# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1861_S363
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Law. 363

...bear the wrath of God, which can be nothing other than the Law's keenly-felt preaching in the conscience. And the devil also knows well that it is not possible to take the Law out of the heart, as St. Paul testifies, Romans in the second chapter, that the Gentiles, who received not the Law through Moses and thus have no law, are nevertheless themselves their own law, as those who must bear witness that the work of the Law is written in their hearts, etc. But he goes about it so as to make people secure, and teaches them to esteem neither Law nor sin, so that when they are suddenly overtaken by death or by an evil conscience, having grown accustomed before to nothing but sweet security, they must sink to hell without any counsel, as those who had been taught nothing else in Christ but sweet security; wherefore such terror would be a sure sign that Christ (who must be pure sweetness) had cast them off and forsaken them. That is what the devil seeks and gladly wants." (See Luther's Works, Erlangen Edition XXXII, 5, 6; Walch's Edition XX, 2019, 2020.) Luther evidently means by these latter words that whoever knows what the Law is, and that it still exerts its force, will also not despair in the felt terror of conscience, for he will turn from the Law to the Gospel, where he finds what the Law demands. But if one supposes that the Law has been taken away, and yet is overtaken by terrors of conscience, then there is no help, counsel, or comfort at hand.

Further Luther writes in his Church Postil, in the second sermon on the Gospel for the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity: "Thus it is granted us, first, through Christ, that we do not fulfill the Law, and that sin is wholly and utterly forgiven; but not thereby or for this granted, that we should henceforth not keep the Law, and go on continually sinning, or that one should teach thus: If you have faith, then you need (require) no longer to love God and your neighbor; but rather that the Law may now first be begun and kept, which is the eternal, unalterable, unchangeable will of God." (See Luther's Works, Erlangen Edition XIV, 154, 155; Walch's Edition XI, 2273.)

Further Luther writes in his "Sermon on the Distinction between the Law and the Gospel" of the year 1532: "It is true, the Law or the Ten Commandments are not so abolished that we are now altogether free from them and need not have them. (For Christ has freed us from the curse, not from the obedience, of the Law.) No, that is not his will; rather that we should keep them with entire diligence and earnestness; but, where we have done so, not to trust in that, nor, where it has not been done, to despair. Therefore see to it that you rightly distinguish the two words, giving the Law no more than is its due; otherwise you lose the Gospel. Nor should you regard the Gospel in such a way, or entertain such thoughts about it, that the Law should perish; but let each remain in its own circle and sphere." (Luther's Works, Erlangen Edition XIX, 244; Walch's Edition XI, 422, 423.)