Free Indeed

Text: John 8:31-36

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

            In many ways, the Reformation was about challenging assumptions. In the medieval church, there was the assumption that the Bible was too dangerous to be read and misunderstood, so it was kept locked away under a language that the ordinary everyman could not understand. And so, to give it free course, it was translated into the language of the laity. There was the assumption that God’s grace was a gift, of course—but that it must be held onto not by faith alone, but by faith combined with good works worthy of reward from God. Thus, the preaching of faith alone, grace alone, and Scripture alone took the fore as the themes of Reformation preaching. There was the assumption that humans are essentially free agents, choosing the light or the dark, good or evil, sin or righteousness. But as the Reformers dived ever deeper into Scripture, they discovered that mankind is not sitting in some sort of neutral state, waiting to choose one side or the other. Rather, our natural state is that of bondage to the dark, slaves to those things that might appear to be desirable, but are actually poisonous.

            I suspect it’s this last assumption that we still struggle with the most—that we’re free agents, that we choose God. And I suspect that most people would look at their personal histories and assume that they’re on the side of God. But when we hear Jesus speaking today—to the Jews who believed in Him nonetheless!—He doesn’t speak as if they were free in their choices. In fact, He doesn’t speak to them as if they’re on God’s side at all. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth will set them free, future tense. Those who were listening to Him picked up on that. It sounded like He was saying they weren’t free. So they challenged Him. “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” And now Jesus pulls back the curtain entirely, revealing the chained heart and mind of every fallen child of Adam and Eve: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever.”

            The plain truth of these words is that, in our natural state, we are not on God’s side—not by our natural so-called goodness, not by our choice, not by anything we do. We’re slaves. We’re bound. We’re restricted in what we can even achieve. That’s not to say that we haven’t tried to break out of our chains. You may have tried hard work—putting in the effort, the hours, the blood, sweat, and tears to break yourself out of that bondage. You may have struggled mightily against whatever it is that has you shackled, your own personal pet sin, your own favorite vice. You may have made a promise, or a thousand promises, to walk away from it, to stop whatever it is that, in moments of insight, you could see had ensnared you. But how long did it last? How long until that old instinct to go back to those chains kicked in? How long until you looked back fondly at it, like the way the Israelites looked back longingly at their time in Egypt?

            Or perhaps you tried to free yourself by selling your slavery to another master. Maybe you dedicated yourself to strict obedience to the taskmaster of the Law, hoping that you could prove how valuable you would be to a new Master. Maybe you even succeeded to some degree. The Pharisees certainly tried that track. They were fastidious in keeping the multiple rules and regulations that they believed would keep them out of the household of unrighteousness and safely serving in the Lord’s house. But every time you look to the Law for an approving smile and nod, it has none. “We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law,” St. Paul writes to us this morning. And the Law doesn’t speak in order to approve of you, or to commend you, or to give you any lasting place in the Lord’s household. Rather, the Law speaks “so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be 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.” So much for picking the locks on our chains that way.

            Maybe you’ve slaved away, hoping to purchase your freedom. Maybe you’ve edited your record, hoping that the Judge will see the reasons you’ve given why you should be rewarded. Maybe you’ve just ignored the slavery and thought of the chains and handcuffs as something nice, something safe, something that everyone has, so it’s not a problem at all. But the fact of it remains: you are bound. You were never meant to be; you weren’t created for this. But there you are.

            So how is it that you are set free? Not how is it that you become a free agent that then chooses God—that’s not what I asked. That’s not even a possibility. How is it that you become a member of God’s household, His home, receiving His favor and blessing? The answer, which is really the beating heart of the Reformation, is shocking. You do nothing at all. It’s astounding, it challenges all of our assumptions, and that’s good. So I’m going to repeat it, and let it stand on its own, with no additions or qualifiers. You do nothing at all to be saved, to belong to God’s household.

            Jesus says to you, just as He said to the Jews who believed in Him, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” When and only when the Son does the work of setting you free, you are free indeed. Any other attempt will be imaginary freedom, like when the Jews said to Jesus, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone,” even as they were under the thumb of Caesar in Rome, and King Herod, and their own endless Law addiction.

            The uncomfortable truth—and it’s uncomfortable because it challenges us, because it forces us to be purely recipients of something so wonderful as God’s love and eternal life—is that we are free, we are alive, only in Jesus and what He, as the Son of God has done in our place. You are free because Jesus has fulfilled the entire Law in your place. There’s nothing left for you to do to win God’s favor. Nothing at all. He has done all the work for you. He has gone to the cross to take on the wrath and punishment you had earned. And with His blood shed for you, He extinguished it all. There’s nothing left for you to bear. He has risen from the dead to be with you. You’re not in charge of your own life now—it’s in Jesus’ resurrected hands, held by Him, shared with you, given as a gift, free of charge, no hidden cost before or after it’s been given to you.

            And so you just receive. Faith comes not by acting or proving. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Where were you in that sentence? You were the passive recipient; God spoke and you heard. Take, eat; take, drink; this is the true body and blood of Jesus given and shed for you. What did you do in that sacrifice? It’s your Lord’s action on your behalf that forgives your sin. I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What did you do when someone else poured water and spoke God’s promises over you? You simply received all that your God was handing over to you that day.

            That’s faith. That’s what faith does. It’s not your doing. Even now, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Yes, pastor, but then you have to…” Stop. Jesus has not said any of that. Scripture has not said any of that. Your old nature may be flustered as it pops up with objections and buts and what ifs. But it’s all done. Jesus has done it all. The Son has set you free. You are free indeed. So now anything you do, any and all good that you do, is not because you’re being forced to, as if He’ll take it all away if you don’t. It’s because the freedom He’s given you has changed you. It’s because you want to. It’s because that’s the household you belong to now. But it still remains: Jesus has set you free. He’s done it all for you. You’re forgiven. You have His life in your heart, your mind, your body. You are His and you remain in His house forever. You are free indeed. In the name of Jesus, who frees us. Amen.