Martin Luther: "The Spirit ... renders the heart glad & free, as the law demands." | Letter 151 on Assurance and Fighting for Joy
Over the past few weeks, I've been involved in a dialog with my friend Lonnie ( @such_are_you ) in the following posts: IT MAY BE MY DESTINY, BUT I STILL DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT, QUESTIONING GOD ABOUT HIS CALL ON YOUR LIFE, and DOES GOD STILL SPEAK? ... I'd encourage you to read those posts along with the comments. Here are some of the comments I made on those posts, which I'll follow with some further words –– all of which is leading up to some excerpts from Martin Luther's "Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans."
October 8, 2012... (IT MAY BE MY DESTINY, BUT I STILL DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT)
There's a lot here that could be addressed, but what screams out to me is the title: "It may be my destiny, but I still don't have to like it." I whole-heartedly disagree with that. It is God who works in us not only to do His good pleasure but also to desire to do His good pleasure; through God's Holy Spirit, we're equipped and commanded to do all things without grumbling or disputing (Phil. 2:12-14 [reference edited]). The Israelites were rebuked because they did not serve the LORD with JOY and GLADNESS (Deut. 28:47). God loves not only a cheerful giver but also a cheerful minister.
The character of Christ was such that He not only did the Father's will but He also desired/delighted to do His Father's will (Psalm 40:8). God is more than ready to supply abounding grace to us so we might persevere WITH JOY (Col. 1). Ministry isn't just about our serving God and serving others, but it is about Christ's character being formed IN US. In the parable of the prodigal son, the older son was dutifully serving at home, but he wasn't enjoying his position as a child of the Father; sadly, he didn't understand and enter into the privileges that were already his as a son: "All that I have is yours!"
Three years ago tomorrow, I began in earnest to seek to have Habakkuk 3 joy in the Lord no matter what anyone else in doing, no matter what I might see, and no matter whether I see ministry "success" (define that as you may) or not. And God graciously answered. And that's been an ongoing journey; I find myself continuing to have to fight for joy, for there are far too many things that continue to distract me from enjoying God as He has intended, but each time I go back to the sanctuary so to speak (~ Psalm 73), God reminds me that His love for me far and away transcends all else: He is never a disappointment, though I keep running into disappointments time and time again. Yes, I am grieved for the state of God's Church, and I long to see God's Church reformed and revived, and I do have expectations for what I'm doing, but even if I see no visible results in my lifetime, I want to continue to enjoy God's love in Christ all the days of my life, to sup with Christ as He's intended, so I might be refreshed and renewed – even when all the world (including much of the visible Church) seems to be a wilderness, so I might be sing with Habakkuk and say with the apostle Paul: "as sorrowful, YET ALWAYS REJOICING."
October 13, 2012... (IT MAY BE MY DESTINY, BUT I STILL DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT)
Lonnie, this goes far beyond your particular personality/background/family upbringing/calling/ministry/sphere of ministry. Paul wrote to Timothy that he endured all things for the sake of the elect, and he prayed for the Colossians to be strengthened by God's might with all patience and endurance with JOY. As much as I love you in Christ, and I delight in your zeal, and I know a little of your quirkiness and continue to give you a lot of leeway, but to be straight with you: as far as I'm concerned, your attitude is off-putting, it reeks of darkness and smacks of condescension. And though my background, calling, etc., is very much different than yours, know this: I've known a LOT of frustrations, and I can often hear myself in what you're writing. In other words, your temptations and your struggles are not at all unique to you.
If you continue to insist on saying, "I still don't have to like it," what does that say about your attitude toward God and the high calling He has given you and the privilege you have to impact souls for eternity? O! What a blessed privilege it is to be Christ's and to be His minister!
Whenever we fall into that murmuring mindset, we're being just like Peter in John 21, as he reacted out of the flesh to Jesus' prophetic words to him; Peter looked at John and then asked Jesus, "What about him?" Jesus' response to that: "Peter, you follow Me." And Jesus' response to you is: "Lonnie, you follow Me. Stop looking around. You can't be concerned about anyone else. I am sending you just as I was sent." And don't be deceived, we can be sure that our following Jesus will include our being mocked and rejected just as He was.
Re: your comment ~ "I'd rather they just go on their merry way, where ever that is."
How is that anything close to the attitude of a good shepherd?
"... please blot me out of your book that you have written"
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ..."
"The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
And if you try to say to me, "Karen, it's too hard. I can't be happy. You don't really know what I'm going through. You don't know the people I am dealing with... Blah, blah, blah...," then I say to you to go back and read the Bible, and then go back read all you've continued to write to the rest of us over the past several years: both to those people who make excuses and claim it's too hard to overcome sexual sin, as well as to those people who make excuses and claim it's too hard to minister to those who are sexually broken. Stop making excuses and believe the Word of God: THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE - LONNIE, IN CHRIST, YOU ARE NOW FREE TO ENJOY GOD AND TO REJOICE IN THE LORD –– IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. Therefore, in your particular circumstances and your particular calling, YOU, LONNIE, ARE NOW SET FREE TO REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS –– EVEN THOUGH THE CHURCH MAY CONTINUE TO TURN A DEAF EAR AND NOT LISTEN AT ALL TO WHAT YOU ARE SAYING. Paul commanded us to rejoice in the Lord always... and always means ALWAYS. Joy in Christ is independent of what we do, and it is independent of how other people may respond or react to us or treat us. We see the New Testament Church time and time again responding to rejection/persecution with joy: "rejoicing they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name."
As I said above, three years ago, I finally saw that I was dying on the vine, for I was so dependent on circumstances, and I kept being brought down, down, down, and I finally became disgusted with that and desperate. I had come to see that there was a joy available to me in Christ, and nothing else would do, and, as a result, I began to cry out to God to grant it to me, and He was gracious and has continued to be gracious to me far beyond my wildest imagination!
As soon as we say, "I can't be happy/joyful where I am," then we are limiting the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:40ff), and that's a very dangerous position for us to be in, and we are also showing how little we regard the calling of God. Is He not worthy for us to seek to enjoy Him as we walk in the good works He has ordained for us? Is He is stern taskmaster – or is He a loving Father, nurturing Shepherd, and comforting Spirit?
".. that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves."
Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?
For your progress and JOY in the faith (~ Phil. 1:25),
your sister in Christ's love,
Karen
October 20, 2012... (QUESTIONING GOD ABOUT HIS CALL ON YOUR LIFE)
Lonnie, I have known that same temptation to question God about His call on my life, and I found myself doing it recently, but the only reason I ever do that is because I take my eyes off Jesus and look around at my circumstances. I get angry at myself whenever I do that, because God has been so good to me, He has shown me far too much and given me too much joy in Him and in ministry to ever question again. He has provided more than enough grace all along the way. By the grace of God, we should be learning to be content and to rest in the place God has for us regardless of what we see, regardless of the lack of results, regardless of the frustrations we meet, regardless of the abuse we may have to endure, etc. etc. ~ Psalm 131. We are God's servants. He is the Potter, and we are the clay: should we question His perfect will for us, particularly since He has clearly revealed so much to each of us already?
You wrote:
"Seriously, who wants to put him/herself out there knowing abuse is there waiting???"
First off, we see that attitude in the early church. For example, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's name, and they joyfully accepted the plundering of their property. When they were persecuted, they didn't pray for the persecution to go away, but saw it coming under the sovereign hand of God, and asked for God's power to sustain and embolden them in the midst of persecution.
And then we know who else did that –– our blessed Lord Himself!
Isaiah 50
5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
Jesus humbled Himself and submitted Himself willingly and obediently to all His Father had for Him, even to death on the cross, all along the way entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He was The Suffering Servant. We will endure far, far less than He ever endured, and we have been given His resurrection power to follow in His steps (I Peter 2). There's a little phrase that runs throughout the OT: "willingly offered." Several years ago as I was trying to decide what I should do (leave one ministry for another), I was really torn, but then I came across that phrase in Nehemiah 11:2, and God made my heart willing, and He wants to do that work in each of His children. We need to pray: "Lord God, conform me into Your image. Open my ear, so I might not be rebellious but turn forward. Let me give my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. Let me not hide my face from disgrace and spitting." And if we don't want to pray that, then we need to pray that God would make us willing to pray that type of prayer.
I'll leave you with few excerpts...
From "Memoir of Rev. W.H. Hewitson..." by John Baillie (Hewitson was a contemporary of M'Cheyne and if I'm remembering correctly, M'Cheyne had wanted Hewitson to join him as an assistant at Dundee)
"Blessed be God," said Henry Martyn on one occasion, "I feel myself to be His minister." To go forth as " His minister "—to beseech men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God—was the one object for which Mr Hewitson cared to live.
"If ministers only saw," observed [Edward] Payson, on his deathbed, to a brother who had come to visit him, "the inconceivable glory that is before them, and the preciousness of Christ, they would not be able to refrain from going about, leaping and clapping their hands for joy, and exclaiming, 'I'm a minister of Christ! I'm a minister of Christ.' " Mr Hewitson had been taught to long after the blessed work with a chastened enthusiasm not unlike Payson's.
"O that I were a minister of the gospel!" he writes: "I do not mean ordained of men—for it is a little thing to be judged of men, or of man's judgment, as fit for the pastoral office; but I mean, ordained by the Spirit of Christ."
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From Richard Baxter's "The Reformed Pastor" (the reference to reformed refers to Baxter's desire to reform the ministerial office):
Consider that you have many other excellent privileges of the ministerial office to encourage you to the work. If therefore you will not do the work, you have nothing to do with the privileges. It is something that you are maintained by other men’s labors. This is for your work, that you may not be taken off from it, but, as Paul requireth, may ‘give yourselves wholly to these things,’ and not be forced to neglect men’s souls, whilst you are providing for your own bodies. Either do the work, then, or take not the maintenance. But you have far greater privileges than this. Is it nothing to be brought up to learning, when others are brought up to the cart and plough? and to be furnished with so much delightful knowledge, when the world lieth in ignorance? Is it nothing to converse with learned men, and to talk of high and glorious things, when others must converse with almost none but the most vulgar and illiterate But especially, what an excellent privilege is it, to live in studying and preaching Christ! to be continually searching into his mysteries, or feeding on them! to be daily employed in the consideration of he blessed nature, works, and ways of God! Others are glad of the leisure of the Lord’s day, and now and then of an hour besides, when they can lay hold upon it. But we may keep a continual Sabbath. We may do almost nothing else, but study and talk of God and glory, and engage in acts of prayer and praise, and drink in his sacred, saving truths. Our employment is all high and spiritual. Whether we be alone, or in company, our business is for another world. O that our hearts were but more tuned to this work! What a blessed, joyful life should we then live! How sweet would our study be to us! How pleasant the pulpit! And what delight would our conference about spiritual and eternal things afford us! To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please – all these, and many other similar privileges of the ministry, bespeak our unwearied diligence in the work.
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Charles Wesley...
O for a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free,
A heart that always feels Thy blood
So freely shed for me.
A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer’s throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
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Oswald Chambers...
Notice God's unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world. God plants His saints in the most useless places. We say—God intends for me to be here because I am so useful. Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judges at all of where that is.
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I Cor. 10:9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
May God's grace abound to us so we might put off grumbling and be able to richly rejoice that we are ministers of Christ! What else would we rather be doing?!
October 26, 2012... (DOES GOD STILL SPEAK?)
Thanks, Lonnie! You've been more than gracious with me.
I know you take obedience very seriously, and yet there's a quality of trusting obedience that Habakkuk displays at the end of the book, and if we don't seek that, then we're falling short of the calling God has for us. Habakkuk said he would rest in the day of trouble and rejoice in the Lord in spite of what lay ahead; in Christ, there is real rest, peace, and joy available to us as we trust God and submit to God's will for us ~ Romans 15:13. I'm pretty sure I've already quoted to you that portion of Colossians 1 about being strengthened with God's power for endurance and patience WITH JOY. I've been reflecting more on that passage... As you look in the verses prior, the context is Paul's prayer for us to know God's will for us, to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, and to please God. Paul includes the experience of Godly joy as an integral part of our submission to the will of God, to our walking worthy, and to our pleasing God.
How is the command to "Rejoice in the LORD always" any different from the command "Flee sexual immorality"?
* * *
If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I've devoted much of my writing over the past three years to a series of posts which I've titled "Letters on Assurance and Fighting for Joy." I began that journey of fighting for joy just over three years ago, and I most recently chronicled the beginnings of that journey in my post Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy. (If you've not read that post, I encourage you to do so.) I have to fight for joy day by day ... moment by moment. But know this, my brothers and sisters in Christ: our God does NOT want us to be miserable in our life here and in our service for Him. It is the devil who delights to have us miserable. (e.g. - please see my posts, "The book that made me bristle" and "Jesus' desire vs. Satan's desire.")
Our God is for us, not against us. As we ask Him in faith, will He not freely give us all things? Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? We are to live as more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Can anyone or anything at all separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus?
Have we not been rescued and redeemed out of darkness and indwelt with God's Holy Spirit so we might be sent out as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation? How can we shine out in the darkness as God intends so long as our countenances continue to be gloomy, our minds are swirl with doubts, and our mouths overflow with complaints? When we "live" that way, is that being anything close to living as a conqueror, much less living as more than a conqueror? How does such behavior display the new heart of a child of God? Our Lord told us, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks..." (I'm writing this as much to myself as to any of you. I get angry with myself when I begin to become downcast, doubtful, questioning, and complaining. I know that is no way for a child of God to live. Our God is a loving Father. Our Savior is a selfless and extravagant Bridegroom. Is it not a low view of my God and of Christianity that I should badger my God with complaints about the place He has put me and the lot He has given me? O! For greater grace so I do not lose sight of and stop holding precious the incorruptible, unsurpassed inheritance I have in Him – the Lover of my soul, who has continued (and will always continue) to show Himself ever-faithful in providing grace upon grace to sustain me in and through any and all temptations, trials, afflictions, griefs, disappointments, and losses that I have had and will have to face in this present world. God's commandments are not burdensome! He does all things well! Our Good Shepherd is jealous and zealous for His name and for His people, and He will not relent in doing good to His sheep! His covenant mercies pursue us all the days of our lives!)
I know that my flesh, the world, and the devil are my constant foes – and in the blink of an eye, I can find myself precariously teetering on the edge of self-absorbed whining, joy-stealing misery, and vision-destroying grumbling – but I dare not go back there! I've languished in that suffocating slough far too often, and I don't want to go back there. I hate it, and I despise myself whenever I find myself wandering back there. I don't want to waste my life being miserable, and I don't want you to waste your life being miserable! Or, rather, more accurately, I should say ...
I don't want us to waste Christ's life in us being miserable!
God will give us Habakkuk 3 rest and joy if we ask Him – so, like Habakkuk, we might be able to rest and joy in the Lord no matter our circumstances. But all too often we don't ask because we have no true and right understanding of our inheritance –– we've been blinded to the truth that joy and peace in believing is offered freely to all the children of God. We've not studied and examined the Bible's promises as we ought. We don't really believe that joy and peace are included in "great and glorious possibilities" of the Christian life (as Martyn Lloyd-Jones would have said) ... or at least, we believe the devil's lie that such joy and peace are not possible "for me." (I know that because I did that very thing for years!) And all the while, we stand in the corner pouting, we choose to flounder and thrash about in the darkness and nurture our hurts and lick our wounds ("Poor me!") – and all the while, day after day, week after week, year after year, we rob ourselves of joy, we rob the world of a vibrant witness, and we rob our God of due glory. And each and every time we do that, what are we doing but this: putting ourselves at the center of the universe. Ah! our flesh enjoys that, doesn't it? Really enjoys that! Oh, yes, we all deep down enjoy complaining, don't we? Why? Because as soon as we complain, we put the spotlight on ourselves, we make ourselves the center of attention. It's all very dysfunctional, but we love painting ourselves as victims. People of God, may God's Holy Spirit fall upon you and shake you and awaken you to the blessedness it is to be a child of God and the bride of Christ! We are privileged to be adopted into the family of God, and we are privileged to be sent out as ambassadors in His name! Whenever we make ourselves the center of attention, God is no longer the center of our affections. These things ought not to be for the blood-bought children of God! We're to set our affections on things above: not on endless pining away about our current condition or relentless ranting about God's calling on our lives. I'm not saying there isn't a right way to bring our complaints to God, for there certainly is. But, that said, God wants to lift us up and out of the first part of the book of Habakkuk and plant us on His blessed, holy mount in Habakkuk 3. The JOY of the LORD is our strength. The devil knows this truth more than most Christians! That's why he's on the prowl to keep us ignorant, to keep us from even seeking out that first taste of joy in Christ – for he knows that once we've tasted, we will come to see there's so much more than we could have ever asked or imagined ... Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The devil enjoys it when we get caught up in joyless, restless service (e.g. - think Martha). Oh, we're doing work for God, but are we enjoying God? I am a Christian hedonist, and my desire is to glorify God by enjoying Him – and I am praying God would work in your heart to make that your desire as well –– to make Him your desire!
Habakkuk laid out his complaint to God, and then he waited for God's response. God rebuked Habakkuk and told him that the just shall live by faith. Living by faith means first off that we're justified in the eyes of God by believing in the Lord Christ as our atoning sacrifice for sin and in having His perfect righteousness being credited to us. But beyond that, authentic faith cannot and will not remain stagnant, but must and will work in us to transform our hearts and minds and lives into the image of Christ, so we might fulfill the demands of the law. Now, what did it mean for Habakkuk to live by faith? How did faith manifest itself in Habakkuk's life, and how should faith manifest itself in our lives? What kind of fruit should our faith be bearing? (Remember: faith without works is dead.) Continue reading the book of Habakkuk, and right near the end, in chapter 3, you'll see Habakkuk's life bearing the supernatural, sublime fruit of faith:
16b Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. (ESV)
THAT, my friends, is how the just live by faith: quietly waiting (resting - KJV), rejoicing in, and taking joy IN THE LORD at all times. And in case you try to make excuses and bring your arguments to me: "Well, that was then, back in the Old Testament, not in the 21st century. My circumstances are too difficult. You don't know what I'm dealing with. You don't know the people I have to live with day in and day out." –– Remember this: Habakkuk didn't live during a happy time at all in Israel's history – far from it! Just read Habakkuk 1-2 and the corresponding history in the Old Testament. In spite of those circumstances, supernatural joy and rest were given to believing Habakkuk during a time of increasing moral decline in the Church, and not very long before the vicious and brutal Chaldeans would lay siege to Jerusalem and sack her and carry off Judah into 70 years' exile. (Hmmm...There truly is nothing new under the sun, is there?)
I know the comments I cited from Lonnie's posts were quite lengthy, but, as I said, I've provided those plus my additional words today, to set the stage for an excerpt from Martin Luther's Preface to the book of Romans. Though I'd previously read through the Preface, I pulled it out to review since tomorrow is the anniversary of Luther's nailing the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Door in 1517 – the kindling spark of the Protestant Reformation. As I reread it, I found some wonderful words about faith working itself out in Holy Spirit-inspired joyful and restful service, and I wanted to share these words with you on my blog today. My desire and prayer for you is that God might increase your faith in Him and your joy and peace in Him as you serve Him. (Please note: the bracketed material was added by the translator, and I edited the text for a couple typographical errors; the boldface and underlining is mine.)
This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul. It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface, provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding of it. Up to now it has been darkened by glosses [explanatory notes and comments which accompany a text] and by many a useless comment, but it is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the entire Scripture.
To begin with, we have to become familiar with the vocabulary of the letter and know what St. Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, justice, flesh, spirit, etc. Otherwise there is no use in reading it.
You must not understand the word law here in human fashion, i.e.,a regulation about what sort of works must be done or must not be done. That's the way it is with human laws: you satisfy the demands of the law with works, whether your heart is in it or not. God judges what is in the depths of the heart. Therefore his law also makes demands on the depths of the heart and doesn't let the heart rest content in works; rather it punishes as hypocrisy and lies all works done apart from the depths of the heart. All human beings are called liars (Psalm 116), since none of them keeps or can keep God's law from the depths of the heart. Everyone finds inside himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. Where there is no free desire for good, there the heart has not set itself on God's law. There also sin is surely to be found and the deserved wrath of God, whether a lot of good works and an honorable life appear outwardly or not.
Therefore in chapter 2, St. Paul adds that the Jews are all sinners and says that only the doers of the law are justified in the sight of God. What he is saying is that no one is a doer of the law by works. On the contrary, he says to them, "You teach that one should not commit adultery, and you commit adultery. You judge another in a certain matter and condemn yourselves in that same matter, because you do the very same thing that you judged in another." It is as if he were saying, "Outwardly you live quite properly in the works of the law and judge those who do not live the same way; you know how to teach everybody. You see the speck in another's eye but do not notice the beam in your own."
Outwardly you keep the law with works out of fear of punishment or love of gain. Likewise you do everything without free desire and love of the law; you act out of aversion and force. You'd rather act otherwise if the law didn't exist. It follows, then, that you, in the depths of your heart, are an enemy of the law. What do you mean, therefore, by teaching another not to steal, when you, in the depths of your heart, are a thief and would be one outwardly too, if you dared. (Of course, outward work doesn't last long with such hypocrites.) So then, you teach others but not yourself; you don't even know what you are teaching. You've never understood the law rightly. Furthermore, the law increases sin, as St. Paul says in chapter 5. That is because a person becomes more and more an enemy of the law the more it demands of him what he can't possibly do.
In chapter 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and hence forward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. Such a law is spiritual since it can only be loved and fulfilled by such a heart and such a spirit. If the Spirit is not in the heart, then there remain sin, aversion and enmity against the law, which in itself is good, just and holy.
You must get used to the idea that it is one thing to do the works of the law and quite another to fulfill it. The works of the law are every thing that a person does or can do of his own free will and by his own powers to obey the law. But because in doing such works the heart abhors the law and yet is forced to obey it, the works are a total loss and are completely useless. That is what St. Paul means in chapter 3 when he says, "No human being is justified before God through the works of the law." From this you can see that the schoolmasters [i.e., the scholastic theologians] and sophists are seducers when they teach that you can prepare yourself for grace by means of works. How can anybody prepare himself for good by means of works if he does no good work except with aversion and constraint in his heart? How can such a work please God, if it proceeds from an averse and unwilling heart?
But to fulfill the law means to do its work eagerly, lovingly and freely, without the constraint of the law; it means to live well and in a manner pleasing to God, as though there were no law or punishment. It is the Holy Spirit, however, who puts such eagerness of unconstrained love into the heart, as Paul says in chapter 5. But the Spirit is given only in, with, and through faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul says in his introduction. So, too, faith comes only through the word of God, the Gospel, that preaches Christ: how he is both Son of God and man, how he died and rose for our sake. Paul says all this in chapters 3, 4 and 10.
That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law; faith it is that brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ. The Spirit, in turn, renders the heart glad and free, as the law demands. Then good works proceed from faith itself. That is what Paul means in chapter 3 when, after he has thrown out the works of the law, he sounds as though the wants to abolish the law by faith. No, he says, we uphold the law through faith, i.e. we fulfill it through faith.
Sin in the Scriptures means not only external works of the body but also all those movements within us which bestir themselves and move us to do the external works, namely, the depth of the heart with all its powers. Therefore the word do should refer to a person's completely falling into sin. No external work of sin happens, after all, unless a person commit himself to it completely, body and soul. In particular, the Scriptures see into the heart, to the root and main source of all sin: unbelief in the depth of the heart. Thus, even as faith alone makes just and brings the Spirit and the desire to do good external works, so it is only unbelief which sins and exalts the flesh and brings desire to do evil external works. That's what happened to Adam and Eve in Paradise (cf. Genesis 3).
That is why only unbelief is called sin by Christ, as he says in John, chapter 16, "The Spirit will punish the world because of sin, because it does not believe in me." Furthermore, before good or bad works happen, which are the good or bad fruits of the heart, there has to be present in the heart either faith or unbelief, the root, sap and chief power of all sin. That is why, in the Scriptures, unbelief is called the head of the serpent and of the ancient dragon which the offspring of the woman, i.e. Christ, must crush, as was promised to Adam (cf. Genesis 3). Grace and gift differ in that grace actually denotes God's kindness or favor which he has toward us and by which he is disposed to pour Christ and the Spirit with his gifts into us, as becomes clear from chapter 5, where Paul says, "Grace and gift are in Christ, etc." The gifts and the Spirit increase daily in us, yet they are not complete, since evil desires and sins remain in us which war against the Spirit, as Paul says in chapter 7, and in Galatians, chapter 5. And Genesis, chapter 3, proclaims the enmity between the offspring of the woman and that of the serpent. But grace does do this much: that we are accounted completely just before God. God's grace is not divided into bits and pieces, as are the gifts, but grace takes us up completely into God's favor for the sake of Christ, our intercessor and mediator, so that the gifts may begin their work in us.
In this way, then, you should understand chapter 7, where St. Paul portrays himself as still a sinner, while in chapter 8 he says that, because of the incomplete gifts and because of the Spirit, there is nothing damnable in those who are in Christ. Because our flesh has not been killed, we are still sinners, but because we believe in Christ and have the beginnings of the Spirit, God so shows us his favor and mercy, that he neither notices nor judges such sins. Rather he deals with us according to our belief in Christ until sin is killed.
Faith is not that human illusion and dream that some people think it is. When they hear and talk a lot about faith and yet see that no moral improvement and no good works result from it, they fall into error and say, "Faith is not enough. You must do works if you want to be virtuous and get to heaven." The result is that, when they hear the Gospel, they stumble and make for themselves with their own powers a concept in their hearts which says, "I believe." This concept they hold to be true faith. But since it is a human fabrication and thought and not an experience of the heart, it accomplishes nothing, and there follows no improvement.
Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are. Even so, he chatters on with a great many words about faith and good works.
Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire.Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgements about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate.
Source: "Martin Luther's Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans," translated by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB as found at http://www.ccel.org/l/luther/romans/pref_romans.html - accessed October 30, 2012.
Please note: Luther's Preface to the Romans was instrumental in the conversion of John Wesley ~ "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death" ~ please click here to read the account from John Wesley's journal).
Related:
Posts on Martin Luther
My other posts on Assurance and Fighting for Joy
Christian, don't waste your life whining
"The duties of religion are delightful" ~ the fruit of "The Life of God in the Soul of Man"
Lenten Reflections: His ear opened, Our ears stopped ~ Are you following the Servant? (Isaiah 50)
five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
a conversation with Jesus about trials & joy (Letter 34 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Why, Lord? (Letter 52 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Will you finish your course with joy? (Acts 20:24) - letter 71 on assurance & joy
Remembering the pit & bog so I might rejoice in Him & you might also! (Psalm 40:1-3) | letter 74
Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor ~ Letter 133 (Naphtali revisited)
"Your works I know, your toil, your pain" (Labor Day reflections) | letter 146 on fighting for joy
Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy
Hudson Taylor: a man who found rest in the yoke of Christ
Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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