'if i profess with the loudest voice
and the clearest exposition
every portion of the truth of God
except
precisely
that little point
which the world and the devil are
attacking at the moment,
i am not confessing Christ,
however boldly i may be professing
(to lay claim to, often insincerely; pretend to)
Christ.
where the battle rages,
there the loyalty of the soldier is proved
and to be steady on all battlefields besides,
is mere fligh and disgrace
if he flinches at that point.' martin luther
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
5.28.2013 COST OF DISCIPLESHIP 6
MATTHEW 7 THE SEPARATION OF THE DISCIPLE COMMUNITY
CHAPTER 18 THE DISCIPLE AND UNBELIEVERS
judge not, that ye be not judged.
for with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured unto you.
and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
or how wilt thou say to they brother,
let me cast out the mote out of thine eye;
and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote
out of thy brother's eye.
give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet
and turn and rend you.
ask and it shall be given you:
seek, and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you:
for everyone that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
or what man is there of you, who,
if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone;
of if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?
if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give
good things to them who ask them?
all things therefore whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets. matt. 7.1-12
there is a continuous thread running through chapters 5 and 6;
it passes through these verses, and on to the grand finale
of the sermon on the mount.
chapter 5 dealt with the extraordinary quality
of the christian life,
perissov,
and chapter 6 with the hidden single hearted righteousness
of the disciples
haplUs.
in both its aspects, discipleship betokened
the separation of the disciples from all their old ties
and an exclusive adherence to Jesus Christ.
the frontier between the old life and the new
was clearly drawn.
but this raises the question of the relation
between the christians and their non christian neighbours.
does their separation from the rest of society confer on them
special rights and privileges?
do christians enjoy power, gifts and standards of judgement
which qualify them to exert a peculiar authority over others?
how easy it would have been for the disciples to adopt a superior attitude,
to pass unqualified condemnation on the rest of the world,
and to persuade themselves that this was the will of God!
that is why Jesus has to make it clear beyond all doubt
that such misunderstandings would seriously imperil their discipleship.
the disciples are not to judge.
if they do so,
they will themselves be judged by God.
the sword wherewith they judge their brethren
will fall upon their own heads.
instead of cutting themselves off from their brother
as the just from the unjust,
they find themselves cut off from Jesus.
why should this be so?
the source of the disciple's life lies exclusively in
his fellowship with Jesus Christ.
he possesses his righeousness only within that association,
never outside it.
that is why his righteousness can never become
an objective criterion to be applied at will.
he is a disciple not because he possesses such a new standard,
but only because of Jesus Christ,
the mediator and very Son of God.
that is to say, his righteousness is hidden from himself
in fellowship with Jesus.
he cannot, as he could once, be a detached observer of himself
and judge himself,
for he can only see Jesus and be seen by Him,
judged by Him and reprieved by Him.
it is not an approved standard of righteous living that separates
a follower of Christ
from an unbeliever,
but it is Christ who stands between them.
christians always see other men as brethren
to whom Christ comes;
they meet them only by going to them with Jesus.
disciple and non disciple can never encounter each other
as free men,
directly exchanging their views and judging one another
by objective criteria.
no, the disciple can meet the nondisciple only as a man
to whom Jesus comes.
here alone Christ's fight for the soul of the unbeliever,
His call, His love His grace and His judgement
comes into its own.
discipleship does not afford us a point of vantage
from which to attack others;
we come to them with an unconditional offer of fellowship,
with the single mindedness of the love of Jesus.
when we judge other people we confront them in
a spirit of detachment,
observing and reflecting as it were from the outside.
but love has neither time nor opportunity for this.
if we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment,
for he is always and at every moment a living claim
to our love and service.
but does not the evil in the other person make me condemn him
just for his own good,
for the sake of love?
here we see the depth of the dividing line.
any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close
to the love of sin.
but the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation
of sin,
is His expression of extreme hatred of sin.
the disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally.
thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously
and conditionally offered love never could achieve,
namely the radical condemnation of sin.
if the disciples make judgements of their own,
they set up standards of good and evil.
but Jesus Christ is not a standard which i can apply to others
He is judge of myself, revealing my own virtues to me
as something altogether evil.
thus is am not permitted to apply to the other person what
does not apply to me.
for, with my judgement according to good and evil,
i only affirm the other person's evil,
for he does exactly the same.
but he does not know of the hidden iniquity of the good
but seeks his justification in it.
if i condemn his evil actions i thereby confirm him
in his apparently good actions which are yet
never the good commended by Christ.
thus we remove him from the judgement of Christ
and subject him to human judgement.
but i bring God's judgement upon my head,
for i then do not live any more on and out of the grace
of Jesus Christ,
but out of my knowledge of good and evil
which i hold on to.
to everyone God is the kind of God he believes in.
judgement is the forbidden objectivization of the other person
which destroys single minded love.
i am not forbidden to have my own thoughts about the
other person,
to realize his shortcoming,
but only to the extent that it offers to me an occasion for
forgiveness and unconditional love,
as Jesus proves to me....
judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.
by judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil
and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
but in the love of Christ we know all about every conceivable
sin and guilt;
for we know how Jesus suffered
and how all men have been forgiven at the foot of the cross.
christian love sees the fellow man under the cross
and therefore sees with clarity.
if when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil,
we should look for evil where it is certain to be found,
and that is in our own hearts.
but if we are on the look out for evil in others,
our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves,
for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins
by passing judgment on others and are assuming by implication
that the word of God applies to ourselves in one way
and to others in another.
all this is highly dangerous and misleading.
we are trying to claim for ourselves as special privilege
which we deny to others.
but Christ's disciples have no rights of their own or
standards of right and wrong
which they could enforce with other people;
they have received nothing by Christ's fellowship.
therefore the disciple is not to sit in judgement
over his fellow man because he would wrongly
usurp the jurisdiction.
but the christian is not only forbidden to judge other men;
even the word of salvation has its limits.
he has neither power nor right to force it on other men
in season and out of season.
every attempt to impose the gospel by force,
to run after people and proselytize them,
to use our own resources to advance the salvation of other people,
is both futile and dangerous.
it is futile, because the swine do not recognize the pearls
that are cast before them,
and dangerous, because it profanes the word of forgiveness,
by causing those we fain would serve to sin against
that which is holy.
worse still, we shall only meet with the blind rage
of hardened and darkened hearts,
and that will be useless and harmful.
our easy trafficking with the word of cheap grace
simply bores the world to disgust,
so that in the end it turns against those who
try to force on it what it does not want.
thus a strict limit is placed upon the activities of the disciples,
just as in matthew 10 they are told
to shake the dust off their feet where the word of peace
is refused a healing.
their restless energy which refuses to recognize
any limit to their activity,
the zeal which refuses to take note of resistance,
springs from a confusion of the gospel with
a victorious ideology.
an ideology requires fanatics, who neither know nor notice
opposition
and it is certainly a potent force.
but the word of God in its weakness takes the risk of
meeting the scorn of men and being reflected.
there are hearts which are hardened and doors
which are closed to the word.
the word recognizes opposition when it meets it
and is prepared to suffer it.
it is a hard lesson, but a true one,
that the gospel, unlike an ideology, reckons with impossibilities.
the word is weaker than any ideology
and this means that with only the gospel at their command
the witnesses are weaker than the propagandists of an opinion.
but although they are weak,
they are ready to suffer with the word
and so are free from that morbid restlessness
which is so characteristic of fanaticism.
the disciples can even yield their ground and run away,
provided they do so with the word,
and provided they do not leave the word in the lurch in their flight.
they are simply the servants and instruments of the word;
they have no wish to be strong where the word
chooses to be weak.
to try and force the word on the wold by hook or by crook
is to make the living word of God into a mere idea
and the world would be perfectly justified in refusing
to listen to an idea for which it had no use.
but at other times, the disciples must stick to their guns
and refuse to run away,
though of course only when the word so wills.
if they do not realize this weakness of the word,
they have failed to perceive the mystery of the divine humility.
the same weak word which is content to endure
the gainsaying of sinners
is also the might word of mercy which can convert
the hearts of sinners.
its strength is veiled in weakness;
if it came in power that would mean that the day of judgement
had arrived.
the great task of the disciples is to recognize the limits of
their commission.
but if they use the word amiss it will certainly turn against them.
what are the disciples to do when they encounter opposition
and cannot penetrate the hearts of men?
they must admit that in no circumstances do they possess
any rights or powers over others,
and that they have no direct access to them.
the only way to reach others is through Him in whose hands
they are themselves like all other men...
the disciples are taught to pray
and so they learn that the only way to reach others is by
praying to God.
judgement and forgiveness are always in the hands of God.
He closes and He opens.
but the disciples must ask, they must seek and knock
and then God will hear them.
they have to learn that
THEIR ANXIETY AND CONCERN FOR OTHERS
MUST DRIVE THEM TO INTERCESSION.
the promise Christ gives to their prayer is
the doughtiest (steadfastly courageous and resolute)
weapon in their armoury.
the difference between the disciples' seeking
and the gentiles' quest for God
is that the disciples know what they are looking for.
we can only seek God when we know Him already.
how can you look for something or find it
if you do not know what you are looking for?
the disciples seek a God whom they have found in the promise
they have received from Jesus.
to sum up: it is clear from the foregoing that the disciple
has no special privilege or power of his own
in all his intercourse with others.
the mainspring of his life and work is the strength
which comes form fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus offers His disciples a simple rule of thumb
which will enable even the least sophisticated of them
to tell whether his intercourse with others is on
the right lines or not.
all he need do is to say 'i' instead of 'thou',
and put himself in the other man's place.
'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets'.
the moment he does that,
the disciple forfeits all advantage over other men
and can no longer excuse in himself what he condemns in others.
he is as strict in condemning evil in himself
as he was before with others
and as lenient with the evil in others
as he was before to himself.
the evil in the other person is exactly the same evil as in ourselves.
there is only one judgement, one law and one grace.
henceforth the disciple will look upon other men as forgiven sinners
who owe their live to the love of God.
'this is the law and the prophets'
-for this is none other than the supreme commandment:
to love God above all things and our neighbours as ourselves.
CHAPTER 19 THE GREAT DIVIDE
enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction
and many be they that enter in thereby.
for narrow is the gate and straitened the way,
that leadeth unto life and few be they that find it.
beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves.
by their fruits ye shall know them.
do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth god fruit.
every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire.
therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the ill of My Father which is in heaven.
many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy mane cast out devils,
and by Thy name do many mighty works?
and then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. matthew 7.13-23
the church of Jesus cannot arbitrarily break off all contact with
those who refuse His call.
it is called to follow the Lord by promise and commandment.
that must suffice.
all judgement of others and separation from them
must be left to Him who chose the church
according to His good purpose,
and not for any merit or achievement of its own.
the separation of church and world is not effected by the church itself,
but by the word of its calling.
a little band of men, the followers of Christ,
are separated from the rest of the world.
the disciples are few in number and will always be few.
this saying of Jesus forestalls all exaggerated hopes of success.
never let a disciple of Jesus pin his hopes on large numbers.
'few there be...'
the rest of the world are many and will aways be many.
but they are on the road to perdition.
the only comfort the disciples have in face of this prospect
is the promise of life and eternal fellowship with Jesus.
the path of discipleship is narrow
and it is fatally easy to miss one's way
and stray from the path,
even after years of discipleship.
and it is hard to find.
on either side of the narrow path deep chasms yawn.
to be called to life of extraordinary quality,
to live up to it,
and yet be unconscious of it
is indeed a narrow way.
to confess and testify to the truth as is is in Jesus,
and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth,
His enemies and ours,
and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ,
is indeed a narrow way.
to believe the promise of Jesus that His followers shall
possess the earth
and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenceless,
preferring to incur injustice rather than do wrong ourselves
is indeed a narrow way. to see the weakness and wrong in others
and at the same time refrain from judging them;
to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine,
is indeed a narrow way.
THE WAY IS UNUTTERABLY HARD
AND AT EVERY MOMENT WE ARE IN DANGER OF
STRAYING FROM IT.
if we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an
external command,
if we are afraid of ourselves all the time,
it is indeed an impossible way.
but if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step,
we shall not go astray.
but if we worry about the dangers that beset us,
if we gaze at eh road instead of at Him who goes before,
we are already straying from the path.
for He is Himself is the way, the narrow way and the strait gate.
He and He alone, is our fourney's end.
when we know that, we are able to proveed along the narrow way
through the strait gate of the cross and on to eternal life,
and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty.
the way which the Son of God trod on earth
and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds
on the razor edge between
this world and the kingdom of heaven,
could hardly be a broad way.
the narrow way is bound to be right.
vs 15-20 the separation of church and world is now complete.
but the word of Jesus forces its way into the church herself,
bringing judgement and decision.
the separation is never permanently assured;
it must be constantly renewed.
the disciples of Jesus must not fondly imagine
that they can simply run away from the world and huddle together
in a little band.
false prophets will rise up among them and amid the ensuing confusion
they will feel more isolated than ever.
there is someone standing by my side,
who looks just like a member of the church.
he is a prophet and a preacher.
he looks like a christian,
he talks and acts like one.
but dark powers are mysteriously at work;
it was these who sent him into our midst.
inwardly he is a ravening wold:
his words are lies and his works are full of deceit.
he knows only too well how to keep his dark secret dark
and go ahead with his work.
it is not faith in Jesus Christ which made him one of us, but the devil.
maybe he hopes his intellectual ability or his success as a prophet
will bring him power and influence, money and fame.
his ambitions are set on the world, not on Jesus Christ.
knowing that christians are credulous people,
he conceals his dark purpose beneath the cloak of
christian piety,
hoping that his innocuous disguise will avert detection.
he knows that christians are forbidden to judge
and he will remind them of it at the appropriate time.
after all, other men's hearts are always a closed book.
thus he succeeds in seducing many from the right way.
he may even be unconscious himself of what he is doing.
the devil can give him every encouragement
and at the same time keep him in the dark about
his own motives.
such a pronouncement of Christ's could cause his disciples great anxiety.
who knows his neighbour?
who knows whether the outward appearance of a christian conceals
falsehood and deception undedrneath?
no wonder if mistrust, suspicion and censoriousness crept into the church.
and no wonder if every brother who falls into sin
incurred the uncharitable criticism of his brethren,
now that Jesus has said this.
all this distrust would ruin the church
but for the word of Jesus which assures us that the bad tree
will bring forth bad fruit.
it is bound to give itself away sooner or later.
there is no need to go about prying into the hearts of others.
all we need do is to wait until the tree bears fruit
and we shall not have to wait long.
this is not to say that we must draw a distinction
between the words of the prophet and his deeds:
the real distinction is that between appearance and reality.
Jesus tells us that men cannot keep up appearances for long.
the time of vintage is sure to come
and then we shall be able to sift the good from the bad.
sooner or later we shall find out where a man stands.
it is no use the tree refusing to bear any fruit,
for the fruit comes of its own accord.
any day the time may come to decide for the world
or for the church.
we may have to decide, not in some spectacular matter,
but in quite trivial, everyday affairs.
and then we shall see and discern the good from the bad.
in that day the reality will stand the test, not appearances.
in such times as these, Jesus requires His disciples
to distinguish between appearance and reality,
between themselves and pseudo christians.
they will then rise abouve all inquisitive examination
of others, but they will need a sincere determination
to recognize the verdict of God when it comes.
at any moment the nominal christians
may be separated from the real ones.
we may even find that we are nominal christians ourselves.
HERE IS A CHALLENGE TO CLOSER FELLOWSHIP
WITH JESUS AND TO A MORE LOYAL DISCIPLESHIP.
the bad tree is cut down and cast into the fire.
all its display of finery proves ultimately to be of no avail.
vs 21 the separation which the call of Jesus creates goes
deeper still.
after the division between church and world
between nominal christians and real ones,
the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body.
st. paul says: 'no man can say, Jesus is Lord,
but in the Holy Spirit.' I cor. 12.3
it is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus
or call Him Lord of our own free will.
st. paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility
that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is,
without having received the call.
iot was harder to understand this in days
when it brought no earthly gain to be a christian
and when christianity was a dangerous profession.
'not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven...'
'Lord, Lord' is the church's confession of faith.
but not everyone who makes this confession
will enter the kingdom of heaven.
the dividing line will run right through the confessing church.
even if we make the confession of faith,
it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus.
we can never appeal to our confession or
be saved simply on the ground that we have made it.
neither is the fact that we are members of a church
which has a right confession a claim tgo God's favour.
to think thus is to fall into the sin of israel,
which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in His sight.
that would be a sin against God's gracious call.
God will not ask us in that day whether we were good protestants,
but whether we have done His will.
we shall be asked the same question as everybody els.
the church is marked off from the world not be a special 193down
CHAPTER 18 THE DISCIPLE AND UNBELIEVERS
judge not, that ye be not judged.
for with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured unto you.
and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
or how wilt thou say to they brother,
let me cast out the mote out of thine eye;
and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote
out of thy brother's eye.
give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet
and turn and rend you.
ask and it shall be given you:
seek, and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you:
for everyone that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
or what man is there of you, who,
if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone;
of if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?
if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give
good things to them who ask them?
all things therefore whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets. matt. 7.1-12
there is a continuous thread running through chapters 5 and 6;
it passes through these verses, and on to the grand finale
of the sermon on the mount.
chapter 5 dealt with the extraordinary quality
of the christian life,
perissov,
and chapter 6 with the hidden single hearted righteousness
of the disciples
haplUs.
in both its aspects, discipleship betokened
the separation of the disciples from all their old ties
and an exclusive adherence to Jesus Christ.
the frontier between the old life and the new
was clearly drawn.
but this raises the question of the relation
between the christians and their non christian neighbours.
does their separation from the rest of society confer on them
special rights and privileges?
do christians enjoy power, gifts and standards of judgement
which qualify them to exert a peculiar authority over others?
how easy it would have been for the disciples to adopt a superior attitude,
to pass unqualified condemnation on the rest of the world,
and to persuade themselves that this was the will of God!
that is why Jesus has to make it clear beyond all doubt
that such misunderstandings would seriously imperil their discipleship.
the disciples are not to judge.
if they do so,
they will themselves be judged by God.
the sword wherewith they judge their brethren
will fall upon their own heads.
instead of cutting themselves off from their brother
as the just from the unjust,
they find themselves cut off from Jesus.
why should this be so?
the source of the disciple's life lies exclusively in
his fellowship with Jesus Christ.
he possesses his righeousness only within that association,
never outside it.
that is why his righteousness can never become
an objective criterion to be applied at will.
he is a disciple not because he possesses such a new standard,
but only because of Jesus Christ,
the mediator and very Son of God.
that is to say, his righteousness is hidden from himself
in fellowship with Jesus.
he cannot, as he could once, be a detached observer of himself
and judge himself,
for he can only see Jesus and be seen by Him,
judged by Him and reprieved by Him.
it is not an approved standard of righteous living that separates
a follower of Christ
from an unbeliever,
but it is Christ who stands between them.
christians always see other men as brethren
to whom Christ comes;
they meet them only by going to them with Jesus.
disciple and non disciple can never encounter each other
as free men,
directly exchanging their views and judging one another
by objective criteria.
no, the disciple can meet the nondisciple only as a man
to whom Jesus comes.
here alone Christ's fight for the soul of the unbeliever,
His call, His love His grace and His judgement
comes into its own.
discipleship does not afford us a point of vantage
from which to attack others;
we come to them with an unconditional offer of fellowship,
with the single mindedness of the love of Jesus.
when we judge other people we confront them in
a spirit of detachment,
observing and reflecting as it were from the outside.
but love has neither time nor opportunity for this.
if we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment,
for he is always and at every moment a living claim
to our love and service.
but does not the evil in the other person make me condemn him
just for his own good,
for the sake of love?
here we see the depth of the dividing line.
any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close
to the love of sin.
but the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation
of sin,
is His expression of extreme hatred of sin.
the disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally.
thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously
and conditionally offered love never could achieve,
namely the radical condemnation of sin.
if the disciples make judgements of their own,
they set up standards of good and evil.
but Jesus Christ is not a standard which i can apply to others
He is judge of myself, revealing my own virtues to me
as something altogether evil.
thus is am not permitted to apply to the other person what
does not apply to me.
for, with my judgement according to good and evil,
i only affirm the other person's evil,
for he does exactly the same.
but he does not know of the hidden iniquity of the good
but seeks his justification in it.
if i condemn his evil actions i thereby confirm him
in his apparently good actions which are yet
never the good commended by Christ.
thus we remove him from the judgement of Christ
and subject him to human judgement.
but i bring God's judgement upon my head,
for i then do not live any more on and out of the grace
of Jesus Christ,
but out of my knowledge of good and evil
which i hold on to.
to everyone God is the kind of God he believes in.
judgement is the forbidden objectivization of the other person
which destroys single minded love.
i am not forbidden to have my own thoughts about the
other person,
to realize his shortcoming,
but only to the extent that it offers to me an occasion for
forgiveness and unconditional love,
as Jesus proves to me....
judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.
by judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil
and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
but in the love of Christ we know all about every conceivable
sin and guilt;
for we know how Jesus suffered
and how all men have been forgiven at the foot of the cross.
christian love sees the fellow man under the cross
and therefore sees with clarity.
if when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil,
we should look for evil where it is certain to be found,
and that is in our own hearts.
but if we are on the look out for evil in others,
our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves,
for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins
by passing judgment on others and are assuming by implication
that the word of God applies to ourselves in one way
and to others in another.
all this is highly dangerous and misleading.
we are trying to claim for ourselves as special privilege
which we deny to others.
but Christ's disciples have no rights of their own or
standards of right and wrong
which they could enforce with other people;
they have received nothing by Christ's fellowship.
therefore the disciple is not to sit in judgement
over his fellow man because he would wrongly
usurp the jurisdiction.
but the christian is not only forbidden to judge other men;
even the word of salvation has its limits.
he has neither power nor right to force it on other men
in season and out of season.
every attempt to impose the gospel by force,
to run after people and proselytize them,
to use our own resources to advance the salvation of other people,
is both futile and dangerous.
it is futile, because the swine do not recognize the pearls
that are cast before them,
and dangerous, because it profanes the word of forgiveness,
by causing those we fain would serve to sin against
that which is holy.
worse still, we shall only meet with the blind rage
of hardened and darkened hearts,
and that will be useless and harmful.
our easy trafficking with the word of cheap grace
simply bores the world to disgust,
so that in the end it turns against those who
try to force on it what it does not want.
thus a strict limit is placed upon the activities of the disciples,
just as in matthew 10 they are told
to shake the dust off their feet where the word of peace
is refused a healing.
their restless energy which refuses to recognize
any limit to their activity,
the zeal which refuses to take note of resistance,
springs from a confusion of the gospel with
a victorious ideology.
an ideology requires fanatics, who neither know nor notice
opposition
and it is certainly a potent force.
but the word of God in its weakness takes the risk of
meeting the scorn of men and being reflected.
there are hearts which are hardened and doors
which are closed to the word.
the word recognizes opposition when it meets it
and is prepared to suffer it.
it is a hard lesson, but a true one,
that the gospel, unlike an ideology, reckons with impossibilities.
the word is weaker than any ideology
and this means that with only the gospel at their command
the witnesses are weaker than the propagandists of an opinion.
but although they are weak,
they are ready to suffer with the word
and so are free from that morbid restlessness
which is so characteristic of fanaticism.
the disciples can even yield their ground and run away,
provided they do so with the word,
and provided they do not leave the word in the lurch in their flight.
they are simply the servants and instruments of the word;
they have no wish to be strong where the word
chooses to be weak.
to try and force the word on the wold by hook or by crook
is to make the living word of God into a mere idea
and the world would be perfectly justified in refusing
to listen to an idea for which it had no use.
but at other times, the disciples must stick to their guns
and refuse to run away,
though of course only when the word so wills.
if they do not realize this weakness of the word,
they have failed to perceive the mystery of the divine humility.
the same weak word which is content to endure
the gainsaying of sinners
is also the might word of mercy which can convert
the hearts of sinners.
its strength is veiled in weakness;
if it came in power that would mean that the day of judgement
had arrived.
the great task of the disciples is to recognize the limits of
their commission.
but if they use the word amiss it will certainly turn against them.
what are the disciples to do when they encounter opposition
and cannot penetrate the hearts of men?
they must admit that in no circumstances do they possess
any rights or powers over others,
and that they have no direct access to them.
the only way to reach others is through Him in whose hands
they are themselves like all other men...
the disciples are taught to pray
and so they learn that the only way to reach others is by
praying to God.
judgement and forgiveness are always in the hands of God.
He closes and He opens.
but the disciples must ask, they must seek and knock
and then God will hear them.
they have to learn that
THEIR ANXIETY AND CONCERN FOR OTHERS
MUST DRIVE THEM TO INTERCESSION.
the promise Christ gives to their prayer is
the doughtiest (steadfastly courageous and resolute)
weapon in their armoury.
the difference between the disciples' seeking
and the gentiles' quest for God
is that the disciples know what they are looking for.
we can only seek God when we know Him already.
how can you look for something or find it
if you do not know what you are looking for?
the disciples seek a God whom they have found in the promise
they have received from Jesus.
to sum up: it is clear from the foregoing that the disciple
has no special privilege or power of his own
in all his intercourse with others.
the mainspring of his life and work is the strength
which comes form fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus offers His disciples a simple rule of thumb
which will enable even the least sophisticated of them
to tell whether his intercourse with others is on
the right lines or not.
all he need do is to say 'i' instead of 'thou',
and put himself in the other man's place.
'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets'.
the moment he does that,
the disciple forfeits all advantage over other men
and can no longer excuse in himself what he condemns in others.
he is as strict in condemning evil in himself
as he was before with others
and as lenient with the evil in others
as he was before to himself.
the evil in the other person is exactly the same evil as in ourselves.
there is only one judgement, one law and one grace.
henceforth the disciple will look upon other men as forgiven sinners
who owe their live to the love of God.
'this is the law and the prophets'
-for this is none other than the supreme commandment:
to love God above all things and our neighbours as ourselves.
CHAPTER 19 THE GREAT DIVIDE
enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction
and many be they that enter in thereby.
for narrow is the gate and straitened the way,
that leadeth unto life and few be they that find it.
beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves.
by their fruits ye shall know them.
do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth god fruit.
every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire.
therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the ill of My Father which is in heaven.
many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy mane cast out devils,
and by Thy name do many mighty works?
and then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. matthew 7.13-23
the church of Jesus cannot arbitrarily break off all contact with
those who refuse His call.
it is called to follow the Lord by promise and commandment.
that must suffice.
all judgement of others and separation from them
must be left to Him who chose the church
according to His good purpose,
and not for any merit or achievement of its own.
the separation of church and world is not effected by the church itself,
but by the word of its calling.
a little band of men, the followers of Christ,
are separated from the rest of the world.
the disciples are few in number and will always be few.
this saying of Jesus forestalls all exaggerated hopes of success.
never let a disciple of Jesus pin his hopes on large numbers.
'few there be...'
the rest of the world are many and will aways be many.
but they are on the road to perdition.
the only comfort the disciples have in face of this prospect
is the promise of life and eternal fellowship with Jesus.
the path of discipleship is narrow
and it is fatally easy to miss one's way
and stray from the path,
even after years of discipleship.
and it is hard to find.
on either side of the narrow path deep chasms yawn.
to be called to life of extraordinary quality,
to live up to it,
and yet be unconscious of it
is indeed a narrow way.
to confess and testify to the truth as is is in Jesus,
and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth,
His enemies and ours,
and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ,
is indeed a narrow way.
to believe the promise of Jesus that His followers shall
possess the earth
and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenceless,
preferring to incur injustice rather than do wrong ourselves
is indeed a narrow way. to see the weakness and wrong in others
and at the same time refrain from judging them;
to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine,
is indeed a narrow way.
THE WAY IS UNUTTERABLY HARD
AND AT EVERY MOMENT WE ARE IN DANGER OF
STRAYING FROM IT.
if we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an
external command,
if we are afraid of ourselves all the time,
it is indeed an impossible way.
but if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step,
we shall not go astray.
but if we worry about the dangers that beset us,
if we gaze at eh road instead of at Him who goes before,
we are already straying from the path.
for He is Himself is the way, the narrow way and the strait gate.
He and He alone, is our fourney's end.
when we know that, we are able to proveed along the narrow way
through the strait gate of the cross and on to eternal life,
and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty.
the way which the Son of God trod on earth
and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds
on the razor edge between
this world and the kingdom of heaven,
could hardly be a broad way.
the narrow way is bound to be right.
vs 15-20 the separation of church and world is now complete.
but the word of Jesus forces its way into the church herself,
bringing judgement and decision.
the separation is never permanently assured;
it must be constantly renewed.
the disciples of Jesus must not fondly imagine
that they can simply run away from the world and huddle together
in a little band.
false prophets will rise up among them and amid the ensuing confusion
they will feel more isolated than ever.
there is someone standing by my side,
who looks just like a member of the church.
he is a prophet and a preacher.
he looks like a christian,
he talks and acts like one.
but dark powers are mysteriously at work;
it was these who sent him into our midst.
inwardly he is a ravening wold:
his words are lies and his works are full of deceit.
he knows only too well how to keep his dark secret dark
and go ahead with his work.
it is not faith in Jesus Christ which made him one of us, but the devil.
maybe he hopes his intellectual ability or his success as a prophet
will bring him power and influence, money and fame.
his ambitions are set on the world, not on Jesus Christ.
knowing that christians are credulous people,
he conceals his dark purpose beneath the cloak of
christian piety,
hoping that his innocuous disguise will avert detection.
he knows that christians are forbidden to judge
and he will remind them of it at the appropriate time.
after all, other men's hearts are always a closed book.
thus he succeeds in seducing many from the right way.
he may even be unconscious himself of what he is doing.
the devil can give him every encouragement
and at the same time keep him in the dark about
his own motives.
such a pronouncement of Christ's could cause his disciples great anxiety.
who knows his neighbour?
who knows whether the outward appearance of a christian conceals
falsehood and deception undedrneath?
no wonder if mistrust, suspicion and censoriousness crept into the church.
and no wonder if every brother who falls into sin
incurred the uncharitable criticism of his brethren,
now that Jesus has said this.
all this distrust would ruin the church
but for the word of Jesus which assures us that the bad tree
will bring forth bad fruit.
it is bound to give itself away sooner or later.
there is no need to go about prying into the hearts of others.
all we need do is to wait until the tree bears fruit
and we shall not have to wait long.
this is not to say that we must draw a distinction
between the words of the prophet and his deeds:
the real distinction is that between appearance and reality.
Jesus tells us that men cannot keep up appearances for long.
the time of vintage is sure to come
and then we shall be able to sift the good from the bad.
sooner or later we shall find out where a man stands.
it is no use the tree refusing to bear any fruit,
for the fruit comes of its own accord.
any day the time may come to decide for the world
or for the church.
we may have to decide, not in some spectacular matter,
but in quite trivial, everyday affairs.
and then we shall see and discern the good from the bad.
in that day the reality will stand the test, not appearances.
in such times as these, Jesus requires His disciples
to distinguish between appearance and reality,
between themselves and pseudo christians.
they will then rise abouve all inquisitive examination
of others, but they will need a sincere determination
to recognize the verdict of God when it comes.
at any moment the nominal christians
may be separated from the real ones.
we may even find that we are nominal christians ourselves.
HERE IS A CHALLENGE TO CLOSER FELLOWSHIP
WITH JESUS AND TO A MORE LOYAL DISCIPLESHIP.
the bad tree is cut down and cast into the fire.
all its display of finery proves ultimately to be of no avail.
vs 21 the separation which the call of Jesus creates goes
deeper still.
after the division between church and world
between nominal christians and real ones,
the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body.
st. paul says: 'no man can say, Jesus is Lord,
but in the Holy Spirit.' I cor. 12.3
it is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus
or call Him Lord of our own free will.
st. paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility
that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is,
without having received the call.
iot was harder to understand this in days
when it brought no earthly gain to be a christian
and when christianity was a dangerous profession.
'not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven...'
'Lord, Lord' is the church's confession of faith.
but not everyone who makes this confession
will enter the kingdom of heaven.
the dividing line will run right through the confessing church.
even if we make the confession of faith,
it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus.
we can never appeal to our confession or
be saved simply on the ground that we have made it.
neither is the fact that we are members of a church
which has a right confession a claim tgo God's favour.
to think thus is to fall into the sin of israel,
which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in His sight.
that would be a sin against God's gracious call.
God will not ask us in that day whether we were good protestants,
but whether we have done His will.
we shall be asked the same question as everybody els.
the church is marked off from the world not be a special 193down
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
5.21.2013 BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN
i was awakened early this morning with the agony of another blatant sin against the Lord.
as is happening more often i part prayed, part cried out (i like the spanish verb for this: clamar
..i think of clamor (loud uproar, outcry)...which is what it sounds like at tuesday night prayer
meeting when we have all shared our prayer request, holding hands in a circle, and then comes
the clamor! i love it!! for it it a fitting picture of how i need to be continually in my heart
before a holy God...fending off temptations by the score, confessing sins of thought, word and deed without number it seems, crying out for guidance, protection, provision, HELP (which has become my favorite prayer (if judged by number of times made) by far as i am often overwhelmed in
the spirit and my heart and mind drag along in the dust and mire of this wicked hell hole in which
i dwell.
this morning one big reason for my discomfiture was the remembrance of bonhoeffers treatment
of 'blessed are those who mourn' in the cost of discipleship. the accuser was all over me telling me that what bonhoeffer said excluded mourning over my sin. and as often happens, in my extreme weakness and wickedness...i was buying the lie. finally after a long time of mourning over my sin and yet being told that if i were any kind of christian...nay, if i were a christian i would be victorious over sin and never have a cause to mourn. (bonhoeffer, after some morning rereading, turned out to be just focusing on one of the many reasons a follower of Jesus Christ has reason to mourn...here.
after bon i read matthew henry and lenski on matthew 5.4. here is some of what they wrote. as i read, God poured the balm of His forgiveness and cleansing over my restored soul.
henry
II. they that mourn are happy
blessed are they that mourn.
this is another strange blessing and fitly follows the former.
the poor are accustomed to mourn,
the GRACIOUSLY POOR mourn graciously.
we are apt to think, blessed are the merry;
but Christ, who was Himself a great mourner, says,
blessed are the mourners.
THERE IS A SINFUL MOURNING,
which is an enemy to blessedness
-the sorrow of the world;
despairing melancholy upon a spiritual account,
and disconsolate grief upon a temporal account.
THERE IS A NATURAL MOURNING,
which may prove a friend to blessedness,
by the grace of God working with it
and sanctifying (making us more separated from sin to God)
the afflictions to us, for which we mourn.
THERE IS A GRACIOUS MOURNING,
which qualifies for blessedness,
an habitual seriousness, the mind mortified (dead) to mirth
and an actual sorrow.
ie. A. A PENITENTIAL MOURNING for our own sins;
this is godly sorrow, a sorrow according to God;
SORROW FOR SIN, WITH AN EYE TO CHRIST
zechariah 12.10 and i will pour upon the house of david,
and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications:
and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn
those are God's mourners,
WHO LIVE A LIFE OF REPENTANCE,
who lament the corruption of their nature
and their many actual transgressions,
and God's withdrawings from them;
and who, out of regard to God's holiness,
mourn also for the sins of others
and sigh and cry for their abominations ezekiel 9.4
(oh Lord, i have none of this because i am bereft of Christ's love for others, HELP ME!)
B. A SYMPATHIZING MOURNING for the afflictions of others;
the mourning of those who weep with them that weep,
are sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, for the desolations of zion'
zephaniah 3.18; psalm 137.1
especially who look with compassion on perishing souls,
and WEEP OVER THEM, as Christ over jerusalem.
now these gracious mourners,
1. are blessed.
as in vain and sinful laughter the heart is sorrowful,
so in gracious mourning the heart has a serious joy,
a secret satisfaction, which a stranger does not intermeddle with (prov 14.10).
they are blessed for they are like the Lord Jesus,
who was a man of sorrows
and of whom we never read hat He laughed,
but often that he wept.
they are armed against the many temptations
that attend vain mirth and
are prepared for the comforts of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.
2. they shall be comforted.
though perhaps they are not immediately comforted,
yet plentiful provision is made for their comfort;
light is sown for hem: and in heaven, it is certain,
they shall be comforted., as lazarus, luke 16. 25
lenski
the verb denotes loud mourning such as the lament for the dead
or for a severe, painful loss.
the sorrow for our sins in true contrition
should not be excluded from this mourning.
..instead of excluding sorrow for sin, this is the chief part of the lament.
but, of course, we must include all other grief and sorrow
due to the power of sin in the world as this inflicts blows, losses and pain
upon the godly. (psalm 90.14-5)
it includes every wrong done us,
as well as every painful consequence of our own wrongdoing.
it is almost self evident that this mourning is not like that of the world
which howls loud enough when its sins find it ou:
'but the sorrow of the world worketh death II cor. 7.10
behind this sorrow of the godly lies the recognition of the merciless power of sin
(note: the unchangeable results of the fall)
and of our helplessness to ward it off and to escape.
hence this mourning is a constant cry to God in their distress.
...the first of Luther's famous 95 theses,
that OUR ENTIRE LIFE MUST BE A CONTINUOUS CONTRITION AND REPENTANCE.
as far as others sorrows are concerned,
'we must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. acts 14.22
..'I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. john 14.18
..the future tense is future to the mourning:
the comfort always at once follows the mourning.
(note: only in the sense of II corinthians 4.16f
as is happening more often i part prayed, part cried out (i like the spanish verb for this: clamar
..i think of clamor (loud uproar, outcry)...which is what it sounds like at tuesday night prayer
meeting when we have all shared our prayer request, holding hands in a circle, and then comes
the clamor! i love it!! for it it a fitting picture of how i need to be continually in my heart
before a holy God...fending off temptations by the score, confessing sins of thought, word and deed without number it seems, crying out for guidance, protection, provision, HELP (which has become my favorite prayer (if judged by number of times made) by far as i am often overwhelmed in
the spirit and my heart and mind drag along in the dust and mire of this wicked hell hole in which
i dwell.
this morning one big reason for my discomfiture was the remembrance of bonhoeffers treatment
of 'blessed are those who mourn' in the cost of discipleship. the accuser was all over me telling me that what bonhoeffer said excluded mourning over my sin. and as often happens, in my extreme weakness and wickedness...i was buying the lie. finally after a long time of mourning over my sin and yet being told that if i were any kind of christian...nay, if i were a christian i would be victorious over sin and never have a cause to mourn. (bonhoeffer, after some morning rereading, turned out to be just focusing on one of the many reasons a follower of Jesus Christ has reason to mourn...here.
after bon i read matthew henry and lenski on matthew 5.4. here is some of what they wrote. as i read, God poured the balm of His forgiveness and cleansing over my restored soul.
henry
II. they that mourn are happy
blessed are they that mourn.
this is another strange blessing and fitly follows the former.
the poor are accustomed to mourn,
the GRACIOUSLY POOR mourn graciously.
we are apt to think, blessed are the merry;
but Christ, who was Himself a great mourner, says,
blessed are the mourners.
THERE IS A SINFUL MOURNING,
which is an enemy to blessedness
-the sorrow of the world;
despairing melancholy upon a spiritual account,
and disconsolate grief upon a temporal account.
THERE IS A NATURAL MOURNING,
which may prove a friend to blessedness,
by the grace of God working with it
and sanctifying (making us more separated from sin to God)
the afflictions to us, for which we mourn.
THERE IS A GRACIOUS MOURNING,
which qualifies for blessedness,
an habitual seriousness, the mind mortified (dead) to mirth
and an actual sorrow.
ie. A. A PENITENTIAL MOURNING for our own sins;
this is godly sorrow, a sorrow according to God;
SORROW FOR SIN, WITH AN EYE TO CHRIST
zechariah 12.10 and i will pour upon the house of david,
and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications:
and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn
those are God's mourners,
WHO LIVE A LIFE OF REPENTANCE,
who lament the corruption of their nature
and their many actual transgressions,
and God's withdrawings from them;
and who, out of regard to God's holiness,
mourn also for the sins of others
and sigh and cry for their abominations ezekiel 9.4
(oh Lord, i have none of this because i am bereft of Christ's love for others, HELP ME!)
B. A SYMPATHIZING MOURNING for the afflictions of others;
the mourning of those who weep with them that weep,
are sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, for the desolations of zion'
zephaniah 3.18; psalm 137.1
especially who look with compassion on perishing souls,
and WEEP OVER THEM, as Christ over jerusalem.
now these gracious mourners,
1. are blessed.
as in vain and sinful laughter the heart is sorrowful,
so in gracious mourning the heart has a serious joy,
a secret satisfaction, which a stranger does not intermeddle with (prov 14.10).
they are blessed for they are like the Lord Jesus,
who was a man of sorrows
and of whom we never read hat He laughed,
but often that he wept.
they are armed against the many temptations
that attend vain mirth and
are prepared for the comforts of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.
2. they shall be comforted.
though perhaps they are not immediately comforted,
yet plentiful provision is made for their comfort;
light is sown for hem: and in heaven, it is certain,
they shall be comforted., as lazarus, luke 16. 25
lenski
the verb denotes loud mourning such as the lament for the dead
or for a severe, painful loss.
the sorrow for our sins in true contrition
should not be excluded from this mourning.
..instead of excluding sorrow for sin, this is the chief part of the lament.
but, of course, we must include all other grief and sorrow
due to the power of sin in the world as this inflicts blows, losses and pain
upon the godly. (psalm 90.14-5)
it includes every wrong done us,
as well as every painful consequence of our own wrongdoing.
it is almost self evident that this mourning is not like that of the world
which howls loud enough when its sins find it ou:
'but the sorrow of the world worketh death II cor. 7.10
behind this sorrow of the godly lies the recognition of the merciless power of sin
(note: the unchangeable results of the fall)
and of our helplessness to ward it off and to escape.
hence this mourning is a constant cry to God in their distress.
...the first of Luther's famous 95 theses,
that OUR ENTIRE LIFE MUST BE A CONTINUOUS CONTRITION AND REPENTANCE.
as far as others sorrows are concerned,
'we must through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. acts 14.22
..'I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. john 14.18
..the future tense is future to the mourning:
the comfort always at once follows the mourning.
(note: only in the sense of II corinthians 4.16f
5.21.2013 WAS JESUS POLITE?
going through the gospels this time a new discovery:
JESUS NEVER SEEMS TO GIVE A STRAIGHT ANSWER TO A QUESTION!
i am not like Jesus but much more polite..
a. answering when i am spoken to
b. answering the question asked.
further, i have never met another man
whether it be in a book
or in person
who is like Jesus in this way.
the QUESTION arises: if i am to imitate God, ephesians 5.1,
does that include answering questions in a
seemingly tangential
(divergent or digressive-departing from the main subject-
as from the subject under consideration)
manner which seems to be
(i need to go through all the questions asked Jesus in the gospels to get the whole story)
part and parcel of how Jesus engaged in conversation with others.
was this a bad habit?
rudeness?
or what?
one example, john 6.25...and when they had found Him on the other side of the sea,
they said unto Him,
Q- 'rabbi, when camest Thou hither?
A- 'verily, verily I say unto you,
ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.
JESUS NEVER SEEMS TO GIVE A STRAIGHT ANSWER TO A QUESTION!
i am not like Jesus but much more polite..
a. answering when i am spoken to
b. answering the question asked.
further, i have never met another man
whether it be in a book
or in person
who is like Jesus in this way.
the QUESTION arises: if i am to imitate God, ephesians 5.1,
does that include answering questions in a
seemingly tangential
(divergent or digressive-departing from the main subject-
as from the subject under consideration)
manner which seems to be
(i need to go through all the questions asked Jesus in the gospels to get the whole story)
part and parcel of how Jesus engaged in conversation with others.
was this a bad habit?
rudeness?
or what?
one example, john 6.25...and when they had found Him on the other side of the sea,
they said unto Him,
Q- 'rabbi, when camest Thou hither?
A- 'verily, verily I say unto you,
ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.
5.21.2013 SIN BOLDLY
sin, dealt with in a timely, forthright manner and according to God's pattern can be turned from a deadening, suffocating life long monstrosity that continually screams and repeatedly gashes itself among the subconscious or even conscious, unseen depths of our being...into a stepping stone to shining resplendent before men in the glorious, God-glorifying sonship we, as God's creation, were originally meant for and called to.
martin luther's famous 'sin boldly'...
1. BOLDLY, OPENLY as well as IN YOUR HEART..HATE IT.
2. BOLDLY SORROW OVER IT...for every sin, no matter how 'small' rationalization may want to make it, is extremely ugly and heinous in it's nature, consequences and reality in the presence of an all seeing, holy God. matthew 5.4
3. BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO GOD. I john 1.9
4. BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO THE ONE SINNED AGAINST
5. if not against a person, BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO BROTHER(S?) james 5.16
6. BOLDLY RENOUNCE/FORSAKE IT and refuse to continue in it or return to it again. prov. 28.13
7. BOLDLY AND QUICKLY.. BE SATISFIED WITH GOD'S primary response, MERCY..(you are not in hell though well deserving of it.) psalm 90.14-15...for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen: for the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. II cor. 4.17-8
8. BOLDLY RECEIVE HOWEVER MAN MAY RESPOND and set your heart to love, do good to, bless, pray for, lament and regret (if necessary) their end, do not judge or condemn but pardon and GIVE GOOD measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over to bless and help them.
martin luther's famous 'sin boldly'...
1. BOLDLY, OPENLY as well as IN YOUR HEART..HATE IT.
2. BOLDLY SORROW OVER IT...for every sin, no matter how 'small' rationalization may want to make it, is extremely ugly and heinous in it's nature, consequences and reality in the presence of an all seeing, holy God. matthew 5.4
3. BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO GOD. I john 1.9
4. BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO THE ONE SINNED AGAINST
5. if not against a person, BOLDLY CONFESS IT TO BROTHER(S?) james 5.16
6. BOLDLY RENOUNCE/FORSAKE IT and refuse to continue in it or return to it again. prov. 28.13
7. BOLDLY AND QUICKLY.. BE SATISFIED WITH GOD'S primary response, MERCY..(you are not in hell though well deserving of it.) psalm 90.14-15...for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen: for the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. II cor. 4.17-8
8. BOLDLY RECEIVE HOWEVER MAN MAY RESPOND and set your heart to love, do good to, bless, pray for, lament and regret (if necessary) their end, do not judge or condemn but pardon and GIVE GOOD measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over to bless and help them.
Monday, May 20, 2013
5.20.2013 COST OF DISCIPLESHIP 5
MATTHEW 6 - OF THE HIDDEN CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE excerpts from chapters 15-7
CHAPTER 15 THE HIDDENNESS OF PRAYER
and when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites:
for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
verily i say unto you,
they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber,
and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
and in praying use not vain repetitions, as the gentiles do;
for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking.
be not therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye hath need of,
before ye ask Him. matt. 6.5-8
Jesus teaches His disciples to pray.
what does this mean?
it means that prayer is by no means an obvious or natural activity.
it is the expression of a universal human instinct,
but that does not justify it in the sight of God.
even where prayer is cultivated with discipline and perseverance
it can still be profitless and void of God's blessing.
the disciples are permitted to pray because
Jesus tells them they may
-and He knows the Father.
He promises that God will hear them.
that is to say, the disciples pray only because they are
followers of Christ and have fellowship with Him.
only those who, like them, adhere to Jesus have access to
the Father through Him.
all christian prayer is directed to god through a Mediator,
and not even prayer affords direct access to the Father.
only through Jesus Christ can we find the Father in prayer.
christian prayer presupposes faith, that is, adherence to Christ.
He is the one and only mediator of our prayers.
we pray at His command,
and to that word christian prayer is always bound.
we pray to God because we believe in Him through Jesus Christ;
that is to say, our prayer can never be an entreaty to God,
for we have no need to come before Him in that way.
we are privileged to know that he knows our needs
before we ask Him.
this is what gives Christian prayer its boundless
confidence and its joyous certainty.
it matters little what form of prayer we adopt or
how many words we use,
what matters is the faith which lays hold on God
and touches the heart of the Father
who knew us long before we came to Him.
genuine prayer is never 'good works',
an exercise or a pious attitude,
but it is always the prayer of a child to a Father.
hence it is never given to self display,
whether before God, ourselves or other people.
if god were ignorant of our needs,
we should have to think out beforehand how we
should tell Him about them,
what we should tell Him
and whether we should tell Him or not.
thus faith, which is the mainspring of christian prayer,
excludes all reflection and premeditation.
prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character
of the christian life.
ti is the antithesis of self display.
when men pray, they have ceased to know themselves
and know only god whom they call upon.
prayer does not aim at any direct effect on the world;
it is addressed to God alone,
and therefore the perfect example of undemonstrative action.
of course there is a danger even here.
prayer of this kind can seek self display,
it can seek to bring to light that which is hidden.
this may happen in public prayer...
..i can lay on a very nice show for myself
even in the privacy of my own room.
that is the extent to which we can distort the word of Jesus.
the publicity which i am looking for is then provided
by the fact that i am the one who at the same time prays
and looks on.
i am listening to my own prayer and thus i am answering
my own prayer.
not being content to wait for god to answer our prayer
and show us in His own time that He has heard us,
we provide our own answer.
we take note that we have prayed suitably well
and this substitutes the satisfaction of answered prayer.
we have our reward.
since we have heard ourselves, God will not hear us.
having contrived our own reward of publicity,
we cannot expect God to reward us any further.
...true prayer does not depend either on the individual
or the whole body or the faithful,
but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father
knows our needs.
that makes god the sole object of our prayers,
and frees us from a false confidence in our own prayerful efforts.
after this manner therefore pray ye:
our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
give us this day our daily bread.
and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.
and bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for if ye forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses matt. 6.9-15
Jesus tole His disciples not only how to pray, but also what to pray.
the Lord's prayer is not merely the pattern prayer,
it is the way christians MUST pray.
if they pray this prayer, God will certainly hear them.
the Lord's prayer is the quintessence of prayer.
a disciple's prayer is founded on and circumscribed by it....
..God's name, God's kingdom, God's will
must be the primary object of christian prayer.
of course it is not as if God needed our prayers,
but they are the means by which the disciples become partakers
in the heavenly treasure for which they pray...
..forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
every day Christ's followers must acknowledge and bewail their guilt.
living as they do in fellowship with Him, they ought to be sinless,
but in practiced their life is marred daily with all manner of unbelief,
sloth in prayer, lack of bodily discipline, self indulgence of every kind,
envy, hatred and ambition.
no wonder that they must pray daily for God's forgiveness.
but God will only forgive them if they forgive one another
with readiness and brotherly affection.
thus they bring all their guilt before God
and pray as a body for forgiveness.
God forgive not merely me my debts, but us ours.
CHAPTER 16 THE HIDDENNESS OF THE DEVOUT LIFE
moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:
for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast.
verily i say unto you, they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face;
that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father which is in secret:
and they Father, which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. matt. 6.16-8
Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will observe the pious custom
of fasting.
strict exercise of self control is an essential feature of the christian's life.
such customs have only one purpose
-to make the disciples more ready and cheerful to
accomplish those things which God would have done.
fasting helps to discipline the self indulgent and slothful will
which is so reluctant to serve the Lord,
and it helps to humiliate and chasten the flesh.
by practising abstemiousness we show the world how different
the christian life is from its own.
if there is no element of asceticism in our lives,
of we give free rein to the desires of the flesh
(taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible
to the world),
we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ.
when the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness
or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self renunciation.
so the christian needs to observe a strict exterior discipline.
but we are not to imagine that that alone will crush the will of the flesh,
or that there is any way of mortifying our old man than by faith in Jesus.
the real difference in the believer who follows Christ,
and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ,
is that he is more clearly aware than other men of
the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh,
he is conscious of his sloth and self indulgence
and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated.
hence there is a need for daily self discipline.
it is always true of the disciple that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,
and he must therefore 'watch and pray'.
the spirit knows the right way and desires to follow it,
but the flesh lacks courage and finds it too hard,
too hazardous and wearisome,
and so it stifles the voice of the spirit.
the spirit assents when Jesus bids us love our enemies,
but flesh and blood are too strong and prevent our carrying it out.
therefore we have to practise strictest daily discipline:
only so can the flesh learn the painful lesson that it has ho right of its own.
regular daily prayer is a great help here
and so is daily MEDITATION on the word of God
and every kind of bodily discipline and asceticism.
the flesh resists this daily humiliation,
first by a frontal attack,
and later by hiding itself under the words of the spirit
(ie. in the name of 'evangelical liberty').
we claim liberty from all legal compulsion,
from self martyrdom and mortification,
and play this off against the proper evangelical
use of discipline and asceticism;
we thus excuse our self indulgence and irregularity in prayer,
in meditation and in our bodily life.
but the contrast between our behaviour and the word of Jesus
is all too painfully evident.
we forget that discipleship means estrangement from the world
and we forget the real joy and freedom which are the outcome
of a devout rule of life.
as soon as a christian recognizes that he has failed in his service,
that his readiness has become feeble,
and that he has sinned against another's life
and become guilty of another's guilt,
that all his joy in God has vanished
and that his capacity for prayer has quite gone,
it is high time for him to launch an assault upon the flesh
and prepare or better service by fasting and prayer
..any objection that asceticism is wrong,
and that all we need is faith,
is quite beside the point;
it is cruel to suggest such a thing and it is of no help to us at all.
when all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing
if not an unending struggle of the spirit
with every available weapon
against the flesh.
how is it possible to live the life of faith
when we grow weary of prayer,
when we lose our taste for reading the bible
and when sleep, food and sensuality deprive us of the joy of
communion with God?
asceticism means voluntary suffering:
it is passio active rather than passiva,
and it is just there that the danger lies.
there is always a danger that in our asceticism we shall
be tempted to imitate the sufferings of Christ.
this is a pious but godless ambition,
for beneath it there always lurks the notion that
it is possible for us to step into Christ's shoes and
suffer as he did and kill the old adam.
we are then presuming to undertake that bitter work of
eternal redemption which Christ Himself wrought for us.
the motive of asceticism was more limited
-to equip us for better service and deeper humiliation.
but it can only do that so long as it takes the sufferings of Christ as its basis;
it not, it degenerates into a dreadful parody of our Lords own passion.
our whole motive now becomes a desire for ostentation.
we want other people o see our achievements
and to be put to shame.
our asceticism has now become the way to salvation.
such publicity gives it the reward it seeks.
CHAPTER 17 THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CAREFREE LIFE
lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,
where moth and rust doth consume,
and where thieves beak through and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth consume,
and where thieves do not break though nor steal:
for where thy treasure is, thee will thy heat be also.
the lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore Thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
but if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is the darkness! no man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one and love the other;
or else he will hold o one, and despise the other.
ye cannot serve God and mammon. matthew 6.19-24
...(Jesus) was man, He ate and drank like His disciples
and thereby sanctified the good things of lie.
these necessities, which are consumed in use
and which meet the legitimate requirements of the body,
are to be used by the disciple with thankfulness.
..earthly GOODS are given to be USED,
NOT to be COLLECTED.
in the wilderness God gave israel the manna every day,
and they had no need to worry about food and drink.
indeed, if they dept any of the manna over until the next day,
it went bad.
in the same way,
the disciple
must receive
his portion
from God
every day.
if he stores it up
as a permanent possession,
he spoils not only the gift,
but himself as well,
for he sets his heart on his accumulated wealth,
and makes it a barrier between himself and God.
where our treasure is
there is our trust,
our security, our consolation
and our god.
(foot: it is not accident that the catalogues of vices in the pauline epistles
associate fornication with covetousness,
and designate both as idolatry.)
HOARDING IS IDOLATRY.
but where are we to draw the line between legitimate use and
unlawful accumulation?
let us reverse the word of Jesus and our question is answered:
'where thy heart is, thee shall thy treasure be also.'
our treasure may of course be small and inconspicuous,
but its size is immaterial;
it all depends on the heart, on ourselves.
and if we ask how we are to know where our hearts are,
the answer is simple
-everything which hinders us from loving God above all things
and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus
is our treasure,
and the place where our heart is.
but Jesus knows that the heart of man hankers after a treasure
and so it is His will that he should have one
(foot: it is to be observed that Jesus does not deprive he human heart
of its instinctive needs -treasure, glory and praise.
but He gives it higher objects
-the glory of God (john 5.44),
the glorying in the cross (gal. 6.14)
and the treasure of heaven.)
but this treasure is to be sought in heaven, not on earth.
...surely these treasures can be none other than the 'extraordinary',
the hidden character of the christian life,
none other than the fruits of the passion of Jesus Christ
which sustains the live of His followers.
if our hearts are entirely given to God,
it is clear that we CANNOT serve two masters;
it is simply impossible
-at any rate all the time we are following Christ.
it would of course be tempting
to show how far we had advanced in the christian life
by endeavouring to serve two masters
and giving each his due, both God and Mammon.
why should we not be happy children of the world
just because we are the children of God?
after all, do we not rejoice in His good gifts
and do we not receive our treasures as a blessing from him?
no, God and the world, God and its goods are incompatible,
because the world and its goods make a bid for our hearts,
and only when they have won them do they become
what they really are.
that is how they thrive and that is why they are incompatible
with allegiance to God.
our hearts have room only for one all embracing devotion
and we can only cleave to one Lord.
every competitor to that devotion must be hated.
as Jesus says, there is no alternative
-either we love God or we hate him.
we are confronted by an 'either-or':
either we love God or we love earthly goods.
if we love God, we hate the world
and if we love the world, we hate God.
it makes no difference whether that love be conscious
and deliberate or not;
in fact it is morally certain that it will be neither,
and that our conscious and deliberate desire
will be to serve two masters,
to love God AND the good things of life.
we shall indignantly repudiate the suggestion that we hate God,
and will be firmly convinced that we love Him,
whereas by trying to combine love for Him with love for the world,
we are turning our love for Him into hatred.
and then we have lost the single eye
and our heart is no longer in fellowship with Jesus.
our deliberate intentions make no difference to the inevitable result:
ye cannot serve two masters, if ye be followers of Jesus Christ.
therefore I say unto you,
be not anxious for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
is not the life more than the food and the body than the raiment?
behold the birds of the heaven,
that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns;
and your heavenly Father feedeth them.
are not ye of much more value than they?
and which of you by being anxious can add one cubit
unto his stature?
and why are ye anxious concerning raiment?
consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin:
yet I say unto you, that even solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
but if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, \
shall he not much more clothe you, o ye of little faith?
be not therefore anxious saying, what shall we eat? or
what shall we drink?
or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
for after all these things do the gentiles seek;
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things.
but seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
be not therefore anxious for the morrow:
for the morrow will be anxious for itself.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. matt. 6.25-34
be not anxious!
earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us
into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety.
yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety.
if our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety
whose burden is intolerable.
anxiety creates its own treasures and they in turn beget further care.
when we seek for security in possessions we are trying
to drive out care with care,
and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations.
the fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be
cares themselves.
THE WAY TO MISUSE OUR POSSESSIONS
IS TO USE THEM AS AN INSURANCE AGAINST THE MORROW.
anxiety is always directed to the morrow,
whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used
only for today.
by trying to ensure for the next day
we are only creating uncertainty today.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
the only way to win assurance is
by leaving tomorrow entirely in the hands of God
and by receiving from Him all we need for today.
if instead of receiving God's gifts for today
we worry about tomorrow,
we find ourselves helpless victims of infinite anxiety.
'be not anxious for the morrow'
either that is cruel mockery for the poor and wretched,
the very people Jesus is talking to who,
humanly speaking, really will starve if
they do not make provision today.
either it is an intolerable law,
which men will reject with indignation;
or it is the unique proclamation of the gospel of
the glorious liberty of the children of God,
who have a Father in heaven,
a Father who has given His beloved Son.
how shall not God with Him also freely give us all things?
'BE NOT ANXIOUS FOR THE MORROW.'
this is not to be taken as a philosophy of life or a moral law:
IT IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST,
and so only can it be understood.
only those who follow Him and know Him
can receive this word as a promise of the love of his Father
and as a deliverance from the thraldom of material things.
it is not care that frees the disciples from care,
but their faith in Jesus Christ.
only they know that they cannot be anxious (v27).
the coming day, even the coming hour, are placed beyond our control.
it is senseless to pretend that we can make provision
because we cannot alter the circumstances of this world.
only God can take care, for it is He who rules the world.
since we CANNOT take care,
since we are so completely powerless,
we OUGHT not to do it either.
if ewe do, we are dethroning God
and presuming to rule the world ourselves.
but the christian also knows that he not only cannot
and dare not be anxious,
but that there is also no need for him to be so.
neither anxiety nor work can secure his daily bread,
for bread is the gift of the Father.
the birds and lilies neither toil nor spin,
yet both are fed and clothed
and receive their daily portion without being anxious for them.
they need earthly goods only for their daily sustenance,
and they do not lay up a store for the future.
this is the way they glorify their Creator,
not by their industry, toil or car,
but by a daily unquestioning acceptance of His gifts.
birds and lilies then are an example for the followers of Christ.
'man in revot' imagines that there is a relation of cause and effect
between work and sustenance,
but Jesus explodes that illusion.
according to Him, bread is not to be valued as a reward for work;
He speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man
who walks with Him
and accepts everything as it comes from God.
'now mark ye, no beast worketh for his sustenance,
but each hath his proper function, according to which
he seeketh and findeth his own food.
the bird doth fly and sing, she maketh nests and beareth young.
that is her work, but yet she doth not nourish herself thereby.
oxen plough, horses draw carts and fight,
sheep give wool, milk and cheese, for it is their function so to do.
but they do not nurture themselves thereby.
nay, the earth bringeth forth grass, and nurtureth them
through God's blessing.
likewise it is man's bounden duty to work and do things
and yet withal to know that it is Another who nurtureth him:
it is not his own work, but the bounteous blessing of God.
it is true that the bird doth neither sow nor reap,
yet would she die of hunger if she flew not in search of food.
but that she findeth the same is not her work,
but the goodness of God.
for who put the food there, that she might find it?
for where God hath put nought, none findeth,
even though the whole world were to work itself to death in search thereof'. Luther
but if the Creator thus sustains the birds and lilies,
should He not much more as a Father nourish His own children,
who daily pray to Him?
should He not be able to grant them the necessities of life,
when all earthly goods belong to Him,
and when He can distribute them according to His pleasure?
God the Father grant to me
all my daily needs.
why should i not unto Him flee,
when all the birds He feeds? claudius
anxiety is characteristic of the gentiles,
for they rely on their own strength and work
instead of relying on God.
they do not know that the Father
knows that we have need of all these things,
ans so they try to do for themselves
what they do not expect from God.
but the disciples know that the rule is
'seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.'
ANXIETY FOR FOOD AND CLOTHING
IS CLEARLY NOT THE SAME THING
AS ANXIETY FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD,
however much we should like to persuade ourselves
that when we are working
for our families and concerning ourselves with bread and houses
we are thereby building the kingdom, as though the kingdom
could be realized only through our worldly cares.
the kingdom is none other than the righteousness of matt. 5 and 6,
the righteousness of the cross and following Christ beneath that cross..
fellowship with Jesus and obedience to His commandment come first,
and all else follows.
worldly cares are not a part of our discipleship,
but distinct and subordinate concerns.
before we start taking thought for our life,
our food and clothing, our work and families,
we must seek the righteousness of Christ.
this is no more than an ultimate summing up of
all that has been said before.
again we have here either a crushing burden,
which holds out no hope for the poor and wretched,
or else it is the quintessence of the gospel,
which brings the promise of freedom and perfect joy.
Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot;
He tells us what God has given us and promises still to give.
if Christ has been given us, if we are called to His discipleship
we are given all things, literally all things.
he will see to it that they are added unto us.
if we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness,
we are in His hands and under the protection of Him and His Father.
and if we are in communion with the Father,
nought can harm us.
we shall always be assured that He can feed His children
and will not suffer them to hunger.
God will help us in the hour of need,
and He knows our needs.
after he has been following Christ for a long time,
the disciple of Jesus will be asked
'lacked ye anything?
and he will answer
'nothing, Lord.'
how could he when he knows that despite
hunger and nakedness, persecution and danger,
the Lord is always at his side?
CHAPTER 15 THE HIDDENNESS OF PRAYER
and when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites:
for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
verily i say unto you,
they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber,
and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
and in praying use not vain repetitions, as the gentiles do;
for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking.
be not therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye hath need of,
before ye ask Him. matt. 6.5-8
Jesus teaches His disciples to pray.
what does this mean?
it means that prayer is by no means an obvious or natural activity.
it is the expression of a universal human instinct,
but that does not justify it in the sight of God.
even where prayer is cultivated with discipline and perseverance
it can still be profitless and void of God's blessing.
the disciples are permitted to pray because
Jesus tells them they may
-and He knows the Father.
He promises that God will hear them.
that is to say, the disciples pray only because they are
followers of Christ and have fellowship with Him.
only those who, like them, adhere to Jesus have access to
the Father through Him.
all christian prayer is directed to god through a Mediator,
and not even prayer affords direct access to the Father.
only through Jesus Christ can we find the Father in prayer.
christian prayer presupposes faith, that is, adherence to Christ.
He is the one and only mediator of our prayers.
we pray at His command,
and to that word christian prayer is always bound.
we pray to God because we believe in Him through Jesus Christ;
that is to say, our prayer can never be an entreaty to God,
for we have no need to come before Him in that way.
we are privileged to know that he knows our needs
before we ask Him.
this is what gives Christian prayer its boundless
confidence and its joyous certainty.
it matters little what form of prayer we adopt or
how many words we use,
what matters is the faith which lays hold on God
and touches the heart of the Father
who knew us long before we came to Him.
genuine prayer is never 'good works',
an exercise or a pious attitude,
but it is always the prayer of a child to a Father.
hence it is never given to self display,
whether before God, ourselves or other people.
if god were ignorant of our needs,
we should have to think out beforehand how we
should tell Him about them,
what we should tell Him
and whether we should tell Him or not.
thus faith, which is the mainspring of christian prayer,
excludes all reflection and premeditation.
prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character
of the christian life.
ti is the antithesis of self display.
when men pray, they have ceased to know themselves
and know only god whom they call upon.
prayer does not aim at any direct effect on the world;
it is addressed to God alone,
and therefore the perfect example of undemonstrative action.
of course there is a danger even here.
prayer of this kind can seek self display,
it can seek to bring to light that which is hidden.
this may happen in public prayer...
..i can lay on a very nice show for myself
even in the privacy of my own room.
that is the extent to which we can distort the word of Jesus.
the publicity which i am looking for is then provided
by the fact that i am the one who at the same time prays
and looks on.
i am listening to my own prayer and thus i am answering
my own prayer.
not being content to wait for god to answer our prayer
and show us in His own time that He has heard us,
we provide our own answer.
we take note that we have prayed suitably well
and this substitutes the satisfaction of answered prayer.
we have our reward.
since we have heard ourselves, God will not hear us.
having contrived our own reward of publicity,
we cannot expect God to reward us any further.
...true prayer does not depend either on the individual
or the whole body or the faithful,
but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father
knows our needs.
that makes god the sole object of our prayers,
and frees us from a false confidence in our own prayerful efforts.
after this manner therefore pray ye:
our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
give us this day our daily bread.
and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.
and bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for if ye forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses matt. 6.9-15
Jesus tole His disciples not only how to pray, but also what to pray.
the Lord's prayer is not merely the pattern prayer,
it is the way christians MUST pray.
if they pray this prayer, God will certainly hear them.
the Lord's prayer is the quintessence of prayer.
a disciple's prayer is founded on and circumscribed by it....
..God's name, God's kingdom, God's will
must be the primary object of christian prayer.
of course it is not as if God needed our prayers,
but they are the means by which the disciples become partakers
in the heavenly treasure for which they pray...
..forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
every day Christ's followers must acknowledge and bewail their guilt.
living as they do in fellowship with Him, they ought to be sinless,
but in practiced their life is marred daily with all manner of unbelief,
sloth in prayer, lack of bodily discipline, self indulgence of every kind,
envy, hatred and ambition.
no wonder that they must pray daily for God's forgiveness.
but God will only forgive them if they forgive one another
with readiness and brotherly affection.
thus they bring all their guilt before God
and pray as a body for forgiveness.
God forgive not merely me my debts, but us ours.
CHAPTER 16 THE HIDDENNESS OF THE DEVOUT LIFE
moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:
for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast.
verily i say unto you, they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face;
that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father which is in secret:
and they Father, which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. matt. 6.16-8
Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will observe the pious custom
of fasting.
strict exercise of self control is an essential feature of the christian's life.
such customs have only one purpose
-to make the disciples more ready and cheerful to
accomplish those things which God would have done.
fasting helps to discipline the self indulgent and slothful will
which is so reluctant to serve the Lord,
and it helps to humiliate and chasten the flesh.
by practising abstemiousness we show the world how different
the christian life is from its own.
if there is no element of asceticism in our lives,
of we give free rein to the desires of the flesh
(taking care of course to keep within the limits of what seems permissible
to the world),
we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ.
when the flesh is satisfied it is hard to pray with cheerfulness
or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self renunciation.
so the christian needs to observe a strict exterior discipline.
but we are not to imagine that that alone will crush the will of the flesh,
or that there is any way of mortifying our old man than by faith in Jesus.
the real difference in the believer who follows Christ,
and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ,
is that he is more clearly aware than other men of
the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh,
he is conscious of his sloth and self indulgence
and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated.
hence there is a need for daily self discipline.
it is always true of the disciple that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,
and he must therefore 'watch and pray'.
the spirit knows the right way and desires to follow it,
but the flesh lacks courage and finds it too hard,
too hazardous and wearisome,
and so it stifles the voice of the spirit.
the spirit assents when Jesus bids us love our enemies,
but flesh and blood are too strong and prevent our carrying it out.
therefore we have to practise strictest daily discipline:
only so can the flesh learn the painful lesson that it has ho right of its own.
regular daily prayer is a great help here
and so is daily MEDITATION on the word of God
and every kind of bodily discipline and asceticism.
the flesh resists this daily humiliation,
first by a frontal attack,
and later by hiding itself under the words of the spirit
(ie. in the name of 'evangelical liberty').
we claim liberty from all legal compulsion,
from self martyrdom and mortification,
and play this off against the proper evangelical
use of discipline and asceticism;
we thus excuse our self indulgence and irregularity in prayer,
in meditation and in our bodily life.
but the contrast between our behaviour and the word of Jesus
is all too painfully evident.
we forget that discipleship means estrangement from the world
and we forget the real joy and freedom which are the outcome
of a devout rule of life.
as soon as a christian recognizes that he has failed in his service,
that his readiness has become feeble,
and that he has sinned against another's life
and become guilty of another's guilt,
that all his joy in God has vanished
and that his capacity for prayer has quite gone,
it is high time for him to launch an assault upon the flesh
and prepare or better service by fasting and prayer
..any objection that asceticism is wrong,
and that all we need is faith,
is quite beside the point;
it is cruel to suggest such a thing and it is of no help to us at all.
when all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing
if not an unending struggle of the spirit
with every available weapon
against the flesh.
how is it possible to live the life of faith
when we grow weary of prayer,
when we lose our taste for reading the bible
and when sleep, food and sensuality deprive us of the joy of
communion with God?
asceticism means voluntary suffering:
it is passio active rather than passiva,
and it is just there that the danger lies.
there is always a danger that in our asceticism we shall
be tempted to imitate the sufferings of Christ.
this is a pious but godless ambition,
for beneath it there always lurks the notion that
it is possible for us to step into Christ's shoes and
suffer as he did and kill the old adam.
we are then presuming to undertake that bitter work of
eternal redemption which Christ Himself wrought for us.
the motive of asceticism was more limited
-to equip us for better service and deeper humiliation.
but it can only do that so long as it takes the sufferings of Christ as its basis;
it not, it degenerates into a dreadful parody of our Lords own passion.
our whole motive now becomes a desire for ostentation.
we want other people o see our achievements
and to be put to shame.
our asceticism has now become the way to salvation.
such publicity gives it the reward it seeks.
CHAPTER 17 THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CAREFREE LIFE
lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,
where moth and rust doth consume,
and where thieves beak through and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth consume,
and where thieves do not break though nor steal:
for where thy treasure is, thee will thy heat be also.
the lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore Thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
but if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is the darkness! no man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one and love the other;
or else he will hold o one, and despise the other.
ye cannot serve God and mammon. matthew 6.19-24
...(Jesus) was man, He ate and drank like His disciples
and thereby sanctified the good things of lie.
these necessities, which are consumed in use
and which meet the legitimate requirements of the body,
are to be used by the disciple with thankfulness.
..earthly GOODS are given to be USED,
NOT to be COLLECTED.
in the wilderness God gave israel the manna every day,
and they had no need to worry about food and drink.
indeed, if they dept any of the manna over until the next day,
it went bad.
in the same way,
the disciple
must receive
his portion
from God
every day.
if he stores it up
as a permanent possession,
he spoils not only the gift,
but himself as well,
for he sets his heart on his accumulated wealth,
and makes it a barrier between himself and God.
where our treasure is
there is our trust,
our security, our consolation
and our god.
(foot: it is not accident that the catalogues of vices in the pauline epistles
associate fornication with covetousness,
and designate both as idolatry.)
HOARDING IS IDOLATRY.
but where are we to draw the line between legitimate use and
unlawful accumulation?
let us reverse the word of Jesus and our question is answered:
'where thy heart is, thee shall thy treasure be also.'
our treasure may of course be small and inconspicuous,
but its size is immaterial;
it all depends on the heart, on ourselves.
and if we ask how we are to know where our hearts are,
the answer is simple
-everything which hinders us from loving God above all things
and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus
is our treasure,
and the place where our heart is.
but Jesus knows that the heart of man hankers after a treasure
and so it is His will that he should have one
(foot: it is to be observed that Jesus does not deprive he human heart
of its instinctive needs -treasure, glory and praise.
but He gives it higher objects
-the glory of God (john 5.44),
the glorying in the cross (gal. 6.14)
and the treasure of heaven.)
but this treasure is to be sought in heaven, not on earth.
...surely these treasures can be none other than the 'extraordinary',
the hidden character of the christian life,
none other than the fruits of the passion of Jesus Christ
which sustains the live of His followers.
if our hearts are entirely given to God,
it is clear that we CANNOT serve two masters;
it is simply impossible
-at any rate all the time we are following Christ.
it would of course be tempting
to show how far we had advanced in the christian life
by endeavouring to serve two masters
and giving each his due, both God and Mammon.
why should we not be happy children of the world
just because we are the children of God?
after all, do we not rejoice in His good gifts
and do we not receive our treasures as a blessing from him?
no, God and the world, God and its goods are incompatible,
because the world and its goods make a bid for our hearts,
and only when they have won them do they become
what they really are.
that is how they thrive and that is why they are incompatible
with allegiance to God.
our hearts have room only for one all embracing devotion
and we can only cleave to one Lord.
every competitor to that devotion must be hated.
as Jesus says, there is no alternative
-either we love God or we hate him.
we are confronted by an 'either-or':
either we love God or we love earthly goods.
if we love God, we hate the world
and if we love the world, we hate God.
it makes no difference whether that love be conscious
and deliberate or not;
in fact it is morally certain that it will be neither,
and that our conscious and deliberate desire
will be to serve two masters,
to love God AND the good things of life.
we shall indignantly repudiate the suggestion that we hate God,
and will be firmly convinced that we love Him,
whereas by trying to combine love for Him with love for the world,
we are turning our love for Him into hatred.
and then we have lost the single eye
and our heart is no longer in fellowship with Jesus.
our deliberate intentions make no difference to the inevitable result:
ye cannot serve two masters, if ye be followers of Jesus Christ.
therefore I say unto you,
be not anxious for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
is not the life more than the food and the body than the raiment?
behold the birds of the heaven,
that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns;
and your heavenly Father feedeth them.
are not ye of much more value than they?
and which of you by being anxious can add one cubit
unto his stature?
and why are ye anxious concerning raiment?
consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin:
yet I say unto you, that even solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
but if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, \
shall he not much more clothe you, o ye of little faith?
be not therefore anxious saying, what shall we eat? or
what shall we drink?
or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
for after all these things do the gentiles seek;
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things.
but seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
be not therefore anxious for the morrow:
for the morrow will be anxious for itself.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. matt. 6.25-34
be not anxious!
earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us
into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety.
yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety.
if our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety
whose burden is intolerable.
anxiety creates its own treasures and they in turn beget further care.
when we seek for security in possessions we are trying
to drive out care with care,
and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations.
the fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be
cares themselves.
THE WAY TO MISUSE OUR POSSESSIONS
IS TO USE THEM AS AN INSURANCE AGAINST THE MORROW.
anxiety is always directed to the morrow,
whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used
only for today.
by trying to ensure for the next day
we are only creating uncertainty today.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
the only way to win assurance is
by leaving tomorrow entirely in the hands of God
and by receiving from Him all we need for today.
if instead of receiving God's gifts for today
we worry about tomorrow,
we find ourselves helpless victims of infinite anxiety.
'be not anxious for the morrow'
either that is cruel mockery for the poor and wretched,
the very people Jesus is talking to who,
humanly speaking, really will starve if
they do not make provision today.
either it is an intolerable law,
which men will reject with indignation;
or it is the unique proclamation of the gospel of
the glorious liberty of the children of God,
who have a Father in heaven,
a Father who has given His beloved Son.
how shall not God with Him also freely give us all things?
'BE NOT ANXIOUS FOR THE MORROW.'
this is not to be taken as a philosophy of life or a moral law:
IT IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST,
and so only can it be understood.
only those who follow Him and know Him
can receive this word as a promise of the love of his Father
and as a deliverance from the thraldom of material things.
it is not care that frees the disciples from care,
but their faith in Jesus Christ.
only they know that they cannot be anxious (v27).
the coming day, even the coming hour, are placed beyond our control.
it is senseless to pretend that we can make provision
because we cannot alter the circumstances of this world.
only God can take care, for it is He who rules the world.
since we CANNOT take care,
since we are so completely powerless,
we OUGHT not to do it either.
if ewe do, we are dethroning God
and presuming to rule the world ourselves.
but the christian also knows that he not only cannot
and dare not be anxious,
but that there is also no need for him to be so.
neither anxiety nor work can secure his daily bread,
for bread is the gift of the Father.
the birds and lilies neither toil nor spin,
yet both are fed and clothed
and receive their daily portion without being anxious for them.
they need earthly goods only for their daily sustenance,
and they do not lay up a store for the future.
this is the way they glorify their Creator,
not by their industry, toil or car,
but by a daily unquestioning acceptance of His gifts.
birds and lilies then are an example for the followers of Christ.
'man in revot' imagines that there is a relation of cause and effect
between work and sustenance,
but Jesus explodes that illusion.
according to Him, bread is not to be valued as a reward for work;
He speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man
who walks with Him
and accepts everything as it comes from God.
'now mark ye, no beast worketh for his sustenance,
but each hath his proper function, according to which
he seeketh and findeth his own food.
the bird doth fly and sing, she maketh nests and beareth young.
that is her work, but yet she doth not nourish herself thereby.
oxen plough, horses draw carts and fight,
sheep give wool, milk and cheese, for it is their function so to do.
but they do not nurture themselves thereby.
nay, the earth bringeth forth grass, and nurtureth them
through God's blessing.
likewise it is man's bounden duty to work and do things
and yet withal to know that it is Another who nurtureth him:
it is not his own work, but the bounteous blessing of God.
it is true that the bird doth neither sow nor reap,
yet would she die of hunger if she flew not in search of food.
but that she findeth the same is not her work,
but the goodness of God.
for who put the food there, that she might find it?
for where God hath put nought, none findeth,
even though the whole world were to work itself to death in search thereof'. Luther
but if the Creator thus sustains the birds and lilies,
should He not much more as a Father nourish His own children,
who daily pray to Him?
should He not be able to grant them the necessities of life,
when all earthly goods belong to Him,
and when He can distribute them according to His pleasure?
God the Father grant to me
all my daily needs.
why should i not unto Him flee,
when all the birds He feeds? claudius
anxiety is characteristic of the gentiles,
for they rely on their own strength and work
instead of relying on God.
they do not know that the Father
knows that we have need of all these things,
ans so they try to do for themselves
what they do not expect from God.
but the disciples know that the rule is
'seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.'
ANXIETY FOR FOOD AND CLOTHING
IS CLEARLY NOT THE SAME THING
AS ANXIETY FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD,
however much we should like to persuade ourselves
that when we are working
for our families and concerning ourselves with bread and houses
we are thereby building the kingdom, as though the kingdom
could be realized only through our worldly cares.
the kingdom is none other than the righteousness of matt. 5 and 6,
the righteousness of the cross and following Christ beneath that cross..
fellowship with Jesus and obedience to His commandment come first,
and all else follows.
worldly cares are not a part of our discipleship,
but distinct and subordinate concerns.
before we start taking thought for our life,
our food and clothing, our work and families,
we must seek the righteousness of Christ.
this is no more than an ultimate summing up of
all that has been said before.
again we have here either a crushing burden,
which holds out no hope for the poor and wretched,
or else it is the quintessence of the gospel,
which brings the promise of freedom and perfect joy.
Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot;
He tells us what God has given us and promises still to give.
if Christ has been given us, if we are called to His discipleship
we are given all things, literally all things.
he will see to it that they are added unto us.
if we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness,
we are in His hands and under the protection of Him and His Father.
and if we are in communion with the Father,
nought can harm us.
we shall always be assured that He can feed His children
and will not suffer them to hunger.
God will help us in the hour of need,
and He knows our needs.
after he has been following Christ for a long time,
the disciple of Jesus will be asked
'lacked ye anything?
and he will answer
'nothing, Lord.'
how could he when he knows that despite
hunger and nakedness, persecution and danger,
the Lord is always at his side?
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
5.14.2013 TALKATIVENESS
taken from a many years old tract by christ's home press, warminster, pa.
and that ye study to be quiet,
and to do your own business
and to work with your own hands,
as we commanded you.. I thess. 4.11
talkativeness is utterly ruinous to deep spirituality.
the very life of our spirit passes out in our speech
and hence all superfluous talk is a wast of
the vital forces of the heart.
in fruit growing it often happens that
excessive blossoming prevents a good crop
and often prevents fruit altogether;
and by so much loquacity
the soul runs wild in word, blooms and bears no fruit.
i am not speaking of sinners,
nor of legitimate testimony for Jesus,
but of that incessant loquacity of nominally spirityal persons
-of the professors of pruifying grace.
it is one of the greatest hindrances to
deep, solid union with God.
notice how people will tell the same thing over and over
-how insignificant trifles are magnified by a world of words;
how things that should be buried are dragged out into gossip;
how a worthless non-essential is argued and disputed over;
how the solemn deep things of the Holy Spirit
are rattled over in a light manner
-until one who has the real baptism of divine silence in his heart,
feels he must unceremoniously tear himself away
to some lonely room or forest,
where he can gather up the fragments of his mind,
and rest in God.
not only do we need cleansing from sin,
but our natural human spirit needs a
radical death to its own noise and activity and wordiness.
se the evil effects of so much talk.
first, it dissipates the spiritual power.
the thought and feeling of the soul
are like powder and steam
-the more they are condensed, the greater their power.
the steam that if properly compressed
would drive a train sixty miles an hour,
if allowed too much expanse would not move it an inch;
so the true action of the heart,
if expressed in a few Holy Ghost selected words,
will sink into the minds to remain forever,
but if dissipated in any rabling conversation,
is likely to be of no profit.
second, it is a wast of time.
if the hours spent in useless conversation
were spent in secret prayer or deep reading,
we would soon reach a region of spiritual life and divine peace
beyond our present dreams.
third, loquacity inevitabley leads to saying
unwise or unpleasant of unprofitable things.
in religious conversation we soon churn up
all the cream our souls have in them
and the rest of our talk is all pale skim milk,
until we get alone with God,
and feed on His green pasture
until the cream arises again.
the Holy Spirit warns us that
'in the multitude of words there lacketh not sin'.
it is impossible for even the best of saints to talk
beyond a certain point,
without saying something
unkind
or sever
or foolish
or erroneous.
we must settle this personally.
if others are noisy and talkative
i must determine to live in constant quietness and humility of heart.
i must guard my speech as a sentinel does a fortress
and with all respect for others.
i must many a time cease from conversation
or withdraw from company
to enter into deep communion with my precious lord.
the cure for loquacity must be from within;
sometimes by an interior furnace of suffering that burns out
the excessive effervescence of the mind
or by an over mastering revelation to the soul
of the awful majesties of God and eternity,
which puts an everlasting hush upon the natural faculties.
to walk in the Spirit we must avoid
talking for talk's sake
or merely to entertain.
to speak effectively we must speak in God's appointed time
and in harmony with the indwelling holy Spirit.
'he that hath knowledge spareth his wors
and a man of understanding is of a cool spirit. prov. 17.27 rv
'in quietness and in confidence shall be
your strength. isa. 30.15; eccl. 5.2-3 selected.
and that ye study to be quiet,
and to do your own business
and to work with your own hands,
as we commanded you.. I thess. 4.11
talkativeness is utterly ruinous to deep spirituality.
the very life of our spirit passes out in our speech
and hence all superfluous talk is a wast of
the vital forces of the heart.
in fruit growing it often happens that
excessive blossoming prevents a good crop
and often prevents fruit altogether;
and by so much loquacity
the soul runs wild in word, blooms and bears no fruit.
i am not speaking of sinners,
nor of legitimate testimony for Jesus,
but of that incessant loquacity of nominally spirityal persons
-of the professors of pruifying grace.
it is one of the greatest hindrances to
deep, solid union with God.
notice how people will tell the same thing over and over
-how insignificant trifles are magnified by a world of words;
how things that should be buried are dragged out into gossip;
how a worthless non-essential is argued and disputed over;
how the solemn deep things of the Holy Spirit
are rattled over in a light manner
-until one who has the real baptism of divine silence in his heart,
feels he must unceremoniously tear himself away
to some lonely room or forest,
where he can gather up the fragments of his mind,
and rest in God.
not only do we need cleansing from sin,
but our natural human spirit needs a
radical death to its own noise and activity and wordiness.
se the evil effects of so much talk.
first, it dissipates the spiritual power.
the thought and feeling of the soul
are like powder and steam
-the more they are condensed, the greater their power.
the steam that if properly compressed
would drive a train sixty miles an hour,
if allowed too much expanse would not move it an inch;
so the true action of the heart,
if expressed in a few Holy Ghost selected words,
will sink into the minds to remain forever,
but if dissipated in any rabling conversation,
is likely to be of no profit.
second, it is a wast of time.
if the hours spent in useless conversation
were spent in secret prayer or deep reading,
we would soon reach a region of spiritual life and divine peace
beyond our present dreams.
third, loquacity inevitabley leads to saying
unwise or unpleasant of unprofitable things.
in religious conversation we soon churn up
all the cream our souls have in them
and the rest of our talk is all pale skim milk,
until we get alone with God,
and feed on His green pasture
until the cream arises again.
the Holy Spirit warns us that
'in the multitude of words there lacketh not sin'.
it is impossible for even the best of saints to talk
beyond a certain point,
without saying something
unkind
or sever
or foolish
or erroneous.
we must settle this personally.
if others are noisy and talkative
i must determine to live in constant quietness and humility of heart.
i must guard my speech as a sentinel does a fortress
and with all respect for others.
i must many a time cease from conversation
or withdraw from company
to enter into deep communion with my precious lord.
the cure for loquacity must be from within;
sometimes by an interior furnace of suffering that burns out
the excessive effervescence of the mind
or by an over mastering revelation to the soul
of the awful majesties of God and eternity,
which puts an everlasting hush upon the natural faculties.
to walk in the Spirit we must avoid
talking for talk's sake
or merely to entertain.
to speak effectively we must speak in God's appointed time
and in harmony with the indwelling holy Spirit.
'he that hath knowledge spareth his wors
and a man of understanding is of a cool spirit. prov. 17.27 rv
'in quietness and in confidence shall be
your strength. isa. 30.15; eccl. 5.2-3 selected.
5.14.2013 MOISHE ROSEN ON THANKSGIVING
..if a person wanted to intensify the act of thanksgiving,
what could she or he do?
what could you do?
many of us shop for bargain basement spirituality
-something that looks good enough to be acceptable
and can be gained at a chep price.
but God has provided a more authentic way to
intensify our thanks to Him.
the best way to exercise thanksgiving is
through SACRIFICE.
if God seems remote
and you want to draw close,
maybe you need to make a sacrifice.
sacrifice is a tangible gift, work or deed
that springs from a thankful heart.
sacrifice brings us into fellowship with the Almighty.
it realigns our hearts,
it reassigns our priorities,
and it helps us realize a deeper plane of existence.
sacrifice gives us a sense of the reality of god.
when i was executive director i sometimes felt bad to see
people depriving themselves of things i felt were essential
-things my family and i had not given up
-in order to give sacrificially to jews for Jesu.
once i was so touched,
i felt compelled to send back a sizable donation from a bensioner
because i feared that he was doing with out food and heat
to give it.
in the letter i told him that we were far from desperate.
and that he needed the money more than we did.
i received back a correctly indignant letter
reminding me that the gift was not to jews for Jesus
but to God.
the fact that i was in comfort was irrelevant to this man.
he had given such sacrifices to God
on many occasions throughout his life
and suggested that if i was uncomfortble with that,
maybe i should examine what i could sacrifice.
that man taught me something:
ONE MUST LOOK TO GOD AND ASK
WHAT HE WOULD ALLOW US TO SACRIFICE
God does not receive great sacrifices from just anyon.
but what a sweet, stirring thanksgiving event is possible
when you approach God with
your all, your everything, your life
-and with a smile, say:
'what will You allow me to present to You
as my token of appreciation and love?
and the Almighty smiles back and says,
'if you really mean it,
this (and He indicates something to you)
would be nice.'
what could she or he do?
what could you do?
many of us shop for bargain basement spirituality
-something that looks good enough to be acceptable
and can be gained at a chep price.
but God has provided a more authentic way to
intensify our thanks to Him.
the best way to exercise thanksgiving is
through SACRIFICE.
if God seems remote
and you want to draw close,
maybe you need to make a sacrifice.
sacrifice is a tangible gift, work or deed
that springs from a thankful heart.
sacrifice brings us into fellowship with the Almighty.
it realigns our hearts,
it reassigns our priorities,
and it helps us realize a deeper plane of existence.
sacrifice gives us a sense of the reality of god.
when i was executive director i sometimes felt bad to see
people depriving themselves of things i felt were essential
-things my family and i had not given up
-in order to give sacrificially to jews for Jesu.
once i was so touched,
i felt compelled to send back a sizable donation from a bensioner
because i feared that he was doing with out food and heat
to give it.
in the letter i told him that we were far from desperate.
and that he needed the money more than we did.
i received back a correctly indignant letter
reminding me that the gift was not to jews for Jesus
but to God.
the fact that i was in comfort was irrelevant to this man.
he had given such sacrifices to God
on many occasions throughout his life
and suggested that if i was uncomfortble with that,
maybe i should examine what i could sacrifice.
that man taught me something:
ONE MUST LOOK TO GOD AND ASK
WHAT HE WOULD ALLOW US TO SACRIFICE
God does not receive great sacrifices from just anyon.
but what a sweet, stirring thanksgiving event is possible
when you approach God with
your all, your everything, your life
-and with a smile, say:
'what will You allow me to present to You
as my token of appreciation and love?
and the Almighty smiles back and says,
'if you really mean it,
this (and He indicates something to you)
would be nice.'
5.14.2013 BROKEN? CRUSHED?
i have wondered much about david's adultery with bathsheba and subsequent murder of uriah her husband when david's clever scheme to try and get out of what he had done and pass his baby off as uriah's...
-wasn't he ashamed to know that others knew what he did...the one who had danced before the Lord as the ark came up to its resting place in jerusalem?
-how could he face people?
-how did he rationalize what he had done?
-how did it take a year for the prophet nathan to put the finger on david?
...and many other wonderings.
how would i react if i was the man who had done this? i don't even want to think about it.
king-godly-adulterer-murderer-a public disgrace? i just don't know how or what i would do.
he wrote psalm 51 after nathan to express a bit of what his thoughts were.
if he hadn't been freed from outward religiosity before this...he was now.
v16-17 for Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would i give it:
Thou delightest not in burn offering.the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
a broken and a contrite (lit. crushed) heart, o God, Thou wilt not despise.
david was inwardly broken and crushed (more intense?) over his now acknowledged sin against God,
bathsheba and uriah.
this brought him into a whole new experience with God...it would seem.
i abhor my self righteous perspective...the parading of Self with little to no shame.
i long for
the continuing realization of God's mercy, love and forgiveness
a continual broken and crushed heart before the Lord
as He (oh may He!) continually unfolds and reveals the indescribable wickedness of my heart.
may these two graces move me to DO what He says
to BE a slave with no rights, no life of my own.
may He utterly break and shatter and crush Me until
there is only He
Christ LIVE in me i pray.
-wasn't he ashamed to know that others knew what he did...the one who had danced before the Lord as the ark came up to its resting place in jerusalem?
-how could he face people?
-how did he rationalize what he had done?
-how did it take a year for the prophet nathan to put the finger on david?
...and many other wonderings.
how would i react if i was the man who had done this? i don't even want to think about it.
king-godly-adulterer-murderer-a public disgrace? i just don't know how or what i would do.
he wrote psalm 51 after nathan to express a bit of what his thoughts were.
if he hadn't been freed from outward religiosity before this...he was now.
v16-17 for Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would i give it:
Thou delightest not in burn offering.the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
a broken and a contrite (lit. crushed) heart, o God, Thou wilt not despise.
david was inwardly broken and crushed (more intense?) over his now acknowledged sin against God,
bathsheba and uriah.
this brought him into a whole new experience with God...it would seem.
i abhor my self righteous perspective...the parading of Self with little to no shame.
i long for
the continuing realization of God's mercy, love and forgiveness
a continual broken and crushed heart before the Lord
as He (oh may He!) continually unfolds and reveals the indescribable wickedness of my heart.
may these two graces move me to DO what He says
to BE a slave with no rights, no life of my own.
may He utterly break and shatter and crush Me until
there is only He
Christ LIVE in me i pray.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
5.11.2013 MARTIN LUTHER by MERLE D'AUBIGNE
LUTHER GOES TO WURMS
..he was not left quiet in his retreat.
spalatin, in conformity with the elector's orders,
sent him a not of the articles which he would be required to retract.
a retractation, after his refusal at augsburg!...
'fear not, wrote he..that i shall retract a single syllable,
since their only argument is that my works are opposed to
the rites of what they call the Church.
if the emperor charles summons me only that i may retract,
i shall reply that i will remain here,
and it will be the same as if i had gone to worms and returned.
but, on the contrary, if the emperor summons me that i may
be put death
as an enemy of the empire,
i am ready to comply with his call;
for, with the help of Christ,
i will never desert the Word on the battlefield.
i am well aware that these bloodthirsty men
will never rest until they have taken away my life.
would that it were the papists alone that would be guilty
of my blood!'
it was now the twenty fourth of march.
at last the imperial herald had passed the gate of the city
in which luther resided.
gaspard sturm waited upon the doctor,
and delivered the citation from charles V.
what a serious and solemn moment for the reformer!
all his friends were in consternation.
no prince, without excepting frederick the wise,
had declared for him.
the knights, it is true, had given utterance to their threats;
but them the powerful charles despised.
luther, however, was not discomposed.
'the papists, said he, on seeing the anguish of his friends,
do not desire my coming to worms,
but my condemnation and my death.
it matters not!
pray, not for me, but for the Word of God.
before my blood has grown cold,
thousands of men in the whole world will have become
responsible for having shed it!
the most holy adversary of Christ,
the father, the master, the generalissimo of murderers,
insists on its being shed.
so be it!
let God's will be done!
Christ will give me His Spirit
to overcome these ministers of error.
i despise them during my life;
i shall triumph over them by my death.
they are busy at worms about compelling me to retract;
and this shall be my retractation:
i said formerly that the pope was Christ's vicar;
now i assert that he is our Lord's adversary,
and the devil's apostle.'
...on the sunday after easter the church of the augustines of erfurt
was filled to overflowing.
this friar, who had been accustomed in former times
to unclose the doors and sweep out the church,
went up into the pulpit,
and opening the bible, read these words:
'peace be unto you.
ad when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and
His side. john 20.19-20
'philosophers, doctors and writers, said he, have endeavored to teach men
the way to obtain everlasting life,
and they have not succeeded.
i will now tell it to you. '
this has been the great question in every age;
accordingly luther's hearers redoubled their attention.
'there are two kinds of works, continued the reformer:
'woks not of ourselves and these are good;
our own works and they are of little worth.
one man builds a church;
another goes on a pilgrimage to st. jago of compostella or st. peter's;
a third fasts, prays, takes the cowl, and goes barefoot;
another does something else.
all these works are nothingness, and will come to nought;
for our own works have no virtue in them.
but i am now going to tell you what is the true work.
God has raised one man from the dead,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He might destroy death, extirpate sin, and shut the gates of hell.
this is the work of salvation. the devil thought he had the Lord
in his power
when he saw Him hanging between two thieves,
suffering the most disgraceful martyrdom, accursed of God and of men...
but the Godhead displayed its power and destroyed death, sin and hell..
Christ has vanquished!
this is the joyful news!
and we are saved by His work, and not by our own.
the pope says differently:
but i affirm that the holy mother of god herself was saved,
neither by her works,
but solely by the instrumentality of faith and the works of God.'
while L was speaking, a sudden noise was heard;
one of the galleries cracked and it was feared that it
would break down under the pressure of the crowd.
this incident occasioned a great disturbance in the congregation.
some ran out from their places; others stood motionless through fright.
the preacher stopped a moment and stretching out his hand,
exclaimed with a loud voice:
'fear nothing! there is no danger:
it is thus the devil seeks to hinder me from proclaiming the gospel,
but he will not succeed.'
at these words those who were flying halted in astonishment and surprise;
the assembly again became clam,
and L, undisturbed..continued thus:
'you say a great deal about faith
(you may perhaps reply to me):
show us how we may obtain it.
well, i will teach you.
our Lord Jesus Christ said:
'peace be unto you! behold My hands',
that is to say, Behold, O man!
it is I, I alone, who have taken away thy sin and ransomed thee;
and now thou hast peace, saith the Lord.
'i have not eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree, resumed L,
not have you; but we have all partaken of the sin that adam
has transmitted to us, and have gone astray.
in like manner, i have not suffered on the cross, neither have you;
but Christ has suffered for us;
we are justified by God's work, and not by our own...
I am (saith the Lord) thy righteousness and thy redemption.
let us believe in the gospel and in the epistles of st. paul,
and not in the letters and decretals of the popes...
'since God has saved us, continued he, let us so order our words
that they may be acceptable to Him.
art thou rich? let thy goods administer to the necessities of the poor!
art thou poor? let thy services be acceptable to the rich!
if thy labor is useful to thyself alone,
the service that thou pretendest to render unto God is a lie.'...
his progress (toward worms) resembled that of a victorious general.
the people gazed with emotion on this daring man,
who was going to lay his head at the feet of the emperor and the empire.
and immense crowd flocked eagerly around him.
"ah! said some, there are so many bishops and cardinals at worms!...
they will burn you and reduce your body to ashes, as they did with john huss.'
but nothing frightened the monk.
'though they should kindle fire, said he all the way from worms to wittenberg,
the flames of which reached to heaven,
i would walk through it in the name of the Lord
-i would appear before them-
i would enter the jaws of this behemoth,
and break his teeth,
confessing the Lord Jesus Christ.'
....(letter to spalatin, on the way)
'i am coming, although satan endeavored to stop me on the road by sickness.
since i left eisenach i have been in a feeble state,
and am still as i never was before.
i learn that charles has published an edict to frighten me.
but Christ lives, and i shall enter worms
in despite of all the gates of hell and of the powers of the air.
have the goodness, therefore, to prepare a lodging for me.'....
...(spalatin, worried greatly over all he heard of intended harm
sent a messenger to L warning him 'do not enter worms!)
..but L, undismayed, turned his eyes on the messenger and replied;
'go and tell your master that even should there be
as many devils in worms at tiles on the housetops,
still i would enter it!'
never, perhaps, has L been so sublime!
the messenger returned to worms with this astounding answer.
'i was then undaunted, said L, a few days before his death;
'i feared nothing.
god can indeed render a man intrepid at any time;
but i know not whether i should now have so much liberty and joy.'
...at length, on the morning of the 16th of april, L discovered the walls
of the ancient city.
all were expecting him.
one absorbing thought prevailed in worms.
some young nobles..with six knights and other gentlemen
in the train of princes, to the number of a hundred...,
unable to restrain their impatience,
rode out on horseback to meet him and surround him,
to form an escort at the moment of his entrance.
he drew near.
before him pranced the imperial herald, in full costume.
L came next in his modest car.
jonas followed him on horseback and the cavaliers were on both
sides of him.
a great crowd was waiting for him at the gates.
it was near midday when he passed those walls,
from which so many persons had predicted he would
never come forth alive.
everyone was at table;
but as soon as the watchman on the tower of the cathedral
sounded his trumpet, all ran into the streets to see the monk....
two thousand persons accompanied him through the streets of the city.
the citizens eagerly pressed forward to see him:
every moment the crowd was increasing.
it was much greater than at the public entry of the emperor.
on a sudden, says an historian,
a man dressed in a singular costume, and bearing a large cross,
such as is employed in funeral processions,
made way through the crowd, advanced towards L
and then with a loud voice, and in that plaintive, measured tone
in which mass is said for the repose of the soul,
he sang those words, as if he were uttering them from the
abode of the dead:
(english-at last thou'rt come, long looked for one,
whom we have waited for in the darkness of the grave.')
thus a requiem was L's welcome to worms.
it was the court fool of one of the dukes of bavaria,
who, if the story be true, gave L one of those warnings,
replete at once with sagacity and irony,
of which the history of these individuals furnishes so many examples.
but the shouts of the multitude soon drowned the de profundis of
the cross bearer....
charles V immediately summoned his council...'L is come, what must we do?'
modo, bishop of palermo, and chancellor of flanders, replied,
if we may credit the testimony of L himself:
'we have long consulted on this matter.
let your imperial majesty get rid of this man at once.
did not sigismund cause john huss to be burned?
we are not bound either to give or to observe the safe conduct of a heretic.'
'no!' said charles, we must keep our promise...
...meantime, the crowd still continued round the hotel of rhodes,
where L had alighted.
to some he was a prodigy of wisdom,
to others a monster of iniquity.
all the city longed to see him.
they allowed him, however, a few hours after his arrival
to recruit his strength, and to converse with his most intimate friends.
but as soon as the evening came,
counts, barons, knights, gentlemen, ecclesiastics and citizens,
flocked about him.
all, even his greatest enemies, were struck with
the boldness of his manner, the joy that seemed to animate him,
the power of his language, and that imposing elevation and enthusiasm
which gave this simple monk an irresistible authority.
but while some ascribed this grandeur to something divine,
the friends of the pope loudly exclaimed that he was possessed by a devil.
visitors rapidly succeeded each other and this crowd of curious individuals
kept L from his bed until a late hour of the night.
...four o'clock arrived.
the marshal of the empire appeared; L prepared to set out with him.
he was agitated at the thought of the solemn congress before which he
was about to appear.
the herald walked first; after him the marshal of the empire;
and the reformer came last.
the crowd that filled the streets was still greater than on the preceding day.
it was impossible to advance;
in vain were orders given to make way;
the crowd kept increasing.
at length the herald, seeing the difficulty of reaching the town hall,
ordered some private houses to be opened, \
and led L through the gardens and private passages
to the place where the diet was sitting.
the people who witnessed this, rushed into the houses after
the monk of wittenberg,
ran to the windows that overlooked the gardens
and a great number climbed on the roofs.
the tops of the houses and the pavements of the streets, above and below,
all were covered with spectators.
having reached the town hall at last, L and those who accompanied him
were again prevented by the crowd from crossing the threshold.
they cried, 'make way! make way!.
but no one moved.
upon this the imperial soldiers by main force cleared a road,
through which L passed.
as the people rushed forward to enter with him,
the soldiers kept them back with their halberds.
L entered the interior of the hall;
but even there every corner was crowded.
in the antechambers and deep recesses of the windows
there were more than five thousand spectators
-germans, italians, spaniards and others.
L advanced with difficulty.
at last, as he drew near the door which was about to admit hi
into the presence of his judges,
he met a valiant knight, the celebrated george of freundsberg,
who four years later, at the head of his german lansquenets,
bent the knee with his soldiers on the field of pavia,
and then charging the left of the french army,
drove it into the ticino,
and in great measure decided the captivity of the king of france.
the old general, seeing L pass, tapped him on the shoulder,
and shaking his head, blanched in many battles, said kindly,
'poor monk! poor monk! thou art now going to make a nobler stand
than i or any other captains have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles!
but if thy cause is just, and thou art sure of it,
go forward in God's name and fear nothing!
God will not forsake thee!'
a noble tribute of respect paid by the courage of the sword
to the courage of the mind!
'he that ruleth his spirit (is greater) than he that taketh a city,
were the words of a king prov. 16.32
at length the doors of the hall were opened. L went in
and with him entered many persons who formed no portion of the diet.
never had man appeared before so imposing an assembly.
the emperor charles V, whose sovereignty
extended over great part of the old and new world;
his brother the archduke ferdinand;
six electors of the empire, most of whose descendants
now wear the kingly crown;
twenty four dukes, the majority of whom were
independent sovereigns over countries more or less extensive,
and among whom were some whose names afterwards
became formidable to the reformation
-the duke of alva and his two sons; eight margraves;
thirty archbishops, bishops and abbots;
seven ambassadors, including those from the kings of france and england;
the deputies of ten free cities;
a great number of princes, counts and sovereign barons;
the papal nuncios
-in all two hundred and four persons;
such was the imposing court before which martin luther appeared.
this appearance was of itself a signal victory over the papacy.
the pope had condemned the man,
and yet there he stood before a tribunal which,
by this very act,
set itself above the pope
(note: the history of the last 1000 years was about to make a shift)
the pope had laid him under an interdict and cut him off from all human society;
and yet he was summoned in respectful language
and received before the most august assembly in the world.
the pope had condemned him to perpetual silence,
and yet he was now about to speak before thousands of attentive hearers
drawn together from the farthest parts of christendom.
an immense revolution had thus bee effected by L's instrumentality.
rome was already descending from her throne,
and it was the voice of a monk that caused this humiliation.
some of the princes, when they saw the emotion of
this son of the lowly miner of mansfeldt in the presence
of this assembly of kings,
approached him kindly, and one of them said to him:
'fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.'
and another added:
'when ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake,
the spirit of your Father shall speak in you.'
thus was the reformer comforted with his master's words by the
princes of this world.
meanwhile the guards made way for L.
he advanced and stood before the throne of charles V.
the sight of so august an assembly appeared for an instant
to dazzle and intimidate him.
all eyes were fixed on him.
the confusion gradually subsided,
and a deep silence followed.
'say nothing, said the marshal of the empire to him, before you are questioned.'
L was left alone.
after a moment of solemn silence,
the chancellor of the archbishop of treves, john ab eck,
who was the friend of aleander (note: the pope's chief man)
...rose and said with a loud and clear voice, first in latin and then in german;
'martin luther! his sacred and invincible imperial majesty
has cited you before his throne,
in accordance with the advice and counsel of the states of
the holy roman empire,
to require you to answer two questions:
first, do you acknowledge these books to have been written by you?'
at the same time the imperial speaker
pointed with his finger to about twenty volumes placed on a table
in the middle of the hall, directly in front of L.
'i do not know how they could have procured them, said L.
relating this circumstance.
it was aleander who had taken this trouble.
'secondly..are you prepared to retract these books and their contents,
or do you persist in the opinions you have advanced in them/
L, having no mistrust, was about to answer the first of these questions
in the affirmative,
when his counsel, jerome schurff, hastily interrupting him, exclaimed aloud;
'let the titles of the books be read!'
the chancellor approached the table and read the titles.
there were among their number many devotional works,
quite foreign to the controversy.
their enumeration being finished, L said first in latin and then in german:
'most gracious emperor! gracious princes and lords!
his imperial majesty has asked me two questions.
'as to the first, i acknowledge as mine the books that have just been named:
i cannot deny them.
as to the second, seeing that it is a question
which concerns faith and the salvation of souls,
and in which the word of God,
the greatest and most precious treasure either in heaven or earth,
is interested,
i should act imprudently were i to reply without reflection.
i might affirm less than the circumstance demands
or more than truth requires,
and so sin against this saying of Christ:
'whosoevr shall deny Me before men,
him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.'
for this reason i entreat your imperial majesty, with all humility,
to allow me time, that i may answer without offending
against the word of God.'
this reply, far from giving grounds to suppose that L felt any hesitation,
was worthy of the reformer and of the assembly.
it was right that he should appear calm and circumspect
in so important a matter,
and lay aside everything in this solemn moment that might cause
a suspicion of passion or rashness.
besides, by taking reasonable time,
he would give a stronger proof of the unalterable firmness of his resolution.
in history we read of man men who by a hasty expression
have brought misfortunes upon themselves and upon the world.
L restrained his own naturally impetuous disposition;
he controlled his tongue, ever too ready to speak,
he checked himself at a time when all the feeling by which he was animated
were eager for utterance.
this restraint, this calmness, so surprising in such a man,
multiplied his strength a hundredfold, and put him in a position to reply,
at a later period, with such wisdom, power and dignity,
as to deceive the expectations of his adversaries,
and confound their malice and their pride.
and yet, because he had spoken in a respectful manner,
and in a low tone of voice,
many thought he hesitated and even that he was dismayed.
a ray of hope beamed on the minds of the partisans of rome.
charles, impatient to know the man whose words had stirred the empire,
had not taken his eyes off him.
he turned to one of his courtiers, and said disdainfully,
'certainly this man will never make a heretic of me.'
then rising from his seat, the youthful emperor
withdrew with his ministers into a council room;
the electors with the princes retired into another;
and the deputies of the free cities, into a third.
when the diet assembled again, it was agreed to comply with L's request.
this was a great miscalculation in men actuated by passion.
'martin luther, said the chancellor of treves, his imperial majesty,
of his natural goodness, is very willing to grant you another day,
but under condition that you make your reply viva voce
and not in writing
...on the morning of april 18, he was not without his moments of trial,
in which the face of God seemed hidden from him.
his faith grew weak;
his enemies multiplied before him;
his imagination was overwhelmed at the sight...
his soul was as a ship tossed by a violent tempest, which reels
and sinks to the bottom of the abyss, and then mounts again to heaven
in this hour..he fell to the earth and uttered these broken cries,
which we cannot understand unless we can figure to ourselves
the depth of the anguish whence they ascend to God:
'O Almighty and Everlasting God!
how terrible is this world!
behold, it openeth its mouth to swallow me up,
and i have so little trust in Thee!
...how weak is the flesh, and how powerful is satan!
if it is in the strength of this world only that i must put my trust,
all is over!...
my last hour is come, my condemnation has been pronounced!...
O God! O God!...
O God! do Thou help me against all the wisdom of the world!
do this
Thou shouldest do this...Thou alone...
for this is not my work, but Thine.
i have nothing to do here,
nothing to contend for with these great ones of the world!
i should desire to see my days flow on peaceful and happy.
but the cause is Thine...and it is a righteous and eternal cause.
O Lord! help me!
faithful and unchangeable God!
in no man do i place my trust. it would be vain!
all that is of man is uncertain; all that cometh of man fails....
O God! my God, hearest Thou me not....
my God, art Thou dead?...no!
Thou canst not die!
Thou hidest Thyself only!
Thou hast chosen me for this work. i know it well!
act, then, O God...stand at my side, for the sake of
Thy well beloved Jesus Christ, who is my defense, my shield,
and my strong tower.'
after a moment of silent struggle, he thus continued:
'Lord! where stayest Thou?...
O my God! where art Thou?
come! come! i am ready!...
i am ready to lay down my life for Thy truth...patient as a lamb.
for it is the cause of justice- it is Thine!...
i will never separate myself from Thee, neither now nor through
eternity!...
and though the world should be filled with devils,
-though my body, which is still the work of Thy hands,
should be slain, be stretched upon the pavement, be cu in pieces
...reduced to ashes...my soul is Thine!
....yes! i have the assurance of Thy word.
my soul belongs to Thee!
it shall abide forever with Thee...Amen!...
O God! help me!...Amen!
...at four oclock the herald appeared and conducted him
to the place where the diet was sitting.
the curiosity of the people had increased,
for the answer was to be decisive.
as the diet was occupied, L was compelled to wait in the court
in the midst of an immense crowd,
which heaved to and fro like the sea in a storm and
pressed the reformer with its waves.
two long hours elapsed, while the doctor stood in this multitude
so eager to catch a glimpse of him.
'i was not accustomed..to those manners and to all this noise.'
it would have been a sad preparation, indeed, for an ordinary man.
but God was with L.
his countenance was serene; his features tranquil;
the Everlasting One had raised him on a rock.
the night began to fall.
torches were lighted in the hall of the assembly.
their glimmering rays shone through
the ancient windows into the court.
everything assumed a solemn aspect.
at last the doctor was introduced.
many persons entered with him,
for everyone desired to hear his answer.
men's minds were on the stretch;
all impatiently awaited the decisive moment that was approaching.
this time L was clam, free and confident,
without the least perceptible mark of embarrassment.
his prayer had born fruit.
the princes having taken their seats,
though not without some difficulty,
for many of their places had been occupied,
and the monk of wittenberg finding himself again
standing before charles V,
the chancellor of the elector of treves began by saying:
'martin luther!
yesterday you begged for a delay that has now expired.
assuredly it ought not to have been conceded,
as every man, and especially you,
who are so great and learned a doctor in the holy scriptures,
should always be ready to answer every question touching
his faith...
now, therefore, reply to the question put by his majesty,
who has behaved to you with so much mildness.
will you defend your books as a whole
or are you ready to disavow some of them?'
..'upon this, dr. martin luther, says the acts of worms,
replied in the most submissive and humble manner.
he did not bawl or speak with violence;
but with decency, mildness, suitability and moderation
and yet with much joy and christian firmness.'
'most serene emperor! illustrious princes! gracious lords!
i appear before you this say, in conformity with
the order given me yesterday,
and by God's mercies I conjure (appeal to solemnly, earnestly)
your majesty and your august highnesses
to listen graciously to the defense of a cause
which i am assured is just and true.
it, through ignorance, i should transgress the usages and proprieties
of courts,
i entreat you to pardon me;
for i was not brought up in the palaces of kings,
but in the seclusion of a convent.
yesterday, two questions were put to me on behalf of his imperial majesty;
the first, if i was the author of the books whose titles were enumerated;
the second, if i would retract of defend the doctrine i had taught in them.
to the first i then made answer and i persevere in that reply.
as for the second, i have written works on many different subjects.
there are some in which i have treated of faith and good works,
in a manner at once so pure, so simple, and so scriptural,
that even my adversaries, far from finding anything to censure in them,
allow that these works are useful, and worthy of being read by all
pious men.
the papal bull, however violent it may be, acknowledges this.
if, therefore, i were to retract these, what should i do?...
wretched man! among all men, i alone should abandon truths
that friends and enemies approve,
and i should oppose what the whole world glories in confessing...
secondly, i have written books against the papacy,
in which i have attacked those who, by their false doctrine,
their evil lives or their scandalous example, afflict the christian world
and destroy both body and soul.
the complaints of all who fear God are confirmatory of this.
is it not evident that the laws and human doctrines
of the popes entangle, torment, and vex
the consciences of believers,
while the crying and perpetual extortions of rome
swallow up the wealth and the riches of christendom
and especially of this illustrious nation?...
were i to retract what i have said on this subject,
what should i do but lend additional strength to this tyranny,
and open the floodgates to a torrent of impiety?
overflowing with still greater fury than before,
we should see these insolent men increase in number,
behave more tyrannically and domineer more and more.
and not only would the yoke that now weighs upon
the christian people be rendered heavier by my retractation,
but it would become, so to speak, more legitimate,
for by this very retractation it would receive the confirmation of
your most serene majesty and of all the states of the holy empire.
gracious God!
i would thus become a vile cloak to cover and conceal
every kind of malice and tyranny!...
lastly, i have written books against individuals who desired to defend
the romish tyranny and to destroy the faith.
i frankly confess that i may have attacked them
with more acrimony than is becoming my ecclesiastical profession.
i do not consider myself a saint;
but i cannot disavow these writings, for by so doing i should
sanction the impiety of my adversaries, and they would seize
the opportunity of oppressing the people of God with still greater cruelty.
yet i am but a mere man and not God;
i shall therefore defend myself as Christ did.
'if i have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil..john 18.23
how much more should i, who am but dust and ashes
and who may so easily go astray,
desire every man to state his objections to my doctrine!
for this reason, most serene emperor, and you, most illustrious princes,
and to all men of every degree, i conjure you, by the mercy of God,
to prove from the writings of the prophets and apostles that i have erred.
as soon as i am convinced of this,
i will retract every error
and be the first to lay hold of my books and throw them into the fire.
what i have just said plainly shows, i hope,
that i have carefully weighed and considered the dangers to which
i expose myself;
but, far from being dismayed,
i rejoice to see that the gospel in now,
as in former times, a cause of trouble and dissension.
this is the character-this is the destiny of the word of God.
'I came not to send peace (on earth), but a sword, said Jesus Christ. matt 10.34
God is wonderful and terrible in His counsels;
beware lest, by presuming to quench dissensions,
you should persecute the holy word of God
and draw down upon yourselves a frightful deluge of insurmountable
dangers, of present disasters and eternal desolation...
you should fear lest the reign of this young and noble prince,
on whom (under God) we build such lofty expectations,
not only should begin, but continue and close under the most
gloomy auspicies.
i might quote many examples from the oracles of God,
continued L, speaking with a noble courage in the presence of
the greatest monarch of the world:
'i might speak of the pharaohs, the kings of babylon and those of israel,
whose labors never more effectually contributed to their own destruction
than when they sought by counsels,
to all appearance most wise,
to strengthen their dominion.
God removeth mountains, and they know it not;
which overturneth them in His anger. job 9.5
if i say these things, it is not because i think that such great princes need
my poor advice,
but because i desire to render unto germany what she has a right to expect
from her children.
thus, commending myself to your august majesty
and to your most serene highnesses,
i humbly entreat you not to suffer the hatred of my enemies
to pour out upon me an indignation that i have not merited.'
L had pronounce these words in german with modesty,
but with great warmth and firmness;
he was ordered to repeat them in latin.
the emperor did not like the german tongue.
the imposing assembly that surrounded the reformer
the noise and his own emotion, had fatigued him.
'i was in a great perspiration,
heated by the tumult, standing in the midst of the princes.
frederick of thun, privy councilor to the elector of saxony,
who was stationed by his master's orders at the side of the reformer,
to watch over him that no violence might be employed against him,
seeing the condition of the poor monk, said:
'if you cannot repeat what you have said,
that will do, doctor.'
but L, after a brief pause to take breath,
began again and repeated his speech in latin with the same energy as at first.
this gave great pleasure to the elector frederick, says the reformer.
when he had ceased speaking, the chancellor of treves,
the orator of the diet, said indignantly:
'you have not answered the question put to you.
you were not summoned hither to call in question the decisions of councils.
you are required to give a clear and precise answer.
will you, or will you not, retract?
upon this L replied without hesitation:
'since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses
require from me a clear, simple and precise answer,
i will give you one, and it is this:
i cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils,
because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred
and contradicted each other.
unless therefore i am convinced by the testimony of scripture,
or by the clearest reasoning
-unless i am persuaded by means of the passages i have quoted
-and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God,
i cannot
and i will not
retract,
for it is unsafe for a christian to speak against his conscience.'
and then, looking round on this assembly before which he stood,
and which held his life in its hands,
he said: 'here i stand,
i can do no other; may God help me!
amen!
..if you do not retract, said the chancellor, as soon as the diet had recovered
from the impression produced by L's speech,
'the emperor and the states of the empire will consult
what course to adopt against an incorrigible heretic.
at these word L's friends began to tremble;
but the monk repeated:
'may God be my helper;
for i can retract nothing'.
...the partisans of rome could not decide to submit to this humiliation.
L was again called in and the orator of the diet said to him:
'martin, you have not spoken with the modesty becoming your position.
the distinction you have made between your books was futile;
for if you retracted those that contained your errors,
the emperor would not allow the others to be burned.
it is extravagant in you to demand to be refuted by scripture,
when you are reviving heresies condemned by the general council of constance.
the emperor, therefore, calls upon you to declare simply, yes or no,
whether you presume to maintain what you have advanced,
or whether you will retract a portion?'
'i have no other reply to make than that which i have already made,
answered L calmly.
his meaning was understood.
firm as a rock,
all the waves of human power dashed ineffectually against him.
the strength of his words, his bold bearing, his piercing eyes,
the unshaken firmness legible on the rough outlines
of his truly german features,
had produced the deepest impression on this illustrious assembly.
there was no longer any hope.
the spaniards, the belgians, and even the romans, were dumb.
the monk had vanquished these great ones of the earth.
he had said No to the church and to the empire.
charles V arose and all the assembly with him:
the diet will meet again tomorrow to hear the emperor's opinion,
said the chancellor with a loud voice.
nigh had closed in. each man retired to his home in darkness.
two imperial officers formed L's escort.
some persons imagined that his fate was decided,
that they were leading him to prison,
whence he would never come forth but to mount the scaffold:
an immense tumult broke out. several gentlemen exclaimed:
'are thy taking him to prison?
'no, replied L, they are accompanying me to my hotel.'
at these words the agitation subsided.
some spanish soldiers of the emperor' household
followed this bold man through the streets by which he had to pass,
with shouts and mockery, while others howled and roared like wild beasts
robbed of their prey.
but L remained calm and firm.
on the day following L's appearance (friday, april 19),
the emperor ordered a message to be read to the diet,
which he had written in french with his own hand.
'descended from the christian emperors of germany,
from the catholic kings of spain,
from the archdukes of austria
and from the dukes of burgundy,
who have all been renowned as defenders of the Roman faith,
i am firmly resolved to imitate the example of my ancestors.
a single monk, misled by his own folly,
has arisin aginst the faith of christendom.
to stay such impiety i will sacrifice my kingdoms
my treasures
my friends
my body
my blood
my soul
and my life.
i am about to dismiss the augustine L,
forbidding him to cause the least disorder among the people;
i shall then proceed against him and his adherents,
as contumacious
(stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient)
heritics,
by excommunication, by interdict (forbidden from sacraments, etc.)
and by every means calculated to destroy them.
i call on the members of the states to behave like faithful christians.
...this address did not please everyone...
the enthusiasm of the people, not only in worms,
but also in the most distant cities of the empire;
the intrpidity of the knights;
the attachment felt my many princes to the cause of the reformer,
wer all of a nature to show charles and the diet
that the course suggested by the romanists
(ie. disregard the promise of safe conduct and kill L)
might compromise the supreme authority,
excite revolts and even shake the empire.
it was only the burning of a simple monk that was in question;
but the prices and the partisans of rome had not.
all together, sufficient strength or courage to do this...
(honeyed words from a romanist intent on destroying L)
...'.the word of God, said he, that has been so long hidden
under a bushel, must reappear in all its brightness.
turning kindly to L, he said,
'we have not sent for you to dispute with you,
but to exhort you in a fraternal tone.
you know how carefully the scriptues cal upon us to beware of
'the arrow that fieth by day,
and the destruction that wasteth at noonday'.
that enemy of mankind has excited you to publish many tings
contrary to true religion.
reflect on your own safety and that of the empire.
beware lest those whom
Christ by His blood has redeemed from eternal death
should be misled by you and perish everlastingly...
do not oppose the holy councils.
if we did not uphold the decrees of our fathers,
there would be nothing but confusion in the church.
the eminent princes who hear me feel a special interest in your welfare;
but if you persist, then the emperor will
expel you from the empire
and no place in the world will offer you an asylum...
reflect on the fate that awaits you!'
'most serene princes, replied L, i thank you for your solicitude on my account;
for i am but a poor man,
and too mean to be exhorted by such great lords.
..i have not blemed all the councils, but only that of constance,
because by condemning this doctrine of john huss,
that the christian church is the assembly of all those
who are predestined to salvation,
it has condemned this article of our faith,
i believe in the holy catholic church and the word of God itself.
it is said my teaching is a cause of offense,
i reply that the gospel of Christ cannot be preached without oddense.
why then should the fear or apprehension of danger
separate me from the Lord
and from that divine word which alone is truth?
no!
i would rather give up my body, my blood and my life!
the princes and doctors having deliberated, L was again called in
and wehe mildly resumed:
'we must honor the powers that be,
even when they are in error and make great sacrifices for the sake of charity.
and then with greater earnestness of manner. he said:
'keave it to the emperor's decision and fear not.
L -'i consent with all my heart that the emperor,
the princes and even the meanest christian should examine and judge
my works;
but on one condition, that they take the word of God for their standard.
men have nothing to do but to obey it.
do not offer violence to my conscience, which is bound and chained up
with the holy scriptures.
the elector of brandenburg-'if i rightly understnd you, doctor,
you will acknowledge no other judge than the holy scriptures?
L-'precisely so, my lord
and on them i take my stand.
upon this the princes and doctors withdrew;
but the excellent archbishop of treves
could not make up his mind to abandon his undertaking.
'follow me, said he to L, as he passed into his private room;
and at the same time ordered john ab eck and cochloeus on the one side
and schurf and amsdorff on the other,
to come after.
'why do you always appeal to scripture? asked eck with warmth.
'it is the source of all heresies.
but l..remained firm as a rock..
'the pope, replied he, is no judge in the things belonging to the
word of god.
every christian should see and decide fo himself
how he ought to live and die.
the separated.
the partisans of the papacy felt L's superiority,
and attributed it to there being no one present
capable of answering him.
'if the emperor had acted wisely, says cochloeus,
when summoning L to worms,
he would also have invited theologians to refute his errors.
...L commanded by the emperor to return home in the space of 21 days,
'felt clearly that this message was the beginning of his condemnation:
'as the Lord pleases, answered he meekly,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
he thenadded; 'before all things, humbly and from the bottom of my heat
do i thank his majesty, the electors, princes and
other states of the empire,
for having listened to me so kindly.
i desire and have ever desired, but one thing
-a reformation of the church according to holy scripture.
i am ready to do and to suffer everything
in humble obedience to the emperor.s will.
flife or deah, evil or good eport
-it is all the same to me, with one resevation
the preaching of the gospel;
for, says st. pau,
the word of God must not be bound'...
...speaking of obedience due to kings..L..set forth clearly
what is the obedience due to kings
and that which is due to god, and what the limit at which
the former should cease and give place to the latter.
as we read (L's) epistle
we are involuntarily reminded o the word of the greatest
autocrat of modern times:
'my dominion ends where that of conscience begins. .
(note: napoleon to the protesant deputation after his accession
to the kindom.)
God, who is the serche of hearts, is my witness, said L
that i am ready most earnestly to boey your majesy,
in honor and in dishonor,
in life or in death,
and with no exception save the word of God, by which man lives.
in all the afairs of this present life,
my fidelity shall be unshaken,
for her o lose or o gain is of no consequence to salvation.
but when eernal interests are concerned,
God wills not that man should submit unto man.
for such submission in spiritual matters is a real worship,
and ought to be endered solely to the Creator.
....aleander (the popes main instrument) handed to charles the fifth
the document, which signed, would bring condemnation upon L.
(because L would not repent..'for this reason,
under pain of incurring the penalties due to
the crime of high treason,
we forbid you (basically every person) to harbor
the said L after the appointed term shall be expired,
to conceal him,
to give him food or drink,
or tto furnish him, by word or by deed,
publicly or secretly,
with any kind of succor whatsoevr.
we enjoin you, moreover,
to seize him or cause him to be seized,
wherever you may find him,
to bring him before us without any delay,
or to keep him in sae custody,
until you have learned from us in what manner
you are to act towards him,
and hav received the reward due to your labors in so holy a work.
as for his adherents, you will apprehend them, confine them
and confiscate their property.
as for his writings, if the best nutriment becomes the
detestation of all men as soon as one dop of poison is
mingled with it,
how much more ought such books,
which contain a deadly poison for the soul.
be not only rejeced, but destroyed!
you will therfore burn them or utterly destroy them in any other manner.
as fo the authors, poets, printers, painters, buyers or sellers
of placards, papers or pictures, against the pope or the church,
you will seize them, body and goods
and deal with them accoding to your good pleasure.
and if any person, whatever be his dignity,
should dare act in contradiction to the decree of our ijmperial majesty,
we order him o be placed under the ban of the empire.
let every man behave according to this decree.'
(L on the way home)..the same evening he arrived
at the village of his sires.
the poor old peasnt clasped in her arms that grandson
who had withstood charles the emperor and leo he pope.
L spent the next day wih his relations, happy,
ater the umult att worms, in this sweet tranquillity.
on the next morning he resumed his journey,
accompanied by amsdorf and his brother james.
in this lonely spot the eformer' fae was o be decide.
hey skirted the woods of thuringia, following the road
to waltershausen.
as the wagon was moving through a hollow way,
near the desertted church of glisback,
at a short distance from the castle of altensein,
a sudden noise was heard,
and immediately five horsemen,
masked and armed from head ot foot,,
sprang upon the travelers.
his brother james, as soon as he caught sight of the assailants,
leaped from the wagon and ran away
as fas as his legs would cary him,
wihout uttering a singgle word.
the driver would have resisted.
"stop!' cried on of the strangers with a terrible voice,
falling upon him and hrowing him to the ground.
a second mask laid hold of amsdorff and kept him at a distance.
menwhile the hree remaining horsemen seize upon L,
maintaining a profound silence.
they pulled him violently from the wagon,
threw a military cloak over his shoulders,
and placed him on a horse.
the two other masks now quitted amsdorff and the wagoner;
all five leaped to their saddles
-on dropped his hat, but they did not even stop to pick it up
-and in the winkling of an eye vanished with their prisoner
into the gloomy forest.
at first they took the road to boderode,
but soon retraced heir steps by another path;
and without quiting the wood,
made so may windins in every direction as utterly to baffle any attempt
to track them.
L, little accustomed to be on hoseback,
was soon overcome with fatigue.
they permitted him to aligh for a few minutes;
he lay down near a beech tree,
wher he drank some wateer from a spring
which is sill called aer his name.
his brothr james, continuing his flight,
arrived at waltershausen in the evening.
the affrighed wagone jumped ino the car,
which amsdorf had again mounted ,
and whipping his horses,
frove rapidly away from the spot,
and conducted L's friend to wittenberg.
at walteshausen, at wittenber,
in the counry, villages and owns along their road,
they spread the news of he violen abdution of the doctor.
this intlligence, which delighed some,
struck the greater number with asonishment and indignation.
a cry of gief soon resounded through all germany:
'l has fallen into the hands of his enemies!'
..suddenly more comforting news arived.
'our beloved father lives..take courage and be im.
but it was not long before their dejecion reurned.
L was alive, but in prison...
but the influence of a mighier hand was felt above the hand of man;
God Himself deprived he formidable edict of all its stength.
he geman prices, who had always sough o diminish
th power of rome in the empire,
trembled at the alliance between the empero and the pope.
and feared that it would terminate in the desruction of their liberty.
accordingly, while charles in his journey through
the low countries greetted with an ironical smile the
burning piles which flaterers and fanatics kindled
on the public places with L's works,
these very wriings were read in germany
with a continually increasing eageness
and numerous pamphlets in favor of the reform
were daily inflicting some new blow on the papacy.
he nuncios were disgaced at seing this eic,
he fruit of so many intrigues, producing so little effect.
'he ink with which charles V signed his arrest, said hey bitterly,
is scarcely dry and yet
the imperial decree is everywhere torn in pieces.
the people were becoming more and more attached to
he admirable man who,
heedless of the thunders of charles and of the pope,
had confessed his faith with the courage of a martyr.
'he offered to retract, said they,
if he were refuted and no one dared undertake the task.
does no this prove the truth of his doctrines?
thus the first movement of alarm was succeeded in wittenberg
and the whole empire by a movement o enthusiasm.
even the archbishop of mentz, witnessing this outburst of
popular sympathy,
dared not give the cordeliers permission o preach against the reformer.
the university, that seemed on the point of being crushed,
raised its head.
he new doctrines wee too firmly established for them
to be shaken by L's absence;
and the halls of the academy could hardly contain
the crowd of hearers.
...in the midst of the dark forests of thuringia the reformer reposed
from he violent struggles that had agitated his soul.
there he studied christian truth,
not for the purpose of contention,
bu as a means of regeneration and life.
he beginning of the reformation was of necessity polemical;
new times required new labors.
after cutting down the thorns and the thickets,
it was requisite to sow the word of God peaceably in the heart.
if l had been incessantly called upon to fight fresh battles,
he would not have accomplished a durable work in the church.
thus by his captivity he escaped a danger which might possibly
have ruined the reformation
-that of always attacking and destroying without ever defending or building up.
...
..he was not left quiet in his retreat.
spalatin, in conformity with the elector's orders,
sent him a not of the articles which he would be required to retract.
a retractation, after his refusal at augsburg!...
'fear not, wrote he..that i shall retract a single syllable,
since their only argument is that my works are opposed to
the rites of what they call the Church.
if the emperor charles summons me only that i may retract,
i shall reply that i will remain here,
and it will be the same as if i had gone to worms and returned.
but, on the contrary, if the emperor summons me that i may
be put death
as an enemy of the empire,
i am ready to comply with his call;
for, with the help of Christ,
i will never desert the Word on the battlefield.
i am well aware that these bloodthirsty men
will never rest until they have taken away my life.
would that it were the papists alone that would be guilty
of my blood!'
it was now the twenty fourth of march.
at last the imperial herald had passed the gate of the city
in which luther resided.
gaspard sturm waited upon the doctor,
and delivered the citation from charles V.
what a serious and solemn moment for the reformer!
all his friends were in consternation.
no prince, without excepting frederick the wise,
had declared for him.
the knights, it is true, had given utterance to their threats;
but them the powerful charles despised.
luther, however, was not discomposed.
'the papists, said he, on seeing the anguish of his friends,
do not desire my coming to worms,
but my condemnation and my death.
it matters not!
pray, not for me, but for the Word of God.
before my blood has grown cold,
thousands of men in the whole world will have become
responsible for having shed it!
the most holy adversary of Christ,
the father, the master, the generalissimo of murderers,
insists on its being shed.
so be it!
let God's will be done!
Christ will give me His Spirit
to overcome these ministers of error.
i despise them during my life;
i shall triumph over them by my death.
they are busy at worms about compelling me to retract;
and this shall be my retractation:
i said formerly that the pope was Christ's vicar;
now i assert that he is our Lord's adversary,
and the devil's apostle.'
...on the sunday after easter the church of the augustines of erfurt
was filled to overflowing.
this friar, who had been accustomed in former times
to unclose the doors and sweep out the church,
went up into the pulpit,
and opening the bible, read these words:
'peace be unto you.
ad when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and
His side. john 20.19-20
'philosophers, doctors and writers, said he, have endeavored to teach men
the way to obtain everlasting life,
and they have not succeeded.
i will now tell it to you. '
this has been the great question in every age;
accordingly luther's hearers redoubled their attention.
'there are two kinds of works, continued the reformer:
'woks not of ourselves and these are good;
our own works and they are of little worth.
one man builds a church;
another goes on a pilgrimage to st. jago of compostella or st. peter's;
a third fasts, prays, takes the cowl, and goes barefoot;
another does something else.
all these works are nothingness, and will come to nought;
for our own works have no virtue in them.
but i am now going to tell you what is the true work.
God has raised one man from the dead,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He might destroy death, extirpate sin, and shut the gates of hell.
this is the work of salvation. the devil thought he had the Lord
in his power
when he saw Him hanging between two thieves,
suffering the most disgraceful martyrdom, accursed of God and of men...
but the Godhead displayed its power and destroyed death, sin and hell..
Christ has vanquished!
this is the joyful news!
and we are saved by His work, and not by our own.
the pope says differently:
but i affirm that the holy mother of god herself was saved,
neither by her works,
but solely by the instrumentality of faith and the works of God.'
while L was speaking, a sudden noise was heard;
one of the galleries cracked and it was feared that it
would break down under the pressure of the crowd.
this incident occasioned a great disturbance in the congregation.
some ran out from their places; others stood motionless through fright.
the preacher stopped a moment and stretching out his hand,
exclaimed with a loud voice:
'fear nothing! there is no danger:
it is thus the devil seeks to hinder me from proclaiming the gospel,
but he will not succeed.'
at these words those who were flying halted in astonishment and surprise;
the assembly again became clam,
and L, undisturbed..continued thus:
'you say a great deal about faith
(you may perhaps reply to me):
show us how we may obtain it.
well, i will teach you.
our Lord Jesus Christ said:
'peace be unto you! behold My hands',
that is to say, Behold, O man!
it is I, I alone, who have taken away thy sin and ransomed thee;
and now thou hast peace, saith the Lord.
'i have not eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree, resumed L,
not have you; but we have all partaken of the sin that adam
has transmitted to us, and have gone astray.
in like manner, i have not suffered on the cross, neither have you;
but Christ has suffered for us;
we are justified by God's work, and not by our own...
I am (saith the Lord) thy righteousness and thy redemption.
let us believe in the gospel and in the epistles of st. paul,
and not in the letters and decretals of the popes...
'since God has saved us, continued he, let us so order our words
that they may be acceptable to Him.
art thou rich? let thy goods administer to the necessities of the poor!
art thou poor? let thy services be acceptable to the rich!
if thy labor is useful to thyself alone,
the service that thou pretendest to render unto God is a lie.'...
his progress (toward worms) resembled that of a victorious general.
the people gazed with emotion on this daring man,
who was going to lay his head at the feet of the emperor and the empire.
and immense crowd flocked eagerly around him.
"ah! said some, there are so many bishops and cardinals at worms!...
they will burn you and reduce your body to ashes, as they did with john huss.'
but nothing frightened the monk.
'though they should kindle fire, said he all the way from worms to wittenberg,
the flames of which reached to heaven,
i would walk through it in the name of the Lord
-i would appear before them-
i would enter the jaws of this behemoth,
and break his teeth,
confessing the Lord Jesus Christ.'
....(letter to spalatin, on the way)
'i am coming, although satan endeavored to stop me on the road by sickness.
since i left eisenach i have been in a feeble state,
and am still as i never was before.
i learn that charles has published an edict to frighten me.
but Christ lives, and i shall enter worms
in despite of all the gates of hell and of the powers of the air.
have the goodness, therefore, to prepare a lodging for me.'....
...(spalatin, worried greatly over all he heard of intended harm
sent a messenger to L warning him 'do not enter worms!)
..but L, undismayed, turned his eyes on the messenger and replied;
'go and tell your master that even should there be
as many devils in worms at tiles on the housetops,
still i would enter it!'
never, perhaps, has L been so sublime!
the messenger returned to worms with this astounding answer.
'i was then undaunted, said L, a few days before his death;
'i feared nothing.
god can indeed render a man intrepid at any time;
but i know not whether i should now have so much liberty and joy.'
...at length, on the morning of the 16th of april, L discovered the walls
of the ancient city.
all were expecting him.
one absorbing thought prevailed in worms.
some young nobles..with six knights and other gentlemen
in the train of princes, to the number of a hundred...,
unable to restrain their impatience,
rode out on horseback to meet him and surround him,
to form an escort at the moment of his entrance.
he drew near.
before him pranced the imperial herald, in full costume.
L came next in his modest car.
jonas followed him on horseback and the cavaliers were on both
sides of him.
a great crowd was waiting for him at the gates.
it was near midday when he passed those walls,
from which so many persons had predicted he would
never come forth alive.
everyone was at table;
but as soon as the watchman on the tower of the cathedral
sounded his trumpet, all ran into the streets to see the monk....
two thousand persons accompanied him through the streets of the city.
the citizens eagerly pressed forward to see him:
every moment the crowd was increasing.
it was much greater than at the public entry of the emperor.
on a sudden, says an historian,
a man dressed in a singular costume, and bearing a large cross,
such as is employed in funeral processions,
made way through the crowd, advanced towards L
and then with a loud voice, and in that plaintive, measured tone
in which mass is said for the repose of the soul,
he sang those words, as if he were uttering them from the
abode of the dead:
(english-at last thou'rt come, long looked for one,
whom we have waited for in the darkness of the grave.')
thus a requiem was L's welcome to worms.
it was the court fool of one of the dukes of bavaria,
who, if the story be true, gave L one of those warnings,
replete at once with sagacity and irony,
of which the history of these individuals furnishes so many examples.
but the shouts of the multitude soon drowned the de profundis of
the cross bearer....
charles V immediately summoned his council...'L is come, what must we do?'
modo, bishop of palermo, and chancellor of flanders, replied,
if we may credit the testimony of L himself:
'we have long consulted on this matter.
let your imperial majesty get rid of this man at once.
did not sigismund cause john huss to be burned?
we are not bound either to give or to observe the safe conduct of a heretic.'
'no!' said charles, we must keep our promise...
...meantime, the crowd still continued round the hotel of rhodes,
where L had alighted.
to some he was a prodigy of wisdom,
to others a monster of iniquity.
all the city longed to see him.
they allowed him, however, a few hours after his arrival
to recruit his strength, and to converse with his most intimate friends.
but as soon as the evening came,
counts, barons, knights, gentlemen, ecclesiastics and citizens,
flocked about him.
all, even his greatest enemies, were struck with
the boldness of his manner, the joy that seemed to animate him,
the power of his language, and that imposing elevation and enthusiasm
which gave this simple monk an irresistible authority.
but while some ascribed this grandeur to something divine,
the friends of the pope loudly exclaimed that he was possessed by a devil.
visitors rapidly succeeded each other and this crowd of curious individuals
kept L from his bed until a late hour of the night.
...four o'clock arrived.
the marshal of the empire appeared; L prepared to set out with him.
he was agitated at the thought of the solemn congress before which he
was about to appear.
the herald walked first; after him the marshal of the empire;
and the reformer came last.
the crowd that filled the streets was still greater than on the preceding day.
it was impossible to advance;
in vain were orders given to make way;
the crowd kept increasing.
at length the herald, seeing the difficulty of reaching the town hall,
ordered some private houses to be opened, \
and led L through the gardens and private passages
to the place where the diet was sitting.
the people who witnessed this, rushed into the houses after
the monk of wittenberg,
ran to the windows that overlooked the gardens
and a great number climbed on the roofs.
the tops of the houses and the pavements of the streets, above and below,
all were covered with spectators.
having reached the town hall at last, L and those who accompanied him
were again prevented by the crowd from crossing the threshold.
they cried, 'make way! make way!.
but no one moved.
upon this the imperial soldiers by main force cleared a road,
through which L passed.
as the people rushed forward to enter with him,
the soldiers kept them back with their halberds.
L entered the interior of the hall;
but even there every corner was crowded.
in the antechambers and deep recesses of the windows
there were more than five thousand spectators
-germans, italians, spaniards and others.
L advanced with difficulty.
at last, as he drew near the door which was about to admit hi
into the presence of his judges,
he met a valiant knight, the celebrated george of freundsberg,
who four years later, at the head of his german lansquenets,
bent the knee with his soldiers on the field of pavia,
and then charging the left of the french army,
drove it into the ticino,
and in great measure decided the captivity of the king of france.
the old general, seeing L pass, tapped him on the shoulder,
and shaking his head, blanched in many battles, said kindly,
'poor monk! poor monk! thou art now going to make a nobler stand
than i or any other captains have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles!
but if thy cause is just, and thou art sure of it,
go forward in God's name and fear nothing!
God will not forsake thee!'
a noble tribute of respect paid by the courage of the sword
to the courage of the mind!
'he that ruleth his spirit (is greater) than he that taketh a city,
were the words of a king prov. 16.32
at length the doors of the hall were opened. L went in
and with him entered many persons who formed no portion of the diet.
never had man appeared before so imposing an assembly.
the emperor charles V, whose sovereignty
extended over great part of the old and new world;
his brother the archduke ferdinand;
six electors of the empire, most of whose descendants
now wear the kingly crown;
twenty four dukes, the majority of whom were
independent sovereigns over countries more or less extensive,
and among whom were some whose names afterwards
became formidable to the reformation
-the duke of alva and his two sons; eight margraves;
thirty archbishops, bishops and abbots;
seven ambassadors, including those from the kings of france and england;
the deputies of ten free cities;
a great number of princes, counts and sovereign barons;
the papal nuncios
-in all two hundred and four persons;
such was the imposing court before which martin luther appeared.
this appearance was of itself a signal victory over the papacy.
the pope had condemned the man,
and yet there he stood before a tribunal which,
by this very act,
set itself above the pope
(note: the history of the last 1000 years was about to make a shift)
the pope had laid him under an interdict and cut him off from all human society;
and yet he was summoned in respectful language
and received before the most august assembly in the world.
the pope had condemned him to perpetual silence,
and yet he was now about to speak before thousands of attentive hearers
drawn together from the farthest parts of christendom.
an immense revolution had thus bee effected by L's instrumentality.
rome was already descending from her throne,
and it was the voice of a monk that caused this humiliation.
some of the princes, when they saw the emotion of
this son of the lowly miner of mansfeldt in the presence
of this assembly of kings,
approached him kindly, and one of them said to him:
'fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.'
and another added:
'when ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake,
the spirit of your Father shall speak in you.'
thus was the reformer comforted with his master's words by the
princes of this world.
meanwhile the guards made way for L.
he advanced and stood before the throne of charles V.
the sight of so august an assembly appeared for an instant
to dazzle and intimidate him.
all eyes were fixed on him.
the confusion gradually subsided,
and a deep silence followed.
'say nothing, said the marshal of the empire to him, before you are questioned.'
L was left alone.
after a moment of solemn silence,
the chancellor of the archbishop of treves, john ab eck,
who was the friend of aleander (note: the pope's chief man)
...rose and said with a loud and clear voice, first in latin and then in german;
'martin luther! his sacred and invincible imperial majesty
has cited you before his throne,
in accordance with the advice and counsel of the states of
the holy roman empire,
to require you to answer two questions:
first, do you acknowledge these books to have been written by you?'
at the same time the imperial speaker
pointed with his finger to about twenty volumes placed on a table
in the middle of the hall, directly in front of L.
'i do not know how they could have procured them, said L.
relating this circumstance.
it was aleander who had taken this trouble.
'secondly..are you prepared to retract these books and their contents,
or do you persist in the opinions you have advanced in them/
L, having no mistrust, was about to answer the first of these questions
in the affirmative,
when his counsel, jerome schurff, hastily interrupting him, exclaimed aloud;
'let the titles of the books be read!'
the chancellor approached the table and read the titles.
there were among their number many devotional works,
quite foreign to the controversy.
their enumeration being finished, L said first in latin and then in german:
'most gracious emperor! gracious princes and lords!
his imperial majesty has asked me two questions.
'as to the first, i acknowledge as mine the books that have just been named:
i cannot deny them.
as to the second, seeing that it is a question
which concerns faith and the salvation of souls,
and in which the word of God,
the greatest and most precious treasure either in heaven or earth,
is interested,
i should act imprudently were i to reply without reflection.
i might affirm less than the circumstance demands
or more than truth requires,
and so sin against this saying of Christ:
'whosoevr shall deny Me before men,
him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.'
for this reason i entreat your imperial majesty, with all humility,
to allow me time, that i may answer without offending
against the word of God.'
this reply, far from giving grounds to suppose that L felt any hesitation,
was worthy of the reformer and of the assembly.
it was right that he should appear calm and circumspect
in so important a matter,
and lay aside everything in this solemn moment that might cause
a suspicion of passion or rashness.
besides, by taking reasonable time,
he would give a stronger proof of the unalterable firmness of his resolution.
in history we read of man men who by a hasty expression
have brought misfortunes upon themselves and upon the world.
L restrained his own naturally impetuous disposition;
he controlled his tongue, ever too ready to speak,
he checked himself at a time when all the feeling by which he was animated
were eager for utterance.
this restraint, this calmness, so surprising in such a man,
multiplied his strength a hundredfold, and put him in a position to reply,
at a later period, with such wisdom, power and dignity,
as to deceive the expectations of his adversaries,
and confound their malice and their pride.
and yet, because he had spoken in a respectful manner,
and in a low tone of voice,
many thought he hesitated and even that he was dismayed.
a ray of hope beamed on the minds of the partisans of rome.
charles, impatient to know the man whose words had stirred the empire,
had not taken his eyes off him.
he turned to one of his courtiers, and said disdainfully,
'certainly this man will never make a heretic of me.'
then rising from his seat, the youthful emperor
withdrew with his ministers into a council room;
the electors with the princes retired into another;
and the deputies of the free cities, into a third.
when the diet assembled again, it was agreed to comply with L's request.
this was a great miscalculation in men actuated by passion.
'martin luther, said the chancellor of treves, his imperial majesty,
of his natural goodness, is very willing to grant you another day,
but under condition that you make your reply viva voce
and not in writing
...on the morning of april 18, he was not without his moments of trial,
in which the face of God seemed hidden from him.
his faith grew weak;
his enemies multiplied before him;
his imagination was overwhelmed at the sight...
his soul was as a ship tossed by a violent tempest, which reels
and sinks to the bottom of the abyss, and then mounts again to heaven
in this hour..he fell to the earth and uttered these broken cries,
which we cannot understand unless we can figure to ourselves
the depth of the anguish whence they ascend to God:
'O Almighty and Everlasting God!
how terrible is this world!
behold, it openeth its mouth to swallow me up,
and i have so little trust in Thee!
...how weak is the flesh, and how powerful is satan!
if it is in the strength of this world only that i must put my trust,
all is over!...
my last hour is come, my condemnation has been pronounced!...
O God! O God!...
O God! do Thou help me against all the wisdom of the world!
do this
Thou shouldest do this...Thou alone...
for this is not my work, but Thine.
i have nothing to do here,
nothing to contend for with these great ones of the world!
i should desire to see my days flow on peaceful and happy.
but the cause is Thine...and it is a righteous and eternal cause.
O Lord! help me!
faithful and unchangeable God!
in no man do i place my trust. it would be vain!
all that is of man is uncertain; all that cometh of man fails....
O God! my God, hearest Thou me not....
my God, art Thou dead?...no!
Thou canst not die!
Thou hidest Thyself only!
Thou hast chosen me for this work. i know it well!
act, then, O God...stand at my side, for the sake of
Thy well beloved Jesus Christ, who is my defense, my shield,
and my strong tower.'
after a moment of silent struggle, he thus continued:
'Lord! where stayest Thou?...
O my God! where art Thou?
come! come! i am ready!...
i am ready to lay down my life for Thy truth...patient as a lamb.
for it is the cause of justice- it is Thine!...
i will never separate myself from Thee, neither now nor through
eternity!...
and though the world should be filled with devils,
-though my body, which is still the work of Thy hands,
should be slain, be stretched upon the pavement, be cu in pieces
...reduced to ashes...my soul is Thine!
....yes! i have the assurance of Thy word.
my soul belongs to Thee!
it shall abide forever with Thee...Amen!...
O God! help me!...Amen!
...at four oclock the herald appeared and conducted him
to the place where the diet was sitting.
the curiosity of the people had increased,
for the answer was to be decisive.
as the diet was occupied, L was compelled to wait in the court
in the midst of an immense crowd,
which heaved to and fro like the sea in a storm and
pressed the reformer with its waves.
two long hours elapsed, while the doctor stood in this multitude
so eager to catch a glimpse of him.
'i was not accustomed..to those manners and to all this noise.'
it would have been a sad preparation, indeed, for an ordinary man.
but God was with L.
his countenance was serene; his features tranquil;
the Everlasting One had raised him on a rock.
the night began to fall.
torches were lighted in the hall of the assembly.
their glimmering rays shone through
the ancient windows into the court.
everything assumed a solemn aspect.
at last the doctor was introduced.
many persons entered with him,
for everyone desired to hear his answer.
men's minds were on the stretch;
all impatiently awaited the decisive moment that was approaching.
this time L was clam, free and confident,
without the least perceptible mark of embarrassment.
his prayer had born fruit.
the princes having taken their seats,
though not without some difficulty,
for many of their places had been occupied,
and the monk of wittenberg finding himself again
standing before charles V,
the chancellor of the elector of treves began by saying:
'martin luther!
yesterday you begged for a delay that has now expired.
assuredly it ought not to have been conceded,
as every man, and especially you,
who are so great and learned a doctor in the holy scriptures,
should always be ready to answer every question touching
his faith...
now, therefore, reply to the question put by his majesty,
who has behaved to you with so much mildness.
will you defend your books as a whole
or are you ready to disavow some of them?'
..'upon this, dr. martin luther, says the acts of worms,
replied in the most submissive and humble manner.
he did not bawl or speak with violence;
but with decency, mildness, suitability and moderation
and yet with much joy and christian firmness.'
'most serene emperor! illustrious princes! gracious lords!
i appear before you this say, in conformity with
the order given me yesterday,
and by God's mercies I conjure (appeal to solemnly, earnestly)
your majesty and your august highnesses
to listen graciously to the defense of a cause
which i am assured is just and true.
it, through ignorance, i should transgress the usages and proprieties
of courts,
i entreat you to pardon me;
for i was not brought up in the palaces of kings,
but in the seclusion of a convent.
yesterday, two questions were put to me on behalf of his imperial majesty;
the first, if i was the author of the books whose titles were enumerated;
the second, if i would retract of defend the doctrine i had taught in them.
to the first i then made answer and i persevere in that reply.
as for the second, i have written works on many different subjects.
there are some in which i have treated of faith and good works,
in a manner at once so pure, so simple, and so scriptural,
that even my adversaries, far from finding anything to censure in them,
allow that these works are useful, and worthy of being read by all
pious men.
the papal bull, however violent it may be, acknowledges this.
if, therefore, i were to retract these, what should i do?...
wretched man! among all men, i alone should abandon truths
that friends and enemies approve,
and i should oppose what the whole world glories in confessing...
secondly, i have written books against the papacy,
in which i have attacked those who, by their false doctrine,
their evil lives or their scandalous example, afflict the christian world
and destroy both body and soul.
the complaints of all who fear God are confirmatory of this.
is it not evident that the laws and human doctrines
of the popes entangle, torment, and vex
the consciences of believers,
while the crying and perpetual extortions of rome
swallow up the wealth and the riches of christendom
and especially of this illustrious nation?...
were i to retract what i have said on this subject,
what should i do but lend additional strength to this tyranny,
and open the floodgates to a torrent of impiety?
overflowing with still greater fury than before,
we should see these insolent men increase in number,
behave more tyrannically and domineer more and more.
and not only would the yoke that now weighs upon
the christian people be rendered heavier by my retractation,
but it would become, so to speak, more legitimate,
for by this very retractation it would receive the confirmation of
your most serene majesty and of all the states of the holy empire.
gracious God!
i would thus become a vile cloak to cover and conceal
every kind of malice and tyranny!...
lastly, i have written books against individuals who desired to defend
the romish tyranny and to destroy the faith.
i frankly confess that i may have attacked them
with more acrimony than is becoming my ecclesiastical profession.
i do not consider myself a saint;
but i cannot disavow these writings, for by so doing i should
sanction the impiety of my adversaries, and they would seize
the opportunity of oppressing the people of God with still greater cruelty.
yet i am but a mere man and not God;
i shall therefore defend myself as Christ did.
'if i have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil..john 18.23
how much more should i, who am but dust and ashes
and who may so easily go astray,
desire every man to state his objections to my doctrine!
for this reason, most serene emperor, and you, most illustrious princes,
and to all men of every degree, i conjure you, by the mercy of God,
to prove from the writings of the prophets and apostles that i have erred.
as soon as i am convinced of this,
i will retract every error
and be the first to lay hold of my books and throw them into the fire.
what i have just said plainly shows, i hope,
that i have carefully weighed and considered the dangers to which
i expose myself;
but, far from being dismayed,
i rejoice to see that the gospel in now,
as in former times, a cause of trouble and dissension.
this is the character-this is the destiny of the word of God.
'I came not to send peace (on earth), but a sword, said Jesus Christ. matt 10.34
God is wonderful and terrible in His counsels;
beware lest, by presuming to quench dissensions,
you should persecute the holy word of God
and draw down upon yourselves a frightful deluge of insurmountable
dangers, of present disasters and eternal desolation...
you should fear lest the reign of this young and noble prince,
on whom (under God) we build such lofty expectations,
not only should begin, but continue and close under the most
gloomy auspicies.
i might quote many examples from the oracles of God,
continued L, speaking with a noble courage in the presence of
the greatest monarch of the world:
'i might speak of the pharaohs, the kings of babylon and those of israel,
whose labors never more effectually contributed to their own destruction
than when they sought by counsels,
to all appearance most wise,
to strengthen their dominion.
God removeth mountains, and they know it not;
which overturneth them in His anger. job 9.5
if i say these things, it is not because i think that such great princes need
my poor advice,
but because i desire to render unto germany what she has a right to expect
from her children.
thus, commending myself to your august majesty
and to your most serene highnesses,
i humbly entreat you not to suffer the hatred of my enemies
to pour out upon me an indignation that i have not merited.'
L had pronounce these words in german with modesty,
but with great warmth and firmness;
he was ordered to repeat them in latin.
the emperor did not like the german tongue.
the imposing assembly that surrounded the reformer
the noise and his own emotion, had fatigued him.
'i was in a great perspiration,
heated by the tumult, standing in the midst of the princes.
frederick of thun, privy councilor to the elector of saxony,
who was stationed by his master's orders at the side of the reformer,
to watch over him that no violence might be employed against him,
seeing the condition of the poor monk, said:
'if you cannot repeat what you have said,
that will do, doctor.'
but L, after a brief pause to take breath,
began again and repeated his speech in latin with the same energy as at first.
this gave great pleasure to the elector frederick, says the reformer.
when he had ceased speaking, the chancellor of treves,
the orator of the diet, said indignantly:
'you have not answered the question put to you.
you were not summoned hither to call in question the decisions of councils.
you are required to give a clear and precise answer.
will you, or will you not, retract?
upon this L replied without hesitation:
'since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses
require from me a clear, simple and precise answer,
i will give you one, and it is this:
i cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils,
because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred
and contradicted each other.
unless therefore i am convinced by the testimony of scripture,
or by the clearest reasoning
-unless i am persuaded by means of the passages i have quoted
-and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God,
i cannot
and i will not
retract,
for it is unsafe for a christian to speak against his conscience.'
and then, looking round on this assembly before which he stood,
and which held his life in its hands,
he said: 'here i stand,
i can do no other; may God help me!
amen!
..if you do not retract, said the chancellor, as soon as the diet had recovered
from the impression produced by L's speech,
'the emperor and the states of the empire will consult
what course to adopt against an incorrigible heretic.
at these word L's friends began to tremble;
but the monk repeated:
'may God be my helper;
for i can retract nothing'.
...the partisans of rome could not decide to submit to this humiliation.
L was again called in and the orator of the diet said to him:
'martin, you have not spoken with the modesty becoming your position.
the distinction you have made between your books was futile;
for if you retracted those that contained your errors,
the emperor would not allow the others to be burned.
it is extravagant in you to demand to be refuted by scripture,
when you are reviving heresies condemned by the general council of constance.
the emperor, therefore, calls upon you to declare simply, yes or no,
whether you presume to maintain what you have advanced,
or whether you will retract a portion?'
'i have no other reply to make than that which i have already made,
answered L calmly.
his meaning was understood.
firm as a rock,
all the waves of human power dashed ineffectually against him.
the strength of his words, his bold bearing, his piercing eyes,
the unshaken firmness legible on the rough outlines
of his truly german features,
had produced the deepest impression on this illustrious assembly.
there was no longer any hope.
the spaniards, the belgians, and even the romans, were dumb.
the monk had vanquished these great ones of the earth.
he had said No to the church and to the empire.
charles V arose and all the assembly with him:
the diet will meet again tomorrow to hear the emperor's opinion,
said the chancellor with a loud voice.
nigh had closed in. each man retired to his home in darkness.
two imperial officers formed L's escort.
some persons imagined that his fate was decided,
that they were leading him to prison,
whence he would never come forth but to mount the scaffold:
an immense tumult broke out. several gentlemen exclaimed:
'are thy taking him to prison?
'no, replied L, they are accompanying me to my hotel.'
at these words the agitation subsided.
some spanish soldiers of the emperor' household
followed this bold man through the streets by which he had to pass,
with shouts and mockery, while others howled and roared like wild beasts
robbed of their prey.
but L remained calm and firm.
on the day following L's appearance (friday, april 19),
the emperor ordered a message to be read to the diet,
which he had written in french with his own hand.
'descended from the christian emperors of germany,
from the catholic kings of spain,
from the archdukes of austria
and from the dukes of burgundy,
who have all been renowned as defenders of the Roman faith,
i am firmly resolved to imitate the example of my ancestors.
a single monk, misled by his own folly,
has arisin aginst the faith of christendom.
to stay such impiety i will sacrifice my kingdoms
my treasures
my friends
my body
my blood
my soul
and my life.
i am about to dismiss the augustine L,
forbidding him to cause the least disorder among the people;
i shall then proceed against him and his adherents,
as contumacious
(stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient)
heritics,
by excommunication, by interdict (forbidden from sacraments, etc.)
and by every means calculated to destroy them.
i call on the members of the states to behave like faithful christians.
...this address did not please everyone...
the enthusiasm of the people, not only in worms,
but also in the most distant cities of the empire;
the intrpidity of the knights;
the attachment felt my many princes to the cause of the reformer,
wer all of a nature to show charles and the diet
that the course suggested by the romanists
(ie. disregard the promise of safe conduct and kill L)
might compromise the supreme authority,
excite revolts and even shake the empire.
it was only the burning of a simple monk that was in question;
but the prices and the partisans of rome had not.
all together, sufficient strength or courage to do this...
(honeyed words from a romanist intent on destroying L)
...'.the word of God, said he, that has been so long hidden
under a bushel, must reappear in all its brightness.
turning kindly to L, he said,
'we have not sent for you to dispute with you,
but to exhort you in a fraternal tone.
you know how carefully the scriptues cal upon us to beware of
'the arrow that fieth by day,
and the destruction that wasteth at noonday'.
that enemy of mankind has excited you to publish many tings
contrary to true religion.
reflect on your own safety and that of the empire.
beware lest those whom
Christ by His blood has redeemed from eternal death
should be misled by you and perish everlastingly...
do not oppose the holy councils.
if we did not uphold the decrees of our fathers,
there would be nothing but confusion in the church.
the eminent princes who hear me feel a special interest in your welfare;
but if you persist, then the emperor will
expel you from the empire
and no place in the world will offer you an asylum...
reflect on the fate that awaits you!'
'most serene princes, replied L, i thank you for your solicitude on my account;
for i am but a poor man,
and too mean to be exhorted by such great lords.
..i have not blemed all the councils, but only that of constance,
because by condemning this doctrine of john huss,
that the christian church is the assembly of all those
who are predestined to salvation,
it has condemned this article of our faith,
i believe in the holy catholic church and the word of God itself.
it is said my teaching is a cause of offense,
i reply that the gospel of Christ cannot be preached without oddense.
why then should the fear or apprehension of danger
separate me from the Lord
and from that divine word which alone is truth?
no!
i would rather give up my body, my blood and my life!
the princes and doctors having deliberated, L was again called in
and wehe mildly resumed:
'we must honor the powers that be,
even when they are in error and make great sacrifices for the sake of charity.
and then with greater earnestness of manner. he said:
'keave it to the emperor's decision and fear not.
L -'i consent with all my heart that the emperor,
the princes and even the meanest christian should examine and judge
my works;
but on one condition, that they take the word of God for their standard.
men have nothing to do but to obey it.
do not offer violence to my conscience, which is bound and chained up
with the holy scriptures.
the elector of brandenburg-'if i rightly understnd you, doctor,
you will acknowledge no other judge than the holy scriptures?
L-'precisely so, my lord
and on them i take my stand.
upon this the princes and doctors withdrew;
but the excellent archbishop of treves
could not make up his mind to abandon his undertaking.
'follow me, said he to L, as he passed into his private room;
and at the same time ordered john ab eck and cochloeus on the one side
and schurf and amsdorff on the other,
to come after.
'why do you always appeal to scripture? asked eck with warmth.
'it is the source of all heresies.
but l..remained firm as a rock..
'the pope, replied he, is no judge in the things belonging to the
word of god.
every christian should see and decide fo himself
how he ought to live and die.
the separated.
the partisans of the papacy felt L's superiority,
and attributed it to there being no one present
capable of answering him.
'if the emperor had acted wisely, says cochloeus,
when summoning L to worms,
he would also have invited theologians to refute his errors.
...L commanded by the emperor to return home in the space of 21 days,
'felt clearly that this message was the beginning of his condemnation:
'as the Lord pleases, answered he meekly,
blessed be the name of the Lord.
he thenadded; 'before all things, humbly and from the bottom of my heat
do i thank his majesty, the electors, princes and
other states of the empire,
for having listened to me so kindly.
i desire and have ever desired, but one thing
-a reformation of the church according to holy scripture.
i am ready to do and to suffer everything
in humble obedience to the emperor.s will.
flife or deah, evil or good eport
-it is all the same to me, with one resevation
the preaching of the gospel;
for, says st. pau,
the word of God must not be bound'...
...speaking of obedience due to kings..L..set forth clearly
what is the obedience due to kings
and that which is due to god, and what the limit at which
the former should cease and give place to the latter.
as we read (L's) epistle
we are involuntarily reminded o the word of the greatest
autocrat of modern times:
'my dominion ends where that of conscience begins. .
(note: napoleon to the protesant deputation after his accession
to the kindom.)
God, who is the serche of hearts, is my witness, said L
that i am ready most earnestly to boey your majesy,
in honor and in dishonor,
in life or in death,
and with no exception save the word of God, by which man lives.
in all the afairs of this present life,
my fidelity shall be unshaken,
for her o lose or o gain is of no consequence to salvation.
but when eernal interests are concerned,
God wills not that man should submit unto man.
for such submission in spiritual matters is a real worship,
and ought to be endered solely to the Creator.
....aleander (the popes main instrument) handed to charles the fifth
the document, which signed, would bring condemnation upon L.
(because L would not repent..'for this reason,
under pain of incurring the penalties due to
the crime of high treason,
we forbid you (basically every person) to harbor
the said L after the appointed term shall be expired,
to conceal him,
to give him food or drink,
or tto furnish him, by word or by deed,
publicly or secretly,
with any kind of succor whatsoevr.
we enjoin you, moreover,
to seize him or cause him to be seized,
wherever you may find him,
to bring him before us without any delay,
or to keep him in sae custody,
until you have learned from us in what manner
you are to act towards him,
and hav received the reward due to your labors in so holy a work.
as for his adherents, you will apprehend them, confine them
and confiscate their property.
as for his writings, if the best nutriment becomes the
detestation of all men as soon as one dop of poison is
mingled with it,
how much more ought such books,
which contain a deadly poison for the soul.
be not only rejeced, but destroyed!
you will therfore burn them or utterly destroy them in any other manner.
as fo the authors, poets, printers, painters, buyers or sellers
of placards, papers or pictures, against the pope or the church,
you will seize them, body and goods
and deal with them accoding to your good pleasure.
and if any person, whatever be his dignity,
should dare act in contradiction to the decree of our ijmperial majesty,
we order him o be placed under the ban of the empire.
let every man behave according to this decree.'
(L on the way home)..the same evening he arrived
at the village of his sires.
the poor old peasnt clasped in her arms that grandson
who had withstood charles the emperor and leo he pope.
L spent the next day wih his relations, happy,
ater the umult att worms, in this sweet tranquillity.
on the next morning he resumed his journey,
accompanied by amsdorf and his brother james.
in this lonely spot the eformer' fae was o be decide.
hey skirted the woods of thuringia, following the road
to waltershausen.
as the wagon was moving through a hollow way,
near the desertted church of glisback,
at a short distance from the castle of altensein,
a sudden noise was heard,
and immediately five horsemen,
masked and armed from head ot foot,,
sprang upon the travelers.
his brother james, as soon as he caught sight of the assailants,
leaped from the wagon and ran away
as fas as his legs would cary him,
wihout uttering a singgle word.
the driver would have resisted.
"stop!' cried on of the strangers with a terrible voice,
falling upon him and hrowing him to the ground.
a second mask laid hold of amsdorff and kept him at a distance.
menwhile the hree remaining horsemen seize upon L,
maintaining a profound silence.
they pulled him violently from the wagon,
threw a military cloak over his shoulders,
and placed him on a horse.
the two other masks now quitted amsdorff and the wagoner;
all five leaped to their saddles
-on dropped his hat, but they did not even stop to pick it up
-and in the winkling of an eye vanished with their prisoner
into the gloomy forest.
at first they took the road to boderode,
but soon retraced heir steps by another path;
and without quiting the wood,
made so may windins in every direction as utterly to baffle any attempt
to track them.
L, little accustomed to be on hoseback,
was soon overcome with fatigue.
they permitted him to aligh for a few minutes;
he lay down near a beech tree,
wher he drank some wateer from a spring
which is sill called aer his name.
his brothr james, continuing his flight,
arrived at waltershausen in the evening.
the affrighed wagone jumped ino the car,
which amsdorf had again mounted ,
and whipping his horses,
frove rapidly away from the spot,
and conducted L's friend to wittenberg.
at walteshausen, at wittenber,
in the counry, villages and owns along their road,
they spread the news of he violen abdution of the doctor.
this intlligence, which delighed some,
struck the greater number with asonishment and indignation.
a cry of gief soon resounded through all germany:
'l has fallen into the hands of his enemies!'
..suddenly more comforting news arived.
'our beloved father lives..take courage and be im.
but it was not long before their dejecion reurned.
L was alive, but in prison...
but the influence of a mighier hand was felt above the hand of man;
God Himself deprived he formidable edict of all its stength.
he geman prices, who had always sough o diminish
th power of rome in the empire,
trembled at the alliance between the empero and the pope.
and feared that it would terminate in the desruction of their liberty.
accordingly, while charles in his journey through
the low countries greetted with an ironical smile the
burning piles which flaterers and fanatics kindled
on the public places with L's works,
these very wriings were read in germany
with a continually increasing eageness
and numerous pamphlets in favor of the reform
were daily inflicting some new blow on the papacy.
he nuncios were disgaced at seing this eic,
he fruit of so many intrigues, producing so little effect.
'he ink with which charles V signed his arrest, said hey bitterly,
is scarcely dry and yet
the imperial decree is everywhere torn in pieces.
the people were becoming more and more attached to
he admirable man who,
heedless of the thunders of charles and of the pope,
had confessed his faith with the courage of a martyr.
'he offered to retract, said they,
if he were refuted and no one dared undertake the task.
does no this prove the truth of his doctrines?
thus the first movement of alarm was succeeded in wittenberg
and the whole empire by a movement o enthusiasm.
even the archbishop of mentz, witnessing this outburst of
popular sympathy,
dared not give the cordeliers permission o preach against the reformer.
the university, that seemed on the point of being crushed,
raised its head.
he new doctrines wee too firmly established for them
to be shaken by L's absence;
and the halls of the academy could hardly contain
the crowd of hearers.
...in the midst of the dark forests of thuringia the reformer reposed
from he violent struggles that had agitated his soul.
there he studied christian truth,
not for the purpose of contention,
bu as a means of regeneration and life.
he beginning of the reformation was of necessity polemical;
new times required new labors.
after cutting down the thorns and the thickets,
it was requisite to sow the word of God peaceably in the heart.
if l had been incessantly called upon to fight fresh battles,
he would not have accomplished a durable work in the church.
thus by his captivity he escaped a danger which might possibly
have ruined the reformation
-that of always attacking and destroying without ever defending or building up.
...
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