Tuesday, October 19, 2010
John 11:27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
A LAST TESTIMONY
As Martin Luther finished preparing the Smalcald Articles in 1537, he was suffering from severe gallbladder attacks. Not sure he was going to live through the illness, he penned this document (concerning the principle truths of the Christian faith) wondering if these could be his last words.
It turned out Luther did not die in 1537, but if he had, the words he left behind would have made a fine last testimony to the truth. Here is what he wrote about how one is justified before God: "What I have hitherto and constantly taught concerning this I know not how to change in the least, namely, that by faith, as St. Peter says, we aquire a new and clean heart, and God will and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. And although sin in the flesh has not yet been altogether removed or become dead, yet He will not punish or remember it" (Smalcald Articles, XIII).
Those of you who have made last wills and testaments of your own, what have you chosen to say in those last words? As a Christian, you can hardly do better than to leave for your descendants a good confession of the truth. Elector John Frederick of Saxony went so far as to have Luther's Smalcald Articles included in his own will. You may not do that, but your last words (whether spoken or written) could surely include a testimony such as that which Martha made: "Yes, Lord ... I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world" (Jn 11:27).
