New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Our prayer is part of our work in Christ's heavenly administration of His Father's realm.—Dr. John Kleinig, Grace upon Grace, p. 155.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

No, not everyone who dies goes to a better place. Some, sadly, unnecessarily, die and go to hell—but not you. Your Lord was crucified and raised for your justification. You bear the name of the Holy Trinity upon your forehead and heart. You eat the manna of Jesus' risen body and blood and commune with all the saints and holy angels. You die and go to your Lord Jesus Christ and His Father, because He did not love His life but laid it down for yours.—Pr. David Petersen, Thy Kingdom Come, p. 193.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Let us not abandon the fellowship in our congregation and fail to come to worship services. Already at that time (writing of Hebrews) there were those who made a habit of that. That is and remains a betrayal not only to the congregation, but to Him who is the head, Christ.—Bishop Bo Giertz, To Live with Christ, p. 701.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The pastor schools his people so that with the right kind of pious talk they will then be equipped to win other people for the church. In place of the office of preaching reconciliation comes the training of "soul winners," teaching them just the right way of talking with people, to make maximum use of the techniques of psychological manipulation. The system admittedly derives from the methods of American business. Thus people are to be brought into the church, made to feel at home there, led to make a decision, and then all together they are to carry on their building of the kingdom of God. What the Word of God is no longer trusted to do is achieved with the psychological techniques of such modern evangelization.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: The Church, pp. 22, 23.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

We can never surrender the promises that are bound up with the means of grace. A person can lose the blessing of Baptism by not again and again, yes daily, receiving the promise of Christ in faith. But the promise remains. Baptism remains the same.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: The Church, p. 46.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The recognition of this reality of the Word of God is the basis for recognizing the reality of the church.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess the Church, p. 50.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Wherever the means of grace are rightly administered, there God fulfills His promise that the Word will not return empty, there faith is created, there is the church, the congregation of saints, of justified sinners.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: The Church, p. 71.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

When the holy ministry is received and instituted as given by the Lord, not over the congregation but in the congregation, then it becomes very large and can be received and rejoiced in as the great gift it is. Then the question of how it is bestowed gives place to what is bestowed. The more or less dubious theories of its apostolic origin give place to its apostolic content. This is nothing other than what was committed to the apostles, that they should be proclaimers of the pure Gospel and servants of the sacraments instituted by Christ—this and nothing more. Herein is the apostolicity of the office of the holy ministry.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: The Church, pp. 81, 82.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The Word falls equally on every ear, but the lives of those who flourish in faith and good works make the labors of their preachers so much lighter and so much more pleasurable.—Dr. Scott Murray, A Year with the Church Fathers, p. 304.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Christ's self-sacrifice upon the cross is the sacrificial element in the sacrament. Thus to "do" the sacrament is simply to participate in Christ's sacrifice, and this participation occurs in the eating of His body and blood in the Sacrament.—Daniel J. Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, pp. 189, 190.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The privileged entrance into the Holy of Holies is indeed that which is at the heart of Christian worship: the celebration of the Lord's Supper.—Daniel J. Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 402.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is logically possible to think of the church as it is in an infinitesimally small moment of time. Theologically and actually it is not possible to do so. For in the church we live, we are part of a process, we are being justified before God by God; there is a constant forgiveness of sins that we - who are simultaneously sinners and holy people - are constantly committing, and we who are being constantly declared holy by God's grace for Christ's sake are constantly becoming holier by God's grace for Christ's sake through faith.—Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn, The Church, p. 25

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

With God's glory glowing behind the Old Testament sacrifices, they cast a shadow in the shape of a cross.—Daniel Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 193.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

As one considers the Lord's Supper and its ingredients, one should realize that Christ's will and testament is to be treated as precise and irrevocable. Even as one would never consider modifying a mere human's will and testament, neither should one consider tampering with the words or elements of the Son of God's testament.—Daniel J. Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 305.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

All Christian love emanates from God's love. Without Christ, we wouldn't know what love is. Christ has not only shown us how to live in love, He instituted love itself into the world. He became one with us when He took our sins upon Himself. His love drowned our sins. As members of His body, He lets this love flow in us.—Bishop Bo Giertz, To Live With Christ, p. 547.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The traditional Western liturgy for the Lord's Supper quite explicitly confesses Jesus as our peace offering in the Pax and in the Agnus Dei.—John Kleinig, Leviticus, p. 96.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Liturgical worship feels unnatural to us because does not reflect our "natural" feelings. Rather, it teaches us what to feel when God meets us in His Word and sacrament.—Hal Senkbeil, Sanctification: Christ in Action, p. 180.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Now, all men have been reconciled to the Father in the death of Jesus Christ. No one who believes in Him, even if he sleep, will ever die. Jesus has risen for our justification. He has declared us righteous and holy and welcomes us to Himself in the Holy Communion. You [,O grave,] can scowl, threaten, and attack, but you have lost. You are defeated. You have come to an end. Jesus lives!—Pr. David Petersen, Thy Kingdom Come, p. 154.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is the theological task of the Lutheran Church—a task which she can carry out only insofar as she has preserved the pure Gospel—to discover anew for herself and for the whole of Christendom what comfort it brings, to be able to sing and confess with the Church of all ages: Tu solus sanctus (You alone are holy).—Hermann Sasse, cited in Hermann Sasse: A Man for Our Times?, p. 119.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

In the Lord's Supper the boundaries of space and time are overcome. Heaven and earth become one, the inseparable interval that separates the present moment of the church from the future kingdom of God is bridged.—Hermann Sasse, The Lord's Supper in the New Testament.