"My Three Grandsons"

We had a great time having our grandsons spend the night last night. They love to play together, and they love to fight with one another as well. Hopefully one day they will cry out with a heart of genuine faith to Christ our Lord for His forgiveness and Spirit.
Lord, thank you. May I be an example of godliness, and one who worships in Spirit and truth, and has unashamed love for my Savior. Amen.

"Who gave Himself for me"

"--who is this me? Even I, wretched and damnable sinner, but loved so dearly by the Son of God that he gave Himself for me. .... these words ... are full of faith.

... Faith ... embraces and wraps in itself Christ Jesus the Son of God, delivered to death for us, as Paul here teaches, who being apprehended by faith, gives to us righteousness and life. Let us learn therefore to give a true definition of Christ; let us define Him as Paul does: namely, that He is the Son of God, who not for any righteousness of ours, but of His own free mercy and love, offered up Himself as a sacrifice for us sinners, that He might sanctify us forever. ...
He is nothing else but infinite mercy and goodness, freely given and bountifully giving to us. And thus shall you paint Christ in His right colors. If you suffer Him to be painted otherwise, when temptation and trouble come you shall soon be overthrown. ... For I myself have difficulty in holding this definition of Christ which Paul here gives: so deeply has the doctrine that Christ is a lawgiver entered like oil into my bones. ...
Let us learn therefore to put a difference between Christ and a lawgiver, not only in word but also in deed and practice; that when the devil comes under the shadow of Christ, and goes about to trouble us under His name, we may know him not to be Christ, but a very fiend indeed. For Christ when He comes is nothing else but joy and sweetness to a trembling and broken heart, as here Paul witnesses. ...

Do we then sin in keeping the law? No. But we despise grace when we observe the law that we may be justified through it. The law is good, holy, and profitable, and yet it justifies not." -Martin Luther

God loves me for His Son's sake. There's nothing in me to love. I would be able to show more love to a worm, then God to a rebellious sinner. There's no chance for those who hate God, and despise His grace and the Cross.

I thank Him for the Cross, and that He die for me personally. I came to believe this by His grace. And that grace can come upon any sinner, who then crys out for mercy, and sees the Cross of Christ as God's forgiveness for sin: And sees an empty tomb, where Jesus Christ of Nazerath walked out of 2000 years ago.

I hope these words from Luther are encouraging to those who love Christ, and convicting for those who need to come to Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

"God helps those who help themselves"?

"These schoolmen teach that if a man does what he can, God will give him His grace. ... it is wrong to apply this saying to the spiritual kingdom, because a man can do nothing else but sin; for he is "sold under sin". ... So they have done wickedly in applying this saying to the Church. For the kingdom of man's reason and the spiritual kingdom must be kept seperate and far asunder. ....
a man drowned in sin and iniquity, and a bondslave of Satan, has will, reason and power to execute the office of magistrate, govern a family, guide a ship, build a house, and do such things as are subject to man: for these qualities are not taken from him. In the corporal realm therefore we do not deny this sentance; but if they are wrested to apply to the spiritual kingdom, I utterly deny them, for there we are clean overwhelmed and drowned in sin. Whatever is in our will is evil; whatever is in our understanding is error. ....
"the Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me," are the mighty thunderings and lightnings from heaven against ... all the works thereof. ...
For it is a horrible blasphemy to imagine that there is any work by which you should presume to pacify God, since you see that there is nothing which is able to pacify Him but this inestimable price, even the death and the blood of the Son of God, one drop of which is more precious than the whole world." -Martin Luther

This man loved the truth and grace of Christ! He is a fine teacher, who the Lord preserved for us to glean from.
I praise and thank God for such teachers of the Scriptures, who made a stand for the Word.