Luther:
What is sin? Is it to steal, to murder, to
commit adultery, and the like? Yea, these are indeed sins, but they are not
those which are most prevalent and most grave. Many persons are not guilty of
these manifest sins; but of that chief sin of which the Holy Ghost reproves the
world, no one is free, else the Holy Ghost could not reprove the whole world.
This great sin is the unbelief of the world, the refusal to believe in Jesus
Christ. Nor does the world know anything of this sin before the Holy Ghost
reproves the people of it through His teachings; the world considers only such
deeds sinful as are contrary to the second table of the law. It knows nothing
of Christ, and much less is it aware of the sin of not believing in Him. But we
need not talk of the world in this regard; we find many among the Christians
who do not consider unbelief a sin, much less an original sin. No one but the
Holy Ghost can teach the world that unbelief is sin; He reproves all as
sinners, no matter how some may attempt to cover up their faults by good works
or to pass themselves off as pure under the tinsel of self-righteousness.
The Holy Ghost, therefore, preaches this truth
that all men, without an exception, are sinners and cannot of themselves
believe in Christ. This is, of course, strange preaching for the world. The
world of itself is perfectly ignorant of the duty of having faith in Christ,
the Son of man. Men suppose that they have fulfilled their duty if they can say
with the Pharisee, Luke 18, that they are no murderers, no adulterers and no
unjust persons.
But the Holy Ghost teaches otherwise and tells
man: I know that this one or that one may lead an outwardly upright life, but
still the great sin of unbelief nestles deep down in the heart of every one. If
we are not reproved of this sin by the Holy Ghost, we will never discover it.
We must then infer from this that “every thing
not concluded in faith is sin,” whether it be monastic vows, or prayers,
fastings, and giving of alms. Wherever faith in Christ is wanting, there the
Holy Ghost must come with His reproof. There is no other way to be relieved
from this sin but to believe in Christ Jesus the Savior.
From Volume Two, Luther's House Postils, Edited by Alec Satin and Gregory Jackson, p. 211.
