Gal. 4, 1-7.
But I say, as long as the heir is a child, there is no difference between him and a servant, though he be lord of all goods; but he is under the guardians and custodians until the appointed time of the father. So also we, when we were children, were captives under the outward statutes. But when the time was fulfilled, God sent His Son, born of a woman, and made subject to the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption. Because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, dear Father! So now here is no longer a servant, but only children. But if they are children, they are also heirs of God through Christ.
This is a true Pauline epistle; therefore it is not understood by many; not that it is so dark and difficult, but that the doctrine of faith has come so completely out of the world, without which it is not possible to understand Paul, who urges faith with all force and earnestness in all epistles. Therefore it will cost us some words, we shall make it light; and that we may ever speak of it most clearly, let this be a preface and entrance.
(2) It is to be known that there is another speech where one teaches about good works, and another where one teaches about justification: the same as the being or the person is another thing than the doing or working. Now justification belongs to the person and not to the works. For it is the person, and not the works, that is justified, saved, condemned, or damned.
3 It is also decided that no work justifies the person, but he must first be justified by something else, without any works. Thus Moses says Genesis 4:4, 5: God looked upon Abel and his sacrifice. First he looked at Abel, the person, and then at the sacrifice; that the person was previously righteous, just and pleasant, then also the sacrifice for the sake of the person, not the person for the sake of the sacrifice. Again, he did not look at Cain and his sacrifice. He also did not look at Cain, the person, in the first place, nor at his sacrifice after that. From which text it is concluded that it is not possible for a work to be good in the sight of God, unless the person was previously good and pleasant; again, it is not possible for a work to be evil in the sight of God, unless the person was previously evil and unpleasant.
004 Let this be enough for this time, and let it be agreed, that there are two kinds of good works: some before, and some after justification. Those that go before only appear and are of no use, but those that follow are righteously good.
Behold, this is the dispute between God and the trustworthy saints. Nature fights and rages against the Holy Spirit; all Scripture deals with this. God in the Scriptures decides that all works before justification are evil and not useful, but wants the person to be justified and good beforehand. To
On the other hand, he decides that all persons, if they are still in nature and first birth, are unjust and evil; as the 116th Psalm v. 11. says: "All men are liars"; Gen. 6, 5.: "Man's heart is always inclined only to evil"; therefore he may not do good works, but what he does of them are vain works of Cain.
6. Here, Mrs. Hulde steps out with the potted nose, nature, and may bark against her God and punish him with lies, hangs around her the old Treudelmarkt, the straw armor, the natural light, the reason, the free will, the natural powers, then the pagan books and the doctrines of man, raises and sharpens with her violin, and says: These before justification are also good works, and are not Cain's works, as God says, and are so good that the person is justified by them. For thus Aristotle taught: He who does much good becomes good by it. She clings to this, and thus she reverses the Scriptures, thinking that God should look at the works first and then at the person. Such devilish teachings now reign in all high schools, foundations and monasteries, and are all vain Cain saints whom God does not regard.
7 Secondly: Because she puts her thing only on works and does not pay much attention to the person and justification, she goes on and gives all merit and the main righteousness to works after justification, saying: "Faith is nothing without works, as St. James Cap. 2, 26. This saying, because she does not understand it correctly, she regards faith as insignificant, and thus remains attached to works, wanting to please God that for the sake of the latter he should also accept the person; and thus the two strive against each other without ceasing. God looks at the person; Cain looks at the works. God wants to reward the works for the sake of the person; so Cain wants to have the person crowned for the sake of the works. God does not deviate from his mind, as is right and just; so Cain the squire does not allow himself to be persuaded of his error from the beginning of the world to the end: neither should one reject his good works, nor consider his reason to be nothing, nor his free will.
He does not consider himself unfit, or he is angry with God and beats his brother Abel to death, as all history teaches us needlessly.
(8) Then you say: What then shall I do? how shall my person first be good and acceptable? how shall I obtain the same justification? Then the gospel answers, Thou must hear Christ, and believe on him, despairing evil of thyself, and thinking that thou shalt become Abel of Cain, and then offer up thy sacrifice. This faith without all your works, as it is preached without all your merit, so it is also given without your merit out of pure grace. Behold, the same justifies the person and is also the justification itself. To him God gives and forgives all sin, the whole of Adam and Cain in addition, for the sake of Christ, his dear Son, whose name is in the same faith. For this purpose, he gives him his Holy Spirit, which makes the person different and transforms him into a new man, who then has a different reason, a different will, inclined to good. The person, where he is, does good works, and what he does is good, as stated in the previous epistle.
(9) Therefore nothing belongs to justification but hearing and believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior. But all this is not nature, but works of grace. But he who thinks he can get there by works hinders the gospel, faith, grace, Christ, God and all things. Again, to good works belongs nothing but justification (for he who is justified does good, and no one else, and all that he, thus justified, does is good, without any distinction of works), that the beginning, consequence, and order of man's salvation may be thus: first, before all things, hear the word of God, [believe according to it,*] work according to it, and thus be saved. Whoever keeps or walks in this order is certainly not of God.
10 St. Paul describes this order in Rom. 10, 13, 14, 15 and says: "All who call on God's name will be saved. But how can they call on Him if they do not believe first? How can they believe if they do not first hear? How can they
but hear if one does not preach? How can they preach if they are not sent? Therefore Christ teaches us that we should ask the father of the house to send out workers into his harvest, that is, true preachers: when they come, they preach the true word of God; when one hears this, he can believe; but faith makes the person justified and devout, who then calls on God and does good; thus the person is blessed. This means: "He who believes will be saved"; again, he who works without faith will be condemned. As Christ says Marc. 16, 16: "He who does not believe will be condemned", no work can help.
11. Now look at the common way and word among the people, who are used to say: I still want to become pious; one must be pious etc. But if you ask them, "Dear man, how do you have to go about becoming and being pious?" they start and say, "Well, you have to pray, fast, go to church, stop sinning etc."; item, there is one who runs into the Christian house, one who enters this order, one who becomes a priest, one who puts on a hard shirt, one who flagellates himself, one who martyres himself, and another one like that. Behold, these are the same Cain and Cain's works. For the persons remain as before, and there is no justification, but only an outward change and change of works, of garments, of place, of gifts, and are veritable apes, taking to themselves the gifts of the saints; and yet they are not holy: they think not of faith, but only rush to heaven with good works (as they think) and martyring themselves. Of them Christ says in the Gospel Luc. 13, 24: "Think that ye enter by the narrow gate. For I say unto you, That many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Why not? Because they do not know what the narrow gate is: it is faith that makes a man small, even null, so that he must despair of all his works and cling only to God's grace, letting all things above it go. But the Cain saints think that the narrow gate is the good works; therefore they do not become small, they do not despair of the same, yes, they gather them with large sacks, hang them up on the walls, and they do not despair of the same.
They want to pass through, and will pass through, just as the camel with its large backbone may pass through the eye of the needle.
(12) Now when they are told of the faith, they mock and laugh, saying, Whether they be thought Turks or heathen, that they should first learn the faith. Should there be so many monks, nuns and priests who do not know the faith? Who does not know what faith is? They also know public sinners. Therefore, as if they had enough of faith of all things, they think that it must henceforth be done by works, and almost disregard faith, as I said, because they do not know it, nor do they know how it alone justifies. They call that faith which they have heard from Christ, and think that it is all true; just as the devils also believe, and yet do not become devout through it. But this is not a Christian faith, indeed, it is more a delusion than a faith.
(13) Thus we have heard sufficiently in former epistles that it is not enough for a man, if he wishes to be a Christian, to believe that all things spoken of Christ are true; which is the faith of the Cain saints: but he must neither doubt nor waver, that he is one of those to whom such grace and mercy are given, and has certainly obtained them through baptism or sacrament. If he believes this, he must freely say of himself that he is holy, pious, righteous, and God's child, certain of salvation, and must not doubt this: not of himself or for his own merit and works, but out of the pure mercy of God in Christ poured out on him. This he esteems so great, as it is, that he does not doubt that it makes him holy and God's child. And if he doubted it, he would do the highest dishonor to his baptism and sacraments, and would be lying about God's word and grace in the sacraments.
(14) For there shall be no fear or wavering here, that he may be godly and the child of God by grace, but only fear and sorrow, how he may so abide unto the end, in whom alone is all danger and sorrow. For all blessedness is certainly there; but
It is uncertain and anxious whether he will endure and keep it: then one must walk in fear; for such faith does not insist on works or itself, but only on God and his grace; the latter may not and cannot leave him, while the insistence lasts. But how long it will last, he does not know: if a temptation should drive him away, so that such insistence ceases, then grace also ceases. This is what Solomon means by Ecclesiastes 9:1: "There are justified, and their works in the hand of God; yet all things are put in future uncertainty, that a man knoweth not whether he be worthy of grace or unworthy of grace." He does not say that it is uncertain at the present time, but in the future, so that man does not know whether he will remain before the temptation.
(15) When the Cainians hear this belief, they bless themselves with hands and feet, saying: Ei, bewail me God! should I say that I am holy and pious? how should I be so arrogant and presumptuous? No, no, I am a poor sinner. Behold, then, this faith of theirs must be nothing, and all such doctrine heresy, that the whole gospel may be destroyed. These are the people who deny the Christian faith and drive it out of all the world; of whom St. Paul proclaimed when he said 1 Tim. 4:1: "In the last days many will depart from the faith." For such faith is now silenced in all the world, yes, condemned and banished with all who teach and hold it, as the worst heresy: pope, bishop, monasteries, convents, high schools have stood united against it now for four hundred years, and done no more than drive all the world into hell by force; that is the true end-christian last persecution.
(16) But if it be said unto them, Yea, saith the prophet Ps. 86:2, Lord, keep me, for I am holy; and St. Paul Rom. 8:16, The Spirit of God doth bear witness unto our spirit, that we are the children of God; they answer, Yea, the prophet and apostle saith this, not for a doctrine or for an example; but he was enlightened, and it was revealed unto him that he was holy. And so they draw out all the Scriptures which say that it is not doctrine, but some special miracles and
These are advantages that do not belong to all believers, which they invent out of their own heads. For since they neither believe nor taste the Spirit, they think that no one should so believe nor taste; that they may be known publicly, as from their own fruits, that they are thorns and thistles, not Christians, but enemies and destroyers of all Christians and persecutors of the Christian faith.
(17) But again, they have such faith that they think they become righteous and holy by their works, and that God will save them because of their works. Behold, it is said to be Christian that they become godly by their works; but that one is and becomes godly by God's grace must be heretical: their works should be, do and be able to do more than God's grace; their faith may insist on works, but it will not insist on God's grace. And it serves them right that they build on the sand because they despise the rock, that they fall into their work and torture themselves to death in honor of the devil, because they do not want to stay on God's grace and do God a gentle service.
(18) For all who have such Christian faith must be joyful and at peace in God and His grace, and become joyful in good works, not those good works that are done in prayer and clothing, as the Cainians do, but those that are useful and good for the neighbor, as is said above in the next Gospel. Yes, they become joyful and ready to suffer all things, for they do not doubt that God is with them and that they are in God's grace: these are the people who are useful and honest to God and the world.
19 Again, the Cain are neither useful to God, nor to the world, nor to themselves; indeed, they are only a useless burden on earth, harmful to themselves and to everyone. For since they do not have such faith, they are neither useful nor honorable to God; so they do none of the works from which their neighbor might receive benefit in body, goods, honor or soul. For they are vain works of their own, done in vain, in clothing, in places, in times, in food. Tell me, what good does it do me that you wear a large plate or a gray robe? Who does it help that you have the
Do you fast on the day, celebrate the day, do not eat the food, lock yourself up in the place, read and mumble so many words of the day? By this you do no more than torture yourself to the devil, and give everyone an evil, poisonous example to follow such a life and being as if it were good, and yet there is no Christian being there. For thou believest not Christianly; neither prayest thou Christianly; thy fasting is not mortification of the body, as it ought to be, but only done as a good work: that lately such a life is nothing else than the idolatry of Baal and Moloch of old among the Jews, who also tortured, killed and burned their children in honor of the devil.
(20) Then you might say, If works do not justify, but hearing and believing in Christ, as He is given to us for our own, what use or need are the commandments? why has God Himself commanded them so harshly? Answer: Here we come to the epistle, which will tell us what the commandments are given for. The Galatians had previously learned the Christian faith from St. Paul, and were subsequently converted by some false preachers, so that they fell back on works and thought they had to become godly by the works of the law. Then St. Paul again calls them from the same works back to faith, and with many strong words he proves the two works of the law, and concludes that the works before justification or faith are of no use and only make servants. But faith only makes children or sons of God; so proper good works follow afterwards.
(21) But the apostle must be accustomed to his words, when he distinguishes between the servant and the child. He calls the saints of works "servants," of which much has now been said. "Child" he calls the believer in Christ, who is and is justified without works, by faith alone. And all this because the saint of works serves, not like a child and heir in his own estate, but like a day laborer in the estate of another. Although the works of both are equal and the same, yet courage, conscience and faith separate them. The child has a conscience and thinks that he will remain an heir in the estate; the servant thinks that he will have to leave in the end,
and does not wait for the inheritance; as Christ also says John 8:35: "The servant does not remain in the house forever, but the child remains in it forever."
22. So the Cain saints, because they do not have this Christian faith, as they themselves confess, that they consider themselves to be the children of God, but bless themselves against it, as against a great heretical presumption, thus remain in doubt; so it happens to them, as they believe, and are not, even with that they never become God's children and blessed: Yet they do the works of the law, practicing and almost doing them; thus they are servants, remain servants, and get nothing more from it than their temporal reward, that they have enough on earth, rest, honor and good days. As we see even now in the spiritual state, who have all the wealth, power, honor and favor in this world. It is their reward, they are servants and not children; therefore, when they die, they are all cut off from the eternal inheritance, which they have never wanted to believe in or receive by faith in this life. Behold, the works of both are not almost unequal, but faith and courage separate them.
(23) Now the apostle says, and it is true, that without such faith the law with all its works makes vain servants; for this faith alone makes children. So neither law, nor works, nor nature can give this faith, but the gospel alone brings it, if one hears it. The gospel is a word of grace, and the Holy Spirit follows it where it is preached and heard with silence, as he demonstrates in Acts 10:44 on Cornelius. 10, 44. about Cornelio with his own, who received the Holy Spirit only by listening to St. Peter.
(24) So also the law is not given, for only that a man should know by it how he has merciless, not childlike, but servile courage, who serves God without such faith and trust, nor even with will. For they themselves confess that they are without such trust; and if they were to confess further, they would also have to say that they would rather be without law and not be under it with will. So everything with them is forced and faithless.
They must confess that they cannot get any further by the law. They should learn this from the law and realize how they are servants and not children, and therefore think about the childship from servitude, let their thing be nothing, so that they come to the right being by God's grace and faith.
(25) This is the right understanding and use of the law, which does nothing else but prove and overcome all who do according to it without faith, that they are servants, working in it with unwillingness and without confidence of grace; that they themselves may stumble against it, trying and learning how unwilling and faithless they are, and so seek help elsewhere, not presuming to fulfill it from themselves. For it wants to be fulfilled with will and only by children of God, is hostile to the servants and unwilling.
(26) Now they go on, confessing that they do not believe, yea, pursue such faith as makes children, feeling also how unwilling they are, would rather be without law; nor do they presume to become godly by such works, desiring to remain servants, not to become children, and yet remain in the good, perverting all things. The law (against which they should stumble, and learn, as they are unwilling servants, that they should thereby despair of themselves, and hold to faith, which brings grace and makes children) they draw to it, that they fall upon it only by works, presuming to fulfill it thus, hindering just thereby the end and opinion of the law, contending also just thereby against faith and grace, since the law points them out, drives them, and compels them; thus they remain a blind, unintelligent, laborious, servile people forever. This is what St. Paul wants and means in Rom. 3, 20. and 7, 7. and says outright: "No man is justified before God by the works of the law. Why not? He answers and says: "Because through the law nothing more happens than the knowledge or experience of sin.
27 Dear one, how does this work? Take a Cain before you, and you will find it. First, he does all his works according to the law with great toil and labor, yet freely confesses that he does not believe he is God's child.
and holy, yes, he condemns such faith, as has been said, as the most outrageous presumption and heresy, wants to remain in doubt, and wait until he becomes such a child by his works.
028 Behold, thou seest openly that the person is not good, nor justified, because such faith is not in him; yea, he is an enemy of such faith; therefore he is also an enemy of righteousness; so certainly his works are not good either, how comely they always shine according to the law. And so you understand that St. Paul rightly says: "From the works of the law no one is justified before God." For before God the person must first be good before works. But he is justified before men by his works, which judge according to works, not according to courage or heart. Men judge the person according to the works; God judges the works according to the person. Now the first commandment in the Law requires and commands: We are to honor and have one God, that is, to trust, build and rely on Him, which is a right faith that makes God's children: so you stand and by this law clearly recognize the sin in this Cain, namely, his unbelief; you also feel the same in yourself, whether you believe or not, which without such law no one would feel nor recognize. See, this is what St. Paul means by recognizing sin through the law.
Now you cannot help yourself from such unbelief, nor can the law. Therefore, all your works to fulfill the law must remain works of the law, and may not justify you before God, who only justifies those who believe in him and are children, for they alone fulfill the commandment and have him as a true God. For even if you torture yourself to death with works, your heart cannot thereby gain such faith as the commandment requires; indeed, works suffer nor recognize such faith, as has been said, nor do they know that it is required by the law. Therefore the same man must remain a martyr of the devil and a persecutor of faith and law, precisely by the works of the law, in which he misses himself, until he comes to himself, recognizes himself, and believes in the law.
despises himself and his works, gives glory to God, confesses that he is nothing, and only sighs for His grace, where God has driven him with the law. Then faith and grace come, and fill the unleavened, and feed the hungry; and righteous good works follow: which are not works of the law, but works of the Spirit of grace, and are called in the Scriptures the works of God, which he worketh in us. For everything that God does not work in us by grace, or that we do of ourselves without grace, is certainly a work of the law, which is of no use for justification, but is evil and contrary to God because of the unbelief in which it is done.
(30) Secondly, such a Cain never does his works willingly or with a free and merry heart, unless one buys them from him first and leaves him to do his will, giving him what he desires, like a servant who does not do what he should, so he is driven or left to do his will. Now all this is a vexatious servant that must be driven, or celebrated and pleaded with. So all Cain are vexatious and displeasing in the sight of God because they do no works of the law, but are driven and compelled only by fear of hell and plagues, or by supplication and forbearance of their own will, that God may give them enough, and do with them as they please. So you see that there is no heart nor desire in them for the law, but for pleasure, or ever a fear of punishment, so that it is clear how in the bottom of their hearts they are hostile to your law, preferring it to be no law. Therefore, if the person is not good, neither are his works good, because they are only forced by fear, or work through enjoyment and slackening of their own will, rather than through petition and supplication.
Thus the law teaches us to recognize and feel such unenthusiastic, unwilling courage. Now all this is sin before God. For what kind of holiness is it if you do the work with your hand and yet in your heart you do not hold the Law and the Lawgiver? It is ever a sin, if one does not hold the law. See, this is what St. Paul means here, that man recognizes sin through the law, that he is
He must feel and experience such displeasure in his heart, be terrified of it, despair of himself, and seek grace with haste and thirst, so that it will take away such displeasure and create a willing, joyful spirit in him, which will hold the law in its heart, and do its works freely and without pleading, not looking upon them as pleasing to it, but as pleasing to righteousness and the law itself, seeking neither reward nor fearing punishment. Thus the servant becomes a child, and the servant an heir; which spirit no man bringeth nor giveth, but the faith of Christ alone, as is said above. Now let us see the epistle.
As long as an heir is young, there is no difference between him and a servant, even though he is master of all goods.
32. he sets up a likeness, taken from the custom of men. For we see how an underage child or heir, to whom his parents leave property behind him or modestly in the will, is drawn and kept as a servant in the same property. He has no power over them, nor is he free to use them as he pleases, but is kept in fear and discipline, so that he has only food and clothing, even though the goods are his own: for this reason he is like a stranger in his own estate and like a servant.
33 So here also in these spiritual things. God made a testament when he promised Abraham, Genesis 22:18, that in his seed, Christ, all the world should be given eternal life; this testament was then confirmed by the death of Christ, and after his resurrection it was distributed through the gospel, which is nothing other than a proclamation and revelation of this testament, in which it is said to all the world that in Christ, Abraham's seed, all men are given and given grace and blessing, which may be received by anyone who will believe it.
34 Now before this testament was opened and proclaimed, God's children were under the law, laboring and being compelled by the works of the law, though they were not justified thereby, but their works were also servile.
But because they have been provided for the future faith, which makes them children, they are certainly heirs of the same grace and faith, even though they did not yet have it, nor did they need it, but were like the other unbelievers in works, and were servants. As has happened and is happening even now and everywhere, that many people now believe and recognize the faith, who before were drowned in works, knew nothing about faith and were like other gullible people in works. But now that they have taken hold of the faith and accepted the inheritance, they were certainly also heirs to it before and were provided for by God, even though they knew nothing about it at the time, and were also servants, works saints and Cainians.
(35) Thus some still walk in works and Cainian holiness, and are servants like the rest of the Cainians; nevertheless they are heirs and children for the future, because they will still believe in the future, so that they will put off the servant way, step away from works, and obtain the chief good and inheritance of justification, by which they will be justified and saved without works. Then freely work all their works for the glory of God and the good of their neighbor, without all looking or seeking for reward or justification. For they have already received all these things in this inheritance and chief possession through faith, which Christ has granted them in his testament, and after that they have had them broken out, read, shouted out, and given through the gospel, out of pure grace and mercy.
Behold, the testament of God was known to Abraham and all the fathers, and it was given to them and given to all of us. Although at that time it was not read and proclaimed in all the world, as it was after Christ's ascension, yet they obtained the same, with the same faith, so that we and all God's children might obtain it. There is one grace, one blessing, one testament, one faith, just as the Father is One and One God of us all.
37) So you see here, as St. Paul teaches in all places, that justification is not by works, but by faith alone.
Faith, without all works come, not with pieces, but in one heap. For the testament has all in it, justification, blessedness, inheritance, and chief estate. It is also possessed all at once, not piecemeal, through faith. That it may ever be clear how no work, but faith alone, brings such goods of God, that is, justification and blessedness, and at once, not piecemeal (as works must be piecemeal) makes children and heirs, who thereafter freely do all kinds of works, without all servile courage, who thereby think they are pious and deserve it. There must be no merit here; faith gives everything for free, and more than anyone can earn. But they do the works for free, having everything beforehand that the Cain seek through works and never find, namely, justification and divine inheritance or grace.
But he is under the guardians and custodians except for the time appointed by the Father.
38 These are the people who raise up the heir and keep him at his father's estate, so that he does not become wild and a wanderer. For though they do not give him the inheritance into his hands, they are necessary and useful to him in many ways: first, as has been said, that they keep him at home with the estate, so that he may be the more wisely sent to the inheritance; second, that his desire for the inheritance may be the greater, in that he sees how narrowly and harshly he is held. For when he comes to his senses, he begins to desire freedom and becomes unwilling to be under someone else's hand.
039 So is and so shall it be unto every one that walketh yet in the works under the law, and is a servant. The law is his guardian and keeper, under which he walks as under a stranger's hand. And it is given to him, first, that he may remain and be drawn inwardly, that he may abstain outwardly from evil works through fear of punishment, lest he become too fierce, and put all things in the redoubt, even to the uttermost of God and of his salvation, as those do who freely yield to sin; secondly, that he may train himself in them, and become a servant.
When a man comes to his reason, he sees how unwilling he is under the law, and does no work as a willing child, but does everything as a forced servant; so that he learns what he lacks, namely, a free, beside, willing spirit, which the law and his works cannot give him, yes, the more he works, the more unwilling and difficult he becomes to work because of such a spiritual infirmity.
40 When he then finds this out about himself, he sees that he only keeps the law outwardly with his works, but inwardly in his heart he is hostile and against it, with his unwilling and unwilling heart: so he is certainly without fail an inward sinner against the law and an outward saint according to the law, that is, a right Cain and a great sinner, and it is evident to him that his works are works of the law, but his heart is a heart of sin. For the heart is inclined against the law; so it is certainly inclined to sin, and the hand is constrained to the law alone.
41 For this reason St. Paul called such works "works of the law. For the law forces them out, and no more than the works are given to it. Now the law also wants to have the heart and to be willingly accomplished; so that one does not only say "works of the law," but also "heart of the law," not only "hand of the law," but also "will, courage and all the powers of the law," as Ps. 1:1, 2 says: "Blessed is the man whose courage and will are in the commandments of God." Such courage is demanded by the law, but it does not exist; so nature is not able to give it of itself; so the law presses upon it and condemns it to hell, as the disobedient to God's commandments. There then is anguish and wretched conscience, and yet no help. Here is the time appointed by the Father; there she desires mercy and help; there she confesses her sorrow, inability and guilt; there she drops the presumption of her works and despises them herself. For she becomes aware that there is no difference between her and a manifest sinner, because only in outward works: in heart she is as contrary to the law as no other sinner. Yes, it may happen that her heart is uglier than any other sinner.
The sinner in the performance of sin may feel less desire to sin and become somewhat hostile to sin for the sake of the displeasure or harm that he encounters within and arises from it. But this one, because the law and the guardian are in his way and hinder him, may well burn and rage in desires and lust for sin, and yet must not do the works, and so be more pious in works, but more wicked in heart than the other.
Now it is understandable to everyone that the division is very unequal, if only the hand is given to the law and the whole heart to sin. For the whole heart is immeasurably more than the work or the hand. What is this done differently than giving the chaff to the law, the grain to sin; giving the husks to God, the kernel to the devil? Thus it comes to pass, as the gospel says, that the sin of the manifest sinner is a mote, and his sin a great beam.
43. Where the accident strikes that Cain does not see this beam and does not want to learn the law in this way, but remains stubborn and blinded in his works, does not pay attention to his inner abomination: He walks in with his boots on, judges all the world ruthlessly, despises sinners like the Pharisee in the Gospel, does not think he is like other people, thinks he is pious, and wherever one wants to punish or condemn his character and works, as is fitting, he rages and rages, and beats Abel to death, persecutes everyone, then says he is doing it for the sake of good works and righteousness, to praise God, and wants to earn great money with it, as he persecutes blasphemers, heretics, false people, evil people who want to seduce him and tear him away from good works. Behold then all that the scripture saith of these poisonous spirits; these Christ calleth viper-bred, and the children of serpents. These are Cain and remain Cain; these are servants and remain servants.
44 But they that are of the future Abel and children, learning themselves by the law, as they have an unlearned heart to the law, fall from their presumption, let go their hands, and
Feet are destroyed in their eyes by such knowledge. Then the gospel comes, God gives grace to the humble, who take hold of the testament and believe; with and in faith they receive the Holy Spirit, who makes a new heart for them, which bears a desire for the law and hatred for sins, and does good willingly and gladly. There are no longer works of the law, but there is the heart of the law. This is the time appointed by the Father for the heir, that he should never be a servant nor under guardians. This is what St. Paul means in the following words:
So also we, being young, were servants under the elements of this world.
(45) But here we have to understand the apostle that by the elements of the world he does not mean the four natural elements, fire, air, water and earth; nor does the whole of Scripture use the name element for the four creatures mentioned. It is a custom of pagan art to speak of the elements in this way, and it would be a terrible start if one wanted to enter the Scriptures with the mind. But "element" he calls the writing or letters of the law. For the Latin and Greek languages also call the letters elements. Thus he says Hebr. 5, 12: "You should be masters according to the time, so you need to be taught the elements of the first words of God"; item, Col. 2, 8: "See to it that no one deceives you through pagan art and deceit, since there is nothing behind, nor human doctrine and elements"; item, Gal. 4, 9. 10.: "How do you turn back to the impotent, meager elements, to whom you want to become servants? keep holidays, lunar festivals, annual festivals and all kinds of days" etc.
46 He calls the law contemptuously "elements" or letters, which are impotent and meager, because it cannot help. In addition it makes also impotent and meager humans; because it requires the
*) Instead of "Here must" etc. have f g: "The apostle needs in the Greek text of the word, so one calls Latin 'elements''; one must not understand however allhier by the word 'elements of the world' the" etc. D. Red.
Heart and courage, and heart and courage are not there. From this the conscience faints and becomes weak, recognizing that it should have what it neither has nor can have. He describes this opinion in 2 Cor. 3, 6. thus: "The letter kills, but the spirit makes alive."
(47) Some understand by these elements, not the letter or the law, but the ceremonies and outward acts in worship and good living, by which one begins and the children are first trained; that elements are so much as the first, coarsest, childish ways in worship.
(48) But he calls them "elements of this world," because all the holy works that do the work of the law do not do them, but are outwardly bound to temporal, worldly things, such as these. Days, food, clothing, place, person, vessel and the like: these are all creatures of this world, and in them must go all the works of the law. [Therefore we have rendered it "outward statutes."]
(49) But faith, apart from this world, clings to God, God's word and God's mercy, and justifies man neither by works nor by any worldly thing, but by the eternal unseen grace of God. Every day is like the other, every food is like it, every place, person, clothing, and all worldly things are like them; for none of these helps or hinders him in his holiness and justification, as they did to Cain and the saints of works. Therefore he esteems not the things of this world, but the abundance of eternal goods. The same, though he works outwardly in time, yet he knows nothing of any worldly thing; for he works freely, all things being equal to him, as the person, place, time, food, and raiment etc. He does not make up anything special for himself: whatever comes before him, he helps to create; whatever comes, he lets go; and his worldly life has no name or distinction.
50 But Cain, he must have name and difference: he eats not flesh, he wears not black, he prays not in the court, he keeps this day, he is bound to this, that to that.
*) [f g]
Yet everything is a temporal, worldly thing that passes away. Therefore they are all servants of the elements of this world, and yet they call it holy orders, good customs and right ways to salvation. He says Col. 2, 20. 21. 22. about this: "If you have died with Christ to the elements, why do you, as if you were still alive in the world, let yourselves be bound by laws that teach: Thou shalt not eat this, thou shalt not put on this, thou shalt not touch that? which is all in vain, which wears itself out under the hand, ordained only according to the commandment and doctrine of men. Which have a semblance of wisdom, through self-chosen spirituality and humility" etc.
(51) From this and all the foregoing it follows that all orders, monasteries, and convents, which we now call the spiritual state, are walking contrary to the gospel and the freedom of the Christian life, and are in greater danger than the worldly ones, because all their things are vain elements of this world, bound to clothing, person, place, food, vessel, time, and offerings, which are vain worldly and temporal things. And if they are attached to these things, and thereby think they are pious and spiritual, then their faith is already gone, and they are no longer Christians, and their whole life is vain sin and destruction.
52] Therefore it is more necessary for them than for any other people to be aware of their nature, and to hold fast to the faith that sets its righteousness apart from the world and from these worldly things; for such appearances and glittering things violently tear away from the faith, much more than gross public sins, and make no other people, since here St. Paul says: "When we were young, we were servants under the law"; that is, when we did not yet know the faith and only walked in the works of the law. Paul says of us, "When we were young, we were servants under the elements of the world"; that is, when we did not yet know the faith, and walked only in the works of the law, we did, however unwillingly, as servants, such works, which are in temporal things, thinking thereby to become pious and blessed. The same opinion was wrong, and also makes young men and servants; otherwise the same works would be without harm, where the opinion would be off, which faith alone is off, and teaches to become godly by grace alone, and to have and respect all temporal things freely.
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, which was of a woman, and was made under the law, to redeem them that were warm under the law, that we might receive the gracious adoption.
(53) Since the law cannot give justification nor faith, nor can nature with all its workings merit it, St. Paul brings forth the one who has merited such faith on our behalf and is a master of justification. For it did not come to us in vain, it cost much, namely, God's Son Himself, and says: "Since the fulfillment of the time has come", that is, since the time had an end, in which we were young and servants. For St. Paul speaks here according to the way of Scripture, which is wont to say: Time is fulfilled when it has an end; as Acts 2, 1: "The days of Pentecost are fulfilled", that is, when they were finished and all were finished; item 2 Mos. 24: "I will fulfill your days", that is, I will not shorten them, but make them all complete; Luc. 1, 57: "The time is fulfilled that Elizabeth should give birth" etc.
(54) Therefore the master has erred here in his high sense, since he interprets this place of St. Paul thus: The time of fulfillment is the time of grace, which came after Christ's birth, just like the apostle, who does not say: the time of fulfillment, but, the fulfillment of time, and means the previous time, which is determined by the Father for the heir, how long he should be young under the guardians.
(55) Therefore, as the same time has been fulfilled for the Jews by Christ's bodily coming, so it will be fulfilled every day, when man is enlightened by faith, so that his bondage and the working of the law will come to an end. For Christ's bodily future would not be useful if it did not work such a spiritual future of faith. He also came in the flesh to bring about such a spiritual future. For all who before and after believed in such his bodily future, to them he came. That is why he always came to the ancient fathers for this faith, and still today he does not come to the present Jews for this faith.
because of their unbelief. From the beginning of the world to the end, everything must hang on this bodily future, by which hanging on the bondage ceases, when, and where, and in which such hanging on takes place. Therefore every man's time is fulfilled when he begins to believe in Christ as the one who was to come before the ages and has now come.
But this place is a rich text, and we do not know whether we can treat it worthily enough. It is not enough to believe that Christ came; but that he came as St. Paul here tells us, namely: that he was sent by God and was the Son of God; item, that he was truly human; item, that his mother was a virgin; item, that he alone fulfilled the law; item, that he did this not for himself, but for our good and grace. Let us look at these pieces one after the other. The first is the whole Gospel of John, as it is said above on the day of Christ, which always says that Christ is the Son of God and was sent by the Father. For he who does not believe that he is true God is already lost, when he says John 8:24: "If you do not believe that I am he, you must die in your sins"; John 1:4: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men"; John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." And is the Cause:
The soul may not and should not be satisfied with any thing, but only with the highest good, which it has created, which is the fountain of its life and bliss. That is why God Himself wanted to be the one to whom it should cling and believe. No one else deserves the honor that the creature should believe in him, but only God. That is why God Himself came and became man, and gave Himself to man, drew him to Himself, enticed him to believe in Him. For God did not need to come and become man, but it was necessary and useful for us. If Christ were not the true God, and we clung to him by faith, God would be deprived of his glory and we of our life and salvation. For only God deserves
who is the truth itself; so we may not live nor be blessed without God.
58. Now the apostle says: "God has sent his Son. If he sent him, he must have been before, he was before he came and became man. And if he is Son, he is more than angel. If he is more than man and angel, which are the highest creatures, then he must be true God. For to be the Son of God is more than to be an angel, as is said in the Epistle on Christ's Day. Furthermore, if he is sent by God and is a son, he must be another person. So St. Paul teaches here that One God and two persons are, Father and Son. Of the Holy Spirit will also follow.
59 Secondly, we must also believe that he is a true natural man and a human child; as St. Paul says here: He came from a woman, or was made from a woman. But what comes from a woman is a true natural man. A woman of a kind and nature does not bear, but a true man. So he also says Joh. 6, 53: "If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you may not live." Eating and drinking is nothing else than believing that he is the Son of God, truly having flesh and blood like another man. This is also God's testament, when He said to Abraham Gen. 18:18, 22:18: "In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." If he is to be Abraham's seed, he must truly have Abraham's flesh and blood and be his natural child.
(60) Therefore, no one may undertake to make his own way to God through his own devotion or works. It does not help that you call upon God, as the Jews do and the Turks; you must come to him through the seed of Abraha and be blessed by him according to the testament of God. He will not make one of his own for you and tear up such a testament for the sake of your service. You must let your thing go, and hold on to this seed, flesh and blood, or you are lost with all the art and wisdom that you know of God; for thus He says John 14:6: "No one comes to the Father except through Me."
The divine nature is too high and incomprehensible for us, that's why he has given himself to us in the nature that is most unknown to us, as ours. There he wants to wait for us, there he wants to be found, and not otherwise. Whoever calls upon him here is heard as soon as he comes; here is the throne of grace, where no one is excluded who comes. The others, who let him dwell here in vain, and otherwise want to serve and call upon God, who created heaven and earth, all have their answer already Ps. 18:42, where he says of them: "They call, and no one will help them; they cry out to God, and he does not hear them.
62) Thirdly, we must believe that his mother was a virgin; this is shown by the apostle when he says: "The Son of God was born of a woman, that is, not of a man, like all other children. This man alone among all was born of a woman. He did not mean to say: from a virgin; for virgin is not a name or state of nature. But woman is a name and state of nature, to whom it belongs by nature to bear fruit and to give birth. So Christ's mother is a true natural woman and has borne this fruit, but from herself alone, not from a man; therefore she is a virgin woman and not badly a virgin.
The apostle is more interested in this birth of Christ than in the virginity of Mary; therefore he refrains from virginity, which is only a personal adornment, not useful to her, and prefers womanhood, which is not only useful to her, but also to the fruit. For Christ is not interested in virginity as much as in womanhood. Neither was she made a virgin for her own sake, but for Christ's sake, that he might have such a woman for a mother, by whom he might be born without sin; which could not be, but she was a virgin woman, which conceived and bare children without man's help.
(64) This is also what the testament of God entails when He says: "All nations shall be blessed in Abraham's seed. If they are to be blessed, it is a sign that they were previously cursed because of their physical birth,
which happens in sins, from Adam's origin. If this seed Abraha is to bless all others, he himself did not have to be cursed; he certainly could not come through Adam's birth, which is completely cursed.
Again, he ever had to be Abraham's natural child, flesh and blood, that God's will would exist, who may not lie. How will it be here? He shall be a natural child, born of flesh and blood, and yet shall not be a child of fleshly birth? There the means is found that no man, but only a woman would come to it, and would become thus a quite natural child of a woman, true seed of Abraha, and nevertheless not born in sins, but full of blessing, that through him all would be blessed, who are cursed in their birth. Enough of God's will has been done, and yet carnal birth and Adam's addiction have been avoided, and a carnal birth has been accomplished spiritually.
(66) Therefore, although the Blessed Virgin Mary is to be highly honored for her virginity, the honor of her womanhood is inordinately greater, that her female limbs have come to fulfill God's will through her, and the endowed seed of Abraha would be an endowed fruit of her female womb; for this, virginity alone has not been enough, indeed, it has been of no use at all.
The fourth is that we believe that Christ alone fulfilled the law, as he says, Matth. 5, 17: "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. This also gives the opinion of the testament, which says Gen. 22, 18.: Let all the world be accursed, and let it be blessed in Abraham's seed. If then everyone is cursed and without blessing: if the person is not good and is like Cain, then the works must not be good either; as it is said above that God does not look at the works, but first at the person, Abel and Cain, and the works of the law do not make anyone righteous or justified.
Because Christ rejects all the works of the law and first demands that the person be blessed and kind, it seems as if he rejects good works and wants to abolish all the laws, when he first teaches us to do good works. Therefore he speaks against such claims Matth. 5, 17: "You should not
To think that I have come to abolish the law," that is, to reject the works of the law; rather, I will fulfill it through faith in me, which first makes the person good and then does righteous good works. So also St. Paul Rom. 3, 31, when he rejected all the works of the law and put on faith alone, he said: "What do you think? do we hereby break the law? God be forewarned! We hereby rightly establish the law." Just as people now say that good works should be forbidden if we reject the life of the monasteries and convents in their works, so we would like them to believe right beforehand, so that the person would become good and godly in Christ, Abraham's seed, and then do good works that serve to mortify the body and the need of the neighbor, so convents and monasteries are not directed at all; as has been sufficiently said.
But it is to be noted that no one can fulfill the law, unless he is free from the law and no longer under it. Therefore we must here once more be accustomed to Paul's discourse, when he says of being under the law, that we may know who is under and who is not under the law. All who do good works, because they are commanded to do so, for fear of punishment or for reward, are under the law, must be pious and do good, yet unwillingly. Therefore the law is their master and driver, but they are its servants and captives. But all men are of this kind, except Christ, the forsaken seed of Abraha; this is proved by experience, and by every man's own conscience. For if it were not for the driving law and the punishment or reward, but if it were in every man's free will that he should do what he would, unpunished and unrewarded, he would do what was evil and leave what was good, before the temptation and cause provoked him. But since the law lies in his way, with its threats and promises, he abstains from evil and does good, not out of love of good and hatred of evil, but out of fear of punishment or the prospect of reward. Therefore they are under the law and compelled by it as the servants; these are the Cainian saints.
70 But they are not under the law,
They do good and leave evil, regardless of the law, with its threats, promises, punishments and rewards; but out of a free, joyful will, and love of good and hatred of evil, that God's law is so pleasing to them. Even if it had not been established, they still wanted it to be otherwise, and still did good and left evil. These are the right children. Nature cannot do this, but the seed of Abraha, Christ, with his blessing, makes such people by his grace and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, "not to be under the law" does not mean that one is free to do evil as one pleases, or not to do good works; but it means that one does good and does evil not out of fear, compulsion, and necessity of the law, but out of free love and good will; just as if the law did not exist, and the being would naturally pass away of itself. Just as the body eats, drinks, builds, casts out, sleeps, walks, stands, sits, and does such natural works, it has no need of a law, nor does it need any impetus to do so, but does it of itself, each in its own time and occasion, fearing neither punishment nor seeking reward in it. And it may well be said: The body is under no law, and yet not without works, free and self-willed.
(71) Behold, such a free, natural willingness should also be in us to do good and not to do evil. This is spiritual freedom and redemption from the law. This is what St. Paul means in 1 Tim. 1, 9: "No law is given to the righteous," that is, he does all good and leaves all evil to himself without fear of punishment and without seeking reward. Item Rom. 6, 15: "You are not under the law, but under grace," that is, you are children, not slaves, you do all good without impulse and without constraint, of your own free will. Item Rom. 8:15: "Ye have not received the Spirit, which maketh servants with fear; but ye have received the Spirit, which maketh children." The law gives the fearful, servile, Cain spirit; but grace gives the free, childlike Abelian spirit through Christ, the seed of Abraha, of which the 51st Psalm v. 12. says: "Lord, establish me with the voluntary spirit.
spirit." Item, therefore the 110th Psalm v. 3. calls Christ's people "the volunteers in the day of your power".
Thus Christ fulfilled the law, and did all things of his own free will, and not of necessity and constraint of the law. And without him no one has been, nor will be, who does this, for he has done it from and through him. Therefore St. Paul says here that he was put under the law to redeem those who were under the law.
(73) Now this is the fifth thing, that we believe that he did it for our good, that he might make of us servants children. What is said, "that he redeemed those who were under the law"? Without doubt, that he redeemed us from the law. But how does he redeem from the law? As it is said, not by breaking and doing away with the law, but by the gift of a voluntary spirit, which does all things without impulse, without constraint, without regard to the law with its penalty and reward, just as if the law were not, and did all things naturally, as Adam and Eve did before the fall.
(74) But how is it that he gives us such a spirit and delivers us from the law? Not otherwise than by faith. For whosoever believeth that Christ came and did all these things to redeem us, the same is surely redeemed. As he believes, so it happens to him. The same faith brings with it the same spirit that makes him a child, as here the apostle interprets himself and says: "Christ has thus redeemed us from the law, so that we may receive the gracious adoption of children. All this must happen through faith, as has been said. So we have these five pieces in this rich text.
75 But there is still one question left: How is it that Christ is under the law, if "being under the law" means doing good out of compulsion and necessity of the law, and no one fulfills the law, unless he is not under the law; for God wants to have voluntary benefactors? Answer: The apostle makes a distinction here and says: Christ was put or made under the law, that is, he put himself under it voluntarily, and the Father also put him under it voluntarily, if he was not under it. But we are not willingly put under it,
But he saith, We were under it by nature and essence, without will: that as Christ was under it by free will, and not by nature; so again we were under it by nature, and not by free will.
(76) Therefore there is a great difference between "being under the law" and "being under the law," just as there is a great difference between will and nature. There is much difference between what you do willingly and what you do naturally. What you do willingly you may leave undone and are at liberty; what you do naturally you must do and is not at your discretion. You may go to the Rhine, or leave it; but eat, drink, sleep, grow, build and grow old you must, you would not or would not. So Christ willingly put himself under the law, and would have let it be; but we, of course, had to be under it, and could not be otherwise with ourselves, that is, we could not willingly keep and bear the law, as if it were not a law, as it is said above that one should do. But Christ, above whom he was not bound to keep the law, kept it also willingly and freely, as though it were not a law.
77 Take a simile from St. Peter, Acts 12, 6. 7.: He was imprisoned in the dungeon of Herod, bound with two chains between two servants, and the guards were standing outside the door: then the angel of God came into the dungeon with a great light, woke up Peter and led him out through all the guards and the door, and left the chains in the dungeon. This story shows how Christ redeems us from the law. Let us see this. Peter was not willingly in the dungeon, he had to be in it; he also did not know where to go out. The angel also came into the prison, but voluntarily, and did not have to be in it; for he was not in it for his own sake, but for Peter's; he also knew well where to go out. Since St. Peter followed him and clung to him, he also came out with him. This prison is the law in which our conscience is imprisoned and with unwillingness under it. For no one voluntarily does the good commanded by the law, nor refrains from the evil forbidden by the law; but out of fear of punishment he must do what is right.
or does it for the sake of wages. This fear or dread, and the reward or hope of reward are the two chains that keep us in prison under the law. The guardians are the teachers of the law, who make the law known to us. So we walk, yes, lie unwillingly in the law. Christ, the angel, also comes willingly into this prison to us under the law; he does the very works willingly that we did unwillingly, for he does them for our benefit, that he may cling to us and lead us out. He knows how to get along, because he was already free outside with his will. Behold, if we then cleave unto him, and follow him, we shall come forth.
But how does it work? If you believe in him, he will do all these things for your good. This faith gives you the spirit, so you do all things willingly, without constraint, and are out of the dungeon of the law; the two chains of fear and greed no longer challenge you, but all your works proceed freely out of desire and love.
79 But that we may know the more truly how Christ was put under the law, we are to know that he was put under it in two ways. First, under the works of the law: he was circumcised, sacrificed in the temple, and purified; he was subject to his father and mother, and such like, and yet was not guilty; for he was lord over all the laws. But he did it willingly, neither fearing nor seeking anything for himself in it. But according to the outward works he was equal to all others, who did it unwillingly and captive; therefore his freedom and willingness were hidden from men, just as his captivity and unwillingness were also hidden. And therefore he walks under the law, and at the same time not under the law. He does like those who are under it, and yet he is not under it: with the will he is free and therefore not under it, with the works he willingly does he is under it. But we find ourselves under it with will and works; for we go under the works of the law with a forced will.
80 Secondly, he also willingly submitted himself to the punishment and chastisement of the law.
lich. He not only did the works that he was not obligated to do, but also willingly and innocently suffered the punishment that the law threatens and judges those who do not keep it. Now the law condemns all those to death, damnation and condemnation who do not keep it, as St. Paul introduces Gal. 3, 10. Moses, Deut. 5, 27, 26: "All who do not keep all things written in the law shall be condemned.
(81) Now it has been sufficiently said above that no man keeps the law except Christ, and all are under it like slaves, forced and imprisoned. Thus it follows: He who does not keep the law deserves its judgment and punishment. Therefore whoever is under the law according to the first way, according to works, must also be under it according to the other way, according to punishment; so that the first way makes all our works sins, because they are not done willingly but unwillingly. The other way makes us reprobate, condemned to death and damnation. Then Christ comes before us, before the same judgment seizes us, falls in between, comes to us under the judgment of the law, and suffers death, condemnation, and damnation; just as if he himself had broken the whole law, and was guilty of all the judgments in the law, having been convicted of the criminals; when he not only had not broken anything, but had also kept the whole law, and was not guilty of keeping it. That his innocence is twofold here: one, that he should not have suffered, even if he had not kept the law, as he might have done; the other, that he kept it out of other good will, and for that reason was not guilty of suffering. Again, our guilt is also twofold: one, that we should have kept it and did not, and therefore should have suffered all evils; the other, that even though we kept it, we still suffered what God wanted us to suffer.
82) See, this is what God's Son did under the law, that he redeemed us who were under the law. He did it for our good, not for his need; he wanted to show us love, kindness and mercy; as St. Paul says in Gal. 3:13: "Christ redeemed us from the sentence of condemnation in the law, when he was made for us.
a revelation to us." As if to say, "He has put Himself under the law and its judgment for us, so that all who believe this may also be saved from the law and its judgment.
(83) Now behold, what an abundance of riches is given to Christian faith, to which all these works and sufferings of Christ are given as its own, so that it may rely on them as if it had done them itself and they were its own. For as it is said, Christ did them not for himself, but for us. He had no need of them; he gathered up the treasure for us, that we should cleave to it, believe, and possess it; for which such faith brings with it the Holy Spirit.
What more shall God do? How can a heart refrain from becoming free, happy, joyful and willing in God and Christ? What work or suffering can it encounter that it does not surrender to, singing and leaping with love and praise to God? But if it does not do so, then there is certainly a lack of faith. For the more faith there is, the more such joy and freedom; the less faith, the less joy. Behold, this is the true Christian salvation and freedom from the law and from the law's judgment, that is, from sins and from death. Not that no law or death remain; but that both law and death become as if they were not. The law does not make sin, death does not make shame; but faith passes through into righteousness and life forever.
(85) Now the wretched Cainian saints, the clergy, are to be admonished whether they are to be advised in their state. If they would keep their order, law, ceremonies, prayer, mass, clothing, food, and whatever else is of their nature, as Christ did the law, they would be kept, namely: That they put the Christian faith in a different place and give it the kingdom of the heart, recognizing that it is not by their order, status, or works that they become pious and blessed, but only by this faith of Christ; after which they put themselves under their works and law as volunteers, of which they have no need, but only for the mortification of the body and to help their neighbor. But now they in
If they think that these are necessary works that they have to do, where they are to become pious and blessed, it is vain seduction and sin, only driving them to hell with great torture to earn eternal torture; for they strive against the childlike free faith with their servile forced works. Faith cannot suffer the idols of works beside itself, it only wants to be pious, blessed and make children; then have all works free, cheerfully do and suffer everything that God sends and the neighbor needs; these are its works and no others, does not ask for many masses, certain fasts, special clothes, exquisite food, chosen places, persons or works; yes, it rejects all this as an obstacle to its freedom.
That is enough said about the text; necessity forces so many words to be made, because the gloss has become so completely unknown, without which Paul cannot be understood. Follows:
Because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!
(87) There we see that the Holy Spirit is not given by works, but by faith; for he says here that the Spirit is given to them because they are children and not servants. Children believe, servants work; children are free under the law. Servants are under the law; as all this is easily understood from the foregoing interpretation. But to use Pauline language and words, what is child and servant, what is free and forced: forced works are of servants; free works of children.
Why does he say that the Holy Spirit is given to them because they are children, when the Holy Spirit makes children out of servants, and must be there before they become children? Answer: He speaks in the same way as he says above, v. 3: "We were among the elements before time was fulfilled" etc. For they were future children in the sight of God; therefore the Holy Spirit was sent to them, making them children as they were ordained before.
89. And he calls the spirit: a spirit of the Son of God. Why not his spirit?
Therefore, that he may remain on the path. He calls them children of God, therefore God sends them the same spirit that Christ has, who is also a child, so that they may cry out with him: "Abba, dear Father! As if to say: God sends you His Spirit who dwells in His Son, that you may be His brothers and joint heirs, just as He cries out: Dear Father. So that the unspeakable goodness and grace of God may be praised once again, that through faith we are seated with Christ in undivided goods, and have all that he has and is, including his Spirit.
90. Nevertheless, these words prove the third person in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, that he not only dwells in Christ as in a man, but is also his, as he who has the divine nature from him as he has from the Father. Otherwise the words would be wrong that St. Paul says: He is the Spirit of the Son. No creature can say or claim that the Holy Spirit is his: he alone is God's own Spirit, but the creatures are of the Holy Spirit. Unless someone wants to say: My Holy Spirit! as we say: My God, my Lord etc. So then the Son must be God, because God's Spirit is His Spirit.
91. Now each one is to perceive and test whether he also feels the Holy Spirit and senses His voice in him, for St. Paul speaks here: Wherever he is in the heart, he cries out: "Abba, dear Father!" as he also says Rom. 8, 15: "You have received the Spirit of God's gracious childship, through whom we cry out: Abba, dear Father!" This calling is felt when the conscience, without all wavering and doubting, firmly assumes and is certain that not only are his sins forgiven, but that he is also God's child and sure of salvation, and with a happy, certain heart in all confidence may call and call God his dear Father. He must be certain of this, that even his own life is not so certain to him, and that he would rather suffer all deaths, even hell, before he would let himself be taken from it and doubt it. For it would be too close to Christ's abundant work and suffering if we did not believe that he had made all this superfluous for us.
And let not his great works and sufferings so powerfully provoke and strengthen us to such confidence, as sin or temptation doth deter or make us fearful of them.
There may well be a dispute here, that man feels and worries that he is not a child, that he lets himself be thought of and also feels God as an angry, strict judge over him; as happened to Job and many others. But in the struggle, this childlike confidence must finally succumb, tremble or quake; otherwise all is lost.
When Cain hears this, he will bless himself with hands and feet, saying with great humility: "God protect me from the abominable heresy and presumption! Should I, a poor sinner, be so hopeful as to say that I am God's child? No, no, I will humble myself and recognize a poor sinner etc. Let these go, and beware of them, as of the greatest enemies of the Christian faith and of your salvation. We also know well that we are poor sinners; but here it is important not to consider what we are and do, but what Christ is and has done for us, and still does: we are not talking about our nature, but about God's grace, which is so much more, as the 103rd Psalm v. 11 says, than we are, as much as heaven is higher than earth, and as far as the exit is from the descent. If it seems great to you that you are God's child, do not let it seem small to you that God's Son has come, born of a woman and brought under the law, so that you may become such a child.
94. great things are all that God works; therefore also great joy and courage, undaunted spirits, which fear no thing and are able to do all things. Cain's thing is narrow thing, and makes vain despondent fearful hearts, which are not useful, neither to suffer nor to work, are afraid of a tree leaf, as 3 Mos. 26, 36. Moses says.
Therefore, hold fast to this text: You must feel the calling of the Spirit in your heart; for it is the calling of your heart, how can you not feel it? For this, St. Paul needs the word "call", when he might well have said: The spirit bispels, or speaks, or sings; it is all even greater. He
cries and shouts with all its might, that is, with all its heart, so that everything lives and weaves in such confidence; as he also says in Rom. 8:26: "The Spirit within us pleads for us with such great sighs that no one can express them in words"; item Rom. 8:16: "The Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit that we are the children of God"; how then should our heart not feel such crying, sighing and witness?
(96) O temptation and affliction serve deliciously for this: they drive to such a cry and awaken the spirit; but we fear and flee the cross, therefore we never feel the spirit and remain under Cain. If then thou feelest not the cry, think not, and rest not in supplication, until God hear thee: for thou art Cain, and it is not well with thee. But thou shalt not desire that such a cry should be in thee alone and loud; there must also be a murderous cry beside it, which shall drive thee in such a cry, and practice it, as hath been done unto all others. Your sin will also cry out, that is, cause a strong despair in your conscience. But Christ's Spirit should and must overrule the crying, that is, make stronger confidence than the despondency is; as St. John says 1 John 3:19-22: "If our heart should punish us, God is greater than our heart. Therefore, dear brethren, if our heart punishes us, we have confidence that we will receive from Him whatever we ask. In this we also recognize that we are born of truth, so that we may comfort our heart before His face."
Therefore, this crying and shouting of the spirit is nothing other than a mighty, strong, unthinking trust from the whole heart to God, as a dear Father, from us, as from His dear children.
And here you see how high a Christian life is above nature. For nature is not able to have such confidence and cry out to God, but only fears and cries out a vain murderous cry against itself, and says: "Oh woe, oh woe, you strict, infallible judge; just as Cain cried out to God Gen. 4:13, 14: "My sin is greater than that it should be taken away from me; and you cast me out of the presence of the Lord today.
of the earth, and must flee from your face, and whoever finds me will strangle me" etc. Such calling is and must be also in all Cainian saints. Why? Because they look at themselves and their works, not at God's Son, as He was sent from a woman, under the Law; they do not believe that He has done anything for them, nor do they care about it, but only work with their own works to help themselves and to obtain God's grace.
(99) Yes, because they persecute such faith, blaspheming and condemning it as heresy and presumption, they do even as their father Cain did to his brother Abel, and thereby kill in themselves also their brother Christ. So this same innocent blood does not cease to cry out to heaven against them, as Abel's blood did against Cain. So God asks about this Abel and demands of each one: Where is Christ, your brother? So the senseless Cain goes to him and does not want to know him, saying: "What do I know about it, am I my brother's keeper? This is just what is said: Shall I be so presumptuous as to consider myself pious and holy, God's child, through Christ alone? No, no, I will work until I am also pious without him. Behold, the calling of Abel's blood upon Cain, and the calling of Christ's blood upon all unbelievers, remaineth, and calleth yet vain vengeance and wrath. But over the faithful it calls for mercy and reconciliation through his Spirit.
The apostle puts together a Hebrew and Greek word: Abba, Father. In Hebrew, "Abba" means a father, hence the fact that some monasteries are called prelates abbots. For in times past in the desert, the holy hermits called their superiors Abba Pater; it has also become Latin and German. So now it is just as much Abba Pater as: Father, Father; or in full German: My Father, my Father, or, dear Father, dear Father.
But why does he twin the word and cry of the spirit? I will say my conceit with leave. First, to show the strength and greatness of this cry. For he who cries out very earnestly repeats a word and cry many times. So this shouting of the heart and confidence must be strong and great, so that it does not become dim.
Let us be overcome by sin and by Cain's cries.
Secondly, the nature of Scripture is that it indicates certainty and security through such twins of words or sayings. As Joseph said to King Pharaoh in Gen 41:32, that God means that it is certain and will happen as the words say. So also here the spirit calls twice "father", that it is certain and safe with us, God, who is and wants to be father; that such confidence should not only be great, but also certain.
103 Thirdly, it shall also remain steadfastly so. For the first Abba signifies a beginning of such confidence; but over it a great controversy will arise, and the devil will contest it without ceasing. Therefore it is necessary for us to stop and do the other thing, that is, not to stop calling as we have begun to call, always calling for and for: from this then comes an experience of such confidence, which makes us most sure and certain. This is perhaps what St. Paul intended when he prefixed Abba, the Hebrew, unknown, foreign word, and then Pater, the Greek, known, native word, while writing in Greek and preaching to the Greeks: so that he might indicate how the beginning of such confidence is unfamiliar and foreign to man; but when it has been well practiced, it becomes well known to him and as if it had become his nature, and he has become at home with God, his Father.
Therefore so is now no longer a servant, but vain children; but if they are children, they are also heirs through Christ.
104. "Now," he says, that is, according to the future and knowledge of Christ, "there is no servant. For, as has been said, child and servant may not coexist, they are far too dissimilar in disposition. The child is willing and free, the servant unwilling and forced; the child walks by faith, the servant by works.
(105) Now we see here again that no one can attain blessedness before God by works; but everything must be attained and possessed beforehand, before the works, so that the works afterwards are free and
in vain, in honor of God and for the benefit of the neighbor, without fear of punishment and without seeking reward. This is what these words indicate when he says: "If they are children, they are heirs.
(106) Now it is sufficiently said, that faith alone maketh children beforehand, and without all works. But if it makes children, it also makes heirs; for a child is an heir. If the inheritance is already there, how can it be acquired by works? It is not compatible that the inheritance should be already there, given out of pure grace, and yet by works and merit, as if it were not there or not given, it should still be sought and first obtained. So the inheritance here is nothing else than eternal bliss. Behold, therefore, I have often said, A Christian man by his baptism and faith hath all things already, and all things are given him at once; without his seeing yet uncovered, but kept in faith, for this life's sake, which would not endure such revelation of goods. So St. Paul says Rom. 8, 24: "You have already been saved, but in hope; and you do not yet see it, but you are waiting for it"; item St. Peter 1 Petr. 1, 4: "Your blessedness is reserved for you in heaven, prepared to be revealed at the last day."
(107) Therefore the works of a Christian should not be directed to merit, as of a servant, but to the benefit and thirst of others: that he ever live and work not for himself, but only for his neighbor here on earth; in which he certainly also lives and works in honor of God. For he already has enough for himself through his faith, and is rich, full and happy.
But he adds "through Christ," lest anyone think that such an inheritance has been given to us without all merit and cost. For though it cost us nothing and was given undeservedly, it cost Christ much.
He was put under the law for our sake, so that all who believe in him may receive and deserve all these things: just as we do good to our neighbor, it costs him nothing, nor does he deserve it; nevertheless, it costs us our actions and goods, which we turn to him freely and out of pure goodness, just as Christ has turned and still turns his to us.
(109) This would also move a simple man, as St. Paul says, that there is no longer a servant, but only children; yet few believe in Christ and become children, and the world remains full of servants and Cain. But he says this for the sake of doctrine, as if to say, "Before Christ came and the gospel was preached, by which children were made, only the law was preached, which makes vain servants by works. But now that faith is preached, the servant of the law is not allowed; now all become godly and blessed through faith without works, who before became only Cain and servants through law and works. Therefore it is much said: "There is now no longer a servant, but only children", as much as that now no servant doctrine should be preached, and not deal with it, that servants, but only children become, that is, only faith and the gospel should be preached and be our doctrine; which brings spirit, and teaches to trust God and serve only the neighbor, then all law is fulfilled.
And with this he calls the Galatians from the teachers, who led them back to the law and works; as now and for a long time the pope has also seduced us with his mad laws through bishops, priests and monks and has destroyed the Christian faith: as then the Scripture has proclaimed about the same final Christ. Therefore, beware of him and all those who are his, of all the spiritual classes who want to be saved, as of Lucifer's own servants and apostles.