Lectures on Deuteronomy Quotes

“The allegorical meaning of the death of Moses and the appointment of Joshua has been touched upon above;1 therefore it is to be repeated here but briefly. Moses is the minister of the Law, which does not lead to fulfillment, that is, to righteousness, but shows sin and demands grace, which it does not confer. Therefore he dies and stays on this side of Jordan in the land of Moab, that is, in the righteousness of works. Joshua succeeds him as leader; this is the ministry of grace. He leads the people into the Land of Promise, that is, to true righteousness in Christ; and the Israelites cross over the Jordan dry-shod, that is, as both sin and death draw back and yield to grace.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feeling, but only if it relies on the Word of God.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Obviously Moses indicates by this comment that the workers of the Law would be precisely the people who do not keep the Commandments of God, for he is certain that this grace is not given to all.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say: ‘Would it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say: ‘Would it were morning!’” I have not found a place which sets forth the misery of a bad conscience so clearly, with such fitting and appropriate words and expressions.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“the Lord has freed us from great evils to which we have been subjected, and that we have accepted many good things by faith.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Therefore we are taught here that true vengeance is carried out, not by our passion but by God’s command and on account of God. We are only the instruments of the avenging God, and we arrogate nothing of the vengeance to ourselves, as you see here.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Through envy, greed, and councilors young, Jerusalem, Troy, and Rome were hung.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“What else does this law teach but that by the kind treatment of animals they are to learn gentleness and kindness?”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“For the Spirit blows where He wills (John 3:8), not where we will.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Thus it has come about that out of the Word they have made Law, out of faith works, out of truth a show; and therefore they have finally been forced to employ the sword.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“18. I will put My words in His mouth. This also clearly proves that the Prophet will teach something different.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“The Gospel teaches from what source you receive the power to fulfill the Law.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Therefore the Law finds man not only unwilling but also unable to do what the Law demands. Thus he says here in the text that on the day of the assembly the people refused and could not hear the voice of the Law, and that therefore they asked for another teacher, one who would speak to them a word they could bear.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“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.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“The sin and wrath which Moses arouses through his ministry that Prophet cancels through righteousness and grace by His ministry.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“That is, as he says here, he should bend off neither to the right hand nor to the left, but move forward straight and firmly in prosperity and adversity, in strength and weakness, in glory and shame, clinging faithfully and bravely to the Word of God alone.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Nothing is prettier, better, or holier in the sight of men than idolatry and godlessness adorned with hypocrisy and a show of piety. An evil deed in the sight of God, however, is one that is undertaken without faith and the Word, by our own efforts, however good and beautiful it may appear.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Each must watch over his own conscience, and therefore each must have the right to judge spirits and prophets; but no one has the right to take the sword for himself.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“God indeed gives everything to all; but to this His own people He adds the Word of promise that they should not live by bread alone, as the rest of the nations do, but also by the Word. In this land they are not to have care for the belly alone but much rather also for the spirit. They should not think that the land is given them to fatten them like pigs; rather, they are to nourish themselves with the Word of God and to receive everything through the Word of God, that is, to serve God. Not for the sake of the land itself but for the sake of the people in it is God concerned for the land, that He may rule them in it by faith, as is said elsewhere.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“And notice the order here: “To fear, walk, love, serve with the whole heart, etc.” — all these Moses places ahead of what follows: “to keep the Commandments and statutes, etc.” (v. 13), that you may know that nothing of the outward commandments can be kept which pleases God unless it comes from a heart that fears, loves, obeys, and serves, so that the power of the First Commandment, which is faith, may rule and govern in all commandments and works; without it everything else is only a show and a mask.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“lest we be puffed up and make an idol out of our righteousness.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Yes, with a feeling of pity and sympathy the godless are to be destroyed or struck down by us as we remember that we are the instrument of God and are ourselves perhaps to be cast as a whip into the fire after we have blasted the evildoers.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“But it is God who smites the godless, as he says here.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“IN this chapter Moses selects another occasion for transgressing the First Commandment, an occasion called spiritual pride because it boasts of its righteousness and merits. This is trust in one’s own works, and no plague and opponent of faith or trust in the mercy of God is more destructive.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“Again you will note here especially that the nation of Israel is wholly indistinguishable from those Gentiles who are to be destroyed, except for the distinction of faith, just as he says here that they will perish like those Gentiles whom the Lord will destroy before them. Therefore they have nothing of which to boast against the Gentiles — not the Law, the righteousness of works, the blood of the fathers, the miracles of God, the divine sayings, the priesthood, the kingdom, or anything else. The sentence stands: If they forget God and worship other gods, they shall perish, as if all this were nothing and they themselves were Gentiles too. For he who does not believe will be damned (Mark 16:16). But it has been said enough: “To worship strange gods is to be unbelieving and to oppose the true God.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“He is a God to us and dispenses everything bountifully also when everything is most hopeless.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“They turn the heart away much more strongly than adversity and want do, as he says in his song (Deut. 32:15): “Having become swollen, fat, and thick, he rebelled”; and (Prov. 1:32): “The prosperity of the foolish destroys them”; as is said also in the German proverb: “You need strong legs to hold up under good days.” For man endures evil more easily than good, as the poet says: “Luxury has invaded as a deadlier foe.”2”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“what cruel and bloodthirsty beasts are smug presumption, vain-glory, pride, and carelessness,”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy

“is not our business to terrify any godless person.”
― Martin Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy