Where there is περισσεία χάριτος, and χάρις ὑπερπερίσσευουσα— “abounding grace,” “superabounding grace”—exerted in our justification, no more is required thereunto; for how can it be said to abound, yea, to superabound, not only to the freeing of us from condemnation, but the giving of us a title unto life, if in anything it is to be supplied and eked out by works and duties of our own?
Let whoever reads this Book of Psalms take the things in it quite simply as God-inspired; and let each select from it, as from the fruits of a garden, those things of which he sees himself in need. For I think that in the words of this book all human life is covered, with all its states and thoughts, and that nothing further can be found in man. For no matter what you seek, whether it be repentance and confession, or help in trouble and temptation or under persecution, whether you have been set free from plots and snares or, on the contrary, are sad for any reason, or whether, seeing yourself progressing and your enemy cast down, you want to praise and thank and bless the Lord, each of these things the Divine Psalms show you how to do, and in every case the words you want are written down for you, and you can say them as your own.—St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (ed. and transl. A Religious of C.S.M.V.; New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993), 116.
O God, these are your words: There is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not repent. All the righteous and the angels will crush sin under their feet and will cover it. O my God, I feel my sins and am judged already. I am greatly in need of a shepherd to seek me. For this reason I rely completely on the gospel. O Lord, I know that I am a straying sheep and that you are the Shepherd and the One who seeks the lost. I want to hold to this assurance. In the mirror of your law I see that I am a scarred and lost sinner. Save me, O God, for the sake of your only begotten Son. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 72.
My Lord Christ, I have fallen, I would be gladly strong. For this purpose you have instituted the sacrament, that with it we may rekindle and strengthen our faith and be helped. Therefore I am to receive it. Behold, Lord, it is your word. My weakness and failings are known to you. You, yourself, have said: "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:18). I now come to be helped. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 76.
Among all the books [of the Bible], the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with others, it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed and, seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given. Elsewhere in the Bible you read only that the Law commands this or that to be done, you listen to the Prophets to learn about the Saviour's coming or you turn to the historical books to learn the doings of the kings and holy men; but in the Psalter, besides all these things, you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries.—St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (ed. and transl. A Religious of C.S.M.V.; New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993), 103.
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I feel my sins. They bite and gnaw and frighten me. Where shall I go? I look to you, Lord Jesus, and believe in you. Although my faith is weak, I cling to you and am made sure, for you have promised: whoever believes in me shall have eternal life. Even if my conscience is troubled and my sins frighten me and make me tremble, you have still said: "My son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you. I will raise you up on the last day, and you will have eternal life." I cannot help myself by my own strength. I come to you for help. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 72.
If Theism had done nothing else for me, I should still be thankful that it cured me of the time-wasting and foolish practice of keeping a diary. (Even for autobiographical purposes a diary is nothing like so useful as I had hoped. You put down each day what you think important; but of course you cannot each day see what will prove to have been important in the long run.)—Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1955), 233.
Dear God, before you I confess that I am a great sinner. The Ten Commandments would drive me and commit me directly to hell. But your precious gospel teaches me to know and believe that out of love you have established a kingdom through Jesus Christ. In it you will be merciful and will help forlorn and condemned sinners. So I say my confession of faith and sin in one word: I am truly a sinner, but God is merciful to me. I am your enemy, but you are my friend. I deserve condemnation, yet I know that you do not want to condemn me.
You want me to be blessed and to inherit heaven. This is indeed your will. You have permitted this truth to be preached to me and have commanded me to believe it, for the sake of your Son whom you have given for me. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 71-72.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
The Christians in Colossae . . . have the privilege of belonging to the historical people of God. The ‘new self’ is the ‘new Israel.’ This identification is clearly indicated in the description of the Colossians as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved. All three are standard ways of describing Israel in the Old Testament and the church as the people of God in the New Testament.[2]
My dear Father, I always confess and you can see that as I walk or stand, every particle of my inner and out being, together with my body and soul, deserves hell and fire. When all is said and done, you, my Father, know that of my own accord there is not even a hair on my head, nor any other thing in me, that is good. Everything that belongs to me is hunted by the hated devil for the bottomless pit.
What can I say about it? In spite of who I am, I continue to pray to you, my dear Father. Do not stare and search me with your eyes, for I would be lost and destroyed, even if a hundred thousand worlds were mine! But I ask you to look at the face of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, your anointed one, my Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate; my Savior, Redeemer, and Benefactor. O my Father, be gracious and merciful for his sake, not mine.
Grant me a happy end and a glad resurrection, for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Help my body in this world, and my soul in the world to come, because of the crimson blood which he has shed on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins, and because of my many sins which cannot be named, which because of your righteousness you will not cover. I pray you now, my Father, because of your infinite mercy permit the blood of Jesus Christ your Son to accomplish its purpose in me. It was willed by you from eternity that the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross should pay for the forgiveness and remission of my sins.
So in whatever hour or moment by day or night you will come and knock to require my spirit which you have breathed into me, I pray you continually, dear Father, to permit this spirit, which is my soul, to be commended into your hands. I ask this because of the blood, sufferings, and death of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
All parts of our salvation are placed in Christ alone, that they [the Colossians] may not seek anything elsewhere; and he reminds them that it was in Christ that they had obtained all their blessings, in order that they might the more carefully make it their aim to retain him to the end. And, truly, even this one article is of itself perfectly sufficient to make us reckon this epistle, short as it is, an incomparable treasure; for what is greater in the whole of heavenly doctrine than to have Christ drawn to the life, that we may perceive his power, his office, and all the fruits that come to us from him?[1]
Look, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent, that my love may go out to my neighbor. I do not have a strong and firm faith. At times I doubt and am unable to trust you completely. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you. I have insured all my treasure in your name. I am poor; you are rich and you did come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; you are upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; with you a fullness of righteousness. Therefore I will remain with you, from whom I can receive but to whom I may not give. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 67-68.
The choice for God now has to become one in which the church begins to form itself, by his grace and truth, into an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality. It must first recover the sense of antithesis between Christ and culture and then find ways to sustain that antithesis. It is, after all, only when we see what the church is willing to give up by developing this antithesis that we see what it is actually for. If it is for God, for this truth, for his people, for the alienated and trampled in life, then it must give up what the post-modern world holds most dear: it must give up the freedom to anything it happens to desire. It must give up self-cultivation for self-surrender, entertainment for worship, intuition for truth, slick marketing for authentic witness, success for faithfulness, power for humility, a God bought on cheap terms for the God who calls us to a costly obedience. It must, in short, be willing to do God's business on God's terms.—David Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 223.
Whether it be any thing in ourselves, as our faith and repentance, the renovation of our natures, inherent habits of grace, and actual works of righteousness which we have done, or may do? or whether it be the obedience, righteousness, satisfaction, and merit of the Son of God our mediator, and surety of the covenant, imputed unto us? One of these it must be—namely, something that is our own which, whatever may be the influence of the grace of God unto it, or causality of it, because wrought in and by us, is inherently our own in a proper sense; or something which, being not our own, not inherent in us, nor wrought by us, is yet imputed unto us, for the pardon of our sins and the acceptation of our persons as righteous, or the making of us righteous in the sight of God. Which of these it is the duty, wisdom, and safety of a convinced sinner to rely upon and trust unto, in his appearance before God, is the sum of our present inquiry. . . .
. . . Neither are we in this matter much to regard the senses or arguings of men who were never thoroughly convinced of sin, nor have ever in their own person "fled for refuge unto the hope set before them."
. . . It is alone the relief of those who are in themselves . . . guilty before, or obnoxious and liable to, the judgment of God, that we inquire after. . . .
. . . But, beyond what tends directly unto the guidance of the minds and satisfaction of the souls of men, who seek after a stable and abiding foundation of acceptance with God, we are not easily to be drawn . . .
. . . That which alone we aim (or ought so to do) to learn in it and by it, is how we may get and maintain peace with God, and so to live unto him as to be accepted with him in what we do. To satisfy the minds and consciences of men in these things is this doctrine to be taught.As I said, this feel is almost entirely missing in the present wranglings about justification. And it's a sign, if Scripture is to be the judge (and it is), that we're culpably overlooking what our posture must be as we approach God in this matter. Are we convinced sinners seeking relief? Or are we detached scientists studying a specimen?
The first is that rejoicing in the "living hope" of "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power"; and "set[ting] your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Pet. 1:4-5,13) are integral elements in New Testament spirituality. And I see New Testament spirituality as the norm for all subsequent Christian belief.
My second conviction is that a good deal of what is involved in being "alive to God" in this or in any age depends directly on having this "living hope" vivid in one's heart. I think here of the qualities of zeal, enterprise, energy, and persistence in well-doing for God; of loving, adoring worship as a daily habit; of meekness, sweetness, and selflessness under pain and disappointment; of a sense of proportion, a due appreciation of pleasure, and a realism about death.
My third conviction is that we Western Christians, by and large, . . . are to our shame a sluggish, earthbound lot compared with our Puritan predecessors, and that lack of long, strong thinking about our promised hope of glory is a major cause of our plodding, lacklustre lifestyle.—J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 263-264.
This future-oriented use of σῴζω is quite usual in Paul. For while he sometimes uses the verb to denote the deliverance from the penalty of sin that comes at conversion (e.g., Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:5, 8), he more often used the word (and its cognates; cf. Rom. 13:11) to depict the final deliverance of the Christian from the power of sin, the evils of this life, and, especially, judgment (e.g., 1 Cor. 3:15; 5:5; Phil. 2:12). Paul pictures the Christian as having been saved, as looking forward to being saved, and even as in the process of being saved (cf. 2 Cor. 2:15; 2 Thess. 2:10).—The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 310-311.
Lord God, dear Father, through your Holy Spirit you have taught and enlightened the hearts of your believers. Through the same Spirit give us a right understanding, to be glad at all times in his comfort and power, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 66.
Puritanism . . . was a total view of Christianity, Bible-based, church-centered, God-honouring, literate, orthodox, pastoral, and Reformational, that saw personal, domestic, professional, political, churchly, and economic existence as aspects of a single whole, and that called on everybody to order every department and every relationship of their life according to the Word of God, so that all would be sanctified and become "holiness to the Lord."
Puritanism's spearhead activity was pastoral evangelism and nurture through preaching, catechizing, and counselling (which Puritans themselves called casuistry), and Puritan teaching harped constantly on the themes of self-knowledge, self-humbling, and repentance; faith in, and love for, Jesus Christ the Saviour; the necessity of regeneration, and of sanctification (holy living, by God's power) as proof of it; the need for conscientious conformity to all God's law, and for a disciplined use of the means of grace; and the blessedness of the assurance and joy from the Holy Spirit that all faithful believers under ordinary circumstances may know. Puritans saw themselves as God's pilgrims, travelling home; God's warriors, battling against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and God's servants, under orders to do all the good they could as they went along.—J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 24-25
I can learn here that I must not take property belonging to my neighbors from them or posses it against their will, either in secret or openly. I must not be false or dishonest in business, service, or work, nor profit by fraud, but must support myself by the sweat of my brow and eat my bread in honor. Furthermore, I must see to it that in any of the above-named ways my neighbors are not defrauded, just as I wish for myself. I also learn in this commandment that God, in his fatherly solicitude, sets a protective hedge around my goods and solemnly prohibits anyone to steal from me. Where that is ignored, he has imposed a penalty and those in authority are ordered to punish the disobedient. Where that cannot be done, God himself metes out punishment and they become beggars in the end. As the proverb says, "Those who steal in their youth go begging in old age," or, "Stolen gain goes down the drain."—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 58.
O God in heaven, Lord and Lover of the Church's soul, keep us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Waken us to speak more with you than we speak with people. Forgive us for neglecting Jesus' instruction to "watch and pray." We've been so often so easily seduced by Satan's devices. But you've not left us ignorant without instruction. And you've not left us without a great Savior. So pardon our sins, empower our lives, and give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ —all for your great honor and glory. Amen.
The covenant in mind may be prospective and have Exodus 20 in view. In the OT, however, references to keeping a divine covenant are consistently to a covenant already in existence (Gen. 17:9-10; 1 Kgs. 11:11; Ps. 78:10; 103:18; 132:12; Ezek. 17:14). It is possible that Exodus 19:5 points back to 6:5 and 3:13-15 and that continuity with the patriarchal covenant is involved, especially in light of the patriarchal style of address with which Yahweh begins verse 3. Involved in the Sinai arrangement that follows is continuity within the Abrahamic covenant but, for Israel, a specialized responsibility within the covenant.—The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 37.
"You shall not kill." Here I learn, first of all, that God desires me to love my neighbors, so that I do them no bodily harm, either by word or action, neither injure nor take revenge upon them in anger, vexation, envy, hatred, or for any evil reason, but realize that I am obliged to assist and counsel them in every bodily need. In this commandment God commands me to protect my neighbor's body and in turn commands my neighbor to protect my own.
Second, I give thanks for such ineffable love, providence, and faithfulness toward me by which he has placed this mighty shield and wall to protect my physical safety. All are obliged to care for me and protect me, and I, in turn, must behave likewise toward others. He upholds this command and, where it is not observed, he has established the sword as punishment for those who do not live up to it. Were it not for this excellent commandment and ordinance, the devil would instigate such a massacre among us that no one could live in safety for a single hour—as happens when God becomes angry and inflicts punishment upon a disobedient and ungrateful world.
Third, I confess and lament my own wickedness and that of the world, not only that we are so terribly ungrateful for such fatherly love and solicitude toward us—but what is especially scandalous, that we do not acknowledge this commandment and teaching, are unwilling to learn it, and neglect it as though it did not concern us or we had no part in it. We amble along complacently, feel no remorse that in defiance of this commandment we neglect our neighbors, and, yes, we desert them, persecute, injure, or even kill them in our thoughts. We indulge in anger, rage, and villainy as though we were doing a fine and noble thing. Really, it is high time that we started to deplore and bewail how much we have acted like rogues and like unseeing, unruly, and unfeeling persons who kick, scratch, tear, and devour one another like furious beasts and pay no heed to this serious and divine command.
Fourth, I pray the dear Father to lead us to an understanding of this his sacred commandment and to help us keep it and live in accordance with it. May he preserve us from the murderer who is the master of every form of murder and violence. May he grant us his grace that we and all others may treat each other in kindly, gentle, and charitable ways, forgiving one another from the heart, bearing each other's faults and shortcomings, and thus living together in true peace and concord, as the commandment teaches and requires us to do.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 55-56.
If you are a father or mother, you should . . . remember your children and the workers in your household. Pray earnestly to the dear Father, who has set you in an office of honor in his name and intends that you be honored by the name "father." Ask that he grant you grace and blessing to look after and support your wife, children, and servants in a godly and Christian manner. May he give you wisdom and strength to guide and train them well in heart and will to follow your instruction with obedience. Both are God's gifts, your children and the way they flourish, that they turn out well and that they remain so. Otherwise the home is nothing but a pigsty and school for rascals, as one can see among the uncouth and godless.—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 55.
I think theology today has become preoccupied by these auxiliary disciplines to the extent of neglecting its primary responsibility: to apply Scripture itself. Theological literature today is focused, especially, on history of doctrine and contemporary thought. Often this literature deals with theological questions by comparing various thinkers from the past and from the present, with a very minimal interaction with Scripture itself.Then, in a footnote, Frame speaks of his conviction:
This problem is partly the result of our present system for training theologians. To qualify for college or seminary positions, a theologian must earn a PhD, ideally from a prestigious liberal university. But at such schools, there is no training in the kind of systematic theology I describe here. Liberal university theologians do not view Scripture as God's Word, and so they cannot encourage theology as I have defined it, as the application of God's infallible Word. Students are welcome to study historical and contemporary theology, and to relate these to auxiliary disciplines such as philosophy and literary criticism. But they are not taught to seek ways of applying Scripture for the edification of God's people. Rather, professors encourage the student to be "up-to-date" with the current academic discussion and to make "original contributions" to that discussion, out of his autonomous reasoning. So when the theologian finishes his graduate work and moves to a teaching position, even if he is personally evangelical in his convictions, he often writes and teaches as he was encouraged to do in graduate school: academic comparisons and contrasts, minimal interaction with Scripture. In my judgment, this is entirely inadequate for the needs of the church. It is one source of the doctrinal declension of evangelical churches, colleges, and seminaries in our day. Evangelical denominations and schools need to seek new methods of training people to teach theology, educational models that will force theologian candidates to mine Scripture for edifying content. To do this, they may need to cut themselves off, in some degree, from the present-day academic establishment. And to do that, they may have to cut themselves off from the present-day accreditation system.—The Doctrine of the Word of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010), 278.
. . . those who seek to be justified by their own works are false interpreters of the law, because the law has been given to lead us by the hand to another righteousness. Indeed, every doctrine of the law, every command, every promise, always points to Christ. We are, therefore, to apply all its parts to Him. . . .
Thus the righteousness of faith (as we saw in the first chapter) is witnessed to by the law. This remarkable passage declares that the law in all its parts has reference to Christ, and therefore no one will be able to understand it correctly who does not constantly strive to attain this mark.—The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Paternoster, 1960), 221-222.
Let us never use the term "salvation" glibly, or lightly, or loosely. Let us never stop at just saying, "I am saved," or "I have been saved"; let us put equal emphasis on the fact that we are being saved. . . .
. . . let us, therefore, use the term carefully. Thank God, in Christ we can say we have been saved; but we say it as realizing what we mean. We also mean that we are still being saved. We also mean that we shall not be finally saved in this life, in this present world; that our glorification, which is an essential part of salvation, is beyond this world, and beyond this life. It is coming. It is certain. But not yet. We have been saved. We are being saved. We shall be fully and finally and entirely saved. Salvation—great salvation! God's salvation!—Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 1, The Gospel of God (The Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 1985), 279-280.