"So Paul comforts us: "Thou art no more a servant, but a son." Let us therefore take hold of this consolation by faith, and say, "O law, your tyranny can have no place in the throne where Christ my Lord sits, for I am free, and a son, who must not be subject to any bondage, or any law." Let the servants abide with the ass in the valley; let none but Issac ascend up into the mountain with his father Abraham.
Wherefore, the adoption brings with it the eternal kingdom, and the heavenly inheritance. Now, how inestimable the glory of this gift is, man's heart is not able to conceive, and much less to utter. In the meantime, we see this but darkly, and as it were afar off; we have this little groaning and feeble faith which only rests upon the hearing and the sound of the voice of Christ in giving the promise. Therefore, we must not measure it by reason, or by our own feelings, but by the promise of God. And because He is infinite, His promise is also infinite: "Wherefore thou art a son." - Martin Luther
The world will have us believe that all people are the children of God, and so sons and daughters. And in a way they would be correct. For Paul tells us in another epistle:
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
So we are children of God's wrath, until we come to the Cross, and bow to God, and ask for forgiveness of our sins. God's wrath will be satisfied against every sin. Either in Christ's broken body, where He was the Lamb of God, who bore our sin, or we will bear our own sin on the day we stand before the Holy Lord of the universe.
Once we come Christ, and are made clean in His grace and death, then we become children of love and peace and joy; and no more wrath.
What a Savior! What a God!
2 comments:
this is heavy and have to read again!
Luther can be a bit deep, that's for sure.
He is saying how awesome it is that God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins, so that we could be righteous, and forgiven, and so then be children of the Most High God, and when we die we shall live with Him forever.
And this is for any sinner who comes to Christ for forgiveness in true repentance and sorrow.
And we need not try to figure it out rationally, nor trust our feelings, but we can know it's true from God's Word, and His promise. He promises, and nothing can change it.
Thanks for stopping by sister.
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