Reformation Day (Observed), 2024

Texts: Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Title: Again

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Again.  You did it again.  You tried your best.  You swore that you wouldn’t.  You knew that you shouldn’t.  But in the end, you just couldn’t stop yourself.  You feel like a failure.  Unable to look yourself in the eye in the mirror.

All the reasons, all the excuses, all the justifications you told yourself now fall empty and flat.

“It’s no big deal.”

“Everyone does it.”

“No one will ever find out.”

None of these will salve your guilty conscience.

Nothing that you say will take that guilt away.

Pick your pet sin, your weakness, your addiction. We all have at least one, one pet sin that we can’t seem to give up, one bad habit we can’t seem to shake. Alcohol, porn, lying, gossip, talking back to parents and teachers, laziness, greed, you know what it is for you.

Try as you may, you can never seem to stop it, can’t seem to fix it on your own. 

You feel trapped.  You feel helpless.  You feel like a slave.  You know what Jesus means when He says, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

You were born into this slavery.  You’ve known nothing else your whole life long.

And yet, your slavery to sin is not an excuse. You can’t say, “It’s not my fault. I can’t help myself.  I was born this way.”

You are still responsible for your actions. There’s nothing you can say to justify yourself.

 “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

You are responsible.  You are guilty, and there’s nothing that you can do to make up for it.

That was the problem in Luther’s day.  Folks thought that you could at least cooperate a little bit, help out your cause by doing the right thing.  Fasting, making pilgrimages, making a donation to the church, these were all considered ways you could help your case and work towards making things right with God.

And that’s what Luther tried.  He even gave up a promising career as a lawyer to join a monastery.  He gave up all his worldly possessions and spent hours each day in prayer and confession. And no matter what he did, he still felt guilty.  He still felt like a slave to his sin. He could not free himself.

And neither can you.

You can’t free yourself from slavery to sin. No matter how hard you try, how dedicated and devoted you are, the law still renders its verdict, “Guilty! Guilty!  Guilty!” 

And the punishment for sin is death.  Eternal death.

But.

Thankfully, there’s a but.

“But if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Despite your sinfulness, God has had mercy on you. God did not create you to be a slave, but to be a member of His family.  He want you to be free.

And so, God the Father sent His Son to take your punishment upon Himself, to be guilty for you, and to die in your place. 

“You have been justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

God is a just judge, a righteous judge, a fair judge.  He doesn’t just ignore sin.  Sin must be punished.  And so, to satisfy God’s justice, Jesus took your place.  He is your substitute, your propitiation, the one who bears your guilt and your punishment for you like the sacrificial lambs of old.

And because of that sacrifice, you are free. You don’t need to feel guilty. You don’t need to feel accused by your conscience, by the people around you, or even by Satan himself.

God has rendered His verdict, “Not Guilty! Not Guilty!  Not Guilty!” and you are free.

The Greek word for “free” found here in John 8 is “eleutherios.”  Sound familiar?

During the time of the Reformation and Renaissance, many scholars took Greek or Latin names for themselves.  Some, like Philipp Melanchthon just took their name and translated it.  His last name was actually Schwarzerd, or “black earth” in German, and when you translate it into Greek, it becomes “Melanchthon.”

Martin Luther’s last name was originally “Luder,” in German.  Luder with a “d.”  Around the time that he posted the 95 Theses, Martin changed his last name to Luther with a “th,” and he started signing his personal letters “eleutherios,” the free man, the one who has been set free.

Luther’s own name reflected the fact that He had been set free.

When you call yourself a “Lutheran,” you are not naming yourself after some preacher who’s been dead for nearly 500 years.

When you call yourself a “Lutheran,” you are saying that you, too, have been set free, you are liberated, you are no longer a slave, but you are a child of God.

How does that happen?  How are you liberated, set free?

Jesus says, “’If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

The truth of God’s Word, the truth of the Gospel is what sets you free.

That was the case for Martin Luther.  It was by reading and meditating on the Bible, in particular, this book of Romans, that Luther was set free.  Not just skimming through it.  Not just reading it once in Sunday School or Confirmation class and then putting his Bible on the shelf to gather dust, but reading diligently, or as Jesus says, “abiding” in that word.

Satan wants nothing more than to draw you away from the word of God.  He knows that if he can keep you from that word, you will stay imprisoned by fear, doubt, and guilt.

But as you hear that truth, that word, that eternal gospel proclaimed to those who dwell on earth, you are set free.

What did we just sing?  “The Word forever shall abide.”

The Word of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament, the Word of the Gospel in the New Testament, the word proclaimed by Martin Luther and countless others through the ages, that Word will remain, and as a disciple of Jesus, you are to abide, remain in that word.

So that even if you sin again and again and again, you will hear again and again and again that Jesus died for you, your sins are forgiven, you are justified, you are holy, you are a child of God.

That is the truth.  And that truth will set you free.