Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
An old book divulges a statement that Martin Luther made, brave leader of the Protestant Reformation; a statement that is true throughout time and on into eternity. It's in 16th century verbal brevity and clarity, but up-to-the-minute spiritual truth:
"Thus from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a cheerful, willing free spirit, disposed to serve our neighbour voluntarily, without taking into account any gratitude or ingratitude, praise of blame, gain or loss. Its object is not to lay men under obligation, nor does it distinguish between friends or enemies. ... but most freely spends its goods, whether it loses them through ingratitude or gains goodwill." *
Luther had the right idea here of what "faith" is: it's not grasping for a piece of heavenly real estate. There is no egocentric motivation involved in true faith, the kind that is in John 3:16, "that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, etc."
The faith that is in John 3:16 ("that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"), is what Luther describes. It's a heart response to the agape-love that moved Christ to deny self and take up His cross on which He died the equivalent of the second death for every one.
On one occasion, the Lord Jesus healed ten lepers, but nine of them did not have the kind of faith that Luther was describing; only the tenth had that kind of faith and came back to thank Jesus for healing him (Luke 17:11-19).
Could it be today that out of ten people who proudly claim to "believe in Jesus," there is the same percentage that do not appreciate what faith is?
--Robert J. Wieland
* On Christian Liberty, p. 270 (quoted in Reinhold Niebuhr, Nature and Destiny of Man, Vol. 2, p. 193).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 14, 2008.
Copyright © 2013 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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