Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit his office. I refer to the new birth-the birth of water and the Spirit. Thus all Christians must became priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ the Most High Priest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the innate calling and spiritual birth required to become a priest in the Christian faith.
Martin Luther highlights the idea that the role of a priest is not merely a position assigned by human authority, but one that requires a divine calling or spiritual rebirth. Through the metaphor of being 'born of water and the Spirit,' he articulates that all Christians, by their connection to Christ, have a priestly identity, affirming their relationship as children of God and co-heirs to the spiritual inheritance that comes from faith.
Themes
PriestSpiritualityFaithChristianityIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the role of believers in the church, one might quote Luther to emphasize that everyone has a spiritual role.
More from Martin Luther
All quotes →Now 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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