Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity
October 27, 2013
What is the need for reformation? We confess in the Creed the holy
Christian and apostolic Church. Is there something deficient about the Church
that it needs to be reformed? Believers in Christ make up this holy Christian
Church; is there something about them that is lacking, that they need to be
reformed? What do we say? “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian
Church, the communion of saints.” Saints are ones who are holy. The Holy
Christian Church is the Communion of the holy ones. God’s Church is holy, pure.
What is the need for reformation?
The need most certainly is not with God. His Church He created is indeed
pure, holy. His saints He has gathered into His Christian and apostolic Church
are indeed saints. They stand in His presence without their sins counted
against them, with the righteousness of Christ accounted to them. This is you.
You are a saint. You are one who is holy, one who is among the Communion of
Saints.
God created the universe in perfection. He has created His Church in
perfection. No evil and ungodly people will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. So,
no, the problem is not with God. His Church does not need reformation, because,
man, He just didn’t quite it right the first time; so we’ll try it again; we’ll
reform it.
The problem, and therefore the need for reformation, is with you and
me. You and I are saints. But you and I do not live as we ought, do we? You and
I sin, don’t we? We fall short of the glory of God. You and I reject the notion
that we are in bondage, don’t we? If you don’t think this is so, consider this:
the fact that you sin shows that you reject the notion you are in bondage; just
like those people Jesus was speaking to in the Gospel reading.
You don’t fully realize the bondage you’re in. That’s why you do things
you know are wrong and against God’s will. You act on your emotions or you plan
ahead of time how you are going to get back at someone. But you don’t even need
to act on these things to willfully sins against God. Your thoughts alone
condemn. The disgraceful thoughts you think toward others. The egotistical
things you think about yourself. The way you go through the motions regarding
God’s Word and being a steward of the time, and the abilities, and the money
and possessions God has given to you. The way you hoard your things for
yourself instead of being freely giving of them to serve others.
You are in bondage and you don’t even realize it. You minimize your
sin. Well, that’s just the way we are, right? We can’t help sinning, so it’s
not like I can do anything about it. I may be in bondage, but I can’t help it,
so there’s nothing I can do about it, right?
Wrong. Stop sinning. Stop doing those things you have rationalized
away. Stop thinking ill toward others and start praying for them. Better yet,
reach out to them and befriend them and love them and find ways you can serve
them and help them. Instead of going through the motions, be deliberate in your
devotional reading of God’s Word, and your study of God’s Word in Bible Class,
and your hearing of God’s Word in the worship service. Put yourself in the background
and hear what God has to say to you, not what you would like to hear.
Only the truth will make you free. Your sinful nature would like for
you to think that you are free already. The world and Satan would like for you
to go their way because then you will not be bound by the rigidness of God’s
holy will. You will be able to fudge a little or lie a little or spread a
little gossip or not take to heart God’s Word or ignore the person who needs
your help. Only the truth will make you free. The truth is, you are a sinner.
The truth is, you are not free. The truth is, you are condemned already, you are
in eternal bondage. Jesus said, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”
The Jews Jesus was talking to wouldn’t hear anything about being
slaves. They were offspring of Abraham. They were the recipients of the promise
of God to Abraham and his descendents that they would be the ones who would
inherit the earth. They weren’t slaves. But that’s the problem with our sinful
nature. It wants its freedom according to the ways of the world. It doesn’t
want to hear of the Law of God, which strikes through the sinful heart. You are
in bondage. You are a sinner, and unless you realize this and confess it and
repent of it, you will remain in your bondage; you will remain in your
condemnation; and it will be forever.
Only the truth will set you free. Jesus comes with the truth. The
freedom He brings is not freedom to do what you wish but freedom from your sin
and freedom from the condemnation for your sin. The freedom He brings is freedom
He brings about. It is not a plan for your escape from this bondage or even a
guiding you out of it. It is freedom that He actually brings about. He says in
the Gospel reading, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” He
doesn’t say that you must become free but that He sets you free.
There are billions of people who have walked the earth, all of them
sinners. All of them in bondage. You and I are numbered among them. You and I
share the same condemnation. The Epistle reading says, “there is no
distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is
one among all, though, who likewise has walked this earth, but with this distinction:
He alone is without sin. Pure, holy, unstained. Jesus walked this earth for one
purpose, to set you free from sin. There is only one who accomplished the entire
Law God requires of us. It is this one. There is only one who has suffered the
condemnation for sinners in the place of sinners. It is this one. There is only
one who was confirmed in His accomplishing of salvation by rising from the
dead. It is this one.
The Son sets you free. You don’t. You don’t even try. You keep sinning.
You “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And yet, even as all are
in sin and don’t measure up to the glory of God, the Epistle reading says further:
all “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.”
At the heart of your life is yourself. Your sinful nature makes certain
of that. You are in bondage to your sin and your sinful flesh. That is why you
need to be set free. That is why you need reformation. The heart of reformation
is not you, or doing what pleases God, or trying to overcome your sin. The
heart of reformation is Christ. The Son sets you free. Jesus, the Son of God,
your Lord and Savior, frees you from the bondage of your sin.
The Son sets you free. You want to remain in your sin. Remain in His
Word. Rest in it, abide in it. Here is reformation. Here is Christ, for you,
for eternity. Amen.
SDG
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