Reformation Sunday
October 28th, 2012
John 8:31-36

Back to the Bible

Today is Reformation Sunday. Today we remember how, over 450 years ago, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and several other faithful servants of God were used by God to return Christians to the Word of God; back to the Bible. Where human reason and tradition over the centuries had obscured the clear promise of forgiveness and deliverance from sin by Jesus’ power, and substituted religion in its place, the Reformation restored the glorious message of forgiveness and freedom by returning us once more to God’s Word.

In these verses, Jesus was speaking to Jewish believers; people who already believed in Him, and He tells them that IF they abide in His Word, they are his disciples indeed. The inverse implication of that word IF, is that if they do not abide in His Word, they are not really His disciples.

What does it mean to abide in His Word? It means to believe it, to stay within it, and to dwell in it. It means we don’t leave it behind, or come up with some other basis for our faith. We don’t interpret or explain God’s Word into uselessness.

The Apostle Paul warns about people who “hold the form of godliness, but deny the power of it.” That means US, when we are religious, when we go to church and say that we believe in Jesus, but we don’t allow the Word of God to have its effect in our lives. We don’t abide in His Word, we don’t live in the forgiveness offered there or in the power that we need to live as His disciples day by day that’s offered to us there. In other words, when we’re religious, but we don’t really follow Jesus and live in His Word, we are holding the form of religion but denying its power to save us, to deliver us, and to change our lives.

Then Jesus adds this: “And you shall know the truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” Now this is probably one of the most misquoted and mis-used statements that Jesus ever made. We often hear people give their own opinion about something and then defend their rant by saying, “The truth shall set you free!” As though their opinion were, in fact truth, and as though anything true that they might happen to say were equivalent to the Word of God that can, in fact, set us free from sin!

But look at the context of Jesus’ words, here. This statement is a continuation of the previous statement, the one that starts with “IF you abide in My Word...” so it only applies if we abide in God’s Word. If we remain in God’s Word, we will get to know the Truth of God’s Word, and the Truth of God’s Word will set us free from the condemnation of and enslavement to sin.

These believers that Jesus was talking to, like all religious people everywhere, were offended to hear Jesus say these things. The implication that they needed to be “made free” in any sense, whether in the material sense of actual slavery, or the spiritual sense of bondage to sin, was offensive to them. They were proud of the fact that they were not anybody’s slaves. They were proud of the fact that they were God’s chosen people, that they had the right religion. Why should they need to be made free?

We tend to resent it, too, don’t we? If someone points out your sin, or tells you that something you are doing is against God’s Law, what’s your first reaction?

I can tell you what mine is, and I’ve noticed that it seems to be pretty typical. It goes like this:

1. It’s not wrong, not really.
2. It’s just the way I’m wired, so people should just understand and put up with me.
3. Besides, I can quit any time I want. I just don’t want to, right now.
4. And who do you think you are, anyway, to judge me? It’s not like you’re perfect!

The simple reason why we continue to be drawn to sin is that sin is addictive. It fascinates -- but delivers no joy or satisfaction. I think we all know by personal experience that each slip into some kind of sin that promised our flesh relief, leaves us guilty, unrelieved, and farther away from our faithful Friend and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the Confession of sins that we use week by week, we say, “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves...” I personally like the older version: “We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean...”

My dad, God bless His memory, was a wonderful husband, father, and pastor. I admired him greatly and loved him dearly. But in his later years he decided that he never committed any more sins -- ever. He believed he had grown beyond the ability to give way to his old nature with even so much as a bad attitude. I couldn’t convince him otherwise, but I’m here to tell you that his last years on this planet were characterized by one huge bad attitude!

We all continue to fall into sin of one kind or another. Martin Luther said, if you doubt this, “Stick your hand under your shirt and see if you still find flesh there. If you do, you still need to confess your sin and receive God’s forgiveness.”

It’s true that we can change some outward habits. We can quit smoking or getting drunk or committing adultery; and some people are even able to overcome other addictions for a while, by the sheer force of their will power. But we can’t change our nature, or our natural inclination to sin. We are drawn to it, all the time. Like the needle of the compass is drawn toward the North, our hearts are drawn toward sin. One of our friends in Mexico, Jose Luis, used to say that his old nature was like one huge magnet in his heart, always pulling him in the direction of sin.

So what do we do?

This is where this passage of Scripture turns the corner from frustration and even condemnation, to joy and freedom!

Apart from Christ we are indeed enslaved to sin; that means that without Him, we couldn’t help sinning, and the end of that road would be a lifetime of frustration and disappointment, and an eternity in hell. But Jesus is reassuring us here that we who know the Savior and believe in His name, have been declared free people. The devil and his minions no longer have any right to enslave us in sin; we belong to God our Father -- set free to know Him, love Him, and walk through this often difficult life full of temptations and sorrows, held by His Hand.

In the great commission Jesus tells us that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him; that means He has the power to snatch you out of the devil’s hand and make it stick! If the Son of God declares you free, you are no longer anyone’s or anything’s slave. You are free indeed once you believe in Jesus and become His child through faith.

How do we live in that freedom?

God warns us in His Word where the pitfalls, rocky areas, and quicksand are to be found and how to avoid them! He wants us to live joyful, productive, peaceful lives and He has carefully outlined in His Word just how that kind of life can be experienced. With the Holy Spirit inside of us, helping us to understand the Word, and giving us the power we need to obey it, we are kept walking, even through the darkest days of life, with peace and even joy in our hearts.

And as though that wonderful truth weren’t enough, God assures us that when we slip and fall before some temptation, we are invited to come to our Father, confess the sin, and be completely forgiven and cleansed again in the Blood of Jesus -- as though it had never happened! We get to start over again, clean and free. That’s one of the principle ways that we are kept from the power of enslavement to that sin -- we can just bring it to the Lord and have it, and it’s effects, erased.

So, if you aren’t already doing it, I encourage you to begin each new day by reading a portion of God’s Word. Believe it, take it to the bank, obey it, draw strength from it. Then walk into your day with joy, knowing that the Lord has your back. Because, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!”