Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
For it is a horrible blasphemy to imagine that there is any work by which you should presume to pacify God, since you see that there is nothing which is able to pacify Him but this inestimable price, even the death and the blood of the Son of God, one drop of which is more precious than the whole world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that no earthly effort can appease God, except through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In this quote, Martin Luther underscores the Christian belief that human efforts are insufficient to atone for sin or earn God's favor. He argues that only the sacrifice of Jesus, symbolized by His blood, holds the value necessary to reconcile humanity with God, highlighting the importance of faith over works in achieving salvation.
Themes
SacrificeAtonementFaithSalvationChristianity
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon about salvation, one might use this quote to remind attendees of the importance of Christ's sacrifice.
More from Martin Luther
All quotes βNow if I believe in God's Son and remember that He became man, all creatures will appear a hundred times more beautiful to me than before. Then I will properly appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, apples, as I reflect that he is Lord over all things. ...God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
Martin LutherRead
It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and wellbeing, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may be children of God, and busy for one another, bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfiling the law of Christ.
Martin LutherRead
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.
Martin LutherRead
We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
Martin LutherRead
In a mouse we admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about flies.
Martin LutherRead
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