November 20, 2009

• What is the gospel? What is the Law?

  I want to answer these questions by quoting a portion of Martin Luther’s sermon that was for the Third Sunday in Advent.  It convicted and encourged me so that I thought I needed to share it with you.  Here it is, please read carefully as the language is a little bit older and harder to understand:

            Now, the word Gospel is of Greek origin and signifies in German Frohliche Botschaft, that is glad tidings, because it proclaims the blessed doctrine of life eternal by divine promise, and offers grace and forgiveness of sin: Therefore, works do not belong to the Gospel, as it is not a law; only faith belongs to it, as it is altogether a promise and an offer of divine grace. Whosoever now believes the Gospel will receive grace and the Holy Spirit. This will cause the heart to rejoice and find delight in God, and will enable the believer to keep the law cheerfully, without expecting reward, without fear of punishment, without seeking compensation, as the heart is perfectly satisfied with God’s grace, by which the law has been fulfilled.
            But all these promises from the beginning are founded on Christ, so that God promises no one this grace except through Christ, who is the messenger of the divine promise to the whole world. For this reason he came and through the Gospel brought these promises into all the world, which before this time bad been proclaimed by the prophets. It is, therefore, in vain if anyone, like the Jews, expects the fulfilment of the divine promises without Christ. All is centered and decreed in Christ. Whosoever will not bear him shall have no promises of God. For just as God acknowledges no law besides the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets, so he makes no promises, except through Christ alone.
            But you may reply, is there not also much law in the Gospel and in the Epistles of Paul? and, again, many promises in the writings of Moses and the Prophets? I answer: There is no book in the Bible in which both are not found. God has always placed side by side both law and promise. For he teaches by the law what we are to do, and by the promises whence we shall receive power to do it.   
                      –Martin Luther, Third Sunday in Advent, Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, p. 99, 100, #26-28
  
  
  Please be encouaged that Christ is full of grace and truth; God doesn’t just give us the law to keep us in our depths of depravity but He gives us the resources to be able to follow the law through Jesus Christ.  Christ gives us the grace and the ability to follow through more with what honors God.  I hope this encourages you to rely upon Christ and all that He is and all that He has done for you.  God Bless and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

  • 2:35 pm
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