Held 1516.
Psalm 19:2.
The heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.
1. the gospel is nothing but a proclamation of the works of God; for it preaches those things that God works, and by that very fact it preaches His glory, because in telling the works it indeed glorifies God. For honor and praise is nothing other than a praise and a preaching of power and a telling of works. Hence it follows that the heavens reject and reproach the glory of men, and make the works of men's hands to be concealed. As it is said in the Psalms, "My mouth does not speak the works of men"; for the glory of God makes one see and recognize that the glory of men is vanity, even shame; and because the works of God indicate and teach that the works of men (which they praised as
*) Löscher I, 769; Erl. A. opx. var. arZ. I, 156 D. Red.
good, right, wise and useful works) are nothing, indeed, they are sin. For the works of God are the substance or ground of praise and glory; therefore, if the substance or ground is destroyed, the building that rested on the ground is also destroyed.
(2) The Gospel, therefore, reveals the shame of men by preaching the glory of God; and by revealing the works of God, it reveals the laxity and sins of men. A proud, hopeful man, however, cannot bear both, that his works, in which he was pleased and boasted (for he thought that such works were righteous and without blame), are punished as defiled and full of shame; as it is said in Weish. 2:16: "He shuneth our doings as filth." Therefore, when he hears it, he gets angry, gnashes his teeth and disappears. So honor awakens in the
People to anger and envy, grace to displeasure, mercy to cruelty, godliness to tyranny, salvation to destruction, and that which is wholly good becomes a cause of evil. Who should not be surprised? Even the sun, when it goes out, is unbearable to the eyes of the night owls; and wine kills those who have the fever.
3 In order for this to be understood more clearly, it is necessary to know what God's work is. For it is nothing other than to work righteousness, peace, mercy, truth, gentleness, goodness, joy and salvation; since a righteous, truthful, peaceable, kind, happy, gentle, merciful person cannot work in any other way, because his nature entails it. So God makes righteous, peaceable, merciful, truthful, kind, cheerful, wise, healthy etc. These are the works of His hands or of His privates, as it is said in the Psalms: "Confession and majesty are His work", that is, praise, adornment or honor, and clarity is the work of God. It is nothing but what is praiseworthy and most beautiful, without all reproach; as it is said in Ps. 96:6: "It is glorious and splendid before Him, and it is mighty and praiseworthy in His sanctuary," that is, in His church. Accordingly, God's deeds themselves are those that are righteous and Christian, they are his power. But the new works are themselves the righteousnesses and truths, etc., which he works in these deeds, as the Psalm says: "They have proclaimed the works of God, and they have understood his deeds," that is, they have made them understood; and further: "Because they have not understood the works of the Lord and the works of his hands.
4 But behold, he cannot attain to this work itself, as his own, unless he accepts a strange work, and so is contrary to it; as it is said in Isa. 28: His work is strange, that he may work his own work. The foreign work, however, is to make sinners, unrighteous, liars, sad people, fools, corrupt people; not that he actually makes such, but because the pride of men, since they are such, does not want them to become or be such at all; so that God makes greater effort, yes,
only needs this work to show that they are such, and thus become in their own eyes what they are in God's eyes. Since God cannot make righteous except those who are not righteous, he is forced to work through a foreign work before his own work of justification, so that he may make sinners. So he says, "I will kill and make alive; I will smite and heal." But by this strange work, which is the death of Christ and the death of Adam, are our fiercest enemies, who think themselves righteous, wise, and worthy. For they do not want theirs to be despised and considered foolish and evil, that is, they do not want their Adam to be killed; therefore, they do not come to God's own work, which is the justification or resurrection of Christ. God's foreign works are therefore the sufferings of Christ, and the sufferings that are in Christ, the crucifixion of the old man and the killing of Adam; but God's own work is the resurrection of Christ and justification in the Spirit, and the making alive of the new man; as it is said in Rom. 4:25: "Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our righteousness." Accordingly, the conformity of the image of the Son of God includes both works in itself. And this is what I said the other day about Johanne and the Gospel, of which he is the figure. For just as God's work is twofold, that is, the other's and his own, so also is the ministry of the Gospel twofold.
(5) The proper ministry of the gospel is to proclaim God's own work, that is, the grace according to which the Father of mercies gives peace, righteousness, and truth to all freely, and forsakes his wrath. For this is why the gospel is called good, pleasant, lovely, friendly, so that whoever hears it cannot help but rejoice. This is what happens when the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to the sorrowful consciences; as it is said in Rom. 10:15: the pleasant feet, that is, "How pleasant", agreeable, desirable (as it is in Hebrew) "are the feet of those who preach the gospel", that is, those who have a good and pleasing heart.
They who preach peace," that is, not the law and the threats of the law, not what is to be fulfilled and done, but the forgiveness of sins, the peace of conscience, that the law has been fulfilled; "they who preach good things," that is, pleasant things, namely, the sweetest mercy of God the Father, Christ given to us.
The foreign work of the gospel is to prepare a perfect people for the Lord, that is, to reveal sin and punish as guilty those who were righteous in their eyes, saying that all men are sinners and empty of the grace of God. But this message seems to be the very worst, therefore it may rather be called cacophony, that is, an evil and sad message. For as one who is sad and without hope awaits death will hear nothing more pleasant than when it is said, Be free and live: so to those who live securely nothing is sadder than when they hear it said, Be thou dead. Thus the gospel resounds most harshly in its foreign sound; and yet it must happen thus, that it may resound in its own sound. This shall be made known by example (as we have done above). Behold, a king saith, Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not commit adultery. The proud, who are justified by righteousness of works, and have done these works, now live securely, as if the law were fulfilled, being also conscious of no sin, but of much righteousness. Now when these are under such delusion, the interpreter of the law, namely the gospel, comes and says (Matt. 3:2), "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In saying to all, "Repent," it punishes all as sinners, proclaiming sad and unpleasant things, which is a cacophony, that is, an evil message and an alien work. But that it says, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," is good news, a pleasant and joyful sermon: it is the gospel's own work. For thus John comes as the voice of shouting
The gospel and preaches the baptism of repentance to all, and by this very means he constantly asserts that all have sin.
007 Now here the Lord stands like unto the mount of certifications, as he hath said Isa. 28: for some believe John as a voice of the gospel, and hold such sad preaching to be true, and so are obedient, being humbled and trembling, and perceiving that they are therefore sinners: whether they be conscious of anything or not, they believe John more than themselves. And these are now prepared by John to be a perfect people, chosen unto the Lord: for they are able of grace, hungering after righteousness, groaning after comfort, poor in spirit, meek, and subject to be ruled. Therefore Christ, the kingdom of heaven, comes to them, who came to save sinners. But others, who are conscious of righteousness, do not believe that it is true, nor that it concerns them, when it is said, Repent. Yes, they say: We are righteous, we know not of sin, we reign already: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, yea, it is come already. Now when John continues to punish their hardness, saying, "Ye generation of vipers, who hath shewed you that ye shall escape the wrath to come? do therefore worthy fruits of repentance": so here they say: "He has the devil"; since he not only says of such righteous and worthy people that they have sin, but also calls them vipers before others and announces wrath. Such are they now and in the future all who trust in their righteousness, who seek only to hear of themselves the gospel (that is, the good news that they are righteous and do righteousness), but not of Christ. Likewise, they do not want to hear from themselves the strange sound of the gospel, that they sin and are fools; but rather they believe that the gospel is false and a lie. Therefore they are most easily provoked to anger before all: they are ready to defend themselves and to avenge themselves on others, to justify themselves, to judge and condemn others; they complain that they, as people who do right, must suffer injustice.
(8) But how it is to be proved that these men also are sinners, Christ and Paul taught, namely, because they do not fulfill the law in the spirit, because at least they sin and lust in the heart. Even though they do not kill, they are angry; even though they do not steal, they are stingy; even though they do not commit adultery, they have evil breath, because evil desire does not depart without grace; as it is said in Rom. 7:24: "I wretched man, who will deliver me from the body of this death?" He does not say skill or oft-repeated actions, but the grace of God through JEsum Christum. Therefore the gospel makes sin great by extending the commandment, so that no one can be found righteous who does not sin against the law. And as all sin and have sinned, it is evident from this how necessary to all is the baptism of repentance before that of forgiveness of sins. Baptism of the forgiveness of sins. Therefore it is not written of John that he preached the baptism of repentance, but it is added, for the remission of sins, that is, that they are thereby prepared for grace, by which grace the remission of sins takes place, which sins are not forgiven, except to whom they are forgiven.
For this is called repentance. But they are displeasing only to those who recognize them, and they are recognized only by those who understand the law; for no one understands the law by itself unless it is explained, but the gospel does this. For through the law comes knowledge of sin, without which sin was dead; "but when the commandment came, sin revived; for I knew nothing of lust, where the law had not said, Let no man lust after thee," Rom. 7:7, 8. Therefore the law is the best thing, in that it shows evil and teaches to recognize one's own unhappiness, and thus prompts to seek the good. For the beginning of salvation is to know the sickness, and "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Sir. 1, 16.); but the law sets in fear, so that man may be humbled by seeing that he does not keep the law, and thus runs into the judgment of God. Grace, however, pours in love, so that man becomes more confident, seeing that he wants to keep the law, and what he cannot keep, that Christ's fullness is accepted in its place, until he himself also becomes perfect. Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.