Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Genesis 18:16-25:51 Matthew 6:25-8:17 Proverbs 2:6-3:6

“To Know the Father”

“They said to him therefore, ‘where is your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘you know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’ “
[John 8:19]

Do not begin backwards, or from above, attempting to know the Father beforehand. You will fail. But do this, close your eyes and say: “I know nothing of God or of the Father unless I come here and listen to Christ.” For anything preached or invented outside this Man’s Word, no matter what it may be or how sublime it may sound, is not the Father, but remains blindness, error, yes, the devil himself. “If you knew me, you would know My Father also. But if you do not know Me, you also know nothing of My Father; for He has declared that He wants to be recognized through the Son.” The Father takes us away from all universities, from the laws of all wise people, from the lives of all the saints, from all religions, faiths, and doctrines, from all monastic cowls and tonsures, and says: “he who would know Me, the Father, must give ear to Christ, the Son.”