ICS Daily Devotions
Martin Luther
Martin Luther believes that God’s highest form of self-disclosure takes place in the cross and therefore, proposes the “theology of the cross.”
1 Corinthians 1:23 – but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.”
On the cross, God is seen in weakness, in suffering, and as a stumbling block but in revelation, the power and wisdom of God is made manifest.
God is revealed in law and gospel in both Old and New Testament. Even though it is a contrast between a word of judgment and a word of grace, the two always come together, and one cannot hear the word of grace without hearing the word of judgment.
God’s law puts the burden on man. Everything that calls for human action is law. The law is God’s design for human life, and is in itself good. However, in our sinfulness, the law becomes our enemy with crushing force because we sin against it.
God’s gospel puts the burden on Christ. The gospel is God’s love in Christ which is evident in his self-sacrifice for us and in his gift of life through his own resurrection.
The doctrine of justification by faith, the message of God’s forgiveness, does not imply that God is indifferent to sin. God does not forgive us because our sins are not of great consequence. Rather, it is because God is holy and sin is repugnant to his divine holiness that He must give us a way to remove sin from man or man will not have any fellowship with God.
This is justification. He re-creates fallen sinners and transforms them into his chosen children through his act of bestowing a right relationship with Himself. The whole Christian life rests on God’s gracious disposition.
The opposite of God’s grace is not God’s wrath but rather the human attempt to reclaim righteousness by human performance. Grace means we do nothing which means death for the person who presumes that doing something saves or secures God’s grace.
Luther uses the phrase simul justus et peccator which means that the sinner does not cease to be such upon being justified. On the contrary, upon being justified one discovers how deeply sinful one is. Justification is not the absence of sin but the fact that God declares us to be just, even while we are still sinners. We are both sinners and justified believers!
Sermon Series: Justification
