Remaining in Christ’s Word: Meditations on John 8

One of the Gospel readings for this Sunday, the 27^th of October, highlights a common refrain from the Reformation era of the western Church:  to remain in the Word of Christ, is to be a disciple of Christ.  The Lutheran stream of the Reformation was absolutely obsessed with this concept, and used it to establish one of the fundamental Solas that so many Reformation Churches cling to.  From whence do we learn that Jesus in the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him?  From whence do we learn that no man shall be justified by the Law, but rather only by grace through faith in Jesus’ vicarious atonement for the sins of the whole world?  We learn these things from Holy Scripture, which St. Paul tells Timothy (and us, as well,) are breathed out by God.  Jesus, the eternally begotten Son of God, who is the Word of God made flesh, is also the Author of Holy Scripture together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  The Scriptures as they are written, are reflections of the Eternal Word of God who is Jesus Christ.  The fundamental reality is that the Word of God is a Person, who is God Himself.  There is no division between Jesus and His Word.

And so, it makes a bit more sense, when Jesus tells not only His disciples but all the gathered crowds, including the disbelieving Pharisees, that the only way to be His disciple is to remain in His Word.  For all the fuzzy philosophy and theology of countless ages, this piercing truth cuts to the quick of human life.  We can pretend all we want that Scripture is old, or outdated, or quaint; we can puff ourselves up on our modern pride that we know better than the Prophets and Apostles of antiquity; we can delude ourselves that our forms of politics, economics, science and medicine are our new saviors; we can even dream that man alone is the measure of all things.  But alas, for all the dreams and delusions we foist upon ourselves and the world, Jesus speaks clearly—if you belong to Him, you will abide in His Word.  Anything less than hearing, keeping, guarding, believing, trusting, and abiding in His Word, is to not belong to Him.  To abide in Jesus’ Word is to abide in Jesus Himself—a clear indication of what Holy Baptism accomplishes by grafting us into His death and life, how The Supper feeds us on His very Body and Blood in the bread and the wine, and how the words of Holy Absolution renew us after we have fallen to temptation and sin.

But if Jesus’ teaching is so clear, concise, and simple, why do so many people live outside His saving Word?  Why has society at large, and so many theologians within the visible Church, thrown His Word aside and chosen to live apart from it?  Jesus answers this question as well, in the very same chapter.  The reason people cannot hear or abide in Jesus’ Word, is because they refuse—they are children of their father the devil, and the lusts of their father they will do.  Why does the world ignore Jesus’ Word?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  Why do theologians and pastors abandon the Word of Christ?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  Why do people in the Church abandon Jesus’ Word for every new bloviating heretic they can find?  They are under the sway of the evil one.  And Jesus makes it clear, that those who sin are slaves to sin, children of the devil, and children of wrath.  Outside of Jesus there is nothing to save anyone from the devil who prowls about the world, seeking any he may devour.  Outside of Jesus, there is nothing to rescue the world from the slavery of our evil foe.  Outside of Jesus, all of man’s powers have been bent to worship and serve their father of lies, who was a murderer from the beginning.  Why do people abandon the Word of Christ?  Because they are of their father the devil, and the wickedness of their father they will do.

For this Sunday, when we remember the high calling of the Reformation to return to the Word of Christ that we might truly be His disciples, we ought to remember that this call is not just for Lutherans, or Methodists, or Baptists, or Romans—it is the call of Christ to all who would belong to Him.  The Word of God made flesh, whose Word the Holy Scriptures are, calls us to hear Him, to believe and trust Him by faith, to repent of our evil, to be absolved by His grace, and to rise up in a newness of life ever more conformed to His Image through the Spirit that works through His Word.  The call of the Reformation to hear the Word of God and keep it, is not an innovation of the 16^th century, but the constant call of faithful confessors of the Church throughout her whole history, rooted in the call of Jesus Himself.

And to you this day, Jesus’ call comes.  Be His disciple.  Hear His Word.  Abide in Him by His Word, that His Word—His Life—may abide in you.  For if you abide in His Word, born from above by Water and Spirit, you shall know the Truth who is Jesus Christ our Savior, and He shall set you free from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  For by His grace you have been saved through faith, and not by your works, lest anyone should boast, and take for themselves the glory of the Only Begotten Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world.  He, and He alone, is the Truth that sets you free.  Hear Him.  Believe, and live.  Amen.