Reformation
October 25, 2015
John 8:31-36
Made free
How do you perceive yourselves? Some believe
we exist to be free. That seems to be the American mantra, “I was born free, I live free, and I will
die, free!” The truth is we are born slaves to sin. Every one of us
has been born into sin. We are in bondage to the power of the Devil.
Fortunately,
this bondage was broken. By a man who
suffered on a cruel and bloody cross. Then He stood at the mouth of an open
tomb. Christians are now declared free. In Christ, you are now slaves set free.
The Emancipation proclamation. Lincoln’s
greatest acts as president. Jesus’ death
on the cruel, cruel, cross is what has guaranteed your freedom. The Reformation
was the event.
That called for religious freedom – Freedom of a burdened conscience. Freedom from false teachings. You are declared free in Christ. – Free to live, love, and serve.
That called for religious freedom – Freedom of a burdened conscience. Freedom from false teachings. You are declared free in Christ. – Free to live, love, and serve.
As
Christians we are
1.
Born, once destined
to be slaves of sin –
2.
Yet, we have been
made free by Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of God –
Each is
born a slave to sin. (V. 34) “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”
Because of
our first parents Adam and Eve. We have all been made slaves to sin. One of the
hymns we teach our students in Morning Prayer at Wyneken
expresses this truth so well. “In Adam we have all been one, One huge
rebellious man; We all have fled that evening voice That sought us as we ran.”[1]
We remain
in this state of slavery and bondage until the day we draw our last breath.
Yet, you have been redeemed. By Christ the crucified. Yes, Christ has redeemed
you from the curse of the Law.
But at the
same time, there is the “Old Adam [lurking] within us, {who} should by daily
contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil lust so
that a new man can daily come forth and arise who shall live before God in
righteousness and purity forever.” [2]
St. Paul
writes, in Romans, the sixth chapter, “We were buried with Christ by Baptism
into death, that, like as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”[3]
Daily we
fall short of the perfection the Father demands of us. We confess that we
are by nature sinful and unclean. We have not loved the Father with our whole
heart; we have not loved our neighbors and ourselves. We justly deserve the
Father’s present and eternal punishment.[4]
We
confess both sins of commission and sins of omission. This is what we mean when
we say to God, “We have sinned by thought, word and deed, by what we have
done and by what we have left undone.”[5]
Specifically,
we plead guilty before God in everything. In Individual/Private Confession we
pray, “I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most. My
Lord’s name I have not honored, as I should; my worship and prayers have
faltered. I have not let His love have its way with me, and so my live for
others has failed. There are those whom I have hurt, and those whom I failed to
help. My thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin.”[6]
Transition: By being human. We are born slaves to sin. Yet there
is in us a “new man.” This has made us a new people.
God’s Son
makes us free. (V. 36) “So if the son has made you free you are free indeed.”
You
are made free because of the action of Jesus. He is the one who entered
your reality. At the right time. Jesus entered time and space. He entered your
world. John in his Gospel will tell us, “And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.[7] But
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons.[8]
He is the
one who bore your sin. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds
you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have
returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”[9]
He is the
one who offers you a new life. St. Paul would remind us, “Or
don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into
death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, we too may live a new life.”[10]
This
freedom cannot be taken from you. Satan may howl and shriek. This is what he
enjoys. And he’s so good it! He’s so good at what he does that Paul would
remind us, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 9 “Resist him,
standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the
world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”[11] He’s
always accusing, always judging, always condemning. He’s so critical. He does
not approve of Christ and what He is doing in you. So He will continue to
bellow and shout his accusations at us.
But
in a clear small voice someone speaks even louder - it is Christ your Savior
who speaks His word of peace, “I forgive you” “I love you” “I care for you.”
This is what moved the Evangelist John to write, “This then is how we know
that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he
knows everything.”[12]
How are we
to perceive ourselves? As humans we are born slaves of sin – Everyone
who commits sin is a slave to sin. That’s the Law. Yet, by the grace of God,
we have been made free by the Son – So if the Son has made you free you
are free indeed. In Jesus Christ, you are free indeed. Believe and
trust in this reality.
Words-1,195
Passive
Sentences –7%
Readability-87%
Reading
Level-4.1
[1] “In Adam We Have All Been One” from Lutheran
Worship © 1980 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO
[2] “The Significance of Baptizing with Water” from
Luther’s Small Catechism Lutheran Worship © 1980 Concordia Publishing House,
St. Louis, MO pg. 303
[3] Romans 6:
[4] Confession of Sins from Divine Service II Lutheran
Worship © 1980 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO p. 158
[6] Individual Confession and Absolution Lutheran Worship ©
1980 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO p. 310
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