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July 8, 2017 - January 27, 2018
Therefore, whoever believes that he merits grace by works despises the merit and grace of Christ [Galatians 5:4]. In so doing, he is seeking a way to God without Christ, by human strength, although Christ Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
The person who knows that he has a Father who is gracious to him through Christ truly knows God [John 14:7].
Because the Mass is for the purpose of giving the Sacrament, we have Communion every holy day, and if anyone desires the Sacrament, we also offer it on other days, when it is given to all who ask for it. This custom is not new in the Church.
Confession in the churches is not abolished among us. The body of the Lord is not usually given to those who have not been examined [1 Corinthians 11:27–28] and absolved.
Our people are taught that they should highly prize the Absolution as being God’s voice and pronounced by God’s command.
When we try to merit justification by observing such things, we cause great harm to the glory of Christ’s merit.
The knowledge of original sin is absolutely necessary. The magnitude of Christ’s grace cannot be understood unless our diseases are recognized.
Who would not joyfully die in the confession of these articles, that we receive the forgiveness of sins through faith freely for Christ’s sake, and that we do not merit the forgiveness of sins by our works? [85] The consciences of the pious will not have sure enough comfort against || the terrors of sin and of death, and against the devil tempting with despair, if they do not know that their confidence lies in the forgiveness of sins freely for Christ’s sake.
People imagine that Christ is stricter and the saints more easily appeased. They trust the saints’ mercy rather than Christ’s mercy. They flee from Christ and seek the saints. So they actually make the saints mediators of redemption.
Therefore, it is ridiculous for the adversaries to babble that marriage was commanded in the beginning, but is not now. This is the same as if they would say, “Formerly, when people were born, they were born with gender; now they are not. Formerly, when they were born, they brought with them natural right; now they do not.
Masses are celebrated among us every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals.
It is impossible to receive the forgiveness of our sins because of our own work by the outward act. The terrors of sin and death must be overcome through faith when we comfort our hearts with the knowledge of Christ and believe that for His sake we are forgiven and that His merits and righteousness are granted to us, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace” (Romans 5:1). These things are so sure and so firm that they can stand against all the gates of hell [Matthew 16:18].
Baptism is not a work that we offer to God. It is a work in which God baptizes us. In other words, a minister baptizes us on God’s behalf. God here offers and presents the forgiveness of sins, and so forth, according to the promise “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).
‹There is nothing that keeps people at church more than good preaching.
The true adornment of the churches is godly, useful, and clear doctrine, the devout use of the Sacraments, fervent prayer, and the like. Candles, golden vessels, and similar adornments are fitting, but they are not the specifically unique adornment belonging to the Church. If the adversaries make these things the focus of worship, and not the preaching of the Gospel, in faith (and the struggles of faith) || they are to be numbered among those whom Daniel describes as worshiping their god with gold and silver [Daniel 11:38].
The service of the Mass and the rest of the polity of the pope is nothing more than false zeal for the misunderstood Levitical order.
In the Old Testament, sacrifices did not merit reconciliation, except as a picture (for they merited civil reconciliation), but they illustrated the coming sacrifice. This means that Christ is the only sacrifice applied on behalf of the sins of others. Therefore, in the New Testament, no sacrifice is left to be applied for the sins of others, except the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.
The Sacraments are signs of God’s will toward us and not merely signs of people among one another. Those who define Sacraments in the New Testament as signs of grace are correct. There are two things in a Sacrament: a sign and the Word. In the New Testament, the Word is the promise of grace added. The promise of the New Testament is the promise of the forgiveness of sins, “This is My body, which is given for you. This [cup] is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
The pardon of guilt can be received only through faith. Therefore, the Mass is not a satisfaction, but a promise and Sacrament that require faith.
O Christ, how long will You bear these accusations with which our enemies present Your Gospel? In the Confession we said that the forgiveness of sins is received freely for Christ’s sake, through faith. O Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father, You revealed the Gospel to the world. If our teaching is not the very voice of the Gospel, if it is not the eternal Father’s judgment, we are rightly blamed. But Your death is a witness, Your resurrection is a witness, the Holy Spirit is a witness, Your entire Church is a witness of this: the true meaning || of the Gospel is that we receive
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The Confutation also says that the monks merit eternal life more abundantly and quotes Scripture, “everyone who has left houses,” and so on (Matthew 19:29). So here it claims perfection also for man-made religious rites. But this Scripture passage in no way favors monastic life. Christ does not mean that leaving parents, wife, and siblings is a work that must be done because it merits the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Indeed, such leaving is cursed. Anyone who leaves parents or wife to merit the forgiveness of sins or eternal life by this work dishonors Christ.
41] There are two kinds of leaving. One happens without a call, without God’s command, which Christ does not approve (Matthew 15:9). The works we choose are useless services. When Christ speaks about || leaving wife and children, it becomes clear that He does not approve this kind
of leaving. We know that God’s commandment forbids leaving wife and children. God’s command to leave is different, that is, when power or tyranny pushes us either to leave or to deny the Gospel. Here we are commanded to bear injury and should rather allow not only wealth, wife, and children, but life to be taken from us. Christ approves of this kind of leaving, and so He adds for the Gospel’s “sake” [Mark 10:29]. He does so to illustrate that He is speaking not of those who injure wife and children, but who bear injury because of the confession of the Gospel. [42] For the Gospel’s sake we
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Second: Following these things, evil spirits have produced many wicked tricks by appearing as the souls of the departed [1 Samuel 28], and with unspeakable lies and tricks demanded Masses, vigils, pilgrimages, and other alms. [17] All of this we were expected to receive as articles of faith and to live accordingly. The pope confirmed these things, as he did the Mass and all other abominations. Here, too, there must be no yielding or surrendering.
We will now return to the Gospel, which does not give us counsel and aid against sin in only one way. God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world [Luke 24:45–47]. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, “Where two or three are gathered” (Matthew 18:20) and other such verses [especially Romans 1:12].
God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit’without the Word and Sacraments’is the devil himself.
I do not know how to change in the least what I have previously and constantly taught about justification. Namely, that through faith, as St. Peter says, we have a new and clean heart [Acts 15:9–11], and God will and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator [1 Timothy 2:5].
Certainly you will not release a stronger incense or other repellant against the devil than to be engaged by God’s commandments and words, and speak, sing, or think them [Colossians 3:16]. For this is indeed the true “holy water” and “holy sign” from which the devil runs and by which he may be driven away [James 4:7].
If I were to list all the profit and fruit God’s Word produces, where would I get enough paper and time?
Even though we experience much good from other people, whatever we receive by God’s command or arrangement is all received
from God. For our parents and all rulers and everyone else, with respect to his neighbor, have received from God the command that they should do us all kinds of good. So we receive these blessings not from them, but through them, from God. For creatures are only the hands, channels, and means by which God gives all things.
Indeed, we Christians ought always to keep such a holy day and be occupied with nothing but holy things. This means we should daily be engaged with God’s Word and carry it in our hearts and upon our lips [Psalm 119:11
God’s Word is the true “holy thing” [Heiligtum; relic] above all holy things. Yes, it is the only one we Christians know and have. Though we had the bones of all the saints or all holy and consecrated garments upon a heap, still that would not help us at all. All that stuff is a dead thing that can sanctify no one. But God’s Word is the treasure that sanctifies everything [1 Timothy 4:5].
Whenever God’s Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or meditated upon, then the person, day, and work are sanctified. This is not because of the outward work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all. Therefore, I constantly say that all our life and work must be guided by God’s Word, if it is to be God-pleasing or holy. Where this is done, this commandment is in force and being fulfilled.
Know, therefore, that you must be concerned not only about hearing, but also about learning and retaining God’s Word in || memory. Do not think that this is optional for you or of no great importance. Think that it is God’s commandment, who will require an account from you [Romans 14:12] about how you have heard, learned, and honored His Word.
Let me tell you this, even though you know God’s Word perfectly and are already a master in all things: you are daily in the devil’s kingdom [Colossians 1:13–14]. He ceases neither day nor night to sneak up on you and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against these three commandments and all the commandments. Therefore, you must always have God’s Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle and the Word does not make a sound, the devil breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware [Matthew 13:24–30]. [101]
In our words we must speak modestly toward them [Proverbs 15:1]. Do not address them roughly, haughtily, and defiantly. But yield to them and be silent, even though they go too far.
For what God commands must be much better and far nobler than everything that we may come up with ourselves. Since there is no higher or better teacher to be found than God, there can certainly be no better teaching than what He provides.
We all forget God, and no one considers how God nourishes, protects, and defends us, and how He bestows so much good on body and soul [Psalm 23]. This is especially true when an evil time comes. We grow angry and grumble with impatience, and all the good that we have received throughout our life is wiped out ‹of our memory
In God’s sight faith is what really makes a person holy and serves Him alone [Romans 4:3–5], but the works are for the service of people.
Married life is, therefore, no joke or presumption. It is an excellent thing and a matter of divine seriousness.
So if all thieves who did not want to be known as thieves were to be hanged on gallows, the world would soon be devastated.
Beware of this: The poor man will come to you (there are so many now). He must buy things with the penny of his daily wages and live upon it. When you are harsh to him, as though everyone lived by your favor, and you skin and scrape him to the bone, and when you turn him away with pride and arrogance to whom you ought to give things without payment, he will go away wretched and sorrowful. Since he can complain to no one else, he will cry and call to heaven [Psalm 20:6; 146:8–9]. Then beware (I say again) as of the devil himself. For such groaning and calling will be no joke. It will have a
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To bear false witness is nothing else than a work of the tongue.
There is a great difference between these two things: judging sin and knowing about sin. You may indeed know about it, but you are not to judge it [Matthew 7:1–5].
For although you do not wield the sword, you use your poisonous tongue to shame and hurt your neighbor
Yet Christians have this advantage: they acknowledge that they are duty bound to serve God for all these things and to be obedient to Him.
Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe on Him, and have Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel [1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 4:6].
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Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the ‹grace of the› Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us. For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but ‹continuous, uninterrupted› forgiveness of sin. This is because God forgives us and because we forgive, bear with, and help one another [Galatians 6:1–2].
But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not found, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness. Therefore, all who seek and wish to earn holiness not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works, have expelled and severed themselves ‹from this Church› [Galatians 5:4].
