# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1861_S371
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Law. 371

Have they not now indeed hit it exactly right — that they abolish the Law and yet teach it all the same, when they teach the revelation of wrath? But they turn the shoe around and teach us the Law after the Gospel, and wrath after grace. But of the shameful errors that the devil intends with this little cat's stool, I see quite a few, but cannot deal with them this time; also, because I hope it will cease, there is no need." (Luther's Works, Erlangen Edition XXXII, 9, 10; Walch's Edition XX, 2024, 2025.)

Further Luther writes in his "Exposition of Several Chapters of the Second Book of Moses" of the years 1524-1526: "The Gospel is not a sermon for coarse, raw, wild sinners who live without any devotion at all, but is a comfort for troubled souls (Matthew 11:28). For it is a delicate food that requires a hungry soul. Hence the dear Virgin Mary also sings in her Magnificat (Luke 1:53): He has filled the hungry with good things. Otherwise the mad rabble falls upon it, and they all want to be evangelical and Christian brothers, and thereupon stir up factions and every kind of mischief. They bring the devil down on their own heads. A Christian is not brash, wild, and raw; rather his conscience is timid, fainthearted, and fearful — sin bites him, and he is afraid of God's wrath and of the devil and death. To such a downcast and contrite heart the Lord Christ tastes good. Likewise, the redemption from sin, death, the devil, and hell also tastes good to those who are stuck fast in death and feel such distress and would gladly have rest: they obtain it when the heart has faith; but alongside this they also feel how frail the old Adam still is." (Luther's Works, XXXV, 221, 222; Walch's Edition III, 1285, 1286.)

Further Luther writes in his great "Exposition of the First Book of Moses" of the years 1536-1545: "Godly and God-fearing people, who are weighed down by their cross and must endure manifold sorrow and misery, need comfort and promise, on which to raise themselves up. But again, those who are stubborn, stiff-necked, and secure ought to be terrified with examples of God's wrath, so that, as is said here, they may learn to fear God. Now our hearts are so inclined that they do not willingly let themselves be chastened. We all gladly accept the promises, and find in them no displeasure. But the preaching of the Law terrifies people and makes them, as it were, fierce and furious. For this is why the prophets were put to death — not because they preached of the blessing that was promised to Abraham, but because they rebuked godless customs and idolatry, and held and admonished the people to discipline and the fear of God. Just as, for the same reason, the world is not hostile to us because we teach the Gospel and set before the people the benefit of the Lord Christ, pure and undiluted. For everyone gladly accepts and praises that — unless he is openly godless. Rather, all the displeasure arises from this...