Introduction
Five hundred and ten years ago, the German monk nailed ninety-five theses to the door of the Wittenberg church door. His central claim was that the Church had erred badly in teaching Christians that the way to deal with their sins was by buying indulgences. He contended that, “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”
Twenty years later, a French lawyer published the Institutes of Christian Religion in which he showed the French monarch, from the Scriptures, how man was to live rightly before God. “My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to true godliness. And I toiled at the task chiefly for the sake of my countrymen the French, multitudes of whom I perceived to be hungering and thirsting after Christ, while very few seemed to have been duly imbued with even a slender knowledge of him.”
Later that same year an English scholar was tied to the stake for the crime of translating the Word of God into the common language. As the flames consumed him he cried, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
The Text
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
Ezekiel 16:20-21
The Treasure of the Gospel
We are living in a time of darkness. A darkness not unlike the days before gracious light of the Reformation. Such darkness falls upon a people who refuse to dwell in the light of Christ’s Word. What God granted in the Reformation was the recovery of three vital truths.
First, the Church is the steward of a great treasure, and that treasure is, as Luther put it, “the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.” The church is not a club, an event center, or association of likeminded political activists. The church is the bride of Christ, comprised of all those who have, by baptism and faith, been brought into covenant with Christ. The Reformers recovered the simple Gospel of God’s perfect holiness, man’s complete inability to be righteous in and of himself, and God’s gracious gift of forgiveness. This doctrine, as one of Luther’s theses states, is odious for it makes the first to be last. It opposes the haughtiness of the self-righteous, and raises up the humble. This emphasis on God’s graciousness was liberating. It meant that salvation was to be had for the taking, and both the rich and poor, the high and the low, could all be recipients of this salvation for it was a free gift of grace.
The Response to the Gospel
Second, it recovered true piety. This was Calvin’s whole project. How are we to live before the face of God? The grace of God raises man, and all his vocations and relations, up into glory. God graciously covenants with us through the mediatorial work of Christ. Because of this, all our life is to be lived out in worship and service to Him. We are in covenant with the triune God. Having been brought into this covenant by grace, covenant duties are laid upon us. However, so that He retains the glory, He grants us His own Spirit so that we can more and more live to the glory of His name. The reality that our salvation, from first to last, is a gracious gift from God leads us to a life of ardor and order. Joy and obedience. Gladness and generosity.
The Authority of the Gospel
Third, as Tyndale and the other Reformers exemplified and insisted upon, the Word of God is the supreme authority over all matters sacred and secular. It is not the law or whims of man which are to govern us, but the pure and life-giving Word of Christ. Thus, Tyndale and the others labored, and suffered, in order that the Bible might be let loose to bring the glorious Gospel message to all men everywhere, even the boy at the plow. This is because the Word of Christ is an authoritative word. It is the Word which both made and redeemed the world.
Prop 1 – An Anti-Gospel
Now, we are faced with a particular evil in our own moment. The State of Idaho will vote this Tuesday, amongst other matters, on Prop 1. This is a law that is seeking to enshrine the heinous act of abortion within the legal framework of our state. Since Roe our nation has been blighted by this evil of murder against the unborn. While the Dobbs decision a few years ago granted a brief reprieve nationally, it really just punted the question to each of the fifty states. Sadly, many of our states have opted to preserve this evil. That question is now before you. Not before judges, but before the citizens of this State. There are three particular evils which Prop 1 would institute. All of which stand diametrically opposed to Biblical teaching as expressed in these core Reformed distinctives.
First, it ties human life to the ability to survive without medical intervention. For a child in the womb, everything they receive is a gift. It is all gracious and unmerited. To say that a child, born prematurely must be able to survive without medical intervention in order to be considered viable, is to adopt a radically barbaric form of works-righteousness. We believe that life is graciously given by God in the first place, and the Reformation taught us that spiritual life is also a gracious gift. To insist that we can terminate physical life capriciously, is to play the role of a capricious God. Prop 1 says that the baby who is unwanted and unable to live on its own does not deserve life. The Gospel says that though the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Prop 1 is all resentment, wrath, and rage, while the Gospel treasure is grace, life and peace.
Second, it denies the covenantal relationship between parent and child. To allow for a teenage girl to unilaterally decide to abort her child apart from the knowledge and authority of her parents is to allow the kraken coils of vigilante justice to strangle the basis for a just society. The individual is not the lone judge and jury over the lives of others. We aren’t isolated islands of authority. A father is responsible for his daughter. He is responsible because both he and she are made in the image of God and for the glory of God. Prop 1 rejects God’s covenantal order for our human relationships and embraces the dark madness of atheism.
Third, Prop 1 isn’t a mere thumbs up or down on abortion. It blasts a massive loophole into our legal framework big enough to drive the crazy bus of gender confusion through.
Every person has the right to reproductive freedom and privacy, which is the right to make personal decisions about reproductive health care that directly impact the person’s own body, including but not limited to the right to make decisions about:
Abortion;
Childbirth care;
Contraception;
Fertility treatment;
Miscarriage care; and
Prenatal, pregnancy, and postpartum care.
Prop 1 denies the good distinction of male and female, and adopts the neutered language: “every person”. By deliberately stopping our ears to the goodness of God creating us male and female, and it also makes a people deaf to the goodness of redemption. The Reformation restored to Christians the understanding that God’s Word is the supreme authority over man. This Word offers us gracious forgiveness for our sins, and that grace restores our nature. We are brought into being by the Word, we are Spiritually begotten by the Gospel Word, and we are continually upheld by the providential Word of God. Prop 1 invites us to live according to the deranged and disordered desires of man. The Reformation insisted God’s Word alone must guide, guard, and govern us.
God’s Children
Ezekiel sternly warned the unbelieving people of Judah. God had marvelously saved Judah by the Exodus. Ezekiel depicts this salvation as a marriage. Though Judah was in covenant with God, they obstinately joined in the profane practice of child sacrifice to false gods. God thunders with just wrath for this barbarity. The children burned in sacrifice were not the private property of their parents. God says these children were born to Him. They were covenant children. God says that the people of Judah were slaying, “My children.” The preamble of the State of Idaho expresses gratitude to the Almighty God for our freedom, and seeks His blessing upon our constitutional order.
If we would enjoy God’s blessing, you must, yes must, not allow the children which God has granted to our state to be crushed in the forceps of convenience, bathed in the chemicals of irresponsibility, or devoured by the vacuum of selfish indulgence. You cannot be indifferent on this point. You cannot shrug and mumble about government disfunction. You must vote NO for the glory of God, for His blessing upon our state, and out of love for our neighbor. You must look this demon of a law straight in the face and by your vote damn it to hell.
Charge & Benediction
As we celebrate Reformation Day, we should remember that the distinguishing trademark of that great movement was liberty. That’s what the pure Gospel always brings. Which is why we should hate and despise laws like Prop 1 which would usher in the bondage of bloodguilt upon this State of Idaho. So, live and pray and vote like those who have had all their sins forgiven through Christ.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21
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