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    '''Martin Luther''' November 10, 1483 – February 18 1546 was a German monk,<ref>Ewald Plass, "Monasticism", in <cite>What Luther Says: An Anthology</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:964.</ref> priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. His teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrine and culture of the Lutherans and Protestants traditions, as well as the course of Western civilization.
    '''Martin Luther''' November 10, 1483 – February 18 1546 was a German monk,<ref>Ewald Plass, "Monasticism", in <cite>What Luther Says: An Anthology</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:964.</ref> priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. His teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrine and culture of the Lutherans and Protestants traditions, as well as the course of Western civilization.


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    =='''William Branham's comments on Martin Luther'''==
    =The Just Shall Live By Faith=
    This section is essential as it explains both the passion of Martin Luther's early years, and the questionable teachings (anti-semitism, and support for the execution of peasants) of his later years.  Like Solomon, the wisdom and passion of his early years faded with prolonged exposure to politics. 


    ===The Rise===
    The following commentary to the book of Romans was written by Martin Luther.  Years later, it was read to a seeking young man named John Wesley, who "felt his heart strangely warmed" by the words he heard, marking a change in his life. What might these words do to your life?
    :''Martin Luther, himself, was a sensitive Spirit-filled Christian. He was definitely a man of the Word for he not only had a profound passion to study it but to make it available to all in order that all might live by it.''


    :''He was a mighty preacher and teacher of the Word, and insisted especially in his first years of public eminence, that the Word was the sole criterion. Thus he was against works as a means of salvation and baptism as a means of regeneration. He taught the mediation of Christ apart from man as was the original and Pentecostal concept.''
    This translation was made by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB, for the Saint Anselm College Humanities Program. <ref>This translation was made by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB, for the Saint Anselm College Humanities Program. (c)1983 by Saint Anselm Abbey. This translation may be used freely with proper attribution. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith, Walther Library, Concordia Theological Seminary, E-mail: CFWLibrary@CRF.CUIS.EDU, Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA</ref>


    :''Martin Luther was a reformer, not a prophet...He was a fine teacher with some of the manifestations of the Spirit in his life and we praise God for that. So he was not able to lead the church back to the whole truth as would a man like the apostle Paul who was both apostle and prophet.''
    :''Translator's Note: The material between square brackets is explanatory in nature and is not part of Luther's preface. The terms "just, justice, justify" in this piece are synonymous with the terms "righteous, righteousness, make righteous." Both sets of English words are common translations of German "gerecht" and related words. A similar situation exists with the word "faith"; it is synonymous with "belief." Both words can be used to translate German "Glaube." Thus, "We are justified by faith" translates the same original German sentence as does "We are made righteous by belief."''  


    :''Martin Luther, once after speaking in tongues, he was asked why he didn't preach it; he said, "If I preached that, my people will go after the gift instead of the Giver." That's right.''
    ==Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, by Martin Luther, 1483-1546==


    ===The Fall===
    ====Introduction====
    :''Now as time went on we find a great change in the way he conducted the affairs in which he was involved. At first he had been so gentle, so fearless, so patient and constantly waiting on God to work out the problems. But then vast numbers began to come to his banner. Their purpose was not a truly spiritual one. Rather they had political motivations. They wanted to break the yoke of the pope. They disliked sending money to Rome. Fanatics rose up. Soon he was dragged into political affairs and decisions that actually lay outside the realm of the church except that the church through prayer, preaching and conduct might set up a standard to be heeded. These problems of politics mounted until he was forced into an untenable position of mediating between lords and peasants. His decisions were so wrong that an uprising took place and thousands were killed. He meant well, but once he had let himself be entangled again in a Church-State Gospel he had to reap the whirlwind.''
    This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface, provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding of it. Up to now it has been darkened by glosses [explanatory notes and comments which accompany a text] and by many a useless comment, but it is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the entire Scripture.  


    :''But for all that, God used Martin Luther. Let it not be said that his intentions were wrong. Let it only be said that his judgment failed. Truly if the Lutherans could get back to his teaching and serve God as this gracious brother served Him, then that people would surely be a credit and praise to the great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.''
    ====Definitions====
    To begin with, we have to become familiar with the vocabulary of the letter and know what St. Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, justice, flesh, spirit, etc. Otherwise there is no use in reading it.  


    :''And then, when Martin Luther come out, seeing the Spirit of God lead him out, instead of letting the people stay free, he organized the church, "an image likened unto the beast," a political power likened unto it. Instead of letting the people walk as God gives Light, they organized under a discipline, and they have to stay to that discipline.''
    You must not understand the word '''law''' here in human fashion, i.e., a regulation about what sort of works must be done or must not be done. That's the way it is with human laws: you satisfy the demands of the law with works, whether your heart is in it or not. God judges what is in the depths of the heart. Therefore his law also makes demands on the depths of the heart and doesn't let the heart rest content in works; rather it punishes as hypocrisy and lies all works done apart from the depths of the heart. All human beings are called liars (Psalm 116), since none of them keeps or can keep God's law from the depths of the heart. Everyone finds inside himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. Where there is no free desire for good, there the heart has not set itself on God's law. There also sin is surely to be found and the deserved wrath of God, whether a lot of good works and an honorable life appear outwardly or not.  


    :''Martin Luther was the first one to see the Fire leave the Roman church. And he went out with the fire under justification. "The just shall live by faith." He build his organization, put down his--all of his creeds and dotted it, a period. "This is all. We believe this is Lutheran." First thing you know, the Pillar of Fire begin to move out. Luther couldn't move with it. Why? Because he's already got his creeds set up.''
    Therefore in chapter 2, St. Paul adds that the Jews are all sinners and says that only the doers of the law are justified in the sight of God. What he is saying is that no one is a doer of the law by works. On the contrary, he says to them, "You teach that one should not commit adultery, and you commit adultery. You judge another in a certain matter and condemn yourselves in that same matter, because you do the very same thing that you judged in another." It is as if he were saying, "Outwardly you live quite properly in the works of the law and judge those who do not live the same way; you know how to teach everybody. You see the speck in another's eye but do not notice the beam in your own."


    =='''Early Life'''==
    Outwardly you keep the law with works out of fear of punishment or love of gain. Likewise you do everything without free desire and love of the law; you act out of aversion and force. You'd rather act otherwise if the law didn't exist. It follows, then, that you, in the depths of your heart, are an enemy of the law. What do you mean, therefore, by teaching another not to steal, when you, in the depths of your heart, are a thief and would be one outwardly too, if you dared. (Of course, outward work doesn't last long with such hypocrites.) So then, you teach others but not yourself; you don't even know what you are teaching. You've never understood the law rightly. Furthermore, the law increases sin, as St. Paul says in chapter 5. That is because a person becomes more and more an enemy of the law the more it demands of him what he can't possibly do.  
    Luther was  born to Hans Luther (15th century) and Margarethe Luther, on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. He was baptized the next morning, on the feast day of Martin of Tours. His family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father operated copper mines.<ref name="mines">Martin Brecht, <cite>Martin Luther</cite>, Trans. James L. Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985–1993), 1:3–5.</ref>  Hans Luther was determined to see his eldest son become a lawyer. He sent his son Martin to schools in Mansfeld and in 1497, Magdeburg. Martin attended a school there operated by a laity called the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1498, he attended school in Eisenach.<ref name=EB><cite>Encyclopædia Britannica Online</cite>, s.v. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-59117 "Martin Luther"] by Ernst Gordon Rupp (accessed 2006).</ref>


    In 1501, at the age of seventeen, he entered the University of Erfurt where he played the lute and was nicknamed "the philosopher."  He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1502 and an Master of Arts in 1505, placing second out of seventeen candidates.<ref> E.G. Schwiebert, <cite>Luther and His Times</cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 128.</ref>  In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in the law school at the same university.
    '''In chapter 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. Such a law is spiritual since it can only be loved and fulfilled by such a heart and such a spirit. If the Spirit is not in the heart, then there remain sin, aversion and enmity against the law, which in itself is good, just and holy.'''


    According to Luther, the course of his life changed during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1505. A lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to school. Terrified, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I'll become a monk!"<ref>Brecht, 1:48.</ref> He left law school, sold his books, and entered the Augustinians monastery in Erfurt on July 17, 1505.<ref>Schwiebert, 136.</ref>
    You must get used to the idea that it is one thing to do the works of the law and quite another to fulfill it. The works of the law are every thing that a person does or can do of his own free will and by his own powers to obey the law. But because in doing such works the heart abhors the law and yet is forced to obey it, the works are a total loss and are completely useless. That is what St. Paul means in chapter 3 when he says, "No human being is justified before God through the works of the law." From this you can see that the schoolmasters [i.e., the scholastic theologians] and sophists are seducers when they teach that you can prepare yourself for grace by means of works. How can anybody prepare himself for good by means of works if he does no good work except with aversion and constraint in his heart? How can such a work please God, if it proceeds from an averse and unwilling heart?


    But to fulfill the law means to do its work eagerly, lovingly and freely, without the constraint of the law; it means to live well and in a manner pleasing to God, as though there were no law or punishment. It is the Holy Spirit, however, who puts such eagerness of unconstained love into the heart, as Paul says in chapter 5. But the Spirit is given only in, with, and through faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul says in his introduction. So, too, faith comes only through the word of God, the Gospel, that preaches Christ: how he is both Son of God and man, how he died and rose for our sake. Paul says all this in chapters 3, 4 and 10.


    =='''Monastic and academic life'''==
    That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law; faith it is that brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ. The Spirit, in turn, renders the heart glad and free, as the law demands. Then good works proceed from faith itself. That is what Paul means in chapter 3 when, after he has thrown out the works of the law, he sounds as though the wants to abolish the law by faith. No, he says, we uphold the law through faith, i.e. we fulfill it through faith.


    Luther dedicated himself to monastic life. He devoted himself to fasts, long hours in prayer and pilgrimage, and constant confession. Luther tried to please God through this dedication; instead however, it increased his awareness of his own sinfulness.<ref name="Bainton1">Bainton, 40–42.</ref> He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them."<ref>James Kittelson, <cite>Luther The Reformer</cite> (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1986), 53.</ref> Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost hold of Christ the Savior and Comforter and made of him a stock-master and hangman over my poor soul."<ref>Kittelson, 79.</ref>
    '''Sin''' in the Scriptures means not only external works of the body but also all those movements within us which bestir themselves and move us to do the external works, namely, the depth of the heart with all its powers. Therefore the word do should refer to a person's completely falling into sin. No external work of sin happens, after all, unless a person commit himself to it completely, body and soul. In particular, the Scriptures see into the heart, to the root and main source of all sin: unbelief in the depth of the heart. Thus, even as faith alone makes just and brings the Spirit and the desire to do good external works, so it is only unbelief which sins and exalts the flesh and brings desire to do evil external works. That's what happened to Adam and Eve in Paradise (cf. Genesis 3).  


    Johann von Staupitz, Luther's superior, concluded that the young monk needed more work to distract him from excessive rumination and ordered him to pursue an academic career. In 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508 he began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.<ref name="bainton2">Bainton, 44–45.</ref>  He received a Bachelor's degree in biblical studies on March 9, 1508, and another Bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509.<ref>a major Mediæval textbook of theology; Brecht, 1:93.</ref> On October 19, 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on October 21, 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having been called to the position of ''Doctor in Bible''.<ref>Brecht, 1:12–27.</ref> He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.
    That is why only unbelief is called sin by Christ, as he says in John, chapter 16, "The Spirit will punish the world because of sin, because it does not believe in me." Furthermore, before good or bad works happen, which are the good or bad fruits of the heart, there has to be present in the heart either faith or unbelief, the root, sap and chief power of all sin. That is why, in the Scriptures, unbelief is called the head of the serpent and of the ancient dragon which the offspring of the woman, i.e. Christ, must crush, as was promised to Adam (cf. Genesis 3).  


    '''Grace''' and gift differ in that grace actually denotes God's kindness or favor which he has toward us and by which he is disposed to pour Christ and the Spirit with his gifts into us, as becomes clear from chapter 5, where Paul says, "Grace and gift are in Christ, etc." The gifts and the Spirit increase daily in us, yet they are not complete, since evil desires and sins remain in us which war against the Spirit, as Paul says in chapter 7, and in Galations, chapter 5. And Genesis, chapter 3, proclaims the enmity between the offspring of the woman and that of the serpent. But grace does do this much: that we are accounted completely just before God. God's grace is not divided into bits and pieces, as are the gifts, but grace takes us up completely into God's favor for the sake of Christ, our intercessor and mediator, so that the gifts may begin their work in us.


    =='''Justification by Faith'''==
    In this way, then, you should understand chapter 7, where St. Paul portrays himself as still a sinner, while in chapter 8 he says that, because of the incomplete gifts and because of the Spirit, there is nothing damnable in those who are in Christ. Because our flesh has not been killed, we are still sinners, but because we believe in Christ and have the beginnings of the Spirit, God so shows us his favor and mercy, that he neither notices nor judges such sins. Rather he deals with us according to our belief in Christ until sin is killed.


    From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, the books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to understand terms such as penance and righteousness in new ways. He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's divine grace through Christ received by faith alone. The first and chief article is this, Luther wrote, "Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification… herefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us…  Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls."<ref>Martin Luther, <cite>The Smalcald Articles<cite> in <cite>Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions</cite> (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 289, Part two, Article 1.</ref>
    '''Faith is not that human illusion and dream that some people think it is. When they hear and talk a lot about faith and yet see that no moral improvement and no good works result from it, they fall into error and say, "Faith is not enough. You must do works if you want to be virtuous and get to heaven." The result is that, when they hear the Gospel, they stumble and make for themselves with their own powers a concept in their hearts which says, "I believe." This concept they hold to be true faith. But since it is a human fabrication and thought and not an experience of the heart, it accomplishes nothing, and there follows no improvement.'''
     
    Another essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the "proper distinction"<ref>Plass, 2:732, no. 2276.</ref> between Law and Gospel. He believed that this principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the study of the scriptures and that failing to distinguish properly between Law and Gospel was at the root of many fundamental theological errors.<ref name="Preus">Preus, Robert D. [http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1458 "Luther and the Doctrine of Justification"] <cite>Concordia Theological Quarterly</cite> 48 (1984) no. 1:11–12.</ref>


    =='''The 95 Theses'''==
    Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are. Even so, he chatters on with a great many words about faith and good works.


    On 31 October 1517 Luther wrote to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences in his episcopal territories and inviting him to a disputation on the matter. He enclosed The 95 Theses, a copy of which, according to tradition, he posted the same day on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
    '''Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace;''' it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire. Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgements about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate.  


    Luther had already preached against indulgences, but he wrote the 95 Theses partly in reaction to the promotion of indulgences by Johann Tetzel, ''papal commissioner'' for indulgences in Germany, to raise funds for the renovation of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "''As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs''".<ref>Bainton, 60; Brecht, 1:182; Kittelson, 104.</ref> The 95 Theses not only denounced such transactions as worldly but denied the pope's right to grant pardons on God's behalf in the first place: the only thing indulgences guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and greed, because the pardon of the Church was in God's power alone.<ref>''Certum est, nummo in cistam tinniente augeri questum et avariciam posse: suffragium autem ecclesie est in arbitrio dei solius.'' (Thesis 28)</ref>
    Now '''justice''' is just such a faith. It is called God's justice or that justice which is valid in God's sight, because it is God who gives it and reckons it as justice for the sake of Christ our Mediator. It influences a person to give to everyone what he owes him. Through faith a person becomes sinless and eager for God's commands. Thus he gives God the honor due him and pays him what he owes him. He serves people willingly with the means available to him. In this way he pays everyone his due. Neither nature nor free will nor our own powers can bring about such a justice, for even as no one can give himself faith, so too he cannot remove unbelief. How can he then take away even the smallest sin? Therefore everything which takes place outside faith or in unbelief is lie, hypocrisy and sin (Romans 14), no matter how smoothly it may seem to go.  


    While Luther did not deny the pope’s right to grant pardons for penance imposed by the Church, he made it clear that preachers who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error.<ref>''Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per pape indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari.'' (Thesis 21)</ref> The final two theses exhorted Christians not to slacken in following Christ, but to be confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through an assurance of peace.<ref>''Exhortandi sunt Christiani, ut caput suum Christum per penas, mortes infernosque sequi studeant. Ac sic magis per multas tribulationes intrare celum quam per securitatem pacis confidant.'' (Theses 94 and 95)</ref>
    You must not understand '''flesh''' here as denoting only unchastity or spirit as denoting only the inner heart. Here St. Paul calls flesh (as does Christ in John 3) everything born of flesh, i.e. the whole human being with body and soul, reason and senses, since everything in him tends toward the flesh. That is why you should know enough to call that person "fleshly" who, without grace, fabricates, teaches and chatters about high spiritual matters. You can learn the same thing from Galatians, chapter 5, where St. Paul calls heresy and hatred works of the flesh. And in Romans, chapter 8, he says that, through the flesh, the law is weakened. He says this, not of unchastity, but of all sins, most of all of unbelief, which is the most spiritual of vices.  
    Others had attacked abuses in the Church, but Luther's approach unleashed a doctrinal revolution in the reform movement. By rejecting papal and ecclesiastical practices that Luther deemed were in conflict with Scripture, he asserted the primacy of scriptural authority over the Church; and by dismissing the scriptural mandate for papal authority, the Power of the Keys (''Matt:16:18–19''), “which he the Pope does not possess”,<ref>''…quod non potestate clavis (quam nullam habet)…'' (Thesis 26)</ref> he took, possibly unintentionally, a step towards the break with Rome.  


    The 95 Theses were quickly translated into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be fanned by the printing press.<ref>Brecht, 1:204–205.</ref> Within two weeks, the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. In contrast, the response of the papacy was painstakingly slow.
    On the other hand, you should know enough to call that person '''"spiritual"''' who is occupied with the most outward of works as was Christ, when he washed the feet of the disciples, and Peter, when he steered his boat and fished. So then, a person is "flesh" who, inwardly and outwardly, lives only to do those things which are of use to the flesh and to temporal existence. A person is "spirit" who, inwardly and outwardly, lives only to do those things which are of use to the spirit and to the life to come.  


    ==='''Response of the Papacy'''===
    Unless you understand these words in this way, you will never understand either this letter of St. Paul or any book of the Scriptures. Be on guard, therefore against any teacher who uses these words differently, no matter who he be, whether Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Origen or anyone else as great as or greater than they. Now let us turn to the letter itself.


    Albert of Mainz, who with the pope’s consent was using part of the indulgence income to pay his bribery debts,<ref>Luther, Martin (2006). [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-59850 Encyclopædia Britannica Online.] Retrieved 18 Sep 2006.</ref> did not reply to Luther’s letter; instead, he had the theses checked for heresy and forwarded to Rome.<ref>Martin Treu, <cite>Martin Luther in Wittenberg: A Biographical Tour</cite> (Wittenberg: Saxon-Anhalt Luther Memorial Foundation, 2003), 31.</ref>
    ====Chapters 1 to 3====
    The first duty of a preacher of the Gospel is, through his revealing of the law and of sin, to rebuke and to turn into sin everything in life that does not have the Spirit and faith in Christ as its base. [Here and elsewhere in Luther's preface, as indeed in Romans itself, it is not clear whether "spirit" has the meaning "Holy Spirit" or "spiritual person," as Luther has previously defined it.] Thereby he will lead people to a recognition of their miserable condition, and thus they will become humble and yearn for help. This is what St Paul does. He begins in chapter 1 by rebuking the gross sins and unbelief which are in plain view, as were (and still are) the sins of the pagans, who live without God's grace. He says that, through the Gospel, God is revealing his wrath from heaven upon all mankind because of the godless and unjust lives they live. For, although they know and recognize day by day that there is a God, yet human nature in itself, without grace, is so evil that it neither thanks nor honors God. This nature blinds itself and continually falls into wickedness, even going so far as to commit idolatry and other horrible sins and vices. It is unashamed of itself and leaves such things unpunished in others.  


    But heretics and reformers were nothing new to Leo X, whose brother’s government had once been ousted from Florence in thrall to the rebel monk Savonarola, and he responded over the next three years, “with great care as is proper”,<ref>Papal Bull [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Exsurge_Domine ''Exsurge Domine''.]</ref> by deploying a series of papal theologians and envoys against Luther. Perhaps he hoped the matter would die down of its own accord, because in 1518 he dismissed Luther as "''a drunken German''" who "''when sober will change his mind''".<ref>Philip Schaff, <cite>History of the Christian Church<cite> (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910), 7:99; W.G. Polack, <cite>The Story of Luther<cite> (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931), 45.</ref>
    In chapter 2, St. Paul extends his rebuke to those who appear outwardly pious or who sin secretly. Such were the Jews, and such are all hypocrites still, who live virtuous lives but without eagerness and love; in their heart they are enemies of God's law and like to judge other people. That's the way with hypocrites: they think that they are pure but are actually full of greed, hate, pride and all sorts of filth (cf. Matthew 23). These are they who despise God's goodness and, by their hardness of heart, heap wrath upon themselves. Thus Paul explains the law rightly when he lets no one remain without sin but proclaims the wrath of God to all who want to live virtuously by nature or by free will. He makes them out to be no better than public sinners; he says they are hard of heart and unrepentant.  


    That year, the Dominican theologian Sylvester Mazzolini wrote a refutation of Luther’s theses as heretical; and the subsequent controversy served only to enlarge Luther's doctrinal assault on the papacy. Leo summoned Luther to Rome; but the Elector Frederick persuaded him to accept a submission from Luther at Augsburg instead, where cardinal legate Cajetan, in October 1518, was obliged to listen to an unrepentant Luther inform him that the papacy was not in fact part of the original and immutable essence of the Church. Luther appealed first “from the pope not well informed to the pope who should be better informed”<ref>Martin Luther, <cite>Proceedings at Augsburg (1518),</cite> trans. Harold J. Grimm in <cite>Luther’s Works</cite>, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), ''LW'' 31:257.</ref> and then, in November, to a general Council.  
    In chapter 3, '''Paul lumps both secret and public sinners together''': the one, he says, is like the other; all are sinners in the sight of God. Besides, the Jews had God's word, even though many did not believe in it. But still God's truth and faith in him are not thereby rendered useless. St. Paul introduces, as an aside, the saying from Psalm 51, that God remains true to his words. Then he returns to his topic and proves from Scripture that they are all sinners and that no one becomes just through the works of the law but that God gave the law only so that sin might be perceived.  


    The Saxon papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz fared better, winning concessions from Luther at Altenburg in January 1519 and a promise to remain silent as long as his opponents did. One opponent, however, was the theologian Johann Eck, who clashed with Luther later that year in a debate  at Leipzig (June 27 – July 18, 1519) during which Luther insisted that the power of the keys belonged not to popes but to the whole Church, defined as the congregation of the faithful.<ref>Martin Luther, "The Leipzig Debate (1519)," trans. Harold J. Grimm in <cite>Luther’s Works</cite>, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), ''LW'' 31:311.</ref> Eck afterwards called Luther "''the Saxon Hus''" and from that moment devoted himself to his downfall.
    Next St. Paul teaches the right way to be virtuous and to be saved; he says that they are all sinners, unable to glory in God. They must, however, be justified through faith in Christ, who has merited this for us by his blood and has become for us a mercy seat [cf. Exodus 25:17, Leviticus 16:14ff, and John 2:2] in the presence of God, who forgives us all our previous sins. In so doing, God proves that it is his justice alone, which he gives through faith, that helps us, the justice which was at the appointed time revealed through the Gospel and, previous to that, was witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets. Therefore the law is set up by faith, but the works of the law, along with the glory taken in them, are knocked down by faith. [As with the term "spirit," the word "law" seems to have for Luther, and for St. Paul, two meanings. Sometimes it means "regulation about what must be done or not done," as in the third paragraph of this preface; sometimes it means "the Torah," as in the previous sentence. And sometimes it seems to have both meanings, as in what follows.]


    =='''Widening Breach'''==
    ====Chapter 4====
    In chapters 1 to 3, St. Paul has revealed sin for what it is and has taught the way of faith which leads to justice. Now in chapter 4 he deals with some objections and criticisms. He takes up first the one that people raise who, on hearing that faith make just without works, say, "What? Shouldn't we do any good works?" Here St. Paul holds up Abraham as an example. He says, "What did Abraham accomplish with his good works? Were they all good for nothing and useless?" He concludes that Abraham was made righteous apart from all his works by faith alone. Even before the "work" of his circumcision, Scripture praises him as being just on account of faith alone (cf. Genesis 15). Now if the work of his circumcision did nothing to make him just, a work that God had commanded him to do and hence a work of obedience, then surely no other good work can do anything to make a person just. Even as Abraham's circumcision was an outward sign with which he proved his justice based on faith, so too all good works are only outward signs which flow from faith and are the fruits of faith; they prove that the person is already inwardly just in the sight of God.


    The disputation at Leipzig (1519) brought Luther into contact with the humanists, particularly Philipp Melanchthon, Johann Reuchlin and Erasmus. Luther's writings circulated widely, soon reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther. He published a short commentary on Epistle to the Galatians and his <cite>Work on the Psalms</cite>.<ref>Latin title is <cite>Operationes in Psalmos.</ref> At the same time, he received deputations from Italy and from the Utraquists of Bohemia. Ulrich von Hutten and knight Franz von Sickingen offered to place Luther under their protection.<ref name = "Herzog71"><cite>The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge</cite>, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson and George William Gilmore, (New York, London, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1908–1914; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1951) s.v. "[http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc07&page=71&view= Luther, Martin]," hereafter cited in notes as <cite>Schaff-Herzog</cite>, 71.</ref>
    St. Paul verifies his teaching on faith in chapter 3 with a powerful example from Scripture. He calls as witness David, who says in Psalm 32 that a person becomes just without works but doesn't remain without works once he has become just. Then Paul extends this example and applies it against all other works of the law. He concludes that the Jews cannot be Abraham's heirs just because of their blood relationship to him and still less because of the works of the law. Rather, they have to inherit Abrahams's faith if they want to be his real heirs, since it was prior to the Law of Moses and the law of circumcision that Abraham became just through faith and was called a father of all believers. St. Paul adds that the law brings about more wrath than grace, because no one obeys it with love and eagerness. More disgrace than grace come from the works of the law. Therefore faith alone can obtain the grace promised to Abraham. Examples like these are written for our sake, that we also should have faith.


    This period of Luther's life was unparalleled in his career both by way of creativity and productivity.<ref>Lewis W. Spitz, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, Revised Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1987), 338.</ref> Three of Luther's best known works were published in 1520: <cite>To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation</cite>, <cite>Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church</cite> and <cite>Freedom of a Christian</cite>.
    ====Chapter 5====
    In chapter 5, St. Paul comes to the fruits and works of faith, namely: joy, peace, love for God and for all people; in addition: assurance, steadfastness, confidence, courage, and hope in sorrow and suffering. All of these follow where faith is genuine, because of the overflowing good will that God has shown in Christ: he had him die for us before we could ask him for it, yes, even while we were still his enemies. Thus we have established that faith, without any good works, makes just. It does not follow from that, however, that we should not do good works; rather it means that morally upright works do not remain lacking. About such works the "works-holy" people know nothing; they invent for themselves their own works in which are neither peace nor joy nor assurance nor love nor hope nor steadfastness nor any kind of genuine Christian works or faith.  


    Luther issued his <cite>To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation</cite> in August of 1520. In this work, he urged the laity, as members of the priesthood of all believers to reform the church.<ref name = "Herzog71" />  In this work, Luther first refers to the Pope as the Antichrist.<ref>Martin Luther, [http://www.projectwittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/nblty-01.html <cite>An Open Letter to The Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, 1520</cite>], trans. C. M. Jacobs, in <cite>Works of Martin Luther: With Introductions and Notes</cite>, Volume 2 (Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915; Fort Wayne, IN: Project Wittenberg, 2006).</ref>
    Next St. Paul makes a digression, a pleasant little side-trip, and relates where both sin and justice, death and life come from. He opposes these two: Adam and Christ. What he wants to say is that Christ, a second Adam, had to come in order to make us heirs of his justice through a new spiritual birth in faith, just as the old Adam made us heirs of sin through the old fleshy birth.  


    Luther redefined the term sacrament in his work, <cite> ''Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church''</cite>. For Luther, a sacrament was a Means of Grace instituted by [[Christ]] Himself and made up of a visible element combined with the Word of God. Luther concluded that only [[Baptism]] and the Lord's Supper could be called sacraments by this definition at that even these sacraments were "taken captivity" by the Pope through doctrines such as the sacrifice of the Mass and withholding the cup in the Lord's Supper.<ref name = "Hillerbrand463">ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, s.v. "Luther, Martin," (by Martin Brecht, tr. Wolfgang Katenz) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 2:463.</ref>
    St. Paul proves, by this reasoning, that a person cannot help himself by his works to get from sin to justice any more than he can prevent his own physical birth. St. Paul also proves that the divine law, which should have been well-suited, if anything was, for helping people to obtain justice, not only was no help at all when it did come, but it even increased sin. Evil human nature, consequently, becomes more hostile to it; the more the law forbids it to indulge its own desires, the more it wants to. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary and demands more grace to help human nature.  


    In his devotional work, ''On the Freedom of a Christian''<ref>Published November 20, (1520).</ref> Luther's theology of grace is stated fully for the first time.  "A Christian is perfectly free, subject to none" and "A Christian is the most dutiful slave, subject to all." Luther argued that Christians are fully redeemed by God's grace. When they act according to God's will, they are bound by no law. Yet as God's children, they are compelled to spend their whole lives in service of God and their neighbors.<ref name = "Hillerbrand463" />
    ====Chapter 6====
    In chapter 6, St. Paul takes up the special work of faith, the struggle which the spirit wages against the flesh to kill off those sins and desires that remain after a person has been made just. He teaches us that faith doesn't so free us from sin that we can be idle, lazy and self-assured, as though there were no more sin in us. Sin is there, but, because of faith that struggles against it, God does not reckon sin as deserving damnation. Therefore we have in our own selves a lifetime of work cut out for us; we have to tame our body, kill its lusts, force its members to obey the spirit and not the lusts. We must do this so that we may conform to the death and resurrection of Christ and complete our Baptism, which signifies a death to sin and a new life of grace. Our aim is to be completely clean from sin and then to rise bodily with Christ and live forever.  


    =='''Excommunication and Diet of Worms'''==
    St. Paul says that we can accomplish all this because we are in grace and not in the law. He explains that to be "outside the law" is not the same as having no law and being able to do what you please. No, being "under the law" means living without grace, surrounded by the works of the law. Then surely sin reigns by means of the law, since no one is naturally well-disposed toward the law. That very condition, however, is the greatest sin. But grace makes the law lovable to us, so there is then no sin any more, and the law is no longer against us but one with us.


    On June 15, 1520, the Pope warned Martin Luther with the papal bull <cite>''Exsurge Domine''</cite> that he risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings<ref name = "Hillerbrand463" /> within 60 days. On July 10, Luther responded:
    This is true freedom from sin and from the law; St. Paul writes about this for the rest of the chapter. He says it is a freedom only to do good with eagerness and to live a good life without the coercion of the law. This freedom is, therefore, a spiritual freedom which does not suspend the law but which supplies what the law demands, namely eagerness and love. These silence the law so that it has no further cause to drive people on and make demands of them. It's as though you owed something to a moneylender and couldn't pay him. You could be rid of him in one of two ways: either he would take nothing from you and would tear up his account book, or a pious man would pay for you and give you what you needed to satisfy your debt. That's exactly how Christ freed us from the law. Therefore our freedom is not a wild, fleshy freedom that has no obligation to do anything. On the contrary, it is a freedom that does a great deal, indeed everything, yet is free of the law's demands and debts.


    <blockquote>''As for me, the die is cast; I despise alike the favor and fury of Rome; I do not wish to be reconciled with her; or even to hold any communication with her. Let her condemn and burn my books; I, in turn, unless I can find no fire, will condemn and publicly burn the whole pontifical law, that swamp of heresies''.<ref>Translated by H. G. Ganss in <cite>The Catholic Encyclopedia</cite>  s.v. "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm Martin Luther]," (by H. G. Ganss) (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), 7:390. The Original text may be found at: Martin Luther, "Luther an Spalatin, Wittenberg, 10 Juli, 1520," <cite>D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe</cite>, Briefwechsel (Weimar, Germany: Herman Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1931), 2:137, no. 310. Hereafter cited in notes as <cite>WA</cite>;Martin Luther, "[http://books.google.com/books?vid=0dvKfWGrEcLxtIZawr&id=8WoBLH_n44wC&pg=PA431&dq=%22ernst+ludwig+enders%22  Luther an Spalatin],"  <cite>Dr. Martin Luthers sämmtliche Werke in beiden Originalsprachen nach den ältischen Ausgaben kritsch und historisch bearbeitet</cite>, ed. J. K. Irmischer, C. S. T. Elspurger, H. Schmid, H. Schmidt and E. L. Enders. Briefwechsel (Stuttgart, Germany: Velag der Vereinsbuchhandlung, 1887), 2:432–433, no. 323.</ref></blockquote>
    ====Chapter 7====
    In chapter 7, St. Paul confirms the foregoing by an analogy drawn from married life. When a man dies, the wife is free; the one is free and clear of the other. It is not the case that the woman may not or should not marry another man; rather she is now for the first time free to marry someone else. She could not do this before she was free of her first husband. In the same way, our conscience is bound to the law so long as our condition is that of the sinful old man. But when the old man is killed by the spirit, then the conscience is free, and conscience and law are quit of each other. Not that conscience should now do nothing; rather, it should now for the first time truly cling to its second husband, Christ, and bring forth the fruit of life.  


    That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull in Meissen and other towns. Miltitz attempted to broker a solution; but Luther, who sent the pope a copy of ''On the Freedom of a Christian'' in October, publicly set fire to the bull and decretals at Wittenberg on December 10, 1520<ref name = "Hillerbrand463" /> an act he defended in <cite>Why the Pope and his Recent Book are Burned</cite><ref>German title is <cite>Warum des Papstes und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind</cite>.</ref> and <cite>Assertions Concerning All Articles</cite>.<ref>Latin title is <cite>Assertio omnium articulorum</cite>.</ref> Luther was finally excommunicated by Pope Leo X on January 3, 1521, in the bull ''Decet Romanum Pontificem''
    Next St. Paul sketches further the nature of sin and the law. It is the law that makes sin really active and powerful, because the old man gets more and more hostile to the law since he can't pay the debt demanded by the law. Sin is his very nature; of himself he can't do otherwise. And so the law is his death and torture. Now the law is not itself evil; it is our evil nature that cannot tolerate that the good law should demand good from it. It's like the case of a sick person, who cannot tolerate that you demand that he run and jump around and do other things that a healthy person does.  


    Enforcement of the ban now fell to the secular authorities. Luther duly appeared on April 17, 1521, before the Diet of Worms, which Emperor Charles V had opened on January 22. Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings and asked him if the books were his and if he still believed in what they taught. Luther requested time to think about his answer, which was granted.  Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and gave his response to the diet the next day. Eck asked him once more would he repudiate, in whole or in part, the words he had written. Luther replied that his criticism of the abuses of, and in, the Church was, thanks to common knowledge of these abuses, fully justified.
    St. Paul concludes here that, if we understand the law properly and comprehend it in the best possible way, then we will see that its sole function is to remind us of our sins, to kill us by our sins, and to make us deserving of eternal wrath. Conscience learns and experiences all this in detail when it comes face to face with the law. It follows, then, that we must have something else, over and above the law, which can make a person virtuous and cause him to be saved. Those, however, who do not understand the law rightly are blind; they go their way boldly and think they are satisfying the law with works. They don't know how much the law demands, namely, a free, willing, eager heart. That is the reason that they don't see Moses rightly before their eyes. [In both Jewish and Christian teaching, Moses was commonly held to be the author of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible. Cf. the involved imagery of Moses' face and the veil over it in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18.] For them he is covered and concealed by the veil.  


    The Emperor cut him off with an explosive, "'''NO!'''" To which Luther sharply replied that should he recant at this point he would surely open the door to even more tyranny and impiety.
    Then St. Paul shows how spirit and flesh struggle with each other in one person. He gives himself as an example, so that we may learn how to kill sin in ourselves. He gives both spirit and flesh the name "law," so that, just as it is in the nature of divine law to drive a person on and make demands of him, so too the flesh drives and demands and rages against the spirit and wants to have its own way. Likewise the spirit drives and demands against the flesh and wants to have its own way. This feud lasts in us for as long as we live, in one person more, in another less, depending on whether spirit or flesh is stronger. Yet the whole human being is both: spirit and flesh. The human being fights with himself until he becomes completely spiritual.  


    Speaking for the Church, Eck, in Latin, now spoke:
    ====Chapter 8====
    In chapter 8, St. Paul comforts fighters such as these and tells them that this flesh will not bring them condemnation. He goes on to show what the nature of flesh and spirit are. Spirit, he says, comes from Christ, who has given us his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit makes us spiritual and restrains the flesh. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God's children no matter how furiously sin may rage within us, so long as we follow the Spirit and struggle against sin in order to kill it. Because nothing is so effective in deadening the flesh as the cross and suffering, Paul comforts us in our suffering. He says that the Spirit, [cf. previous note about the meaning of "spirit."] love and all creatures will stand by us; the Spirit in us groans and all creatures long with us that we be freed from the flesh and from sin. Thus we see that these three chapters, 6, 7 and 8, all deal with the one work of faith, which is to kill the old Adam and to constrain the flesh.


    <blockquote>"''Your plea to be heard from Scripture is the one always made by heretics...How can you assume you are the only one who can understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgement above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than all of them?...to call into question the most holy orthodox, instituted by Christ the perfect Lawgiver...and which we are forbidden by the Pope and by the Emperor to discuss, least there be no end of debate? I ask you, Martin -- answer candidly and without distinctions -- do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain? <ref>H. von Shubert <cite>Luther</cite>, 1923''</ref></blockquote>
    ====Chapter 9 - 11====
    In chapters 9, 10 and 11, St. Paul teaches us about the eternal providence of God. It is the original source which determines who would believe and who wouldn't, who can be set free from sin and who cannot. Such matters have been taken out of our hands and are put into God's hands so that we might become virtuous. It is absolutely necessary that it be so, for we are so weak and unsure of ourselves that, if it depended on us, no human being would be saved. The devil would overpower all of us. But God is steadfast; his providence will not fail, and no one can prevent its realization. Therefore we have hope against sin.  


    To which Luther replied in German:
    But here we must shut the mouths of those sacriligeous and arrogant spirits who, mere beginners that they are, bring their reason to bear on this matter and commence, from their exalted position, to probe the abyss of divine providence and uselessly trouble themselves about whether they are predestined or not. These people must surely plunge to their ruin, since they will either despair or abandon themselves to a life of chance.  
    <blockquote>
    ''"Since your Majesty and lordships desire a simple reply, I shall answer without distinctions....Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason (I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other) my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience. God help me. Amen."''<ref>Schaff-Herzog, [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc07/Page_72.html "Luther, Martin]," 72.</ref> </blockquote>


    You, however, follow the reasoning of this letter in the order in which it is presented. Fix your attention first of all on Christ and the Gospel, so that you may recognize your sin and his grace. Then struggle against sin, as chapters 1-8 have taught you to. Finally, when you have come, in chapter 8, under the shadow of the cross and suffering, they will teach you, in chapters 9-11, about providence and what a comfort it is. [The context here and in St. Paul's letter makes it clear that this is the cross and passion, not only of Christ, but of each Christian.] Apart from suffering, the cross and the pangs of death, you cannot come to grips with providence without harm to yourself and secret anger against God. The old Adam must be quite dead before you can endure this matter and drink this strong wine. Therefore make sure you don't drink wine while you are still a babe at the breast. There is a proper measure, time and age for understanding every doctrine.


    Over the next days, private conferences were held to determine the fate of Luther, who left Worms on 26 April. The emperor presented the final draft of the Edict of Worms on May 25, 1521, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: ''"We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic"''.<ref name = "Worms">[http://www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/kparrow/Edict%20of%20Worms.htm Edict of Worms], translated by De Lamar Jensen and Jacquelin Delbrouwire.</ref>
    ====Chapter 12====
    In chapter 12, St. Paul teaches the true liturgy and makes all Christians priests, so that they may offer, not money or cattle, as priests do in the Law, but their own bodies, by putting their desires to death. Next he describes the outward conduct of Christians whose lives are governed by the Spirit; he tells how they teach, preach, rule, serve, give, suffer, love, live and act toward friend, foe and everyone. These are the works that a Christian does, for, as I have said, faith is not idle.  


    =='''Exile at the Wartburg Castle'''==
    ====Chapter 13====
    In chapter 13, St. Paul teaches that one should honor and obey the secular authorities. He includes this, not because it makes people virtuous in the sight of God, but because it does insure that the virtuous have outward peace and protection and that the wicked cannot do evil without fear and in undisturbed peace. Therefore it is the duty of virtuous people to honor secular authority, even though they do not, strictly speaking, need it. Finally, St. Paul sums up everything in love and gathers it all into the example of Christ: what he has done for us, we must also do and follow after him.


    Luther was protected on his return journey to Wittenberg by the safe-conduct secured in advance of the diet by Frederick the Wise, who, careful to avoid openly protecting Luther, now arranged for him to be taken into safe custody on his way home by a company of masked horsemen and carried to Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, where he stayed for about a year. He grew a wide, flaring beard, took on the garb of a knight, and assumed the pseudonym ''Junker Jörg'' (Nobleman George).
    ====Chapter 14====
    In chapter 14, St. Paul teaches that one should carefully guide those with weak conscience and spare them. One shouldn't use Christian freedom to harm but rather to help the weak. Where that isn't done, there follow dissention and despising of the Gospel, on which everything else depends. It is better to give way a little to the weak in faith until they become stronger than to have the teaching of the Gospel perish completely. This work is a particularly necessary work of love especially now when people, by eating meat and by other freedoms, are brashly, boldly and unnecessarily shaking weak consciences which have not yet come to know the truth.  


    His time at the Wartburg was a very productive period in his career. During this period of exile, Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German. It was printed in September 1522. He issued an essay on the practice of Confession ''Concerning Confession'',<ref>In German, <cite>Von der Beichte.</cite></ref> in which he rejected laws by the church, forcing people to go to private confession, although he affirmed the value of private confession and absolution. He wrote a polemic against Archbishop Albert of Mainz for attempting to continue the sale of indulgences, bringing such pressure against him that he stopped the sale. In a polemical treatise against Jacobus Latomus, Luther discussed the relationship between the law and grace in Christ emphasizing that the sinner receives God's grace as a gift and it is God's grace, not some indwelling quality in man, that results in the sinner's salvation. He also discussed the reality of sin in the life of the baptized Christian, and how God's grace in Christ is the constant need of every person.
    ====Chapter 15====
    In chapter 15, St. Paul cites Christ as an example to show that we must also have patience with the weak, even those who fail by sinning publicly or by their disgusting morals. We must not cast them aside but must bear with them until they become better. That is the way Christ treated us and still treats us every day; he puts up with our vices, our wicked morals and all our imperfection, and he helps us ceaselessly. Finally Paul prays for the Christians at Rome; he praises them and commends them to God. He points out his own office and the message that he preaches. He makes an unobtrusive plea for a contribution for the poor in Jerusalem. Unalloyed love is the basis of all he says and does.  


    Although his stay at Wartburg kept him hidden from public view, Luther often received letters from his friends and allies asking for his views and advice. For example, Philipp Melanchthon wrote to him and asked how to answer the charge that the reformers neglected pilgrimages, fasts and other traditional forms of piety. Luther replied on August 1, 1521: ''"If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin.  God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter ('''2 Pet 3:13''') are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign''."<ref name="sinsbestrong">Martin Luther, [http://www.ProjectWittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/letsinsbe.txt "Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon. Letter no. 99, 1 August 1521, From the Wartburg,"] Trans. Erika Bullman Flores (Fort Wayne, IN: Project Wittenberg, 2006), Letter 99.13.  The letter was translated from <cite>Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften</cite> Ed. Johann Georg Walch (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), vol. 15, cols. 2585–2590.</ref>
    The last chapter consists of greetings. But Paul also includes a salutary warning against human doctrines which are preached alongside the Gospel and which do a great deal of harm. It's as though he had clearly seen that out of Rome and through the Romans would come the deceitful, harmful Canons and Decretals along with the entire brood and swarm of human laws and commands that is now drowning the whole world and has blotted out this letter and the whole of the Scriptures, along with the Spirit and faith. Nothing remains but the idol Belly, and St. Paul depicts those people here as its servants. God deliver us from them. Amen.  


    Meanwhile, some of the Saxon clergy, notably Bartholomäus Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, had renounced the vow of celibacy. Others, including Melanchthon, had assailed the validity of monastic vows. Luther wrote ''Concerning Monastic Vows'', at the Wartburg Castle. Though more cautious than others at this point, Luther concurred, on the ground that the vows were generally taken for the purpose of receiving salvation as a result of a monastic life.  With the approval of Luther in his ''Concerning the Abrogation of the Private Mass,'' but against the firm opposition of their Prior, the Wittenberg Augustinians began changing their worship practices at the Augustinian cloister. They did away with many elements of the Mass. Their violence and intolerance, however, were displeasing to Luther, and early in December he spent a few days among them. Returning to the Wartburg, he wrote his ''A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion.'' In Wittenberg, Andreas Karlstadt and the ex-Augustinian Gabriel Zwilling demanded the abolition of the private mass, communion in both kinds, the removal of pictures from churches, and the abrogation of the magistracy, and the destruction of what they considered to be idolatrous images in the form of statuary and other works of art.
    We find in this letter, then, the richest possible teaching about what a Christian should know: the meaning of law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, justice, Christ, God, good works, love, hope and the cross. We learn how we are to act toward everyone, toward the virtuous and sinful, toward the strong and the weak, friend and foe, and toward ourselves. Paul bases everything firmly on Scripture and proves his points with examples from his own experience and from the Prophets, so that nothing more could be desired. Therefore it seems that St. Paul, in writing this letter, wanted to compose a summary of the whole of Christian and evangelical teaching which would also be an introduction to the whole Old Testament. Without doubt, whoever takes this letter to heart possesses the light and power of the Old Testament. Therefore each and every Christian should make this letter the habitual and constant object of his study. God grant us his grace to do so. Amen.
     
    =='''Return to Wittenberg'''==
    Around Christmas 1521 Anabaptists from Zwickau added to the anarchy. Thoroughly opposed to such radical views and fearful of their results, Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg on March 6, 1522, and the Zwickau prophets left the city. For eight  days in Lent beginning on March 9, Invocavit Sunday, and concluding on the following Sunday, Luther preached eight sermons that would become known as the ''Invocavit Sermons''. In these sermons Luther counseled careful reform that took into consideration the consciences of those who were not yet persuaded to embrace reform. Luther took great concern to protect the faith of the most fragile believer insisting that what carried the gospel to them must not be taken away by his fellow reformers.
     
    Communion in one kind (the consecrated bread) was restored for a time, the consecrated cup given only to those of the laity who desired it. He was thought by his hearers John Agricola and Jerome Schurf to have accomplished his goal of quelling unrest. The canon of the mass, giving it its sacrificial character, was now omitted. Since the former practice of penance had been abolished, communicants were now required to declare their intention to commune and to seek consolation in Christian confession and absolution. This new form of service was set forth by Luther in his ''Form of the Mass and Communion'', 1523, and in 1524 the first Wittenberg hymnal appeared with four of his own hymns. Since, however, his writings were forbidden in that part of Saxon ruled by George, Duke of Saxony, Luther declared, in his ''Temporal Authority: to What Extent It Should Be Obeyed,'' that the civil authority could enact no laws for the soul.
     
    =='''Marriage and Family'''==
     
    On April 8, 1523, Luther wrote Wenceslaus Link: ''"Yesterday I received nine nuns from their captivity in the Nimbschen convent."'' Luther had arranged for Torgau burgher Leonhard Koppe on April 4 to assist twelve nuns to escape from Marien-thron Cistercian monastery in Nimbschen near Grimma in Ducal Saxony. He transported them out of the convent in herring barrels. Three of the nuns went to be with their relatives, leaving the nine that were brought to Wittenberg. One of them was Katharina von Bora. All of them but she were happily provided for. In May and June 1523, it was thought that she would be married to a Wittenberg University student, Jerome Paumgartner, but his family most likely prevented it. Dr. Caspar Glatz was the next prospective husband put forward, but Katharina had "neither desire nor love" for him. She made it known that she wanted to marry either Luther himself or Nicholas von Amsdorf. Luther did not feel that he was a fit husband considering his being excommunicated by the pope and outlawed by the emperor. In May or early June 1525, it became known in Luther's circle that he intended to marry Katharina. Forestalling any objections from friends against Katharina, Luther acted quickly: on the evening of Tuesday, June 13, 1525, Luther was legally married to Katharina, whom he would soon come to affectionately call "Katy". Katy moved into her husband's home, the former Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg, and they began their family: the Luthers had three boys and three girls:
     
    *Hans, born June 7, 1526, studied law, became a court official, and died in 1575.
    *Elizabeth, born December 10, 1527, died on August 3, 1528.
    *Magdalena, born May 5, 1529, died in her father's arms September 20, 1542. Her death was particularly hard to bear for Luther and his wife.
    *Martin, Jr., born November 9, 1531, studied theology but never had a regular pastoral call before his death in 1565.
    *Paul, born January 28, 1533, became a physician. He fathered six children before his death on March 8, 1593 and the male line of the Luther family continued through him to John Ernest, ending in 1759.
    *Margaretha, born December 17, 1534, married George von Kunheim of the noble, wealthy Prussian family, but died in 1570 at the age of 36. Her descendants have continued to the present time.
     
    =='''Peasants' War'''==
    The Peasants' War (1524) was in many ways a response to the preaching of Luther and others. Revolts by the peasantry had existed on a small scale since the 14th century, but many peasants mistakenly believed that Luther's attack on the Church and the hierarchy meant that the reformers would support an attack on the social hierarchy as well, because of the close ties between the secular princes and the princes of the Church that Luther condemned. Revolts that broke out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 gained support among peasants and disaffected nobles, many of whom were in debt at that period. Gaining momentum and a new leader in '''Thomas Münzer''', the revolts turned into an all-out war, the experience of which played an important role in the founding of the Anabaptist movement. Initially, Luther seemed to many to support the peasants, condemning the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited many of the peasants. As the war continued, and especially as atrocities at the hands of the peasants increased, the revolt became an embarrassment to Luther, who now professed forcefully to be against the revolt; since Luther relied on support and protection from the princes, he was afraid of alienating them. In ''Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants'' (1525), he encouraged the nobility to visit swift and bloody punishment upon the peasants. Many of the revolutionaries considered Luther's words a betrayal. Others withdrew once they realized that there was neither support from the Church nor from its main opponent. The war in Germany ended in 1525 when rebel forces were put down by the armies of the Swabian League.
     
    =='''Catechisms'''==
    In 1528 Luther took part in the Saxon visitation of parishes and schools to determine the quality of pastoral care and Christian education the people were receiving. Luther wrote in the preface to the Small Catechism,
     
    <blockquote>''Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach.''<ref>Martin Luther, [http://www.bookofconcord.com/smallcatechism.html#preface"Preface]," <cite>Small Catechism</cite>.</ref></blockquote>
     
    In response, Luther prepared the Small and Large Catechisms. They are instructional and devotional material on the Ten Commandments; the Apostles' Creed; the Lord's Prayer; Baptism; Confession and Absolution; and the Lord's Supper. ''The Small Catechism'' was supposed to be read by the people themselves, ''the Large Catechism'' by the pastors. Luther, who was modest about the publishing of his collected works, thought his catechisms were one of two works he would not be embarrassed to call his own:
     
    <blockquote>''Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one ''On the Bound Will'' and the Catechism.<ref name = "LW172-173"><cite>LW</cite> 50:172–173. Luther compares himself to the mythological Saturn Saturn, who devoured most of his children. Luther wanted to get rid of many of his writings except for the two mentioned. The Large and Small Catechisms are spoken of as one work by Luther in this letter.''</ref></blockquote>
     
    The two catechisms are still popular instructional materials among Lutherans.
     
    =='''Luther's German Bible'''==
     
    Luther translated the Bible into German to make it more accessible to the common people, a task he began alone in 1521 during his stay in the Wartburg castle, publishing The New Testament in September 1522 and, in collaboration with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer, the whole Bible in 1534.  He worked on refining the translation for the rest of his life.  The Luther Bible contributed to the emergence of the modern German language and is regarded as a landmark in German literature. The 1534 edition was also profoundly influential on William Tyndale's translation,<ref><cite>Tyndale's New Testament</cite>, xv, xxvii.</ref> a precursor of the King James Bible.<ref name = "Tyndale" />
     
    =='''Liturgy and Church Government'''==
    Martin Luther’s German Mass<ref>The German title of this work is ''Deutsche Messe''. See the full text in image format at Martin Luther, [http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/1526LuthRBook/DM1.cfm <cite>Deutsche Messe und Ordnung Gottesdienst</cite>] (Wittenberg, Germany: N.P., 1526).</ref> of 1526 provided for weekday services and for catechetical instruction. He strongly objected, however, to making a new law of the forms and urged the retention of other good liturgies.  Luther, while eliminating and condemning those parts of the Roman Catholic Mass indicating the Eucharist was a propitiatory sacrifice and the Body and Blood of Christ by transubstantiation,<ref name = "Herzog73"><cite>Schaff-Herzog, [http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc07&page=73&view=  “Luther, Martin],” 73.</ref> retained the use of an eastward altar, stole, chasuble and alb. However, Luther is reported to have said, that later on, more changes would have to be made to the liturgy, which during his lifetime would still have offended the faithful people.
     
    The gradual transformation of the administration of baptism was accomplished in the <cite>Baptismal Booklet</cite><ref>German title is: <cite>Taufbüchlein</cite>, 1523, 1526.</ref><ref name = "Herzog73" />.  In May, 1525, the first Evangelical ordination took place at Wittenberg. “Luther had long since rejected the Roman Catholic sacrament of ordination, and had replaced it by a simple calling to the service of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. The laying-on of hands with prayer in a solemn congregational service was considered a fitting human rite.”<ref name = "Herzog73" />
     
    To fill the vacuum of the lack of higher ecclesiastical authority — few bishops in the German lands embraced Luther’s doctrine — “as early as 1525… [Luther] held that the secular authorities should take part in the administration of the Church, [by] making appointments to ecclesiastical office and directing visitations” of clergy and churches. These tasks were not inherent powers of the “secular authorities as such, and Luther gladly would have had them vested in an evangelical episcopate” had a larger number of bishops become evangelicals.<ref name = "Herzog73" />  “He… declared in 1542 that the Evangelical princes themselves ‘must be necessity-bishops,’” and envisioned ecclesiastical powers being exercised in congregational meetings of Christians,<ref name = "Herzog74"><cite>Schaff-Herzog</cite>, [http://www.ccel.org/php/disp.php?authorID=schaff&bookID=encyc07&page=74&view= "Luther, Martin"], 74.</ref><ref>Martin Luther, "To Nicholas Hausmann [Wittenberg,] March 29, 1527," Tr. Gottfried G. Krodel, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> ed. Gottfried G. Krodel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 49:161–164; Original text found at <cite>Weimar Ausgabe Briefwechsel</cite>, 4:180–181.  Hereafter cited in notes as <cite>WABr</cite>.</ref> "but [he] determined to be guided by the course of events and to wait until parishes and schools were provided with the proper persons." The discoveries of the Saxon visitation (1527–29) showed that parishes and schools were not ready for such responsiblity, necessitating the retention of ecclesiastical forms as they were at the beginning of the Reformation.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
     
    Melanchthon's ''Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors''<ref>The German title of this work is <cite>Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn<cite>.</ref> facilitated the Saxon visitation. The visitation accordingly took place in 1527–29, "Luther wrote the preface to Melanchthon's Unterricht der Visitatoren an die Pfarrherrn, and acted as a visitor in one of the districts after October, 1528, while, as a result of his observations, he wrote both his catechisms in 1529. At the same time he took the keenest interest in education, conferring with Georg Spalatin in 1524 on plans for a school system, and declared that it was the duty of the civil authorities to provide schools and to see that parents sent their children to them. He also advocated the establishment of elementary schools for the instruction of girls."<ref name = "Herzog74" />
    In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic States, as well as the Moravians, continued to maintain the Historic Episcopate and apostolic succession, even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal theology.
     
    =='''Eucharist Controversy'''==
     
    Martin Luther's views on the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Last Supper, were put to the test in October 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy, an assembly of Protestant theologians gathered by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, to establish doctrinal consistency in the emerging Protestant states. Agreement was achieved on most points, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist, an issue crucial to Luther.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
     
    The theologians, including Zwingli, Karlstadt, Leo Jud and Œcolampadius, differed among themselves on the significance of the words of institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you", "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Whereas Luther insisted on the Real Presence of Jesus at the Eucharist, other theologians believed God to be only symbolically present: Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus's ability to be in more than one place at a time. But Luther, who affirmed the doctrine of Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is one and the same as God, was clear:
     
    <blockquote>''For I do not want to deny in any way that God’s power is able to make a body be simultaneously in many places, even in a corporeal and circumscribed manner. For who wants to try to prove that God is unable to do that? Who has seen the limits of his power?''<ref><cite>LW</cite> 37:223–224.</ref></blockquote>
     
    In taking the words of institution at face value, Luther saw no reason to define the mystery of the Eucharist in terms such as consubstantiation, the notion that the substance of Christ's body and blood are present alongside that of the bread and the wine, or impanation, that God was literally made bread. Although his doctrine has been described as both of those, he simply taught that the body and blood of Christ are present, essence unchanged, in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. Luther clearly broke away from the Thomistic doctrine of transubstantiation but he never denied the real presence of Jesus in the Euchurist.  He used "the analogy of the iron put into the fire whereby both fire and iron are united in the red-hot iron and yet each continues unchanged",<ref><cite>Against the Heavenly Prophets</cite> (1525) and <cite>Confession concerning Christ's Supper</cite> (1528) as cited in <cite>The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church</cite>,ed. F.L. Cross (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 337.</ref> a process which he called the "Sacramental Union".
     
    While recognising the commemorative element of "do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me", Luther also took issue with Zwingli's view that the Eucharist is merely memorial.  And he disagreed that the benefit of the sacrament is conditional on good works, asserting rather that it is conditional on faith alone, laying stress on the words "given for you" and therefore on the atonement and forgiveness through the death of Jesus.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
     
    Luther was convinced that God had blinded Zwingli's eyes so that he could not see the true significance of the Lord's Supper, denouncing Zwingli and his followers as "fanatics" and "devils"<ref name = "Herzog74" /> and refusing to call his opponents brethren, though he wished them peace and love.
     
    Despite these disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession and for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as Philip of Hesse, John Frederick of Saxony, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Nevertheless, interpretations of the Eucharist differ among Protestants to this day.
     
    =='''Augsburg Confession'''==
     
    Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, convened an Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1530 with the goal of uniting the empire against the Ottoman Turks, who had besieged Vienna the previous autumn.
     
    To achieve unity, Charles required a resolution of the religious controversies in his realm. Luther, despised by emperor and empire, was left behind at the Coburg fortress while his elector and colleagues from Wittenberg attended the diet. The Augsburg Confession, a summary of the Lutheran faith authored by Philipp Melanchthon but influenced by Luther,<ref name = "Herzog74" /> was read aloud to the emperor. It was the first specifically Lutheran confession included in the ''Book of Concord'' of 1580, and is regarded as the principal confession of the Lutheran Church.
     
     
     
    =='''Final Years'''==
     
    Luther's health declined in the years before his death. Throughout his years as a reformer, Luther had suffered from a variety of ailments, including constipation, hemorrhoids, heart congestion,<ref>In January of 1527, Luther was overcome by "a violent rush of blood to the heart, which well-nigh killed him."  For an account of this event, see: Wilhelm Rein, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Jwb1sRs_dhgC&vid=OCLC03736518&dq=%22The+Life+of+Martin+Luther%22&jtp=139 ''The Life of Martin Luther''],  New York, Funk & Wagnalls (1883), pp. 139–146.</ref> fainting spells, dizziness and roaring in the ears. From 1531–1546 Luther experienced a series of more severe health problems,<ref>Some of these may have been stress related; the years of struggle with Rome, the various antagonisms with and among his fellow reformers, and the scandal which ensued from the bigamy of Philip of Hesse incident, in which Luther had played a leading role, all may have contributed to Luther's  declining health.</ref> including ringing in the ears, and, in 1536–1537, Luther began to experience kidney and bladder stones, which caused him particular agony during the rest of his life.  He also suffered from arthritis, and experienced a ruptured ear drum due to an inner ear infection. In December 1544, he suffered from severe angina and finally suffered a heart attack which led to his death in February 1546.<ref>Edwards, 9.</ref>
     
    During the later years of his life, Luther remained busy and active, with lecturing at the university on the Biblical book of Genesis, serving as dean of the theological faculty, making many visitations to churches. His later years were marked by continuing illnesses and physical problems, making him short-tempered and even more pointed and harsh in his writings and comments. His wife Katie was overheard saying, "Dear husband, you are too rude," and he responded, "They teach me to be rude."<ref>Spitz, 354.</ref>
     
    Luther's final journey, to Mansfeld, was taken due to his concern for his siblings' families continuing in their father Hans Luther's copper mining trade. Their livelihood was threatened by Count Albrecht of Mansfeld bringing the industry under his own control. The controversy that ensued involved all four Mansfeld counts: Albrecht, Philip, John George, and Gerhard. Luther journeyed to Mansfeld twice in late 1545 to participate in the negotiations for a settlement, and a third visit was needed in early 1546 for their completion.
     
    Accompanied by his three sons, Luther left Wittenberg on January 23. On February 1st he sent a tender letter to his wife:
     
    <blockquote>''"I wish you peace and love in Christ, and send you my poor, old, infirm love. Dear Katie, I was weak on the road to Eisleben, but that was my own fault...Such a cold wind blew from behind through my cap on my head that it was like to turn my brain to ice. This may have helped my vertigo [to get worse], but now, thank God, I am so well that I am sorely tempted by lovely women and care not how gallent I am...God bless you."''<ref>Will Durant,<cite> The Story of Civilization, vol. VI, <i>The Reformation</i></cite> Chpt. XX, page 451</ref></blockquote>
     
    The negotiations were successfully concluded on February 17. After 8:00 p.m. that day, Luther experienced chest pains. When he went to his bed, he prayed, "Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God" (Ps. 31:5), the common prayer of the dying. At 1:00 a.m. he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels.  Knowing that death was imminent, he thanked God for revealing His Son to him in Whom he had believed. His companions, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, shouted loudly, "Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in His name?"  A distinct "Yes" was Luther's reply. An apoplectic stroke deprived him of his speech, and shortly thereafter of his life. He died 2:45 a.m., February 18, 1546, aged 62, in Eisleben, the city of his birth.  Luther was buried in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, beneath the pulpit.<ref>cf. Brecht, 3:369–379.</ref>
     
    A piece of paper was found in Luther's pocket with his last known written statement:
     
    <blockquote>''No one who was not a shepherd or a peasant for five years can understand Virgil in his Bucolica and Georgica. I maintain that no one can undersand Cicero in his letters unless he was active in important affairs of state for twenty years. Let no one who had not guided the congregations with the prophets for one hundred years believe that he has tasted Holy Scripture thoroughly. For this reason the miracle is stupendous (1) in John the Baptist, (2) in Christ, (3) in the Apostles. Do not try to fathom this divine Aeneid, but humbly worship its footprints. We are beggars. That is true.''<ref>Orig. German and Latin of Luther's last written words is: "Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." Heinrich Bornkamm, <cite>Luther's World of Thought</cite>, tr. Martin H. Bertram (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 291.</ref></blockquote>


    =='''References'''==
    =='''References'''==
    Line 217: Line 135:
    * Oberman, Heiko A. <cite>Luther: Man Between God and the Devil</cite>. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0-385-42278-4
    * Oberman, Heiko A. <cite>Luther: Man Between God and the Devil</cite>. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0-385-42278-4


    =='''External Links'''==
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    * [http://www.ctsfw.edu/etext/luther/theses/ Full text of the ''95 Theses'']
    [[Category:Church history]]
    * [http://www.bookofconcord.org/smalcald.html Full text of the ''Smalcald Articles'']
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    * [http://www.bookofconcord.org/largecatechism.html Full text of the ''Large Catechism'']
    * [http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/peasants1525.html Excerpts from ''Against the Murderous, Thieving Peasants'']
    *[http://www.ctsfw.edu/etext/luther/babylonian/babylonian.htm ''Prelude On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church'']
    *[http://www.godrules.net/library/luther/NEW1luther_c5.htm Commentary on The ''Magnificat'' (Luke 1:46-55), 1521] [http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/?item_no=64210&p=1010575] [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/series/sid/01090269]
    *[http://www.nathan.co.za/preface.asp Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans by Martin Luther] (This sermon impacted John Wesley's understanding of the scripture)
     
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    Latest revision as of 23:48, 23 August 2015

    Click on headings to expand them, or links to go to specific articles.

    Messengers: Paul • Irenaeus • Martin • Columba • Martin Luther • John Wesley • William Branham

    Martin Luther November 10, 1483 – February 18 1546 was a German monk,[1] priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. His teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrine and culture of the Lutherans and Protestants traditions, as well as the course of Western civilization.

    Martin Luther's life and work are closely tied to the closing of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era in the West. His translation of the Bible furthered the development of a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation.[2] His translation significantly influenced the English King James Version of the Bible.[3] Due to the recently developed printing press, his writings were widely read, influencing many subsequent Reformers and thinkers, giving rise to diversifying Protestant traditions in Europe and elsewhere.[4] Luther's hymns, including his best-known Mighty Fortress is Our God, inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity.[5] His marriage on June 13, 1525, to Katharina von Bora reintroduced the practice of clerical marriage within many Christian traditions.[6] Today, nearly seventy million Christians belong to Lutheran churches worldwide,[7] with some four hundred million Protestant Christians[8] tracing their history back to Luther's reforming work.

    Luther is also known for his writings about the Jews, the nature and consequences of which are the subject of much debate among scholars, many of whom have characterized them as anti-Semitic.[9] His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues and schools burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed were revived and given widespread publicity by the Nazis in Germany in 1933–45.[10] As a result of this, coupled with his revolutionary theology, his legacy remains controversial.


    The Just Shall Live By Faith

    The following commentary to the book of Romans was written by Martin Luther. Years later, it was read to a seeking young man named John Wesley, who "felt his heart strangely warmed" by the words he heard, marking a change in his life. What might these words do to your life?

    This translation was made by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB, for the Saint Anselm College Humanities Program. [11]

    Translator's Note: The material between square brackets is explanatory in nature and is not part of Luther's preface. The terms "just, justice, justify" in this piece are synonymous with the terms "righteous, righteousness, make righteous." Both sets of English words are common translations of German "gerecht" and related words. A similar situation exists with the word "faith"; it is synonymous with "belief." Both words can be used to translate German "Glaube." Thus, "We are justified by faith" translates the same original German sentence as does "We are made righteous by belief."

    Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

    Introduction

    This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface, provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding of it. Up to now it has been darkened by glosses [explanatory notes and comments which accompany a text] and by many a useless comment, but it is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the entire Scripture.

    Definitions

    To begin with, we have to become familiar with the vocabulary of the letter and know what St. Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, justice, flesh, spirit, etc. Otherwise there is no use in reading it.

    You must not understand the word law here in human fashion, i.e., a regulation about what sort of works must be done or must not be done. That's the way it is with human laws: you satisfy the demands of the law with works, whether your heart is in it or not. God judges what is in the depths of the heart. Therefore his law also makes demands on the depths of the heart and doesn't let the heart rest content in works; rather it punishes as hypocrisy and lies all works done apart from the depths of the heart. All human beings are called liars (Psalm 116), since none of them keeps or can keep God's law from the depths of the heart. Everyone finds inside himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. Where there is no free desire for good, there the heart has not set itself on God's law. There also sin is surely to be found and the deserved wrath of God, whether a lot of good works and an honorable life appear outwardly or not.

    Therefore in chapter 2, St. Paul adds that the Jews are all sinners and says that only the doers of the law are justified in the sight of God. What he is saying is that no one is a doer of the law by works. On the contrary, he says to them, "You teach that one should not commit adultery, and you commit adultery. You judge another in a certain matter and condemn yourselves in that same matter, because you do the very same thing that you judged in another." It is as if he were saying, "Outwardly you live quite properly in the works of the law and judge those who do not live the same way; you know how to teach everybody. You see the speck in another's eye but do not notice the beam in your own."

    Outwardly you keep the law with works out of fear of punishment or love of gain. Likewise you do everything without free desire and love of the law; you act out of aversion and force. You'd rather act otherwise if the law didn't exist. It follows, then, that you, in the depths of your heart, are an enemy of the law. What do you mean, therefore, by teaching another not to steal, when you, in the depths of your heart, are a thief and would be one outwardly too, if you dared. (Of course, outward work doesn't last long with such hypocrites.) So then, you teach others but not yourself; you don't even know what you are teaching. You've never understood the law rightly. Furthermore, the law increases sin, as St. Paul says in chapter 5. That is because a person becomes more and more an enemy of the law the more it demands of him what he can't possibly do.

    In chapter 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. Such a law is spiritual since it can only be loved and fulfilled by such a heart and such a spirit. If the Spirit is not in the heart, then there remain sin, aversion and enmity against the law, which in itself is good, just and holy.

    You must get used to the idea that it is one thing to do the works of the law and quite another to fulfill it. The works of the law are every thing that a person does or can do of his own free will and by his own powers to obey the law. But because in doing such works the heart abhors the law and yet is forced to obey it, the works are a total loss and are completely useless. That is what St. Paul means in chapter 3 when he says, "No human being is justified before God through the works of the law." From this you can see that the schoolmasters [i.e., the scholastic theologians] and sophists are seducers when they teach that you can prepare yourself for grace by means of works. How can anybody prepare himself for good by means of works if he does no good work except with aversion and constraint in his heart? How can such a work please God, if it proceeds from an averse and unwilling heart?

    But to fulfill the law means to do its work eagerly, lovingly and freely, without the constraint of the law; it means to live well and in a manner pleasing to God, as though there were no law or punishment. It is the Holy Spirit, however, who puts such eagerness of unconstained love into the heart, as Paul says in chapter 5. But the Spirit is given only in, with, and through faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul says in his introduction. So, too, faith comes only through the word of God, the Gospel, that preaches Christ: how he is both Son of God and man, how he died and rose for our sake. Paul says all this in chapters 3, 4 and 10.

    That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law; faith it is that brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ. The Spirit, in turn, renders the heart glad and free, as the law demands. Then good works proceed from faith itself. That is what Paul means in chapter 3 when, after he has thrown out the works of the law, he sounds as though the wants to abolish the law by faith. No, he says, we uphold the law through faith, i.e. we fulfill it through faith.

    Sin in the Scriptures means not only external works of the body but also all those movements within us which bestir themselves and move us to do the external works, namely, the depth of the heart with all its powers. Therefore the word do should refer to a person's completely falling into sin. No external work of sin happens, after all, unless a person commit himself to it completely, body and soul. In particular, the Scriptures see into the heart, to the root and main source of all sin: unbelief in the depth of the heart. Thus, even as faith alone makes just and brings the Spirit and the desire to do good external works, so it is only unbelief which sins and exalts the flesh and brings desire to do evil external works. That's what happened to Adam and Eve in Paradise (cf. Genesis 3).

    That is why only unbelief is called sin by Christ, as he says in John, chapter 16, "The Spirit will punish the world because of sin, because it does not believe in me." Furthermore, before good or bad works happen, which are the good or bad fruits of the heart, there has to be present in the heart either faith or unbelief, the root, sap and chief power of all sin. That is why, in the Scriptures, unbelief is called the head of the serpent and of the ancient dragon which the offspring of the woman, i.e. Christ, must crush, as was promised to Adam (cf. Genesis 3).

    Grace and gift differ in that grace actually denotes God's kindness or favor which he has toward us and by which he is disposed to pour Christ and the Spirit with his gifts into us, as becomes clear from chapter 5, where Paul says, "Grace and gift are in Christ, etc." The gifts and the Spirit increase daily in us, yet they are not complete, since evil desires and sins remain in us which war against the Spirit, as Paul says in chapter 7, and in Galations, chapter 5. And Genesis, chapter 3, proclaims the enmity between the offspring of the woman and that of the serpent. But grace does do this much: that we are accounted completely just before God. God's grace is not divided into bits and pieces, as are the gifts, but grace takes us up completely into God's favor for the sake of Christ, our intercessor and mediator, so that the gifts may begin their work in us.

    In this way, then, you should understand chapter 7, where St. Paul portrays himself as still a sinner, while in chapter 8 he says that, because of the incomplete gifts and because of the Spirit, there is nothing damnable in those who are in Christ. Because our flesh has not been killed, we are still sinners, but because we believe in Christ and have the beginnings of the Spirit, God so shows us his favor and mercy, that he neither notices nor judges such sins. Rather he deals with us according to our belief in Christ until sin is killed.

    Faith is not that human illusion and dream that some people think it is. When they hear and talk a lot about faith and yet see that no moral improvement and no good works result from it, they fall into error and say, "Faith is not enough. You must do works if you want to be virtuous and get to heaven." The result is that, when they hear the Gospel, they stumble and make for themselves with their own powers a concept in their hearts which says, "I believe." This concept they hold to be true faith. But since it is a human fabrication and thought and not an experience of the heart, it accomplishes nothing, and there follows no improvement.

    Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are. Even so, he chatters on with a great many words about faith and good works.

    Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire. Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgements about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate.

    Now justice is just such a faith. It is called God's justice or that justice which is valid in God's sight, because it is God who gives it and reckons it as justice for the sake of Christ our Mediator. It influences a person to give to everyone what he owes him. Through faith a person becomes sinless and eager for God's commands. Thus he gives God the honor due him and pays him what he owes him. He serves people willingly with the means available to him. In this way he pays everyone his due. Neither nature nor free will nor our own powers can bring about such a justice, for even as no one can give himself faith, so too he cannot remove unbelief. How can he then take away even the smallest sin? Therefore everything which takes place outside faith or in unbelief is lie, hypocrisy and sin (Romans 14), no matter how smoothly it may seem to go.

    You must not understand flesh here as denoting only unchastity or spirit as denoting only the inner heart. Here St. Paul calls flesh (as does Christ in John 3) everything born of flesh, i.e. the whole human being with body and soul, reason and senses, since everything in him tends toward the flesh. That is why you should know enough to call that person "fleshly" who, without grace, fabricates, teaches and chatters about high spiritual matters. You can learn the same thing from Galatians, chapter 5, where St. Paul calls heresy and hatred works of the flesh. And in Romans, chapter 8, he says that, through the flesh, the law is weakened. He says this, not of unchastity, but of all sins, most of all of unbelief, which is the most spiritual of vices.

    On the other hand, you should know enough to call that person "spiritual" who is occupied with the most outward of works as was Christ, when he washed the feet of the disciples, and Peter, when he steered his boat and fished. So then, a person is "flesh" who, inwardly and outwardly, lives only to do those things which are of use to the flesh and to temporal existence. A person is "spirit" who, inwardly and outwardly, lives only to do those things which are of use to the spirit and to the life to come.

    Unless you understand these words in this way, you will never understand either this letter of St. Paul or any book of the Scriptures. Be on guard, therefore against any teacher who uses these words differently, no matter who he be, whether Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Origen or anyone else as great as or greater than they. Now let us turn to the letter itself.

    Chapters 1 to 3

    The first duty of a preacher of the Gospel is, through his revealing of the law and of sin, to rebuke and to turn into sin everything in life that does not have the Spirit and faith in Christ as its base. [Here and elsewhere in Luther's preface, as indeed in Romans itself, it is not clear whether "spirit" has the meaning "Holy Spirit" or "spiritual person," as Luther has previously defined it.] Thereby he will lead people to a recognition of their miserable condition, and thus they will become humble and yearn for help. This is what St Paul does. He begins in chapter 1 by rebuking the gross sins and unbelief which are in plain view, as were (and still are) the sins of the pagans, who live without God's grace. He says that, through the Gospel, God is revealing his wrath from heaven upon all mankind because of the godless and unjust lives they live. For, although they know and recognize day by day that there is a God, yet human nature in itself, without grace, is so evil that it neither thanks nor honors God. This nature blinds itself and continually falls into wickedness, even going so far as to commit idolatry and other horrible sins and vices. It is unashamed of itself and leaves such things unpunished in others.

    In chapter 2, St. Paul extends his rebuke to those who appear outwardly pious or who sin secretly. Such were the Jews, and such are all hypocrites still, who live virtuous lives but without eagerness and love; in their heart they are enemies of God's law and like to judge other people. That's the way with hypocrites: they think that they are pure but are actually full of greed, hate, pride and all sorts of filth (cf. Matthew 23). These are they who despise God's goodness and, by their hardness of heart, heap wrath upon themselves. Thus Paul explains the law rightly when he lets no one remain without sin but proclaims the wrath of God to all who want to live virtuously by nature or by free will. He makes them out to be no better than public sinners; he says they are hard of heart and unrepentant.

    In chapter 3, Paul lumps both secret and public sinners together: the one, he says, is like the other; all are sinners in the sight of God. Besides, the Jews had God's word, even though many did not believe in it. But still God's truth and faith in him are not thereby rendered useless. St. Paul introduces, as an aside, the saying from Psalm 51, that God remains true to his words. Then he returns to his topic and proves from Scripture that they are all sinners and that no one becomes just through the works of the law but that God gave the law only so that sin might be perceived.

    Next St. Paul teaches the right way to be virtuous and to be saved; he says that they are all sinners, unable to glory in God. They must, however, be justified through faith in Christ, who has merited this for us by his blood and has become for us a mercy seat [cf. Exodus 25:17, Leviticus 16:14ff, and John 2:2] in the presence of God, who forgives us all our previous sins. In so doing, God proves that it is his justice alone, which he gives through faith, that helps us, the justice which was at the appointed time revealed through the Gospel and, previous to that, was witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets. Therefore the law is set up by faith, but the works of the law, along with the glory taken in them, are knocked down by faith. [As with the term "spirit," the word "law" seems to have for Luther, and for St. Paul, two meanings. Sometimes it means "regulation about what must be done or not done," as in the third paragraph of this preface; sometimes it means "the Torah," as in the previous sentence. And sometimes it seems to have both meanings, as in what follows.]

    Chapter 4

    In chapters 1 to 3, St. Paul has revealed sin for what it is and has taught the way of faith which leads to justice. Now in chapter 4 he deals with some objections and criticisms. He takes up first the one that people raise who, on hearing that faith make just without works, say, "What? Shouldn't we do any good works?" Here St. Paul holds up Abraham as an example. He says, "What did Abraham accomplish with his good works? Were they all good for nothing and useless?" He concludes that Abraham was made righteous apart from all his works by faith alone. Even before the "work" of his circumcision, Scripture praises him as being just on account of faith alone (cf. Genesis 15). Now if the work of his circumcision did nothing to make him just, a work that God had commanded him to do and hence a work of obedience, then surely no other good work can do anything to make a person just. Even as Abraham's circumcision was an outward sign with which he proved his justice based on faith, so too all good works are only outward signs which flow from faith and are the fruits of faith; they prove that the person is already inwardly just in the sight of God.

    St. Paul verifies his teaching on faith in chapter 3 with a powerful example from Scripture. He calls as witness David, who says in Psalm 32 that a person becomes just without works but doesn't remain without works once he has become just. Then Paul extends this example and applies it against all other works of the law. He concludes that the Jews cannot be Abraham's heirs just because of their blood relationship to him and still less because of the works of the law. Rather, they have to inherit Abrahams's faith if they want to be his real heirs, since it was prior to the Law of Moses and the law of circumcision that Abraham became just through faith and was called a father of all believers. St. Paul adds that the law brings about more wrath than grace, because no one obeys it with love and eagerness. More disgrace than grace come from the works of the law. Therefore faith alone can obtain the grace promised to Abraham. Examples like these are written for our sake, that we also should have faith.

    Chapter 5

    In chapter 5, St. Paul comes to the fruits and works of faith, namely: joy, peace, love for God and for all people; in addition: assurance, steadfastness, confidence, courage, and hope in sorrow and suffering. All of these follow where faith is genuine, because of the overflowing good will that God has shown in Christ: he had him die for us before we could ask him for it, yes, even while we were still his enemies. Thus we have established that faith, without any good works, makes just. It does not follow from that, however, that we should not do good works; rather it means that morally upright works do not remain lacking. About such works the "works-holy" people know nothing; they invent for themselves their own works in which are neither peace nor joy nor assurance nor love nor hope nor steadfastness nor any kind of genuine Christian works or faith.

    Next St. Paul makes a digression, a pleasant little side-trip, and relates where both sin and justice, death and life come from. He opposes these two: Adam and Christ. What he wants to say is that Christ, a second Adam, had to come in order to make us heirs of his justice through a new spiritual birth in faith, just as the old Adam made us heirs of sin through the old fleshy birth.

    St. Paul proves, by this reasoning, that a person cannot help himself by his works to get from sin to justice any more than he can prevent his own physical birth. St. Paul also proves that the divine law, which should have been well-suited, if anything was, for helping people to obtain justice, not only was no help at all when it did come, but it even increased sin. Evil human nature, consequently, becomes more hostile to it; the more the law forbids it to indulge its own desires, the more it wants to. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary and demands more grace to help human nature.

    Chapter 6

    In chapter 6, St. Paul takes up the special work of faith, the struggle which the spirit wages against the flesh to kill off those sins and desires that remain after a person has been made just. He teaches us that faith doesn't so free us from sin that we can be idle, lazy and self-assured, as though there were no more sin in us. Sin is there, but, because of faith that struggles against it, God does not reckon sin as deserving damnation. Therefore we have in our own selves a lifetime of work cut out for us; we have to tame our body, kill its lusts, force its members to obey the spirit and not the lusts. We must do this so that we may conform to the death and resurrection of Christ and complete our Baptism, which signifies a death to sin and a new life of grace. Our aim is to be completely clean from sin and then to rise bodily with Christ and live forever.

    St. Paul says that we can accomplish all this because we are in grace and not in the law. He explains that to be "outside the law" is not the same as having no law and being able to do what you please. No, being "under the law" means living without grace, surrounded by the works of the law. Then surely sin reigns by means of the law, since no one is naturally well-disposed toward the law. That very condition, however, is the greatest sin. But grace makes the law lovable to us, so there is then no sin any more, and the law is no longer against us but one with us.

    This is true freedom from sin and from the law; St. Paul writes about this for the rest of the chapter. He says it is a freedom only to do good with eagerness and to live a good life without the coercion of the law. This freedom is, therefore, a spiritual freedom which does not suspend the law but which supplies what the law demands, namely eagerness and love. These silence the law so that it has no further cause to drive people on and make demands of them. It's as though you owed something to a moneylender and couldn't pay him. You could be rid of him in one of two ways: either he would take nothing from you and would tear up his account book, or a pious man would pay for you and give you what you needed to satisfy your debt. That's exactly how Christ freed us from the law. Therefore our freedom is not a wild, fleshy freedom that has no obligation to do anything. On the contrary, it is a freedom that does a great deal, indeed everything, yet is free of the law's demands and debts.

    Chapter 7

    In chapter 7, St. Paul confirms the foregoing by an analogy drawn from married life. When a man dies, the wife is free; the one is free and clear of the other. It is not the case that the woman may not or should not marry another man; rather she is now for the first time free to marry someone else. She could not do this before she was free of her first husband. In the same way, our conscience is bound to the law so long as our condition is that of the sinful old man. But when the old man is killed by the spirit, then the conscience is free, and conscience and law are quit of each other. Not that conscience should now do nothing; rather, it should now for the first time truly cling to its second husband, Christ, and bring forth the fruit of life.

    Next St. Paul sketches further the nature of sin and the law. It is the law that makes sin really active and powerful, because the old man gets more and more hostile to the law since he can't pay the debt demanded by the law. Sin is his very nature; of himself he can't do otherwise. And so the law is his death and torture. Now the law is not itself evil; it is our evil nature that cannot tolerate that the good law should demand good from it. It's like the case of a sick person, who cannot tolerate that you demand that he run and jump around and do other things that a healthy person does.

    St. Paul concludes here that, if we understand the law properly and comprehend it in the best possible way, then we will see that its sole function is to remind us of our sins, to kill us by our sins, and to make us deserving of eternal wrath. Conscience learns and experiences all this in detail when it comes face to face with the law. It follows, then, that we must have something else, over and above the law, which can make a person virtuous and cause him to be saved. Those, however, who do not understand the law rightly are blind; they go their way boldly and think they are satisfying the law with works. They don't know how much the law demands, namely, a free, willing, eager heart. That is the reason that they don't see Moses rightly before their eyes. [In both Jewish and Christian teaching, Moses was commonly held to be the author of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible. Cf. the involved imagery of Moses' face and the veil over it in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18.] For them he is covered and concealed by the veil.

    Then St. Paul shows how spirit and flesh struggle with each other in one person. He gives himself as an example, so that we may learn how to kill sin in ourselves. He gives both spirit and flesh the name "law," so that, just as it is in the nature of divine law to drive a person on and make demands of him, so too the flesh drives and demands and rages against the spirit and wants to have its own way. Likewise the spirit drives and demands against the flesh and wants to have its own way. This feud lasts in us for as long as we live, in one person more, in another less, depending on whether spirit or flesh is stronger. Yet the whole human being is both: spirit and flesh. The human being fights with himself until he becomes completely spiritual.

    Chapter 8

    In chapter 8, St. Paul comforts fighters such as these and tells them that this flesh will not bring them condemnation. He goes on to show what the nature of flesh and spirit are. Spirit, he says, comes from Christ, who has given us his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit makes us spiritual and restrains the flesh. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God's children no matter how furiously sin may rage within us, so long as we follow the Spirit and struggle against sin in order to kill it. Because nothing is so effective in deadening the flesh as the cross and suffering, Paul comforts us in our suffering. He says that the Spirit, [cf. previous note about the meaning of "spirit."] love and all creatures will stand by us; the Spirit in us groans and all creatures long with us that we be freed from the flesh and from sin. Thus we see that these three chapters, 6, 7 and 8, all deal with the one work of faith, which is to kill the old Adam and to constrain the flesh.

    Chapter 9 - 11

    In chapters 9, 10 and 11, St. Paul teaches us about the eternal providence of God. It is the original source which determines who would believe and who wouldn't, who can be set free from sin and who cannot. Such matters have been taken out of our hands and are put into God's hands so that we might become virtuous. It is absolutely necessary that it be so, for we are so weak and unsure of ourselves that, if it depended on us, no human being would be saved. The devil would overpower all of us. But God is steadfast; his providence will not fail, and no one can prevent its realization. Therefore we have hope against sin.

    But here we must shut the mouths of those sacriligeous and arrogant spirits who, mere beginners that they are, bring their reason to bear on this matter and commence, from their exalted position, to probe the abyss of divine providence and uselessly trouble themselves about whether they are predestined or not. These people must surely plunge to their ruin, since they will either despair or abandon themselves to a life of chance.

    You, however, follow the reasoning of this letter in the order in which it is presented. Fix your attention first of all on Christ and the Gospel, so that you may recognize your sin and his grace. Then struggle against sin, as chapters 1-8 have taught you to. Finally, when you have come, in chapter 8, under the shadow of the cross and suffering, they will teach you, in chapters 9-11, about providence and what a comfort it is. [The context here and in St. Paul's letter makes it clear that this is the cross and passion, not only of Christ, but of each Christian.] Apart from suffering, the cross and the pangs of death, you cannot come to grips with providence without harm to yourself and secret anger against God. The old Adam must be quite dead before you can endure this matter and drink this strong wine. Therefore make sure you don't drink wine while you are still a babe at the breast. There is a proper measure, time and age for understanding every doctrine.

    Chapter 12

    In chapter 12, St. Paul teaches the true liturgy and makes all Christians priests, so that they may offer, not money or cattle, as priests do in the Law, but their own bodies, by putting their desires to death. Next he describes the outward conduct of Christians whose lives are governed by the Spirit; he tells how they teach, preach, rule, serve, give, suffer, love, live and act toward friend, foe and everyone. These are the works that a Christian does, for, as I have said, faith is not idle.

    Chapter 13

    In chapter 13, St. Paul teaches that one should honor and obey the secular authorities. He includes this, not because it makes people virtuous in the sight of God, but because it does insure that the virtuous have outward peace and protection and that the wicked cannot do evil without fear and in undisturbed peace. Therefore it is the duty of virtuous people to honor secular authority, even though they do not, strictly speaking, need it. Finally, St. Paul sums up everything in love and gathers it all into the example of Christ: what he has done for us, we must also do and follow after him.

    Chapter 14

    In chapter 14, St. Paul teaches that one should carefully guide those with weak conscience and spare them. One shouldn't use Christian freedom to harm but rather to help the weak. Where that isn't done, there follow dissention and despising of the Gospel, on which everything else depends. It is better to give way a little to the weak in faith until they become stronger than to have the teaching of the Gospel perish completely. This work is a particularly necessary work of love especially now when people, by eating meat and by other freedoms, are brashly, boldly and unnecessarily shaking weak consciences which have not yet come to know the truth.

    Chapter 15

    In chapter 15, St. Paul cites Christ as an example to show that we must also have patience with the weak, even those who fail by sinning publicly or by their disgusting morals. We must not cast them aside but must bear with them until they become better. That is the way Christ treated us and still treats us every day; he puts up with our vices, our wicked morals and all our imperfection, and he helps us ceaselessly. Finally Paul prays for the Christians at Rome; he praises them and commends them to God. He points out his own office and the message that he preaches. He makes an unobtrusive plea for a contribution for the poor in Jerusalem. Unalloyed love is the basis of all he says and does.

    The last chapter consists of greetings. But Paul also includes a salutary warning against human doctrines which are preached alongside the Gospel and which do a great deal of harm. It's as though he had clearly seen that out of Rome and through the Romans would come the deceitful, harmful Canons and Decretals along with the entire brood and swarm of human laws and commands that is now drowning the whole world and has blotted out this letter and the whole of the Scriptures, along with the Spirit and faith. Nothing remains but the idol Belly, and St. Paul depicts those people here as its servants. God deliver us from them. Amen.

    We find in this letter, then, the richest possible teaching about what a Christian should know: the meaning of law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, justice, Christ, God, good works, love, hope and the cross. We learn how we are to act toward everyone, toward the virtuous and sinful, toward the strong and the weak, friend and foe, and toward ourselves. Paul bases everything firmly on Scripture and proves his points with examples from his own experience and from the Prophets, so that nothing more could be desired. Therefore it seems that St. Paul, in writing this letter, wanted to compose a summary of the whole of Christian and evangelical teaching which would also be an introduction to the whole Old Testament. Without doubt, whoever takes this letter to heart possesses the light and power of the Old Testament. Therefore each and every Christian should make this letter the habitual and constant object of his study. God grant us his grace to do so. Amen.

    References

    1. ↑ Ewald Plass, "Monasticism", in What Luther Says: An Anthology (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:964.
    2. ↑ Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill, 1999–2003), 1:244.
    3. ↑ Tyndale's New Testament, trans. from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 in a modern-spelling edition and with an introduction by David Daniell (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), ix–x.
    4. ↑ Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence (New York: Harper Collins, 2000), 4.
    5. ↑ "The last and greatest reform of all in music was in congregational song. In the Middle Ages the liturgy was almost entirely restricted to the celebrant and the choir. The congregation joined in a few responses in the vernacular. Luther so developed this element that he may be considered the father of congregational song." from Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther (New York: Penguin, 1995), 269; Martin Luther, Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth (4 compact disks). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005.
    6. ↑ "If he could not reform all Christendom, at any rate he could and did establish the protestant parsonage" from Bainton, 223.
    7. ↑ Lutheran World Federation, "Slight Increase Pushes LWF Global Membership to 66.2 Million", The Lutheran World Federation, accessed May 18 2006.
    8. ↑ "Major Branches of Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents", (accessed May 22 2006).
    9. ↑ Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," Tr. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works ed. Franklin Sherman (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:268–272 (hereafter cited in notes as LW).
    10. ↑ The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, ed. Donald K. McKim (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 58.
    11. ↑ This translation was made by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB, for the Saint Anselm College Humanities Program. (c)1983 by Saint Anselm Abbey. This translation may be used freely with proper attribution. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith, Walther Library, Concordia Theological Seminary, E-mail: CFWLibrary@CRF.CUIS.EDU, Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA

    Select Bibliography

    • This information is based on material from Wikipedia. As a result, this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License which governs this website as well.

    • Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin, 1995 (1950). ISBN 0-452-01146-9.
    • Brecht, Martin. Martin Luther. Tr. James L. Schaaf. 3 Volumes. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985-1993. ISBN 0-8006-2813-6, ISBN 0-8006-2814-4, ISBN 0-8006-2815-2.
    • Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0-8066-2240-7.
    • Oberman, Heiko A. Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. New York: Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0-385-42278-4


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