# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 12 08_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

"Hear what I, sent by God, say to you: All — all, whether Jews or Gentiles — if they wish otherwise to come to grace and to be found true before God, shall and must draw from this spring, fill their little flasks, which ever and again flows and overflows, and drink their fill from this chief spring of the living water that wells up into eternal life. In sum, his fullness has neither measure nor end; therefore only pour boldly, and drink with delight and joy. For here there is abundance enough, even unto eternal life; for which you will have cause enough to praise and thank God for all eternity."

What, then, do we take? Grace for grace. John speaks of a twofold grace: Christ's grace is the unfathomable spring and chief well of all grace, which he has called "his fullness"; our grace is what we draw from him, and what he distributes among us, and it is given to us for the sake of his grace — namely, that I am pleasing and acceptable to God.

Thus John draws us away from confidence and defiance in our own works and merit, and leads us to the grace of Christ and the love of God — not only here in this text, but through his whole Gospel and Epistle. It is as though he would say: What does God regard, what moves him to be favorable to you, to remit sin? Does he do it for the sake of your sacrifice, circumcision, or worship, which you render him in the temple? No. Still less does he do it for the sake of your monkery — in which I myself shamefully spent fifteen years of my life, dreadfully crucifying Christ, my dear Lord, through my blasphemous saying of Mass, and losing my best time, to my own great harm and that of others. So too he does not do it for the sake of any hair-shirt worn by a Carthusian, or other monastic brothers, in which they sleep; nor because someone goes in full armor to the pilgrimage place of St. James, however dearly it may cost him in blood and sweat. No — he does not sell his rich, overflowing grace for the sake of your filthy, lousy cowl, or your stinking oil-eating, or other works, however precious they may seem or gleam. For since they lack grace and truth, they avail nothing at all; indeed, before God they are false, an empty show and an abomination. Therefore God regards something else. He is gracious and merciful for the sake of this fullness and the unspeakable grace of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, because Christ stands before God in pure grace; of that his grace we partake, and are, for the sake of the Lord Christ, pleasing to God; he becomes gracious to us for the sake of his beloved Son. Ephesians 1:7.

Therefore all effort and labor is lost and in vain when we seek other ways of coming to heaven; this is the one, right way, and none other: to take of his fullness, so that we obtain grace — that is, forgiveness of sins — and become children of God and heirs of eternal life, receiving blessedness for the sake of his (our Lord Christ's) grace, in whom God finds no sin, deceit, or falsehood, but only grace, truth, righteousness, and life. Therefore he loves him dearly, and commands us to hear him. Now he says, John 7:37–38: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." So I now believe in him and come to him, my dear Lord and Savior, as to him who is full of grace, and pray that he will quench my thirst with his living, fresh, rich, and unending spring. And that he indeed does so, I am certain, for he came to us into the world for this very purpose, full of grace, that we might enjoy and partake of his grace.

Inscription Above a Study.

Johann Michael Dillherr, who died in the year 1669 as pastor at Nuremberg and became known through many fine devotional writings, had, for the notice of those who wished to visit him, the following inscription posted over the door of his study:

"Stand still, dear guest! Do not knock, and do not disturb me, unless great need requires it. Know that I have devoted the morning hours to my God and to the business of my office. But if you have something to say to me that is worth some expenditure of precious time, then the afternoon hours are yours — yet in such a way that you consider that we shall have to give God an accounting for every single hour."

Faith's True Comfort in Death.

In the year 1586, in Switzerland, a godly farmer was condemned to the fire by the Roman Catholics for the sake of the evangelical truth. When he had already been bound to the stake, he asked once more to speak with the judge, who, according to the good Swiss custom, was obliged to be present at the execution. When the judge, after long refusing, finally came near, the man spoke to him as follows: "You have today condemned me to death as a heretic; now I do indeed confess that I am a poor sinner, but by no means that I am a heretic, for I believe and confess with my whole heart everything that is contained in the Apostles' Creed" — which he then recited in full. "Now I ask," he continued, "this one thing more of you, sir, at the last: that you step forward and lay one hand first upon my breast, then upon your own, and then, before all this people, freely and truthfully declare whose heart beats hardest from fear and anguish — mine, or yours. I will depart joyfully and with good comfort to my Jesus, in whom I have believed; but how it stands with you in this matter, you yourself will know." The judge, who did not know what to say in reply, ordered that the fire be set going, but with such gestures that one could well perceive he was more frightened than the martyr.

Misuse of the Doctrine of Grace and Good Works.

The world always remains such that it either boasts falsely of faith, or wishes, without faith, to be all too holy. If one preaches of faith and grace, then no one wants to do works. If one presses works, then no one wants to hear of faith, and those who keep to the right middle way are very rare indeed. Indeed, it goes hard even with devout Christians. For I confess for myself, and without doubt others too must confess, that I lack such diligence and earnestness as I ought now to have far more than before, and am much more negligent than I was under the papacy; and nowhere now is there such earnestness with regard to the Gospel as one formerly saw among monks and priests, when so much was endowed and built, and no one was so poor that he did not wish to give something. But now there is not a single town that is willing to support a preacher, and nothing goes on but sheer robbing and stealing among the people, and no one lets himself be hindered from it. Whence comes such shameful affliction? From the doctrine, say the shouters — because it is taught that one should not build or rely upon works. But it is the wretched devil who falsely lays this to the charge of the pure, wholesome doctrine, when it is really the fault of his own wickedness and that of the people, who misuse this doctrine — and also the fault of our old Adam, who always wants to lead us to the side road, and thinks it does not matter much if we do not do many good works; and so we become, before we know it, lazy and careless, and grow sour in it, until we lose entirely the sap and strength of faith. (Luther, in his great sermon on love, on 1 John 4:16–21.)

Just as Luther here laments over his own time, so must we also lament over ours. Where false doctrine and fanaticism prevail, there — to our shame be it said — there is usually more zeal than where the pure doctrine resounds. Even now it becomes evident: when a person devises for himself something of his own by which he thinks to serve God, he glows with devotion like a baking-oven (Hosea 4:7), and torments himself in vain even to the point of blood (1 Kings 18:28); but when a person is instead to leave his self-chosen works and forms of worship (Isaiah 58:13), to put to death his own will, to renounce his own wisdom, and to serve God alone according to his Word — which, to be sure, as a rule has no glorious appearance before reason and the eyes of the world — then a person is mostly reluctant, lazy, and sluggish about it, and falls at last into the sin of Saul (1 Samuel 15). Be warned, therefore, you who have the pure means of grace, lest you become the last of those who were first. Of him to whom much is given, much will be required.

Pope Pius V

said: "When I was a monk, I had hope for my salvation; after I became a cardinal, I began to doubt; and now, as pope, I must altogether despair of it."

Paid.

For the 2nd volume: the Reverend Pastors Wyneken (7 copies), Trautmann, Faulstich.
For the second half of the 2nd volume: Mr. Brandt.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.