Easter 4: Begetting a love for Christ in our hearts
8:00 AMSometimes, when looking for the right words, you do well simply to quote Brother Martin:
Therefore, we should so preach Christ as one who will reject nobody, however weak he may be, but will gladly receive and comfort and strengthen everybody; that we may always picture him to ourselves as a good shepherd. Then hearts will turn to him of their own accord, and need not be forced and driven. The Gospel graciously invites and makes men willing, so that they desire to go, and do go, to him with all confidence. And it begets a love for Christ in their hearts, so that they willingly do what they should, whereas formerly they had to be driven and forced. When we are driven, we do a thing with displeasure and against our will. That is not what God desires; therefore it is done in vain. But when I see that God deals with me graciously, he wins my heart, so that I am constrained to fly to him; consequently, my heart is filled with happiness and joy.
From Martin Luther's 1523 sermon for the second Sunday after Easter on John 10:11-16, taken from Volume III:18-31 of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, MI)
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