The Sum of the Christian Life
Posted on January 23, 2012 in Water from the Wells
Near the end of his life, Martin Luther, the German reformer, preached a sermon entitled, The Sum of the Christian Life. It is based on I Timothy 1:5-7. In his sermon, Luther explains the critical difference between a Christian’s justification before God and their justification before people. He shows how faith in the one Mediator, Jesus Christ, and clinging to Him and His righteousness alone, is the sum of the Christian life. The following is a quote from that sermon. May God use Luther’s gospel wisdom to move us once again from trusting in our own works as the basis for our righteousness, to resting only in Christ’s.
It is exceedingly difficult to get into another habit of thinking in which we clearly separate faith and works of love. Even though we are now in faith, the heart is always ready to boast of itself before God and say: “After all, I have preached so long and lived so well and done so much, surely he will take this into account.” But it cannot be done. With men you may boast, but when you come before God, leave all that boasting at home and remember to appeal from justice to grace. But, let anyone try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter it is for a man, who all his life has been mired in his work of righteousness, to pull himself out of it and with all his heart rise up through faith in the one Mediator. I myself have been preaching and cultivating grace for almost twenty years, and still I feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal with God so 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 I know that this is what I should and must do.