"Whenever God’s Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or meditated upon, then the person, day, and work are sanctified." (Martin Luther, The Large Catechism) This is not because of our so-called good or religious works, but because of the Spirit's work in us through the Word.
- It is hard to teach about the Trinity because the word is not in the Bible.
- Hi Drew, I think the original post was presuming the Word was being preached and taught faithfully. In relation to your comment about Satan misquoting Scripture to Jesus in the wilderness, ironically, Satan’s misquotations became part of Scripture and in a sense part of God’s Word (albeit in the negative sense) to teach us about Truth and lies. I think Luther also once said something like: “God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.” It’s also worth noting that the proclamation of the Gospel and mission of the Church is always driven forward in the midst of contention and conflict. Most of the Apostolic epistles are addressing contentions in doctrine and practice within the churches and these epistles then came to be considered as God-breathed, divinely inspired Scripture texts.
- Hey, Drew. Having read the whole work (The Large Catechism), this line calling us to depend on the Spirit's work through the Word—as opposed to our piety and religious deeds—makes good sense to me. So, I shared it. Blessings...