Rev. Bart Day Letter: Strengthened Faith, Fervent Love …
Strengthened Faith, Fervent Love …
“Christians live outside themselves: they live in Christ by faith and in their neighbor by love.”
That was one of Martin Luther’s most brilliant “ahas”! It runs right along with his observation that the nature of sin is “to be curved in on yourself.”
Consequently, the effect of Christ’s Gospel in His appointed Means of Grace seizing hold of you is that it begins unbending you. It begins lifting up your eyes to behold with joy the certain promises of God in Christ. To know them as true for you. To begin to be filled with the hope that flows from them. And at the same time, it opens your eyes to see and meet the needs of your neighbor with a fiery love, a divine compassion.