5. The consequences of sin.
Because God has forbidden sin, that is, deviation from his νόμος [“Law”], sin makes man guilty before God (Rom. 3:19: πόδικος πας δ κόομος τω '&εφ, reatus culpae) and brings him under the punishment that God has placed on sin (Gal. 3:10: επικατάρατος is everyone who does not abide in all that is written εν τω βιβλίω τον νόμον, reatus poenae). Further, because behind the νόμος [“Law”], stands not human but divine authority, the nature and extent of the punishment is not to be determined according to human reasoning, but only according to God's revealed Word. According to God's revealed Word, sin is a capital offense in every case, that is, it makes one guilty of death in every case. This is what the Scriptures say in both the Old and New Testaments. Genesis 2:17:
of sin was explained earlier. Formula of Concord, M. 722, 83 [Trigl. 1091, 83 🔗]: Magna cura considerandum est, quando Dominus peccata peccatis punit, hoc est, cum eos, qui aliquando conversi fuerant, propter subsequentem securitatem carnalem, impoenitentiam, contumaciam in sceleribus et propter voluntaria flagitia punit excaecatione et induratione, id non ita accipiendum esse, quasi Deus nunquam serio voluisset, ut tales ad agnitionem veritatis pervenirent et salutem consequerentur. [Google] In contradiction with Scripture and confession, Fecht says, Syllog. Controv., p. 109, in Baier-Walther II, 274: Impropria nec unquam imitanda, imo in Deum iniqua quorundam locutio est: Deum peccata peccatis punire. [Google]
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"Which day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die the death." In the New Testament, Rom. 5:12: διά τής αμαρτίας ό ϑάνατος. Death may be said to be threefold on the basis of Scripture. It is 1. The death of the soul, or "spiritual death," that is, the suspension of the soul's fellowship with God. It stands that the soul lives only through its fellowship with God, for which it was created. It lives by clinging to God, believing and trusting in Him and loving Him. With sin, however, comes the evil conscience and eo ipso the inner flight from God, that is, the separation of the soul from God. We see this very clearly in Adam. Adam was separated from God inwardly or according to the soul by the committed sin to the extent that he also fled from God outwardly when he heard the voice of God in the garden. Luther remarks on Gen. 3:11,1573) that Adam, when he fled from God, was "in the midst of death and hell." Adam only came out of death and hell back to spiritual life when he heard the gospel of the woman's seed and believed, and thus the good conscience took the place of the evil conscience. Luther says in his explanation of the meaning of the words Gen. 3:15 (that the woman seed will crush the serpent's head):1574) "This is the text which made Adam and Eve alive and brought them back to life from death, which they had lost through sin." Further:1575) "The passage [when God said to the serpent, "The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head"] is absolution, that he might have absolved him, and us all. For if the seed be so strong as to bruise the serpent's head, it bruiseth also all his power: so is the devil overcome, and all the hurt that Adam had is gone, and cometh to stand where he stood before." Gen. 3:15: "He shall bruise thy head" is again excepted in the New Testament by 1 John 3:8: "For this purpose the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil." That this destruction of the works of the devil happened through the atoning death of Christ is explicitly stated in Jn. 12:31 and Jn. 16:11. From here we clearly see what is "spiritual life" and what is "spiritual death" in the sense of Scripture. Spiritual life is present in a man after the Fall when he has overcome the evil conscience through faith in Christ's atoning work and has come to peace with God. In the state of spiritual death
1573) St. L. 1, 215.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1574) St. L. 1, 240.<w:t xml:space="preserve">1575) St. L. III, 66.
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after the Fall, a man finds himself with an evil conscience before God because of his sin and is therefore inwardly fleeing from God. The Scriptures describe the death of the soul or spiritual death briefly with the words "living dead", as it is said in 1 Tim. 5:6 of the widow who lives in pleasure: ξώοα τέϑνηκεν. — 2. With the spiritual death or the death of the soul a catastrophe is bound for the sinful man, the awfulness of which is not recognized in its entirety only because it is a daily occurrence. This is the bodily death (mors corporalis sive temporalis). The bodily death is no less than a tearing apart of the man, the separation of soul and body, to whose binding or unity the man was created by God. That this in itself so terrible event loses its horror for Christians, because it leads their soul to paradise (Luke 23:43) and to being with Christ (Phil 1:23), comes from the fact that they were already awakened from spiritual death to spiritual life in this life through faith in Christ. — 3. Unless the guilt of sin is removed from the heart and conscience through faith in Christ, spiritual and physical death is followed by eternal death (mors aeterna). Eternal death is not annihilation or cessation of being, but eternal being according to soul and body in torment, 2 Thess. 1:9: δλεϑρον αιώνιον, Matt. 25:46: κόλαοις αιώνιος. Hollaz, Examen, De Peccato, qu. 20: Mortem spiritualem sequitur mors corporalis et aeterna.
Guilt and punishment of sin are to be ceaselessly taught on the basis of the Scriptures, because man seeks to rebuke away guilt and punishment according to his depraved nature, according to the process of the devil and the fallen first men.1576) The temporal punishments, though before our eyes (disorder in the realm of nature: laborious toil, pain, calamities from storms, floods of water, earthquakes, wars, temporal death) are not regarded as judgments of God upon sin, but as natural events.1577) Eternal punishment, although also
1576) Gen. 3:4. 5 — Gen. 3:12-13.
1577) Luther's detailed explanation of Gen. 3:16-19, St. L. I, 249 ff. 254: "Are all creatures against us and almost prepared for our downfall. How many perish by fire and water? What danger must be provided by wild and
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witnessed by conscience (Rom. 1:32; Heb. 2:16), is questioned under erroneous calling on the love and mercy of God.1578) Also the Christians, as far as they still have the flesh in them, stand in constant danger of forgetting the guilt and punishment of sin. The words of Mark. 9:43-48 (the threat of "eternal fire") are, according to the context, also said to the believers. This is necessary so that they may constantly consider what the necessary consequence of their sins would be if they did not remain in spiritual life through daily repentance and crucify the flesh together with its lusts and desires. Hence the request of the believers Ps. 90:12: "Teach us to remember that we must die, that we may become wise!"
This leads to the question of what to think of the punishments that come upon the believers in this life, Ps. 73:14. The sins of the believers are not imputed to them, Ps. 4:8. The guilt and punishment of their sins is taken away from them, Rom. 8:33; Is. 53:5-6. They have peace with God, Rom. 5:1 ff. On the one hand, Scripture also calls those punishments a divine judgment on the sins of believers, 1 Pet. 4:17: "It is time for judgment (κρίμα) to begin at the house of God." On the other hand, Scripture says just as clearly that these punishments bear the character of paternal chastening (castigationes paternae) and have for their purpose preservation from apostasy, 1 Cor. 11:32: "When we are judged, we are chastened (παιδενόμεϑα) by the Lord, lest we be condemned with the world" (κατακριϑώμεν). Luther therefore calls the believers' punishments "a gracious and cheerful punishment."1579)
poisonous animals, which do harm not only to our bodies, but also to that which is grown for our food! Not to mention that we ourselves also fall apart and strangle [one another], as if there were no other pestilence and misfortune creeping up on us." Col. 255: "What do thorns, thistles, weapons, fire, caterpillars, flies, fleas, lice, bugs, etc., all find but messengers preaching to us of sin and the wrath of God? Therefore we live knowingly and with seeing eyes in a more than Egyptian darkness. Even though we are reminded of God's wrath everywhere and by all creatures, and it is almost put into our eyes, we do not pay attention to it, but love this temporal life and cling to it as if it were the only pleasure."
1578) The more detailed explanation under the section "Eternal Damnation," Vol. III, 612 f.
1579) St. L. 1, 243. Cf. about the believers' rebuke Apology, M. 196, 53 ff. [Trigl. 299, 53 ff. 🔗], in contrast to the Romans, who ascribe to themselves a satisfactory character to these rebukes.
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