"Slaves to Sin, Free in Christ"
John 8:31-36, Romans 3:19-28
Reformation
October 31, 2010
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mount Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, Wisconsin

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

"Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." Martin Luther knew well the meaning of those words. He knew what it was like to feel enslaved to the Law, to be in captivity to his sins and unable to set himself free. The thing he most felt was the burden of an angry God on his back, driving him, demanding a holy life and penance for sin. So much did he want to escape his slavery that he thought becoming a monk might do the job. If he just devoted himself fully to being righteous and worshiping God, perhaps then he could break free and the shackles would come off. But things didn't get better; in some ways constantly being reminded of the demands of a righteous God only caused him to feel his chains all the more. Many of you know the stories of how Luther would go to confession, confessing his sins for long periods of time, and then after leaving, he would quickly return, remembering some sin he forgot to confess, or admitting that he didn't confess all his sins with a pure heart or the right intention. This attempt at righteousness by his own efforts and works became a torture. "Whoever commits sin a slave of sin."

The same thing is true for us, too; only we tend to experience this in an opposite way. In our culture, the wrath of an angry God isn't what runs the show. For us it's being free to do as we please. And that's where we experience our slavery. For the sins that please us, that promise us freedom and happiness, ensnare us and bind us and imprison us. Our desires and addictions rule us. The technologies that makes us feel like we're lords of our own lives end up being what we serve, what we chain ourselves to for hours a day. Gluttony enslaves us to our belly and our food, as does alcoholism to drink. Lust enslaves us to our passions, to pornography, to behavior that tears people apart. Laziness enslaves us in a cycle of dependency and pessimism and excuse-making and blame. Gambling enslaves us to the idol of winning it big, getting something for nothing. Greed enslaves us to our possessions and all the things we have to do to get and hold on to our stuff. Pride chains us to having to keep up our image and prop up the facade, when deep down we know it's just hypocrisy. And on it goes . . . We may not be running for the monastery like Luther, but we, too, know that things aren't right with us, that we're not truly free. "Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." And the wages of sin is death. Repent.

God doesn't just accept your best efforts as being sufficient to make yourself right with Him. He doesn't just say, "Try your hardest and that's good enough." What does His Word say? "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." St. James writes, "Whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in (just) one point has become guilty of all it." You can't save yourself by your own efforts. You can't free yourself from the slavery of sin by your own doing and looking within yourself. What did the Epistle say? "By the deeds of the Law no flesh [no one] will be justified in [God's] sight."

So what is our only hope of being saved and freed from this slavery? St. Paul writes in the Epistle, Since, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Pay close attention to those words. You are justified freely by His grace. It's a gift of God to you, without any strings attached. That's what grace is, an undeserved gift of love. God justifies you, He declares you righteous, He puts you right with Himself solely and completely based on the works of Christ Jesus His Son–not what you have done for God but what Christ has done for you.

And here is what Christ has done for you: the Epistle says that the Lord Jesus redeemed you. In other words, He bought you back; He purchased you out of your slavery with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. He traded places with you and allowed Himself to be enslaved, captured and condemned as if He were the sinner, guilty of every wrong that's ever been done and every failure to do what's right. He took your place in death to set you free, so that you would take His place in everlasting life. Through His death, Jesus conquered your slave masters–sin and Satan and the grave–so that they have no eternal power over you any more. In the Son of God, Jesus, you are truly free–released, forgiven, alive–as Jesus Himself said, "If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed."

Martin Luther puts it this way in the Large Catechism: "The Lord Jesus has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For before I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil, condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness. For when we had been created by God the Father, and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and deserved. There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us. Those tyrants and jailers, then, are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness."

This is where Martin Luther finally found his liberty. He had understood the righteousness of God to be a term referring to God's righteous demands on us, what we must do to get into God's good graces. But then, when studying the Scriptures, he came to understand the truth of the Gospel, in part based on this verse in Romans 1, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . . for in it the righteousness of God is revealed." In other words, the Gospel makes known the righteousness of God, not as demands on you, but as a gift to you. God reveals and gives you His righteousness, so that through the Gospel, you are 100% holy and guiltless in His sight. Believe that. God declares it to be so through Christ and His holy death on the cross in your place.

That understanding of the Gospel, which had largely been lost, made all the difference for Luther. And so began the Reformation and the restoration of the Gospel to its rightful place in the Church, a heritage we are beneficiaries of down to this very day.

We summarize this belief with the four so-called "solas" of the Reformation: Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and the Word or Scripture alone. Eternal life and a right relationship with God are a pure gift of His grace alone, not because of anything we have done. We receive that grace by faith alone, apart from our works and spiritual efforts. Our faith is in Christ alone and in no one and nothing else as our Savior. And God brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith through His life-giving Word alone and not by anything that comes from within us; and all our teaching comes from Scripture and not man-made wisdom or tradition. To sum this all up, all the glory for our salvation belongs not to us but to God and His abundant mercy, as Romans 3 states, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith [in Christ] apart from the deeds of the Law."

Allow me to conclude by focusing on these words of Jesus, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." To abide in Jesus' word is to continue to receive His Word in all the ways that it comes to you and trust in it. It is to live in the gift of your baptism, where the Word of God was applied to you with the water, drowning the old Adam and bringing you forth to a new life. It is to hear absolution and the preaching of the Gospel, by which the Word is applied to you and its gifts are given to you. And it is to receive the Lord's Supper, where the Word made flesh is truly present, giving you His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of sins. (We rejoice that several of our young people will be receiving that gift for the first time today.)

Always remember that the Reformation was not only about fighting against the false teaching of the Pope, it was also about defending the truth of Christ against those on the other extreme who threw out the baby with the bath water, who denied the saving power of baptism and the real presence of Christ's body and blood in Holy Communion, who denied the Word and promise of Christ in the sacraments, who ditched the liturgy and made it all about your personal spiritual experiences. These false spirits, too, had to be rejected. No, Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." The word in the water, the word in the preacher's mouth, the word in the bread and wine, the word of the Scriptures. Abide in this, continue in this, trust in this, and you are Christ's disciple, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free–free children of God who will abide in His house forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit