Two sides of the same coin...

With 205 quotes from the BOC in the Snippets archive blog, I am finding it harder to ferret out quotes that are contained within a shorter passage, and I wonder just how many more I should put on the Snippets archive blog. However, I continue to find it simply fascinating that whenever I post ones about works or about Original Sin in the Reveling in the Christian Book of Concord Facebook group (that is not a group since no-one interacts) the quotes go largely ignored and primarily not "liked."

I feel like a freak that some of the most comforting quotes from our Confessions are the very ones that speak about Original Sin and about how the only good in our works being that which God does, how the Holy Spirit is the author of our sanctification, how all that we do good in a spiritual sense is that which God has prepared, purposed, and provided the way for us to do.

Both of these are two sides of the same coin, to me, in that Original Sin is the "proof" that we will never find salvation and righteousness on our own and on the other side is that our works will never sanctify us. This coin is one that Christ gave the Holy Spirit to spend on our behalf, to extend the rather poor metaphor, so that we can have the certitude in faith, in salvation, in forgiveness, in eternal life.

Perhaps I am utterly wrong, but to me the doctrine of Original Sin, which bleeds into what our Confessions teaches us about works, is the freedom of the Gospel. The Gospel frees us from the burden of having to save and to sanctify ourselves. The Gospel frees us from spending our lives as Sisyphus.

And, even more astounding, is how the doctrine of Original Sin underscores the ineffable breadth and depth of the love our Triune God has for us, gives to us. Always ... always our flesh contends against God and yet He loves us, sent His Son to redeem us and to give us our Helper who sanctifies us. Always ... apart from the gift of faith that we receive from God ... we stand against Him. And yet He loves us!

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!