Even though [faith] is taught in the best possible way, it is difficult enough to learn it well . . . . We cannot . . . think anything except that, if I have lived a holy life and done many great works, God will be gracious to me . . . . The heart is always ready to boast of itself before God and say: "After all, I have preached so long and lived so well land done so much, surely God will take this into account . . . ." When you come before God, leave all that boasting at home and remember to appeal from justice to grace. But let any body try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter a thing it is for someone who all his life has been mired in his work righteousness, to pull himself out of it and with all his heart rise up through faith . . . . I myself have now been preaching and cultivating it through read and writing for almost twenty years and lstill I feel lthe old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with
God that I may contribute something, so that he will have to give me his grace in exchange for my holiness. Still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace; yet this is what I should do and must do.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Surrendering to Sheer Grace
During last Sunday's discussion on Chapter 4, Harry asked that Luther's comments on the difficulty Luther experienced in "surrendering to sheer grace" be posted so that everyone might read it. Here's what Luther said "On the Sum of the Christian Life" (Luther's Works, American edition, vol. 51):
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Good words from Luther, and I think he see them reflected in John of the Cross to some extent.
I don't find this averse to a healthy Pietism. The call to holiness of life found in Scripture must be read in context of the grace given in Christ.
It's true that we're sinners in that we still do sin. And we need to surrender to sheer grace all the time, not thinking somehow in any way that we commend ourselves to God.
But we must not lose sight of Scripture's call to a holiness and towards a perfection in Christ, even though we will fall short of that. It's a big part of the grace of God which teaches us to deny worldly lusts and live godly and upright lives in this present age, as we await the Lord's return.
Absolutely, Ted. One of the gifts of John of the Cross is to help us see the shaping of our interior lives and to let us see into what it may mean to sit, stand, and be in the Presence of God. Denying worldly temptations (tendencies to anger, gluttony, envy, sloth, and so on) and living upright lives (forgoing the need to judge others more harshly than we do ourselves, for example) are all prelude to being naked (empty of definitions and defining thoughts) in God's Presence. The dark night of the soul of which John of the Cross speaks (himself having experienced it in prison) is the entrance hall wherein we hang up our coats and underwear and let God cover us with mercy. The encouragement John of the Cross is that while we wait, we may also experience that to which we look forward.
There go those errant fingers again! Let that last sentence read: "The encouragement of John of the Cross is that while we wait, we may also realize by God's grace the experience of that to which we look forward."
Thanks, Andrew, for the good, helpful explanation.
Andy and Ted, I get so much from your posts and comments - thanks!
Post a Comment