Why God Gives Us Faith

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 8:38-39
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Why God Gives Us Faith
God gives faith not so that it can deal with insignificant things, but [so that it can deal with] things the whole world cannot handle, such as death, sin, world, and devil. All the world cannot stand against death, but flees from it and is terrified of it and also is overcome by it; but faith stands firm, opposes death (which consumes all the world), prevails over it, and even swallows that which insatiably consumes life (see 1 Corinthians 15:54). So also all the world cannot constrain or suppress the flesh; rather, it rules over all the world, and what it wants must happen, so that all the world becomes fleshly through it. But faith attacks it, subjugates it, and bridles it, so that it must serve. Likewise, no one can endure the world's raging, persecuting, slandering, desecrating, hatred, and jealousy. Everyone yields and becomes weak, while [the world] conquers and wins. Except faith mocks them and tramples them with its feet and turns them into joy and delight.

From the Church Postil, sermon for Epiphany 4 on Matthew 8:23-27 (Luther's Works 76:284)
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