Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity (1885)

The proper knowledge of Law and Gospel and of the distinction of both is of
great importance.
1
Where could we learn this better than in the school of the Lord
Christ! Although it is His office to save sinners and to bring poor sinners His saving
Gospel, He has also preached and interpreted the Law, besides His actual preaching,
and in order to come to this.

How the Lord Christ preached Law and Gospel:

1. the Law in its full force; He shows
a. the stringent demands of the Law: . you shall love the Lord your God with all
your hearts, with all your soul, with all your mind; . you shall love your neighbor as
yourself;
b. the impossibility of such claims to do enough and to be saved by the Law by
pointing the Pharisees from the Law to the Gospel.
"In the first place, He dispels (the Pharisees') blindness and teaches them what
the Law is. In the second place, he teaches them how impossible it is for them to keep
the Law" etc.
2


2. the Gospel in all its fullness; He shows,
a. Who He is: . true God, David's Lord, . true man, David's Son, . God and
man in one person;
b. what He has done and does for us: . He sits at the Right Hand of God as a
mighty Lord, has finished the work of redemption, has redeemed us from all our enemies
who now lie under our feet; . He has a kingdom in which He administers His gifts: His
Holy Spirit and through Him true faith, through which we are partakers of all good
things of this kingdom for free and by grace.
3

Martin Gnther

1
FC 5.
2
Martin Luther's First Church Postil for Trinity 18.
3
Romans 14:17.