Truth Leads to Life

Reformation Sunday
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46:1-11
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36

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Last week pastor spoke about wrestling with faith.  We heard the story of Jacob being renamed after wrestling all night with a man who in the end gives another name to Jacob, which is Israel.  As we heard, Israel means, one who has striven with God.

Today we remember the reformation, where Martin Luther and others began to question doctrines and other aspects of the Catholic Church.  It was in 1515 that Luther wrote his 95 Thesis, where in a scholarly format he questions the practices of the Catholic Church, in search of the truth.  The truth here is, we do not know for sure if he really nailed the Thesis to the Church door or not.  It may be just one of those “Urban Legends”.  What we do know is that Luther was not the first to seek truth and nor will he be the last.  For example, the ELCA Lutheran church is continually question and ever reforming and always seeking the truth.  In seeking of truth, Luther began to question practices that he believed did not reveal the truth of God.  It is in striving with God that Luther questions God and the Church for a truth that reveals the Grace of God.

Many people can say they have a truth but can there really be many truths or can there only be a truth?  Another possibility is that there are truths but only a single truth for an individual or a group of like-minded individuals.  Truth must lead to life.  If what is “truth” is not life giving, then the truth is in darkness and not the Truth, in the life giving Light of God.  God gives us free will, the free will to reject God and God’s grace.  It is in God’s nature, being of Truth and Love, that God’s grace is not so much a gift to us as it is God’s own nature of how God chooses to see God’s creation.  Lutherans often hang their hat upon grace, even to a fault sometimes.

When Martin was seeking out, questioning what he knew of his faith, he discovered through his questioning, striving for truth, that the very nature of God contains the Grace that humans need.  Without this grace, without the truth, humanity is doomed for damnation.  We cannot by our works of any sort, merit anything but damnation.  It is the laws of God, which reveals just how sinful you, me and all of humanity truly are.  Sin is anything that rebels against God.  No matter how small or large the rebellion, it is still sin.  The problem with sin is that sin leads to more sin and it does not stop and therefore we are enslaved to sin and cannot be freed by our own works of any sort.  In other words as N.T. Wright, an English Theologian has put it,

When people rebel against God in whatever way, new fields of force are called into being, a cumulative effect builds up, and individuals and societies alike become enslaved just as surely as if every single one of them wore chains and was hounded to work every day by a strong man with a whip.^[1]

As Christians we believe in the Triune God, consisting of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We confess this each Sunday when we recite the Apostles Creed.  What is our truth that Luther strived to get in his questions and what is it that we can therefore hold onto? The translation as found in Wright’s book of our Gospel today, I believe lends its self to our ears better than what I read earlier, to hear just what the truth is.

³¹ So Jesus spoke to the Judaeans who had believed in him.

‘If you remain in my word,’ he said, ‘you really will be my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’

³³ ‘We are Abraham’s descendants!’ they replied. ‘We’ve never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say that “You’ll become free”?’

³⁴ ‘I’m telling you the solemn truth,’ Jesus replied. ‘Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵ The slave doesn’t live in the house for ever; the son lives there for ever. ³⁶ So, you see, if the son makes you free, you will be truly free.’^[2]

The Jews had put their trust in being the descendants of Abraham, being part of Abraham’s family.  Jesus however is telling us that all of humanity is enslaved to sin and only the Son will dwell in the house of God forever, the slaves will not.  Unless, and only unless the Son makes you free can you truly be free to dwell with Son in the house forever.  This is the truth that comes to all Christians, in faith.  God speaks the truth always and comes to us in the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ who lives and dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who is also of God and is also the truth.  God gives us a New Covenant, not like the one of the ancestors of the house of Israel and Judah but now one in Christ Jesus.  It is God, the Son and the Spirit that is The Truth and it is in The Truth, we are freed from Sin.  We being freed from Sin, Jesus is also The Life to us.

Luther points to Christ as the center; Christ’s death and resurrection becomes The Way, The Truth and The Life for us all.  As it says in Romans 3, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” ^[3] It is not our works that justifies us to give us life.  It is our works that reveal our death in slavery to sin and our need for the Gospel.  We as Christians must respond to The Way, The Truth and The Life.  If we follow The Truth, Jesus, who came to reveal Himself as the Truth, then we will do as commanded not because we merit grace in our works but because of The Truth in grace. We walk a slippery path when we assume that nominal membership of a Christian church means we are automatically in God’s favor.[4]  Being part of the family is not enough.[5]  What if those that are called to be the light bears of Christ into the world are actually themselves infected with darkness and therefore will not dwell in the house forever?[6]

Go today, knowing that our life found in freedom, from the slavery of sin is not something of a nominal membership but one of response to The Truth, following the Father, Son and Spirit for the sake of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, The Way, The Truth