10 May 2011

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Every statement of the Gospel is a corollary of the forgiveness of sins.  -- Dr. Norman Nagel, Lectures on Systems II

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

God's LOVE is the foundation of the
Gospel message. "For God so LOVED
the world that He gave His only
begotten Son...." God's love was
responsible for the fact that He
forgives our sins for the sake of
His Son Jesus Christ.

However, this LOVE of God is shown
in other ways besides forgiveness.
Out of love God does not always
answer our prayers the way we expect. God empowers us to have
faith in Christ because He loves us
He does what is best for us because
He loves. This is also Gospel.

William Weedon said...

To speak of everything as a corollary of the forgiveness of sins is to speak of all as flowing from what our Lord was up to on Calvary. So St. Paul can argue that Christ's resurrection is tied to forgiveness: "if Christ is not raised, then you are still in your sins." It's to learn to know God out from what He did for you upon the Tree and to see that as the foundation on which all other things rest.