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In the name of our living and ever-present Savior, dear friends in Christ.
Jesus spoke the words of our text to people who had a need for freedom, both politically and spiritually. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day, enslaved politically by the Romans, and spiritually by sin, and the demands of God’s Law, were like some people of our modern world, the people of various countries in the Middle East, in recent years. These people were also enslaved by a tyrannical government, one that gave them precious little political, or religious freedom.
Jesus told the Jews who believed in Him, “the truth will set you free.” The Jews who didn’t believe in Him responded, “Never been slaves.” Then Jesus pointed out that all who sin become slaves to sin. All have a need for freedom from sin, and its consequences. Those words include all people who have ever lived – the people of Jesus’ day, the people of various countries, in the Middle East, and you and I, also, tonight.
But it is also interesting to note what people often do with freedom, once they get it. Some of the people in countries in the Middle East, freed from their tyrannical former governments, have used their freedom to coerce, enslave, torture, and murder one another, and to wage terrorist attacks, in Europe, and even in our own nation.
So we’ll consider tonight not only how all people need the spiritual freedom brought in the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also raise the question, how do we respond to this spiritual freedom that we receive? We consider what God has made us free from, … and free to.
The central figure in the Lutheran Reformation, a religious movement of the 16th century, was a man named Martin Luther. He was raised by his parents as a deeply religious man, pious and devout. He knew from personal experience the struggles that every one has with sin, with doing wrong, and not doing right, and the guilt it brings. He understood all too well, from his church, that the consequences of his sin were condemnation and punishment by God, forever, in hell, what the Bible calls eternal death.
Luther desperately sought comfort for his guilty conscience. The church of his day directed him to confess his sins to God, and then do good works, all sorts of good things, to show the sincerity of his confession, to make up for the bad he had done. The church of his day told him that one of the greatest good things he could do, for God, was to become a monk, and a priest, and so he did that also, all the while trying to find comfort for his troubled, guilty soul.
But it just didn’t work. No matter how hard he tried, he could not perfectly fulfill God’s Laws. Instead of finding peace and comfort for his conscience, he found only a greater and greater awareness of how gigantic and horrible his sins were, before the holy God.
But then God led Him to the comfort Luther had sought for so long. He was assigned by his church to teach the Bible. To teach it, he had to read it. And, as he read it, he came across Bible passages like the one we read earlier from Romans chapter 3, that told Luther that salvation, and God’s forgiveness, was a gift, based not at all on anything he had to do, but based totally on what Jesus had done for him, by suffering and dying for Luther’s sins, and the sins of the whole world, on the cross.
Through God’s gift of faith, to trust in Jesus as his Savior, and what Jesus had done for him, Luther came to understand that his guilt for all his sins had already been taken away, that Jeremiah 33:8 was already fulfilled for him, where the Lord promised, “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against Me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against Me,” (ESV). And Martin Luther rejoiced in this free forgiveness, that brought such peace and comfort to his soul.
Now, what about you and me? Well, we too are people who have a great need for freedom. We celebrate regularly, in this great land of the United States of America, the political freedom we enjoy. But we continue to be people who need spiritual freedom. We need that spiritual freedom because we continue to sin, against God and one another, every day.
Counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists continue to report that one of the most vexing problems people face today is guilt – guilt over all sorts of things they did, and now realize they shouldn’t have, and all sorts of things they now wish they had done, but didn’t. For me, and many others today, the words of St. Paul ring very true – “For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do,” (Romans 7:19, KJV).
How do we handle our guilty consciences today? I think we tend to handle them in much the same way people have tried to handle them throughout human history. We can try to forget all about it, through the use of alcohol or other drugs. We can try to blame it all on someone else – it’s not my fault, it’s because of my parents, my boss, my wife or husband, and so forth.
We can try to say we don’t need to feel guilty over it, because it really isn’t wrong. Boy, is our society pursuing that today, changing all the old laws of what was right and wrong, decriminalizing all sorts of things that we used to clearly understand, together, were wrong.
And we still try Martin Luther’s first way of handling guilt – doing good, to make up for the bad. Again and again, whenever I ask people the question, “If you died, and went to heaven, and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’” people tell me they would tell God of the good they have done, or the good life they have tried to live, or how they have been better persons than other people they know. Yet our Epistle Reading today, Romans 3, still declares, “For by works of the law, no human being will be justified, in His sight,” (v. 20, ESV).
And so, still tonight, and for all days, God presents to us His solution for the guilt of our sins and failures, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It tells us that God has made heaven a free gift, because that is the only way it can come to any of us. God’s truth, the Bible, points us to God’s truth, His only true Son, Jesus.
God’s Word tells us of Jesus’ virgin birth, His freely-lived holy life, perfectly fulfilling God’s holy Law, His freely-accepted suffering and death, on the cross, to pay the price in full, for all of our failures to fulfill God’s holy Law, and His glorious resurrection to new life, that we might be freed from the tyranny of sin, guilt, and eternal death.
And so, in Jesus, we are free from, all this. But then, free from, all this, what is it we are free for? How do we use this freedom, that God has given, to you and me?
1sr Peter 2:16 – “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God,” (ESV).
Martin Luther rejoiced in the spiritual freedom God gave Him, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was freed from that guilty conscience that he had struggled with, for so many years. And so His life’s work became the spreading of that glorious Gospel, joyfully and freely, to all who didn’t understand that good news. He was free to abide in Jesus’ Word of love, and so became a even greater student of that Word, and an even greater teacher of that Word.
When the church of Luther’s day tried to coerce him to stop talking, about God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus, Luther was free to say, “Here I stand … I can do no other.” And his wife, his dear Katie, was freed from her vows, as a nun, to become Luther’s dear wife, and a wonderful mother.
Tonight God still wants you and me to live with His assurance of forgiveness and salvation, filled with joy, in His Gospel good news. Hebrews 10:22 – “let us draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean, from an evil conscience,” (ESV). God calls us to respond, to His gift of spiritual freedom, by living as free servants of God, and of others.
What does that mean? Acts 2:42 – “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers,” (ESV). It means we are free to abide in Jesus’ Word. You don’t have to have private and family devotions in His Word, you don’t have to meditate on His Word, in Bible study, you don’t have to come and receive His Word, and His Holy Communion, in Worship. You and I are not coerced by God’s Law.
Instead, we are free, to be devoted to His Word, free to know His truth, free to continue to grow, in knowing His truth. We are free to thank God, and praise our Lord, and serve Him.
God’s free gift, of spiritual freedom in His Gospel good news, also means that we are free to serve others, in Jesus’ name. Galatians 5:13 – “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but, through love, serve one another,” (ESV).
You don’t have to be a faithful husband or wife, you don’t have to be an obedient son or daughter, you don’t have to be a dedicated parent, you don’t have to serve your fellow church members, or those around you, in your community. Again, you and I are not coerced by God’s Law. Instead, we are free, to serve others, in so many ways.
And, always important, but perhaps even more so, in these days, in our nation, we are free to spread the Gospel message of the gift of God’s forgiveness and righteousness to others. Again, we do that, not because we have to, coerced by God’s Law. Instead, we are free, to speak of Jesus, to all sorts of people around us. 1st Corinthians 10:31 – “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” (ESV).
As we leave our worship, let us leave as those who are truly spiritually free. Romans 8:1-2 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death,” (ESV). May we live as those who are free from the tyranny of sin, guilt, and eternal death. May we live as those who are free, in God’s Gospel good news, to serve God, and others. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” (v. 36). Good news – the Son has set you free, and we are free indeed! Amen.