Both the Law and the Gospel must be taught and considered. It is a mistake to confine yourself to one of the two. The Law serves no other purpose than to create a thirst and to frighten the heart. The Gospel alone satisfies the thirst, makes us cheerful, and revives and consoles the conscience. Lest the teaching of the Gospel create lazy, gluttonous Christians who think they need not perform good works, the Law tells the old Adam: Refrain from sin! Be pious! Desist from this, and do that! Then, when the conscience becomes depressed and realizes that the Law is not a mere cipher, man becomes frightened. And then he must give ear to the voice of the Gospel. When you have sinned, hearken to the Teacher, Christ, who says: Come to Me! I will not let you die of thirst but will give you drink. This message surely appealed to the pious hearts in the audience, and I suppose they replied: Oh, if only we had known this before! Yes, if this had been proclaimed to me, Dr. Luther, in my youth, I would have spared my body and would not have become a monk. But now since this message is common property, the ungodly scorn it; for they did not sweat over it and endure the distress to which I and others were subjected in the papacy. Since they did not feel this anguish of conscience, they despise it. They are not thirsty. Therefore they stir up sects and fanaticism. It is true: He does not remember the sweet who has never tasted the bitter, and those who were never thirsty taste nothing. Thirst is a good bartender, and hunger is a good cook. But nothing, no matter what its quality, tastes good without thirst. Martin Luther Luthers Works, AE 23:272, Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, John 7:37
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 09:21:46 +0000