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Steven Paulson gets Friday afternoon started by talking about Martin Luther. He is a professor and Luther scholar. Here are some quotes: Matthew 4:17-The kingdom of God is at hand. We often get stuck on the first word.  We understand Kingdom = what we must do. Martin Luther was fighting over how we find Jesus.  And particularly what it means for Jesus to stand in front of us. Gerome translated Matthew 4:17 as "do penance" which led Martin Luther 1100 years later to Reformation. The church becomes a lending institution. "The gospel is not for sale"-Luther's argument at the Reformation. The two great monsters of theology: predestination sickness and evil. Luther discovered these are reasons people don't come to church. Luther is going to replace financial theology with promise theology. Luther's First Thesis-The entire life is one of repentance. We must learn how this happens in the passive tense. I choose you--Christ standing in front...

What is sin? If I had to define the word, I would typically say something like "missing the mark." This implies a focus on missing a standard which we naturally conclude to be the Law.  As you think of sin, what is the root?  I have always understood and concluded that it was a breaking of the law. The law's purpose is to crush and reveal our sin.  However, is sin deeper than breaking the law? I have started reading a book called Lutheran Theology by Steven Paulson because I wanted to better understand Martin Luther as the key turning point in protestantism. I know enough church history to remember his 95 theses, but really didn't know much more about his theology. If I had to summarize what I knew, it would have been "salvation by faith alone by grace alone." As I have been reading this book, a few thoughts have begun to percolate. They relate to sin and free will. Let's look at sin first. Luther defined sin as "incurvatus se" which means...

The following is a quote from Lutheran Theology by Steven Paulson on the law and our hearts. The real issue in the law is the first table that concerns the sinner's relation to God, not her neighbor. That relation comes down to the first commandment that demands a good, clean heart. One is either good in heart or not; there is no cherry picking by Jews or Gentiles for which law accuses and which one excuses. Judges point the finger rightly at the wicked, but miss the point about their righteous selves. The real matter concerning the law is the heart, and the heart cannot be made good by the law. The law is not spiritual, meaning that it cannot create anything, especially not a new heart. The law reveals your heart as good or bad as light reveals what hides in darkness, but Paul now claims that the law has already made its universal judgment and come to its fatal conclusion: there is no good heart anywhere...The reason is that the wrath of God has been revealed, the end of self-j...

No, I am not switching denominations. However, since Luther was so instrumental in Protestant Reformation, I wanted to read more about him and his theology. Here is today's new book: