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“The power of sin and death could be broken only by a greater power.” God’s power that is greater than sin and death is himself.
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Jesus has made a display of his cross-conquered enemies, leaving them stripped of all power on the battlefield of the world.
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God’s pursuing mercy finds its target through the cross. Through faith in God’s grace through Christ, the law’s condemnation cannot follow through.
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Death may think it rules the world, but there is another who rules over death, for he brings to life even those who have died. “Christ is the Death of death.”
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If your sin is found in you, you will pay. If, however, your sin is borne by Christ Jesus to the cross, he who is found to be with our sin, pays the penalty for us.
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The Lord looked down from height of heaven and saw a world imprisoned by sin. There was nothing we could do about it. God had to do it himself.
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If Christ must be a pretty, sinless Savior, then our sins are cast back on us. We should want nothing to do with this false, Roman faith.
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We are spared a great and eternal penalty, separation from God and the fire of hell, because God has laid on his Christ the iniquity of us all.
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Though the innocent, unblemished Lamb of God, “personally innocent,” as Luther wrote, “his sinlessness was defiled with the sinfulness of the world."
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If Jesus were not a cursed sinner, he would not have died, and a whole world would be lost in sin and death.
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God has turned the tables on law-keepers everywhere. Christ is the law-keeper, our law-keeper. He is our law-keeper because we are joined to him.
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The righteous and innocent soul who is the very Son of God, had to die because upon him was laid the charge and penalty of all sinners: sin and death.
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“All the prophets of old said that Christ should be the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, blasphemer that ever was or ever could be on earth.”
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The death that we deserved was suffered by Christ Jesus, by a good and righteous man, but an incarnate man, God born in the flesh.
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Keeping the law rightly demands an observance of more than the law; it requires we observe the one who did keep it justly.
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What does God command us but to believe, to have faith — not in our works but in his work, his grace toward us. We recoil at the thought.
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When one is made righteous through faith in the Righteous Man, all his deeds are deemed good. Righteousness does not come from deeds but righteous deeds do rightly follow faith.
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I must daily divest myself of the law’s baggage, relying upon God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. There is life in him alone.
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Now we are free to offer good works, not as things worthy of forgiveness and salvation, but done precisely because we are forgiven and saved.
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The law is not meant to merely obligate and accuse and condemn me but to send me running back into the arms of grace.
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Make this — faith in Christ alone — be your first and chief article of belief, and you will know the peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
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We are God’s workmanship, not our own. Works are not the cause of our faith and salvation; they — and all the gifts of Christ — are the result.
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The appointed time is coming and only those who live with faith in God’s Christ will be justified and be given eternal life.
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You are accursed if you are more confident in your lack of direction than the clear directions of one who knows how to get there.
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God is not favorable toward smart, religious, or moral people. Be careful that your righteousness springs from faith instead of from morality or religion or learning.
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If Gideon had conquered the Midianites without faith, by mere military strategy and prowess, we might never have heard of a Gideon.
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Faith acts. You can tell who the real Christians are by the things they do and say, and if you are really astute, you might tell because of the things they think.
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If church leaders are so interested in people doing good works, they should stop pressing on works, and pray about the faith of their people.
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Peter writes that faith comes first, not love or works, but that love and other works should follow faith, furnishing faith as proper Christians are called to do.
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People of faith do not strut and crow at God when they are corrected. They understand that their Father is gracious and they repent of their wrong.
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The offering of faith, though it be a small, tarnished coin, is accepted while gold and silver given by the merely religious person is an unacceptable sacrifice.
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Lest you think David is merely overconfident because he has been triumphant before over lion and bear, he does not credit his confidence with himself.
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This is how faith works. It does not rely upon reason or a man’s strength and size. Faith relies upon God alone — and acts.
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True faith in Jesus Christ brings forgiveness and eternal life, and with these, the infilling of the Holy Spirit. And God's Spirit will not inhabit us idly.
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Here is a test of our trust in God’s ability to save us utterly. There are those who say God cannot and will not save us unless we are involved in our salvation.
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We add nothing to his redemptive, sanctifying work. Through baptism, God alone clothes us with the garments of salvation, with the covering of Christ.
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We are not even interested in keeping the law, even if we could do so. We are a stiff-necked people, bent on moving away from God and his law.
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Though Moses’ regulation was to keep the law, no one keeps it perfectly but Christ through whom we are counted holy and righteousness through faith alone.
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There has been a double imputation: our sins are removed and imputed to Christ. They are nailed them to the cross, and we are given his righteousness.
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We know that we do the law imperfectly. But do we keep at it? Do we keep keeping the commandment, loving God and neighbor however imperfectly?
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If one holds that any other work than the cross of Jesus Christ and faith in him accounts for forgiveness of sins and eternal life, that person is Antichrist.
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There have been many Antichrists, and still more will follow. Anywhere anything other than Christ Jesus is required for salvation, there is the Antichrist at work.
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The so-called treasury of merit teaches that, if our own good works are deficient for salvation, the good works or merit of others may be applied to our accounts.
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We may not say it or admit it, perhaps because we do not see it, but we are in effect, claiming to be god when we take on the task of being Christ and savior.
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Those who rely on works-righteousness for forgiveness and salvation count themselves among those antichrists who claim, “I am the Christ.”
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Our loving Father has already promised to be for us, not against us. When we try to bargain with him or make deals, we are calling him a liar.
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Our must be done to glorify the Father, not to extol self, to earn salvation. Works done in an effort to merit God’s favor are hypocritical and idolatrous.
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When the Holy Spirit is received through faith, the Christian begins to care for godly things, and God gives them the will and strength to do these good works.
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When it seems that you have failed at the one thing you were entrusted with, and all seems lost because you can never requite your failures, that is the very moment when you should realize there is now but one critical thing to do.
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Jesus complained that the crowds were only interested in his works instead of his word. We are much like those multitudes, and perhaps, worse.
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“It’s right there in the Bible. I didn’t make this up!” This is similar to what others have said: “God said it; I believe it; and that settles it.”
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Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes in Christ Jesus, so we must submit to God’s righteousness instead of depending on our religious deeds.
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When we look to him with trust that he loves us and forgives us then we are sorry for the sins of our old man but do not languish, depending instead upon God’s promise to renew us day by day.
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God decides for us while we are yet sinners. Every day, God decides for us, while we are still sinners. He does not pick us because we go to church, help the poor, support missionaries, or are just downright nice folks.
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We must not rely upon human inventions of religion but in Christ alone. This trust comes by God’s grace through faith, not by works of human invention.
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"Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." There is no way that we can work our way to salvation. Faith in Christ alone is the only way to the Father.
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"For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision." Outward laws without faith are sin.
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We are saved by believing in Christ Jesus, not by doing or not doing certain things. When his Spirit takes hold of a heart, his will begins to be accomplished.
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God makes the rules. If humans made them, there would be requirements that depended on themselves, on their abilities and righteousness.
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Quite separate from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Jesus has fulfilled the law, that we may be justified by faith.
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"All who rely on works of the law are under a curse.” Those who rely upon their own deeds or goodness — Christian or not — are under a curse.
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The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking and voting; it is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.
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When the urge to earn some merit with God strikes us, we must keep in mind the promise and blessing of Christ, our only Savior.
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What makes us good in the eyes of the Father is faith in his Son who came to save people who might be nice folks but who are not fit for heaven.
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The only way to avoid the curse of God's condemnation is to hold on to the promise of the blessing he gives us in Christ alone.
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Those who will not believe in Jesus Christ condemn themselves to the darkness because they are determined to live in darkness instead of his marvelous light.
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We too, abiding in these fleshy tents, groan toward eternity. Yet we may do so with courage and certainty, walking by faith in the Child of Promise.
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Conscience is always waiting for another commandment. It fears imperfection and damnation, and wonders, There must be something else I ought to have done.
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Luther wrote: "We do not deny that Christians ought to imitate the example of Christ; but mere imitation will not satisfy God."
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"To bless simply means to spread abroad the knowledge of Christ’s salvation. This is the office of the New Testament Church..."
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The blessing is the promise of the Gospel. All nations are to be declared righteous before God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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Religion knows no end of satisfactions that must still be made. Faith knows and relies on the cross of Christ alone. That is the all and everything.
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Faith in God’s Christ robes us for heaven while dressing us for action on earth. As Ambrose said, “Faith is the mother of a good will and doing what is right."
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We esteem Abraham because he had faith in the Christ who would come 14 generations later. We do not regard him because he created a religion.
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Our faith in his Word, which is the promise of his very self, is what upholds us until there is no time to measure — and will uphold us forever.
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If Abraham’s works did not justify him to God, then how could any follower of Father Abraham be justified by his works? They cannot, nor can we.
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God, the loving Father, sent his only Son, the Light of the World, into this dark world. He insists that we have faith in him. Nothing else will do.
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The faith of Abraham was directed to the Messiah who was to come, while ours rests in the Christ who has already come and is coming again with great power and glory.
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Faith believes God when he makes the promise of eternal life, without knowing the particulars, just as Abraham believed God for the seed of blessing.
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Cheats like Jacob may become children of Abraham — because they have faith in the promise. And that is good news for the likes of you and me.
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The physical offspring of Abraham are born in sin into wrath and condemnation but the spiritual offspring to pardon and heaven.
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"Paul’s argumentation runs... 'Since this is the unmistakable testimony of Holy Writ, why do you take your stand upon circumcision and the law?'"
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We are not protected from eternal wrath and damnation by doing a blessed thing. Like Abraham, we are justified to God by believing him.
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"This is the main point of Paul’s argument against the Jews: The children of Abraham are those who believe, not those who are born of Abraham’s flesh."
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Because sin lingers in us, and God hates sin, a transfusion of alien righteousness becomes vitally necessary. So, faith justify without works.
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Do not consult that quack doctor, Reason. Rely upon the heavenly Physician, Christ, who heals the broken-hearted and makes a joyful heart..
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Those who imagine they are becoming good enough for God are fooling themselves, and they know it with every pious effort they make at holiness.
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"Faith is weak, but it means enough to God that He will not lay sin to our charge. He will not punish nor condemn us for it. He will forgive our sins..."
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"God 'winks' at my sins and covers them up. God says: 'Because you believe in my Son I will forgive your sins until death shall deliver you from the body of sin.'”
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"Because the shadow of Christ’s wing covers me I have no fear that God will cover all my sins and take my imperfections for perfect righteousness."
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"Christian righteousness is the confidence of the heart in God through Christ Jesus. Such confidence is accounted righteousness for Christ’s sake."
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"Faith truly honors God. And because faith honors God, God counts faith for righteousness."
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"They despise God, make a liar out of him, snub Christ and all his benefits; in short, they pull God from his throne and perch themselves on it."
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We may trust in God's mercy and grace through faith in him, not in our works, for he is no unmerciful slave driver or unfaithful and angry judge.
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"Everyone who by faith slays reason, the world’s biggest monster, renders God a real service, a better service than the religions of all races and all the drudgery of meritorious monks can render."
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"Let your faith supplant reason. Abraham mastered reason by faith in the Word of God. Not as though reason ever yields meekly."
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Long ago, Isaiah wrote these encouraging words, "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!"
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The reason of the world shouts that the Sacraments are preposterous. But faith proclaims and insists that “this is most certainly true.”
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"To reason, it seems absurd that Christ should offer his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper; that Baptism should be the washing of regeneration..."
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To believe in God as Abraham did is to be right with God because faith honors God. Faith says to God: “I believe what you say.”
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"Abraham believed ... Faith in God constitutes the highest worship, the prime duty, the first obedience, and the foremost sacrifice."
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"Abraham may have enjoyed a good standing with men for his upright life, but not with God. In the sight of God, Abraham was a condemned sinner."
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"If there is any honesty left in [those who rely on their so-called good works] they will have to confess that their freedom dates from the preaching of the gospel."
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“Your experience ought to teach you that the fruits of love do not grow on the stump of the Law." Lawless men have no virtue based on the law.
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Luther, like Paul, had adversaries who had succeeded in making them odious to those who formerly loved them but now hate them like poison.
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Why had the Galatians changed, no longer producing good fruit, except because they were misled into trusting their religious deeds instead of God.
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When the Gospel is preached unto faith, hope, love, and patience, God gives His wonder-working Spirit.
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Rejoicing comes, not from deeds and religion, but when we hear, if for the thousandth time, that old, old story of Jesus and his love.
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If you look to the law for righteousness, all your past, true worship of God and all afflictions endured for Christ’s sake will not help you at all.
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Have you suffered so much in vain? Have lost the gospel, faith, and Christ’s peace? What a miserable thing to endure so many afflictions for nothing.
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Paul also calls the righteousness of the law righteousness of the flesh because it is incapable of justifying and leaves a person to death.
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Be careful what you consider religious or spiritual, as often, these are only human reason's constructions of religion based upon personal feelings.
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To keep the faith, do not row harder. Instead, stop rowing and cast anchor. Cast your anchor in Christ and you will weather the storms of faith.
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A person becomes and remains a Christian not by working, but by hearing, by sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary, and hearing the gospel.
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Foolish reason is offended at the doctrine of justification by faith, but the eternal Word of God speaks against carnal security, trusting in Christ alone.
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The human heart says that to obtain the great gifts of God, you must engage in correspondingly great efforts. And the devil says, “Amen.”
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The worker finds no peace, yet the very moment the gospel of Christ touches him, certainty comes, along with joy, and a right judgment.
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Long before the time of Moses, God justified Job, kings, and the whole city of Nineveh without the law. Why should it be necessary now?
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The parable of the laborers shows how we are justified without the law, made equal in the kingdom through faith in the householder, not our labor.
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Christ is returning for those who have faith in him, whose resurrection will be their own resurrection, shared with untold believers throughout history.
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Cornelius never gave the law a thought, yet he was justified and received the Holy Spirit. You see then, that the law does not avail to righteousness.
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Law and the gospel are contrary ideas with contrary functions and purposes. Endowing the law with any capacity to produce righteousness plagiarizes the gospel.
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If the righteousness of the law were necessary for salvation, the Holy Spirit would never have come to the Gentiles, who did not bother with the law.
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When the Holy Spirit falls upon those who hear the Word, they may have faith in the promise that God has forgiven them. This a "do" of God, not us.
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As soon as the gospel came our way, we received the Holy Spirit by the simple hearing of faith, before we had a chance to do a single good deed.
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Your own experience shows you that you receive the Spirit through the Word, not works, which you can never do enough of to carry you to God.
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When we reject the grace of God by bartering deeds for forgiveness, we crucify to ourselves the Son of God anew, and put him to open shame.
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Jesus was not born to fix governments, usher in peace, or enlighten us with a new philosophy. He was born to die for a world of lost sinners.
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The law will never produce true conversion and heartfelt repentance. It only brings home to us the wrath of God. It takes the gospel to raise and save.
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There are those who refuse to be instructed, who being bewitched by he who can make a lie look like truth, will not listen to reason nor Scripture.
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Sometimes, defection from truth is not willful. The devil sends false apostles who talk congregations into believing they are justified by the law.
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Let no one think that having received faith, he can then be faultless creature, for the dregs of the old and natural corruption remain.
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It is the duty of a pastor to reprove those committed to his charge. But his anger must flow from affection and a real zeal for Christ, not from malice.
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What got into the foolish Galatians who had received the true gospel with eagerness and gratitude, then suddenly dropped it? Paul was astonished.
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Sometimes Paul entreats the Galatians, then he reproaches them, in accord with his own advice to Timothy: “Preach ... reprove, rebuke, exhort.”
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Those who seek righteousness without Christ, by works, merits, devotion, or by the law, reject the grace of God, and despise the death of Christ.
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In the final analysis, man depending on his own righteousness is despising the grace of God. No amount of words can do justice to such an outrage.
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Luther affirmed with Paul that either Christ died in vain or else the law cannot justify us. But Christ did not die in vain, so the law does not justify
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Rejecting the grace of God is a common sin, of which everybody is guilty who sees any righteousness in himself, thereby calling the cross insufficient.
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If you believe that righteousness is to be had by works of the law, you think that God did not spare his Son, but delivered him for us all, for the fun of it.
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Why was Christ born? Why did he love us, suffer, and was crucified? If righteousness is to be had by the law, it was all done to no purpose.
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If you think God needs your help — your religious observances, devotion, and works — to save you, then you are breaking the first commandment.
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What sin can be more horrible than to reject the grace of God, and to refuse the righteousness of Christ? This nothing less than spitting in God's face.
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Luther reminds us that, Christ did not love only Peter and Paul and John, but that he loves us with the same love he felt for them.
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"Did the law ever love me? Did the law ever sacrifice itself for me? Did the law ever die for me?" Just so, my efforts to keep the law will not save me.
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If I could by work or merit love the Son of God and come to him, why should he have sacrificed himself for me, a wretched and damnable sinner?
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When you hear that such an enormous price was paid for you, will you come with your religious devotion, your celibacy, your so-called merits?
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My ignorant and willful wickedness is so great that it is impossible for me to be saved by any other means than the inestimable price of Christ’s death.
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Natural and civil notions of one's best being good enough may hold true in those arenas, but not in the spiritual realm where only Christ will do.
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Natural and civil notions of one's best being good enough may hold true in those arenas, but not in the spiritual realm where only Christ will do.
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Spiritual life originates in the heart by faith where Christ reigns with his Spirit, who works all things in us over the protests of the flesh.
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Spiritual life originates in the heart by faith where Christ reigns with his Spirit, who works all things in us over the protests of the flesh.
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That one who fails time and again to look like a Christian or feel like one, but keeps her faith in Christ when she looks faithless, is a great Christian.
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"I cannot teach, write, pray, or give thanks without the instrumentality of the flesh; yet these activities do not proceed from the flesh, but from God.”
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Paul does not deny the fact that he is living in the flesh but he says that this is not his real life, that his life in the flesh is not a life after the flesh.
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"When we have become righteous, then first are we able and willing to do good. The tree makes the apple; the apple does not make the tree."
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Whenever we separate the person of Christ from our own person, we live under the law and not in Christ, condemned by the Law, dead before God.
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Christ now lives within me through faith, even though, in this life, the old Adam, my old nature, has to stay outside and remain subject to the law.
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Christ now lives in me and so, is the form of my perfection, embellishing my faith, abolishing the law, condemning sin, and destroying sin and death in me.
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If we lose sight of Christ and begin to consider our past, we simply go to pieces. We must turn our eyes to the brazen serpent, Christ crucified.
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The righteousness of Christ is abhorrent to those who are so focused on fixing their sins that they do not see Christ when they look in the spiritual mirror.
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The Apostle Paul teaches us, that we are crucified and dead unto the aw. Just so, the fact is, the Law is crucified and dead unto us. Fear not.
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I do not mean to create the impression that I did not live before. But I really live now that I have been delivered from the law, from sin, from death.
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"Christ is Lord over the Law, because He was crucified unto the Law. I also am lord over the Law, because by faith I am crucified with Christ."
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The law of Moses is a great thing to instruct your character but when it fails, Christ will not, as he is the focus of the law's accusations now, not you.
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Jesus permitted the law to accuse him, sin to condemn him, and death to take him, in order to abolish the law, to condemn sin, and to destroy death.
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Christians are to have nothing to do with the accusations and condemnations of the old law, for they live by a new law: Christ's law of liberty.
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If we are dead to the law and it is dead to us, how can it contribute anything to our justification? There is nothing left but to be justified by faith alone.
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If you want to talk to me about my sins, Mr. Law, talk to my flesh. Shout away, but do not talk to my conscience; it lives to Christ under grace.
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What right does the law have to accuse you, hold anything against you, or condemn you, if being dead to the law means one is freed from the Law?
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Never intending to be justified by the law, Paul could not have communicated anything more devastating to the prestige of the law.
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We are not to think that the law is wiped out. It remains, continuing to operate in the wicked. But a Christian is dead to the law but alive to Christ.
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Paul plays the law against the law, saying: The law of Moses condemns me; but I have the law of grace which condemns the accusing law of Moses.
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Christ's work, the cross, must never be belittled by human merit, so-called necessary religious works, which are a denial of Christ's power to save.
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Offering reparation through works to someone who feels the burden of their sins, is not only false teaching, it is pitiless because it is ineffective.
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By the grace of God we know that we are justified through faith in Christ alone, not mingling law and grace, faith and works, keeping them far apart.
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Thank God for having accomplished salvation for you. In this alone — in Christ alone — is the blessing of salvation and thus, life and peace.
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Do your best and you will still be a sinner. So, you need Jesus. God forbid you would add another requirement for salvation than his cross.
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Law reveals sin and fills a person with the fear of death and condemnation so that the conscience may wake up to the fact that God is angry.
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All who say that faith alone in Christ alone does not justify a person, would convert Christ into a minister of sin who requires the impossible of us.
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The proper work of the law is to lead us out of the security of our self-trust, into the presence of God, that we may perceive his anger at our sinfulness.
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Show me anyone who is able to render perfect obedience to God's commands. And even if they could, the law cannot justify. But God can.
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The law makes trouble even for those who have the Holy Spirit, for one who believes good works are indispensable unto salvation, will suffer afflictions.
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Moses is the minister of the law — of sin, wrath, death, and condemnation — while Christ Jesus is the minister of grace, of hope, life, and peace.
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Scripture makes frequent mention of faith in Christ. Whoever believes in him is saved, shall not perish, shall have everlasting life, is not judged, etc.
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If we are justified by the law, tell me, asks Paul through Luther, what has Christ achieved by his death, his preaching, his victory over sin and death?
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The answer is not dependence upon our working harder to make up for the sin. The answer is remembering the promise of God’s grace in baptism.
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The proper office of Christ is to raise the sinner, and extricate him from his sins. The proper response of the Christian is to live in this grace.
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We are not justified by Christ; or we are not justified by the law. Scripture says we are justified by Christ, so we see that the law is no justifier.
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It is not so much what you believe or who you believe but whom you believe, for there is only one who is the way to God the Father.
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“Flesh,” including reason, instinct, and deeds, says Paul, is not justified to God by works of the law but by faith in the one who covers our flesh.
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Let us not say that the law is bad, but only that it is not able to justify us to God. We have need of a far better mediator than Moses or the law.
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Christ is not an officer or any other representative of the law. He is the merciful and gracious Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
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The true and only way of becoming a Christian is to be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law or religion or anything but him.
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Christians are not people who do not sin; they are ones who have been forgiven their sins — not by what they do but through whom they believe.
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When sin has been forgiven, and the conscience has been eased of its dreadful load of guilt, a Christian can endure all things in Christ.
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Faith, Christ, and the imputation of righteousness, are to be linked together, faith taking hold of Christ, and God accounting this faith for righteousness.
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In order to be granted admittance into heaven, Christ Jesus must "know" you, must be in relationship with you through faith and hope in him.
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Grace is freely given by God to we doltish darlin’s who have come to realize that need his righteousness — and none of our own, as if we had any.
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Christianity is not a matter of credits and debits, of record keeping that puts Christians at a disadvantage. Christ Jesus has become their advantage.
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When we are in that bad condition of spiritual desperation, we have actually arrived at the good place of being able to receive mercy from God.
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If we could actually see the evil rooted in the nature of humankind, we would never entertain such silly dreams about our merit or worthiness.
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We are not justified with God, nor do we make ourselves righteous, by our devotion to him or our works for our neighbor, but by believing in his love for us.
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Even if you could perfectly keep the First Commandment, you would not be right with God because one simply is not justified by the works of the Law.
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One is paroled from the prison of the law by their faith in Christ. Break that condition by relying on your good behavior and you are imprisoned again.
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Joining a church does not make one righteous before God any more than doing good deeds. Righteousness is a gift from God, for Christ's sake.
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The controversy with Peter at Antioch involved the preservation of pure doctrine, and so, Paul did not mind if anybody, even Peter, took offense.
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We must be careful to never give a reason for anyone to think that faith in Christ alone is insufficient for salvation, that works must be added to his cross.
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Distinguish rightly between law and gospel, knowing when to hear each, allowing the law to drive you to the gospel and the peace of Christ.
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Peter confused the separation of law and gospel, that difference between the gospel which justifies in heaven, and the law which justifies on earth.
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The moment the law and sin, along with the devil's accusations, and the threat of condemnation cross into heaven, i.e., your conscience, kick them out.
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God's will for your sinful life on earth is that the righteousness of his grace would always outshine the accusations of the law, keeping you in the way.
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We should respond to correction as Peter seemed to do, admitting wrong in the clear teaching of the Word, repenting and being determined to do better.
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Let us search the Scriptures with humility, praying that we never lose the light of the gospel by trusting ourselves for justification instead of God.
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The law is good to remind us of areas for moral improvement in life but have no place in our salvation which is accomplished through Christ alone.
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It is marvelous how God preserves the church by a single person, sometimes one person doing more than the whole assembly.
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It should not seem odd to us that some insist on the church sliding back into law-keeping, while they also seem to find it so difficult to be gracious.
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We can sometimes seem like we worship our ways, so we must remind ourselves that Christ is on the throne and not the ways we worship him.
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To do certain things, or not do them, is immaterial; what is of utmost importance is Christ, and him crucified and risen for your salvation.
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When it becomes about the rules instead of about Jesus, then the church, at best, goes into the world making rule followers, not Christ followers.
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No one has fallen so far that he cannot rise, just as no one stands so well that he might not fall. If Peter fell, I may fall. If he rose again, I too may rise.
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You are far from perfect but you are holy because Christ Jesus has assigned his perfect holiness to imperfect you through your faith in his promises.
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We are not called to defend Peter’s cause, or the cause of our parents, or that of the government, or that of the world, but unyieldingly, the cause of God.
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We must be as determined as the Apostle Paul to stand up with the simple but powerful gospel message of nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
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Where the Church is, there will also be the poor, for the world and the devil persecute the church and end up impoverishing many faithful Christians.
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Differences in whom we preach the gospel to ought not to hinder our fellowship and Christian friendship, since we preach the same gospel.
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When you hear that people receive the Christ through the simple preaching of faith, do you glorify God for his grace in the ministries of others?
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Those who are called to ministry will often enough have to patiently endure adversity in order to fulfill their ministries of preaching the Word preach .
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Paul and Peter received their powerful authority from God, who gave of the same Spirit to Luther, and today gives to you in whatever vocation is yours.
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Peter is not the chief Apostle, as all of the apostles were equals, having the same charge and the identical gospel of Christ Jesus to proclaim to the world.
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When family and friends refuse to hear the message of the gospel, like Paul, we must turn to others, even the whole world, with the good news of Jesus.
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We may suffer the loss of our good name, of life itself, but we must not lose the gospel and our faith in Jesus Christ, nor stand for those who would rob us of faith.
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Be careful to not attach so much importance to any person — be she mother, doctor, president, pastor — that she is remembered and God forgotten.
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We are to esteem the Word of God, not people, whether presidents or preachers, authors or musicians, persons or personalities. The Word!
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If one takes the sum of the apostles, including Paul, then too, Martin Luther, Billy Graham, and the Pope, the gospel is still more excellent and true.
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What does the Scripture say? Always appeal to the Word of God and be careful you are not using the Word to defend a personal viewpoint.
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When Jesus is not lifted up and glorified by a religious work, but instead, the so-called righteous deed is honored, then the deed is beyond suspect.
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Christians strive to live by God's rules but do not depend upon them for salvation, but on the grace of the one who rules over the rules.
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If we do not believe that faith in Christ is the only thing that can justify us, the death and resurrection of Jesus are without meaning, and a Savior is relegated to myth.
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We refuse to have our consciences bound by any work or law that says by doing this or that we are righteous, or leaving this or that undone we are damned.
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True faith lays hold of Christ and trusts in him alone, something that the spiritually blind cannot see, that the unbelieving considers foolishness.
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Faith looks to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not to the works one has done, whether they are religious in nature or civil, nor to works left undone.
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Let us get to work, but not depend upon our works or hold them conditionally over the lives of others. Faith — in Christ alone — saves.
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Be careful that you do not hold over the head of someone else your own brand of Christianity, your dogma, instead of offering the free grace of God.
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The fathers were not justified by circumcision. To them, it was a sign and seal of righteousness, and viewed as a confession of their faith.
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It is easy to get distracted when people start talking about religious rules — unless your faith is about Christ Jesus instead of traditions and rules.
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Be careful with religious works, that you do something from the right motive, from the faith motive, so that good works flow from faith.
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That we are Christian is based on faith in what Christ Jesus accomplished, not in what we do, and certainly not in how we feel on a given day.
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“Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
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Unlike those who opposed Paul, asserting that the law ought to be kept and that the Gentiles be circumcised to be saved, we must insist on God's grace.
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Paul preaching justification with God by faith in Christ Jesus through the power at work in the Holy Spirit in the Word, without the deeds of the law.
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Lutherans, like the Apostle Paul, confess and hold that one is justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, even of those deeds are religious.
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We are no longer to be children ... but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ ...
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God accepts all peoples, all nationalities, all cultures, all races, women and men, old and young, so long as they fear him and do what is right.
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In Jesus is life, and this life is the light of all people. The light, Christ Jesus, shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, nor ever will, overcome it.
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Woe to those whose religious demands and pious pretense shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for they too will not enter the kingdom.
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The Spirit of Jesus opens our minds to understand the Scriptures so that we may receive the grace of God promised throughout the Old and New Testaments.
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The law terrorizes the conscience, revealing the wrath and judgment of God. The gospel announces that Christ is come to forgive the sins of the world.
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Luther asked about God, "What prompted Him to call me?" The answer was, "His grace alone.” And so, we see that God makes somebodies out of nobodies.
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God not only has a plan for your life, he has inserted himself into the center of your life, sanctifying and preparing you for who you are to be for him.
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You had better be careful; scratching that itch will damage your spiritual ears, leading to the inability to hear or endure the truth of the gospel.
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What is truth? Whose authority should be trusted? Whose words believed. The only reliable source for truth is judging by the standard of The Book.
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Religion never equals righteousness. The wise and faithful friend of God understands that she must trust in the Lord’s righteousness and never her own.
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What deserves your immediate attention today? God's will? What is God calling you to do today? Something of benefit to your neighbor, your vocation?
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How much are you required to give to the one who has already given you everything, who wholly loves you? Then again, how much do you want to give?
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Religion, what man thinks he is doing for a god, can trip your up, making you a hater of God and neighbor. Walk away. Walk away to God.
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No one is to be trusted at face-value — neither pastor, professor, pope, or bishop. Examine the Scriptures daily to see if what they say is true.
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One can never ascribe too much glory, goodness, and mercy unto God. But it sure is easy to give man too much glory. This ruins man and insults God.
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If you think you stand justified before God because your works are good enough, that you are pious, take heed for you are slipping and about to fall.
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God loved you before you had the slightest care for him. He does not need your works in order to love you; he requires your continued faith.
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Are you hearing things? I hope so, and that what you're hearing is the very Word of God because you're listening there, in the volume of the Book.
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Truth offends. It is meant to do so, as it exposes sin. Since the inclination of the heart is to sin, then of course, truth will offend human nature.
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Don't trust your subjective feelings. The true and objective way to know God's will and ways is by hearing and reading the Sacred Scriptures.
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Embrace the grace that God has freely given you. Embrace it through faith, not by then trying to pay for it with religious works.
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The old covenant of law and blessing has been fulfilled by Christ Jesus. The new covenant is is one of faith and blessing through God's grace to sinners.
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Those who teach false doctrines in the Church of Christ are "troublemakers," as Luther termed them, and must be corrected.
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The devil wants to do away with Christ's church but with the inability to accomplish that goal, he wishes to water down the Word the church proclaims.
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A person is saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ's work on the cross, not by adding their own works to his.
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Why would put God to the test by placing the yoke of the law on the neck of disciples that neither our predecessors nor we have been able to bear?
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Under the devil's direction the world persecutes the gospel and would nail again Christ, the Son of God, to the cross although he gave himself for the world.
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Sometimes people want grace but then let go of it because they do not want Christ. They want to have the benefits of grace without being a follower of Jesus.
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Christianity is not seasonal. It does not cool off. Faith does not become slack; it is constant. Have you left your faith at the altar or are you following Jesus?
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We are to abound in love with knowledge and discernment so that we may approve what is excellent, and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
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There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.
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Paul and Luther deplored the fact that the happy condition of the church, secured by years of arduous labors, some lunatic might spoil in a moment.
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Imitators of God forgive others, even when they sin against them. They give the weak a hand up when they fail and fall.
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Paul was astonished that the Galatians were deserting Jesus for the law again, so that the onus for salvation was once again upon themselves.
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One becomes rightly related to God by becoming a friend of Jesus. So, when he speaks the “follow me” to your heart ... follow.
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In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. —1 John 4:10
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There is no one who does good—no, not one. All have fallen short of the glory of God, and their own "goodness" will in no way make up the deficit.
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God loves you, not because of your ability to not sin, but because Christ died for your sin. He loves you for Christ's sake, not for the sake of your piety.
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If the devil tells you that you will be damned, tell him. “I will fly to Christ who gave himself for my sins." Remind yourself of the Father's favorable will.
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Christ, the Son of God, was not given for the righteous or the holy, but for sinners that they may be holy in the righteousness of Christ alone.
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It is not your spiritual might that saves you, any more than it is your spiritual weakness that condemns you. It is Christ who saves you in spite of you.
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God loves you when you are at your worst, so we see that sin cannot harm those who believe in Christ, because he has overcome sin by his death.
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"If our sins could be removed by our own efforts, what need was there for the Son of God to be given for them?"
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"You are established in this belief that Christ is very God because he gives grace and peace, gifts which only God can create and bestow.”
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Augustine said, "Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.” The hard stuff is believed through God's grace.
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"True Christian theology does not inquire into the nature of God, but into God’s purpose and will in Christ." And his purpose is to bring our souls to himself.
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The world views God's grace as a pernicious doctrine, that our own free will should take hold of life and troubles and fix things ourselves. But we cannot conjure peace.
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"The more a person seeks credit for himself by his own efforts, the deeper he goes into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the grace of God."
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We need the article of justification repeatedly preached to us because the infirmity of our flesh does not allow us to believe it with all our heart.
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Our faith must be fixed on the Who, not the what. Christ alone is our righteousness, hope, and victory.
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One should not force a way into the divine office. God must call so that the pastor speaks with the "holy pride" of his calling.
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If your convictions rest on the sure Word of God, then you have something worth sharing with your neighbor.
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