MARTIN LUTHER AT HIS BEST PT 2: ORIGINAL SIN MADE ALIVE TO THE NEW CREATION AND HELPFUL-UNCONVERTED

THIS MESSAGE IS A CONTINUED READING OF MARTIN LUTHER’S COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF ROMANS. WE HAPPEN TO BE ON MARTIN LUTHER’S CONTINUED COMMENTARY OF ROMANS 4: 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.THERE IS NO GREATER COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF ROMANS THAN MARTIN LUTHER. HE IS VERY DEEP AND PARADOXICAL. THE NEW CREATION, WHICH IS PARADOXICAL IN NATURE IMMEDIATELY KNOWS WHEN HE BEGINS TO READ THIS COMMENTARY THAT MARTIN LUTHER’S WORDS ARE MATCHING HIS NEW CREATION NATURE. THIS COMMENTARY, BEING AS DEEP AS IT IS, CAN BE READ OVER AND OVER, EACH TIME LEARNING A LITTLE MORE. SO LET US BE READY TO BE IN FOR A BLESSING, AS WE STOP THE MESSAGE, RE-LISTEN AND THINKWHEN LISTENING TO MARTIN LUTHER, ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND THE FUNCTION OF LAW!BOTTOM LINE, IS: THE LAW CAN ONLY CONDEMN, THROWING US TO FEET OF JESUS CRYING OUT FOR MERCY, AS JESUS IS GIVING US A HAND UP, SAYING, FEAR NOT I HAVE FULFILLED MY FATHER’S COMMANDS FOR YOU, JUST BELIEVE ME BY FAITH IN MY RIGHTEOUSNESS AS YOUR TICKET INTO HEAVEN, BUT NEVER FORGETTING TO BE BE IN A STATE OF REPENTANCE OVER OUR ORIGINAL SIN. LIKE A BROKEN LEG, IN A CAST, WE KNOW WE WILL BE HEALED, SO WILL OUR CAST OF A BROKEN HEART OVER ORIGINAL SIN BE TAKEN OFF AT OUR PHYSICAL DEATH AND WE WILL NO LONGER BE WALKING WITH A SOUL LIMP. Martin Luther:“COROLLARYTo say: "God has obliged us to have grace and therefore to whatis impossible"is an inept and foolish way of speaking. I excuse the most blessed God. He is innocent of this deception. He has not done this. He has NOT OBLIGED us to HAVE GRACE, but he has OBLIGEDus to FULFILL THE LAWin order to give us HIS GRACEWHEN, HUMILIATED,we ask for it. But these men make grace into something that causes indignation and they imagine what is hateful. For what does itmean to say: God has obliged us to have grace, and he does notwant to accept the fulfillment of the law according to the substanceof the deed if it is not also fulfilled according to the intention ofthe lawgiver? Is this not the same as to say: Look, can we, then,fulfill the law without grace? Is it not enough that he has burdenedus with the law, without adding his demand that we should havegrace, as a new exaction? What arrogance! What ignorance of sin!What ignorance of God! What ignorance of the law! IN OTHER WORDS, DOES JESUS WANT US TO ADD UNTO HIS PERFECT FULFILLMENT OF HIS FATHER’S COMMANDMENTS TO HIM WHILE HE WAS HERE ON EARTH?ABSOLUTELY NOT! What arrogance! What ignorance of sin!What ignorance of God! What ignorance of the law! Thus, whenGod offers grace to us miserable creatures BECAUSEHE SEES that WECANNOT FULFILL his LAWand so that we may now fulfill it by the powerof grace, (FOOLISHLY, BELIEVE WE, THAT WE CAN ONLY FULFILL PART OF GOD’S LAW, JESUS THEN WILL FULFILL THE REMAINDER)THESE PEOPLE are NOT yet sufficiently humbled and they still do not know that the law cannot be fulfilled according to thesubstance of the deed as they themselves say. It may be, then, thatthey mean by "substance of the deed" an external action. But theydo not do this at all; they have reference also to an internal action.they subsume under "substance of the deed" a work that isdone for the sake of God from the heart by an act of the will thatis naturally educed. Fools that they are, they do not notice that thewill, even if it could, would never do what the law prescribes. Forit resists the good and inclines toward evil. This they certainlymust know in their own experience, and yet they talk so irrever-ently and sacrilegiously. For as long as it is reluctant toward thelaw, it is turned away from it and THUS DOES NOT FULLFILL ITConsequently, it needs GRACE to make it willing and cheerful toward thelaw.I was right, then, when I said that ALL our GOOD is OUTSIDE US;andCHRIST IS this GOOD.