The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 58

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

58 The Lutheran Pioneer.

ever. Christ’s righteousness is the only pure dress
in which we can stand before God. Do not add to
that beautiful dress the dirty rags of your own right-
eousness, lest God in His wrath hurl you from His
presence into everlasting damnation. Trust only in
the righteousness of Christ and you shall be saved.
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
*Midst all the hell I feel within,
On His completed work I lean;
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.’’

The Holy Ghost Calls Me.

The Bible often speaks of this gracious work of
the Holy Spirit. In several of the parables partic-
ular attention is called to it. In the parable of the
Great Supper we are given an especially fine picture
of the call of the Holy Ghost by the Gospel. God
has prepared a great supper for the starving souls
of men. This supper is Christ and His merits. The
supper is ready, all things are prepared, and God
sends out His servants to invite the guests. ‘‘Come,
for all things are now ready,’’ such is the gracious
invitation, Luke 14, 16—24.

This parable makes two things plain: 1. All
things are ready, and nothing is required of us but
to sit down, eat and drink. 2. No one can come,
except he be bidden. No one could even know of
this supper, if God did not invite and call men.
‘Come, for all things are now ready,’’ such is the
gracious invitation which comes to us by the voice
of the Gospel. }

By the Gospel the Holy Spirit calls poor, hungry,
starving souls to come to the Great Supper prepared
for their soul’s salvation in Christ Jesus. Man’s
soul is of divine origin, it is heavenly and spiritual,
and things earthly and temporal cannot satisfy it.
The only source of food for the soul is in God. By
nature, however, man since the fall is no longer in
communion with God; wherefore, being separate
from God, his poor soul is cut off from all supply
of food and left to starve. From this state of sepa-
ration from God and of starvation the Holy Ghost
calls man by the Gospel to the riches of God’s grace
in Christ Jesus. Christ fulfilled the demands of
God’s holy Law, and on the cursed wood of the
cross atoned for our sins; and by such active and

‘passive obedience Christ prepared all things need-
ful for our soul’s salvation. All things are now
ready, we need but follow the gracious call, and by
means of faith eat and drink what God sets before us.
But how can we come, how accept the gracious

invitation? Are we not dead in trespasses and sins?
Is it not utterly impossible for us to come to Christ,
or to believe in Him? ‘True, by our own reason or
strength we could never come. Left to ourselves,
we could do but one thing; namely, reject the in-
vitation. But remember, the Gospel is no empty,
merely formal invitation; for it comes from God,
is God’s Word, and is therefore the power of God.
In this call of the Gospel the Holy Spirit Himself
comes to man and pleads with him to accept the
invitation. Yes, even more, in calling us to come,
He also gives us the power tocome. As the call of
Jesus, ‘‘Maiden, arise!’’ brought life into the body
of Jairus’ daughter; as the Saviour’s, ‘‘Young man,
arise!’’ gave power to obey to the young man of
Nain; as Jesus’ command, ‘‘Lazarus, come forth!’’
quickened the dead bones and sent the stagnant
blood coursing through the veins of Lazarus, —so
also the gracious call of the Holy Spirit in the Gos-
pel awakens us who are spiritually dead, and gives
us the power to come to Jesus and appropriate the
riches of His grace.

God is earnestly desirous that we accept His call.
Wherever the Gospel is preached the Holy Ghost is
active. God does not want only some to come.
No, no; God wants all men to be saved, and there-
fore He would have all to come to Christ, since He
is the only way of salvation. Wherever the Gospel
is preached the Holy Ghost is sincerely and ear-
nestly active, knocking at the heart of every hearer.
And while, on the one hand, it is only the Holy
Ghost that can awaken the sinner from the sleep of
sin, make him willing, and give him the strength
to come to Jesus, it, on the other hand, is man’s
fault, and his fault alone, if he heeds not the in-
vitation, ‘‘Come, for all things are now ready.”’

One more thing let us not forget. In the above
I have several times spoken of the call to Christ as
a gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Such it is in-
deed, for St. Paul writes 2 Tim. 1, 9: ‘‘God hath
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began.’? Not our works in-
duced God to call us, for we were then yet dead in
sin and had no good works to show, but His grace,
grace free and boundless, prompted God to call us
to Christ and His salvation.

Come, ye sinners, one and all,
Come, ye all have invitation;
Come, obey His gracious call,
Come and take His free salvation!
Firmly in these words believe:

‘‘Jesus sinners doth receive!’’
. F.J.L.