Ephesians 4:22-28 On October 31st, 1517, Martin
Luther posted 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg--ninety-five “points of discussion”
that addressed what he felt was wrong with the church of his day.
The Christian life
had fallen into what was essentially an economic transaction—give so much to
the church and you could count on forgiveness.
All kinds of Christians were appalled by this and so to talk about it in
his own community Luther posted 95 discussion points to address what was going
on in the church.
The first three theses
went like this: 1. When Jesus said
"repent" he meant that believers should live a life of repentance 2.
Only God can give salvation - not a priest.
3. Inward penitence must be accompanied by a real change in lifestyle.
To make his point,
Luther appealed only to the Bible—not to tradition, not to a priestly hierarchy. We see how true this is in our text today
which is the biblical foundation for Luther’s first three theses: that the Christian life is one of
repentance—that salvation comes from God, not from another person—and that a
changed heart results in a changed life.
The Bible says:
Put off your old
self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on
the new self
The
first of Luther’s 95 Theses said that the entire life of the Christian consists
of repentance. When we hear that word
“repentance”, most of us think of contrition or sorrow over sins—that I
recognize that I have done wrong, am sorry for it, and confess it for the sin
it is. And that is certainly true as far
as it goes. In fact…
That’s what Paul
is talking about in this first verse or so of our text—that we are to put off our old self, which belongs to our
former way of life because it is corrupt and full of deceitful desires. In other words, everything having to do with
sin in our life is to be taken off like filthy clothes and cast aside.
And because sin is
not just the wrong things we say or
do or think- but is as close to us as our own flesh- we will have to put off
that old self again and again until we lay it aside in death. We will never be rid of sin in this life but we
must strive to put it off every day so that when it comes to sin we can always
consider it something in the past rather than a present reality in our lives.
When we hear that
the Christian life is one of life-long repentance, this ongoing sorrow over sin,
and confession of it, is what we think about—and that is right—but it is still
only half the story.
The other half of
repentance—the other half of the Christian life—is where we turn to, after we
turn away from sin--and what we put on, after we put off the old sinful self. We turn from sin to Christ-- and put on the
new self when we put off the old.
In other words, repentance
is not just sorrow over our sins (that’s just the first part) it is also faith
in Jesus to forgive us our sins. For
example…
In our Gospel
lesson today, the paralyzed man and his friends came to Jesus in faith—they had
a confident trust that the power and compassion of Jesus could help them-- and
they were not disappointed. That is what
faith is: a confident trust that Jesus
will do what he says and give us forgiveness and a new life.
Last week we
talked about the identity that we have in Christ and the importance of living
as who we are. We heard that the Holy
Spirit has made us God’s children and disciples of Christ.
This is the new
self that we are to “put on.” We take
off the old sinful self and we put on this new identity—this new self that is a
child of God and disciple of Christ.
That we believe
this and that we can do this (putting off the old and putting on the new) is from
beginning to end, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
In his second thesis
Luther made the point that this life of repentance is not accomplished in us by
any priest or ritual but it is the work of God.
The bible calls it a renewal in
the spirit of our minds and that we are a new creation after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
holiness.
In the beginning,
God created man in his own image (not that they looked like God who is Spirit) but
that they reflected his righteousness and holiness. That image of God was lost when man sinned. The righteousness and holiness that they were
given at their creation ceased—not only for them but for all their children—us
too.
And so every
person, by nature, simply by virtue of their birth into the human family, can
no longer can be counted as God’s child but as his enemy. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus: you
must be born again! In other words,
you must be renewed and recreated to be what God intended you to be at the
beginning. And just like at the
beginning, it is only God who can do that work.
And he has!
All of us who have
been baptized and brought to faith in Jesus have been born again by water and
Spirit. God has chosen to give us new
birth so that now the image of God (the true righteousness and holiness of
Christ) has been restored in us.
This is what Paul
is talking about when he says that we are renewed
in the spirit of our mind. We have a
new attitude towards sin, hating it and wanting nothing to do with it. We have a new attitude towards those around
us, loving them for Christ’s sake and bearing with them patiently. And we have a new attitude towards the way we
live, wanting to walk in the ways of Christ.
The Bible says:
Therefore, having put
away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we
are members one of another. Be angry and
do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity
to the devil. Let the thief no longer
steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that
he may have something to share with anyone in need.
In
the third of Luther’s 95 Theses he says that our inward repentance (that is our
sorrow over sin and our Spirit-worked faith) ought to be plainly visible in how
we live our lives. It is a terrible
perversion of the Gospel to say that the forgiven sinner can simply return to
his former life of sin. Nothing is
farther from the truth!
No
one should come to Holy Communion this morning is they do not intend to make a
complete break with sin. If you are
planning to return to a sinful life when you leave the communion rail—stay
away—you will receive judgment not blessing.
Instead,
our sorrow over sin and our confident trust in Christ’s forgiveness means that
our lives will make a complete 180 degree turn from what they were before. Paul gives some concrete examples to
illustrate what he is talking about but they are certainly not exhaustive.
First of all, Christians
tell the truth. Christians know the One
who is the THE truth and so there is no place for falsehood in the Christian
life. Very few things are as destructive
to our various human relationships as lying--and all people hold liars in
contempt. The Bible says that our speech
must loving, straightforward, and that we are to be people of our word who can
be trusted to tell the truth.
Secondly, the
Christian does not live with bitterness and anger in their hearts. The Bible writers recognized that there are
situations where anger is the appropriate response. How can we not be angry over injustice and
brutality and perversion? They anger
God—they anger God’s children.
But we cannot let
this anger rule over us. That we do not “let the sun go down on our anger” means
that we are quick to be reconciled with those who have angered us so that Satan
does not gain the upper hand over us.
And finally, Christians
do not steal. They don’t take things
from work. They do not fudge on their
taxes or expense reports. They give a
fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage. The
Christian knows that the way to having their own possessions is work.
Christians (unless
profoundly disabled or ill or elderly) do not live on the charity of others—not
their families—not their fellow church members—and not the government. They work.
They work to support themselves and their families. They work so that the mission of Christ can
go forward. And they work so that they
have something to share with those in genuine need. Labor- and the necessities of life- go
together.
Almost 500 years
ago Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg and the very first words the
Reformation was a call to a life of repentance.
We hear the same thing in God’s Word today: that we are to put off the old life of sin
and put on the righteousness of Christ—that this life of faith can only be
accomplished in us by the work of the Holy Spirit—and that a heart that has
been changed by Jesus shows up in a changed life. May God grant it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
