There is Only One Way to Be Free

By Dr. Brandon Steenbock, Family Minister

Romans 1:17 - For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

You could hear the brokenness in his voice. The weariness. "I try so hard. I do everything I can to measure up. To be good enough. To be enough. And every day... every day... I feel my guilt pressing down on me. I am... a wretched, sinful man." The small confessional booth in a medieval monastery is suddenly full of the sound of strained weeping.

You hear another voice, the voice of the priest, and he says... "You're too hard on yourself, and you worry too much. Go say some extra prayers, work a little harder in the garden, and stop thinking so hard about all this."

And your heart just breaks. You feel it, don't you? Behind this young man's pain is a deeply rooted belief that no amount of work, or penance, of self-affirmation can bring relief. The last thing he needs is to be told, "Just go do more."

He needs, "You'll never be able to do enough." Strange as it sounds, that would be instant relief. If you can never do enough, you don't have to do more. 

And he needs, "It's already been done for you." Maybe you'd rather do it yourself; most of us would. But for a man who is at the end of his rope, nothing sounds sweeter. When you find yourself at the end of your rope, you'll need to hear that too.

And finally, he needs to be told, "You are forgiven... and loved... and righteous before God." So much better than, "You're too hard on yourself." What difference does it make how hard I am on myself? If I don't measure up to God's standards, who cares? I need to know what God thinks about me! And so the news that, despite everything I've done, despite everything I would expect, God sees me as righteous, is the best news ever.

This was Martin Luther's story. As a young monk, he felt the weight of his sin and guilt and wrestled to be free of it. He constantly felt dragged back into sin. "The righteousness of God" was an impossible standard he could never meet, and it tormented him. When he confessed his sins, his priest often told him to stop thinking so much, say some more prayers, and work harder. It didn't help. 

If you've ever felt like young Martin, you know this burden, how it feels to want to live up to God's righteousness... and feeling like you never can. You know that "do more" and "work harder" and "just stop thinking" will never get you free. There's only one way to be free.

Luther found that freedom when he read Scripture with open eyes and realized that "the righteousness of God" in verses like Romans 1:17 was not a standard to meet. "The righteousness of God," as Paul uses it in Romans 1:17, is the imputation of righteousness that God gives through faith. When a person's faith is in the atoning work of Jesus, when they trust that his death and resurrection has wiped away their sins and given them hope for the future, they are clothed in Jesus' righteousness. As Paul says another place, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Through Christ, God has declared his children to be righteous and holy.

This is the invitation: Receive the gift God gives freely by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. No effort. No harder work. A gift from a loving God who wants to see you as righteous. He knows you sin, but he wants to give you forgiveness. He knows your burden, but he wants to give you freedom. He knows your guilt, but he wants to give you holiness. Trust in Jesus. Believe his words when you hear them - in his Word, in worship, in the Sacraments - "You are forgiven... and loved... and righteous before God."