Posts Tagged ‘Martin Luther’

The righteous are bold as a lion

Posted: September 20, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Proverbs, September
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Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.

John Piper, in a sermon, “The Righteous Are Bold as a Lion”

LionThe life of Martin Luther illustrates the connection between getting right with God and a life of boldness. If it can be said of anyone since the days of the apostles that “the righteous are bold as a lion,” it must be said of Martin Luther, the great German reformer.

Conversion

Luther was a monk who could not find peace with God because of his sin. In the fall of 1515 Luther was lecturing in the University of Wittenburg on the epistle to the Romans. The most decisive event of his life happened. Here is the way he tells it:

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.1

Luther had begun to see this in the Psalms (cf. Psalm 32:11–12 = Romans 4:7–8) in 1513–1514. Now he had seen it clearly in Romans, the door to paradise was opened, he banked his hope fully on the gospel and received the righteousness of God through faith and became as bold as a lion.

Boldness

His life was one long act of lion-hearted boldness against the abuses of the Roman church and for the glory of the gospel.

His most famous stand was taken in 1521 at a kind of trial in the city of Worms before the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Charles, the local governor, Fredrick the Wise, the Archbishop of Trier named Eck, and a host of lords and princes. The power of the assembly was enough to banish or execute him for heresy.

The prosecutor cried, “Do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?” Luther replied,

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. [Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.] God help me. Amen.2

Conclusion

“The wicked flee when no one is pursuing [because their conscience—the echo of God—condemns them], but the righteous are bold as a lion,” because their conscience is made clean by the righteousness of God imputed to them through faith in Jesus Christ, and there is no condemnation. May the gospel of God’s free righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 1:17; Philippians 3:19) take us captive like it did Martin Luther, and radically free us from fear, so that we can be as bold as a lion for the sake of the gospel!

Luther: The Lord himself is our wall

Posted: July 2, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, July, Psalms
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As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore. —Psalm 125:2

BrickWallIt is not enough that we are compassed about with fiery walls, that is, with the sure custody, the continual watch and ward of the angels; but the Lord himself is our wall: so that every way we are defended by the Lord against all dangers. Above us is his heaven, on both sides he is as a wall, under us he is as a strong rock whereupon we stand so are we everywhere sure and safe. Now if Satan through these munitions casts his darts at us, it must needs be that the Lord himself shall be hurt before we take harm. Great is our incredulity if we hear all these things in vain.

—Martin Luther, as quoted in Spurgeon’s “Treasury of David”

Luther: why should we make Him a liar who has given us such great promises and who commands us to be confident and undismayed?

Posted: May 12, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Mark, May
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   “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

Mark 13:9-10 ESV

Pastor Coty Pinckney, in a sermon on Mark 13, “Living in the Last Days”

Jesus’ command is found in verse 9. Literally, this reads: “You all take heed to yourselves.” The Greek is quite emphatic here, and not quite captured the usual translation, “Be on your guard.” Jesus says to look after ourselves — our thoughts, our reactions, our worries. We must guard ourselves, to make sure we understand that God is indeed sovereign, even when external events make things appear otherwise.

So Jesus tells us, “Expect trials and persecutions. I have told you ahead of time; don’t be surprised when they come. But know that I am in control, I am sovereign over the affairs of men; you may die, but not one hair of your head will be harmed. I will use your sufferings for your good and my glory, by spreading the gospel through your faithfulness even to death. I will even give you the words to say in these circumstances. So be faithful!”

lutherA wonderful example of this advice is contained in a letter from Martin Luther to Philip Melanchthon, dated June 27, 1530. Melanchthon was worried that the cause of the Reformation seemed to rest on so few shoulders, and that all that God had accomplished since the publication of the 95 Theses could go for naught. Luther writes:

With all my heart I hate those cares by which you state that you are consumed. They rule your heart . . . by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. . . . If our cause is false, let us recant. But if it is true, why should we make Him a liar who has given us such great promises and who commands us to be confident and undismayed? . . .

What good do you expect to accomplish by these vain worries of yours? What can the devil do more than slay us? Yes, what? . . .

I pray for you very earnestly, and I am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain. Christ knows whether it comes from stupidity or the Spirit but I for my part am not very much troubled about our cause. . . . God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold his cause when it is falling or to raise it up again when it has fallen, or to move it forward when it is standing. If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others. If we are not strengthened by his promises, where in all the world are the people to whom these promises apply? But more of this at another time. After all, my writing this is like pouring water in to the sea.

Do you see Luther’s confidence? God is sovereign, He is in control. Satan may kill us — and if so God will raise up others to advance His cause. It is His cause after all, not ours.

Luther is not telling Melanchthon to take his responsibilities lightly, but to rest knowing that God is in control, that Jesus prophesied that there would be opposition, and that we should not expect an easy time. Our task is to trust and to be faithful, and to leave the results to God.

To read the rest of the sermon, click here:

With the wolves you cannot be too severe. With the weak sheep you cannot be too gentle.

Posted: March 8, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, March, Matthew
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At the Desiring God 2008 National Conference, Mark Driscoll spoke on “How Sharp the Edge? Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words”. Here are some of his comments.  (These are notes taken during the session, not a manuscript.)

Shoot the wolves.

These are false teachers. Martin Luther says, “With the wolves you cannot be too severe. With the weak sheep you cannot be too gentle.” People only see me on the stage losing my mind but not praying with rape victims afterwards.

My point is that many of us have become worldly, thinking that you only say certain words. Wordliness is not having courage or speaking truthfully. We worship a guy who got murdered. The cross is an offense, and if we don’t speak of it in an offensive way at times, we may be false teachers.

Each of us to varying degrees is a hypocrite. We worship what we do or do not do instead of what Jesus did for us. The Pharisees were the devoted Biblicists. You love it when Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, but you don’t think you are on their team. When you read this, put yourself, your church, your denomination in this passage.

Matthew 23:13 - “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

You are so worried talking about what you should be against that you don’t win people to Jesus.

Matthew 23:16-21 - “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.”

These are people that have memorized the entire Pentateuch. Didn’t Jesus tell us not to call people fools? He did. We should call fools fools. That takes discernment.

“You can’t call me blind. I went to seminary!”

Matthew 23:23-24 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

You tithe out of your spice rack. You’re that legalistic.

Matthew 23:25-26 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

You look nice, you put your makeup on, ladies, you comb your hair, gentleman. You look wonderful to everyone but God who sees the heart.

Matthew 23:27-28 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

“He’s amazing! He’s memorized verses! He’s read books and paid attention to the footnotes!”

Matthew 23:29-33 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

There is a propensity for those who are Pharisees to read the Bible and think things would have been different if you were there. You would have done worse, and so would I.

These are church-going folks, they teach Sunday school, they have memorized books of the Bible, they have given their lives to teaching Scriptures, they have masters degrees in theology, and he says “How can you possibly escape being sent to hell?”

Matthew 23:34-35 - “Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.”

Jesus shoots the wolves. Some of you get very frustrated because you want to be treated like sheep, but the problem is you are acting like wolves. We are supposed to love the sheep and shoot the wolves because we love the sheep.

If you would like to read  more or to listen or watch the video of Mark Driscoll’s message, click here:

A mighty fortress is our God

Posted: February 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, February, Psalms
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Sam Storms, in his “Meditations on the Psalms” series writes of Psalm 46-

Ein feste burg ist unser Gott! Say what? Well, that’s how Martin Luther would have written it in his famous hymn:

“A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

He, amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing.”

There can be no doubt but that Luther’s sturdy, unshakeable, unflappable confidence in God as his refuge, his strength, his mighty, impenetrable fortress is what ultimately accounted for what he was able to accomplish in bringing about what we know as the Protestant Reformation.

The same could easily be said of Elijah, as he faced the treachery of Ahab and Jezebel and the prophets of Baal.

The same could be said of Daniel, as he fearlessly confronted the power and pressures that came from Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.

And what was it that empowered the Apostle Paul as he stood in the presence of his Jewish persecutors or his Roman captors? The same God, who for all of these folk proved himself to be a mighty fortress, a bulwark never failing.

Don’t let the fame of these people suggest that God is any less a mighty fortress for you in the midst of your daily struggles or the minor trials that come your way. Psalm 46 is a powerful word of encouragement for the Christian troubled by the lingering memory of a moral lapse, or the parent in agony over the rebellion of a teenage son or daughter. This is a message of hope for the believer who lost his job because he refused to compromise his integrity, as well as the woman who lost her husband to cancer. This is a psalm for you, no less than for the OT Israelite, such that you can confidently declare:

“The Lord of hosts is with us [ME]; the God of Jacob is our [MY] fortress” (v. 7)….

……This God, dear friend, “is with us [YOU]” (v. 11a). This God “is our [YOUR] fortress” (v. 11a).

Not even Martin Luther was immune to depression and frustration and fear. When he came face to face with his enemies, he would often turn to his young friend and co-worker, Philip Melancthon, and say: “Philip, let us sing forth the forty-sixth Psalm.” And this is how it sounded:

“A sure stronghold our God is He,

A timely shield and weapon;

Our help he’ll be, and set us free

From every ill can happen.

And were the world with devils filled,

All eager to devour us,

Our souls to fear shall little yield,

They cannot overpower us.”

To read the rest of the article by Sam Storms at Enjoying God Ministries, click here:

Luther: The Lord himself is our wall

Posted: July 2, 2011 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, July, Psalms
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As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore. Psalm 125:2

BrickWallIt is not enough that we are compassed about with fiery walls, that is, with the sure custody, the continual watch and ward of the angels; but the Lord himself is our wall: so that every way we are defended by the Lord against all dangers. Above us is his heaven, on both sides he is as a wall, under us he is as a strong rock whereupon we stand so are we everywhere sure and safe. Now if Satan through these munitions casts his darts at us, it must needs be that the Lord himself shall be hurt before we take harm. Great is our incredulity if we hear all these things in vain.

—Martin Luther, as quoted in Spurgeon’s “Treasury of David”

Luther: What can the devil do more than slay us?

Posted: May 12, 2011 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Mark, May
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Pastor Coty Pinckney, in a sermon on Mark 13, “Living in the Last Days”

Jesus’ command is found in verse 9. Literally, this reads: “You all take heed to yourselves.” The Greek is quite emphatic here, and not quite captured the usual translation, “Be on your guard.” Jesus says to look after ourselves — our thoughts, our reactions, our worries. We must guard ourselves, to make sure we understand that God is indeed sovereign, even when external events make things appear otherwise.

So Jesus tells us, “Expect trials and persecutions. I have told you ahead of time; don’t be surprised when they come. But know that I am in control, I am sovereign over the affairs of men; you may die, but not one hair of your head will be harmed. I will use your sufferings for your good and my glory, by spreading the gospel through your faithfulness even to death. I will even give you the words to say in these circumstances. So be faithful!”

lutherA wonderful example of this advice is contained in a letter from Martin Luther to Philip Melanchthon, dated June 27, 1530. Melanchthon was worried that the cause of the Reformation seemed to rest on so few shoulders, and that all that God had accomplished since the publication of the 95 Theses could go for naught. Luther writes:

With all my heart I hate those cares by which you state that you are consumed. They rule your heart . . . by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. . . . If our cause is false, let us recant. But if it is true, why should we make Him a liar who has given us such great promises and who commands us to be confident and undismayed? . . .

What good do you expect to accomplish by these vain worries of yours? What can the devil do more than slay us? Yes, what? . . .

I pray for you very earnestly, and I am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain. Christ knows whether it comes from stupidity or the Spirit but I for my part am not very much troubled about our cause. . . . God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold his cause when it is falling or to raise it up again when it has fallen, or to move it forward when it is standing. If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others. If we are not strengthened by his promises, where in all the world are the people to whom these promises apply? But more of this at another time. After all, my writing this is like pouring water in to the sea.

Do you see Luther’s confidence? God is sovereign, He is in control. Satan may kill us — and if so God will raise up others to advance His cause. It is His cause after all, not ours.

Luther is not telling Melanchthon to take his responsibilities lightly, but to rest knowing that God is in control, that Jesus prophesied that there would be opposition, and that we should not expect an easy time. Our task is to trust and to be faithful, and to leave the results to God.

To read the rest of the sermon, click here:

Woe to the Wolves

Posted: March 8, 2011 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, March, Matthew
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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At the Desiring God 2008 National Conference, Mark Driscoll spoke on “How Sharp the Edge? Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words”. Here are some of his comments.  (These are notes taken during the session, not a manuscript.)

Shoot the wolves.

These are false teachers. Martin Luther says, “With the wolves you cannot be too severe. With the weak sheep you cannot be too gentle.” People only see me on the stage losing my mind but not praying with rape victims afterwards.

My point is that many of us have become worldly, thinking that you only say certain words. Wordliness is not having courage or speaking truthfully. We worship a guy who got murdered. The cross is an offense, and if we don’t speak of it in an offensive way at times, we may be false teachers.

Each of us to varying degrees is a hypocrite. We worship what we do or do not do instead of what Jesus did for us. The Pharisees were the devoted Biblicists. You love it when Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, but you don’t think you are on their team. When you read this, put yourself, your church, your denomination in this passage.

Matthew 23:13 - “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

You are so worried talking about what you should be against that you don’t win people to Jesus.

Matthew 23:16-21 - “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.”

These are people that have memorized the entire Pentateuch. Didn’t Jesus tell us not to call people fools? He did. We should call fools fools. That takes discernment.

“You can’t call me blind. I went to seminary!”

Matthew 23:23-24 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

You tithe out of your spice rack. You’re that legalistic.

Matthew 23:25-26 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

You look nice, you put your makeup on, ladies, you comb your hair, gentleman. You look wonderful to everyone but God who sees the heart.

Matthew 23:27-28 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

“He’s amazing! He’s memorized verses! He’s read books and paid attention to the footnotes!”

Matthew 23:29-33 - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

There is a propensity for those who are Pharisees to read the Bible and think things would have been different if you were there. You would have done worse, and so would I.

These are church-going folks, they teach Sunday school, they have memorized books of the Bible, they have given their lives to teaching Scriptures, they have masters degrees in theology, and he says “How can you possibly escape being sent to hell?”

Matthew 23:34-35 - “Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.”

Jesus shoots the wolves. Some of you get very frustrated because you want to be treated like sheep, but the problem is you are acting like wolves. We are supposed to love the sheep and shoot the wolves because we love the sheep.

If you would like to read  more or to listen or watch the video of Mark Driscoll’s message, click here:

 

Spurgeon: SONG OF THE SLANDERED SAINT

Posted: January 7, 2011 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, January, Psalms
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C. H. Spurgeon comments on Psalm 7, from The Treasury of David:

From the title we learn the occasion of the composition of this song. It appears probable that Cush the Benjamite had accused David to Saul of treasonable conspiracy against his royal authority. This the king would be ready enough to credit, both from his jealousy of David, and from the relation which most probably existed between himself, the son of Kish, and this Cush, or Kish, the Benjamite. He who is near the throne can do more injury to a subject than an ordinary slanderer.
This may be called the SONG OF THE SLANDERED SAINT. Even this sorest of evils may furnish occasion for a Psalm. What a blessing it would be if we could turn even the most disastrous event into a theme for song, and so turn the tables upon our great enemy. Let us learn a lesson from Luther, who once said, “David made Psalms; we also will make Psalms, and sing them as well as we can to the honour of our Lord, and to spite and mock the devil.”

Bold as a Lion

Posted: September 20, 2010 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Proverbs, September
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Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.

John Piper, in a sermon, “The Righteous Are Bold as a Lion”

Lion 2The life of Martin Luther illustrates the connection between getting right with God and a life of boldness. If it can be said of anyone since the days of the apostles that “the righteous are bold as a lion,” it must be said of Martin Luther, the great German reformer.

Conversion

Luther was a monk who could not find peace with God because of his sin. In the fall of 1515 Luther was lecturing in the University of Wittenburg on the epistle to the Romans. The most decisive event of his life happened. Here is the way he tells it:

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.1

Luther had begun to see this in the Psalms (cf. Psalm 32:11–12 = Romans 4:7–8) in 1513–1514. Now he had seen it clearly in Romans, the door to paradise was opened, he banked his hope fully on the gospel and received the righteousness of God through faith and became as bold as a lion.

Boldness

His life was one long act of lion-hearted boldness against the abuses of the Roman church and for the glory of the gospel.

His most famous stand was taken in 1521 at a kind of trial in the city of Worms before the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Charles, the local governor, Fredrick the Wise, the Archbishop of Trier named Eck, and a host of lords and princes. The power of the assembly was enough to banish or execute him for heresy.

The prosecutor cried, “Do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?” Luther replied,

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. [Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.] God help me. Amen.2

Conclusion

“The wicked flee when no one is pursuing [because their conscience—the echo of God—condemns them], but the righteous are bold as a lion,” because their conscience is made clean by the righteousness of God imputed to them through faith in Jesus Christ, and there is no condemnation. May the gospel of God’s free righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 1:17; Philippians 3:19) take us captive like it did Martin Luther, and radically free us from fear, so that we can be as bold as a lion for the sake of the gospel!

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