Many are those who do not want to hear God's word, but despise it, even persecute it. Not a few are those who hear it, but without fruit, because they do not keep it, but let it go in at one ear and out at the other. But blessed are they that hear it, and keep it, that is, believe it, and do according to it, that is, confess it, and keep it, and let no necessity or danger of body or goods turn them away from it. 1) "For not all," says the Lord in another place, Matth. 7, 21, "who say to me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,' but those who do the will of my Father in heaven." And John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, the same is he that loveth me."
1) "That is, who confess it ... let" is missing in the Erlanger.
Blessed are those who take GOD's word 2c.
Great, inexpressible grace is he who may hear that God speaks to him. But this is not enough, if one does not keep it, and stays with it until the end. Many hear the word, but do not believe that God speaks to them, but look at the man through whom it is spoken. Therefore they do not hold it dear, nor do they keep it, but let it go in at one ear and out at the other. They do not belong to the number of which the Lord says: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God" 2c.
Blessed are those who take God's word 2c.
Dear God, through your beloved Son, you blessed those who listen to your word. How much more appropriate it would be that we, O eternal, merciful Father, should blessedly praise you without ceasing with a joyful heart, thank you and praise you that you show yourself so kindly, even fatherly, towards us poor little worms, and speak to us of the greatest and highest thing, namely of eternal life and blessedness. Nevertheless, you do not neglect to entice us kindly through your Son to hear your word when he says: "Blessed are" 2c., as if you could not do without our hearing, and we, who are earth and ashes, do not need your blessed word a thousand times more. O how unspeakably great and wondrous is thy goodness and patience! Again, alas and alas for the ingratitude and blindness of those who not only will not hear your word, but also wantonly despise, persecute and blaspheme it!
Luc. 12, 32.
Fear not, little host, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
For if he, the dear Father, should not give it to us, we would never buy it from him or earn it. It is give, give, give. Therefore we should thank him with a glad heart and not boast about our worthiness.
Luc. 17, 5.
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Strengthen us in the faith.
We are nowhere like the apostles, nor will we ever be like them. If then they, who had the Lord himself present, asked for the strength of faith, how much more should we ask for strong faith, even though we have the word of Christ in abundance. For there are many who are able (as they think they are) to read what they read, and yet have no regard for faith.
Luc. 19, 5.D
Zachaea, descend with haste, for I must go to your house today,
Zacchaeus was a tax collector, but has a beautiful name, which the tax collectors rarely do enough. For Zacchaeus is called purus, mundus, as David, Ps. 51, 6, God speaks purely: Et vincas, id est, mundus sis, cum judicaris, that you may be found pure, pious, righteous, and innocent when you are judged. For God does not want to be, nor can be otherwise, without dwelling in the house of Zachaeorum, that is, those whom God wants to be pure, and to be right in His word. He also considers them to be Zachaeans, that is, pure or blameless, because they keep him pure and Zachaean in his word, and let him be right. For he says, "We are boys and must live by his grace. Rom. 3, 4. He alone is righteous, we are all sinners.
Luc. 22, 32.
The Lord said to Simon, "When you are converted, strengthen your brothers.
From this you see that even weak believers are members of Christ and heirs of His eternal kingdom. Otherwise the Lord Christ would not have said to Petro: "Strengthen your brothers. So also the Spirit of Christ teaches through St. Paul, Rom. 14, 1, "that one should receive the weak in faith"; item, Cap. 12, 15, comfort the fainthearted, and "weep with those who weep." If the weak in faith were to be rejected, where would the
1) About this interpretation Kummer reports that Luther wrote it with his own hand in the Bible of Johannes Schulteis (Schulteti), Schössers zu Pirna. Seidemann places it in the year 1541, Lauterbach, p. 144 s., because in this year Luther made acquaintance with him. (Lutherbriefe, p. 58.) The text by Kummer bears the stamp of the original, therefore we let the same follow.
How can we be the apostles themselves? Nevertheless, we should not always remain weak in faith, but, following the apostles, pray earnestly: "Lord, strengthen our faith," Luc. 17:5.
Luc. 24, 46. 47.
Thus it is written, and thus Christ had to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, and preach repentance and remission of sins in his name among all nations 2c.
The Scripture, which testifies of Messiah through and through, does not say that he should be a world king and lord, as the blind fools, the Jews, dream, for the devil is also the lord, prince and God of the world, but that we should be rid of sin and death, and have eternal righteousness, life and blessedness. Such things are to be sought and found in the Scriptures.
From the Evangelio St. Johannis.
Cap. 1, 14.
Verbum Caro factum est, hoc est, Deus Homo factus est.
Such a marvelous and overwhelming thing, that God became man, teaches this whole and some book (the Bible), of which no other book knows nothing. For if you do not look for the verbum Caro factum est in this book, you would be better off reading a Marcolfum or Eulenspiegel. It is all about this verbum to do what is created and written. He is the Lord, who lies in the manger, and Mary in his arms. Whoever does not believe it, this book is of no use to him, and he, a Turk or a Papist, may have his paradise or kingdom of heaven in hell with all the devils. God convert those who are to be converted, amen.
V. 29. Behold, this is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world.
I am baptized in the name of Christ, and in his death, not in the name of my works, nor of any other man, saint, nor angel's work. So Christ, the Son of God, not I nor my works, not St. Peter nor an angel, was crucified and died for my sin. Thus, 1) John the Baptist alone points to Christ.
1) Erlanger: Also - "alone" is missing.
stum, testifies of him, and says: "Behold, this is the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world. And long before, Isaiah prophesies of Christ (which word John the Baptist indicates here) and says Cap. 53, 11: "He bears their sin"; item, v. 6: "The Lord cast, or laid on Him (no one else) all our sin." So that he (as Isaiah says further, v. 5, 11) "was wounded for our iniquity, and bruised for our sin, and the punishment was laid upon him, that we might have peace, and be healed by his wounds, and be justified by his knowledge." And St. Paul says 2 Cor. 5, 21: "God made Him (His only begotten Son), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might have in Him the righteousness that is before God." And Rom. 8, 3.: "God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh through sin" 2c.
How then should I hand over and let go of Christ, my only Comforter and Savior, as these words of consolation most lovingly portray Him to me, and not accept or take comfort in His name (since no other name has been given to us humans, through which we can be saved, Apost. 4, 12.), his baptism, his suffering, resurrection, victory, merit, 2c. but, as the pope teaches through his writers and shouters, to rely and build on my good works, or on the excess of the monks, 2) or on the intercession and merit of the deceased saints? and thus put me, or them, in Christ's place, and (if not with words, yet truly with deed) say: I am, or they are Christ, and thus rob my dear Lord of his office and honor? Then (I would have said otherwise) God be for it. For such would be an unheard-of idolatry, even among Turks and pagans. For if they understood and believed what Isaiah, John the Baptist, and all the Scriptures testify about Christ, they would certainly not do what the Pope and his crowd do, who profess with words that it is right and true what the Scriptures say about Christ, namely, that he is "God's lamb, which is to be delivered to the world".
He is the Savior of the world, who has redeemed the human race 2c., but in fact they deny it. As their doctrine of sanctification proves, and also their life testifies, which they may keep so holy, and earn so much in it (as they unashamedly lie and blaspheme), that they may communicate their other merits to others. Therefore they are worse than Turks and pagans. Moreover, since the Gospel, in praise of God, has had its course, and their lies and abominations have been revealed and punished, pointing us again to God's Lamb, they have made every effort to suppress and eradicate it, and to reestablish, confirm and defend their old nature and status anew. So that they may sufficiently show that they deny Christ and his word by deed.
But let them do so, God will give them such happiness to their undertaking that when they will say: Now won, peace, peace, there is no more danger! they will rise in the abyss of hell.
Let every one who loves Christ and His Word say Amen to this, and pray from the bottom of his heart that he may hold fast to John's testimony, believe it with certainty, and then go safely on his way, that Christ, the Lamb of God, not only bore the sin of some people (as Mary, His mother, John the Baptist 2c., whom He especially loved), but that He also took His sin upon Himself, bore it, that is, became a sin and a curse for it, and sacrificed Himself for it.
This is the golden art and the secret hidden wisdom of the children of God, which they must know and be able to do (because of which they are also called Christians and children of God), if they are to be otherwise saved. The works saints and belly servants know nothing of this, but consider this art and wisdom to be the worst heresy and foolishness. That is why they persecute it so horribly, blaspheme it and condemn it as the devil's doctrine. And in their own way, not as Isaiah and John the Baptist preach of it, they think to be rid of their sin, and so leave it on them, not on Christ, where the Father laid it. But if the hour-
1) Here and in the following, in the Erlangen edition, are a number of insignificant variants, which we do not note.
If there is no one, they will experience (because they do not want it any other way) with their greatest, even eternal harm, that it will be much too heavy for them, even heavier than heaven and earth, and will press and sink them into the abyss of hell. Therefore, dear Lord Jesus Christ, you innocent and undefiled Lamb of God, 1 Peter 1:19, protect your little army and strengthen our faith, amen.
Joh. 3, 16. 2)
Thus God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Whoever can believe this, the Bible must be a precious book, especially the New Testament. For no other book shows us such unspeakable love of God. 3)
But how unholy, and what a horribly terrible thing it is, not to believe such things, nor to respect them, as follows there: "This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world" 2c. For all sin, death and misfortune would be nothing if the light were accepted. Then behold, what an abominable thing it is for the world in the sight of God, and what a blessed thing it is for a Christian or believer who has such a precious, eternal treasure, which the senseless world is glad to do without with pleasure and joy, but with its eternal harm and destruction. 4) 1544.
Martinus Luther, D.
V. 17. God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
This is what Christ is and what he is to be regarded as, namely, not as a severe judge or merciless, angry lawgiver, as he was preached about in the papacy, but as a kind, loving Savior and blessed Comforter, who gave himself for the world that is in trouble and lost,
2) This saying is found in the third part of the Bible in the princely library at Dessau [Col. 1762 and 1792] already mentioned.
3) "an" is missing in the Erlanger, vol. 56, pp. 4-XXII.
4) The words: "but ... Verderben" are missing in the Erlanger 1. 6.
5) This year is alone with Walch.
that through him she might be saved from the power of the devil. Although the greatest and most part of the world neither recognizes nor accepts such unspeakable grace, even despises it, and persecutes, blasphemes and condemns the dear word, which presents this precious treasure to it, and its teachers, there are nevertheless some of them, and many in the world, who are gladdened by such blessed news, accept it with joy, believe in the dear Savior, and thank him heartily for his good deed, and thus become blessed through him.
Search (or search) the Scriptures, for ye think ye have eternal life therein. And it is she who testifies of me.
This is because we ourselves believe that the Holy Scriptures are God's saving Word, which can make us eternally blessed, so we should read and study them, so that we may find testimony of Christ in them. As St. Paul also says Rom. 10, 4: "Christ is the end of the law". And Ps. 40, 8: "In the book it is written of me" that I, God, shall do your will.
Whoever does not study the Scriptures, as Christ is called here, cannot know anything about eternal life. For he lives without God's word, without which reason can neither think nor speak of eternal life. But whoever studies the Scriptures in such a way that he does not find Christ in them cannot attain eternal life, no matter how much he learns about it, talks about it, 2) or even hopes for it, as the Jews do, as St. Paul says in Acts 24:14. 24:14, likewise the monks, and all those who want to be saved by works. For the Scriptures testify of Christ that only he who believes in him will be saved. Isa. 53, 6: "God has laid all our sins on Him. Item, v. 11: "By his knowledge he, my servant the righteous, will do much righteousness" 2c.