# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1861_S375
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Law. 375

...of the Law, and against the most harmful and most poisonous trust in the Law. For the Law is not given in order to make righteous or to give life, or to help in any way toward righteousness (Galatians 3:21), but so that it may point out sin and work wrath (Romans 3:20, 4:15), that is, so that it may convict and accuse the conscience. Death is not laid upon us so that we should live by it, nor is sin innate in us so that we should be innocent by it: just so, the Law is not given so that we should become righteous by it, since it can give neither righteousness nor life. In sum: as high as heaven is above the earth, so far should the Law be separated from justification; and one should teach, say, or think nothing at all regarding the article of justification, except the word of grace alone." (Luther's Works, Walch's Edition XX, 2039, 2040.)

3. To those who are justified, as such, the Law must not be preached in order to make them godly and fruitful in good works, and it must therefore not be laid upon the new man in them, but only upon the old man; as indeed the holy apostle Paul calls out to the Galatians, who had put themselves back under the yoke of the Law: "This only would I learn of you: Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2-3, 5.)

On this Luther writes in his Church Postil, on the Gospel for the third Sunday after Trinity: "The Gospel, where it is rightly in the heart, ought to make such a person as does not wait so long until the Law comes; but is so full of joy in Christ, has delight and love for the good, that he gladly helps and does good to everyone, wherever he can, out of a free heart, before he even once thinks of the Law — he risks his very body and life, asking nothing about what he may suffer for it, and thus becomes full of good works that flow of themselves from him; just as Christ, when compelled, will not lift so much as a straw, but unforced lets himself be nailed to the cross for me and for the whole world, and dies for the lost sheep: this indeed is work upon work. Nevertheless, learn now to distinguish rightly and to set these two matters properly in their place and divide them, when it comes to the encounter where the Law and sin dispute with the conscience, so that you boldly grab Moses by the mouth and bid him be silent, and point him away to your old man; take him to Moses' school, that he may dispute with him and say: Listen, you are altogether lazy and sluggish in doing good, in serving your neighbor. Where you ought to praise Christ, you would rather drink down a tankard of beer; instead of standing in danger for Christ's sake, you would much rather steal and cheat your neighbor...