An unspeakably great, unexplorable divine mystery is at the bottom of all this. God’s holiness and righteousness must shut the doors of heaven to us sinners, and He knows that neither we ourselves nor any creature in heaven or on earth can open them for us. He had therefore determined from eternity that what we [...]
Let us, then, meditate upon the Nativity just as we see it happening in our own babies. I would not have you contemplate the deity of Christ, the majesty of Christ, but rather his flesh. Look upon the Baby Jesus. Divinity may terrify man. Inexpressible majesty will crush him. That is why Christ took on [...]
God the Word of the great and good Father did not abandon human nature as it was falling into corruption and decay. By offering his own body he wiped out the death towards which mankind was heading. By his teaching he healed their ignorance, and by his power and might he re-founded the whole of [...]
The proclamation of the gospel comes effectively to those who have been brought to despair over sin through the law. Why then are some touched by the law and others not? Here, Luther insists, our theologizing has reached its limit. The ultimate answer to the “why lies in that hidden and awful will of God [...]
To this poor maiden marvelous things were announced : that she should be the mother of the All Highest, whose name should be the Son of God. He would be a King and of his Kingdom there would be no end. It took a reach of faith to believe that this baby would play such a role. [...]
Christ, therefore, was born in Bethlehem at the time when Augustus Caesar gave orders that the first enrollment should be made. But what necessity was there, some one may perhaps say, for the very wise Evangelist to make special mention of this? Yes, I answer: it was both useful and necessary for him to mark [...]
The Story of the Birth of Jesus; and the Angels’ Song I. The Birth of Jesus The Story of Jesus’ Birth 1. It is written in Haggai 2,6-7, that God says, “I will shake the heavens; and the precious things of all nations shall Page 136 ————————— come.” This is fulfilled today, for the heavens [...]
The PROPHET’S PRAYER. — Habakkuk 1:12-17 V. 12. Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One? To this certainty the prophet clings, from it he derives consoling confidence. We shall not die, the people of the Lord would not be wholly exterminated. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them, the children of [...]
BWV 133 Ich freue mich in dir Third Day of Christmas (St. John, Apostle and Evangelist). Poet unknown. 1. Kaspar Ziegler, verse 1 of the hymn, 1697 (Fischer-Tümpel, I, #567); 2-3. based freely on verse 2; 4-5. based freely on verse 3; 6. 4th and final verse of the hymn. 27 December 1724, Leipzig; Neumann [...]
