# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1856_S198
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Sermon Preparation from Dr. Luther. 198

...can be preached. Instead of listening to opinions of this kind, so utterly unevangelical, we ought rather to examine our own preaching, to see whether it really is Gospel, glad tidings, the loving offer of the grace of God. The evangelical articles of doctrine, or dogmas, can also be so presented that they show us our sins; the proclamation, among others, that Christ died for us on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, reveals to us, alongside the excellence of the love of God, also the greatness and gravity of our load of sin; an evangelical dogma, then, may in our hands become a sermon of the Law, and will all too easily become one against our will, if we present it in the rigorous form which it must naturally have in the confession and especially in dogmatics. But if that which ought properly to be an evangelical offer becomes Law, then of course it can create no evangelical life either, since the Law gives only knowledge of sin, and does not make alive. How do matters stand with us in this regard? In any case, we, the fellows of this age, are very partial to anything that goes by the name of Law. We would gladly have a church law, too, for all the actions that may be expected of Christian church members, and if we succeed in bringing that about, we believe that things now stand quite well with the congregation. Scarcely have we once painted for our hearers the comfort of the forgiveness of sins, than we already hasten after it with that Law, namely that only the penitent sinner can receive such grace, and loses it again if he does not bring forth fruits of repentance; one can tell from our sermons that we very much lack the right, joyful courage for the proclamation of the glad tidings. Comfortless sadness is the chief impression that our sermons make, and hence we too do not go about the composing of them without strained self-denial, and often, when we are already standing at the foot of the pulpit stairs, would only too gladly turn back again. Indeed, the shrinking from a bright, joyful proclamation of the Gospel goes so far that many believing preachers, in their fear of promoting carnal security, present faith — which is, after all, the receiving of the grace offered in the Word and Sacrament — as a surrender to God, and thus, confusing it with love, turn the preaching of faith into a sermon of the Law, which of course can then neither comfort nor create life. In making this accusation against ourselves I do not exaggerate; in bringing together the individual traits of our inclination toward legalism, I do not lay them all to the charge of every individual, but would only bring near to each the question, whether we do not stand in need of guidance toward a truthful preaching of the evangelical glad tidings. Hardly will anyone answer this question "no" rather than "yes." On the other hand, where the right skill for the proclamation of the Gospel is lacking, old experience teaches that much lack of the preaching of the Law is also to be presumed — of that preaching which shows sin and gives the regenerate the rule for their conduct. For the most part we remain, in our presentation of the Law, too much on the surface,