Bearing Witness to God
Feed me with the food that is needful for me.
PROVERBS 30:8
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Bearing Witness to God
Christ bears witness everywhere that He does the will of His Father, and He teaches others to do the same thing, as He says in John 4:34: "My food is to do the will of My Father." To cling to God is to be freed from the world and all creatures; to bear the image of Christ is to live according to the love and the example of Christ. "He who says that he loves God, and does not keep His commandments is a liar," says 1 John 2:4. But since these divine blessings are invisible, incomprehensible, and deeply hidden, nature cannot attain or love them unless it is lifted up through the grace of God. For the same reason it happens that the spiritual man can be judged, known, and seen by no one, not even by himself; for he remains in the deepest darkness of God. David learned this and bears witness to it when he says in Psalm 31:20: "Thou shalt hide them in the covert of Thy presence" (that is, in the covert which is before Thee). To be sure, this begins in this life; but it will be completed in the life to come. Therefore it is a great thing to be a Christian and to have one's life hidden . . . in the invisible God Himself, namely, to live amid the things of the world and to be nourished by what appears nowhere except by means of ordinary verbal indication and hearing alone, as Christ says in Matthew 4:4: "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word."
From Lectures on Hebrews (Luther's Works 29:216)
PROVERBS 30:8
+
Bearing Witness to God
Christ bears witness everywhere that He does the will of His Father, and He teaches others to do the same thing, as He says in John 4:34: "My food is to do the will of My Father." To cling to God is to be freed from the world and all creatures; to bear the image of Christ is to live according to the love and the example of Christ. "He who says that he loves God, and does not keep His commandments is a liar," says 1 John 2:4. But since these divine blessings are invisible, incomprehensible, and deeply hidden, nature cannot attain or love them unless it is lifted up through the grace of God. For the same reason it happens that the spiritual man can be judged, known, and seen by no one, not even by himself; for he remains in the deepest darkness of God. David learned this and bears witness to it when he says in Psalm 31:20: "Thou shalt hide them in the covert of Thy presence" (that is, in the covert which is before Thee). To be sure, this begins in this life; but it will be completed in the life to come. Therefore it is a great thing to be a Christian and to have one's life hidden . . . in the invisible God Himself, namely, to live amid the things of the world and to be nourished by what appears nowhere except by means of ordinary verbal indication and hearing alone, as Christ says in Matthew 4:4: "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word."
From Lectures on Hebrews (Luther's Works 29:216)
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