Lessons To Be Learned From Martin Luther
All attempts to repay God for Christ as our life, though ever so sincere, serve only to frustrate the believer in his growth and, moreover, lower the loving kindness of God to the level of barter and trade made as an aspect of repayment of debt to God.
Hardly any great ministry of this day is free from this tactic that says God will bless you and you will have a fuller life if you do this or that, especially if money is the prerequisite. Martin Luther was very clear, when the Reformation Church was brought about, to say that man is saved by faith alone and justified by God alone.
In his day, indulgences made by the people had become the form of salvation. Indulgences were, operations of the church whereby giving or doing something would earn you blessings from God.
We have come full circle, and the religion of law has brought us back to indulgences once again.
Believers will give and serve because they know Christ is the giver and the server in them.
To serve in order to receive carnal blessings or favor with God is to deny Christ within, and as Paul said, is to recrucify the Son of God. We will always faithfully serve Him out of love but never try to repay Him.
Service is the Christian's means of expressing his love and devotion to God, even as God has expressed His love to those whom He has birthed by placing Christ in them.
It, therefore becomes necessary that those who have received Christ as their life be protective over the purity of their motives in service, always knowing that it is not they who are serving at all, but He, always aware that they have no ministry of their own but that He is their life and it is His ministry.
All attempts to repay God for Christ as our life, though ever so sincere, serve only to frustrate the believer in his growth and, moreover, lower the loving kindness of God to the level of barter and trade made as an aspect of repayment of debt to God.
Hardly any great ministry of this day is free from this tactic that says God will bless you and you will have a fuller life if you do this or that, especially if money is the prerequisite. Martin Luther was very clear, when the Reformation Church was brought about, to say that man is saved by faith alone and justified by God alone.
In his day, indulgences made by the people had become the form of salvation. Indulgences were, operations of the church whereby giving or doing something would earn you blessings from God.
We have come full circle, and the religion of law has brought us back to indulgences once again.
Believers will give and serve because they know Christ is the giver and the server in them.
To serve in order to receive carnal blessings or favor with God is to deny Christ within, and as Paul said, is to recrucify the Son of God. We will always faithfully serve Him out of love but never try to repay Him.
Service is the Christian's means of expressing his love and devotion to God, even as God has expressed His love to those whom He has birthed by placing Christ in them.
It, therefore becomes necessary that those who have received Christ as their life be protective over the purity of their motives in service, always knowing that it is not they who are serving at all, but He, always aware that they have no ministry of their own but that He is their life and it is His ministry.
