Oh, Freedom!

Oh, Freedom!

    I adore being a second grade teacher!  November is one of my most favorite months in which to teach.  Each day, my students write down something they are thankful for.  Listing thirty things seems overwhelming to a 7 year old at first.  How rewarding to watch them come to understand the concept that you can be thankful for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!  It's a choice and it's easy.   

   I love telling my students about those first Americans who left their native land to come to the New World full of new freedoms.  They left a land of being told what to believe and were instead able to build up their own churches and develop their own faith freely.  They abandoned a land where they had to keep their opinions secret to find that in America they could express themselves in newspapers, on soap boxes, and anywhere they went.  It is hard for my second graders to comprehend a world where someone didn't have these freedoms.  These lessons build up an appreciation for our country and the freedoms we still enjoy.

  The Church recently celebrated Reformation Sunday and the impact Martin Luther had on the history of our Protestant faith.  Because he was willing to protest and make reforms, we can enjoy freedom to know God in a very personal way.  Luther rewrote the Bible from Latin to German so we could understand it and read it ourselves.  Luther taught us that we do not have to go through a priest to connect with God, but we can pray directly to God.  We no longer have to pay large sums of money to the church or do elaborate good deeds to be assured of Salvation,  but we know that it is through Jesus we are saved.

   While Luther was doing his own searching before the Reformation, he searched the Bible to find the answer to how he could be SURE he would go to Heaven when he died.  He focused on Galations, Psalms, and Romans.  Luther came to a deep understanding that it is by faith we are saved, not through works.  The heart of his discovery was found in Romans 3:21-31.  Here is Romans 3:21-25: 

   "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice......

So, everyone has sinned.  Sin must be punished.  Jesus took the punishment (He was the sin bearer) so God could be just in forgiving us.  The only way we have "right standing" with God is through Jesus.  Once we understand this and put our faith in Jesus, we begin the process of sanctification and we do our best to uphold the law and do what it is God has laid out for us to do.  

    So, just as the first Americans were free, the first Protestants under the leadership of Luther were free.  What a weight lifted off their shoulders.  Free to be.  Free to enjoy God's grace.  Free.  I'm thankful for freedom.