#27- With Christ, We Shall Persevere

Isaiah 50:7. I have set My face like a flint. A Christian might be thus influenced that he has a very hard face, since he will have to hear insults and even see openly that everything, however good, right, and true it may be, is given the worst possible interpretation. Let not then Christians despair when they hear such great blasphemies from the fanatics as even human nature cannot bear, unless the Word and the Spirit of God harden our face against the despisers of the Word.

  1. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up together. “No one will dare to go into judgment with Me,” says Christ, for “God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31). He brings it about that we consider it of no consequence, even though the whole world contends against us. The rule of the church is not located in pomp and appearance but in the Word, even in the spoken Word, on which we may stand firm against all insults. For “if God is for us, who is against us?”

Come, let us be judged. There is nothing evil in the whole world which they themselves commit and do not shove off on us, so as to have a cause against us because of the Gospel. Nevertheless, we can innocently say with Samuel (1 Sam. 12:3): “Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken?” Yet they persecute us for the sake of their own tyrants. But we shall persevere.

  1. Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment, that is, they will perish little by little through constant use rather than all of a sudden, but room will be given them for repentance. In another place we read3: “My face is indeed weakened like a garment chewed up by worms.” Thus also our enemies will perish but “the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:8)” (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 195).
Posted in 2019 Teaching Children.