Reformation Sunday

John 8:31-36 - Reformation - October 30, 2011 

  God's Word Sets Sinners Free

On the Eve of All Saints’ Day (Halloween) in the year 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 Theses on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  These theses were intended to serve as an outline for debate concerning the selling of indulgences for the remission of sins.  The sale of indulgences was a fundraiser in Germany designed by the papacy to finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  “When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.”  This absurd claim was the catch-phrase that was used in selling these worthless promises.  People longed for freedom from the bonds of hell.  And they were willing to pay to free their loved-ones from the imaginary prison of Purgatory.  And so these poor sinners clung in desperation, not to the words of Jesus, but to the words of the Pope in Rome.  It was a shameless racket.  But it was a successful one, because these poor souls didn’t know any better.  They didn’t know the truth, and so they remained enslaved to lies. 

Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Martin Luther sought the truth in the word of God.  And so according to this clear and certain promise of Jesus, not only did he discover the liberating light of the Gospel for himself, but through him, God brought it back to the Church that had lived in darkness for so long.  St. Paul’s admonition to Timothy and to all pastors has rung true now for countless generations, and we have seen it: “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:16).  Luther not only saved himself, but now nearly 500 years later, thanks to his faithful service to the Church we continue to hear the Gospel that saves us too. 

God’s word is true. God’s word is powerful. God’s word is everlasting. These three truths always go together.  An attack on one of these statements is an attack on all three.  Along with grace alone and faith alone, the principle of Scripture alone has served as an indispensable hallmark of the Reformation.  It is no wonder, then, that the hordes of hell, in league with the world and our own flesh, work so hard to deny it.  They attack Scripture by denying these three things: the truth of God’s word, the power of God’s word, and the enduring relevance of God’s word. 

The devil has been attacking the truth of God’s word since those fatal words to Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Did God really say? The most obvious attack on the truth of God’s word is to deny that God really said what the Bible says He said – that is, when people deny that God is the author of Holy Scripture.  During the last couple centuries many so-called higher critics began to read the Bible with more open eyes – just like the devil promised.  Instead of submitting themselves to God’s word, many of them submitted God’s word to their own reason, and so began to deny everything in Scripture that seemed impossible – including the resurrection of Jesus.  By denying that the Bible is the word of God, they gave up with it the very soul and center of the Gospel. 

In Luther’s day, no one would have dreamed of denying the divine authorship of Holy Writ.  But this did not mean that the truth of God’s word remained unmolested.  Instead of being held captive to the rationalism of the Enlightenment that said that Scripture wasn’t a source of divine doctrine at all, it was instead held captive by the false claim that Scripture wasn’t the only sources of divine doctrine.  “Oh it’s the word of God.  Don’t get us wrong.  But the Scriptures of the Church can only be interpreted through the Traditions of the Church.”  In this way, the word of God was subordinated to the false opinions of men.  

Martin Luther did not despise the traditions of the church.  And neither do we.  But instead of putting the cart before the horse, we put the traditions of the Church in their proper place – as servants of God’s word.  Any tradition that contradicts what Scripture plainly teaches must be rejected.  But if it is helpful, it ought to be retained. 

The Roman Catholic Church in Luther’s time, and still today, did not teach that a sinner is justified by grace alone through faith.  Instead, they taught that he is justified by meriting God’s graces.  And then, by a special cooperation with the Holy Spirit as an exercise of his own free will, he gradually increases in the righteousness that avails before God’s judgment seat in heaven.  Scripture doesn’t teach this.  But this false doctrine was the tradition that was used to trump what Scripture did teach.  By denying that the Bible is the only source of divine doctrine, they ended up denying the very soul and center of the Gospel. 

When the truth of God’s word is subverted, the power of God’s word is also denied.  Luther had been taught that the power to free himself from sin could be found in his own preparations and discipline.  But no matter how hard he tried, the requirements that Scripture laid on him revealed that he was still a sinner.  Although the power of the Gospel was denied, the power of the law was not completely stopped.  God’s law retained its power to kill. 

The law required that he love God.  But, having been taught to look for this power within himself, and not being able to find it there, rather than loving God, Luther grew to hate Him instead.  It is as St. Paul wrote in Romans 7, “Sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.”  The law had no power to work love in Luther’s heart.  All the law had the power to do was to reveal his sin, and thereby cause his sin to increase. 

And for Luther, the Gospel was no better.  He was haunted by those words from the first chapter of Romans that speak of the Gospel as revealing the righteousness of God.  It was bad enough for Luther that the law demanded a righteousness that he couldn’t muster.  But now through the Gospel, the very righteousness of God Himself was revealed against his sinful heart.   His sin was more than he could bear.  Luther relates the following, describing his own struggle with sin:

Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o'er me,
Sin was my torment night and day,
In sin my mother bore me;
Yea, deep and deeper still I fell,
Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.

It was not until after he discovered the Gospel that Luther realized that his despairing of his own righteousness was actually the work of the Holy Spirit Himself driving him further and further into the word of Scripture so that instead of his own righteousness required by the law, he might be finally led to Christ’s righteousness given in the Gospel. 

After much struggle, Luther finally read those words concerning the righteousness of God in their context and noticed a key word: Faith.  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”   Faith.  The righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel, Luther learned, was not the righteousness of God with which He comes to judge unrighteous sinners.  No.  It is the righteousness of God that Jesus the Son of God earned by obeying the law in our place as a man.  It is the righteousness that is freely given to unworthy sinners who believe the promise of the Gospel that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake and that they are counted righteous before God. 

Luther learned that the power of the Gospel to save was not the power to squeeze enough obedience out of sinners in order to make them worth saving.  No, the power of the Gospel is the power of God to forgive the sins that He Himself has born away on the cross.  It is the power to justify the ungodly who have nothing to claim for themselves but the righteousness of their Savior which is theirs by faith alone. 

In order to understand the power of the Gospel, we need to understand the purpose of the law, which is to reveal the sin from which we need to be set free.  As Jesus said, “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”  But the Gospel sets us free from our slavery. That’s what Jesus promises. “If the Son sets you free; you will be free indeed.” Jesus sets us free not only from the guilt and punishment of sin, but also from its power in our lives.  That’s what freedom is.  And so we look at our lives, we search our hearts according to His law, and we confess the sins that we have learned to hate before our God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we do this again and again, as often as our feeble hearts cave into the lusts of our flesh, and as often as we find ourselves in need once again for God to free us from our sin.

But this routine can become wearisome.  The very sins that we promised not to commit again are the same sins that burden our hearts and consciences as we crawl for the umpteenth time to the same altar for the same forgiveness.  It is easy to wonder whether we have indeed been set free from sin, or, when we don’t seem to get any holier, if there is another solution that we should pursue.  From guilt and punishment, sure, but from its power in our lives, there must be something in addition to the Gospel that can free us from that.  The Gospel just doesn’t seem to work. 

But this is a temptation of the same devil who teaches sinners to deny the truth of God’s word.  And so by attacking the power of God’s word, he attacks the enduring relevance of God’s word as well.  It is true our desire to sin enslaves us.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever.  That’s what Jesus tells us.  But it is also true that God’s forgiveness purchased by Christ is stronger than our sin. 

When the Holy Spirit called us by the Gospel and enlightened us with His gifts, He did not call us to a life that must slowly be weaned from needing Christ’s perfect robe of righteousness.  No. He called us to a life of knowing where to find it as often as we see our need.  Do you see failure, and broken resolutions?  Do you see no improvement in the life that you want to live for God?  Do you hope to find some pleasing token of your thanksgiving to render to Him who saved you, but instead just find more that you need Him to save you from?  Well, that is what He has come to do for you.   

The righteousness of faith never becomes something that we do.  It remains the righteousness that Jesus fulfilled in our place.  We do not look for evidence that the Gospel is the power of God to save us by looking for successful results in our lives.  Instead we find in the life of Christ all the success we need.  For it is He who loved God above all.  It is He who served His neighbor perfectly as divine love required. And it is this very righteousness which no law can condemn that is given to us through the word of absolution and in the body and blood that we are about to receive in the Lord's Supper. 

God does not save us from the guilt of sin with one swing, and from the power of sin with another.  He saves us from both at the same time by calling us to a life of repentance and faith in the Gospel – not to work as slaves earning our keep, but to live as sons who abide in His words of mercy that continue forever to be our life.  Because His word is true, we know that it is also the power of God to save.  And it doesn’t stop saving us, because the Gospel is everlasting. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.