The Preface of Martin Luther upon the Epistle to the Galatians

I myself can scarcely believe that I was so plentiful in words when I did publicly expound this Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians, as this book shows me to have been. Notwithstanding, I perceive all the cogitations which I find in this treatise by so great diligence of the brethren gathered together, to be mine: so that I must needs confess either all, or perhaps more, to have been uttered by me in this public treatise. For in my heart this one article reigns, even the faith of Christ. From whom, by whom, and to whom all my divine studies day and night have recourse to and fro continually. And yet I perceive that I could not reach anything near to the height, breadth, and depth of such high and inestimable wisdom: only certain bare and poor beginnings, and as it were fragments do appear. Therefore I am ashamed that my so barren and simple Commentaries should be set forth upon so worthy an Apostle, and elect vessel of God. But when I consider again the infinite and horrible abuses and abominations which always have raged in the Church of God, and yet at this day cease not to rage against this only and grounded rock, which we hold to be the article of our justification, (that is to say, how, not by ourselves, neither by our works, which are less than ourselves, but by another help, even the Son of God Jesus Christ, we are redeemed from sin, death, the devil, and made partakers of eternal life) I am compelled to cast off all shame, and to be bold above measure.

This rock did Satan shake in paradise, when he persuaded our first parents, that by their own wisdom and power they should be like to God: forsaking true faith in God, who had given them life, and promised the continuance thereof. By and by after, this liar and murderer, which will be always like to himself, stirred up the brother to the murdering of his brother, and for no other cause, but for that his godly brother by faith had offered up a more excellent sacrifice, and he offering up his own works without faith, had not pleased God. After this, against the same faith followed a most intolerable persecution of Satan by the sons of Cain, until God was even constrained at once by the flood to purge the whole world, and to defend Noah the preacher of righteousness. This notwithstanding Satan continued his seed in Ham, the third son of Noah. But who is able to reckon up all examples? After these things the whole world grew mad against this faith, finding out an infinite number of idols and strange religions, whereby everyone (as Saint Paul says) walked his own way, trusting by their works, some to pacify or please a God, some a Goddess, some Gods, some Goddesses: that is to say, without the help of Christ, by their own works to redeem themselves from evils and from their sins, as all the examples and monuments of all nations do sufficiently witness.

But these are nothing in comparison of that people and congregation of God, Israel: which not only had the sure promise of the fathers, and afterward the law of God, given to them from God himself by his angels, above all other: but always and in all things were also certified by the present sayings, miracles, and examples of the prophets. Notwithstanding even among them also Satan did so prevail (that is to say, the mad and outrageous opinion of their own righteousness) that afterward they killed all the prophets, indeed even Christ himself the Son of God, their promised Messiah, for that they had taught, that men are accepted into the favor of God by grace only and not by their own righteousness. And this is the sum of the doctrine of the devil and of the world from the beginning: We will not seem to do evil, but yet whatever we do that must God allow of, and all his prophets must consent to it, which if they shall refuse to do, they shall die the death. Abel shall die, but Cain shall flourish. Let this be our law (say they) and even so it comes to pass.

But in the Church of the Gentiles, the matter is, and has been so vehemently handled, that the fury of the Jewish Synagogue may well seem to be but a sport. For they (as Saint Paul says) did not know Christ their anointed, and therefore they crucified the Lord of glory. But the Church of the Gentiles has received and confessed Christ to be the Son of God, being made our righteousness, and this she does publicly record, read, and teach. And yet notwithstanding this confession, they that would be accounted the church, do kill and persecute, and continually rage against those which believe and teach and in their deeds declare nothing else, but that Christ is the self-same thing that they themselves (though with feigned words and hypocritical deeds) are constrained against their will, to allow and confess. For under the name of Christ at this day they reign. And if they could without the name of Christ hold that seat and kingdom, no doubt but they would express him to be such a one openly as in their hearts they esteem him secretly. But they esteem him a great deal less than the Jews do, which at the least think him to be Thola, that is to say, a thief worthily hanged on the cross. But these men account him as a fable, and take him as a feigned God among the Gentiles, as it may plainly appear at Rome in the Pope's court, and almost throughout all Italy.

Because therefore Christ is made as it were a mock among his Christians (for Christians they will be called): and for that Cain does kill Abel continually, and the abomination of Satan does now chiefly reign, it is very necessary that we should diligently handle this article, and set it against Satan, whether we be rude or eloquent, learned or unlearned. For this rock must be published abroad, indeed though every man should hold his peace, yet even of the very rocks and stones themselves. Therefore I do most willingly herein accomplish my duty, and am contented to suffer this long commentary and full of words, to be set forth for the stirring up of all the brethren in Christ, against the sleights and malice of Satan, which in these days is turned into such extreme madness against this healthful knowledge of Christ now revealed and raised up again: that as hitherto men have seemed to be possessed with devils and stark mad, even so now the devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse devils, and to rage even above the fury of devils, which is indeed a great argument that that enemy of truth and life, does perceive the day of judgment to be at hand, which is the horrible day of his destruction, but the most comfortable day of our redemption, and shall be the end of all his tyranny and cruelty. For not without cause is he disquieted, when his members and powers are so assailed: even as a thief or an adulterer, when the morning appears and discloses his wickedness, is taken tardy and apprehended for the same. For who ever heard (to pass over the abominations of the Pope) so many monsters to burst out at once into the world, as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone? In whom Satan breathing out as it were the last blast of his kingdom, through horrible uproars sets them everywhere in such a rage, as though he would by them suddenly, not only destroy the whole world with seditions, but also by innumerable sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church.

Against the lives and opinions of others he does not so rage: to wit, against whoremongers, thieves, murderers, perjured persons, rebels against God, unbelievers. No, to these rather he gives peace and quietness: these he maintains in his court with all manner of pleasures and delights, and gives to them all things at will: even like as at one time in the beginning of the church, he did not only suffer all the idolatries and false religions of the whole world to be quiet and untouched, but also mightily maintained, defended, and nourished the same. But the church and religion of Christ alone he vexed on every side. After this, permitting peace and quietness to many heretics, he troubled only the catholic doctrine. Even so likewise at this day he has no other business in hand but this only (as his own and always proper to himself) to persecute and vex our Savior Christ: which is our perfect righteousness without our works, as it is written of him: You shall tread upon his heel.

But I do not set forth these my meditations so much against these men, as for my brethren, which will either show themselves thankful in the Lord for this my travail, or else will pardon my weakness and temerity. But of the wicked I would not in any wise they should be liked or allowed: but rather that thereby both they and their God might be the more vexed, seeing with my great travail they are set forth only for such as Saint Paul writes this Epistle to: that is to say, the troubled, afflicted, vexed, tempted, (for they only understand these things) and miserable Galatians in the faith. Whoever are not such, let them hear the papists, monks, Anabaptists and such other masters of profound wisdom and of their own religion, and let them stoutly contemn our doctrine and our doings. For at this day the papists and Anabaptists conspire together against the church in this one point (though they dissemble in words) that the work of God depends upon the worthiness of the person. For thus do the Anabaptists teach: that baptism is nothing except the person does believe. Out of this principle must needs follow, that all the works of God are nothing if the man is nothing. But baptism is the work of God, and yet notwithstanding an evil man makes it not to be the work of God. Moreover, hereof it must follow that matrimony, authority, liberty and bondage, are the works of God: but because men are evil, therefore they are not the works of God. Wicked men have the sun, the moon, the earth, the water, the air, and all such other creatures subject to them: but because they are wicked and not godly, therefore the sun is not the sun, the moon, the earth, the water, are not that which they are. The Anabaptists themselves had bodies and souls before they were rebaptized: but because they were not godly, therefore they had not true bodies and true souls. Also their parents were not lawfully married (as they grant themselves) because they were not rebaptized: therefore the Anabaptists themselves are all bastards, and their parents were all adulterers and whoremongers, and yet they do inherit their parents' lands and goods, although they grant themselves to be bastards and unlawful heirs. Who does not see here in the Anabaptists, men not possessed with Devils, but even Devils themselves possessed with worse Devils?

The Papists in like manner until this day do stand upon works and the worthiness of man, contrary to grace, and so (in words at least) do strongly assist their brethren the Anabaptists. For these foxes are tied together by the tails, although by their heads they seem to be contrary. For outwardly they pretend to be their great enemies, when as inwardly notwithstanding they think, teach and defend in deed all one thing against our Savior Christ, who only is our righteousness. Let him therefore that can, hold fast this one article, and let us suffer the rest which have made shipwreck thereof, to be carried wherever the sea and winds shall drive them, until either they return to the ship or swim to the shore.

The conclusion and end of this complaint is, to hope for no quietness or end of complaint, so long as Christ and Belial do not agree. One generation passes and another comes. If one heresy dies, by and by another springs up: for the Devil does neither slumber nor sleep. I myself, who (though I be nothing) have been now in the ministry of Christ about 20 years: can truly witness that I have been assailed with more than 20 sects: of which some are already destroyed, other some, as the parts and members of worms or bees that are cut asunder, do yet pant for life. But Satan the God of all dissension, stirs up daily new sects, and last of all (which of all others, I should never have foreseen or once suspected) he has raised up a sect of such as teach that the ten commandments ought to be taken out of the church, and that men should not be terrified with the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ, that the saying of the Prophet Micah might be fulfilled: Let none rebuke or reprove another: They shall not prophesy to them. As though we were ignorant or had never taught that afflicted and broken spirits must be comforted by Christ: but the hard-hearted Pharisees to whom the grace of God is preached in vain, must be terrified by the law. And they themselves also are forced to devise and imagine certain revelations of God's wrath against the wicked and unbelievers. As though the law were or could be anything else, but a revealing of God's wrath against impiety. Such is the blindness and pride of these men: which even by their own judgment do condemn themselves. Therefore it behooves the ministers of God's word to be surely persuaded (if they will be accounted faithful and wise in the day of Christ) that the word of Saint Paul is not spoken in vain, or prophesied of a matter of no importance: namely, that there must be heresies, that they which are proved may be known. Indeed I say, let the minister of Christ know, that so long as he teaches Christ purely, there shall not be wanting perverse spirits, indeed even of our own and among ourselves, which shall seek by all means possible, to trouble the church of Christ. And herewithal let him comfort himself, that there is no peace between Christ and Belial, or between the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman. Indeed let him rejoice in the troubles which he suffers by these sects and seditious spirits, continually springing up one after another. For this is our rejoicing, even the testimony of our conscience, that we be found standing and fighting in the behalf of the seed of the woman, against the seed of the serpent. Let him bite us by the heel and spare not. We again will not cease to crush his head, by the grace and help of Christ the principal bruiser thereof, who is blessed forever.

I can hardly believe I spoke at such length when I publicly expounded this epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians, as this book suggests I did. Nevertheless, I recognize all the thoughts I find gathered with such great care by my brothers — they are mine, and I must confess that all or perhaps even more was spoken by me in that public lecture. For one article rules in my heart: faith in Christ. To Him, from Him, through Him, and back to Him, all my theological study flows day and night, constantly. And yet I perceive that I have never come close to the height, breadth, and depth of such high and immeasurable wisdom — only bare and poor beginnings, mere fragments, appear in what I have produced. Therefore I am ashamed that such barren and simple commentaries should be published on so worthy an apostle and chosen vessel of God. But when I consider again the infinite and terrible abuses and corrupt practices that have always raged in the church of God — and still rage today against the one sure foundation we hold: the article of justification (that is, that not by ourselves, nor by our works which are worth less than we are, but by another's help — the Son of God, Jesus Christ — we are redeemed from sin, death, and the devil, and made partakers of eternal life) — I am compelled to cast off all shame and speak with the utmost boldness.

Satan shook this foundation in paradise when he persuaded our first parents that by their own wisdom and power they could be like God — causing them to abandon true faith in God, who had given them life and promised its continuation. Immediately after, this liar and murderer — true to his own nature — stirred up one brother to murder the other, and for no other reason than that Abel, by faith, had offered a more excellent sacrifice, while Cain, offering his own works without faith, had not pleased God. After this, Satan launched a fierce persecution through the sons of Cain against this same faith, until God was compelled to purge the whole world by flood and to protect Noah, the preacher of righteousness. Even so, Satan continued his influence through Ham, Noah's third son. But who could enumerate every example? After these events, the whole world went mad against this faith, inventing an endless number of idols and false religions, by which everyone — as Saint Paul says — walked his own way, each hoping by his works to pacify or please some god or goddess. That is, they sought without the help of Christ, and by their own works, to redeem themselves from evil and from sin — as the records and monuments of all nations plainly witness.

But all of this is nothing compared to what happened among God's own people, Israel — who had not only the sure promises made to the patriarchs and afterward the law given directly by God through His angels, above all other nations, but who were also continually confirmed by the living words, miracles, and examples of the prophets. Yet even among them, Satan prevailed — that is, the insane and arrogant opinion of their own righteousness — so powerfully that they eventually killed all the prophets, and indeed Christ Himself, the Son of God and their promised Messiah, because He taught that people are received into God's favor by grace alone and not by their own righteousness. And this is the core of the devil's and the world's doctrine from the beginning: "We will not appear to do evil — but whatever we do, God must approve, and all His prophets must agree. If they refuse, they will die." Abel shall die, but Cain shall flourish. "This is our law," they say — and so it comes to pass.

But in the church of the Gentiles, the matter has been handled so violently that the fury of the Jewish synagogue looks mild by comparison. The Jews, as Saint Paul says, did not recognize Christ as their anointed and therefore crucified the Lord of glory. But the church of the Gentiles received and confessed Christ to be the Son of God, made our righteousness — and she publicly records, reads, and teaches this. And yet despite this confession, those who claim to be the church kill and persecute and constantly rage against those who believe, teach, and demonstrate in their lives nothing other than what the persecutors themselves — though in pretended words and hypocritical deeds — are compelled against their will to approve and confess. For they reign today under the name of Christ. And if they could hold their seat and power without His name, there is no doubt they would openly declare what they secretly think of Him. They regard Him far less than even the Jews do — who at least consider Him to have been a criminal justly hanged on the cross. But these men treat Him as a myth and a fictional deity borrowed from the Gentiles — as is plainly evident in Rome, in the papal court, and throughout much of Italy.

Because Christ has been made into a mockery among those who call themselves Christians — and because Cain keeps killing Abel, and Satan's corruption now reigns most powerfully — it is very necessary that we diligently defend this article and hold it up against Satan, whether we are plain or eloquent, learned or unlearned. For this rock must be proclaimed everywhere — even if every human voice were silenced, the very rocks and stones would cry out. Therefore I most willingly fulfill my duty here and am content to allow this lengthy and wordy commentary to be published, for the purpose of rousing all brothers in Christ against the cunning and malice of Satan. In these days Satan has turned to such extreme madness against the saving knowledge of Christ, now revealed and restored, that as formerly men seemed possessed by devils, now the very devils seem possessed by something far worse and rage beyond ordinary devilish fury. This is itself a strong sign that the enemy of truth and life perceives the day of judgment to be at hand — the dreadful day of his destruction, but the most comforting day of our redemption, when all his tyranny and cruelty will end. He is not without reason disturbed when his forces and strongholds are under such attack — like a thief or an adulterer caught in the act when morning exposes his wickedness. For who has ever heard — setting aside the pope's abominations — so many monstrous errors burst into the world all at once, as we see today in the Anabaptists alone? Through them, Satan seems to be breathing out the last gasp of his kingdom, driving them into such violent upheaval everywhere that he appears to want, through their hands, not only to destroy the whole world with sedition, but to swallow up Christ and His church entirely with a flood of endless sects.

Against the lives and opinions of others he does not rage in this way — not against fornicators, thieves, murderers, perjurers, rebels against God, unbelievers. To these he rather gives peace and quiet. He maintains them in his service with all manner of pleasures and delights and gives them everything they want — just as in the earliest days of the church he not only allowed all the idolatries and false religions of the world to go undisturbed, but powerfully maintained, defended, and nourished them. The church and the religion of Christ alone he attacked from every side. Afterward, allowing peace and quiet to many heretics, he troubled only the sound, universal doctrine. Even so today he has no other business than this one — which has always been peculiarly his own: to persecute and attack our Savior Christ, who is our perfect righteousness apart from our works. As it is written of him: "You shall bruise his heel."

I do not set forth these reflections so much against these men as for my brothers, who will either show themselves grateful to the Lord for my labor, or at least excuse my weakness and boldness. I have no desire for the wicked to approve or accept what I write. Rather, I would wish that both they and their god might be further irritated by it — since all my hard work is devoted to those for whom Saint Paul wrote this epistle: the troubled, afflicted, harassed, tempted, and spiritually struggling — for they alone truly understand these things — the Galatians in the faith. Whoever is not in such a condition, let them listen to the papists, monks, Anabaptists, and other teachers of deep worldly wisdom and self-devised religion, and let them boldly despise our doctrine and our work. For today the papists and Anabaptists are united against the church on this one point — though they disguise it in their words — that God's work depends on the worthiness of the person. The Anabaptists teach: baptism is nothing unless the person believes. From this principle it necessarily follows that all of God's works are nothing if the man is nothing. But baptism is God's work, and yet a wicked man does not make it cease to be God's work. Furthermore, by this reasoning marriage, authority, freedom, and bondage are God's works — but because people are sinful, they are therefore not God's works. Wicked people have the sun, the moon, the earth, the water, the air, and all other creatures at their service — but because they are wicked and not godly, the sun is not the sun, and the moon, earth, and water are not what they are. The Anabaptists themselves had bodies and souls before they were rebaptized — but because they were not godly, they therefore did not have true bodies and souls. Also, their parents were not lawfully married — as they themselves admit — because they were not rebaptized. Therefore the Anabaptists themselves are all illegitimate, and their parents were all adulterers and fornicators — and yet the Anabaptists do inherit their parents' lands and goods, even while admitting themselves to be illegitimate and unlawful heirs. Who does not see in the Anabaptists, not men possessed by devils, but very devils themselves possessed by worse devils?

The papists likewise still insist on works and human worthiness against grace — and so in their words at least they firmly back their brothers the Anabaptists. For these foxes are tied together by the tails, however much their heads may seem to face in opposite directions. Outwardly they pose as each other's great enemies, while inwardly they think, teach, and in practice defend the very same thing against our Savior Christ, who alone is our righteousness. Therefore, let whoever is able hold fast to this one article, and let us allow the rest who have made shipwreck of it to be carried wherever the sea and winds drive them — until they either return to the ship or swim to the shore.

The conclusion of this complaint is to expect no quietness and no end to complaint as long as Christ and Belial do not agree. One generation passes and another comes. When one heresy dies, another immediately springs up — for the devil neither slumbers nor sleeps. I myself — though I am nothing — have been in the ministry of Christ for about twenty years, and I can truly testify that I have been attacked by more than twenty sects, some of which are already destroyed, while others, like the parts of a cut worm or bee, still twitch with life. But Satan, the god of all division, stirs up new sects every day — and last of all he has raised up one that I never would have foreseen or suspected: a sect that teaches that the Ten Commandments ought to be removed from the church, and that people should not be confronted with the law but gently urged by the preaching of Christ's grace, so that the word of the prophet Micah might be fulfilled: "Let no one rebuke or reprove another; they shall not prophesy to these people." As though we did not know, or had never taught, that broken and crushed spirits must be comforted by Christ — while the hard-hearted Pharisees, to whom the grace of God is preached in vain, must be confronted by the law. Even these antinomian teachers are forced to devise certain revelations of God's wrath against the wicked and unbelievers. As though the law were or could be anything other than a revealing of God's wrath against ungodliness. Such is the blindness and pride of these men, who by their own logic condemn themselves. Therefore God's ministers must be firmly convinced — if they wish to be found faithful and wise on the day of Christ — that Saint Paul's words are not spoken in vain when he says there must be heresies, so that those who are genuine may be recognized. Indeed, let the minister of Christ know: as long as he teaches Christ purely, there will never be a shortage of perverse spirits — even from within our own ranks — who will seek by every means possible to trouble the church of Christ. Let him take comfort in this: there is no peace between Christ and Belial, between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Indeed, let him rejoice in the troubles brought on by these sects and troublesome spirits, rising one after another. For this is our joy — the testimony of our conscience that we are found standing and fighting on the side of the seed of the woman against the seed of the serpent. Let the serpent bite us at the heel and spare nothing. We in turn will not stop crushing his head, by the grace and help of Christ, the chief crusher of it — who is blessed forever.