedom from all harm. But we must advance beyond the position of beginners or novices, who never reach the point where they taste and experience that God is a Man who can deliver from both physical and spiritual need…. The divine Word alone is the cornerstone, the I-beam, the girder, the stanchion, and the pillar undergirding our constancy. Therefore it is imperative that we hold to the plain Word of God, that we cling to the words of Christ. Then we will experience God’s help in the midst of danger and upheaval.” There are few Christians in this world who knew how important God’s Word was “in the midst of danger and upheaval” than those Christians did during the time of the Reformation. They had to hold on to God’s clear Word and the freedom that it offered because they had nothing else; they had no other allays, they had no other freedoms.
I would pray that a day like today and a worship service like we have this morning would remind you of your freedom in Christ and the Truth of God’s Word that made it possible. Remain in that Word. Continue to read and to hear and to study that Truth. You were once chained and barred and shackled by sin. But those days of imprisonment are long behind you. Because you have heard the Word of Truth about Christ your Savior who was imprisoned for you, who was sentenced for you; who was executed for you. You are pardoned. You are released. You are free.
Amen.
“May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he never leave or forsake us.” - 1 Kings 8:57
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