Rusten > Recent Status Updates

"When the Word is preached, the law and the gospel operate differently. The law exposes the disease of sin, and as a side effect stimulates and stirs it up. But it provides no remedy for it. However the gospel not only teaches us what is to be done, it also has the power of the Holy Spirit joined to it. When we are regenerated by him we receive the strength we need both to believe the gospel and to do what it command

Just finished the section on Melanchthon. Was struck by working out of different giftings in the reformers. He was so opposite what Luther was like in temperament. Luther was all fight, fire, and controversy... Melancthon was academic, polished, and hated polemics. He was the one up all night writing respectable docs (Augsburg confession etc). Reformers need guys like him for their work to last generations.

This is some real Samizdat... Very interesting to read the way Putin's advisor sees the west.