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)

“But the one who is forgiven little loves little.” If a person does not recognize that he is loaded down with a great debt of sin and does not realize that he is in dire need of forgiveness for it, he also loves little. At this, Christ turns to the woman and says to her, “Your sins are forgiven,” and with this comforting absolution He assures her heart and conscience of the gracious forgiveness of sins. But the other table guests who were present said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Does not that belong to the Lord God alone? Therefore, He says further to the woman, “Your faith has saved you,” by which you have grasped the evangelical promise about the forgiveness of sins. “Go in peace.”

From this, we learn first, that repentance is necessary, not only for those who fall into gross outward sins, but for all men in common. For Christ sets His heavenly Father before us in this parable as a rich Lord who has granted us all kinds of possessions and has summoned us to make an accounting. But we have incurred a debt which we are far too poor to pay off, as the parable expressly shows that even the one who owed only fifty denarii could not repay it. This is as much as to say: Not only those are debtors before God’s judgment who have committed outward sins, but also those who have sinned in their hearts have incurred a debt. In this situation, one person can boast as little as the next that he is debt-free, or that he has paid off his debt. This is why it says universally, “They are all sinners; there is no difference here” (Rom. 3:23).

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

The Lord God has hidden His wisdom from those who are wise according to the flesh; on the other hand, He has revealed it to infants. Here Christ calls “infants” those who lend faith to God’s Word in childlike simplicity, who become obedient students of the heavenly wisdom, and who are glad to be fools in this world, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:18, that they may be wise to God. The Lord God has revealed the knowledge of Him to those who are unwise and infants in the eyes of the world. He has revealed it not only outwardly, in the Word, as it is presented to all men, but also inwardly, in the spirit and in the heart. “Yes, Father,” says Christ further, “for so it was pleasing in Your sight.” It is altogether just, what happens to these wise and clever; if they are unwilling to lay aside their carnal wisdom, then they will also not come to the knowledge of the heavenly wisdom. This is God’s righteous judgment and His well-pleasing counsel. “Since the world, through its wisdom, did not know God in His wisdom, it pleased God, through foolish preaching, to save those who believe in it (1 Cor. 1:21), not as if He took pleasure in it when men perish, for He sees to it that they are all called through the Word. But if they are unwilling to follow, placing their carnal wisdom and desires ahead of His Word, then it certainly happens to them that the mysteries of divine wisdom remain hidden from them.

But in order that we might know that we should seek divine wisdom only in the Word revealed to us by the Son, Christ adds: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father,” that is, just as the heavenly Father has delivered all things to Me as the Son of Man, having placed all authority in heaven and on earth and all creation under My feet (Psa. 8:7; Mat. 28:18; Eph. 1:22), so also to Me, as the appointed, sole Mediator, He has delivered this, that through the Word and the Spirit, I can and should give the true knowledge of God to men, enlighten their hearts, and be their only Master and Teacher. In this matter, nothing is accomplished with worldly wisdom. “No one knows the Son except for the Father, and no one knows the Father except for the Son.” That is, no man may come to the true knowledge of God by his natural powers, but it must be revealed by the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:3). He alone knows the Father; therefore, He alone can also bring a person to the true, saving knowledge of God. By no means, however, is the Holy Spirit excluded thereby, for He is the One who is of one essence with the Father and the Son and who “searches the deep things of the divinity” (1 Cor. 2:10).

(Sermon for St Matthias-February 24, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 50-51)

When these seventy disciples returned with joy and brought Him a report of their work{Luke 10}, that even the devils were subjugated in the name of the Lord Christ, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and burst forth with a joyful heart into this thanksgiving and said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and clever and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

Here Christ calls the Lord His Father, since, according to His divine nature, He was begotten of Him from eternity (Psa. 2:7), wherefore Christ is His only-begotten, only, and most beloved Son (John 3:16). He also calls Him Lord of heaven and earth, since He not only created them and all their host in the beginning by means of His almighty Word, but still to this hour He powerfully preserves and rules them as a mighty Ruler, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth (Isa. 66:1).

The Lord Christ now gives thanks to this same One, to His heavenly Father and the Lord of all lords, that He has hidden the mystery of the Gospel from the wise and clever but has revealed it to infants. With “wise and clever” are understood the wise of this world; that is, those who are wise according to the flesh, as St. Paul calls them in 1 Corinthians 1:20, who place their worldly wisdom and carnal cleverness ahead of the heavenly wisdom that is revealed to us in the word of the Gospel. “They seek wisdom,” says the Apostle in the passage just cited. That is, they want the heavenly wisdom, set forth to us in the revealed Word, to harmonize with their own carnal wisdom. And when they do not find that such is the case, they would rather allow the heavenly, divine wisdom to depart than to allow their worldly wisdom and reason to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), since the wisdom of this world is foolishness to the Lord God (1 Cor. 3:19).

(Sermon for St Matthias-February 24, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 49-50)

   In the second part of the Gospel {From Luke 7:36-50}, a beautiful parable is presented to us in which the Lord Christ defended Himself and this penitent sinful woman against the Pharisee and also spoke the absolution to her. For when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” He means as much as to say, “The holy prophets could have seen in the Spirit even things that were invisible and hidden; but since this Jesus does not see or know the sins of this woman, then He must not be a prophet. Since He even lets Himself be touched by such a great sinner, He must not be the Most High or the Messiah (Dan. 9:24).”

But the Lord Christ answers him as an all-knowing Lord who sees the thoughts of the heart, saying to him: “There was a lender,” that is, a rich man, “who had two debtors: the one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. And since they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both. Now tell Me, which of them will love him more?” To which Simon the Pharisee answered, “I suppose, the one who was forgiven more.” Christ was pleased with this and said to him, “You have judged rightly.” At this point, He turned to the woman with a kind and friendly face and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You gave Me no water for My feet,” as was normally the custom (Gen. 18:4, 19:2; Jud. 19:21; John 13:5). “But she has wet My feet with her tears and dried them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss,” as good friends normally tended to welcome one another. “But since the moment I came in, this woman has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil,” or perfume, as was normally done with guests. “But this woman has anointed My feet with costly perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much.” She has definitively demonstrated by her deeds that she loves and honors Me more than you do, although you invited Me to be your guest. And this love of hers is a fruit of faith, through which she has obtained the forgiveness of her onerous debt of sin.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 111-112)

3. In addition, we have here a mirror of true repentance, that it changes the whole man and makes an entirely new man out of him. This woman was formerly insolent and proud; but now she has humbled herself to the point that she approaches Christ meekly and kisses His feet. She formerly lived in the lust of the flesh and in the sensuality of the wicked world; now she sheds humble tears from a contrite heart. She formerly misused her eyes for vanity, pursuing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and a proud life (1 John 2:16). Now she turns these eyes of hers into wellsprings of tears. She formerly used her hair to make herself glamorous; now she uses it as a foot towel. She formerly ignored her own dignity for something trivial; now she pours out precious, costly perfume on Christ’s feet. She formerly permitted all sorts of foul and filthy prattle to come out of her mouth; now she kisses Christ’s feet.

Yes, this is a true mirror of repentance, presented as an example for us all. For repentance is incongruous with a laughing mouth; it is rather a rending of the heart (Joel 2:13), a breaking and a crushing of the heart (Psa. 51:19), a distress of the spirit (Psa. 143:4), as such descriptions are found all over the Psalms, that a man feels inner distress of the heart, humbles himself deeply before God and His judgment on account of his sins, and yet, there in the depths, he lays hold of Christ’s merit with true faith. Through such repentance, which is a “regret that is not to be regretted” (2 Cor. 7:10), a man is entirely changed and renewed, so that he now highly disapproves of that which formerly pleased him; and that which he formerly hated he now holds dear. Where this is not the case, there true repentance of the heart has not yet taken place.

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 110-111)

For this reason, the sexually immoral and adulterers are expressly excluded from God’s kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10, Gal. 5:19ff., Rev. 21:8, Rev. 22:15). The Lord God often begins to address these sins with temporal punishments already in this life. So if we want Christ, the Son of the pure Virgin Mary, to dwell in our hearts (Eph. 3:17), then we must be hostile to all shameful words and deeds. If we want the holy angels, those pure spirits, to be with us, then we must strive for true chastity. If we wish to be the temples and dwellings of the Holy Spirit, then surely we must not sin against our own bodies with harlotry. If we wish to see God face to face in eternal life, then we must strive for holiness and purity, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). If we ever wish to enter the heavenly Jerusalem, then we must guard ourselves from all contamination of body and spirit, for nothing common or impure can enter the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21:8).

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 110)

2. But we also have to consider here what a horribly great sin harlotry is.

For thereby one sins first against God, who is a holy, pure, unspotted Being who is genuinely hostile toward all impurity.

Second, one sins against God’s Law, wherein every form of adultery is forbidden with great zeal. Christ explains this in Matthew 5:28, that even shameful words, sexually immoral actions, and inner lust are to be understood with the word “adultery.”

Third, one sins against one’s neighbor, to whom offense is given in this way. And as it says, “Woe to the man through whom offense comes” (Mat. 18:7).

Finally, a man also sins against his own body with adultery and harlotry. He damages the temple of the Holy Spirit and turns Christ’s members into the members of a harlot (2 Cor. 6:15). That must be a terribly great sin indeed!

(Sermon for Mary Magdalene-July 22, Postilla Volume 3 by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, page 109-110)