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Lectures on Deuteronomy QUOTES

Lectures on Deuteronomy QUOTES

1 " God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feeling, but only if it relies on the Word of God. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

2 " And this is the pure and unalloyed meaning of the First Commandment: We should deem ourselves to be nothing as regards our merit, but to have, receive, and find power to do everything only by His mercy and love, to His glory — mercy which He first promises by His Word and then also confirms afterward by a work which He does through us, as by a sign, just as here He cites the Exodus from Egypt and the destruction of the Canaanites. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

3 " Each must watch over his own conscience, and therefore each must have the right to judge spirits and prophets; but no one has the right to take the sword for himself. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

4 " lest we be puffed up and make an idol out of our righteousness. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

5 " The commands of the New Testament are directed to those who are justified and are new men in the Spirit. Nothing is taught or commanded there except what pertains solely to believers, who do everything spontaneously, not from necessity or contrary to their own will. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

6 " Therefore the Law finds man not only unwilling but also unable to do what the Law demands. Thus he says here in the text that on the day of the assembly the people refused and could not hear the voice of the Law, and that therefore they asked for another teacher, one who would speak to them a word they could bear. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

7 " God indeed gives everything to all; but to this His own people He adds the Word of promise that they should not live by bread alone, as the rest of the nations do, but also by the Word. In this land they are not to have care for the belly alone but much rather also for the spirit. They should not think that the land is given them to fatten them like pigs; rather, they are to nourish themselves with the Word of God and to receive everything through the Word of God, that is, to serve God. Not for the sake of the land itself but for the sake of the people in it is God concerned for the land, that He may rule them in it by faith, as is said elsewhere. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

8 " 18. I will put My words in His mouth. This also clearly proves that the Prophet will teach something different. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

9 " The Gospel teaches from what source you receive the power to fulfill the Law. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

10 " He is a God to us and dispenses everything bountifully also when everything is most hopeless. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

11 " For since through the sin of Adam we are sunk in blindness, so that we are wholly ignorant of God in all His will and counsel, it is not only foolish but also impossible of ourselves to prepare a light and a way by which to approach God and find out what He would have us do, as He says in the Book of Wisdom (9:13-14): “The thoughts of mortals are fearful and uncertain. For who among men can know what God wants? "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

12 " The allegorical meaning of the death of Moses and the appointment of Joshua has been touched upon above;1 therefore it is to be repeated here but briefly. Moses is the minister of the Law, which does not lead to fulfillment, that is, to righteousness, but shows sin and demands grace, which it does not confer. Therefore he dies and stays on this side of Jordan in the land of Moab, that is, in the righteousness of works. Joshua succeeds him as leader; this is the ministry of grace. He leads the people into the Land of Promise, that is, to true righteousness in Christ; and the Israelites cross over the Jordan dry-shod, that is, as both sin and death draw back and yield to grace. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

13 " Thus it has come about that out of the Word they have made Law, out of faith works, out of truth a show; and therefore they have finally been forced to employ the sword. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

14 " the Lord has freed us from great evils to which we have been subjected, and that we have accepted many good things by faith. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

15 " is not our business to terrify any godless person. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

16 " Thus the fleshly use of sex is forbidden, because it is a disorderly lust. Where, however, sex is associated with you by marriage, then the flesh should be used, and you render to the divine Law, that is, to love what is demanded. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

17 " I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give heed to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

18 " what cruel and bloodthirsty beasts are smug presumption, vain-glory, pride, and carelessness, "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

19 " The New Testament is the older, promised from the beginning of the world, yes, “before the times of the world,” as Paul says to Titus (1:2), but fulfilled only under Christ. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy

20 " Again you will note here especially that the nation of Israel is wholly indistinguishable from those Gentiles who are to be destroyed, except for the distinction of faith, just as he says here that they will perish like those Gentiles whom the Lord will destroy before them. Therefore they have nothing of which to boast against the Gentiles — not the Law, the righteousness of works, the blood of the fathers, the miracles of God, the divine sayings, the priesthood, the kingdom, or anything else. The sentence stands: If they forget God and worship other gods, they shall perish, as if all this were nothing and they themselves were Gentiles too. For he who does not believe will be damned (Mark 16:16). But it has been said enough: “To worship strange gods is to be unbelieving and to oppose the true God. "

― Martin Luther , Lectures on Deuteronomy