Sermon “Free, Really Free”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – amen.
This evening we are assembled, really a day early, to recognize Reformation Day, the day when Martin Luther tacked 95 debate topics onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. These 95 theses, topics for debate, centered around the freedom we have in Christ. He was asking questions that needed to be asked. What is the foundation of salvation? Are we saved by grace through faith? Are we saved by works? Is there some combination of the two? Why, if forgiveness for sin is granted, do we have an idea that we must pay for our sins after we have died? Those were all good questions. They were questions about places where biblical faith and cultural faith came into conflict with each other.
We might ask the same questions today. Then again, maybe we need to ask some other questions today. It might just be that our society runs afoul of biblical faith in slightly different ways. We have to wonder if today, some 494 years later, there might just be other questions to ask. But I won’t try to be a prophet. I don’t think the Lord is directing me to question all the foundational beliefs of American Christianity. And I’m not planning to spend the rest of my life fighting for whatever I might say tonight.
What did Jesus say about our life in him? If the Son sets us free we are free indeed. The Gospel is of God’s grace. It is entirely free for us. We receive forgiveness, life, and salvation freely. Jesus has truly paid it all. And he claims boldy to the the only one who has provided a means of salvation. It is found nowhere else. We aren’t all following different world religions but going to the same place because we ultimately believe in the same deity. That isn’t the way the world works. The different religions have different beliefs. They understand God differently. And it is only in the Christian faith that we look to the true, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This claim is different from the claims of the other religions. We also claim that the salvation earned for us by Jesus’ death on the cross is a true substitute for us. We don’t add any merit to Jesus’ death. We don’t bring any righteousness. We’re at the card table of life, but God is the one with all the cards. We don’t have anything to play. Yet in his grace and mercy our Lord has set us free. he has called us to the table. He has set life and salvation before us. He has given us Word and Sacrament. And he lets us respond. He tells us we are free. And we are. We are free as free can be.
How do we react to this freedom? If the Son has set us free we are free. But what if, like the Jews who were talking to Jesus, we say that we have never been in bondage? What if we deny that we need his salvation? What then? We’re transformed into people at the card table of life, with no cards, and we have to play. We get to work out our own salvation. We have to earn our way into God’s favor. This we cannot do. Yet it is the dreadful news that so many in the American church today take as the gospel. They preach a gospel of self-help. They preach a gospel of works salvation. They preach that you can do better by just trying. And in doing so they deny the true gospel of salvation only through faith in Jesus.
May we never fall into this trap! May the Lord bless us to hold firm to the true gospel. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, with that faith directed to Christ alone, with glory given to God alone. This is the Reformation of October 31, 1517. This is the Reformation of today. If the Son has set us free we are free indeed. We look to him for life and salvation, realizing that we have no power of our own to earn our salvation. We have power only of condemnation, disobedience, and death. May the Lord preserve us!
Our Lord, you have given yourself freely so as to draw all men to you. You have granted life and ssalvation through faith in your name. And as you have given freely, we are to give freely. Grant that we may believe you when you say you have accomplished salvation on our behalf. Make us to walk in your paths, freely giving our society the good news, the true gospel, the news that you have come to set us free from sin and death. This we pray in the name of the Jesus, God the Son, for you live, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever interceding on our behalf. Amen.
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