More Martin Luther

By Pastor Marshall

For those who confess that Luther is our most eminent teacher (Book of Concord, 576), the publication of volume 67, Annotations on Matthew 1–18 from 1534–35, with sermons on Matthew 18–24 from 1537–40 is a Godsend (and a first time English translation, as well)! This is my ninth new volume that I’ve covered as part of our preparation for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation two years from now. (Others have been Luther’s Works 58–60; 68, 69, 75–77.) Among my favorite passages in this new collection are the following: “Having sinned does not condemn; it is not repenting that condemns” (11); “The birth of Christ is preached… by a mute creature, the star” (13); “[Clarify Christ] by means of antitheses: how Moses, the philosophers, the laws, the kings, and the wise men of this world are nothing in comparison to this Prince” (14); “The godlessness of one’s person does not destroy or change the office [of pastor]” (14–15); “That people do what has not been commanded…. is the peak of wrongheadedness in every estate of life” (16); “Be swift and vigilant in the work of God” (16); “One may deceive tyrants (just as one may also deceive the devil) if they command us to do something against God” (17); “By nature we are all stirred up by novelty” (19); “The preacher ought to rebuke those who oppose the Word and to inveigh against them severely” (21); “Because no fruits of your faith are evident, it follows that you do not believe” (22); “Faith [is] the root of works” (32); “Christians [should] adorn the Word with deeds. That is a thing as rare as ever today” (42); “It is God’s nature to delay the result of prayer in order to be able to do more and more abundantly than we ask or understand” (43); “True faith… brings along with itself contempt of self and a sense of unworthiness in comparison with others” (45); “The kingdom shall be a cross, and to be cast down in this world shall be your palace” (47); “[The Christian] ought only to use present things like a visitor who is about to move on shortly, and he ought to be ready to leave behind all these things for His sake” (48); “[This] is why [God] allows the devil so much power against humanity: in order that unbelievers, the godless, and the hardened might be pierced through and might learn to fear and trust and call upon God. For if He did not do this, no one would think that he needed God…. Thus He shows them how invincible the devil is (if His gracious hand is withheld). He does this to terrify them and humble them, but to free and save them once they have been humbled” (53); “We must learn not to be moved overly much by God’s punishments of the godless, but much more by His kindness and grace toward the righteous” (56); “It is unbelievers who should keep in mind the works of wrath, and not we believers” (57); “Those who write and cry out against us that our Gospel is too sweet and that it deceives men are the greatest of asses” (61); “The sinner comes in two kinds. The sinner who is afflicted and troubled and desires to be free of sin is a son; the sinner who is secure and does not acknowledge his sin but is righteous in his own eyes is an enemy and a devil. The former is lifted up; the latter is accused” (61–62); “God is reconciled by faith alone without…. our sacrifices” (63–64); “This is the correct use of philosophy: to understand things. All other philosophers are engaged in speculation” (66); “The perverse ones…. make… the forgiveness of sins into license for sins, as too many do today” (71–72); “To call sinners to repentance is to call them, once sins have been forgiven, to the continuous effort of recognizing, hating, killing, and burying sins” (72); “Topics concerning faith need to be emphasized constantly and everywhere in opposition to confidence in works” (75); “Faith [must] be preached against works, even if works cannot be left out afterwards” (76); “Among Christians, death is not death, but a sleep…. [Indeed] the fact that I die means that I shall sleep for a time…. [So] when I die I shall not die, but fall asleep; that when I am dead I am still living, because I live to [Christ]” (77); “Faith should be resolute, persistent, bold, unrestrained, and insistent” (78); “The world [sees to it that] the more the grace of God is praised, the more heretical and diabolical that doctrine must be” (81); “The two things that destroy the… people of God [are] first, when they are deprived of the Word of God [and] second, when they are not defended against godless teachings” (82); “Good shepherds are rare [and] the world, under the ragings of Satan, considers nothing more vile and contemptible than ministers of the Word” (83); “Not unlike the flood by which the old world was turned into a new world [did] the Gospel… make a new world out of the Law” (87); “Ministry [should be] a divine ministry which is rendered no better by anyone’s holiness, no worse by anyone’s unworthiness. [In this way] peace and harmony are preserved in the Church, which is otherwise subject to endless troubles” (88); “Ministers [should receive] what they need to sustain their lives…. [What’s forbidden is the] wish to live in magnificence and wantonness off the goods that belong to the Church…. [Therefore] it is simply greed, arrogance, and excess that are condemned” (90); “Good ministers never labor without benefit when they teach, for they are either of benefit to those who believe, or, when others do not believe, they are a benefit to themselves. Indeed, whoever preaches [does well simply by preaching], leaving to God whether the people believe or not” (94); “Oh, what an unfair situation, where sheep preach to wolves…. It should have been lions that were sent into the midst of wolves…. But these things are done… so that our faith may not be derived from human strength but from… divine power, [for] wolves never become obedient students of the sheep” (95); “We must have an utterly naked trust in God alone [for] this is what you get among human beings: today they befriend you, and tomorrow they persecute you…. They are wolves, therefore, steel your minds as if you were alone in the world…. Therefore, do not put your trust in them even if they make themselves out to be your brothers and friends” (97–98); “We are certain that it is Christ who is the cause of our tribulation” (101); “The mind must be steeled to persevere [for] the beginning is hot; the middle, lukewarm; the end shrinks away in disgust [principium fervet, medium tepet, finis abhorret]” (101); “[We should] scorn our murderers through a haughty faith in God” (105); “Be haughty and give the middle finger to those who [would] kill you” (106); “At every moment the life of your body as well as of your soul is in the hand of God alone” (107); “We are preached by Christ in glory; but Christ is preached by us worms in a place of shame” (110); “Christ [speaks] of the sword passively, not actively. That is, he is not giving us the right to use the sword to put others to death…. He is sending the sword, but against us, not on our behalf, so that we ourselves are forced to suffer the sword” (112); “Children are of their own accord despisers and haters of their parents” (115); “This crucified man is the true God. This is the scandal of scandals… for all nations. This is still the case, and so it must remain forever, because on account of Him as on account of the true God, we must treat everything else as inferior, and He Himself is to be exalted over all things as the true God…. The godless pass these things by with a deaf ear” (116); “Who is there who would not desire to be entirely disassociated from [Jesus], this utterly wretched man [who is] beggarly, crucified, seditious [and] condemned?” (117); “The cross… is the basest thing in the world’s eyes” (117); “You will hate yourself compared to [Jesus] and expose yourself to death and all evils for [His] sake, that is, so that you can bear [the] cross and follow [Jesus], yielding life itself… to [Jesus] as to your God and counting them of secondary worth” (118); “Christ clearly appoints His preachers as gods and makes them equal to Himself…. Whether therefore we are despised or honored, it is not we but God who is despised and honored in us” (120); “Faith is a kind of military service” (130); “However God speaks and acts, it is not right [in the eyes of the world]” (135); “God… hates those who are  haughty…. That is what it means to be God” (136–37); “Those who labor, are downcast, wretched, and overwhelmed…. are the ones able to receive [God’s] revelation” (141); “God creates the trust to come to Him” (141); “[You are] in despair [if you are your] own enemy” (141); “Christ… is our calm” (142); “[Christ’s] burden does not weigh down but lifts up, and it bears rather than being borne” (148); “Though some hate [the Gospel], there are always… others who love it” (156); “Where [Christ] is not listened to,… He withdraws and does not litigate with [the] long-winded” (156); “Oh, comfort beyond all telling that belongs to Christians!” (173); “An evil heart cannot but speak wickedly even if it says good things” (178); “Liars must have a good memory” (179); “What a shameful den of murderers is lying in the human heart” (180); “Nothing will remain unpunished” (182); “He always becomes worse off after grace if he falls” (184); “Christ gives a sufficiently lengthy answers [on using parables to confuse], yet one that is lofty and difficult” (190); “When [alienated minds] hear the Word, they have alien eyes and ears, as if they were in another world” (194); “The worst things always come from the best” (197); “We let go [those who] reject our admonitions” (202); “It is, therefore, safer to confess ignorance than to want to understand everything” (207); “The devil does not sleep” (209); “Christ will not abandon His Church…. Therefore… there will always be those who will denounce wicked men and scandals before Christ through prayer, and they will hate them and bear witness against them through confession and preaching” (209); “Christ [is] the most attentive inspector [praesentissimo inspectore]” (210); “This line of reasoning holds good from the beginning of the world: the church is not the Church, and what is not the church is the Church” (211); “The Christian life is such that whoever begins in it seem to himself to have nothing, but he strains and presses forward to take hold of it” (212); “The more progress [a Christian] makes, the more he desires to become and the less he thinks that he is” (213); “Within [the Law and the Gospel] is encompassed the entire wisdom of God, as if gathered together in a short summary” (217); “The Word of God is never so despised as where it is richly taught” (218); “We must put up with despisers. We are not going to change them…. Abel was killed by his brother Cain―not by wolves or bears, but by a human being and brother in the same household, of the same parents, one who could not be any closer” (219); “We must not believe our thoughts about God, for it is certain that our speculations about God make an altogether hostile phantom out of the God who is altogether well-disposed toward us” (230); “The eye always impedes hearing, and visible things take away the Word and invisible things” (231); “All things are impossible for one who doubts [for] doubting makes… sons of misery” (232); “Everything that is done in faith is a good work, since Word-and-faith is a marriage that cannot be dissolved” (243); “God…. Himself has commanded us to obey our parents, but not when they give commands against God” (243); “Whatever can get between your jaws shall not be called sin” (246); “Those who refuse to be made good through God’s kindnesses must be made worse by His rod” (266); “The conscience is a most delicate thing” (269); “His Church… is the front line of an army, a warrior heroine, arrayed against the very gates of hell, that is, against the trials of sin, death, and hell” (283); “Christ and the Church are more ready to loose than to bind” (285); “Christ…. willed to die freely, of His own accord, not because He was compelled” (287); “Christ…. wants the entirety of what we are, what we can, and what we do to be denied” (292); “True denial is defined as [bringing] your will, your understanding―that is, your righteousness, wisdom, works, etc.―into subjugation [and be] foolish, a sinner, and dead in yourself” (292); “Losing one’s life does not mean dying only, but all the… trials that interfere with a pleasant life and the peace of the flesh amid wealth, glory, and delight” (295); “Christ does not say: ‘He will repay every work’; rather, He speaks thus: ‘He will repay each one according to his own works’” (301); “[This is a] miserable and calamitous life. [Therefore we long to pass] from this prison to the radiance of a better life” (308); “Even a small and incipient faith, provided it is a true and certain faith, is able to work miracles in all things” (318); “Christians are a people ready for blows” (324); “What matters in [the] kingdom [of heaven] is not becoming great, but becoming small. But everyone wants to be great; no one wants to be little; these people do not belong in this kingdom” (325); “Those who preach Christ alone, the one in whom we place all our trust and confidence, are the masters and teachers of the Church” (336); “We Christians have so completely turned to stone that we do not care either about God’s favor or about His punishment, but someday the punishment will become so great that we will have to feel it. Therefore, it would be better if we turned now and became more righteous, while it is still the time of grace” (342); “Christians… ought simply to depend on the Word [and] simply believe it because Christ says it” (353); “Whoever seeks God outside of Christ falls into error and offense” (359); “Christians should indeed be like children, but in Christ and not outside of Christ [for] Christians [must] grow [and] become strong [so that they are not] blown here and there by every wind of doctrine” (362); “In opposition to the devil… we should be as proud, intractable, and ill-tempered as we possibly can…. Here let all humility be damned to the depths of hell!” (363); “The devil preaches his poison and false doctrine in God’s name and with a better show than those who preach the true doctrine” (365); “Do not understand the word ‘world’ [when it is being condemned in the Bible] to mean the common man…. Instead, ‘world’ means the best people in the world, such as the most learned bishops, the greatest and wisest rulers, the leaders of the people who have a great following and who are regarded as teaching the right way to heaven” (368–69); “Everything depends on the youth being brought up well. There is a great outcry, and unfortunately it is all too true, that the youth now are so dissolute and wild and that they will no longer submit to direction… This is surely not a good sign” (377); “If someone were to look at the world today in true earnest, it would be no wonder if he perished immediately from the shock”

(379); “If [God] did not want you to be saved, He would not have let you be baptized” (385); “Every Christian is responsible for obeying God’s Word” (386); “The world is…. full of greed, hate, envy, deceit―yes, full of shameful vice” (398); “Where doctrine is false, life cannot be helped” (398); “The preacher…. must be just like an owl that all the other birds attack” (401); “It is not God’s will that a single sorrow should afflict you” (408); “Saint Athanasius… was the finest bishop there ever was in Christendom after the time of the apostles and accomplished much” (412); “The priest may be a drunk or a fornicator [but his] Baptism is still right if he has rightly spoken the words of Baptism [and the one being baptized does] not treat it as a joke” (414); “[The promise of forgiveness] is not a log floating in the water, but a sure and solid rock” (415); “It is such a difficult thing both to preach God’s grace and forgiveness of sins and also to hold the people in discipline and subject to punishment” (418); “Preachers who create doubts are good for nothing, for in the kingdom of God we should be certain about whether we have a merciful God, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life” (419); “I have seen many whose uncertainty and doubt drove them insane and robbed them of their senses on their deathbed” (420). Of these some 115 favorite quotations of mine, be sure to spend extra time on these fifteen―43, 56, 87, 101, 130, 141, 180, 197, 210, 211, 213, 218, 318, 353, 362.