“The ears with which one hears the message of the Gospel are hidden in man’s heart, and these ears do not hear anything unless they are favored with a certain interior solitude and silence.”
Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958. (pbk ed 1999), Preface, pp. xii-xiii.
“Listen again: ‘For to you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord, at Bethlehem in the town of David.’ See there what the gospel is: a joyous sermon concerning Christ, our Savior. He who preaches him properly, preaches the gospel and nothing but joy. What greater joy may a heart know than that Christ is given him as his very own? He does not just say: ‘Christ is born,’ but he appropriates Christ’s birth for us and says: ‘Your Savior.’ Thus the gospel does not merely teach the story and accounts of Christ, but personalizes them and gives them to all who believe in it, which is also (as mentioned above) the right and real nature of the gospel. … If there were something else to preach, then the evangelical angel and angelic evangelist would have touched on it.”
Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 21.
Note:
The Gospel, that free gift of God, does require something of us: that we have faith to accept it and apply it to ourselves. This does not negate sola fide or sola gratia, nor does it open the door to works righteousness, because without God first and freely doing the Gospel for us we would have nothing to believe in, nothing to respond to, nothing to apply to ourselves, no incentive or ability to believe, respond, or apply.
Quote:
“Then indeed the Gospel displays to us the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, the Mediator, which He has provided for us, and on account of this merit of Christ it offers to us grace and remission of sins. It does require this of us, that we accept this benefit of Christ by faith and apply it to ourselves, and declares that those who believe in Christ receive forgiveness through His name. It exhorts those who have been reconciled, who have received forgiveness of sins, that they should thereafter bear fruits worthy of repentance. Thus according to Scripture, in order that we may obtain reconciliation there is required in the penitent person contrition, and faith, which lays hold of the merit of Christ; the fruits follow after reconciliation. This manner of repenting is clear and sure, for it is taught in Scripture and has the promise of the remission of sins.”
Source: Chemnitz, Martin. Examination of the Council of Trent. Part II. Fred Kramer, tr. St. Louis: Concordia, 1978, page 576.
Note: The function of confession and absolution is to apply the Gospel to individuals. The function of the Gospel is to ‘proclaim, offer, and set before’ people the forgiveness of sins merited for us by Christ. And note in passing that private confession and absolution is a Lutheran practice, too.
Quote:
“Thus the Gospel proclaims, offers, and sets before contrite and terrified conscience the grace of God, reconciliation and remission of sins freely on account of the merit of Christ; and it is His will that everyone should lay hold of and apply this benefit of the Mediator to himself. The ministry of private absolution applies this general promise of the Gospel to the penitent individually, in order that faith may be able to state all the more firmly that the benefits of the passion of Christ are certainly given and applied to it.”
Source: Chemnitz, Martin. Examination of the Council of Trent. Part II. Fred Kramer, tr. St. Louis: Concordia, 1978, pages 556-557.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 