9 March
I am going away. John 8:21.
That’s frightening if He goes away, for He takes with Him everlasting life and salvation, and everything that God wants to give to those who are His, and He leaves behind death, devil, sin and every misfortune. One can see such among the Jews. Among the Turks He has also gone away. Also in the Papacy. There is not a single one who is able to save a single soul. So we with our gross ingratitude are on the way. And if the remnant, which now longingly sighs, has a strong desire and love for the Gospel, is gone, and the core is peeled off, one thereupon will also have preachers who will not be able to keep, teach, nor sustain a single soul. It’s so frightening when He says: I’m leaving. For there goes with Him, the knowledge of God, the understanding of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, where one doesn’t know what God, life, righteousness and salvation is, or how one can be freed from sin and death. Everything goes away with Him, and things become evil, or indeed things become as evil as it was before.
Remember that what Jesus said in the text above was to some Jews who were arguing with Him. Tomorrows verse will be a comforting one…
In the Name of Jesus – Who is with us always to the end of the ages,
Elmer H. (who’s body is aching, but rejoicing that I completed this)
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