Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

“For God is not gracious and merciful to sinners to the end that they might not keep his Law, nor that they should remain as they were before they received grace and mercy; but he condones and forgives both sin and death for the sake of Christ, who has fulfilled the whole Law in order thereby to make the heart sweet and through the Holy Spirit to kindle and move the heart to begin to love from day to day more and more.”

Martin Luther

2 comments:

Homeschool on the Croft said...

Good works *because* we're saved is very, very different to good works *to get* saved. How blessed must Martin Luther's relief have been (and every other sinner trying to earn their salvation) when this was finally revealed to him.
The best of our works are as filthy rags. How merciful that our holy God would see any of our works and pronounce them as 'good'. Ah, the blessing of being IN CHRIST. This is our only hope of works being seen as 'good'.....
Ta for posting
Anne

Pete Scribner said...

Indeed, Anne. It is actually quite freeing to know the gospel truth that none of our deeds are righteous in and of themselves, and that true righteousness can be found in Christ Jesus. It has the double impact of preventing us from trying to generating our own righteousness while at the same time driving us once again to the cross!