According to a 2001 poll...
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According to a 2001 poll of the Barna Research Group 7 in 10 Americans think you have to do works in order to be saved. Little has changed about this matter in the last decade.
True enough the Gospel Lesson does speak of keeping God's commandments. But there is a big difference between having to do these works, and spontaneously and joyfully doing them. Martin Luther makes that very clear in two quotations about this text: "He [Christ] completely abolished Moses for his Christians, and now he does not want us encumbered again with the intolerable burden of the law. For we invariably find that where laws rule, especially over the conscience, there is no end of commands and precepts" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, pp. 101-102).
"But as Christ said earlier, it all depends on whether you feel and find that you love this man [Jesus]. For if you truly believe this, then love will be there, and your heart will be moved... Should I not thank, praise, honor, and service him with my life and my goods?" (Ibid., p. 146).
As the Reformer put is elsewhere: In Jesus Christ we have been made so rich with God's gifts that like empty cups into which more has been poured than they can hold, the goods of God just spill over on to other people (Ibid., Vol. 31, pp. 365-366). That's how it is that whoever loves Jesus keeps his commandments (v. 21).
True enough the Gospel Lesson does speak of keeping God's commandments. But there is a big difference between having to do these works, and spontaneously and joyfully doing them. Martin Luther makes that very clear in two quotations about this text: "He [Christ] completely abolished Moses for his Christians, and now he does not want us encumbered again with the intolerable burden of the law. For we invariably find that where laws rule, especially over the conscience, there is no end of commands and precepts" (Luther's Works, Vol. 24, pp. 101-102).
"But as Christ said earlier, it all depends on whether you feel and find that you love this man [Jesus]. For if you truly believe this, then love will be there, and your heart will be moved... Should I not thank, praise, honor, and service him with my life and my goods?" (Ibid., p. 146).
As the Reformer put is elsewhere: In Jesus Christ we have been made so rich with God's gifts that like empty cups into which more has been poured than they can hold, the goods of God just spill over on to other people (Ibid., Vol. 31, pp. 365-366). That's how it is that whoever loves Jesus keeps his commandments (v. 21).
