“The lawmonger compels with threats and punishments; the preacher of grace persuades and incites men by reminding them of the goodness and mercy of God which they have experienced, for he wants no unwilling works or grudging service; he wants men to render a glad and joyous service to the Lord. Whoever will not let himself be moved and drawn by the consoling and lovely words of God’s mercy, granted to and bestowed on us without measure in Christ, so that he gladly and joyfully does all this to the glory of God and the welfare of his neighbor, amounts to nothing and all labor is wasted on him. How can laws and threats soften him to do God’s will, whom such fire of heavenly love and grace does not soften and melt? It is not man’s mercy but God’s compassion that we have received and that St. Paul sets before us to urge and impel us.” (St. L. XII:318 f.)

“If it were proper to employ our human reason in this matter, I venture to say I would be able to speculate and rationalize with more skill than the Jews or the Turks. But I thank my God that He gave me grace to have no desire to dispute concerning this article, whether it be true or consistent; but because I find it well grounded and taught in the Scriptures, I believe God more than my own reason and thoughts, and care nothing for the objection that it is unreasonable to teach the existence of but one essence in which there are three distinct Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The question here is not whether this doctrine is true, but whether it is found in the Word of God. If it is found there, then be assured that it is true, for God’s Word is truth. Since the Holy Scriptures have this article of faith, as we have just now seen, and since our fathers so earnestly contended for its preservation and have handed it down to us in its purity, we should not attempt to investigate with our reason how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost can be one God. We poor human beings cannot even comprehend, though we have the help of ever so many wise men of this world, how it happens that we laugh, or can see a high hill many miles away, or how sleep overpowers us so that the body seems dead and is yet alive. If we are thus unable to understand matters pertaining to our own life and daily experiences, why, then, prompted by the devil, should we venture with our own reason to comprehend God in His majesty and divine essence! If we must speculate, let us begin with our own selves and find out what becomes of our eyes, ears, and other senses when we sleep. Speculation in this direction might at least be indulged in without harm.” (St. L. XIII:664 ff.)

Furthermore: “No, God be praised, we [Christians] clearly perceive such doctrine to be beyond the reason of man. No acute Jewish intellects are needed to demonstrate that to us; with full knowledge we consent to such assertion. Upon the strength of our own experience we confess that wherever the light of reason is not supplemented by that of the Holy Spirit, it will be impossible to apprehend, believe, and maintain this article of faith. What a proud, conceited, Jewish thing is reason that it dares to sit in judgment concerning the Deity, though it has never beheld the Divine Being; yes, is unable to behold Him. Reason does not know what it is talking about, for ‘God dwells in an unapproachable light’ (1 Tim. 6:16) and must come to us, though as light concealed in a lantern; and again, ‘no man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him’ (John 1:18); and long ago Moses said: ‘There shall no man see Me and live’ (Ex. 33:20) …. What uncouth louts are we to prize our poor, blind reason more highly than the testimony of Seripture! The Scriptures are God’s testimony concerning Himself; reason can know nothing of Deity itself, and yet it ventures to judge what is beyond its ken. That, surely, means to make a blind man the judge of color.” (St. L. X: 1007, 1018.)

Francis Pieper, vol. 1, Christian Dogmatics, electronic ed., 402-03 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

All theologians since the days of the Apostles, says Luther, must confine themselves in their teaching to the teaching of the Apostles: “We are catechumens and pupils of the Prophets. Let us simply repeat and preach what we have heard and learned from the Prophets and Apostles” (St. L. III:1890). Luther enforces the demand that the theologians simply “repeat the words of the Apostles after them” with the solemn warning: “Neither ought any doctrine be taught or heard in the Church but the pure Word of God, that is to say, the Holy Scriptures; otherwise accursed be both the teachers and hearers together with their doctrine.” 

The same truth is expressed in the well-known axiom: Quod non est biblicum, non est theologicum. [That which is not Biblical, is not theological].

“Where this Word [of God] takes possession of the heart by true faith, it makes the heart as firm, sure, and certain as it is itself, unmoved, stubborn, hard, in the face of temptation, the devil, death, and anything whatsoever, in proud confidence laughing to scorn all that spells doubt and fear, ire and wrath, for it knows that the Word of God cannot lie” (St. L. III:1887).

On Jeremiah 23:16: ‘Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain [they teach you vanity, R. V.]; they speak a vision of their own heart—and not out of the mouth of the Lord!’

Behold, all prophets who do not preach out of the mouth of the Lord are deceivers, and God forbids us to hear them. Does not the text state clearly that where God’s Word is not preached no one dare, under pain of God’s wrath, listen to it, for it is pure deception? O Pope, O bishops, O priests, O monks, O theologians, how are you going to escape here? Do you consider it a trifling matter when the Supreme Majesty forbids whatever does not proceed out of the mouth of the Lord and is something else than God’s Word? It is not a thresher or herdsman who is saying this. When the servant hears the master say: ‘Who told you to do that? It is not what I have commanded,’ he will certainly realize that he should not have done it as being contrary to the master’s orders.” (St. L. XIX:821 f.)

“We are not all Apostles, who were sent by a firm decree of God (certo Dei decreto) to us as infallible teachers (infallibiles doctores). Hence they cannot err, but we can, and we can be deceived in our faith, since we lack such a decree of God.” The same distinction Luther makes when he defines a Prophet as distinguished from all later teachers. He says in his commentary on several chapters of Exodus, 1525: “A Prophet is one who gets his understanding immediately from God, into whose mouth the Holy Ghost puts the right word …. No one can make a Prophet by human instruction; and though it be God’s Word and I [Luther] preach the Word most purely, still I cannot be a Prophet; a learned and wise man I can be. For example, in Matthew 23 those are called ‘wise’ who derive the doctrine from the Prophets, for God speaks through men and not without means. But Prophets are those who have their doctrine from God without any means.” (St. L. III:785.) Also what the Prophets and Apostles knew before or what they took from the Scriptures already written was given them “immediately,” inasmuch as the Holy Ghost “put the right words” regarding the familiar things or thing taken from Scripture “into their mouth,” as happened to the Apostles at Pentecost, when they so “amazingly take hold of Scripture as though they had studied it 100,000 years and knew it inside out.” Luther adds: “I could not take hold of Scripture with such certainty, although I am a doctor of the Holy Scriptures.” (St. L. XIII:2053.)

May God grant His gracious answer to this beautiful prayer by Dr. Martin Luther:

“God grant every Christian the sort of heart that, when they hear the word Sacrament or LORD’s Supper, races in pure joy, yes, even with the kind of true spiritual joy that weeps sweetly. For I have such a heartfelt ardor for the dear blessed Supper of my LORD JESUS Christ, where he even gives his physical body and blood into my physical mouth to eat and to drink, with such thoroughly sweet and kind words: Given for you, shed for you.”

(L.W. XIX, 1576; as quoted by Dr. C.F.W. Walther in Der Lutheraner, March 7, 1846; translated by Pastor Joel Baseley),

From President Harrison’s blog. First President Harrison’s remarks, then the letter from Luther he commends to us.

This is an incredible letter. Every Christian ought have its choicest lines memorized. Indeed: “Christ dwells only in sinners.” Thanks be to God for that! Matt Harrison

To George Spenlein

Wittenberg, April 8, 1516

George Spenlein was an Augustinian friar in the monastery at Wittenberg who had recently been transferred to Memmingen. In this letter Luther is reporting on the disposal of some of Spenlein’s possessions. It gives an insight into Luther’s understanding of justification and its implication for the Christian life prior to his controversy with Rome.

Text in Latin: WA, Br 1, 35–36. The following translation, with minor changes, is by Theodore G. Tappert and is used by permission from Luther: Letters. LCC 18, 109–111. Published 1955, The Westminster Press.

To the godly and sincere Friar George Spenlein, Augustinian Eremite1 in the monastery at Memmingen, my dear friend in the Lord
Jesus Christ

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ

My dearest Friar George:

…Now I should like to know whether your soul, tired of its own righteousness, is learning to be revived by and to trust in the righteousness of Christ. For in our age the temptation to presumption besets many, especially those who try with all their might to be just and good without knowing the righteousness of God, which is most bountifully and freely given us in Christ. They try to do good of themselves in order that they might stand before God clothed in their own virtues and merits. But this is impossible. While you were here, you were one who held this opinion, or rather, error. So was I, and I am still fighting against the error without having conquered it as yet.

Therefore, my dear Friar, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to praise him and, despairing of yourself, say, “Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, just as I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not.” Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation. For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions? Accordingly you will find peace only in him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness yours.

If you firmly believe this as you ought (and he is damned who does not believe it), receive your untaught and hitherto erring brothers, patiently help them, make their sins yours, and, if you have any goodness, let it be theirs. Thus the Apostle teaches, “Receive one another as Christ also received you to the glory of God.” And again, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, [did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped], but emptied himself,” etc. Even so, if you seem to yourself to be better than they are, do not count it as booty, as if it were yours alone, but humble yourself, forget what you are and be as one of them in order that you may help them.

Cursed is the righteousness of the man who is unwilling to assist others on the ground that they are worse than he is, and who thinks of fleeing from and forsaking those whom he ought now to be helping with patience, prayer, and example. This would be burying the Lord’s talent and not paying what is due. If you are a lily and a rose of Christ, therefore, know that you will live among thorns. Only see to it that you will not become a thorn as a result of impatience, rash judgment, or secret pride. The rule of Christ is in the midst of his enemies, as the Psalm puts it. Why, then, do you imagine that you are among friends? Pray, therefore, for whatever you lack, kneeling before the face of the Lord Jesus. He will teach you all things. Only keep your eyes fixed on what he has done for you and for all men in order that you may learn what you should do for others. If he had desired to live only among good people and to die only for his friends, for whom, I ask you, would he have died or with whom would he ever have lived? Act accordingly, my dear Friar, and pray for me. The Lord be with you.

Farewell in the Lord.

From Wittenberg, April 8, 1516

AE vol. 48

” I want to see whether any doctrine concurs with Christ. I dare not forget the clear rule which St. Paul gives us Christians: to pay attention to what conforms to the doctrine of Christ and to the faith. In Rom. 12:7 he says: “Let it be in conformity with the faith”; that is, it must be in harmony and conformity with Christ. And St. Peter declares: “Whoever speaks, let him speak as the Word of God” (1 Peter 4:11). You must not go only to St. Bernard and St. Ambrose, but it is imperative that you take them with you to Christ and see whether they agree with His teaching. If they do not, but have added something to that which Christ has taught, or have evolved something from their own piety and taught this, I shall let them answer for that. But I must not convert it into an article of faith; nor am I to believe it, since they do not entirely agree with Christ. For I am to adhere to Christ alone; He has taught neither too much nor too little. He has taught me to know God the Father, has revealed Himself to me, and has also acquainted me with the Holy Spirit. He has also instructed me how to live and how to die and has told me what to hope for. What more do I want? And if anyone wishes to teach me anything now, let him beware of any innovations. If he tries to present anything new, I must say to him: “I will not believe it, dear pastor, dear preacher, dear St. Ambrose, dear St. Augustine. For anything that goes beyond and above the man who is called Christ is not genuine. It is still flesh and blood, and Christ warned us against relying on that. He Himself did not trust Himself to man.”

“When the command is certain, let us obey at once without any argument, and let us conclude that God is wiser than we are. He who argues about why God gives a particular command actually doubts that God is wise, just, and good. What sin can be more hideous and more intolerable to God? Therefore we must believe—this is part of our duty—and not argue, for these matters are too lofty for us to be able to argue about them.

“If God followed our counsels, he would this very hour kill the Turk and the pope, and He would not allow Satan to give vent to his fury as he is doing and to rage without restraint. Everybody would regard this as a beneficial and good work. But God’s wisdom makes it clear that this is a foolish thought; otherwise things would turn out this way. Therefore if you ask why God bears with the ungodly for so long a time, it is enough to say: “Thus it pleases Him, thus it is profitable, and thus it is beneficial; otherwise He would be doing something different.” He who is not satisfied with this reason and searches into the reasons for God’s counsel lays himself open to the danger by which Adam was overcome in Paradise.

“Therefore let us crucify this baneful why, and let us say: “Glory to God, who alone is wise; but confusion to us!” Satan opened our eyes in Paradise, and now our every effort is directed toward closing them again and making them blind. The fact that Adam had his eyes opened is the occasion and cause of death and damnation for all his descendants.

“Accordingly, Moses gives grand praise to Abraham’s faith and obedience. For Abraham cuts off all hindrances and all causes of offense; he obeys God’s command without arguing. He does not think, as we do: “Why does God command this? What profit is there in the disgraceful and shameful business? Can I not be saved without being circumcised at the age of a hundred?” He Simply cuts the throat of this baneful why and tears it out of his heart by the roots. He takes reason captive and finds satisfaction in the one fact that He who gives the command is just, good, and wise; therefore He cannot command anything but what is just, good, and wise, no matter what the opinion of reason is, and no matter if reason does not understand. For God’s judgments are beyond our comprehension. Reason cannot grasp them. Therefore if it argues about them, it not only deceives itself but also falls into blasphemy. Accordingly, let it be enough for us that we hear the Word and understand what it commands, even though we do not understand the reason for the command.

Martin Luther, vol. 3, Luther’s Works, Vol. 3 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 15-20, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther’s Works, Ge 17:27 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), p. 173.

Martin Luther, vol. 3, Luther’s Works, Vol. 3 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 15-20, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther’s Works, Ge 17:27 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

Doctrine is heaven; life is earth. In life there is sin, error, uncleanness, and misery, mixed, as the saying goes, “with vinegar.” Here love should condone, tolerate, be deceived, trust, hope, and endure all things (1 Cor. 13:7); here the forgiveness of sins should have complete sway, provided that sin and error are not defended. But just as there is no error in doctrine, so there is no need for any forgiveness of sins. Therefore there is no comparison at all between doctrine and life. “One dot” of doctrine is worth more than “heaven and earth” (Matt. 5:18); therefore we do not permit the slightest offense against it. But we can be lenient toward errors of life. For we, too, err daily in our life and conduct; so do all the saints, as they earnestly confess in the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. But by the grace of God our doctrine is pure; we have all the articles of faith solidly established in Sacred Scripture. The devil would dearly love to corrupt and overthrow these; that is why he attacks us so cleverly with this specious argument about not offending against love and the harmony among the churches.

Martin Luther, American Edition of Luther’s Works, Vol. 27.

Get used to believing that Christ is a real Savior and that you are a real sinner. For God is neither joking nor is He dealing in imaginary affairs, but He was deadly serious when He sent His own Son into the world and sacrificed Him for our sake, etc. (Romans 8:32; John 3:16). Satan – who is alive and well – has snatched these and similar reflections, which come from soothing Bible passages, from you memory. Therefore, you are not able to recall them in your present great anguish and depression. For God’s sake, then, turn your ears my way, brother, and hear me cheerfully sing. I am your brother. At this time I am not afflicted with the desperation and depression that is oppressing you. Therefore, I am strong in my faith. The reason I am strong in the faith – while you are weak and harried and harassed by the devil – is that you may lean on me for support until you regain your old strength.

If you want to know which dog has been struck, it is the one who cries out. Therefore, you are accusing yourself , if you grumble, and are defaming yourself. As Cicero says, when vices are rebuked in general terms, whoever becomes angry at it shows himself to be guilty. Whoever cannot bear it when unbelief is rebuked along with the fruits of unbelief, he is most certainly the dog who has been struck.

(Martin Luther, sermon of June 7, 1545, in Luther’s Works, Volume 58, forthcoming from Concordia Publishing House in November 2010).

“After Baptism there still remains much of the old Adam.  For, as we have often said, sin is forgiven in baptism, but we are not yet altogether clean, as is shown in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who carried the man wounded by robbers to an inn.  He did not take care of him in such a way that he healed him at once, but rather bound up his wounds and poured on oil.  The man who fell among robbers suffered two injuries.  First, everything that he had was taken from him, he was robbed; the second, he was wounded, so that he was half-dead and would have died, if the Samaritan had not come to him.  Adam fell among the robbers and implanted sin in us all.  If Christ, the Samaritan, had not come, we should all have had to die.  He it is who binds our wounds, carries us into the church, is now healing us.  So we are now fully under the Physician’s care.  The sin, it is true, is wholly forgiven, but it has not been wholly purged.  If the Holy Spirit is not ruling men, they become corrupt again; but the Holy Spirit must cleanse the wounds daily.  Therefore this life is a hospital; the sin has really been forgiven, but it has not yet been healed.”

That was from his last sermon preached in the town of Wittenberg in 1546.  You can read the whole of it in AE 51:375.

HT: Pr. Weedon’s sister.

“God had proclaimed through the prophets and had foretold through Moses that prayer or worship at any other places would be unacceptable to Him. But they would not listen. Instead, they cried out: “This is where we worship the true God.” And they persisted in their self-invented worship and even killed the prophets over it. There was a small group, however, which believed God’s Word and paid no attention to the great multitude. 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. If they deprive me of mammon, goods, honor, life and limb, I still have a Christ who is Lord over life and death, over the world and everything. And even if the devil frightens me and makes me depressed and conscience-stricken, he will still not obtain the victory. For here is my Lord, in whom I believe. And if I trust in Him, I am trusting in God; for He Himself is true God. Hence whatever temporal and physical harm I suffer, I account as a husk or as a hollow nut, instead of which God will grant me an eternal treasure and everlasting life.”

“Thus these words are also spoken as a consolation for the Christians, whom God allows to suffer this misery and to cope with their enemies—the devil, who plagues and torments them, and the world, which confronts them with pride, contempt, persecution, murder, etc. Christ says: “To remain cheerful in the midst of all this, and to ward off defeat, remember only that I am the real Savior and God, and rely on Me; then you will encounter the true God and experience My omnipotent power and might. Let the world and the pseudo saints depend and rely on whom they will. Let them believe and do as they want. It is all vain and futile. Against all this you need no other weapon or armor than your adherence to Me. In this way you cling to God. He cannot do otherwise than help you. Therefore if they hate, persecute, and murder you, We will love, adopt, and protect you; We will quicken you and dwell with you forever.”

Source: Martin Luther, see Luther’s Works, Volume 24, p. 24.