The Inability of the Sinful Will

I am nearing the end of the writing process for a paper on the nature of sin and its effects on humanity's ability to repent and turn to God. In my research for this paper, I came across several great quotes from Martin Luther's book, "The Bondage of the Will," which I read for the first time this past summer. Here is what Luther says regarding fallen man's freedom of will:

"It is plainly proved by Scriptures that are neither ambiguous nor obscure that Satan is by far the most powerful and crafty prince in this world; as I have said. Under his rule the human will is no longer free nor in its own power, but is the slave of sin and of Satan, and can only will what its prince has willed. And he will not let it will any good--though, even if Satan did not rule it, sin itself, whose slave man is, would weigh it down enough to make it unable to will good" (263).

Later on, Luther reflects on God's grace in the salvation of sinful men like him:

"But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised to save me, not according to my workings or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him" (314).

The Passover Lamb

The Bible is filled with blood; blood and sacrifice. From beginning to end, the Bible commands, portrays, assumes, and teaches sacrifice. Innocent animals are killed, so that humans may have their sins forgiven and enjoy God’s presence in their midst. I was, therefore, interested when I recently saw on the blog Between Two Worlds a link to a video of an actual Passover sacrifice that took place in Jerusalem this year. The video is moving, and disturbing. I post a link to it below for the following reasons. First, as most of us no longer live in a culture where this sort of thing is practiced, we can hardly visualize the sacrifices that so much of the Bible portrays. Even if we choose to simply imagine the sacrifices, we lose the intended, emotional impact of them by not witnessing them with our own eyes as the original readers of Scripture did. Second, all the sacrifices portrayed in the Old Testament were meant to provide the proper categories and paradigms for our understanding of Jesus’ own death on behalf of sinners. Therefore, the better we can fully feel and understand what those animal sacrifices were like the better we will be able to comprehend the gospel. The following video is very graphic. Watch it with that knowledge. It may make you queasy. But also watch it with the knowledge that sacrifices like this were commanded by God and occurred many times, every day, for the sins of his people. And remember what Scripture says: “Indeed, under the Law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (10:3-4). “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (10:12-13).

http://www.sourceflix.com/vid_sacrifice.htm

First Sermon

Yesterday afternoon I preached my first sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:1-2. Although it was only fifteen minutes, a lot of prayer went into its preparation, mostly from others. Thank you to all who prayed for me knowing I would be preaching yesterday. It went well, and I am looking forward to preaching a 25 minute sermon on May 1st. Pray that I will grow in my ability to handle God's Word, and to effectively and faithfully communicate it to others.