Preached at Schmalkalden in 1537.
(1) Our dear Lord Christ commanded us to be diligent in his word, and to hear it gladly. For though it be the same preaching of Christ, and of our Father, and of faith, and of the ten commandments, yet it is not so vain as some think: but because it is the word of God, it hath and keepeth the manner of renewing men, and maketh them more and more fervent and devout. For this reason it is also forbidden everywhere in the holy Scriptures and the prophets that one should not seek a new word, but should remain steadfastly with the one and only one, just as the Lord himself reports this in the Lord's Supper, when he says: "Do this in remembrance of me"; as if he wanted to say: you should speak of me alone and not let any strange talk be so dear to you that you forget my words.
Yes, says flesh and blood, it is tiresome to always play a fiddle; bring something new, otherwise you will get tired of it. No, says Christ, but "remember me. For the others, who are so forward and want to hear something new, have never really understood the first. For thus says the Scripture, John 6:56: "He that eateth me shall hunger more, and he that drinketh me shall thirst more." [For the word of God, when it takes hold of the heart, does not make a man full or weary, but the longer the more eager. Therefore, where one is weary of it, it does not stand well. For it is such a sermon that one can never hear enough, nor learn enough. That is why the first psalm, v. 2, praises God's word so highly and says that it is blessed.
People are steady with it and have their pleasure.
(3) Because yours is thus, these are the three highest sermons: the Lord's Prayer, faith, and the Ten Commandments. For even though children know them and pray them daily, they cannot be unlearned. Therefore, let us now take faith as the most important thing and talk about it as much as God gives us grace. For this is how it must be: He who is to pray must first believe. He then who prays and believes can also do the ten commandments and be pious. So then the words of faith are called:
I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
The first thing we are told is that we should know and learn where we come from, what we are and where we belong. All wise people have ever been concerned with where the world and we come from, but they have not been able to find it. They have said that a man is born without a master, who creates and governs, and lives and dies like other cattle. Some have gone further, and have reasoned so long that they must conclude that the world and man must have come from an eternal God, because it is such a mighty and glorious creation. But nevertheless they have not been able to attain it completely. But we know it well, though not from and of ourselves, but from God's word, which is held out to us here in faith. Therefore, if you know it
If you want to know where you and I and all people come from, listen here, I will tell you: It is God the Father, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, one God, who created and sustains everything. Now you know it. It may be considered a small doctrine and a simple sermon, but nevertheless no man, as wise as he has always been, could ever find it without the one who came from heaven and revealed it to us.
The wise man Aristotle almost concludes that it was the world from eternity. One must ever say that he did not know anything about this art. Therefore, to say that heaven and earth are creatures or works made by him who is called one God, and made of nothing, is an art above all arts. So it is also with me and you, as with the world. Sixty years ago I was nothing. So countless more children will be born after us, who are nothing now; just as the world was nothing six thousand years ago and will become nothing again in its time, so that everything will be brought from nothing into being and again from being into nothing, until everything is made more glorious and beautiful anew. This, I say, we know, and the holy scripture teaches it to us and forms it to the little children thus in faith with the words: "I believe in God the Father Almighty" etc.
(6) Therefore learn here first from whence thou camest, even from Him who is called a Creator of heaven and earth. This may be a great, high honor, which I should accept with great joy, that I am called and am a creature and work of the one and highest God. The world seeks great honor with money, violence and other such things. But it is not so pious that it looks at this honor properly and thinks about it, of which we pray here in faith through the mouths of young children that God is our Master, who has given us body and soul and still sustains us daily. If one believed this and considered it to be true, then a great glory and pride would have to come out of it, that I would have to say: the master who created the sun, the one who is the most beautiful, the one who is the most beautiful, the one who is the most beautiful.
has also created me. As the sun now boasts of its adornment and glory, so I also boast and say: I am the work and creation of my God. So I learn where I come from, namely from God, as St. Paul says in the Acts of the Apostles, Cap. 17, 28: Ipsius genus sumus: God made us. So my eyes, fingers, body, soul etc. are vain works and powers of the highest Creator.
(7) Now everyone should be satisfied with this honor and say with joy: "I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth," who has hung his name on my neck, that I should be his work and that he should be called my God and Creator. It is a children's sermon and common speech; but who are those who understand it, you can well see before your eyes. We do not consider it a special honor that we are God's creature; but that one is a prince and great lord, one opens one's eyes and mouth, when the same is only a human creature, as St. Peter calls it, 1 Ep. 2, 13, and an imitation. For if God did not come first with His creature and make a man, no prince could be made. And yet all men cling to it as if it were a great, glorious thing; when this is far more glorious and greater, that I am God's work and creature. Therefore, servants and maids and everyone should take such high honor and say: I am a man; that is ever a higher title than being a prince. Cause: God did not make the prince, but men; but that I am a man, God alone made.
It is said of the Jews that they have a prayer in which they thank God for three things: first, that they were created as men and not as unreasonable animals; second, that they were created men and not women; third, that they are Jews and not Gentiles. It is possible that they took it from Plato; the same fool also speaks of God's creatures in this way. But this is praising God, as the fools use to disgrace and revile other creatures of God besides. Thus, the 147th Psalm, v. 7, does not praise him, who takes everything that God has created and says: "Lo!
986 D- 23.243-245. Of the three articles of the Christian faith in general. W. X. 1188-1190. 987
pray to the Lord on earth, you fishes and all the deeps" etc. The prophet does not throw any away, as those fools do. For what does it mean to thank God that you are a man, just as if other animals were not also God's creatures; or that you are a Jew, just as if God were not also a God of the Gentiles?
(9) It would be well to praise God, because he has given us a special grace and has adorned man more than other creatures; but to bring other creatures into disgrace is not to be. But if you want to thank God, see here that you are called His creature, and He has hung the honor on your neck, that you should bear such a name and be called God's work. It is a great thing when a prince gives you a golden chain; but it is much more glorious that God says to me: you shall be called my creature and be the best, even though the others are all good. Now this is one thing, that we should say, "I believe in God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth."
(10) About this he teaches us further, not only who created us and where we are from, but also where we belong. The little word "father" shows us that he wants to be father and almighty creator at the same time. The animals cannot call him father; but we shall call him father and be called his children. With such words he indicates where he wants to go with us, after he has previously taught us where we are from and what glory and honor we have. Now to what end shall all things be ministered? Namely, that ye shall be children, and I will be Father; that I have not created you alone, and will preserve you here, but will have you for children, and will cause you to be my heirs, that ye be not cast out of the house, as other creatures, oxen, cows, sheep, etc., all of which either die, or else are eaten up; but that, besides being my creatures, ye also remain children for ever, and live for ever.
This is what we pray and confess when we say here in faith: "I believe in God the Father": that just as He is the Father and lives forever, we also, as His children, should live forever and not die. Thus we are
now much a higher and more beautiful creation than other creatures, that we all are not only God's creatures and His work, but shall also live eternally with our Father.
(12) This is a thing which we ought to do daily, that the longer we do it, the better it may taste to us; for it is impossible for words or thoughts to accomplish that which is called God the Father. A weary and full heart hears it well and still does not respect it. But if a heart were to accept such words rightly, it would often remember them with joy, and when it looked at the sun and the moon or other creatures, it would recognize such a special blessing that it should have an advantage and be called God's child, and that God wanted to be and remain Father, and that we were created to live and remain with God forever.
This is the first part, from which we are to learn in a nutshell that a Christian is a beautiful, glorious creature who came from God, and his end, to which he desires and belongs, is eternal life.
Now let's hear the other piece as well:
And I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit etc.
(14) We all have to learn from this other piece for the rest of our lives. God created us finely, as we heard the other day. For if Adam had not fallen into sin, we would not have died, but would have remained in paradise until God took us away into eternal life without all pain and death. But the devil did not grant man such honor and riches that he should be God's child and heir; instead, he threw him into sin and, through Adam's disobedience, brought us to the point where, after the fall, we are all considered disobedient, who can no longer be children or heirs of God. Hence the various sins flow, now one way, now another, that we are superstitious, live without fear of God, do not pray, do not put our trust in God, and besides this, do everything that God forbids us to do, and leave everything that He has commanded. This is how completely we are corrupted by sin.
Therefore Jesus Christ, the Son of God, comes and restores the creature that the devil has so corrupted through sin, and restores everything that the devil had taken from us through sin. We were never God's children nor heirs. But here it is written that we are to be restored to it and placed in the former glory of sonship and eternal life. This is what the Scripture teaches: that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not accomplish this with gold or silver, not with guns or swords, but that he dared to use his own body to prove that he was true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary as a true man. etc.
(16) This would be a long sermon, but it is presented here to the children in a short way, so that they may not read the whole Bible according to it, but know that they are brought back and saved from the terrible fall through the Son of God, who came down from heaven and was born of Mary the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, as a child from its mother, that he is her natural son according to humanity, and she is his mother; without having been a pure human being without all sin. For this reason he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, so that everything would be without sin, and death and the devil would have no right to man and could not lament such an innocent Savior, since all holiness is on and we have all holiness from. For, except for this one person, Christ Jesus, all men are born in sins and death, indeed live and die in sins. But he is a pure man without all sin; therefore neither death nor devil has any claim on him.
(17) Now this Son we hear in the other part of faith, that God sent him into the world, and that he suffered death for us under Pontius Pilate, and finally died and was buried for us, and went up to hell, and then on the third day rose again from death and ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of his heavenly Father for us. For as we pray in faith, he did not do these things for himself, but for us, for he is without
Sin. That he now dies and rises again from death is out of pure love for us, so that he may repair the fall that the devil caused in paradise and bring us back to our former innocence. We lost this same innocence through the fall of Adam, but through this Son we are restored to it, because everything we count in faith has been done for us and comes home to us.
(18) We should consider these things daily with thanksgiving and glorious joy in ourselves, and never be satisfied; then it would be right, and we would see how sweet it would be. But a lazy, cold soul may say: I believe in God, but does not feel what it is saying, praises His great glory and yet never realizes it. Like a pipe in an organ that sounds and does not know what it is, but the master knows. But it should not be so with us, but we should think how great it is that we are called God's creatures, and then that we have been brought back to such honor by a person who is true God and man, and who therefore allowed himself to be hung on a cross. Then we should first see how God would have brought us back from death, for we were lying in sin and it was impossible for us to help ourselves. Therefore, God's Son approached and pulled us out again, and stepped into the mud himself and let himself be crucified as a mischievous and wicked man.
19 So we also were in death, and belonged to hell; but he himself came in for us, and made death and hell free, and tore out all the walls and windows, that we might be heirs again of eternal life, to which we were first created, but through the devil and sin came to be.
(20) Whoever then thought how great an honor this regeneration would be, would let it suffice him in all his state and being, as our Lord God had given him, and would say, If I were as rich and powerful as the Turkish emperor, what would it be against this doctrine, that I know that I am a Christian, and shall be blessed? Now no one is saved unless he is born again; and this I have, as my faith shows and I confess daily. Well then, will my
If I have God as my prince or as my servant, it is the same, because I have only the principal part and am God's heir through the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(21) So we would be satisfied in all ranks and creatures, as God required of us, and pass through as through a floorboard; and if it were in the midst of death, we could still defy death and say: Eat, death, eat, you shall, if God wills, spit me again, and I will make and cause such a rumbling in your belly that you shall not know where to stay. For here it is: I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who was conceived for our sakes by the Holy Spirit, and was born of Mary a true man, and afterward suffered and died for me, and rose again from death for me, and sitteth in heaven for me at the right hand of God his heavenly Father, looking on me, whom he hath so redeemed and fetched, until he bring me into everlasting life.
(22) He who could believe this would be the richest man on earth, just as every Christian has the greatest wealth because of this treasure. But flesh and blood do not make us like to come to glory, but make us despise such glory and look at other temporal things besides; otherwise we would say: It is a great thing that I am redeemed from eternal death by the Son of God, and would be happy day and night. In the eyes of the world it would be a great honor if a prince came to me in my illness and visited me. But this is exactly what the Son of God does; he himself does not come to me in bed, but has himself gone into the abyss of hell, death and sins, and takes me into his arms and places me in his inheritance.
(23) These are the golden crowns and precious stones, whereas all the ornaments of the world are filth; without which we are so poor people, and do not rightly recognize such great nobility and high ornaments, and are proud beside them for money and goods. But what is all the money and goods, all the ornaments of the whole world, compared to this, that my Lord Jesus Christ himself saves me from such misery, and snatches death,
Devil and hell in each other, that I should be eternally secure from death, devil and hell, and live with him in equal inheritance?
(24) Now this is the other part, that we are thus redeemed, and may again cheerfully say, "Our Father," and he answers us, "Dear Son, you do right to call me that. Then it is friendly that we talk to each other again; we through prayer and he through the sermon.
Now comes the third and final piece.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy Christian Church, the congregation of the saints, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh and an eternal life, Amen.
(25) This third part we are also to learn and hear, that God not only created us for the first time and redeemed us through His Son Jesus Christ, but also proves it by the fact that it must be felt here on earth. For it is not enough that he created us, prepared us and redeemed us again, if we are not also to experience and feel it. He suffered for the whole world, but how many are there who believe and keep it? Therefore, even though the work of redemption has been accomplished in Himself, it cannot help or benefit us unless we believe it and feel it in our hearts.
26 Then comes the third part, that God pours out the Holy Spirit into the hearts, which tells us in the hearts that it is so in truth and not otherwise, as the other article reads, that the Holy Spirit gives a testimony to our spirit that a man comes to the point of feeling that it is so, and has no doubt at all about it, and says that he will leave body and life, wife and child, and everything he has on earth, all for the sake of such faith. For if a heart felt this way, it would slowly come to suffer and lose something over it.
27 This is called the rule of the Holy Spirit on earth, that people become so certain in their hearts and suffer everything gladly and willingly because of it. And this is called having the Holy Spirit, when one thus feels the creation and redemption in the heart; for only the Holy Spirit does this, as one can see.
through baptism, sacrament and preaching, where one Christian comforts, punishes and instructs another etc. All these works of the Holy Spirit say nothing else than that man should know that he is God's creature etc. and that after Adam's fall he is redeemed again through the blood of Christ; for the preaching, baptism, sacrament, and key go to this, that we know that Christ suffered for us. Now apart from the fact that this has happened and is proclaimed to us in the word of the gospel, the Holy Spirit also writes it inwardly in the heart; for those who hear it also receive a flame inwardly, so that the heart says, "This is ever true, and if I should suffer a hundred deaths over it," etc.
28 Thus the work is also seen here on earth, that we are thus created and redeemed. The pope and his people have it in their books, but because they do not feel it in their hearts, they despise it. But the others, who hear it with their ears and grasp it with their hearts, are driven to be baptized gladly - as we all, praise God, are baptized - to take the holy sacrament gladly, to hear the sermon gladly, and to live godly, since others cannot be brought to it with a rod. But these feel it in their hearts; therefore they pray, give thanks and praise God. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who binds them together here on earth, not only to be grasped with the mouth and ears, but also to be firmly held in the heart and practiced through the sacrament and otherwise, until we fall down and are buried, and are sown to become one again.
The other life rises much more beautifully and brightly than the dear sun, 1 Cor. 15, 35. ff.
29 So then the sum of this sermon is that we should know and believe that we are Christians and have been delivered from eternal death, sin, the power of the devil, and the mouth of hell. If one now asks: How do you know it? that one answers: I know it because I hear it in the Word and in the Sacrament and the absolution, and that the Holy Spirit tells it to me in my heart, just as I hear it with my ears here in faith, that Christ became man for me, died and rose again fei; as St. John in his 1st Epistle on the 2nd Cap, V. 27, also says: "The ointment teaches you", that is, just as the Holy Spirit writes it in the heart, so it rhymes with the holy scripture. Whoever feels this in himself can praise and thank God properly, and serves everyone properly for God's sake, and is not weary, but is in good spirits, for his heart is comforted by the fact that it knows that Christ has redeemed him, just as the Holy Spirit preaches to him in his heart that he should come from this life to eternal life. However, we live here in forgiveness of sins and know that we will die and come out of the earth again and be resurrected in another and eternal life. This is what the Holy Spirit says, and those who hear it do not doubt it.
(30) This is also the lesson we have to learn here for the rest of our lives. May God give us His Holy Spirit so that we may believe and die as perfect Christians; may Christ, our Lord and Savior, help you and me, amen.