Held in the parish church, on Sunday Cantate [May 11, afternoon] 1544.*)
V. 35-38. But would anyone say, "How will the dead rise? and with what kind of body will they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest shall not live, except it die. And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall come forth, but a mere grain, that is, wheat, or the other one. But God gives it a body, as he wills, and to each of the seeds his own body.
1. at this time in our church we use to preach and consider the article of our Christian faith, of the resurrection of the dead.
1) Just as it is right and proper that the same article be preached and practiced at this time. For since we preached and heard the article of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ at Easter, it is right that we preach and hear the article of the resurrection of the flesh, that is, of our resurrection, after Easter.
1) In the church at Wittenberg, after Easter, and especially on the Sundays Jubilate, Cantate and Rogate, texts from the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians were preached. Cf. Luther's Church Postilion, Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XII, 578 ff, 592.
*) That this sermon was preached five years "1544" and "in the afternoon" is reported in the Tischreden, Cap. 49, ยง I, Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XXII, 1320.
For our Lord Jesus Christ began the resurrection in his own body, but the resurrection is not completed, so we are also resurrected. Just as his suffering and death will not be perfect, we also will come afterwards and suffer and die with him; as St. Paul says, "he makes up in his flesh what is lacking in Christ," Col. 1:24. So also his resurrection will not be perfect, nor complete, we also will come afterwards and rise from the dead. He is our head; we are members of his body, Eph. 5, 23. 30. Therefore, after the resurrection of Christ, we must also preach about our resurrection, since both belong together, so that it may be a perfect resurrection.
2 St. Paul pushes the same article very violently in this chapter. The reason was this: There came into the church at Corinthos certain wise men, not only of the Greeks, who asked for wisdom, and thought the gospel vain foolishness, but also of the Jews, as the Sadducees and their disciples, who received the gospel, and were baptized, and were in part preachers and teachers in Christendom, and yet believed not that there was a resurrection of the dead. They pretended that a man, if he died, would fall as a tree falls, and die as a cow and the unreasonable animals die, which alone are created for this life; when this life ceases, they have nothing more to wait for. They were good fellows who did not think anything of the resurrection of the dead and of the life to come, and they despised and mocked the Christians who believed such things. Just as in our time the pope, together with his cardinals and bishops, and the worldly wise men, together with their highly intelligent and keenly sensible sages, think nothing of the article that there is a resurrection of the flesh and an eternal life, and know how to laugh at us and mock us for believing such things.
3 Against such clever ones, who are called good Christians, even excellent teachers, who wanted to be respected as the first preachers after the apostles, and who boasted of their high spirit, St. Paul stands up with all his strength and establishes the article of the resurrection.
in the strongest possible way, shut the mouths of such smart alecks violently, so that he may keep the righteous Christians in the right pure faith of this article constantly, so that they will not also be misled and seduced by such poison and loose talk of reason and human cleverness, which subverts itself to mastering the articles of faith.
4 Shortly before he proves this article, about the resurrection of the dead, with the main part of Christian doctrine, which no one can deny, who otherwise wants to be a Christian, let alone a preacher of the gospel of Christ. And he shows our resurrection in Christ's resurrection, thus proving one article with another, and says v. 12, 13: "If Christ be preached that he is risen from the dead, how say some of you that the resurrection of the dead is nothing? But if the resurrection of the dead is nothing, then neither is Christ risen" 2c. So Christ is the head of us all, and we are his body and members of his body. Now a head cannot be without its body and without its body limbs, if it is to be otherwise a truly living head. Now if we should not be raised from the dead, it would follow that Christ would not be raised from the dead either. But if Christ rose from the dead, as we preach and believe, it follows that we also must rise from the dead.
5 Therefore, whoever believes and confesses Christ's resurrection must also believe and confess our resurrection. And again, he that denieth our resurrection hath also denied Christ's resurrection, yea, at the same time the whole gospel, and all that is preached of Christ. What is the use then of accepting the gospel, boasting of being a Christian, and being baptized, if one says that the resurrection of the dead is nothing? Just as much deny everything and say that there is no gospel, no baptism, no Christ, no God. It is we for whose sake Christ rose from the dead; for himself and for his person he did not rise from the dead. Just as for his own sake he did not suffer, was not crucified, and did not die, but for our sake; so for his own sake he was not raised from the dead.
1282 Erl. <2.) 20b, SS-57. interpretations on the I Epistle to the Corinthians. W. VIII, IIIl-1414. 1283
but for our sakes. If therefore the resurrection of Christ was for our sakes, we must also afterwards rise from the dead, as Christ rose from the dead, that it may be a full and complete resurrection. For a body, when it rises from the dead, must rise with all its limbs, leaving none of them behind.
(6) Having now proved and established this article of the resurrection of the dead by the main body of Christian doctrine, that is, by the resurrection of Christ, he refutes some of the objections and questions of those who denied this article, and further proves this article from the creatures and from the creation of the creatures. For the highly intelligent men who denied this article argued sharply from reason: How is it possible that the dead should rise again? They measured the resurrection of the dead and the future life according to their sour head; just as if it had to happen with the resurrection of the dead and with the eternal life in the same way as it happens with this life here on earth: What kind of being would it be, if the dead should rise again and become alive?
(7) Just as the pagan Pliny mocks and ridicules this article. There are some boys, he says (that's what he calls Christians), who say that people, when they have died, will come back to life. But how does this rhyme? For where will so many people dwell, if they are all to come to life again? Therefore it is a vain childish thing, and only fool's work, that one pretends such.
(8) So they also laughed at this article in Corinth, and said: How is it possible that the dead should rise again? What kind of bodies will we have after the resurrection from the dead? Where will we all have room? Where will we all take food, drink, house, yard, wives? As the Sadducees also reproached Christ [Matth. 22, 25. ff. Luc. 20, 29. ff.]: a woman would have had seven husbands here; would she also have the same seven husbands there? Measure also the future life according to her reason, and according to this life. Should each, say
If they, who have died, are resurrected, where would we all have room enough? Or, will a man become like a flea? The Corinthians had a lot of such foolish thoughts out of clever reason, with which they blued the ears of the people, and misled the Christians, so that they should not believe that there was anything in the resurrection of the dead.
(9) He rejects such pleas and questions, and repels them with parables which he takes from nature. You fool," he says, "ask how it is possible that the dead should rise from the dead. For what is done daily to many creatures before your eyes is as impossible to reason as this resurrection of the dead. "That which thou sowest shall not live, except it die." Takes the likeness of the seed, and points it to the resurrection of the dead, as Christ also does with the grain of wheat, John 12:24. And thus wants to say: Life is not found before, the seed dies and decays in the earth. So this mortal, decaying body, as it now lives, does not come to life either, it dies before and decays in the earth. Now you are not such a fool as to say of the seed that it is impossible for it to grow again and come to life, even though it is already thrown into the earth and dies. Why then do you say that it is impossible for dead bodies buried in the earth to rise again and come to life?
010 Item: Thou askest how the dead shall rise, and with what kind of body shall they come? Thou fool, look at the grain: "which thou sowest is not the body that shall be, but a mere grain, that is, a wheat, or some other. It is the same with the human body. According to its essence, it is the same body that is to be resurrected; but as far as its form is concerned, it is not the body that is to become, but is a wrinkled, decayed, dead body, just as that is a mere, dry, wrinkled grain. But God will give it a fresh, beautiful, living, incorruptible body, which may no longer eat, drink, die, decay 2c., just as He gives the bare dry grain a beautiful green body, which is not dry and dead on the ground.
and is a mere grain, but which has its form, color, sap and life, grows, blossoms and greens like a forest. And as God gives to every seed its own body, so that the grain of wheat does not become a stalk of barley, nor the grain of barley a stalk of rye, although it is already mixed with other seeds in the field: So he will give to every man his own body, so that in the resurrection the body of a man will not become the body of a woman, nor the body of a woman the body of a man, but that which is made man will remain man, both man and woman, each in his nature and kind, although the form and custom of the body will be different.
So the apostle puts this article of the resurrection into the article of the creation, and proves one article with the other. As if to say: He who has the word of God that there is a resurrection of the dead, and believes and confesses that God, who has spoken such a word, is Almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth, as the children pray in faith, and the grain in the field together with all creatures are a strong example and witness of it, 1) believes and confesses also that there is a resurrection of the dead. But he who denies that there is a resurrection of the dead denies at the same time that God is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and has spoken this word about the resurrection of the dead. He who confesses this article, that God is almighty, does not dispute and question whether it is possible or not that the dead will rise, since God's word is there that says so. But he who disputes and asks how it is possible that the dead should rise, shows by such disputing and questioning that he has no faith, that he does not believe that it is God's word and that God is almighty.
12 And this is also the truth. If this principium, that is, reason and principal, stands that God is Almighty Creator of all creatures, then the consequence brings irrefutably and undeniably that God creates all things.
1) In the old edition: "sein", which here, as often, stands for "sind". Erlanger: be.
are possible. If the same almighty creator now speaks a word, then it must happen and cannot go back. If all reason asks the same question here, it must confess it and say: If it is true that God is almighty, then nothing can be set that should not be possible for him. That is why all the objections of prudent reason are here stopped, and the article of the resurrection is strongly and powerfully concluded from the article of the creation. God says in His word that the dead shall rise: GOD, who says such things, is an almighty GOD, and Creator of heaven and earth, and of all creatures; therefore the resurrection must happen, and cannot go back, because GOD has said so. Otherwise, he would not be an almighty God and Creator.
(13) We should take note of this, so that we may learn to establish our faith in the article of the resurrection and strengthen it with the article of God's creation and omnipotence, against all reasoning and against all temptation. For from this principio, that is, reason and principal, the dear fathers founded and strengthened their faith in the article of the resurrection of the dead, and that nothing was impossible to God that he had spoken.
14 Abraham had the promise Gen 21:12: The seed in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed was to be called Isaac. Now God tempted Abraham, commanded him, and said Gen. 22:2: He should offer his son Isaac, on whom the promise was written, for a burnt offering, that is, he should slaughter him and burn him with fire to powder; for this was a burnt offering, if it was burned pure with fire, Deut. 1:8, 9, 13. These are two disgusting sayings: "In Isaac shall the seed be named"; and: Isaac shall be burned to powder, and become ashes. And no reason can compare and tolerate such unequal, repugnant sayings. But Abraham keeps the word, and believes the promise, even though Isaac is burned to powder, yet the promise must be fulfilled, and Isaac must come to life again from the ashes; for God has spoken it, and nothing is impossible to Him, for He is almighty. Thus Abraham bases his faith in the resurrection on God's word and omnipotence; as the Scriptures say
1286 Erl. cs.) sod, 59-SI. Interpretations on the I Epistle to the Corinthians. W. VIII, 1417-14S0. 1287
Hebr. 11, 17. 18. 19.: "By faith Abraham sacrificed Isaac when he was tempted, and gave the only begotten, since he had already received the promise, of which it was said: "In Isaac shall thy seed be called unto thee. And he thought, God is able to raise even the dead, therefore he took him again as an example.
15. before reason, it is a ridiculous thing that is proposed to Abrahani. Abraham shall sacrifice Isaac, and yet believe that from Isaac shall be born the seed that brings the blessing. Here the reason speaks: Abraham, you are mad and insane that you believe such things. How does this rhyme? In Isaac shall the seed be called, and Isaac shall become ashes. How can ashes be your son from whom the seed comes? But Abraham does not let such thoughts of reason err, but says, "Well, let me be mad and insane; though I offer my son Isaac for a burnt offering, as God commanded me, yet God has said, "In Isaac shall the seed 1) be called." Because He has said this, it must be done, and cannot be turned back: for God is almighty [Gen. 17:1]. Has he given me the son from the old, barren Sarah, which is so difficult and impossible before reason, as this, that the dead ashes should live. If God was able to give me a son from the dead body of the barren Sarah, He can also make Isaac as fresh and alive from the ashes as he is now. Thus Abraham believed that God was almighty and could and would do it, because He had spoken it. And such faith pleased God so much that he made him the father of many nations [Gen. 17:4].
16 Adam also believed in this way. He had the promise from Christ that Christ would overcome sin, death and hell, and redeem men from the power of the devil and make them blessed; as the promise reads Gen. 3:15: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Adam and all his descendants keep this promise, believing and hoping that death will be taken away from him.
1) Gen. 21, 12. In the original: Name (Erlanger).
and he will live. But when he hears the word [Gen. 3, 19]: "You are earth and shall become earth", he must think: Today I am alive, tomorrow I will be dead, and when I am dead, the worms will eat me and I will become earth. As we see in experience, this word is fulfilled tremendously in all the world every day; for everything that is Adam, that is man, dies away, becomes powder, earth and dung. These sayings are also opposed to each other: Adam shall be redeemed from death through the seed of the woman, and shall live. And: Adam shall die, and become dust. And no reason can unite and harmonize these unequal sayings. But Adam compares them in such a way that he grasps the word of the promise of Christ with firm faith in his heart and believes that he will live, even if he dies. In such faith he lives and dies, retaining the hope even in death that he will live. He could also have thought according to reason: What will become of it? Shall I live and yet become earth? How is that possible? Who wants to bring them to life, to be eaten by worms? But he does not think so, but he keeps the word of the promise: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," and thus says: "Because God, who spoke this word, is almighty, and made all things from nothing, as I have learned and experienced from the creation of all creatures, I believe that He can also make man alive again, even though he has already died. If God created me from the earth, he can also raise me from the earth and bring me out of death.
Therefore, in this article, about the resurrection of the dead, the only thing that matters is that we learn to pray with the young children: I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, and say: God has said that I shall rise from the dead, for His word is written [John 6:40]: "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that whoever sees the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Because God has spoken these things, and is Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, I have no doubt that it will happen; for nothing is impossible to Him, so He cannot lie. When we say the
we have no doubt about the article of resurrection. For whoever believes that God is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth also believes that He can raise the dead. But if we doubt, it is a sure sign that we still lack childlike faith. For he who disputes and doubts the article of the resurrection does not believe that God is the almighty Creator of all creatures; indeed, he believes nothing at all. For since he does not believe God's work, that God can and will raise the dead according to His word, he also believes nothing of God's power, might, majesty and glory, and thus denies God completely in truth, because he denies His works.
(18) What is lacking today in our enthusiasts and the spirits of the pagans, the Anabaptists and the sacramental abusers, because they do not know, nor do they want to know the infantile faith: I believe in God the Father, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Ah, what is water? say the Anabaptists; water is water: how is it possible that water should wash away man's sins and save him from death? These do not believe that there is a God, for they deny His work. They hear with their ears and speak with their mouths: I believe in God, the Almighty Creator; but in their hearts they do not believe. For since He Himself says, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" [Marc. 16, 16.], and all things are possible to Him, as to the one, almighty Creator of all things, how should it not be possible that the water in the Word should cleanse man from sins and make him blessed? No thing is impossible with God; as the angel Gabriel says to Mary [Luc. 1, 37].
(19) In the same way, one might say of the other article of our Christian faith: How is it possible that God should become man and be born of a woman, and that without man's seed, only of the Holy Spirit, from a pure virgin? Item: How is it possible that a virgin should be pregnant and bear a son? A virgin cannot be a mother, and a mother cannot be a virgin. It does not rhyme, says reason, virginity and motherhood, virgin chastity and motherhood.
The work of giving birth to a child, suckling a child 2c. And it is true, no reason can rhyme such things together. But faith rhymes it together, and says: You fool, God is almighty; therefore all things are possible for him.
20 Carlstadt also lacked this piece. I will never let myself be persuaded, he said, that I believe that God will open the heavens and let down his Son and include him in the bread that is distributed in the sacrament.
(21) This is what the grievous unbelief does. But what is the cause of such unbelief? This is the cause that one does not believe God to be omnipotent; for even reason can recognize this: if one allows that God is omnipotent, then one must also allow that everything God says can and must happen. Since God is omnipotent and created heaven and earth, it should be impossible for Him that the bread is Christ's body and the wine Christ's blood, because His word is written there, which He says [Matth. 26, 26. ff.]: "Take, eat, this is My body; drink from it, all of you, this is My blood of the New Testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
(22) Yea, if the baker said unto me, Take, eat; the bread is my body; and if the vintner said unto me, Take, drink; the wine is my blood, I would say also, Thou deniest; how is this possible? Yes, even if the priest were to say such things from his own head and speak his own word, I would also say to him, "Hold still, you deny. But here is neither baker nor wine tavern, neither priest nor bishop, but God, almighty creator of heaven and earth, is here founder and steward of the sacrament, who says: "Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you; this is the cup, the new testament in my blood, which is poured out for you." Who spoke such things? Not a man, but GOD, who created heaven and earth from nothing. Let it be seen who has spoken the word, not how it is possible, but who has spoken these words, namely, not a baker, not a wine taster, not a priest, but God's eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
(23) Therefore, I say, the only thing that is lacking in the spirits of the wicked and the enthusiasts is that they should
1290 Eri. (2., 20I>, St-S6. Interpretations on the I epistle to the Corinthians. W. vm, mz-ms. 1291
do not believe that God is omnipotent. If they believed that, they would not argue and ask how it is possible. They forget about God and His omnipotence, and therefore chatter: water is water, bread is bread, wine is wine; how is it possible that water should redeem from sin and death? How is it possible that bread should be Christ's body, and wine Christ's blood? We know this well, and must not first learn it from the enthusiasts, that water is water, bread is bread, wine is wine. But here you must not look at the water, the bread, the wine, but at the almighty speaker who says: "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Item [Marc. 14, 22. ff.] "Receive, eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood." You must not lose sight of this speaker if you are to keep the right faith and understanding of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
24. see the creation of all creatures [Gen. 1, 1.] "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." By what? By His word, as Moses writes v. 3. "GOD said, Let there be light; and there was light." V. 6.: "GOD said, Let there be a firmament between the waters 2c., and it came to pass." V. 9: "God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto separate places, that dry things may be seen: and it came to pass so." Speaking does it; if this speaker speaks something that he wants to have, it must happen. If God has created heaven and earth and all creatures from nothing, only through his speaking, how should he not be able to accomplish what he wants through his word and sacrament, especially because his word stands there and testifies to it?
(25) Then comes a spirit of the mob, an Anabaptist, a desecrator of the sacraments, and a fanatic, chattering out of reason, and says: The priest takes the child on his hand and pours water on it, takes bread and wine for the sacrament, says the words, and offers it to the people with his hand, lays his hand on the people, and absolves them: how should this give blessedness? I see water, I see bread and wine, I see a man's hand. How can water make blessed? How can a sinful hand absolve sin?
give? So be prepared, and say: Dear man, you must not look at the priest's hand here, but at the speaker, whose word you hear in baptism, absolution and sacrament. The same speaker says Matth. 28, 19: "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Item Joh. 20, 23: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them." Item Marc. 14, 22: "Eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me." And what this speaker says must be done. Even though he uses water, bread, wine and the hand of man as an instrument and sign, he still says that it should be called his work; what men do here, according to his word and command, that he wants to have done.
This speaker is almighty, and created all creatures from nothing; so he is also true. Since we have his word in baptism, absolution and sacrament, we should not doubt, but believe that what the word tells us will happen, "for nothing is impossible to him" [Luc 1:37] "so he cannot lie" [Heb 6:18]. Although we see the poor, sinful hand of the priest, we should not let ourselves be deceived. This speaker wants to tread down the devil with his kingdom, so that even a man's hand, through baptism, through absolution, through Word and Sacrament, should snatch men out of his jaws. Since this is not man's word and work, but God's word and work, who is almighty and cannot lie, we can be sure that "whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved" [Marc. 16, 16]. For what the priest does here, according to God's command, God Himself does.
(27) Therefore, I say, the pagans and the enthusiasts who do not want to believe that baptism is the remission of sins, that the bread and wine in the sacrament are the body and blood of Christ, that absolution excludes heaven, have not yet begun to write the article in the infant faith: I believe in God, Almighty Creator. For this reason, they cannot keep any article of Christian doctrine pure. For whoever does not believe that God
is omnipotent, he cannot believe that baptism is a blessed bath for the forgiveness of sins; that the bread and wine in the sacrament are Christ's body and blood; indeed, he cannot believe that God became man and that a virgin is God's mother. The article that God is almighty preserves all the other articles; if the article falls, so do the other articles.
028 Was it not an impossible thing that God should have promised Abraham that a son should be born to him of Sarah his wife? For they were both old and well advanced in years. Abraham was almost a hundred years old, Sarah ninety; in addition, Sarah had passed away, which belongs to the conception, as the women know well [Gen. 18, 11]; that it was so possible that a child should be born from a block or stone, as from Abraham from Sarah. Nevertheless, Abraham does not waver over such an impossible thing, because he has God's word and promise, but firmly believes that the promised son will be born from such an old, rotten log and stone. As St. Paul exemplifies such faith Rom. 4, 19. 20. 21: "Abraham was not weak in faith, nor did he look at his own body, which had already died because he was almost a hundred years old, nor at the dead body of Sarah; for he did not doubt the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, and gave glory to God, and knew with the utmost certainty that what God promises, He is able to do."
(29) But we cannot persuade our Sadducees, the devotees of the Sacraments, to learn to base their faith in the Lord's Supper on the Word and on the omnipotence of God. The glorious thoughts of faith (since they should think that God has spoken it, and God is omnipotent, therefore He can and will do it) they put out of their hearts, and instead follow the shameful thoughts of human reason: How can bread be Christ's body? how can wine be His blood? and sharply dispute de loco, de locato, de creatura, etc., and abandon God's word and omnipotence. We must let such Sadducees be wise, because they do not want anything else, and in the meantime hold fast to the word, that
Christ says: Eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood, give him the glory, and believe that he can and will do it, since he has promised it and is almighty.
(30) St. Paul also penetrates here above the article of the resurrection of the dead, against all the disputing and arguing of reason. For reason also disputes how it is possible that the dead body should come forth again and come to life. It sees the great power of death, how all people on earth die and are eaten by worms. Because she is blind to God's omnipotence and cannot believe that on the last day our bodies will be resurrected and come back to life, she disputes and asks how the dead will be resurrected and with what kind of body they will come. To this St. Paul answers, saying, "You may dispute as you wish, but this article is certain to me. For I have for myself God's omnipotence, His word and promise, item, the example of all creatures, that God created all things from nothing. Since God has said that the dead will rise, and God is omnipotent, how can it be impossible?
(31) What does God still do every day? We see before our eyes that a human being is born from a small drop of blood, which is as great a miraculous sign of God as when God raises children from stones. Yes, God has made, as St. Paul Apost. 17, 26, "that of one blood of all men there should be generations on the face of the whole earth. This is the truth: Man is born from a small drop of human blood and seed. It is just as if a man jumped out of a stone and stood in front of us and said: Here stands a man. This is a much greater sign and miracle than that Adam was created from a lump of earth and Eve from a rib and bone. Since God still creates such great and even greater things today, and thereby proves His omnipotence that no thing is impossible for Him, how should it be impossible for Him to awaken the dead?
32 Therefore, we should pray the children's faith rightly and pray to God, our Almighty.
1294 Erl. (2.) 20b, [s-70. interpretations on the 1st epistle to the Corinthians. W. VIII, I428-I43I. 1295
Creator of heaven and earth, so that we may believe what he says, that he can and will do it. For he still proves it daily in our own bodies and souls. All the angels in heaven would not be able to create a single human being. They could not create the body of a man, let alone the soul; but God creates both, body and soul, without our thoughts, yes, against our thoughts and reason. We see this happening before our eyes every day, and we experience it ourselves. Nevertheless, we want to dispute a lot and ask, if God, our almighty Creator, promises something, whether it is also possible. Well, now dispute in the name of the devil; is it not sin and shame that a man should presume to judge the articles of faith, which belong only to God's omnipotence and to His word and promise, according to blind nature?
It is impossible for the angels in heaven to comprehend God's works, even though they are always looking at them with pleasure. They may wonder about it, but they are not able to investigate it and measure it with their thoughts. It remains true what Job says in Cap. 9, 10: "God does great things that cannot be investigated, and wonders that cannot be numbered. And we poor, miserable people want to fathom and understand God's works and the mysteries of faith with our miserable reason and blind thoughts.
34 Anabaptists and sacramentalists dispute about the Lord's Supper: "The baker cannot make bread to be the body, and the winebibber cannot make wine to be the blood: how is it possible that the bread in the Lord's Supper should be Christ's body, and the wine His blood? Well, disputire, not in God's name, you wretched man. Such enthusiasts should not be given bread to eat, who want to measure and divide God's word and work according to their foolish sense. Is this not a fine consequence? The baker cannot make bread to be body, and the vintner cannot make wine to be blood; therefore Christ cannot make bread and wine in the Lord's Supper to be his body and blood. What do you think about this Master?
(35) Therefore, let him who is able to learn learn to base his faith on God's word, promise and omnipotence, and to set it against all arguments and questions of reason. If the clever ones come, argue and question out of reason about the article of the resurrection of the dead, set God's word and omnipotence against it, and say: "Even if I die, God will raise me from the earth [Job 19:25] and bring me up out of the dust, so that I will shine like the sun [Matt. 13:43]. Of this I have no doubt; he is almighty, and can do it; he has also promised such things in his word, and will do them; therefore I believe that it will surely come to pass. He will certainly bring me up from the grave on the last day, I believe this without a doubt, and in such faith I go along happily on his word and omnipotence.
(36) If the sacramentalists come and argue out of their dizzy brains: How can it be that the bread in the Lord's Supper should be Christ's body and the wine his blood? Set God's word and omnipotence against it, and say: Do you, sacramentalist, shut your mouth and do not ask how this can be. For we are not talking about the baker and the wine-giver, but about God's Word and Sacrament. God, who instituted, ordained, instituted and commanded this sacrament, is almighty and true; therefore it may well be that the bread in the Lord's Supper is Christ's body, and the wine His blood. It is said here, as St. Paul says Titus 1:2: "Which he promised who did not lie, GOD."
(37) Yes, says reason, how can I believe that I will come out of the earth? When I die, I decompose and become nothing. Now how can something come out of that which decays and is nothing? In addition, my body, when it is dead, stinks so horribly that everyone is horrified by it, and the maggots and worms come and devour it according to all their will. What can become of that which is nothing but stink and filth? Answer: Yes, as far as human strength is concerned, all is lost, and nothing comes of such a dead, decayed, stinking body.
in death, stinking and under the worms eternally, because of human strength, and even if all human strength would be melted in one heap. But listen, you do not have to look at man's power here, what it can do; much less do you have to look at the power of the dead body, how it lies in stink and under the worms, but you have to look at God's word and power, which alone can do it and wants to do it. When it comes to a man that he lies in the coffin and is buried under the earth, then all men, yes, all creatures, must confess and say: We are not able to raise this dead body again and make it alive. But God says: What no creature is able to do, I am able to do, Almighty Creator; this dead body shall rise again and come to life, even though it has already decayed and rotted in the earth. I Almighty God and Creator will and can do it, there stands my word John 5:25: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and is now, that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they which hear shall live." And soon after, v. 28, 29: "The hour cometh, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment."
(38) Therefore, in this article of the resurrection, we should leave aside all thoughts of reason, since not only the Scriptures testify, but also the creatures prove to us that with God no thing is impossible. Let us not argue or ask how the dead will rise and with what kind of body they will come, but let us pay attention to who is the one who can and will do it. The same is not called an angel, nor a man, but God's only Son, who created all things from nothing. "He is the firstborn before all creatures; through Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth," Col. 1, 15. 16. He carries all things with His powerful word," Hebr. 1, 3. He can do it and wants to do it, as He Himself says John 5, 21: "As the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, so also the Son makes alive those whom He wills.
39. six thousand years ago the whole world was nothing; now who made the world? Read the Scriptures, thefelbe will tell you who made the world, Gen. 1, 1.: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Joh. 1,' 1. 3.: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and GOD was the Word. All things were made through the same, and without the same nothing was made that was made." Heb. 1:2: "GOD hath spoken in the last by the Son, whom he hath made heir over all things; by whom also he made the world." What were you a thousand, yes, a hundred years ago? Nothing. Who made you? Hear the first article in the children's faith; how do you pray? I believe that God created me, together with all creatures 2c. The same God and Creator can also raise you from the dead; he wants to do it and can do it. He is almighty and has promised it to you; therefore dare to trust in him, he will not lie to you. If he has done the greatest thing before, he will do the least thing after.
(40) And as we must and ought to do in this article of the resurrection, so we ought also to do in other articles of Christian doctrine, whether of baptism, absolution, the Lord's Supper, 2c., that we put all reason aside, and say, If God has spoken it, it shall surely come to pass, I have no doubt of it. For there stands his word, which cannot lie; so he is almighty; therefore, what he says cannot go back, it must come to pass.
(41) But, as I said, the only thing that is lacking is that one does not believe that God is almighty, that he can do it, and that God has said that he will do it. A Turk believes nothing and denies all our articles and reasons of faith. But if a Turk could be persuaded to admit, believe, and confess that God is almighty and that God has spoken such things, he would certainly also admit the other thing that follows from the principio and reason, he would say: If God can do it, and if He will do it, it will certainly be done; if the first is true, that it is God's word and promise, and that God, who has spoken such things, is omnipotent, then the other must also be true, which follows from it.
1298 EU. (2.) 20b, 7S-7S. Interpretations on the I epistle to the Corinthians. W. vm, 1434-1137. 1299
If a Turk and an unbeliever does this, why do those who are called Christians and believers not want to believe that what God has said in His word must happen? The first, as the principium, reason and main part, is allowed, and the other, which follows from the principio and reason, is not allowed. One confesses that God is almighty and that it is God's word [Is. 26, 19]: "The dead shall rise"; item [Marc. 16, 16]: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Item [Matth. 18, 18.]: "What you forgive on earth, that shall be forgiven in heaven." Item [Matth. 26, 26. 27.]: "Eat, this is my body, which is given for you; this is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins." This is confessed, and must be confessed, and no thanks is given. But how is it possible that the dead should rise from the dead? how is it possible that water should wash away the soul from sins? how is it possible that I should be absolved from sins by the hand of man? how is it possible that in the Lord's Supper the bread should be Christ's body, and the wine Christ's blood? Well, now disputire, thou poor, wretched man! Are you not mad and foolish? Do you yield to the principium and principal, and deny that which follows from the principio and principal? Thus you testify of yourself that you are either a mocker who believes nothing, or a desperate villain who says yes and no in the same article.
This is why St. Paul here, in this article about the resurrection of the dead, rejects and rejects all objections of human reason. For reason wants to be wise here, and raises various questions: how the dead will rise? whether they will eat, drink, sleep, wake, be free and let themselves be free? St. Paul puts down all such thoughts and questions with the example of God's omnipotence and power, which he demonstrates in the creatures, in the grain of the field. As if the apostle wanted to say: God has spoken it, and can do it, therefore it will certainly happen; he will say at the last day: Arise, you dead. This will be the way in which the dead will rise. By his word the dead will
resurrect, that God will say: Surgite, qui jacetis in pulvere terrae, arise, you who lie under the earth sDan. 12, 2.]. Therefore you must not dispute and ask how the dead will rise. By the Almighty's speaking it will happen.
44. For just as God accomplishes what He wills in other things through His word, so it is also with the resurrection of the dead. In baptism, God accomplishes His work through the Word, when He, or the priest in His place, says: I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [Matth. 28, 19]. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" [Marc. 16, 16.]. By such saying the baptized becomes a child of eternal life and blessedness. This is also the case with the Lord's Supper. How is it that the blessed bread is Christ's body, and the blessed wine Christ's blood? By the word it is done, Christ says: "Eat, this is my body; drink, this is my blood." Behold, this is the way it happens, that he who eats the bread eats Christ's body, and he who drinks the wine drinks Christ's blood. Likewise with absolution; how is it that by the key of absolution heaven is opened and hell is shut? How can a man forgive sin? It is by the word that the priest, or Christ through the priest, says: "I absolve, absolve and absolve you from all your sins, through the merit, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by his command, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This word does it, because it is Christ's word and command, as he saith [Matt. 18:18], "Whatsoever ye shall forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven."
45 And this is the sum of it, that we learn to pray and understand our infant faith, to which we pledge in baptism to confess it and to remain firm in it, when we say: I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, namely, that we know that this is the main part and the basis of all articles of Christian doctrine. He who sets the principal article must understand the other articles, of the resurrection of the dead, of baptism, of absolution,
of the Lord's Supper 2c. also put. Whoever denies the other articles, or disputes how it is possible, has also denied the main part, namely God's omnipotence, yes, His majesty and divinity. For everything hangs on each other like a chain, and they join together.
the articles together, and one follows from the other. May our dear God keep us in the right mind of faith and graciously guard us from sharp disputes and clever fables, as St. Peter calls them [2 Ep. 1, 16], of human reason, amen.