Christ, I’m Yours. Save Me!

First Sunday in End Times – Reformation Day                                        October 27, 2010
Text: John 8:31-32                      ILCW Series C                                      19:2156
Theme: Christ, I’m Yours. Save Me!

Every time I see it, chills go right through me. It’s a scene from the Luther movie, made about 20 years ago. If you haven’t seen it, watch it sometime. It happens to Luther twice in the movie.
The first time it happens Martin Luther is a young monk in a monastery, struggling with guilt for his sin. His conscience and Satan oppress him. Try as he might he can’t escape their accusations against him and find peace with God.
As a youth the church had taught Luther that God was only an angry judge who demanded justice and punishment for all of Martin’s sins. So guilt and depression constantly haunted him. In the scene he appears lying prone on the stone floor in his monk’s cell, arms outstretched in the form of a cross. Face to the floor, you can barely hear him whisper: “Christ, I’m yours; save me.”
The second time he appears in that position 20 years have passed. The peace that he could not find in his younger years is finally realized as the Gospel has taken hold of his heart. But this time a different enemy confronts him. He stands before the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire in a city called Worms. The authorities want him to recant and destroy his writings. The peace with God that was won through his study of the Gospel over the years was threatened. The night before he is to stand before them, he again lies face to the floor and whispers: “Christ, I’m yours; save me.”
Every time I watch those scenes his words go right through me. It’s as if they were meant for me: “Christ, I’m yours; save me!”

After all the sins that I have committed against God who demands holiness, could I dare to say with Luther, “Lord, I’m yours?” Is it even possible that I could ever belong to Him, for I daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment? Truly, there seems to be no hope for sinners to say that at all.
When Luther felt especially low because of this, a friend told him words that he never forgot: “Martin, don’t you remember the Apostles’ Creed? Don’t you know that it shows that God loved you enough to send His Son to save you? Haven’t you often said, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins?’ Martin, don’t torture yourself with your sin. Throw yourself into the Savior’s arms. He died for you!”
Throw yourself into the Savior’s arms; He died for you. How do you do that if a guilty conscience oppresses you? You have to learn its truth from outside of you, from God Himself, for ours is a deceptive heart. Only God proclaiming it can make it clear. So it was that Luther turned to the Word and immersed himself in it. He dedicated himself daily to the study of God’s Word.
One day in 1514 while pouring over St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, he came to verse 16 in chapter 1: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes – to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
“Now wait a minute,” Luther told himself. “What does Paul mean when he talks about a ‘righteousness from God’? And how does man become righteous before God? Oh, I know that God shows His righteousness by punishing sinners every time they do wrong. And the only way that a man can become righteous is by doing all that God wants him to do. But that’s impossible to do everything!
“But no, that can’t be right. Paul says that man is made righteous by faith alone, by believing he has something that comes from God. Well, what has God done for man to make him righteous and holy?
“Let me see. Paul says the Gospel is the power that saves. Now what does the Gospel talk about? Why it tells us of Jesus Christ, how He kept the Law perfectly, yet was punished for us on the cross. But why? Because he had done something wrong? No, because I had.
“I see the answer; now I see it! God punished Jesus in my place, the same Jesus who kept God’s holy Law perfectly. By punishing His Son, God carried out His threat to punish sin with death. Receive the fact and I need not fear that God will punish me with eternal death. I am holy in God’s sight because I know and believe that Jesus is holy for me and has taken my punishment on Himself.”
And with those words Luther himself described what is called his “Tower Experience.” He finally found the answer to the questions that had tortured him so long: How can I be sure that God has forgiven my sins and that He loves me? How am I drawn to Him? How am I His and escape the fear of death for my sin?
How? In one word “Christ.” Christ is our righteousness before God. Faith in Him draws us back to God, now and forever. And where did Luther find that conviction? Here in God’s Word. That’s where God reveals His saving purposes to us – only in His Word. From then on Luther made the Word of God his home. He dwelt in it day and night. That Word was his comfort and hope.
“Among all the gifts,” he said, “the gift of God’s Word is the most valuable. If you take it away, it is like taking the sun away from the earth. If the Word were removed, what would the world be but a hell and a mere realm of Satan? What do people accomplish without the Word? For only the Word keeps a joyful conscience and a gracious God before us….Though there are many great gifts of God in the world…the one gift which sustains all others is the Word which proclaims that God is merciful and promises forgiveness of sins and life everlasting” (Plass #4733).
Dare we neglect the Word? How foolish we are when we do, for if we have this Word of grace, we know we are Christ’s. Jesus promised in our text, “If you hold to my teaching, if you make your home in my Word, then you are really my disciples.”
A home is where you live day in and day out. A home is the place you go back to time and time again. A home is your refuge where you find rest and safety. Make God’s Word your home where you dwell, for here He reveals His truth to you. Here He promises you protection and aid from Satan, sin, and death. Here you find heaven. Here you are set free from the guilt and shame for your sin. Repent, yes. Then find your forgiveness and life in Christ.
Luther said: “Why should you fear? Why be afraid? Do you not know that the prince of this world has been judged? He is no prince any more over you. You have a different, stronger Lord Christ who has overcome and bound him. Therefore, let the prince and god of this world look sour, bare his teeth, make a great noise, threaten, and act in an unmannerly way; he can do no more than a bad dog on a chain. He may bark, run here and there, and tear at his chain. But because it is tied and you avoid it, he cannot bite you. Therefore, everything depends on this, that we do not feel secure in ourselves, but continue in the fear of God and in prayer; then the chained dog cannot harm us” (Plass #1185).
That’s a call to constancy in the Word, as Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We shall not remain “free” if we neglect the Word, and we shall not have “the truth” if we do not dwell in it.
Christ, I’m yours. Save me by your Word. God grant it to us in faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen.