Its true use.
Its true use.
§ 129. The true use of the Gospel is that: (1) We acknowledge the immense mercy of God in sending His Son. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16). All the benefits of God, all His creatures, bear witness of God’s love, but its greatest witness is Christ; nothing on earth or in heaven is a greater and more excellent gift than He. Clement of Alexandria (Paedagog., 1, ch. 3): “He is truly beloved on whose account the Only-Begotten is sent from the bosom of the Father.” Anselm (Cur Deus homo, bk. 2, ch. 20): “What can be understood as greater mercy than when God says to the sinner condemned to eternal torments and not having a way to ransom himself: ‘Receive My only-begotten Son, and give [Him] for yourself ’? Or when the Son Himself says, ‘Take Me and ransom yourself ’?”
(2) Its second use is that in all temptations and especially at the hour of our death we may have a firm consolation, namely, that we have taken hold of the merit of Christ by true faith unto our salvation. “ ‘Comfort, comfort My people,’ says your God. ‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her time of warfare is ended, that her iniquity is forgiven, that she has received from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins’ ” (Isa. 40:1–2). “Therefore it is of faith, that the promise may be firm, according to grace” (Rom. 4:16). Irenaeus (bk. 3, ch. 20): “If God had not given us salvation, we certainly would not have it.” “In whose hand does our salvation rest more securely than in those hands that built heaven and earth? Than in those that can never be made smaller? Than in those that are overflowing with compassion in the inward parts and do not lack the openings through which to flow?” says Bernard (on Psalm 31).
(3) The third use is that we show that we are grateful to God by true piety throughout all the course of life. “Christ died for all, that those who live might not live for themselves but for Him who for them died and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John 4:11). You should, with all your life, serve Him who desired to serve for you throughout His whole life. Chrysostom (on 1 Timothy, homily 4, col. 1452) says it beautifully: “Glory is not rendered to God in words, because He Himself has not honored us with words but with acts and works. So also let us honor Him by our works.” Bernard (on Song of Songs, sermon 11, ch. 519): “Two things in our redemption must be noted: the manner and the fruit. The manner is the emptying of God [cf. Phil. 2:6–7], but the fruit is the filling of us from Him. Meditating on the former is the seedbed of our holy hope; meditating on the latter is the kindling of the greatest love.”
Therefore as often as people do not yet acknowledge their sins, so long as they feel no serious grief over them but continue in them securely, the promises of the Gospel do not pertain to them any more than balsam does to a stone. We have spoken about this earlier (§ 43), and we shall speak about it more fully in its own place [cf. On Repentance (Commonplace XVIII), §§ 80–82, 85–93; On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 184–85; On Good Works (Commonplace XX), §§ 45–61, 134–44].