Pierce our souls with Your love, that ever contemplating You, being enlightened by You, and discerning You, the unapproachable and everlasting Light, we may unceasingly render confession and gratitude to You: The eternal Father, with Your Only-Begotten Son, and with Your All-Holy, Gracious, and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. …
I have quoted this passage so that I might make use of the apostle’s words to deter your free will from evil and to exhort it to what is good. Nor should you on this account glory in man, i.e., in yourselves and not in the Lord. You are not living according to the flesh …
“It is obvious that God loves us from the beginning of our creation and cares for everyone at all times and in all places. This love was realised in an amazing way when the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity was incarnate for his free redemption which was completed on the cross …
“We believers in Christ, having been gathered from the Gentiles, had been taken captive by the devil, though we were creatures of God. We were sold out to the demonic powers. Into this circumstance our Lord Jesus Christ came bearing the baggage of captivity, as Ezekiel says, and, covering his head so that his adversaries …
How hard and painful does this appear! The Lord has required that “whoever will come after him must deny himself.” But what he commands is neither hard nor painful when he himself helps us in such a way so that the very thing he requires may be accomplished. For whatever seems hard in what is …
