Love, Good Works, Faith, And Accepting

We should learn from the Gospels the two teachings concerning faith and love, or maybe should call them accepting and giving good works. Faith receives the good works of Christ, love is us giving good works to our neighbor.

First, our faith is strengthened and increased when look at Christ for who he really is when he does his works. He associates only with the blind, the deaf, the lame, the lepers, the dead and the poor. In pure love and kindness he associates with all those who are in need and in misery. We see that Christ is nothing more than consolation and a refuge for all the distressed and troubled in conscience. To trust in the Gospel and rely upon the teachings we see there to define who Christ is, to not doubt that Christ is the person presented to us in the Gospel, and to stand firm when others try to persuade us that Jesus was different than what is presented here – This is necessary faith, a faith that allows us to learn about Christ as we believe with the framework of what the Gospel says about him. Blessed is the one who finds no reason of stumbling in Christ here.

Now you must with all diligence beware of taking offense. Let us examine who are the people that stumble in Christ. Those who teach us to do works, instead of teaching us to believe. Those who declare Christ to be a lawmaker and a judge while refusing to let Christ be a helper and a comforter. They torment us by putting works before and in the way of God causing us to falsely believe we can atone for our sins and deserve grace. Such are the teachings of the pope, priests, monks and their monasteries. They use their worship gatherings and other religious programs to cause us to open our eyes and mouths in astonishment – only to lead us to another Christ and withhold from us the real Christ. If we truly desire to believe rightly and to possess Christ truly, then we must reject all of our works that we intend to place before, and if we’re honest, in the way of God. These works are only stumbling blocks that lead away from Christ and from God. Before God no works are acceptable but Christ’s own works. Let those works plead for you before God and do not other work before him than to believe that Christ is doing his works for you and is placing them before God on our behalf.

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An excerpt in modern language from Martin Luther's Third Sunday in Advent Sermon which appears in the Erl. Ed. 10,83; W. 11,99; St. L. 11,72 and vl. 1.1 of The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther.