St. John 8:31–36
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
These paradoxical lines were written by Martin Luther in 1520, in an essay called The Freedom of a Christian, 500 years ago. Ever since we celebrated the 500th anniversary in 2017, of Luther posting the 95 Theses, we are coming up on many more 500th anniversaries of events and writings from the Reformation. So, 1520, Luther publishes this small but very important work.
Luther begins by discussing what he calls Christian freedom, and the first thing he points out is that there is one thing necessary for sinners to be righteous, for believers to live holy lives, and for Christians to be free—one thing is needed: the Word of God. Of course, Jesus tells us this: “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” This Word and Truth is the Gospel, the Good News about God’s Son, who was made flesh, and suffered death for sin, and rose from the dead in glory and victory over death and hell.
This Word and Truth is the message Jesus was speaking to the Jews. But they did not all receive it as good news. They catch on the word “free” and rightly imply that if you are set free, you must first have been a slave. And they reject such a ridiculous idea. They were children of Abraham, God’s holy people, not slaves. They didn’t need to be set free. But the lesson to learn from Abraham is that he trusted God’s Word, His promise. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3). He was justified by God through faith alone in the Word alone. Or to put it another way, Abraham counted God as trustworthy. He knew that God was worthy of his trust, that God does not lie, that His promises are sure. This is what it means to know the Truth. You know God is truthful, and so He is trustworthy.
The Jews did not consider God to be trustworthy in His promises. Instead, they relied on their works. They listened to the lie of their own hearts, their pride. And any of us can do this too, if you put anything in that place where God’s promise is supposed to go, anything you think is more worthy of your trust than God’s Word. “I’m basically a good person; I’m not a slave.” “I’m a dedicated member of this or that church; I’m not a slave.” Jesus says we are slaves to sin. And slaves remain slaves, unless they are set free by the Son.
Luther uses one of Aesop’s Fables to illustrate his point. A dog is running along beside a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth. He looks down into the water and, look, there’s another dog with another piece of meat in his mouth. The dog snaps at his reflection, lunges for the deceitful meat, while his own real piece falls into the water. He’s lost everything. If we try to get salvation with anything other than faith in the Word, we will end up losing everything.
If you could be justified by anything else, by your works, by your decency, by your smarts, then you would not need the Word at all. But the one thing we need is the Word from the Son. We are justified by faith in that Word alone. So if you do not believe in the Son’s Word, you lack all things—you’re like the sad dog who was fooled and lost everything. But if you believe, you have all things—you have Christ and everything He does. Luther writes: The promises of God give what the commandments of God demand… so that all things may be God’s alone… He alone commands, He alone fulfills. So, salvation is by God’s grace alone, His doing, not ours. And He gives this salvation as a gift—a free gift that gives freedom.
So, a Christian is free from the burden and accusation of the Law. He is free like the Son is free. Not a slave to keeping the Law, but free because it’s already done, already kept in Christ, and in the Christian by faith in Christ. Do we even imagine what a great change faith makes in us? We are fellow-kings and fellow-priests with Christ. By faith we are free, meaning we are allowed, to boldly come into the presence of God the Father, just like the very Son of God does. We are free from fear of all evil, free from the fear of sin, the fear of enemies, the fear of death. Whatever evil comes our way, we are ready to hope in the Lord and rely on His rescue. Sin is swallowed up by Christ’s righteousness. And so even death is swallowed up by Christ’s victory, and by our victory! By faith His victory becomes ours and so we are also conquerors with Him.
I’m sure you can see then that the freedom of a Christian is spiritual. And it does not always mean a care-free and easy life in this world. In fact, the more Christian a man is, the more evil and suffering he must endure. Just look at Christ Himself, or any of His saints. Jesus, the Son of God, is totally free. And as a perfect Man, He is still perfectly free. But out of His freedom, He became a servant to all. He did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Christians are given the freedom of the Son. And in that freedom, Christians imitate the Son in His service. Like Jesus, we die to self and serve others. He was crucified for us, we crucify our sinful desires. He lives for us, we live for others.
But whenever Christian freedom is taught, the question always comes up: If we’re free, why do we still bother with trying to keep the Law? Two reasons: We still have the sinful flesh, the Old Adam hanging on us. And we still have suffering and death in this world so our neighbors need our help. So there are two kinds of good works for us to do. There are works to keep ourselves under control, to kill our sinful desires. The free man is able to govern himself. Giving into every craving you have is slavery—being unable to resist your flesh is slavery. The free man can say No. He has self-discipline, and he subjects his flesh to the Spirit, so that it obeys Christ and does not hinder him on the way of faith. Then there are also works we must do for others. The free man is able to work for the good of others, because he’s not worried about himself. His relationship with God is right, so he doesn’t need his good works to be for God. He’s free to give his good works to his neighbor.
You were saved freely, so you live freely. You are able to give yourself as a little Christ to your neighbor, just as Christ offered Himself to you. This is why we are named after Him: Christians. He dwells in us and we in Him. So, Luther writes: A Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.
In order for those beautiful words to become real, we’ve got to get the order right. First faith, then works. First, we are set free by Christ, and then we are able to work freely for others. This order was one of the main points for the Reformation. Only a free man does free works. Only a good man does good works. It’s not the other way around. A good tree produces good fruit. A good builder makes a good house. Only when the Christian is free from relying on his works for salvation, can he start doing truly good works. Slaves cannot free themselves. The free Son has to set you free by His Word, give you faith and new life, and so set you free to doing good.
Jesus said, Abide in My Word. Use the Means of Grace—the Word, Baptism, the Absolution, the Holy Supper. Making use of those gifts is how you abide and live in His Word. And you will know the Truth. You will know Christ who is the Truth. And you will know Him to be truthful, worthy of your trust. That is faith in Christ. And the Truth will set you free. With faith in Christ, you are free like Christ. And the free man lives like Christ, for God and for others.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
Based on Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (Luther's Works 31)
