Quotes from Martin Luther

The Law scolds us, sin screams at us, death thunders at us, the devil roars at us. In the midst of the clamor the Spirit of Christ cries in our hearts: "Abba, Father." And this little cry of the Spirit transcends the hullabaloo of the Law, sin, death, and the devil, and finds a hearing with God.

These things are clearer than the light to all men; and the Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wickedness.

Let the Law, sin, and the devil cry out against us until their outcry fills heaven and earth. The Spirit of God outcries them all. Our feeble groans, "Abba, Father," will be heard of God sooner than the combined racket of hell, sin, and the Law.

THIS, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: That God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will.

For it to be called a Sacrament, there first needs to be an outward, tangible sign or created thing by which God deals visibly with us, that we may be sure of it. It is not His will to work with us apart from outward means, solely by secret suggestions or special revelation from heaven. But the outward work and sign does not by itself avail or do anything unless it is joined by His Word, by which the sign is made effective and we are made aware of what God is doing in us by this sign.

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

He who sleeps does not sin.

In all other things I will yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake and deny the word.

And the Son is ordered to demand this authority so that He might actually show reverence toward the Father and His inexpressible humility.

We must read the Fathers cautiously, and lay them in the gold balance, for they often stumbled and went astray, and mingled in their books many monkish things. Augustine had more work and labor, to wind himself out of the Father's writings, then he had with the heretics.

In brief, trust not in any who exalt you, but in those who humiliate you. For this is the judgment of God:

We teach that all men are naturally depraved. We condemn man's free will, his strength, wisdom, and righteousness. We say that we obtain grace by the free mercy of God alone for Christ's sake.