Free Sons

By Scott R. Murray

Justification and Christian freedom are inseparably joined together. If you lose one you will certainly lose the other. Christian freedom is, of course, freedom in the sight of God. If we are sons of the free woman (Gal 4:21-), then we are not subject to the miserable elements of the world: "do, don't do, touch, don't touch, eat, don't eat, etc." The sons of the household have no master, they are the masters of all that their father has given to them. He even gives them the freedom to squander their freedom on unworthy objects (Lk 15).
How vulnerable God remains to our abuse, because He declines to take us in hand through the school master of the law. We are sons and heirs and He has given all things that are His into our hands (Jn 15:16).
We are kings in His kingdom. We are priests in His sanctuary. Who could call us to account? What mere servant will demand service of us? What minister will require obedience of us? None could. This would be to turn the world upside down.
Our pastors must remain servants in the household of God for the sake of the priests and princes who have been granted the Father's own freedom. We ministers chafe at our subjection to the needs of the bride of Christ, only because we forget whom we serve by being subject to the church. But we must remember that, although we are sons of the Father in communion with the other sons, we are not their overlords; for the precious freedom of the church would be jeopardized by pastoral overlordship.
And if the church's freedom is lost, so will be the gift of divine righteousness.
The last people who should be putting in danger the freedom of the sons of God are the rightly called servants in that household.
Luther recognized that the pastors would do precisely that, if they began to impose the demand for works upon the sons of the Father; whether those works are a matter of worship piety or service offered to the neighbor. Such an imposition must be resisted if the gospel is to remain among us. The life of holiness is a gift of God. Whether it is expressed in the piety of the divine service or the piety of social service, it remains a burden gladly taken on by the freed person, who is a son and king in His Father's household. The discipline necessary to have a fruitful life of service is offered by the sons of the King, not because they must, not because they are coerced, but because it is their delight. They are truly free. Giving themselves up to the needs of the church and the neighbor are what they do. And they will do it as long as they are free.

Memorial Moment: Free Sons