Title: Christ Jesus has delivered you from death to life eternal!
The Lord’s Prayer: Seventh petition.
But Deliver Us from Evil
Text: Psalm 31:1-5
31 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me!
2 Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me!
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
In the Seventh petition we pray, But Deliver Us from Evil.
And to this Luther asks the question: What does this mean?
He answers:
That we pray in this petition, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven would deliver us from all manner of evil, of body and soul, property and honor, and at last, when our last hour shall come, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of tears to Himself into heaven.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that at the cross you delivered us from evil and that by your Holy Spirit we are brought to faith so that we might see you and your work done for us. Amen
Christ Jesus has delivered you from death to life eternal!
31 In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me!
“Luther says of this verse:
“It does not say “in my” but “in thy righteousness,” that is, in the righteousness of Christ my God.”
He continues:
“Therefore this alien righteousness, instilled in us without our works by grace alone - while the Father, to be sure, inwardly draws us to Christ - is set opposite original sin, [which is] likewise alien, [and this] we acquire without our works by birth alone.”
AE Luther’s works Vol. 31 pg. 299
Your deliverance from sin, death and the power of the devil is all of God and so is your rescue. It is God himself who takes your place for the punishment you deserve and it is God himself who brings you from death to life by faith in his Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God who gives you life where death anxiously awaits.
Ill.
John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station.
Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 18.
It is Christ who delivers us from evil and gives us life in his name.
In the Gospel of John we read:
17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on both side, and Jesus between them.
The one in whom they had trusted and believed, who they had thought was the one, this earthly Messiah, was now tried, crucified, and in a manner that would be in keeping with that … of a common criminal.
“But how can it be?” they might think. “In Him we we’re sure that the Kingdom would be restored and the power of the Romans broken. Now, we see only the one in whom we placed all our hope gone; killed by the raging of the Jewish leaders, the scourging of the Roman guards and the cross of humiliating crucifixion.”
Even Pilate got his digs in for he wrote:
… an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
Those responsible for turning Jesus over to Pilate cried:
“Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” “But Pilate had written what he had written and in the languages of Aramaic, Latin, and Greek so there was no mistaking what was said of him.”
“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Now, the dead King of the Jews, may have been the response that they all felt.
The world that we live in today also mocks this Jesus Christ crucified. But like the psalmist we can confidently and boldly call on our Lord for rescue.
2 Incline your ear to me; - hear my cries!
rescue me speedily!- deliver me from my enemies!
Be a rock of refuge for me, - stand firm in my place and be my substitute!
a strong fortress to save me!- Cover me with the fortress of your righteousness, that will never leave me nor forsake me, that will protect me and save me!
The name of Jesus and the cross is an offense. Why? Well, what if it is true? What if this Jesus is God and we are sinners as the Bible says and what if there is no hope apart from trust in him? What if there is really a place called Hell and when we reject Him and His love we receive the eternal separation and torment promised?
These and many other questions about Jesus and the cross cause the anger to boil over because it bring the sinners sins to light and the law, as the Confirmation class learns in class, shows us our sins.
Tell someone that the Moon is made of cheese and that Moon Men are coming to save us all and if you just believe, they will show themselves to you and have a place prepared for you on the Moon where you can live forever in peace. Say this and you’ll get laughed at, ignored, evaluated by a psychiatrist and in a short while forgot about.
But when Jesus says in John 14:6:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The reaction is one of anger as you are called unloving, intolerant, and bigoted and may be you just need to be a bit more progressive and get with the times … but you aren’t ignored or forgot about. Why? What if what you believe is true?
Christ Jesus has delivered you from death to life eternal!
The Rev. Scott Murray who sends out a devotion through the email each weekday wrote:
The One who need not have been bound by chains and cords was bound by men who sought His death. The One who was the power of God, refused to let that power bring Him rescue. The One who had no fear of death became subject to death. The One who had no vices wrapped Himself in ours that He might free us from them. The One who is the triumphant King suffered His own skin to be nailed upon the stake as the trophy of His triumph over death. The One who hunted down death, allowed Himself to be devoured by it. He was pierced through that we might be made whole. The wood upon which He was set adrift under the storming wrath of God He fashions into the ship of our salvation. It is our cross too, but not a cross of punishment for us. Rather, He makes it the cross of salvation.
The One who was bound by the nails is bound that He might bind us to Himself through faith in Him. We, who might be bound to Him by force, are bound rather by His love for us; and that binding is the more powerful because it is His. Bound to Him by His passionate and bloody embrace, we no longer fear the bonds of death in our own lives.
Punishment cannot hold us, for He long ago took our punishment. Suffering cannot overwhelm us, because He suffered for us on the tree. Fear cannot defeat us, for there is nothing to fear that can harm us. The cross is the instrument of His death, and the source of our life. Come, blessed cross!
Christ Jesus has delivered you from death to life eternal!
As we today remember the cross let us look to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2)
Christ Jesus has delivered you from death to life eternal!
May the joy of Christ’s kingdom give you by faith comfort you daily as you wait for his glorious return.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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