Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Ezra 7:11-28 James 5:1-19

“Faith Wins”

“Abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.”
[Romans 4:19]

And so, Abraham was asked to kill, while trusting by faith, in the Word of God, the son that was promised to him from Sarah, who was barren and past child bearing age. Human reason did not immediately assent to this Word in Abraham. Surely it fought against faith in him and regarded it as something ridiculous, absurd, and impossible that Sarah, who was not only 90 years old now, but was barren by nature, should give birth to a son. Faith certainly had this struggle with reason in Abraham.
But faith won the victory in him; it killed and sacrificed God’s most bitter and harmful of enemies. And so, all devout people enter with Abraham into faith, kill reason and say: “reason, you are foolish. You do not understand the things that belong to God [Matthew 16:23]. Therefore do not speak against me, but keep quiet. Do not judge; but listen to the Word of God, and believe it.”