Joyful News
In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
EPHESIANS 1:13
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Joyful News
I say here again, once and for all, that you should understand the Gospel as nothing other than the divine promise of His grace and the forgiveness of sins. For that is why it happened that previously Paul's Epistles were not understood and could not be understood, because they did not know what the Law and the Gospel really mean. For they regarded Christ to be a lawmaker, and the Gospel a mere doctrine of new laws. That is nothing else than locking up the Gospel and concealing all things. The word "Gospel" [Evangelium] is Greek and signifies "joyous news," because it proclaims the wholesome doctrine of life by divine promise and offers grace and forgiveness of sin. Therefore, works do not belong to the Gospel, for it is not Law; rather, only faith [belongs to the Gospel], for it is altogether a promise and an offer of divine grace. Whoever now believes the Gospel receives grace and the Holy Spirit. This causes the heart to rejoice and find delight in God, and [the heart] then keeps the Law voluntarily, gratuitously, without fear of punishment, without seeking reward, since the heart is perfectly satisfied with God's grace, by which the Law has been fulfilled.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Advent 3 on Matthew 11:2-10 (Luther's Works 75:145-46)
EPHESIANS 1:13
+
Joyful News
I say here again, once and for all, that you should understand the Gospel as nothing other than the divine promise of His grace and the forgiveness of sins. For that is why it happened that previously Paul's Epistles were not understood and could not be understood, because they did not know what the Law and the Gospel really mean. For they regarded Christ to be a lawmaker, and the Gospel a mere doctrine of new laws. That is nothing else than locking up the Gospel and concealing all things. The word "Gospel" [Evangelium] is Greek and signifies "joyous news," because it proclaims the wholesome doctrine of life by divine promise and offers grace and forgiveness of sin. Therefore, works do not belong to the Gospel, for it is not Law; rather, only faith [belongs to the Gospel], for it is altogether a promise and an offer of divine grace. Whoever now believes the Gospel receives grace and the Holy Spirit. This causes the heart to rejoice and find delight in God, and [the heart] then keeps the Law voluntarily, gratuitously, without fear of punishment, without seeking reward, since the heart is perfectly satisfied with God's grace, by which the Law has been fulfilled.
From the Church Postil, sermon for Advent 3 on Matthew 11:2-10 (Luther's Works 75:145-46)
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