THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT - THURSDAY LESSON: PSALM 25:1-10 Your king is coming to you. Matthew 21:5 Learn from this Gospel what happens when God begins to make us godly, and what is the beginning of becoming godly. There is no other beginning but the fact that your King comes to you and begins to work in you. This comes to pass as follows. The Gospel must be the very first thing in this context; it must be preached and heard. In this you hear and learn how your work is nothing before God and that all you do or attempt is sin. But your King must be in you beforehand and rule you. That is the beginning of your salvation. You then give up your own work, and despair of self, because you hear and see that your own work is nothing, as the Gospel tells you. You begin to receive your King through faith, you cling to Him, invoke His grace, and entrust yourself solely to His goodness. That you hear and accept this is also not of your own strength but of God’s grace, which has made the Gospel fruitful in you, so that you believe Him when He declares that your own work is nothing. You see how few there are who accept His grace. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem. The papists not only reject this doctrine but actually condemn it. They do not want their own work to be sin and nothing. They want to lay the first stone and they rage and storm against the Gospel. SL.XI.8,23 AE 75,35 PRAYER : O Lord, take from our hearts all self-pride and trust in our own works and efforts, and grant us grace to trust solely and wholly in your mercy and grace, granted us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
