The Law, the Gospel, Luther, and the Little Red Hen
In my life I've been burdened, often to the point of complete hopelessness, with the guilt that comes from legalism - that idea that I gain God's favor by my good behavior, and lose it by my sin. I've often felt alone in this struggle, seeing so many people who seem to have it all together, who "do" the Christian life so well, who, even when they will admit to struggling make the struggle sound so spiritual that I feel I can never even sin as spiritually as they do. The truth is, I know for a fact that nothing I do is ever good enough, or pure enough, to measure up to the standard Christ set in His Sermon on the Mount . In my efforts I've ended up swinging like a pendulum between the twin sins of hopeless antinomianism and prideful legalism . I've tortured myself with second-guessing; I've agonized over conversations, worrying that my speech may not have been edifying; I've lived in fear that every wrong decision was my fatal error, the on...
