Slaves to righteousness or to sin seems an appropriate title for the little gallery below. Pic #1 is the 19th century art of Joseph Noel Paton, entitled "Christian at the Foot of the Cross" depicting John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as Christian completes his spiritual walk on earth and embraces his Master while the three celestial beings look upon his joy; Pic #2 shows the filth of walking in the lust of the flesh. Here is just one photo from the regular perversions in Riverside Church of Manhattan NY (affiliated with the United Church of Christ); Christ's altar, symbolizing His great sacrifice for man's sins, means nothing as Pic #3 shows a couple in a Belfast cathedral having sex on what was once built to be holy; whereas, these are condemned by God's righteous Law, Pic #4 nevertheless shows the extraordinary joy of having been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, having put on the righteous robes of Christ.
This brings me to my address for this Sunday:
“Freed to Become Slaves”
Galatians 5:16-18 NKJV “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
My Christian friends: St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions (Book 8, Chapter. 7), “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.” Augustine recalled, in a humorous manner, that which St. Paul found difficult in Romans chapter 7 as he strove to walk in his born-again nature after the likeness of Christ Jesus. The old man within Augustine had struggled immensely with his new nature. Nevertheless, that which follows justification is sanctification and not just a freedom for freedom’s sake as you, too, would walk according to your new nature.
St. Paul begins the 5th chapter to his letter to the Galatians: “Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage;” and, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.” You, Christian, are called to walk according to your new nature.
As I see it, by walking in your old nature there are two ways of being slaves to sin: You are either placed back into being a slave by yielding to sin’s allures, or you place yourself back into slavery. In order to clarify the first, the third chapter of Galatians, as you heard last Sunday, explains how we are no longer under the strict school-master called the Law since we are justified by grace once faith is revealed. Galatians 3:22-25, reads: “But the Scripture has confined ALL under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” See how the Word of God is attributed to confining (literally, “shutting up” like an inmate in prison) all under sin. This is the result of the sin of all mankind.
The law, however, does come with a guarantee; it guarantees you eternal death. But notice the consequent phrase giving the proper understanding for the Christian, namely, God’s Word confines all of us under sin in order that we may have certain rescue by faith in Christ Jesus. This simple statement runs contrary to all the high-minded church theologians who say that there has been an Easter justification of all people, that is, a forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ mandated by God prior to faith. This simply is not what our text confirms; however, with Christ we die a watery death only to be raised to a newness of life, praise God! Continue to hear what Scripture says with the explanatory next verse: “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.”
Paul now gives us the completed reason for the law, especially for the Christian: “Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” But this freedom does not imply that one is free to sin. On the contrary, if you are free from righteousness you will automatically once more become a slave to sin. If, however, you are a slave to righteousness, you are free from sin.
St. Paul emphasizes this point to the Church in Rome: “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.”
For example, Lutherans should know that we do not attend public worship in order to be saved. It is not necessarily sinful to miss public worship or Mass. But we also know, through compiled statistics of Lutheran memberships in the U.S., that less than half of baptized members attend worship on any given Sunday. Just where is the other half? There may be those use the pandemic we are presently going through as an excuse not to worship with a community of believers. Are not all to return and give thanks to God like in the historic gospel for today, Luke 17:17-19? Have they insisted on their Christian liberty by not returning to church to thank their Savior?
We could insist that they must come worship the Lord according they said they intended to do when they were confirmed. But this lawful way is not a motivating factor in changing their heart; the law can’t reform but only conforms to expectations of the outward behavior. Punishment should never be associated with the forgiveness in the Gospel.
If we use the law to enforce either attendance at our worship services or to change the hearts of our children by spanking their rear ends, then I contend that we have placed the Christian back under the law which can only bring about more lawlessness. Luther confirms what I speak when he said: “Neither is there any difference between a slave of sin and a slave of the Law, because he who is a slave of the Law is a sinner. He never fulfills the Law except to put works on display, and a temporal reward is given him just as it is given to children of slave women.”
You become the Galatian church when you no longer feel the need to hear God’s Word that sets you free and instructs you in doing good works. But then don’t you become slaves again to sin when you also ignore the Third Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”? We are indeed free from the Law but in a sense that seems nonsense to common man.
Luther again wrote: “For it is human freedom when laws are changed without effecting any change in man, but it is Christian freedom when men are changed without changing the Law. Consequently, the same Law that was formerly hateful to the free will, now becomes a delight since love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”
Isn’t this “delight” Luther mentions about the Law the same, the very same, as when the Psalmist says, “Let Your tender mercies come to me that I may live; for Your law is my delight” (Psalm 119:77)? Yes, indeed; for it is the New Man, being now reborn in the image of the New Adam. It is your new nature reborn in the image of Jesus Christ who will always delight in the Law of the Lord, because the Law is no longer threatening but now embraced as holy and good by the Christian.
Luther continues: “In this freedom (i.e. true Christian freedom), he (the Holy Spirit) teaches us, we must stand strongly and steadfastly, because Christ, who fulfills the Law and overcomes sin for us, sends the spirit of love into the hearts of those who believe in Him. This makes them righteous and lovers of the Law, not because of their own works but freely because it is freely bestowed by Christ.”
If you incline away from this, you are both ungrateful to Christ and proud of yourselves since you want to justify and free yourselves from the Law without Christ.
How dare Christians think that they have the spirit of love and are freed from the Law when they refuse to love and forgive their family members and neighbors? Neither should we think that we are loved of God BECAUSE we have forgiven others. This might give us that spiritual uplift our sinful nature needs, if we feel God will forgive us IF we forgive our neighbor...but this is the flesh talking and not the words of the Holy Spirit.
This brings me to the second point, namely, that we place ourselves back under the Law. Jesus, after teaching His disciples what we call The Lord’s Prayer tags on this truth: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). If Jesus were telling us that we have to forgive the sins of others as a condition for His Father’s forgiving us our own sins, then we have made God obligated to us. We have then placed ourselves once again into slavery to the Law and must keep all things in accordance with the Law of God. But what Jesus means to say is this: “If My love abides within you, you will forgive others who sin against you, no strings attached, just as I forgave you and gave up My life for your sins.” In other words, it is a sure sign that you understand the Gospel and your own forgiveness in that you have the love of Christ and willingly, from the heart, forgive others.
The Word of God says, in Romans 5:8, 10-11: But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us...For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. When you have been set free spiritually you have become a slave to righteousness. Worshiping the Lord, whether in public or individually in Bible readings and devotions, now becomes a joy and not drudgery. You are free in Christ but you are never free to ignore your Savior.
The concept of Sunday School is a good thing but how many know that it was developed for two reasons? Yes, Sunday School was created to help children read and to train them under the law of God until the time of grace should be revealed. Unfortunately many churches today no longer apply the Law as a tutor but rather use the deceptive practices of Church Growth that entice children with food, fun and games, even having inflatable amusements and video games, and call these worldly attractions a Sunday School and, quote, “having church.” But the connection between learning the stories of the heroes of the Old Testament with Jesus is never made; the connection of learning the distinction between Law and Gospel is never taught to Sunday School children. The attention is all on being entertained.
True spiritual understanding is comprehended by the work worked alone through the Word by the Holy Spirit. This knowledge is only comprehended in the Faith College of Bible Knowledge.
When you have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it means that you desire to be close to Him and want to worship and praise Him, and you want to learn more of Him and obey Him in love. How much more intimate with Jesus can you get than by partaking of His essential and true body and blood? That is why Luther said that if a person stays away for a long time from the Mass, that person should not consider himself a Christian.
Remember that you do not have to exhibit all that is mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21, that is, “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries” in order not led of the Spirit. All you have to do is to fall into this one last category, namely, “and the like”. And if you fall into that category, you are once again a slave to sin and once more condemned by God’s law. But see here what freedom you have when you become a slave to righteousness, controlled by the Holy Spirit; your freedom lies in the joys you have by the fruit of the Spirit, “love, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” “Against such things” St. Paul says, “there is no law.”
When you are led by the Holy Spirit you still need, in this life, to constantly hear of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus earned for us through His perfect obedience to the Law and His perfect sacrifice on the cross, nailing the regulations of the Law with His body to the cross forever. You must see and taste this forgiveness for yourselves in the Holy Supper, which is the same body and blood born of the Virgin and offered once and for all upon the altar of Calvary; it is the same body and blood given to us in and with the bread and the wine for the remission of sin; it is the same body and blood that ascended into the heavens and continues to plead our innocence before the heavenly Father. If knowing all that doesn’t stir you to faithful acts of love, then I suppose you haven’t comprehended the Law of God.
Only the Christian can truly say, as the Psalmist who trusted in the coming Savior, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105), and “I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies” (Ps.119:116). Dear friends, justification and holiness does not depend upon your keeping the Law of God, but it does depend upon you knowing and responding to the continuing goodness of Jesus by faith who has upheld and fulfilled the Law for you. Do you have a desire to be a slave to Jesus your Master? Then continue to be strong and steadfast in the Word of God for you no longer serve Moses and the Law but are now free by grace; free indeed to become slaves to the righteousness of Christ Jesus, your Lord and Savior. Amen.
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