Freedom in Christ: A Reformation Day Meditation on John 8 and Romans 3

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,

If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

 

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed,

and were never in bondage to any man:

how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

 

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

And the servant abideth not in the house for ever:

but the Son abideth ever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free,

ye shall be free indeed.

 

In John 8, Jesus was teaching the Jews who followed Him that they were not as free as they thought themselves to be.  In a practical sense, the Jews were not free from Roman authority, as they were a conquered and occupied land by the time of Jesus’ Advent.  The regular people were not free of the capricious tyranny of their religious leaders, who endlessly made up new laws and promulgated them as the oracles of God, all while fleecing the people of their money and patronage.  Yet it was not these practical enslavements Jesus was speaking to them about, but a spiritual reality that anyone who is born in sin, lives in sin, and dies in sin, is not free, but a slave of the sin they commit.  Every person who submits themselves to sin becomes its servant, and Jesus taught them directly that no servant of sin abides in the Kingdom of God forever.  On the contrary, Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, was truly free and abides in the house of the Lord forever; therefore, if the Son was to make the people free, they would be restored to freedom before God and able to dwell with God in His Kingdom unto ages of ages without end.

 

As with so many things, this spiritual reality is greater than the physical manifestations of tyranny in the world.  No tyrant or human trafficker will live forever, and no unfortunate slave of their evil will suffer forever in their chains.  The human experience of evil tyranny in this world is bounded by the human lifespan, and thus the machinations of evil people and the suffering of the innocent under their rule, is definitionally transitory.  But the spirit of men will live forever, and it passes from this world into the realm of eternity on the day of one’s death.  At that moment, the soul will stand before God as the creature before its Creator, and give an account of all that has been done in their life to that point.  St. Paul in our epistle reading for today from Romans 3 makes clear that no one will stand justified before God on their own merits, because no one has lived a life of perfection before the holy and just Law of God.  Thus the promise Jesus made to the Jews was their only hope:  that if the Son of God as the Incarnate Word of the Father would set them free, then they would be absolved of their sins and welcomed into His Kingdom.

 

And yet, God is both Just and Merciful, Righteous and Gracious; He cannot be what He is not, and He cannot violate Himself as the ground of all reality and existence.  What was due by men by the curse of the Law before God, had to be paid if man could be forgiven—an infinite debt for every soul, paid by the only One who could do so.  No man could atone for his own sins, except to take his just place in hell for all eternity, and neither could he atone for the sins of others.  Only God could pour out a sacrifice of infinite worth to pay an infinite debt, and liberate the souls of men from the curse of their own depravity.  This is what St. Paul calls Propitiation:  that Jesus Christ took the place of fallen men on the Cross, and that His sacrifice as both fully God and fully Man was satisfaction before the Judgement Seat of the Father.  In Christ alone was the satisfaction of every man’s sins, and in Christ alone would the sentence of man’s fall be reversed.  In Christ alone was freedom from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil—a victory no man could win for himself or his loved ones.  While transient tyrannies of this world may come and go, the eternal tyranny of man’s soul was set free by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that all who would abide in Him by Faith would receive His saving Grace forevermore.

 

To what purpose, then, are we set free?  Freedom before God in Jesus Christ is not the libertarian ideal of modern politics, nor the Epicurean dream of self-satisfaction in whatever hedonistic desire may dominate a man’s mind.  To be free of the slavery of evil, is to rise into the freedom of the good—to be an adopted child of God, daily conformed to His image, and sent out to live according to His Word, Wisdom, and Will.  In Christ we are made free, not to follow our own desires and passions into the bleak darkness of our former slavery, but to rise into His righteousness, justice, truth, and mercy.  We are freed from the devil not that we would serve him again, but that we would become in fullness what we were created to be, reflecting in the uniqueness of our person the glories of Almighty God.  Rather than abolishing the Law of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ affirms it by the shedding of His blood and the Propitiation He has made in our place.  We are not saved from sin so that sin would abound in us, but that we might be motivated with a new heart and a new Spirit to emulate the Love and Truth and Righteousness that our Savior first gave to us.  We are free, once more, to seek the Good, unchained from the slavery of evil.

 

On this Reformation Day, we are called to remember that there is salvation in no other name given under heaven, but by Jesus Christ.  Our freedom from the darkness is not won by the efforts of any mere, fallen mortal, but by the Only Begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.  It is the Word of Jesus that comes to us by the power of His Holy Spirit, that we might repent, believe, and live in His Word, raised out of our darkness and into His marvelous Light.  In Christ alone we stand today in His grace, despite the transient vagaries of this world’s evils, its tyrants, and its machinations, knowing that our redemption passes from this world to the next, where no evil can abide forever.  In Christ alone we are raised to a new life, which seeks not our own pleasures and desires, but works in the love of God and of our neighbors as Christ first loved us.  In Christ alone we are now free to live as the children of God He has made us to be, that we might sing His praises unto all ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

Follow Me: A Meditation on Mark 10 for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost

And when he was gone forth into the way,

there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him,

Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

 

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

there is none good but one, that is, God.

Thou knowest the commandments,

Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal,

Do not bear false witness, Defraud not,

Honour thy father and mother.

 

And he answered and said unto him,

Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him,

One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast,

and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:

and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

 

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved:

for he had great possessions.

 

The young man who approached Jesus with his earnest question about eternal life (also recorded in Matthew 19) got a bit more than he anticipated from Jesus.  After first having prompted the young man to consider why he though Jesus was good when God alone is truly good, and then reminding him of his obligation before God to keep the Commandments, the young man confessed that He had done so since His youth.  Jesus expressed His compassion for the young man by showing him what he really needed, and what was holding him back:  a total commitment to God.  The young man was instructed to sell off his wealth, give to the poor, take up his cross, and follow Jesus.  While giving to the poor and taking up the horrors of crucifixion didn’t seem to affect the young man as viscerally, selling off his great wealth did—and the young man went away sorrowful, unwilling yet to part with it.

 

The Scriptures from beginning to end describe disciples of God in every walk of life, from poor to rich, and in many kinds of profession or trade, including land owners, shepherds, husbandmen, day laborers, warriors, traders, and politicians.  In each case, the relative profession and wealth were always of less concern than the fidelity of the heart to God and His Word, for from the earliest days of man until the end of the world, God has declared that The Just Shall Live By Faith.  Yet by the same token, no one’s profession or outward actions, even if they be of the priestly class or consecrated Nazarites or prophets or kings, would save them if their heart was not faithful to God.  What the young man of Mark 10 clung to above God was his wealth, and Jesus in His love for the young man, took the time to help him see his folly so that at some future point, he might repent of this idolatry, believe, and live in Jesus.  Regardless of the young man’s outward piety, he wasn’t ready to follow Jesus, because his heart was still trusting in his wealth.

 

It is worth noting that Jesus’ teaching to us is not necessarily that we should sell everything we have, give everything to the poor, then take up a physical cross and follow Him—though it could be.  The invitation Jesus gives us today, and to people in every age, is to examine ourselves before Him and His Word, and figure out what we’re clinging to that we shouldn’t.  All that we have is a gift from God, right down to the life we live and breaths we take, but in our fallen condition, pride and ignorance rise up in our minds to consider what we have, as our own.  Rightly seen, everything we have is given to us to serve God and our neighbor in love and compassion that reflects His love and compassion shown to us by His Cross—and nothing we have is so authentically our own that we should horde it, be obsessed by it, or put our trust in it as if it could save us.  Our wealth, possessions, powers of mind and body, and anything else we have been given, are all gracious gifts from the God who made us, sent us into this world to accomplish His will, and shall one day call us home to give an account of what we did with what He gave us.

 

Ultimately, we know we fail this test, because as Jesus reminded the rich young man, there is no one good but God alone.  Only Jesus could use the fulness of His Incarnation to work the salvation of the whole world, with a full devotion to His Father and compassion upon every soul that will ever walk in this world.  His work was complete and total, undivided in His mind or heart, and there was nothing in His possession that came between Him and His love for us.  He did set aside all the riches of heaven that were and are authentically His by virtue of His full divinity, so that He could be born of the Virgin Mary and walk among us as fully man; it is He who gave everything He had to the poor, that they might know Him, be healed by Him in body and soul, and live in Him forever; it is He alone took up His Cross for the sins of the whole world, suffering the eternal punishment of every soul that would ever exist, so that everyone who trusted in Him might never face that same judgment for their own sins.  Jesus is the Good One, because He is God and Man in one Divine Person, perfectly united with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.  The full measure of devotion we could not muster to earn eternal life for ourselves, He accomplished for the whole world.

 

What Jesus has given to you, dear Christian, is the entirety of Himself, and He calls you to follow Him in the entirety of your redeemed self.  Let go your affections for baubles and trinkets which bind your mind and soul to lesser things, and receive the wholeness of your forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ alone.  In your baptism, all of you was united with His death, and all of you rose to eternal life in Him, so that nothing in this world might take your devotion from the One who loved and saved you from every enemy of the human race.  Rejoice and give thanks, for the Lord of Glory is good indeed, and His goodness is poured out upon you by His grace, that you might live forever in Him by faith.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

 

What God Has Joined Together: A Meditation on Mark 10 for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him,

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.

And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?

And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.

And Jesus answered and said unto them,

For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;

 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

 

And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife,

and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

 And if a woman shall put away her husband,

and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

 

In our age of hyper-libertine sexuality, Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 can seem shocking or quaint.  At the time of this exchange between the Pharisees and Jesus, women not only had limited authority to own property and conduct business, but could be summarily dismissed by their husband through a writ of divorce.  Pious keepers of the Law, the Pharisees challenged Jesus with this teaching which they thought they could hang on an exception in Moses’ writings, justifying themselves.  Jesus, in turn, took them back to the beginning, where Moses wrote of man and woman being made for each other, and their complimentary union blessed by God should not be dissolved by man.  Jesus went further, teaching that if man were to break this union (Matthew’s parallel recording of this teaching adds, for any reason other than sexual infidelity,) and attempt to re-marry, both he and his ex-wife would be guilty of adultery before God.  Since adultery is specifically enumerated among the 10 Commandments given at the covenant of Sinai (and keeping the word of one’s covenant before God listed as the second commandment,) to do so is a breach with both Moses’ teaching and God’s command—a double condemnation for the self-justifying Pharisees and their legal gymnastics.

 

This teaching is clear, and was universally accepted across most of the Church’s history until the early 20^th century when specifically Protestants in the West began following the Pharisees’ old gymnastics in the pursuit of unbounded sexual engagements.  Feeling themselves self-justified, many inside and outside the Church have freely entered and dissolved marriages whenever their interests changed, or life together became challenging.  Failure to keep the Word of God in regard to marriage has brought forth calamity in the societies of the West, scarring the souls of children and parents alike, until libertine sexuality of adults becomes a higher priority than the care of nurture of the next generation.  The deconstruction and devaluation of the family, the central bedrock institution of civilization from the dawn of man, has also brought forth the industrialized plague of infanticide under the guise of abortion, and the horror of children being trafficked for adult sexual gratification.  While modern man might tell himself that the covenant of marriage is nothing of significance, the destruction of his own civilization and the wounding of his own soul declares otherwise, and brings forth the curse of Sinai that whoever despises God and His Word will have judgment poured out upon both himself and his progeny.

 

God, however, looks at the human marriage covenant as a reflection of His saving covenant with mankind.  When God gives His Word, it is immutable—His promises and commandments stand forever as the very scaffolding of the cosmos.  God’s covenants, therefore, are indissoluble, just as He is the guarantor of what He’s promised.  Thus, if God says our decent into evil will bring upon us His judgement, He is good and righteous to declare it.  So, too, if He declares that everyone who repents and trusts in Him, abiding in His Word by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, will be forgiven of their sins and rescued from the hell they have earned, that Gospel is likewise unassailable.  When God made us His people by His Word and Spirit, He did not enter into covenant with us as one who takes his word lightly, nor whose commitment might flag with future disinterest.  Unlike the travesty modern man has made of the wedding covenant between husband and wife, God promises to be wed to His people of faith and repentance in every generation, no matter where they come from or what their condition in life, bringing forth to them the blessing of Sinai by manifesting His steadfast love and compassion upon all who trust in Him.

 

The situation of modern man is not so far removed from the Pharisees of 1^st century Judea, nor of various pagan societies and ages where the Church first brought the light of God’s Word to bear upon their darkness.  While there will be some who reject the Word of God and bring destruction upon themselves and their families, the Word of God does not come to destroy, but that all might have life abundantly in Him.  Our choice before the Word of God is always the same, with God calling everyone to repent, believe, and live by grace through faith in His saving Gospel.  For there is only one God to whom all men are accountable, and through whom all men might be saved, so that there might be one Word Incarnate who has defeated death, hell, and the devil through His one Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the whole world.  The People of God become the Bride of Jesus Christ, prepared for that great wedding feast yet to come, when the fullness of His People have been called into His great and never-ending covenant of grace.  The Promise of God to save everyone who turns to him in faith is not a covenant He makes lightly, nor one He will ever rescind, for the Word of the Lord endures forever.

 

Take heart, dear Christian, however the Word of the Lord has encountered you today.  For it is not the Lord’s will to destroy you in your sin, but to save you by His love and grace in Jesus Christ alone.  Let go the self-justification of your evil desires whatever they may be, and receive the Word of redemption which calls you out of your darkness, and into His marvelous Light.  Hear the Word which comes to you by the power of His Holy Spirit, that each day you might be raised up into the image of your Savior, conformed evermore into the glory of His Word and Will, forgiven and free in Jesus Christ alone—for His covenant never fails.  Soli Deo Gloria! Amen.