The Doctrine of Good Works

Now follow exhortations and precepts of life and good works. For it is the custom of the Apostles, after they have taught faith, and instructed men's consciences, to add precepts of good works, whereby they exhort the faithful to exercise the duties of charity one towards another. And reason itself after a sort teaches and understands this part of doctrine: but as touching the doctrine of faith, it knows nothing at all thereof. To the end therefore that it might appear that Christian doctrine does not destroy good works, or fight against civil ordinances: the Apostle also exhorts us to exercise ourselves in good works and in an honest outward conversation, and to keep charity and concord one with another. The world cannot therefore justly accuse the Christians that they destroy good works, that they are troublers of the public peace, civil honesty, etc.: for they teach good works and all other virtues better than all the philosophers and magistrates of the world, because they adjoin faith with their doings.

Verse 13. For brothers, you have been called to liberty: only use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

As if he would say: You have now obtained liberty through Christ, that is to say, you be far above all laws as touching conscience and before God: you be blessed and saved, Christ is your life. Therefore although the law, sin and death trouble and terrify you, yet can they not hurt you nor drive you to despair. And this is your excellent and inestimable liberty. Now it is incumbent on you to take good heed, that you use not that liberty as an occasion to the flesh.

This evil is common and the most pernicious of all others that Satan stirs up in the doctrine of faith: namely that in very many he turns this liberty, with which Christ has made us free, into the liberty of the flesh. Of this the Apostle Jude also complains in his epistle. There are crept in certain wicked men (says he) which turn the grace of our God into wantonness. For the flesh is utterly ignorant of the doctrine of grace, that is to say, it knows not that we are made righteous, not by works, but by faith only, and that the law has no authority over us. Therefore when it hears the doctrine of faith, it abuses and turns it into wantonness, and by and by thus it gathers: If we be without law, let us then live as we list, let us do no good, let us give nothing to the needy, and let us not suffer any evil, for there is no law to constrain us or bind us so to do.

Therefore there is danger on either side: albeit the one is more tolerable than the other. If grace or faith be not preached, no man can be saved: for it is faith alone that justifies and saves. On the other side, if faith be preached (as of necessity it must be) the more part of men understand the doctrine of faith carnally, and draw the liberty of the spirit into the liberty of the flesh. This may we see in all kinds of life, as well of the high as the low. All boast themselves to be professors of the Gospel, and all brag of Christian liberty: and yet serving their own lusts, they give themselves to covetousness, pleasures, pride, envy, and such other vices. No man does his duty faithfully: no man charitably serves the necessity of his brother. The grief hereof makes me sometimes so impatient, that many times I wish such swine which tread precious pearls under their feet, were yet still remaining under the tyranny of the Pope: for it is impossible that this people of Gomorrah should be governed by the Gospel of peace.

Moreover, even we which teach the word, do not now our duty with so great zeal and diligence in the light of the Gospel, as we did before in the darkness of ignorance. For the more certain we be of the freedom purchased to us by Christ, so much the more cold and negligent we be in handling the word, in prayer, in well doing, and in suffering adversities. And if Satan did not vex us inwardly with spiritual temptations, and outwardly with the persecutions of our adversaries, and moreover with the contempt and ingratitude of our own fellows, we should become utterly careless, negligent, and untoward to all good works: and so in time we should lose the knowledge and faith of Christ, forsake the ministry of the word, and seek an easier kind of life for the flesh. Which thing many of our men begin to do, for that they traveling in the ministry of the word, can not only not live of their labor, but also are most miserably treated even of those by whom they were delivered from the servile bondage of the Pope by the preaching of the Gospel. These men forsaking poor and offensive Christ, entangle themselves with the affairs of this present life, serving their own bellies and not Christ: but with what fruit, that shall they find by experience in time to come.

Forasmuch then as we know that the Devil lays wait most of all for us that have the world (for the rest he holds in captivity and slavery at his pleasure) and labors with might and main to take from us the liberty of the spirit, or at least to turn the same into the liberty of the flesh: we teach and exhort our brothers with singular care and diligence by the example of Paul, that they think not this liberty of the spirit purchased by the death of Christ, to be given to them, that they should make it an occasion of carnal liberty, or (as Peter says) should use the same as a cloak for their wickedness: but that they should serve one another through love.

To the end therefore that Christians should not abuse this liberty (as I have said) the Apostle lays a yoke and bondage upon their flesh by the law of mutual love. Therefore let the godly remember that in conscience before God, they be free from the curse of the law, from sin and from death, for Christ's sake: but as touching the body they are servants and must serve one another through charity, according to this commandment of Paul. Let every man therefore endeavor to do his duty diligently in his calling, and to help his neighbor to the utmost of his power. This is it which Paul here requires of us: Serve one another through love. Which words do not set the Christians at liberty, but shut them under bondage as touching the flesh.

Moreover this doctrine concerning mutual love which we must maintain and exercise one toward another, cannot be beaten into the heads of carnal men, nor sink into their hearts. The Christians do gladly receive and obey this doctrine. Others as soon as liberty is preached, by and by do thus infer: If I be free, then may I do what I please: This thing is my own, why then should I not sell it for as much as I may get? Moreover, seeing we obtain not salvation by our good works, why should we give anything to the poor? Thus do they most carelessly shake off the yoke and bondage of the flesh, and turn the liberty of the spirit into wantonness and fleshly liberty. But we tell such careless despisers (although they believe us not, but laugh us to scorn), that if they use their bodies and their goods after their own lust (as in deed they do, for they neither help the poor, nor lend to the needy, but beguile their brethren in bargaining, snatching and scraping to themselves by hook or by crook whatever they can get), we tell them (I say) that they be not free, however much they boast of their liberty, but have lost Christ and Christian liberty, are become the bondslaves of the Devil, and are seven times worse under the name of Christian liberty, than they were before under the tyranny of the Pope. For the Devil which was driven out of them, has taken to him seven other fiends worse than himself, and is returned into them again: therefore the end of these men is worse than the beginning.

As touching us, we have a commandment of God to preach the gospel, which offers to all men liberty from the law, sin, death and God's wrath, freely for Christ's sake, if they believe. It is not in our power to conceal or revoke this liberty now published by the Gospel: for Christ has given it to us freely, and purchased it by his death. Neither can we constrain those swine which run headlong into all licentiousness and dissoluteness of the flesh, to help other men with their bodies or goods: therefore we do what we can, that is to say, we diligently admonish them that they ought so to do. If we nothing prevail by these admonitions, we commit the matter to God, and he will recompense these scorners with just punishment in his good time. In the mean while this is our comfort, that as touching the godly, our labor is not lost, of whom many (no doubt) by our ministry are delivered out of the bondage of the Devil, and translated into the liberty of the spirit. These (which notwithstanding are but few) which acknowledge the glory of this liberty of the spirit, and on the other side are ready through charity to serve other men, and know themselves to be debtors to their brethren as touching the flesh: do more rejoice us than the innumerable multitude of those that abuse this liberty, are able to discourage us.

Paul uses here very apt and plain words, when he says: Brethren you are called into liberty. And because no man should dream that he speaks of the liberty of the flesh, he expounds himself what manner of liberty he means, saying: Only use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but serve you one another through love. Therefore let every Christian know, that, as touching the conscience, Christ has made him Lord over the law, sin and death, so that they have no power over him. On the contrary let him know that this outward bondage is laid upon his body, that he should serve his neighbor through love. They that understand Christian liberty otherwise, enjoy the commodities of the Gospel to their own destruction, and are worse idolaters under the name of Christ, than they were before under the Pope. Now Paul goes about to declare out of the ten commandments, what it is to serve one another through love.

Verse. 14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, which is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul, after that he has laid the foundation of Christian doctrine, is wont to build gold, silver and precious stones upon it. Now, there is no other foundation, as he himself says to the Corinthians, than Jesus Christ, or the righteousness of Christ. Upon this foundation he builds now good works, yea good works in deed: all which he comprehends in one precept: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. As if he should say: when I say that you must serve one another through love, I mean the self same thing that the law says in another place: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And this is truly to interpret the Scriptures and God's commandments.

Now, in giving precepts of love, he covertly touches by the way the false teachers: against whom he sets himself mightily, that he may defend and establish his doctrine of good works against them. As if he said: O you Galatians, I have until now taught you the true and spiritual life, and now also I will teach you what be good works in deed. And this will I do to the end you may know that the vain and foolish works of ceremonies which the false apostles do only urge, are far inferior to the works of charity. For such is the foolishness and madness of all wicked teachers and fanatical spirits, that not only they leave the true foundation and pure doctrine: but also continuing always in their superstitions, they never attain to good works. Therefore (as Paul says) they build nothing but wood, hay and stubble upon the foundation. So the false apostles, which were the most earnest defenders of works, did not teach or require the works of charity, as that Christians should love one another, that they should be ready to help their neighbors in all necessities, not only with their goods, but also with their body: that is to say, with tongue, hand, heart, and with their whole strength: but only they required that circumcision should be kept, that days, months, years and times should be observed: and other good works they could teach none. For after they had destroyed the foundation which is Christ, and darkened the doctrine of faith, it was impossible that there should remain any true use, exercise, or opinion of good works. Take away the tree, and the fruit must needs perish.

The Apostle therefore diligently exhorts the Christians to exercise themselves in good works, after that they have heard and received the pure doctrine of faith. For the remnants of sin do yet still remain even in those that be justified: which, as they are contrary to faith and hinder it: so do they hinder us from doing good works. Moreover, man's reason and the flesh, which in the saints themselves resists the spirit, and in the wicked does mightily reign, is naturally delighted with Pharisaical superstitions: that is to say, it takes more pleasure in measuring God by her own imaginations, than by his word, and does the works that she herself has chosen, with far greater zeal than those which God has commanded. Therefore it is necessary that the godly preachers should as diligently teach and urge the doctrine of good works, as the doctrine of faith: for Satan is a deadly enemy to both. Notwithstanding faith must first be planted: for without faith it is impossible to understand what a good work is, or what pleases God.

Let no man think therefore that he thoroughly knows this commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In deed it is very short and easy as touching the words: but show me the teachers and hearers that in teaching, learning, and living do exercise and accomplish it rightly. Therefore these words: Serve you one another through love: and these also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, are incomprehensible, and no man, no not even the godly do sufficiently consider, teach, and exercise the same. And (which is a wonderful thing) the faithful have this temptation, that if they omit never so light a matter which they ought to do, by and by their conscience is wounded: but they are not so troubled if they neglect the duties of charity (as daily they do), or bear not a sincere and brotherly love and affection toward their neighbor. For they do not so much regard the commandment of charity, as their own superstitions: from the which they be not altogether free during this life.

Paul therefore reprehends the Galatians in these words: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. As if he had said: you are drowned in your superstitions and ceremonies concerning places and times, which profit neither yourselves nor others: and in the mean while you neglect charity which you ought only to have kept. What madness is this? So says Jerome: We wear and consume our bodies with watching, fasting and labor: but we neglect charity, which is the only lady and mistress of works. And this may be well seen in the monks, who strictly observe their traditions concerning their ceremonies, fasting, watching, apparel and such like. In this case if they omit any thing, be it never so little, they sin deadly. But when they do not only neglect charity, but also hate one another to the death, they sin not, nor offend God at all.

Therefore by this commandment Paul, not only teaches good works, but also condemns fantastical and superstitious works. He not only builds gold, silver and precious stones upon the foundation, but also throws down the wood, and burns up the hay and stubble. God witnessed by examples in the Old Testament how much he did always esteem of charity: to which he would have that very law itself and the ceremonies thereof to give place. At such time as David and they that were with him were hungry, and had not what to eat, they did eat the holy showbread, which by the law the lay people might not eat, but only the priests. Christ's disciples broke the Sabbath in plucking the ears of corn: indeed and Christ himself broke the Sabbath (as said the Jews) in healing the sick on the Sabbath day. All these things show that charity or love ought to be preferred before all laws and ceremonies, and that God requires nothing so much at our hands as love toward our neighbor. The same thing Christ also witnesses when he says: And the second is like to this.

Verse 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word.

As if he said: Why do you burden yourselves with the law? Why do you so toil and turmoil yourselves about the ceremonies of the law, about meats, days, places and such other things: as how you ought to eat, drink, keep your feasts, sacrifice? Leave off these follies, and hearken what I say: All the law is fully comprehended in this one saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. God delights not in the observation of the ceremonies of the law, neither has he any need of them. The only thing that he requires at your hands is this, that you believe in Christ whom he has sent: in whom you are made perfect, and have all things. But if to faith, which is the most acceptable service of God, you will also add laws, then assure yourselves that all laws are comprehended in this short commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Endeavor yourselves to keep this commandment: which being kept, you have fulfilled all laws.

Paul is a very good expounder of God's commandments: For he draws all Moses into a brief sum, showing that nothing else is contained in all his laws (which are in a manner infinite) but this short sentence: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Natural reason is offended with this baseness and shortness of words: for it is soon said: Believe in Christ. And again: Love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore it despises both the doctrine of faith and true good works. Notwithstanding this base and vile word of faith (as reason takes it): Believe in Christ, is the power of God to the faithful, whereby they overcome sin, death, the Devil, etc., whereby also they attain salvation and eternal life. Thus to serve one another through love, that is, to instruct him that goes astray, to comfort him that is afflicted, to raise up him that is weak, to help your neighbor by all means possible, to bear with his infirmities, to endure troubles, labors, ingratitude and contempt in the Church, and in civil life and conversation to obey the magistrate, to give due honor to your parents, to be patient at home with a contrary wife and an unruly family, etc.: these (I say) are works which reason judges to be of no value. But, believe me, they are such works, that the whole world is not able to comprehend the excellency and worthiness thereof (for it does not measure works or any other thing by the word of God, but by the judgment of wicked, blind and foolish reason): indeed it knows not the value of any one of the least good works that can be, which are true good works in deed.

Therefore, when men dream that they well understand the commandment of charity, they are utterly deceived. Indeed they have it written in their heart: for they naturally judge that a man ought to do to another, as he would another should do to him. But it follows not therefore that they understand it: For if they did, they would also perform it in deed, and would prefer love and charity before all their works. They would not so highly esteem their own superstitious toys, as to go with a heavy countenance hanging down the head, to be unmarried, to live with bread and water, to dwell in the wilderness, to be poorly appareled, etc. These monstrous and superstitious works, which they have devised and chosen to themselves, God neither commanding nor approving the same, they esteem to be so holy and so excellent, that they surmount and darken charity, which is as it were the sun of all good works. So great and incomprehensible is the blindness of man's reason, that it is unable, not only to judge rightly of the doctrine of faith, but also of external conversation and works. Therefore we must fight strongly, as well against the opinions of our own heart (to the which we are naturally more inclined in the matter of salvation than to the word of God), as also against the counterfeit visor and holy show of our own willworks: that so we may learn to magnify the works which every man does in his vocation, although they seem outwardly never so base and contemptible, if they have the warrant of God's word: and contrariwise, to despise those works which reason chooses without the commandment of God, seem they never so excellent and holy.

Of this commandment I have largely treated in another place, and therefore I will now but lightly overrun it. Indeed this is briefly spoken: Love your neighbor as yourself, but yet very aptly and to the purpose. No man can give a more certain, a better or a nearer example than a man's own self. Therefore, if you would know how your neighbor ought to be loved, and would have a plain example thereof, consider well how you love yourself. If you should be in necessity or danger you would be glad to have the love and friendship of all men, to be helped with the counsel, the goods and the strength of all men and of all creatures. Therefore you have no need of any book to instruct and to admonish you how you ought to love your neighbor: for you have an excellent book of all laws even in your heart. You need no schoolmaster in this matter: ask counsel only of your own heart, and that shall teach you sufficiently that you ought to love your neighbor as yourself. Moreover, love or charity is an excellent virtue, which not only makes a man willing and ready to serve his neighbor with tongue, with hand, with money and worldly goods: but with his body, and even with his life also. And thus to do, it is not provoked by good deserts or anything else, neither is it hindered through evil deserts or ingratitude. The mother does therefore nourish and cherish her child, because she loves it.

Now, my neighbor is every man, specially which has need of my help, as Christ expounds it in the 10th chapter of Luke. Who although he has done me some wrong, or hurt me by any manner of way: yet notwithstanding he has not put off the nature of man, or ceased to be flesh and blood, and the creature of God most like to myself: briefly, he ceases not to be my neighbor. As long then as the nature of man remains in him, so long also remains the commandment of love, which requires at my hand, that I should not despise my own flesh, nor render evil for evil, but overcome evil with good: or else shall love never be as Paul describes it (1 Corinthians 13).

Paul therefore commends charity to the Galatians, and to all the faithful (for they only love in deed), and exhorts them that through charity one of them should serve another. As if he would say: You need not to burden yourselves with circumcision, and with the ceremonies of Moses' law: but above all things continue in the doctrine of faith which you have received of me. Afterwards, if you will do good works, I will in one word show you the chiefest and greatest works, and how you shall fulfill all laws: Serve you one another through love. You shall not lack them to whom you may do good, for the world is full of such as need the help of others. This is a perfect and a sound doctrine of faith and love: and also the shortest and the longest divinity. The shortest as touching the words and sentences: but as touching the use and practice it is more large, more long, more profound, and more high than the whole world.

Verse. 15. If you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed one of another.

By these words Paul witnesses that if the foundation, that is to say, if faith in Christ be overthrown by wicked teachers, no peace or concord can remain in the church either in doctrine or life: but there must needs be diverse opinions and dissensions from time to time both in doctrine and life, whereby it comes to pass that one bites and devours another, that is to say, one judges and condemns another, until at length they be consumed. Hereof not only the Scripture, but also the examples of all times bear witness. After that Africa was perverted by the Manichees, by and by followed the Donatists, who also disagreeing among themselves, were divided into three sundry sects. And how many sects have we at this day springing up one after another? One sect brings forth another, and one condemns another. Thus, when the unity of the spirit is broken, it is impossible that there should be any concord either in doctrine or life, but daily new errors must needs spring up without measure and without end.

Paul therefore teaches that such occasions of discord are to be avoided, and he shows how they may be avoided. This (says he) is the way to unity and concord: Let every man do his duty in that kind of life which God has called him to: Let him not lift up himself above others, nor find fault at other men's works, and commend his own, but let every one serve another through love. This is a true and a simple doctrine touching good works. This do not they teach which have made shipwreck of faith and have conceived fantastical opinions concerning faith and good works: but disagreeing among themselves as touching the doctrine of faith and works, they bite and devour, that is to say, they accuse and condemn one another, as Paul here says of the Galatians. If you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed one of another. As if he would say: do not accuse and condemn one another for circumcision, for observing of holy days or other ceremonies, but rather give yourselves to serve and help one another through charity: Or else if you continue in biting and devouring one another, take heed that you be not consumed, that is to say, that you perish not utterly, yes and that bodily, which commonly happens, especially to the authors of sects, as it did to Arrius and others, and to certain also in our time. For he that has laid his foundation on the sand, and builds hay, stubble and such like, must needs fall and be consumed: for all those things are ordained for the fire. I will not say that after such bitings and devourings, the ruin and destruction, not of one city, but of whole countries and kingdoms are wont to follow. Now the Apostle shows what it is to serve one another through love.

It is a hard and a dangerous matter to teach that we are made righteous by faith without works, and yet to require works withal. Here, except the ministers of Christ be faithful and wise disposers of the mysteries of God, rightly dividing the word of truth: faith and works are by and by confounded. Both these doctrines, as well of faith as of works, must be diligently taught and urged: and yet so, that both may remain within their bounds. Otherwise, if they teach works only (as they do in the Pope's kingdom) then is faith lost. If faith only be taught, then carnal men by and by dream that works be not needful.

The Apostle began a little before, to exhort men to good works, and to teach that the whole law was fulfilled in one word, namely: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Here will some man say: Paul throughout his whole Epistle takes away righteousness from the law: for says he, By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified: Also, As many as are under the works of the law, are under the curse. But now, when he says that the whole law is fulfilled in one word, he seems to have forgotten the matter of which he has treated in all this Epistle, and to be of a quite contrary opinion: to wit, that they which do the works of charity, fulfill the law and be righteous. To this objection he answers after this manner.

Verse 16. But I say, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the works of the flesh.

As if he should have said: I have not forgotten my former discourse concerning faith, neither do I now revoke the same in that I exhort you to mutual love, saying: that the whole law is fulfilled through love: but I am still of the same mind and opinion that I was before. To the end therefore that you may rightly understand me, I add this moreover: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

A confutation of the argument of the Schoolmen: Love is the fulfilling of the law: therefore the law justifies.

Although Paul speaks here expressly and plainly enough, yet has he little prevailed. For the Schoolmen not understanding this place of Paul: Love is the fulfilling of the law, have gathered out of it after this manner: If love be the fulfilling of the law, it follows then that love is righteousness: therefore if we love, we be righteous. These profound clerks do argue from the word to the work, from doctrine or precepts, to life, after this sort: The law has commanded love: therefore the work of love follows out of hand. But this is a foolish consequence, to draw an argument from precepts, and to ground the conclusion upon works.

True it is that we ought to fulfill the law, and to be justified through the fulfilling thereof: but sin hinders us. Indeed the law prescribes and commands that we should love God with all our heart, etc. and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, but it follows not: this is written, therefore it is done: the law commands love, therefore we love. There is not one man to be found upon the whole earth, which so loves God and his neighbor, as the law requires. But in the life to come, where we shall be thoroughly cleansed from all vices and sins, and shall be made as pure and as clear as the sun: we shall love perfectly and shall be righteous through perfect love. But in this life that purity is hindered by the flesh: for as long as we live, sin remains in our flesh. By reason of which the corrupt love of ourselves is so mighty, that it far surpasses the love of God and of our neighbor. In the meantime notwithstanding, that we may be righteous in this life also, we have Christ the mercy seat and throne of grace, and because we believe in him, sin is not imputed to us. Faith therefore is our righteousness in this life. But in the life to come, when we shall be thoroughly cleansed and delivered from all sins and concupiscence, we shall have no more need of faith and hope, but we shall then love perfectly.

It is a great error therefore to attribute justification or righteousness to love, which is nothing: or if it be anything, yet is it not so great that it can pacify God: for love even in the faithful (as I have said) is imperfect and impure: But no unclean thing shall enter into the kingdom of God. Notwithstanding in the meantime this trust and confidence sustains us, that Christ, who alone committed no sin, and in whose mouth was never found any guile, does overshadow us with his righteousness. We being covered with this cloud, and shrouded under this shadow, this heaven of remission of sins and throne of grace: do begin to love and to fulfill the law. Yet for this fulfilling we are not justified nor accepted of God while we live here. But when Christ has delivered up the kingdom to God his father and abolished all principality, and God shall be all in all: then shall faith and hope cease, and love shall be perfect and everlasting (1 Corinthians 13). This thing the popish schoolmen do not understand, and therefore when they hear that love is the sum of the whole law, by and by they infer: Therefore the law justifies. Or contrariwise, when they read in Paul that faith makes a man righteous: indeed, say they, faith formed and furnished with charity. But that is not the meaning of Paul, as I have largely declared before.

If we were pure from all sin, and were inflamed with perfect love both toward God and our neighbor, then should we indeed be righteous and holy through love, and God could require no more of us. This is not done in this present life, but is deferred until the life to come. Indeed we receive here the gift and first fruits of the Spirit, so that we begin to love, however very slenderly. But, if we loved God truly and perfectly as the law of God requires, which says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength — then should we be as well contented with poverty as with wealth, with pain as with pleasure, and with life as with death. Indeed he that could love God truly and perfectly in deed, should not long continue in this life, but should straightway be swallowed up by this charity.

But now man's nature is so corrupt and drowned in sin, that it can not have any right sense or cogitation of God. It loves not God, but hates him deadly. Therefore as John says: We loved not God, but he loved us, and sent his son to be a reconciliation for our sins. And as Paul says before in the second chapter: Christ has loved me and given himself for me. And in the 4th chapter: But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, and made under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law. We being redeemed and justified by this Son, begin to love, according to that saying of Paul in Romans 8: That which was impossible to the law, (in as much as it was weak because of the flesh) God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, that is, might begin to be fulfilled. They are mere dreams therefore which the sophists and schoolmen have taught concerning the fulfilling of the law.

Therefore Paul shows by these words: Walk in the Spirit, how he would have that sentence to be understood, where he said: Serve one another through love. And again: Love is the fulfilling of the law, etc. As if he should say: When I bid you love one another, this is it that I require of you, that you walk in the Spirit. For I know that you shall not fulfill the law because sin dwells in you as long as you live, and therefore it is impossible that you should fulfill the law. Notwithstanding in the meantime endeavor yourselves diligently to walk in the Spirit, that is, wrestle in spirit against the flesh, and follow spiritual motions, etc.

It appears then that he had not forgotten the matter of justification. For when he bids them to walk in the Spirit, he plainly denies that works justify. As if he should say: When I speak of the fulfilling of the law, I mean not that you are justified by the law: but this I mean, that there be two contrary captains in you, the Spirit and the flesh. God has stirred up in your bodies a strife and a battle. For the Spirit wrestles against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. Here I require nothing else of you, but that you follow the Spirit as your captain and guide, and that you resist that captain the flesh: for that is all that you are able to do. Obey the Spirit and fight against the flesh. Therefore when I teach you to observe the law, and exhort you to love one another, think not that I go about to revoke that which I have taught concerning the doctrine of faith, and that now I attribute justification to the law or to charity: but my meaning is, that you should walk in the Spirit, and that you should not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Paul uses very fitting words and to the purpose. As if he would say: we come not yet to the fulfilling of the law: therefore we must walk in the Spirit and be exercised therein, that we may think, say, and do those things which are of the Spirit, and resist those things which are of the flesh: therefore he adds.

Verse 16. And you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

As if he would say: The desires or lusts of the flesh are not yet dead in us, but spring up again and fight against the Spirit. The flesh of no faithful man is so good, which being offended would not bite and devour, or at the least omit somewhat of that commandment of love. Indeed even at the first brunt he can not refrain himself, but is angry with his neighbor, desires to be revenged, and hates him as an enemy, or at the least loves him not so much as he should do, and as this commandment requires. And this happens even to the faithful.

Therefore the Apostle has given this rule for the faithful, that they should serve one another through love, that they should bear the burdens and infirmities one of another, and that they should forgive one another. And without this bearing and forbearing through love, it is impossible that peace and concord should continue among Christians. For it cannot be, but that you must often offend, and be offended. You see many things in me which offend you, and I again see many things in you which displease me. Here, if one bears not with another through love, there shall be no end of dissension, discord, envy, hatred and malice.

Therefore Paul would have us to walk in the spirit, lest we fulfill the lust of the flesh. As if he should say: Although you are moved with wrath and displeasure against your brother, offending you or doing any thing heinously against you, yet notwithstanding resist and repress these violent motions through the spirit. Bear with his weakness and love him according to that commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For your brother does not therefore cease to be your neighbor, because he slips or offends you: but then has he most need that you should exercise and show your charity towards him. And this commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, requires the same thing: to wit, that you should not obey the flesh: which when it is offended, hates, bites and devours. But wrestle against it in spirit, and continue through the same in the love of your neighbor, although you find no thing in him worthy of love.

The Schoolmen take the concupiscence of the flesh for carnal lust. Indeed it is true that even the godly, especially the younger sort are tempted with fleshly lust. Indeed, they also that are married (so corrupt and pestilent is flesh) are not without such carnal lust. Here let every one (I speak now to the godly being married, both man and wife) diligently examine themselves, and, no doubt, many shall find this in themselves, that the beauty and conditions of another man's wife pleases them better than their own: and so contrariwise. Their own lawful wife they loathe or dislike and love her which is unlawful. And this commonly is wont to happen, not in marriage only, but in all other matters. Men set light by that which they have, and are in love with that which they have not: as the Poet says: Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata: That is, Of things most forbidden we always are fain: And things most denied we seek to obtain.

I do not deny therefore but that the concupiscence of the flesh comprehends carnal lust, but not that only. For concupiscence comprehends all other corrupt affections, wherewith the very faithful are infected, some more, some less: as pride, hatred, covetousness, impatience and such like. Indeed Paul rehearses afterwards among the works of the flesh, not only these gross vices, but also idolatry, heresies and such other. It is plain therefore that he speaks of the whole concupiscence of the flesh and of the whole dominion of sin, which strives even in the godly who have received the first fruits of the spirit, against the dominion of the spirit. He speaks therefore not only of carnal lust, pride, covetousness, etc.: but also of unbelief, distrust, despair, hatred, and contempt of God, idolatry, heresies and such other, when he says: And you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. As if he should say: I write to you that you should love one another. This you do not, neither can you do it because of the flesh, which is infected and corrupted with concupiscence, and does not only stir up sin in you, but also is sin itself. For if you had perfect charity, no heaviness, no adversity could be so great, which should be able to hurt or hinder that charity: for it would be spread throughout the whole body. There should be no wife, were she never so hard favored, whom her husband would not love entirely, loathing all other women, though they were never so fair and beautiful. But this is not done: therefore it is impossible for us to be made righteous through love.

Therefore, think me not to revoke and unsay that which I have taught concerning faith: For faith and hope must continue, that by the one we may be justified, and by the other we may be raised up in adversities, and endure to the end. Moreover, we serve one another through charity, because faith is not idle: but charity is weak and little. Therefore when I bid you walk in the spirit, I do sufficiently declare that you are not justified through charity.

And when I exhort you to walk in the spirit, that you fulfill not the concupiscence of the flesh: I do not require of you that you should utterly put off the flesh or kill it, but that you should bridle and subdue it. For God will have mankind to endure even to the last day. And this cannot be done without parents, which do beget and bring up children. These means continuing, it must needs be that flesh also must continue, and consequently sin, for flesh is not without sin. Therefore in respect of the flesh we are sinners: but in respect of the spirit, we are righteous: and so we are partly sinners, and partly righteous. Notwithstanding, our righteousness is much more plentiful than our sin, because the holiness and righteousness of Christ our Mediator does far exceed the sin of the whole world: And the forgiveness of sins which we have through him is so great, so large, and so infinite, that it easily swallows up all sins, so that we walk according to the spirit.

The Papists dreamed that this commandment belongs only to their clergymen, and that the Apostle exhorts them to live chastely by subduing the flesh with watching, fasting, labor, etc.: and then they should not fulfill the concupiscence of the flesh, that is to say, carnal lust. As though the whole concupiscence of the flesh were overcome when this fleshly lust is subdued: which notwithstanding they were never able to suppress and keep under with any yoke that they could lay upon the flesh. Which thing Jerome (I say nothing of others) who was a marvelous lover and defender of chastity, does plainly confess. O (says he) how often have I thought myself to be in the midst of the vain delights and pleasures of Rome, even when I was in the wild wilderness, which being burnt up with the heat of the sun, yields an ugly habitation to the monks? Etc. Again: I, who for fear of hell had condemned myself to such a prison, thought myself oftentimes to be dancing among young women, when I had no other company but scorpions and wild beasts. My face was pale with fasting, but my mind was inflamed with desires in my cold body, and although my flesh was half dead already, yet the flames of fleshly lust boiled within me. Etc.

If Jerome felt in himself such flames of fleshly lust, who lived in the barren wilderness with bread and water: what do our holy belly-gods the clergymen feel (do you think): who so stuff and stretch out themselves with all kinds of dainty fare, that it is a marvel their bellies burst not? Therefore these things are written, not to hermits and monks (as the Papists dream) nor to sinners in the world only: but to the universal church of Christ, and to all the faithful: whom Paul exhorts to walk in the spirit, that they fulfill not the lusts of the flesh: that is to say, not only to bridle the gross motions of the flesh, as carnal lust, wrath, impatience, and such like: but also the spiritual motions, as doubting, blasphemy, idolatry, contempt and hatred of God, etc.

Paul (as I have said) does not require of the godly, that they should utterly put off or destroy the flesh: but that they should so bridle it, that it might be subject to the spirit. In Romans 10 he bids us cherish the flesh. For as we may not be cruel to other men's bodies, nor vex them with unreasonable labor: even so we may not be cruel to our own bodies. Therefore, according to Paul's precept, we must cherish our flesh, that it may be able to endure the labors both of the mind and of the body: but yet only for necessity's sake, and not to nourish the lusts thereof. Therefore if your flesh begin to grow wanton, repress it and bridle it by the spirit. If it will not be, marry a wife, for it is better to marry than to burn. Thus doing you walk in the spirit, that is, you follow God's word and do his will.

Verse 17. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

When Paul says that the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, he admonishes us that we must feel the concupiscence of the flesh, that is to say, not only carnal lust, but also pride, wrath, heaviness, impatience, incredulity, and such like. Notwithstanding he would have us so to feel them, that we consent not to them, nor accomplish them: that is, that we neither think, speak, nor do those things which the flesh provokes us to. As, if it moves us to anger, yet we should be angry in such a way (as we are taught in the fourth Psalm) that we sin not. As if Paul would thus say: I know that the flesh will provoke you to wrath, envy, doubting, incredulity and such like: But resist it by the spirit, that you sin not. But if you forsake the guiding of the spirit, and follow the flesh, you shall fulfill the lusts of the flesh, and you shall die, as Paul says in Romans 8. So this saying of the Apostle is to be understood, not of fleshly lust only, but of the whole kingdom of sin.

Verse 17. And these are contrary one to the other, so that you can not do the same things that you would.

These two captains or leaders (says he) the flesh and the spirit, are one against another in your body, so that you can not do what you would. And this place witnesses plainly, that Paul writes these things to the faithful, that is, to the church believing in Christ, baptized, justified, renewed, and having full forgiveness of sins. Yet notwithstanding he says that she has flesh rebelling against the spirit. After the same manner he speaks of himself in Romans 7. I (says he) am carnal and sold under sin. And again: I see another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind, and leading me captive to the law of sin which is in my members. Also: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Etc.

Here, not only the schoolmen, but also some of the old fathers are much troubled, seeking how they may excuse Paul. For it seems to them absurd and unseemly to say that that elect vessel of Christ should have sin. But we credit Paul's own words, wherein he plainly confesses that he is sold under sin, that he is led captive of sin, that he has a law in his members rebelling against him, and that in the flesh he serves the law of sin. Here again they answer, that the Apostle speaks in the person of the wicked. But the wicked do not complain of the rebellion of their flesh, of any battle or conflict, or of the captivity and bondage of sin: for sin mightily reigns in them. This is therefore the very complaint of Paul and of all the faithful. Therefore they have done very wickedly who have excused Paul and all the faithful to have no sin. For by this persuasion (which proceeds from ignorance of the doctrine of faith) they have robbed the church of a singular consolation: they have abolished the forgiveness of sins, and made Christ of no effect.

Therefore when Paul says: I see another law in my members, etc., he does not deny that he has flesh, and the vices of the flesh in him. It is likely therefore that he sometimes felt the motions of carnal lust. But yet (no doubt) these motions were well suppressed in him by the great and grievous afflictions and temptations both of mind and body, with which he was in a manner continually exercised and vexed, as his Epistles declare: or if he at any time being merry and strong, felt the lust of the flesh, wrath, impatience or such like: yet he resisted them by the spirit, and suffered not those motions to bear rule in him. Therefore let us in no way suffer such comforting passages (whereby Paul describes the battle of the flesh against the spirit in his own body) to be corrupted with such foolish glosses. The schoolmen, the monks, and such others, never felt any spiritual temptations: and therefore they fought only for the repressing and overcoming of fleshly lust and lechery: and being proud of that victory which they never yet obtained, they thought themselves far better and more holy than married men. I will not say, that under this holy pretense they nourished and maintained all kinds of horrible sins, as dissension, pride, hatred, disdain, and despising of their neighbors, trust in their own righteousness, presumption, contempt of all godliness and of the word of God, infidelity, blasphemy and such like. Against these sins they never fought: no, rather they took them to be no sins at all: they put righteousness in the keeping of their foolish and wicked vows, and unrighteousness in the neglecting and contemning of the same.

But this must be our ground and anchor-hold, that Christ is our only and perfect righteousness. If we have nothing to which we may trust: yet these three things (as Paul says) faith, hope, and love do remain. Therefore we must always believe, and always hope: we must always take hold of Christ as the head and fountain of our righteousness. He that believes in him shall not be ashamed (Romans 9:33). Moreover, we must labor to be outwardly righteous also: that is to say, not to consent to the flesh, which always entices us to some evil: but to resist it by the spirit. We must not be overcome with impatience for the unthankfulness and contempt of the people, which abuses the Christian liberty: but through the spirit we must overcome this and all other temptations. Look then how much we strive against the flesh by the spirit, so much are we outwardly righteous: albeit this righteousness does not commend us before God.

Let no man therefore despair if he feels the flesh often stirring up new battle against the spirit, or if he cannot immediately subdue the flesh, and make it obedient to the spirit. I also do wish myself to have a more valiant and constant heart, which might be able, not only boldly to scorn the threatenings of tyrants, the heresies, offenses and tumults which Satan and his soldiers the enemies of the Gospel stir up: but also might immediately shake off the vexations and anguish of spirit, and briefly, might not fear the sharpness of death, but receive and embrace it as a most friendly guest. But I find another law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind, etc. Some others do wrestle with inferior temptations, as poverty, reproach, impatience and such like.

Let no man marvel therefore or be dismayed when he feels in his body this battle of the flesh against the spirit: but let him pluck up his heart and comfort himself with these words of Paul: The flesh lusts against the spirit. Also: These are contrary one to another, so that you do not those things that you would. For by these sentences he comforts them that are tempted. As if he should say: It is impossible for you to follow the guiding of the spirit in all things without any feeling or hindrance of the flesh: no, the flesh will resist, and so resist and hinder you, that you cannot do those things which gladly you would. Here it shall be enough if you resist the flesh and fulfill not the lust of it: that is to say, if you follow the spirit and not the flesh, which easily is overthrown by impatience, covets to revenge, bites, grudges, hates God, is angry with him, despairs, etc. Therefore when a man feels this battle of the flesh, let him not be discouraged with it, but let him resist in spirit, and say: I am a sinner, and I feel sin in me: for I have not yet put off the flesh, in which sin dwells so long as it lives. But I will obey the spirit and not the flesh: that is, I will by faith and hope lay hold on Christ, and by his word I will raise up myself, and being so raised up, I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

It is very profitable for the godly to know this, and to bear it well in mind: for it wonderfully comforts them when they are tempted. When I was a monk I thought immediately that I was utterly cast away, if at any time I felt the lust of the flesh: that is to say, if I felt any evil motion, fleshly lust, wrath, hatred or envy against any brother. I tried many ways to help and to quiet my conscience, but it would not be: for the concupiscence and lust of my flesh did always return, so that I could not rest, but was continually vexed with these thoughts: This or that sin you have committed: you are infected with envy, with impatience, and such other sins: therefore you entered into this holy Order in vain, and all your good works are unprofitable. If then I had rightly understood these sentences of Paul: The flesh lusts contrary to the spirit, and the spirit contrary to the flesh: and, These two are one against another, so that you cannot do the things that you would do, I should not have so miserably tormented myself, but should have thought and said to myself as now commonly I do: Martin, you shall not utterly be without sin, for you have flesh: you shall therefore feel the battle of it: according to that saying of Paul: The flesh resists the spirit. Despair not therefore, but resist it strongly, and fulfill not the lust of it. Thus doing you are not under the law.

I remember that Staupitius was accustomed to say: I have vowed to God above a thousand times, that I would become a better man: but I never performed that which I vowed. Hereafter I will make no such vow: for I have now learned by experience, that I am not able to perform it. Unless therefore God be favorable and merciful to me for Christ's sake, and grant to me a blessed and happy hour when I shall depart out of this miserable life, I shall not be able with all my vows and all my good deeds, to stand before him. This was not only a true, but also a godly and an holy desperation: and this must all they confess both with mouth and heart, which will be saved. For the godly trust not to their own righteousness, but say with David: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall none that lives be justified. Again: If you O Lord should strictly mark iniquities, O Lord who shall stand? They look to Christ their Reconciler, who gave his life for their sins. Moreover, they know that the remnant of sin which is in their flesh, is not laid to their charge, but freely pardoned. Notwithstanding in the meantime they fight in spirit against the flesh, lest they should fulfill the lusts thereof. And although they feel the flesh to rage and rebel against the spirit, and themselves also to fall sometimes into sin through infirmity, yet are they not discouraged, nor think therefore that their state and kind of life, and the works which are done according to their calling, displease God: but they raise themselves up by Faith.

The faithful therefore receive great consolation by this doctrine of Paul, in that they know themselves to have part of the flesh and part of the spirit, but yet so notwithstanding that the spirit rules and the flesh is subdued and kept under awe, that righteousness reigns and sin serves. He that does not know this doctrine, and thinks that the faithful ought to be without all fault, and yet sees the contrary in himself, must needs at the length be swallowed up by the spirit of heaviness, and fall into desperation. But whoever knows this doctrine well and uses it rightly, to him the things that are evil turn to good. For when the flesh provokes him to sin, by occasion thereof he is stirred up and enforced to seek forgiveness of sins by Christ, and to embrace the righteousness of Faith, which else he would not so greatly esteem, nor seek for the same with so great desire. Therefore it profits us very much to feel sometimes the wickedness of our nature and corruption of our flesh, that yet by this means we may be woken and stirred up to Faith, and to call on Christ. And by this occasion a Christian becomes a mighty workman and a wonderful creator, which of heaviness can make joy, of terror comfort, of sin righteousness, and of death life, when he by this means repressing and bridling the flesh, makes it subject to the spirit.

Therefore let not those which feel the lust of the flesh, despair of their salvation. Let them feel it and all the force thereof, so that they consent not to it. Let the passions of lust, wrath and such other vices shake them, so that they do not overthrow them. Let sin assail them, so that they do not accomplish it. Indeed the more godly a man is, the more does he feel that battle. And from this come those lamentable complaints of the faithful in the Psalms and in the whole Scripture. Of this battle the Hermits, the Monks and the Schoolmen, and all that seek righteousness and salvation by works, know nothing at all.

But here may some man say: that it is a dangerous matter to teach that a man is not condemned, if right away he does not overcome the motions and passions of the flesh which he feels. For when this doctrine is taught among the common people, it makes them careless, negligent and slothful. This is what I said a little before, that if we teach Faith, then carnal men neglect and reject works: If works be required, then is Faith and consolation of conscience lost. Here no man can be compelled, neither can there be any certain rule prescribed. But let every man diligently examine himself to what passion of the flesh he is most subject, and when he finds that, let him not be careless, nor flatter himself: but let him watch and wrestle in spirit against it, that if he cannot altogether bridle it, yet at the least he does not fulfill the lust thereof.

This battle of the flesh against the spirit, all the children of God have had and felt: And the self-same do we also feel and prove. He that searches his own conscience, if he be not a hypocrite, shall well perceive that to be true in himself which Paul here says: that the flesh lusts against the spirit. All the faithful therefore do feel and confess that their flesh resists against the spirit, and that these two are so contrary the one to the other in themselves, that, do what they can, they are not able to perform that which they would do. Therefore the flesh hinders us so that we cannot keep the commandments of God, that we cannot love our neighbors as ourselves, much less can we love God with all our heart: Therefore it is impossible for us to become righteous by the works of the law. Indeed there is a good will in us, and so must there be (for it is the spirit itself which resists the flesh), which would gladly do good, fulfill the law, love God and his neighbor, and such like, but the flesh obeys not this good will, but resists it: and yet God does not impute to us this sin: For he is merciful to those that believe for Christ's sake.

But it does not follow therefore that you should make a light matter of sin because God does not impute it. True it is that he does not impute it. But to whom, and for what cause? To such as repent, and lay hold by Faith on Christ the mercy seat, for whose sake, as all their sins are forgiven them: even so the remnants of sin which are in them, are not imputed to them. They make not their sin less than it is, but amplify it and set it out as it is in deed: for they know that it cannot be put away by satisfactions, works or righteousness, but only by the death of Christ. And yet notwithstanding the greatness and enormity of their sin does not cause them to despair, but they assure themselves that the same shall not be imputed to them or laid to their charge.

This I say lest any man should think that after faith is received, there is little account to be made of sin. Sin is truly sin, whether a man commit it before he has received the knowledge of Christ, or after. And God always hates sin: indeed all sin is damnable as touching the fact itself. But in that it is not damnable to him that believes, it comes of Christ, who by his death has taken away sin. But to him that believes not in Christ, not only all his sins are damnable: but even his good works also are sin, according to that saying: Whatever is not of faith is sin. Therefore the error of the Schoolmen is most pernicious, which do distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the person. He that believes has as great sin as the unbeliever. But to him that believes, it is forgiven and not imputed. To the unbeliever it is not pardoned, but imputed. To the believer it is venial: to the unbeliever it is mortal and damnable: not for any difference of sins, or because the sin of the believer is less, and the sin of the unbeliever greater: but for the difference of the persons. For the faithful assures himself by faith that his sin is forgiven him, for as much as Christ has given himself for it. Therefore although he has sin in him and daily sins, yet he continues godly: but contrariwise the unbeliever continues wicked. And this is the true wisdom and consolation of the godly, that although they have and commit sins, yet they know that for Christ's sake they are not imputed to them.

This I say for the comfort of the godly. For they only feel indeed that they have and do commit sins, that is to say, they feel that they do not love God so fervently as they should do: that they do not believe him so heartily as they would, but rather they oftentimes doubt whether God has a care of them or no: they are impatient, and are angry with God in adversity. Hereof (as I have said) proceed the sorrowful complaints of the faithful in the Scriptures, and specially in the Psalms. And Paul himself complains that he is sold under sin. And here he says, that the flesh resists and rebels against the spirit. But because they mortify the deeds of the flesh by the spirit (as he says in another place, and also in the end of this chapter: They crucify the flesh with the desires and lusts thereof): therefore these sins do not hurt them nor condemn them. But if they obey the flesh in fulfilling the lusts thereof, then do they lose faith and the Holy Ghost. And if they do not abhor their sin and return to Christ (who has given power to his church, to receive and raise up those that be fallen, that so they may recover faith and the Holy Ghost) they die in their sins. Therefore we speak not of them which dream that they have faith, and yet continue still in their sins. These men have their judgment already: They that live after the flesh shall die. Also: The works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, debate, emulations, wrath, contentions, seditions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, gluttony and such like, of which I tell you before, as also I have told you, that they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Hereby we may see who be the very saints indeed. They be not stocks and stones (as the Monks and Schoolmen dream) so that they are never moved with any thing, never feel any lusts or desires of the flesh: but, as Paul says, their flesh lusts against the spirit, and therefore they have sin, and both can and do sin. And Psalm 32 witnesses that the faithful do confess their unrighteousness, and pray that the wickedness of their sin may be forgiven, where it says: I will confess against myself my wickedness to the Lord, and you forgave the punishment of my sin. Therefore shall every one that is godly, make his prayer to you, etc. Moreover the whole church, which indeed is holy, prays that her sins may be forgiven her, and it believes the forgiveness of sins. And in Psalm 143 David prays: O Lord enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall none that lives be justified. And in Psalm 130: If you O Lord should strictly mark iniquities, Lord who shall stand in your presence? But with you is mercy, etc. Thus do the chief saints and children of God speak and pray: as David, Paul, etc. All the faithful therefore do speak and pray the same thing, and with the same spirit. The popish Sophisters read not the Scriptures, or if they read them, they have a veil before their eyes: and therefore as they cannot judge rightly of any thing, so can they not judge rightly either of sin, or of holiness.

Verse 18. If you be led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul cannot forget his doctrine of faith, but still repeats it and beats it into their heads: indeed even when he treats of good works. Here some man may object: How can it be that we should not be under the law? And yet you notwithstanding, O Paul, teach us that we have flesh which lusts against the spirit, and fights against us, torments us and brings us into bondage. And indeed we feel sin, and cannot be delivered from the feeling thereof, though we would never so fain. And what is this else, but to be under the law? But, says he: Let this nothing trouble you: only do your endeavor that you may be led by the spirit, that is to say: show yourselves willing to follow and obey that will which resists the flesh, and does not accomplish the lusts thereof (for this is to be led and to be drawn by the spirit): then are you not under the law. So Paul speaks of himself (Romans 7). In my mind I serve the law of God, that is to say: In spirit I am not subject to any sin: but yet in my flesh I serve the law of sin. The faithful then are not under the law, that is to say, in spirit: for the law cannot accuse them, nor pronounce sentence of death against them, although they feel sin, and confess themselves to be sinners: For the power and strength of the law is taken from it by Christ: who was made subject to the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law. Therefore the law cannot accuse that for sin in the faithful, which is sin indeed and committed against the law.

So great then is the power and dominion of the spirit, that the law cannot accuse the godly, though they commit that which is sin indeed. For Christ is our righteousness, whom we apprehend by faith: he is without all sin, and therefore the law cannot accuse him. As long as we cleave fast to him, we are led by the spirit, and are free from the law. And so the Apostle, even when he teaches good works, forgets not his doctrine concerning Justification: but always shows that it is impossible for us to be justified by works. For the remnants of sin cleave fast in our flesh, and therefore so long as our flesh lives, it ceases not to lust contrary to the spirit. Notwithstanding there comes no danger to us thereby, because we be free from the law, so that we walk in the spirit.

And with these words: If you be led by the spirit, you be not under the law, you may greatly comfort yourself and others that be grievously tempted. For it oftentimes comes to pass, that a man is so vehemently assailed with wrath, hatred, impatience, carnal desire, terror and anguish of spirit, or some other lust of the flesh, that he cannot shake them off, though he would never so much. What should he do in this case? Should he despair? No, God forbid: but let him say thus with himself: Your flesh fights and rages against the spirit. Let it rage as long as it likes: only see you, that in any case you consent not to it, to fulfill the lusts thereof, but walk wisely and follow the leading of the spirit. In so doing you are free from the law. It accuses and terrifies you (I grant), but altogether in vain. In this conflict therefore of the flesh against the spirit, there is nothing better, than to have the word of God before your eyes, and therein to seek the comfort of the spirit.

And let not him which suffers this temptation be dismayed, in that the Devil can so aggravate sin, that during the conflict, he thinks himself to be utterly overthrown, and feels nothing else but the wrath of God and desperation. Here in any wise let him not follow his own feeling and the judgment of reason, but let him take sure hold of this saying of Paul: If you be led by the spirit, that is to wit, if you raise up and comfort yourselves through faith in Christ, you be not under the law. So shall he have a strong shield with which he may beat back all the fiery darts which that wicked fiend assails him with. However much then the flesh does boil and rage, yet can not all her motions and rages hurt and condemn him, for as much as he, following the guiding of the spirit, does not consent to the flesh, nor fulfill the lusts thereof. Therefore when the motions of the flesh do rage, the only remedy is to take to us the sword of the spirit, that is to say, the word of salvation (which is, that God would not the death of a sinner, but that he convert and live) and to fight against them: which if we do, let us not doubt but we shall obtain the victory, although so long as the battle endures, we feel the plain contrary. But set the word out of sight, and there is no counsel nor help remaining. Of this that I say, I myself have good experience. I have suffered many great passions, and the same also very vehement and great. But so soon as I laid hold of any place of Scripture, and stayed myself upon it as upon my chief anchorhold, straightway my temptations did vanish away: which without the word it had been impossible for me to endure any little space, and much less to overcome them.

The sum or effect therefore of all that which Paul has taught in this disputation or discourse concerning the conflict or battle between the flesh and the spirit, is this, that the Saints and the elect of God cannot perform that which the spirit desires. For the spirit would gladly be altogether pure, but the flesh being joined to the spirit, will not suffer that. Notwithstanding they be saved by the remission of sins, which is in Christ Jesus. Moreover, because they walk in the spirit and are led by the spirit, they be not under the law, that is to say, the law cannot accuse or terrify them: indeed although it goes about never so much so to do, yet shall it never be able to drive them to desperation.

Ver. 19. Moreover the works of the flesh be manifest, which are, etc.

This place is not unlike to this sentence of Christ: By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of brambles? So every good tree brings forth good fruit, and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit, etc. Paul teaches the very same thing which Christ taught, that is to say, that works and fruits do sufficiently testify whether the trees be good or evil: whether men follow the guiding of the flesh or of the spirit. As if he should say: Lest some of you might lay for himself, that he does not understand me now when I treat of the battle between the flesh and the spirit, I will set before your eyes first the works of the flesh, whereof many are known even to the ungodly (Matthew 7:10): and then also the works of the spirit.

And this does Paul, because there were many hypocrites among the Galatians (as there are also at this day among us) which outwardly pretended to be godly men, and boasted much of the spirit, and as touching the words they understood the true doctrine of the Gospel: but they walked not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh, and performed the works thereof. Whereby Paul manifestly convinces them to be no such holy men in deed as they boasted themselves to be. And lest they should despise this his admonition, he pronounces against them this dreadful sentence, that they should not be inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, to the end that being thus admonished they might amend. Every age even in the faithful, has his peculiar temptations, as fleshly lusts assail a man most of all in his youth, in his middle age ambition and vainglory, and in his old age covetousness. There was never yet any of the faithful, whom the flesh has not often in his life time provoked to impatience, anger, vainglory, etc. Paul therefore speaking here of the faithful, says that the flesh lusts in them against the spirit, etc: therefore they shall never be without the desires and battles of the flesh: notwithstanding they do not hurt them. But of this matter we must thus judge, that it is one thing to be provoked of the flesh and yet not willingly to yield to the lusts and desires thereof, but to walk after the leading of the spirit and to resist the flesh: and another thing to assent to the flesh and without all fear or remorse to perform and fulfill the works thereof and to continue therein, and yet notwithstanding to counterfeit holiness and to brag of the spirit. The first he comforts when he says, that they be led by the spirit and be not under the law. To the other he threatens everlasting destruction.

Notwithstanding sometimes it happens that the Saints also do fall and perform the lusts of the flesh: As David fell horribly into adultery. Also he was the cause of the slaughter of many men when he would have Uriah to be slain in the forefront of the battle: and thereby also he gave occasion to the enemies to glory and triumph over the people of God, to worship their idols, and to blaspheme the God of Israel. Peter also fell most grievously and horribly when he denied Christ. But although these sins were great and heinous, yet were they not committed upon any contempt of God or of a willful and obstinate mind, but through infirmity and weakness. Again, when they were admonished, they did not obstinately continue in their sins, but repented. Such he wills afterward in the Chapter 6 to be received, instructed and restored, saying: If a man be fallen by occasion into any sin, you which are spiritual restore such a one with the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. To those therefore which sin and fall through infirmity, pardon is not denied, so that they rise again and continue not in their sin: for of all things continuance in sin is the worst. But if they repent not, but still obstinately continue in their wickedness and perform the desires of the flesh: it is a certain token that there is deceit in their spirit.

No man therefore shall be without lusts and desires so long as he lives in the flesh, and therefore no man shall be free from temptations. Notwithstanding some are tempted one way and some another, according to the difference of the persons. One man is assailed with more vehement and grievous motions, as with bitterness and anguish of spirit, blasphemy, distrust and desperation: Another with more gross temptations, as with fleshly lusts, wrath, envy, covetousness and such like. But in this case Paul requires of us that we walk in the spirit and resist the flesh. But whoever obeys the flesh and continues without any fear of God or remorse of conscience in accomplishing the desires and lusts thereof: let him know that he pertains not to Christ: And although he brag of the name of a Christian never so much, yet does he but deceive himself. For they which are of Christ, do crucify their flesh with the affections and lusts thereof.

Now come exhortations and practical instructions about life and good works. It is the apostles' custom, after teaching faith and instructing consciences, to add directives about good works — urging the faithful to practice acts of love toward one another. Natural reason can to some extent understand and grasp this part of teaching, but the doctrine of faith is entirely beyond its reach. To make clear that Christian teaching does not destroy good works or conflict with civil order, the apostle also urges us to practice good works and live honorably in our outward conduct, and to maintain love and peace with one another. The world therefore has no just grounds to accuse Christians of destroying good works or troubling public peace and decency — for Christians teach good works and all other virtues better than any philosopher or ruler in the world, because they join faith together with what they do.

Verse 13. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

It is as if he said: You have now obtained liberty through Christ — you stand far above all laws in your conscience and before God; you are blessed and saved; Christ is your life. Even though the law, sin, and death trouble and terrify you, they cannot ultimately harm you or drive you to despair. This is your excellent and immeasurable liberty. Now you must take care that you do not use that liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.

This is a common evil and the most destructive of all the things Satan stirs up through the doctrine of faith: in the case of many people, he turns the liberty with which Christ has set us free into freedom for the flesh. The apostle Jude also laments this in his letter: 'Certain people have crept in,' he says, 'who turn the grace of our God into sensuality.' The flesh is completely ignorant of the doctrine of grace — it does not understand that we are made righteous not by works but by faith alone, and that the law has no authority over us. So when the flesh hears the doctrine of faith, it corrupts and abuses it into self-indulgence, immediately reasoning: if we are without law, let us live however we please, do no good, give nothing to the poor, and refuse to endure anything — for there is no law that compels or obliges us to do otherwise.

There is therefore danger on both sides, though one is more tolerable than the other. If grace and faith are not preached, no one can be saved — for faith alone justifies and saves. But if faith is preached, as it must be, the majority of people understand the doctrine of faith in a fleshly way and twist the freedom of the Spirit into freedom for the flesh. We see this throughout every level of society, high and low alike. Everyone claims to be a follower of the Gospel and boasts of Christian liberty — yet they serve their own desires, giving themselves over to greed, pleasures, pride, envy, and other vices. No one faithfully does his duty, no one lovingly meets his brother's need. This grieves me so deeply that I sometimes wish these swine, who trample precious pearls underfoot, were still under the Pope's tyranny — for it seems impossible to govern this kind of people with the peaceful Gospel.

Even we who teach the word do not carry out our duties today with the same zeal and diligence we had before, when we were still in the darkness of ignorance. The more certain we become of the freedom Christ has purchased for us, the colder and more careless we grow in handling the word, in prayer, in doing good, and in enduring hardship. If Satan did not trouble us inwardly with spiritual temptations and outwardly through the persecution of our opponents — and beyond that through the contempt and ingratitude of our own associates — we would become completely careless, lazy, and useless for every good work. Over time we would lose the knowledge and faith of Christ, abandon the ministry of the word, and seek an easier life for the flesh. Many of our own people are beginning to do exactly this, because those laboring in the ministry of the word cannot even support themselves on their work — and are in fact treated most shamefully by the very people who were delivered from the Pope's bondage through the preaching of the Gospel. These men, turning away from the poor and lowly Christ, entangle themselves in the affairs of this present life, serving their own appetite and not Christ — and what fruit that will bear, they will discover by experience in the time to come.

Since we know that the devil lays his most careful traps for us who possess the word — for the rest he holds captive and enslaved at his pleasure — and since he works with all his strength to take from us the liberty of the Spirit, or at least to twist it into fleshly liberty, we teach and urge our brothers with particular care and diligence, following Paul's example: this liberty of the Spirit, purchased by Christ's death, was not given so that we might use it as an excuse for fleshly self-indulgence — or as Peter says, as a cover for wickedness — but so that we might serve one another through love.

So that Christians do not abuse this liberty, as I have said, the apostle places on the flesh a yoke and a form of service through the law of mutual love. Let the godly therefore remember that in conscience before God they are free from the law's curse, from sin, and from death — for Christ's sake. But as for their bodies, they are servants and must serve one another through love, in accordance with Paul's command here. Let every person therefore strive to do his duty faithfully in whatever calling he has, and to help his neighbor to the best of his ability. This is what Paul requires of us here: serve one another through love. These words do not set Christians loose into freedom — they place them under obligation with regard to the flesh.

This teaching about mutual love — which we must maintain and practice toward one another — cannot be driven into the heads of fleshly people or made to sink into their hearts. Christians gladly receive and obey this teaching. Others, the moment liberty is preached, immediately reason: 'If I am free, I can do as I please. This thing is mine — why should I not sell it for as much as I can get?' 'And since good works don't earn salvation, why should I give anything to the poor?' And so they carelessly throw off the yoke of service in the flesh and turn the liberty of the Spirit into self-indulgence and fleshly freedom. But we tell these careless despisers — though they do not believe us and only laugh at us — that if they use their bodies and possessions purely to satisfy their own desires (which they do: they do not help the poor or lend to the needy, but cheat their brothers in business dealings, grabbing and hoarding whatever they can by any means), then they are not free, however much they boast of their liberty. They have lost Christ and Christian liberty, have become the devil's slaves, and under the banner of Christian liberty are seven times worse than they were under the Pope's tyranny. For the devil who was driven out of them has taken seven other spirits more wicked than himself and returned into them — and so their last state is worse than the first.

As for us, we have God's command to preach the Gospel, which freely offers to all people — for Christ's sake, through faith — liberty from the law, sin, death, and God's wrath. It is not within our power to hide or withdraw the liberty the Gospel has now proclaimed, for Christ gave it to us freely and purchased it by His death. We also cannot force those who plunge headlong into every kind of fleshly excess and self-indulgence to use their bodies and goods to help others. So we do what we can — we warn them earnestly that they ought to do so. If our warnings accomplish nothing, we commit the matter to God, and He will repay these scorners with just punishment in His own time. In the meantime, our comfort is this: among the godly, our labor is not wasted — many have undoubtedly been delivered through our ministry from the devil's bondage and brought into the liberty of the Spirit. These few — who recognize the glory of spiritual liberty and are in turn ready through love to serve others, knowing themselves to be debtors to their brothers in the flesh — bring us more joy than the vast multitude of those who abuse this liberty can bring us discouragement.

Paul uses very fitting and clear language here: 'Brothers, you have been called to liberty.' And to ensure that no one imagines he is talking about fleshly liberty, he immediately explains what kind of liberty he means: 'Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.' Let every Christian therefore know that in the conscience, Christ has made him lord over the law, sin, and death, so that they have no power over him. At the same time, let him know that this external obligation is placed on his body — that he must serve his neighbor through love. Those who understand Christian liberty any other way are using the Gospel's benefits for their own destruction, and under the name of Christ are worse idolaters than they were under the Pope. Paul now proceeds to explain, drawing from the ten commandments, what it actually means to serve one another through love.

Verse 14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

After laying the foundation of Christian doctrine, Paul is in the habit of building on it with gold, silver, and precious stones. There is no other foundation, as he himself says to the Corinthians, than Jesus Christ — or Christ's righteousness. On this foundation he now builds good works — genuine good works — and sums them all up in one command: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' It is as if he said: when I say you must serve one another through love, I mean exactly what the law says in another place: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' This is what it truly means to interpret Scripture and God's commandments.

In giving these instructions about love, Paul is also quietly taking a jab at the false teachers — firmly opposing them in order to defend and establish his teaching on good works against them. It is as if he said: O Galatians, until now I have taught you the true spiritual life, and now I will also teach you what genuine good works actually are. I am doing this so you may understand that the empty and foolish ceremonial works the false apostles keep insisting on are far inferior to works of love. Such is the foolishness and madness of all false teachers and fanatical spirits: not only do they abandon the true foundation and sound doctrine, but even in their superstitions they never manage to arrive at genuine good works. As Paul says, they build nothing but wood, hay, and stubble on the foundation. The false apostles, who were the most enthusiastic advocates of works, never taught or required works of love — that Christians should love one another, help their neighbors in every need, giving not only their possessions but their very selves: their voice, their hands, their hearts, their whole strength. All they insisted on was circumcision, the observation of days, months, years, and seasons — they could not teach any other kind of good work. For once they destroyed the foundation, which is Christ, and obscured the doctrine of faith, it was impossible for any true practice, exercise, or understanding of good works to remain. Remove the tree, and the fruit must perish.

The apostle therefore urges Christians earnestly to practice good works after they have heard and received the pure doctrine of faith. Even in those who have been justified, remnants of sin still remain — and just as they resist faith and hinder it, they also hinder us from doing good works. Beyond that, human reason and the flesh — which in the saints themselves resists the Spirit, and in the ungodly reigns with great force — are naturally drawn to self-made religious practices. Reason takes more pleasure in imagining God according to its own ideas than in knowing Him through His word, and it pursues its own chosen works with far more enthusiasm than the works God has actually commanded. It is therefore necessary for godly preachers to teach and press the doctrine of good works just as earnestly as the doctrine of faith — for Satan is a deadly enemy to both. Faith, however, must come first — because without faith it is impossible to understand what a good work is or what pleases God.

Let no one think he has thoroughly grasped this commandment: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' The words are very short and seem simple — but show me the teachers and hearers who actually teach, learn, and live it out rightly. The words 'serve one another through love' and 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' are in fact beyond our full grasp, and no one — not even the godly — adequately considers, teaches, and practices them. And here is a remarkable thing: the faithful are so sensitive that if they leave out even some small religious practice they think they ought to do, their conscience is immediately troubled — but they are far less troubled when they neglect the duties of love (as they do every day) or fail to bear sincere and brotherly affection toward their neighbor. They give more weight to their own religious customs than to the commandment of love — and from that tendency they are never fully free in this life.

Paul therefore rebukes the Galatians with these words: 'For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.' It is as if he said: you are drowning in superstitions and ceremonies about places and times, which help neither you nor anyone else — and meanwhile you neglect love, which is the only thing you were truly obligated to keep. What madness is this? As Jerome says: 'We wear out our bodies with vigils, fasting, and labor — but we neglect love, which is the only true queen and ruler of all works.' This can be seen clearly in the monks, who strictly observe their regulations about ceremonies, fasting, vigils, clothing, and the like. If they leave out even the smallest of these things, they consider it a deadly sin. But when they not only neglect love but actively hate one another to the point of death — they consider that no sin at all.

By this commandment, therefore, Paul not only teaches good works — he also condemns fantastical and self-invented works. He not only builds gold, silver, and precious stones on the foundation — he also tears down the wood and burns up the hay and stubble. God showed plainly through examples in the Old Testament how highly He has always valued love — a love to which He would have even the law itself and its ceremonies give way. When David and his companions were hungry and had nothing to eat, they ate the consecrated bread of the Presence, which the law permitted only to the priests and not to laypeople. Christ's disciples broke the Sabbath by picking heads of grain, and Christ Himself broke the Sabbath (as the Jews charged) by healing the sick on that day. All these examples show that love must take priority over all laws and ceremonies, and that God requires nothing from us so much as love toward our neighbor. Christ confirms the same when He says: 'The second commandment is like the first.'

Verse 14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

As if he said: Why do you burden yourselves with the law? Why do you wear yourselves out with the law's ceremonies — with rules about foods, days, places, and similar things: what to eat and drink, how to keep feasts, when to offer sacrifices? Leave these follies behind and hear what I say: the whole law is fully contained in this one saying: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' God takes no delight in the observance of the law's ceremonies, nor does He need them. The only thing He requires of you is this: that you believe in Christ whom He has sent — in whom you are made complete and have everything. But if you want to add laws to faith — which is itself the most pleasing service of God — then know this: all laws are summed up in this brief command: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Apply yourselves to keeping this command — and in keeping it, you have fulfilled all laws.

Paul is a masterful interpreter of God's commandments — he condenses all of Moses into a brief summary, showing that everything contained in his countless laws amounts to this one short sentence: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Natural reason is put off by the apparent simplicity and brevity of this, for it seems quickly said: 'Believe in Christ,' and again, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' So reason despises both the doctrine of faith and true good works. Yet this seemingly plain and lowly word of faith — 'Believe in Christ' — is the power of God to those who believe, through which they overcome sin, death, and the devil, and through which they also attain salvation and eternal life. And serving one another through love — instructing those who go astray, comforting the afflicted, lifting up the weak, helping your neighbor in every possible way, bearing with his weaknesses, enduring trouble, hard work, ingratitude, and contempt in the church; and in civil life, obeying the governing authorities, giving proper honor to parents, bearing patiently with a difficult spouse and an unruly household — these are works that reason dismisses as worthless. But trust me: they are works whose excellence and value the whole world cannot begin to comprehend — for the world does not measure works or anything else by the word of God, but by the judgment of wicked, blind, and foolish reason. In fact, the world does not even recognize the value of a single one of the least of truly good works.

When people imagine they already understand the commandment of love, they are thoroughly deceived. They do have it written in their hearts in a general way — natural conscience tells them to treat others as they want to be treated. But having the principle written in one's heart is not the same as understanding it. For if they truly understood it, they would also carry it out and would place love above all their other works. They would not place such high value on their self-invented religious exercises — going about with somber faces, bowing their heads, staying unmarried, living on bread and water, dwelling in the wilderness, wearing threadbare clothing, and so on. These strange and self-made religious practices — which God neither commanded nor approved — they consider so holy and superior that they eclipse and overshadow love itself, which is the sun around which all good works revolve. So profound and incomprehensible is the blindness of human reason that it cannot judge rightly either about the doctrine of faith or about outward conduct and works. We must therefore fight fiercely on two fronts: against the opinions of our own hearts — to which we are naturally more drawn in the matter of salvation than to the word of God — and against the impressive and holy-looking disguise of our self-invented works. The goal is to learn to honor works done in one's God-given calling, however outwardly lowly and insignificant they may appear — as long as they have the warrant of God's word — and to despise the works that reason chooses for itself without God's command, however excellent and holy they may seem.

I have treated this commandment at length elsewhere, and so I will pass over it briefly here. The words 'love your neighbor as yourself' are short, but they are well chosen and perfectly apt. No one can give a more reliable or more vivid illustration than one's own self. So if you want to know how your neighbor ought to be loved, and want a clear example, look at how you love yourself. If you were in need or danger, you would be very glad to have the goodwill and friendship of everyone around you, to be helped by their counsel, their resources, and their strength. You need no book to instruct you on how to love your neighbor — you carry the best book of all in your own heart. You need no teacher for this — simply ask your own heart, and it will tell you well enough: treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated. Beyond that, love is a remarkable virtue that makes a person ready and willing to serve his neighbor not only with words, hands, money, and possessions, but with his very body and even his life. And it does all this not as a response to good behavior, nor is it deterred by bad behavior or ingratitude. A mother nourishes and cherishes her child simply because she loves it.

My neighbor is everyone — especially whoever is in need of my help, as Christ explains in Luke 10. Even if someone has wronged me or harmed me in some way, he has not thereby stopped being human, stopped being flesh and blood, stopped being a creature of God most like myself — in short, he has not stopped being my neighbor. As long as the nature of a human being remains in him, the commandment of love also remains — requiring me not to despise my own flesh, not to return evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good. Otherwise, love will never match what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.

Paul therefore commends love to the Galatians and to all the faithful — for they alone truly love in practice — and urges them to serve one another through love. It is as if he said: you do not need to burden yourselves with circumcision and the ceremonies of Moses's law. Stay above all in the doctrine of faith you received from me. Then if you want to do good works, I will show you in one word the greatest and most important work of all, and how to fulfill the whole law: serve one another through love. You will not lack people to do good to — the world is full of those who need the help of others. This is a perfect and sound doctrine of faith and love — the shortest and also the longest theology there is. Shortest in words and sentences — but in practice it is broader, deeper, and higher than the whole world.

Verse 15. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not destroyed by one another.

By these words Paul testifies that when the foundation — faith in Christ — is overturned by false teachers, neither peace nor harmony can remain in the church, in doctrine or in life. Different opinions and divisions must inevitably arise in both, until one person bites and devours another — judging and condemning each other — until they are consumed. Not only Scripture but the examples of every age bear witness to this. After Africa was corrupted by the Manichaeans, the Donatists immediately followed — and they, dividing among themselves, split into three separate sects. And how many sects are springing up today, one after another? One sect gives birth to another, and each condemns the rest. When the unity of the Spirit is broken, it is impossible for any harmony to remain in doctrine or life — new errors must keep arising, without limit and without end.

Paul therefore teaches that these sources of division are to be avoided, and shows how they can be avoided. This is the way to unity and harmony, he says: let every person do his duty in the calling God has given him, not exalting himself above others or criticizing other people's work while praising his own, but serving one another through love. This is true and straightforward teaching about good works. Those who have made shipwreck of faith and formed fantastical ideas about faith and works do not teach this — instead, disagreeing among themselves about doctrine and works, they bite and devour one another, accusing and condemning each other, just as Paul says of the Galatians here. 'If you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not destroyed by one another.' As if to say: do not accuse and condemn one another over circumcision, the observation of holy days, or other ceremonies — rather, give yourselves to serving and helping one another through love. For if you continue biting and devouring, take care that you are not consumed — that is, that you do not perish utterly, even physically, which commonly happens to the founders of sects, as it did to Arius and others, and to some in our own time. Whoever builds on sand with hay, stubble, and similar materials must eventually fall and be destroyed — for all those things are made for the fire. I will not even mention that after such mutual biting and devouring, the ruin and destruction not of one city but of whole countries and kingdoms usually follow. Now the apostle shows what it actually means to serve one another through love.

It is a difficult and dangerous thing to teach that we are made righteous by faith without works, and yet at the same time to insist on works. Unless Christ's ministers are faithful and skilled stewards of God's mysteries — accurately dividing the word of truth — faith and works are quickly confused. Both doctrines — of faith and of works — must be carefully taught and pressed, yet in such a way that each stays within its proper bounds. Otherwise, if works alone are taught (as happens in the papal kingdom), faith is lost. If faith alone is taught, carnal people immediately conclude that works are unnecessary.

The apostle has just above begun to urge good works and to teach that the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Now someone will say: Paul throughout this entire letter has removed righteousness from the law — for he says, 'By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified,' and 'As many as are under the works of the law are under the curse.' But now, when he says the whole law is fulfilled in one word, he seems to have forgotten what he has been arguing throughout this letter and to hold the opposite view — namely, that those who do works of love fulfill the law and are righteous. He answers this objection as follows.

Verse 16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It is as if he had said: I have not forgotten my earlier argument about faith, nor am I now retracting it by urging mutual love and saying the whole law is fulfilled through love. I hold the same position I held before. So that you will understand me correctly, I add this: walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

A refutation of the scholastics' argument: 'Love is the fulfillment of the law; therefore the law justifies.'

Even though Paul speaks here clearly and plainly enough, he has made little headway against a misunderstanding. The scholastic theologians, not understanding this passage — 'love is the fulfillment of the law' — drew this conclusion from it: if love is the fulfillment of the law, it follows that love is righteousness; therefore if we love, we are righteous. These learned scholars argue from the word to the work, from a doctrine or command to its practical outcome, like this: 'The law has commanded love, therefore the work of love immediately follows.' But this is a foolish inference — you cannot draw a valid conclusion by arguing directly from a command to its performance.

It is true that we ought to fulfill the law and be made righteous through fulfilling it — but sin prevents this. The law does command us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves — but it does not follow: 'it is written, therefore it is done; the law commands love, therefore we love.' Not a single person can be found anywhere on earth who loves God and his neighbor the way the law requires. In the life to come, however, when we are thoroughly cleansed of every vice and sin and made as pure and bright as the sun, we will love perfectly and be righteous through perfect love. In this life, that purity is prevented by the flesh — sin remains in our flesh as long as we live. Because of this, the corrupt love of ourselves is so powerful that it far outweighs our love for God and neighbor. In the meantime, so that we may be righteous in this life as well, we have Christ as our mercy seat and throne of grace — and because we believe in Him, sin is not counted against us. Faith is therefore our righteousness in this life. But in the life to come, when we have been thoroughly cleansed and freed from all sin and fleshly desire, we will no longer need faith and hope — we will then love perfectly.

It is a serious error, therefore, to attribute justification and righteousness to love — which is nothing, or if something, is not sufficient to appease God — for love even in the faithful is imperfect and impure, and nothing unclean shall enter the kingdom of God. What sustains us in the meantime is this confidence: that Christ, who alone committed no sin and in whose mouth no deceit was ever found, covers us with His righteousness. Sheltered by this cloud, hidden under this canopy — this heaven of forgiveness of sins and throne of grace — we begin to love and to fulfill the law. Yet this fulfilling does not justify us or make us acceptable to God while we live here. But when Christ has delivered up the kingdom to God His Father, abolished all earthly rule and authority, and God is all in all — then faith and hope will cease, and love will be perfect and eternal (1 Corinthians 13). This is what the papal scholastics do not understand — and so when they hear that love is the sum of the whole law, they immediately conclude: therefore the law justifies. Or when they read in Paul that faith makes a person righteous, they add: yes, faith formed and furnished with love. But that is not Paul's meaning, as I have shown at length before.

If we were pure of all sin and burning with perfect love toward God and our neighbor, then we would indeed be righteous and holy through love, and God could require nothing more of us. But this does not happen in the present life — it is reserved for the life to come. Here we do receive the gift and firstfruits of the Spirit, so that we begin to love — though very weakly. But if we truly and perfectly loved God as the law requires — 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength' — then we would be as content with poverty as with wealth, with pain as with pleasure, with death as with life. In fact, whoever could truly and perfectly love God in this way would not long survive in this life — he would be immediately overwhelmed and consumed by that love.

But human nature is so thoroughly corrupted and drowned in sin that it cannot have any right thought or feeling about God. It does not love God — it hates Him deeply. As John says: 'We did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.' And as Paul says in chapter 2: 'Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.' And in chapter 4: 'But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.' Redeemed and justified by this Son, we begin to love — as Paul says in Romans 8: 'What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh — so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us' — that is, might begin to be fulfilled. Everything the scholastics and sophists have taught about fulfilling the law is therefore mere fantasy.

Paul therefore shows through these words — 'walk by the Spirit' — how he intends to be understood when he says 'serve one another through love' and 'love is the fulfillment of the law.' It is as if he said: When I urge you to love one another, what I am actually requiring is that you walk by the Spirit. For I know that you will not fully fulfill the law — sin still dwells in you as long as you live, and so complete fulfillment is impossible. Nevertheless, in the meantime, strive diligently to walk by the Spirit — that is, wrestle in the Spirit against the flesh and follow the Spirit's promptings.

It is clear, then, that Paul had not forgotten the matter of justification. When he says 'walk by the Spirit,' he is plainly denying that works justify. It is as if he said: when I speak of fulfilling the law, I do not mean that you are justified by the law. What I mean is this: there are two opposing forces at war within you — the Spirit and the flesh. God has stirred up a conflict and a battle in your bodies: the Spirit fights against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. All I require of you is that you follow the Spirit as your captain and guide, and that you resist the flesh as your enemy — for that is the full extent of what you are capable of doing. Obey the Spirit and fight against the flesh. So when I teach you to keep the law and urge you to love one another, do not think I am retracting what I taught about the doctrine of faith, or that I am now attributing justification to the law or to love. My meaning is that you should walk by the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Paul's words are fitting and well chosen. It is as if he said: we have not yet arrived at the full keeping of the law — so we must walk in the Spirit and be active in it, thinking, speaking, and doing what belongs to the Spirit, and resisting what belongs to the flesh. And so he adds:

Verse 16. And you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

As if he said: the desires of the flesh are not yet dead in us — they spring up again and fight against the Spirit. No faithful person's flesh is so well-disciplined that, when offended, it does not bite and devour, or at least fall short of that commandment of love in some way. At the first provocation, a person cannot restrain himself — he is angry at his neighbor, desires revenge, and treats him as an enemy, or at the very least does not love him as much as he should and as this commandment requires. And this happens even to the faithful.

The apostle has therefore given this rule for the faithful: they must serve one another through love, bear one another's burdens and weaknesses, and forgive one another. Without this bearing and forbearing through love, it is impossible for peace and harmony to be maintained among Christians. It is inevitable that you will often offend and be offended. You see many things in me that trouble you, and I see many things in you that displease me. If we do not bear with one another through love, there will be no end to division, conflict, envy, hatred, and bitterness.

Paul therefore wants us to walk by the Spirit so that we will not fulfill the desire of the flesh. It is as if he said: even when you are provoked to anger and displeasure against your brother who has offended you or done something seriously wrong to you — resist and suppress those violent impulses through the Spirit. Bear with his weakness and love him, according to the commandment: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Your brother does not stop being your neighbor because he stumbles or offends you — on the contrary, that is precisely when he most needs you to show him love. And this commandment — 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself' — requires exactly that: that you not follow the flesh, which when offended hates, bites, and devours. Wrestle against it in the Spirit, and continue through the Spirit in love for your neighbor, even when you can find nothing in him that seems worthy of love.

The scholastics took 'the desires of the flesh' to mean sexual lust. It is true that even the godly — especially the young — are tempted by sexual desire. Even married people, so corrupt and troublesome is the flesh, are not free from such impulses. Let every person therefore — and now I am speaking to married men and women among the godly — honestly examine themselves, and many will no doubt find that the appearance and qualities of another person's spouse appeal to them more than their own. They find their own lawful spouse unappealing and are drawn to someone who is off-limits. And this commonly happens not in marriage alone but in practically everything. People take for granted what they have and long for what they don't have — as the poet says: 'We are always drawn to forbidden things and desire what is denied us.'

I do not deny that the desire of the flesh includes sexual lust — but it is not limited to that. Fleshly desire encompasses all corrupt affections that infect even the faithful — some more, some less: pride, hatred, greed, impatience, and the like. Indeed, Paul lists among the works of the flesh not only these more obvious vices but also idolatry, heresies, and such things. It is clear, then, that he is speaking of the full range of fleshly desire and the whole reign of sin, which even in the godly — who have received the firstfruits of the Spirit — fights against the reign of the Spirit. So when he says 'you will not carry out the desire of the flesh,' he is speaking not only of sexual lust, pride, greed, and so on, but also of unbelief, distrust, despair, hatred and contempt of God, idolatry, heresies, and everything like these. It is as if he said: I am writing to you that you should love one another. This you do not do, and cannot do, because of the flesh — which is infected and corrupted with desire, and does not merely stir up sin in you but is itself sin. For if you had perfect love, no hardship or adversity would be great enough to harm or hinder it — it would spread through your entire being. There would be no wife, however unattractive, whom her husband would not love completely, with no desire for any other woman, however beautiful. But this is not the case — and so it is impossible for us to be made righteous through love.

Do not think I am retracting or taking back what I taught about faith — faith and hope must continue: by faith we are justified, and by hope we are sustained in adversity and enabled to endure to the end. We also serve one another through love, because faith does not sit idle — but love as we practice it is weak and small. When I therefore say 'walk by the Spirit,' I make it plain enough that you are not justified through love.

And when I urge you to walk by the Spirit so that you do not fulfill the desire of the flesh, I am not requiring that you completely strip away the flesh or destroy it — only that you restrain and subdue it. For God intends humanity to continue until the last day, and that cannot happen without parents to bear and raise children. As long as this continues, the flesh must continue — and therefore sin must continue, for the flesh is never without sin. So in regard to the flesh we are sinners, and in regard to the Spirit we are righteous — we are in part sinners and in part righteous. Nevertheless, our righteousness is far more abundant than our sin, because the holiness and righteousness of Christ our Mediator infinitely surpasses the sin of the whole world — and the forgiveness of sins we have through Him is so great, so complete, and so unlimited that it easily swallows up all sins, as long as we walk according to the Spirit.

The papists imagined that this commandment applied only to their clergy, and that the apostle was urging them to live chastely by subduing the flesh through vigils, fasting, hard labor, and so on — and that by doing so they would not fulfill the desire of the flesh, meaning sexual lust. As though the entire desire of the flesh were conquered when sexual impulse was suppressed — which they were never able to achieve by any yoke they placed on the body. Jerome himself — I will say nothing of others — who was a passionate advocate and defender of chastity, openly admits this. 'How often,' he says, 'did I imagine myself surrounded by the pleasures and delights of Rome, even when I was in the scorched wilderness, that sun-baked wasteland that makes such an ugly home for monks?' And again: 'I, who had confined myself to such a prison for fear of hell, often imagined I was dancing among young women, when my only companions were scorpions and wild beasts. My face was pale with fasting, but my mind was on fire with desires in my cold body — and although my flesh was already half dead, the flames of desire burned within me.'

If Jerome felt such flames of fleshly desire while living in the barren wilderness on bread and water — what do you imagine our self-indulgent clergymen feel, who gorge themselves with every kind of delicacy until it is a wonder they do not burst? These things are written, then, not for hermits and monks (as the papists imagine), nor only for sinners in the world — they are written for the whole church of Christ, and for all the faithful, whom Paul urges to walk by the Spirit so they will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That means not only bridling the grosser impulses of the flesh — sexual lust, anger, impatience, and similar things — but also the spiritual ones: doubting, blasphemy, idolatry, contempt and hatred of God, and everything like these.

Paul, as I have said, does not require the godly to completely strip away or destroy the flesh — only to restrain it so that it becomes subject to the Spirit. In Romans he tells us to care for our flesh. Just as we may not be cruel to other people's bodies or burden them with unreasonable demands, we may not be cruel to our own bodies either. According to Paul's instruction, we must tend to our flesh enough that it can sustain the labors of both mind and body — but only for genuine need, not to feed its desires. So if your flesh begins to grow restless and wayward, suppress it and hold it in check through the Spirit. If that is not possible, get married — for it is better to marry than to burn with desire. In doing these things you walk by the Spirit — that is, you follow God's word and do His will.

Verse 17. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

When Paul says the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, he is telling us that we must feel the pull of fleshly desire — not only sexual desire, but also pride, anger, heaviness, impatience, unbelief, and the like. Yet he wants us to feel these things without consenting to them or acting on them — without thinking, speaking, or doing what the flesh is pushing us toward. If the flesh moves us toward anger, for instance, we are to be angry in such a way — as the fourth psalm teaches — that we do not sin. As if Paul were saying: I know the flesh will provoke you toward anger, envy, doubt, unbelief, and similar things — but resist it through the Spirit, so that you do not sin. If you abandon the Spirit's leading and follow the flesh, you will carry out the desires of the flesh, and you will die, as Paul says in Romans 8. This saying of the apostle must therefore be understood not of sexual desire alone but of the entire reign of sin.

Verse 17. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

These two forces — the flesh and the Spirit — are at war with each other within you, he says, so that you cannot do what you would. This passage makes it plain that Paul is writing these things to the faithful — to the church that believes in Christ, has been baptized, justified, renewed, and fully forgiven. Yet even of this church he says that it has flesh rebelling against the Spirit. He speaks the same way about himself in Romans 7: 'I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin.' And again: 'I see a different law in my body's members, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.' And: 'Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?'

Here both the scholastics and some of the early fathers struggle greatly, trying to find some way to excuse Paul. It seems to them unfitting and almost absurd to say that such a chosen vessel of Christ should have sin. But we believe Paul's own words, in which he plainly confesses that he is sold into bondage to sin, that he is taken captive by sin, that there is a law in his members warring against him, and that in his flesh he serves the law of sin. Some respond that the apostle is speaking in the voice of a wicked person. But wicked people do not complain about the flesh's rebellion, about inner conflict and warfare, or about being taken captive by sin — sin reigns in them without resistance. This is therefore Paul's own complaint, and the complaint of all the faithful. Those who have argued that Paul and all the faithful have no sin have done great harm — because this misguided view (which comes from not understanding the doctrine of faith) has robbed the church of a singular comfort, abolished the forgiveness of sins, and made Christ of no effect.

When Paul says 'I see a different law in my body's members,' he is not denying that he has flesh and the vices of the flesh. It is quite possible that he sometimes felt the stirring of sexual desire. But doubtless these impulses were largely kept down in him by the great and constant afflictions and temptations — both inward and outward — with which he was almost continually burdened, as his letters show. And if at any time, when he was strong and in good spirits, he felt the desire of the flesh, anger, impatience, or similar things — he resisted them through the Spirit and did not allow those impulses to rule over him. We must not therefore allow these comforting passages — in which Paul describes in his own person the warfare of the flesh against the Spirit — to be obscured by foolish explanations. The scholastics, monks, and those like them never experienced true spiritual temptation — so they fought only to suppress and overcome sexual desire, and being proud of a victory they never actually won, they thought themselves far holier than married people. I will not dwell on how under this holy pretext they nourished every kind of horrible sin: divisiveness, pride, hatred, contempt of neighbors, trust in their own righteousness, presumption, disdain for true godliness and the word of God, unbelief, blasphemy, and the like. Against these sins they never fought at all — in fact, they did not even consider them sins. They placed righteousness in the keeping of their foolish and wicked vows, and unrighteousness in failing to keep them.

But this must be our foundation and anchor: Christ is our only and perfect righteousness. Even if we have nothing else to hold to, these three things remain, as Paul says: faith, hope, and love. We must therefore always believe and always hope, always laying hold of Christ as the head and source of our righteousness. 'Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame' (Romans 9:33). We must also strive to be outwardly righteous — that is, not consenting to the flesh, which is constantly trying to draw us toward some evil, but resisting it through the Spirit. We must not be overcome by impatience at the ingratitude and contempt of people who abuse Christian liberty — but through the Spirit we must overcome this and every other temptation. To the extent that we strive against the flesh through the Spirit, we are outwardly righteous — though this righteousness does not commend us before God.

Let no one despair if he often feels the flesh stirring up fresh conflict against the Spirit, or if he cannot immediately subdue the flesh and make it obedient to the Spirit. I too wish I had a bolder and more steadfast heart — one that could not only confidently disregard the threats of tyrants and the heresies, offenses, and turmoil stirred up by Satan and his soldiers, the enemies of the Gospel, but could also immediately shake off spiritual anguish and distress, and in short, could face death without fear and receive it as a welcome guest. But I find a different law in my body's members, fighting against the law of my mind. Others wrestle with lesser temptations — poverty, shame, impatience, and the like.

Let no one be surprised or overwhelmed when he feels in his body this war of the flesh against the Spirit — let him take courage and comfort himself with Paul's words: 'the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit,' and 'these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.' By these words Paul comforts those who are tempted. It is as if he said: it is impossible for you to follow the Spirit's leading in everything without any feeling of the flesh's pull or resistance. The flesh will resist — and will resist and hinder you so that you cannot do what you sincerely want to do. It is enough in that case if you resist the flesh and do not carry out its desires — if you follow the Spirit rather than the flesh, which easily gives way to impatience, craves revenge, bites, grumbles, hates God, rages against Him, despairs, and so on. So when a person feels this warfare of the flesh within him, let him not be discouraged — but resist in the Spirit and say: I am a sinner, and I feel sin in me, for I have not yet put off the flesh, in which sin dwells as long as it lives. But I will obey the Spirit and not the flesh — I will lay hold of Christ by faith and hope, I will lift myself up through His word, and being so lifted up, I will not carry out the flesh's desire.

It is very good for the godly to know this and to keep it firmly in mind — for it gives extraordinary comfort in times of temptation. When I was a monk, I immediately thought I was completely lost whenever I felt the desire of the flesh stir — that is, whenever I felt an evil impulse, sexual desire, anger, hatred, or envy toward a brother. I tried many approaches to calm and settle my conscience, but nothing worked — the desire and longing of my flesh kept returning, and I could never rest, tormented by thoughts like: 'You have committed this or that sin; you are infected with envy, impatience, and other sins — you entered this holy order for nothing, and all your good works are worthless.' If I had properly understood these words of Paul — 'the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh' and 'these are in opposition to one another, so that you cannot do the things you would' — I would not have tormented myself so miserably. Instead I would have thought and said to myself, as I now commonly do: 'Martin, you will not be entirely without sin, for you have flesh — and you will therefore feel its battle, as Paul says: the flesh resists the Spirit.' 'Do not despair — but resist it firmly and do not carry out its desires.' 'In doing so, you are not under the law.'

I recall that Staupitz used to say: 'I have vowed to God more than a thousand times that I would become a better man — but I never kept what I vowed. From now on I will make no such vow, for experience has taught me I cannot keep it. Unless God is gracious and merciful to me for Christ's sake, and grants me a blessed hour when I depart this miserable life, I will not be able, with all my vows and all my good works, to stand before Him.' This was not merely true — it was a godly and holy despair, and everyone who wants to be saved must confess the same thing, both from the heart and with the mouth. For the godly do not trust in their own righteousness but say with David: 'Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no living person is righteous.' And again: 'If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?' They look to Christ their Reconciler, who gave His life for their sins. They also know that the remaining sin in their flesh is not counted against them but is freely pardoned. In the meantime, they fight in the Spirit against the flesh so that they will not carry out its desires. And even when they feel the flesh raging and rebelling against the Spirit, and even when they themselves sometimes fall into sin through weakness — they are not discouraged or convinced that their life, their calling, and the works they do in that calling are displeasing to God. They lift themselves up by faith.

The faithful therefore receive great comfort from this teaching of Paul — knowing that they are partly flesh and partly Spirit, yet in such a way that the Spirit rules and the flesh is subdued and kept under, so that righteousness governs and sin serves. Whoever does not know this teaching — and who, thinking the faithful should be entirely without fault, sees the opposite in himself — will sooner or later be overwhelmed by a spirit of heaviness and fall into despair. But whoever knows this teaching well and uses it rightly finds that the very things that are evil work for good in his case. When the flesh provokes him toward sin, that very provocation drives him to seek forgiveness through Christ and to embrace the righteousness of faith — which otherwise he would not value so highly or pursue so eagerly. It is therefore very good for us to sometimes feel the wickedness of our nature and the corruption of our flesh — because this wakes us and stirs us toward faith and toward calling on Christ. And by this means a Christian becomes a powerful craftsman and a remarkable creator — turning sorrow into joy, terror into comfort, sin into righteousness, and death into life, as he presses down and restrains the flesh and makes it subject to the Spirit.

Let those who feel the desire of the flesh therefore not despair of their salvation. Let them feel it and all its force — only let them not consent to it. Let the passions of lust, anger, and similar vices shake them — as long as they do not overthrow them. Let sin assault them — as long as they do not carry it out. In fact, the more godly a person is, the more intensely he feels this battle. It is from this battle that those anguished cries of the faithful come, found throughout the Psalms and the whole of Scripture. Of this battle the hermits, the monks, the scholastics, and all who seek righteousness and salvation through works know nothing whatsoever.

But someone might say: it is dangerous to teach that a person is not condemned for not immediately overcoming the impulses and passions of the flesh he feels — for when this is taught among ordinary people, it makes them careless, indifferent, and lazy. This is exactly what I said earlier: if faith is taught, fleshly people neglect and reject works; if works are required, faith and comfort of conscience are lost. There is no rule that can compel people or be prescribed for everyone alike. Rather, let every person examine himself carefully to find which passion of the flesh he is most prone to — and when he finds it, let him not be careless or make excuses for himself, but watch and wrestle in the Spirit against it, so that even if he cannot completely bridle it, he at least does not carry out its desire.

All the children of God have experienced and felt this battle of the flesh against the Spirit — we feel and prove it too. Anyone who honestly examines his own conscience — if he is not a hypocrite — will find confirmed in himself exactly what Paul says here: that the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit. All the faithful therefore feel and confess that their flesh resists the Spirit, and that these two forces within them are so opposed to each other that try as they may, they cannot do what they want. The flesh therefore holds us back so that we cannot keep God's commandments, cannot love our neighbors as ourselves — much less love God with all our hearts. It is therefore impossible for us to become righteous through the works of the law. Yet there is in us a good will — and there must be, for it is the Spirit itself that resists the flesh — which sincerely wants to do good, fulfill the law, love God and neighbor, and so on. But the flesh does not obey this good will — it resists it. And yet God does not count this sin against us — for He is merciful to those who believe, for Christ's sake.

But it does not follow from this that you should treat sin lightly just because God does not count it against you. It is true that He does not count it. But to whom, and on what basis? To those who repent and lay hold by faith on Christ the mercy seat — for whose sake all their sins are forgiven, and the remaining sin still in them is not counted against them. They do not minimize their sin — on the contrary, they take it as seriously as it truly deserves. They know it cannot be taken away by penances, works, or righteousness, but only by Christ's death. And yet the greatness and severity of their sin does not cause them to despair — they are confident that it will not be counted against them.

I say this lest anyone think that after receiving faith, sin is of little importance. Sin is truly sin, whether a person commits it before or after coming to know Christ. And God always hates sin — in itself, every sin is damnable. But the reason it is not damnable to the believer is Christ — who by His death has taken away sin. For the unbeliever, on the other hand, not only every sin is damnable — even his good works are sin, according to the saying: 'Whatever is not from faith is sin.' The error of the scholastics is therefore most dangerous — they distinguish sins according to the act, not according to the person. The believer has just as great a sin as the unbeliever — but to the believer it is forgiven and not counted; to the unbeliever it is not forgiven but counted. To the believer it is non-damning; to the unbeliever it is deadly and condemning — not because of any difference in the sins themselves, or because the believer's sin is smaller and the unbeliever's greater, but because of the difference in the persons. The faithful person assures himself through faith that his sin is forgiven — because Christ gave Himself for it. Therefore, even though sin is in him and he sins daily, he remains godly — while the unbeliever remains wicked. This is the true wisdom and comfort of the godly: although they have sins and commit them, they know that for Christ's sake those sins are not counted against them.

I say this for the comfort of the godly. For they are the ones who truly feel that they have sin and commit it — they feel that they do not love God as fervently as they should, that they do not believe Him as wholeheartedly as they want to, that they often doubt whether God cares about them, that they are impatient and angry with God in adversity. From this, as I have said, come the sorrowful complaints of the faithful found throughout Scripture, especially in the Psalms. Paul himself laments that he is sold into bondage to sin, and says here that the flesh resists and rebels against the Spirit. But because they put to death the deeds of the flesh through the Spirit — as he says elsewhere, and also at the end of this chapter: 'they crucify the flesh with its passions and desires' — these sins do not harm or condemn them. But if they obey the flesh and carry out its desires, they lose faith and the Holy Spirit. And if they do not recoil from their sin and return to Christ — who has given His church the power to receive and restore those who have fallen, so they may recover faith and the Holy Spirit — they die in their sins. We are therefore not speaking here of those who merely imagine they have faith while continuing to live in their sins. Their verdict is already pronounced: 'Those who live according to the flesh will die.' And: 'The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these — I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.'

Here we can see who the true saints really are. They are not logs and stones, as the monks and scholastics imagine — never moved by anything, never feeling any impulse or desire of the flesh. On the contrary, as Paul says, their flesh sets its desire against the Spirit — and so they have sin, and both can and do sin. Psalm 32 bears witness that the faithful confess their unrighteousness and pray for forgiveness of their sin's guilt, where it says: 'I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord — and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You.' Moreover, the whole church — which is indeed holy — prays that her sins may be forgiven, and she believes in the forgiveness of sins. David prays in Psalm 143: 'O Lord, do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no living person is righteous.' And in Psalm 130: 'If You, Lord, kept a record of iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness.' This is how the greatest saints and children of God speak and pray — David, Paul, and all the rest. All the faithful therefore speak and pray in the same way and with the same spirit. The papal scholastics either do not read Scripture, or if they do, they read it with a veil before their eyes — and so they cannot judge rightly about anything, including sin and holiness.

Verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul cannot forget his doctrine of faith — he keeps returning to it and pressing it in, even when he is treating the subject of good works. Someone might object here: how can it be said we are not under the law, when you yourself, Paul, teach us that we have flesh which sets its desire against the Spirit and fights against us, torments us and holds us captive? We feel sin, and cannot escape that feeling no matter how much we wish to. What is that if not being under the law? But Paul says: let this not trouble you. Only do your best to be led by the Spirit — that is, show yourself willing to follow and obey the will that resists the flesh and does not carry out its desires (for this is what it means to be led and drawn by the Spirit) — and you are not under the law. Paul says the same of himself in Romans 7: 'In my mind I serve the law of God' — meaning, in my spirit I am not subject to any sin — 'but in my flesh I serve the law of sin.' The faithful are therefore not under the law — that is, not in the Spirit — for the law cannot accuse them or pronounce death upon them, even though they feel sin and confess themselves to be sinners. Christ has stripped the law of its power — He was made subject to the law in order to redeem those who were under it. Therefore, what is truly sin and committed against the law in the faithful, the law cannot count as sin against them.

So great is the power and dominion of the Spirit that the law cannot accuse the godly, even when they do what is genuinely sin. For Christ is our righteousness, whom we grasp by faith — and He is without any sin, so the law cannot accuse Him. As long as we cling to Him, we are led by the Spirit and free from the law. So the apostle, even when teaching about good works, never loses sight of his doctrine of justification — he always shows that it is impossible for us to be justified by works. The remnants of sin cling stubbornly in our flesh, and so as long as our flesh lives, it does not stop setting its desire against the Spirit. Yet no harm comes to us from this — because we are free from the law, as long as we walk by the Spirit.

These words — 'if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law' — can bring great comfort both to yourself and to others who are severely tempted. It often happens that a person is so violently assaulted with anger, hatred, impatience, sexual desire, terror, spiritual anguish, or some other desire of the flesh that he cannot shake it off no matter how hard he tries. What should he do in that situation? Should he despair? God forbid — but let him say this to himself: your flesh is fighting and raging against the Spirit. Let it rage as long as it likes — only make sure in every case that you do not consent to it or carry out its desires, but keep following the Spirit's leading. In doing this you are free from the law. It accuses and terrifies you, I grant — but entirely in vain. In this conflict between flesh and Spirit, therefore, there is nothing better than to keep the word of God before your eyes and to seek in it the Spirit's comfort.

And let the one who suffers this temptation not be dismayed that the devil can magnify sin so greatly that during the conflict he feels utterly overthrown and senses nothing but God's wrath and despair. In that situation, he must not follow his feelings or the judgment of his reason — but must firmly lay hold of this word of Paul: 'if you are led by the Spirit' — that is, if you lift yourself up and take comfort through faith in Christ — 'you are not under the law.' This will give him a strong shield with which to beat back all the fiery arrows that wicked enemy throws at him. However much the flesh boils and rages, all its impulses and fury cannot harm or condemn him — because he, following the Spirit's leading, does not consent to the flesh or carry out its desires. So when the desires of the flesh surge and rage, the one remedy is to take up the sword of the Spirit — the word of salvation, which declares that God does not desire the death of a sinner but that he turn and live — and to fight with it. If we do this, we need not doubt that we will win the victory, even though during the battle everything seems to tell us otherwise. But set the word aside, and there is no counsel or help left. I speak from my own experience. I have endured many fierce and intense struggles. But the moment I laid hold of a passage of Scripture and anchored myself to it, my temptations immediately vanished — temptations I could not have endured for even a short time without the word, let alone overcome.

The sum of everything Paul has taught in this section about the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit is this: the saints and elect of God cannot fully accomplish what the Spirit desires. The Spirit would gladly be entirely pure — but joined to the flesh as it is, the flesh will not allow it. Nevertheless, the saints are saved through the forgiveness of sins, which is in Christ Jesus. And because they walk by the Spirit and are led by the Spirit, they are not under the law — the law cannot accuse or terrify them. Even when it tries with all its might to do so, it will never be able to drive them to despair.

Verse 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are...

This passage is similar to Christ's saying: 'By their fruits you will know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? Every good tree bears good fruit, and every bad tree bears bad fruit.' Paul teaches exactly the same thing Christ taught: that works and fruits testify clearly enough whether the trees are good or bad — whether people are following the flesh or the Spirit. As if he said: in case any of you claims not to understand what I mean when I speak of the conflict between flesh and Spirit, I will set before you first the works of the flesh — many of which are recognized even by ungodly people (Matthew 7:10) — and then also the works of the Spirit.

Paul does this because there were many hypocrites among the Galatians — as there are among us today — who outwardly posed as godly people and boasted much of the Spirit, and who understood the true doctrine of the Gospel in the words — but who were not walking by the Spirit; they were walking by the flesh and carrying out its works. By this, Paul exposes them as not being the holy people they claimed to be. And to keep them from dismissing his warning, he pronounces against them this dreadful sentence — that they will not inherit the kingdom of heaven — in hopes that being so warned they will change. Every period of life brings its own characteristic temptations to even the faithful: sexual desire assails a person most in youth, ambition and empty glory in middle age, and greed in old age. There has never been a faithful person whom the flesh has not repeatedly provoked to impatience, anger, vainglory, and similar things throughout his lifetime. Paul is therefore speaking of the faithful when he says that the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit in them — they will never be free from the desires and conflicts of the flesh, yet these do not harm them. But we must draw this distinction: it is one thing to be provoked by the flesh and yet not willingly yield to its desires, but instead to follow the Spirit's leading and resist the flesh. It is entirely another thing to give in to the flesh without fear or remorse, to carry out and persist in its works, while still pretending to be holy and boasting of the Spirit. To the first he gives comfort, saying they are led by the Spirit and are not under the law. To the second he threatens eternal destruction.

It does sometimes happen, nonetheless, that even saints fall and carry out the flesh's desires. David fell horrifically into adultery. He was also responsible for many deaths when he arranged for Uriah to be placed in the front of the battle — and in doing so he gave the enemies occasion to triumph over God's people, to boast in their idols, and to blaspheme the God of Israel. Peter also fell most gravely and terribly when he denied Christ. Yet even though these sins were great and serious, they were not committed out of contempt for God or with a willfully stubborn and defiant spirit — they were committed through weakness and failure. And when these men were confronted, they did not harden themselves and persist in their sin but repented. This is what Paul later urges in chapter 6: 'If anyone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.' Forgiveness is therefore not withheld from those who sin and fall through weakness — as long as they get back up and do not continue in their sin, for of all things, persistence in sin is the worst. But if they do not repent and instead continue stubbornly and willfully in their wickedness, carrying out the flesh's desires — that is a sure sign that something in their spirit is false.

No person will be free from desires and cravings as long as he lives in the flesh — and therefore no person will be free from temptation. Yet people are tempted in different ways, according to who they are. One person is assaulted by the more intense and inward struggles — bitterness and spiritual anguish, blasphemous thoughts, distrust, and despair. Another is tempted by more outward and visible impulses — sexual desire, anger, envy, greed, and the like. In all these cases, Paul requires that we walk by the Spirit and resist the flesh. But whoever obeys the flesh and continues without any fear of God or remorse of conscience in carrying out its desires and cravings — let him know that he does not belong to Christ. However much he boasts the name of a Christian, he is only deceiving himself. For those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.