Today is Reformation Day, also called “the eve of All Saints”, or Halloween. 506 years ago, an Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg University named Martin Luther posted 95 theses in Latin for theological discussion concerning the sale of indulgences on the castle church door. These statements which were concerned with answering what is true repentance?” and how can forgiveness of sins be bought or sold? This is what began what we now call the Reformation of the western church.
When you reform something, you don’t start from scratch. You conserve what you can and you fix what you can’t. A true Reformation tends to be conservative. It’s like pruning a perennial or trimming a tree. You don’t dig out the whole plant and put another in its place, nor do you whack down the whole tree to the root. You prune selectively, skillfully, carefully. Luther did not intend to split an already fractured church. Nor did he intend to start a new church, as if such a thing were possible. This was not about shaking a defiant fist at the Pope, though he did do a bit of that later on, nor was it about breaking away from the big bad Catholic Church, nor was it, as the radical reformation believed, so that some new pure church could emerge from the impure Catholic. This was supposed to be, and always is, about reformation. Correcting what is wrong, conserving what is right.
And so it is today. The Church is always and ever being reformed: including the “Lutheran church”, even this church. Every part of the church. It’s not simply a once and done deal where you can rest on your laurels. As long as there is sin and weak humanity, there is always going to be error, drift, a little sideways current or wind that blows the Church slightly off course. That’s true for each of us justified sinners too. We are ever in need of reformation. It’s not about once saved always saved. Our Baptism is not a one time thing but a daily thing, a daily dying and rising, a daily repentance and justification, a daily reformation by God’s Word. That is what the Reformation was all about: God’s Word.
Jesus spoke to the Jews who HAD believed in Him. They used to believe, but not anymore. There’s no once believed always believing security here. You dare not take the gift of faith lightly. What went wrong? Did God fail? Did the Word fail to do its faith creating, sustaining, enlivening work? No. The people refused. They had turned from the Word. Faith is born of the Word, is fed by the Word, is sustained by the Word. And without the Word, faith dies.
Jesus said, “If you abide in my Word you are truly my disciples.” But to be a disciple is to abide in the Word of Jesus, that is, to remain in the Word, to exist in the Word: being connected to Jesus by hearing His Word and having His Word have its way with you. The same word “abide” is used in Jesus’ saying of the vine and the branches. A branch abides in the vine and draws life from it. Cut off from the vine, the branch is fruitless and dead. Cut off from the Word, faith is fruitless and dead too.
There is a promise for those who abide in the Word of Jesus. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus Himself is the truth. His Word is truth. To abide in the truth is to abide in Jesus, which is the only place in which a sinner may abide and live before God.
The truth is that we are sinners. Not simply ones who commit sin, that is, do bad things, think bad thoughts, or say bad words. It goes much deeper than that. We are slaves to Sin with a capital S. “Whoever sins is a slave to Sin.”
Do you sin? Well, in case you’re not sure, the commandments say that you do. Do you fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Do you use the name of God rightly in worship and prayer? Do you gladly hear and learn God’s Word? Do you honor father, mother, and other temporal authorities? Do you help your neighbor in every need? Do you keep marriage pure and encourage others to do the same? Do you help your neighbor protect his property? Do you defend the reputation of others by putting the best construction on everything? Do you desire what doesn’t belong to you? Are you content with what you have?
The truth is that you do not abide in God’s Word as you should and therefore sin, and when you sin you are therefore a slave to sin, just as Israel was once a slave in Egypt, but then fell into the slavery of idolatry again and again: a fact that the Jews in the Gospel text seemed to have conveniently forgotten. They took God’s grace for granted. You’re freed from slavery, and forget the slavery and get enslaved elsewhere. “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.” How soon people forget. That’s pride talking, and an unusual form of pride. The worst form of pride which is spiritual pride. It’s receiving a gift and then acting as if you’d earned it all along. Or forgetting entirely that it is a gift, and so also forgetting the giver.
We are born enslaved, captive to Sin and Death. We cannot free ourselves. We’re stuck. And any attempts at self-liberation only make matters worse. When we honestly look into the mirror of the Law we find that it’s a magnifying mirror. Even things we thought were OK, even those places where we felt self-justified turn out to be so riddled with sin we barely recognize the good. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The mere fact that we sin in our thoughts, words, and our actions reminds us that we are slaves to Sin.
A slave remains for a while, a son remains forever. The Word of God in His Gospel is that which frees us. The Word made flesh, the Son of God came down to us trapped in slavery to sin. The Son joined us in our humanity. The Son stood side by side with the slave to free us. He paid the price. He redeemed us. He lived the Law flawlessly without Sin. He was not enslaved by Sin, He was Lord over Sin. Yet as Lord, He came under the Law that accuses us, that holds us accountable, that silences us before God, and condemns us to eternal death. He took up our Sin and our Death and He nailed it all to His cross. The Son became the slave so that the slave might become the son. And if the Son sets you free, you are free as free can be.
That’s what Martin Luther discovered when He looked at the cross of Jesus and for the first time in his life saw mercy rather than merit. Undeserved kindness rather than an example to follow. When he heard that phrase “the righteousness of God” and recognized that this was not something you worked for by the Law but it was something given as a gift by God’s Word in Jesus Christ through faith. The Law drives you to Jesus seeking mercy, which is what it’s supposed to do. The Law is there to shut every mouth so that no one can boast before God. The Word of the Law prepares us to receive, in joy, the Word of the Gospel. Jesus Christ died upon the cross, so that you may be set free from the enslavement to sin, flesh, and the accusations of the Devil.
There is power in God’s Word. Power to rebuke the devil and His ways. Power to rebuke our pride. Power to embolden us by the forgiveness of sins given freely by Grace in Jesus Christ. The Word which we hear in Baptism, in Holy Absolution, in the Lord’s Supper, in the study of God’s Word, in catechesis, in our hymns, our liturgy. The Reformation was not about adding to God’s Word. It was about magnifying God’s Word: magnifying Jesus Christ and His rescuing freeing act of redemption. Showing that there is power in the Word to convert, to change, to grow strong and steadfast, because it is all about Jesus Christ and God’s will for your salvation.
Martin Luther, the Wittenburg theologians and the faithful reformers ever since have tried to promote biblical literacy, a knowledge of Scripture, how to read it, to find the power therein. It is this through which God causes personal repentance, forgiveness, and reformation and recreation in His Holy Freedom: Law, Gospel, Jesus Christ. It is this Word which causes Satan to fall. He cannot accuse us or lead us astray if we are steeped in and abiding in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus you are free. Free from the Law’s condemnation. Free from enslavement to Sin. Free from Death, free from the torments of the Devil whose power has been destroyed. You are free to live before God as a justified sinner. Free to serve your neighbor in love. The slave is made a son, a child, an heir. Should you doubt this and wonder if it applies to you, remember that you are baptized. Baptism is your adoption paper. You were a slave but now you are a son, a daughter with the full rights of sons. You have a place at the table. You have a permanent place in the house to abide with your Lord and Savior as He abides with you in His Word, His Divine Service, His absolution, His body and blood in the bread and wine.
Therefore, abide in that justifying Word, and you are a disciple of Jesus. Abide in that Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and you are forgiven. Abide in that Word, and you are free, and will remain free, for “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas