Michael Reeves
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The message with the deepest power to make humans unfurl and flourish. For by grace alone, all those who know themselves as failures can know not just a bit of enabling from God, helping them to do a little better, they can know a wholly new and victorious identity in Christ. They can know assurance, relief from guilt, and sweet intimacy with an almighty Father who cares for them.
The message with the deepest power to make humans unfurl and flourish. For by grace alone, all those who know themselves as failures can know not just a bit of enabling from God, helping them to do a little better, they can know a wholly new and victorious identity in Christ. They can know assurance, relief from guilt, and sweet intimacy with an almighty Father who cares for them.
And knowing that, they begin to find a hearty desire rising up in them to follow the one who is the source of all grace and every good. See, once they would have attempted holiness out of the desperate desire to earn eternal life. With this gospel, They do so out of a heart transformed to want Christ, to see the beauty of His kindness, His goodness, His generosity, and all His holy ways.
And knowing that, they begin to find a hearty desire rising up in them to follow the one who is the source of all grace and every good. See, once they would have attempted holiness out of the desperate desire to earn eternal life. With this gospel, They do so out of a heart transformed to want Christ, to see the beauty of His kindness, His goodness, His generosity, and all His holy ways.
God saving people out of his sheer loving kindness sounds wonderful, but people needing to be saved because they are otherwise helpless in their sin sounds less pleasing, and we don't like hearing bad news.
God saving people out of his sheer loving kindness sounds wonderful, but people needing to be saved because they are otherwise helpless in their sin sounds less pleasing, and we don't like hearing bad news.
We're going to look now at the question of sin. and see how differently sin can be understood and how different views of sin have profound practical consequences. Now, Martin Luther grew up with a little view of sin. It wasn't that he refused to take sin seriously, quite the opposite. Sin, he knew, is the weight that will drag us to hell. It is the cause of all misery. Its wages are death.
We're going to look now at the question of sin. and see how differently sin can be understood and how different views of sin have profound practical consequences. Now, Martin Luther grew up with a little view of sin. It wasn't that he refused to take sin seriously, quite the opposite. Sin, he knew, is the weight that will drag us to hell. It is the cause of all misery. Its wages are death.
Yet while he knew that sin is a severe problem, he didn't think it was a very deep problem. It was a view that chimes well with today's cheery optimism about ourselves and our culture. For today... In our culture, we know we do wrong things, but the suggestion that we might be rotten deep down strikes our society today as utterly repellent nonsense.
Yet while he knew that sin is a severe problem, he didn't think it was a very deep problem. It was a view that chimes well with today's cheery optimism about ourselves and our culture. For today... In our culture, we know we do wrong things, but the suggestion that we might be rotten deep down strikes our society today as utterly repellent nonsense.
Most believe today we are good people muddling through. And, of course, we slip up every now and again. Sin is seen as a small problem, easy to fix. And what Luther came to see, surprisingly, is that such sunny stories of how basically good we are, so attractive in their cheeriness, are actually terrible, enslaving lies.
Most believe today we are good people muddling through. And, of course, we slip up every now and again. Sin is seen as a small problem, easy to fix. And what Luther came to see, surprisingly, is that such sunny stories of how basically good we are, so attractive in their cheeriness, are actually terrible, enslaving lies.
Now, in Luther's day, it was the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who summed it up and whose message was so widespread. Aristotle said, "'We become righteous by doing righteous deeds.'" "'We become righteous by doing righteous deeds.'" or we become just by doing just acts. It was a self-help, fake it till you make it message.
Now, in Luther's day, it was the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who summed it up and whose message was so widespread. Aristotle said, "'We become righteous by doing righteous deeds.'" "'We become righteous by doing righteous deeds.'" or we become just by doing just acts. It was a self-help, fake it till you make it message.
So if you work at outward righteous acts and keep doing them, it claimed you will actually become a righteous person. And for years, Luther lived by the maxim, we become righteous by doing righteous deeds. As a monk, he desperately did all the righteous deeds he could imagine, fasting, praying, pilgriming, monkery.
So if you work at outward righteous acts and keep doing them, it claimed you will actually become a righteous person. And for years, Luther lived by the maxim, we become righteous by doing righteous deeds. As a monk, he desperately did all the righteous deeds he could imagine, fasting, praying, pilgriming, monkery.
And what he slowly came to realize was the dream of becoming truly righteous by some simple change of behavior was just that, an elusive dream. Holding its reward ever just out of reach, it consistently promised righteousness without delivering it. All the time exacting a heavier and heavier behavioral demand. In other words, by dangling the hope of becoming righteous ever.
And what he slowly came to realize was the dream of becoming truly righteous by some simple change of behavior was just that, an elusive dream. Holding its reward ever just out of reach, it consistently promised righteousness without delivering it. All the time exacting a heavier and heavier behavioral demand. In other words, by dangling the hope of becoming righteous ever.