Author's note: To God be the glory! It has been the supreme, sublime, delight of my life to have been given the opportunity to study the writings of Martin Luther, reformer-what many say they want today. If you want a reformer as much as you are willing to be reformed, then this is a great place to begin your reformation.
I have been reading, studying, teaching, and writing about Luther's teachings for more than three years, virtually full time. I have read his sermons and the 54 volumes of his works in English twice. One of the fruits of this effort is this compilation of some of Luther's most important (at least to me) quotes on what I call the "process of salvation."
I hope and pray your heart will be refreshed, your mind liberated, and your conscience set free as you read these precious gems. Mostly, I pray you will see the smugness which has set in across the expanse of Christianity, and be convicted in your own heart to see not only the greatness of Christ's Gift, but the depth of our need and sinfulness.
I also urge you to consider Christ's own words: "As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be"; and, "When the Son of Man returns, shall He find faith on the earth?" Do these statements indicate how far from Christ "Christianity" will be before He comes? Could it be that Luther's Writings are the only hope to be saved from the woes to come? The only way to find the true meaning of Scripture?
Everyone believes they are right today. In short, I say you are "right" to the extent you agree with and understand what you are about to read. May God give you courage, boldness, and especially a humility which is beyond the grasp of anyone I know of today.
It is my intention to organize this material into a systematic order, if God wills.
Timothy Vance
February 23, 2000
PROCESS OF SALVATION
| 1. | Preachers of repentance and grace remain even to our day, but they do not explain God's law and promise that a man might learn from them the source of repentance and grace. Repentance proceeds from the law of God, but faith or grace from the promise of God, as Romans 10:17 says: "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." Accordingly man is consoled and exalted by faith in the divine promise after he has been humbled and led to a knowledge of himself by the threats and the fear of the divine law. Se we read in Psalm 30:5: "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." (31/364) |
| 2. |
Behold, from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves one's neighbor willingly and takes no account of gratitude or
ingratitude, of praise or blame, of gain or loss. For a man does not serve that he may put men under obligations. He does not distinguish between friends and enemies or anticipate their
thankfulness or unthankfulness, but he most freely and most willingly spends himself and all that he has, whether he wastes all on the thankless or whether he gains a reward. As his Father
does, distributing all things to all men richly and freely, making "his sun rise on the evil and on the good" (Matt. 5:45), so also the Son does all things and suffers all things
with that freely bestowing joy which is his delight when through Christ he sees it in God, the dispenser of such great benefits. (31/ 367)
|
| 3. | A Christian ought to think: "Although I am an unworthy and condemned man, my God has given me in Christ all the riches of righteousness and salvation without any merit on my part, out of pure, free mercy, so that from now on I need nothing except faith which believes that this is true. Why should I not therefore freely, joyfully, with all my heart, and with an eager will do all things which I know are pleasing and acceptable to such a Father who has overwhelmed me with his inestimable riches? I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ." (31/367) |
| 4. | I cannot explain and expound the commandments here, but this is the conclusion: Because man is conceived and born in sin and is a child of wrath he can do nothing but sin and daily fall deeper and deeper into the wrath of God, until he finally hears and believes that Christ is his Savior and has died for him to redeem him from his sins. Through this hearing, the Spirit of God comes into his heart and he is permeated with God's grace and love, so that he loves God, praises and hallows his name, rests and keeps still and lets God accomplish His own work in him. Thus, no one can fulfil these first three commandments without Christ. And yet they say that natural reason, without Christ's help, is able to avoid sin. They raise up and erect in Christ's stead the free will of man, and in God's stead an idol of their own hearts, a destructive heresy. Thus they deny Christ and the whole New Testament and do away with the first three commandments. (36/217) |
| 5. | Your words still sound as though they ascribe a good deal to works. This is what we think. When the Holy Spirit makes us aware of the work of Christ and of his merit, outwardly through the gospel and inwardly through his gift, when he bestows this merit upon us and causes us to believe in it, then this faith is nothing else than a living trust and confidence in the merit that Christ has bestowed upon us. We rely upon it from the bottom of our hearts, without doing any works of our own. We are confident that it is not our own works but the work and merit of Christ that destroys our sins, overcomes death, and swallows up hell. This means that no work is required in order to believe in God or to have a true and living faith. Rather it is this living faith in God which subsequently does good works to one's neighbor, as Christ has done to him. (36/301) |
| 6. | Every man must find out what is conducive to chastity in his case. How much of what and for what length of time, he must decide for himself and observe. If he cannot do this, then let him submit himself for a time to the control of somebody else, who will hold him to such a rule until he is strong enough to govern himself. This was the purpose for which the monasteries were established in former times, to teach young people discipline and purity. (36/105) |
| 7. | St. Augustine speaks rightly when he says that the works of the first commandment are faith, hope, and love. Such faith and confidence brings with it hope and love. In fact, when we see it properly, love comes first, or at any rate it comes at the same time as faith. For I could not have faith in God if I did not think he wanted to be favorable and kind to me. This in turn makes me feel kindly disposed toward him, and I am moved to trust him with all my heart and to look to him for all good things. (44/30) |
| 8. | "Killing the flesh" must first be accomplished through the Spirit in faith. Then a man becomes the enemy of his flesh and its lusts. Then come work, suffering, trouble, worry, and interrupted sleep; but he eats and drinks with confidence. That is the way that married people can do it, who never have any peace from their children or servants, and are never without work day or night. It is among such people that you will find those who believe and have killed their flesh. But the man who sits alone in the corner of the monastery serves no one and is of no use at all. (46/150) |
| 9. | Taste it and see how sweet the Lord is after you have first tried and realized how bitter is whatever we are. (48/36) |
| 10. | Repentance (metanoia) means coming to one's right mind and a comprehension of one's own evil after one has accepted the damage and recognized the error. This is impossible without a change on one's disposition and the object of one's love. (48/66) |
| 11. | If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here in this world we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness, but, as Peter says, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God's glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner. (48/281) |
| 12. | In order to explore their individual spirit, too, you should inquire whether they have experienced spiritual distress and the divine birth, death, and hell. If you should hear that all their experiences are pleasant, quiet, devout, and spiritual, then don't approve of them, even if they should say that they were caught up to the third heaven. The sign of the Son of Man is then missing, which is the only touchstone of Christians and a certain differentiator between the spirits. Do you want to know the place, time, and manner of true conversations with God? Listen: "Like a lion he has broken all my bones"; "I am cast out from before your eyes"; My soul is filled with grief, and my life has approached hell." The Divine Majesty does not speak in such a direct way to man that man could actually see it; but rather, "Man shall not see me and live." Our nature cannot bear even a small glimmer of God's direct speaking. As a result God speaks through men indirectly, because not all can endure his speaking. The angel frightened even the Virgin, and also Daniel. And Jeremiah pleads, "Correct me O Lord but in just measure," and "Be not a terror to me." Why should I say more? As if the Divine Majesty could speak familiarly with the Old Adam without first killing him and drying him out so that his horrible stench would not be so foul, since God is a consuming fire! The dreams and visions of the saints are horrifying, too, at least after they are understood. Therefore examine them and do not even listen if they speak of the glorified Jesus, unless you have first heard of the crucified Jesus. (48/366-7) |
| 13. |
What do a Christian and a flatter have in common? Christianity is something direct and simple. It looks at things as they are, and it speaks accordingly. Even the pagans wish evil to those
who flatter their friends about their vices. How, then, could the truth of Christ flatter evil and ungodliness? We are not afraid that the crowds will be offended by this
"biting." For whom did Christ not offend? Whom did he not reprove? The Spirit of truth reproves and does not flatter. He reproves not just some people, however, but the whole
world. Therefore we think that everything ought to be straightforwardly censured, reproved, confounded, and that nothing should be spared, bypassed, or excused, so that the unshackled,
pure, and clear truth remains victoriously among us.
It is a totally different thing to accept, endure, and assist with greatest gentleness those whom you have rebuked. This belongs to the realm of love and service, and not to the ministry of the Word. Even Christ, when he has reproved all people with the greatest severity, wishes them to be like a hen to them and gather them under his wings. Love bears all things, endures all things, hopes all things. Faith, however, or the Word, endures nothing but rather reproves and consumes, or as Jeremiah says, plucks out, destroys, and overthrows, and, "Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord in a cheating way." Your way brings about a situation in which truth is never recognized, and yet it is nevertheless assumed that evil is corrected by such flattery and false kindness. Our way is to not lack gentleness, kindness, peace, and joy with someone who agrees with our word yet cannot be perfect at once. We are content that he has meanwhile recognized truth and has not resisted or condemned it. (48/374-75) |
| 14. | Christ desires not a servant who does not expect good things of him. "Although I know this, I am of a different mind ten times in the course of a day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, 'Devil, yesterday I broke winds too. Have you written it down on your list?' When I say to him, 'You have been put to shame,' he believes it, for he does not want to be despised. Afterward, if I engage him in further conversation, I upbraid him with the pope and say, 'If you do the same as he does, who is your pope that I should celebrate him? Look what an abomination he has prepared, and it continues to this day!' Thus I remind myself of the forgiveness of sin and of Christ and I remind Satan of the abomination of the pope. This abomination is so great that I am of good cheer and rejoice, and I confess that the abomination of the papacy after the time of Christ is a great consolation to me. Consequently those who say that one should not rebuke the pope are dreadful scolds. Go right ahead and inveigh against the pope, especially if the devil disturbs you about justification. He often troubles me with trivialities. I don't notice this when I'm depressed, but when I feel better I recognize it easily. (54/16) |
| 15. | Young fellows are tempted by girls, men who are thirty years old are tempted by gold, when they are forty years old they are tempted by honor and glory, and those who are sixty years old say to themselves, "What a pious man I have become!" (54/158) |
| 16. |
The world has now become very sure of itself. It relies on books and things that if these are read it knows everything. The devil almost succeeded in getting me, too, to become lazy and
secure and to think: 'Here you have the books. If you read them you'll have the answers.' So the fanatics and sacramentarians suppose that because they have read only one little
book they know everything. Against such security I pray the catechism every day like my little Hans and ask God to keep me in his dear, holy Word, lest I grow weary of it.'
God deals with us like a father who helps his son in his weakness, although the inheritance belongs to the child on other grounds. God also deals with us in this way. He coaxes us with promises of spiritual and physical things, although eternal life is given freely to those who believe in Christ as children of adoption, etc. So it ought to be taught in the church that God will repay good works, save in the article of justification, which is the origin and source of all other promises. One should say, "Believe and you will be saved; do what you will, it won't help you to be saved." Accordingly we should remember that those promises and rewards are the pedagogy by which God, as a very gentle father, invites and entices us to do good, serve our neighbor," etc. (54/240) |
| 17. | I hated Paul with all my heart when I read that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Rom. 1:16,17). Only afterward, when I saw the words that follow—namely, that it's written that the righteous shall live through faith—and in addition consulted Augustine, was I cheered. When I learned that the righteousness of God is his mercy, and that he makes us righteous through it, a remedy was offered to me in my affliction. (54/309) |
| 18. | In short, the article of justification by Christ solves everything. If Christ merits it, we merit nothing. In Christ there are gifts, not merits. Likewise, since capital and substantial righteousness is nothing, much less will accidental righteousness count in God's sight. Substantial righteousness is the righteousness of faith, but accidental righteousness is gifts, not merits. God crowns nothing but his own gifts, as Augustine said. He expounded the term "merit" very well against the deceit of the sophists, who said that the Blessed Virgin merited becoming the mother of Christ, the Son of God, because of her virginity; that is, she was suited in her maidenly body to give birth to him. Truly, an excellent merit! It's as if somebody were to say, "This tree merits the bearing of fruit because God ordained it to do so." Surely, one should look upon God's gifts and ordinance, not upon our works. Thus Augustine carefully reflected on the term "merit" and concluded from the words of Mary, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" (Luke 1:38) and "He has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden" (Luke 1:48), that it depends on God's grace and not our merit. The merit of our works is nothing before God. The merit of our justification is grace, or Christ died in vain. Besides, we're all non-doers because there must be a diversity of gifts. This error comes from a confusion of the law and the gospel; when each of these teachings doesn't remain in its place and sphere, we turn heaven into hell and hell into heaven. (54/329) |
| 19. |
These are the three persons and one God, who has given himself to us all wholly and completely, with all that he is and has. The Father gives himself to us, with heaven and earth and all
the creatures, in order that they may serve us and benefit us. But this gift has become obscured and useless through Adam's fall. Therefore the Son himself subsequently gave himself and
bestowed all his works, sufferings, wisdom, and righteousness, and reconciled us to the Father, in order that restored to life and righteousness, we might also know and have the Father and
his gifts.
But because this grace would benefit no one if it remained so profoundly hidden and could not come to us, the Holy Spirit comes and gives himself to us also, wholly and completely. He teaches us to understand this deed of Christ which has been manifested to us, helps us receive and preserve it, use it to our advantage and impart it to others, increase and extend it. He does this both inwardly and outwardly—inwardly by means of faith and other spiritually gifts, outwardly through the gospel, baptism, and the sacrament of the altar, through which as through three means or methods he comes to us and inculcates the sufferings of Christ for the benefit of our salvation. Therefore I maintain and know that just as there is no more than one gospel and one Christ, so also there is no more than one baptism. And that baptism in itself is a divine ordinance, as is his gospel also. And just as the gospel is not false or incorrect for the reason that some use it or teach it falsely, or disbelieve it, so also baptism is not false or incorrect even if some have received or administered it without faith, or otherwise misused it. Accordingly, I altogether reject and condemn the teaching of the Anabaptists and Donatists, and all who rebaptize. (37/366) |
| 20. |
There are two kinds of saintliness. The first is that by which we are sanctified through the Word. The second is that by which we are saintly on the basis of what we do and how we live. But
these two kinds of saintliness must be most accurately distinguished. For the first and purest kind of saintliness is the Word, in which there is no fault, no spot, no sin; but it is so
saintly that it needs no remission of sins, because it is God's truth, as we read in John 17:17: "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth." In that saintliness we, who
have been called through the Word, glory. It is outside us; it is not our work; but it is a heavenly saintliness communicated to us through the Word, and indeed through the spoken Word.
Therefore we proclaim that righteousness and oppose it to all forms of righteousness and saintliness of the pope and all hypocrites, for it is unpolluted saintliness. I have the Word. I am
saintly, righteous, and pure, without any fault and indictment, insofar as I have the Word. Thus Christ Himself says (John 15:3): "You are already made clean by the Word which I have
spoken to you."
But the pope and the fanatics have no knowledge of this saintliness. All self-righteous people despise it and cling to the righteousness of the Law. They do not ascend to the heavenly saintliness by which we are acceptable before God because of His Word. Before the flesh does anything, we are saintly through the Word. Therefore I conclude: "The Word is not my work. Consequently, when I glory in my work, I lose the Word. On the other hand, if I glory in the Word, my work perishes." (5/213) |
| 21. |
Only believers understand the worth and importance of the works of Christians. But faith and the Word make their works important and give them the greatest worth. For God Himself and the
Spirit are in the Christian who does the works. But men, who are like horses and mules (Ps. 32:9), are powerfully moved by the outward appearance. Formerly, when I was a monk, I, too, was
far saintlier than I am now so far as the external mask is concerned. I prayed more, kept vigils, practiced abstinence, and tormented my flesh. In short, my whole life was altogether showy
in the eyes of others, although not in my own eyes; for I was intensely crushed and distressed. But now I eat and dress in the regular and usual manner. Nothing special or extraordinary
stands out in my life in comparison with others. At that time, when I was a monk, I did nothing else than waste my time and ruin my health. Indeed, I wounded my conscience with those acts
of righteousness, with the result that even now it can scarcely be restored. For beyond nature, in which glorying about works is implanted, I also acquired the disposition and custom of
paying attention to my works and my worthiness. But I know for certain that now one reading and one Our Father avails more and is more acceptable to God than all those prayers I mumbled for
15 whole years, for I know that I am heard. There is no need of any vigils or of special fasts and of abstinence, for God gave me "a messenger of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7) together
with other difficulties and the crosses of this world which plague me more than all those things.
From all this the reader should learn the difference between a Christian and a heathen and their works. For if he is a Christian, see whether he honors, hears, and earnestly loves the Word, or whether he is also plagued by a cross and troubles. If this is so, he will come to church, gladly hear the Word, take delight in it, believe from the heart, pray, give thanks, and have a good conscience. (5/271) |
| 22. |
In a crisis and the disasters which we endure we say with steadfast and tranquil hearts: "You cannot harm me; I am a Christian. You are not harming me but benefiting me. Take heed to
yourself!" What harm does the selling and exile of Joseph? Indeed, for what did it not benefit him? Or how could the brothers have provided him with greater honor and dignity? For in
the very thing by which they try to hinder and crush him, they most conveniently raise him to that pinnacle and peak of sovereignty which he had dreamt of a little while ago.
In regard to this line of thought there is also a celebrated dictum of Gregory: "The ungodly do good to us by doing evil." And Augustine says of the infants slain by Herod that an enemy with his whole strength and all the resources of his kingdom could not have benefited the children more than by killing them. Accordingly, God humbles those who are His to exalt them; He kills them to make them alive; He confounds them to glorify them; He makes them subject to raise them up. This is the art of arts and science of sciences which is not usually learned or discovered except with great toil and by a few; but it is nevertheless sure and certain, as this example testifies, for what is stated in Ps. 105:21 is true: "The Lord appointed Joseph king of Egypt and lord and savior of many." How? By having him sold, cast off, killed. These are works of God which are not understood unless they are fulfilled and completed. In the meantime, however, while they are being carried out, they cannot be grasped except by faith alone. For it is necessary simply to hold fast to this: "I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, Maker of heaven and earth, etc." (6/400) |
| 23. | For I, too, have often attempted to prescribe to God definite methods He should use in the administration of the church or of other matters. "Ah, Lord," I have said, "I would like this to be done in this order, with this result!" But God would do the very opposite of what I had sought. Then the thought would come to me: "Nevertheless, my plan is not disadvantageous to the glory of God; but it will contribute very much toward the hallowing of Thy name, the gathering and increasing of Thy kingdom, and the propagation of the knowledge of Thy Word. In short, it is a very fine plan and excellently thought out." But the Lord undoubtedly laughed at this wisdom and said: "Come now, I know that you are a wise and learned man; but it has never been My custom for Peter, Dr. Martin, or anyone else to teach, direct, govern, and lead Me. I am not a passive God. No, I am an active God who is accustomed to do the leading, ruling, and directing." |
| 24. |
But it is very troublesome that my wisdom is only passive and that I am ordered to mortify and kill it. Indeed, on this account many have fallen horribly, since they could not bear this
mortification. Thus the Sacramentarians teach God most prettily: "How could Christ's body be in the bread and wine when Christ has ascended into heaven?" For they think as
follows: "Because I cannot comprehend the presence of the body and blood in the Lord's Supper, I shall prescribe to God some way in which He can be present."
In this way, you see, they bring God down to their own order and teaching. They want to assign Him a place in heaven, and they do not know what or where heaven it. Why do you not rather close your eyes and ears and listen to the Word? Why are you not satisfied when you have heard it? Ps. 37:7 says: Be still before God." Let Him direct you. Do not direct Him. Then things turn out well. Then God bestows far more than we are able to accomplish by our counsels and wisdom. If the fanatics closed their eyes and ears and came to this conclusion: "Behold, I will take the bread and wine, and I will believe that I am eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ in reality," they would very easily be freed from their error. But because they measure the words of Christ by mathematical standards and dispute about heaven and earth, they never understand the true and proper force of the words of Christ; for they have been driven mad by the blind judgment of reason. Hear the words: "THIS IS MY BODY; THIS IS MY BLOOD." (7/104) |
| 25. |
The longer we learn, the more we learn. Yet we learn nothing else. It is as though I were walking in a field and from a long way off saw a man walking along. At first he seems to be a horse
or a tree. When I come closer, I gradually begin to recognize him more and more as a man till at last I see this or that man as a particular person. This is how our knowledge advances. At
first it is confused, but later it is clearer and more specific. For at the beginning, when God's Word is offered, it is not fully understood at once. Nevertheless, it is apprehended,
even though weakly, not that the knowledge of Christ may be obscured but that it may be exercised and daily increased until it is perfected.
The same thing happens in the changing of our will, which also advances daily, when we gradually learn more and more to hope, trust, and be patient. It is one and the same faith, therefore, that begins, makes progress, and reaches perfection. For we are changed into the same likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). But the Word has been given that it may be exercised and may exercise you every day and hour until you grow into a perfect man. (7/139) |
| 26. | "But why should I shout?" you will say. "I feel that I am being mortified." Here God replies: "I do not want the death of the sinner" (Exek. 18:23). "What then?" "I want your shouting, that I may deal wonderfully with you, and that you may understand your uncleanness, which I shall remove in this manner. To Me, of course, it is a game; but to you it is death. Yet it is expedient for you to know that you have need of cleansing. This 'know' (Ps. 4:3) must be learned. But the condition of those with whom I do not play is different; for these, too, are harassed, exercised, and afflicted. But they do not shout, and they do not think that I am playing with them." (7/230) |
| 27. | Therefore if anyone has sinned, he should learn to confess his sin in the name of the Lord, and it will not only be forgiven, but all men will feel sorry for him and lament his fall. But there is no one who would be willing to do this except in a general way. Yet to acknowledge blame and guilt individually is not characteristic of this corrupt nature, no matter if it confess that it is guilty before God; for the example of these brothers attests this. Joseph plays with them and agitates their hearts in various ways, but they do not think that this is Joseph. They think that he died a long time ago. They feel, of course, that God remembers their crime; but as yet there is no pure confession. For even the devil, like all of us, would e saved if he could say from a pure heart (Ps. 51:1): "Have mercy on me, O God!" (7/272) |
| 28. | Ps. 4:3: "Truly, the Lord magnifies His saints." For when they begin to speak about faith and the promises, they are borne above all the heavens, as it were. Accordingly, when it pleases them, the saintly patriarchs concern themselves with household and civil affairs, govern their children and domestics, quarrel with their wives, and busy themselves to such an extent with secular matters that they seem to be on the lowest plane in household and civil life. At times they rise above all the heavens, at times they are in hell, and at times they remain in the midst of the world. They are altogether extraordinary people. (8/163) |
| 29. | Believe that we must be washed from day to day and that the old leaven must be purged away. For we are not as pure as the Law requires, nor as perfect or burning in faith and love. Therefore we must pray and sob, in order that we may grow from day to day in purity. And this is what Jacob means when he says: "He washes his garments," that is, the church in this life, which is polluted and spotted according to the flesh. But in the next life He will exhibit a church that does not have a wrinkle or a spot but is pure (Eph. 5:27) ((8/268) |
| 30. | One should take the royal road, and sin should be shunned. For although God has promised pardon, as Augustine says, yet He does not promise that you will be sure to return after a fall. Thus Saul and Judas do not return. It is not in our power to take hold of grace; nor do you know whether you are able to accept the remission that is offered. Therefore one should fear God. He hates both presumption and despair. Do not be so confident of atonement that you add sin to sin. Do not say: "His mercy is great, He will forgive the multitude of my sins," for both mercy and wrath are with Him, and His anger rests on sinners. We Germans say: "Do not sin on the strength of mercy." Do not say: "I sinned, and what happened to me?" For the Lord is patient, but He will not let you go without punishment. (8/329-30) |
| 31. | The spiritual man, although he is present in all things with his senses, yet in his heart he is entirely withdrawn from these things and dead to all of them. This comes about when a man comes to hate all the things of this life from the very marrow of his bones, indeed, when he detests all the things which go on in this life and yet endures them with patience and even with joy and glories in the fact that he is like a dead body and the "refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things" (I Cor. 4:13), as the apostle puts it. But we must note that it is not necessary for all men to be found immediately in this state of perfection, as soon as they have been baptized into a death of this kind. For they are baptized "into death," that is, toward death, which is to say, they have begun to live in such a way that they are pursuing this kind of death and reach out toward their goal. (25/312) |
| 32. | You cannot earn eternal life by any of your works, unless it is given to you by grace. But this is not yet enough, but we must consider it as a kind of beginning and foundation of faith. For if you believe that your sins are not taken away except by Him, you do well. But you must still add: That you do believe this; not that you could do this yourself, but the Spirit must cause you to believe this, "because through Him you are given the forgiveness of sins. This is the testimony which the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts, saying: 'Your sins are forgiven you.' For in this way the apostle believes that a man is justified by faith" (that you believe this both of yourself and also of the elect, that Christ died and made satisfaction for your sins). It is the same in regard to merits, if you believe that you cannot have them except through Him, it is not enough, until the Spirit of truth has produced the testimony that you have these merits through Him. This happens when you believe that the works which you do are acceptable and pleasing to God, whatever they may finally turn out to be. But you can have the confidence that they are pleasing to Him when you realize that through these works you are nothing in his sight, even though they are good and are done out of obedience even though you do no evil works. It is this humility and restraint regarding good works which makes them pleasing to God. Thus also concerning eternal life it is not enough to believe that He gives it to you freely, but it is also necessary to have the testimony of the Spirit that you will come to eternal life by God's favor. (25/360) |
| 33. | Hence they do not "prove what is the good will of God," but they "are conformed to this world," since they rely only on their own feelings and experience. For faith itself transforms the thinking and leads us to acknowledge the will of God. Eph. 3:18 expresses this same idea: "that you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." And it continues: "Now to Him who is able to do far more above that we think, etc." For whenever God gives us a new degree of grace, He gives in such a way that it conflicts with all our thinking and understanding. Thus he who then will not yield or change his thinking or wait, but repels God's grace and is impatient, never acquires this grace. Therefore the transformation of our mind is the most useful knowledge that believers in Christ can possess. And the preservation of one's own mind is the most harmful resistance to the Holy Spirit. We shall prove this by some examples. When Abraham was ordered to go out of his country and did not know the place where he was to go, this was surely contrary to his thinking. Likewise when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, this required a most noble transformation of the mind, as Rom. 4:3 demonstrates; and the will of God concerning Isaac looked sharp, displeasing, and hopeless; and yet afterwards it was proved to have been the best possible, full of blessing, perfect. The same could also be exemplified by the cases of David and of the Virgin Mary. But it is necessary that each man have his own experience and carefully observe his own visitation. For this self-will is a dreadful impediment, indeed, as a result it disagrees with others and it makes a man resist his superiors and to be wise in his own conceits over against his superiors and those through whose words or work God wants to prove His will. Hence he follows with the words: "For I bid, etc. (v. 3). For in the church God does nothing else but transforms this mind, and His transformation they resist who are satisfied with their own thinking; they disturb everything and produce schisms and heresies. They are "men of corrupt minds," as he calls them in 2 Timothy 3:8. (25/438) |
| 34. | "Burning coals." Blessed Augustine says: "We must understand this expression in the sense that we induce him who has injured us to repent of his action, and thus we benefit him." For these "coals" (that is, benefits) have the power to burn, that is, to distress his spirit. The psalmist speaks of this in Ps. 120:4: "The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste." Thus God also converts those whom He converts with a view of His goodness. And this is the only way to achieve a true conversion, namely, through love and kindness. For he who is converted through threats and terror is never truly converted as long as he retains that form of conversion. For fear makes him hate his conversion. But he who is converted by love is completely burned up against himself and is far more angry with himself than anyone else can be with him, and he is totally displeased with himself. For such a person there is no need for prohibition, for being under surveillance, and for making satisfaction. For love teaches him all things; and when he has been touched by love, he will exhaust himself in seeking out the person whom he has offended…For as long as folly sees something like itself, it is not displeased with itself; but it does become displeased when it sees something different from itself. (25/466-67) |
| 35. | "He must hold firm." The reason he ought to be provided for by the church is that he ought to tend to reading and stay with it not only for others, but that he ought to meditate constantly for himself, that is, ought to immerse himself completely in Scripture. Such study will enable him to fight back. It is impossible for someone who reads Scripture studiously to meddle in worldly matters, but he should have the strength to be the kind of man Paul has described here. If he does not diligently study Holy Scripture, which he knows, the result will be a kind of rust, and a neglect of and contempt for the Word will arise. Even though you know Holy Scripture, nevertheless it must be read over and over again, because this Word has the power to stimulate you at all times. I have been preaching the Gospel for five years, but I always feel a new flame. (29/31) |
| 36. | Even among our brethren those who observe this doctrine of redemption are very rare; they follow our own speculations. Paul is exceedingly fond of dealing with this theme. See to it, therefore, that you meditate on and read such passages. Do not grow tired of them, for one day the hour will come when you will know that you did well to study them and that no one can do full justice to the full treatment of such passages. If God had not protected me from such speculations, which used to give me very great pleasure, I would have become the champion of the world. It is necessary to teach the uninstructed and young theologians not to follow allegory. This made a great impression on Jerome and Origen. Our theologians use to think that Jerome and Origen were the very best, but we have a way of telling the difference. No matter how trite and commonplace things are in Scripture, they are never easy enough to anyone; even when they are most common, they are completely hidden, because this matter is grasped by a profound experience of life, not of speculation. "Hallowed by Thy name" is a very common statement, and it can be expounded in a sufficiently learned way; but one can never expound it with ardent feeling and grasp it most ardently in oneself. Our heart catches fire, and it builds its knowledge and faith in God the Savior on a solid rock which stands firm in anguish, in the hour of death, in prison, and in judgment. Then one could say: "Jesus is my Savior, and He is kind," so that one's heart does not fear and is not confounded in His presence. (29/80) |
| 37. | He who does not die willingly should not be called a Christian. Those who truly deserve to be mourned are those who still fear death and shudder, who still do not believe in the resurrection. Therefore when such people pray "Thy kingdom come," they either do not pray at all or they pray against themselves; that is, they mock both God and themselves, and they have been baptized in vain, according to what the apostle says in Rom. 6:3-4, as many of us as are baptized into the death of Christ are certainly baptized to accept death quickly and to attain to the image of Christ more quickly. The awareness of sin makes death dreadful, because "sin is the sting of death" (I Cor. 15:56). But only faith in Christ removes the awareness of sin; for "the victory has been given to us through Jesus Christ." For God makes death, judgment, and hell manifest in order to show the power of faith in Christ, so that a Christian may overcome these through faith. For those dreadful things are nothing else than exercises through which faith should become "strong as death and hard as hell" (Song of Sol. 8:6). For if death is feared on account of sin, it should be desired much more on account of sins, because death alone puts an end to sin and slays it. Therefore death, the murderer of sin, should be loved as much as sin is feared. For this reason St. Cyprian says in his work on immortality: "The battle we fight is with greed, with lewdness, with anger, with ambition. There is a perpetual and troublesome struggle with carnal vices, with worldly allurements. The mind of man, besieged and surrounded as it is on all sides by the assaults of the devil, barely opposes and resist one of these." And Cyprian concludes that death comes to our aid. And later he says: "The soul suffers so many persecutions every day, the heart is beset by so many dangers and delights in lingering long here amid the devil's swords, when one should rather desire and wish to hasten to Christ with the aid of a speedier arrival of death." That is what Cyprian says. The consolation of death. Yet those who fear death should not despair; but they should be encouraged and exhorted as people who are weak in faith, who, as the apostle enjoins in Rom. 14:1, should be welcomed. For that contempt for death and the gratitude for it, proclaimed by the apostle and the saints, is the goal and perfection toward which the whole life of Christians should strive, even though very few are so perfect. (29/138-39) |
| 38. |
Penance also is to be reckoned as a sacrament-all sacraments are a kind of penance. It is necessary to preach penance, and to punish fearless behavior which is now in the world and has its
origin, at least in part, in a wrong understanding of the faith. For many who hear that they should believe, so that all their sins will be forgiven, fashion their own faith and think they
are pure. Thus they become secure and arrogant. Such carnal security is worse than all the errors hitherto prevailing. Therefore in preaching the gospel it is necessary in every way to
instruct the people where faith may be found and how one attains it. For true faith cannot exist where there is not true contrition and true fear and terror before God. This is most
important in teaching the people. For where there is not contrition and sorrow for sin, there also is no true faith. Thus we read in Ps. 147:11: "The Lord takes pleasure in those who
fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." God himself says in Ezek. 3:18 that if the preacher does not condemn the error and sin of those whom he teaches, God will lay the
loss of their souls to his account. Such a verdict God pronounced upon that kind of preacher who comforts the people and says much about faith and the forgiveness of sins but nothing about
penitence or the fear and judgment of God. Jeremiah, too, condemns such preachers (Jer. 6:14): One should not believe those who cry, Peace, Peace, when God is angry and there is no peace.
We need to fear that God will severely punish these preachers and pupils because of such security. For that is the sin which is decried in Jer. 6:15, "They did not know how to blush." And St. Paul in Eph. 5:5, condemning those who live securely in their perverse ways without sting of conscience, says, "Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them." Now penance in reality is sincere contrition and sorrow over one's sins and sincere fear of the wrath and judgment of God. This is contrition and the acknowledgment of sin. "Mortification of the flesh" is also, properly, penance. So in the Scriptures contrition has and is a work that depends on putting to death of the flesh. So this is nothing else than true contrition. Some talk this way: We must admit to ourselves that our whole nature is evil, etc. When the people think they thereby acknowledge their sin, they only show their wantonness. It is one thing "to know oneself," and another, "through the law comes the knowledge of sin." For to know one's sin is to have contrition and sorrow over it and sincere fear of the wrath and judgment of God. So David confessed his sin, when the prophet Nathan came to him and condemned him in II Sam. 12:13. For David knew well enough before that he had sinned, but he still knew no contrition. So he did not have the right knowledge of his sin. That there is nothing in us without sin is too lofty a truth for laymen to grasp who are just beginning to understand. For we do not easily reach the point where a person fears for all his good works and understands that he sins even in good works. So Solomon says in Eccles. 7:20: "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." Children need to be taught gradually. Similarly, we are to teach penance and contrition on the basis of the gross sins we all know. We are to condemn drunkenness, unchastity, envy and hatred, greed, falsehood, and the like. We are to awaken the people to contrition, and hold before them the judgment of God, his condemnation, and the scriptural examples of God's punishment for sin. As for the hypocrites, when it is necessary let us not forget the wrath and judgment of God upon the false servants of God or hypocrites who slander his name by their seeming holiness. Some hold that since God creates true contrition in our hearts one ought not to exhort the people to it. It is true that God works true contrition, but he works it through the Word and preaching. We exhort the people to faith and through such preaching God works faith. So we are to exhort and urge to contrition and leave to God in whom he will work contrition. For he works through preaching, as Moses says in Deut. 4:24, "God is a devouring fire." The preaching of God's judgment and wrath works contrition in us. So, the first part of penance is contrition and sorrow. The second part is faith that the sins will be forgiven on Christ's account. This faith effects good resolution. So with faith we receive the forgiveness of sins, as Paul has said in Rom. 3:35. But, as we have often said, this faith cannot be until there has been contrition and sorrow. For contrition without faith is the contrition of Judas and of Saul; it is despair. So faith without contrition, as we shall show, is presumption and carnal security. (40/293-96) |
| 39. | No one should be allowed to go to communion who has not been individually examined by his pastor to see is he is prepared to go to the holy sacrament. For Paul says in I Cor. 11:27, that they are guilty of profaning the body and blood of Christ who receive it unworthily. (40/296) |
| 40. |
Christ, in order to prepare for himself an acceptable and beloved people, which should be bound together in unity through love, abolished the whole law of Moses. And that he might not give
further occasion for divisions and sects, he appointed in return but one law or order for his entire people, and that was the holy mass. Where this mass is used, there is true worship; even
though there be no other form, with singing, organ playing, bell ringing, vestments, ornaments, and gestures. For everything of this sort is an addition invented by men. Now it has finally
come to this: the chief thing in the mass has been forgotten, and nothing is remembered except the additions of men! Now the nearer our masses are to the first mass of Christ, the better
they undoubtedly are; and the further from Christ's mass, the more dangerous. Indeed, the greatest and most useful art is to know what really and essentially belongs to the mass, and
what is added and foreign to it. If we are to observe mass properly and to understand it, then we must surrender everything that the eyes behold and that the senses suggest—be it
vestment, bells, songs, ornaments, prayers, processions, elevations, prostration's, or whatever happens in the mass-until we grasp and thoroughly ponder the words of Christ, by which he
performed and instituted the mass and commanded us to perform it. For therein lies the whole mass, its nature, work, profit, and benefit. Without the words nothing is derived from the mass.
Now the words are these: Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Take and drink of it, all of you, for this is the cup of the new and eternal testament in my blood, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. These words every Christian must have before him in the mass. He must hold fast to them as the chief part of the mass, in which even the right, basic, and good preparation for the mass and sacrament is taught. If man is to deal with God and receive anything from him, it must happen in this manner, not that man begins and lays the first stone, but that God alone—without any entreaty or desire of man—must first come and give him a promise. This word of God is the beginning, the foundation, the rock, upon which afterward all works, words, and thoughts of man must build. This word man must gratefully accept. He must faithfully believe the divine promise and by no means doubt that it is and comes to pass just as God promises. This trust and faith is the beginning, middle, and end of all works and righteousness. For because man does God the honor of regarding and confessing him as true, he becomes to man a gracious God, who in turn honors man and regards and confesses him as true. Thus it is not possible that a man, of his own reason and strength, should by works ascend to heaven, anticipating God and moving him to be gracious. On the contrary God must anticipate all of man's works and thoughts, and make a promise clearly expressed in words, which man then takes and keeps in a good, firm faith. Then there follows the Holy Spirit, who is given to man for the sake of this same faith. (35/81-83) |
| 41. | "For he who opens the way will go up before them." What we have here, "who opens the way," is quite gentle. In the Hebrew the meaning is this: "He who breaks through will go up before them. Therefore, they will break through and pass through the gate." In a marvelous way this is an elegant passage, filled with comfort. There is the sign of the cross in it. It is as if He were saying: "I am leading them to the pasture and to the fold, just as Christ says, 'I give them eternal life.' But one important thing is sure; it is not a well-beaten path. There are many things that keep the elect from breaking out—Satan, sin, the Law, death, and the entire Old Adam. However, I will see to it that absolutely nothing holds them back. I will promise them Him who opens a breach, who will break through and take away every hindrance, who will prepare the way for them. Thus they will have an easy passage." But as I have said, this is not the sweet way of the flesh, for the entire flesh must be mortified. The world, sin, Satan, and our entire old Adam set themselves up against us, lest we break through, lest we follow this "Breachmaker" of ours. Christ, however, says: "Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world (John 16:33)." (18/229) |
| 42. | There is a danger that after we have been justified we become lukewarm, that we become proud, that our gifts of the Spirit tickle us because in them we surpass others, that we please ourselves. It is as if he were saying (Micah 6:8): "When you have done what I say, when you have developed a concern for your neighbor, see to it that you do not become smug, that you do not have an eye for mischief, that you do not please yourself and go around looking for praise and glory that is owed to God alone." Even the most spiritual-minded cannot be without that very wicked self-love. As soon as they see that they are better than others, more learned than others, and that they have received more gifts of the Spirit, they please themselves and immediately despise others who are beneath them. For esteem and good works by their own nature please a man. Scripture sets forth for us a terrible example in Saul, who was renowned for his good works, There was no better man than he in all Israel, as Scripture says I Sam. 9:2. He was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, but he lacked what Micah requires here. Therefore he fell very badly, and God rejected him in a really terrible way. Altogether correct is the dictum of the holy fathers with which they generally made note of this malicious self-love: "No matter how you bend it, the head of the thistle always stands straight up." Thus this wicked state of mind always creeps into the hearts of the saints. They cannot be without it. This is the only evil which sets a snare for good works, as St. Augustine says in his rule. God often allows his saints to slip very badly, as did Peter and that holy man David. Thus they should be terrified and humbled by a rather serious fall, should always live in fear of becoming too proud, and should recognize the weakness that is still theirs. So David cries out in Ps. 51:3: "My sin is ever before me." In this way the saints should be humbled by looking at and recognizing their own weakness and sin and should cease from their pride in their own good works or gifts of the Spirit which they have received from God. This, too, is "to walk humbly with God," that is, to have a humble and lowly regard for oneself, to walk without guile, to want always to hind and to strive for no glory or honor by good works, and to seek to gain what that wicked self-esteem and that malicious state of mind cannot attain. That self-love, you see, wants to be seen by all men; it wants everyone to notice what it does in order that it may procure glory and praise for itself, that it may have a good reputation before men. Thus with a lowly and guileless conscience we ought to give and do everything in such a way that we want no one to know it. Consequently, those are in a dangerous position who have a greater supply of God's gifts than others do and who have to be set over others in the ministry of the Word, which is not just every man's thing. For even the most holy people have complained about his evil, and they could not be rid of it, no matter how hard they tried to correct it. "The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself in all things." (18/262-63) |
| 43. | "Don't be afraid, O kingdom of Judah. Imagine that your foes are very strong. Imagine that they are very well armed, that they are most resourceful and wise, so that they lack nothing that belongs to a well-equipped army. Then imagine this also, that they have many armies, all of which threaten you with destruction. Let none of these bother you at all. Let them cause you no fear, no matter how well-equipped and numerous they may be." (18/293) |
| 44. | "Seek the Lord, all you gentle of the land." That is, "See to it that you do not come together in vain. See to it that this assembly of yours is not useless. Rather, by prayer and preaching summon each other back to come to your senses, all you gentle of the land." I translate the Hebrew word "gentle" as humble, oppressed, those cast down before the world, whom few respect. (18/339) |
| 45. | "Woe to her that is rebellious and a redeemed city." With the very word when he calls the city "redeemed," he indicates almost the entire argument of this chapter. It is as if he were saying: "You have been led back out of captivity. The Lord has restored you to your original position of dignity. Yet you do not cease irritating God with your wickedness and faithlessness." You see, he is starting with those worst vices which are the roots and wellsprings of all external shameful acts. These are the things God hates the most. They are the faults with which we make God angry: namely, when we ascribe righteousness to our own powers and works; when we argue with God; when we want to be righteous; and when we do not allow Him to condemn those abominable works of ours but protect them by snapping against the Word of God. (18/349) |
| 46. | One draws near to God by acquiring knowledge of Him. This happens by faith, not by works, not by hands or feet but by zealous practice and daily exercise. This is what Paul calls "from faith to faith" (Rom. 1:17), from virtue to virtue, "from one degree of glory of the Lord to another" (2 Cor. 3:18), until we come out as perfected people, as we have it in Ephesians 4:13. (18/350) |
| 47. | Through the Gospel their old mistakes are wiped out. In their heart the Gospel stirs up the truth which confesses God, which believes in Him, which praises Him, and which finally mortifies the flesh. (18/396) |
| 48. | "For He is like a blazing fire." Blazing, or purifying. That is, "He will condemn all your works and enthusiasms. All your attitudes will have to be mortified, just as a fire melts and purifies silver and separates it from all impurities. "Barith" means a sharp cleaning agent or soap that washes great stains out of garments. This is how Christ will condemn all things and demand only spiritual qualities. (18/410) |
| 49. | I remain in the kingdom of grace when I do not despair of God's mercy, no matter how great my sin may be, but resolutely pin mind and conscience to the belief that there is still grace and forgiveness for me, even if the wrath of God and that of all creatures would threaten to consume me and even if my conscience would bear out this wrath and say that the supply of mercy is exhausted and that God will not forgive me. That is elevating God's grace above everything else, praising and extolling it and with it defying all anger and judgment, joining in the words of the Epistle of James (2:13): "Mercy triumphs over judgment," that is, mercy asserts itself and proves stronger than all wrath and every sentence and judgment of God. (19/47) |
| 50. | Human nature forever flees, and yet it does not escape but must thus remain condemned in wrath, sin, death, and hell. All ungodly people are forever fleeing from God and His wrath, and yet they fail to escape. The believers, however, are secure through Christ from such terrified fleeing. It is impossible for nature to act or conduct itself contrary to what it feels. And now that it feels God's anger and punishment, it cannot view God otherwise than as an angry tyrant. Nature cannot surmount the obstacle posed by this wrath, it cannot subdue this feeling and make its way to God against God and pray to Him, while regarding Him its enemy. Therefore when Jonah had advanced to the point of entreating God, he had gained the victory. The Lord's answer consists in this, that you will soon find your situation improved; you will soon perceive the wrath abating and the punishment lightened. God does not let you go unanswered so long as you can call upon Him, even if you can do no more than that. He does not ask about your merits. He is well aware that you are a sinner deserving of His anger. We must feel that our crying to God is of a nature that God will answer, that we may glory with Jonah in the knowledge that God answers us when we cry to Him in our necessity. That means nothing else but to cry to God with the heart's true voice of faith; for the head cannot be comforted, nor can we raise our hands in prayer, until the heart is consoled. And as I have already said, the heart finds solace when it hastens to the angry God with the aid of the Holy Spirit and seeks mercy amid the wrath, lets God punish and at the same time dares to find comfort in His goodness. Take note what sharp eyes the heart must have, for it is surrounded by nothing but tokens of God's anger and punishment and yet beholds and feels no punishment and anger but only kindness and grace; that is, the heart must be so disposed that it does not want to see and feel punishment and anger, though in reality it does see and feel them, and it must be determined to see and feel grace and goodness, even though these are completely hidden from view. Oh, what a difficult thing it is to come to God. Penetrating to Him through His wrath, His punishment, and His displeasure is like making your way through a wall of thorns, yes, through nothing but spears and swords. (19/73-74) |
| 51. | We should note especially that moral problem, how very difficult it is to submit to God's call and what great effort and comfort are necessary finally to put aside our own thoughts and affections and to listen to the divine call. See how fearful the people were before! See how the prophet accomplished almost nothing with his generous and sweet comfort! Notice here in the case of the priest, and later in the case of the king, how there is nothing but trembling and pure desperation. They could scarcely be compelled to finish the work of the Lord they had begun, even though the prophet had encouraged them with great comfort. The nature of the divine call is such that first one approaches the situation with great fear, trembling, and desperation. Here nothing happens precipitously. There is no need for rashness, for audacity or arrogance, but rather for great comfort. Therefore we must particularly mark this section that we, too, may approach the work of our calling with fear and trembling. Otherwise whatever venture we attempt more arrogantly than we ought, relying on our own plans and boldness, will turn out badly. The genuine Spirit cannot be in those people who, so to say, boast and triumph at the very beginning of their call and are willing to try everything. Surely, they finish everything quickly, as if they have already overcome Satan, although they have not yet seen him. (20/34) |
| 52. | Not with might, not with physical armament, not with a warlike attack will Christ save His people. He will do this with beauty and delight. He will save not with the savagery of weapons but with majesty and beauty, as we have it in Ps. 45:4. This is what he here calls grain and wine: the Gospel, which is Christ's greatest honor and beauty. With this Gospel He attracts hearts which taste that sweetness of the Gospel. You see, the Gospel is the light and ray in which Christ is glorified, because He now has praises, celebration, magnificence, majesty, beauty, and the thousand things the Psalms call by other names when they describe the beauty of Christ. This Gospel, he says, will be something pleasant. In fact, with the Gospel He will produce strong young men and women, not helpless infants such as are born from the weak begetting of the flesh. No, these will immediately be healthy young men and beautiful maidens, as such young ladies generally are when they are about to be married, and such as young men in the flower of youth are wont to be. As a result, there is a miracle connected with their birth. In sum, He indicates that the people of the Gospel will be robust, energetic, and cheerful, both in spirit and in faith. After all, in Christ there is no old age but an everlasting bloom of youth. (20/104) |
| 53. | "I will signal for them." This is a lovely phrase or idiom of Hebrew. It means to whistle or breathe upon, to stimulate someone's mind or emotions. It appears also in Isaiah: "He will whistle for the fly which is in the land of Egypt" (Is. 7:18). That is, He will move it with His breath. He will cause a breeze, as He says elsewhere. The meaning, then, of this point is this: "I shall whistle for them. I shall encourage them. I shall cause them to approach their task with joy. I shall not give them many laws to coerce and drive them. They will not be hypocrites. On the contrary, willingly and joyfully they will take charge of their ministry of the Word, Christians are a voluntary people. In sum, through the Word I shall send My Spirit into them. He will stimulate them and make them active and enthusiastic. Thus I shall gather them together in the unity of faith." (20/112) |
| 54. | The world stubbornly insists upon being right. It refuses to believe a thing, but must have it before its very eyes and hold it in its hand, saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Therefore Christ also lets them go. He does not want to force anyone or drag him in by the hair. But He gives His faithful advice to all who will let Him advise them, and He holds before us the dearest promises. If you want it, you have peace and quiet in your heart here, and hereafter whatever your heart desires forever. (21/16) |
| 55. | What is meant by a "pure heart" is this: one that is watching and pondering what God says and replacing its own ideas with the Word of God. This alone is pure before God, yes, purity itself, which purifies everything that it includes and touches. Therefore, though a common laborer, a shoemaker, or a blacksmith may be dirty and sooty or may smell because he is covered with dirt and pitch, still he may sit at home and think: "My God has made me a man. He has given me my house, wife, and child and has commanded me to love them and to support them with my work." Note that he is pondering the Word of God in his heart; and though he stinks outwardly, inwardly he is pure incense before God. But if he attains the highest purity so that he also takes hold of the Gospel and believes in Christ—without this, that purity is impossible—then he is pure completely, inwardly in his heart toward God and outwardly toward everything under him on earth. Then everything he is and does, his walking, standing, eating, and drinking, is pure for him; and nothing can make him impure. So it is when he looks at his own wife or fondles her, as the patriarch Isaac did, which a monk regards as disgusting and defiling. For here he has the Word of God, and he knows that God has given her to him. But if he were to desert his wife and take up another, or neglect his job or duty to harm or bother other people, he would no longer be pure; for that would be contrary to God's commandment. But so long as he sticks to these two—namely, the Word of faith toward God, which purifies the heart, and the Word of understanding, which teaches him what he is to do toward his neighbor in his station—everything is pure for him, even if with his hands and the rest of his body he handles nothing but dirt. (21/34) |
| 56. | So far Christ has been equipping and preparing His Christians to live and suffer in the world, especially those who are to hold public office in Christendom. Even apart from this, however, every Christian should be ready at all times to take a stand, by himself if necessary, to confess his Lord and to represent his faith, always being armed against the world, the devil, the sects, and whatever else may be lined up against him. (21/53) |
| 57. |
It seems presumptuous and over-ambitious to say that before God poor fisherman or other poor wretches should be called "the salt of the earth" and should take it upon themselves
to seize and salt everything human on earth. Reason and nature cannot do it. It gets tired of it, since it cannot endure the continuous disgrace, shame, and misfortune; and it would soon
say: "Let the devil salt the world in my place." Now this salting process is easy to understand. One must get up and say: "Everything that is born and lives on earth is
useless, it is rotten and corrupt before God." He says bluntly and plainly: "They shall be a salt of the earth," that is, a salt to everything that the world is. From this it
must follow that everything in the world bearing the name "flesh" or "man" must be denounced and thoroughly salted. Thus we condemn the sanctity, wisdom, and worship
which the whole world has thought up for itself, apart from the Word of God and without holding to Christ alone, as the devil's invention, which belongs in the abyss of hell. This is a
harsh proclamation. It makes us disagreeable to the world, and it earns for us the enmity of the world and a punch in the teeth. The world could tolerate it if we proclaimed Christ and all
the articles of faith correctly. But if we want to seize it and salt it by showing that its wisdom and sanctity are worthless, indeed, blind and damned, this it cannot and will not
tolerate. It accuses the preachers of doing nothing but criticizing and biting, of causing revolutions and discord, and of maligning the clergy and good works. But what can we do? Salting
has to bite. Although they criticize us as biters, we know that his is how it has to be and that Christ has commanded the salt to be sharp and continually caustic, as we shall hear. St.
Paul is always rebuking the whole world and criticizing everything it praises and does without faith in Christ.
The real salt is the true exposition of Scripture, which denounces the whole world and lets nothing stand but the simple faith in Christ. When this is gone, then it is all over, and all the rest of our teaching and rebuking is worthless. For God has already rejected and condemned both the doctrine and the life, both the teacher and the pupil. In short, without this article of faith, that we are justified and saved only through Christ and that apart from Him everything is damned, there is no defense or restraint, no boundary or limit for every heresy and error, every sect and faction, with everyone thinking up and broadcasting some peculiar idea of his own. This was the situation under the pope. No monk could have a dream without dragging it into the pulpit and making it into a special act of worship. (21/54-55, 59) |
| 58. | A Christian should not resist any evil; but within the limits of his office, a secular person should oppose every evil. The head of a household should not put up with insubordination or bickering among his servants. A Christian should not sue anyone, but should surrender both his coat and his cloak when they are taken away from him; but a secular person should go to court if he can to protect and defend himself against some violence or outrage. In short, the rule in the kingdom of Christ is the toleration of everything, forgiveness, and the recompense of evil with good. On the other hand, in the realm of the emperor, there should be no tolerance shown toward any injustice, but rather a defense against wrong and a punishment of it, and an effort to defend and maintain the right, according to what each one's office or station may require. (21/113) |
| 59. | Here and everywhere in Scripture "to be perfect" means, in the first place, that doctrine be completely correct and perfect, and then, that life move and be regulated according to it. (21/129) |
| 60. | The whole life of the Christian life has to be hidden and remain hidden this way. It cannot achieve great fame or put on much of a display or show before the world. So let it go at that. Do not worry about the way it is hidden, covered up, and buried, and the way no one sees it or notices it. Be content with the fact that your Father up there in heaven sees it. He has sharp eyes and can see a very long distance, even though it may be concealed by big, dark clouds and buried deep in the earth. Consequently the life of all Christians is intended for the eyes of God alone, and that is how it all comes out. (21/164) |
| 61. |
A Christian as such does not bear the title male or female, young or old, lord or servant, emperor or prince, peasant or townsman, or anything else that can be named as belonging to this
world. He does not have a "person" or mask, and he should not have anything or know anything in the world but be satisfied with his treasure in heaven. Whoever does not
distinguish carefully here but imitates our sophists and fanatics in mixing everything up and confusing it, cannot correctly understand any of these sayings. Of course, a prince can be a
Christian, but he must not rule as a Christian; and insofar as he does rule, his name is not "Christian" but "prince." The person is indeed a Christian, but his office
or his princedom does not involve his Christianity. Insofar as he is a Christian, the Gospel teaches him not to do injury to anyone, neither to punish nor to take revenge, but to forgive
everyone and to put up with any injury or injustice that may be done him. That, I say, is the Christian's duty. But it would not make for a good administration if you were to preach
that sort of thing to the prince. This is what he has to say: "My status as a Christian is something between God and myself. It has its own directions about how I should live in
relation to Him. But above and beyond this I have another status or office in the world: I am a prince. The relation here is not one between God and this person, but between me and my land
and people." The issue here is not how you should live in relation to God, what you should do and what you should tolerate for yourself. That applies to you as a Christian person who
is not involved with land and people. But this is not the business of your princely person, which should not do any of these things but should think about the administration of the
government, the maintenance and protection of justice and peace, and the punishment of the wicked.
If it involves me as a Christian, I should tolerate it; but if it involves me as a secular person-an obligation not between God and me, but between me and my land and people, whom I am commanded to help and protect with the sword that has been placed in my hand for that purpose-then my duty is not to tolerate it, but the opposite, Thus every human being on earth has two persons: one person for himself, with obligations to no one except to God; and in addition a secular person, according to which he has obligations to other people. In this life we have to have social relations with one another. Take a husband or the head of a household, for example, with his wife and his children. Although he is a Christian, this does not mean that he has to stand for it if the members of his family raise a rumpus or cause trouble in the house. Rather he must resist wrongdoing and punish it, to make them behave properly. Once you correctly understand this distinction, Christ's teaching is easy to understand. For here and in all His sermons He is not talking about the way a secular person should work and live, but about the way you should live uprightly before God as a Christian, as one who does not have to be bothered about the world, but who should direct his thoughts exclusively to another life. That is what I say in comment on this text: That person of mine which is called "Christian" should not worry about money or save it, but would give its heart to God alone. But outwardly I am and I should use temporal goods for my body and for the needs of other people. As far as my secular person is concerned, I may and I should accumulate money and treasures-yet not too much, so that I do not become a greedy belly that seeks only its own benefit and can never be satisfied. A secular person has to have money, grain, and supplies for his land, his people, or the others that belong to him. (21/170-71) |
| 62. | The life of a Christian is as hard as if he were walking on a narrow path, in fact, on nothing but razors. Beneath us in the world is the devil, who is continually snapping at us with his jaws in order to bring on impatience, despair, and murmuring against God. In addition, the world is advancing on us, and it refuses either to yield to us or to let us pass. And around our neck lies our own flesh. Thus we are hemmed in on every side. The way itself is so narrow that it would be difficult enough even if there were no dangers or obstacles in the way. Nevertheless we have to go through or become the property of the world and the devil. (21/245) |
| 63. | It is hard for a man who has devoted his entire life to this self-made holiness and has depended on it to tear loose from it in one hour and to cast himself only upon Christ. Hence He warns and admonishes us to take hold of His teaching and to do it while we still have time, before the agony and the death pangs come over us. (21/283) |
| 64. | For humility is the highest of all the virtues, and no one could boast of possessing it except the very proudest mortals. It is God alone who knows humility; He alone judges it and brings it to light; so that no one knows less about humility than he who is truly humble. In Scriptural usage, "to humble" means "to bring down," or "to bring to naught." Hence, in the Scriptures, Christians are frequently called poor, afflicted, despised. Thus, in Psalm 116:10: "I am greatly afflicted"—that is, humbled. Humility, therefore, is nothing else than a disregarded, despised, and lowly estate, such as that of men who are poor, sick, hungry, thirsty, in prison, suffering, and dying. Such was Job in his afflictions, David when he was thrust out of his kingdom, and Christ as well as all Christians, in their distresses. (21/313) |
| 65. | God must reserve to Himself the right to know and look at humility, and must hide it from us by setting before our eyes things of low degree and exercising us in them so that we may forget to look at ourselves. That is the purpose of the many sufferings, of death, and all manner of afflictions we have to bear on earth; by means of the trouble and pain they cause us we are to pluck out the evil eye. (21/317) |
| 66. |
God says in Jeremiah 9:23, 24: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him who glories
glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practice kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord." This
is a noble text and well agrees with this hymn of the Mother of God. Here we see that He, too, divides all that is in the world into three parts—wisdom, might, and riches—and
puts them all down by saying no one should glory in these things, for no one will find Him in them, nor does He delight in them. Over against these He sets three others—kindness,
justice, and righteousness. "In these things," says He, "I am to be found; indeed, I practice them, so near am I to them; nor do I practice them in heaven, but in the earth,
where man may find Me. And whoever thus understands Me may well glory and trust in that fact. For if he is not wise but poor in spirit, My kindness is with him; if he is not mighty but
brought low, My justice is by his side to save him; if he is not rich but poor and needy, the more he has of My righteousness."
Under wisdom He includes all spiritual possessions and gifts, by which a man may gain popularity, fame, and a good report, as the following verse will show. Such gifts are intellect, reason, wit, knowledge, piety, virtue, a godly life, in short, whatever is in the world that men call divine and spiritual, all great and high gifts, yet none of them God. Under might He includes all authority, nobility, friends, high station, and honor, whether pertaining to temporal or to spiritual goods or person, though there is in Scripture no spiritual authority or power, but only servants and subjects—together with all the rights, liberties, and privileges pertaining to them. Under riches are included good health, beauty, pleasure, strength, and every external good that may befall the body. Opposed to these three are the poor in spirit, the oppressed, and those who lack the necessities of life. (21/322) |
| 67. | Think for yourself, and you will see that if God were to fill you before you were hungry or to exalt you before you were brought low, He would have to sink to the level of a wizard or conjurer; He would be unable to do what He promises, and all His works would be a mere jest, whereas it is written in Psalm 111:7: "His works are truth and trustworthiness." And even if He were to perform His works as soon as you felt the first pinch of want or lowliness, or to help you in some slight need, such works would be altogether unworthy of His divine power and majesty; for Psalm 111:2 says of them: "Great are the works of the Lord, sought out according to all His desires." (21/348) |
| 68. | The force and power of law is to slay, or to show that sin must be punished with eternal death. When a man really begins to feel this force, with the Spirit reproving him, he soon despairs of God's mercy. But despair of God's mercy is the greatest sin and is unforgivable unless grace cancels it in suitable time. This is what Paul says, that through the law sin is made sinful beyond measure; through the law sin slays me; and the law brings wrath (Rom. 5:20-21; 4:15). A man never sins more terribly than in that moment when he begins to feel or understand the law. Briefly, it is necessary either to despair when one understands the law, but is ignorant of the grace of God, or, one must trust in one's self, not understanding the law and despising the wrath of God. (34/116) |
| 69. | Justification is the forgiveness of sins which comes to pass by faith alone. Justification only signifies the remission of sins. Nothing distinguishes it from obedience, since Paul's sins are forgiven him before obedience. Paul becomes righteous in no other way except by that forgiveness of sins. (34/127) |
| 70. | That one article concerning justification even by itself creates true theologians, therefore it is indispensable in the church and just as we must often recall it, so we must frequently work on it. (34/147) |
| 71. | For human nature, corrupt and blinded by the blemish of original sin, is not able to imagine or conceive of any justification above and beyond works. The righteousness of man, no matter how much God honors it here in time with the best gifts of this life, nevertheless is a mask and impious hypocrisy before God. The riddle is astonishing, because God rewards the very righteousness which he himself regards as iniquity and wickedness. For in the prophets he openly calls the most excellent works according to the law and our reason the evil works of our hands. It seems to be similar to a prince who tolerates a bad servant whom he cannot kill without considerable peril to the kingdom. Therefore, one need not look either to the person of the godless man who works out his own righteousness or to the excellence of such works; but to the imcomprehensible forbearance and wisdom of God who bears lesser evil so all is not destroyed by greater evil. It is just as an ulcer, limping, or some other incurable illness in the body is tolerated out of necessity for supporting bodily life. (34/151-52) |
| 72. | For we perceive that a man who is justified is not yet a righteous man, but is in the very movement or journey toward righteousness. Christ's righteousness, since it is without defect and serves us like an umbrella against the heat of God's wrath, does not allow our beginning righteousness to be condemned. (34/153) |
| 73. | The Scriptures which teach us the cause of sin testify that there is no good in man's nature and that what good is left is nevertheless put to bad use. Therefore, in order that justification may be esteemed as greatly as it can be, sin must be magnified and amplified exceedingly (Rom 5:20-21). For justification is healing for sin, which slays the whole world eternally and brings it to destruction with its infinite evils. For this reason that divine work of justification is too great to allow any reckoning or consideration of our work or activity to hold here. We must simply at this point say with Paul that we are nothing at all, just as we have been created out of nothing. Indeed, those who look at the appearance of our work or want to be something will never understand the greatness of this divine work. It is by far less certain than that that man could see the splendor of the sun who boasts of the brilliance of rotten wood, when the sun is shining. (34/156) |
| 74. | So great and so difficult a thing is faith and so sharp is the debate about faith! Therefore, this teaching is essential and of great use, and the better it is understood the more it pleases. But this doctrine will quickly become nauseating to contemptuous souls. We must study this article of justification most diligently so that we may learn to know what we should choose, lest we follow false instead of sure ideas. For although there is no perfection in us as yet, still we are in the meantime sons of God so that God may perfect his gifts in us. (34/157) |
| 75. | Although our calling faith a work can be tolerated, nevertheless, those words should be avoided altogether, because they contradict the Scriptures and everything ought to stay in its own place. Faith is indeed called a work in its place, but we ought to avoid it in this doctrine so that faith is not called a work and we should become accustomed to speaking according to Scripture. Faith is not properly referred to as our work according to the Scriptures, but now and then as a kind of work of God. There are two teachings, law and promise; and law and work are correlatives, just as promise and faith are. Therefore, we ought not to call faith works, but faith the faith of promise, not a faith of law. Conversely, work is a work of the law, not a work of faith. Accordingly, faith does not look to the law, nor is it a work. For that is properly called a work which belongs to the law. Faith, then, is not a work, since it looks only toward the promise. The promise, however, is that kind of a gift, that we bring nothing to faith, because the promise came earlier and because reason turns away from faith. It is up to God alone to give faith contrary to nature, and ability to believe contrary to reason. That I love God is the work of God alone. Although that I believe is also a work, still it should not be spoken of as a work. We ought to let every word remain in its own category so that the question is not thrown into a complete jumble. (34/160) |
| 76. | Christ proclaimed both kinds of righteousness, those who are righteous secretly before God in spirit and those who are righteous openly before men. Spiritual justification, then, is twofold in nature. Where justification is between God and man, this is from the efficient cause. The other is corporal and outward, which takes place between man and man; this is from the effect. Before God, faith is necessary, not works. Before men works and love are necessary, which reveal us to be righteous in our own eyes and before the world. We concede, then, finally that man justifies himself, as to the effective cause, but not with respect to the efficient cause. (34/162) |
| 77. | Reason rushes in blindly and thinks thus: Eternal salvation is something else than Christian righteousness. It concludes that it can by its own works merit eternal salvation, as if we obtained justification through faith and salvation through works. So it seems plausible enough, since the text clearly said, "Man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved" (Rom 10:10). But this is absurd in the first place, because then Christ must be an incomplete and not a perfect savior. They wish thereby to make us more perfect than our Savior, because they attribute that which is the greatest to works and that which is least to Christ and faith. Even if Christ merits forgiveness of sins for us, we must still save ourselves. Likewise, we need Christ for justification, as if for the least important reason, afterward we need obedience for our salvation, as if for the most important reason. Who says such things? Beware of these arguments and of such men, since this now makes Christ less highly esteemed a savior, but detracts from his honor. (34/163) |
| 78. | The forgiveness of sins begins in baptism and remains with us all the way to death, until we rise from the dead, and leads us into life eternal. So we live continually under the remission of sins. Christ is truly and constantly the liberator from our sins, is called our Savior, and saves us by taking away our sins. If, however, he saves us always and continually, then we are constantly sinners. Since we are daily sinners, sin is also now necessarily in our mortal body. (34/164) |
| 79. | Contrition does not merit forgiveness of sins. It is indeed necessary for the remission of sins, but it is not the cause. Many things are necessary which are not causes. When a cause has been established, the effect follows; but when contrition has been established, justification does not always follow, as in the case of Judas. Contrition is not the cause, but the Holy Spirit, who breathes where he wills (John 3:8). To say that what is necessary is therefore the cause does not follow. (34/171) |
| 80. | The Spirit lays hold of the man whom he wishes to justify and so first mortifies him that he seems to be beside himself and without God. He feels himself to be a guilty person so that he flees for mercy. God makes a man contrite through the revelation of sin. Wholly contrite, he is terrified and flees the wrath of God. Contrition, then, is not our work, but the work of God's law, which begets hatred of God, flight from God. What does a man merit, who flees from and hates God, and cannot bear God? What did Adam merit when he fled at the voice of God calling him and sought a shady hiding place? Thus, when man is in flight, God lays hold of him and has mercy on him and says, "You shall not die" (II Sam 12:13), and gives him the Holy Spirit. In that way he leads man down to hell and back again (I Sam. 2:6). Thus he merits nothing, and still contrition is necessary, because I suffer the divine work in me. Infernal passion struggles with the forgiveness of sins. Contrition is the thunder and lightning of God's wrath in the conscience. I am the raw material and subject to divine action. Those whom he wants to justify, he justifies freely. Man can merit nothing through flight and hatred. (34/172) |
| 81. | You are looking for the reason why God does not receive some. This we do not know, but we ought not to find fault with him on that account, especially since he owes nothing to anybody. Moreover, the will of man is not from God, but from the devil, and when the will is not from men, neither is it from the will of the flesh. Man's will effects nothing in the cause of justification. (34/184) |
| 82. | Our righteousness is dung in the sight of God. Now if God chooses to adorn dung, he can do so. It does not hurt the sun, because it sends its rays into the sewer. (34/184) |
| 83. | Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, "As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. Then I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word "righteousness of God." Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise. (34/337) |
| 84. | In brief, they have fulfilled the law and do not need grace except in order to meet a certain addition in the divine requirement. For them, Moses is veiled, nor can they bear his shining face. In the midst of so much wisdom, goodness, righteousness, and religiousness, they will not to be evil, nor can they recognize that they are, because they do not listen. You see, therefore, how incomparably the law transcends natural reason, and how bottomless is the sin of which it give us knowledge. Therefore all are under wrath, since all are under sin. The Gospel, on the contrary, deals with sin so as to remove it, and thus most beautifully follows the law. The law introduces us to sin and overwhelms us with the knowledge of it. It does this so that we may seek to be freed and to sigh after grace, for the Gospel also teaches and preaches two things, namely, the righteousness and the grace of God. Through righteousness it heals the corruption of nature. This is done by the true righteousness which is the gift of God, namely, faith in Christ, as Rom 3:21 says, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law."; also in Romans 5:1, "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace, etc."; and Rom 3:28, "For we hold that a man is justified by faith." Almost always in Scripture, this righteousness which is contrary to sin refers to an innermost root whose fruits are good works. The companion of this faith and righteousness is grace or mercy, the good will of God, against wrath which is the partner of sin, so that he who believes in Christ has a merciful God. For we would not highly esteem God's gift, if that was all there was, and it did not gain for us the grace of God. This grace truly produces peace of heart until finally a man is healed from his corruption and feels he has a gracious God. It is this which fattens the bones and gives joy, security, and fearlessness to the conscience so that one dares all, can do all and, in this trust in the grace of God, laughs even at death. Hence, just as wrath is a greater evil than the corruption of sin, so grace is a greater good than that health of righteousness which we have said comes from faith. Everyone would prefer—if that were possible—to be without the health of righteousness rather than the grace of God, for peace and the remission of sins are properly attributed to the grace of God, while healing from corruption is ascribed to faith. Faith is the gift and inward good which purges the sin to which it is opposed. It is that leaven which is described in the Gospel as wholly hidden under three measures of meal (Matt. 13:33). The grace of God, on the other hand, is an outward good, God's favor, the opposite of wrath. We therefore have two goods of the Gospel against the two evils of the law: the gift on account of sin, and grace on account of wrath. Now it follows that these two, wrath and grace, are so related—since they are outside us—that they are poured out upon the whole of wrath, while he who is under grace is wholly under the whole of grace, because wrath and grace have to do with persons. A righteousness and faithful man doubtless has both grace and the gift. Grace makes him wholly pleasing so that his person is wholly accepted, and there is no place for wrath in him any more, but the gift heals from sin and from all his corruption of body and soul. It is therefore most godless to say that one who is baptized is still in sin, or that all his sins are not fully forgiven. For what sin is there where God is favorable and wills not to know any sin, and where he wholly accepts and sanctifies the whole man? However, as you see, this must not be attributed to our purity, but solely to the grace of a favorable God. Everything is forgiven through grace, but as yet not everything is healed through the gift. The gift has been infused, the leaven has been added to the mixture. It works so as to purge away the sin for which a person has already been forgiven, and to drive out the evil guest for whose expulsion permission has been given. In the meantime, while this is happening, it is called sin, and is truly such in its nature; but now it is sin without wrath, without the law, dead sin, harmless sin, as long as one perseveres in grace and his gift. God saves real, not imaginary, sinners, and he teaches us to mortify real rather than imaginary sin. (32/227-29) |
| 85. | Repentance is the transformation of corruption and the continual renewal from sin which is effected by faith, the gift of God, and the gift of grace is forgiveness, so that in that case the wrath against sin ceases. There must be repentance and renewal so that sin may be expelled as long as there is preaching, as long as there is life. (32/232) |
| 86. | Since this strangling of the old Adam does not rest with us, it happens that we occasionally pray for it, and yet do not attain it at once. Nevertheless we should neither despair nor desist. At times this happens because we do not pray for it as God conceives of it and wishes it, for it must be left free and unfettered. Then man becomes sad in his conscience and grumbles to himself about the evil in his life. It may well be that he does not know that Christ's passion, to which he gives no thought, is effecting this in him, even as the others who do think of Christ's passion still do not gain this knowledge of self through it. For these the passion of Christ is hidden and genuine, while for those it is only unreal and misleading. In that way God often reverses matters, so that those who do not meditate on Christ's passion do meditate on it, and those who do not hear mass do hear it, and those who hear it do not hear it. (42/11) |
| 87. | You can spur yourself on to believe. First of all, you must no longer contemplate the suffering of Christ (for this has already done its work and terrified you), but pass beyond that and see his friendly heart and how this heart beats with such love for you that it impels him to bear with pain your conscience and your sin. Then your heart will be filled with love for him, and the confidence of your faith will be strengthened. Now continue and rise beyond Christ's heart to God's heart and you will see that Christ would not have shown this love for you if God in his eternal love had not wanted this, for Christ's love for you is due to his obedience to God. Thus you will find the divine and kind paternal heart, and, as Christ says, you will be drawn to the Father through him. Then you will understand the words of Christ, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, etc." (John 3:16). We know God aright when we grasp him not in his might or wisdom (for then he proves terrifying), but in his kindness and love. Then faith and confidence are able to exist, and then man is truly born anew in God. (42/13) |
| 88. | "Thy will be done." In this petition you will notice that God bids us to pray against ourselves. In that way he teaches us that we have no greater enemy than ourself. You see, our will is the most formidable element in us, and against it we must pray, "O Father, do not let me get to the point where my will is done. Break my will; resist it. No matter what happens let my life be governed not by my will, but by yours. As no one's own will prevails in heaven so may it also be here on earth." (42/48) |
| 89. | When God hears us in the first three petitions and hallows his name in us, he incorporates us into his kingdom and pours into us his grace, which begins to make us godly. As soon as this grace starts to do God's will, it encounters a resisting Adam. Thus St. Paul laments in Romans 7:19 that he does not do what he wants very much to do. One's own will, inborn from Adam, contends with all our members against the good impulses. Then the grace in our hearts cries to God for help against this Adam and says, "Thy will be done." For man finds himself heavily burdened with his own self. When God hears this cry, he resolves to come to the aid of his precious grace and to enlarge his newborn kingdom. He attacks the arch-knave, the old Adam, with might and main, inflicts all kinds of adversity on him, thwarts all of his plans, and blinds him and foils him on every side. (42/49) |
| 90. | The first mode of forgiveness is bitter and hard for us, but it is the one most sublime and precious. The second is easier for us, but not as good. Christ shows both types in Mary Magdalene—the first when he turns his back on her and remarks to Simon that her many sins are forgiven her (Luke 7:47). In that moment she does not yet feel the peace of conscience. He shows the second type when he turns to her and says that her sins are remitted and that she should go in peace (Luke 7:50). Now she is at peace. The first renders a person pure; the second confers peace. The first effects and conveys, the second rests and receives. There is a vast difference between the two. The first is only believed and deserves much; the second is felt and gathers in the reward. The first is applied to the strong in faith, the other to the weak, to the beginners in the faith. (42/64) |
| 91. | Here the devil practices his ultimate, greatest, and most cunning art and power. By this he sets man above God, insofar as man seeks signs of God's will and becomes impatient because he is not supposed to know whether he is among the elect. Man looks with suspicion upon God, so that he soon desires a different God. In brief, the devil is determined to blast God's love from a man's mind and to arouse thoughts of God's wrath. The more docilely man follows the devil and accepts these thoughts, the more imperiled his position is. In the end he cannot save himself, and he falls prey to hatred and blasphemy of God. What is my desire to know whether I am chosen other than a presumption to know all that God knows and to be equal with him so that he will know no more than I do? Thus God is no longer God with a knowledge surpassing mine. Then the devil reminds us of the many heathen, Jews, and Christians who are lost, agitating such dangerous and pernicious thoughts so violently that man, who would otherwise gladly die, now becomes loath to depart this life. When man is assailed by thoughts regarding his election, he is being assailed by hell, as the psalms lament so much. He who surmounts this temptation has vanquished sin, hell, and death all in one. (42/103) |
| 92. | Since it is generally true of Christians that few are strong and many are weak, one simply cannot place the same burden upon everyone. (43/120) |
| 93. | Those who are in good health should be left unattended when they are sick unless they demonstrate their remorse and repentance with great earnestness, tears, and lamentation. A person who wants to live like a heathen or a dog and does not publicly repent should not expect us to administer the sacrament to him or have us count him a Christian. Let him die as he has lived because we shall not throw pearls before swine nor give to dogs what is holy. (Matt. 7:6). (43/134) |
| 94. | The ancient and saintly fathers and theologians have contrasted the living wood with dead and have allegorized that contrast this way: From the living wood came sin and death; from the dead wood, righteousness and life. They conclude: do not eat from that living tree, or you will die, but eat of this dead tree; otherwise, you will remain in death. You do indeed desire to eat and enjoy the fruit of some tree. I will direct you to a tree so full that you can never eat it bare. But just as it was difficult to stay away from that living tree. The first was the image of life, delight, and goodness, while the other is the image of death, suffering, and sorrow because one tree is living, the other dead. There is in man's heart the deeply rooted desire to seek life where there is certain death and to flee from death where one has the sure source of life. Taking up the cross is by nature something that causes pain. It must not be self-imposed (as the Anabaptists and all the work-righteous teach; it is something that is imposed upon a person. (43/184) |
| 95. | These are the Ten commandments in their fourfold aspect, namely, as a school text, song book, penitential book, and prayer book. They are intended to help the heart come to itself and grow zealous in prayer. Take care, however, not to undertake all of this or so much that one becomes weary in spirit. Likewise, a good prayer should not be lengthy or drawn out, but frequent and ardent. (43/209) |
| 96. | There is no helping a man who turns down good counsel. (43/219) |
| 97. | Without any doubt, God is displeased and angry with those who do not heed his Word or fear him and with those who will not put their trust in him but surrender to fear and despair. There is a way out for us. If only we will listen to God and take his counsel, namely, that we, as I have just pointed out, begin to fear God and trust in his mercy. If we will do that, we know well that neither Turk nor devil can harm us. "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom. 8:31) But who tries or is able to lead the people to such fear of God? The holy prophets were unable to do so for the people of Israel. At best they could succeed with only a few, and finally the king of Babylon had to drive the lesson home to the people when he left not one stone standing upon another and slew or took captive all the people and devastated the land. Then they learned to fear God and to worship him. That is the way one has to deal with fools, as Isaiah says, "Terror lends understanding to his word" (Isa. 28:19). The Turk, you see, is our "schoolmaster." He has to discipline and teach us to fear God and to pray. Otherwise we will do what we have been doing—rot in sin and complacency. (43/224) |
| 98. | For Christian holiness, or the holiness common to Christendom, is found where the Holy Spirit gives people faith in Christ and thus sanctifies them, Acts 15:9, that is, he renews heart, soul, body, work, and conduct, inscribing the commandments of God not on tables of stone, but in hearts of flesh, II Corinthians 3:3. Or, if I may speak plainly, he imparts true knowledge of God, according to the first table, so that those whom he enlightens with true faith can resist all heresies, overcome all false ideas and errors, and thus remain pure in faith in opposition to the devil. He also bestows strength, and comforts timid, despondent, weak consciences against the accusation and turmoil of sin, so that the souls do not succumb or despair, and also do not become terrified of torment, pain, death, and the wrath and judgment of God, but rather, comforted and strengthened in hope, they cheerfully, boldly, and joyfully overcome the devil. He also imparts true fear and love of God, so that we do not despise God and become irritated and angry with his wondrous judgments, but love, praise, thank, and honor him for all that occurs, good or evil That is called new holy life in the soul, in accordance with the first table of Moses. In accordance with the second table, He also sanctifies the Christians in the body and induces them willingly to obey parents and rulers, to conduct themselves peacefully and humbly, to be not wrathful, vindictive, or malicious, but patient, friendly, obliging, brotherly, and loving, not unchaste, not adulterous or lewd, but chaste and pure with wife, child, and servants, or without wife and child. (41/146) |
| 99. | For they, having rejected and being unable to understand the Ten Commandments, preach much about the grace of Christ, yet they strengthen and comfort only those who remain in their sins, telling them not to fear and be terrified by sins, since they are all removed by Christ. They see and yet they let the people go on in their public sins, without any renewal or reformation of their lives. Thus it becomes quite evident that they truly fail to understand the faith and Christ, and thereby abrogate both when they preach about it. How can he speak lightly about the works of the Holy Spirit in the first table-about comfort, grace, forgiveness of sins-who does not heed or practice the works of the Holy Spirit in the second table, which he can understand and experience, while he has never attempted or experienced those of the first table? Therefore it is certain that they neither have nor understand Christ or the Holy Spirit, and their talk is nothing but froth on the tongue, and they are as already said, true Nestoriuses and Eutycheses, who confess or teach Christ in the premise, in the substance, and yet deny him in the conclusion; that is, they teach Christ and yet destroy him through their teaching. (41/147) |
| 100. | We need the Decalogue not only to apprise us of our lawful obligations, but we also need it to discern how far the Holy Spirit has advanced us in his work of sanctification and by how much we still fall short of the goal, lest we become secure and imagine that we have now done all that is required. (41/166) |
| 101. | But one should teach that there should be one mind and many works, one heart and many hands. All should not do one and the same work, but everyone should attend to his own duties. Otherwise one and the same mind and the same heart do not remain. One must let what is external remain varied, so that everybody stays with what has been entrusted to him and with the kind of work he has at hand. This is a proper teaching, and it is altogether necessary to understand well. For the devil pays special attention to this matter. He has brought it about that works are stressed and that everyone thinks his work is better than that of the other person. This is why people have come to be as such odds with one another. For everyone claims to be dong the best work. If people had been taught that before God no work is better than the other, but that through faith they are all alike, then the hearts would have remained in harmony, and we would all be of like mind and say: "Before God the bishop's order or position is no better than that of a married woman, and so on in positions of all kinds." But they do not want to hear this, but everyone wants to be the best. They say: "Ah, why is my position in the order not better and greater than that of them common man?" Therefore to have "unity of spirit" means that everyone regards his own work equal to that of the other person, that the estate of matrimony, for example, is just as good as that of a virgin. Thus before God everything is equal. He judges according to the heart and faith, not according to the person or according to the works. Therefore we should judge as God judges. Then we are of one mind, unity remains in the world, and hearts remain undivided and are not torn apart by external matters. I must esteem everything as good and must approve of the kind of work everyone does, provided that it is not a sin in itself. (30/94) |
| 102. | The life of faith implies progress, a walk or journey through uncharted and wild and desolate tracts toward heaven into another life. (13/5) |
| 103. | "His power is in the clouds" indicates that His reign is not by physical might, as you may expect; all His activity is through the agency of the evangelists and his Word. They are His clouds. From these, God showers down salutary doctrine, from these He lightens with miraculous signs and thunders with His words of menace and monition. Guard against being offended by these plain and unpretending men. Nor should you look for and expect His power elsewhere. It all inheres in faith and in His Word and has no other source. God's power and activity are as free and untrammeled as the clouds. They are no longer confined under the roof of the temple at Jerusalem. The power of His help and His salvation is as universal as the clouds, which hover over all the world. (13/36) |
| 104. | Moses informs us that life is not a span of time but, as it were, a violent toss which catapults us into death. (13/100) |
| 105. | The highest wisdom is the "fear of God," to know God's wrath and, as a result, to live and to perform everything we do with humble hearts. Scripture thus exalts the fear of God. It impresses on men so to live that they fear God's wrath at all times and feel that they have merited death. This is the first element of salvation, when, because of sin, we see no deliverance. This is the highest wisdom: to go about our task is in full awareness of God's wrath. In this way we are made ready, like the earth for the plow, to receive the divine seed, the fruit of which is eternal life. (13/130) |
| 106. | Christians must bear the brunt of the attack of the devil and the world, must be run over and trampled, so that they may feel it and miserably complain, as Isaiah pictures them (Is. 54:11; Is. 62:4) and says: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted." (13/260) |
| 107. | Even though one labors a long time and accomplishes a great deal, it does not assuage the conscience or give peace to the heart. Now, however, God Himself takes over and arranges for preachers to preach to us, not about our works but about what He wants to do for us. He proclaims His righteousness, which is grace of the forgiveness of sins through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. When He does this, everything is put right. Then we and all other men who serve Him become fit and prepared for His kingdom and for all good things. (13/269) |
| 108. | But when the effect of the Law reaches its climax, when it achieves its best and highest purpose by leading a person to such a degree of knowledge that he sees and understands that God's Commandments demand a perfect obedience of the heart from him, which he is not able to do, so that he is not able to feel anything but sin in himself and God's wrath over him—at this point there arises a truly horrible attitude of disobedience toward God, and a man truly recognizes that human nature is utterly incapable of being willingly and genuinely obedient to God on the basis of laws. For human nature becomes hostile to the Law and develops a horrible and bitter wrath and hate toward God the moment it discovers itself damned by the Law, placed under the wrath of God, and condemned to hell. Then human nature begins to blaspheme God' it falls into despair and eternal death—unless the Gospel of Christ rescues it from this condition. (13/288) |
| 109. | It is an art, an art from the Holy Spirit, to give thanks or to say "Thank God!" from the heart. (13/365) |
| 110. | Because of the wicked and coarse people who use the grace of God wantonly as a cover for their wickedness, it is a necessary addition when the psalmist says: "Those who fear Him." They come without thinking, without decency and reverence, like a hog to the feed trough. "Ah!" they say, "if it is pure grace and mercy, then I, too, will come, and I need not be afraid; He will not denounce me." As though the Sacrament had been instituted for the purpose of impertinence and sport! They do not hunger and thirst for grace; they belittle sin, they show no improvement, they are smug and untroubled, with a clear and carefree mind. Such coarse and impenitent hearts will not find this food, even if they receive the Sacrament. It must be those who fear God, that is, those who fear His threats and His wrath and have a sorrowful and heavy heart. (13/376) |
| 111. | "The works of His hands are truth and justice." Here He hews and works on us, planes and saws, that He may put to death the old man in us together with his learning, wisdom, and righteousness, and all his vices, thus making us perfect, His new creation. For this He must use large axes, hatchets, saws, and wedges; for the old Adam is a stubborn block and a scoundrel. These are wicked tyrants, devils, schismatic spirits, false brethren, hunger, pestilence, disease, prison, rope, and the sword. And who can list them all? (13/378) |
| 112. | This is the one mistake, that many people hear God's Word, which is the pure wisdom of God, but learn nothing from it, because they regard it as a word, but not as the Word of God. They think they have mastered it as soon as they have heard it. But if they regarded it as God's Word, they would surely think: "Well, then, God is wiser than you and will say something great. So let us earnestly and reverently listen, as one ought to listen to a god." Behold, then the heart is beginning to become wise; for it earnestly desires to hear God's Word. God can teach such people anything through His Word. (13/385) |
| 113. | Thus Christ dies as a heretic and a rebel, between two murderers. To the emperor he is a rebel, to the Jews a deceiver and a heretic. It was a fine thing, to die this way! It would have been tolerable to be accused and charged with being a heretic and a rebel, for one could answer such charges. But to die this way and to take that title along, that is crushing. He had to accept both, so that both spiritually and physically He was considered the greatest villain—spiritually a heretic and a deceiver, physically a rebel, thus destroying both soul and body. That title all Christians and pious people must have; and if we do not have this title, we do not belong to Christ. It is not good for a preacher to have peace and to be attacked by no one. It is a sign that he does not have the true doctrine. It is the nature of this doctrine that it must be attacked. (13/414) |
| 114. | Now whoever is under this heaven of grace cannot sin or be in sin; for it is infinite and eternal. And if someone should sin or fall, he would not fall out of this same heaven unless he did not want to remain under it but preferred to go to hell with the devil, as unbelievers do. (14/27) |
| 115. | "If Thy Law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction." Whoever has not been tempted cannot understand this and will probably have to attack his sins with good works, to atone for them and to stifle them. But this is like trying to put a fire out with straw, or measure the air with a spoon. (14/28) |
| 116. | We must be able to say in spiritual defiance: "I know well that God's Word must first become a great lie, even in myself, before it can become truth. I also know that the devil's word must first become the delicate truth of God before it can become a lie. I must grant the devil his hour of godliness and ascribe devilhood to our God. But this is not the whole story. The last word is: 'His faithfulness and truth endure forever.'" (14.32) |
| 117. | In the Hebrew the word "distress" means "something narrow." I surmise that the German noun for distress is also derived from an adjective meaning narrow. It implies fear and pain, as in a process of clamping, squeezing, and pressing. Trials and misfortunes do squeeze and press, as is indicated by the proverb: The great wise world is too narrow for me." In Hebrew "in a large place" is used in contrast to "distress." "Distress" means tribulation and need; "in a large place" denotes consolation and help. Accordingly, this verse really says: "I called upon the Lord in my trouble; He heard me and helped me by comforting me." Just as distress is a narrow place, which casts us down and cramps us, so God's help is our large place, which makes us free and happy. Note the great art and wisdom of faith. It does not run to and fro in the face of trouble. It does not cry on everybody's shoulder, nor does it curse and scold its enemies. It does not murmur against God by asking: "Why does God do this to me? Why not to others, who are worse than I am?" Faith does not despair of the God who sends trouble. Faith does not consider Him angry or an enemy, as the flesh, the world, and the devil strongly suggest. Faith rises above all this and sees God's fatherly heart behind His unfriendly exterior. (14/59) |
| 118. | This is the power of God, that whoever believes and trusts in Him is thereby delivered from all sins, from a guilty conscience, a sorrowing heart, error, lies, deception, darkness, and all the power of the devil, and is led to grace, righteousness, truth, understanding, consolation, and the true light. As a result, God is our power. (14/82) |
| 119. | The Lord is all my strength. I am stripped of everything, of myself and all that is mine. I can say: "Devil, what are you fighting? If you try to denounce my good works and my holiness before God, why, I have none. My strength is not my own; the Lord is my Strength. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip! If you try to prosecute my sins, I have none of those either. Here is God's strength-prosecute it until you have had enough. I know absolutely nothing about either sins or holiness in me. I know nothing whatever except God's power in me." It would be fine, I hold, if a man could forget about himself and mock the devil with an empty pocket as a certain poor householder mocked a thief whom he caught in his home one night. He said: "You silly thief, do you expect to find something here in the dark when I can't find anything in broad daylight?" It is an art to forget self. We must keep learning this lesson as long as we live, even as all the saints before us, with us, and after us must do. Just as we still feel sin, we must also feel death. Just as we must fight to rid ourselves of sin by clinging to God's right hand as His Word offers it to us, so we must also battle with death and death's prince or chief, the devil, until we are free. (14/85) |
| 120. | Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is the broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." This is a great, broad, long, daily, and unending sacrifice. Here God corrects us through His Word in all our works and reduces our holiness, wisdom, and strength to nothing, so that before Him we are guilty sinners (Rom. 3:23). He gives His Word impressive power, frightens our conscience, and afflicts us with all kinds of troubles, so that our sinful old Adam becomes mellow and soft. Finally, by the time we die, our pride, trust, and confidence in our own efforts and knowledge are dead. Whoever can suffer and endure this and remain constant and persevere, and at the same time thank and praise God as one who sincerely means well, he it is who can sing this verse: "I thank Thee that Thou does humble me." He does not say: "The devil humbles me," but "Thou, Thou, art the one, It is Thy gracious will for my good. Without Thy will the devil could not do it." (14/94) |
| 121. | "For He strengthens the bars of your gates; He blesses your sons within you." Wherever there is protection and security, it is not by human intelligence or power; this is a gift of God. (14/113) |
| 122. | The saints retain a good will toward God, and that they are more concerned about losing God's gracious will, praise, and honor than about being damned. For he does not say: "In hell there is no joy and pleasure" but rather: "There is no praise and honor." (14/143) |
| 123. | "I forget to eat my bread." The bread of the dried-out heart is none other than God Himself, who alone can nourish the heart; for the heart must have eternal food if it is to be satisfied. But blessed is he who can realize this forgetfulness and complain about it. Accursed, however, are they who forget the forgetting, as, for example, the sensuous sinners and the proud saints who are sated, the former with outer goods, the latter with inner goods. The Christian groans with his whole repentant life and the laborious desire for grace and comfort. Such people experience how profoundly original sin has corrupted us. (14/180) |
| 124. | "Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord!" Crying is nothing but a strong and earnest longing for God's grace, which does not arise in a person unless he sees in what depth he is lying-the severe judgment of God, who cannot and will not let even one sin go unpunished. Whoever, therefore, does not consider the judgment of God, does not fear; and whoever does not fear, does not cry out; and whoever does not cry out, finds no grace. Therefore the fear of the judgment of God must always exist in the right kind of person because of the old Adam, whom God hates and resists. Furthermore, with this fear there must be hope for grace because of the mercy which is favorable to this fear because of the new man, who is an enemy of the old and therefore agrees with the judgment of God. Thus fear and hope go hand in hand. And just as the judgment of God produces fear, so fear results in crying out, and the cry brings mercy. As long as the old man lives, the fear, that is, the crucifixion and execution of this old man, must not cease; nor dare the judgment of God be forgotten. And whoever would live without this crucifying and this fear and judgment of God, does not live aright. Yes, God deals strangely with His children. He blesses them with contradictory and disharmonious things, for hope and despair are opposites. Yet His children must hope in despair; for fear is nothing else than the beginning of despair, and hope is the beginning of recovery. And these two things, direct opposites by nature, must be in us; because in us two natures are opposed to each other, the old man and the new man. The old may must fear, despair, and perish; the new man must hope, be raised up, and stand. Both of these are in one person and even in one handiwork at the same time. Just as a wood carver, by chiseling and taking away the wood that does not belong to the carving, enhances the form of his work, so hope, which forms the new man, grows in the midst of fear that cuts down the old Adam. (14/190) |
| 125. | "I wait for the Lord." The psalmist says: "I wait for the Lord; that is, in this crying and cross-bearing I did not retreat or despair; nor did I trust in my own merit. I trusted in God's grace alone, which I desire, and I wait for God to help me when it pleases Him." Now there are some who want to set the goal, appoint the hour and measure, and prescribe to God how they are to be helped. And if they do not experience this, they despair; or, if possible, they seek help elsewhere. These do not tarry and wait for the Lord. God is supposed to wait for them, be ready at once, and help exactly as they themselves have designed. But the very essence and life of the godly soul is nothing but a mere tarrying and waiting for the Lord. Now all who wait for the Lord so firmly that they wrestle (Israel means "wrestler with God"), as it were, with God are true Israelites. These wrestle knowing that God is nothing but kindness and mercy. But those who feel that God is angry and unmerciful do not know Him aright. Therefore they rather flee from Him and do not wait for Him. (14/192) |
| 126. | Every psalm, all Scripture, calls to grace, extols grace, searches for Christ, and praises only God's work, while rejecting all the works of man. So many are misled into the error of their blind holiness and their good intentions. But the life of a saint is more a taking from God than a giving; more a desiring that a having; more a becoming pious than a being pious. (14/196) |
| 127. | This is characteristic of the ungodly, not to fear God and, sure of His mercy (as they think), to take everything for granted. The godly, however, like Job, fear for all their works. (14/292) |
| 128. | You should wish that your "leaf does not wither," so that the pure Word of God may bloom in the church of Christ and all fables and fantasies of men may be cast aside. And if you should happen to see this good fortune somewhere, congratulate yourself, rejoice, and thank God for His goodness. Do not believe that this is an impossible demand on you; only make the attempt, and I know you will be happy and thankful. First practice on one psalm, even one little verse of the psalm. You will progress enough if you learn to make only one verse a day, or even one a week, live and breathe in your heart. After this beginning is make, everything else will follow, and you will have a rich treasury of understanding and affection. Only see that you do not let weariness and discouragement scare you out of beginning it. For this is truly to sing psalms, or, as the Scriptures say of David, to strike the harp with the hand. For the light fingers of the harpist are the emotions of the heart moving about in the words of the psalms. Without this the strings do not sound, and the psalm is not sung, because it is not touched. (14/310) |
| 129. | The "potter's vessels" are all the Christians; first of all, because the clay vessel is easily broken. Thus mild men, who are not made obstinate by a hardened unbelief, easily yield to the Word of God and do not oppose it. (14/339) |
| 130. | Strive to be instructed, that is, torn away from the raw and natural inclinations and opinions of the senses and sensual things, so that you do not think childishly about Christ and His kingdom. (14/343) |
| 131. | "Serve the Lord with fear, and glorify Him with trembling." When Christ the Lord reigns with His iron scepter and crushes the old man through the Word of the cross, according to the will and command of the Father, who has subjected everything to Him, you must recognize yourself as subjected to Him. However, you are subjected in fear, that you may bear His cross in patience and humility. And be concerned, lest, if you refuse to bear His hand and counsel, you become wicked, like those spoken of in Ps. 78:9: "The sins of Ephraim are turned back on the day of battle." You will be subject when you know that you never suffer undeserved punishment but deserve much greater punishment. The proud are smug in their opinion that they deserve only blessing. Like Job, they are not afraid, because they rely on their works (Job 9:28). Therefore they do not stand in the time of trial; but, as Matt. 7:24 ff. said about the house of the foolish man that was built on sand, they collapse in a great fall and become worse. Accordingly, this fear is a great part of the cross in the whole of life and in all our works; in fact, it is almost the whole of the cross. Thus service with fear and joy with trembling is found in the righteous, who always do righteousness and judgment. They mingle them together. They are neither without judgment, which terrifies the righteous and makes them despair of their own works(for one must be more afraid where there seems to be no cause for fear; and the more smoothly everything proceeds, the more anxiously one should fear, and even tremble, when great joy and happiness befalls him.), nor without true righteousness, by which they trust and rejoice in the mercy of God. The occupation of their whole life is to accuse themselves in all matters, to justify and praise God in all things, and thus to fulfill Prov. 28:14: "Blessed is the man who is always fearful," and likewise I Thess. 5:16: "Always rejoice in the Lord." Thus they are crushed and humbled between the upper and lower millstone (Duet 24:6); and after the husks are removed, they become the purest wheat of Christ.(14/344-45) |
| 132. | Wisdom and understanding, I believe, differ from each other in this way: wisdom pertains to the knowledge of things, understanding to judgment. He is wise who knows the relation of faith and religion to God and the relation of law and love to one's neighbor. He, however, has no understanding who in both respects is sagacious, prudent, and cautious, so that he proceeds properly in them and is led astray by no deception. (9/56) |
| 133. | As often as the Word of God is understood, so often it must be repeated. Scripture has two modes: the one, of teaching, by which we are wearied; the other of exhorting, by which we are buoyed up. These two the Scriptures have everywhere. (9/57) |
| 134. | A storm forms in the conscience when the Law is spiritually understood. Then the soul experiences darkness, storms, it fears death and hell; at every moment it is afraid that it will die eternally. The feeling of death, sin, hell, and the wrath of God is there. From the outward sight the Children of Israel conceived the inner sight. They could not bear it (Heb. 12:20). The Law is unbearable; there was no hope or trust in you. In the Law there is only fear; in the Gospel there is only hope. Therefore the Law is to be impressed more often, that the Gospel may be longed for. Where there is not the storm of the Law, there is also not the security afforded by the Gospel. (9/57) |
| 135. | See the order of treating the Word of God: first, it is to be pondered in the heart; secondly, impressed faithfully and constantly on the sons by word of mouth; thirdly, discussed openly and everywhere; fourthly, written on the hand and drawn before the eyes; fifth and last, inscribed, and that on posts and door ways, not in books, since Moses himself has already written them in a book. (9/69) |
| 136. | God is tempted in two ways. The first way is not to use the necessary things that are at hand but to seek others, which are not at hand. So Satan tempted Christ, commanding Him to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, although there were steps by which He could walk down. Secondly, God is tempted when nothing needed is at hand except the bare and lone Word of God. Of this temptation Moses is really speaking here when he adds: "Just as you tempted in Massah," where they said quarrelsomely (Ex. 17:2, 7): "Is God among us or not?" For here the godless are not content with the Word; and unless God does what He promised at the time, in the place, and in the manner prescribed by themselves, they give up and do not believe. But to prescribe place, time, or manner to God is actually to tempt Him and to feel about, as it were, whether He is there. But this is nothing else than to want to put limits on God and subject Him to our will; in fact, to deprive Him of His divinity. Here you see the most spiritual First Commandment explained by Moses in a most spiritual and perfect way. (9/74-74) |
| 137. | "If you keep them, the Lord, too, will keep the covenant and mercy." What is this? Previously he taught that this nation was beloved, not because it deserved it but because of the prevenient choice of God. Now it is to works and merit that he promises love and blessing; yes, what is greater, he attributes the faithfulness of the covenant and promise to their works, saying: "If you keep them," which he here expounds in a long passage concerning temporal prosperity. I answer: The distinction which we have so frequently given concerning prevenient and subsequent mercy is known. The prevenient is that by which we are chosen, called, and justified before we have done any work at all. The subsequent is our certainty and experience, through works, of that prevenient mercy. Of this it is said (Zech. 1:3): "Be turned to Me [this happens by prevenient mercy], and I shall turn to you" [this is subsequent mercy, which bestows on those who are already justified peace, safety, and every good]; thus you can call the one grace but the other peace, or the one gift and fact but the other certainty of the accepted gift and possessed fact. So he wants to say here: If you keep these Commandments (which they still could not do without grace), you will feel by the very experience of it that God is faithful, both giving the Promised Land and protecting it after He has given it. (9/86) |
| 138. | What can heal the sickness of this pride more promptly than to remember former godlessness and crimes? What does this people have except what makes it ashamed to lift its eyes to heaven. Just as Paul says to the Romans: "Of which you are now ashamed." (9/104) |
| 139. | "He is your praise; He is your God." Because of nothing, neither of yourself nor your works, shall you be puffed up or boast. But in your God shall you boast, in Him be puffed up, in Him be proud, since you know that He it is who does not regard persons. You see that it is the fulfillment of the First Commandment to have God be the praise, the boasting, the bragging, the pride of our heart in the time both of prosperity and of adversity. For this it is to have God in truth. (9/113) |
| 140. | For we observe the Passover every day, when we eat and sacrifice Christ, the Lamb of God; that is, as Paul explains in I Cor. 5:7, we proclaim and believe that He was offered up for us. So daily we have Pentecost, when we receive the new Law, the Spirit, into our hearts (Jer. 31:33) through the ministry of the Word. Daily we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, when we teach and experience that we are strangers in this world and sojourn in the tabernacles of our bodies, which last but a short time. (9/157) |
| 141. | The commands of the New Testament are directed to those who are justified and are new men in the Spirit. Nothing is taught or commanded there except what pertains solely to believers, who do everything spontaneously, not from necessity or contrary to their own will. (9/179) |
| 142. | God hates lazy and cold petitioners, who hope to gain their end through much speaking (Matt. 5:7); he wants sighings that cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26). Certainly no one can have all this who spends his days in a good life and dwells in the land of luxury. This is only for those who are moved to despair by the feeling of death and the bite of sin, so that, like the people of Israel, they refuse to go on hearing the voice of God or seeing the mighty fire, that is, the power of the Law and the prick of sin, namely, death and the wrath of God, which already consumes them like a fire, so that they long to hear the Word of life. (9/181) |
| 143. | The new prophets proceed thus: First they lay hold on mortification. This they divide into many steps or weights, which they call by various names. And to no person do they ascribe righteousness until he has advanced by these steps to perfect mortification. Then they are filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they can do everything, know everything, and desire everything. For the Spirit comes to them, not from the hearing of the Word, which they proudly despise, but from mortification. They are offended when they see that righteous and godly people are still occupied with remnants of sin. They call such people hypocrites and accuse them of pretending faith and stealing from the syllables of Scripture but not dipping from the Spirit. They themselves, however, are wholly without remnants of sin; therefore they have the true faith from the Spirit. You can see that Satan is obviously at work here. He blinds them so that they begin with mortification, which indeed ought to follow the Word and faith and the Spirit. They conclude with the Spirit, who ought to precede all. Under the name "mortification" they introduce a new show of works, and meanwhile the Word itself is despised. They set up nothing but an outward show and teach that righteousness is brought about in a new manner by our powers—namely, that righteousness which has not even a trace of sin and is impossible in this life (Rom 7). Yet those very braggarts of the Spirit, total mortification, and the purest righteousness are not only full of all vices, but obsessed with implacable rage. You will probably never see greater pride, haughtiness, rashness, arrogance, envy, hatred, wrath, impatience, greed, cowardice (if the matter succeeds with difficulty), boldness (if it is successful), or unhappiness and unbelief. Then, because they brag about this confused and chaotic mask of external mortification and righteousness, they are forced to institute the sword for its administration and preservation, as is the way of all outward laws. They have lost all sight that mortification should not be demanded as an achievement but as a process. On the other hand, we must not encourage a drowsy faith, which neglects mortification. (9/186) |
| 144. | By this example of Ishmael, God makes it clear that He owes nobody anything. Before Him, therefore, let no one boast of or glory in his righteousness and merit; but let the whole world be subject to God, prostrate itself, invoke His grace and mercy, and with one accord say (Ps. 143:2): "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant." This is what Ishmael teaches every one of us. After he had been crushed in this manner, he simply renounced his right. Later on he came into the inheritance of the promise as a guest, as Paul says about the Gentiles. (4/43) |
| 145. | The antinomians want the doctrine of repentance to begin directly from grace. But I myself did not proceed in this manner, for I know that Ishmael was cast out and in despair before he heard the comfort from the angel. Accordingly, I followed this example and comforted only those who were first contrite and despairing, whom the Law had thoroughly frightened and Leviathan had crusted and stunned. For Christ came into the world for their sake, and He does not want the smoking flax (Matt. 12:20) to be completely extinguished. Therefore He cries (Matt. 11:28): "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden." (4/51) |
| 146. | I, too, am very frequently troubled by this trial, that I look about for works in which I may be able to put my trust, because I have taught much, have benefited many, and have borne many more indignities than I deserved. But I realize that in real conflicts all these are nothing, and I am driven to the well-known confession of David, who said: "Lord, I am nothing but a sinner," and "I said in my consternation: 'All men are a vain hope'"; that is, every man who deceives and is deceived is useless. But I encourage myself with this hope alone, that in the Gospel I see that solace has been promised to the contrite, hope to the despairing, and heaven to those who have been put into hell; and the fact that the Son of God, without our knowledge, offered Himself for us to God the Father, His Father, on the altar of the cross, is sure proof of this hope. If those who have first been humbled in this manner and have been driven to despair begin to be of good cheer because of Christ to the same extent that they despair of themselves, they become children of God and heirs. Yet you find many who do not want to be humbled but plan vengeance and grumble. These people are doubly obdurate. (4/54) |
| 147. | Whatever a godly man does, he does rightly, even if he makes a mistake; for he has a heart that is right and God looks mainly at this. (4/85) |
| 148. | Ps. 27:14: "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage." But who heeds this? Nobody. For nobody believes that God has commanded confidence and has condemned despair. (4/105) |
| 149. | Our trust will be perfect when life and death, glory and shame, adversity and good fortune will be alike to us. But we shall not attain this through speculation; it will have to be learned in trial and prayer. (4/149) |
| 150. | These most annoying changes and migrations the very saintly mother (Sarah) endured with great courage, and in regard to every outcome of all her misfortunes she was most patient. And human life as a whole is actually such that because of the extraordinary change of all things one can call it "lives"; for we die as often as a new trial arises, and we become alive in turn when we are buoyed up and receive comfort. (4/188) |
| 151. | The use of a thing concerns the Holy Spirit. He who sees the use of a thing sees the Holy Spirit, he who discerns the form or beauty of a thing sees the Son, and he who considers the substance and continuing existence of things sees the Father. These three—substance, form, and goodness—cannot be separated. But in money a greedy person sees only the substance, form, and weight; he is not aware that it is a trace of the Son. Nor does he consider the use of the thing, that is, what purpose it should serve—chiefly, of course, the glory of God, then the benefit of one's neighbor. The ungodly do not discern the goodness of things, even though they look to some extent at the substance and the form. Thus the man who lacks affection does not see the use of wife or children. (4/196) |
| 152. | Nothing surpasses Abraham's faith. Furthermore, how great his love toward the Sodomites was! How great his patience in exile was! Finally, how great his reverence, friendliness, and generosity were toward the lords of the land, because he does not want to take the field without cost and be a burden to the inhabitants! The whole doctrine of ethics could be gathered better from this source than Aristotle, the jurists, and the canonists have propounded it. Hence the words of this detailed description are not superfluous or unprofitable. (4/217) |
| 153. | "If, then, the light in you is darkness"; that is, if error and falsehood are your light, life, salvation, and perfect righteousness, "how great is the darkness!" Therefore I urge you to learn carefully and to meditate on the doctrine of justification. Together with us, false brethren condemn the works of the pope; yet they oppose us, because they strive for new, unusual works and do so while we are still living and contending against them. The justification of Christians consists in this, that sin has been made weak and does not have dominion over us. If you take a wife, you will feel lust; but you will be able to live in a chaste and godly manner with her because you believe in Christ, for then sin has been made weak. On the other hand, if you enter into marriage with intense passion and with the expectation of sundry pleasures, when hardly one or two months have elapsed—often even before the wedding a dislike will develop—there will arise annoyances between you and your wife and a dislike greater than you love was at first. As a result, you will more eagerly desire to be separated from her than to be joined to her. You will wish for your wife's death, and any other woman will seem more beautiful and agreeable in her manners and character than your wife; for then sin has dominion. (4/243) |
| 154. | "Thus a man will be perfect and equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:17), because he has been so trained that he maintains that God graciously bestows all good things, the smallest and the greatest, and says with this servant: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of heaven and earth." The life of such people is truly holy and is pleasing to God in all their activities, whether they eat, drink, sleep, or are awake. (4/279) |
| 155. | This is the memorable example of the servant who is hastening to bring the bride to his master. It admonishes us never to hesitate or delay in the works of God but to remove all obstacles and whatever can hold us back in the work we have undertaken. The writings of the heathen contain the same admonition, namely, that after a matter has been carefully considered, one should hasten to carry it out: "When you have deliberated, you must act quickly" and "Opportunity, though she has hair in front, is bald behind" and "He who abandons opportunity will be abandoned by opportunity." (4/297) |
| 156. | The devil operates with another rule—a rule that is the opposite of this one. For he is in the habit of being at hand immediately when his priests and prophets want him, and he does not delay what they ask for. (4/324) |
| 157. | The marvelous counsels of God in governing His saints must be learned, and the hearts of the godly must become accustomed to them. When you have a promise of God, it will happen that the more you are loved by God, the more you will have it hidden, delayed, and turned into the opposite. For if God did not love you so exceedingly, He would not play with you in this manner; that is, He would not delay His promise and help and turn it into its opposite. (4/326) |
| 158. | The examples of the fathers teach us what the true forms of worship are, namely, genuine faith, perfect hope, and unwavering love. These virtues lead us to the realization that God is present and beneficent, no matter how He seems to be against us. (4/327) |
| 159. | For whenever God lets our hope and prayer become weak, reason cannot think or feel otherwise than to say: "The longer I pray, the more severely I am afflicted and tormented." Therefore will it be unnecessary to pray, to trust, and to hope? Must we be like the Epicureans, who now declare that they leave everything to God's will and direction, for the things God has decreed are bound to come to pass? Prayer should by no means be discontinued; for God has commanded us to pray, to believe, to call upon Him, to hallow His name, and to hope. God could gather a church without the Word, manage the state without a government, produce children without parents, and create fish without water; but He commands us and wants us to preach and pray, and everyone to do his duty in his station. But if the outcome does not always come up to what we have determined in advance, we must nevertheless continue in our calling and leave the result and the issue to Him. (4/354) |
| 160. | It is the wisdom of the saints to believe in the truth in opposition to the lie, in the hidden truth in opposition to the manifest truth, and in hope in opposition to hope. (4/357) |
| 161. | You have no reason to complain that you have been visited less than Abraham or Isaac. You, too, have appearances, and in a way they are stronger, clearer, and more numerous than those they had, provided you open your eyes and heart and take hold of them. You have Baptism. You have the Sacrament of the Eucharist, where bread and wine are the species, figures, and forms in which and under which God in person speaks and works into your ears, eyes, and heart. Besides, you have the ministry of the Word and teachers through whom God speaks with you. You have the ministry of the Keys, through which He absolves and comforts you. "Fear not," He says, "I am with you." He appears to you in Baptism. He baptizes you Himself and addresses you Himself. He not only says: "I am with you," but: "I forgive you your sins. I offer you salvation from death, deliverance from all fear and from the power of the devil and hell. And not only I am with you, but all the angels with Me." What more will you desire? Everything is full of divine appearances and conversations. But here we should complain and sob against our flesh, which is poisoned and sunk in sin and does not let us believe and accept such great blessings. Over and above this, it tells us to argue and to question whether these things are true. I am speaking about us, who are truly Christians, who teach and believe these things. I not only believe in Christ, but I know that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father to be our Mediator and to intercede for us. I know that the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper are the body and blood of Christ and that the word of the pastor, whether he preaches or absolves, is the Word of God. Yet the flesh is weighed down by doubt, so that it does not believe these things. This is great wretchedness and is bitterer than death itself. Indeed, the reason why death is bitter is that the hindrances of the flesh prevent us from believing. Otherwise affliction would be a joy, and death would be a sleep for us who believe. (5/21-22) |
| 162. | We may indeed be evil and weak, provided that we are not found among those who persecute, hate, and blaspheme God. God wants to have patience with our weakness. If you want to escape despair, hatred, and blasphemy of God, give up your speculation about the hidden God, and cease to strive in vain to see the face of God. Otherwise you will have to remain perpetually in unbelief and damnation, and you will have to perish; for he who doubts does not believe, and he who does not believe is condemned (Mark 16:16). Therefore we should detest and shun these vicious words which the Epicureans bandy about: "If this is how it must happen, let it happen." For God did not come down from heaven to make you uncertain about predestination, to teach you to despise the sacraments, absolution, and the rest of the divine ordinances. Indeed, He instituted them to make you completely certain and to remove the disease of doubt from your heart, in order that you might not only believe with the heart but also see with you physical eyes and touch with your hands. (5/25, 45) |
| 163. | Christ is a King of the strong and the weak alike; He hates the proud and declares war on the strong. He rebukes the Pharisees and those who are smug. But He does not want to break or confound the fearful, the fainthearted, the sorrowful, and the perplexed. He does not want to quench a dimly burning wick (Is. 42:3; Matt. 12:20). This is His way and constant practice. His kingdom has been established to give orders to and to frighten only those who are inflexible. But to those who are terrified comfort should be dispensed, and they should be told: "You are a dimly burning wick, and God does not want me to quench you; for Christ is a King of the poor and the weak." (5/26) |
| 164. | He who is truly brave properly combines daring and fear. In unavoidable dangers he is not afraid, where necessity, honor, and expediency demand an undaunted spirit. But where there is no necessity, he does not hurl himself rashly into danger. (5/42) |
| 165. | If you will believe in the revealed God and accept His Word, He will gradually also reveal the hidden God; for "He who sees Me also sees the Father." (5/46) |
| 166. | Therefore let us learn from this that our trials are far lighter than the trials of the saintly patriarchs were. We are delicate martyrs, we who live amid an abundance of all things. Consequently, such accounts are completely without a precedent. Nor is there anyone today, even among the saintliest persons, who would be able to bear these things. They are compelled to wander through villages to Hebron, perhaps even into the desert as far as the Well of the Living and the Seeing (cf. Gen. 16:14)-for Moses does not record from what source they got the water-and to fetch drinking water from that place for themselves and for the cattle. Who would not be disturbed by such a great indignity? In all likelihood Rebecca sometimes said out of impatience: "In spite of all, we are lords over the land. Where is God's promise? Is it being fulfilled in such a way that foreigners enjoy our property after we have been driven out or surely have been deprived of everything that is necessary for enjoying it?" (5/59) |
| 167. | Without a trial we learn nothing and make no progress. For this is the warfare and the exercise of Christians through which we learn that we are under the protection of angels, and that although we are plagued by severe and difficult trials, yet they do us no harm. This is our theology. It is not learned easily or suddenly; but we must meditate constantly on the Law and stand in battle array against the devil, who tries to draw us away from the study of the Word and to make our faith weak. (5/63) |
| 168. | For such unjust acts of robbery lead automatically to vengeance and punishments, as Augustine's statement bears out. "Gain in the coffer, harm in the conscience." No unjust gain is without most unjust harm. For he who has seized property has lost the faith. One acquires the devil with the property, and one loses God together with faith and justice. If you take away my property and leave me faith and a good conscience, then you have the chaff, but I have the kernels. No matter what you seize by any right and any wrong, you have already lost your faith and have God as your adversary, and together with the chaff itself you will be hurled headlong into eternal destruction. (5/65) |
| 169. | The devil exhausts the godly not only with the greatness of the trials but with his assiduity and his insistence. (5/77) |
| 170. | I know that I have often done many things foolishly and very rashly, so much so that I thought: "Why has God called me to preach when I do not have as much knowledge, discretion, and judgment as the importance of the office demands?" Although I performed everything with a pious and sincere heart, with pious devotion and zeal, yet a great deal of nonsense and many failures arose, with the result that heaven and the whole world seemed about to go to ruin. Then I was compelled to fall on my knees and to ask for help and counsel from God, who is powerful and turns a denouement in a tragedy into a catastrophe in a comedy while we are sleeping. Thus He creates Eve while Adam is sleeping. He takes a rib from him while he is sleeping, closes the place with flesh, and builds the rib which he took from Adam into flesh. Here someone may say that God had silken fingers, because He performs such a great work so nimbly and so easily. In the same manner He also governs His saints. Even if they have erred seriously in their thinking and have been guilty of great folly and rashness, from which countless evils can arise, yet He brings about a happy outcome, like the denouement in a comedy. Consequently, if you do anything wrong in any walk of life, you should not despair; but you should acknowledge your mistake with humility and think as follows: "God, who was able to lead Rebecca and Jacob out of such great danger, is all-powerful. Therefore I, too, shall not despair but shall be confident that He will bring me out of this misfortune."(5/119, 121) |
| 171. | These are exceedingly powerful and rich possessions, but the heart is slippery and vacillating when taking hold of them. But we should not deny them. This is the only thing against which we should be on our guard. And if we are unable to confess with a loud shout, let us at least make ourselves heard in a low murmur as best we can. If we cannot sing when we praise God, let us at least open our mouths, in order that we may continue steadfastly in the blessings into which the Son of God has placed us-the blessings which cannot be kept without a great struggle and trials of various kinds. (5/146) |
| 172. | To feel sin and the wrath of God because of sin is very great grace, and salvation is close to such sinners. As a result, they are easily brought to repentance. But to defend and excuse sin is "to pass judgment on God, " that is, to condemn in His words, as Ps. 51:4 says. (5/157) |
| 173. | Romans 1:17: "The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel." But every time I read this passage, I always wished that God had never revealed the Gospel—for who could love a God who is angry, judges, and condemns?—until finally, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, I weighed more carefully the passage in Habakkuk 2:4, where I read: The righteous shall live by his faith." From this I concluded that life must come from faith. In this way I related the abstract to the concrete, and all Holy Scripture and heaven itself were opened to me. At this time, however we see that great light very clearly, and we may enjoy it richly. But we despise and disdain this jewel and heavenly treasure. Accordingly, if one day it should be taken away again, we shall cry and knock once more, as Christ says about the foolish virgins in the parable (Matt. 25:11). But we all cry and knock in vain. Therefore let us fear God and be grateful. Above all, however, my own example and the example of others should move you. We lived in death and hell and did not have the blessing so abundantly as you have it. Therefore occupy yourself diligently with the doctrine of the blessing, and think about it, in order that you may be able to keep it yourselves and also to make it known to others. As for ourselves, we have done our duty. (5/158) |
| 174. | Proverbs 13:12: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." But the promised blessing consoles and sustains the heart. Accordingly, one must be carefully fortified and strengthened against the displeasure of the flesh, which fights against faith and the spirit during this waiting, as that murmuring of the flesh. This is our mortification, not our destruction. It is an upbuilding. The blessing is being postponed. But wait, and persevere in faith. Nor should you sing what we read in the psalm (115:2): Why should the nations say: 'Where is their God?'" No, you should think on Psalm 42:6: "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him." Things will still turn out well. For David is fighting against himself when he says: "My soul, you are disquieting me." For what you want is not at hand. At all events, wait, and be content; for God and His Word are present. (5/203) |
| 175. | There are two kinds of saintliness. The first is that by which we are sanctified through the Word. The second is that by which we are saintly on the basis of what we do and how we live. But these two kinds of saintliness must be most accurately distinguished. For the first and purest kind of saintliness is the Word, in which there is no fault, no spot, no sin; but it is so saintly that it needs no remission of sins, because it is God's truth, as we read in John 17:17: "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth." In that saintliness we, who have been called through the Word, glory. It is outside us; it is not our work. It is not formal righteousness; but it is a heavenly saintliness communicated to us through the Word, and indeed through the spoken Word. Therefore we proclaim that righteousness and oppose it to all forms of righteousness of the pope and all hypocrite, for it is unpolluted saintliness. I have the Word. I am saintly, righteous, and pure, without any fault and indictment, insofar as I have the Word. Thus Christ Himself says (John 15:3): "You are already made clean by the Word which I have spoken to you." But the pope has no knowledge of this saintliness. All self-righteous people despise it and cling to the righteousness of the Law. They do not ascend to the heavenly saintliness by which we are acceptable before God because of His Word. From the Word you learn how great the saints are, even if they never performed a single miracle. Yet that is impossible. But before the flesh does anything, we are saintly through the Word. Therefore I conclude: "The Word is not my work. Consequently, when I glory in my work, I lose the Word. On the other hand, if I glory in the Word, my work perishes." (5/213) |
| 176. | If we do not glory in our saintliness, we do wrong to the true God, who sanctifies us with His Word. "But I am a sinner," you will say. "I know that you are a sinner, and if you were not, I would not want to sanctify you; you would have no need of the Word. But because you are a sinner, I sanctify you," says God. (5/214) |
| 177. | The other saintliness is a saintliness of works. It is love, which does what is pleasing. Here not only God speaks, but I strive to follow God when He speaks. But because weakness clings to us, this righteousness is not pure. But the Lord's Prayer reigns, and it is necessary to pray: "Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt. 6:9). This pertains to our saintliness and the saintliness of works, which is formal and pertains to the saintliness of the Decalog and the Lord's Prayer. But the first saintliness must be referred to the Symbol, to the Creed; for I do not take hold of the promise of the Word through the Ten Commandments. Nor do I do so through the Lord's Prayer. But with them I grasp my love and my works. Through faith, however, I take hold of the Word, that is, purity itself. These things cannot be adequately stated and inculcated. Yet there is an easy distinction between the commandment and the promise. The Word, which justifies the believer without my love and my righteousness is one thing. It is something else when I take hold of the commandments of God, so that I do not steal, do not commit adultery, etc. But the papists are submerged in and overwhelmed by their own darkness to such an extent that when they hear this doctrine, they do not hear. Nor do we ourselves retain it firmly enough. Learn, therefore, from the reading of these histories what we have always been accustomed to do in our reading, namely, to linger at this passage, when God speaks with the patriarchs; for here the best and most precious things are to be read. (5/214) |
| 178. | The devil is wont to torment afflicted hearts in a thousand strange ways, so that the truth of the common saying that no disaster is alone becomes apparent. For Satan "prowls around like a roaring lion" (I Peter 5:8) and seeks where he can most easily climb over the fence and with what stratagems he can overturn the learning wagon. He climbs across where the fence is lowest; and if the wagon is unsteady, he turns it over completely. Thus temptation is added and piled up for those who are afflicted and tried, so that it hurls them headlong into despair, into blasphemy or impatience. These are the works of the devil; these are his customary and constant snares. Therefore besides the physical cross and the exile, Jacob was undoubtedly assailed by the fiery darts of the devil. Perhaps he thought about how he had stolen the primogeniture and about how he had deceived his father. For in this way the devil is wont to make a great and enormous sin out of an excellent work. The fact that God speaks with him is a sign of this very grievous trial. (5/215) |
| 179. | We carnal and ignorant human beings do not understand or value the magnitude of these things. We have barely tasted a drink of milk-not solid food-from that inexpressible union and association of the divine and the human nature, which is of such a kind that not only the humanity has been assumed, but that such humanity has been made liable and subject to death and hell yet in that humiliation has devoured the devil, hell, and all things in itself. This is the communion of properties. GOD, who created all things and is above all things, is the highest and the lowest, so that we must say: "That man, who was scourged, who is the lowest under death, under the wrath of God, under sin and every kind of evil, and finally under hell, is the highest God." (5/219) |
| 180. | If I had a choice, I would select the most sordid and most rustic work of a Christian peasant or maid in preference to all the victories and triumphs of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, etc. Why? Because God is here, and the devil is there. This is the essential difference. The material of the works is the same, but the distinguishing characteristics and the difference are infinitely diverse. For God says: "The works and domestic duties of this woman, namely, that she sweeps the house and obeys the housewife, please Me." For "He has regarded the humility of His handmaiden" (Luke 1:48). Only believers understand the worth and importance of the works of Christians. But faith and the Word make their works important and give them the greatest worth. For God Himself and the Spirit are in the Christian who does the works. But men, who are like horses and mules (Ps. 32:9), are powerfully moved by the outward appearance. Formerly, when I was a monk, I, too was far saintlier than I am now so far as the external mask is concerned. I prayed more, kept vigils, practiced abstinence, and tormented my flesh. In short, my whole life was altogether showy in the eyes of others, although not in my own eyes; for I was intensely crushed and distressed. But now I eat and dress in the regular and usual manner. Nothing special or extraordinary stands out in my life in comparison with others. At that time, when I was a monk, I did nothing else than waste my time and ruin my health. Indeed, I wounded my conscience with those acts of righteousness, with the result that even now it can scarcely be restored. For beyond nature, in which glorying about works is implanted, I also acquired the disposition and custom of paying attention to my works and my worthiness. (5/271) |
| 181. | For if he is a Christian, see whether he honors, hears, and earnestly loves the Word, or whether he is also plagued by a cross and trouble. If this is so, he will come to church, gladly hear the Word, take delight in it, believe from the heart, pray, give thanks, and have a good conscience. (5/272) |
| 182. | God has not given us a promise that there will be peace this year and a rich yield of grain. Accordingly, I should not say: "I do not know what will happen. Therefore I will do nothing." Indeed, God rather says: "Do your duty, and leave the rest to Me." He did not say: "Everything will turn out successfully." No, He said: "Do your duty. You do not have to know how things will turn out or what will happen. You have been justified. Go, then, and exercise your faith in the household and in the state." All things are sanctified by the Word and faith. (5/274) |
| 183. | Every Christian, when baptized and dedicated to Christ, may and must accept and expect encounters with terror and anxiety, which will make his heart afraid and dejected, whether these feelings arise from one or from many enemies and adversaries. For a Christian has an exceedingly large number of enemies if he wants to remain loyal to his Lord. (24/11) |
| 184. | The Christian should always think: "If peace and tranquility reign today, it will be different tomorrow. The devil can soon shoot a dart into my heart, or some other affliction can befall me. Therefore I must see to it that when sorrows appear, I am prepared to weather the storm and draw comfort from God's Word." (24/12) |
| 185. | Happy is he who can learn this and really take to heart Christ's statement and testimony that it grieves Him sorely when He sees a Christian's heart sad or frightened. Such a person is well off, and his battle is more than half won. For if I can advance to the point where I recognize the enemy who wants to intimidate and sadden me, and if I know the source of such thoughts and notions, I am already treading on solid ground and have gained a firm footing. This enables me to defend myself and to say: "This is not my Lord Christ; it is His enemy, the devil." He indeed deceives pious hearts by disguising himself as an angel of light, as St. Paul declares (2 Cor. 11:14); he displays himself as, and pretends to be, Christ Himself. But this is the label which identifies him: he invariably leaves his stench behind him, that is, a faint, fearful, and disquieted conscience. This is manifest in all the false teachers and schismatic spirits, who share in the nature of their master, the devil. They are unable to comfort and gladden a single timid conscience. They only confuse the heart and fill it with sadness and melancholy. They go about like gloomy or senseless people and regard it as highly spiritual to garb themselves in a gray coat, to hang the head, to appear with a long face, and to sham sadness. That is nothing but the devil's buffoonery and delusion. He delights in making hearts afraid, cowardly, and dejected. They want to demonstrate their spirituality with a sour face, one that makes really comforting thoughts and cheerful words impossible. (24/13) |
| 186. | Now if one could learn to differentiate, then each side would be fairly treated. Christ would comfort those whom the devil wants to frighten and dishearten, and, on the other hand, He would intimidate those whom the devil makes smug and presumptuous. After all, these two must always contend against each other. What the devil ruins and destroys, Christ must build up and restore; and what the devil establishes, Christ destroys, as we read in I John 3:8: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." (24/15) |
| 187. | It is indeed a real Christian art to distinguish in the heat of battle between the suggestions of Christ and those of the devil. Only one who is experienced will realize the difficulty. For, as I have said, the devil can so clothe and adorn himself with Christ's name and works, and can pose and act in such a way, that one could swear a thousand oaths that it is truly Christ Himself, although in reality it is the arch-enemy and the true Archantichrist. (24/16) |
| 188. | Face boldly and steadfastly whatever may confront you. As Christians you must not mourn and tremble; you are different from those who lack comfort and confidence in affliction, misfortune, and adversity. They do not believe, nor do they know God's Word; but they place their trust in temporal things and attach their hearts only to what is present and visible. Whenever this vanishes, courage and trust vanish with it. For in no circumstances dare the human heart believe in or rely on anyone but the only God. All other trust and confidence is pure idolatry, as, for example, the trust that a rich man reposes in his wealth, when he becomes bold and proud in the knowledge of a treasure to support him. Another places his reliance in some good friend or a gracious prince and says to himself: "If all else fails, I still have this man as a friend." (24/19) |
| 189. | Thus you see what it means to believe in God, namely, to cultivate a heart that grows strong and fearless in the face of all that devil and world may marshal against you-poverty, misfortune, disgrace, and even sin. A Christian must be able to disdain all the world possesses, both its good and its evil, as well as everything with which the devil can lure and entice or intimidate and threaten. Single-handedly he must set himself against all power and become a knight and a hero who defeats and vanquishes all. (24/21) |
| 190. | This is what true Christians must do today. They must not be influenced by the actions of those who enjoy the name and the reputation of great and holy people, who are called God's servants and the church. They must declare: "Here is my God. I refuse to believe in any other God than the Creator of heaven and earth. I will believe only in the God who is united with Him who is called Jesus Christ. In Him I must place my trust. Then I know that I have the true God. If I have Him, I can proudly defy the devil and the world.(24/25) |
| 191. | Thus Christ speaks with the disciples in the simplest possible manner and almost naively. He adapts His speech to their own thoughts, as one must encourage and invite the simple. He wants to lift up their thoughts and inspire them with courage and comfort and with a heart that says: "What does it matter if now they dispossess me of house and home, of this perishable abode, or if they thrust me into some dark dungeon? (24/28) |
| 192. | Christ's object is to tie and to bind them completely to Himself alone with their eyes, ears, and hearts, so that they will not see and think beyond Him. He says, as it were: "Thomas, where are your eyes and your thoughts? One must not speculate and flit about this way. Look here at Me. Surely you know Me. And if you know and see Me, then you also know and see the way, and you must not worry any longer. You must not stare at Me as a cow stares at a new door, or as the unbelieving Jews look at Me and see that I have eyes, a mouth, and a nose just as anyone of you has. You must wash your eyes, clean out your ears, and see, hear, think, and understand differently from the way one does with a carnal mind and understanding." (24/33) |
| 193. | The world is so blind and stupid that it always seeks and explores other ways. It is gullible and willing to follow where anyone directs and leads it. It will try, and rely on, any method or any work suggested to it. But one thing it cannot do, namely, remain on this one safe way with firm and steadfast faith. (24/40) |
| 194. | The story of the Children of Israel in the Red Sea helps us understand this verse all the better. It was not enough that, in compliance with God's command, they ventured into the sea and now proceeded on their way, confident that they would reach the opposite shore. When they were over halfway across and saw the shore or the land before them, then king Pharoah with all his host appeared behind them. Now their peril as just as great as it was before they had stepped into the sea. It was no help to them that they had found a way where there had been no way, and that they were now nearly across. (24/49) |
| 195. | It must be a Christian's true knowledge to learn to know Christ aright, to distinguish Him from all though, existence, doctrine, life, and all that man may undertake, to cling to Him alone in faith, and to say wholeheartedly: "I know and want to know nothing in divine matters save my Lord Christ: He alone must be everything that concerns my salvation and that must be settled between God and me. (24/55) |
| 196. | What is God? How can one know God? How can one find Him? Thus Philip, too, shows and betrays that he has never understood and does not now understand this, although he had often heard Christ preach and speak about the Father. This is because he still wants to understand this with his reason and fathom it with his mind. Although Christ wants to direct Philip solely to His Word and to Himself, saying that he already knows and has see the Father, this does not yet take hold of him. (24/56) |
| 197. | I myself often feel that I would gladly sacrifice all that I have, yes, life and limb, to find at least one work, performed by me, on which I might stand and which I might offer to God in the assurance that He would have to acknowledge it and grant me His grace and eternal life for it. I cannot advance to the point—as I should and must—of surrendering myself to Christ unconditionally—without any reliance in, and any overweening estimation of, my works or my own worthiness, and confessing: "Let my life and my works be what they may! Even though they are acceptable and pleasing to God, still I will seek neither comfort nor salvation in any other than in the Lord Christ. The Father sent Him from heaven and through His own heavenly voice bore witness that Christ is the only One with whom He is well pleased (Matt 17:5) and whom we must hear if we want to know God and find him propitious." No schismatic spirit, no arrogant hypocrite ever advances to that point but only the poor, sad, disconsolate, and humble hearts and consciences. (24/58) |
| 198. | "This is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life." (John 6:40) He who grasps this in faith cannot think that God is angry with him or will reject and condemn him. For here there is neither a word nor a sign of disfavor, but only friendly, gracious words, a loving and kind look, in short, sheer fervor and ardor of ineffable, fatherly, and sincere love. Now perhaps you will say: "That is all good and well, but I am a miserable sinner who deserves God's wrath; and in the Law I hear God's fearful threats and the terrible sentence He pronounces on sinners. How can I conclude that He will be gracious to me?" I reply: "Yes, Christ is well aware of this. He sees your wretchedness far better than you yourself do. But do you not hear that this is the very reason why He comes to you and tells you this, lest you judge according to your own notions and feeling, which also have their basis in the Law? Instead, you should hear and take to heart what He tells you, and know Him well, despite the voice of your conscience and the terror of the Law. For you do not know the Father if you regard Him as an angry Judge and flee from Him. He is not at all inclined to enjoy anger and condemnation; nor does it please Him if we flee from Him. He did not institute the Law—though it is intended to work knowledge of sin and to terrify the impenitent—to perpetuate the fear of those who recognize their sins and are frightened. No, His real purpose and will is that you be rescued from all this misery, from sin, death, and damnation. For this purpose He sent you His Son Christ. He permits Him to be crucified and to shed His blood, in order to proclaim and to reveal to you that though you are a sinner and unworthy, you are not to be condemned on this account. He will erase all anger and threats from His memory for Christ's sake and, instead, grant a full measure of mercy. He does not demand any more from you than that you recognize and believe this. (24/61) |
| 199. | "This is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life." (John 6:40) He who grasps this in faith cannot think that God is angry with him or will reject and condemn him. For here there is neither a word nor a sign of disfavor, but only friendly, gracious words, a loving and kind look, in short, sheer fervor and ardor of ineffable, fatherly, and sincere love. Now perhaps you will say: "That is all good and well, but I am a miserable sinner who deserves God's wrath; and in the Law I hear God's fearful threats and the terrible sentence He pronounces on sinners. How can I conclude that He will be gracious to me?" I reply: "Yes, Christ is well aware of this. He sees your wretchedness far better than you yourself do. But do you not hear that this is the very reason why He comes to you and tells you this, lest you judge according to your own notions and feeling, which also have their basis in the Law? Instead, you should hear and take to heart what He tells you, and know Him well, despite the voice of your conscience and the terror of the Law. For you do not know the Father if you regard Him as an angry Judge and flee from Him. He is not at all inclined to enjoy anger and condemnation; nor does it please Him if we flee from Him. He did not institute the Law-though it is intended to work knowledge of sin and to terrify the impenitent-to perpetuate the fear of those who recognize their sins and are frightened. No, His real purpose and will is that you be rescued from all this misery, from sin, death, and damnation. For this purpose He sent you His Son Christ. He permits Him to be crucified and to shed His blood, in order to proclaim and to reveal to you that though you are a sinner and unworthy, you are not to be condemned on this account. He will erase all anger and threats from His memory for Christ's sake and, instead, grant a full measure of mercy. He does not demand any more from you than that you recognize and believe this. (24/61) |
| 200. | This doctrine must be preached and expounded to Christendom in general, but it must also be impressed so that each individual Christian can practice and apply it in his own particular trials. (24/70) |
| 201. | As Paul declares (2 Thess 2:11), God permits the false Christians to be tempted in this way; they have to believe lies because they refuse to believe the truth. (24/76) |
| 202. | What kind of works could excel those of Christ the Lord? What works could be called greater than raising the dead, delivering souls from the might of the devil and death, and bestowing eternal life? Are these not exclusively Christ's own works—works wrought in us by His diving power and might? Who, then, can say that we are to perform greater works? (24/78) |
| 203. | "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." The more distress and weakness you feel, the less you should give way and yield; for be assured that I will give you what you ask for and need. (24/86) |
| 204. | Christ will pour out and grant the spirit which is called "a spirit of compassion and supplication" (Zech. 12:10). For in all Christians He will effect and produce these two things: First, He will convince and assure their hearts that they have a compassionate God; secondly, He will enable them to help others by their supplication. The result of the first is that they are reconciled to God and have all they need for themselves. Then, when they have this, they will become gods and will be saviors of the world by their supplication. Through the spirit of compassion they themselves will become children of God; and then, as children of God, they will mediate between God and their neighbor, and will serve others and help them attain this estate too. He steps forth boldly, teaches and admonishes others, praises and confesses his treasure before everybody, prays and yearns that they, too, may obtain such mercy. There is a spirit of restlessness amid the greatest calm, that is, in God's grace and peace. A Christian cannot be still or idle. He constantly strives and struggles with all his might, as one who has no other object in life than to disseminate God's honor and glory among the people, that others may also receive such a spirit of grace and through this spirit also help him pray. For wherever the spirit of grace resides, there we can and dare, yes, must begin to pray. For prayer is the characteristic only of Christians. Before we become Christians and believe, we do not know how or what to pray. And even if a man prays most fervently, the spirit of grace is not yet present. Then the heart is still disposed to say: "Dear Lord, I ask you to regard my life, my intense suffering, or the merit of this or of that saint, the intercession and the good works of pious people." This is not faith in divine grace and mercy through Christ. A genuinely Christian prayer must issue from the spirit of grace, which says: "I have lived my best; therefore I implore Thee not to regard my life and my conduct, but Thy mercy and compassion promised me in Christ, and because of this to grant me the fulfillment of my prayer." Thus our prayer must, in real and sincere humility, take no account of ourselves; it must rely solely and confidently on the promise of grace, in the firm trust that God will hear us, as He has commanded us to pray and has promised to hear us. (24/87) |
| 205. | "And I will pray the Father." If you keep my commandments, live together harmoniously and as brothers, and show that you love Me, then you must be resigned to being attacked by the devil. The world will show its hostility and will afflict and torment you no end. Furthermore, the false Christians and factions will repay your love with all sorts of malice. Do not let this deter you, but continue in My love. You will not suffer want, and you will not be forsaken. For I will not sit by idly up in heaven and forget you; but I will be your dear Priest and Mediator, and I will pray and implore the Father for you to give you the Holy Spirit, who will console, strengthen, and preserve you in every need, that you may remain in My love and be able joyfully to endure everything that happens to you for My sake." (24/103) |
| 206. | The devil is too powerful among us, the world is too strong, and we see many obstacles and temptations before us that we forget and cannot comprehend the temptations before us that we forget and cannot comprehend the comfort God sends into our hearts. We feel only that which hurts us. It is so strong that it fills man's whole being and erases these words from his mind. Therefore Christians should rise above all fear and sadness, all anxiety and woe, and say with the prophet: "Why are you so sad?" Christians know how to do this. Christ says: "I know very well, and for this very reason I am telling you about it in advance. You should not be guided by such feelings or believe your own thoughts; you should believe My Word. (24/114) |
| 207. | Therefore I cannot fear these people, but I must despise them and say: "Go ahead and rage if you will. If you do not choose to smile in God's name, then be angry in the name of all your masters. And the more you fume and rage in your ire and malice, the happier I shall be, and the more I shall laugh." For I am convinced—also from their own admission—that they are attacking us for no other reason than this, that we preach the Gospel. (24/120) |
| 208. |
"Be of good cheer and unafraid regardless of what you see and experience. You will never succeed in making the world pious. It is, to be sure, a matter of grave offense and great pain
to see so many excellent, learned, prominent, and wise people, together with the great multitude, strive and storm against God's Word and the clear truth of the Holy Spirit. Yet you
must realize that it cannot be otherwise. There must be many great, might, wise, and holy people—such as the pope, the emperor, princes, lords, doctors, noblemen, and fine, honorable
citizens, both men and women, compared with whom you are as nothing—who fume against My Word. Therefore pay no attention to this, even though you are but a small number and all alone.
For you hear that there is a large number of people who cannot hear and see the Spirit of truth. Even though we preached ourselves to death, even though we sang and sounded it before their
eyes and ears, even though we painted it very clearly before their very noses, it would be of no avail. They cannot receive this Spirit but remain with their spirit of lies. But you, on the
other hand, must remain with the little group which gladly hears and receives My Word and has the steadfast Spirit. Do not be afraid if the other multitude refuses to follow you. Take note
that whatever you do in my name must be right and good in the sight of God and all the angels. And in the end the world must involuntarily admit and praise this."
We must become completely merged into Christ. We must be His own, being baptized in His name and then having taken the Sacrament. Thereby sin, an evil conscience, death, and the devil vanish; and we can say: "I know of no death and no hell. If there is death anywhere, let it first consume and kill my Christ. If hell amounts to anything, let it devour the Savior. If sin, the Law, and conscience condemn, let them accuse the Son of God. After this has happened, I, too, stand ready to be condemned, consumed, and devoured. But since the Father and Christ remain alive, I, too, will remain alive; since He remains undefeated by sin and the devil, I, too, will remain undefeated. For I know that just as Christ is in the Father, so I am in Christ." (24/143) |
| 209. | Christ thrusts us into death and permits the devil to pounce on us. But it is not His purpose to devour us; He wants to test us, to purify us, and to manifest Himself ever more to us, that we may recognize His love. Such trials and strife are to let us experience something that preaching alone is not able to do, namely, how powerful Christ is and how sincerely the Father loves us. So our trust in God and our knowledge of God will increase more and more, together with our praise and thanks for His mercy and blessing. Otherwise we would bumble along with our early, incipient faith. We would become indolent, unfruitful, and inexperienced Christians, and would soon grow rusty. We see many people join our cause in the beginning with great enthusiasm and joy; they esteemed the Gospel so highly. But they have become idle spirits like those of whom Christ speaks in Matt. 13:21. They have encountered no combat and strife; they have remained without experience. They resemble the seed that did not take root but was withered by the heat. They remained without fruit; and finally they fell away from us, as rotten, worm-eaten, and spoiled fruit falls from trees. (24/150) |
| 210. | Say to the devil: "Do you want to teach me piety? Why not teach yourself? Go and terrify yourself with your own stink, with sin, death, and hell! Up in heaven I have another source of confidence. There I have a Master and Comforter who speaks to me of nothing but God's grace and eternal life. Therefore go somewhere else with your big mouth, and teach other people! You are not the one to teach me something that you yourself cannot do. I already excel you in this." He who can rebuff the devil this way and achieve mastery over his own conscience can also withstand the whole world and say defiantly: "Dear Junker Pope, my dear sects, tyrants, scholars, and saints! You are prominent, learned, and smart people. But you are not competent to judge whether I teach, believe, or live aright. You are not good enough to teach me. Thank God, I am better informed that the whole crowd of you put together, and your master, the devil, to boot." Behold, such confidence follows when, in days of trial, one tests and experiences the doctrine one has already believed. Thus we become aware that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us. And if before this there was wrath and displeasure anywhere, these have now vanished. For Christ is our dear Bishop and Mediator before God, and He shall remain our only Master and Lord. And no one shall accuse or terrify us, carp at us or teach us. But, as I have said, this demands experience acquired by manifold combat and trial. Only it can equip us for an encounter with the devil when he comes to take us to task, when he wants to make us pious, when he argues the question of right and wrong with us on the basis of the Law. Before an untried and inexperienced Christian learns to stand his ground here, he is shaken by the devil, becomes frightened and despondent, and knows not where to turn. (24/153) |
| 211. | "He who does not love Me does not keep My words." The world is neither able nor willing to love Christ and keep his words. This is because its love and pleasure are centered elsewhere. In 1 John 2:16 St. John speaks of "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life." Those are the three forces that rule and really own the world. The expression "lust of the flesh" means that the world seeks and strives solely for things that serve the comfort and well-being of the flesh, which is loath to undergo any toil, unpleasantness, or discomfort, although man is ordained to earn his bread in the sweat of his face. Everyone wants to be exempt from this and tries only to be free from it, to live a life of ease and comfort, untrammeled and unrestrained. This is apparent in all walks of life, high and low. A husband is not satisfied with his wife and prefers to go whoring. A magistrate shoves the unpleasantness and the burden of his office, which he should bear, on others, in order that he may live a life of ease on the possessions of others. All he strives for is to derive benefit from his office and to grasp and appropriate all he can for himself. Our whole nature is naturally inclined to prefer pleasure to labor. All aspire to advance in life and to attain high position. But when they obtain this and feel the labor and the worry it involves, they soon grow weary and stop their efforts; for they sought only pleasure and ease. It is similar in the state of matrimony. All seek its pleasure and enjoyment; but when they do not find this in marriage, they resent it. Now he who loves this lust of the flesh is of no use to Christ. For he who cannot endure unpleasantness in his position and dislikes work will find the exalted office of being a Christian even less tolerable. If he cannot suffer petty vexations in his position, what will he do when he is asked to enter the lists against death, the world, and the devil for Christ's sake? Therefore being a Christian implies that one does not love what the world loves: one must love even minor offices in order to bear the physical discomforts and hardships they involve. Secondly, there is the "lust of the eyes." This is nothing else than greed, a vice so widespread today that it is practically futile to preach against it. There is hardly anyone in whatever position or office you can name who is not an oppressor, yes, an open usurer. What would they do for Christ's sake if they do not give their neighbor a penny without interest or refrain from exploiting him? In the third place, there is "pride of life." This means that everyone is eager to get far ahead in life and to lord it over others. If someone is a burgher, he aspires to become a knight. "Therefore," says Christ, "if you want to be My disciples, be prepared to hold firmly to Me, to wager boldly, and to confide in Me. If I have not deserved your love, I shall not require it of you. I believe, however, that I have duly merited your love for Me above everything in heaven and on earth. For I shed My blood for you, unlocked heaven for you, broke hell asunder, reconciled the Father, and gave you everything through My own body. Your mammon, your goods, your honor, your sweet and easy life-none of this can ever achieve as much for you as I did. There is abundant reason why you should love Me more. It is not My fault if you fail to love Me. I have fully and richly earned your love. But it is due to your old Adam, to your flesh and blood, that you prefer a good, comfortable, grand, and sumptuous life, even though this is yours for only a short time and then is lost forever." (24/161-163) |
| 212. | It stimulates the heart to do and to suffer whatever a Christian must do and suffer. Whoever can brush all doubt aside and conclude: "God Himself in heaven says that I must preach and confess this Christ and carry out all He commands," will acquit himself so courageously and joyfully that no experience he may undergo will prove too much for him. Then everybody may say in his position and calling: "Here I have God's Word, which declares that I have a gracious God in heaven through Christ. Here on earth I am to administer faithfully the office entrusted to me as a prince or as a magistrate. As a subject, as a servant, or a maid I am to render obedience and service diligently and conscientiously. This I am willing to do with all my heart" (24/166) |
| 213. | Christ says: The Holy Spirit will teach you and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you; that is, He will teach you that it is My Word and doctrine. He will apply Himself to this and recall it to your mind, that you may understand and judge that it is My Word, the very words which I spoke to you. He will emphasize it and make it clearer from day to day, so that you will know Me ever better and see how through Me you are delivered from sin and death." (24/175) |
| 214. | Christ departed from them physically during the three days of His suffering, but on the third day He returned to them and showed Himself to them alive. Then they became happy again and began to understand what He had told them beforehand. Yet this reference to His departure does not pertain only to the three days of His physical absence from the apostles and His return to them after the elapse of that time. No, Christ still does the same thing spiritually for His Christians today; and they, too, should take comfort from the fact that He always returns to them after He has left them for a while. (24/183) |
| 215. | "I am the Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser." He interprets all the suffering which both He and they are to experience as nothing else than the diligent work and care which a vinedresser expends on his vines and their branches to make them grow and bear abundantly. With these words Christ wants to teach us to have a view of the affliction and suffering of Christians that is far different from what appears on the surface and before the world. He says that Christians are not afflicted without God's counsel and will; that when this does happen, it is a sign of grace and fatherly love, not of wrath and punishment, and must serve our welfare. This requires the art of believing and being sure that whatever hurts and distresses us does not happen to hurt or harm us but or our good and profit. Happy is the Christian who can interpret this pruning thusly: "See, I am being fertilized and cultivated as a branch on the vine. All right, dear hoe and clipper, go ahead. Chop, prune, and remove the unnecessary leaves. I will gladly suffer it, for these are God's hoes and clippers. They are applied for my good and welfare." (24/194-95) |
| 216. | Every branch of Mine that bears no fruit He takes away." There are many suckers and wild branches-illegitimate shoots. They bear no fruit but only consume the sap which the truly fruitful branches should have. Therefore the Father will prune the false branches. To our sorrow we see that in Christendom there are always some wild and useless branches that bear nothing but immature fruit, which must be rejected. True, they come from the vine; but they do not remain there. They are baptized, they hear the Gospel, and they have the forgiveness of sins. At first, as Christ states here, they are on the vine, that is, in Him. But as time goes on, they degenerate into wild offshoots and are Christians in name only. To be sure, they use God's Word, glorify Him, and make use of and enjoy the sap of others. Consequently, they develop into large branches. They want to be honored and acclaimed as the best of Christians. They can display their Christianity more ostentatiously than the others and can put on an appearance that outdoes all the rest. But it is all sham, and one day they will be exposed for what they are: decayed wood without true sap and strength. They do not teach and confess the Word properly; it is all make-believe. These are the first kind. We call them schismatic spirits and false brethren. In the second place, these words also apply to the indolent Christians. They have the Word and pure doctrine, but they do not live in conformity with it. Their only desire is to do and live according to their lusts. In reality there is little difference between them and the first group; they only lack a leader. For such loose and lazy Christians are easily bowled over by factions and false teachers, who soon find them to be docile pupils predisposed to heresy, since such people are already weary of and sated with the true doctrine. When false teachers approach such lazy Christians, the two classes finally merge into one. A spirit of faction ensues, so that they can no longer remain with us but dissociate themselves and manifest their unfitness. (24/200) |
| 217. | Therefore we must not let our judgment be determined by the size and the strength of these wild branches. No, our one concern must be to recognize the true branches in Christ. Christ Himself identifies these a little later when He says: "You are already made clean by the Word which I have spoken to you;" that is, you need only observe who has and retains the doctrine as it is established in Scripture in its truth and purity, as the apostles and prophets had it. In this way you can see and know who are the true Christians. Even if they have no standing and are thin branches, this does not matter. A weak and thin branch often produces beautiful grapes, whereas a lazy and thick sucker is unable to bear at all. In good time the wild branches shall and must be cut off, in order that the true branches may survive. But this demands patience and perseverance in the faith. For God does not cut off the wild branches as soon as they emerge from the stalk; He permits them to grow out until it is clear what they are. Yet God surely does not stay away. No, the stronger, larger, and thicker they become, the sooner He cuts them off, and the larger is the fire with which He burns them. Therefore a Christian, as a true branch in Christ, must cling to his faith among such false saints; he must persevere and remain steadfast, in order that he may be found genuine. For without such perseverance there can be no true faith. (24/203) |
| 218. | "You are already made clean by the Word which I have spoken to you." This is a peculiar cleansing. What Christ says here seems to contradict His previous words, which deal with suffering and the cross. It sounds like a thought just thrown in. Yet with these words Christ offers us a fine preservative or remedy against the poison called presumption or overestimation of one's own holiness, lest anyone think that through suffering he obtains forgiveness of sins and becomes a branch in the sight of God without Christ. For this is the natural sequence: After a person has performed many good works or has suffered much and is aware of the fruit he bears-by an extraordinary achievement in preaching or in some other way-then that sweet poison always stealthily injects itself to make him think: "Well, after all, I have accomplished something which God will approve of and in view of which He will show me mercy." Thus nature always sprouts branches, deprive these of their sap and strength, and stunt their growth. (24/210) |
| 219. | When I am baptized or converted by the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is present. He takes me as clay and makes of me a new creature, which is endowed with a different mind, heart, and thoughts, that is, with a true knowledge of God and a sincere trust in His grace. To summarize, the very essence of my heart is renewed and changed. This makes me a new plant, one that is grafted on Christ the Vine and grows from Him. My holiness, righteousness, and purity do not stem from me, nor do they depend on me. ((24/226) |
| 220. | "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." What more do you want? Everything you do will be good and pleasing; you are to be the fair-haired boy; nothing you do can go wrong. No matter how feeble you may be, no matter if you do soil yourself at times as an infant or sick person does, He will not cast you aside right away; He will always clean you and improve you. Furthermore, yours will be the power, the honor, and the glory of having your every request fulfilled. If you feel any want or trouble oppressing you, just call upon Him. Open your mouth confidently, as a little child speaks to its father, who is pleased with everything it does if only it comes to him. The father is especially glad to comply with all the child's requests if it chats with him in a childlike manner when it asks him for something. (24/239) |
| 221. | In the absence of love doctrine cannot remain pure; nor can hearts be held together in unity. (24/246) |
| 222. | Wherever faith is not preached and is not given primary importance, wherever we do not begin by learning how we are united with Christ and become branches in Him, all the world concentrates only on its works. On the other hand, wherever faith alone is taught, this leads to false Christians, who boast of their faith, are baptized, and are counted among the Christians but give no evidence of fruit and strength. This makes it difficult to preach to people. No matter how one preaches, things go wrong; the people always hedge. If one does not preach faith, nothing but hypocritical works result. But if one confines one's preaching to faith, no works ensue. In brief, the outcome is either works without faith or faith without works. Therefore the sermon must address itself to those who accept and apprehend both faith and works; the others, who do not want to follow, remain behind. (24/249) |
| 223. | "If ye keep My commandments…" It behooves everyone to search his heart and examine himself. Let no one bank on thoughts like these: "I am baptized and am called a Christian. I hear God's Word and go to the Sacrament." For here Christ Himself separates the false Christians from those who are genuine, as if He were saying: "If you are true believers in Me and are in possession of My treasure, it will surely become evident that you are My disciples. If not, do not imagine that I will acknowledge and accept you as My disciples. You will never cheat and deceive any but yourselves—to your eternal shame and harm. Christ and the Gospel will surely not be cheated and defrauded." (24/250) |
| 224. | A Christian must throw his benefactions up for scrambles, just as God also does. He will surely find someone in whom his favors are well invested and who will love him because of them. If you have one or two pious subjects, citizens, or parishioners, thank God. Be satisfied if you come by one good neighbor, or if you succeed in rearing one good child or in training one good servant. If you get two or more, lift up your hands, and consider this a great favor. For here on earth you are living in the devil's den of murderers and among nothing but dragons and vipers. Therefore see to it that you do not become worldly like them, that is, filled with devilish hatred and malice. For there must be one of two things: either people must become devils toward you, or you yourself must become a devil. Of course, it is better for others to be miscreants and devils but that we remain followers of Christ and children of the heavenly Father. (24/272) |
| 225. | "They hated me without a cause." The world's noble virtue and its highest boast is this, that it not only rejects and despises the Word of God—which is indeed a grave and great sin but still would not be quite so serious if the persecution were unintentional or came about because of sheer blindness and ignorance—but must oppose it deliberately and on purpose, and be intent on treading it underfoot. This is not human wickedness, for which there might still be help—for God often helped those who opposed the Word in their ignorance, as He helped St. Paul before his conversion—but this is the accursed and hellish malice and hatred of the devil himself. Nothing like it is recorded in any chronicle of the heathen, who knew nothing of God; it arises only where God's Word is preached. Such people must become veritable devils, worse than all the heathen. (24/286) |
| 226. | The devil has two weapons with which he assails the Christians respecting either their office or their own persons, in the hour of death or at other times. These weapons are sin and the penalty for sin. The stronger of these is the terror of sin; by means of this he renders the heart fearful and despondent by saying to it: "You have done this and that." He is a past master at this. He not only cites the sins which you yourself must confess, such as murder and adultery, and blows them up with his fiery breath to such proportions that your heart melts like salt in water; but he can also transform your good conduct and your best works into many kinds of sin and shame, so that you do not keep even a speck of them. Anyone who has engaged in real combat with him a few times is well aware of this. (24/291) |
| 227. | When the devil wants to make us pious, he emphasizes the importance of our life at the expense of faith; or when he has something special in mind and wants to make you clever and smart, he appeals to your reason in opposition to doctrine, just as he did in the case of the heretic Arius and to others. But if you cling to the Lord Christ's life and say: "I am not baptized on my or on any other man's life but solely on my Christ," he can gain nothing. Thus when the devil assails you by citing this sublime article of faith, refers you to your own intellect and wisdom, no longer discusses life but talks about how one should believe, and attacks the very foundation on which you build, then he will stress the subtle thoughts of reason and ask how this agrees. If at such a time you want to insure yourself against a fall, you must again say: "Listen to me. I do not believe my own reason and wisdom; my faith is expressed in the prayer of the children: 'I believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, and in the Holy Spirit.'" This is God's Word, which is proclaimed in the world through the Holy Spirit. The children know it too, and the gates of hell will not overthrow it. (24/297) |
| 228. | Now you ask: "But how do I know which is the true church and which is not?" Answer: "As I have said, all depends on the right knowledge of the essence of the church and on the proper differentiation between the name and the essence of the church." Christ Himself will give this distinctive and authoritative identification in the following words: "And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor Me" (John 16:3). With this touchstone I can easily and reliably judge who are and who are not the church. For one can see without difficulty who knows the Father and Christ and who does not know them; in fact; these people identify themselves. Here I am bringing into court the pope, his bishops, and all who call themselves the church, and asking them: "Do you also believe in Christ, that you have forgiveness of sins and salvation solely through His blood and that this faith conforms to the will of God the Father? Are you baptized; do you receive the Sacrament; and do you hope for eternal life in this faith?" "Yes," they say, "We surely do believe." But in order to see whether they really believe this, I ask further: "Why, then, do you teach that we adults have long since lost Baptism and that everyone must now atone for his sins and be saved by good works?" Now they have the insolence to preach and write that Christ died and atoned only for original sin, and that we have to devise ways of atoning for actual sin. All errors notwithstanding, the true church has never perished. The majority, however, which boasts of the name, has forgotten Baptism, has rejected Christ, has despised God's Word, and has replaced these with their own baubles and their self-devised worship, their saints, their idolatry, their sacrifice of the Mass, their buying and selling for the living and the dead, yes, even for cows and oxen. Meanwhile, we adhere to the distinction made by Christ and do not regard as Christendom those who do not hold truly and absolutely to what Christ taught, gave, and ordained, no matter how great, holy, and learned they may be. We tell them that they are the devil's church. On the other hand, we want to acknowledge and honor as the true bride of Christ those who remain faithful to His pure Word and have no other comfort for their hearts than this Savior, whom they have received and confessed in Baptism and in whose name they have partaken of the Sacrament. These are the true church. It is not found in only one place, as, for example, under the pope; but it exists over the entire earth wherever Christians are found. Outwardly they may be scattered here and there, but they meet in the words of the Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born, suffered, and died for us on the cross." Behold, this is the true catholic, universal Christian Church; it will surely not excommunicate or persecute us but will gladly accept and confirm our doctrine and regard us as dear brethren. This divine institution we do not attack; we attack the erroneous conception and the abuse which our opponents adorn with the name of the church and thus distort the Law and God's Word, and in this way oppress the true church and God's people. Therefore we must pull off their mask and point out the true nature of the Gospel, Baptism, and the ministry; we must divorce these from their misuse of them. The devil always adorns himself with such an angelic, yes, such a divine form and appearance, just as he makes a god of himself when he speaks to Christ in Matt. 4:9. Here Christ Himself must contend, not against man but against a god—not against the true God but against the devil, who uses God's name and adorns himself with divinity. (24/309-111) |
| 229. | The Father is known solely in Christ and will not and can not be attained and met or worshipped and called upon apart from this Mediator. Therefore all depends on this article about Christ, and he who has this article has everything. In order to be able to abide by it, the Christians must be engaged in the most strenuous warfare and must fight constantly. Therefore Christ and the apostles have good reason to insist on it everywhere. Although the other doctrines are also based on Scripture—for example, Christ's birth from a pure virgin—it does not stress them as much as it does this one. When St. Paul champions this doctrine of Christ's birth, he does not even call the mother by name; nor does he mention the honor of the virgin; he states simply (Gal 4:4) "born of woman." But when he informs us that we receive grace and salvation, not by works of the Law but only through this Mediator, Christ, then he speaks exhaustively. This is also the only doctrine that is constantly subjected to persecution by the devil and the world, as was announced about it at the very beginning in the first sermon God delivered to man after the Fall (Gen 3:15): "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." This is the very enmity Christ is speaking about here when He says that His Christians will be excommunicated and put to death on account of their knowledge of Him and because they preach about Him Other doctrines have also been attacked, but not one has caused so much bloodshed and produced so many martyrs as this one. For this began at once in the case of the first two brothers, Cain and Abel, when the one had to die at the hand of the other because of this same question. And it will continue as long as the world exists. Where this doctrine is proclaimed, there the devil is mad and insane, and the world is aflame with anger and raging. Throughout history we find that all heresy and error has arisen where this doctrine has disappeared, where people became smug as though they knew it very well, and thus turned from it to something else and began to dispute about the Person of Christ, whether He was true God or a mere man. With such speculations and questions they opened the door to every evil. The one denied the divinity of Christ; the other, His humanity. Some denied the Person of the Holy Spirit; others, the virginity of Mary. But they all, as many as there were, also erred in this chief doctrine and misled others. For all other doctrines stand and fall with this one; it includes all the others; it is all-important. He who errs in the others certainly errs in this one too. Even if he holds to the others, still all is in vain if he does not have this one. On the other hand, if one abides by this article diligently and earnestly, it has the grace to keep one from falling into heresy and from working against Christ and His Christendom. For the Holy Spirit is surly inherent in it, and through it illumines the heart and keeps it in the right and certain understanding, with the result that it can differentiate and judge all other doctrines clearly and definitely, and can resolutely preserve and defend them. This we see in the old fathers. When they retained this article of faith and based their doctrines on it, or derived them from it, they preserved purity of doctrine in every detail. But when they departed from it and no longer centered their arguments in it, they went astray and stumbled with a vengeance, as happened at times to the oldest, to Tertullian and Cyprian. And this is also basically the failing not only of the papists but of our schismatic spirits, who rant against Baptism and other doctrines. They have already surrendered this article of faith and have paid no attention to it. Instead, they have put forth other matters. In this way they have lost a proper comprehension of all doctrines, with the result that they cannot teach anything about them that is right and can no longer preserve any doctrine as unquestionable. This can be seen in their books. And now they lapse from one error into another, until the finally lead themselves and others into perdition. For where this knowledge of Christ has vanished, the sun has lost its brilliance, and there is nothing but darkness. Then one no longer understands anything aright and cannot ward off any error or heresy of the devil. And even if the Word concerning faith and Christ is retained—as it remained in the papacy—the heart has no foundation for a single doctrine. Whatever remains there is merely froth, flimsy opinions or illusions, and a painted and tinted faith. A Christian, though, will not let himself be seduced into heresy and error. Even though he strays and stumbles in some place or other, he soon returns to the proper course, provided that he does not fall away from this doctrine. For this light consumes and banishes clouds and darkness; it teaches and consoles him anew. But if he loses this light, he is beyond help. Where this knowledge is gone, it has taken everything with it. Then you may accept and confess all other doctrines, as the papists do; but there is no serious and true understanding. It is like groping in the dark or like hearing a blind man speak about color. (24/319-22) (24/344) |
| 230. | "Of sin, because they do not believe in Me." Christ is not referring here to man's outward life and conduct, which the world can judge and condemn; but He is going to the very core, namely, to man's heart, which is the fountainhead and the source of the chief sins: false worship, contempt of God, unbelief, disobedience, evil lust, resistance to God's commands, and what St. Paul calls "the mind that is set on the flesh" and describes as being "hostile to God" and as being unable to "submit to God's Law" (Rom 8:7) This is the stem and root of all other sins. (24/341) |
| 231. | Unbelief is certainly the principal sin of mankind. (24/343) |
| 232. |
Everyone brings about his own destruction; it is his own fault that he is damned, not because he is a sinner and worthy of damnation on account of Adam and his own former unbelief but
because of his refusal to accept Christ the Savior, who abolishes our sin and our damnation. It is true that Adam damned us all when he led both himself and us into sin and into the
devil's power; but now that Christ, the second Adam, who was born without sin, takes away this sin, it can no longer condemn me if I believe in Him.
Ours is a peculiar righteousness; it is strange indeed that we are to be called righteous or to possess a righteousness which is really no work, no thought, in short, nothing whatever in us but is entirely outside us in Christ and yet becomes truly ours by reason of His grace and gift, and becomes our very own, as though we ourselves had achieved and earned it. Reason, of course, cannot comprehend this way of speaking, which says that our righteousness is something which involves nothing active or passive on our part, yes, something in which I do not participate with my thoughts, perception, and senses; that nothing at all in me makes me pleasing to God and saves me; but that I leave myself and all human thoughts and ability out of account and cling to Christ, who sits up there at the right hand of God and whom I do not even see. (Like believing that a twin would actually be younger by going into space.)(24/347) |
| 233. | There are two modes of existence for man on earth: either a fine, gentle, quiet, and tranquil life or a troublesome, difficult, and miserable one, a life full of woe and heartache. This difference is easy to understand; and everybody, I suppose, knows that a person who is hungry and thirsty has a disposition and leads a life far different from the disposition and the life of a person who eats and drinks all that he wants and has everything in abundance. The rich and satisfied man speaks only about great things, but the starving man does not care much about a kingdom or great wealth; he is happy when he gets a piece of bread. Now Christ is speaking here only to those who suffer want and hardship, who are oppressed, harassed, persecuted, and tormented in the world. (24/354) |
| 234. | "You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy." Thus in secular government and administration a prince, magistrate, or leader who wants to be pious and to administer his office faithfully will also surely learn from the world what sadness and misfortune are. He will discover how much malice, disloyalty, and treachery is found among his own subjects. I am speaking about pious and God-fearing men; for the others, who take their vocation lightly and care nothing about God but live and do as they please do not concern us. In due time they will learn their lesson. God has arranged matters very well. He places people in such callings and offices before they know and are aware of what has been mentioned. He hustles young people into matrimony with pipes, drums, and dancing. They enter the marital estate joyfully and think that it is nothing but sugar. In the same way He also confers great honor and glory on princes and lords, hangs golden chains about their necks, seats them on velvet cushions, lets people genuflect before them and address them with "Your Grace," gives them large castles, and surrounds them with splendor. As a result, people who do not know better suppose that this is nothing but joy and pleasure. But in this way God must lure them into a net before He throws the rope over their horns. Then, when they are caught, they will find that things are far different. Their arrogance disappears, and their joy and pleasure are embittered by grief and sadness. But all this is trivial and child's play compared with the sublime matters of which Christ speaks here. In these matters, too, the same thing is true: good and bad, sadness and joy, must alternate, just as summer and winter, sunshine and rain, a good yea and a bad year, to. Now there is sadness; then there is laughter; soon after this there is sadness again. Therefore keep this in mind and adjust yourself to it. It must happen to every person in his vocation that God inflicts on him some of the same sweat that was inflicted on Adam, and it will be unpleasant and hard enough for anyone to bear this patiently without becoming a rascal because of it. But this is far more important, as it is far more difficult, in the matters that make us Christians, when one must confess Christ and help preserve Christianity, and when everyone must maintain faith in his conscience. Only then does one have real suffering and a hard battle to fight against the devil and the world. This was true especially of the apostles, who had to attack the whole world, kings, emperors, the mighty, the wise, the learned, and all who were great. They had to incense them to the point of crying out: "You scoundrels do not deserve to have the earth bear you. And whoever puts people like you to death has rendered God the greatest service." How it pains a weak and inexperienced heart terribly to be arraigned before a court of justice and to suffer violence there, to be condemned, to be treated unjustly, and, in addition, to be laughed at and mocked in its misery. This is true to a far greater degree in these great divine matters, where such treatment is not only received from the judge and the world but is also confirmed by the devil. As a result, the heart breaks down and says: "It serve you right. Why did you undertake this? Why did you venture all alone to teach the whole world? Are you yourself not a sinner? What you are suffering is still much less than you deserve. Do not the facts show that God is against you and not with you?" Those are really mortal blows, the true farewell drink of gall and vinegar, such as Christ tasted on the cross when He cried: "I thirst." The devil has masterly ability to shoot such poisonous, fiery darts into the heart, especially when he gets a person alone. Then he blasts and destroys everything man has had and has regarded as right and good. Thus—especially during the three days of Christ's suffering and death—he shook and winnowed the apostles as though he had them in a sieve. In consequence, they lost all the precious, friendly thoughts they had about Christ: that God had given them the dear, faithful Savior, who had done such great things and had been so friendly and such a comfort to them. He tears all this out of their hearts in one moment, and substitutes nothing but heavy, melancholy thoughts of death and hell, such as: "Now where is your Christ, on whom you relied and of whom you thought that if you had Him, you would have a gracious God and every blessing? There He lies, executed and hanged as a malefactor and a miscreant cursed not only by men but also by God. And you who clung to Him are in the same condemnation and deserve to share His fate." (24/377-79) |
| 235. |
Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name." Because Christ knows how great and hard this battle is and that flesh and blood is
too weak to grasp this comfort and to be very sensible of this help but often feels that the opposite is true—for this reason He counsels them to turn to prayer and to begin to sob
and call to God when they feel the weakness that causes them to lack the comfort, the strength, and the ability to bear and overcome the suffering, the anxiety, and the sorrow. It is not
enough for us to have the Word and to know and understand everything we should—both the doctrine of faith and about comfort and victory in every trouble. Something more is required,
and that is action, in order that subsequently we may live as doctrine and knowledge teach and guide us. For thus God declares in Proverbs 8:14: "Mine is the doctrine; Mine is also the
power of execution." If the doctrine is to be right, God must reveal and give it; and even if we already have it and know everything one should teach and believe, and need nothing
more, this does not mean that the result has been achieved. Much more is still required to make practice conform to our teaching and exhorting. This was evident in the life and activity of
the apostles. Look at Saints Peter, John, and Paul in the Book of Acts, and see how they have to struggle and strive in their ministry before they succeed in disseminating the Gospel. For
the devil goes to work with might and main to impede and obstruct the Gospel, he uses every obstacle at his disposal. Besides, he enjoys the advantage of having as an ally within our own
hearts that great piece of Adam, who is too lazy by nature, too sluggish, and too tired to engage in a battle like this and always draws us back, thus making it especially hard and
unpleasant to keep on contending with opposition and obstacles of so many kinds and to fight to the finish. (24/383)
Christ says our joy cannot be full until we see Christ's name hallowed perfectly, all false doctrine and sects abolished, all tyrants and persecutors of Christ's kingdom subdued; not until we see the will and the designs of all godless people and of the devil checked and God's will alone prevailing; not until the cares of the belly or hunger and thirst no longer weakens the heart, and death no longer holds us captive. But this will not take place until the life to come. There we shall feel nothing but perfect joy; there we shall no longer have even a droplet of sadness. (24/400) |
| 236. | "The hour is coming, indeed, it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me." Christ does not mean to chide His disciples here or to frighten them away because they are still weak and without proper understanding. No, His reply is couched in the friendliest terms, as though He were saying: "You are good and pious children. You probably think that you understand and believe My words, and it is true that you believe now." Christ knows how weak their faith is and how their faith must be tested. The defection Christ speaks of will try their faith but will not harm them; but they will still remain in His hands, even though they fall because of their weakness. He says: "But I must warn you and tell you beforehand that, though you mean well, you do not know what awaits you; you must learn how imperfect and weak your understanding and faith are. But still that which awaits you will not harm you; as you know, you are My disciples and not My enemies. I would be surprised if these words were spoken without sobbing, sighing, and weeping, since even Christ Himself faced the misery of being so completely forsaken by all the world, even by His dearest friends. Since Christ was a true man, it naturally pained Him to see His own friends all shying and running away from Him. (24/413) |
| 237. | St John Huss—we can surely do him the honor of calling him a saint, since he had far less guilt than we have-was burned at the stake in Constance. I have wondered very often how he, when he was all alone, could stand so firmly against the whole world, the pope, the emperor, and the entire council with not a single person to support him. On the contrary, he was condemned and cursed by everybody. Do you not suppose that for him prison often became narrow beyond endurance? Yet he had to comfort himself and overcome his fear with the very same verse with which Christ consoles Himself: "I am alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me." (24/413) |
| 238. | "In the World you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." This is Christ's last farewell; He clasps His disciples' hands as He bids them good night. He concludes His sermon impressively with the thought toward which His whole sermon had been directed. He wants to say: "This is the sum and substance of everything I have said. Its one object is to give you peace and consolation in Me when strife and anxiety must be your lot in the world. Whatever I have told you, I shall keep. Just think of this, and accept it, in order that you may again be sustained by it," For He is well aware of the burden He is imposing on them and of what they will encounter. He has spoken of this often enough. Therefore He admonishes them to cling to His Word and to keep it in mind when such things befall them. In those moments they will be able to find comfort and strength in His words. In this way Christ tells His disciples never to think about what may happen to them but to lift their thoughts far beyond all this. They are not to consider how angrily the old dragon and the lion—the devil and the world—open their jaws, show their teeth, and sharpen their claws. No, they are to lift their thoughts far beyond this, in the knowledge that the battle has already been won, that these fierce jaws, this showing of teeth, this tearing and killing, are much too late. Therefore a Christian should emphasize and magnify these words—"I have said this to you" and "I have overcome the world"—more than heaven and earth. (24/415) |
| 239. | What is the peace of Christ and where is it to be found? Certainly not in the world or among mankind. Christ says: "No, not there; disabuse yourselves of that thought, for nothing will come of it. Even though no tyrant or anyone else persecutes you, the devil will be at your heels and will plague and torment your hearts. And this will be as hard to bear, yes, much harder to bear, than if the swords and weapons of the whole world were directed against you, as those who have experienced this surely know. Therefore Christ wants to say that one of two things must happen: "You must have anxiety and tribulation either outwardly, in your bodies, or inwardly, in your hearts. Consequently, when I say that you shall have peace, you must understand this to mean that you will have to experience anxiety in the world. You must realize that peace means fear in the world. This is the connotation of My words: peace means discord; good fortune means misfortune; joy means anxiety; life means death in the world. Conversely, what the world calls discord, fear, and death, I call peace, comfort, and life. I give life, friendship, and comfort, but not in the world; you will find this in Me. Through My Word your heart will be made invulnerable to the world, the devil, and hell. Even if your enemies numbered many thousands more, and if their anger were far more intense than it is, their wrath and their raging will not be able to deprive you of Me; for I am so superior to them that I can easily hold My ground against them." Accordingly, having peace in Him means nothing else than this: he who has Christ's Word in his heart becomes so bold and unafraid that he can scorn and defy the devil's wrath and raging. Christ says that the victory has been won, that all peril and anxiety have vanished. It is no longer necessary for us to wrestle and fight. All this has already taken place. The world, the devil, and death have been defeated and lie prostrate. Heaven, righteousness, and life are victorious. All that remains for us to do is to spread this news throughout the world and to intone the song of victory and to sing joyfully "Christ is risen." He has accomplished all this and has given complete victory to those who hear and believe this. But we must preach, confess, and speak highly of this news before the entire world: we must rely on it and say to anyone who wants to attack us: "What do you propose to do, tyrant, world, and devil? Are you robbing me of my property, my honor, my life? Then what? The victory has been won; yes, it has been won. For here is Christ, who lives and conquers. My dear sir, do not try to rob me of Him. Or if you can, try your power on Him once more, and see what happens." A Christian must accustom himself to think about Christ's victory—the victory in which everything has already been accomplished and in which we have everything we should have. Henceforth we live only to spread among other people the news of what Christ has achieved. We must do so by exhorting them with words and with our example to give thought to the victory Christ has won for us and has given to us. For this Victor has accomplished everything. There is nothing for us to add to what He has done—neither the blotting out of sin nor victory over the devil and death. Everything has already been laid low. Henceforth our suffering and fighting are no real battle; they are only a prize or a part of the glory of this victory. For our suffering, yes, the suffering and the blood of all the martyrs and saints, would not gain the victory for us. It is impossible for us to defeat and trample underfoot sin, death, and hell by what we do. The pope and his crowd lie when they say that we can do this; by making such a statement they insult and blaspheme Christ. Here my fighting comes too late. If I am to have comfort and peace, the battle must have been won beforehand, and the victory must be there. "I," says Christ, "have already accomplished this. But accept it, and make use of My victory by singing about it, glorying in it, and making a show of it. Just be of good cheer." (24/421-22) |
| 240. | If it were not for persecution, we would be as bad and base as our adversaries. (23/7) |
| 241. | "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." When the people hear that Christ wants to direct them away from bread and from money to the Gospel, from the field and the earth to heaven, they are displeased, and they desert Him. The entire world seeks nothing but money and goods, food and drink. (23/8) |
| 242. | I must forget about granaries and cellars and fix my thoughts on His flesh. (23/14) |
| 243. | "Jesus answered them: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." God's work is not only what God does as God but also what we do. If a single work of God is to be performed, it must be inspired by God, and so it is truly the work of His Spirit. Thus two kinds of divine service clash here; on the one hand, the transitory and vain service of God, to which they had devoted themselves hitherto and in which they sought nothing more than physical food; and, on the other hand, the true, eternal, and unending service of God, of which they had been ignorant until now. For the true service of God consists in faith in Him whom the Father sent, namely, Jesus Christ. Here we see the glory of this precious verse, which, like a thunderclap, lays low all wisdom and righteousness, every commandment and ordinance, even the very Law of Moses, and all work-righteousness. It spreads another work before us, far beyond us and above us. For Christ, whom the Father sent, is not my fasting, praying, waking, and toiling. No, my fasting is a work which has its source in me. Waking is also a work of my head and my eyes. Likewise the giving of alms, toiling, and whatever man is able to do with his body, his life, and his soul—all this is our work, emanating from us and not from without. But where is Christ to be found in this? Christ is not our mouth, head, belly, eyes, hands, or soul; nor is He any other part of man. He is a Being entirely different from us, just as the sun is not my eye, my tongue, or my belly, but an altogether different being. My eyes can wake; but, for all that, I do not feel or perceive Christ. Furthermore, though I see with my eyes, I still do not behold Christ. He does not want to be grasped by our thoughts and reason. Thus faith is not our work; for I am drawn to Christ, whom I neither feel nor see. Here He confronts us with a problem that lies outside the range of our senses. We are carried far away from ourselves and our heart, and are led to Christ, whom we do not see, feel, or hear. We are asked to cleave to the Son and to believe in Him. Whatever else I may do in my body, I can feel and see, so that I can say: "here it lies; there it is." But Christ is not in me. I do not perceive Him with my physical senses as I do my fist and my mouth. He is seated at the right hand of God, His heavenly Father. And here the text states: "Whoever believes in Him serves Me." Our hearts must cling to Him and turn from fasting, praying, and almsgiving, all of which is in us, and serve Christ alone, aside and apart from our work, so that we may be justified. Thus Christian righteousness and the genuine service of God lie outside our strength, our work, and our merit, in Christ alone. In this manner God wants to be our Father and our God, that we believe in Him who is not in us but is enthroned at the right hand of God. Therefore we should study this text closely. If you want to do a work that is really God's work, He does not say: "Slaughter Me an ox or a few turtledoves; or fast thrice a week; or observe this or that holiday." On the contrary, far above and beyond all these works, God wants to have a different type of servants and has willed to give us a different rule, one that excluded our merits and co-operation. It is to be a gift of God, apart from cowl and tonsure, one that is bestowed on both male and female, namely, on those who believe. Faith is the true service of God. One must believe that there is no help and salvation outside of Christ. Only those who believe in Him do the work of God. But if anyone preaches: "I will retire from the world and become a monk in order to serve God; I will become a hermit"—thus the world has sought righteousness and the service of God in vows, cowls, and tonsures—he is serving the devil, not God. If you want to serve God, you must believe in Him whom He sent. But God by no means condemns the good works of the godly, as, for example, subjection to government, honoring one's parents, doing good to one's neighbor. Such acts are truly the work and service of God, for they are commanded by Him. However, these works are not directly and immediately performed for God but for man. They are an external service of God, but they are directly related to man only. But here God refers to a service which pertains only to Him and does not serve man. (23/22-25) |
| 244. | We might compare this to two persons who possess a hundred dollars. The one may carry them in a paper sack, the other may keep them in an iron chest. But for all that, both possess the entire treasure. Thus Christ whom you and I own is one and the same, regardless of the strength or the weakness of your faith or mine. In Him we possess all, whether we hold Him with a strong faith or a weak faith. The entire service of God is contained in this: Believe in Christ, whom the Father has sent to you. (23/28) |
| 245. | "He who comes to me shall not hunger." Christ says: "I will give you life so surely that you will never hunger or thirst, that is, will never die; you will have enough to eat and to drink forevermore, that is, you will live for all eternity." These are unusually direct and well-defined words. In all Holy Writ there is hardly a more pointed statement that Christ is the God-given Bread and Food, and that he who eats this bread shall live forever and be satisfied, without ever hungering and thirsting. And this Bread, sent to them from heaven, they behold before their very eyes. Christ says: "He who comes to Me." He introduces His theme gently and gradually, and then His language become bolder and more direct. It might have been proper for Him to say: "He who eats Me" instead of "He who comes to Me," but that would have been premature. Christ wants the Jews to understand Him; therefore He says "He who comes to Me" and then interprets this with the words "He who believes in Me." This is an incisive commentary: to come to Christ is the same as to believe in Christ. Then He is with you and very close to you. He lies right before us, in front of our eyes and ears, so that we can see and hear Him. Just believe in Him, and then you have eaten Him and come to Him. Everyone may acquire the golden knowledge and be able to say at night when retiring, early in the morning when rising, or when engaged in some other occupation: "My soul remains with Christ. Therefore I will never hunger or thirst. This Man will not lie to me." It is not enough just to put it on your lips and discuss it, although it is indeed worth something to understand it, as I and others like me do. You must also impress it on your conscience and regard it as true, come what may, firmly believing that He who made this promise is trustworthy and does not lie. And we, too, must say to Christ: "Give us this bread always." Here Christ is not even talking about the Sacrament, but of those who are to live eternally. Many flock to the Lord's Table, and yet they die of eternal hunger and thirst. But when you hear God's Word and it pleases you, so that you cling to it, then your heart comes to Him; then you partake of this food. The faith is the gift and grace of God, not a human power or work. (23/42-49) |
| 246. | We are prone to make a Moses or a lawgiver of Christ. This evil I can overcome and banish from myself no more than from you. To aggravate the situation, the devil and the schismatic spirits or false teachers will come along and torture a terrified conscience still more. These schismatic spirits, knowing nothing of this article of faith, add straw and wood to feed the fire and to strengthen my natural desires and inclinations. I am already addicted to the belief that God must be wrathful; and then these people come along and teach us to appease the anger of God with good works. In the same way the papists declare that we must make satisfaction for our sins. Thus we make Christ a judge who must be placated and reconciled with good works. The teaching of our nature—that we, too, must do something—finds a good supply of tinder in me. And if the sulfur and the hellish fire of false teachers are added, it works like oil that kindles a blazing fire, so that the heart must needs despair. Whenever Christ is abandoned, despair must follow; then all your works are futile, and the intercession of the saints is unreliable. The fire cannot be extinguished, neither by good works nor by the intercession of the saints. Our only comfort is that you yourself did nothing at all, that Christ was born, and that He also suffered. These are not our works, and this cannot be acquired by means of works. It is a devilish shame, and it grieves me no end that the articles of faith are surrendered and reliance is placed directly on good works. This is a sublime article of faith, and it is also very hard to believe: that Christ can do it and has the command to do it; and that salvation and all eternal bliss are entirely divorced from our works, from the Ten Commandments, and from our happiness. To believe this article of faith is extremely difficult. It is a pity that we are reluctant to hold to Christ. It is the fault of the pope and of our reason that we do not believe in Christ. Our nature shies away from Christ and does not regard Him as the Man who can and will do it; it flees from Him and says: "You must do this or that to be saved." There are very few of us who really understand this article clearly. And I am prompted to stress it so because I fear that after our death it will soon be forgotten and discarded, for no Anabaptist or Sacramentarian is teaching it. Nor can Christ, the eternal Righteousness, be fully presented or exhausted in one sermon or meditation. This involves an eternal skill which can be mastered neither in this life nor in the next. (23/59-71). |
| 247. | "And I will raise him up at the Last Day." He who believes in Christ does not perceive or recognize the life that is his until Christ raises him from the dead. In the meantime it lies hidden and concealed in death. Here you can see what it means to believe. It may indeed seem an easy matter, but it is in fact a high and great art. Therefore when you feel your sin, when your bad conscience smites you, or when persecution comes, than ask yourself whether you really believe. At such times one is wont to run to saints and helpers in cloisters and in the desert for succor and relief, crying: "O my dear man, intercede for me! O dear saint, help me! O let me live! I promise to become pious and to do many good works." That is how a terrified conscience speaks. But tell me, where is faith? If you believe in the words of Christ, "None of them is lost whom Thou hast given Me" (John 17:12), then, as a Christian, you must say: "I acknowledge no saint here. I am a poor sinner deserving of death; but in defiance of sin and death I cling to Thee, and I will not let Thee go. I have taken hold of Thee, dear Lord Christ. Thou art my Life, and this is the Father's will, that all who adhere to Thee have eternal life and be raised from the dead. In the meantime let my fate be what it will. I may be beheaded or burned at the stake." No other life will arm a person for victory. Only faith in Christ can do so. The art of faith consists in this, that we apprehend what we do not see. In fact, all that we have from Christ is hidden from view; what we see is its opposite. Faith sees the intangible, that which is not felt or apprehended. That is the skill of faith. 23/75-76) |
| 248. | John warns (6:41-42) all those who hear this doctrine of Christ not to pry and to question when God's Word and spiritual matters are concerned, and not to ask how this can be reconciled with reason. Whoever wants to be a Christian and apprehend the articles of the Christian faith must not consult reason and mind how a doctrine sounds and whether it is consistent with reason. Something superior to our reason and wisdom must take us to heaven. We must not be like so many dunces who deduce that because Christ is at he right hand of the Father, he cannot be present bodily in the Supper. Rather, we must be like a good servant who sometimes does not understand the value, purpose, and reason of what his master commands. But still servant and maid are obliged to go and do it taking their reason captive, without any insight into the master's intent. Would you expect a prince to divulge all his plans and decisions to his people and confide all his policies to his subjects? Should a general reveal, make known, and publish his tactics and strategy in an encampment? That would be some army and business! And yet we fools, in the devil's name, will not believe our God unless He has previously initiated us into the why and the wherefore of His doctrines! Thus people today will speculate and ask why Christ gave and instituted the Sacrament as He did. In the Garden of Eden the devil acted like that when he said to Adam and Even, "Why did God do this?" But Christ says: NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM." Christ means that "you will accomplish nothing with your murmuring. You want to take My measure with the yardstick of your reason. You want to judge My words with your reason and first consult your I mind whether I am speaking the truth or not. But I tell you that this is not the correct way and method to follow in coming to Me. You will never succeed by doing this. Even if you ask yourselves to death, you will never find the answer." In external and worldly matters let reason by the judge. For there you can calculate and figure out that a cow is bigger than a calf, that three inches are longer than one inch, that a dollar is worth more than a quarter, that a hundred dollars is worth more than ten dollars, and that it is better to place a roof over the house than under it. In these matters you should demonstrate your smartness; there be a master and an apt fellow, and utilize your skill. But in heavenly matters and in matters of faith, when a question of salvation is involved, bid reason observe silence and hold still. Do not apply the yardstick of reason, but give ear and say: Here I cannot do it; these matters do not agree with reason as do the things mentioned above. There you must hold your reason in check and say: I do not know: I will not try to figure it out or measure it with my understanding, but I will keep still and listen; for this is immeasurable and incomprehensible to reason. (23/84) |
| 249. | Christ wants to exhort us to adhere and cling to the external, oral Word. He silences reason, insisting that we simply give ear to His voice and accustom ourselves to hearing and learning the Word diligently. If you have not yet advanced to the point where you regard it as the Word of God, it is well to hear it still oftener. The hour will come when God will press it into your heart so that in answer to the question, "What kind of message did you hear?" you can say: "It was indeed a good sermon; I heard God, the heavenly Father!" If you are able to say that it was the Father who delivered the message then all questioning is needless, and you no longer do much asking. For now, since God spoke the words, you say, "I will surely believe them." Then nothing is wanting. Now you are a believer and a disciple of Christ, and you have come to Him; for the Father has drawn you and has brought you to Christ. This calls for no great skill, nor is it necessary to consult universities and philosophers in this matter. It is easy to do, and we need not withdraw into ourselves for contemplation. Just accept the Gospel, fix your gaze on Christ's lips, and hear Him alone; for it all comes to pass through what Christ says. If you are brought to Christ, taught, and drawn by the Father, then you are a disciple of Christ; then you have been drawn by the Father. God draws a person beyond the mere hearing of the Word. When a man hears the Word, God must put into his heart the conviction that this I surely the Father's Word. And when he hears the Word of this Man Christ, he is persuaded that he is hearing the Word of God the Father. When the heart can arrive at the conclusion that God the Father Himself I conversing with us, then the Holy Spirit and the light enter, and man is illumined and becomes a joyful master who can now test and judge all doctrines. For he is imbued with the light and has faith in the divine Word; and in his heart he is convinced that his doctrine is God' Word. These are the righteous, who not only hear the Word, as the vulgar mob does, but also regard it as the Word of God. This is why Christ says: "Why are you wrangling and murmuring? Stop your murmuring! It will accomplish nothing. You will never get anywhere with your own ideas. You are pursuing the wrong way when you wrangle about it. The only right method is to hear My Word, listen to Me, to let yourself be persuaded that My Words are also My Father's Word. For the Father has His Word proclaimed from My lips, and He enlightens your heart that you may realize that it is His Word. Thus the Father draws him whom He wishes to bring to Me." Instead these people want to hear a voice from heaven. But that will not happen. First of all, you hear the Father speaking through the Son. You hear the Word or the voice. But this does not mean that you have already been drawn, for reason says that Christ is only human and that His speech is only human speech. But then, when you delight in occupying yourself with the Word, when you read it, hear it preached, and love it, the time will soon come when you will confess that God Himself uttered these words, and you will exclaim: "This is truly the Word of God!" Thus faith is added. If you can profess this and feel the truth of your profession in your heart, then you can number yourself among the pupils of the Lord Christ. Then, I am sure, you will let Him be your Teacher and submit yourself to Him. Thus you will be saved, for all depends on not withdrawing and departing from the Word of His mouth. (23/96-97) |
| 250. | If you can humble yourself, adhere to the Word with your heart, and hold to Christ's humanity—then the divinity will indeed become manifest. (23/102) |
| 251. | There are many arrogant, vulgar, and impious spirits who are ignorant of the real meaning of faith and say: "Oh, faith is a trivial matter! After all, who does not believe? This is so obvious!" (23/106) |
| 252. | "He who believes." We must note this well, for we see here that our works are impotent. Christ our Lord is neither your work nor mine, but He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. I had no hand I this. I did not carve Him out of wood or bake Him with dough. He is God's and Mary's Son. I contributed nothing. And yet He says: "He who believes in Me has eternal life; he shall have it." Thus we will not reconcile God or be justified by our good works, but only by our faith in Him.. Therefore it is God who must do it. He must begin to preach of the Son through the Spirit. This message rings in your ears, and later it enters your heart, so that you both hear and believe it. This takes place without my work and action. With my works I will never induce God to speak to me and enlighten me, but the Father sends the Son and speaks of the Son. He illumines me through this light, so that I recognize Christ. Thus our salvation is to be attributed solely to the Son; and the glory belongs to the Father, who speaks of the Son through the Son. My good works are not to merit eternal life for me. On the contrary, even before I can perform any good work, I must first have the Holy Spirit and eternal life and be a child of God. Holy Writ must be interpreted in the light of this doctrine. Whoever possesses this doctrine will not err, but whoever errs in this will fail. Consequently, when Matthew and the other evangelists speak of good works, we must first give the floor to John. (23/108) |
| 253. | I constantly dwell on the doctrine of justification that you may thoroughly understand it and differentiate between faith and good works. 23/112) |
| 254. | "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" These words of Christ, "My, My, My flesh," should be imprinted into man's heart with large and bold letters. Man, however, will not look at the word "My," and the schismatic spirits cannot comprehend it. But it serves to separate and to set this flesh apart from all other flesh, no matter what it may be called. 23/126) |
| 255. | Our faith, to be sure, also has a shell; but it contains its kernel. The heart is poured full. For I believe that Jesus Christ and His flesh and blood were given for me, and thus I surely receive Him as my mouth receives food and drink. If the mouth is not filled with food or beer or wine, there is no eating and drinking. Thus faith, too, cannot be a mere thought of our Lord God; for thoughts are not sufficient. The pope, for instance, assumes that it is enough just to think of God; that is his faith. My heart must take hold of and apprehend Christ; I must cleave to His flesh and blood and say: "To this I cling, to this I will remain faithful. I would rather surrender life and limb. May I fare with it as God wills." Faith dare not be an idle thought. It is not enough that I recall how Christ was crucified, but beyond these thoughts I have a heart which relies on Christ, whose flesh and blood I admit into my heart, persuaded that they were sacrificed for me. That constitutes and is called true faith. Without such faith all counts for nothing. This is a clear and and excellent verse which I cannot escape ("How can this man give us his flesh to eat.") I, too, would like to resort to my reason, like anyone else, and find a loophole; but all attempts to elude this verse are futile. I cannot get around it. Therefore everyone must be concerned that he eats the body. For this has definitely been ordained: Anything else than this flesh and blood, be it ever so beautiful, great, and holy, is neither instrumental in attaining eternal life nor necessary for it. All else taken together does not help a whit. (123/129) |
| 256. | It is not enough to consider that the baker baked the bread and the brewer brewed the beer. This does not bring bread and beer into your home. But when you take bread and beer into your mouth, then baker and was crucified. Now it is up to you to get Him into your mouth, to eat Him, to lay hold of Him, to take Him into yourself, and to adhere to Him. That is faith; that is what He means. (23/129) |
| 257. | "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." Learn to differentiate Christ's righteousness, His life, His essence, and His work from the works and the essence of all men, yes, all other righteousness and life. There is no righteousness of good works; all works are absolutely ruled out. If I do not have this life, then I have death, sin, devil, and hell, since "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). On the other hand, where there is life, sin and death cannot exist; for life devours these. According to the text, I eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, but thereby I do not perform a work. The soul merely receives the gift, namely, body and blood. One cannot call this a work performed; it is a work received and accepted. Subsequently, however, when faith is there, it will do good works. After you have been called into life, then is the time for you to love your neighbor and to practice the commandments of God. (23/136) |
| 258. | Illustration: If I were to say: "Wittenberg beer quenches the thirst, but Annaberg beer does so too," I would not be excluding any other beer from doing the same thing. But matters change if I say: "If you do not drink Wittenberg beer, you will find no other beer to slake your thirst." Thus Christ does not confine Himself here to an affirmative statement, but He excludes everything else as He says: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." Thus He who despises His flesh will find that nothing else will prove helpful or be accounted valid. I may call on St. Mary or St. Peter, but they cannot help. All else is ruled out completely. In brief, all other methods are rejected. Remember during your entire life that all depends on this doctrine. I repeat this so often, and it cannot be overdone, so that this doctrine may be preserved and that we may faithfully retain this faith in the forgiveness of sin and in redemption from death and devil through Christ's flesh. Wherever this doctrine remains in the pulpit, there is no danger from any heretics or errors. This doctrine does not tolerate any error near it. There the Holy Spirit is also present, and those who believe this will tolerate no error. But if people are misled, it is a certain indication that they have misunderstood this doctrine. If they had comprehended it correctly, they would not have been duped. All other doctrines, even if they employ the same words we do, are nothing else than doctrines of good works. Thus if we examine our schismatic spirits closely, we discover that their teachings deal only with good works. They fail to understand that life, grace, and salvation spring solely from our faith and not from good works, that these are ours by our believing and by eating and drinking the body and the blood of Christ. 23/137) |
| 259. | Eternal life lacks nothing except that it is still concealed. You must first die, and Christ must raise you from the dead. On the Last Day the value of this treasure will be revealed; then we shall see and perceive what we now possess by faith. There is no difference between the hour when you begin to believe and that of the Last Day, except that you do not yet see and hold eternal life. On Judgment Day you will have no more than is yours today. The very flesh and blood of Christ are mine at this hour; they are present and live just as they will also live on the Last Day, only with this difference that I do not yet see and feel them, for they are still hidden and concealed in faith. The old Adam must first turn to ashes and be buried; otherwise he cannot grasp or perceive it. (23/143) |
| 260. | "For My flesh is food indeed." With these words Christ wants to eliminate and rule out all other doctrine and food which may be advertised as nourishment for the soul or suggested as a substitute for faith. (23/143) |
| 261. | "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him." These words, "abide in Christ" and "Christ abides in us," have been interpreted by some as meaning merely to meditate on Christ. When these people contemplated His sufferings and death, they exclaimed that Christ was in them and they in Christ. There are still many among us who suppose that Christ is in them when they ponder Christ and His suffering. They do not construe faith in Christ as the true spiritual indwelling of Christ in us and our indwelling in Christ; but they imagine that this historical faith imparts everlasting life. They think it sufficient to give Christ a fleeting thought, to devote themselves to contemplation of Him, and just to indulge in humbug. The Lord does not say: "Your thoughts of Me are in Me" or "My thoughts are in you" but rather: "You, you are in Me, and I, I am in you." He does not refer to a mere thought, but He demands that I be in Him with body, life, soul, piety, and righteousness, with sins, folly, and wisdom; and He says that He, Christ, on the other hand, is also in me with His holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and salvation. Contemplation and shadowy and erratic thoughts, which are but an imaginary indwelling and nothing but thoughts, will not do here. It will not suffice if you can do no more than just discourse on Christ and reflect on Christ, for the devil and pope can do as well. They also can converse about Christ's sufferings, but that is nothing; for in spite of it they remained steeped in wickedness, in sins, and in their errors. They give no proof that Christ is dwelling in them; they do nothing that is good. Now there are those who hold with us and declare that Christ abides in them. But when trials confront them and they are faced with loss of life, honor, or goods, and particularly with death, when it is a question of sacrificing their life, then Christ is not found dwelling in them. Then mere thoughts are inadequate, for these are nothing but your work, power, natural reason, and a feeble creature. But if the terrors of a bad conscience are to be subdued, if the devil is to be frightened away and repelled, if death is to be overcome, then a divine force and not a mere thought is required. Something else must reside in you, so that your enemies will have to cope with a power which will prove too strong for them, a power which they fear, from which they flee, and which will permit you to carry off the victory. Satan is an angry adversary. He does not worry much about thoughts. Something must be found in you which will prove too strong for him. This was apparent in the martyrs. How bold they were, what spirit and courage they displayed when they confronted the judges, fully aware that life and limb, honor and goods were at stake! Such conduct calls for consolation, not for mere thought. It must be a matter of the heart that a person can face death and every trial cheerfully and say: "Honor, goods, life and limb, and all that is earthly, begone! I am determined to remain here, right here!" Then it will become manifest whether or not a person is a Christian and remains constant by means of his thoughts. The true presence and greatness of faith are evinced when a person in the midst of life's storms neither speaks nor acts differently from the way the Christ who is in him speaks and acts. This is something that transcends human strength and work and thought. In Gal. 2:20 St. Paul says: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." St. Paul does not say: "I or the thoughts which I harbor within me." No, he declares all that he does, sees, and is to be as though God Himself were doing it. We must hold firmly to these words and not add any glosses to them. There are many also among us who are content with merely hearing, reading about, reciting, or thinking of these things. But that is not enough. When trials come, these people follow their head and sulk, are unwilling to endure suffering and unable to perform any really good works. They cannot stand the test of adversity; they recoil from it. Christ is not present there, nor does He speak and act there; He has never actually been there. Outwardly Christians stumble and fall from time to time. Only weakness and shame appear on the surface, revealing that the Christians are sinners who do that which displeases the world. Then they are regarded as fools, as Cinderellas, as footmats for the world, as damned, impotent, and worthless people. But this does not matter. In their weakness, sin, folly, and frailty there abides inwardly and secretly a force and power unrecognizable by the world and hidden from its view, but one which, for all that, carries off the victory: for Christ resides in them and manifests Himself to them. I have seen many of those who, externally, tottered along very feebly; but when it came to the test and they faced the court, Christ bestirred Himself in them, and they became so staunch that the devil had to flee. I am directing this against the Arians, the Sacramentarians, and other schismatic spirits and fanatics who do not understand this text. They claim that thoughts will do, and they entertain nothing but thoughts about Christ. Therefore it is impossible for them to stand against the devil. The devil occupies a place of his own among them, and he hisses and whispers into their ears pernicious ideas which they are quick to advertise as God's Word or as words inspired by the Holy Spirit. But the text enjoins us: "You must believe in Christ, eat and drink of His flesh and blood, and adhere to Him by faith. Then you will receive a different mind, strength, and heart." A person who does this will no longer be duped, fooled, or terrified as before; and you yourself will admit that now you are different. Before this you were afraid, you were frightened by any imagined sin, and you trembled before a rustling leaf (Lev. 26:36). But now, since you have received forgiveness of sins, you are not worried about the folly of devil and pope or the wrath of the emperor and persecutor. Now you can say: "Even if I still have much filth and sin in me, what does it matter? Let them be angry and defiant if they will! I am in Christ, and I am certain that here is where I shall remain." Whoever scourges or imprisons Christians imprisons Christ's own body, got this union is so constituted that Christ is in us and is truly one body with us, that He abides in us mightily with His strength and power, much more closely than any friend. The name which might be given this union is quite immaterial and unessential. It is sufficient to adhere to the text, which says: "As the Father abides in Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me." This means that just as He derives His life from the Father from eternity, so we, too, shall live in Him, but with this difference, that He is God's Son from eternity, and that He accepts us in mercy as heirs of His possessions and makes us partakers of His divinity. This comparison rules out the erroneous notion concerning a false indwelling and presence about which the errorists dream and prattle. This text consistently points to faith and is directed against the world, declaring that dreams and contemplation will not do. Thus you perceive here that Christ always attributes eternal life to this eating and drinking. This accounts for the fact all who have departed from the true church can neither know nor determine what faith really is. They cannot progress beyond these words: "When the heart contemplates Christ's commands and the body then executes these, then I am in Him, and He is in me; then His will and mine are one." My dear man, you are quite wrong! "That will never do: Good gracious, how you have missed the mark! Do you propose to regulate this union with your will, your actions, your deeds, and the Law, and thus lead and bring Christ into your heart? That would be to begin with works. Because of their ignorance and their disbelief these people do not get beyond themselves. Christ will never come to me if He has to wait until I draw and attract Him to me. That is preaching works in opposition to faith. Because of their great blindness they know nothing, and they can do nothing. But how does Christ come? This is the way: "He who eats My flesh." You must hear the Gospel from Him; you must let yourself be taught and instructed: you must not resist the message. Then the Holy Spirit can be effective in you through the Word and implant and impress Christ in your heart, with the result that henceforth you speak differently, believe differently, suffer differently, do good works differently, and declare: "Now I will bear whatever suffering is imposed for the sake of God's Word." Now the tree has become good, and its fruit will also be pleasing and good (Matt. 12:33). (23/ 146-52) |
| 262. | Even now, under the dominion of our prince, such contempt for the Gospel, such ingratitude and neglect are beginning to manifest themselves that my heart is about to break. I never thought that we would so soon forget and no longer remember the misery and the wretchedness which afflicted us in the papacy. We live as smugly as though we had always enjoyed this liberty. No one will any longer contribute money toward church, pulpit, and school. People would be too willing to starve the preachers if they could. They also persecute them. They would be much happier if they could drive them from the country. But this has been the Gospel's fate before, and the same thing will happen again. The Children of Israel were grievously plague in Egypt; their infants were drowned, and they were cruelly oppressed. But after they had escaped and were delivered from the Egyptians, all was soon forgotten. They recalled only the onions and the fleshpots of Egypt. This is repeated today. We think only of what serves our comfort and sensual pleasures. All right, all kinds of plagues will follow. Hard times will press heavily upon the poor people, and the rich will perish by pestilence. Yes, blood will also be shed, many tyrants and schismatic spirits will appear, and the Word of God will wane again. But I am determined to study this doctrine and to teach it as long as I live. I shall dwell on it diligently in my sermons, for I can see its effectiveness when it prevails and the harm when it disappears. The schismatic spirits have no understanding of this. (23/152) |
| 263. | The sectarians and our fanatics were Christ's disciples in the beginning. They possessed Christ just as we do, and now they have become Sacramentarians, Anabaptists, and other schismatic spirits. Now they object: "How can Christ be baked or melted down so that one can eat and drink Him? That is indeed a hard saying." Yes, it must happen that some disciples who once held Christ later draw back and desert Him. It would not be surprising if the papists and other coarse jackasses did this; but when those who accept Christ fall away in spite of all, this is distressing. Just see to it that you stand firm! (23/157) |
| 264. | All that stems from reason is called flesh. Consequently, all the wisest and all the mightiest on earth, with all their powers, are flesh. What Christ intends to show her is this: "He who wants to believe in Me and grasp My message should bear this in mind. He must abandon his flesh and not judge or fathom My words with his reason." My Flesh includes all my members, my senses, my reason, and all my acquired skills. No matter how pre-eminent all these may be, still they are all external and part of reason, conceived and developed by the five senses, and therefore nothing but flesh, since they had their origin in flesh. The word "flesh" embraces all the most powerful, the mightiest, the richest, and the wisest people in the world, young and old, those of high and those of low estate—everyone of whom we can say that he was born of woman, that he is a woman's offspring, be he prince or scholar. If he is called "child of father and mother," he is included in the word "flesh," be he ever so smart, learned, or holy. If he has not been reborn through Baptism, you need not hesitate to call him "flesh." (23/164) |
| 265. | "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." Christ does not want to give you the right to run to and fro in search of the Spirit, to lose yourself in reverie and say: "I have this by inspiration of the Holy Spirit." Actually, it may be the devil who inspired you! Whenever you hear anyone boast that he ha something by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and it has no basis in God's Word, no matter what it may be, tell him that this is the work of the devil. Christ does not bind you to anything but His mouth and His Word. Therefore these words enjoining us to hear and heed God's Word are worth much gold. Failure to do this has always given rise in the world to great and terrible errors, idolatries, and schisms. This is what has happened since the time of Luther. Whatever ideas occurred to some fool, whatever he dreamed up, or whatever appealed to his fancy, was called an inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Everyone held his own thoughts to be the Holy Spirit and revelation. Thus the Holy Spirit, of course, also had to have His hand in motivating pilgrimages. And the pope confirmed such inspirations and errors. All this, however, is devoid of God's Word; therefore it is of the devil. You must examine to see whether it is founded on Holy Writ, whether or not God has commanded and ordered it. If it is a mere fancy, a token of particular zeal, or a pious thought, but lacks God's Word, spit on it. Unless it happens that God chooses to enlighten you particularly, as He did Moses, beware! Since God has confirmed the ministry of preaching, be on your guard against any such devotion or fancies as the devil may well suggest to you, even though they are sweet enough to induce you to weep large troughs full of tears. You must be informed with regard to the type of zeal which is evil and that which is good, natural, or spiritual; for on the surface all are almost alike. The books of the monks abounded with spiritual devotion, and many a person was deceived thereby. People could not distinguish between the true and false devotion, since they did not have the Word of God. They were told that it was not permissible to resist the Holy Spirit. But I declare that I will resist Him if they do not have the Word of God. For John commands us (I John 4:1) to test all the spirits to ascertain who is preaching and what is being preached. A man is spirit in proportion to how much he adheres to the Word. On the other hand he is flesh in proportion to his flesh and unbelief. Flesh and spirit contend against each other. I would fain believe with all my heart and be filled with spirit, but I do not succeed. The flesh and that old Sir Adam, who dwells in my skin, come along and frighten the spirit, play me a nasty trick, and intone the old refrain into my ear night and day: "Well, surely good works are worth something too." Such thoughts are obnoxious; they are accursed; they stand condemned and are pernicious. But still they haunt me, and I must constantly war against them and say: "I will not yield and put my trust in works. I am well aware that the Ten Commandments have been enjoined. But what of it? First of all, I want to learn and believe this doctrine, that my salvation and life depend on the flesh and blood of Christ. Then hand me the Ten Commandments, and I shall not refuse them obedience. If the heart is rooted in this doctrine, then good works will also follow, but for a different reason." (23/173-76) |
| 266. | "But there are some of you that do not believe." Believing seems very easy to those who have never tried it. They are prone to say: "If I could only do something toward this! Faith seems to be a trivial matter." But just try to show how easy it is, and you will discover that faith is a power of God and not of man. Though many assume that it is easy to believe, a Christian will say: How difficult it is to master the art of believing these words! When death, sin, devil, and world confront us, and our conscience palpitates, when we face combat, and cold sweat breaks out of our pores, when we are much more tempted to say: "I would rather go to St. Iago in a coat of mail than suffer this anguish!" But the smug and the coarse, those whose conscience is not assailed, regard faith as but a trifle. The Christian, however, declares amid trials and temptations: "Conscience, death, sin, world, and devil, keep still! I do not hear you. I will close my eyes and listen only to these words." Then you will perceive whether faith is such an easy art. The common supposition is that it is difficult to perform good works, but that faith is acquired with ease. (23/ 178) |
| 267. | "This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father." Therefore, Lord, draw me, help me, and give me the strength and the gift to believe this. Thus the prophet sighs in Ps. 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and steadfast spirit within me. I lack the power to fashion a new and clean heart; this is Thy creation and handiwork. Just as I cannot bid the sun and the moon to rise and shine brightly in the heavens, so I cannot produce a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, that is, a strong and a firm mind which remains steadfast and does not flinch, waver, or doubt Thy Word." A new, clean, and tender heart can say: I have a right spirit, a new mind, a disposition and heart which stands steadfast and does not doubt but believes so firmly that it is willing to stake life and limb on the fact that Christ died for it. But people say: "Who does not believe this? We are Christians. Go to the Jews and the Turks, and preach to them about faith!" True Christians will say, on the other hand: "O God in heaven, how true and correct are those words, that he who eats Christ's flesh and believes in Him has everlasting life! Alas, how glad I would be to be relieved of all my sins! O God, if I could only believe this will all my heart as I would like to! How happy I would be to have the eternal life promised in these words!" Indeed, Christians do say that they believe it but they do not claim that their faith is perfect, as it should be. (23/181) |
| 268. | It is indispensable for us to know that St. Paul, I, all the pastors who preach to you, and also the angels, must present God's Word in its purity. But now those rogues and knaves boast that Christendom has accepted their doctrine. And the superiors, popes, bishops, pastors, and those in ecclesiastical office claim that they must be heard by virtue of their office. No so fast! You may have the office, just as Judas was an apostle and as the seventy-two were Christ's disciples; but when the seventy-two disciples take offense at the words of Christ and refuse to accept His preaching, we do not listen to them. Judas was a select rock of Christendom, the same as Peter and the other apostles. Still he fell away, and his office did not keep him constant. They raise a strong argument when they state that I attack the pope, the bishops, the learned and great men of the world. In brief, they say that I write, read, preach, speak, and fight against the entire Christian Church, that I claim to be the only smart man. I retort, I am not speaking against the pope and the bishops or against their persons, but against their doctrine. I sincerely wish that they would teach correctly, and that the pope, the bishops, and the doctors would do their duty and diligently fulfill the obligations of their office. Then I would no longer open my mouth, for I am far from begrudging them their office. But it is intolerable that they claim to be popes, bishops, and doctors and yet do not administer the Word of the Lord Christ. I am glad to grant St. Peter his apostolate, Judas likewise. But when he does not preach the Gospel of Christ but betrays Him and becomes the accomplice of Caiaphas, this is something that cannot be overlooked. (23/192) |
| 269. | We call it God's weakness when, in the end, His strength becomes apparent in man's weakness. But beware of that God who feigns weakness! It is meant for your strength. He seems weak when men are defiant, but He sneers and laughs them to scorn. He lets His children and pastors act as if they could not open their mouths, but He is not far away when the bigwigs threaten and rave. God is so effective and successful in His weakness that His enemies dare not touch Him. This is what God also does with us when we or our cause seem about to fail and founder before the world. (23/217) |
| 270. | We claim to be holy by reason of the doctrine; and, as a matter of fact, we are just that. For a proper Baptism, the true Word of God in the Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Writ, the Holy Spirit, and other gifts of God are holy. By means of these we are made holy. (23/235) |
| 271. | If the doctrine is crushed at one place, it raises its head at another. The devil would rather annihilate it completely. That has been his aim from the beginning of the world, but he has failed. Wherever he attained his end in one country, the hour for it had come. But then the Gospel sprang up again at a different spot. Thus Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the text of the Gospel, and the ministry survived in the world under the papacy, although many abuses crept in to stifle it. Do you esteem it a small matter that the devil had to be pleased to leave Baptism intact? Ask the Anabaptists about this. Yet it survived. Who, do you suppose, preserves the Christians and Baptism? Not I. No one is able to do this. I cannot preserve one Christian or one Sacrament. Who, then, does this? It is an hour, an hourglass which God holds in His hand. He says: "My dear man, don't touch them until the sand has run down." And if they say: "No, I must!" God replies: "My dear man, hold off; the sand has not yet run down." Though they are determined, there is still a secret and invisible power which restrains them. (23/257) |
| 272. | "You will seek Me, and you will not find Me." These are horrible words. I do not like to read them. But we have no alternative; these words must be proclaimed. When the Gospel vanishes, then the light, the proper understanding and knowledge of faith in Christ, also disappears. Then you will find one undertaking this, another that. Then they will all go in search of Christ, of forgiveness of sins, and of grace; but their search will be in vain. The Jews have been looking for Christ for 2,000 years. They torture themselves severely; they lead an austere life. There is no more miserable and wretched nation under the sun than they. Christ means to say: "You will fret and spend yourselves, devote yourselves to a spiritual life, carry on services, plague yourselves to death, castigate yourselves, pray and fast much, but all in vain; for you will not find Me." This also happened in the papacy. There the whole world was full of monks and nuns. Yes, many thousands of sects and factions arose. How many orders the barefoot friars had, each one boasting that he was better than the others! There was not a Christian who did not embark on something special and with which to serve God. The world was full of searching. People expended earthly earthly goods and suffered endless physical hardships in the search; but they did not find Christ. All was vain and useless. Therefore Paul, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (55:6: "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near"), says very correctly in 2 Cor. 6:1-2: "We entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says: 'At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.' Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." As though he were to say: "Believe, respect the Word, and live in accordance with the Word while you have it. See to it that you do not neglect it; do not sleep your opportunity away. For it will not remain forever; it will not tarry long." Therefore this advice is best of all: We should not suppose that the Gospel, which we now have, will stay with us forever. Wait, and see what the situation will be in twenty years. Then tell me about it again. After the death of the present pious and sincere pastors, others will appear who will preach and act according to the pleasure of the devil. Alas, just behold how many members of nobility and how many cities of this land have already forfeited the Gospel. It has already departed from the large imperial cities. And that will happen everywhere. The people become weary of the Word and suppose that it will endure forever. When a good beer is available at a certain place, everybody runs there without delay, knowing that the supply will not last long. This commodity is not to be had every day; therefore people get it while it is to be had. If it could be obtained for a long period of time, our appetite would become surfeited, and the beer would not be prized. But here we assume that the Word will remain with us always, although, in fact, it stays and endures but a short time before it is gone. (23/263) |
| 273. | "Where does this man intend to go that we shall not find Him?" Christ's purpose was to frighten them, so that they would be concerned about losing Him. For with Him gone, nothing but sin, misery, devil, death, sweat, trouble, and labor would remain. Everything good departs with Him. But they are as little concerned as people are today. (23/267) |
| 274. | "If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink." This was a fine and excellent sermon to those who languished under the Law of Moses. They had heard the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and other seducers, who plagued and burdened the people with the Law and left them comfortless, just as the papacy had done before we first proclaimed the Word twelve or fifteen years ago. The people hearkened to it eagerly. Everybody rejoiced that it was no longer necessary to plague oneself with good works. People remarked: "Thank God, we now have water to drink!" At that time they were thirsty, and the Gospel doctrine tasted good to them. We drank of it; that was a precious teaching. But now we are sated and tired of the drink. Therefore God will have to forsake us and let us die of thirst, for He remains only with those who feel their wretched condition. But few are aware of this. The majority pervert the Gospel into carnal license, a carnal refreshment and drink, so that they no longer want to fast and pray. They have gained some benefit from the Gospel, and now they are no longer concerned about the welfare of their souls. They no longer seek comfort in the Gospel, nor do they have any more appetite for it. Therefore these two points must be made: The Law creates a thirst and leads to hell; the Gospel, however, satisfies the thirst and leads to heaven. The Law states what we must do, but that we have fallen short of doing it, no matter how holy we may be. Thus it produces uncertainty in me and arouses this thirst. You are constrained to confess: "Oh, dear God, I have failed to do this! I have not kept the Law. For I do not love God with all my heart today nor will I tomorrow. Year after year I make confession. I never finish admitting that I have done this or that." When will it end? When will your heart be at rest and be certain of diving grace? You will ever remain in doubt. Tomorrow you will be obliged to confess the same as you do today. Confession goes on and on. Where will your conscience come to rest and find a sure footing? Where will it find assurance of its good relationship to God? No matter how much you know, your heart cannot give you that assurance. For the Law remains in force, and it says: "You must love God and your neighbor with all your heart." And if you admit that you do not do so, it replies: "You must do it." Thus the Law terrifies you and makes you thirsty, so that you finally ask with fear and trembling: "What must I do to gain God's favor? I must obtain God's grace. But how? By keeping the Ten Commandments? By amassing good works and much merit? That is impossible. I do not keep the Ten Commandments. Therefore grace will not be mine." Thus it happens that man finds no peace of mind through his good works, and yet he would like to have a clear conscience. He longs for a good, cheerful, quiet, and comforted conscience; he thirsts for peace. Therefore he who masters the art of exact distinction between the Law and the Gospel should be called a real theologian. These two must be kept apart. The function of the Law is to frighten men and drive them to despair, especially the coarse and secure sinners, until they realize their inability to meet the demands of the Law or to obtain grace. They will never obtain mercy, but must despair. Dr. Staupitz told me once: "I lied to God more than a thousand times, promising that I would become pious. I never kept the promise. Therefore I shall no longer resolve; for I see very well that I am unable to keep my promise, and I never again want to tell a lie." I myself had the same experience. In the papacy I was zealously given to piety. But how long did it last? Only until I read Mass. After an hour I was worse than before. In the end one becomes weary and feels impelled to say: "I will lay piety, Moses, and the Law aside and cling to another Person, who says (Matt. 11:28): 'Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.'" Cherish these words: "Come to Me." (23/27071) |
| 275. | Law-preachers only create a thirst. They cannot quench the thirst. Christ does the opposite. He does not cease to comfort; not only does He satisfy your thirst, but through you He also assuages the thirst which the Law has created in others. The longer the Gospel is preached, the more effectively the thirst is slaked, and the better it tastes to him who is thirsty. Therefore he who believes in Christ and is supplied with water by Him is also in a position to console and refresh others with this draught. Even if all the world were confronting him, he could dispense enough words of comfort for all. When the Lord says here that He will give people to drink, He does not intend to do this with a spoon; He will not siphon it through a pipe or tap it from a spigot. No, streams of comfort shall be theirs, and all the thirsty shall be satisfied with a boundless supply. Thus a pious pastor is able to comfort all sinners and remit their sins. Regardless of their size and number, he can remove all sins with one verse. When death and war come, a pastor can fortify a whole army to defy death. By means of one consoling word and verse he can dispel and wash away all dread and death. With what? With the water of life. Christ means to say that His ministry of preaching is a refreshing stream of life. This is not apparent, for it is a simple process. You need only hear it, read it, and preach it. I hear only the weak tone of a voice; I see only a poor letter of the alphabet in the book; I have the thought in my heart. But this same Word that is preached will exert such a secret power that it will flush throngs of devils out of the heart, the realm where the devil rules so mightily, just as the Elbe carries refuse downstream. He calls the Word of God a stream advisedly, for it performs many great acts. It rushes along like a torrent. The Christian can counsel and comfort others physically. How is he to do this? Oh, the spoken Word can accomplish more than you are able to see and perceive! Where are the schismatic spirits who claim that the Word can accomplish nothing? You hear it called a quickening stream. The oral Word is a living Word. They have never tested it. I, however, know it well; for I have experienced it in trials and afflictions. I can feel that life is given to me by means of the Word. (23/274-75) |
| 276. | God requires but little to shield us as long as we believe. (23/303) |
| 277. | "And once more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground." Since they will not carry out the duties of their office and want to learn to rule in Christ's kingdom, He now informs them. This is the principle: "If one person in that kingdom is pious and godly, then the others are not sinners either. And if one person deserves punishment, then all others must be punished. If the sins of one person are to be remitted, then the sins of all must be remitted. But this is not the rule in the secular realm. There the policy holds: If a person is an adulterer, he deserves to die. So does any other person guilty of that crime. Each individual's act and deed condemns him and dictates the penalty. But if everyone on earth is evil and adulterous, even at heart, then the government cannot judge and punish him. Therefore since you will not rest until you have heard the judgment of My kingdom, I declare that this woman is truly an adulteress. In My kingdom, however, there are many more like her." Christ does not dispute their jurisdiction, nor does He touch Moses; He says neither yes nor no. In a masterful way His answer implies both. "Why do you not do as Moses commanded? But if you want to judge her according to My rule, do not harm her. My verdict is: "This adulteress does not stand alone, for there is not one among you who is not as bad and evil as this poor harlot may be. If you comply with Moses' Law, then stone here; but according to Mine, let her go. I can infer from your question to Me that you do not propose to condemn her according to Moses' Law. Therefore I say to you that there is not one among you who is not as base as this poor harlot." (23/312) |
| 278. | The spiritual realm of Christ has no executioner, judgment, or government; everyone is equal there. Let anyone who wants to be assured of this come to Christ and ask Him. He says: "Let him who is without sin among you, etc. This means that if you want to deal correctly with this question in My kingdom, and if you want My opinion, then you must ask her to forgive you, and she must ask you to forgive her, and you all must ask Me to forgive you. Thus all are in the same class; all are cast in the same mold. (23/313) |
| 279. | As God addresses them, their sins loom so big and they become so alarmed and frightened that their own sins now occupy them and cause them to forget about others and to begin to think that in comparison other sinners are pure saints. Thus they stand there thunderstruck. They feel as though the lightning had shone and flashed into their hearts, filling them with pure light and revealing their innermost thoughts. As their hearts are opened like a book, they forget about this woman entirely and begin to imagine that their sins are inscribed on their foreheads and that everything they have ever done can be seen on their noses. Not one of them as the courage to look at the other. They imagine that the very stones are staring at them. Time seems endless, until they find the escape and can slink out through the door. They cannot lift up their eyes and look man, house, sun, or a dog cheerfully and squarely in the face. They are dispirited, cowed, and bereft of their senses. They can stand it no longer. They can look no one in the face but must turn tall and stealthily sneak out of the temple, slinking out as a dog with a burned snout slinks from the kitchen. (23/314) |
| 280. | Years ago, while I was a monk, I belonged to this class. I would say: "Today I have committed no sin. I have obeyed my prior, and I have fasted and prayed." Therefore—may God be merciful to me!—I thought that God should forgive the sins which I did not regard as sins, yes, which were no sins. I am still plagued with this. Self-invented sins are stupid sins, but real sins are the ones that matter. God's mercy does not deal with insignificant sins, half-sins, imaginary sins, or sins that are no sins, but with real sins that are felt. For example, not to fear God, not to trust Him and believe in Him, not to love one's neighbor, not to pray, not to hear preaching, not to keep the commandments of Moses ,any violation of God's command, something that cannot be ignored—these call for a genuine, not a meaningless, forgiveness. Thus the kingdom of Christ concerns itself with the sinners who feel their sins and are tortured, tormented, and frightened by them, with those whose heart feels death when Law and conscience declare: "This is what you did; you deserve to die." The other sinners do not experience this; even if they realize that they have sinned, they do not reform. They do not feel sin. They even just about it, and tomorrow they are just as they are today. But whoever is really struck down by a sense of guilt, as this little harlot is, will be on his guard in the future. (23/317) |
| 281. | "For I know whence I have come and whither I am going, but you do not know whence I come or whither I am going." Every Christian is a light in the world, for he must know for a certainty what kind of man he is and how he stands in relation to God. He must know that he comes from God, that he comes from Adam to Christ by Baptism, that thus he enters a Christian estate, that he has become a new man, and that he will live forever with God. In that estate I live and bear the cross. I know where I come from. It would be perilous for me to rise and preach without conviction. It would be better if I had never seen or heard a sermon that to preach without the certain knowledge that I am preaching the Word of God. The schismatics are in great danger because they do not know where they come from and where they are going. And yet they keep blabbering away and confuse the whole world with their drivel. They do not know by whom they were sent or what their goal is. They are uncertain as to what they are doing. Christ says: "You judge Me according to the flesh. You see Me only as another human being. You see no more on Me than face, skin, hands, and feet." This is how the fanatics, who enlist reason and their own smartness in judging, look at one another. They look at another person carnally, and they also judge him carnally. But I have not been sent and I have not come, according to the flesh; nor will I go away from here according to the flesh. As I look at you, I do not see whether you are black or white, rich or poor, dressed this way or that way. No, I see that you were baptized, that you were washed in that water, and that you listen to the Gospel. But they do not do this; that is not the way they look at a person. They will never acquire the skill to see Baptism on a person's forehead. This is not discerned with the eyes; it is the heart that says: "If he is baptized then he is adorned and graced with the greatest holiness in the world, namely, with the innocent blood of Christ, the Lamb. Indeed, this, I believe, can make a person holy, beautiful, and pious. It can change Adam's children into new beings and put them in a new estate." The whole world fails to discover this and is not aware of the essence of Baptism. It supposes that Baptism, performed on me forty years ago, is now a thing of the past, and it looks at me as a mere man endowed only with body, soul, and reason. That is judging according to the flesh and does not go beyond the way a cow looks at a new gate. (23/335) |
| 282. | "I judge no one." This beautiful text bids us not to picture Christ as a judge. The pope, however, emphasized Christ as the Judge on the Last Day. This image of Christ gave rise to all the good works, cloisters, and monastic orders, with which the Judge is to be reconciled. In this way the Gospel was thoroughly destroyed and exterminated, and we became genuinely hostile to Christ. Thus Christ became our Judge, from whom we fled. The preachers who thus perverted Christ for us were the penalty for our great ingratitude. They converted light into darkness and changed Christ from a Savior into a tyrant and judge. To be sure, He will judge on the Last Day; but He will judge as a Savior who will rescue me from all enemies and fell those who did me harm. Christ wants to announce to all the world that His Word, His kingdom, and His office will judge no one until the Last Day. To everyone, young or old, He offers His help, saying: "If you believe in Me. My office will help and preserve, and not judge you. My office dispenses pure mercy and forgiveness of sin. I am no judge unless you refuse to accept Me and refuse to believe Me. I shall be your Helper unless you disdain My help and constrain Me to judge you, and than I cannot help it. Otherwise My office involves no judging, punishing, or condemning. If all is as it should be, I will not be a judge." (23/337) |
| 283. | Humility is an equivocal term. In one sense it works despair in a person. It is not enough to do as Judas did. But if you forget about your humility and hold to and trust this one Man Christ, that will do it. (23/351) |
| 284. | In the eyes of reason God appears to be the biggest fool of all fools when He tries to accomplish His purpose by means of the Word and preaching and ventures to guide man with preaching; for reason sets itself in direct opposition to the Word and preaching. (23/382) |
| 285. | "If you continue in My Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth." It is a disappointing price that Christ asks of those who were beginning to believe in Him and were saying: "We will remain loyal to You even at the risk of life and limb." Christ looks askance at them and says: "Yes indeed, if your faith in Me were only genuine and sincere! But it seems to Me that you will not remain faithful to Me." It is all a matter of continuing. Many hear it, but when the battle grows hot, they declare: "Upon my soul, should I forsake this or that for the sake of the Gospel?" There are few who remain true to the Gospel in the face of cross and persecution. Where can one find those who are constant? Therefore Christ says: If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples. If My doctrine pleases you, you are well schooled and know everything. And if you persevere in the doctrine through cross and suffering, then you are My disciples. But My doctrine demands more than just an initial acceptance and much praise. I know that it is easy to believe in the beginning. But where are those who remain steadfast, who persevere, endure, and say: 'Let come whatever God send me! If I am not to be well, then I am satisfied to be sick. If I am not to be rich, then I shall be content to remain poor. Whether I live or die, I shall remain with Christ?' (23/393) |
| 286. | The false Christians hear and learn much, yet they never come to a knowledge of the truth. They do not understand the truth. They do learn to speak the words, as a parrot or parakeet repeats words spoken by people. But their heart does not feel them; they remain unchanged and do not taste and perceive how faithful and true God is. I suppose that one tenth of the people really perceives God, while the other nine tenths begin to believe but do not perceive; for it is difficult and trying to remain faithful. Such people have no solid foundation. The divine Word alone is the cornerstone, the I-beam, the girder, the stanchion, and the pillar undergirding our constancy. Therefore it is imperative that we hold to the plain Word of God, that we cling to the words of Christ. Then we will experience God's help in the midst of danger and upheaval. (23/400) |
| 287. | We must progress to the point where we say: "God has promised." (23/400) |
| 288. | "Truly, truly, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." These words promise to be a text and sermon on the essence of true Christian freedom. Christ does not plan to alter secular kingdoms or to abolish serfdom. What does He care how princes and lords rule? It does not concern Him how a man plows, sows, makes shoes, builds houses, or pays tribute and taxes. Such work was ordered in Gen. 1:28, when God created the world and specified that we should beget children and occupy and cultivate the world. Here Christ is not speaking about these external matters; rather He is speaking of a freedom which lies outside and above this outward existence and life. Here He deals with freedom from sin, death, God's wrath, the devil, hell, and eternal damnation. A cow can free herself and give her master or mistress no more milk. A bondsman can redeem himself from service to the master by paying a ransom. This Christian freedom may be enjoyed both by one who is free and by one who is a bondman, by one who is captive and by one who takes others captive, by a woman as well as by a man, by a servant and a maid as well as by a lord and a lady. We are speaking of the freedom before God, the freedom we have when God pronounces us free from sin. This freedom is extended to all. Christ directs the Jews away from their carnal conception of freedom. It irritates them that He will not lead them to a physical freedom of the flesh. They are incensed because He speaks about a captivity of the people. (23/404) |
| 289. | We live in carnal lusts and wallow up to our ears in license. We want to do as we please and whatever serves the devil. We want to be free to do whatever we desire. There are but a few who devote themselves to the real problem: how to get rid of sin. The majority are content to be free from the pope, from officials, and from other laws; but they are not concerned about serving Christ and being delivered from sin. Therefore it will come to pass that we, too, will not continue to live "in the house," since slaves do not abide in the house forever. We will have to be evicted, and we will lose the Gospel and freedom again. If we blunder, and fail to appropriate this chief doctrine—how to be rid of sin—He will also disperse us so thoroughly that we will not know whether there will be any other true Christians anywhere. At one place a schismatic spirit will arise, at another a sect; and every nook and cranny will crawl with fanatics, heretics, and fluttering spirits. Then our adversaries will exclaim: "Oh, such are the fruits of the Gospel! May the devil lay about among them! Why do they not believe?" If you not want to be pious and free from sin, you will not remain in the house; but you will be evicted. And if you then wander hither and yon and have as many pastors as you have beliefs, you are only getting your just due. That is what happens when God begins to disperse the people; then gross confusion ensues, and many factions and sects arise. Thus the pope filled the entire world with factions. But the devil has dressed them up beautifully, so that they are not called factions but monasteries, convents, altar, Mass, faith, pilgrimage, etc. They were not in agreement with one another; they were not one in spirit. To be sure, no one spoke of them as being scattered or dispersed, but they actually were. And it cannot be otherwise. If you refuse to be pious, you will be evicted. Of course, God bears with us for a while, and He is patient with us despite our impiety. But if we do not repent, He ousts us from the house. A servant who has been discharged by his master goes in search of another master, taking whom he can find. But the son and the pious servant remain in the kingdom of Christ, in the house, in the priesthood, in the faith, and in the proper understanding and knowledge of Christ. They are well protected. God says: "For even if you are delivered from the pope, I will soon create other rabbles to rob you of your freedom of heart, as the pope did. For I still have a supply of mad saints, wise and intelligent people, jurists, and other foolish minds who will take counsel and devise ways and means to disperse you. Therefore see that you strive for a different freedom, a higher and loftier freedom than that of the flesh, for which the Jews strove. You should strive for freedom from sin." This is a sublime sermon. The Holy Spirit presents and submits it to the children and to the simple-minded. Old fools like me learn this with great difficulty. Little children learn it best. Others learn this wisdom too well, assuming that when they have heard it once, they know it all. I, however, feel that I cannot understand it. St. Paul has the same complaint, saying that he would like to believe and accept this as the Word of God, but that in his flesh there is someone who wars against it and will not accept it (Rom. 7:18-19). Therefore the central fact of this freedom must be proclaimed daily. Then the other freedom will surely follow. But if you want to begin with, and treat of, physical freedom, you will become so muddled and confused that you will lose both freedoms. You must bear this in mind. "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." (23/407-409) |
| 290. | "I know that you are descendants of Abraham." He says, as it were: "You make much ado about the fact that you are descended from Abraham and are of his flesh and blood. But that will not silence Me or disprove My words. To be sure, you would still be Abraham's children if another father, the devil, had not come along. But now you are murderers and children of the devil." These are the two fine virtues of anyone who falls away from his faith, the doctrine, and the Word: he is both a liar and a murderer. This sermon is directed against the boasting of the Jews, who assumed that they, as Abraham's seed, could not perish. Gross arrogance is now making itself in the papacy, yes, also among us. Many of us say boastfully: "We are evangelicals; we have learned this doctrine well." They brag that everything they do is right. They expect the Gospel to yield to their pleasure, just as the Jews supposed that because they were Abraham's seed they could do as they pleased. God does not care that you are baptized, that you have accepted the Gospel, and that you esteem its doctrine highly. Beware lest you still become the murderer of both God and man! For you are a fellow who disdains to give ear to the Word and will not tolerate the truth. You will not listen to correction. And after you have reviled and blasphemed God's Word for a long time, murder will follow, and you will kill God's servants and preachers with your fists." It is necessary for us to differentiate and say: "We concede that you are evangelical, that you can talk and write about this, and that you hear the evangelical message; but this does not make you a Christian. Just examine yourself with regard to your attitude over against the preachers of truth. How many there are in this principality who bear their village clergy the greatest ill will! When the clergy tell them the truth and attack their sin and wickedness from the pulpit, they think that the village clergy have indeed deserved death. And at the same time these people boast that they are also good evangelicals. "Indeed," says Christ, "you are really evangelical!" (23/415) |
| 291. |
To the end of his days a Christian never finishes with the study of the Creed. Neither will you or any saint, whether it be Mary or John the Baptist. If I am to find comfort, have peace in
my conscience, and be rid of sin, then I must believe as children do. They point to the Creed as they say: "I believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, who died for me, was buried, and rose
again." People may reply: "Oh, that is commonplace! I want to learn something extraordinary." Al right, but be sure you learn to know the Creed as thoroughly as the children
do. A proverb states: "The longer you live, the worse you become; and the older you grow, the meaner you become."
To sum up, we must, first of all, have a Savior who can save us from the power of this world's god and prince, the devil, that is, from sin and death. This means that He must be true, eternal God, through whom all believers in Him become righteous and are saved. For if He is not greater and more exalted than Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, or John the Baptist, He cannot be our redeemer. But if, as God's Son, He sheds His blood to redeem us and cleanse us from sin, and if we believe this, rubbing it under the devil's nose whenever he tries to plague and terrify us with our sins, the devil will soon be beaten; he will be forced to withdraw and to stop molesting us. For the hook, which is the divinity of Christ, was concealed under the earthworm. The devil swallowed it with his jaws when Christ died and was buried. But it ripped his belly so that he could not retain it but had to disgorge it. He ate death for himself. This affords us the greatest solace; for just as the devil could not hold Christ in death, so he cannot hold us who believe in Christ. (22/24) |
| 292. | The holy fathers wished to admonish the youth to revere the indescribably great miracle of the incarnation; they wanted us to open our eyes wide and ponder these words well—"And the Word became flesh." It is certain that if anyone could speak these words in true faith and with strong confidence in hours of greatest temptation, he would be delivered from his trouble and distress; for the devil fears these words when they are uttered by a believer. "The Word became flesh" is equivalent to saying "I am a Christian." To say, "I am a Christian," is to say that Christ is my flesh and blood and sits at the right hand of the heavenly Father as Lord over all creatures. He proves his graciousness to me by having taken on my flesh and blood. Therefore we should constantly have such and similar words in our heart and on our lips. We should learn not to argue with the devil when he tempts us; for he surpasses us by far in might, cunning, and understanding—even of Holy Scriptures. We should beat him off curtly with the words "The Word became flesh" or "I am a Christian" or "I believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and became man." Then see what he will accomplish! (22/106) |
| 293. |
For ingratitude and contempt for the Gospel are so extreme among us who are termed evangelical and among the papists, our enemies, who persecute the Gospel and are blasphemous and
heretical, that God cannot condone it but will punish it sooner or later. (22/137)
(Begin with confession. Also, my early memory of standing at the top of the hill on my bike on Corwin.) |
| 294. | Formerly I found that I had no delight in the Law. But now I discover that the Law is precious and good, that it was given to me for my life; and now it is pleasing to me. Formerly it told me what to do; now I am beginning to conform to its requests, so that now I praise, laud, and serve God. This I do through Christ, because I believe in Him. The Holy Spirit comes into my heart and engenders a spirit in me that delights in His words and works even when He chastises me and subjects me to cross and temptation. When Christ visits me now with misfortunes, griefs, and perils, I begin to thank Him, saying: "Thank God eternally that He is chastising me this way! Formerly I might have imagined that God had forsaken me. But now sickness is as welcome to me as health, and dungeon and prison look like a royal hall to me. For since I know that God is a gracious Father, all this is pleasing and precious. (22/145) |
| 295. | Whatever is done for us is done for the sake of the man Christ, who possesses the true grace, which is imparted to me through Him. This is the sublime article of our Christian faith on which we discourse daily. It is imperative that we study it diligently, for it is all-important. Those who ignore this article and lapse into the doctrine of the Law, seeking righteousness through the Law, come to be Turks, Tartars, papists, and godless men. It is necessary, therefore, to learn well this grand distinction between the Law and grace. We must distinguish between the office of Christ and that of Moses, placing each into his proper sphere and not confusing the office and work of each, as we all did until now and as some still do. I myself was befuddled by this for over thirty years. Christ in His mercy was hidden from my eyes. (22/145) |
| 296. |
The words "no one has ever seen God" exclude all those who seek God and try to find Him with their reason. There are two kinds of knowledge of God: the one is the knowledge of the
Law; the other is the knowledge of the Gospel. For God issues the Law and the Gospel that He might be known through them. Reason is familiar with the knowledge of God which is based on the
Law. It almost got hold of and sniffed God, for from the Law it saw the difference between right and wrong. Reason can arrive at a "legal knowledge" of God It is conversant with
God's commandments and can distinguish between right and wrong. The philosophers, too, had this knowledge of God. But the knowledge of God derived from the Law is not the true knowledge
of Him, whether it be the Law of Moses or the Law instilled into our hearts. The people do not obey this Law, especially when they look about and observe that the greater the rogue, the
greater his fortune.
The other sort of knowledge of God emerges from the Gospel. There we learn that all the world is by nature an abomination before God, subject to God's wrath and the devil's power, and is eternally damned. From this the world could not extricate itself except through God's Son, who lies in the bosom of the Father. He became man, died, and rose again from the dead, extinguishing sin, death, and devil. This is the "evangelical knowledge" of God. But this knowledge does not grow up in our garden, and nature knows nothing at all about it. Reason has only a left-handed and a partial knowledge of God, based on the law of nature and Moses; for the Law is inscribed in our hearts. But he depth of divine wisdom and of divine purpose, the profundity of God's grace and mercy, and what eternal life is like—of these matters reason is totally ignorant. (22/153) |
| 297. | It is extremely important that we know where our sins have been disposed of. The Law deposits them on our conscience and shoves them into our bosom. But God takes them from us and places them on the shoulders of the Lamb. If sin rested on me and on the world, we would be lost; for it is too strong and burdensome. (22/169) |
| 298. | Christ's anger does not arise from hatred; it springs from a friendly love toward God, who had founded this temple to His own honor and for the ministration of His Word, that people might be instructed in church in the ways of salvation and in the worship of God. (22/234) |
| 299. | A believer must be pious and must lead a good outward life. But the first part, faith, is the more essential. The second is never the equal of faith, although it is more highly prized by the world, which ranks good works above faith. (22/275) |
| 300. | How does the Lord receive Nicodemis? He surely lays him low at first, for his hope and good opinion of himself must be crushed and must vanish. Why? His confession that Christ is a teacher of the truth come from God and his praise of His miracles—these Christ accepts and lets stand. But Christ must destroy his confidence in his observance of the Law. Nicodemis wants to say: "You are a queer preacher with an odd message. You are a teacher come from God; but You have a low opinion of us, as though we were nonexistent and unborn. Have You no eyes? Don't You see me and the entire city of Jerusalem? Or do You want to say that this adult person, this body, must be crushed, squeezed flat, reduced to nothing, and return to its mother's womb?" This doctrine of rebirth by means of nothing but water and the Spirit sound ridiculous to most. But one must not be willful with the Word of God. It is better to say: "I do not understand the words," than to alter them. It is better to leave my hands off and to commend it to God than to add to or detract from God's words. Holy Writ must be treated with veneration and profound awe. (22/277) |
| 301. | "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Flesh and spirit have nothing at all in common; man is either flesh, or he is spirit. Christ compresses all that is exalted by the world into this one word "flesh," call it whatever name you will: noble or ignoble, powerful, clever, judicious, rich, wise, rational, as well as all learned men. But he who is spirit is a new being by Baptism and the Holy Spirit and that I believe in Christ. Then I do not expect riches, power, and glory from Him (as many a person looks exclusively for such things in the world) unless God has given me this before. This spiritual birth is invisible and intangible; it is only believed. We believe what issues from the spiritual existence is spiritual, and that the chief treasure it dispenses is forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Thus a Christian reflects: "Today I am a guest here on earth. I eat and drink her; I live honestly and decently according to the flesh and blood. But tomorrow I set out for eternal life in heaven, where I am a citizen and hold citizenship" (Phil. 3:20). |
| 302. |
"Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born anew." This poses a mysterious and odd doctrine for reason, which cannot come to terms with it. Therefore the good and pious
Nicodemus probably sat there wrapped in silence, brooding sadly, shaking his head, and acting strangely. Undoubtedly he pondered the matter, but he failed to understand. While he is
wrinkling his nose as if to register his displeasure and sits there in silence, Christ continues and says: "My dear Nicodemus, why are you so amazed at this? No matter how long you
meditate on this question, you will never comprehend it. Surrender, and bear in mind that you are learning it from Me. After all, there are other matters, surely of lesser importance, which
you do not understand either, but which your fine and feeble reason has to accept on faith. So do the same thing here. Believe that a man must become a new creature and must be born anew if
he is to be saved, even though you do not understand how this takes place. I shall give you an understandable and clear illustration from nature—The wind blows where it
wills…" With the help of this physical and clear illustration the Lord taught Nicodemus to believe even where he fails to grasp, for he cannot even understand the sense of
hearing (the wind).
Yes, it is vexing and annoying that the wiser and more intelligent people are, the more they insist on knowing and understanding everything in God's realm, and the more they delve into it. There is no end to their questions. But in worldly and lesser matters they ask few questions or none at all. In the realm of faith they insist on knowing why; where they should probe into things with all diligence, they are altogether remiss. Christ says to Nicodemus: "Do not imagine that you can comprehend this matter. You must stick to the sound and the wind, that is, to the Word. One does not know whence the sound of the wind comes or where it goes." Here the Lord explains the meaning of the sound. It is the physical Word that one hears, the testimony and the speeches delivered by preachers; in other words, it is the proclamation of the Word of God. In all Christendom we have nothing greater or more sublime than the Word of God. We hear the sound of the wind; Holy Scripture presents the Word to us everywhere; for instance, in Baptism, where the Word is the principal item. One hears the Word and feels the water, and without the Word Baptism is nothing. What can water accomplish without the Word of God? Likewise, in Holy Communion bread and wine are of no effect without the Word. Bread would forever remain bread, and wine would remain wine. But when the Word is attached to the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that does it; then one feels it, as the rushing of the wind is felt. When the Word is heard, then we feel its sound before our ears. These are the limits of God's revelation of Himself, and we must not believe anything else. We must simply believe and be sure that what we are teaching truly happens. We cannot see and understand it, just as we cannot ascertain whence the wind comes. I cannot see or feel how I am delivered from death and sin. The saints of God are still encumbered with many sins; like other people, they feel in both body and soul a resistance to both Tables of Moses, especially to the First Table: impatience with God and a questioning of His acts and judgments. Christians experience this as much as anyone. But it is wrong! I must not see, feel, know, or recognize anything. I must only listen and cling to the Word, basing everything on the Word of God alone. (22/290) |
| 303. |
It is the devil's scheme to elevate some people; then, as soon as they believe, they will be lured away from the faith and will seize upon matters not recorded in God's Word. They
will take issue with God and brood over the question why God does not bring the entire world to faith and salvation. They will speculate on the wondrous works of God, on His government of
the world and on His judgments. But here is where we should be smart enough to rebuff the devil and say: "I will be content with the wind spoken of here, that is, with faith. If I
content with the sound of this wind, I shall fare well. Then I am safe, and I stand on solid ground. But I do not want to know what God has not revealed in His Word; that I will leave to
the angels."
These people have the effrontery to try to rise higher than faith. But remain on the correct path, on the blazed trail, where there is no swerving either t the right or to the left; this means that you, motivated by your own will and zeal, must do nothing arbitrarily. I will not gaze too sharply into the sun, for its glare is too strong and brilliant. I will hang a screen before it and content myself with listening to the sound. If you do this, you will know all and have all, including everything that is necessary for your physical needs; you will live without worry here and beyond. Then I shall understand why God granted me faith, why He illumined me and not others; I shall also know that one day God will glorify my present body. And once I have traveled this road toward heaven, I need no longer worry about the scoffers who want to rise altogether too high. But the devil places many obstacles in our way to keep us from understanding all this. Even after we do understand it, the devil is still reluctant to leave us undisturbed. He sends us physical and spiritual temptations—physical ones, to make us greedy, unchaste, and sensual; spiritual ones, to make us frivolous and indifferent to the words of God that are addressed to us in Baptism, in Holy Communion, and in absolution. Is it not despicable for anyone to be indifferent to words like "I baptize you" or "Whoever believes and is baptized" or "I forgive you your sins" or Christ gives us His body and blood in the Lord's Supper"? Therefore the wiseacres and schismatic spirits take offense at these words and despise them, as the proclamation of the Gospel is also despised because the persons who preach the Gospel are such insignificant men. These smart alecks suppose: "God really should present something more imposing!" Because of its plainness they also despise Baptism, while they boast and talk much about the Spirit and whatever else they deem important. (22/307) |
| 304. | It might have been expected that the Jews who had been bitten by the serpents would shun this cure, for it is only natural for us to shy away from anything that has harmed us. Even to see a picture of it fills us with sadness and abhorrence. The Jews must have thought: "Moses, are you insane? Do you want to terrify us still more with your cure and scare us out of our wits? How could that serpent help us?" What is the significance of the fact that Moses took a serpent like the ones which had inflicted the wounds, instead of hanging a dead serpent on the pole to look at? He made a bronze serpent in which they had to believe. This signifies that Jesus Christ, God's Son, born of a virgin, became like us condemned people and hung on the cross like a poisonous, evil, and harmful worm. Yes, He resembles the serpent which got us into trouble in Paradise, that is, the devil. (22/340) |
| 305. |
"For God so loved the world." During my twenty years in the cloister I was obsessed with the one thought of observing the rules of my order. We were so drowned in the stupor of
our own good works that we did not see and understand these words. But if you want to find God, then inscribes these words in your heart. Don't sleep, but be vigilant. Learn and ponder
these words diligently: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Let him who can write, write
these words. Furthermore, read them, discuss them, meditate and reflect on them in the morning and in the evening, whether awake or asleep! For the devil will sorely assail your faith in an
effort to make you doubt that Christ is the Son of God and that your faith is pleasing to God. He will torture you with thoughts of predestination, with the wrath and the judgment of God.
Then you must say: "I don't want to hear or know anything about a wrathful God, about His judgment and anger, about hell, about death, and about damnation. But if I do see
God's wrath, I know that this drives me to the Son, where I find refuge; and if I come to the Son, I also have a merciful Father."
And let anyone who does not share this faith pray God that it may be imparted also to him. But see to it that you do not resist this faith or violate and blaspheme it, as the pope does when he says: "Of course, I know that Christ saves; but He does not save me." It certainly seems very strange that the world is so mad and foolish as to be averse to the message of salvation, that it cannot bear the proclamation that it is to attain eternal life and to be redeemed from sin and death, through Christ, the Son of God, and that it need not fear the Last Judgment. This is truly the most pleasing proclamation of all; it is the best. Even if it is brought to our very doorsteps, it meets with rejection. How does it happen that we prize our salvation so little? I myself hear and see that many become evangelical because we preach gently to them but are taken aback and become mad and foolish when they hear or see something displeasing and are told that their good works are rejected. Their anger, wrangling, and hatred stem from the fact that we are saved through the Son, whom God has sent, and not through our cowls, tonsures, or any of our good works. For as soon as people hear that their own efforts count for nothing, all is forgotten. They insist that their own method must be and remain right. By God, let heaven and earth crash down upon this attitude! It Is amazing that man is so malicious that he can discard his own merits only with angry reluctance, whereas he should be very ready and happy to accept salvation by another's aid and benefaction. Man is completely unwilling to have the First Table condemn his deeds. And why do I speak about the sins against the First Table, such as idolatry, blasphemy, cursing, swearing, for which the world refuses to be reproved? The world cannot bear reproof for sins against the Second Table either. For if you tell a peasant that he must believe in Christ, since salvation is being offered to him through Christ, and that he must also guard against fornication and adultery, he will promptly become angry and reject God's Word and teaching. Likewise, when the nobility is taken to task in a sermon, they grow angry and furious. Nor do the princes want to be censured. When they are told: "If you do this or that, you are not Christians," they call such a chastening sermon slanderous and libelous, and they accuse the preachers of defaming them before the people. They demand that a sermon confine itself to the words: "God so loved the world that He gave His Son," and "whoever believes in the Son shall have eternal life." Such a sermon is just fine! But they insist that the preacher ignore the sequel: that the world hates and rejects the light. Kings, princes, lords, and nobleman do not want to have anyone rebuked for loving the darkness. But let the devil refrain from telling them this, for Christ Himself declares here that the world hates the light. (22/371) |
| 306. | The common man does not realize that if I, as a preacher, keep silence and neglect to censure sin, all the sins of this city are charged to my account. You observe how everyone in the world scrapes and scratches, covets and practices usury; and if anyone remonstrates with them, they grow angry and almost burst with indignation. Do you consider it a good evangelical sermon if I keep silence and let you do as you please? Why should you encumber me with your sins? I will not permit them to oppress me. Bear them yourself! You will say: "Yes, but why do you not hush up my sins?" Don't you understand that because of my office I will not and dare not keep my peace? How can you compensate me for being damned on your account, for partaking of the guilt of your sin? Such is the esteem and the thanks the dear Gospel receives from the world: it prefers the darkness to the light. The Gospel of Christ is a precious and sweet message, but it is received with shameful ingratitude. It is a comforting message with a charming sound when one says: "Christ wants to sacrifice His life and His soul for you." But when we take a man to task properly and reprimand him for his sins, it's the devil, and he refuses to tolerate it. One must proceed thus: First teach man that he is saved by Christ alone. Then also hold the prospect of judgment before the ungodly. Tell them that man cannot endure the light which shows him how he is saved, but that he wants to persist in his usury and in other sins. (22/373) |
| 307. | By nature we are disinclined to trust God; and then, when evil teachers, such as schismatic spirits and sectaries, also appear, everything is soon undone. I must still apply myself like a child to the study of these words, which assure me that Christ did not come to judge the world. Christ's occasional stern and rebuking demeanor in the Gospel has but one objective: to save the world, not to condemn and judge it. (22/377) |
| 308. | God's chastening rod is to be construed as a judgment which intends to save us and to remove us from condemnation. (22/379) |
| 309. | Even if your sin and your conscience plague and oppress you and you stand in awe of God's judgment, you must realize that all has been changed and that judgment has been abolished. Instead of harboring fear of the Final Judgment you must yearn and long for it, since it does not denote your judgment at all but your redemption. (22/385) |
| 310. | In the papacy, we old people were so corrupted that even today I find it difficult to believe my own sermons proclaiming that Christ alone is our Savior; nor can I accept the Light as freely as I should like. The pope's doctrine holds me back and conjures up the opposing view, namely, that I will have to satisfy God's judgment with my good works. (22/389) |
| 311. | I, tool, was so enveloped by darkness that I really was hostile to Christ and grew fond of Mary and St. George. The world marches on to wrack and ruin, and after our death you will find that you will be visited by even greater darkness. Many schismatic spirits, sectaries, and fluttering spirits will arise to confuse you so that you will not know which way to turn. God is well able to send us great darkness. Hell will also be made hotter for us if we love such darkness more than the Light. We will share in the verdict which the Lord Christ pronounced upon the cities Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernauum: "Woe to you, Capernaum! Woe to you, Chorazin!" (Matt. 11:21-24) Let us be on our guard lest Wittenberg become another Bethsaida and it be said of her: "You were exalted to heaven; you will be hurled down into hell!" This is what happened to Jerusalem as well as to Sodom and Gomorrah. Have no doubt, the judgment can come swiftly; and those who despise the Light will be plunged into hell. For Christ declares: "This is my judgment which has come over the world and over this city because they love false doctrine and a sinful life. Therefore they will perish more ignominiously than Sodom and Gomorrah." Aye, rumor has it that the Turk is ready to march on Germany. The country is ripe for judgment; it flows with the blood of poor Christians who have been murdered. Our ungrateful people fairly devour their pastors. Therefore I fear—although I prophesy reluctantly—that a severe punishment will be visited on Germany, a punishment so great than no human heart can express it. (22/390) |
| 312. | Wherever faith is genuine, it cannot hold its tongue; it would rather suffer death. Such faith will also confess God's Word before tyrants. To be sure, it will encounter all sorts of trials and temptations from the devil, as the martyrs amply experienced. Therefore St. John rejects a false and feigned faith; he demands a genuine faith which will openly confess before the world the two things it has learned, namely, that Christ is the Son of God and of Mary and that he became our Savior. If this Christian confession stands, other good works will follow. If you were a fornicator, an adulterer, or a drunkard, you will now be that no longer; for if you are redeemed from sin, you will henceforth desist from sin. Consider how you could harmonize a sinful life, greed, anger, hatred, and fornication with a claim to Christianity. No faith can exist where sin abounds. (22/393) |
| 313. | St. John joins these three items, which can, in fact, never be dissociated: first, the deity and the humanity of Christ; second, faith in Christ, our Savior and Redeemer; and third; the good works which attest faith in God and love of one's neighbor. All three points are attacked by the world: Christ as God and man, faith in Christ, and good works. The Turk and Arius storm against the first point: that Christ is true God' they find it unbearable. The second—that Christ is our Atonement and our only Savior—is attacked by the pope and by all the work-righteous. The third one is opposed by the whole world, by all false Christians, all of whom are averse to the performance of good works and prefer to live in sin and shame. (22/395) |
| 314. | For what would God not be glad to give us, if we only came to the cross? However, people refuse to do that. And by this refusal they augment their sin sevenfold; yes, they multiply it without end and measure. This was bemoaned and lamented by all the prophets. Moses called the Children of Israel "a stubborn, stiff-necked, and disobedient nation unwilling to obey and follow God." Stephan rebukes the Jews: "You always resist the Holy Spirit." (22/396) |
| 315. | It lies in the nature of man that he does not want his sin to be viewed as sin but to be called righteousness before God and the world. (22/404) |
| 316. | This is really an excellent verse: "Everyone who does evil hates the light." One should thank God for the light; yes, one should long for it; one should desist from evil and say: "Dear Lord, I am straying. Give me Thy light, help me that the day may break and I may see." But instead they pray: "Oh, never let the sun rise, for I want to be able to steal." They love the evil more than the good. How can we explain that a person hates that which is good and pleasing? Our text gives the answer: "Lest his deeds should be punished." (22/406) |
| 317. | He who justifies God in His words is a true master. He regards God as true both in His majesty and in His Word. (22/474) |
| 318. | Permit Christ to be the only image in your heart, and say: "I believe in a Lord who is called Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin, who is Lord over all, and who creates all." (22/499) |
| 319. | Whenever you feel depressed, you have your pastor or brother to absolve you and to speak to you in behalf of God. Thus God runs after you. If you have princes and government, be obedient to them. It is unnecessary for you to run hither and yon; all that God demands of you is that you read, write, and attend to your office. (22/524) |
| 320. | This contention and argument between the true and the false church dates back to the beginning, and it will never cease. The sects and the heretics have always assailed the true church, as this woman does when she says: "Do You, an excommunicated Jew, ask me, a holy Samaritan, to give you a drink?" The Samaritans firmly believed that they would be saved because they worshiped God on Mt. Gerazim. This young woman is not obdurate, however, not headstrong and incorrigible. This is how we should like to see many of those who are enveloped in the darkness of the papacy and cannot find their way out of the gloom by themselves. Would that they were led out and converted to Christ! They would belong in the category of this Samaritan woman. Otherwise the devil will take possession of the schismatic spirits, leaving them bereft of all five senses. All the prophets experienced—and so do we in our day—that a fanatic is an unmitigated fool. He will accept nothing but what he things in his heart is true and what is uppermost in his mind. He is like the wolf which cries incessantly: "Bring the lamb here!" Thus they and theirs go to their doom. No matter what Munzer was told, he would not admit his error. He was possessed; he was intoxicated like a drunkard. When such people do wake up, they realize how they are faring. St. Paul says that one must plead with them in the hope that they may become sober again (2 Tim. 2:25). While they are in a stupor, they hear nothing but what they like. It is difficult to regain such people. Take, for example, the Sacramentarians, who assail the positive truth. God forbid that we should be like them! This woman is not yet possessed by the devil to such an extent that she cleaves and clings to error and cannot be torn away from it, although she is, of course, caught in the web of error and is not a true believer. We find many of her kind today. It is still possible to help such people. For their sake we must preach, as the Lord Himself here preaches to this young woman. She tries to defend herself, asserting that she is holy and that Christ the Lord is not. Her conscience has been taken captive by idle babblers. (22/525) |
| 321. | Would to God that we could gradually train our hearts to believe that the preacher's words are God's Word and that the man addressing us is a scholar and a king. As a matter of fact, it is not an angel or a hundred thousand angels but the Divine Majesty Himself that is preaching there. To be sure, I do not hear this with my ears or see it with my eyes; all I hear is the voice of the preacher, or of my brother or father, and I behold only a man before me. But I view the picture correctly if I add that the voice and words of father or pastor are not his own words and doctrine but those of our Lord and God. People generally think: "If I had an opportunity to hear God speak in person, I would run my feet bloody." I suppose we could learn how people would run if God addressed them in His majesty. This is what happened on Mt. Sinai, where only the angels spoke and yet the mountain was wrapped in smoke and quaked. But you now have the Word of God in church, in books, in your home; and this is God's Word as surely as if God Himself were speaking to you. Christ says: "You do not know the gift." We recognize neither the Word not the Person of Christ, but we take offense at His humble and weak humanity. When God wants to speak and deal with us, He does not avail Himself of an angel but of parents, of the pastor, or of my neighbor. This puzzles and blinds me so that I fail to recognize God, who is conversing with me through the person of the pastor or father. (22/527) |
| 322. | There is no difference between the Word when uttered by a schoolboy and when uttered by the angel Gabriel; they only vary in rhetorical ability. (22/529) |
| 323. | Experience will teach each person how much labor and how long a time it takes to learn this art. Indeed you have learned the words very easily: "The righteous man will be without any fear; the Christian fears neither sin nor death, but will laugh at the devil and his threats." But try it and see whether you can be happy-hearted when your conscience accuses you or heresies and offenses arise. For immediately the flesh begins to tremble and wishes that it could see everything quiet. But since it happens differently and all things which appear before the eyes are unjust, impious, foolish, profane, blasphemous, turbulent, and unquiet, these invisible things about which the Holy Spirit teaches us in this place are driven away by those visible facts. (12/28) |
| 324. | The true fear of God is a filial fear, that is, a fear mixed with joy or hope. But if you follow your feeling, you will perceive that joy is all but overwhelmed and extinguished by fear. But you must not on that account let your heart sink or despair, but trust in the Lord and lay hold on his Word, which declares that God's anger is but for a moment (Ps. 30:5) and His favor is for a lifetime. There is an important reason why He unites joy with trembling. For if one feels pure joy, smugness follows; presumption follows smugness, but damnation follows presumption. For God cannot tolerate presumption. We shall, however, mix these in such a way if we rejoice in God but are disturbed within ourselves. For we are not only foolish but also miserable sinners. There is cause enough, then, for us to tremble and fear. This is pure worship. As a young man I hated this verse, for I did not hear with pleasure that God had to be feared. This came about, however, because I did not know that fear had to mixed with joy or hope. That is, I did not know the difference between our works and the works of Christ. Our works are corrupt, just as all nature is spoiled. Therefore we ought not to be secure, but fear the judgment of God. In contrast, Christ's works are holy and perfect. Therefore we ought to hold fast to hope for mercy. We should accordingly fear in such a way that joy is not entirely excluded. It must, moreover, be true joy. For it will not be so shut up within the heart that no signs of it will appear outside. A quiet heart and one which truly believes that God has been reconciled to us on account of Christ will produce a cheerful countenance and happy eyes, it will loosen the tongue for the praises to God. (12/79) |
| 325. | It is though he were saying (Psalm 23:5): "The Lord indeed makes an unusual warrior of me and arms me quite wonderfully against my enemies. I thought that He would have put armor on me, placed a helmet on my head, put a sword into my hand, and warned me to be cautious and give careful attention to the business at hand lest I be surprised by my enemies. But instead He places me at a table and prepares a splendid meal for me, anoints my head with precious balm or (after the fashion of our country) puts a wreath on my head as if, instead of going to do battle, I were on my way to a party or a dance. And so that I may not want anything now, He fills my cup to overflowing so that at once I may drink, be happy and of good cheer, and get drunk. The prepared table, accordingly, is my armor, the precious balm my helmet, the overflowing cup my sword; and with these I shall conquer all my enemies." (12/176) |
| 326. | A Christian should say that he deserves punishment for his life. He should keep his mouth shut when punished and rebuked for his life. Where God's Word is everything is clear and good, but concerning our life we dare not boast. Concerning our speech we should boast before God and men of our certainty that our teaching is correct. I can say, "Thus my teaching stands, and so it is correct." It is a good teaching. This is evident from the fact that it builds upon the Lord Christ, it lest God be our Lord God, and it gives God the glory. This teaching is correct, and it cannot go wrong; nor will anyone improve on it. (12/187) |
| 327. | What do we have to be so puffed up and proud about? We have many students here who are so full of knowledge after they have been in Wittenberg half a year that they suppose they are more learned than I am. When they go out into the country to other people, their knowledge breaks out like a cloudburst. It seems to weigh a hundred pounds, but if you put it on a scale, it would only weigh an eighth of an ounce. That is what pride does. They have learned only a word or two, or they have heard a single word. Then this becomes pure Adam, all flesh, so that they all apply their knowledge to achieving some pre-eminence. They also accomplish a great deal this way. We see this now, alas, when they bring up such a crowd of fanatics that we have our hands full quieting them. After hearing us once, they suppose that they can do everything and that they know and understand much more than those who are doing the preaching. But if they kept the picture of God before their eyes and called to mind that they must give an answer and account for their doctrine, they would probably forget their pride. For that reason it is probably good that they have been put through the roller so that their doctrine might experience something in life. But because they do not experience anything, therefore they do not know what they are preaching. We can hardly extinguish what they ignite and burn. Now, David wants to be winnowed so that the old Adam might collapse and not arise again. He says, "Prove me, O Lord, and try me; purify my kidneys and my heart." (12/189) |
| 328. | Such foolish disciples are we that once we have heard the doctrine of eternal salvation, we think we have exhausted all there is of the Holy Spirit; we are soon sated, we throw the book from our hands, and we follow instead our fleshly inclinations and gain. It should be altogether different: since we see that to the Holy Spirit it is not wearisome to proclaim and portray the same matter continually, neither should we shrink from the work involved in learning it, particularly since the words of the Holy Spirit are such that they can never be learned sufficiently. (12/197) |
| 329. | Without faith and spiritual alertness no one can become well-grounded in Holy Scriptures. You do not acquire this wisdom by laws or by your reason, but it is contained in the Word. (12/203) |
| 330. | I have been forbidden to evaluate either myself on the basis of my own feelings, or the church on the basis of external appearance. I have been commanded to judge by the Word of promise. The Gospel says and teaches something different from my senses. "Sin will have no dominion over you" (Rom. 6:14). This comfort and knowledge is so great that it cannot be understood as quickly as I wish it could. If we could grasp it completely, we would never be stirred by any sense of death or sin. Our failure to understand this fully makes our conscience vex us, dangers disturb us, the remembrance of death and afflictions frighten us. This failure lies in our comprehension, it does not lie in Christ. It is like a man who has fallen into the middle of a stream. He catches the branch of a tree somehow to support himself above the water and be saved. So in the midst of sins, death, and anxieties we, too, lay hold on Christ with a weak faith. Yet this faith, tiny though it may be, still preserves us and rules over death and treads the devil and everything under foot. (12/262) |
| 331. | It is not pride to say to sin: "Get out of here. Go to the devil. Let me alone. For I am your lord, because Christ is Lord. With Him I have been raised and placed with Him in heavenly places. So I rule, and I must exercise my dominion in order to get used to it." It is not pride, I insist, to say this. Lay claim for yourself to everything that belongs to Christ. Get used to exercising possession of your right. Then you will see how hard it is. We are in truth kings over these evils and lords over all the benefits that are in Christ, and we all wear golden crowns—but all this only by faith, which struggles against the opposite outward appearance. So nothing is more difficult than this spiritual pride that is in Christ. Would that we might learn this spiritual pride that is in Christ. Would that we might learn to say to Satan: "What can you do to me with all your sins, with death, and with every evil? Among the wise of the world you are something. With the Turks, the pope, the princes, you are a great lord. But in comparison with me you are nothing whatsoever—with me, I say, not insofar as I am a person, but insofar as I have been baptized and believe in Christ." Thus we are proud, and "we glory in tribulation," as Paul says in Romans 5:3. (12/264) |
| 332. | Each one of us bears in his breast a great monk. That is, each would like to have such a work in which he could glory: "Behold, I have done this. Today I have satisfied God by my prayers, by my good works, so I can enjoy greater peace of mind." It has happened to me, too, that when I have carried out a work of my calling I am much happier than if I had not done it. In itself, to be sure, it is not wrong to be happy, but this happiness is without faith and impure and is of the sort that would take the conscience captive and disturb a person. Because the conscience is a most delicate thing, it cannot be guarded sufficiently against his vice of presumption. For that reason let no one be secure. We who confess Christ should walk in fear and grow in faith, and acknowledge that we each bear in our breast a monstrous and disgusting monk, that is, a foolish and carnal delusion of works, the ruin of faith. Against this wicked delusion or works the Holy Spirit holds up to us here (Ps. 45:10) the absolute goal of purity, namely, that we first forget this righteousness, at least in the outward ministry of the Word. We should hold fast to what we have acquired here by God's grace and not preach the righteousness of works, but rather the pure righteousness of Christ, who suffered for us and rose again from the dead. The other elements involved in this ministry of the Word are pure; the administration of the Sacraments, the care of souls, and the government of the church are pure. In the same way as this purity is central in the ministry of the Word, so it ought to be in our hearts. But what happens? In the ministry I have completely forgotten this monk, nor does anyone hear this name from me. In my heart I do not serve my Word, which by my mouth I teach purely, but sometimes the monk creeps in on me unawares. It is also a great good work of God that He has placed this goal of purity of doctrine, that at least doctrine remain pure. We ought to aim at this goal, that just as the doctrine is pure, so faith, too, may be pure in grasping and holding faith to Christ. But this does not happen. So we have to struggle as long as we live against this monk and the devil who rules and assists him. Since the Holy Spirit sees how much our nature is entangled in monasticism, He is with us warning and exhorting that we should hear, that we should learn to forget all preceding works, also our highest righteousness. Just as our heart has forgotten the doctrine of this monk, so it should also forget all these things and cling in pure faith to the righteousness of Christ alone. (12/274-75) |
| 333. | David is an outstanding example. One by one he broke almost the whole Decalog. Yet he would not have acknowledge these sins if Nathan had not come, but would still have wanted to be known as a righteous and holy king. Explained this way, David's sin is a very moving example of grace and sin. Indeed, if the Holy Scriptures had not told this story, who would ever have believed that such a holy man could sink so low? Yet such a man fell, not into some peccadillo, but at one time into a whole mass of sins. What is even worse, he fell into impenitence and deep smugness, so that if Nathan had not come, David might have sinned against the Holy Spirit. (12/306) |
| 334. | This knowledge of sin (Psalm 51) is not some sort of speculation or an idea which the mind thinks up for itself. It is a true feeling, a true experience, and a very serious struggle of the heart, as he testifies when he says (v.3), "I know (that is, I feel or experience) my transgressions." This is what the Hebrew word really means. It does not mean to call to mind what one has done and what one has failed to do; but it means to feel and to experience the intolerable burden of the wrath of God. The knowledge of sin is itself the feeling of sin, and the sinful man is the one who is oppressed by his conscience and tossed to and fro, not knowing where to turn. Therefore, the proper subject of theology is man guilty of sin and condemned, and God the Justifier and Savior of man the sinner. Whatever is asked or discussed in theology outside this subject, is error and poison. All Scripture points to this, that God commends His kindness to us and in His Son restores to righteousness and life the nature that has fallen into sin and condemnation. (12/310-11) |
| 335. |
We must distinguish between the sinner who feels his sins and the sinner who does not feel his sins. God does not want the prayer of a sinner who does not feel his sins, because he neither
understands nor wants what he is praying for. Thus the enemies of the Gospel count words. Not only do they fail to understand this, but they do things that contradict it, when they
undertake various acts of worship, when they look for forgiveness of sins without feeling that they are sinners, who go along with stubborn brow and justify themselves, who persecute the
Word of God—such people, I say, should be kept far away from all mercy. Before them you should set sayings of wrath, in which God does not offer mercy but eternal punishments, as in
the First Commandment (Ex. 20:5): "I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation." To them you should set forth
examples of divine wrath, the destruction of Sodom, the coming of the Flood over all flesh, the scattering of the holy people, and whatever other fearful spectacles of the judgment and
wrath of God there may be in the Scriptures. Thus the callous and impenitent sinners will be brought to a knowledge of themselves, and they will begin a serious plea for mercy. These are
the ones of whom it is said, "God hates the sinners; God does not hear sinners."
The other sinners are those who feel their sins and the wrath of God and who are afraid before the face of God. These people apply to themselves the threats set forth in the Word of God, and the fearful examples of divine wrath so depress them that they are afraid of the very same punishments because of their sins. When, amid these terrors, the mind has thus been crushed by the hammer of the Law and the judgment of God, this is really the place, time, and occasion to grasp this divine wisdom. Then the heart consoles itself and is sure that when God is wrathful against sinners, He is wrathful only against those who are hard and callous. (12/313-16) |
| 336. | To call upon God and to say, "Have mercy," is not a great deal of work. But to add the particle "on me"—this is really what the Gospel inculcates so earnestly, and yet we experience how hard it is for us to do it. This "on me" hinders almost all our prayers, when it ought to be the only reason and highest occasion for praying. (12/317) |
| 337. | If anyone thinks that prayer should be put off until the mind is clean of impure thoughts, he is doing nothing but using his wisdom and strength to help Satan, who is already more than strong enough. (12/318) |
| 338. | The word "blot out" means that sins are written in our conscience with the pen of the Law. The prophet wants the memory of sin to be abolished in his heart and in the eyes of God, the way writing is erased from a tablet. Yet this should not happen in such a way that grace or gratitude disappears because guilt is thus forgiven, or that we forget grace, as Peter says (2 Peter 1:9) about those who forget the forgiveness of their old sins and by their unfaithfulness and ingratitude pile up new sins. (12/326) |
| 339. | The power of sin is to accuse, condemn, sting, sadden, disquiet the heart, show a wrathful God, hell, and the like. This power of sin is done away with through free mercy, and yet there remain true remnants of this poison. Therefore both statements are true: "No Christian has sin"; and "Every Christian has sin." From this there arises the distinction that with Christians there are two kinds of sin, the sin that is forgiven and the sin that remains, which must still be destroyed and washed away. This latter kind of sin is forgiven; it has been crushed by trust in mercy so that it no longer condemns or accuses. Yet because of this flesh it still sprouts and struggles within our flesh to bring forth fruits like the old fruits, to make us smug, thankless, and ignorant of God, as we used to be. These are the efforts of the remnants of sin in us, which even the saints feel, but through the Holy Spirit they do not give in to them. (12/328) |
| 340. | As Paul says (Romans 8:13) that by the Spirit we "put to death the deeds of the body." What happens to us is that most of us live is such smugness as though we were all spirit and nothing of the flesh were left at all. Therefore we must learn that the flesh still remains and that the task of the Spirit is to war against the flesh, lest the flesh accomplish that for which it lusts. Therefore the Christian is not formally righteous, he is not righteous according to substance or quality—I use these words for instructions sake. He is righteous according to his relation to something: namely, only in respect to divine grace and the free forgiveness of sins, which comes to those who acknowledge their sin and believe that God is gracious and forgiving for Christ's sake, who was delivered for our sins (Romans 4:25) and is believed in by us. After we have attained this righteousness by faith, then we need the bath or washing of which the psalm speaks. Sin does not condemn any more, but it still remains to vex us. (12/329) |
| 341. | There are two parts of justification. The first is grace revealed through Christ, that through Christ we have a gracious God, so that sin can no longer accuse us, but our conscience has found pace through trust in the mercy of God. The second part is the conferring of the Holy Spirit with His gifts, who enlightens us against the defilements of spirit and flesh (2 Cor. 7:1). |
| 342. | "Against Thee only do I sin." That is: "I acknowledge that in Thy sight I am nothing but a sinner." And again: "I always do that which is evil in Thy sight." That is: "My whole life is evil and corrupt because of sin. In Thy sight I cannot boast of my merit or righteousness, but I am completely evil. Before Thee this is my name, that I do evil, that I have sinned, that I am sinning, that I shall sin forever." (12/327) |
| 343. | Even in the saints there remains the feeling of blasphemy, that they are often indignant when everything they have is called guilty. In the saints there is also this feeling, that they will pray more diligently, believe more fully, and praise God when they see that they have pure hands and feelings and that they are free of all sin. But this means to stop being human and to become a god or an angel. Thus the sin that is hidden even in the saints struggles against the judgment of God. Though the spirit is ruled by the Word and consents to it, still Paul confesses (Rom. 7:23) that there is another law in his flesh warring against the Spirit and the Word. (12/343) |
| 344. | A godly man feels sin more than grace, wrath more than favor, judgment more than redemption. An ungodly man feels almost no wrath, but is smug as though there were no wrath anywhere, as though there were no God anywhere who vindicates His righteousness. This happens mostly in those who strive for some appearance or religion. Thus many wickedly boast that their religion is most like the life of Christ, and therefore in their smugness they do not pray. On the other hand, the more a godly man feels his weakness, the more earnest he is in prayer. With this wisdom there simultaneously begins continuous prayer. Because the feeling of sin does not cease, sighing and prayer do not cease, asking that this wisdom may be made perfect (Ps. 51:6). This prayer is a fervent desire against the battle of the flesh which we feel, that as the feeling of sin abounds, so the feeling of grace and the consolation of the Spirit may abound even more (Rom. 5:20). Therefore in Zechariah (12:10) the spirit of grace is joined to the spirit of prayer. (12/ 358) |
| 345. | The forgiveness of sins becomes actual not through works but through hearing. (12/371) |
| 346. | In the monastery I often asked many people to tell me what "humbled bones" are (Ps. 51:8). Because they did not have the experience of such temptations, it was impossible for them to say anything sound or sure about an unknown thing. Not everyone suffers the same temptations, but God gives these things according to how much each can bear. Yet it is necessary that everyone experience this feeling of Law and death, even though some experience it more and others less and some feel it only in the last hour of their lives. It happens literally, too, that in this feeling the bones are humbled, that is, the strength of body and the powers are shattered and unusually afflicted, as we experience in sudden danger of death or in other great sorrows. This contrition of the bones is a contrition vastly different from that of the pope, who commands us to ponder the sins we have committed and then imposes the most foolish satisfactions. (12/ 372) |
| 347. | Many make the error of dreaming that it is enough to begin once. They teach that grace is a quality hidden in the heart; if someone has it included in his heart like a jewel, God regards him, if he do-operates with his free will. Again, if someone has first grace, even if it be only a spark, he is saved. But we teach and believe differently about grace, namely, that grace is the continuous and perpetual operation or action through which we are grasped and moved by the Spirit of God so that we do not disbelieve His promises and that we think and do whatever is favorable and pleasing to God. The Spirit is something living, not dead. Just as life is never idle, but as long as it is present, it is doing something—for even in sleep life is not idle, but either the body is growing, as in children, or other works of life are felt in breathing and the pulse—so the Holy Spirit is never idle in the pious, but is always doing something that pertains to the kingdom of God. I am warning you to get used to understanding these theological terms properly so that when you hear the word "create," you do not think of one momentary work, but of the continuing rule, conservation, and growth of spiritual actions in the faithful heart. (12/ 378) |
| 348. | "Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and conform me with a princely Spirit." This is now the third gift of the Holy Spirit that he asks to be conferred upon him. It is surely a fine sequence that the prophet follows; as though he were to say: "I am already righteous by the grace of God, because I am sure of the forgiveness of sins. Then I am also sanctified, for I walk in the obedience of holiness of the Lord's commandments, and this gift of the Spirit is growing daily. Now a third still remains, that there come a courageous and strong mind, which will confess this justifier and sanctifier before the world and will not let itself be driven away from confession by any dangers." "Happiness" here properly means constancy or a fearless mind that is not afraid of the world or Satan or even death. This sequence is also evident from the subject matter itself, as the prophet says in another passage (Ps. 116:10): "I believed, therefore I have spoken." After the knowledge of the truth there immediately follows confession, by which we refute "diverse teachings" (Heb. 13:9). But after confession comes the following: "But I was greatly humbled" (Ps. 116:10). We need confirmation by the princely Spirit so that in that humiliation we do not become dejected in our minds but with a courageous spirit despise all dangers. Just so, by the grace of God I have also experienced this great gift, that by my teaching and writing I have freely confessed Jesus Christ, my Lord and liberator, against the will of emperor, pope, princes, kings, and almost the whole world, even amid a thousand dangers to life with which my wrathful enemies and Satan himself were threatening me. So the Lord says to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:18): "I shall make your face iron so that you do not care who attacks it." And really, the office of teaching in the church requires such a mind that despises all dangers. In general, all the devout should prepare themselves so that they are not afraid of becoming martyrs, that is, confessors or witnesses of God. (12/383) |
| 349. | This is the first sacrifice which David wants to render to God upon being justified, that he teach sinners the way of God, that is, teach how to return to God (Ps. 51:13). (12/ 389) |
| 350. | "O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth will announce Thy praise." By asking the Lord that his lips be opened he shows what hard work this sacrifice of praise is, called for in Ps. 50:15. It is boldness above boldness, strength above strength, and courage above courage to dare to speak in public and to confess the name of the Lord. Here Satan threatens with all manner of treachery to hinder this confession. (12/393) |
| 351. | I exhort and admonish you, who will one day be the teachers of the church. When minds are in extreme despair, teach them in such a way that they will lift themselves up and dare to hope, because it is written here that hearts which are contrite and humble this way are a most pleasing sacrifice to God, which He prefers to all acts of worship (Ps. 51:17) But this theology pertains only to the consolation of the afflicted, miserable, and despairing. They droop and fall because they have broken and crushed hearts. Therefore they accept Christ the Physician, who teaches that "this is not an illness unto death" (John 11:4) but a most joyful sacrifice to God. This is the medicine which cures those unspeakable sorrows, and there is no other kind of medicine besides. "A contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." He says, "a contrite and humbled heart," one that has become smaller not fictitiously but truly, one that almost dies of despair. This theology must be learned through experience. Without experience it cannot be understood that the "poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3) should know that they are in grace when they most feel the wrath of God, that in despair they should keep their hope in mercy, and in smugness they should keep their fear of God. Presumption about our own righteousness and despair about our own unworthiness are equally great sins. We must hold to the middle way, otherwise the most pleasing sacrifice can become the highest abomination. (12/405) |
| 352. | "Then wilt Thou accept the sacrifice of righteousness, offerings, and burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls over Thy altar." That is: "Then we shall praise the sacrifices which we earlier condemned, and they will please Thee." You can understand all the sacrifices correctly, whether those that were done according to the Law or whether spiritual sacrifices; both are sacrifices of righteousness, because their whole power is in the goodness of God and in divine blessing. When men trust in mercy this way, then if an ox is offered, it pleases God and is a sacrifice of righteousness. If there is no ox, then the "ox of our lips," as Hosea calls it (Hos. 14:2) pleases Him. Therefore Christ is the Physician of the contrite, who wants to life up the fallen and "not to quench the dimly burning wick" (Is. 42:3), but to cherish it. So if you are a wick, do not quench yourself, that is, do not add despair. If you are a "bruised reed," do not bruise yourself further nor let Satan bruise you, but give yourself to Christ, who is a friend to men and who loves crushed and broken spirits. This is the first and most powerful sacrifice. (12/408) |
| 353. | The first sacrifice is a sacrifice of mortification, that we be neither carried away by success nor crushed by failure, but moderate our smugness with the fear of God and maintain our hope for mercy amid feelings of God's wrath and judgment. Thus we do not smash into heaven with our heads nor into the earth with our feet. The other type of sacrifice is thanksgiving. This is not only a matter of the tongue, that we confess our faith and preach the name of the Lord, but of all the actions of life. It is called "a sacrifice of righteousness," which pleases God because the person is righteous and the sacrifice of humiliation and contrition has preceded. It observes the middle between pride and despair—the physical middle, that is, not the mathematical. In this weakness of ours it is impossible so to live that we never swerve to the right or to the left. Still an effort is required so that when we feel either smugness or despair, we do not succumb to it but resist it. Just as a target is assigned to an archer, so a place is given to those who do not miss the target completely, even though they do not hit the center of the mathematical point. For God it is enough that we battle against the smugness and pride of the flesh and against despair. Even though some happiness may be lacking in afflictions, or some fear in prosperity, this is not imputed to the saints. For they have Christ as their mediator. (12/410) |
| 354. | What is left of the thoughts after a man has been angry and displeased with himself? Precisely the memories of and perseverance i4n such things. For a man should always judge himself, always be angry with himself, as blessed Augustine explains very well. The Hebrew text reads (Psalm 76:3) either "the wrath of man will confess to Thee, and with the remnants of grief Thou wilt be girded" or "the grief of man will confess to Thee, and Thou wilt gird on or retain the remnants of wrath." It is as if it were saying: "An afflicted spirit and a contrite heart will be a perpetual sacrifice to Thee (Ps. 51:17). So Ps. 4:4-5 taught: "Be angry, but sin not, speak in your hearts and experience remorse on your beds. And thus offer up the sacrifice of righteousness and praise"; for such remorse and wrath and speaking of the heart is the very sacrifice of praise and righteousness and a confession to God. It is therefore clear that in this passage "thought" and "the remainders of thought" should be taken in the sense of displeasure and an act of angry power. With these Christ likes to be girded. For Is. 59:17 says: "He wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle." But the reason for mentioning thought, and not speech and deed, is that speech and deed can be faked in confession, but not thought. And he wants to teach us to confess to God out of a true heart. The "remainders of thoughts" consist of the constant reminder "that you were a sinner" and that "you remember what has been given to us as a gift." (11/5) |
| 355. | When the flesh is crucified and is not permitted to indulge in its desires, but is chastised, then the heart has peace. (11/7) |
| 356. | Lamentations 3:51: "My eye wasted my soul," because it snatches the soul from the inner things toward the outside and cuts its throat. Thus the flesh is a cave of robbers. The senses are the robbers, constantly on the alert for evil. So we live in a cave of robbers as long as we live in the flesh. (11/8) |
| 357. | It is the mark of a perfect Christian to remember God in connection with any creature and its use. Thus to remember means always to praise, give thanks, tell others, bless, not only with the tongue as in the physical synagog but with the whole heart, with the tongue, and with the whole life. So the intellect remembers when it keeps busy meditating on these things; the will remembers when it keeps on loving and praying; the hand remembers when it is constantly active. For if it would remember this only once and with one stroke, it is not memory, but recollection. And in order that we might learn that this is memory, he says in the preceding psalm: "I remembered the works of the Lord, for I will be mindful of Thy wonders from the beginning. And I will meditate on all Thy works, and I will be employed in Thy inventions" (Ps. 77:11-12) (11/11) |
| 358. | Ps. 77:1: "I will speak in Thy inventions," these are the works which we are to tell and do. On the contrary, the ungodly "will walk in their own inventions," as Ps. 81:12 tells us. Thus the soul that is truly delicate and of a good constitution, altogether blood-red and of the most lively feeling, is the one that from everything and its function, through whichever sense it may be experienced, perceives God, elicits fear of God and reverence for Him; also love and hope and devotion and affection toward God, as well as hatred of evil and sin. Besides, it gives thanks, praises, and blesses, and what is especially to be weighed, it is also instructed. For to make use of creatures only according to the body, and not through them to direct the heart and the mind toward God, is to perceive them only with the senses, like the horse and the mule. They see them only as long as they are present. Therefore all such souls are melancholic, thick-skinned, of a very bad constitution, stolid and dull in their feelings, not knowing how to meditate or remember or speak or be exercised, but capable only of feeling and seeing, like the horse and the mule, as was said. But not these four verbs, "I remembered," I will be mindful," "I will meditate," "I will be exercised." Step by step devotion and instruction, understanding and love increase. (11.15) |
| 359. | The more profoundly a created thing is recognized, the more wonders are seen in it, namely, how full it is of God's wisdom. Hence the spiritual man sees in the same matter many things and the wonderful wisdom of God. For from the works the mind is lifted to a higher level toward God, so that now it may see God more than the works, as on the first step it had seen the works more than God. Then, on the third step, he has advanced still more and draws the conclusion that thus all works are wonderful, and he wishes to meditate on them in like manner, that is, remember them thoughtfully and wisely. (11/16) |
| 360. | Hence one who has not experienced this remorse and meditation cannot be taught this psalm with any words. It is difficult for me, too, because I am outside of remorse and yet speak about remorse. No one can worthily speak or hear any Scripture, unless he is touched in conformity with it, so that he feels inwardly what he hears and says outwardly and says, "Ah, this is true!" (11/37) |
| 361. | If they do not want to remember His words, or if the words do not much move them, at least let them remember the works. And he who is not moved by the teaching of Christ, let him be moved by Christ's suffering and most excellent example to keep His commandments. It is impossible for one who fixes the works of Christ in his heart and believes His words to be true not to become eager to keep His commandments. Conversely, it is impossible for one to keep them who does not believe His works and words and does not fix them in his memory. It is by faith that the memory of the Lord's works is fixed. But no one can do any of this unless he first despairs of himself and the world and puts his hope in the Lord. He can then fix Christ's works and words in the heart after he has cast out hope in the world and has begun to hope exclusively in the Lord. Therefore the first thing for him is to be poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3). (11/47) |
| 362. | Faith is the shortcut by which one comes quickly to peace and salvation. This is the direct way. But the wisdom of the flesh seeks peace and good by a round-about way, and yet it never gets there. They do not believe that their spirit had need to work with God. They wished and always wish that God ought to work with their flesh, namely, by giving to them and by prospering them in those things that are carnal and earthly. And therefore they did not trust their spirit with God. The psalmist does not say "their spirit did not believe toward God" or "in God," but "with God." Thus every proud and quarrelsome person who struggles against commandment and obedience fights against Christ, against the church, against the truth. He "bends his bow" to overcome truth, so as not to obey it and be subject to it. But he wants it to give in, to perish, and to stop, while he wants himself and his disobedience and rebellion to stand. Oh, how many there are who do this and do now know that they are like the Jews, yes, even worse. For the Jews waged war against Christ in the flesh, while these do so in spirit and in truth. For even if they do not attack the truth in their teaching, they nevertheless do it very great harm by a scandalous life. And I fear that this may perhaps be the worst war the church has ever experienced, namely, that of scandals. (11/49) |
| 363. | Let the religious mark this well (Ps. 78:18) for themselves so that they will not tempt God. First, if anything is commanded them by the superior, whatever it is, mean or great; if it would be against him, let him not immediately resist, but let him see whether it would harm him or offend God. If not, but rather would be of benefit and achieve merit, let him agree at once with his adversary, for it is manna from heaven. Though at first it have no flavor and be loathsome, yet afterwards it will be a complete delight in the conscience when it will have been accomplished. But if he disdains this and seeks to have commanded and enjoined what pleases him, let such a one know that his behavior has to do with this verse. He seeks carnal food for his soul. And the reason is that he is in a desert place; he has an empty and dry spirit. Therefore he disdains spiritual things and craves carnal things, that is, things that please him. Hence we must note this rule: Whatever we hear that pleases us ought to be held suspect; and conversely, whatever we hear that offends us and is hard we must take up. For thus the Gospel has the name and word of God, that it is our adversary. Therefore let us embrace those words which express wrath against us, which are contrary and rough to our feeling. But we will never embrace them unless we ourselves will have become inwardly angry and displeased with ourselves. In this way it will come about that we may easily bear someone else's wrath when we see him openly agreeing with us in opposition to us. But he who pleases himself and is not angry with himself will not easily put up with things said and commanded in opposition to him. For he will consider himself unworthy, but worthy of more pleasant things, and these are what he is after. For they also desire to be praised. (11/57) |
| 364. | God always recognizes frailty, and therefore He is more ready to exercise mercy than we are to seek it. (11/71) |
| 365. | This line (Ps. 78:55) is the measure of the gifts and graces of God, according to which the Lord distributes understanding to the faithful as He wills, not as we wish. (11/86) |
| 366. | There can be no faith in Christ except in those who are contemplative above reason. (11/96) |
| 367. | Today we are dealing with a feast of trumpets when in conversion to the new life we preach penitence and affliction and the cross and the winepress. For thus preparations made for a feast of atonement in which everyone's soul should be afflicted. (11/101) |
| 368. | "I tested you at the water of contradiction." (Ps. 81:7) This "water" is the teaching of Christ. Whoever drinks it will not thirst forever. But since this water is contradicted and the things of carnal men are opposed to it, the saints are tested at this water, when because of its contradiction they bear martyrdom by affirming it, just as the others reject it. (11/109) |
| 369. | The carnal people (Ps. 83:8) in the same way use spiritual things as if they did not use them, for they lick at them, and they have them as though they did not. Therefore the apostle Peter very appropriately refers to them as irrational animals (2 Peter 2:12), that is, Amalek, or a brutish tribe. And as a symbol of this, Gideon was once advised to choose those who licked water like dogs, but he was to reject those who got down on their knees and drank with the mouth like oxen. For those who only lick carnal goods are fit for the war on vices. But those who bend down like oxen and fill up the belly are unfit. Indeed, no one with unbridled gluttony fights well against vices. Therefore all such people bend the knee, because they badly humiliate the spirit in obedience to gluttony and bow themselves down to lower things, when they should rather push them up to themselves. (11/126) |
| 370. | The spirit and the flesh cannot rejoice at the same time, since they are opposed to each other. Therefore the one excludes the other. (11/130) |
| 371. | "For the winepresses." We must praise God and bewail our sins at the same time; praise because we have been saved, groan because we have sinned and are in the evils and dangers of this life. These things can be done at the same time, that we praise God and love Him and delight in Him and yet blame and hate ourselves and be sad within ourselves. (11/139) |
| 372. | Why try to escape what every creature is teaching you? Why not accept the cross which is shown you everywhere? Why flee where there is no cross, that is, where there is nothing? So then, be a sparrow and a swallow, for such creatures choose the lowly things. Is it not also the voice of the sparrow below (Ps. 84:10): "I would rather be a menial servant in the house of God?" For he embraces the cross of Christ, he constructs a nest for himself out of mud and scum, unwilling to build a nest in purple. Holy Scripture is a nest. There Christ is concealed, to be sought and to be found. And the altar means the same, for it is the cross to which the flesh with its desires is nailed, as Christ was to His cross. For all who want to be in the house of God and say with Christ, "I am the reproach of men and the outcast of the people" (Ps. 22:6), must be cast off before the world, because God has chosen the weak and foolish things of the world (I Cor. 1:27). In the house of God no one is cast off, but all are received into God's house. (11/142) |
| 373. | If we are converted to the truth, God's wrath is turned away from us. But if we turn ourselves away from the truth, God's wrath is turned toward us. Therefore be converted if you want to turn away the wrath. (11/157) |
| 374. | "To His saints, and to those who are converted to the heart." (Ps. 85) They who are His saints in spirit are such as are saints in secret. Others are saints in their own eyes and in the eyes of men. And those saints of men cannot hear the Word, for it cannot be spoken into them. This is not the fault of the Word, but of those who refuse to receive what must be spoken inwardly. This Word can only be spoken in you. It cannot be heard by you unless you are within yourself and not outside yourself. If you want to hear the Word, you must be where it sounds forth. But it sounds forth in you. What follows sufficiently indicates this: "To those who are converted to the heart," namely, they return into themselves, from without to within, and "the liars are turned back to the heart" (Is. 46:8). All of this wants to say that we must forget everything outside of us, visible and temporal things, and be concerned only about what is internal and invisible. But these things are never invisible unless they are within us. This must be understood with respect to knowledge and love, for in their own proper sort they are everywhere. As external and visible things are in us indeed, we in them, since our invisible spirit is plunged into visible things, so our spirit, when it returns to itself, returns to invisible things and such as are its own. And then it will see its good and evil things, which are invisible. It is of these, however, that the Word of God speaks. Hence it is clear in what way He speaks in us, since He speaks of the invisible good and evil things which are in us. He who wants to think of them as temporal does not perceive the Word of God nor the things that are of God. (11/162) |
| 375. | "Who knows the power of Thy anger, and for Thy fear can number Thy wrath?" (Ps. 90:11) It is as if he were saying: "No one knows how great the strength of Your wrath is, and no one can withstand it, no one can escape it, no one can turn it aside, unless You will reveal to them what comes about through faith and spirit. So St. Peter draws the conclusion in I Peter 4:17-18: "But if the judgment of God begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not believe the Gospel? And if the righteous man will scarcely be saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly appear?" (11/205) |
| 376. | "He who dwells in the aid of the Most High." (Ps. 91:1) I ask you, for God's sake, why does he add "in the aid" or "in the secret place" of the "Most High"? Why "in the protection" or "in the shadow"? Would it not have been enough to say "he who dwells in the Lord" and "who will abide in the God of heaven or in the Most High Himself"? Unless it is because there are those, indeed, because he sees that there will be the proud, the Jews and heretics, who would presume to dwell in God nakedly and want to be directed by God immediately, so to say, rejecting all forms of His aid and protection, with which they ought to have been directed by Him. For these oddballs want to be friends of God and led by His special control. And so, since they made a shadow for themselves and chose the protection and aid for themselves by means of which they wished to be saved by God, they despise all other shadows and protections of God. And therefore this psalm from the beginning strikes immediately at their folly and says, If you want to dwell, if you want to be saved, behold, go to His secret place, behold, go to His shadow. Do not presume to dwell in God immediately. Do not cast aside His protection. For this life is not a face-to-face thing. You cannot dwell in God, but in His protection, in His shadow, there will be a dwelling place for you. (11/209) |
| 377. | Greed is the root of all evils. What does love of the world do? At first it is at rest, while it has what it may enjoy. But when what it loves begins to be reproved, then the dark and nighttime fear arises, because it is unwilling to give up what is reproved. And here is the beginning of folly (that is, of being wise in earthly things and knowing nothing about heavenly things). Thus arises the arrow flying by day, teaching what is reproved by the truth and inflaming desire for it and even kindling zeal for it against the truth. Then the denial of the truth quickly follows, which is the lie and the pestilence in the dark. Finally, when it discerns that it is lying in vain, there follows a rage and an utter burning that destroys itself rather than the truth. In the end they stubbornly rage because they do not prevail and are bitten by envy. Hence they blaspheme and curse and destroy as much as possible, like the Arians and Donatists. All are proud and stubborn act the same way in what they love and are afraid of losing. (11/220) |
| 378. | "A thousand will fall at his side" (Ps. 91:7). Behold, in the spirits and in the inner man God produces glory, salvation, riches, beauty, and inestimable strength. But on the outside nothing of this appears; indeed, everything appears as the opposite. He abandons them in disgrace, weakness, lack of riches, contempt, and filth, yea, even unto death. But when the senseless, who cannot see beyond this, see this, will they not fail to understand and know the thoughts of God? For they are understood only by faith, which comes from the Spirit. So, then, when the saints inwardly receive these magnificent gifts of God, they receive the opposite on the outside. And thus the ungodly and unbelieving are offended. Therefore, unless a person is always humble and always suspicious of himself, always fears his own opinion, his own judgment, his own desire and will, he cannot stand for long without being offended. For truth, light, and goodness will meet him immediately under a strange and contrary appearance. And then the unhappy one will condemn it, just as the Jews struck at Christ, because they did not know wisdom in the hidden state. (11/232) |
| 379. | "God is wonderful in His saints" (Ps. 68:35). That is to say, He turns His Christian over to every kind of suffering and death and trouble, and yet saves him at the same time. And when God abandons him the most, then He takes him up the most. And when He condemns, He saves most of all. Hence, since God is always to be called on, therefore one must always be in trouble. And if trouble does not find us, we ought to find it in conscience and contrition, as Ps. 4:4 says farther on: "Be sorry on your beds." (11/237) |
| 380. | Every impulse in either toward sin or toward suffering. Proverbs 24:16: "A righteous man falls seven times a day and will rise again, but the wicked will fall down into evil." And the reason is one of diversity, for the former soon confesses as one humbled, while the latter excuse themselves as proud people. Therefore, if you have not stood perfectly, give thanks that you did not perish altogether, and ask for pardon for that in which you have failed, so that in this way you may acknowledge the strength of the Lord who helps you and has mercy on, and forgiveness for, that same weakness of yours, as was shown in the case of St. Peter in Matt. 14:30-31. Therefore let the "foot be moved," and so let a multitude of griefs come… so that also the sweet consolation of mercy may come. (11/248) |
| 381. | "For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods." (Ps. 95:3) He makes void all four emotions of the flesh, which are fear, hope, joy, sadness. These arise out of love and hate, two from each. Love produces hope of future good and joy in present good. Hatred begets fear of the future evil and sadness in present evil. By these emotions man is hindered from approaching Christ, for because by them he clings to earthly things. Therefore he here attracts love and excludes fear. And he tries to introduce the opposite. But I am venturing into a great sea. This passage is deep indeed. Therefore it is to be noted, first, that love of earthly things either is or creates hatred of heavenly things. And he who has been led toward the one will at the same time have been led toward the other. Thus by contrariety the love of heavenly things is itself hatred, or produces hatred, of earthly things. And one who has approached the one has at the same time also approached the other. And so it happens that the one who hates heavenly things fears their coming and is sad when they have come, but he hopes for temporal things to come and rejoices when they have come. Thus the calf walks with its four feet on two sides, indeed, the dead youth is carried out to the grave by these bearers (Luke 7:12-14). On the contrary, it comes about that the one who hates earthly things fears their coming and is sad when they have come, but he hopes for the coming of the spiritual and rejoices when they have come, because he loves them. And thus the high-born lion of the tribe of Judah marches along (Rev. 5:5) (11/252) |
| 382. | Be ugly to yourself, and you will be beautiful to God; be weak to yourself, and you will be strong to God; be a sinner to yourself, and you will be righteous to God. But if you are beautiful, righteous, strong, and good to yourself, this will already be a denial and vileness in you in the presence of God. For as long as you have removed confession, beauty refused to remain. For you have bent glory in on yourself, and therefore you have also lost beauty. Therefore give glory and confession to God, and this very glory will be your adornment, and the confession to God will be your beauty. But affirmation of yourself will be abasement of God, as far as you are concerned. For holiness overflows into the body from the soul in which it arose through confession. But out of holiness there arise confession and magnificence in the body. The reason for all this is this rule, that we are not righteous by our works, but righteous works are done by us who have first become righteous. Hence we learn also in this that as all our things began with confession, so they end in confession, yes, in magnificence (that is, in a magnificent confession), so that, if you think you are making progress, do not for that reason omit confession, but to it all the more, the more you are progressing either in the beauty of the soul or in the holiness of the body, so that confession by first and last, and always you may be nothing and filth to yourself, and that all the more, the greater and more beautiful or more holy you may be. (11/262) |
| 383. |
Psalm 100 This whole psalm speaks against pride. Therefore pride and humility must be distinguished. The first kind of pride is physical, having to do with riches, appearance, birth, skill,
diligence, and abilities. This pride is twofold. For these, or some of these, are indeed present in some people, and as a result they extol themselves and boast and do not in these gifts
acknowledge God who gave them. But in the case of other people it appears that these things are present when in fact they are not. This is a stupid pride, though all pride is stupid before
God, yet this is stupid also before men. This pride has a twofold humility as the opposite: First, when these things are removed by the hand of the Lord, Then it is not possible to be
proud, as is plain from experience. This is indeed a useful, but not perfectly praiseworthy, humility. Second, when the good things remain and yet by an inner strength are held to be
nothing and one does not become proud but acts as if he did not have these things, and so he makes himself like others in all respects. This is a glorious humility, which shines forth in
David and Esther and many other holy martyrs and sons of kings.
The second kind of pride is spiritual, having to do with knowledge, wisdom, understanding, virtue, chastity, poverty, gentleness, piety, and other spiritual gifts and riches of the soul. This, too, is twofold. First, some think they have it, but they do not, as in the case of the Jews and heretics, whom first and chiefly this psalm strikes and whom the Lord especially hates. Second, some indeed have it, but they do not acknowledge God nor make themselves equal with or beneath others, but rather extol themselves. To these, too, a twofold humility is opposed. First, if God permits them to fall into open error and sin, so that they cannot deny that they have been made blind and sinners. This is a useful, but not perfectly praiseworthy, humility, but it is rather a humiliation, since the opposite of what they presumed about themselves has been made know to them. Second, when these things remain for them, if such things are in them, and they yet by the strength of grace distinguish between themselves and the gifts of God and thus constantly preserve an acknowledgement of God in the goods received and in the knowledge of self in the evils which they have and so always are nothing to themselves. But, good God, how rare a bird this is! I have seen few people who would not rather pay attention to the gifts of God in themselves than to themselves. This is easy to perceive in demonstration. For if someone would have struck such a person on the left in word or deed, negatively or positively, if this one is wise and has not forgotten himself, he will easily stand, endure, and suffer it and will not think an injury is being done him, as, in fact, it is not; for thought injury be done to Christ in His gifts, which are in that person, yet none is done to him in whom they are. He knows whence he is and what he is, that he is worthy of every evil because of himself and his nothingness and sins, and therefore he is not surprised that such things are happening to him. (11/279) |
| 384. | "Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." The rod is that which chastises the flesh, the staff that which sustains the spirit. Hence also the Lord thus governs the church and any righteous man through knowledge of self and knowledge of God; for if we know ourselves, we easily sing of judgment; but if we know God, we easily sing of mercy. For we know God through His blessings, ourselves through our evils. (11/283) |
| 385. | The confession of sin alone is nothing and pure destruction. Confessing to God is not done by the despairing, who well confess their evils to each other, but not to God, because they do not hope for pardon from Him. Therefore they do not give glory to God to confess to Him their sins and His goodness. As Judas confessed not to God but to the ungodly and his peers, so also the demons and criminals do among themselves, not confessing to God by a confession of praise, but confessing to themselves by a confession of sin. (11/371) |
| 386. | "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." This life does not have the end of wisdom, but always the beginning, since it is infinite. But this wisdom means knowing and understanding invisible and spiritual things and despising the visible and carnal. Hence no one savors spiritual things unless he has first begun to fear the Lord. This fear makes him hate riches, pleasures, and honors and love poverty, chastity, obedience, etc. (11/383) |
| 387. | This exodus is spiritual and takes place with the feet of the soul, namely, with the intellect and the feeling. (11/393) |
| 388. | "Out of my distress I called on the Lord, and the Lord heard me and enlarged me." This distress is either outward or inward persecution, which is discovered when it is found that the Lord alone is good, but they are evil. (11/411) |
| 389. | No one understands another in spiritual writings unless he savors and possesses the same spirit. But we, having now called upon the arm of the Lord, will examine the prophecy. (11/414) |
| 390. | "I will meditate on Thy precepts, and I will consider Thy ways." This "meditating" means to speak and discuss. (11/422) |
| 391. | No one will lack enemies, who will stir up the battle against him on account of the gift of grace given to him with whom he will fight, lest the gift be lost. Therefore he always has to pray for God's help. (11/423) |
| 392. | "Be not wise in your own conceits." Romans 12:16. How quickly we begin to have our own private and personal wisdom in opposition to all or many who are wiser or equally wise, and soon we are these proud people who offer reproach and contempt. And as cursed people we turn away from the commandments of God, who bids us to be wise in humility and in common with others. For even if truth were with us, if it becomes a private and personal matter, it is no longer truth, which is, wants to be, and should be altogether common to all. And if it is truth, it has been vitiated by this private ownership, and so it is not truth. Therefore, as I have said, we must with the utmost zeal flee this pestilence, to be wise in our own idea and for ourselves, however righteous, holy, true, and good it may seem. It is not so in itself, but it only seems so. "For Thy testimonies are my meditation, and Thy statutes my counsel." This is again directed against those who hold their own opinion, for neither their counsel nor their meditation is the law of Christ, but their counsel is the invention and thought of their own head, after they have disregarded the study of Scripture. Nor, indeed, do they have meditation, because they do not meditate in the law of the Lord, but they cite it superficially and hastily. That is, they cite it, not by way of meditation, nor do they view or consider its power, as meditation does. Therefore when they themselves have been perverted, they pervert everything and bring it about that their meditation is not the testimonies of the Lord, but, on the contrary, they want their own thinking to be the testimonies of the Lord. Yes, it is as if Scripture ought to say to them: "Your meditation is My testimonies," when it ought to be the other way around; our reason should be taken captive, and the testimonies of God should be our meditation. The testimonies should not enter, but shut up in, and savor of, our meditation, but our meditation should enter the testimonies and be shut up in them and savor them, so that it savors nothing else or in another way, neither beyond nor on this side. But they do not want to know the testimonies in this way, nor anything else or in any other way than their meditation is. Therefore the ancient fathers rightly said that nothing was to be done unless it conformed to the testimonies of the Scriptures and to the holy teachers. And it is truly a very great evil that the testimonies of the Lord ar so dealt with that our meaning is imposed on them, so that people receive, ponder, and savor it as something foreign, when we ought rather on the contrary receive, ponder, and savor the testimonies' meaning (which is the truth) as foreign to us (for every man is a liar). (11/431) |
| 393. | Every Scripture passage is of infinite understanding. Therefore, no matter how much you understand, do not be proud, do not fight against another, do not withstand, because they are testimonies, and perhaps he will see what you do not see, and what is to him statute or utterance is still testimony to you. Therefore it is always a matter of making progress in the understanding of Scripture. (11/433) |
| 394. | Not that it is necessary for us to understand and do everything in this life, but that the mind should be prepared never to want to stop doing and understanding more fully to eternity, to know no boundary, no end, no restriction. This is what it means to be in the spirit of freedom, for which no law and statute has been set, because it does more than is commanded, so that if one could live eternally, one would strive eternally to know and do, and never move backward. (11/435) |
| 395. | "My soul has slumbered through heaviness" (Ps. 119:28). This happens to all who are progressing on the way and seeking and awaiting perfection, as it happened to those who under the Law awaited the revelation of the Spirit, such as the apostles were before the coming of the Spirit. And such is everyone on the level which he has with regard to the level he does not yet have but which he seeks. For, as we have said above, the level on which we are is like the letter of that to which we are going, which is the end of the first step and the beginning of the coming one. As Christ is the end of the synagog and the beginning of the church, so it is with every virtue, every grace, all knowledge and understanding. But weariness sneaks up on them, because the level obtained begins to be scorned, and the one yet attained cannot bring relief. And so the soul sleeps because of weariness of the letter and the delay of the spirit. In this interval nothing is more effective than the Word of God, which strengthens on the present level and stimulates toward the coming one. It helps put up with the letter and causes us to seek the spirit. (11/437) |
| 396. | Wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit which makes us to know by faith both eternal and spiritual things, whatever is to be believed concerning future and invisible things. Understanding, strictly speaking, is to recognize allegories in the Scriptures and in creatures. (11/461) |
| 397. | Who would believe that these are works of the flesh, when the work is done on behalf of the truth and religion, and, as is said, that the intention is good and it is being done for God's honor? Therefore this proud opinion pursues us all, and since it is a work of the flesh, it is so subtle and spiritual that it is detected by very few, that it is the light of an angel of Satan who has been transformed into an angel of light. These proud impulses slander the humble opinion which the spirit has suggested and accuse it of being foolish, vain, and false. O happy man, who has learned to deny himself in this greatest evil! Accordingly we should always be suspicious of ourselves and fear and grieve that perchance some such puffing up of the mind be in us still. For who will boast that he is pure spirit and does not still have the flesh in opposition to the spirit, even if there is now a part or temptation neither of luxury nor of greed or other manifest evil in him? (11/496) |
| 398. | The crying with the whole heart is not characteristic of anyone but of him who most perfectly longs for Christ. But now there are many who do not even hiss. There is silence in their heart, because there is no longing for Christ, for truth, righteousness, and eternal salvation. Yet there is loud clamor for gain, for honors and pleasures, whereby God is offended and the devil is summoned. (11/509) |
| 399. | For by means of a thousand cunning distractions the devil can easily remove from the soul what it has, as the Lord says that the birds of heaven eat the seed that fell by the wayside. Oh, note the word, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This happens, therefore, when the soul, accessible to many trivial thoughts, has been exposed to fancies, and while it is employed and occupied with these, it forgets to keep the Word of God, and so, like one unarmed and deprived of its help, it easily falls into many sins. Therefore, unless the soul loves the testimonies exceedingly, and the love is there which is concerned and fearful, it will not long keep them. Fear is the strongest watchtower, which alone sufficiently wields the weapons against the birds of heaven, which can take the Word of God away from us in as many ways as they can distract us in our thoughts. (11.530) |
| 400. | None of the saints ever has the whole Christ, but each one, even the most perfect one, has only a part of Him. Hence He also said of Mary Magdalene (that is, of the contemplative, who are the most perfect), that she chose not the total best, but "the best part" (Luke 10:42). Wherefore they who are wise always think that they have nothing and have not yet apprehended, but run and hurry and always begin anew, even when they are done. But the lukewarm and hypocrites, who regard themselves as already holy, think that they have chosen all that is best and possess and have apprehended everything. (11/542) |
| 401. | Saintlets and spiritual sinners cannot be reformed; for they do not acknowledge their sins and therefore do not think that they are being punished on account of sins. (16/11) |
| 402. | In the end he is a true Christian who neither is presumptuous in his works nor despairs in his sins, even though he avoids sins and does good works. Nevertheless, the affections of hope must be fixed on God alone, not on a creature or a work. (16/15) |
| 403. | "Come now, let us reason together." Come, and let us have a discussion. It is as if He were saying: "I will enter into judgment with you. If I do not do good and am not gracious to those who do these things, believe, are washed and clean, then accuse Me and charge falsely that I am not God. Indeed, it is God's inward feeling and His preponderant desire. How much He would want us to be good! Oh, would that we acknowledged our evils with all our hearts! Then the Spirit would finally come. But to pass away in folly in this manner, this is regrettable. Christianity is surely a constant sobbing. Who of the two, then, is more righteous, the people, who do wrong and love their own strivings while despising God's commandments, namely, of faith and love, or God, who censures and condemns these strivings? (16/20) |
| 404. | The Gospel is the force, power, and work of Christians, and those people are true Christians who from day to day learn the same Word more and more and do not quickly become disdainful and get sick of it. One can never learn enough. Paul says in Col. 3:16: "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly"; that is one must ponder it constantly, and always some new fire to arouse the heart will be found. The sectarians constantly think up one novelty after another. Christians never read the same teaching enough. For the Gospel does not concern itself with knowledge; it concerns itself with feeling. We slip every day. The flesh, sin, death, and the world assail us. Not for even one moment are we safe from spiritual adultery. He who does not have the Word or ponder it soon becomes a sorry wretch. If I do not reflect on a verse of a psalm or a statement of the Gospel, my heart is completely full of sins. A return to the Word guards against sins. The heart should always grind, if not something els, then at least itself. If the grain, namely, the Word of God, is good, the flour will be good, and the bread will be good. This life of ours is certainly most wretched. There is no rest, and therefore Christianity is most truly a hearing or pondering of the Word, in order that Christ may speak to us at all times. Therefore when anyone has trials that torture him in body or in soul, it is a sign that Christ is not at home, that is, is not in that person's heart. But he who wants to be set free should place Christ before him-Christ who says in Matt. 11:28: "Come to Me, all who labor," and in John 11:25: "I am the resurrection and the life." When Christ speaks he is set free and is not afraid. But when Christ is absent, the trial returns. Then the slaughter and the misfortunes of men begin, and those thoughts terrify the heart. (16/30-31) |
| 405. | The self-righteous fight with one another for their righteousness. The godly condemn their own righteousness and accept the verdict of condemnation; false Christians are altogether carnal and worldly, and for this reason they are the instigators of factions and disagreements. True Christians are in beautiful agreement, because they hold even everything in contempt for the sake of Christ alone. (16/32) |
| 406. | The Law itself indeed in not changed, but we are. Obviously this is Christian liberty, when the Law is voluntarily fulfilled, so that it cannot accuse, demand, and render guilty. Where the conscience is not guilty, where there is no sin because it is forgiven, there is no power of death but peace of conscience, the certainty of eternal life. (16/99) |
| 407. | "His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime." The meaning is that faith is sorely tried and yet has comfort. (16/113) |
| 408. | To knowledge belongs the fear of the Lord, so that, possessing knowledge, a man may fear to offend God lest he be puffed up. Thus the Christian man is fully equipped and a fit vessel of the Lord if he has wisdom, that is, purity of teaching, if he has understanding, that is, if he guards the doctrine pure and unimpaired, if he has counsel and if victory over temptation follows, if he leads an upright life with his brothers and uses all things to advantage and not as a stumbling block in the fear of the Lord. But where the fear of the Lord has been absent, the rest is easily perverted. (16/120) |
| 409. | "You will say in that day: I will confess to Thee, O Lord, because Thou wast angry with me." (Is. 12:1) Here the prophet depicts the true and lawful worship and sacrifice of the New Testament and sets up, as it were, a certain hidden antithesis over against the Old Testament and its sacrifices, which were many and varied. A Christian confesses that he was condemned and lost and that he has received from Christ everything that belongs to salvation and righteousness; all his own merits he considers worth nothing. This is the fullest and most perfect sacrifice, and it embraces everything in the Old Testament. There animals and cattle were slaughtered; here our own wisdom and righteousness, our endeavors and works. (16/128) |
| 410. | "They sought Thee, they poured out a prayer when Thy chastening was upon them" (Is. 26:16)-that is "When Thy chastening touches them, then there is the murmur of their cry." The rod produces good children. So good is trouble for the godly that they cannot trust and live properly without harassment. The spirit of the godly rusts away, as it were, unless they are well exercised by tribulations. Thus when the godly are touched by them, they murmur, they groan in an unutterable spirit to Thee, they sigh softly to God and do not make a horrible racket. And thus the Christian should to in every trouble; he should not shout or blaspheme, yet he should flee for refuge to the Lord in murmuring and distress with the sighs of his heart and his mouth. Any tribulation of the godly is as it were the birth and renewal of a man. Therefore the godly man is like a woman in travail, who is hard pressed by unremitting dangers. (16/208) |
| 411. | Wisdom indeed is faith itself. (16/223) |
| 412. | "For the bed is too short." (Is. 28:20) For just as the shortness of the bed keeps us from stretching our limbs but makes us pull them up so that we do not fall out and get cold, so distress holds us together so that we do not fall away from the Word of God, neither in good times or in affliction, but by faith abide in it. The cross teaches us how to snuggle up, since in good times we sometimes stroll and stray, inwardly by presumption and outwardly by our endeavors, our lusts and luxuries, and other evils. (16/233) |
| 413. | God's victory consists in this, that first we conquer the enemies in our own hearts so that we may drive out the enemy, Satan, the sifter of faith. (16/319) |
| 414. | When one trial, namely, despair, had been overcome on the left, the king soon slipped to the right in good days, because wealth, riches, and strength puff us up, yes, righteousness an victory puff us up. It is safer for any young man to boast of his appearance or his riches and possessions (because he can easily be helped) than it is for him to conquer such spiritual trials. Let us pray God earnestly to guard us against such pride! This sickness has taken possession of all our adversaries. The sickness of presumption is very showy in humility, zeal, and piety, and it cannot be recognized like the sickness of despair or like gross sins. For this sickness there is need of the sword of Simeon, the adultery of David, of gross sins and thorns in the flesh, so that this sickness may be brought under control by them. Pray to the Lord and beware, be diligent students of Scripture, lest you proceed by your own powers and become haughty even in Scripture. All pride resting on all kinds of endowments and political knowledge is not so destructive as pride based on Sacred Scripture. For our nature is such that the more it thrives in glory, the more it staggers and is presumptuous and proud. No fornicator or harlot is so inflamed with lust as a learned theologian is inflamed with his knowledge. The passion of the fornicator is a joke beside the theologian's presumption, yet very few recognize this sickness. The serpent's head is not yet crushed. And the more chaste and righteous we become, the more that head lives. Therefore the severest trials and divinely wrought terrors are necessary, so that we may feel these words: "You are of the devil," and Get a hangman for your neck." (16/332) |
| 415. | This is the highest art, that in the worst grief and distress we do not despair but call upon God. (16/341) |
| 416. | Every Christian is also an evangelist, who should teach another and publish the glory and praise of God. But the order must be preserved intact so that we do not teach in a confused manner. I would, however, rather hear him who has been sent, and I will hear him, than preach myself, unless I were sent myself. (17/13) |
| 417. | Reason willingly hears on thing—that God gives strength, but it does not want to be worn out and nothing. So all the self-righteous willingly receive strength from God, but they do not want to be faint, as if God would give strength to the weary. What need is there for the secure to receive strength? But God gives strength to the weary, the oppressed, and the troubled. This happened to me, Martin Luther, who against my will came up against the whole world, and then God helped me. (17/31) |
| 418. | "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen" (Is. 42:1) You must believe that Christ is a servant. It is as Paul says (I Cor. 2:2): "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Meanwhile the pope and the Enthusiasts are shouting about a glorious Christ. Here, however, we have the most reliable voice, and this teaching is for us. It has in it not so much praise of Christ as doctrine for us. But why is it necessary for Christ to be praised as Servant and Elect One? It is necessary because this Christ is an offense to the whole world. Therefore, in order to give us certainty, this commendation of Christ is necessary. We see from experience that nothing is more absurd to the wisdom of the flesh than Christ, the Servant, and His Word. All are offended because of Him. All of us want to be God's servants while we please ourselves. Everything will be taken up and entrusted to Him alone. We should receive this with thanksgiving, but we attain to it ungratefully. (17/65) |
| 419. | "A dimly burning wick," that is, brothers who are difficult in their habits, irritable, suspicious, and troublesome, men who see others as pleasant people and regard themselves alone as overcome with despair. Such people Christ also wants to carry. Christian friendship is different from the worldly variety. The church is like a hospital, where there are the strong and the weak, bones and flesh. One bears another's burden. The Christian life, therefore, is a mixture of strength and weakness. One supports the other. This is indeed a comforting situation. Know that the whole Christian life revolves around weakness. Many brag about their mortification. They outwardly mortify themselves and imagine they are walking on a path of roses, but if they would look inside, they would find that they are walking on nothing but thorns. They think that if a girl wears a wreath and a red shirt, she is of the devil. They outwardly pass judgment on all. (17/66) |
| 420. | Before God this alone is religion: the forgiveness of sins. Outside of this He knows nothing. (17/113) |
| 421. | It is always better to base one's case on grace rather than on righteousness, since even our righteousness is nothing but sin. (17/115) |
| 422. | "I wish my mother had drowned me in the bath." This is a very common blasphemy. (17/129) |
| 423. | The Word of God must be rightly divided, so that we may cherish crushed and terrified people with maternal hearts and consolations. But we should attack the mob and the stubborn sectaries with mighty thunderbolts. The former cannot be coaxed and carried enough, but in the case of the latter we cannot sufficiently thunder against the rocks. Both are extremely necessary. Hard things must be applied to the hard, and soft to the soft. (17/138) |
| 424. | "Can a woman forget?" The feelings cannot be put into words or expressed in books. One groan counts for more than heaven and earth. (17/183) |
| 425. | "I have set My face like a flint." A Christian might be thus influenced that he has a very hard face, since he will have to hear insults and even see openly that everything, however good, right, and true it may be, is given the worst possible interpretation. Let not then Christians despair when they hear such great blasphemies from the fanatics as even human nature cannot bear, unless the Word and the Spirit of God harden our face against the despisers of the Word. (17/195) |
| 426. | "Their rulers wail." For so great is the sin of creating a bad conscience and of diminishing the glory of God that such teaching is not called a happy voice but an afflicted wailing. The teaching of ungodly men is, as it were, a voice and a wailing that makes people sad. They attribute righteousness to their own works and merits, they deny Christ and faith, the Gospel, Christ and God. Then, when we have lost these, we are infected with abominations, where there is nothing but wailing and blaspheming of God. (17/208) |
| 427. | "He was wounded for our transgressions." Hence you must say: "I see my sin in Christ, therefore my sin is not mine but another's. I see it in Christ." It is a great thing to say confidently: "My sin is not mine. My sins have been transferred to Christ; He has them." (17/223) |
| 428. | "By His knowledge He will justify." (Is. 52:11) There is no other plan or method of obtaining liberty than the knowledge of Christ. This knowledge of Christ must be construed in a passive sense. It is that by which He is known, the proclamation of His suffering and death. You must therefore note this new definition of righteousness. Righteousness is the knowledge of Christ. I have said that the individual words must be pondered in supreme faith, and they must be read and considered with the most watchful eyes, so that it is not simply any kind of knowledge or understanding but a knowledge that justifies, in opposition to others kinds of knowledge. (17/230) |
| 429. | Thus let us take care to be certain in the Word, and then in all outward afflictions we will know that they are a point and that the mercy of God is the endless circumference of the globe. Mercy is eternity. (17/239) |
| 430. | "Behold, I will set your stones in order." (Is. 54:11) That is, every Christian is a jewel, but among them some are more precious than others, just as one jewel and stone surpasses another. Thus the church will be adorned with different kinds of Christians, some adorned with gifts of higher quality. (17/242) |
| 431. | "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money." (Is. 55:1) Let no one seem to himself to have accomplished much in Scripture and to have heard many things, since in spite of that he loses the knowledge of the Word in forgetfulness day by day. From there let the mind be restored and recleansed as from a fog of ignorance, so that the heat and fervor in the Word may increase against the gates of death. Where people have been especially trained in the Word, there they are most negligent. This is a common complaint of preachers. Such exhortation is therefore especially necessary, lest they fall into contempt and loathing of the Word. (17/249) |
| 432. | The beginning of salvation is for us to recognize our calamity. (17/279) |
| 433. | What God looks for in us is pure consciences and sins put away. (17/316) |
| 434. | "Your days of mourning shall be ended." (Is. 60:20) Only when this life is finished, will those days begin and be completed. Let each one therefore learn the article of faith, and let him learn enough about this Cornerstone, Christ. I, Martin Luther, am constantly working on this foundation. Once the foundation has been firmly laid, the superstructure will be very easy to build. The Enthusiasts and would-be-wise want to build the tower and put a roof on before the foundation has been laid. I wanted to attach a tile or two myself, but where is the foundation? Even if we have embraced this article with supreme toil and faith, we must know that we have attained to the firstfruits, and say, "We do not yet have one tenth, we scarcely have the firstfruits." Away with the boastful would-be-wise, who brag about the tenth when they have not yet received the firstfruits. Beware of such smugness! (17/326) |
| 435. | Let us begin to ascend step by step from Christ's crying in His swaddling clothes up to His Passion. Then we shall easily know God. I am saying this so that you do not begin to contemplate God from the top, but start with the weak elements. We should busy ourselves completely with treating, knowing, and considering this man. Then you will know that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (17/331) |
| 436. | These are the two tasks of the Christians, to glorify God and to convert others. He who converts an ungodly man brings the best sacrifice, not an ox but a living sacrifice. (17/336) |
| 437. | "O Lord, why dost Thou make us err from Thy ways?" (Is. 63:17) Since blindness follows ingratitude, hardening comes after blindness. "You have provided the cause of punishment, that we have strayed from Your ways and have despised the works of peace and Your threats. You have also allowed us not to hear Your words and to be entangled with outrageous errors because of our ingratitude." (17/360) |
| 438. | This is the nature of faith that it makes something supreme out of nothing. (17/366) |
| 439. | "Who sit in tombs." (Is. 65:4) So you see that true godliness always appears lifeless in worship, while ungodliness is going strong day and night with a display of earnestness, unremitting zeal, and fasting. For that reason they flourish, for the prophet says here that they sit day and night in these places. True godliness cannot accomplish this because it has more to do with suffering than with acting. (17/379) |
| 440. | To the extent that one is a Christian he is joy. To the extent that we believe, however, it is a matter of foretaste. There are two joys: Not only do we have a new heaven, but we shall also see God in eternal joy. (17/389) |
| 441. | Where the Law is much used, it creates a knowledge of sin. There is nothing in it but learning. It is this school that Christ wants to tear down. Laws and the monastic life beget nothing but pupils, and they remain boys for a hundred years. They remain children and fools. (17/389) |
| 442. | A Christian is masculine, although he may seem feminine and like a little boy. Christians are manlike, that is , courageous and strong, fit for ruling. This is invisible, but according to appearance the Christian seems like a boy and an infant. (17/406) |
| 443. | "That you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts." (Is. 66:11) He pictures us as babies who must suck their fill from the consoling breasts. This is true. When the consolation of the Word comes, the breast is full, abounding in consolations, even in extreme despair, misfortunes, and prisons. All of these are put out of commission by the Holy Spirit who promises better things. The breasts of the Holy Spirit are full, consoling us by giving us our fill to the very depths of our heart. Consolations offered by the world do not reach the hearts of Christians. He does not experience joy. The church's breasts satisfy through the Word. (17/408) |
| 444. | "Draw me after You." (Song, 1:4) To know and to be able to do are two different things. When we therefore possess the Word, we are not immediately able to follow it, but our flesh, the world, and Satan draw us away from the Word again. Now, therefore, he adds this prayer: "You have given us Your Word, and I thank You for it. Now grant that we may also perform what the Word teaches and follow it in our lives." (15/198) |
| 445. | If a man banishes the blackness from his eyes, he will see a world full of God's mercy. Thus we read in Ps. 107:43: "Who is wise and will heed these things and understand the mercies of the Lord?" So in everyday human converse you will discover that no man is so bad that he does not possess innumerably many endowments. The heart, therefore, should be trained to admire the virtues in individual people rather than to be offended by their vices, if any. If someone has vices, the same man has his virtues too-he must, for he cannot abuse all the capacities which he has received from nature! This argument will certainly help to preserve peace of heart. For if you direct your gaze only on the vices and the calamities, which occur every day, the heart is necessarily tempted by impatience and hatred. (15/202) |
| 446. | "My Beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts." (Song, 1:13) God is not far away, but He dwells in the midst of our life and is like a bag of myrrh in my bosom and in my embraces. That is, He cares for me, protects and comforts me, etc. In short, His feeling for me is like that of a bridegroom for his bride. It is to be noted that these realities are not palpable. Rather, this consolation remains in the figure of a fragrance. These things are perceived only by smell, in order to express the mystery of faith, namely, that God dwells among His people through a fragrance, that is, through His Word and His name. The faith must needs be great which can believe these things regarding God, that He is between the breasts, that is, that He is very near and close to us, is not angry. (15/208) |
| 447. | It is required of a teacher that he should be powerful in arguing and convincing. However, this should be carried out in such a way that the teeth nevertheless remain white, that is, it should be done without acrimony, without bitterness and hatred, as seeking correction, not revenge. (15/229) |
| 448. | "A garden locked is My sister, My bride." (Song, 4:12) We Christians are now sealed by the Word, Baptism, and the Sacrament of the Altar, by which we are distinguished from all other races, not just before the world, but rather in God's own judgment. (15/234) |
| 449. | "Return, return, O Shulammite." (Song, 6:13) At this point the Bridegroom calls the bride back from surveying these evils, that she may dismiss them and console herself instead by examining the good things she has. However, it is no easy accomplishment to be able to overcome our current trial, to recall our mind from sadness by thinking about the gifts we have. But if one's judgment is sound, these gifts always greatly outnumber and outstrip the misfortunes by which we are beset. (15/248) |
| 450. | "Many waters cannot quench love." (Song 8:7) Those who have earnestly embraced the Word are stimulated as it were by trials and the cross to embrace it even more closely. This, then, is the outcome of all our trials; even if they try to tear us away from Christ, the actual effect is to join us still closer to Christ. It will certainly be the case that other lovers will lie in wait for you to seduce, not only by means of the cross and threats but also by promises and wealth. But remember what love does; it despises all wealth, it utterly scorns all allurements. As Augustine says, "The specific gravity of everything is its love," and love cannot be brought at any price. (15/259) |
| 451. | Where these two things are present—right teaching and defense against wolves—there of necessity follow peace and tranquility. By contrast, where either or both of these things are lacking, there one waits for peace in vain. (15/261) |
| 452. | You must say to him who is distressed: "Brother, you want to have a conscious righteousness; that is, you want to be conscious of righteousness in the same way you are conscious of sin. This will not happen. But your righteousness must transcend your consciousness of sin and you must hope that you are righteous in the sight of God. That is, your righteousness is not visible, and it is not conscious; but it is hoped for as something to be revealed in due time. Therefore you must not judge on the basis of your consciousness of sin, which terrifies and troubles you, but on the basis of the promise and teaching of faith, by which Christ is promised to you as your perfect and eternal righteousness. (27/21) |
| 453. |
Faith and hope differ first in their subjects, because faith is in the intellect and hope is in the will; yet they cannot be separated in fact, just as the two cherubim of the mercy seat
cannot be separated. In the second place, they differ in their function; for faith commands and directs the intellect, though not apart from the will, and teaches what must be believed.
Therefore faith is teaching or knowledge. Hope is exhortation, because it arouses the mind to be brave and resolute, so that it dares, endures, and lasts in the midst of evils and looks for
better things. Furthermore, faith is a theologian and a judge, battling against errors and heresies, and judging spirits and doctrines. On the other hand, hope is a captain, battling
against feelings such as tribulation, the cross, impatience, sadness, faintheartedness, despair, and blasphemy; and it battles with joy and courage, etc., in opposition to those great
evils. Finally, they differ in their objects. As its object faith has truth, and it teaches us to cling to this surely and firmly; it looks to the word of the object, that is, to the
promise. Hope has goodness as its object; and it looks to the object of the Word, that is, to the thing promised or the things to be hoped for, which faith has ordered us to accept.
Therefore when I take hold of Christ as I have been taught by faith in the Word of God, and when I believe in Him with the full confidence of my heart—something that cannot happen without the will—then I am righteous through this knowledge. When I have been thus justified by faith or by this knowledge, then immediately the devil comes an exerts himself to extinguish my faith with his tricks, his lies, errors and heresies, violence, tyranny, and murder. Then my battling hope grasps what faith has commanded; it becomes vigorous and conquers the devil, who attacks faith. When he has been conquered, there follow peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In fact, therefore, faith and hope are scarcely distinguishable; and yet there is some difference between them. Faith is like dialectic, which conceives the idea of all the things that are to be believed; and hope is like rhetoric, which develops, urges, persuades, and exhorts to steadiness, so that faith does not collapse in temptation but keeps the Word and holds firmly to it. (27/23) |
| 454. | Faith has confidence in God, therefore it cannot be deceived. Love has confidence in men; therefore it is often deceived. (27/39) |
| 455. | It is difficult and dangerous to teach that we are justified by faith without works and yet to require works at the same time. Unless the ministers of Christ are faithful and prudent here and are "stewards of the mysteries of God" (I Cor. 4:1), who rightly divide the Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), they will immediately confuse faith and love at this point. (27/63) |
| 456. | I remember that Staupitz used to say: "More than a thousand times I have vowed to God that I would improve, but I have never performed what I have vowed. Hereafter I shall not make such vows, because I know perfectly well that I shall not live up to them. Unless God is gracious and merciful to me for the sake of Christ and grants me a blessed final hour when the time comes for me to depart this miserable life, I shall not be able to stand before Him with all my vows and good works." This despair is not only truthful but is godly and holy. Whoever wants to be saved must make this confession with his mouth and with his heart. (27/73) |
| 457. | Here someone may say that it is dangerous to teach that a person is not damned simply because he does not immediately overcome the passions of the flesh which he feels; for when this doctrine is broadcast among the rabble, they will become smug, inert, and lazy. This is what I meant when I said earlier that if we teach faith, carnal people will neglect works; but if we urge works, faith and the comfort of consciences will be lost. Here no one can be compelled, nor can any definite rule be prescribed. But let everyone examine himself carefully to see which passion of the flesh affects him most powerfully. When he discovers this, let him not be smug or flatter himself; but let him be on guard, and by the Spirit let him struggle against it, so that, if he cannot bridle it, he will at least not gratify it. (27/75) |
| 458. | As long as we cling to Christ, we are led by the Spirit and are free from the Law. With these words, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" you can give powerful comfort to yourself and to others who are experiencing severe trials. It often happens that a man is so fiercely attacked by anger, hatred, impatience, sexual desire, mental depression, or some other desire of the flesh that he simply cannot get rid of it, no matter how much he wants to. What is he to do? Should he despair on this account? No, but he should say: "My flesh is battling and raging against the Spirit. Let it rage as long as it pleases! But you do not give in to it. Walk by the Spirit, and be led by Him, so that you do not gratify its desires. If you do this, you are free from the Law. Of course, it will accuse and frighten you; but it will do so in vain." In such a battle of the flesh against he Spirit, therefore, there is nothing better than to have the Word in view and to draw from it the comfort of the Spirit. (27/78) |
| 459. | It is not surprising that every age has its peculiar temptations, even for the godly. Thus the young man is especially tried by sexual desire, the mature man by ambition and vainglory, the old man by avarice. As I said earlier, there has never been a saint whose flesh did not incite him to impatience, anger, etc. Therefore Paul is speaking of saints when he says here that the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And so the desires and the conflicts of the flesh will not vanish; yet they will not vanquish those who are aware of them. For this is how they should think about the matter: It is one thing to be aroused by the flesh and not to tolerate its desires any further but to walk and to withstand by the Spirit; it is quite another thing to give in to the flesh and to do its works with a smug air, to persist in them, and yet at the same time to put one a pretense of piety and to make a boast of the Spirit. He comforts the former group by saying that they are being led by the Spirit and are not under the Law; he threatens the latter group with eternal destruction. Those who sin of weakness, even if they do it often, will not be denied forgiveness, provided that they rise again and do not persist in their sins; for persistence in sin is the worst of all. If they do not return to their senses but stubbornly go on gratifying the desires of the flesh, this is the surest possible sign of dishonesty in their spirit. (27/80) |
| 460. | "Through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Gal. 6:14) "Thus we crucify and condemn each other. I curse all the righteousness, the doctrine, and the works of the world as the venom of the devil. The world, in turn, curses my doctrine and my deeds and judges me to be a dangerous man, a heretic, a seditionist, etc." (27/135) |
| 461. | Pay no regard to my insignificance. You cannot vilify or ridicule me so severely in view of my past life that I will not admit and confirm it. And yet that same Paul who once was a blasphemer is now an apostle and wants to be accounted an apostle. For I must not be appraised now according to the person I once was but in accordance with the office that is now mine. As to my person I can indeed bear to be criticized and belittled; indeed, it may be said truthfully that I am the least of the apostles and not worthy of being called an apostle, not even a Christian, as one who persecuted Christendom and God's children and helped to slaughter innocent people. However, with regard to the office to preach, to baptize, etc., to which I was commissioned, I want no one to judge me and to despise me. The devil shall not interfere here, nor shall he have any thanks for it. Even if my person was as evil as a human being can be, I am now forgiven, and by God's grace I am now what I am. (28/88) |
| 462. | A Christian is an especially wretched person, suffering more of whatever may be termed misery than others. His heart is daily roasted on the fire. He must always be terrified, fearful, and trembling when the thought of death and God's severe judgment occurs to him. He must always worry that he as angered God and merited hell, although he may be pious and well practiced in faith. For such thoughts will not cease; rather, they are felt more and more and always become stronger than the good thoughts. Therefore we behold some people who are so depressed and so beaten and so assailed and wretched in their hearts that they can impart this to no one. They are bereft of all joy and happiness and do not care to live. Therefore, St. Paul says, we would be mad and foolish to subject ourselves to such misery, fear, sadness, and distress and never be safe from death and devil for a moment, if we had nothing but this life. (28/104) |
| 463. | A miser can be consoled with money, a sick person with medicine, a beggar or a hungry person with a piece of bread; but none of these can help a Christian. For because he believes and knows that God has both a heaven and a hell, he is immediately terrified by God's wrath; he becomes a timid and dejected person. Therefore he finds joy and solace only in the promise of the life to come as he hears this article which informs him that Christ has risen from the dead, that He will also awaken him and transport him from death and every misfortune to joy eternal. (28/107) |
| 464. |
"The Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." Paul wishes to signify that the resurrection is to be viewed and understood as having already begun in Christ, indeed, as being
more than half finished, and that this remnant of death is to be regarded as no more than a deep sleep, and that the future resurrection of our body will not differ from suddenly awaking
from such a sleep. Thus we must view our treasure and turn away from temporal reality which lies before our eyes and senses. We must not let death and other misfortune, distress and misery,
terrify us so. Nor must we regard what the world has anc can do, but balance this against what we are and have in Christ. For our confidence is built entirely on the fact that He has arisen
and that we have life with Him already and are no longer in the power of death. Therefore let the world be mad and foolish, boasting of and relying on its money and goods; and let the devil
rage with his poisonous darts in our conscience. He may now take life and limb while we are lodging here in his inn, where he does nothing but kill and slaughter daily, similar to a hangman
or a butcher in a barn filled with sheep. And since we eat and drink in such an inn, we must naturally also pay him for our keep. He dispenses no other food than pestilence and every other
sickness and pours no other wine or drink that pure poison.
We scoff at the devil, saying: "Because you hanker so to devour us Christians and assume that you are acquiring a dainty morsel, go ahead and kill and butcher us, fry us and devour us hide and hair. However, begin behind with this, and then you will have mustard and salt in advance. But what do you have after you have completely devoured us? It will be far from satisfying your insatiable appetite. For you will not find what you are seeking and desiring, and that is the best and greatest part of us, indeed, our whole life and treasure, namely, this article of the resurrection in Christ. Through this we have already been wrested from your teeth and have been moved too far on high. For this treasure does not reside with us or in us—if it did, you would soon tear it away from us—but on high in Christ. There you will have to let it rest unassailed and without any thanks What does it harm us that you now kill our body? For the only thing you effect thereby is to help this poor sack of maggots out of its misery and arrive at its destination, where the head, the heart, and everything is except all misfortune. That we look forward to daily and that we desire. Then you shall perceive and feel what you have eaten. It will be most distressing to no one but only you. The very pestilence and poison that you gave us you yourself will have to eat and devour and guzzle down, and it will tear both your jaws and your belly, putting an end to your raging. (28/111-112) |
| 465. | The whole purpose of the spiritual life is to take us to yonder life. Therefore the temporal life will be completely destroyed, and nothing of it will remain; but the spiritual life will be transformed into a better and perfect existence, in which everything we now look forward to by faith will be eternal and present. (28/127) |
| 466. | A Christian has already been thrust into death by the very fact that he became a Christian. Whatever he may be, he occupies himself with this hourly. He expects death any moment so long as he sojourns here, because devil, world, and his own flesh give him no rest. However, he enjoys the advantage of already being out of the grave with his right leg. (28/133) |
| 467. | We commonly speak of these three enemies that are both Christ's and ours: world, flesh, and devil, which we feel and understand. But in addition to these there are also other greater enemies, namely, the Law, sin, and death, by which Christians are harassed the hardest. Without these the other three would be unable to do anything. (28/135) |
| 468. | "I die daily." He constantly has death hovering over him and is perpetually harassed, feeling more of death than of life. And yet Paul says that he has an honor or a boast along with this, namely, a boast of life, although he feels this life but feebly and often not at all. Thus death and life, sin and piety, good and bad conscience, happiness and sadness, hope and fright, belief and unbelief, in short, God and devil, hell and heaven, engage in constant combat and content with each other. It is of such a battle that Paul is here speaking, which he alone understood, for he was a great apostle who incessantly was involved and exercised in this warfare. (28/155) |
| 469. | No matter how holy and learned I am in my life among men, I still live as if I didn't know this. I occupy thrones. I live with David. But I live as if I were not aware of that. I live as if I had no honor. My heart is free of the pleasure in those things, but I cling to the mercy of God. (28/226) |
| 470. |
"A good conscience." I trust only in God's mercy, which sin does not sting. If sin does sting it, yet it does not lose faith. It is a conscience which trusts in and clings to
the mercy of God. First, the heart must be pure; then follows a good conscience. To summarize, they run along side by side. If the heart is pure, the conscience is sincere. Faith purifies
hearts. Next, it is the nature of faith that it establishes a good conscience toward God and all men; for it teaches me that I must trust in Christ alone as Savior, because His suffering
has redeemed me. Where this condition exists, purity of heart follows shortly after. That speaks the rule: "My own energy does not save me." In this way all those idols in which I
have trusted fall down. This pure heart is not pure in the sense that it is so in its own thoughts. That I have called an impure heart, as if an artist were composing his own work, or as if
a mother were performing her function. But the pure heart must abandon the world, which is a woman, etc. The pure heart is to cut off all these things and look to itself alone. Some people
have, with Satan's help, a softness—tears, for instance. But those spiritual consequences, as the monks call them, are very suspect. A man can do his work and his wife can cook,
and both can have very pure hearts because they can say: "My Lord God, this work pleases You. I am performing my task according to Your command." They believe that God is in the
midst of their ordinary business.
He has a pure heart who has the Word of God and trusts alone. The false prophets, then, are the most impure when they boast about their purity most. Of course, they feel smug; they act boldly, as did Peter and Paul. They dare with great stubbornness to do their own building. That, to be sure, is a stubborn conscience but not a good conscience. They always take their own works first. This disturbs the conscience. Sincere faith believes in Christ alone. This is God's building, when people are instructed toward a sincere faith, a good conscience, and a pure heart. Once they have these, then follows the end and result of that knowledge—love. God has loved me; therefore I also, etc. (28/227) |
| 471. | The saintlier I have been, the more uncertain. So I say: "Despair of all things. Throw yourself on Christ. He cannot fail you." Then I know where I must abide. (28/228) |
| 472. | To the Christian the Law is most sacred. Because it is divine wisdom, it is a very fine and sacred thing. The fact of the matter is this: both the wicked and pious man have the Law. Both have a very good thing. But they disagree over its use. The former misuse a very sacred thing. We teach that one must use it correctly. Meat and fish are things, the created works of God. The only battle there is over their misuse. (28/231) |
| 473. | Grace is not alone; it comes in such a way that faith and love are joined to it. It creates a new man so that I believe in Christ. It makes me more effective because I am given a faith which is effective through Christ. (28/245) |
| 474. | God permitted few pure saints to live long. Yet He preserved John in such a way that He did not have to perform miracles. All the others He permitted to fall into grievous sin, so that each should have nourishment for his hope. It is a great thing to hope in God, so that He may bestow the kingdom of heaven without cause. Therefore He overwhelms us with so many examples to enlarge our heart and encourage our hope. The hardhearted and quarrelsome have the example of the flood, Sodom, and Saul. We must divide the Word correctly: comfort must be given the weakhearted; on the other hand, those opposite must receive a threat. (28/246) |
| 475. | Satan prepares his traps through false teachers, through our own thoughts of public insults, and privately when he misquotes Scripture for presumption or loss of hope. (28/250) |
| 476. | "They have made shipwreck." Mark well this passage against the smug and presumptuous. Stand firm on the main article so that you stick to it in faith. Works will surely follow in due time. If this item fails, immediately danger—shipwreck—is near. If Christ fails, shipwreck occurs. To preach the rest of the doctrine does not help at all. (28/253) |
| 477. | "If anyone is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no such practice." (I Cor. 11:16) Those who really want to learn are quiet and at peace. If you say something twice to someone, he should look for another teacher, because our doctrine is the sort which brooks no contention. (28/261) |
| 478. | The wrath of God is real, not imaginary. It is no joke. Were it false, mercy would be false. You see, as wrath is, so is the mercy which forgives. May God avert that joke from us. When genuine wrath is at its highest, so is genuine mercy. Thus most truly has Christ taken the wrath of God upon Himself and has carried it on our behalf. (28/264) |
| 479. |
I have written against the Enthusiasts who charge: "You new papists, you make new mistakes. You teach that there is remission of sins in Baptism, in the Gospel. But Scripture says
something else. The only thing we know about the forgiveness of sins is that it occurs on the cross not in Baptism." This is where they mislead the naïve. Note well this
passage (I Tim. 2;6) and others like it. They distinguish between redemption as an actual act and redemption as it is preached. Had Christ been crucified a hundred thousand times and had
nothing been said about it, what profit would the act of His being brought to the cross have brought? But when I come to this, I must draw this act into history and publish it for all the
world. Also, if anyone had seen this, he would not have thought that the work of redemption was taking place there. The work is fulfilled on the cross, but no one knows of the redemption
except the Father and the Son. Therefore to the act also the use of the act must be added, that it may be declared through the Word and that one may hold it by faith and, thus believing,
may be saved. Paul's intent, then, is this: to the work of redemption belongs the Word of preaching, which does nothing else but impress the work of redemption. They say: "Christ
completed the redemption with a single work." Yes, but He distributes it, applies it, and tells it by testimony.
They say that neither water nor bread saves us, but Christ crucified. But it profits nothing unless we receive in the Word that which in Baptism, in the Sacrament of the Altar, and in the Gospel brings this Christ to me. Therefore Christ redeemed us once with a single work, but He did not pass out redemption with a single means. He gave it out through the medium of washing in Baptism, through the medium of eating in the Sacrament of the Altar, through the media of comforting the brethren, of reading in the Book, that the fruit of His passion might be spread everywhere. The Word is nothing else than the declaration of the forgiveness of sins. This is the conclusion which the Enthusiasts have to draw against us: "They have Baptism, the Eucharist, and confession; they comfort-but all this is without the Word." But we say: "The Word is our Baptism, etc. The Word announced the whole thing to me." (28/268-69) |
| 480. | Where there is a spotless life, there is old age. The man who is trained in a good life and in good sense is not puffed up. He will humble himself easily and will close the mouth of his accuser with the good examples of his humility and love. (28/294) |
| 481. | "Whose consciences are seared." (I Tim. 4:2) This "seared conscience" has caused much debate. Almost all interpreters pass it by. We shall explain, to the extent that the matter itself and the nature of other statements allow. It is not the natural conscience. "They fear where there is nothing to fear" (Ps. 53:5). We have the same idea in Matt. 15. It is the nature of all hypocrites and false prophets to create a conscience where there is none, and to cause conscience to disappear where it does exist. There is no fear of God before them, etc. That is, they do not have a god who is God. "In vain do they worship Me (Matt. 15:9)." In the Hebrew, this is fear. Consequently, the fear of God is located much more in the conscience than on the outside. From the conscience comes every doctrine, according to the way in which the conscience is influenced. It lives according to what it teaches. Thus it has a god who is not God. Thus it errs both in doctrine and in worship. The erring conscience is seared. That is, it is seared by cauterization. Just as men or sheep are branded, so those consciences are branded by a false idea of doctrine. With fear they create a conscience where there is no conscience. Paul, then, is speaking about conscience according to the words he has proclaimed. These are "doctrines of demons." Every doctrine creates a conscience; so this should be a false conscience and false idea about God. A monk imagines God sitting in heaven to look at his works and righteousness. In this situation he must live according to this rule and perform these works. If he does not, he commits a mortal sin. There he causes an erring conscience. That is, a conscience is brought in by force. This is not natural. The metaphor pleases me very much. It pleases me that he should call it a "seared" conscience, as if it had been branded by a hot iron. He does not say that the conscience has been cut off but that it has been branded to testify of the efficacy and power of that doctrine, as if he were saying: "Fire is burning the flesh." Thus these men should have a righteousness of faith with greater enthusiasm, concern, diligence, and ardor, as if it were branded on them. He wants to say, then, that the martyrs of the devil suffer more than those of God. That conscience endures because of great exertion. At the same time he indicates that the erring conscience is born of great exertion; much trouble and toil is involved, so that people must burn themselves over it, as it were. They are drawn away from faith to works, which pull them in different directions day and night. This agrees with the sense of Scripture: "They fear where there is nothing to fear." (28/311) |
| 482. | The Enthusiasts wandered away from faith, the Sacrament of the Altar, and Baptism. They fell at original sin. All of Christ became nothing. I tell you: If you have been snatched away from true doctrine once, there is no limit to your erring. (28/315) |
| 483. | It is a doctrine of demons when a person makes a rule out of a deed. Ambrose abstained from marriage. That is an act, but he did not teach this. We have to do nothing to imitate the saints. Rather, we must watch whether their example has the support of the Word. We need not watch to what extent we must follow the example. We would do nothing just because Christ did it. And as He has given me no command, may this person not move, no matter how great and how lofty the examples of the holy fathers might be. I do not care what they did; but I shall listen to what they taught. (28/317) |
| 484. | Now see how difficult it is to find a sincere teacher. Satan corrupts the finest men. Where one is sincere, 10 on the other hand are destructive. How many do we have who teach the sincere Word? If only we had 10 more! To be sure, some are diligent, but those who labor in the Word are rare. Our ingratitude is such that we deserve to have teachers who lead us to destruction. (28/348) |
| 485. | The worship of God lies especially in preaching the Word, because by teaching the Gospel one worships God, gives thanks, fulfills all the Old Testament sacrifices and all reverence for the Old Testament. (28/369) |
| 486. | Human reason cannot refrain from looking at active righteousness, that is, its own righteousness; nor can it shift its gaze to passive, that is, Christian righteousness, but it simply rests in the active righteousness. (26/5) |
| 487. | The highest art and wisdom of Christians is not to know the Law, to ignore works and all active righteousness, just as outside the people of God the highest wisdom is to know and study the Law, works, and active righteousness. It is a marvelous thing and unknown to the world to teach Christians to ignore the Law and to live before God as though there were no Law whatever. On the other hand, works and the performance of the Law must be demanded in the world as though there were no promise or grace. This is because of the stubborn, proud, and hardhearted, before whose eyes nothing must be set except the Law, in order that they may be terrified and humbled. (26/6) |
| 488. | Grace and peace—these two words embrace the whole of Christianity. Grace forgives sin, and peace stills the conscience. (26/26) |
| 489. | True Christian theology, as I often warn you, does not present God to us in His majesty, as Moses and other teachings do, but Christ born of the Virgin as our Mediator and High Priest. Therefore when we are embattled against the Law, sin, and death in the presence of God, nothing is more dangerous than to stray into heaven with our idle speculations, there to investigate God in His imcomprehensible power, wisdom, and majesty, to ask how He created the world and how He governs it. Therefore whenever you consider the doctrine of justification and wonder how or where or in what condition to find a God who justifies or accepts sinners, then you must know that there is no other God than this Man Jesus Christ. Take hold of Him; cling to Him with all your heart, and spurn all speculations about the Divine Majesty; for whoever investigates the majesty of God will be consumed by His glory. (26/29) |
| 490. | You must make thorough preparations not only for the time of temptation but also for the time and struggle of death. Then your conscience will be terrified by the recollection of your past sins. The devil will attack you vigorously and will try to swamp you with piles, floods, and whole oceans of sins, in order to frighten you, draw you away from Christ, and plunge you into despair. (26/35) |
| 491. | We are not teaching anything novel; we are repeating and confirming old doctrines. Would that we could teach and confirm them in such a way that we would have them not only in our mouth but in the meditations at the very core of our heart and especially that we might be able to use them in the struggle of death! (26/39) |
| 492. | "Who set me apart before I was born." (Gal. 1:15) It is as if Paul were saying: "Who had sanctified, ordained, and prepared me. That is, God had ordained, even before I was born, that I should rage against His church this way, and that afterwards He would mercifully call me back from my cruelty and blasphemy, by His sheer grace, into the way of truth and salvation. In brief, when I had not yet been born, I was already an apostle in the sight of God; and when the time had come, I was declared to be an apostle in the sight of the world." Thus Paul abolishes all "deserving"; he gives the glory only to God, but to himself only confusion. It is as though Paul wanted to say: "Every gift—whether great or small, whether physical or spiritual—that God intended to give to me, and all the good things that I was ever to do at any time in all my life-all this God had proclaimed even before I was born, when I could not think, wish, or do anything good but was a shapeless embryo. Therefore this gift came to me by the mere predestination of merciful grace of God even before I was born. And the, after I was born, He still supported me, even though I was covered with innumerable and horrible iniquities and evils. To declare the unspeakable and inestimable greatness of His mercy to me even more obviously, He forgave my infinite and horrible sins by His sheer grace. So generously did He shower me with His grace that I not only knew what is given to us in Christ but also preached this to others. (26/72) |
| 493. | The first step in Christianity is the preaching of repentance and the knowledge of oneself. (26/126) |
| 494. | These three things are joined together; faith, Christ, and acceptance or imputation. Faith takes hold of Christ and has Him present, enclosing Him as the ring encloses the gem. And whoever is found having this faith in the Christ who is grasped in the heart, him God accounts as righteous. (26/132) |
| 495. | When sin has been forgiven and the conscience has been liberated from the burden and the sting of sin, then a Christian can bear everything easily. Because everything within is sweet and pleasant, he willingly does and suffers everything. But when a man goes along in his own righteousness, then whatever he does and suffers is painful and tedious for him, because he is doing it unwillingly. Therefore we define a Christian as follows: A Christian is not someone who has no sin or feels no sin; he is someone to whom, because of his faith in Christ, God does not impute his sin. (26/133) |
| 496. | A Christian, properly defined, is free of all laws and is subject to nothing, internally or externally. But I purposely said, "to the extent that he is a Christian" (not "to the extent that he is a man or a woman"); that is, to the extent that he has his conscience trained, adorned, and enriched by this faith, this great and inestimable treasure, or, as Paul calls it, "this inexpressible gift" (2 Cor. 9:15), which cannot be exalted and praised enough, since it make men sons and heirs of God. Thus a Christian is greater than the entire world. For in his heart he has this seemingly small gift; yet the smallness of this gift and treasure, which he holds in faith, is greater than heaven and earth, because Christ, who is this gift, is greater. When this doctrine, which pacifies consciences, remains pure and intact, Christians are constituted as judges over all kinds of doctrine and become lords over all the laws of the entire world. (26/134) |
| 497. | It is inevitable that the papists, the Zwinglians, the Anabaptists, and all those who either do not know about the righteousness of Christ or who do not believe correctly about it should change Christ into Moses and the Law and change the Law into Christ. For this is what they teach: "Faith in Christ does indeed justify, but at the same time observance of the Commandments of God is necessary; for it is written (Matt. 19:17): 'If you would enter life, keep the Commandments.'" Here immediately Christ is denied and faith is abolished, because what belongs to Christ alone is attributed to the Commandments of God or to the Law. But the work of Christ, properly speaking, is this: to embrace the one whom the Law has made a sinner and pronounced guilty, and to absolve him from his sins if he believes the Gospel. (26/143) |
| 498. | Consciences should be carefully taught to understand the doctrine of the distinction between the righteousness of the Law and that of grace. The righteousness of grace simply does not pertain to the flesh. For the flesh must not be free but must stay in the grave, in the prison, and on the couch. It must be subjected to the Law and be disciplined by the Egyptians. But the Christian conscience must be dead to the Law, that is, free from the Law, and must have no business with it. This important and basic doctrine does much to comfort afflicted consciences. Therefore when you see a man terrified and saddened by a consciousness of sin, say: "Brother, you are not distinguishing properly. Into your conscience you are putting the Law, which belongs in the flesh. Wake up, get up, and remember that you believe in Christ, the Victor over the Law and sin. With this faith you will transcend the Law and enter into grace, where there is neither Law nor sin. And although the Law and sins still exist, they have nothing to do with you; for you are dead to the Law and to sins." Whenever I feel remorse in my conscience on account of sin, therefore, I look at the bronze serpent, Christ on the cross (John 3:14-15). Against my sin, which accuses and devours me, I find there another sin. But this other sin, namely, that which is in the flesh of Christ, takes away the sin of the world. It is omnipotent, and it damns and devours my sin. Lest my sin accuse and damn me, it is itself damned by sin, that is, by Christ the crucified, "who for our sake was made to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21) (26/158) |
| 499. | "Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." (Gal. 2:20) When he says: "Nevertheless, I live," this sounds rather personal as though Paul were speaking of his own person. Therefore he quickly corrects it and says: "Yet not I." That is, "I do not live in my own person now, but Christ lives in me." The person does indeed live, but not in itself or for its own person. But who is this "I" of whom he says: "Yet not I"? It is the one that has the Law and is obliged to do works, the one that is a person separate from Christ. This "I" Paul rejects; for "I," as a person distinct from Christ, belongs to death and hell. This is why he says: "Not I, but Christ lives in me." Christ is my "form," which adorns my faith as color or light adorns a wall. (This fact has to be expounded in this crude way, for there is no spiritual way for us to grasp the idea that Christ clings and dwells in us a closely and intimately as light or whiteness clings to a wall.) "Christ," he says, "is fixed and cemented to me and abides in me. The life that I now live, He lives in me. Indeed, Christ Himself is the life that I now live. In this way, therefore, Christ and I are one." (26/167) |
| 500. |
"And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. (Gal. 2:20) That is to say: "I do indeed live in the flesh; but this life that is being led within me,
whatever it is, I do not regard as a life. For actually it is not a true life but only a mask of life, under which there lives another One, namely, Christ, who is truly my Life. This life
you do not see; you only hear it as 'you hear the sound of the wind, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes' (John 3:8). Thus you see me talking, eating, working,
sleeping, etc.; and yet you do not see my life. Therefore whatever this life is that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. That is, the Word I speak physically is not
the word of the flesh; it is the Word of the Holy Spirit and of Christ. The vision that enters or leaves my eyes does not come from the flesh; that is, my flesh does not direct it, but the
Holy Spirit does. Thus hearing does not come from the flesh, even though it is in the flesh; but it is in and from the Holy Spirit. A Christian speaks nothing but chaste, sober, holy, and
divine things—things that pertain to Christ, the glory of God, and the salvation of his neighbor. These things do not come from the flesh, nor are they done according to the flesh;
nevertheless, they are in the flesh. I cannot teach, preach, write, pray, or give thanks except by these physical instruments, which are required for the performance of these activities.
Nevertheless, these activities do not come from the flesh, and do not originate there; they are given and revealed divinely from heaven. Thus also I look at a woman with my eyes, yet with a
chaste vision and not in desire for her. Such vision does not come from the flesh, even though it is in the flesh; the eyes are the physical instruments for the vision, but the chastity of
the vision comes from heaven. (26/171)
Therefore I say that there is no force that can resist the sects and no remedy against them except this one doctrine of Christian righteousness. If this doctrine is lost, it is impossible for us to be able to resist any errors or sects. We can see this today in the fanatics, Anabaptists,and Sacramentarians. Now that they have fallen away from this doctrine, they will never stop falling, erring, and seducing others ad infinitum. (26/176) Christ is not a Moses, not a taskmaster or a lawgiver. He is the Dispenser of grace, the Savior, and the Pitier. In other words, He is nothing but sheer, infinite mercy, which gives and is given. Then you will depict Christ correctly. If you let Him be depicted to you any other way, you will soon be overthrown in the hour of temptation. The highest art among Christians is to be able to define Christ this way; it is also the most difficult of arts. For it is very hard for me, even in the great light of the Gospel and after my extensive experience and practice in this study, to define Christ as Paul does here. That is how much this teaching and noxious idea of Christ as the lawgiver has penetrated into my bones like oil. On this score you younger men are much more fortunate than we older ones. You have not been imbued with these noxious ideas with which I was imbued from boyhood, so that even at the mention of the name of Christ I would be terrified and grow pale, because I was persuaded that He was a judge. Therefore I have to make a double effort; first, to unlearn, condemn, and resist this ingrown opinion of Christ as a lawgiver and a judge, which constantly returns and drags me back; secondly, to acquire a new idea, namely, trust in Christ as the Justifier and the Savior. If you are willing, you can have much less difficulty learning to know Christ purely. Therefore if any sadness or tribulation afflicts one's heart, this should not be ascribed to Christ, even though it may come under the name of Christ, but to the devil, who makes a practice of coming under the name of Christ and of disguising himself as an angel of light. (26/178) "O foolish Galatians!" I will not argue here whether Paul said this out of zeal or out of pity; both may be true. An unspiritual man would interpret this as abuse rather than as pious chiding. But it is legitimate for an apostle, a pastor, or a preacher to reprove those under him sharply in Christian zeal; and such scolding is both fatherly and holy. Thus parents, in fatherly or motherly feeling, will call their son a foolish or worthless fellow, or their daughter a slattern—something they would not stand for if someone else did it. Sometimes a teacher will scold a pupil bitterly, call him a jackass, and beat him with sticks—which the pupil accepts with equanimity, though he would not accept it from a peer or a fellow student. Thus also a magistrate will scold, be angry, and punish. Without severe discipline nothing can be done properly in peace or in war. Therefore unless a magistrate, a clergyman, a public official, or a head of a household is angry and scolds when the situation demands, he is lazy and useless and will never administer his office properly. Therefore denunciation and anger are as necessary in every kind of life as any other virtue is. Nevertheless, this anger must be moderated and must not proceed from envy; it must proceed only from fatherly concern and Christian zeal. That is, it must not be a childish or womanly show of tempter that is out for revenge; its only desire should be to correct the fault, as a father disciplines his son, not to set his own mind at rest with a desire for revenge but to improve the son by such discipline. These forms of anger are good and are called "zeal" in Scripture. For when I discipline a brother or a subject in this way, I am not seeking his destruction; I am seeking his welfare. Therefore this anger is necessary and good; without it nothing constructive could exist either in the realm of the world or in that of the church. (26/186-87) |
| 501. | Suppose for example that a man with a bad temper is converted to Christ; although he is softened by grace and the Holy Spirit embues his heart that he now becomes gentler, still this natural vice is not completely extinguished in his flesh. Similarly, if harsh men are converted to faith, they still do not get rid of their harshness completely; but a shred of this harshness still clings to them. This is why the Gospels and the Holy Scriptures, whose truth is all of a piece, are treated in differing ways by men of differing dispositions. One is milder and gentler in his teaching; another is harsher. Thus when the Spirit is poured into diverse instruments, He does not immediately extinguish the vices of nature; but throughout life he goes on purging the sin that inheres, not only in the Galatians but in all men of all nations. (26/189) |
| 502. | Again and again Satan attacks even me so boldly and overwhelms me with such sorrowful thoughts that he completely obscures Christ for me and almost takes Him away. In other words, there is no one of us who is not bewitched rather often by false opinions, that is, who is not afraid, confident, or joyful where one should not be afraid, confident, or joyful, or who does not sometimes think otherwise than he should about God, Christ, faith, his calling, and the Christian way of life. Thus in our day we, too, must labor with the Word of God against the fanatical opinions of the Anabaptists and the Sacramentarians, to set free those who have been taken captive by them, to recall them to the pure doctrine of faith, and to keep them in it. Nor is this labor of ours useless. For we have recalled many whom they had bewitched, and we have set them free from their bewitchment, from which they could never have been untangled by their own powers if they had not been admonished by us and recalled through the Word of God. (26/193) |
| 503. | Reason falsely thinks: When you teach men to do nothing at all to obtain such an immense gift except to listen to the Word, this seems to verge on a great contempt for grace and to make men smug, lazy, and sleepy, so that they lose their grip and do not do any good works at all. Therefore it is not good to preach this; nor is it true. Men must be urged to labor, sweat, and exert themselves toward righteousness; then they will obtain this gift. But godly people experience how willing they are to hold to the Word with a full faith when it has been heard, and how willing they are to eradicate their opinion about the Law and about their own righteousness; but in their flesh they feel a struggle that resists the Spirit with might and main. Reason and the flesh simply want to work together. But try in earnest to hear with the hearing of faith and experience for yourself how easy it is to listen to the Word of faith! Of course, He who is granting this is great, and He grants great things willingly and unreservedly, without reproach to anyone. But your capacity to understand is limited, and your faith is weak, creating such a struggle for you that you cannot accept the gift when it is offered. Jest let your conscience murmur and let this "one must" keep on recurring. But endure it for awhile and hold your ground until you conquer this "one must." Thus, as faith gradually increases, that opinion about the righteousness of the Law will decrease. But this cannot be done without a great conflict. (26/216) |
| 504. | Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now being ended with the flesh?" The Spirit is whatever is done in us through the Spirit; the flesh is whatever is done in us in accordance with the flesh and apart from the Spirit. Therefore all the duties of Christians—such as loving one's wife, rearing one's children, governing one's family, honoring one's parents, obeying the magistrate, etc., which many regard as secular and fleshly—are fruits of the Spirit. (26/217) |
| 505. | Faith justifies because it renders to God what is due Him; whoever does this is righteous. (26/227) |
| 506. | All hypocrites and idolaters try to do the works that properly pertain to the Deity and belong completely and solely to Christ. They do not actually say with their mouths: "I am God; I am Christ." Yet in fact they arrogate to themselves the divinity of Christ and His function. In fact, then, they do say: "I am Christ. I am the Savior-not only my own but for others as well. Therefore no one can describe in words how horrible and dreadful a thing it is to seek righteousness apart from the blessing, in the Law and in works. The "doer of the Law" is not one who becomes a doer on the basis of his deeds; he is one who, having already become a person through faith, then becomes a doer. (26/259) |
| 507. | A counterfeit faith is one that hears about God, Christ, and all the mysteries of the incarnation and redemption, one that also grasps what it hears and can speak beautifully about it; and yet only a mere opinion and a vain hearing remain, which leave nothing in the heart but a hollow sound about the Gospel, concerning which there is a great deal of chatter. In fact, this is no faith at all; for it neither renews nor changes the heart. It does not produce a new man, but leaves him in his former opinion and way of life. This is a very pernicious faith, and it would be better not to have it. A moral philosopher is better than such a hypocrite with such a faith. The hypocrites deprive faith of its task and give this to love, so that faith amounts to nothing at all unless love is added to it. (26/269-70) |
| 508. | The curse, which is divine wrath against the whole world, has the same conflict with the blessing, that is, with the eternal grace and mercy of God in Christ. Therefore the curse clashes with the blessing and wants to damn it and annihilate it. (26/281) |
| 509. | Christ is grasped, not by the Law of by works but by a reason or an intellect that has been illumined by faith. And this grasping of Christ through faith is truly the "speculative life." (26/287) |
| 510. | "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Now the Spirit is freedom from the Law, from sin, death, the curse, hell, and the wrath and judgment of God. (26/293) |
| 511. | If you confuse the Law and the Gospel and place the Law in your conscience but the promise of freedom in your flesh, the sort of confusion takes place that there was in the papacy. Then you do not know what is Law and what is promise, what is sin and what is righteousness. (26/302) |
| 512. | I urge you, who are to be teachers of others, to learn this doctrine of the true and proper use of the Law carefully; for after our time it will be obscured again and will be completely wiped out. Today, while we are still alive and are insistently urging this doctrine, there are nevertheless very few, even among those who want to seem "evangelical" and who acknowledge the Gospel with us, who correctly understand the use of the Law. What do you thin will happen when we have been taken away? Right now I am not even speaking about the Anabaptists, the Neo-Arians, and the spirits who blaspheme the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; they are all as ignorant of this proper use and function of the Law as the papists are. They have long since defected from the pure doctrine of the Gospel to laws. Therefore they do not teach Christ. They boast and swear that they are intent on nothing except the glory of God and the salvation of the brethren, and that they teach the Word of God purely; but in fact they distort the Word of God and twist it into an alien meaning, so that it is forced to tell them what they themselves imagine. Under the name of Christ, therefore, they teach their own dreams, and under the name of the Gospel nothing but laws and ceremonies. And so they are and remain true to form, that is, monks, performers of works, legalists, and ritualists; all they do is to think up new names and new works. (26/312) |
| 513. |
The Law is a light that illumines and shows, not the grace of God or righteousness and life but the wrath of God, sin, death, our damnation in the sight of God, and hell. For just as on Mt.
Sinai the lightning, the thunder, the dark cloud, the smoking and burning mountain, and the whole horrendous sight did not make the Children of Israel happy or alive but terrified them,
made them almost helpless, and disclosed a presence of God speaking from the cloud that they could not bear for all their sanctity and purity, so when the Law is being used correctly, it
does nothing but reveal sin, work wrath, accuse, terrify, and reduce the minds of men to the point of despair. And that is as far as the Law goes.
On the other hand, the Gospel is a light that illumines hearts and makes them alive. It discloses what grace and the mercy of God are; what the forgiveness of sins, blessing, righteousness, life, and eternal salvation are; and how we are to attain to these. Unless the Gospel is clearly distinguished from the Law, Christian doctrine cannot be kept sound. But when this distinction is recognized, the true meaning of justification is recognized. Then it is very easy to distinguish faith from works, and Christ from Moses, as well as from the magistrate and all civil laws. (26/313) |
| 514. | In a spiritual sense, the Law must not rule in the conscience any longer than the predetermined time of that Blessed Offspring. Therefore when the Law has disclosed my iniquities to me, has terrified me, and has revealed to me the wrath and judgment of God, so that I begin to blanch and to despair, then the Law has reached the prescribed manner, time, and purpose when it must stop exercising its tyranny, because then it has discharged its function by adequately disclosing the wrath of God and creating terror. Here one must say: "Stop, Law! You have caused enough terror and sorrow. Thou does overwhelm me with all Thy waves; Thy dread assaults destroy me (Ps. 88:7, 16) O Lord, do not rebuke Thy servant in Thy anger, nor chasten my in Thy wrath (Ps. 6:1)." When these terrors and complaints come, it is the time and the hour of the Blessed Offspring. (26/317) |
| 515. | As I often remind you, almost to the point of excess, this is the true doctrine of the Law, which every Christian should diligently strive to learn. He should know how to define precisely and properly what the Law is—its use, its manner, its power, its time, and its purpose, namely, that it has an effect exactly opposite from that which all men suppose, since by nature this dangerous notion that the Law justifies has been planted into them. Therefore I am afraid that when we die, this doctrine will pass away again; for before the Last Day the world must be filled with horrible darkness and error. (26/326) |
| 516. | "Kept under restraint until faith should be revealed." (Gal. 3:23) Paul is referring to the time of fulfillment when Christ came. But you should apply it not only to the time but also to feelings; for what happened historically and temporally when Christ came—namely, that He abrogated the Law and brought liberty and eternal life to light—this happens personally and spiritually every day in any Christian, in whom there are found the time of Law and the time of grace in constant alternation. In the experience of the Christian, both are found, the time of Law and the time of grace. The time of Law is when the Law disciplines, vexes, and saddens me, when it brings me to a knowledge of sin and increases this. Then the Law is being employed in its true use, which a Christian experiences constantly as long as he lives. The time of grace is when the heart is encouraged again by the promise of the free mercy of God and says (Ps. 42:5): "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Do you not see anything except Law, sin, terror, sadness, despair, death, hell, and the devil? Are there not also grace, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, comfort, joy, peace, life, heaven, God, and Christ? Stop troubling me, O my soul. What are Law, sin, and all evils in comparison with these? Hope in God, who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up to death of the cross for your sins (Rom. 8:32)." Therefore the Christian is divided this way into two times. To the extent that he is flesh, he is under the Law; to the extent that he is spirit, he is under Gospel. To his flesh there always cling lust, greed, ambition, pride, etc. So do ignorance and contempt of God, impatience, grumbling, and wrath against God because He obstructs our plans and efforts and because He does not immediately punish the wicked who despise Him. These sins cling to the flesh of the saints. Therefore if you do not look at anything beyond the flesh, you will remain permanently under the time of the Law. But those days have to be shortened, for otherwise no human being would be saved (Matt. 24:22). Thus Paul distinguishes beautifully between the time of Law and the time of grace. Let us learn also to distinguish the times of both, not in words but in our feelings, which is the most difficult of all. For although these two are utterly distinct, yet they must be joined completely together in the same heart. Nothing is more closely joined together than fear and trust, Law and Gospel, sin and grace; they are so joined together that each is swallowed up by the other. Therefore there cannot be any mathematical conjunction that is similar to this. (26/340-43) |
| 517. | Although "Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:4), and although Adam and all the faithful before Christ had the Gospel and faith, nevertheless Christ came once for all at a set time, and faith came once for all when the apostles preached the Gospel throughout the world. In addition, Christ comes spiritually every day; through the Word of the Gospel faith also comes every day; and when faith is present, our custodian, with his gloomy and grievous task, is also forced to yield. But Christ comes spiritually as we gradually acknowledge and understand more and more what has been granted to us by Him. 2 Peter 3:18 says: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (26/351) |
| 518. | "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal. 3:27) Putting on Christ is understood in two ways; according to the Law and according to the Gospel. According to the Law (Rom. 13:14), "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ; that is: Imitate the example and the virtues of Christ. Do and suffer what He did and suffered." But to put on Christ according to the Gospel is a matter, not of imitation but of a new birth and a new creation, namely, that I put on Christ Himself, that is, His innocence, righteousness, wisdom, power, salvation, life, and Spirit. (26/352) |
| 519. | Even if you have not been imbued with the wicked idea of Christ as a lawgiver, you still have the same source of this idea in you, namely, the flesh, the reason, and the wickedness of our nature, which cannot think of Christ in any other way than as a lawgiver. Therefore you must contend with all your might, in order that you may learn to acknowledge and regard Christ as Paul portrays Him in this passage (Gal. 4). But if, in addition to the wickedness of our nature, there come wicked teachers—of whom the world is full today, both the old and the new variety—they will lend support to the wickedness of our nature, and the evil is doubled. For when wicked instruction is applied to a nature that is already corrupted in itself, it is impossible not to develop a false Christ. As I have said, reason invents him on its own; and then bad instruction makes him grow and impresses him on our minds so strongly that he cannot be eliminated without great labor and effort. (26/369) |
| 520. | Christ suffered all the tyranny of the Law. For the Law exercised its full function over Christ; it frightened Him so horribly that He experienced greater anguish than any man has ever experienced. This is amply demonstrated by His bloody sweat, the comfort of the angel, His solemn prayer in the garden, and finally by that cry of misery on the cross: "My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?" (26/372) |
| 521. | "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." (Gal. 4:6) The Holy Spirit is sent forth in two ways. In the primitive church He was sent forth in a manifest and visible form. Thus He descended upon Christ at the Jordan in the form of the dove and upon the apostles and other believers in the form of fire. The second sending is that by which the Holy Spirit, through the Word, is sent into the hearts of believers, as is said here: "God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." This happens without a visible form, namely, when through the spoken Word we receive fire and light, by which we are made new and different, and by which a new judgment, new sensations, and new drives arise in us. This change and new judgment are not the work of human reason or power; they are the gift and accomplishment of the Holy Spirit, who comes with the preached Word, purifies our hearts by faith, and produces spiritual motivation in us. Therefore there is the greatest possible difference between us and the enemies and perverters of the Word. We, by the grace of God, are able to declare and judge with certainty, on the basis of the Word, about the will of God toward us, about all laws and doctrines, about our own lives and those of others. On the other hand, the papists and the fanatical spirits are unable to judge with certainty about anything. The latter distort and pervert the Word; the former persecute and blaspheme it. But without the Word it is impossible to form any sure judgments about anything. (26/375) |
| 522. | If someone experiences love toward the Word, and if he enjoys hearing, speaking, thinking, lecturing, and writing about Christ, he should know that this is not a work of human will or reason but a gift of the Holy Spirit. For it is impossible for these things to happen without the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, where there is hate and contempt for the Word, there the devil, "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), is reigning, blinding the hearts of men and holding them captive, to keep the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ from shining upon them. Those in whom there is some glow and yearning for the Word should acknowledge with gratitude that this feeling has been infused into them by the Holy Spirit. For we are not born with this feeling; nor can we be instructed to acquire it by any laws. It is the right hand of the Most High, pure and simple, that has changed us (Ps. 77:10) (26/376) |
| 523. | We see how great the weakness of faith is in those who are pious. For if we believed for a certainty that we are in a state of grace, that our sins have been forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, and that we are the sons of God, then we wold be truly happy and thankful to God for this inexpressible gift (2 Cor. 9:15). But because we experience the opposite feelings, namely, fear, doubt, sorrow, etc., we do not dare believe this for a certainty. In fact, our conscience supposes that it would be great presumption and pride to arrogate this glory to itself. Therefore this matter is understood correctly only when it is transferred to practice, for without experience it is never learned. Let everyone accustom himself, therefore, to believe for a certainty that he is in a state of grace and that his person with its works is pleasing to God. But if he senses that he is in doubt, let him exercise his faith, struggle against the doubt, and strive for certainty, so that he can say: "I know that I have accepted and that I have the Holy Spirit, not on account of my worthiness or virtue but on account of Christ, who subjected Himself to the Law on our account and took away the sins of the world. (26/379) |
| 524. | "Crying, Abba! Father!" Paul purposely says "crying," to indicate the trial of the Christian who is still weak and who believes weakly. In Romans 8:26 he calls this crying "sighs too deep for words." "Likewise," he says, "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." Anyone who truly believed this would not fall away in any affliction, no matter how great. But many things hinder this faith. It is effort and labor to cling firmly to this in the midst of trial and conflict, when Christ does not become visible to any of our senses. The Christian man must believe for a certainty that he is in a state of divine grace, and that he has the cry of the Holy Spirit in his heart, especially when he is performing his proper function, which is to confess or to suffer for confessing. (26/381) |
| 525. | "If a son, then an heir through Christ." (Gal. 4:7) It transcends all the capacity of the human mind when he says "heirs," not of some very wealthy and powerful king, not of the emperor, not of the world, but of Almighty God, the Creator of all. Therefore this inheritance of ours is, as Paul says elsewhere (2 Cor. 9:15), "inexpressible." If someone could believe with a certain and constant faith, and could understand the magnitude of it all, that he is the son and heir of God, he could regard all the power and wealth of all the kingdoms of the world as filth and refuse in comparison with his heavenly inheritance. Whatever the world has that is sublime and glorious would make him sick. And the greater the pomp and glory of the world is, the more detestable it would be to him. Nothing more delightful could happen to him than a premature death, which he would embrace as the most joyous peace; for he would know that it is the end of all his evils and that through it he comes into his inheritance. In face, a man who believed this completely would not go on living very long but would soon be consumed by his overwhelming joy. For a perfect faith would soon bring a perfect contempt and scorn for this present life. (26/393) |
| 526. | 513And let me add this admonition in passing: It is the nature and the result of sound doctrine that when it is taught and learned well, it unites the minds of men in supreme harmony. But where men neglect the faithful doctrine and embrace errors, that harmony of mind is disrupted. As soon as brethren or pupils are deceived by fanatical spirits and fall away from the doctrine of justification, they immediately begin to persecute the pious with bitter hatred, even though previously they loved them dearly… Some of them even live as part of our family an behaved very modestly in our midst. But when they left us and were subverted by the fanatical spirits, no one was more hostile to our doctrine and to our name than they. They hate the papists too, but not as viciously as they hate us. Therefore I often wonder greatly how such a bitter and vicious hatred could have come so suddenly into the hearts of those who had embraced us with such love. (26/413) |
| 527. | Paul says (Gal. 4:12): "Perhaps I have rebuked you too harshly. But forgive me my harshness. Do not judge my heart on the basis of my words, but judge my words on the basis of the attitude of my heart. My words seem hard, and the rod seems severe; but my heart is gently and fatherly. Therefore, my Galatians, accept my rebuke in the sense in which it is intended. For the issue demanded that I give the appearance of being harsh with you." Our rebukes are harsh too, and our pen is vigorous. But our heart is certainly not bitter or envious or vindictive against our opponents. On the contrary, there is in us a godly agitation and sorrow of spirit. I do not hate papists and other erring spirits in such a way that I invoke evil upon them or wish that they would perish. No, I would wish that they would return to the way and be saved together with us. (26/416) |
| 528. | Human reason is easily offended by the ugly shape of the cross. (26/420) |
| 529. | "Have I, then, become your enemy by telling you the truth?" (Gal. 4:16) It is a friend's responsibility, if his friend is in the wrong, to admonish him freely; and the one who has been admonished does not become angry with his friend because of the friendly admonition and statement of the truth but is grateful to him and shows it. In the world, of course, it is extremely common that the truth arouses hatred and that someone who tells the truth is regarded as an enemy. This does not happen among friends, much less among Christians. Since I scolded you purely out of love, in order to keep you in the truth, you should not be angry with me or forsake the truth because of my fatherly rebuke, nor should you suspect that I am your enemy." (26/424) |
| 530. | To sing with the spirit is to sing with spiritual devotion and emotion. To sing with the mind is to sing with spiritual understanding. The spirit usually lifts up the mind, the emotions, the intellect, yes, also vice versa, because the spirit lifts up to the place where the illuminating light is, whereas the mind assigns a place to the emotions. Therefore both are required, but the elevating spirit is better. (10/3) |
| 531. | The ability to meditate belongs to reason. There is a difference between meditating and thinking. To meditate is to think carefully, deeply, and diligently, and properly it means to muse in the heart. Hence to meditate is, as it were, to stir up in the inside, or to be moved in the innermost self. Therefore one who thinks inwardly and diligently asks, discusses, etc. Such a person meditates. But one does not meditate on the law of the Lord unless his delight was first fixed in it. For what we want and love, on that we reflect inwardly and diligently. But what we hate or despise we pass over lightly and do not desire deeply, diligently, or for long. Therefore, whoever desires to be richly educated and, as it were, be flooded with the flowing waters of knowledge, let him surrender himself to meditation on the law of the Lord day and night, and he will learn by experience that what the prophet says in this verse is true (Ps. 1:3) (10/17) |
| 532. | To the present day this verse reproves very many in the church who fight for their ceremonies and are zealous for the vanity of an outward observance, who talk and show off great titles and show remorse only in their habit and appearance, like new and far more obstinate hypocrites. (10/75) |
| 533. | Now draw together the weight of feelings in this psalm (Psalm 6), and you will see that it cannot be heard without many tears. Everyone who has been rebuked is afraid that the wrath of God is upon him and this fear makes him very uneasy and seems long, and therefore he prays "not to be rebuked in anger"; he is afraid he will be chastised without fruit while there is only wrath; he is "weak" and unable to withstand this treatment; he cannot easily bear it because he cannot escape the anger and the punishment; his soul is not only "troubled" because of these, something that happens with all of the, but it is by itself troubled also through its own suffering, and that exceedingly; this fear and excessive trembling seems endless to everyone who experiences it; he says "turn" because the Lord's being turned away is cause for weeping; so that the "mercy" of God may not be lost but be glorified, there is here again another kind of feeling of love to God and of worship; "for in death there is no one who remembers Thee," that is, "who will promote Thy fame before others"; "in Sheol there is no one to confess," even if he were to "remember Him," but rather he utters curses—this is a remarkable verse, that the saints dread blasphemy of God more than hell; "he has toiled in his groaning" in a singular way; "he washes his bed every night"; he "waters his couch with his own tears"; he abhors his sins because those which agitate him are great with a holy intensive "rage"; and all afflict him and he is alone among them all. (10/83) |
| 534. | Desires of Christ are the killing and crucifixion of the flesh and the contempt of all visible things, as well as the sanctification of the spirit and love of the invisible. The "desires of the Lord" in the saints are the "infirmities multiplied," because in this way they make haste and glorify the merit of His passion, knowing that they themselves are nothing. Therefore, in consequence, he now refers to those who do not want this, those for whom the infirmities are not multiplied but think that they are safe and strong. (10/105) |
| 535. | "One thing I asked of the Lord." Here we are taught not to seek many things, but rather "one thing is needful." Martha was concerned about many things; she believed that temporal, not spiritual things should be sought (Luke 10:41-41). For temporal things divide a man into many things, while spiritual things draw the divided man together into one, as the apostle says, I Cor. 6:17: "He who is united with the Lord is one spirit," that is, he is spiritual, he is one and not temporal. (10/127) |
| 536. | "And my soul is exceedingly troubled. But Thou, O Lord, how long?" (Ps. 6:3) The soul is such to the extent that it revives the body. And thus when the eye of faith is disturbed, all of sensation is also disturbed, as are all the senses. And a man thus disposed of happy, and a truly crushed spirit and contrite heart is a sacrifice to God. Others who keep on sinning cannot say nor understand these things. Such a one was S. Augustine in Book 8 of his "Confessions." Hence it is to be feared that genuine contrition is a rare thing. One is too quickly confident regarding his groaning and remorse. (10/142) |
| 537. | Judgment comes into being like any virtue, namely, by an internal and an external act. The internal and an external act. The internal is always necessary, or at least not contrary, that a man with a true heart detest himself and confess his sin and, at all events, punish himself inwardly. Therefore judgment is nothing else than disparagement or humiliation of self from the heart and knowledge of self, that one is indeed a sinner and altogether unworthy. The external act is to conduct oneself in this way in public, namely, by choosing contempt, poverty, affliction, fasting, etc. But one who flees such things and seeks the opposite is not yet in the judgment, and consequently, not yet in the righteousness of God, however much he may say that he is a sinner. For he denies in deed that he is a sinner or at any rate he feels it in a lukewarm heart. (10/172) |
| 538. | "I said, 'I will guard My ways.'" (Ps. 39:1) This guard is chiefly inward in the heart, and it is there through some Word of God (for if the guard is not added to the intention, the latter will quickly come to an end). When that guard is placed, especially when we are irritated and cursed, then it performs its function, and it will be as the man proposed, namely, when the sinner stood against Me, the one who accuses and curses. (10/183) |
| 539. | "And I kept silent from good things," (Ps. 39:2) namely, by not making a reproach of the benefits which I have conferred. This is very hard to do when we suffer injury from those whom we have benefited, because we are generally quick to exaggerate and magnify the good we have done and the ingratitude of those people, and so we make accusations on a grand scale. In another way we are silent from the good by teaching and persuading them that they are unteachable and impossible to discipline. And so again there is sorrow for jealous souls. Third, I am silent from the good, that is, my own, when I do not justify myself and do not cite my own righteousness and goodness. (10/184) |
| 540. | "The bed of sorrow" (Ps. 41:3) is, in the first place, the conscience grieving over his sins, because it is in the conscience alone that the soul is at ease or troubled, through grace or guilt. When a man is at ease in his conscience and the enjoyment of sin, he does not know that that enjoyment is rather sorrow of heart, vexation of the spirit, and vanity. (10/191) |
| 541. | Our tears refresh the soul above all things, for by them the soul is wonderfully graced and fattened, and by them it is always moved more strongly to similar things. (10/200) |
| 542. | Spiritual things are beyond grasp, and therefore they can hardly be put forth to the outside and given meaning by the tongue. But if someone should say, "What good does it do, then, that you only utter, but do not pour it out? From the utterance we do not perceive what you are feeling, because you do not pour out what you feel," he answers and refers him to the one from whom he himself has drawn, as if to say: "Do not open your mouth to me, but know that my tongue, through which my heart makes utterance to you, is "the pen of a writer writing swiftly." If, then, you had prepared yourself for God's writing, my tongue and my utterance, the Word which I speak openly, the Holy Spirit Himself would write in you swiftly through my tongue, so that I would not need to make many words, but the mere utterance would suffice for that writer, so that he would inform you in him and through him. For he can fill your whole heart with a single word. Therefore do not put your confidence in my words, as if they were sufficient, but neither lose confidence in the Holy Spirit, as if He could not very swiftly teach you by means of my one utterance and word. Therefore open the mouth of your heart to Him when you hear me make an utterance, and hear me in such a way that through me you may be prepared to hear rather from Him. And in that word in a wonderful way He instructs us how the Word of God must be heard or read, namely, so that we do not approach it with our own powers, nor are content with the letter and the openly heard word, but that we seek to hear the Spirit Himself. For however many words there may be in the open, they are nothing but an utterance. And however few they may be, even if but one, He is nevertheless a swift and full teacher who can teach everything by that word. Therefore, why do you turn on me? Why are you indignant about brevity and obscurity? My tongue, my word openly proclaimed, my utterance is not that by which you are to be instructed inwardly, but it is the pen and tool of Him who most swiftly teaches inwardly. He will form living letters within you, but I, through my dead word, form dead letters within you." (10/211) |
| 543. | He who is not a sinner (that is, he who does not admit that he is a sinner) openly attempts to condemn God die sins. Thus he passes judgment on God and tries to make Him a liar. For God cannot be praised, justified, glorified, magnified, admired, etc., unless we ourselves are at the same time, and beforehand, disparaged, accused, and put to shame, and vice versa. Where our shame and accusation is in evidence, there the praise of God and the remembrance of His righteousness becomes a reality. (10/234, 241) |
| 544. | If God is to be justified in His words, by which He declares that we are sinners, He must also be justified in His deeds, by which he asserts the same thing. But these works are scourges and crosses. When they come upon us, they are like the Word of one who accuses and opposes our sin, Therefore they must be received with all fear and humility, and we must confess to Him, for He is righteousness in His works. For thus He says through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah: "I will correct thee in judgment; lest thou seem innocent to thyself" (Jer. 46:28; Is. 38:16). Always there are left in us also some remnants of sins, namely, of an evil drive and impulse toward wrath, pride, gluttony, and sloth, which are sins in the sight of God, evil and worthy of condemnation, and therefore they must always be punished. (10/242) |
| 545. | "Who will give me wings?" (Ps. 55:6) This is the language of those who are in an active life and in the public eye, like Martha, troubled about many things (Luke 10:41), since with weariness they endure rebellion, opposition, and envy from every side, as did Christ from the Jews. And therefore they sigh for a contemplative and quiet life of agreeable endeavors and they crave to be set free from this bother. Where they cannot do this in the body, they are nevertheless in the wilderness and in solitude in their heart and desire, that is, separated from the rough and tumble of the affairs of an active life. Therefore they withdraw and take flight and tarry. These three are sought in order. First, they keep themselves aloof in attitude rather than in space. Second, they take flight, that is, they always withdraw more and more and eagerly. Third, they also keep at it. But one to whom this cannot happen may grasp the following verse and say with Christ: I waited for Him who has made me safe. But we must take note of the reasons why one should flee the active life and the circumstances of the one wishing to flee. First, there is the longing for winds (that is, for the contemplative life, not as from hatred of the active life and the duty of work, but as from love of the contemplative life). The wings denote the acts and exertions of contemplation by which the mind is lifted up to God. And this so that one is not overpowered by the urge to seek the things that are his. (10/254) |
| 546. | All the lukewarm detest what has fervor and zeal, because they fear being compelled. (10/276) |
| 547. | The spiritual life is one, for it makes all things one. It makes all saints one, it unites all members into one, etc. But the life of the world is manifold, for it scatters and makes many. Again, since nothing suffices, the life of no member is enough. And there are as many lives in the world as there are objects of desire. (10/304) |
| 548. | Beyond every thought one must simply step into the fog. (10/313) |
| 549. | "Thou didst bring us into the net." (Ps. 66:11) First, there is the impatience of wanting to flee from the face of persecution. But to thwart this, God draws us into a net, so that we could not flee, or certainly so that He might teach us that we ought not want to flee, if indeed the flight is not overcome but the temptation is made worse. (10/319) |
| 550. | Theologians commonly mention the holy name of God so irreverently, especially in our arguing and even in our praying, because we do not know how to extol with our tongue. And we argue so boldly about the trinity of Persons, even though their three names are exceedingly formidable and should never be uttered without a trembling of the heart. (10/322) |
| 551. |
The church's sleep is to sleep according to the flesh and to the world but to be awake to God, just as others are awake to the world. For as one who sleeps does not see openly the
things that are in the world, so the saints use things as if they did not use them (using this world as not using it (I Cor. 7:31). And in their heart they are always elsewhere, for their
"conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). For that reason they are in the world as sleeping and yet awake inwardly. Concerning this sleep we read in Song of Sol. 5:2: "I
sleep, and my heart is awake," while others are awake, and their heart is asleep. (10/324)
"That your foot may be dipped in blood." (Ps. 68:23) It is as if he said: "Use the sacrament that you may be able to die," that is, "because one must die, use the sacraments first." (10/339) |
| 552. | "God is wonderful in His saints." (Ps. 68:35) And this is His wonderful and grand Word. First, only the saints revere God, because they alone acknowledge the greatness of His majesty and the limitless sea of His wisdom and the abyss of His goodness shown to us. He who acknowledges it more and more will also revere God more and more. But those who have little or no regard for it will have little reverence and will not be awe-struck but act and strut about and walk up to Him. But the saints are filled with fear and reverence, so that they are afraid to look at Him and call on Him. This fear is the highest form of worship of God, and it is not worship unless it is one of perfect love and faith and hope. |
| 553. | Second, "He is wonderful in the saints," whom He loves above all and yet strikes and humbles. This properly applies to goodness, as the first applied to power and majesty, though the power, wisdom, and goodness are everywhere. But it is a remarkable kind of goodness which brings misfortune and affliction. And wonderful is the height of majesty, which is present even in the lowest and deals and speaks with them. Though He is the Most High, He seems almost to be the most common of all, and He seems to accommodate Himself and do good to all. There are many differences in things, and in all of them God is above and below, within and without, before and behind. As He is higher and lower. More inward and more outward, earlier and later than every quantity, so He is also with regard to any life and feeling and thought. God is present at all the differences and limits of all of these, and He is above them. And in them all He is to be viewed with awe and fear; He is terrible and wonderful, namely, in His saints. (10/347) |
| 554. | We must not think that everything someone understands in a subtle way even in the Scriptures or thinks up and finds in an extraordinary way is from God or pleasing to God. For thus Ezekiel says to the devil under the name of the prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28:3): "Behold, you are wiser than Daniel" (that is, wiser than all speculative thinkers). The devil now knows all mysteries, because they were revealed throughout the world, and he is more brilliant than we. Therefore, by God's permission, he can suggest remarkable things to the mind for the purpose of seducing the proud. Therefore let no one, however learned he may be, jump to the conclusion that he is always illuminated by the Holy Spirit. More often this is accomplished by the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). (10/347) |
| 555. | Just as there is no greater iniquity than the highest equity, no greater injustice than the highest justice, no greater loss than the greatest gain, so there is no greater adversity than prosperity and no greater danger than no danger at all. This is so because it makes people careless. "When they shall say, 'peace and security,' then shall sudden destruction come upon them" (I Thess. 5:3). Nothing is safe where everything is safe, nothing so sick as when everything is healthy; there is no temptation when all is temptation, no persecution when all is persecution. Therefore woe to us, who are so snatched away by present things and foolishly do not see the devil's trap! (10/361) |
| 556. | And as you cannot give proper thanks for one morsel of bread, neither can you for one word of truth. But one who thinks these benefits to be of little value and does not magnify those sins of omission will never be truly humble and displeased with himself, nor will he be fit to evaluate mercy and goodness. (10/369) |
| 557. | If you cannot groan over your sins, at least groan that you cannot groan; weep that you cannot weep, be sad that you cannot be sad, be humble that you cannot be humble, fear that you cannot fear, and so on, with the rest, if perchance or in this way the divine mercy might look upon you and magnify itself over you. (10/371) |
| 558. | Since, therefore, we do not have actual sufferings and afflictions in our time, it is extremely necessary that we at least inflict them on ourselves in our thinking so that we might be the kind of people on whom God would have mercy and whom He would save. So let us be our own tyrants, tormentors, heretics, stirring up such attitudes as keep after us and urge us on to better things, lest we be destroyed through peace and security. For peace and security are in all-out opposition to these attitudes, and so is pleasure, gluttony, etc. Therefore go down with Jacob weeping to hell(Gen. 37:35). Mark this sign for yourself: When you are lukewarm and not in hell with your heart, know that there is danger for you, and peace and security are lying in ambush for you to bring you to destruction. For that reason you must not let your eyeball rest day or night, and you must not allow yourself any rest and peace (that is, security), because if you do, destruction will then unexpectedly come over you. Therefore Christ descended once, and all should follow Him wherever He might go, for He has commanded that we should follow Him wherever He might go, for He has commanded that we should follow Him. But if we are to do so in all other matters, why not also in this? Therefore, if you are looking for a sign of God's grace, and whether Christ is in you, behold, no sign will be given you except the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matt. 12:39). If, then, you have been three days in hell, this is a sign that Christ is with you and you with Christ. Therefore you must be full of fear lest Ezek. 16:42 be cited to you: "My indignation shall rest on thee, and my jealousy shall depart from thee." Nothing is worse than this wrath. For if jealousy is removed, love must at the same time be removed, since the two are inseparable companions. (10/373) |
| 559. | Scripture speaks as the hearer is disposed. The Psalmist is not here (Ps. 70:2) praying that confusion should be ours, since we are never without it, but rather that we might understand it. Such understanding then will lead to shame. To my mind, this is what the title wants to say, namely, to bring to remembrance, so that we might return to the heart and understand our confusion, which surrounds us because we have forgotten ourselves and God. No one can bring himself or God to remembrance without confusion and blushing. Consequently, when we are not in confusion and shame, this is a sign that we have forgotten ourselves, and we must read the prayer of this psalm to bring it to remembrance. So must all tyrants and heretics. (10/386) |
| 560. | Indeed, God does good more abundantly to the evil, and imposes more afflictions on the good. He does this not unfairly, but so that faith may have a place. For if He would give evils only to the evil and punish them as soon as they sinned, then faith would perish, and all would be compelled to serve themselves. And if He would give good things only to the good, faith and hope wold likewise perish, because it would be thought that one must serve only for these good things. (10/416) |
| 561. | Grace is against the evil of guilt; peace against the evil of punishment. Therefore God is good to those who are right of heart, for He truly removes the evil of punishment from them, first here in the spirit and the conscience, and in the future also in the body at the same time. But He does not do this unless the evil of guilt is first removed, and therefore he adds, "to those who are right of heart." "For whom he has justified, them he has also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). (10/417) |
| 562. | He is an exceedingly rare person who goes his way with eyes and ears closed. But these things, too, are for many a cause for lukewarmness, because when they look at the corrupt habits of others, they regard themselves as better than those people by far, because they themselves are not like other men. And so, by the very fact of pleasing themselves they become abominable to God, failing to consider that perhaps those people, soon to be converted, will be much better than they. Meanwhile they themselves have buried the talent of God's grace in the ground. (10/418) |
| 563. | The sanctuary of God is nothing but the soul spiritually converted to God, for the soul is the seat of wisdom, and it promises that it will dwell in the midst of the people (that is, in their hearts). (10/419) |
| 564. | "The earth is melted." (Ps. 75:3) Here we are saying nothing about the melting of the perfected saints and the contemplative, about which many say much, since we believe that only those who have experienced it are permitted to speak about it. But we are speaking only about the melting of the beginners, which cannot be hidden from us. For since there are endless steps from the beginning of holiness all the way to perfection (because His wisdom cannot be counted, and we must always go from brightness to brightness, from strength, from faith to faith), God abounds with His gifts on the individual steps, and the one who is on the second step experiences something different from the one who is on the first step, and so on, in line with the fact that there are many rooms in the house of Christ's Father. It is good when the hard sinner melts like crystal in the fire of the Holy Spirit and so gradually dissolves in himself and becomes altogether nothing. He melts them so that they are hammered out thin and become flexible in their own understanding but inflexible and unconquerable in the Lord. (10/456) |
| Volume 11, #2 | |
| 565. | The difference between Law and Gospel is that the Law is the Word of Moses that comes up to us while the Gospel is the Word of God that comes into us. The former remains outside and speaks of figures and visible shadows of things to come, but the latter comes inside and speaks of internal, spiritual, and true things. (11/160) |
| 566. | Greed is the root of all evils. What does love of the world do? At first it is at rest, while it has what it may enjoy. But when what it loves begins to be reproved, then the dark and nighttime fear arises, because it is unwilling to give up what is reproved. And here is the beginning of folly (that is, of being wise in earthly things an knowing nothing about heavenly things). Thus arises the arrow flying by day, teaching what is reproved by the truth and inflaming desire for it and even kindling zeal for it against the truth. Then the denial of the truth quickly follows, which is the lie and the pestilence in the dark. Finally, when it discerns that it is lying in vain, there follows a rage and an utter burning that destroys itself rather than the truth. (11/219) |
| 567. | Heretics love their own idea and the vanity of name and glory. The, when they hear preaching in opposition to this, the fear is born that they might lose their own opinion and what they love. Then they scatter the arrows flying by day, that is, their own teachings by which they please man, not God. Finally they attack and deny the truth. In the end they stubbornly rage because they do not prevail and are bitten by envy. Hence they blaspheme and curse and destroy as much as possible. All the proud and stubborn act the same way in what they love and are afraid of losing. (11/220) |
| 568. | Behold, in the spirits and in the inner man God produces glory, salvation, riches, beauty, and inestimable strength. But on the outside nothing of this appears; indeed, everything appears as the opposite. He abandons them in disgrace, weakness, lack of riches, contempt, and filth, yea, even unto death. But when the senseless, who cannot see beyond this, see this, will they not fail to understand and know the thoughts of God? For they are understood only by faith, which comes from the Spirit. So, then, when the saints inwardly receive these magnificent gifts of God, they receive the opposite on the outside. And thus the ungodly and unbelieving are offended. (11/230) |
| 569. | Humility and grace do not want to be separated, though the one precedes the other, as John the Baptist preceded Christ, but immediately they follow in the footsteps. (11/264) |
| 570. | "For my days have vanished like smoke." Psalm 102:3 That is, "I think, that all my days have already vanished like smoke. So certainly will it be so that I regard it as having already happened. And since in the spirit I seek other days, I care for these in no other way than as if they were a vanishing smoke. Indeed, what is not evil when the days thus vanish away? Rightly, therefore, I regard then as unhappy and seek no good in them, but I sigh for You and Your blessings. For if these days are given to me, will they not vanish for me as they vanish for others? And since I, the speaker, am the whole people, it is necessary that in some at least this is true, 'my days have vanished like smoke,' namely, in those who are dead, who have not had Your day, which I, as another remaining pare, sigh for.' (11/297) |
| 571. | "In whatever day I am in trouble," (Psalm 102:2) namely, whether prosperity or adversity troubles me. For the prosperity of the world afflicts the righteous no less than adversity, in fact, even more; for adversity brings about internal comfort, whereas prosperity drives it away. (11/300) |
| 572. | "Because I forgot to eat my bread." (Psalm 102:4) Note the verb, for he says "forgot," therefore he did not sin out of ignorance nor out of malice, but out of weakness. Malice is of the will, ignorance of the understanding, but weakness and instability are of the memory concerning the good things which the understanding knew and the will desired by choice. Nevertheless, however, with the memory failing, also the intellect and the will failed, because it now knows and wants something else than before, when the memory was still firm. Therefore in every sin all three come together. But not every sin arises from any one of them. (11/303) |
| 573. | Groaning produces a true softening of the flesh. (11/304) |
| 574. | "I have become like an owl in the house." (Psalm 102:6) Here he cites a bird that flees the light and seeks obscurity. For the people of Christ are not only solitary in this world, but also obscure, mean, and outcast, and thus without light in the night and in darkness, while the ungodly are in the day and the light, because they look like something, just as vanishing smoke does. Hence in these three birds three virtues are alluded to against three vices in the world: humility, poverty, chastity, against the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and of the eyes. As through humility one is disposed and pleasing to God, through poverty to the neighbor, and through chastity to oneself. (11/306) |
| 575. | Repentance and remorse are a sign of wrath against sin. (11/343) |
| 576. | The fact that he attributes the work of the creature to God shows that he is speaking about the new creature, in which God Himself does everything, as Is. 26:12 says: "Thou hast worked all our works in us, O Lord"; and John 15:5: "without me you can do nothing." So then, it is called "His work" because we do it out of Him. (11/375) |
| 577. | "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." This life does not have the end of wisdom, but always the beginning, since it is infinity. But this wisdom means knowing and understanding invisible and spiritual things and despising the visible and carnal. Hence no one savors spiritual things unless he has first begun to fear the Lord. This fear makes him hate riches, pleasures, and honors and love poverty, chastity, obedience, etc. (11/383) |
| 578. | "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord." (Psalm 112:1) As both the man who fears the Lord is blessed, so also wretched is the boy who fears the slave. For this is the difference with regard to fear, that the former fear with a childlike and loving fear, of the sort with which a friend fears to offend a friend, or a son his father. This fear has as a prerequisite an extraordinary love and friendship, which is the cause of this fear. The Law did not have this fear, but the Spirit of fear gave it. The latter, however, have feared where there is no fear (Ps. 53:5), namely, the fear of losing or offending a slavish creature. Here there is in truth no fear, but it is imagined, for fear is due God alone. For as such people love where there is no love, so they fear where there is no fear. They do everything that follows in line with this love and fear, that is, they hate where there is no hatred, hope where there is no hope, rejoice where there is no joy, grieve where there is no grief. For it follows that where the chief and first attitudes have been perverted, the subsequent ones are also perverted. This is the whole vanity that they place their love and fear on earthly things which should not be loved and feared. (11/384) |
| 579. | "I have been humbled exceedingly." (Psalm 116:10) And the question is , "Why?" "Because I have spoken and taught what I have believed. They were unwilling to hear and for the sake of the Word of faith they persecuted Me." And the question is, "Why did You, then, not keep silent?" He answers: "Because I believed, and for the sake of this believing I spoke. For faith compelled Me to speak, so that I might not keep silent about the truth against so many lies in the world." (11/400) |
| 580. | Faith causes earthly things to be compared with eternal things, and carnal things with spiritual things. Then he sees how much wretchedness there is in lacking spiritual things and in abounding with temporal things. (11/408) |
| 581. | Paul wanted Stephen to perish, and he took vengeance on him in his own name or the name of men or of the devil. Stephen wanted Paul to perish in a happy way, so that Paul might become what he himself was, and stop being what he was. What happened? Who wins more beautifully? Thus the church takes vengeance in the name of the Lord with the most delightful kind of vengeance, because she wages war not against men but against vices and sins. (11/412) |
| 582. | There is a big difference between "seeking with the whole mind" and "seeking with the whole heart." The mind is intelligence, or what the apostle calls mind in I Cor. 2:16: "We have the mind of Christ." So also elsewhere he admonishes us to be of one mind (Rom. 12:16; Phil. 2:2). Therefore to seek the Lord with the whole mind means to savor nothing of one's own thought but to take the intellect captive to the obedience of Christ and of any prelate or brother. "The heart," however, is the very power of desiring, namely, the will, in which love is, as knowing is in the mind, there, affection, here, understanding. (11/418) |
| 583. | "With my lips I have pronounced all the judgments of Thy mouth." (Psalm 119:13) There are many who pronounce the judgments of the Lord and yet do not hide them in their heart nor believe them vigorously. Second, many others believe them vigorously and hide them in their heart, but are afraid to utter them openly because they do not want to offend, they do not want anger to be their lot, they do not want to lose friends and make enemies and persecutors. And therefore both of these give and grant the mutual interchanges to themselves and are not firm in the word of truth. For the first ones who boldly speak the judgments of the Lord, while they do not have people whom they offend, would in any case be silent too, much more than the second group, if they felt persecutions, for the latter do not have faith in the heart, as do the former. Similarly, also the second ones would easily and more easily pronounce the judgments, like the first ones, too, if no one wold be offended. Therefore it is no small boasting and the courage of a happy presumption to say: "With my lips I have pronounced all the judgments of Thy mouth." (11/420) |
| 584. | How great the law of God is can only be known by experience of the works. Therefore, let the way be set first, and then let it be sought after. The works produce more understanding, if I may say so, than the words. Otherwise he very quickly misuses the Scriptures who does not first put them to the test in life and morals, and he falls into error in understanding and measuring its words on the basis of himself and his own resources, and not as it is profitable. What "seeking after" means has already been said above, namely, always to seek the inner things of the spirit by progressing from brightness to brightness, from faith to faith, from the letter to the spirit. (11/439) |
| 585. | The divine consolation is delicate and is not given to those who grant access to an alien one. Therefore, you must be chastened and pressed like a palm either by someone else or by yourself and be found entirely in the cross and judgments on the old man if you want to walk at large according to the new man. (11/451) |
| 586. | To a beginner an adversary is soon raised up, so that the Lord may test him suddenly and visit him early (Job 7:18), lest the grace that has been given be idle, as Herod soon rose up against the newborn Christ. Therefore one must be prepared as Ecclesiasticus says (Ecclus. 2:1): "Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in the fear of the Lord and prepare your soul for temptation." If you are prepared, you will not be troubled, or at least less troubled. (11/456) |
| 587. | I take "knowledge" to mean moral teaching, which the teacher gives and the hearer perceives. Blessed Augustine seems to me to have correctly drawn the distinction between wisdom and knowledge, saying that wisdom has to do with eternal things, knowledge with temporal things. "Wisdom," the gift of the Holy Spirit, is simply, by faith in Christ, to know both eternal and spiritual things, whatever is to be believed concerning future and invisible things. "Understanding," strictly speaking, is to recognize allegories in the Scriptures and in creatures. (11/461) |
| 588. | "Before I was humbled, I offended, therefore have I kept Thy Word." (Psalm 119:67) "Before I heard, I did not know; but now I have kept Thy Word." As a disciple cannot become learned and wise unless he hears and believes, so a man cannot become wise and know, unless through the hearing of the Word of God he first believes and allows himself to be taught. But since the Word of God says things that are contrary to all, many proudly refuse to hear, and so they neither learn nor become wise. Therefore, unless a person becomes a child and humble, considering himself as one who knows nothing but as one who only hears, no matter how much the words speak in opposition, he will not become wise. (11/462) |
| 589. | For we are all a "lost mass" and deserve eternal death. Now, therefore, lest sin pass unpunished, for Christ's sake, out of His supreme mercy, He changes the eternal punishment into temporal punishment for us and does not make His Word invalid. (11/468) |
| 590. | "Let Thy tender mercies come unto me, and I shall live, for Thy law is my meditation." (Psalm 119:77) The Law moves the understanding forward, whereas the tender mercies move love forward. Therefore, not content to progress in understanding and law, he also prays that his love be revived through grace and tender mercies. (11/469) |
| 591. | "Let those who fear Thee turn to me, and they who know Thy testimonies." Psalm 119:79 As the church, the faithful people, sees many proud people pervert by their own iniquity, she is concerned about those who stand in a sound meaning or await it, and she prays that they be not turned away, saying, "O Lord, be present, lest these simple people, who see the battle and discord between me and those proud people but may still be neutral and simple, also plunge ahead willfully (for they fear You but do not know or they have doubts): Preserve them, and do not let them be seduced by these wicked people, but let them turn to me. This was and is especially necessary in a time of Pharisees and heretics, when many good men, who formerly served and feared God in simplicity, are being led astray. (11/470) |
| 592. | To be directed belongs to those who are progressing and those who are setting out, rather than to those who are sitting still, to whom it belongs rather to be ruled. And so we are directed by the Spirit of the Lord, so that we do not stink in the letter and the stagnant pool. (11/498) |
| 593. | Do not quickly judge anyone's word or deed, counsel or work, but before all things first search out its inner parts. Let not appearance and surface deceive you. But this you will do best, if you will never believe your own opinion but always regard it suspect and think that others know better than you, and so be more ready, prepared, eager always to be taught, judged, and to hear, rather then to teach, judge, and be heard. "I opened my mouth and panted, because I longed for Thy commandments." (Ps. 119:131) O most beautiful humility, how beautifully you speak! He does not say that he opened his mouth to speak or breathe, but rather to inhale, for he preferred to be taught rather than to teach. (11/500) |
| 594. | Self-chosen works is certainly the great transgression, indeed the only and greatest one. (11/502) |
| 595. | Crying with the whole heart is not characteristic of anyone but of him who most perfectly longs for Christ. But now there are many who do not even hiss. There is silence in their heart, because there is no longing for Christ, for truth, righteousness, and eternal salvation. Yet there is loud clamor for gain, for honors and pleasures, whereby God is offended and the devil is summoned. (11/509) |
| 596. | The good of the present church are nothing but the Gospel of grace itself and with such food dose Christ nourish us… For what does a girl loving a young man desire more ardently than his embrace and kiss, and to conceive sons by him? This is natural. But a disgraceful lust is the snare of sin. So also this spiritual maiden desires nothing but to receive the seed of the Word of God from her husband and thus to beget spiritual children. This is the see, that he says, "That I might meditate on Your words," that is, "that I might conceive Your seed in the womb of my soul and nourish and cherish it there until it becomes a fetus of good work, and this cherishing is meditating on it. (11/513) |
| 597. | It is right that we become fools according to what the flesh and our own opinion savors, so that we may become wise in the thought of Christ, when we humbly, with all our dead opinion, counsel, prudence, and wisdom, are always more ready to yield to others than to establish our own. It is right that we become evil, so that we may be good in spirit. For 'better is the iniquity of a man, than a woman doing a good turn.' It is better to savor the evils and adversities of the flesh than its prosperities and good things. For so the cross of Christ, which has condemned the flesh and raised up its opposite, demands. But the opposites of these are iniquitous. (11/522) |
| 598. | Though the judgments be harsh, yet because they are judgments of righteousness, they are gently and praiseworthy and joyful, as above, "Thy judgments are delightful" (Ps. 119:165). For our sufferings and mortifications are not sterile like those of the people who are out in the open, but extremely fruitful, because they are judgments of righteousness, judgments of salvation, judgments of glory, while theirs are judgments of iniquity, of damnation, of disgrace. (11/525) |
| 599. | See whether all who are proud in their opinion do not always impatiently bear what goes against them and, as if they were righteous, think that injury is being done to them. See whether the hypocrites, heretics, and schismatics do not always blaspheme the church, the people of God, and very seriously disparage them, and whether every humble and lowly person in the house of the Lord does not experience disparagement from those who consider themselves great and holy and is not called liar, idolater, hypocrite, and other insulting names. (11/526) |
| 600. | Christ's truth is always in humility and in a guise which offends the wisdom of the flesh. (11/526) |
| 601. | Righteousness is humble obedience alone. Therefore judgment pertains to superiors, righteousness to inferiors. For no one is righteous unless he is obedient. (11/546) |
| 602. | Judgment is established to control evil. But there are no evils except self-will and private opinion. And these two need a superior power if they are to be removed and forbidden and subdued. Hence it is necessary for seats to sit in judgment, namely, for the condemnation of self-will and private opinion. Accordingly it does not matter what, what kind, how much is commanded, be it fitting or unfitting, useful or useless (as long as it is not against God), but as in the case of boys, these things must be done by not judging and estimating. Those who first consider a work that is commanded as to its reasonableness and usefulness, forgetting that God does not require the work, but he subjection and obedience of the will and opinion, want to stand in judgment themselves, that is, they want to obey and rule at the same time, those foolish and disobedient people. (11/548) |
| Volume 27, #2 | |
| 603. | Faith is prior to hope; for it is the beginning of life and begins before any tribulation, sine it learns about Christ and grasps Him without having to bear a cross. Nevertheless, cross and conflict follow immediately upon the knowledge of Christ. When this happens, the mind should be encouraged to find the fortitude of the Spirit—since hope is nothing but theological fortitude, while faith is theological wisdom or prudence—which has its place in endurance, according to the statement (Rom. 15:4): "that by steadfastness, etc." (27/25) |
| 604. | What seems slow to us is rapid in the sight of God, and what hardly crawls for us runs swiftly for Him. Likewise, what is sorrow, sin, and death in our eyes if joy, righteousness, and life in the eyes of God, for the sake of Christ, through whom we are made perfect. Christ is holy, righteous, happy, etc., and there is nothing that He lacks; thus there is nothing that believers in Him lack either. Therefore Christians are really runners; whatever they do runs along and moves forward successfully, being advanced by the Spirit of Christ, who has nothing to do with slow enterprises. (27/32) |
| 605. | The Anabaptists have nothing in their entire teaching more impressive than the way they emphasize the example of Christ and the bearing of the cross, especially because there are clear passages in which Christ urges His disciples to bear the cross. Therefore we must learn how to resist this Satan when he transforms himself into the appearance of an angel, namely, by distinguishing when Christ is proclaimed as a gift and when as an example. Both forms of proclamation have their proper time; if this is not observed, the proclamation of salvation becomes a curse. (27/34) |
| 606. | We regard those men as excommunicated and condemned who say that the doctrine of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ is uncertain or who do violence to the words of Christ in the Lord's Supper. With the utmost rigor we demand that all the articles of Christian doctrine, both large and small-although we do not regard any of them as small-be kept pure and certain. This is supremely necessary. For this doctrine is our only light, which illumines and directs us and shows the way to heaven; if it is overthrown in one point, it must be overthrown completely. And when that happens, our love will not be of any use to us. We can be saved without love and concord with the Sacramentarians, but not without pure doctrine and faith. Otherwise we shall be happy to observe love and concord toward those who faithfully agree with us on all the articles of Christian doctrine. In fact, so far as we are concerned, we shall have peace with our enemies; and we shall pray for those who slander our doctrine and persecute us out of ignorance, but not with those who knowingly offend against one or more articles of Christian doctrine and against their conscience. (27/41) |
| 607. | Sin should always be emphasized, for sin is really sin, regardless of whether you commit it before or after you have come to know Christ. And God hates the sin; in fact, so far as the substance of the deed is concerned, every sin is mortal. It is not mortal for the believer; but this is on account of Christ the Propitiator, who expiated it by His death. As for the person who does not believe in Christ, not only are all his sins mortal, but even his good works are sins, in accordance with the statement (Rom. 14:23): "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." A believer's sin is the same sin and sin just as great as that of the unbeliever. To the believer, however, it is forgiven and not imputed, while to the unbeliever it is retained and imputed. To the former it is venial; to the latter it is mortal. (27/76) |
| 608. | It is extremely beneficial to the faithful to be aware of the uncleanness of their flesh; for it will keep them from being puffed up, by a vain and wicked notion about the righteousness of works, as though they were acceptable to God on its account. (27/85) |
| 609. | By a special grace, therefore, God has covered our glory today with slander, bitter hatred, persecution, and blasphemy from the whole world, as well as with contempt and ingratitude from our own followers among the peasants, the townspeople, and the nobles; because the hostility and persecution of these against the Gospel is secret and internal, it is more dangerous than that of the enemies who persecute it openly. (27/102) |
| 610. | Our new creation is not a change in clothing or in outward manner, as the monks imagine, but a renewal of the mind by the Holy Spirit; this is then followed by an outward change in the flesh, in the parts of the body, and in the senses. For when the heart acquires new light, a new judgment, and new motivation through the Gospel, this also brings about a renewal of the senses. The ears long to hear the Word of God instead of listening any longer to human traditions and notions. The lips and the tongue do not boast of their own works, righteousness, and monastic rule; but joyfully they proclaim nothing but the mercy of God, disclosed in Christ. These changes are, so to speak, not verbal; they are real. They produce a new mind, a new will, new senses, and even hew actions by the flesh, so that the eyes, the ears, the lips, and the tongue not only see, hear, and speak otherwise than they used to, but the mind itself evaluates things and acts upon them differently from the way it did before. (27/140) |
| Volume 19, #2 | |
| 611. | Jonah sleeps deeply in the midst of the storm and far down below in the ship besides. It is like saying that he is blinded, obdurate, and submerged in sin, yes, dead, lying in the pit of his unrepentant heart. He would remain there eternally and perish too; for sin would no permit any power for good to bestir itself, free will or no free will, reason or no reason. There he lies and snores in his sin, hears nothing and sees nothing, nor does he feel what God'' wrath contemplates doing with him. (19/58) |
| 612. | When remorse comes to a person and stings and terrifies the conscience, the entire world looks pious to him, and only he himself is a sinner. (19/58) |
| 613. | Sensible hearts turn their minds away from fear and concentrate mainly on sin, confess this, and free themselves of it; and no matter if they should be haunted by fear forever, they reconcile themselves to this, as Jonah does here. But it is the way of all the ungodly that they fear and heed the punishment but pay no heed to the sin. (19/64) |
| 614. | Jonah must despair of life and surrender to death. If it would please God to let us perceive life in the midst of death, or if He showed our soul its ultimate dwelling place and room and the manner and way in which it should maintain itself and reach its goal, death would not appear bitter, but it would seem like a leap across a shallow stream, with safe and solid banks on both sides. Jonah endures God's wrath in death. For he feels that death comes over him not as a token of grace but of anger and in consequence of sin. But death would be tolerable and not so acutely painful if it would not result from God's anger, as is true when a person is innocently condemned to death, and when he dies for God's sake, as the holy martyrs do, who know that men are dealing unjustly with them before God. Their death for a good cause before God leaves them confident that God is gracious and not angry, and so they recognize that their death is not due to God's anger but to His mercy and good pleasure. However, where death is brought down on a person's head by sin and where this fate is consequently deserved, there God's wrath accompanies death and makes it unbearable; thee nothing but death can be seen and felt. (19/66) |
| 615. | The heart finds solace when it hastens to the angry God with the aid of the Holy Spirit and seeks mercy amid the wrath, lets God punish and at the same time dares to find comfort in His goodness. Take note what sharp eyes the heart must have, for it is surrounded by nothing but tokens of God's anger and punishment and yet beholds and feels no punishment and anger but only kindness and grace; that is, the heart must be so disposed that it does not want to see and feel punishment and anger, though in reality it does see and feel them, and it must be determined to see and feel grace and goodness, even though these are completely hidden from view. (19/73) |
| 616. | God is called a Helper in need, because He lends His aid when our position is desperate and impossible. But what are the circumstances that are attendant upon God's help? Listen to this! "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to Thee, into Thy holy temple." First God grants grace and spirit to cheer the heart, He reminds it of God's mercy, dismissing thoughts touching on God's wrath, turning the heart from God the Judge to God the Father. But this does not lie in the power of man; for Jonah says here that his soul fainted within him and that faintheartedness was the strength and power of his soul. But the fact that he things about himself and begins to have faith is not the work of his soul. The Spirit, and no one else, can bring the Lord to mind. And when it comes to pass that the heart is reminded of the Lord, a new light flares up, life again raises its head, and the heart is emboldened to cry in supplication; and thus its petition also surely finds an ear. (19/79) |
| 617. | If you have not yet advanced to the point where you regard it as the Word of God, it is well to hear it still oftener. The hour will come when God will press it into your heart so that in answer to the question, "What kind of message did you hear?" you can say: "It was indeed a good sermon; I heard God, the heavenly Father!" If you are able to say that it was the Father who delivered the message, then all questioning is needless, and you no longer do much asking. For now, since God spoke the words, you say: "I will surely believe them." Then nothing is wanting. Now you are a believer and a disciple of Christ, and you have come to Him; for the Father has drawn you and has brought you to Christ. This calls for no great skill not is it necessary to consult universities and philosophers in this matter. It is easy to do, and we need not withdraw into ourselves for contemplation. Just accept the Gospel, fix your gaze on Christ's lips, and hear Him alone; for it all comes to pass through what Christ says. If you are brought to Christ, taught, and drawn by the Father, then you are a disciple of Christ; then you have been drawn by the Father. (23/95) |
| 618. | The Lord does not say: "Your thoughts of Me are in Me" or "My thoughts are in you" but rather: "You, you are in Me, and I, I am in you." He does not refer to a mere thought, but He demands that I be in Him with body, life, soul, piety, and righteousness, with sins, folly, and wisdom; and He says that He, Christ, on the other hand, is also in me with His holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and salvation. Contemplation and shadowy and erratic thoughts, which are but an imaginary indwelling and nothing but thoughts, will not do here. It will not suffice if you can do no more than just discourse on Christ or reflect on Christ, for the devil and pope can do as well. They also can converse about Christ's sufferings, but that is nothing; for in spite of it they remain steeped in wickedness, in sins, and in their errors. They give no proof that Christ is dwelling in them; they do nothing that is good. (23/144) |
| 619. | The forsaking of house, home, and all possessions is of two kinds. In the first place, I may do this voluntarily, of my own free choice, as an expression of my own devotion; that is the devil's doctrine. Secondly, I may be forced to suffer this without my own will. I neither choose it nor go in quest of it, but another foists it upon me. It is not my own work or doing, but I must suffer it; then whatever I endure is the act of another. He coerces me to leave my own. Though I wished to keep my life, my house and home, another will not tolerate this, and I must give them up and suffer without my own doing. (23/204) |
| 620. | No sermon, no proclamation in the world, has ever found as many critics as the Word of God. Every fool makes bold to tangle with it and tries to win his spurs in the encounter. There is no one who does not think he can correct God's Word, who does not feel it incumbent upon him to oppose it, who does not presume to be smarter than our Lord God. Nowadays when anyone dreams a little, he is quick to cry: "Spirit! Spirit!" (23/208) |
| 621. | Thus I, too, say: The Gospel is mine, in contradistinction to the teaching of all other preachers, who do not have my doctrine. Therefore I declare: This is my doctrine, that is, Luther's doctrine. Still I also say that it is not my doctrine; it is not my product but God's gift. For, dear God, it did not spring from my imagination; it did not grow in my garden; it did not flow from my fountain; it was not born of me. No, it is the gift of God and not a human invention. Thus both are true: It is mine, and yet it is not mine; for it is God's, the heavenly Father's. But at the same time it is I who proclaim and espouse such doctrine. (23/224) |
| 622. | A Christian, be he preacher or listener, must be sure that he is not speaking or hearing his own word, but God's Word. Otherwise it would be better if he had never been born; for now preacher and listener must go to the devil together. (23./226) |
| 623. | A Christian soon smells from afar which is God's and which is human teaching. He sees from afar that the schismatic spirits are speaking their own human mind and opinion. They cannot escape me, Dr. Luther. I can soon judge and say whether their doctrine is of God or of man; for I am doing the will of God, who sent Christ. I have given ear to none but God's Word, and I say: "Dear Lord Christ, I want to be Thy pupil, and I believe Thy Word. I will close my eyes and surrender to Thy Word." Thus He makes me a free nobleman, yes, a fine doctor and teacher, who is captive to the Word of God and is able to judge the errors of the faith of the pope, Turk, Jews, and Sacramentarians. They must fall, and I tread them underfoot. I have become a doctor and a judge who judges correctly. (23/230) |
| 624. | When the Word was first proclaimed twelve or fifteen years ago, the people hearkened to it eagerly. Everybody rejoiced that it was no longer necessary to plague oneself with good works. People remarked: "Thank God, we now have water to drink!" At that time they were thirsty, and the Gospel doctrine tasted good to them. We drank of it; that was a precious teaching. But now we are sated and tired of the drink. Therefore God will have to forsake us and let us die of thirst, for He remains only with those who feel their wretched condition. But few are aware of this. The majority pervert the Gospel into carnal license, a carnal refreshment and drink, so that they no longer want to fast and pray. They have gained some benefit from the Gospel, and now they are no longer concerned about the welfare of their souls. They no longer seek comfort in the Gospel, nor do they have any more appetite for it. (23/269) |
| 625. | There is a great difference between glorying and glorying. He who praises himself is a fool. But he who glories in his office is no fool, for to praise your office is not the same as to praise yourself. (23/324) |
| 626. | Here we see the greatest trial to which faith may be exposed. Everyone must be firmly bound and trained to adhere to the Word of Christ, and in no circumstances to lose sight of that Man. I must blind and close my eyes, reason, and everything else; I must see and hear none but this Man Christ. I must say: I will hear or entertain no thoughts that may come to me about seeking God, the Father and Creator of heaven and earth. That man will stand who can say: "I will neither seek nor find any other God than Christ." Such a person is real flesh and blood; he is too clever for the world and devil. God sent His Son, urges Him upon you, and says: "Listen to Him! Whoever will not hear and embrace Him will not find Me." (23/346) |
| 627. | We, too, are headed in that direction with our great ingratitude and our contempt for God's Word. When the small number which now pines for, takes pleasure in, and loves the Gospel is dead, when the kernel has been removed from the shell, then preachers will appear who will not be able to preserve, teach, and comfort even one soul. These are fearful words of Christ: "I go away." For when He goes away, then the knowledge of God and the proper understanding of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper take their leave with Him. Then we will not know what God is, or what life, righteousness, and salvation are, or how to be redeemed from sin and death. Everything is gone with Christ, and conditions deteriorate or remain as bad as they ever were. (23/355) |
| 628. | O God, how few of you will pass the test! For you have no good foundation and no stamina. You will seek something in Me that you will not find; and when you fail to find it, then it is all over." {What are you searching for in your self-devised Christ?} (23/398) |
| 629. | Apart from faith, all doctrine and life separate and disunite mankind. The formation of sects is the inevitable result, even though there may be only two persons in a house. For their whole existence revolves about external works and ways, which will necessarily be varied. On will do this and the other will do that. If hearts cling to any work, discord, hatred, pride, and all sorts of misery will surely follow. Therefore there is no god, no doctrine, no life, no means that produces unanimity other than this God with His agency of faith. This faith draws us all into the Spirit; there all things are harmonious, and all external differences disappear. This does not imply that no external differences remain; it merely means that the heart does not cling to these, that these do not se tone person against the other, even if the whole world dwelt together under one roof. (13/7) |
| 630. |
"Thy solemn processions are seen, O God, the processions of my God, my king, in holiness." Ps. 68:24 God's "processions" represent His work, which is steadfast love
and faithfulness. Thus we read in Psalm 25:10: "All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness." However, it requires great skill to recognize God's work and to
let Him work in us, so that all our work will in the end be God's and not our own. This is the proper celebration of the Sabbath, to rest from our own works and to be full of God's
works. All this is effected through faith. (13/25)
Whenever mortification of Adam is demanded, a diligent hearing of the Word of God becomes necessary, to kindle and strengthen the spirit and to prevent lassitude and languor. (13/27) |
| 631. | The many threats which Moses later employs (Psalm 90), therefore, apply strictly to those whom Paul calls apalgakotas (Eph. 4:19) They are people who, like rough and ready soldiers, deliberately ban from their minds thoughts of death and God's wrath. These people cannot be restored to a God-pleasing way of life if one does not make clear to them at great length God's wrath. For it is necessary in this way to cut off "the root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit" (Deut. 29:18). (13/86) |
| 632. | When our conscience becomes aware of sin, therefore, it cannot but feel and conclude that God is incensed and that, as a consequence, man must die. The word "unknown" (Ps. 90:8) designates the things within us that are hidden and secret. "These things," Moses says, "Thou has placed, so to speak, in the brilliant light of the sun; Thou seest them." And "Thou wilt not," as Job says, "hold me innocent" (Job 9:28) |
| 633. | This observation, too, is not far removed from blasphemy, as becomes evident when one inspects the heart as it contemplates these words. The heart indicates indeed that it desires to get rid of sins. But it says: "This is impossible for me." Whose fault is it that this is impossible? God's, of course, who sees the most hidden things within us, who condones noting, who takes note of everything, and who enters everything, even the most trifling matters, into His ledger of accounts. And as a result of this thought, even our best works displease us, since heaven and earth seem to be full of our sins. This is the climax of the drams which God enacts with us. His intention is that we play our part in full awareness of our sins and of death. Yet is it not an evil thing, as I have shown above, to have this awareness, to complain about our miseries, and to conclude that there is nothing within us but damnation. Indeed, one should complain and sigh this way. One should also try to arrange and govern one's life in accordance with such sighing. Then it will happen that one becomes aware of salvation. (13/117) |
| 634. | Therefore if a lord or a householder is to hate and yet tolerate such useful servants, he must truly have the heart of a lion and be a remarkable man in God. He must be able to place his kingdom and house in jeopardy and to rely confidently on God alone and say: "Now, then, before I would tolerate the enemy of my God in my kingdom or house, I would rather let everything be ruined and figure this way: He who gave me this kingdom or house can very well give me another and still more." (13/180) |
| 635. | Here I shall close. I hope I have done a good job. I shall call it good if it is well-pleasing to a few people and quite disgusting to many people. That should be almost as certain a sign as the manger and the swaddling clothes were a certain sign for the shepherds. (13/224) |