Friday, October 30, 2009
Matthew 2:11 And they went into the house and found the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
CHRIST IS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE
"These magi were carefully prevented from finding Christ by their own efforts or with the aid of men. They found him solely because of the prophet, written word, and the star that shone from heaven, in order that all natural knowledge and all human reason might be rejected and every enlightenment repudiated except that which comes through the Spirit and grace. For human reason boasts and claims arrogantly to teach truth and show the proper way, just as the blind men in the universities . . . at present claim to be able to do. Here is determined for all time that Christ, who is the truth that brings salvation, will not permit himself to be taught or found through the teachings or aid of men. The Scriptures alone and the light of God must show him, as he says, Matthew 16[:17]: 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.' In this way Christ clearly condemns flesh and blood and revelation through them, that is, men and all human reason, which certainly cannot reveal Christ and therefore are surely nothing but darkness. . . . Also, in John 6[:44] Christ says: 'No one can come to me unless my Father draws him.' In these words the presumption of our own reason and of all human reason, even as its ability to lead us aright, is condemned; all who follow it must of necessity go astray. God diligently and powerfully resists our natural pride everywhere; he wills us to recognize that we are blind and that we despair of our own light, giving only him our hand and letting him lead us on ways which reason can neither know nor follow."
(Luther's Works, Volume 52, p. 194)
