Rom. 8, 12-17.
So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye by the spirit of the flesh kill business, ye shall live. For those whom the Spirit of God drives are the children of God. For ye have not received a servant spirit, that ye should fear again; but ye have received a childlike spirit, by which we cry: Abba, dear Father! This same Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. If we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer differently, so that we may also be exalted to glory.
This epistle is once again an exhortation to Christian life and works, like the next one before it, without using other words. For this exhortation is
There is also a need to do many things for those who have now become Christians, for the sake of the grievous plague, so that the devil may bring about his calamity in the world, where God, by his
Grace, without our merit, gives us forgiveness of sin, since we are not allowed to buy it nor to acquire it ourselves, so that as soon as one wants to drive from it safely and say: Oh, so we are no longer allowed to do good! That, besides the doctrine of faith in grace, he must always fight against this, that this is not the opinion at all; for sin is not ever forgiven to be done, but that it should cease; otherwise it would not be called forgiveness, but permission to sin.
(2) And if it is ever a shameful perversion of the salvific teaching of the Gospel, and a great damned ingratitude for the causeless grace and blessedness we have received, to not want to do good now, when it is only through such that we should be moved and driven to give thanks and honor to God, to do with the utmost diligence all that we know and are able to do, which is called good and pleasing to Him.
(3) Here St. Paul reminds and admonishes us with simple, plain, but serious and important words, in which he reproaches us for what we owe to God for what we have received from Him, and for what harm we must suffer if we do not respect or do these things, saying:
We are debtors, not to the flesh, that we live according to the flesh.
(4) Because we have been redeemed by Christ from the condemnation we deserved before with our sin, and now have life through the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us (he said before these words), we are now also obligated to live according to this, as he also said in the next epistle Rom. 6, 22: "Because we have been freed from sin, we have now become servants of righteousness," that we may be obedient to God. So, he says, you are debtors, that is, your new profession, status and nature, to which you have come because you have become Christians and now have the Holy Spirit, demands that you also live as the Spirit instructs and teaches you; and you are not free to do or not to do this, but if you want to boast of grace and the Spirit, you must also confess your guilt to live according to it, not according to the flesh,
who only wants to continue in sins, but to the Spirit who instructs you, after you have been baptized and redeemed from sin, to run from sin to the new life of righteousness, not again, from that life to sin.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will have to die.
(5) The verdict is short and dry on the pretensions of foolish people who, through the freedom of grace, want to give room to the flesh, so that it may dissuade them from such false foolishness, that they may not, for the life and grace of which they boast, bring eternal wrath and death upon themselves. It does not rhyme at all, he says, because you were once saved and delivered from eternal death, that you should live according to your flesh; for if you do, you must not think that you will keep life, but are condemned to death and hell. For you know that it was because of sin that you were under God's wrath and fell into death, and so deserved condemnation for living according to the flesh; so Christ certainly did not die for those who would remain in their sins, but to save from sins those who would gladly be saved from them and yet could not save themselves from them.
(6) Therefore, he who is a Christian does not make much of this saying: I am free from the law, therefore I may do as I please; but he says and does the opposite: because he is a Christian, he fears and is careful not to sin, lest he again fall from his freedom into the former prison of sin under the law and God's wrath, nor fall from the life he has begun back into death. Because here he hears the serious judgment: "If you live according to the flesh, you will die. As if he wanted to say: It will not help you that you have heard the gospel, boasted of Christ, received the sacraments, if you do not also, through received faith and spirit, subdue your sinful lusts of the ungodly nature, God's contempt, avarice, malice, pride, hatred and envy etc.
For what is meant by "living according to the flesh" has often been said and is well understood, namely, that the flesh is not only the gross, unseemly lust of fornication or other immorality; but everything that man brings from the mother, that is, not only skin and hair, but also the soul and all the powers of nature, outwardly and inwardly, in reason, will, and senses, which is without spirit and not according to God's word; and especially also the things which reason does not consider or regard as sin. As, going into unbelief, idolatry, contempt of God's word, presumption and defiance of wisdom, power, honor etc. All these things must be avoided and fled by Christians (who now have the Holy Spirit and can judge what is carnal), as such harmful poison that brings death and damnation.
But where you kill business through the spirit of the flesh, you will live.
8. There he confesses that also the Christians still have something of the flesh that must be killed; These are all kinds of temptations and lusts against all God's commandments, which stir up in nature and provoke to sins, which he here calls "the business of the flesh," such as thoughts of unbelief and distrust, carnal certainty and presumption against the fear of God, being cold and sluggish to God's word and prayer, impatience and grumbling in suffering, anger, revengefulness, or envy and hatred against one's neighbor, concern of avarice, fornication etc. For such inclinations, because they are in the flesh and blood, do not cease to move and challenge man, indeed, in this human weakness they sometimes overtake man, since he is not careful enough not to do too much and go too far, so that they also overwhelm him, where he does not defend himself against them and, as he says here, kills such business of the flesh. Therefore this involves a fierce dispute and struggle, which will not cease while we are alive; and here a Christian must not be slothful or lazy, but awaken himself by the Spirit, so that he does not give place to the flesh, and so always kill it, lest he be killed by it, as he said:
"If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die"; and again with this comfort, "If ye kill the business of the flesh, ye shall live"; for to this end the Holy Ghost is given him, that he should and can now kill such sinful lusts.
(9) But this killing of sin by the Spirit is done so that man may recognize his sin and weakness, and when he feels such sinful airs stirring, soon beat it within himself, and remember God's word and strengthen himself against it by faith in the forgiveness of sins, and so resist it that he will not consent to it nor let it come into operation.
010 For this is the difference between them that are Christians and holy, and others that are without faith and spirit, or that depart and lose the same. For though believers still have sinful lusts of the flesh in them, as well as the others, yet they remain in the repentance and fear of God, and keep the faith that their sins are forgiven them through Christ's will, because they do not give place to them, but resist them; Therefore they remain under forgiveness, and the rest of their weakness is not fatal or condemnable to them, as it is to others who, without repentance and faith, surely go and deliberately follow their lusts against their conscience, and thus reject both faith and the Holy Spirit.
(11) Therefore St. Paul reminds his Christians to think what they have received and to what they have been put, namely, because they have forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, that they do not lose these things again, but need them to fight against the sinful lusts of the flesh, and take comfort in the fact that they have the Spirit, that is, help and strength to resist and kill sin, which others who have no faith neither have nor are able to do. Help and strength, so that they can resist sin and kill it; which the others, who are without faith, neither have nor are able to do. Therefore he also speaks further:
For those whom the Spirit of God drives are God's children.
12 St. Paul had to deal, as we do, with two groups, the righteous and the false Christians. For from the opponents of doctrine, as we are from the
Pabstism is not such a great danger, because they make it so obvious that one can well beware of them; but since the devil also sows his seed among us of those who are also called Christians and boast of the gospel, attention should be paid, not to the mouth, but to the works of those who boast of being Christians: not what they say, but what they do. For it is easy to boast about God, Christ and the Spirit; but this proves whether such boasting is righteous, if the Spirit also works in you and is powerful, so that it subdues and kills sin in you. For where the Spirit is, he is certainly not idle nor without power; but proves himself thus, that he governs and drives man, and man also obeys and follows him. And such a man has this comfort, that he is God's child, and God rules and works in him, that he is not in death, but has life.
(13) To be "driven by the Spirit of God" is to get such a heart that gladly hears the word of God and believes in Christ, that in Him he has grace and forgiveness of sin; and confesses such faith and also proves it before the world, seeking first of all the glory of God, that he may live without sorrow and serve other people, obediently, patiently, chastely, mildly, kindly. etc. And even if he is overzealous and has stumbled, he will soon get up again through repentance and stop sinning. For all these things the Holy Spirit teaches and instructs him, if he hears and accepts the word, and does not himself willfully resist the Spirit.
14. again, the devil, who is also a spirit, also drives the hearts of the world, but in such a way that one can see that it is not a good spirit nor God's spirit; for he only drives his own to contradict what God's spirit drives them to do, so that they have no desire to hear God's word nor to follow it, despise God, become proud, hopeful, stingy, merciless etc.
(15) Wherefore let every man look to himself, lest he deceive himself: for many are called Christians, which are not. This is noticed and seen that they are not all driven by God's spirit, for they must have a spirit that drives them.
If it is not God's spirit that drives them against the flesh, then it must be the other, evil spirit, which drives to the flesh and its lusts, against God's spirit. Therefore they must be either God's own and His dear children, sons and daughters, called to eternal life and glory; or again, rejected and separated from God, children of the devil and with him heirs of eternal fire.
Now from this word, which he says, "God's children," St. Paul takes occasion to speak further, and comes up with a beautiful, comforting sermon, setting forth what this adoption is and has for glory; which he only begins in this epistle, saying:
For you have not received a servant spirit, that you should fear again; but you have received a childlike spirit, by which we cry out: Abba, dear Father!
(17) This is a good and comforting text, and it is written with letters of gold. Because you now have the Holy Spirit, he says, through faith, and are driven by him, you are no longer under bondage, as you were under the law, to fear its terrors and demands, as if God wanted to condemn and reject you for your unworthiness and remaining weakness of the flesh; but have the comfort that you are now assured of divine grace through faith, and can count God your Father and call upon him as his children. etc.
18. keep the two kinds of works that come from the two kinds of preaching or teaching, namely, the law and the gospel, which also make the difference between Christians and all others who are without faith and knowledge of Christ. For those who have and know no more than the law can never come to have true heartfelt confidence and comfort in God, even if they do much and practice the law with great earnestness. For when it strikes them with its true brilliance, when they see what it demands of them and how far they still are from fulfilling it, and God's wrath comes upon them, they will not be able to do so.
shows them that there is nothing but terror, fear and fleeing from God, among which they must perish in the end, if they are not helped by the gospel. This is what he calls a "servile spirit", which only frightens and makes people flee from God. But again, when the heart grasps the preaching of the gospel, which says that without our merit and worthiness God forgives us our sins for Christ's sake, if we believe in him: Then it receives comfort against the terror of the law in God's grace, and thus the Holy Spirit works in it, so that it can stand in such confidence in God, and hold on to the comfort, and in such faith call on God from the heat, even though it still feels and confesses itself weak and sinful; this is called "receiving a childlike spirit.
19 Now St. Paul calls a servile and childlike spirit after the manner that was common in his time, when servants and maids were as his own in the house of a lord, like a cow bought for his money, that he might deal with them as with his own cattle, that they should be afraid of their lord, and await pranks, imprisonment, and punishment unto death, and could not say, Of the lord's goods I have so much that is mine, and he must give it me etc.But had to think: Here I must serve alone for bread, and wait for nothing but beatings, and in addition suffer that my lord will cast me out and sell me again to another when he wants. And thus could never have any hope of being freed from such fear and imprisonment and compulsion.
(20) Such a servile, captive, fearful, uncertain spirit, he says, you do not have now, since you always had to live in worries of wrath and condemnation, like Moses' people and what is under the law; but you now have a fine, free, certain, confident spirit, as a child has toward its father, since you must not fear that God is angry with you, or wants to reject and condemn you; for you have the spirit of his Son (as he says above and Galatians 4:6) in your heart, so that you know that you will remain in the house and that the inheritance will follow you, and that you may boast about it as yours. 4:6) in your heart, that ye may know that ye abide in the house, and that the inheritance shall follow you, and that ye may comfort and glory in it as yours.
(21) Of this childlike spirit, item, what it means when it says: "through whom we cry out: Abba, dear Father!" I have said further about the epistle Gal. 4, 6, since he also uses the same words. Recently: The power of Christ's kingdom is described here, and the real work and the right high service of God, which the Holy Spirit works in the believer, namely, the consolation, by which the heart is delivered from the terror and fear of sin, and is satisfied, and the heartfelt calling, which awaits from God in faith hearing and help; which cannot happen through the law and one's own holiness. For with this, man never comes to the point where he can draw proper consolation from God's grace and love toward him, always remains in worries and anxieties of wrath and condemnation, and because he is in such doubt, he flees from God and cannot call upon Him. But again, where there is faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit works in the heart both such comfort and certain childlike confidence, which does not doubt God's gracious will and answer, because He has promised both grace and help, comfort and answer, not on our worthiness, but on Christ, His Son, name and merit.
(22) Of these two works of the Holy Spirit, comforting and calling, the prophet Zechariah also says in chapter 12, v. 10. V. 10, that God will establish a new preaching and work in the kingdom of Christ, when He will pour out "the spirit of grace and prayer"; this is the very same spirit that assures us that we are God's children and drives our hearts to cry out to Him with heartfelt invocation.
The Hebrew word "Abba", which means, as he himself interprets, "dear father", is the calling, like a young child. The Hebrew word "Abba," which means, as he himself says, "dear father," is the way a young child, if he is the heir, out of simple, childlike confidence laments with his father and calls him, "Ab, Ab"; for it is the easiest word that a child can learn to speak, or as the old German language also spoke more easily, "Etha, Etha. Such simple, childlike words are also spoken by faith to God through the Holy Spirit, but from the depths of the heart and, as he says afterwards, with inexpressible groaning; especially when he is in battle and
The need is against the doubting of the flesh, and the devil's terrors and plagues, that he must defend himself against them, and say, "Oh, dear Father, you are my dear Father; for you have given your only dear Son for me, therefore you will not be angry with me nor cast me out; item: You see my need and weakness, therefore you will help and save me. etc.
The same Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are God's children.
(24) That we are the children of God, and that we may certainly believe ourselves to be so, we have not from ourselves, nor from the law; but it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who, against the law and the feeling of our unworthiness, bears witness to it in our weakness, and makes us certain of it. Such testimony is so that we also feel and sense the power of the Holy Spirit as He works in us through the Word, and our experience agrees with the Word or sermon; For you can ever feel this in yourself, where you receive comfort from the gospel in distress and fear, and thereby overcome such doubt and terror that your heart can firmly conclude that you have a gracious God, and now no longer flee from him, but in such faith can cheerfully call upon him and expect help from him; and where such faith exists, the experience also follows that you will be helped; as St. Paul Romans 5:4 says. Paul Rom. 5, 4. 5. says: "Patience brings experience, experience brings hope, but hope does not bring to shame."
(25) This is the true inward testimony, whereby thou knowest that the Holy Ghost worketh in thee; beside which thou hast also outward testimonies and signs, that he giveth thee special gifts, a fine spiritual understanding, grace, and happiness for thy calling; etc. that thou delight and love in his word, confessing it before all the world with peril of life and limb; item, that thou become hostile to ungodliness and sins, and resist them. etc. All these things unbelievers, who have not the Holy Spirit, neither do nor are able to do. Although it is true that even this happens to the saints in great weakness, yet the Holy Spirit in such weakness
governs the Christians and strengthens such a testimony; as St. Paul Rom. 8, 26. says: "The Spirit helps our weakness" etc.
If we are children, then we are also heirs, that is, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if we suffer otherwise, that we may also be exalted with Him to glory.
(26) Then you will hear the great glory, honor and honor of the Christians. Let the world have its glory, honor and honor, which is nothing else (when it comes to the highest and last), but that they are children of the devil. But count thou thyself what this is, that a poor wretched sinner should have this honor with God, that he should be called, not a servant or minister of God, but God's son and heir. Should a man, indeed, all the world wish, if it were desired, to be called God's cow or frog, so that it might have only the glory of belonging to God and being His own. For who would not like to be of this Lord and Creator? Now he says that we who believe in Christ are not to be his servants and handmaids, but his own sons, daughters and heirs. Who will praise and pronounce this enough? It is not to be talked out nor to be understood.
(27) But here is found the great human weakness in us; for if we believed this rightly and undoubtedly, what would we fear, and who would or could harm us? For whoever can say to God from the heart, "You are my dear Father, and I am your child," will certainly defy all the devils of hell and cheerfully despise all the world's threats and thundering; for in this Father he has such a Lord, before whom all creatures must tremble, and without his will they can do nothing; so he also has such an inheritance and dominion, in which no creature can harm or break him.
28. but here he adds the little bit, "if we suffer otherwise with it"; so that we know that we must also live like this on earth, and prove ourselves to be pious, obedient children who do not follow the flesh, and for the sake of this rule suffer what is contrary to us and hurts the flesh.
796 L. g, 180-182. On the ninth Sunday after Trinity. W. xn, ioi8-iüso. 797
If we do this, we shall and may gloriously rejoice and glory in it, and rejoice and glory in the truth, as he said: "Whom the Spirit of God impels" not to follow the flesh, "they are the children of God.
(29) O what a great thing it is for a man who does not follow his lusts, but resists them with strong faith and suffering. It is called a great Abel, honor and glory on earth, to be the child of a mighty famous king or emperor; how much higher would it be if someone could truly boast of the highest angel's son? But what is all this compared to the one who is called and named by God Himself a son and heir of the high divine majesty! for such childship and inheritance must certainly be a great unspeakable glory.
and wealth, power and honor over all that is in heaven and on earth. This honor (even if we had nothing else but such a name and glory of it) should move us alone to become enemies of this sinful life on earth and strive against it with all our strength, we should also leave and suffer everything that a man can suffer. But it does not enter into the human heart and is too far beyond the mind and thoughts, what such honor and glory is, for which we are to be exalted with Christ; as St. Paul continues in the following text v. 18, where he says: "I consider that this time's suffering is not worthy of the glory that is to be revealed in us" etc.; as we have just heard on the fifth Sunday.