Victorious Faith
Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
JOHN 5:5
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Victorious Faith
The real, victorious faith is the one that believes that Jesus Christ is God's Son. It is an invincible power worked in the hearts of Christians through the Holy Spirit. It understands with certainty and does not flutter back and forth or gape at its own thoughts, but takes hold of God in Christ as His Son sent from heaven, through whom He reveals His will and heart and delivers us from sin and death to grace and new, eternal life. This confidence and trust, which does not rely on its own merit or worthiness but on Christ, the Son of God, and on His might and power, contends against the world and the devil. Therefore, this faith is not a cold, worthless, empty, and idle thought . . . but a living, active power, so that wherever it is, its fruit, victory, and conquest must follow—or, if they do not follow, then faith and the new birth are not there.
From the Church Postil, sermon for the Sunday after Easter on 1 John 5:4-12 (Luther's Works 77:119-20)
JOHN 5:5
+
Victorious Faith
The real, victorious faith is the one that believes that Jesus Christ is God's Son. It is an invincible power worked in the hearts of Christians through the Holy Spirit. It understands with certainty and does not flutter back and forth or gape at its own thoughts, but takes hold of God in Christ as His Son sent from heaven, through whom He reveals His will and heart and delivers us from sin and death to grace and new, eternal life. This confidence and trust, which does not rely on its own merit or worthiness but on Christ, the Son of God, and on His might and power, contends against the world and the devil. Therefore, this faith is not a cold, worthless, empty, and idle thought . . . but a living, active power, so that wherever it is, its fruit, victory, and conquest must follow—or, if they do not follow, then faith and the new birth are not there.
From the Church Postil, sermon for the Sunday after Easter on 1 John 5:4-12 (Luther's Works 77:119-20)
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January
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February
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March
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