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Text: "For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more." - 1 Corinthians 9:19
"Behold, from faith thus flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves one's neighbor willingly and takes no account of gratitude or ingratitude, of praise or blame, of gain or loss." - Martin Luther, "Freedom of a Christian," 1520.
First Thoughts: 500 years ago, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Months later, in that November, he wrote a tract dedicated to Pope Leo X to explain simply, yet carefully, the theology that had been driving the protests and debates that centered on Luther's teaching in Wittenberg. Those protests, debates and the tracts that Luther kept writing were challenging the entire system of penance - the means by which people could work off years in purgatory through acts of charity or by buying indulgences from the clergy. There was a lot of money and a lot of worldly power tied up in the church's work in Europe during the Middle Ages.
But all that stays in the background when you read Luther's tract, "The Freedom of a Christian." Here we have the simple yet paradoxical teaching that ties the entire Bible together to God's plan for our salvation. Luther writes at the beginning:
"A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."
Luther holds to that paradox throughout this beautiful writing. Alright, you can tell by the adjectives in this post that I am very taken with this particular tract. That is because I cannot find a more succinct writing on the life of a Christian that so clearly illustrates God's grace and what true freedom is all about. I think that comes down to why Luther's writings were so popular in their day. Not only was he able to address the different issues that were felt by the people, but he had a certain earthy way when he described divine truths that made them very accessible. I guess today my kids would say he was "keepin' it real." Well, actually they would not say that, as that was a phrase I used in the 80s and probably the sort of thing that would get me a lot of sideways glances should I pull it out in dinner conversation. Instead of embarrassing myself further, let me share one of Martin's key illustrations that help to illustrate the paradox he presents at the beginning of his "Freedom" treatise:
In order to make that which we have said more easily understood, we shall explain by analogies. We should think of the works of a Christian who is justified and saved by faith because of the pure and free mercy of God, just as we would think of the works which Adam and Eve did in Paradise, and all their children would have done if they had not sinned. We read in Gen. 2 [:15] that "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." Now Adam was created righteous and upright and without sin by God so that he had no need of being justified and made upright through his tilling and keeping the garden; but, that he might not be idle, the Lord gave him a task to do, to cultivate and protect the garden. This task would truly have been the freest of works, done only to please God and not to obtain righteousness, which Adam already had in full measure and which would have been the birthright of us all.
The works of a believer are like this. Through his faith he has been restored to Paradise and created anew, has no need of works that he may become or be righteous; but that he may not be idle and may provide for and keep his body, he must do such works freely only to please God. Since, however, we are not wholly recreated, and our faith and love are not yet perfect, these are to be increased, not by external works, however, but of themselves.
The two paragraphs above help to capture the main thought, but if you read only these then you miss out on other great illustrations and the way Luther builds his argument throughout. While I figure out what I am going to say, this Sunday, I'd highly recommend you reading "Freedom of a Christian" on your own. There is a free, online version. You can also get (for about $15) an ebook from the good folks at Concordia Publishing House which also includes an additional tract from Philip Melanchthon as well as a host of notes and other resources.
As for me, I am going to keep re-reading this particular tract. It holds a special place in my library. When I pulled it off the shelf, this year, and glanced at all of the underlines, highlights and notes, I realized what an impact this has had on my teaching and preaching. And then it hit me that this particular writing has remained in circulation and discussion for the last 500 years. How many more pastors like me have read this and said, "This is the Gospel that I must give to my people every chance I get!" Well, that's what I say, at any rate. I hope that once you read it, you may say the same. Define "my people" any way that you wish, but get that Gospel out there even as you live as a free lord of all, and a dutiful servant of all.
