![]() 5 Now, if there were another way to heaven doubtless he would have made it known to us. Him he placed in our stead to suffer misery, hell and death, and let him drink our cup to the dregs. Christ teaches here that we are not lost, but have eternal life that is, that God has so loved us that he allowed the ransom to cost him his only beloved child. But they must perish, since they fain would come to the Father without a mediator, without Christ, whom the Father holds up before us out of his gracious goodness. They wish to discover the sacrifice or price of salvation in themselves and to ignore Christ as mediator. ![]() This is no less than saying: I will work enough to escape perdition I will turn my sins into vapor, to disappear and open a way into heaven. Bridget, shall be eternally saved and all the books are full of like teachings. 4 Now, the schools teach that man is to be saved by his own works they say: Whosoever becomes a monk or nun, or repeats every day the little prayer of St. Through him we are to come to the Father with the price we can pay nothing is accomplished. God has intervened by placing as mediator one who is alike true God and true man. Where God and man oppose each other, man meets with instant destruction, for he cannot stand against God. But let us thank the Father for ordering it as he has, and placing between us one who is God and equal with God, and also man, on a level with man for we are human and he is God. It would be at the peril of our lives, for we should be despising the priceless sacrifice which the Father made for us. But their plans did not result as they intended they should. That means to reject Christ as a mediator, as Jeremiah tells us did the godless, who thought and said: Let us send wood to him as his food, and we will root him out of the land, and there will be no remembrance of his name. Now, the schools teach us to approach the Father without a mediator, through our own good works. The Holy Spirit teaches everywhere that we do not possess the Father except through a mediator, and he will not allow us to approach the Father without one. 3 What is now the cost of redemption? Today's Gospel points this out. The Turk and Jew, too, believe in God, but without means and mediator. I have often said that faith alone is not sufficient before God, but the price of redemption must also be in evidence. Now, Christ says here, the Father so loved the world that he gave his beloved child for the world, and instituted for us a way to come to him that way is Christ. To simply fear the Father confers no benefit but to bear to him a companionable love of rare quality makes us blessed. Everything Christ does tends to help us to acquire a loving confidence in the Father. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 2 Now, notice that Christ represents the Father to us as none else than the all-loving and magnetic one, and he brings us through himself to the Father. Therefore, examine only the words themselves they are weighty, precious and comforting beyond measure. Now, as you have often heard, the Gospel teaches nothing but that one must learn to know Christ alone, and so the Holy Spirit teaches nothing more. Joh 3:16 | Luther | STEP | ] 1 This is another of the true Gospel lessons, such as John is accustomed to write for he writes in a way to make him alone worthy the name of an evangelist.
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