Alliteration!!!! Also, this is kind of but not really part 2 of last week’s sermon. Let’s call it part 1b.
John 8:31-36; Romans 3:19-28; Psalm 46; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Don’t you just love the arrogance of people sometimes? “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they said, “and we have never been slaves of anyone.” That group is horribly mistaken, considering their current position under the Romans, their previous conquering by the Ptolemys of Egypt, the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and the time of slavery in Egypt. But no they’ve never been slaves of anyone.
Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about physical slavery, even though it applies. Jesus is talking about something completely different — slavery to sin and the law. We don’t usually think of the law and sin being linked together like that though. With all the laws and rules in the Old Testament, and even the ones in the New Testatment, it’s more natural to think that if we follow the rules we won’t sin. That’s how we view civil law, anyways: as long as you don’t break the laws you won’t get in trouble.
But that’s not how God’s law works. There are so many specific things in the law that there is almost no way to keep the whole thing. You might be able to outwardly keep all the laws, or even follow the letter of the law if you try really, really, really hard, but to keep all the laws even in your thoughts AND keep to the spirit of the law? That is nearly impossible. (I say nearly because Jesus did it, but, being sinless, he doesn’t have that whole sin business getting in the way of a perfect relationship with God.)
So Jesus says, to answer the comment, “we’ve never been slaves to anyone”, simple says, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” It’s simple enough. Of course, it also helps to realize what exactly sin is. It’s not breaking God’s rules; it’s not doing “evil”. Sin is thinking we know better than God how to run our lives. It’s not about rules or morality. Sin is thinking we know better than God. That’s why everyone who sins is a slave to sin. God says that there is only one way to ultimately break free of sin, and that is through Jesus Christ. So God’s way, essentially, is trusting God’s love and forgiveness to get us out of this sin problem.
Unfortunately, because as humans our natural reaction is to want to do things on our own. We don’t want God’s help, so we do our best to work our way out of our sinfulness. And so, we create rules. We find things in Scripture that we think are important, and say “Do this!” or “Don’t do that!”. We take the story of God’s relationship with His people and turn it into “Rules for Holy Living”. We take the relationship out of the Bible, and see what rules we can pick and choose out of it.
Since we think we can run our lives better than God, we actually prefer the rules. Because the rules imply we can follow them, it means we don’t need God. And you know who is best at coming up with rules? Churches. Churches are FANTASTIC at coming up with new and better rules to follow. It’s not even a new thing — this is something that has been going on for thousands of years.
But every so often God the Holy Spirit does something amazing within these cultures of rules. In the early part of the 16th Century, a certain German monk was doing some studying in Romans while preparing a lecture. In his studies he nearly stumbled on an amazing concept: Humans aren’t saved by following the rules, but by God. Such a ridiculously simple thing, yet rediscovery of this Truth turned the entire world on its head. Humans are saved through a relationship with God, not by a holy rulebook. Now, unsurprisingly, the people who were managing the holy rulebook didn’t really like it. They thought they would be better off without God getting in the way. Yet the more people found out about this movement that wanted a relationship with God and not rules to follow, the larger it became. People found hope, peace, and love in this freeing relationship, instead of the strict oppression of law.
Sadly, as this movement grew, and sin inevitably crept in, rules kept getting added. It got away from the relationship, again creating a holy rulebook. Instead of continuing to foster relationship with God and others, relationships were broken and lines in the sand were being drawn. The movement that started so unified became scattered and divided, no longer about love but about doctrine — rules.
If you look at the broader Christian community today, this is where we are. Divided, angry, and passionate about rules. Ask anyone who isn’t in the community, and that’s what they’ll tell you. And unfortunately it’s true. But the Holy Spirit isn’t done either. If God can use an obscure German monk He can use any of us. That’s what I think Reformation Day is all about. It’s not just celebrating a few sheets of paper on a church door in 1517. It’s about taking a good hard look at ourselves and wondering what is more important: rules or relationship. God doesn’t care about rules. He really doesn’t. God just loves us and wants us to love back. That’s it.
God wants us to be free — free from having to save ourselves, not that we could if we tried. God wants us to live our lives in a relationships of love and trust, because in that relationship we are free. We’re free from having to go it alone. We’re free from the sin that tells us God isn’t trustworthy. And most of all, we’re free to live eternally walking with the God who loves us more than we can ever possibly imagine.