The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 90

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sake, but because it is God’s Word. It is the Lord

90 The Lutheran Pioneer.

“Read that again,’ said the sick man. This was
done, stress being laid on the word ‘‘whosoever.”’

“But what does that word ‘whosoever’ mean?”’
the sick man eagerly inquired.

“Tt means anybody,”’ said his ‘friend.

“No, not anybody, not such a sinner as I am,”’
he interrupted again.

**Yes, it does,’’ said his friend.

‘*And so vile and wicked?”’ :

“Tt is just such that Jesus came to save.”’

**And so wretched and dark?’

‘‘The very one exactly. Christ was born as the
Saviour of the world —the whole world—all sinners.
‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begot-
ten Son.’ God’s Son became man to be the Saviour
of all, and there is nobody so wicked or so low or so
miserable but that Jesus comes to him in the Gospel
as his Saviour. Whosoever—let him be who he
may — whosoever believeth in Him, that is, trusts
in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
That is what God’s Word says.’’”

‘Read it once more,” said the sick man, looking
into his friend’s face as if he were grasping the last
hope. His friend again read the precious words:
‘*God so loved the world, that He -gave His only-
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.””

‘*Whosoever believeth; then it means me!”’ the
sick man exclaimed, and his face grew calm with a
new trust and bright with a new joy—the true
Christmas joy over the Saviour who came to save
all sinners, éven the chief of sinners.

Believe God’s Word.

It was an angel from heaven that brought the
good tidings of the Saviour’s birth to the shepherds
in the holy Christmas night. Now, some people
might think they, too, would accept and believe the
Gospel message if it were brought to them by an
angel. But that would be believing for the preacher’s
sake, not for the Word’s sake. The shepherds knew
that the angel was God’s messenger, and that the

tidings he brought were God’s Word. When, there-

fore, the angel had left them, ‘‘the shepherds said
one to another, Lefus now go even unto Bethlehem,
and see this thing which is come to pass, which the’
Lord hath made known unto us.”? They did not
doubt that the Lord Himself had made known unto

them the Saviour’s birth, and they accepted the
“message, not for the angel’s sake, but because it

was God’s own message. So we should accept and
believe the Gospel message, not for the preacher’s

Himself who in the Gospel makes known unto us:
the things which have been done for our salvation.

On this point Dr. Luther says: ‘‘Some one may
say, Yea, I too would believe, ifit were in like man-
ner proclaimed unto me by an angel from heaven.
This amounts to nothing, for whoever does not ac-
cept it for itself, would never accept it for the
preacher’s sake, though all the angels preached it
to him. And whoever accepts it on account of the
preacher does not believe the Word, nor in God
through the Word, but he believes the preacher
and in the preacher, but consequently his faith
does not endure long.

“But whoever believes the Word cares not who
the person is that speaks it, and he honors the Word,
not for the person’s sake; but, on the other hand,
he honors the person for the Word’s sake, always
placing the person beneath the Word. And although
the person passes away, or falls from faith, and an-
other preaches, he gives up the former person rather
than the Word and continues in what he has heard,
allowing the individual to be, to come or to go, when
and as he may and will.

‘The real difference between divine and human
faith is that the human runs after the person, be-
lieves, trusts, and honors the Word for the sake of
him who speaks it. But, on the contrary, divine
faith runs after the Word, which is God Himself,
believes, trusts, and honors the Word, not for the
sake of him who speaks it, but he feels that it is so
certainly true that no one could delineate it more
perfectly, although the same preacher attempted it.
This is evident from the Samaritans (John 4, 24),
who, when they first heard of Christ from the hea-
thenish woman, and upon her word went out of the
city to Christ, when they themselves heard Him,
said to the woman: ‘Now we believe, not because
of thy: saying; for we know now that this is the
Saviour of the world.’’’-

—$——$-_ $96 ——

The Word Made Flesh.

The Son of God came down from heayen that
we might receive the adoption of sons. God be-
came man, that man might become a partaker of
divine grace and of the divine nature., Christ chose
to be born into the world in the time of the peace-
ful Augustus, because He was the blessed Peace-
maker between man and God. He was born in the.

- darkness of the night, who came as the true light

to illumine the darkness of the world. He was born
in Bethlehem, the house of bread, who brought with

Himself from heaven the bread of life for our souls.
; John Gerhard.