Five Minutes a Day with Luther - 05-13-2017

[Five Minutes with Luther]

FIVE MINUTES A DAY WITH LUTHER

** Now available in book form: http://lcmssermons.com/about5mins.php **


May 13

Gal 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one
another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

* * *

When Paul says that the flesh sets it desire against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh, he admonishes us so that we
might sense the concupiscence of the flesh, that is to say, not
only carnal lust, but also pride, wrath, heaviness, impatience,
incredulity, and suchlike. Notwithstanding that he would have
us sense them, he would not have us consent to them, nor
accomplish them; that is, that we neither think, speak, nor do
those things which the flesh provokes in us. For example, if it
moves us to anger, then we should be angry in this manner, as we
are taught in the fourth Psalm, so that we do not sin. As if
Paul would say: I know that the flesh will provoke you to wrath,
envy, doubting, incredulity, and such; but resist it by the
Spirit, that you do not sin. But if you forsake the guiding of
the Spirit, and follow the flesh, you shall fulfill the lusts of
the flesh, and you shall die. So here Paul is speaking not only
of the lusts of the flesh, but of the whole kingdom of sin.
These two leaders, says Paul, the flesh and the Spirit, are set
one against another in your body, so that you cannot do what you
please. Paul speaks these words to the believing Christians, who
have been justified, renewed, and have full forgiveness of sins.
Yet notwithstanding, he says that the flesh rebels against the
Spirit in them. In the same way he speaks of himself in the
seventh chapter of Romans: "But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." But this
must be our anchor-hold, that Christ is our only and perfect
righteousness.

Thy grace first made me feel my sin,
It taught me to believe;
Then, in believing, peace I found,
And now I live, I live!

---
Cuda.
aka Pastor Robin Fish
It isn't whether we win or lose, it is "Do we stand faithfully?"

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