The Lutheran Hour
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"Living in the Freedom of Faith"
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Text: Galatians 5:1, 25
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To Christ, Who is, Who was, and Who is coming again, may His freedom, His grace, His peace be yours today and always! Amen.
Do you remember the well-known movie, “Braveheart?” It tells the compelling story of William Wallace, a Scottish Freedom Fighter, who leads his people to pay the price for freedom in the face of tyranny and injustice. Wallace’s fight was with the cruel rule of England at the time. England’s King then was named Longshanks who was as punishing as he was wicked. As Wallace led uprisings of freedom throughout Scotland, Longshanks hatred for both for Wallace and Scotland grew, as the movie draws to a close, Wallace is captured through intrigue and betrayal and it appears that Longshanks will not only have his victory but the very domination of his foe. It is Longshanks’ plan not to merely kill Wallace but to have him beg for mercy as a slave, to beg for a quick death, to finally take away his humanity.
In the final scenes, Wallace is brought to the courtyard before a jeering crowd. They mock him, spit at him, throw things at him. And then the King’s executioner begins to torture him telling him that if he just begs for mercy, he will then, make his death quick.
King Longshanks, though old and ill in bed, is an ear shot away from Wallace’s torture. He yearns to hear his enemy beg for a mercy that will not come. Instead, Wallace struggles to speak one last time. The executioner stills the crowd and with one last gasp of air in his lungs, Wallace does not beg, but screams with great force the word – freedom!
Freedom.
Fighting for freedom animates the annuls of history. It can be seen in ancient battles of Spartacus with Rome, the 300 Spartan warriors who would not bow to Xerxes of Persia. It can be seen in more recent history in the Revolutionary War of America, the Civil War, or the work of the Underground Railroad. Or even more recently, who can ever forget the students standing down tanks in Tiananmen Square, or who can forget the picture of the women voting in the elections after the freeing of Iraq, the purple-stained fingers held high in the air, signifying that their voice had indeed been heard.
Freedom. Freedom is more than a principle; it is at the core of what it means to be human beings.
But our lesson for today speaks of an even greater freedom than these. It is a freedom from sin and guilt. It is a freedom from the dehumanizing voices of modernity that would classify us as either as machines or animals. No, this is a freedom for the things of God. This is a freedom that comes from God Himself, one that “sets us free” again in His grace…by His love to be His people for others. With a voice, shouting loudly today not at the beck and call of the executioner, but at the invitation and celebration of the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross, Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery.”
Think about it, as believers in Jesus, we have the One thing that everyone wants to have, real freedom!
But in our text today, this freedom is very specific. It is not a generic term. It is not one that we can fill up with our own meaning or aspirations. For this freedom is one that sets us free. It is freedom that is a gift from God, on His terms alone!
And, we must never forget this. True, lasting freedom has an eternal source. It is based on the truth of the Word of God. It is a lasting freedom that is foundational to all others. It is the freedom that comes when one’s life is in harmony with God and that harmony and peace comes through the Person and the work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In fact, all the talk in Christian Churches about forgiveness and salvation is really faith talk about God’s true, lasting freedom for you.
We can call it faith freedom because such freedom comes by a faith relationship with God in Christ alone. It is for this freedom that you and I have been set free.But, sadly, this freedom is more often overlooked, rejected, even taken for granted and despised. Why? Because, as sinful human beings, our first response to the one who lovingly created us, even reconciled us back to Himself, is to reject that partnership or o go it alone as if we are the only lord and master of our lives. Ironically, such false emancipation actually destroys our ability, personally, to be truly free.
Tragically, people not only reject Christ’s freedom, many today arrogantly exercise their muscles of false freedom right in God’s face. We live under governments spending billions, even trillions of dollars seeking to prove that we can solve humanity’s ills on our own. We spend endless amounts of money trying to uncover a technological or medicinal fix for every human malady. We comfort ourselves with the false hope that somehow mere education will save us, or that a casual relationship with another sinful human being will satisfy that deep longing in our souls that only freedom in Christ can fill.
Paul warns these early Christians, and he warns us today, that any system, any program that seeks to create freedom detached from, and in rejection of God, it is not freedom, but another kind of bondage, of slavery. Such false freedoms can be secular in nature and they can be falsely religious in nature too. Paul shouts with a loud voice today, if you seek freedom that ultimately rejects the forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ Alone brings, those freedoms are at best temporary, and eternally destructive at their worst!!
All of us, at times, though, protest God’s call to faith’s freedom in Jesus Alone. We’re all sinners. But, if we’re honest, deep in our hearts, we know the slavery, the bondage that comes from sin and guilt, or the one that comes from our inept, self-righteous emancipation declaration against God. This slavery is worse than any slavery that another can do to us, for it is one that we do to ourselves, as we cut ourselves off from the grace and the love of God in Jesus.
To live in unrepentance, to live without faith in the Son’s work for you, is to live in the bondage of an eternal slavery that no human effort can ever eliminate.
A pastor told the story of a struggle with one of his parishioners. He was trying to explain the power of the freedom that comes by faith, by forgiveness before God. The pastor recalled that Steve, one of his parishioners, warned him that he didn’t believe in total forgiveness. Steve said, “Pastor, God could never forgive me,” “Okay, maybe he could forgive me 70 percent of my sins, but not all of them.” The pastor tried hard to explain to Steve that Jesus’ death on the cross covered everyone’s sin, 100 percent, and that faith receives that blessing totally for oneself. But, Steve interrupted, “Yeah, fine, but you don’t know the stuff I’ve done.” He continued with this story: he said, “nineteen years ago this guy stole my wife away from me. They got married and they moved to Florida while my life unraveled. After I was arrested for assaulting a police officer, that same guy attended my entire hearing, smirking at me with a disgusting glee every day. When I was convicted, he flipped me the finger as I was led off to jail. I have hated him ever since. I’ve hated him for nineteen years. Pastor, he’s coming up here next week, I have a 32-caliber pistol strapped around my ankle, and when I see him I will kill him.” Then he chillingly concluded, “Pastor, I’ve thought about it. I’m 63-years-old. I will get a life sentence, but I’ll also get free medical and dental and a warm bed and three meals a day. All of this bitterness and resentment feels so right; and frankly, your talk about forgiveness seems a bit weird.”
The pastor thought for a moment. Steve was right about one point: forgiveness often feels like an unnatural act. So what should he say? What could be the reason to forgive now?
Well, after a lengthy pause, the pastor cleared his throat and said, “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if you go to jail, Steve, because you’re already in jail. The guy who stole your wife and smirked at your hearing, he isn’t in jail. You are. That guy is free, but you’re a prisoner of your own hate; and you’re slowly killing yourself. And unless you forgive, unless you release that man to the justice even the mercy of Jesus Christ, you’ll remain trapped for the rest of your life whether you are here or behind bars.”
A week later Steve called the pastor and said, “Pastor, you know, I get your point. I put the gun away. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail or enslaved to my own hate. Will you pray for me that Jesus will release me?”
But that is exactly Paul’s point today. Jesus has released you and me. In fact, that’s Jesus’ point too. He says…. “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”Maybe, like Steve, you feel that same sense of injustice today. Maybe you have tried to take matters of freedom into your own hands, only to be in deeper bondage when all is said and done. The good news of the Gospel is not merely an offer of generic freedom; it is not another man-made Utopian hope. No, this freedom is built on the eternal justice of God. When we forgive, we don’t condone sin, we instead treat others as Jesus treats us, offering His gracious, forgiveness earned on the cross. There Jesus paid sin’s eternal, just price for us, for all. It is Jesus Alone Who judges justly and forgives graciously that all might live. So, what will it be for you today, standing before Christ in sin’s bondage, in judgment? Or standing in Christ’s freedom, by grace through faith?
“It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery.”
Christ’s freedom then is for all, it’s for you! It is a freedom born of God’s love in action, one that sets us free through His life, His death, and resurrection in our place.
Paul proclaims that for all today, but he also wants us to learn to live the life of faith freedom for others. Free from sin and guilt, yes, but also free for a life of grace and mercy, free to love others in Jesus’ Name.
First of all, such a life needs to be anchored and rooted in something strong, more enduring than our sinful best efforts. Please do not insert man-made religion here. Your anchor is not what you do or who you are.
Faith in Jesus Christ is a confident trust in what He has done for you, yes, but it is also a confidence in the love that He makes available to you, in your life of faith for others. To be connected to Jesus through His Word, to the power of His Name in the washing of baptism, to be literally connected to Him in His supper of grace, not only roots our freedom securely in Him, it tethers us so that we might scale the heights of loving service to our neighbor in His Name.
You know, I’m not sure what a kite feels when it flies, but I can tell you this. If that kite could talk, it would tell you the joy of floating on the edge of the gentle breeze, tethered to the hands of a skilled kite flyer. It wouldn’t trade that experience for the tyranny of flying alone, for when the tether line breaks, the kite plunges helplessly towards the ground.
And think about this also. When a kite is tethered well, when the flyer is highly skilled, it doesn’t matter how strong the wind blows. Even in the face of fierce winds, the kite flies higher.Much like the freedom of the kite in the hands of the skilled flyer, so also the Christian life in the hands of our loving God. Though tethered, it is not bondage, it is freedom. Only tethered does one truly soar. Remember that when you are at the beach next time, even flying a kite, you can think of the power of faith, of freedom in being connected to Jesus.
So, the paradox of Christian freedom is that we are free to be what God meant us to be, free to love when we are bound to Him, tethered to Him.But there is even more, God’s freedom is meant to be exercised in love towards our neighbor. Even here, this freedom is radically different than anything outside of Jesus. The life of freedom by faith is best expressed when we are serving others in Jesus Name.
Martin Luther says it best in “The Freedom of the Christian,” “Here is the truly Christian life,” he says, “here is faith really working by love, when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for naught, himself (already) abundantly satisfied in the fullness and riches of his own faith. . . .”
And this is freedom, then, is to be exercised starting today. Being free in Christ by the power of His Spirit means that we have new resources to put to use in loving our friends, our neighbors, even our enemies. Paul calls them “fruits of the Spirit, things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” This is the kind of love that Jesus loves us with. This is the kind of love that now, in Him, we can share with others.
“When a believer in Jesus serves another freely, just as Jesus serves them, real change can happen. There, lives can be transformed.
*In his book, The Different Drum, M. Scott Peck tells the story of a monastery that was dying, that had lost its spirit. The once proud and bustling place of faith was now reduced to only 5, each wondering when the end of it all might come. One day, while visiting another religious man in the city, one of the monks was told….. “I don’t know if anything will change for you, for me or for our town, but this one thing I know, your Messiah, the Messiah is among you, the Savior is in your midst, He is one of you!!”
When the elder monk returned. They all started to ponder what was said. Could it really be true, Christ the Messiah really among us? Is it Friar David, Matthew, John, Peter, Bartholomew? Even more, they started treating each other with such respect, such service, because in their minds, they could truly be serving Jesus Christ.
Townspeople cam around like usual, but now they noticed a change. There was an extraordinary respect and love surrounding these monks. It was very attracting as well. People not only came around as usual, some began to stay and some began to learn. Even some young men wanted to know if they could join the group.
This story illustrates what can happen when people act as if Jesus were there. Well, what would happen if people shared the love of a Jesus Who is truly among His people? For it is Jesus Who says, “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am.” What if people began to treat others just the way that Jesus treats them? What if you, this next week, acted knowing that Jesus was truly in your house, your office, your bedroom, your neighborhood? What would be different? That’s the power of the life of freedom unleashed by faith in the Lord Jesus Who is among us, His people, as He promised. “Lo, I am with you always.” That’s the power of living in Christ’s real Presence for others. Such power transforms any situation, any marriage, any church, any community.
Freedom by faith in Jesus, real forgiveness, real life, in a real Lord, with real love, and liberty for you. All these things are available when Jesus is the Lord and Savior of your life. When we live in Him and for Him in all things; when we live freely by faith in Jesus Christ, then every day, no matter what the circumstance, becomes an opportunity to exercise an eternal freedom that truly changes lives.
God bless you all in the freedom that only Christ can give.
Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 3, 2011
Topic: Do Christians Have To Believe in a “Literal Hell?”ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Time Magazine recently came out with their Easter issue questioning the existence of Hell.
SELTZ: Mark, to be honest, that’s a tough topic too, because people often don’t want to hear about the need for justice, especially eternal justice.
ANNOUNCER: It’s also a concern for one of our listeners. She writes, “Do we really have to believe in Hell in order to be Christian? It seems the Bible’s main teaching is that God is a God of love and mercy.” How would you respond?
SELTZ: Well, first of all, we have to say very clearly that Jesus and the Bible teach that there is a Hell and it clearly teaches that there is a final judgment.
ANNOUNCER: Is it as easy as that?
SELTZ: Well, now, I didn’t say it was easy, just that the Bible clearly teaches it first of all. And, as Christians, our faith is rooted in and conformed by the Word of God. But the teaching of Hell is also vital to the teaching of salvation and heaven too.
ANNOUNCER: Could you explain that?
SELTZ: Well, when people teach that “there is no Hell,” what they are saying is “God doesn’t have the right to judge who or what I am.” In fact, On a TV news program, a liberal pastor said “the God of the Bible, taken literally, that God is a monster.” Because in his estimation the true God should “never judge people if He really loves them.”
ANNOUNCER: Yeah, but doesn’t that miss the point of God’s righteousness and holiness, as part of Who God is?
SELTZ: Exactly. God is righteous and He is holy and He can’t “fellowship” with sin. In fact, He hates sin. Sin causes death, it causes suffering and misery. To overlook sin would mean to deny His very nature. It would be like a doctor saying “Let’s pretend cancer doesn’t exist.”
ANNOUNCER: And to say that there is “no Hell,” is like saying there is no right and wrong, there’s no need for justice.
SELTZ: And that’s other side of this teaching. We know, even in our own experience, that there must be consequences for bad behavior, even among us as people. People forget how ugly things can get when sin is merely overlooked.
ANNOUNCER: Right. Take a look at society, when people fear no consequences, that just opens the door to the worst that people can be.
SELTZ: That’s very true. Likewise, to say that there is no eternal punishment for sin is merely to say that “heaven’s going to be what we want it to be, not God,” and that selfish thinking is what unleashed sin and suffering on the world in the first place.
ANNOUNCER: So, the Bible says sin must be punished. Sin has eternal consequences. But that isn’t the Bible’s main teaching, is it?
SELTZ: No, not at all. Here our listener has it right. The Bible has a message for the reality of sin and punishment, it’s that God’s mercy trumps that, but consistent with His character, and out of His great sacrifice of love for all people.
ANNOUNCER: So, The Bible is serious about holiness, about justice, sin’s eternal consequences, and God’s real mercy!
SELTZ – Yes, The Bible points out that God the Father has executed that eternal justice for sin on Jesus Christ so that it would not be executed on you and me.
ANNOUNCER: That’s incredible!
SELTZ: Yeah, it sure is. No one gets away with sin, and everyone has real mercy available to them, all because of Jesus Christ. Perfect justice, perfect mercy, real freedom. I don’t know of any other religious world view that can talk like this, except Christianity.
ANNOUNCER – So, when we’re struggling with these questions about heaven and Hell, we shouldn’t philosophize about it so much, but look even more closely at the unique answer found in Jesus’ cross and resurrection.
SELTZ – That’s for sure, and when you look at the cross, you see justice in action; you see mercy in action, all for you and me. And that helps us when we suffer injustice, or even when we feel undeserving of God’s mercy. And it’s pretty hard to sustain the opinion that God is a monster in the literal Bible, when He warns against the wages of sin, and then suffers Hell in our place to make grace possible for all.
ANNOUNCER – So, to sum it all up, no easy answers, but gracious answers to be sure. It’s good to know that bad people don’t get away with sin, but it’s even better to know that there is life and salvation for bad people who don’t deserve God’s grace, God’s life, that justice and mercy are here for all of us in Jesus Christ.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Seltz and we thank our listener for that question. This brings us to the close of our program for another week. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Our Paschal Lamb That Sets Us Free” by Martin Franzmann & Walter Pelz, arr. Richard Resch. From With Angels and Archangels by the Kantorei (© 1998 Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne) Augsburg Fortress/SESAC
“Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices” arr. Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Prelude, Fugue, and Chaconne in C” by Dietrich Buxtehude. From Glory to His Holy Name by John Vandertuin (© 1999 Artisan Classic Organ, Inc.)