Let Your Faith Be Firm
(Isaac said,] "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
GENESIS 22:7-8
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Let Your Faith Be Firm
The nature and manner of faith are to picture and mirror the goodness of Christ thus in the heart of man. Therefore the Epistle to the Hebrews says, in 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for," that is, of something good, the grace and goodness of God. . .. However good and genuine faith may be, it falls back when it comes to a battle, unless it has been well-disciplined and has grown strong. Therefore you should not imagine it is enough if you have commenced to believe; but you must diligently watch that your faith continue firm, or it will vanish; you are to see how you may retain this treasure you have embraced; for Satan concentrates all his skill and strength on how to tear it out of your heart. Therefore the growth of your faith is truly as necessary as its beginning, and indeed more so; but all is the work of God. The young milk-faith is sweet and weak; but when long marches are required and faith is attacked, then God must strengthen it, or it will not hold the field of battle.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Trinity 21 on John 4:46-54 (Luther's Works 79 (Lenker) 5:255-56)
GENESIS 22:7-8
+
Let Your Faith Be Firm
The nature and manner of faith are to picture and mirror the goodness of Christ thus in the heart of man. Therefore the Epistle to the Hebrews says, in 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for," that is, of something good, the grace and goodness of God. . .. However good and genuine faith may be, it falls back when it comes to a battle, unless it has been well-disciplined and has grown strong. Therefore you should not imagine it is enough if you have commenced to believe; but you must diligently watch that your faith continue firm, or it will vanish; you are to see how you may retain this treasure you have embraced; for Satan concentrates all his skill and strength on how to tear it out of your heart. Therefore the growth of your faith is truly as necessary as its beginning, and indeed more so; but all is the work of God. The young milk-faith is sweet and weak; but when long marches are required and faith is attacked, then God must strengthen it, or it will not hold the field of battle.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Trinity 21 on John 4:46-54 (Luther's Works 79 (Lenker) 5:255-56)
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