before I quit for the day (remember, Broadway tonight!):
Christ did not earn only gratia, "grace," for us, but also "donum", "the gift of the Holy Spirit," so that we might have not only forgiveness of, but also cessation of, sin.
(Martin Luther, *On the Councils and the Church*, AE 41:114)
These were earnable?
ReplyDeleteAnd had to be earned?
Anastasia
Cessation of the sins we already committed or the ability to cease sinning? And if the latter, does this mean that one has the ability to cease sinning and therefor no longer need forgiveness after the initial forgiveness?
ReplyDeleteAnastasia,
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't put too much stress on the earned; I haven't the foggiest clue what the German was he actually wrote, but in common Western parlance that has the weight of "obtained, acquired."
Linda,
He wasn't envisioning the ability to cease sinning entirely before death, but he was definitely teaching that sin is to diminish in the lives of the baptized, that sanctification is to increase. To use the analogy of Joshua and conquering the land of promise - we've got a battle in front of us with our own Hittities, Hivites, etc. And in our lives our Joshua, our Jesus, seeks to drive them out more and more.