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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 98

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

CAPTIVES OF THE WORD 99

must be to tell all the people of this earth that they are Paul and Luther so that you may claim for your battle

In the Old Testament God is described as a living
od. This is the most important thing in the world for us
.know and believe today, in this day of secular
jumanism. When Scripture calls God the living God,
his is not a mere portrayal, a caricature, some kind of

visible, Sustainer, Ruler, Provider, a provident and
g Father God who, as Luther says, “richly and
ly provides me with all that I need to support this
y and life... defends me against all danger, and
and protects me from all evil,” in short, gives me
thing I have. That God is a living God means,
rmore, that He is my' Redeemer, that He has gone
ork on my behalf and at great cost and effort has
ed leemed me, a lost and condemned creature, and you
id our entire human race. And through His Holy Spirit
t living God works to bring the fruits of His redemp-
0 the whole world of sinners. All this is meant
€n we describe God as the one living God.
idolatry of every kind, fine and gross, ancient and
, is‘a denial of the living God, which in turn is a
enial of God’s very reality. That is why idols are

gaved by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith, and
that they, too, can be free from sin and death and be

Captives of the Word

(Monday Morning Devotion)

hymn, “Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim,
till all the world adore His sacred name.”

G,. Wil Hyatt, D.D., D.H.L.

likened throughout the Scriptures to inanimate and
dead objects like sticks and stones, objects which cannot

create or provide or love or redeem because they are not
alive.

Now how does our living God act? How does He
operate? How does He deal with us, His creatures?
Through His Word. By speaking. The psalmist says (Ps.
33:9): “For He spake, and it was done; He commanded,
and it stood fast.” And Luther, who had a profound
insight into the nature and power of God’s Word, said:
“God’s works are His words” (WA 38, 152).

My assignment in the next few moments is to speak
to you on the theme “Captives of the Word.” That means
captives of the living God. What makes us captives of
the Word? The Word itself makes us captives to Christ
and His Word. How does this happen? How can the
Word accomplish this? In the Scriptures a trinitarian
answer to this question suggests itself. We are captives
to the Word of the living God because:

1. His Word is a life-giving Word.
2. His Word is a pardoning Word.

3. His Word is a transforming and sanctifying
Word.