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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For Luther, those who refuse Christ as a curse want their sin removed not in Christ but in themselves.
Confession is not another ecclesiastical bludgeon but is instead a gift. There we can tell the truth about ourselves, knowing that Christ has only mercy for us in response.
Luther had a living Word from God intended to land squarely among sinners.
God is mercy. He was mercy then. He’s mercy now. God showed them His glory, if only a reflection, in the face of Moses.
Perhaps this year we shall see Lent reaching more toward Easter and tethered to the resurrection then the economy-car style tradition which simply terminates in Good Friday.
In a world where absolutely everything seems to be in flux, indeed, we are all looking for a place to stand.
God is still faithful. There are still the covenantal promises. There is still the preservation of the Messianic line because He who promised, He who covenanted, must be faithful.
Jesus' course led from death into life, as He had promised. And He promises to lead us on that same course from death to life, from lament to joy.
This world of unbearable grief and accidental calamity is being renewed and, soon, will be completely bereft of every pernicious foe.
Christ powerless on the Cross is where the false definitions of glory theologies are exposed and everything is turned upside down.
There is perhaps no better observation about the nature of anxiety and depression than its fundamental desire for avoidance.
Lent is a gift to the Church from the Church. It belongs to all Christians who desire to be conformed to the likeness of our Lord.