2 Cor. 3:4-11.
But we have such confidence in God through Christ. Not that we are able of ourselves to think anything but of ourselves; but that we are able is of God. Who also hath made us able to do the ministry of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit quickeneth. But if the ministry which killeth by letters, and is formed in stones, had clearness, so that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses for the clearness of his countenance, which ceaseth: how much more shall not the ministry which giveth the Spirit have clearness? For if the ministry that preaches condemnation has clarity, much more does the ministry that preaches righteousness have abundant clarity. For even that part which was glorified is not to be regarded as clarity in comparison with this exuberant clarity. For if that had clarity, which ceases; much more shall that have clarity, which abides.
1 This epistle reads quite strangely to those who are not accustomed to the Scriptures and St. Paul's sayings, so that an inexperienced ear and heart cannot direct itself to it; just as it has not been understood at all in the papacy, even though the words have been read.
(2) But in order that we may come to this, we must first grasp the sum of what St. Paul wants to say; that is, that he wants to praise and glorify the ministry and the preaching of the gospel, which he leads, against the false apostles' and preachers' vain boasting of their spirit and their special art and gifts. As it especially happened to him in this church at Corinth, which he had converted by his mouth and brought to the faith of Christ, that soon after his departure the devil led his ruthlessness among them, by which they were turned away from such right understanding and sense and were misled to other things. He had to contend with these and directed his two epistles to keep the Corinthians on the right path, so that they would stick to the pure doctrine they received from him and beware of such false spirits. And almost the main cause that moved him to write this other epistle was that he must boast of his apostleship and preaching, imagining to put down the others' boasts, which they pretend with great words and appearances.
3. This he begins shortly before this text and thus comes to the conclusion that he speaks gloriously of the preaching ministry of the Gospel, and sets it against each other and holds the two kinds of offices or sermons that one can preach in the church (where one wants to preach God's word in a different way, and not false humanity and the doctrine of devils), one of the Old Testament, the other of the New Testament, or the office of Moses and the law, and the preaching ministry of the Gospel of Christ; shows what this glory and power is in comparison to the other, which is also God's word, so that he repels the seductive spirits' preaching and pretending, who (as he said the other day) counterfeit God's word, boast much about God's law when they do it best, but do not teach its right use, but only lead away from the faith of Christ on their own merits.
4 But he takes these words from the previous one, which he began in the third chapter; therefore they must be brought up, since he says in vv. 1-3: "Do we then again begin to praise ourselves, or do we, like some, need letters of praise to you, or letters of praise from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, to be known and read of all men, who have been made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, prepared by the ministry of preaching, and written by us: not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." We do not desire, I and my fellow apostles and assistants," he says, "letters and seals, that we may be prescribed by others to you or through you to others, so that we may be regarded by you or other churches and deceive the people; as the false apostles do, and are still doing by many, who also issue letters and testimonies from righteous preachers and churches, and then start their rioting to be believed. We, praise God, have no need of such letters, nor should you worry that we might deceive you with them. For you yourselves are the letter which we ourselves have made, and may boast of it and present it before everyone; for it is public and known that you have been taught by us and brought to Christ through our preaching ministry.
(5) For this public work and testimony, that they themselves may know how he hath made them a church by his preaching ministry, he calleth them an epistle written by himself, not with ink, or rubrics, nor on paper, or wood, nor graven in hard stone, as Moses laid his ten commandments on tables of stone before the people; but in their fleshy soft hearts with the Holy Ghost. This is the ink or writing, yes, even the scribe himself; but the stylus or pen and the hand of the scribe is the preaching ministry of St. Paul.
(6) Now such talk of the letter and writing is taken from the Scripture way; for so also Moses commands Deut. 6:6, 8, 9, and Cap. 11:18, that they are to write the
Write ten commandments wherever they go and wherever they stand, on the posts and doors of their houses, and keep them always before their eyes and in their hearts; item Prov. 7:2, 3. Solomon says: "Keep my commandments and my law as the apple of your eye, bind them on your fingers, and write them on the tablet of your heart. For he speaks like a father to his child when he commands him to keep something most diligently, saying, "Dear child, remember this and do not forget; item: keep this in your heart. Thus also God speaks in the prophet Jeremiah Cap. 31, 33: "I will put my law in their mind, and in their heart I will write it." Here the heart of man is called a letter, or a tablet, or a book, on which is written the word that is preached, and the heart is to grasp it and keep it firmly. So also, says St. Paul, through our preaching ministry we have written a little book or letter in your hearts, that you may believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and know that through Christ you are redeemed and saved etc. This is the writing that is in your hearts, which are letters, not painted with ink nor chalk, but living thoughts, flames and movement of the heart.
7) It is also to be noted in these words that he says of his preaching ministry that they are prepared by it and their hearts are written, that they are a living letter of Christ, against the enthusiasts dream and blindness, who seek the Holy Spirit without the oral word, and dream themselves, if they creep into a corner and want to take hold of the Spirit with their thoughts, reject the people of the preached word or outward preaching ministry, of which St. Paul says that the Spirit works in their hearts through his preaching. Paul says that the Spirit works in their hearts through his preaching, so that Christ lives and is powerful etc. From these words he now breaks out and begins to praise the preaching ministry, holding Mosi's letter or sermon and his or the apostles' against each other, and now continues to speak:
Such confidence we have in God through Christ; not that we are able to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but that we do anything is of God.
(8) He stings and lashes out at the false apostles and preachers, for he is deadly hostile to those who say and pretend great things that they themselves do not have, do not have, and are not able to do, who boast of their great spirit and want to advise and help all the world, who boast that they can think up something new, and that what they dream up in their heads will only be a supremely heavenly thing, just as our papal and monastic dreams have been up to now. We do not do this, he says, we do not trust and build on ourselves or our wisdom and efficiency, nor do we preach what we ourselves have devised; but we insist and trust in this through Christ before God, that we have made you a divine letter, and have written in your heart not our thoughts but God's word. By this we do not boast of our own work and ability, but of Him who required us for such a ministry and made us capable of it; from Him is all that you have heard and believed.
(9) For this is the glory of every preacher, that he may be sure, and that his heart may stand in confidence, and say, I have this confidence and courage in God in Christ, that my doctrine and preaching is truly the word of God; so also, when he holds other offices in the church, baptizes a child, absolves and comforts a sinner, it must be done in this certain confidence that it is Christ's command.
(10) Whoever cannot boast of this, and yet wants to teach and govern in the church, it would be better for him, as Christ said Matth. 18:6. He preaches and creates nothing but the devil's lies and death; just as up to now our popes, when they had taught long and much, invented and done themselves, by which they thought they would be saved, their hearts and thoughts were always in such doubt: Who knows whether it pleases God or not? Thus, the doctrine and work of all heretics and heretical spirits is certainly not such trust in Christ, but only to promote their doctrine with their own glory, and with sought-after praise and praise of the people.
11 "We are not capable," he says, "of
to think anything of ourselves than of ourselves." He speaks all this, as I said, against the false spirits, who consider themselves so excellently capable and specially created and chosen to help people; what they say and do is supposed to work miracles.
(12) But we know that we are of the same clay and loam of which they are made, indeed, we have a greater calling from God; yet we cannot boast that we are able to do anything of ourselves to advise or help people, nor even to think to help them. For it is not our thing, nor our ability, nor has it flowed out of our head, concerning this matter, how to stand before God and come to eternal life. In other things, as far as life and being are concerned, you may boast and pretend what your reason teaches you and what you can think out of your head, such as how to make shoes and clothes, how to govern house, farm, and cattle; there exercise your thoughts as much as you can, so that the cloth or leather can be stretched and cut, as the tailor or cobbler thinks. But in these spiritual things, there truly do not belong human thoughts, but other thoughts, art and ability, which God himself shows and gives through his word.
For by what man has it ever been conceived or fathomed that three persons of the eternal divine being are one God, and the other person, the Son of God, had to become man, born of a virgin, and no other way to life could have been possible, except that he would have been crucified for us. Of course, it would never have been heard nor preached, and would never be experienced, learned nor believed in eternity, unless God Himself revealed it.
This is why they are great blind fools and peevish people who want to boast about themselves in this high activity, and think that the people are helped by it, when they preach what they have come up with or thought up; just as until now in the church everyone has taught and brought up what seemed good to him, the monks and priests have daily added new saints, pilgrimages, special prayers, works, and so on.
and sacrifice, to redeem sin, to deliver souls from purgatory etc. These are not such people who have their trust in God through Christ; but defy both God and Christ, and put and write nothing but vain devil's filth and lies in men's hearts, in which Christ alone should be; nor do they think that they alone are capable of everything that should be taught and done, even grown doctors and saints, who, without God and Christ, can do everything with each other.
But that we are capable, that is from God.
15. Of ourselves, that is, out of our wisdom and strength, we cannot accomplish, find, or teach, so that we can advise and help ourselves or others; but that we may create something good among you and write it in your hearts through our preaching, that is God's own work, who gives us such things to speak in our hearts and mouths and also presses them into your hearts through the Holy Spirit; Therefore we cannot ascribe any of this to ourselves, nor seek our own glory with it, as the self-taught and trusting spirits do; but must give glory to God alone, and boast that by his grace and power he is working in you through the ministry he has given us for your salvation.
(16) He says all this so that nothing should be preached or done in the church except what is certainly God's word, for it is not valid here to act or do anything at man's discretion; no man should be able to do anything here, no thought or power should be valid, except what comes from God Himself; as St. Peter also says in his first epistle, Cap. 4, 11: "Whoever speaks, let him speak it as the word of God; whoever has an office, let him do it as from the ability that God gives." Summa, he that will be wise, and boast of great skill, gifts, and power, let him do it in other things; but here let him stay at home, and let his boasting and pretending stand; for it is not to be seen what thou canst or art, but that the poor souls may be sure how they have God's word and works with them, that they may be saved.
Who also hath made us able to do the ministry of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit quickeneth.
(17) Then he begins to praise the ministry of the gospel and its power against the fame of the false apostles and all other doctrine, including the law of God: "We are not competent, and have nothing to praise from human activity, for this is and creates nothing, even if it strives for the highest, according to what God's law itself teaches and requires. But we have much better to boast of, which is not our doing, but that we have been made competent by God for an excellent ministry, which is called the New Testament; which is not only high, and far better than anything men can teach and give out of their wisdom, art, and ability, but also more glorious than the preaching and ministry, which is called the Old Testament, given beforehand to the Jews through Moses. For this is such a ministry, which not only, like other doctrine, abides in the word that is taught or given, but the Holy Spirit also works through it in the heart; therefore he calls it "not a ministry of the letter, but of the Spirit. "etc.
This text, of the spirit and the letter, has been an unknown language among us, and has been perverted and faded by our human condition, so that I, who was supposed to be a learned doctor of the Holy Scriptures, understood nothing of it, no one could teach me, and even today the entire papacy cannot say what it says. Yes, even the ancient teachers, Origen, Jerome and others. St. Paul's opinion did not meet. Nor is it a miracle, for it is in itself a high doctrine above the understanding of men; and when reason, with its thoughts of men, comes into it, it goes astray, and knows not what to make of it; for it knows nothing more than of the law and the ten commandments, which it takes and abides by, concluding no further than this: Whoever lives and does as the Ten Commandments require, God is gracious to him; knows nothing of the sorrow of the corrupt nature, that no one is able to keep God's commandments, and all the
People are under sin and condemned, so that there was no other way to help them, except that God had to give His Son for the world and establish another sermon, so that grace and reconciliation would be proclaimed to us. Whoever does not understand this great thing of which St. Paul speaks must also lack the right understanding of his words. Rather, this has happened to us, who have left the Scriptures and St. Paul's epistles under the bench, and instead, like swine in their tears, have burrowed in our human condition; therefore we must purify ourselves again and learn to understand St. Paul's speech correctly.
19 "Letters" and "spirit" were thus understood from Origene and Hieronymo (St. Augustine is nevertheless somewhat included), that "letter" means, as they speak, the written sense and understanding. This would not be wrongly said, if they interpreted the same words correctly. They call the written sense the narration of a story, as it lies there in the writing, according to the words, and in the understanding, which the words naturally give. But they are called spiritual sense, if one gives under the words another secret sense. As the Scripture says in Genesis 3, how the serpent persuaded the woman to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and also gave her husband to bite into it etc.; this, they say, is the letter: but spirit is the spiritual interpretation, that the serpent interprets the evil temptation, which provokes to sin. The woman is the carnal sensuality, in which such temptations and irritations are stirred and felt; Adam, the man, is reason, the highest part, they say, of man. Where reason does not consent to the outward senses, there is no need; but where it is moved and gives its will to them, the fall is done.
20. so at first Origen has played in the Scriptures and many others have followed, that this is considered the highest art, who only could make such deutels much, and therewith fill the church; have in the St. Paulo want to imitate, who there Gal. 4, 22. 23. 24. interprets the story that Abraham has had two sons, one from
of the free women or women of the house, the other of the maidservants, so that the two women are the two testaments (says St. Paul); the one that makes only servants (which is just what he calls here the office of the letter), the other that leads to freedom, or (as he says here) the office of the Spirit, which makes alive; and the two sons are the two kinds of people or nations, one of which abides by the law alone, the other grasps and believes the gospel. This is indeed another interpretation, for the history and the text in itself is, as St. Paul himself says, an allegoria, that is, a hidden speech or secret interpretation; but he does not say that therefore the text in itself is the letter that kills, and the allegoria or secret interpretation is the spirit, as they pretend everywhere in Scripture: The text or history in itself is nothing but a dead letter, but its interpretation is the spirit; and yet they have led such interpretation no further than to the doctrine of the law, which is nothing else than the very thing St. Paul calls the letter.
(21) For he uses the word "letter" equally contemptuously of the law (which is also the word of God) against the ministry and preaching of the gospel; thus calling the teaching of the Ten Commandments, how to be obedient to God, to honor father and mother, to love one's neighbor etc., and thus also all the best teaching that is in all books and schools or sermons etc. For the word "letters" he calls everything that is taught, ordered, written, so that it remains word or writing, or even thoughts that can be painted, written, spoken, but not written in the heart or live in the heart; as there is the whole Law of Moses or Ten Commandments (which is the highest doctrine), they are read, heard or thought; as when I sit and think of the first commandment: Thou shalt not have other gods, and so on the other, third etc., I may read, write, speak, and strive with all my senses, as when I hear the commandment of Caesar or of the sovereign, saying, Thou shalt do this, and thou shalt not do that. This is what St. Paul calls everything the "letter" or, as we have otherwise called it, a written sense.
22. On the other hand, there is another teaching or sermon, which he calls the "ministry of the New Testament" and "of the Spirit", which does not teach you what you should do (for you have heard that before); but shows you what God wants to do and give you, and has already done, by giving His Son, Christ, for us, because we were under God's wrath and condemnation for our disobedience to the law, which no man fulfills, that He paid for our sins, reconciled God, and gave us His righteousness etc. There you hear nothing of what we have done, but of the works of Christ, who alone was born of a virgin, died for sin, and rose from the dead, which no other man could have done. This is the preaching that is revealed through the Holy Spirit alone, and brings the Holy Spirit with Him, so that He works through it in the hearts of men who hear and accept this preaching; therefore it is called a ministry or preaching of the Spirit.
23. With these two words, "letter" and "spirit," he wants to form the two kinds of sermons in contrast to each other, and to further emphasize his ministry and its benefit, in contrast to the other, to all who boast of excellent teachers and great spirit; for he speaks so diligently that he does not call the two sermons by their names, law and gospel; but gives each the name of its work, as it creates: Gives the gospel a very glorious name, that he calls it "a ministry of the Spirit"; again, names the law shamefully, as if he did not want to do it the honor, that he nevertheless called it God's law or commandment, as it is, and he himself afterwards confesses that it was given with great glory to Most and commanded to the children of Israel.
24 Why does he do this? Should one despise God's law or not keep it? Is it not a fine thing and piety to live chastely and honestly? which God planted in reason and all books praise and the world must be ruled by. Answer: St. Paul is to do everything possible to put down the fame and pretensions of false preachers, and to teach them to rightly understand and apply the power of his preaching of the Gospel.
When the Jews speak highly of the law of Moses, that they have received the law from God, written on two tables of stone, and likewise all learned, holy preachers of the law, lawyers etc. boast that they have done much, lived etc.; what is all this against the preaching of the gospel? It may be called a fine sermon and well taught; but it is no more than taught and spoken or written. In these words it remains: "You shall love God with all your heart"; item, "your neighbor as yourself", Luc. 10, 27., nothing more comes of it; and if it is long and much done and lived, it is nothing done, and is nothing more than a lifeless husk without peas and a shell without a kernel.
(25) For it is impossible to keep the law without Christ, unless a man must be outwardly pious for the sake of honor or good, or for fear of punishment. For where God's grace in Christ is not recognized, the heart cannot turn to God, nor trust Him, nor have love and desire for His commandments, but only strives against them; for nature cannot be willingly compelled, and no one likes to be imprisoned in chains; and where he must duck and break under the executioner's sword or rod and punishment, he has no will to do so, is only more inflamed against the law, and his heart always stands thus: Oh, that I would only steal, rob, and be stingy freely. To follow my lust etc.; and where it is forcibly refused, he would rather that there were no law nor God etc. This still happens in the essence, where one drives the doctrine on the outward man, and yet forces a bodily discipline out of it.
But such disobedience shows itself much more horribly inwardly, when the heart is rightly struck with the law, since it must stand before God's judgment and feel the sentence of condemnation pass over it; as we will hear in the following passage, where the apostle says: "The letter kills. There we first find the right great knots, how nature rages against the law and rages with the inward vices and fruits of the sea and enmity against the law, since it must stand before God and be condemned.
flees and is terribly angry against God's judgment, begins to dispute whether he rules rightly, that is, whether he is the right God, and with such thoughts falls deeper and deeper into doubt, murmuring, impatience, until at last (if she is not helped again by the gospel) she even despairs, like Judas or Saul, and goes out with blasphemy and cursing against God and all creatures. This is what St. Paul calls Rom. 7, 8, especially the sins that are stirred up in the heart of man by the law and that kill man.
27. See, here you can see why the law is called the "letter", that is, such a teaching, which, although it is fine and good, remains only by heart, does not come into the heart, so that it would be prayed and done in it; For nature is so evil that it will not and cannot conform to the law, and the human race is so corrupt that no one can be found who does not transgress all God's commandments, even if God's wrath and eternal damnation are preached and held up to him daily; indeed, if he is rightly pressed with it, he only begins to rage against it all the more horribly.
(28) Therefore the sum is, that though all the commandments be brought together, and such preaching be praised and exalted to the highest degree, as it is to be praised, yet it is no more than a letter, that is, such a thing as is only taught and said, but not done. For a letter is called and is all kinds of commandment, doctrine and preaching, which remains only in the word or on paper and letter, and nothing is done after it; just as when a prince or council sends out a commandment: if it is not kept, it is and remains nothing more than an open letter, where it is written what is to be done, but nothing follows after it. So also God's commandment, because it is not kept, even though it is the highest doctrine and God's eternal will, it must nevertheless suffer to be made into a mere empty letter or empty shell, since it brings neither life nor salvation without heart and fruit, and may well be called a right tablet, that is, in which it is written and shown, not what one does, but what one does not do, and, as the world says, a master's commandment, which remains unkept and undone. So it has also St. Augu-
stinus, and said about Psalm 17: What is law without grace, but letter without spirit? For nature cannot and cannot keep it, where Christ is not there with his grace.
29 Again, when St. Paul calls the gospel "a ministry of the Spirit," he does so to indicate its power, because it works much differently than the law in the hearts of men, namely, that it brings with it the Holy Spirit and makes another heart. For when a man, driven into terror and fear by the preaching of the law, hears this preaching, which no longer tells him what God demands of him, but what He has done for him, and does not point to his works, but to Christ, and tells him to believe and be sure that He will forgive him his sin for the sake of His Son and accept him as His child. Such a sermon, when a man accepts and believes it, immediately straightens his heart and gives him comfort, so that he no longer flees from God, but turns to Him; and because he finds and feels such grace and mercy in Him, he begins to love Him again; he begins to call upon Him from the heart, and to think of Him as his dear God and to honor Him. And the more such faith and comfort is strengthened, the more the desire and love for his commandments and obedience increases; for this God always wants to have the word of the Gospel driven to awaken the human heart so that it recognizes this and remembers the great grace and good deeds of God, and thus the Holy Spirit becomes stronger and stronger. Behold, all this is not the law's or man's power and work, but a new heavenly power of the Holy Spirit, who presses Christ with His works into the heart, and makes of it a true booklet, which is not letters and mere writing, but truly life and deed.
30. which God also promised beforehand to give by the new preaching of the gospel, as Joel 3:1 and elsewhere; and afterwards also proved in public examples and experiences above the outward preaching of the gospel, as, on the day of Pentecost, and afterwards, when the apostles, St. Peter and others, began to preach, that the Holy Spirit was visibly
fell down from heaven on the listeners, Acts 8, 17. and 10, 44. which no one had heard or seen before, how long the preaching of the law had been going on; that one had to see and grasp that this was much another preaching, which was followed by such power and effect, and yet said no more, for so, as St. Paul Acts 13, 38. 39. says: "By this is preached unto you forgiveness of sins, of all which ye could not be justified by the law: but in this all that believe are justified."
Thou seest no more the empty letters and vain shells or husks of the law, which always driveth and saith, Thou shalt do and keep these things, and yet nothing is done nor kept; but the right substance and power, which Christ bringeth with his fullness of the Spirit, that they which believe the word of the gospel with a right earnestness may enjoy the same fullness, and be counted unto them as having fulfilled the ten commandments, as John 1:16, 17 says, "Of his fullness we all receive grace for grace. 1, 16. 17. says: "Of his fullness we have all received grace for grace; for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were given through Christ." Through Moses, he says, the law is given; but what is and does it do? It is a beautiful doctrine, and paints a beautiful picture of how man should be toward God and all men, and is a beautiful letter and scripture; but it remains empty and does not enter into any heart: therefore it is called and remains law, without power and fulfillment, because there is no more. But if there is to be a fulfillment, then another man must come than Moses, and bring another, which is not called "the law given," but "grace and truth done or become"; for it is two different things to give law and to become truth, just as it is two different things to teach and to do. Moses teaches it and says it well, but he himself can neither fulfill it nor give it to others: but that it should come to pass and be done, God's Son belongs to it with his fullness; for he has done and fulfilled it both for himself, and also gives and bestows it on us in our unoccupied hearts, that we may also come to the fullness. But this happens in such a way that we receive grace for
grace, that is, that we may enjoy it, and for His sake, who has full grace with God, we may also be accepted into grace, even though we do not yet have complete obedience to the law in ourselves; and after that, when we have received such comfort and grace, we also receive the Holy Spirit through His power, so that we do not remain just empty letters, but now also come to the truth and begin to fulfill God's commandment, so that it is always said that we have drawn from His fullness and drunk from this fountain.
32 St. Paul also speaks Rom. 5, 17. 18. when he contrasts Adam and Christ. Adam, he says, was also a fountain spring, who through his disobedience in paradise filled the world with sins and death, so that through this one sin damnation came upon all men. But again Christ with his obedience and righteousness became a source and fullness for us, so that we also become righteous and obedient from it. And this abundance is done in such a way that it is much more plentiful and abundant than the former. For though by one man's sin sin and death passed upon all men, and the law was added to it, thereby sin became much more powerful and stronger; But on the other hand, the grace and gift in Christ is so abundant and powerful, that it not only overflows and wipes out the sin of one Adam (which before sinks all men into death), but overflows and wipes out all sin, so that rather those who have received the fullness of grace and gift (he says) for righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ etc.
33 Therefore you see what the difference is between the two kinds of preaching, and why St. Paul praises the preaching of the gospel and calls it a ministry of the Spirit, and on the other hand, the law is a clean, unadulterated letter; so that he may put down the defiance of his false apostles and preachers, which they led on their Judaism and Mosiah's law, and preached to the people with great words, saying, "Let Paul preach what he will, yet he will not overthrow Moses, who received the law from God.
Mount Sinai, which is God's irrevocable commandment and must be kept if anyone wants to be saved.
(34) Just as in our time papists, Anabaptists, and other mobs are crying out against us: What is it that you preach much of the faith and of Christ? What good will it do the people? It must truly be done. Such pretensions may appear to be something, but when they are seen in the light, they are just empty, vain talk. For if we speak of works and deeds, there are already the Ten Commandments, which we teach and do as well as they. And it would be enough if they could be preached in such a way that they would also be done as soon as possible. But of this the question is, Whether it be done as it is preached, that they remain not only words, and, as St. Paul saith, letters, but that out of the letters also life and the Spirit come? We are one in preaching, and there is no doubt that the Ten Commandments are to be taught and rather done; but that they are not done is our complaint. Therefore we must have something more about this, so that we may know how to make them come to pass. Otherwise, what is the use of such preaching, that Moses and the Law only say: You shall do this, this is what God wants you to do? Yes, dear Moses, I do hear that, and it is right and true; but tell me once, where should I get it from, which I, unfortunately, have not done nor can do? It is not good to count money out of an empty bag, and to drink out of an empty candel; but if I am to pay my debt and be drunk in my thirst, give me counsel to have a full bag and a full candel. Here these launderers know nothing to say about it, they only continue with the activities and plagues of the law, leaving the people stuck in their sins and mocking them to their detriment.
35 Thus, St. Paul paints the false apostles and all such disgraceful riffraff, who boast that they know everything better and teach much more than the true preachers of the gospel; and if they prove themselves to be the highest, pretending to be great and have done great things with their preaching, it is nothing else but pure and unadulterated preaching.
The letter, indeed, is by no means as good as the preaching of Moses, who was also an excellent preacher, and did greater things than all can do, and yet made no progress with the preaching of the law and his rule, except that it remained the letter and the Old Testament, that God had to give another preaching and the New Testament, which also gives the Spirit. We preach the same, says St. Paul, and have a different glory if it is to be praised, and can well defy all those, that they also not only teach what one should do (which they themselves do not do), but also instruct and cause it to be done and lived; therefore our sermon is not called the Old Testament, the dead letter, but the New Testament and living Spirit sermon.
(36) Surely no spirit of the mob will not do this, nor will it be able to do it, though it boasts of great words of the Spirit, but you must not worry about them, for they know nothing more and can get no further than pointing you to your work, even though they speak of Christ, but they do not give more than his example, that one should therefore be patient in suffering. Summa, without the preaching of the faith of Christ no New Testament can be preached, nor the Spirit come into the heart; but all that one teaches, does, thinks, does, and is able to do, remains mere letters, without grace, truth, and life, and the heart is so little changed, improved, or quickened without Christ, as little as the book in which the Ten Commandments are written, or the stones in which they are hewn, may fulfill them.
For the letter killeth; but the spirit maketh alive.
(37) This is spoken even more harshly against the glory of the preaching of the law, and the ministry of the gospel is praised much more gloriously. And is the apostle too bold to attack the law and say, "It is not only a mere letter, but also such a sermon that does nothing but kill? This means not a good, useful, but a purely harmful sermon. Who then could speak that would not be a cursed thing to all the world?
Would he be a heretic and be executed as a blasphemer if St. Paul did not do it himself? Now he has to praise the law or God's commandment itself, and says that it is good and delicious, and must not be despised nor let up, but confirmed and fulfilled (as Christ also says Matth. 5, 18.), so that not one tittle of it perishes. How then does he come to speak of the law in such an evil and disgraceful way, that it basically means nothing but death and poison? Well, it is a high doctrine, which reason does not understand, and the world, especially those who want to be holy and pious, cannot suffer; for nothing else is said, except that all our works, however good they may be, are nothing but death and poison.
38 But St. Paul also wants to overthrow the fame of the false teachers and hypocrites, and show what their preaching is and does, even if it is best, since only the law is given, and Christ is neither preached nor known. They gloriously say and boast, "If you live this way, keep the commandments, and do many good works, you will be saved." But that this is nothing but vain words and harmful doctrine is found afterward, when one has heard and relied on nothing but such doctrine, since no comfort or life follows, but doubt, fear, even death and destruction.
For when a man sees that he has not kept God's commandment, and yet the same continues to drive him on and on and demands such guilt from him, holds nothing else before him but terrible God's wrath and eternal damnation, he must sink down and despair in his sins; this must follow if one teaches nothing else but the law, and is of the opinion that one wants to go to heaven with it. Just as the example shows of a great hermit in Vitis Patrum, who lived most strenuously for more than 70 years, and made many disciples who followed him: when the time came for him to die, he began to tremble and lay in such fear for three whole days, and when his disciples comforted him and admonished him why he would not gladly die, if he had lived so holy a life, he said, "Alas!
I have served Christ all my life and lived strictly, but God's judgment and sentence is much different than man's. I am not a man.
40 Behold, this excellent man, who has lived so holy, knows and can know no other article but of God's judgment according to His law, and there is no consolation of the gospel of Christ; but since he has long lived according to God's commandments, and directed that he might be saved, the law is there and kills him by its own work, that he must say, Alas! who knows what God will say to this? Who will stand before His judgment? etc. That is, through his own conscience he denies himself heaven, and what he has done and lived does not help him, but only puts him deeper into death, because he does not have the consolation of the gospel; since someone other than the thief on the cross or the tax collector, who has lain in public sins all his life, takes the consolation of the gospel, that is, the forgiveness of sins in Christ, and thereby overcomes sin and the judgment of the law and comes through death into eternal life.
41 Therefore one understands the contradiction, what this means: "The spirit makes alive" etc. This is nothing other than the holy gospel, a salutary, blessed sermon and a sweet, comforting word, which comforts and refreshes the sorrowful heart and immediately snatches it out of the jaws of death and hell and brings it into a certain hope of eternal life, in the faith of Christ; for when the hour comes and death and God's judgment come before him, he does not place his comfort in his works, but even though he has lived in the best possible way, he still says, as St. Paul 1 Corinthians 1:4. Paul 1 Cor. 4, 4: "I am not conscious of anything, but for that reason I am not righteous.
(42) That is, to fall from oneself and one's whole life, even to death, when the heart says, "I am neither justified nor saved by this," which is nothing else than death and damnation; but again, the spirit pulls itself out and lifts itself up through the faith of the Gospel, which says (as St. Bernard also said in his hour of death), "Dear Lord Jesus, I know that even though I have lived in the best way, I have lived damnably; but I am comforted by this. Bernard also said in the hour of his death: "Dear Lord Jesus, I know that even though I have lived in the best way, I have lived damnably; but I take comfort in the fact that you died for me and are condemned.
You have sprinkled me with your blood from your holy wounds; for I have been baptized into you, and have heard your word, by which you called me, and granted me grace and life, and called me to believe; and I will go there, not in the uncertain fearful doubt and thought: Oh! who knows what God in heaven will judge of me? No, so a Christian should not say; for the judgment of my works and life has long since been pronounced by the law, so I must confess myself guilty and condemned; but I live by the gracious judgment which God, above and against the judgment of the law, has given from heaven: "He who believes in the Son of God has eternal life." John 3:36.
(43) Where there is such comfort in the gospel and the heart is torn from death and the fear of hell, then the Spirit's power and work continue, so that God's commandment also begins to live in the heart of man, because he now has a desire and love for it and begins to fulfill it, and thus eternal life begins here, until it is completed in that life and remains forever.
44 You see how much more glorious and better is the ministry or preaching of the apostles, of the New Testament or of the Gospel, than that of all others who preach nothing but great works and holiness of men without Christ. And this should admonish and stimulate us to hear the preaching of the Gospel gladly and to give thanks to God for it, because we hear that it is such a powerful preaching that it brings life to men and helps them eternally out of death, and has the promise that the Holy Spirit will certainly be present and given into the hearts of those who believe in it.
But if the ministry that killeth by letters, and is formed in stones, had clearness, so that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses, because of the clearness of his countenance, which ceaseth; how shall not rather the ministry that giveth the Spirit have clearness? For if the ministry that preaches condemnation has clarity, much more does the ministry that preaches righteousness have abundant clarity etc.
St. Paul is drunk and overflowing with words of joy and gladness in praising the gospel. Once again, he treats the law crudely and uncleanly, calling it a ministry or a sermon of death and condemnation. How could he call God's law more abominable than to call it a preaching of death and hell? just as he did to the Galatians Cap. 2, 17. and Cap. 3, 10. also calls it a preaching or ministry of sins, item, a preaching of the curse, since he says: "Those who deal with the works of the law are under the curse" etc. This concludes strongly enough that the law and works cannot make anyone righteous in the sight of God, for how could they, if they preach nothing but sin, death and condemnation, make anyone righteous and saved?
(46) St. Paul must speak thus, as has been said above, because of the shameful presumption of both teachers and disciples, that flesh and blood wants to compete badly with the law, and wants to bring its own works before God and defy it; and yet so miserably and wickedly deceives itself to its own destruction. For if it is rightly seen, and, as he says here, its clarity is seen, it does nothing but kill the man and sink him into damnation.
Therefore a Christian may well learn this text of St. Paul both against the fame of false teachers and the plagues and temptations of the devil, which he brings upon the law, that one may seek righteousness in his own works, and with such thoughts trouble his heart unto death: Behold, this and this thou must indeed have done, if thou wilt be saved; that in such a battle thou mayest take from the devil his own sword, and say, Why troubleest thou me with the law and my works? What else is it if you preach it to me for a long time, but a sermon that only brings sin, death and condemnation upon me, what shall I seek my righteousness before God in it?
48) That which he says about the clarity of the law, of which the Jewish teachers of works boasted, is taken from the history of Exodus 20 and 34, how the law was given when God descended from heaven with great majesty and glory, when it thundered and flashed.
and the mountain stood in the midst of the fire etc. When Moses came down from the mountain again and brought the law, his face shone and gave off such a radiance that the people could not see him under their eyes, and he had to hang a blanket over his face etc.
(49) From this glory of theirs St. Paul goes against them and says: "It was a clarity, that is, glorious and majestic; but what does it do but that it drives to flee from God and chases to death and hell? But we have and praise another clarity of our ministry, of which the history of the Gospel Matth. 17, 2. 3. 4. says, that Christ also made his disciples see such clarity, when his face shone like the sun etc., and Moses and Elijah were also there, before which the disciples did not flee, but looked with wonder and joy, and said: "Lord, here it is good to stay, here we will make our home for you and Mosi" etc.
(50) Set these two images against each other, and you will understand what he means; for this is the sum of it, as we have said, that the law brings terror and death when it strikes the heart with its splendor and is rightly recognized; again, the gospel gives comfort and joy. But what the covered and the brightly uncovered face of Moses is, that would be too long to say here.
51 It is also a particularly comforting word when he says that the ministry of the law and preaching is such a ministry that ceases; for if it did not, there would be nothing but eternal condemnation. But the cessation happens when the gospel preaching of Christ is concerned, to which Moses must give way and leave room alone, so that he no longer drives his terror in the conscience of the faithful; but when it feels the clarity of Moses, that it wriggles and trembles before God's wrath, then it is time that Christ's clarity with its sweet, comforting light shines into the heart, so that one can also suffer Moses and Eliam. For the clarity of the law, or the unveiled face of Moses, shall shine no longer, until you are humbled and thus driven to desire the sweet face of Christ. When thou comest to this, thou shalt
Then hear thou no more Moses, nor suffer him to afflict thee, but that he may abide under the Lord Christ, and leave thee the comfort and joy of his countenance undimmed.
For even that part (he says in conclusion), which was transfigured, is not to be considered clarity, compared to this exuberant clarity.
52) That is, if we look at this clarity and holiness that we have in Christ through the preaching of the gospel, then that part of the clarity (which is only a small, short, and lasting clarity) is not clarity either, but dark clouds compared to the light of Christ, which now shines and shines for us out of sin, death, and hell to God and eternal life.