Gerhard and Walther

If a human heart is to love God, it has to be cleansed from the sewage of sin. In the same, only those have a pure heart shall see God, so also only those in whom there is a pure heart can love God. That’s why David inwardly prays in Ps 51:12 “Create in me, God, a clean heart.”—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis III:109

Many believe that nothing should be preached to the common Christian about the mysterious election of grace because only the learned can comprehend this doctrine. But this is a great error.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 476.