From this, third, springs forth a genuine love for God, as Christ says here, “Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much.” For if anyone rightly considers and believes with the whole heart that the Lord God has removed his great debt of sin by grace, he cannot help but love this faithful Father from the heart. On the other hand, when we still think of God in our hearts as a harsh debt collector, we cannot yet truly love Him. He is love itself (1 John 4:16,19). Therefore, He expects us to love Him in return; He cannot preserve this love among us without first forgiving us all our sins by grace, nor is there a better way for Him to preserve it. With this removal of debt, it is intended only that we should love Him. When that happens, then we finally begin again to experience that blessed fellowship that man had with the Lord God before the fall, a fellowship that consisted in love and love requited. Therefore Christ says in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.”

From this love springs the praise of God, and also willing obedience toward God and His commandments. As it says, “His commandments are not difficult” (1 John 5:3), that is, not difficult for the one who has received the forgiveness of sins through faith and has been renewed by the Holy Spirit, so that he serves the Lord God with willing obedience, from genuine love. This is why it says about such a man who loves God that “his works are done in God” (John 3:21), for they flow from faith in Christ and from love for God. May the faithful God also work this in us by the power of His Spirit. Amen.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 113-114)

For this is, second, the fruit of true, sincere repentance, that by it we obtain forgiveness of sins and peace of conscience. This is why it is called “repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18), and “repentance and the forgiveness of sins” are placed together as pointing to one another (Luke 24:47, Acts 2:38). For true faith in Christ is also a part, and, to be sure, the chief part, of repentance, by which we are justified before God and our conscience is placed at ease. Romans 5:1, “Now that we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When the heart, distressed by sin, grasps with true faith the promise of the forgiveness of sins that has been won for us by Christ, then peace and tranquility of conscience follow. Then a person tastes how friendly the Lord is (Psa. 34:9). Yes, a beginning of eternal life is made, since this is nothing other than the fullness of joy in God.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 113)

Therefore, the Lord Christ commands all men, in every place, to repent. But when Christ here compares all sins with debts, as He also does in Matthew 6:12 in the Lord’s Prayer, where He calls them debts, He points us to the tablets of the divine Law, where it is written with eternal, indelible letters how much we have received from God and how great is the debt we have incurred. These tablets are made of stone; therefore, the debt is engraved deeply and permanently. Nor is the lender to whom we are indebted to be taken lightly. He has great power and gives close attention to the accounting. He places our “unknown sins in the light before His divine sight” (Psa. 90:8) and will hold a strict reckoning in due time (Mat. 18:34). Therefore, it is highly recommended that we come forth during the time of grace and humbly seek from Him the removal of our debts through Christ, take refuge in Christ, who has repaid them for us (Psa. 69:5) and has given His precious blood for us as the redemption price. With our own repayment, all is lost. We are indebted to the Lord God with all that we have. How, then, could we repay Him with it? Let us run to Christ with true faith, lay hold of His feet and not leave Him until He blesses us and absolves us from our debt of sin. And since there are so many things that would drive us away from Christ or keep us from Him, let us cling to Him all the more tightly. He will speak to us kindly in the end.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 112-113)