The certainty of faith is utter assurance because it depends upon nothing of your own. It is entirely trusting that God is a propitious, pardoning God—the God who justifies sinners by forgiving them.
Sinners get faith as a gift when Christ takes their captivity captive.

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The danger of denying the truth of our common human fallenness and brokenness by original sin is that the denial of this doctrine may also lead us to the denial of Christ as our Savior.
I just can’t seem to get rid of my skeletons. Nothing I do seems to work. Running and hiding doesn’t get rid of them
We don’t need to make forgiveness, life, and salvation a hard sell.
Perhaps the most poisonous venom to afflict the gospel is the notion of "balancing" grace.
He calls us to suffer as Christ suffered. That is, we are to suffer in service to our neighbor even if they caused the injustice.
Here’s a little “devotional” for you; some thoughts on Law and Gospel from Gerhard Forde. Drink deep, drink full. These are rich streams of thought.
Christ’s death is sufficient for all, even Christians.
Jesus doesn’t talk about God’s love for us; he embodies it.
Mere confrontation in the form of, “What you’re doing is wrong—you need to change yourself,” can never solve the root of our problem.
As I weigh briefly here the advantages and disadvantages of preaching original sin and preaching actual sin, I don’t mean to argue for one and against the other. Instead, I mean to suggest a benefit in focusing a given sermon on one or the other, and that neither type of sermon should be the only type a Christian hears.
Martin Luther is not–or, at least should not–be the object of our affection.
In this religious Sodom, we had a Jesus with the heart of Moses whose gospel was a new and improved law.