Listen here.

John 8:31-36

What a sermon! Kuhlman’s? Good grief. No! His sermons are the worst. Just ask people. They’ll tell you. However, what a sermon the Lord preaches! It’s incredible. Divinely delicious. If you have ears to hear.

Jesus categorically declares: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” That’s the first thing. Remaining and abiding in, clinging and cleaving to, hanging on to His word. Not yours or anybody else’s. Only His. Because of who He is and what He Good Friday-ly and Easter Sunday-ly does FOR ALL AND FOR THE WORLD! So, to be a disciple of Jesus, one clings to His word!

And when one does that, Jesus promises that, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Set you free? That implies that you’re not. It infers that you’re captive and bound. Caged. Confined. Incarcerated. Imprisoned. Are you on edge? Uncomfortable? Angry?

It infuriates the Jews who “had believed in him.” Emphasis on: “had”! As is past tense. Had believed. But not anymore. After all, this preacher Jesus, this kid from Nazareth, was fun, entertaining and exciting at first. But now He’s too much. Talk about an arrogant S.O.B. Over the top. Too extreme. He has this … well … He has this religious Son of God – Messiah – complex.

So these Jews, and perhaps you as well, retort: “You’re an idiot Jesus! We have never been enslaved to anyone. How dare you contend that we need to be set free?” They even ratchet up their objection by shouting: “We are the descendants of the free man Abraham! WE ARE FREE!”

Obviously, they are not abiding in Jesus’ Word. How about you?

God-in-the-flesh-Jesus tells the unvarnished truth. Even if people don’t want to hear it. Even if it makes their ears bleeds or their blood boil. And what He says next will … well … will most likely “find no” hearing by them and will give them the ammunition they need not only to “seek to kill” Him but actually murder Him. Listen. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices [or commits] sin …” (are you ready for this?) “IS A SLAVE TO SIN.” You can just imagine how that went over. They could not abide in those words. No way!

What an oppressive preacher! Sinners? Slaves to sin? What a joke! We are victims! Of injustice! Babylonian discrimination. Roman supremacy, oppression and privilege. Oh, the inequity we suffer! Sinners? Miss us with all that Jesus! We are not bad people!

Nonetheless, sinners, and that’s everyone (these Jews, you and me) – sinners, from Adam on, according to Jesus, are far from being free. Slaves we are! Slaves of our own making. Serving a master, a tyrant, a dictator named SIN. Totally bound to SIN. Hellishly, hellaciously, plantationally owned by SIN. Imprisoned. In chains. In addition, we slave sinners have a one track mind or desire. It’s rebellion and revolution. Not against SIN but … AGAINST … God! It’s what SIN demands of us sinners! And sinners as slaves to SIN gladly go along in this damnable, hellish direction.

“Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Who would have known that or believed that unless Jesus preached it? No one! So Jesus had to preach it! It’s the truth. With such preaching Jesus does what St. Paul describes in Romans 3 today, namely, that “through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Jesus’ preaching is like a mirror. He shows people – He shows all of us — who we are: slaves to SIN sinners! “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” A disciple of Jesus will abide in these truthful words of Jesus.

So, we Lutherans, who are the heirs of the magnificent gift in church history called the Reformation, confess at the beginning of the service: “Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed … We deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.” That flows from the Lord’s word in John 8, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” And Psalm 51:4-5, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight … Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned.”

Now, if you won’t abide in the truth of Jesus’ words concerning your sinful slavish condition, then who don’t you need for release from such captivity? That’s right. You don’t need Jesus who is the Conqueror of SIN and its hellacious consequences and who is the Savior of sinners. Who has come to set SIN’S inmates or prisoners free!

Speaking of that, Jesus promises: “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” To abide in these words means to believe that Jesus has freed you from the slavery to SIN by taking your sin (all of it) in His Body on the cross. And while hanging suspended there He atoned for you sin (all of it) by shedding His Blood.

Again, so we Lutherans, who want to abide in Jesus’ word, beg God the Father at the beginning of each divine service: “For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us …” And that’s when the pastor says to sinners who have confessed their sinful condition: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” When one is absolved in God’s Name, God is the Absolver, the Forgiver! To which a disciple responds with the greatest word of worship and faith: “Amen.”

The biblical teaching that sinners are forgiven only because Jesus died and rose is also the gift we have inherited from the Reformation. God only forgives you because Jesus, His Son, died FOR YOU. When I ask people this question, “Why does God forgive you?” the answer is rarely, “Because Jesus died FOR ME.” Instead, the answer goes like this: “Because I am sorry.”

That, of course, is the medieval answer. For centuries prior to the Reformation in the 16th century, Christians were taught to believe that God forgives you because you are sorry or contrite. Divine forgiveness, then, depended on your sorrow or contrition. No sorrow, no forgiveness. There is no salvational certainty in your sorrow. Unfortunately, many Christians still hold to this.

However, there is utmost salvational certainty when you hold to the biblical teaching as its given in the Epistle today. Sinners “are justified by his [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood,” (Rom 3:24-25). I.E. God forgives you only because Jesus, His Son, shed His Blood on the cross for you. All your sin is paid for by Jesus’ Good Friday death!

So, I ask you now. “Why does God forgive you?” What’s the Word of God – abiding-in-Jesus’-word answer? “Because Jesus died FOR ME?” That’s certain and sure. Why? Because Jesus did it!

Sinners. Slaves to SIN. That’s true. We abide in that word of Jesus. In addition, we abide in another word of Jesus and that’s His forgiveness word that sets us free from our bondage to SIN and SIN’S paycheck – hellish death.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus has sent me here to Trinity, Murdock to tell you that He died FOR YOU the sinner! He did indeed answer for all your sin. Your sin doesn’t belong to you anymore because Jesus took it. It’s His! And He’s buried it in the black hole of His grave never to be remembered again by Him. As a pledge and guarantee of this truth Jesus speaks more words to you today that do and give what they promise.

What is it? My Body. My Blood. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin. How does faith talk when given such a divine promise? Faith says: “Amen! Gift given. Gift received. Thank you Jesus!”

The gift of the Lutheran Reformation is all about abiding in Jesus’ word. The truth of His Word. And His word is twofold. First, we believe that we are sinners – slaves to SIN. Second, we trust that Jesus sets us free through His Good Friday dying. “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Because of His Good Friday work and His divine word of forgiveness bestowed in Word and Sacrament, we are no longer slaves but sons. Members of God’s family. Who live not in a penitentiary or prison, but in God’s house. And Jesus’ promise is “the son remains forever.” That is most certainly true. What joy!

Happy Reformation Sunday.

In the Name of Jesus.