Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535)
by Martin Luther
Translated by Theodore Graebner
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1949)
Chapter 2, pp. 68-85
VERSE 17. But if, while we seek to be justified by
Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is
therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Either we are not justified by Christ, or we are not justified
by the Law. The fact is, we are justified by Christ. Hence, we
are not justified by the Law. If we observe the Law in order
to be justified, or after having been justified by Christ, we
think we must further be justified by the Law, we convert
Christ into a legislator and a minister of sin.
"What are these false apostles doing?" Paul cries. "They are
turning Law into grace, and grace into Law. They are changing
Moses into Christ, and Christ into Moses. By teaching that
besides Christ and His righteousness the performance of the
Law is necessary unto salvation, they put the Law in the place
of Christ, they attribute to the Law the power to save, a
power that belongs to Christ only."
The papists quote the words of Christ: "If thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments." (Matt. 19:17.) With His own
words they deny Christ and abolish faith in Him. Christ is
made to lose His good name, His office, and His glory, and is
demoted to the status of a law enforcer, reproving,
terrifying, and chasing poor sinners around.
The proper office of Christ is to raise the sinner, and
extricate him from his sins.
Papists and Anabaptists deride us because we so earnestly
require faith. "Faith," they say, "makes men reckless." What
do these law-workers know about faith, when they are so busy
calling people back from baptism, from faith, from the
promises of Christ to the Law?
With their doctrine these lying sects of perdition deface the
benefits of Christ to this day. They rob Christ of His glory
as the Justifier of mankind and cast Him into the role of a
minister of sin. They are like the false apostles. There is
not a single one among them who knows the difference between
law and grace.
We can tell the difference. We do not here and now argue
whether we ought to do good works, or whether the Law is any
good, or whether the Law ought to be kept at all. We will
discuss these questions some other time. We are now concerned
with justification. Our opponents refuse to make this
distinction. All they can do is to bellow that good works
ought to be done. We know that. We know that good works ought
to be done, but we will talk about that when the proper time
comes. Now we are dealing with justification, and here good
works should not be so much as mentioned.
Paul's argument has often comforted me. He argues: "If we who
have been justified by Christ are counted unrighteous, why
seek justification in Christ at all? If we are justified by
the Law, tell me, what has Christ achieved by His death, by
His preaching, by His victory over sin and death? Either we
are justified by Christ, or we are made worse sinners by Him."
The Sacred Scriptures, particularly those of the New
Testament, make frequent mention of faith in Christ.
"Whosoever believeth in him is saved, shall not perish, shall
have everlasting life, is not judged," etc. In open
contradiction to the Scriptures, our opponents misquote, "He
that believeth in Christ is condemned, because he has faith
without works." Our opponents turn everything topsy-turvy.
They make Christ over into a murderer, and Moses into a
savior. Is not this horrible blasphemy?
VERSE 17. Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?
This is Hebrew phraseology, also used by Paul in II
Corinthians, chapter 3. There Paul speaks of two ministers:
The minister of the letter, and the minister of the spirit;
the minister of the Law, and the minister of grace; the
minister of death, and the minister of life. "Moses," says
Paul, "is the minister of the Law, of sin, wrath, death, and
condemnation."
Whoever teaches that good works are indispensable unto
salvation, that to gain heaven a person must suffer
afflictions and follow the example of Christ and of the
saints, is a minister of the Law, of sin, wrath, and of death,
for the conscience knows how impossible it is for a person to
fulfill the Law. Why, the Law makes trouble even for those who
have the Holy Spirit. What will not the Law do in the case of
the wicked who do not even have the Holy Spirit?
The Law requires perfect obedience. It condemns all do not
accomplish the will of God. But show me a person who is able
to render perfect obedience. The Law cannot justify. It can
only condemn according to the passage: "Cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them."
Paul has good reason for calling the minister of the Law the
minister of sin, for the Law reveals our sinfulness. The
realization of sin in turn frightens the heart and drives it
to despair. Therefore all exponents of the Law and of works
deserve to be called tyrants and oppressors.
The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin. That this is the
purpose of the Law can be seen from the account of the giving
of the Law as reported in the nineteenth and twentieth
chapters of Exodus. Moses brought the people out of their
tents to have God speak to them personally from a cloud. But
the people trembled with fear, fled, and standing aloof they
begged Moses: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let
not God speak with us, lest we die." The proper office of the
Law is to lead us out of our tents, in other words, out of the
security of our self-trust, into the presence of God, that we
may perceive His anger at our sinfulness.
All who say that faith alone in Christ does not justify a
person, convert Christ into a minister of sin, a teacher of
the Law, and a cruel tyrant who requires the impossible. All
merit-seekers take Christ for a new lawgiver.
In conclusion, if the Law is the minister of sin, it is at the
same time the minister of wrath and death. As the Law reveals
sin it fills a person with the fear of death and condemnation.
Eventually the conscience wakes up to the fact that God is
angry. If God is angry with you, He will destroy and condemn
you forever. Unable to stand the thought of the wrath and
judgment of God, many a person commits suicide.
VERSE 17. God forbid.
Christ is not the minister of sin, but the Dispenser of
righteousness and the Giver of life. Christ is Lord over law,
sin and death. All who believe in Him are delivered from law,
sin and death.
The Law drives us away from God, but Christ reconciles God
unto us, for "He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins
of the world." Now if the sin of the world is taken away, it
is taken away from me. If sin is taken away, the wrath of God
and His condemnation are also taken away. Let us practice this
blessed conviction.
VERSE 18. For if I build again the things which I
destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
"I have not preached to the end that I build again the things
which I destroyed. If I should do so, I would not only be
laboring in vain, but I would make myself guilty of a great
wrong. By the ministry of the Gospel I have destroyed sin,
heaviness of heart, wrath, and death. I have abolished the
Law, so that it should not bother your conscience any more.
Should I now once again establish the Law, and set up the rule
of Moses? This is exactly what I should be doing, if I would
urge circumcision and the performance of the Law as necessary
unto salvation. Instead of righteousness and life, I would
restore sin and death."
By the grace of God we know that we are justified through
faith in Christ alone. We do not mingle law and grace, faith
and works. We keep them far apart. Let every true Christian
mark the distinction between law and grace, and mark it well.
We must not drag good works into the article of justification
as the monks do who maintain that not only good works, but
also the punishment which evildoers suffer for their wicked
deeds, deserve everlasting life. When a criminal is brought to
the place of execution, the monks try to comfort him in this
manner: "You want to die willingly and patiently, and then you
will merit remission of your sins and eternal life." What
cruelty is this, that a wretched thief, murderer, robber
should be so miserably misguided in his extreme distress, that
at the very point of death he should be denied the sweet
promises of Christ, and directed to hope for pardon of his
sins in the willingness and patience with which he is about to
suffer death for his crimes? The monks are showing him the
paved way to hell.
These hypocrites do not know the first thing about grace, the
Gospel, or Christ. They retain the appearance and the name of
the Gospel and of Christ for a decoy only. In their
confessional writings faith or the merit of Christ are never
mentioned. In their writings they play up the merits of man,
as can readily be seen from the following form of absolution
used among the monks.
"God forgive thee, brother. The merit of the passion
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the blessed Saint
Mary, always a virgin, and of all the saints; the
merit of thy order, the strictness of thy religion,
the humility of thy profession, the contrition of thy
heart, the good works thou hast done and shalt do for
the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, be available unto
thee for the remission of thy sins, the increase of
thy worth and grace, and the reward of everlasting
life. Amen."
True, the merit of Christ is mentioned in this formula of
absolution. But if you look closer you will notice that
Christ's merit is belittled, while monkish merits are
aggrandized. They confess Christ with their lips, and at the
same time deny His power to save. I myself was at one time
entangled in this error. I thought Christ was a judge and had
to be pacified by a strict adherence to the rules of my order.
But now I give thanks unto God, the Father of all mercies, who
has called me out of darkness into the light of His glorious
Gospel, and has granted unto me the saving knowledge of Christ
Jesus, my Lord.
We conclude with Paul, that we are justified by faith in
Christ, without the Law. Once a person has been justified by
Christ, he will not be unproductive of good, but as a good
tree he will bring forth good fruit. A believer has the Holy
Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will not permit a person to remain
idle, but will put him to work and stir him up to the love of
God, to patient suffering in affliction, to prayer,
thanksgiving, to the habit of charity towards all men.
VERSE 19. For I through the law am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God.
This cheering form of speech is frequently met with in the
Scriptures, particularly in the writings of St. Paul, when the
Law is set against the Law, and sin is made to oppose sin, and
death is arrayed against death, and hell is turned loose
against hell, as in the following quotations: "Thou hast led
captivity captive," Psalm 68:18. "O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction," Hosea 13:14.
"And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," Romans 8:3.
Here Paul plays the Law against the Law, as if to say: "The
Law of Moses condemns me; but I have another law, the law of
grace and liberty which condemns the accusing Law of Moses."
On first sight Paul seems to be advancing a strange and ugly
heresy. He says, "I am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God." The false apostles said the very opposite. They said,
"If you do not live to the law, you are dead unto God."
The doctrine of our opponents is similar to that of the false
apostles in Paul's day. Our opponents teach, "If you want to
live unto God, you must live after the Law, for it is written,
Do this and thou shalt live." Paul, on the other hand,
teaches, "We cannot live unto God unless we are dead unto the
Law." If we are dead unto the Law, the Law can have no power
over us.
Paul does not only refer to the Ceremonial Law, but to the
whole Law. We are not to think that the Law is wiped out. It
stays. It continues to operate in the wicked. But a Christian
is dead to the Law. For example, Christ by His resurrection
became free from the grave, and yet the grave remains. Peter
was delivered from prison, yet the prison remains. The Law is
abolished as far as I am concerned, when it has driven me into
the arms of Christ. Yet the Law continues to exist and to
function. But it no longer exists for me.
"I have nothing to do with the Law," cries Paul. He could not
have uttered anything more devastating to the prestige of the
Law. He declares that he does not care for the Law, that he
does not intend ever to be justified by the Law.
To be dead to the Law means to be free of the Law. What right,
then, has the Law to accuse me, or to hold anything against
me? When you see a person squirming in the clutches of the
Law, say to him: "Brother, get things straight. You let the
Law talk to your conscience. Make it talk to your flesh. Wake
up, and believe in Jesus Christ, the Conqueror of Law and sin.
Faith in Christ will lift you high above the Law into the
heaven of grace. Though Law and sin remain, they no longer
concern you, because you are dead to the Law and dead to sin."
Blessed is the person who knows how to use this truth in times
of distress. He can talk. He can say: "Mr. Law, go ahead and
accuse me as much as you like. I know I have committed many
sins, and I continue to sin daily. But that does not bother
me. You have got to shout louder, Mr. Law. I am deaf, you
know. Talk as much as you like, I am dead to you. If you want
to talk to me about my sins, go and talk to my flesh. Belabor
that, but don't talk to my conscience. My conscience is a lady
and a queen, and has nothing to do with the likes of you,
because my conscience lives to Christ under another law, a new
and better law, the law of grace."
We have two propositions: To live unto the Law, is to die unto
God. To die unto the Law, is to live unto God. These two
propositions go against reason. No law-worker can ever
understand them. But see to it that you understand them. The
Law can never justify and save a sinner. The Law can only
accuse, terrify, and kill him. Therefore to live unto the Law
is to die unto God. Vice versa, to die unto the Law is to live
unto God. If you want to live unto God, bury the Law, and find
life through faith in Christ Jesus.
We have enough arguments right here to conclude that
justification is by faith alone. How can the Law effect our
justification, when Paul so plainly states that we must be
dead to the Law if we want to live unto God? If we are dead to
the Law and the Law is dead to us, how can it possibly
contribute anything to our justification? There is nothing
left for us but to be justified by faith alone.
This nineteenth verse is loaded with consolation. It fortifies
a person against every danger. It allows you to argue like
this:
"I confess I have sinned."
"Then God will punish you."
"No, He will not do that."
"Why not? Does not the Law say so?"
"I have nothing to do with the Law."
"How so?"
"I have another law, the law of liberty."
"What do you mean--'liberty'?"
"The liberty of Christ, for Christ has made me free
from the Law that held me down. That Law is now in
prison itself, held captive by grace and liberty."
By faith in Christ a person may gain such sure and sound
comfort, that he need not fear the devil, sin, death, or any
evil. "Sir Devil," he may say, "I am not afraid of you. I have
a Friend whose name is Jesus Christ, in whom I believe. He has
abolished the Law, condemned sin, vanquished death, and
destroyed hell for me. He is bigger than you, Satan. He has
licked you, and holds you down. You cannot hurt me." This is
the faith that overcomes the devil.
Paul manhandles the Law. He treats the Law as if it were a
thief and a robber He treats the Law as contemptible to the
conscience, in order that those who believe in Christ may take
courage to defy the Law, and say: "Mr. Law, I am a sinner.
What are you going to do about it?"
Or take death. Christ is risen from death. Why should we now
fear the grave? Against my death I set another death, or
rather life, my life in Christ.
Oh, the sweet names of Jesus! He is called my law against the
Law, my sin against sin, my death against death. Translated,
it means that He is my righteousness, my life, my everlasting
salvation. For this reason was He made the law of the Law, the
sin of sin, the death of death, that He might redeem me from
the curse of the Law. He permitted the Law to accuse Him, sin
to condemn Him, and death to take Him, to abolish the Law, to
condemn sin, and to destroy death for me.
This peculiar form of speech sounds much sweeter than if Paul
had said: "I through liberty am dead to the law." By putting
it in this way, "I through the law am dead to the law," he
opposes one law with another law, and has them fight it out.
In this masterly fashion Paul draws our attention away from
the Law, sin, death, and every evil, and centers it upon
Christ.
VERSE 20. I am crucified with Christ.
Christ is Lord over the Law, because He was crucified unto the
Law. I also am lord over the Law, because by faith I am
crucified with Christ.
Paul does not here speak of crucifying the flesh, but he
speaks of that higher crucifying wherein sin, devil, and death
are crucified in Christ and in me. By my faith in Christ I am
crucified with Christ. Hence these evils are crucified and
dead unto me.
VERSE 20. Nevertheless I live.
"I do not mean to create the impression as though I did not
live before this. But in reality I first live now, now that I
have been delivered from the Law, from sin, and death. Being
crucified with Christ and dead unto the Law, I may now rise
unto a new and better life."
We must pay close attention to Paul's way of speaking. He says
that we are crucified and dead unto the Law. The fact is, the
Law is crucified and dead unto us. Paul purposely speaks that
way in order to increase the portion of our comfort.
VERSE 20. Yet not I.
Paul explains what constitutes true Christian righteousness.
True Christian righteousness is the righteousness of Christ
who lives in us. We must look away from our own person. Christ
and my conscience must become one, so that I can see nothing
else but Christ crucified and raised from the dead for me. If
I keep on looking at myself, I am gone.
If we lose sight of Christ and begin to consider our past, we
simply go to pieces. We must turn our eyes to the brazen
serpent, Christ crucified, and believe with all our heart that
He is our righteousness and our life. For Christ, on whom our
eyes are fixed, in whom we live, who lives in us, is Lord over
Law, sin, death, and all evil.
VERSE 20. But Christ liveth in me.
"Thus I live," the Apostle starts out. But presently he
corrects himself, saying, "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me." He is the form of my perfection. He embellishes my faith.
Since Christ is now living in me, He abolishes the Law,
condemns sin, and destroys death in me. These foes vanish in
His presence. Christ abiding in me drives out every evil. This
union with Christ delivers me from the demands of the Law, and
separates me from my sinful self. As long as I abide in
Christ, nothing can hurt me.
Christ domiciling in me, the old Adam has to stay outside and
remain subject to the Law. Think what grace, righteousness,
life, peace, and salvation there is in me, thanks to that
inseparable conjunction between Christ and me through faith!
Paul has a peculiar style, a celestial way of speaking. "I
live," he says, "I live not; I am dead, I am not dead; I am a
sinner, I am not a sinner; I have the Law, I have no Law."
When we look at ourselves we find plenty of sin. But when we
look at Christ, we have no sin. Whenever we separate the
person of Christ from our own person, we live under the Law
and not in Christ; we are condemned by the Law, dead before
God.
Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you
become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: "I
am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ's righteousness,
victory, and life are mine." On the other hand, Christ may
say: "I am that big sinner. His sins and his death are mine,
because he is joined to me, and I to him."
Whenever remission of sins is freely proclaimed, people
misinterpret it according to Romans 3:8, "Let us do evil, that
good may come." As soon as people hear that we are not
justified by the Law, they reason maliciously: "Why, then let
us reject the Law. If grace abounds, where sin abounds, let us
abound in sin, that grace may all the more abound." People who
reason thus are reckless. They make sport of the Scriptures
and slander the sayings of the Holy Ghost.
However, there are others who are not malicious, only weak,
who may take offense when told that Law and good works are
unnecessary for salvation. These must be instructed as to why
good works do not justify, and from what motives good works
must be done. Good works are not the cause, but the fruit of
righteousness. When we have become righteous, then first are
we able and willing to do good. The tree makes the apple; the
apple does not make the tree.
VERSE 20. And the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
Paul does not deny the fact that he is living in the flesh. He
performs the natural functions of the flesh. But he says that
this is not his real life. His life in the flesh is not a life
after the flesh.
"I live by the faith of the Son of God," he says. "My speech
is no longer directed by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My
sight is no longer governed by the flesh, but by the Holy
Ghost. My hearing is no longer determined by the flesh, but by
the Holy Ghost. I cannot teach, write, pray, or give thanks
without the instrumentality of the flesh; yet these activities
do not proceed from the flesh, but from God."
A Christian uses earthly means like any unbeliever. Outwardly
they look alike. Nevertheless there is a great difference
between them. I may live in the flesh, but I do not live after
the flesh. I do my living now "by the faith of the Son of
God." Paul had the same voice, the same tongue, before and
after his conversion. Before his conversion his tongue uttered
blasphemies. But after his conversion his tongue spoke a
spiritual, heavenly language.
We may now understand how spiritual life originates. It enters
the heart by faith. Christ reigns in the heart with His Holy
Spirit, who sees, hears, speaks, works, suffers, and does all
things in and through us over the protest and the resistance
of the flesh.
VERSE 20. Who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The sophistical papists assert that a person is able by
natural strength to love God long before grace has entered his
heart, and to perform works of real merit. They believe they
are able to fulfill the commandments of God. They believe they
are able to do more than God expects of them, so that they are
in a position to sell their superfluous merits to laymen,
thereby saving themselves and others. They are saving nobody.
On the contrary, they abolish the Gospel, they deride, deny,
and blaspheme Christ, and call upon themselves the wrath of
God. This is what they get for living in their own
righteousness, and not in the faith of the Son of God.
The papists will tell you to do the best you can, and God will
give you His grace. They have a rhyme for it:
"God will no more require of man, Than of himself
perform he can."
This may hold true in ordinary civic life. But the papists
apply it to the spiritual realm where a person can perform
nothing but sin, because he is sold under sin.
Our opponents go even further than that. They say, nature is
depraved, but the qualities of nature are untainted. Again we
say: This may hold true in everyday life, but not in the
spiritual life. In spiritual matters a person is by nature
full of darkness, error, ignorance, malice, and perverseness
in will and in mind.
In view of this, Paul declares that Christ began and not we.
"He loved me, and gave Himself for me. He found in me no right
mind and no good will. But the good Lord had mercy upon me.
Out of pure kindness He loved me, loved me so that He gave
Himself for me, that I should be free from the Law, from sin,
devil, and death."
The words, "The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for
me," are so many thunderclaps and lightning bolts of protest
from heaven against the righteousness of the Law. The
wickedness, error, darkness, ignorance in my mind and my will
were so great, that it was quite impossible for me to be saved
by any other means than by the inestimable price of Christ's
death.
Let us count the price. When you hear that such an enormous
price was paid for you, will you still come along with your
cowl, your shaven pate, your chastity, your obedience, your
poverty, your works, your merits? What do you want with all
these trappings? What good are the works of all men, and all
the pains of the martyrs, in comparison with the pains of the
Son of God dying on the Cross, so that there was not a drop of
His precious blood, but it was all shed for your sins. If you
could properly evaluate this incomparable price, you would
throw all your ceremonies, vows, works, and merits into the
ash can. What awful presumption to imagine that there is any
work good enough to pacify God, when to pacify God required
the invaluable price of the death and blood of His own and
only Son?
VERSE 20. For me.
Who is this "me"? I, wretched and damnable sinner, dearly
beloved of the Son of God. If I could by work or merit love
the Son of God and come to Him, why should He have sacrificed
Himself for me ? This shows how the papists ignore the
Scriptures, particularly the doctrine of faith. If they had
paid any attention at all to these words, that it was
absolutely necessary for the Son of God to be given into death
for me, they would never have invented so many hideous
heresies.
I always say, there is no remedy against the sects, no power
to resist them, except this article of Christian
righteousness. If we lose this article we shall never be able
to combat errors or sects. What business have they to make
such a fuss about works or merits? If I, a condemned sinner,
could have been purchased and redeemed by any other price, why
should the Son of God have given Himself for me? Just because
there was no other price in heaven and on earth big and good
enough, was it necessary for the Son of God to be delivered
for me. This He did out of His great love for me, for the
Apostle says, "Who loved me."
Did the Law ever love me? Did the Law ever sacrifice itself
for me? Did the Law ever die for me? On the contrary, it
accuses me, it frightens me, it drives me crazy. Somebody else
saved me from the Law, from sin and death unto eternal life.
That Somebody is the Son of God, to whom be praise and glory
forever.
Hence, Christ is no Moses, no tyrant, no lawgiver, but the
Giver of grace, the Savior, full of mercy. In short, He is no
less than infinite mercy and ineffable goodness, bountifully
giving Himself for us. Visualize Christ in these His true
colors. I do not say that it is easy. Even in the present
diffusion of the Gospel light, I have much trouble to see
Christ as Paul portrays Him. So deeply has the diseased
opinion that Christ is a lawgiver sunk into my bones. You
younger men are a good deal better off than we who are old.
You have never become infected with the nefarious errors on
which I suckled all my youth, until at the mention of the name
of Christ I shivered with fear. You, I say, who are young may
learn to know Christ in all His sweetness.
For Christ is Joy and Sweetness to a broken heart. Christ is a
Lover of poor sinners, and such a Lover that He gave Himself
for us. Now if this is true, and it is true, then are we never
justified by our own righteousness.
Read the words "me" and "for me" with great emphasis. Print
this "me" with capital letters in your heart, and do not ever
doubt that you belong to the number of those who are meant by
this "me." Christ did not only love Peter and Paul. The same
love He felt for them He feels for us. If we cannot deny that
we are sinners, we cannot deny that Christ died for our sins.
VERSE 21. I do not frustrate the grace of God.
Paul is now getting ready for the second argument of his
Epistle, to the effect that to seek justification by works of
the Law, is to reject the grace of God. I ask you, what sin
can be more horrible than to reject the grace of God, and to
refuse the righteousness of Christ? It is bad enough that we
are wicked sinners and transgressors of all the commandments
of God; on top of that to refuse the grace of God and the
remission of sins offered unto us by Christ, is the worst sin
of all, the sin of sins. That is the limit. There is no sin
which Paul and the other apostles detested more than when a
person despises the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Still there
is no sin more common. That is why Paul can get so angry at
the Antichrist, because he snubs Christ, rebuffs the grace of
God, and refuses the merit of Christ. What else would you call
it but spitting in Christ's face, pushing Christ to the side,
usurping Christ's throne, and to say: "I am going to justify
you people; I am going to save you." By what means? By masses,
pilgrimages, pardons, merits, etc. For this is Antichrist's
doctrine: Faith is no good, unless it is reinforced by works.
By this abominable doctrine Antichrist has spoiled, darkened,
and buried the benefit of Christ, and in place of the grace of
Christ and His Kingdom, he has established the doctrine of
works and the kingdom of ceremonies.
We despise the grace of God when we observe the Law for the
purpose of being justified. The Law is good, holy, and
profitable, but it does not justify. To keep the Law in order
to be justified means to reject grace, to deny Christ, to
despise His sacrifice, and to be lost.
VERSE 21. For if righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain.
Did Christ die, or did He not die? Was His death worth while,
or was it not? If His death was worth while, it follows that
righteousness does not come by the Law. Why was Christ born
anyway? Why was He crucified? Why did He suffer? Why did He
love me and give Himself for me? It was all done to no purpose
if righteousness is to be had by the Law.
Or do you think that God spared not His Son, but delivered Him
for us all, for the fun of it? Before I would admit anything
like that, I would consign the holiness of the saints and of
the angels to hell.
To reject the grace of God is a common sin, of which everybody
is guilty who sees any righteousness in himself or in his
deeds. And the Pope is the sole author of this iniquity. Not
content to spoil the Gospel of Christ, he has filled the world
with his cursed traditions, e.g., his bulls and indulgences.
We will always affirm with Paul that either Christ died in
vain, or else the Law cannot justify us. But Christ did not
suffer and die in vain. Hence, the Law does not justify.
If my salvation was so difficult to accomplish that it
necessitated the death of Christ, then all my works, all the
righteousness of the Law, are good for nothing. How can I buy
for a penny what cost a million dollars? The Law is a penny's
worth when you compare it with Christ. Should I be so stupid
as to reject the righteousness of Christ which cost me
nothing, and slave like a fool to achieve the righteousness of
the Law which God disdains?
Man's own righteousness is in the last analysis a despising
and rejecting of the grace of God. No combination of words can
do justice to such an outrage. It is an insult to say that any
man died in vain. But to say that Christ died in vain is a
deadly insult. To say that Christ died in vain is to make His
resurrection, His victory, His glory, His kingdom, heaven,
earth, God Himself, of no purpose and benefit whatever.
That is enough to set any person against the righteousness of
the Law and all the trimmings of men's own righteousness, the
orders of monks and friars, and their superstitions.
Who would not detest his own vows, his cowls, his shaven
crown, his bearded traditions, yes, the very Law of Moses,
when he hears that for such things he rejected the grace of
God and the death of Christ. It seems that such a horrible
wickedness could not enter a man's heart, that he should
reject the grace of God, and despise the death of Christ. And
yet this atrocity is all too common. Let us be warned.
Everyone who seeks righteousness without Christ, either by
works, merits, satisfactions, actions, or by the Law, rejects
the grace of God, and despises the death of Christ.
_______________________________.______________________________
This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg
by Laura J. Hoelter is in the public domain. You may freely
distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any
comments or suggestions to:
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Walther Library
at Concordia Theological Seminary
E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu
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Phone: (260) 452-2123 Fax: (260) 452-2126
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_______________________________.______________________________
file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/gal: gal2-17.txt
rev : 1997/08