So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

“The sanctity of the Christian life…above all is a matter of personal gratitude, of love, and of praise. It is a…code of love based on communal thanksgiving and appreciation of our new life in Christ. It implies a spiritual awareness of the fact that our Christian life is in fact the life of the risen Christ active and fruitful within all of us at every moment. We must realize that our acts of virtue and our good works are not done simply…to satisfy the cold obligation of an impersonal law. They are a personal response of love to the desire of a human heart filled with divine love for us.” (Thomas Merton, “Life in the Spirit”, Life and Holiness, p. 64)

Works—they are to be done not to satisfy the law—but done in response to the love of G-d—works are responses of love. This is our understanding as Lutherans, of works. Works are done in response to G-d’s amazing, unmerited, unearned, undeserved love for all of humanity. Thomas Merton writes that the sanctity of the Christian life is a matter of personal gratitude—of love—and of praise. It is a life of gratitude—of appreciation for our new life in Christ. That is how we are to live—we live lives of gratitude that are defined by works that are done in thanksgiving for Christ’s self-sacrificing love.

Pastor Dave