"Luther Quotations": #3
"..Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins." (Galatians 1;4)
It's not uncommon for a Christian
counselor like myself to come across a Christian who doubts God's forgiveness of
himself/herself because of one great transgression that they have committed, or because of a great accumulation
of many ordinary sins, or both. They can understand and embrace God being willing to forgive
OTHERS who are more worthy, but not themselves.
Does this describe you? Does the magnitude of your sins overshadow Gods forgiveness?
Listen to Luther present the
gospel to such a person;
“Note especially the pronoun 'our' and its
significance. You will readily grant that Christ gave Himself for the sins of
Peter, Paul, and others who were worthy of such grace. But feeling low, you find
it hard to believe that Christ gave Himself for YOUR sins. Our feelings shy at a
personal application of the pronoun 'our,' and we refuse to have anything to do
with God until we have made ourselves worthy by good deeds.
This attitude
springs from a false conception of sin, the conception that sin is a small
matter, easily taken care of by good works; that we must present ourselves unto
God with a good conscience; that we must feel no sin before we may feel that
Christ was given for our sins....
“The genius of Christianity takes the words
of Paul 'who gave himself for our sins' as true and efficacious. We are not to
look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to
regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ
was given, not just for (YOUR) picayune and imaginary transgressions, but for (YOUR)
mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be
discarded, but for (YOUR) sins that are stubbornly ingrained.” (IBook, Galatians 1;4)
Christian, THIS is the gospel: The Lamb of God has taken away ALL YOUR sins (John 1;29).
No comments:
Post a Comment