[The following sermon is taken from volume V:170-183
of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1983). It was originally published in 1905 in English by Lutherans
in All Lands (Minneapolis, MN), as The Precious and Sacred Writings of
Martin Luther, vol. 14. This e-text was scanned and edited by Richard Bucher,
it is in the public domain and it may be copied and distributed without
restriction.]
1. This Gospel consists of two questions. In the first the
lawyer on behalf of the other Pharisees asks Christ: Which is the great
commandment in the law? In the second the Lord asks the Pharisees and the
lawyer: Whose son is David? These two questions concern every Christian;
for he who wishes to be a Christian must thoroughly understand them. First,
what the law is, and the purpose it serves; and secondly, who Christ is,
and what we may expect from him.
2. Christ explains here to the Pharisees the law, telling them what
the sum of the whole law is, so that they are completely silenced both
at his speech and his question, and know less than nothing of what the
law is and who Christ is. From this it follows, that although unbelief
may appear as wisdom and holiness before the world, it is nevertheless
folly and unrighteousness before God, especially where the knowledge of
the two questions mentioned above is wanting.
For he who does not know how he stands before the law, and what he may
expect from Christ, surely has not the wisdom of God, no matter how wise
and prudent he may pretend to be. Let us therefore consider the first question,
namely: What the law is; what it commands and how it is to be spiritually
interpreted.
3. When the lawyer asked Christ, which was the great commandment in
the law, the Lord said to him:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And
a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets."
4. As if the Lord would say: He who possesses love to God, and love
to his neighbor, has all things, and therefore fulfils the law; for the
whole law and all the prophets point to these two themes, namely: how God
and our neighbor are to be loved.
5. Now one may wish to ask: How can you harmonize this statement, that
all things are to be comprehended in these two commandments, since there
was given to the Jews circumcision and many other commandments? To answer
this, let us see in the first place how Christ explains the law, namely,
that it must be kept with the heart. In other words, the law must be spiritually
comprehended; for he who does not lay hold of the law with the heart and
with the Spirit, will certainly not fulfil it. Therefore the Lord here
gives to the lawyer the ground and real substance of the law, and says
that these are the greatest commandments, to love God with the heart and
our neighbor as ourselves.
From this it follows that he, who is not circumcised, who does not fast
nor pray, is not doing it from the heart; even though he may perform external
acts, he nevertheless does nothing before God, for God looketh on the heart,
and not on our acts, I Sam. 16, 7. It will not profit a man at all, no
matter what work he may perform, if his heart is not in it.
6. From this arises another question: Since works are of no profit to
a man, why then did God give so many commandments to the Jews? To this
I answer, these commandments were given to the end that we might become
conscious whether we really love God with all our heart, and with all our
soul, and with all our strength, and in addition our neighbor as ourselves;
for St. Paul says in Rom. 7, 7 (3, 20), that the law is nothing but a consciousness
and a revelation of sin. What would I know of sin, if there were no law
to reveal it to me?
Here now is the law that saith: Thou shalt love God with thy heart,
and thy neighbor as thyself. This we fulfil if we do all that the law requires;
but we are not doing it. Hence he shows us where we are lacking, and that,
while we ought really to do something, we are doing nothing.
7. That the Jews had to practice circumcision was indeed a foolish ceremony,
yea, a command offensive to reason, even though it were given by God still
today. What service was it to God, to burden his people with this grievous
commandment? What good was it to him, or what service to a neighbor? Yea,
and it did not profit the Jew, who was circumcised. Why then did God give
the command? In order that this commandment and law might show them whether
they really loved God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with
all their mind, and whether they did it willingly or not. For if there
were a devout heart, it would say: I verily do not know why God gave me
circumcision, inasmuch as it does not profit any one, neither God, nor
me, nor my neighbor; but since it is well pleasing to God, I will nevertheless
do it, even though it be considered a trifling and despised act. Hence,
circumcision was an exercise of the commandment, Thou shalt love God with
all thy heart.
8. It was also a foolish command God gave to Abraham, to slay his son,
Gen. 22, 2. For if reason had been the judge in this, both it and all mankind
would have come to no other conclusion than this: It is an unfriendly and
hostile command, how can it be from God, since God himself said to Abraham
that he would multiply his seed through this son, and it would become as
innumerable as the stars of the firmament and as the sand by the sea. Therefore
it was a foolish commandment, a grievous, hard and unbearable commandment.
But what did Abraham do? He closes his senses, takes his reason captive,
and obeys the voice of God, goes, and does as God commanded him.
By this he proved that he obeyed from the heart; otherwise, even if
he had put his son to death a hundred times, God would not have cared for
it; but God was pleased that the deed came from his heart and was done
in true love to God; yea, it came from a heart that must have thought:
Even if my son dies, God is almighty and faithful, he will keep his word,
he will find ways and means beyond that which I am able to devise; only
obey, there is no danger. Had he not had this boldness and this faith,
how could his fatherheart have killed his only and well beloved son?
9. The Jews later wanted to follow this example and, like Abraham, offered
their children unto God, hoping thereby to perform a service well-pleasing
to God; but it was far from it. These poor people came to the conclusion:
The service of Abraham was pleasing to God, therefore will ours also be,
and consequently they killed one child after another. 0, how many healthy,
noble and beautiful children perished! The prophets protested against this
service, they preached, warned and wrote against it, telling the people
that it was deception, but all was in vain. Yea, many a prophet lost his
life because of this, as the history in the books of the kings shows.
10. But why was this service of the Jews displeasing to God? For the
reason that it did not come from their heart, and was not done out of love
to God; but they simply looked upon the service, and did it without the
command and word of God; but God saith: My dear sirs, I was not concerned
about the fact that Abraham offered up his son, but that he proved by this
act that he loved me with his whole heart. There must be first love in
the heart, then follows the service that will be pleasing to God; for all
the works of the law tend to the end thereby to prove our love to God,
which is in the heart; which love the law requires, and will have above
everything else.
11. We are also to notice here that all the works of the law are not
commanded merely for the purpose that we simply just perform them; no,
no; for if God had given even more commandments, he would not want us to
keep them to the injury and destruction of love. Yea, if these commandments
oppose the love of our neighbor, he wants us to renounce and annul them.
Take the example of this, I recently gave you: Moses brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt, leading them for forty years through the wilderness,
and not one of them was circumcised, although it was commanded them. Where
was their obedience to the commandment? Was God not angry with them because
they did not obey his commandment? No, there was a higher commandment in
force at that time, namely, that they were to obey God who commanded them
to come out of Egypt in haste to the promised land. By their marching they
daily obeyed God, and God accepted it as obedience; otherwise he would
have been angry in that they did not keep his commandments. Both the need
and the love were at hand, which set aside all commandments, for it would
have been unbearable to endure the pain of circumcision and at the same
time the burden of the journey. Therefore love took the place of the commandment
of circumcision, and thus should all commandments be kept in love, or not
at all.
12. In like manner Christ excused his disciples, as is recorded in Matthew
12, 3-4, when the Jews accused them of transgressing the law, of doing
on the Sabbath that which was not lawful to do on the Sabbath day, when
they plucked the ears of corn and ate them. Then the Lord gave them to
understand that they were doing no wrong, as if to say: Here is no Sabbath;
for the body needs food, necessity demands it; we must eat, even though
it be on the Sabbath. Therefore the Lord cited the example of David, which
he laid before the Jews, and said, "Have ye not read what David did; he
and 'they that were with him, when he was an hungered, how he went into
the house of God and ate the shew bread which was not lawful to eat, nor
for those that were with him, excepting for the priests?" 1 Samuel 21,
3f. Then David ate the bread, though he was not a priest, because hunger
pressed him to do it. Neither did Ahimelech the priest violate the law
in giving the bread to David, for love was present and urged him to give
it. Thus even the whole law would have had to serve David in his need.
13. Therefore, when the law impels one against love, it ceases and should
no longer be a law; but where no obstacle is in the way, the keeping of
the law is a proof of love, which lies hidden in the heart. Therefore ye
have need of the law, that love may be manifested; but if it cannot be
kept without injury to our neighbor, God wants us to suspend and ignore
the law.
14. Thus you are to regulate your life and conduct. There are in our
day many customs, many orders and ceremonies, by which we falsely think
to merit heaven; and yet there is only this one principle, namely: the
love to our neighbor, that includes in it all good works. I will give you
an example we recently heard. Here is a priest or monk, who is to read
his prayers or the rules of his order, or to hold mass, or say penance.
At this moment there comes a poor man or woman to him who has need of his
help and counsel. What shall this priest or monk do? Shall he perform his
service, or shall he assist the poor man? He should therefore act prudently
and think: True, I am required to read my prayers, hold mass, or say penance;
but now on the other hand, a poor man is here; he needs my help and I should
come to his rescue. God commanded me to do this; but the others man devised
and instituted. I will let the mandates of men go, and will serve my neighbor
according to God's commandment.
15. However, very seldom do we think that the precious service of holding
mass and reading prayers should be put in the background; and such a humble
service, as you regard it, should have the preference. But what is the
reason? The reason is that these dream-preachers, who have nothing to present
to us but the ordinances of men, have made us so timid and fearful that
we came to the conclusion, if we did not regulate ourselves in everything
according to their preaching, heaven itself would fall. Yea, they would
rather let ten poor people starve than fail to say one mass.
We find even today many monks or priests who rather let a poor man freeze,
than violate their statutes and ordinances. So lamentably and miserably
have they been deceived by their godless preachers and teachers, and by
their superiors, who with their statutes and devilish ordinances have drawn,
and are still drawing, them away more and more from the law of God to our
own notions.
16. These are the principal fruits of unbelief and godlessness, which,
as the Scriptures declare, provoke God. Should not God be angry with me,
if he commands me to show my neighbor love, and I go and follow my own
or other people's dreams? It is as if a master said to his servant: Go
and work in the field, and the servant went and desired to wash the dishes.
Should not the master rightly be angry with such a servant? Thus it is
also with God. He wants us to keep his commandments, and to regard them
more than the commandments of men, and all the commandments to be subservient
to love, so that all be comprehended in these two commandments, of which
the Lord here speaks in this Gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself."
17. Do you want to do something pleasing to God, then do it out of genuine
love. That the Jews practiced circumcision, fasted much, prayed much, and
performed other like services, was not pleasing to God, for it did not
come from the heart, as this commandment requires: Thou shalt love God
with all thy heart. Thus it will be also with you, even though you should
belong to the Carthusian friars, or to a still more exacting order; all
would avail nothing, if you had not the love of God. From this you are
to conclude, all works are nothing, that do not originate in love, or are
against love. No commandments should be in force, except those in which
the law of love can be exercised.
18. From this it now appears what a misleading calling that of the monks
and priests is, in that they wish to merit heaven through their works alone,
and they also bind the people to do good works, in order that they may
thereby merit heaven, which is a cursed and godless service. Hence, as
already stated, the law is to be only an exercise to prove our love; otherwise,
aside from love, God never inquires about works, no matter how excellent
they are.
19. You can now see how many people know what the law means: Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Surely they are few who know it, and fewer still who keep it. How can they
keep that which they do not know? We are blind and our nature is totally
blind, and so is also human reason. It knows nothing so imperfectly as
that which the law of God requires.
20. Now here Christ shows the Pharisees and the Scribes a twofold kindness.
In the first place, he dispels their blindness and teaches them what the
law is. In the second place, he teaches them how impossible it is for them
to keep the law. Their blindness he dispels, in that he teaches them what
the law is, namely: that love is the law. Human reason cannot comprehend
this nowadays any more than the Jews did then, for if it had been possible
for human reason to comprehend it, the Pharisees and Scribes, who at that
time were the best and wisest of the people, could have understood it;
but they thought it consisted alone in performing the external works of
the law; in giving to God, whether it be done willingly or unwillingly;
but their inward blindness, their covetousness, and their hardened heart
they could not see, and thought they thoroughly understood the law and
were fine fellows, holy and pious people; but they stood in their own light.
For no one is able to keep the law unless his nature is thoroughly renewed.
21. Therefore consider it an established fact that reason can never
understand and fulfil the law, even though it knows the meaning of the
law. When do you do to another what you want him to do to you? Who loves
his enemy from his heart? Who loves to die? Who willingly suffers disgrace
and shame? Dear sir, point me to a man who enjoys to have a bad reputation
or to live in poverty! For nature and human reason flee entirely from this,
are afraid, terrified and shocked; and if it were possible, as far as it
were in their power, they would never suffer such misfortune. Human nature
alone will never be able to accomplish what God in this commandment requires,
namely, that we surrender our will to the will of God, so that we renounce
our reason, our will, our might and power, and say from the heart: Thy
will be done. And indeed, nowhere will you find a person who loves God
with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself. It may indeed happen
that two companions live friendly together; but even there hypocrisy is
hidden, which continues until you are wounded by him; then you will see
how you love him, and whether you are flesh or spirit. This commandment
therefore requires me to be friendly with all my heart to him who has offended
me; but when do I do this?
22. Thus Christ desires to show us that we preach the law rightly, only
when we learn from it that we are unable to fulfill it, and that we are
the property of the devil. This we learn from experience, and it is shown
now and then in the Scriptures, especially by St. Paul when he says in
Romans 8, 7-8: "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," and it follows,
that they who are in the flesh cannot please God.
23. Hence, take to thyself this commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and think upon it, contemplate it, and search
what kind of a law it is; how far you are from fulfilling it, yea, how
you have not yet even made a beginning to suffer and to do from the heart
what God demands of you. It is pure hypocrisy, if anyone wants to creep
into a hiding- place and think: Oh I will love God. Oh, how I do love him,
he is my Father! How gracious he is to me I and the like. Yes, when God
does our pleasure, then we can easily say such things; but when he sends
misfortune and adversity, we no longer regard him as our God, nor as our
Father.
24. True love to God does not act in this way, but in the heart it thinks
and with the lips says: Lord God, I am thy creature; do with me as thou
wilt; it matters not to me. I am ever thine, that I know; and if thou desirest,
I will die this very hour or suffer any great misfortune; I will cheerfully
do so from my heart. I will not regard my life, honor and goods and all
I have, higher and greater than thy will, which shall be my pleasure all
my days. But you will never find a person who will constantly regulate
himself according to this commandment; for the whole life you are living
in the body, in the five senses, and whatever you do in your body, should
all be so regulated as to be done to the glory of God, according to the
regulations of this commandment, which saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind." As if
Christ said: If you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind, then nothing will be lacking; you shall experience
it in your daily life, namely: when everything you do, whether you wake
or sleep, whether you labor or stand idle, whether you eat or drink, is
directed and done out of love to God from the heart. In like manner your
mind and thoughts will also be directed wholly and entirely to God, so
that you will approve of nothing you are not certain is pleasing to God.
Yea, where are those who do this?
25. And this part where he says, "With all thy mind, argues powerfully
against the writings and teachings of man, upon which he especially depends,
and thinks thereby to obtain a merciful God and merit heaven. Such imagination
of the human reason draws us in a wonderful manner from this commandment,
so that we do not love God with all the mind; as has been done hitherto,
and is still done at the present day. For these priests and monks think
nothing else than that God is moved by the mass and by other human inventions;
but he abhors it and does not desire it, as is said in Isaiah 29, 13: "In
vain do they serve me, because they are teaching such doctrines which are
only the commandments of men." 'Mat. 15, 8-9. The commandment here requires
you to consider nothing good that is against God and against everything
he has commanded or forbidden. It thus requires, you to give yourself wholly
and entirely to him in all your life and conduct.
26. From this you can conclude, there is no human being who is not condemned,
inasmuch as no one has kept this commandment, and God wants everyone to
keep it. There we stand in the midst of fear and distress, unable to help
ourselves, and the first knowledge of the law is, that we see our human
nature is unable to keep the law; for it wants the heart, and if it is
not done with the heart, it avails nothing before God. You may indeed do
the works outwardly, but God is not thus satisfied, when they are not done
from the heart, out of love; and this is never done except man is born
anew through the Holy Spirit. Therefore God aims to accomplish through
the law nothing more than that we should in this way be forced to acknowledge
our inability, frailty and disease, and that with our best efforts we are
unable to fulfil a letter of the law. When you realize this, the law has
accomplished its work. This is what Paul means when he says in Romans 3,
20, "Through the law is the knowledge of sin."
27. From this it appears clearly that we are all alike, and are one
in the inner wickedness of the heart, which the law reveals, when we look
into it rightly. Therefore we might well say, If one is good, then all
are good. Therefore no one should accuse another. It is indeed true that
in public and gross sins there sticks a deeper sin; but the heart is alike
bad, unless it be renewed by the Holy Ghost. But what shall I do when I
once recognize my sin? What does it profit me? It helps me very much, for
when I have come thus far, I am not far from the kingdom; as Christ says
to a scribe in Mark 12, 34, who also knew that the works of the law were
nothing without love.
28. But what shall we do to get rid of our bad conscience? Here follows
now the other part of this Gospel, namely, who Christ is and what we can
expect of him. From him we must receive and secure freedom from a wicked
conscience, or we shall remain in our sins eternally, because for this
purpose is Christ made known and given by the Father, in order that he
might deliver us from sin, death, from a wicked conscience, and from the
law.
29. We have now heard what the law is, and how through the law we come
to the knowledge of sin; but this is not enough, another has a work to
do here, whose name is Christ Jesus; although the first, the law, must
indeed remain; yea, it is necessary. For if I have no sense of my sins,
I will never inquire for Christ; as the Pharisees and scribes do here,
who thought they had done everything the law commanded and were ready to
do yet more; but of Christ they knew nothing. Therefore, first of all,
when the law is known and sin revealed through the law, it is then necessary
that we know who Christ is; otherwise the knowledge of sin profits us nothing.
30. But the law is known, when I learn from it that I am condemned,
and see that there is neither hope nor comfort anywhere for me, and I cannot
even help myself, but must have another one to deliver me. Then it is time
that I look around for him who can help, and he is Christ Jesus, who for
this purpose became man, and became like unto us, in order that he might
help us out of the mire into which we are fallen. He loved God with all
his heart and his neighbor as himself, and submitted his will to the will
of his Father, fulfilled the law in every respect; this I could not do
and yet I was required to do it. Therefore, he accepts him; and that which
he fulfilled in the law, he offers me. He freely gives me his life with
all his works, so that I can appropriate them to myself as a possession
that is my own and is bestowed upon me as a free gift. He delivers us from
the law, for when the law says, Love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor
as thyself, or thou wilt be damned, then I say, I cannot do it. Then Christ
says: Come to me, take me and cling to me by faith; then you shall be rid
of the law.
31. Now this is accomplished in the following manner: Christ has through
his death secured for us the Holy Spirit; and he fulfils the law in us,
and not we. For that Spirit, whom God sends into your heart for the sake
of his Son, makes an entirely new man out of you, who does with joy and
love from the heart everything the law requires, which before would have
been impossible for you to do. This new man despises the present life,
and desires to die, rejoices in all adversity, and submits himself wholly
and entirely to the will of God. Whatever God does with him, is well pleasing
to him. This Spirit you cannot merit yourself, but Christ has secured and
merited it. When I believe from the heart that Christ did this for me,
I receive also the same Holy Spirit that makes me an entirely new man.
Then everything God commands is sweet, lovely and agreeable, and I do everything
he desires of me; not in my own strength, but by the strength of him that
is in me, as Paul says in Philippians, 4, 13: "I can do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth me."
32. But you must take heed, that you do not undertake to secure this
faith in Jesus Christ by your own works or power, or that you think lightly
about this matter; for it is impossible for the natural man; but the Holy
Spirit must do it. Therefore beware of the preachers of self-righteousness,
who simply blabber and say: We must do good works in order to be saved.
But we say that faith alone is sufficient to this end. Our good works are
for another purpose, namely, to prove our faith, as you have already frequently
heard from me.
33. Now this is the purpose of the question the Lord put to the Pharisees:
What think ye of Christ; who is he and whose Son is he? But their answer,
in that they say, He is the son of David, the Lord rejects and obscures
their answer and refers to a passage from the Psalm, in order to leave
them in doubt; so that no one is able to answer him a word.
34. However, when David calls Christ his Lord, in that he says in Psalm
110, "But the lord said unto my Lord, 'Sit thou on my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool,'" it is to be understood that David
speaks of him both as God and man, for according to the flesh alone he
was the son of David. Paul also joins these two when he says in Romans
1, 1-4: "I am called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God,
which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning
his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh; who
was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." But it is something to know
that Christ is Lord; for this has might and power and is especially comforting
in the time of affliction. But concerning this I have said more elsewhere
and will therefore now close, and pray God for grace.
