Quotes from Martin Luther

And this our God, so Scripture says, rejoices over us when we are persuaded that He is not incensed at us but is our kind and lovable Friend.

Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is divided into two parts: precepts and promises.

For formerly, under the papacy, when I was a monk, it was by no means customary to speak of a promise. And I give thanks to God that I may live at this time, when this word "promise" resounds in my ears and in the ears of all the godly. For he who hears the Word easily understands the divine promise, which was obscure and unknown to all the theologians throughout the papacy.

Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God, which declare the glory of God, and say, "If you wish to fulfil the law, and, as the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in Christ, in whom are promised to you grace, justification, peace, and liberty.

In lying fashion you ignore what even children know.

For when the heart is evil, all its works are evil, no matter how splendid they are.

lest we be puffed up and make an idol out of our righteousness.

For it is human to avoid or hate because of some error what you do not understand or regard as true; but to persecute manifest and acknowledged truth — this is altogether satanical.

For when the heart is evil, all its works are evil, no matter how splendid they are. [And here it is clear that God is speaking, because He judges their hearts.] 1 And this word aptly and clearly expresses the nature of hypocrisy, which is a righteous performance in the eyes of men on earth, but is evil in the heart. Such are all heretics, all pretenders who create an appearance in public to which their heart does not correspond.

By contrast, if God works in us, the will is changed, and being gently breathed upon by the Spirit of God, it again wills and acts from pure willingness and inclination and of its own accord, not from compulsion

The commands of the New Testament are directed to those who are justified and are new men in the Spirit. Nothing is taught or commanded there except what pertains solely to believers, who do everything spontaneously, not from necessity or contrary to their own will.

Almighty God, who through the death of Your Son has destroyed sin and death, and by His resurrection has restored innocence and everlasting life, that we may be delivered from the dominion of the devil, and our mortal bodies raised up from the dead: grant that I may confidently and wholeheartedly believe this, and, finally, with Your saints, share in the joyful resurrection of the just; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.