The Narrow Door
"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."
LUKE 13:24
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The Narrow Door
Well, why not? Because they do not know what the narrow door is. It is faith, which makes a person small, even nothing, so that he must despair of all his works and only cling to God's grace, abandoning everything for that. But the Cain-saints think that good works are the narrow door. For that reason they do not become small, they do not despair of their [works], but rather gather them together in big bags, hang them around [their necks], and want to go through [that door]. And they will go through, just like a camel with its large hump can go through the eye of a needle [see Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25].
From the Church Postil, sermon for the Sunday after Christmas on Galatians 4:1-7 (Luther's Works 75:367)
LUKE 13:24
+
The Narrow Door
Well, why not? Because they do not know what the narrow door is. It is faith, which makes a person small, even nothing, so that he must despair of all his works and only cling to God's grace, abandoning everything for that. But the Cain-saints think that good works are the narrow door. For that reason they do not become small, they do not despair of their [works], but rather gather them together in big bags, hang them around [their necks], and want to go through [that door]. And they will go through, just like a camel with its large hump can go through the eye of a needle [see Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25].
From the Church Postil, sermon for the Sunday after Christmas on Galatians 4:1-7 (Luther's Works 75:367)
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