So let our cry continually be sola Scriptura—Scripture is sufficient. And it is sufficient because it is God breathed. It is sufficient because it is God’s Word that does not return to Him empty, but always accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it. It is sufficient because it is the Spirit-filled and life-giving Word of God.
When we speak of grace, we must first ask the question: What is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners. Grace is God’s unmerited good intention, His loving disposition toward those who have gone astray and are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1, 3). Grace, then, is something that resides in God and not in man.
“But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain.”)
God’s works are indivisible just as His essence is. The most holy Trinity works as one for the salvation of mankind. He does this by loving the world. How does God love the world? He loves the world in this way, that the Father sent His Son so that whoever believes in the Son by the call of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Son’s death and resurrection will not perish but have eternal life.
The Words from God proclaim God’s love for you, remind you that you belong to Christ, and assuage your conscience. He has not left you as orphans. He has given you the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter. And soon He will bring you home. And your hearts will rejoice, full and free, once again as they were always meant to.
Ask and you will receive, Jesus says, that your joy may be full. Love God, and do what you will. But what do you want? Your joy is already now full, because He is our joy and you, by Word and Sacrament, are filled with Him. So ask and you will receive.
The Holy Spirit is still at work. He convicts us of sin and righteousness. He declares to you all that belongs to Jesus. He takes what is Jesus’ and makes it yours. And thus do we pray that God, indeed, will make our minds of one will, His will, and that we will love what He commands and desire what He promises so that our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found.