WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.525 --> 00:00:02.325 Lazy. 2 00:00:03.825 --> 00:00:04.325 Idol. 3 00:00:06.125 --> 00:00:08.625 Shiftless good for nothing. 4 00:00:10.125 --> 00:00:12.725 Shirker slacker. 5 00:00:15.025 --> 00:00:18.225 The dude abides in tones, the cowboy narrator. 6 00:00:19.325 --> 00:00:22.225 I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that knowing he's out 7 00:00:22.225 --> 00:00:25.925 there, the dude, taking her easy for all us 8 00:00:25.925 --> 00:00:26.425 sinners. 9 00:00:29.025 --> 00:00:31.025 We all know that's not how life works. 10 00:00:32.225 --> 00:00:34.325 Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. 11 00:00:35.125 --> 00:00:36.225 Carry your weight. 12 00:00:36.925 --> 00:00:40.225 Keep your nose to the grindstone. Work 13 00:00:40.225 --> 00:00:41.525 like you're at a start-up. 14 00:00:42.325 --> 00:00:43.525 Have a side hustle. 15 00:00:44.725 --> 00:00:45.825 Keep striving. 16 00:00:47.725 --> 00:00:49.925 No pain, no gain. 17 00:00:53.325 --> 00:00:57.325 We tend to bring that mentality to our spiritual life and our 18 00:00:57.325 --> 00:00:59.025 relationship with God. 19 00:01:00.625 --> 00:01:03.725 Perhaps we don't crassly rely on our own good 20 00:01:03.725 --> 00:01:06.225 deeds to earn God's love and forgiveness. 21 00:01:08.725 --> 00:01:14.325 We might even believe that we are saved by grace alone with our heads. 22 00:01:16.025 --> 00:01:19.525 But then, in our hearts, we look to our own goodness to puff ourselves 23 00:01:19.525 --> 00:01:24.825 up spiritually and to feel Superior to others who don't measure up. 24 00:01:28.225 --> 00:01:32.625 No one knew how pointless that is like Martin Luther did later in his 25 00:01:32.625 --> 00:01:33.125 life. 26 00:01:34.025 --> 00:01:36.825 He was no stranger to spiritual striving. 27 00:01:38.725 --> 00:01:42.025 Though I lived as a monk a year without reproach 28 00:01:42.025 --> 00:01:43.325 he wrote before his death. 29 00:01:43.325 --> 00:01:45.225 I lived for years without reproach. 30 00:01:45.225 --> 00:01:46.625 he wrote before his death. 31 00:01:47.325 --> 00:01:50.825 I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed 32 00:01:50.825 --> 00:01:51.625 conscience 33 00:01:52.325 --> 00:01:56.125 I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. 34 00:01:56.925 --> 00:01:58.025 I did not love. 35 00:01:58.025 --> 00:01:58.425 Yes, 36 00:01:58.425 --> 00:02:01.725 I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners. 37 00:02:03.125 --> 00:02:06.625 And secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring 38 00:02:06.625 --> 00:02:07.325 greatly 39 00:02:07.925 --> 00:02:10.225 I was angry with God. 40 00:02:13.525 --> 00:02:17.525 It's not that Luther had never heard or read the words of our text. 41 00:02:17.925 --> 00:02:20.625 Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden 42 00:02:20.625 --> 00:02:22.125 and I will give you rest. 43 00:02:22.525 --> 00:02:24.925 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for 44 00:02:24.925 --> 00:02:29.625 I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. 45 00:02:30.325 --> 00:02:33.725 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 46 00:02:36.925 --> 00:02:40.725 Luther had heard or read those words many times, but he'd been taught 47 00:02:40.725 --> 00:02:44.425 that Christ had, simply exchanged, our unbearable burden and a 48 00:02:44.425 --> 00:02:50.525 fiercely heavy yoke, for a lighter model of yolk and a burden that was 49 00:02:50.525 --> 00:02:55.125 a little easier to bear. Fewer rules to follow then before 50 00:02:55.125 --> 00:02:57.725 perhaps but rules all the same. 51 00:03:00.125 --> 00:03:04.125 For this reason, he failed to comprehend the gospel message in this 52 00:03:04.125 --> 00:03:05.325 and other text. 53 00:03:06.325 --> 00:03:10.025 But then his eyes were open through a determined study of Romans 1 54 00:03:10.025 --> 00:03:11.225 verse 17. 55 00:03:11.525 --> 00:03:12.525 For in the gospel 56 00:03:12.525 --> 00:03:15.825 the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith 57 00:03:15.825 --> 00:03:20.025 as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 58 00:03:23.025 --> 00:03:27.925 By the mercy of God Luther recalls meditating day and night. 59 00:03:28.725 --> 00:03:33.025 I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which 60 00:03:33.025 --> 00:03:37.425 the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. 61 00:03:39.225 --> 00:03:43.425 Here, I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise 62 00:03:43.425 --> 00:03:45.025 itself through open gates. 63 00:03:45.325 --> 00:03:49.225 They're a totally other face of the entire scripture showed itself to 64 00:03:49.225 --> 00:03:49.525 me. 65 00:03:51.725 --> 00:03:57.325 And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred 66 00:03:57.325 --> 00:04:01.125 with which I had before hated the word righteousness of God. 67 00:04:04.125 --> 00:04:07.825 It was too good to be true Luther thought. 68 00:04:09.025 --> 00:04:10.325 But it was true. 69 00:04:11.425 --> 00:04:15.325 And this is God's good news for all people. 70 00:04:18.525 --> 00:04:19.925 No pain, no gain. 71 00:04:21.125 --> 00:04:23.125 Well that aphorism still works. 72 00:04:24.225 --> 00:04:28.125 Except that in the matter of restoring our relationship with God in 73 00:04:28.125 --> 00:04:29.725 the matter of righteousness. 74 00:04:30.525 --> 00:04:32.225 The pain is not ours. 75 00:04:32.925 --> 00:04:33.925 It is Christ. 76 00:04:35.525 --> 00:04:41.325 He takes the pain of sin, death and hell and gives us who believe his 77 00:04:41.325 --> 00:04:44.825 gain of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. 78 00:04:46.825 --> 00:04:49.125 We do nothing to earn this 79 00:04:50.225 --> 00:04:52.725 and nothing we do can add to it. 80 00:04:53.025 --> 00:04:57.625 Our rescue is complete and our rescue is pure gift. 81 00:04:59.225 --> 00:05:03.425 The easy yoke and light burden that Jesus offers are not simply 82 00:05:03.425 --> 00:05:08.025 different rules to follow or a different way to earn God's, love, and 83 00:05:08.025 --> 00:05:08.825 forgiveness. 84 00:05:10.725 --> 00:05:14.925 The easy yoke and light burden means simply to believe in Jesus. 85 00:05:15.925 --> 00:05:17.325 To listen to him. 86 00:05:18.525 --> 00:05:20.325 To stay by his side. 87 00:05:21.525 --> 00:05:22.925 To be his own. 88 00:05:24.825 --> 00:05:30.325 That's where we find rest from our constant striving and our ceaseless 89 00:05:30.325 --> 00:05:31.325 anxiety. 90 00:05:32.425 --> 00:05:35.525 That's where we find rest for our souls.