Our
Chief Doctrine
1.
This Gospel contains the teaching we hold and boast of as our chief doctrine,
which is called the true Christian teaching, namely, the doctrine of grace and
forgiveness of sins, and Christian liberty from the law. It is a very loving
and friendly admonition to repentance and the knowledge of Christ. And it is
ever a pity, that a godless, impudent person should be permitted to hear such
an excellent, comforting and joyful sermon. And yet it is more sad, that everyone
graduates so soon in it and masters it so that he thinks he knows it so well
that he can learn nothing more from it. Yet God, our Lord, does not permit
himself to become vexed or weary in repeating it yearly, yea, every day, and
enforces it as though he knew nothing else to preach, and as though he had no
other skill or art. While we poor, wretched people immediately become so
overlearned, so satisfied, tired of it and disgusted besides, that we have no
longer a desire or love for it.
Third Sunday after Trinity,
Second Sunday
He Is As Anxious For Me As I Am For Him
43. Thus
too, if our confidence is to begin, and we become strengthened and comforted,
we must well learn the voice of our Shepherd, and let all other voices go, who
only lead us astray, and chase and drive us hither and thither. We must hear
and grasp only that article which presents Christ to us in the most friendly
and comforting manner possible. So that we can say with all confidence: My Lord
Jesus Christ is truly the only Shepherd, and I, alas, the lost sheep, which has
strayed into the wilderness, and I am anxious and fearful, and would gladly be
good, and have a gracious God and peace of conscience, but here I am told that
He is as anxious for me as I am for him. I am anxious and in pain about how I
shall come to him to secure help, But he is in anxiety and worry and desires
nothing else than to bring me again to himself.
Third Sunday after Trinity,
Second Sunday
You Will Find No Rest Except
in Me Alone
44. Behold, if we could thus
portray his heart, and press it into our own heart, that he has such a gushing
desire, anxiety and longing for us, then we could not dread or fear him, but
would joyfully run up to him and abide with him alone, and hear no other
doctrine or teacher. For wherever a different doctrine comes, be it of Moses or
others, it will certainly accomplish nothing, except only to hunt us down and
torment us, so that we can find neither rest nor peace. Wherefore Christ also
says, Matthew 11:28-29: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest for your souls.” As though he would
say: Run about and seek wherever you will, hear and learn everything that man
can preach, yet you will find no rest nor peace of heart except in me alone.
Third Sunday after Trinity,
Second Sunday
The Devil’s Art - Feelings
54.
For the real art and roguery of the devil, which he practices on the poor
wandering sheep, are that he perverts this picture and makes a continual
bawling in his presence, that he can no more recognize his Shepherd, so that in
Christ’s name he might lead the man subject to Moses, as he disputes about
Christ just as he did before about Moses, so that he indeed needs a strong faith
that it is true, and a man first of all must contend against himself on this
account. For his own feeling is powerful in itself, and the devil magnifies sin
and terror so greatly, that nerve and bone, and the heart in the body, could
fail.
55. Therefore it is not so easily learned as some imagine. When all is peace it is easily believed that Christ is sweet and amiable, but when anxiety and terror break forth and overwhelm the heart, then man is blind and wandering, and will judge only according to his heart and feelings, to which he clings and confirms himself in his error, for he is held captive in it, and cannot think otherwise but that it is as he feels it, and yet it is not true.
Third Sunday after Trinity,
Second Sunday
Look at Christ According to
the Word
57.
Hence everything here depends only upon this, that you rightly learn to look
upon Christ according to the Word, and not according to your own thoughts and
feelings, for human thoughts are frauds and lies, but his Word is true and
cannot lie. For he has even proved it by living deeds and examples, and daily
proves it still throughout the whole of Christendom. Wherefore we must only
press the Word close to our hearts and knit ourselves into it, and learn the
art to reprove our own heart with its lies, and set this article of faith
against it. For this alone must remain true, and everything opposed to it, must
be false and a pack of lies. But this is an art which I cannot master, and much
less can other vain spirits, who boast so much of it, as though they knew it
all, if they have only heard it but once, and yet they never taste or
experience anything of it. For it is an easy matter to speak and preach about
it; but how difficult it is to prove it in reality, which those thoroughly
experience, who are earnestly concerned about it.
Third Sunday after Trinity,
Second Sunday
Faith Thus Belongs to God
Alone
7. See, thus faith belongs
to God alone and it should acquire for us from God alone what we need in
temporal and spiritual matters; and it should acquire all in a way that it does
not think it has merited it. This same faith should later again flow forth from
our heart’s depths to our neighbor freely and unhindered in good works; not
that we wish to rest our salvation in them; for God will not have that, but
wishes the conscience to rest in himself alone. Just like a bride must cleave
to the bridegroom alone, and to no one else, so does God require also from us
that we confide only in him.
Fourth Sunday after Trinity
