Sola Gratia – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
John 8:31-36 The Truth Will Set You Free
+ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +
Today as we celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, let us consider what it was all about – and what it is still all about. It was and is about the truth. It was and is about our salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, for the sake of Christ alone, which we know through scripture alone. And to God alone belongs the glory.
We call it the beginning of the Reformation, because when Martin Luther nailed the ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31st, 1517, Lutheranism as we know it had not yet arrived. He saw the need for reform within the church. He saw many things that Rome was teaching and practicing that was contrary to Biblical teaching. He did not yet, however, understand what grace was all about. That breakthrough would not come until about a year later when he was in exile in the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach and translating the Bible into German.
The Reformation didn’t start that anxious year later, either. Martin Luther’s struggle with “The righteousness of God” began much earlier. In his time, the church taught that God was an angry judge ready to hand out swift punishment in hell and purgatory. How, Martin wondered, could he ever hope to merit heaven before the righteousness of God? How are we, for that matter? It is the age-old question: How do we make ourselves right with God?
The truth that we are saved solely by God’s grace did not come to Luther through divine revelation. A voice didn’t come out of the clouds nor did an angel appear to him in a vision. Martin didn’t look inward and try to find the truth by searching his own heart. When he looked inside, he saw only sin. Martin learned the truth by reading the Bible. In time, Luther began to understand how a poor, miserable sinner under God’s judgment and heading for hell is rescued from every one of his sins. Forgiven. At peace with God. Given the gift of eternal life.
We throw around the word grace pretty casually, but if we’re asked: “Well, what exactly is grace?” - it turns out that it’s pretty hard to put into simple terms. “I’m saved by grace.” “I live in a state of grace.” What does this mean? We just know the word grace is filled with comfort. No other word describes God’s attitude and action toward us. Grace is God’s favor – not in the sense of “doing us a favor” but rather “You are my favorite.” Grace is God’s undeserved kindness. Grace is God’s unmerited love for us.
We know a lot of acronyms and initials.1 We all, unfortunately, know that IRS means Internal Revenue Service. ASAP means the IRS wants their money as soon as possible. An ATM is an automated teller machine, where you go to find out you don’t have any money left because you just gave it all to the IRS. G.R.A.C.E. is “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” God’s riches are the same riches He gives to us. He gives them to us freely – at no cost to us. These riches are the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, fellowship with God, freedom from guilt and shame, eternal life and salvation. Again, free to us – but there is a cost. At Christ’s expense means that Jesus Christ was the price for all of these gifts. Jesus paid the cost because He is the only One capable of paying it. Eternal life belongs only to the obedient, and only Jesus Christ was obedient. Obedient even unto death on a cross. As St. Paul writes: “For as by Adam's disobedience all men were made sinners, so by Christ's obedience the many will be made righteous.”2
Imagine the terror in your heart, not knowing that grace is a free gift! We don’t have to imagine it – we understand it. Our sinful flesh and the power of the devil work to prevent us from believing the truth of God’s grace. Sometimes, they lull us into a false sense of comfort that we can do whatever we want with this free gift, sinning freely without consequences because “God forgave all my sins on the cross.” We forget about repentance – the sorrow for our sins and the conviction of our conscience that we need continual forgiveness. Jesus’ words in this morning’s Gospel reading challenges this type of “believer.” In the reading from John3, Jesus tells the people that their understanding of their beliefs and His are not the same.
That’s Jesus’ style.4 He turns our preconceived notions on their head to drive the message home like a nail in a church door so that we take it to heart – especially when we think we have it all worked out on our own. When Jesus speaks to us, things happen! There is an awakening and transformations occur! We have Jesus here for us now in His Holy Word, just as Martin had Him as he translated the scriptures. When we listen to the Word of God, we are forgiven, comforted and healed, yes – but we are also confronted, challenged, and made somewhat uncomfortable. The knowledge of good and especially evil is like that.
What Martin Luther found in the Bible is that he had a problem. We share the same problem. Luther’s life was turned upside down! After all the years of searching for mercy, all the fasting, sleeping on the floor in the cold and whipping himself trying to earn God’s favor – he found that he was not just a sinner. He found he was a forgiven sinner. God’s mercy was his already. He didn’t have to earn it. He had grace. That is the truth Jesus speaks to us this morning – the truth that sets us free.
Like Martin, we sinners are in constant need of forgiveness. The saint and the sinner inside us are at war with one another. That is the cross we bear. But Luther discovered that the cross of Christ is stronger, and will bring that struggle to an end on the last day. No longer will we need to fear the angry judge, but look forward to seeing our loving Father’s face.
The Holy Spirit is at work in the Word to bring you that comfort and forgiveness and the joy of life in Christ. The Holy Spirit does double duty, as He shows us our over-confidence in our certainties, our views that “well, it’s not really a sin” and our insistence on building false idols of our own that distract our attention from Christ. The Holy Spirit reminds us we are no longer slaves to sin because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He reminds us that we are, however, slaves to temptation.
Are we really free? Aren’t we really free to continue to struggle with sin?! Don’t we all struggle with addictions of one kind or another? Don’t we all struggle with the temptation to believe that more work, more wealth, more likes on Facebook, or what have you will somehow grant us the peace we long for? To what or whom are you enslaved? Real freedom, as Luther found out, is all about the Word of Christ, not the words of the world, the devil, and our own sinful flesh. These three deceivers speak to us all the time, always trying to be the voice of freedom in our minds. Instead, they are the voice of slavery and death.
Jesus comes to you today with the real Voice. The Voice of all authority in heaven and on earth: “If you live in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”5 Freedom. True freedom, the freedom that gives eternal life and peace in this life is only found in Christ. Disciples are made free, they are not born free. As the Word works within you beginning with your baptism and continuing all the days of your life, you begin to change through His power. You receive the truth. That truth is that there is hope for you and me. The truth is that there is forgiveness for you and me. The truth is that we are no longer slaves to sin but free by His blood.
As we journey through life, living the vocations God had granted us, we struggle between the free men and women God had graciously made us and the old sinful slave. The journey is not easy as our ideas are challenged by His Word, reminding us every day that we have freedom by the One who became sin in our place. Real freedom is not granted by our desires, our plans, our votes or our laws. Real freedom is a gift, received in humility as we repent and are forgiven. And what a gift it is! A gift freely given by Christ. The Son sets us free, and we are free indeed. We are free, saved from sin and reunited with God by His grace alone. Grace is God’s unfathomable love that forgives undeserving sinners like us, on account of Christ’s obedience and suffering for us. Grace is God’s heart, for God is love. God’s heart is revealed to us where Jesus shed His blood for us. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense: Jesus bought us the treasures of God’s grace, and set us free. To God alone be the glory!
+ In the Name of Jesus, Amen. +
May the peace which surpasses all human understanding
keep your hearts and your minds focused on Christ Jesus.
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+ Amen +
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κήρυξον τὸν λόγον
1 I borrowed the idea of the G.R.A.C.E. acronym from Pastor Rolf Preus, Brothers of John the Steadfast.
2 Paraphrase of Romans 5:19.
3 John 8:31-36.
4 I borrowed a few turns of phrase from Dr. Andrew Pfeiffer of the Lutheran Church of Australia in this paragraph.
5 Paraphrase of John 8:31-32.