Paid In Full

by Pastor Johnson - Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Lexington KY

Text:   John 8:31-32  31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Romans 3:22-24  For there is no distinction:  23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ...   INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ,  Today we celebrate Reformation Day. Almost 500 years ago today, an Augustinian friar and professor at Wittenberg University named Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the castle church door, the town bulletin board. And so began what we now call the Reformation of the western catholic church.  I’d like to begin our look at the Reformation with this story:  A park ranger was leading a group of hikers to a lookout tower in Yellowstone National Park. Along the way he pointed out some of the famous sites in the park. He was so intent on the stories he was telling, that he paid no attention when his two-way radio received a message. He turned it down. Later he and his party stopped to look at some flowers and view some of the birds in nearby trees. Once again his radio distracted the ranger, so this time he turned it off. As the group neared the lookout tower, they were met by a nearly breathless ranger who asked why the guide hadn't responded to the messages on his radio. From their viewpoint, high in the tower, some other rangers had observed a large grizzly bear stalking the group. They had been trying desperately to warn the hikers. Someone commenting on this near misadventure said that many times we are so involved in personal activities and pursuits in this life, we don't pay attention to the voice of God trying to get through to us. Sometimes we turn down the volume. Sometimes we don't pay attention. Sometimes we even turn Him off. Then the writer continued, "If God is trying to get through to us, we can be sure it is for a good reason."
I. But we ignore the voice of God because we are estranged from God. Before the Reformation the Church had the tendency to forget that.
	A. And that estrangement consists of being separated from God on at least two levels:     by our deeds and by our nature.
			1. Most of us, when we hear the phrase, "all have sinned" as from our text, we think exclusively of our deeds, usually our misdeeds are the things we have done that were wrong. And sometimes, in a moment of spiritual clarity, we may reflect also on our sins of omission, those good things we have not done. And certainly the volume of our misdeeds, particularly our sins of omission, is overwhelming.   2. But we are also sinful by our very nature.  There is a chasm that separates us from God and keeps us from the kind of peace, love and joy that God means for us to have.  That chasm is our sin.
				a. We sin in our thoughts, we sin with our words, we sin in our deeds. We sin by the things we do, and we sin by the things we haven’t done.   b. And that’s just scratching the surface. Those are the symptoms; because sin is inherited. It is the disease of disobedience and death that comes from Adam.
	B. Even from Adam—before we even consider all our other sins we are enslaved and captive to Sin and Death. We cannot free ourselves. We’re stuck.  When it comes to the condition of sin, we all are addicted.
			1.  And accordingly we are all rebels in our hearts. Luther said that it was like the birds of winter. Those that do not fly south try to gather up morsels here and there to survive until spring. Luther went out to feed the birds in his backyard once and instead of coming to him and receive the food, what did they do? They flew away. Pointing at the birds, Luther said, "That's me! God comes to me with goodness, life, and blessings to give and instead of eagerly accepting what God has, I fly away. I'll die without God's help but I am wickedly stubborn. God only wants to help and save and I flutter away."
			2. Then God sends the Law into our midst.  And on the surface it seems to make matters worse because we can’t keep it, no matter how hard we try.
					a. And When we look into the mirror of the Law we find that it’s a magnifying mirror. Even things we thought were OK, even those areas we feel good about, turn out to be riddled with sin. The mere fact that we sin – in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions – reminds us that we are slaves to Sin.   b. The purpose of the Law is to bring knowledge of sin, to give us the divine diagnosis of our condition.  You think you have problems? The Law says you are the problem. You think you have a few bad habits to straighten out? Think again. The Law says you are shot through with sin. You’re a terminal case. This is not going to get better by itself, and you can’t fix it.  Someone else, from the outside has to redeem you, pay the price and buy you back.   c. The Law is intended to shut us up so we can listen, because only in hearing are we going to be freed from this mess. As long as we are babbling over our works and how we’re better than the next guy, our ears will be deaf to the only word that can save us. The Law says in effect, “Shut up and listen” because faith comes by hearing and there won’t be any faith as long as your lips are flapping.
II.  God is trying to get us to stop and listen because He wants to tell us something important.  Jesus is the reason God is trying to get through to us. Jesus is our help, our Redeemer.
		A.. Because Jesus is perfect under the Law.
			1. He fears, loves, trusts in God above all things. He rightly honors God’s name and Word. He is the obedient Son of His Father and His mother. He helps and befriends His neighbor. He does not steal, lie, gossip, slander or covet anything. He is perfect Man under the Law.   2. He has taken your sin.
				a. He is condemned humanity, one huge rebellious Man, covered with your sin. He is the drunkard, the adulterer, the murderer, the thief, the liar. He is damned with our damnation, cursed with the curse of the Law, receiving in His own body what you and I deserved. But He gets it instead. He does justice to our sins in two ways: He keeps the Law for us where we could not; and He dies under the Law for us as we deserve to die.   b. Jesus has redeemed you from slavery to sin.  He redeemed you not with gold or silver or money, but with His holy, precious Blood and with His innocent suffering and death. This is what  brought hope and joy to Luther and the reformers.   c. There is a great story about how Luther dealt with this long list of sins. Evidently, one night he had a nightmare in which the devil took out this huge book full of Luther's sins. They were itemized, numbered, and dated. The sheer size and numbers were overwhelming. The weight of the sins drove Luther to his knees in despair. As the devil completed his evidence against a nervous and contrite Luther, Luther suddenly realized something and said, "You forgot a few." With that he added more and more to the list provided by the devil and then wrote on the bottom, "Paid in full by Jesus Christ."  That’s what Jesus has done for us, too!
	B. An Augustinian friar named Martin Luther heard that verdict of “not guilty for Jesus’ sake” and dared to believe it.
			1. He believed it over and against the official teachings of his church, the opinions of his teachers, the popular religious notions of his day.
				a. He dared to believe that the apostle Paul was right when he wrote: We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.   b. Luther dared to believe that Jesus his Savior had done it all for him, and nothing he did could add to that one perfect life and the one all-sufficient death.
			2. We dare to believe the same. We dare to believe that we stand before God right now, this very instant, justified for Jesus’ sake. It’s the most audacious statement in all the religious world, that a sinner is justified by faith in Jesus apart from anything he or she does. Justified in Jesus, for Jesus’ sake.
				a. The debt has been paid once and for all. The slate has been washed clean. The verdict has been read. The jury dismissed. No condemnation. God refuses to deal with you as your sins deserve. The entire burden of your sin was nailed to the cross in Jesus. He bore the verdict “guilty” so that you might hear the verdict “not guilty.” You are free.   b. If the Son of God, Jesus Christ, doesn’t set me free, I can’t be free. But when we are brought to believe in what Jesus has done He sets you free.
			3. What does the freedom He gives look like?
				a. It doesn’t look like an 18-year-old’s fantasies about freedom. It doesn’t look like me getting all of my selfish needs met while doing no earthly good for others. The new life in Christ doesn’t look like an MGM-style celebration of ourselves with all the materialism and pleasure we can grab along the way.   b. No, the new life in Christ looks like a cross – like the freedom to stick with this life by abiding in His Word, and by giving our lives away in service to others and in joyous harmony with our Master.    c. The freedom we receive looks a little like this too. There is that story told about Abraham Lincoln. "Lincoln went down to the slave block. He saw a young girl being sold. He took money out of his own pocket and bought her. When she was brought to him, he said, 'Young lady, you are free.' She said, 'Please, sir, what does that mean?' He said, 'It means you are free.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can say whatever I want to say?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to say.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can be whatever I want to be?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, you can be whatever you want to be.' She asked, 'Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go?' He said, 'Yes, you can go whenever you want to go.' And the girl, with tears streaming down her face, said, 'Then I will go with you.'"
CONCLUSION:  When the Son makes you free, you are free indeed! We can rejoice as did Luther and countless other believers who have been freed in the same way over the centuries.  And once we are brought to realize the great gift we’ve been given in Jesus we say to him, “Then I’ll go with you.” Amen