...the kingdom of God does not consist in the Law; it consists in the Word of the promise. Today it is commonly said: He loves the Word. He loves the Word of the Gospel, or the ministry. But in the papal decretals and canons you will not find even a syllable about the Word. They thunder only about the confession of sins, contrition, satisfaction, obedience to the pope, and the observance of monastic rules. But there is the deepest silence concerning the promises. Accordingly, the papal kingdom was a horrible devastation of the church, and even now promise is an unheard-of word to the pope and the cardinals. But although our kingdom of the New Testament should stress the doctrine of the Law to preserve discipline and civil obedience and the honor due to magistrates and parents, the kingdom of God does not consist in these things; it consists in the Word, that is, in the promise, which is the true and proper ministry of the New Testament. The pope, however, has obscured, yes, extinguished, the doctrine of faith and has brought into the church sheer monstrosities of human inventions, except that God, out of boundless goodness, has preserved a little light in some. Martin Luther Luthers Works, AE 8:181, Lectures on Genesis, Genesis 48:20
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 09:17:25 +0000
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