Martin Luther's "The Freedom of A Christian."

Wednesday evening, July 16, 2008
Hopefully, tonight I will finish Martin Luther's book, "The Freedom of a Christian." If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so, as it is quite worth the read, especially, if you love the gospel. The following is an excerpt that I thought you would appreciate: "When the soul firmly trusts the promises of God, it regards God as truthful and righteous. Nothing greater than this can be said of God. It is the highest worship of God to ascribe to him truthfulness, righteousness, and whatever other qualities ought to be predicated of a power in whom one trusts. When this is done, the soul consents to God's will. It hallows God's name and allows itself to be treated according to God's good pleasure. The soul clings to God's promises, does not doubt them, and trusts that the one who is true, just, and wise will act in a way so that all will be well" (p.60).
You know, when you get to the bottom of the matter, faith is simply ascribing to God the attributes of truthfulness and righteousness; to do anything less is to call Him an unrighteous liar, which is anything but faith. Certainly, none of us would knowingly do that, but when we fail to trust His promises, that IS what we are doing. For example, God unequivocally promised to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus; however, most of us are very familiar with the doubts that come, when it seems that He isn't going to come through in our particular situation. In this example (and many others like it) what are we doing, if we are not declaring that we think He isn't going to prove to be honest?
Faith simply declares that God is truthful and righteous—period! Obviously, this "faith" is God's gift to us (we could certainly never muster it on our own!) and when God sees this faith (really His faith) in our lives, He imputes to us His righteousness! Remember: Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to Him as righteousness!
To be honest, I am very thankful that God chose to do for me what I could never have done on my own! Thankfully, His strength really is made perfect in my weakness!
Blessings with grace lavished,
Mac