Something Greater
Why are you cast down, 0O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.
PSALM 42:5
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Something Greater
The time of grace is when the heart is encouraged again by the promise of the free mercy of God and says (Psalm 42:5): "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Do you not see anything except Law, sin, terror, sadness, despair, death, hell, and the devil? Are there not also grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, comfort, joy, peace, life, heaven, God, and Christ? Stop troubling me, O my soul. What are Law, sin, and all evils in comparison with these? Hope in God, who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up to the death of the cross for your sins (Romans 8:32)." This, then, is what it means to be confined under the Law according to the flesh, not forever but until the coming of Christ. When you are terrified by the Law, therefore, say: "Lady Law, you are not the only thing, and you are not everything! Besides you there is something greater and better, namely, grace, faith, blessing. These do not accuse me; they do not terrify or condemn me. But they comfort me, command me to have hope, and promise me sure victory and salvation in Christ. Therefore there is no reason for me to despair."
From Lectures on Galatians (Luther's Works 26:341-42)
June 4
PSALM 42:5
+
Something Greater
The time of grace is when the heart is encouraged again by the promise of the free mercy of God and says (Psalm 42:5): "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Do you not see anything except Law, sin, terror, sadness, despair, death, hell, and the devil? Are there not also grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, comfort, joy, peace, life, heaven, God, and Christ? Stop troubling me, O my soul. What are Law, sin, and all evils in comparison with these? Hope in God, who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up to the death of the cross for your sins (Romans 8:32)." This, then, is what it means to be confined under the Law according to the flesh, not forever but until the coming of Christ. When you are terrified by the Law, therefore, say: "Lady Law, you are not the only thing, and you are not everything! Besides you there is something greater and better, namely, grace, faith, blessing. These do not accuse me; they do not terrify or condemn me. But they comfort me, command me to have hope, and promise me sure victory and salvation in Christ. Therefore there is no reason for me to despair."
From Lectures on Galatians (Luther's Works 26:341-42)
June 4
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