Thread by @_matthewpearson

really insightful quote from Martin Luther on faith & baptism:
“The difference, then, between the legal symbols [Old Covenant vestments, vessels, foods, houses, etc.] and the new and old signs [sacraments] is that the legal symbols do not have attached to them any word of promise

requiring faith. Hence they are not signs of justification, for they are not sacraments of the faith that alone justifies, but only sacraments of works. Their whole power and nature consisted in works, not in faith. Whoever performed then fulfilled them, even if he did it

without faith. But our signs or sacraments, as well as those of the fathers, have attached to them a word of promise which requires faith, and they cannot be fulfilled by any other work. Hence they are signs or sacraments of justification, for they are sacraments of

justifying faith and not of works. Their whole efficacy, therefore, consists in faith itself, not in the doing of a work. Whoever believes them, fulfills them, even if he should not do a single work. This is the origin of the saying: ‘Not the sacrament, but the faith of the

sacrament, justifies.’ Thus circumcision did not justify Abraham and his seed, and yet the Apostle calls it the seal of the righteousness by faith (Rom. 4:11), because faith in the promise, to which circumcision was added, justified him and fulfilled what the circumcision

signified. For faith was the spiritual circumcision of the foreskin of the heart (Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4), which was symbolized by the literal circumcision of the flesh. In the same way, it was obviously not Abel’s sacrifice that justified him, but it was his faith (Heb. 11:4) by

which he offered himself wholly to God, and this was symbolized by the outward sacrifice. Thus it is not baptism that justifies or benefits anyone, but it is faith in that word of promise to which baptism is added. This faith justifies, and fulfills that which baptism

signifies. For faith is the submersion of the old man and the emerging of the new (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10)... For if the sacrament confers grace in me because I receive it, then indeed I receive grace by virtue of my work, and not by faith; and I gain not the promise in the

sacrament but only the sign instituted and commanded by God. Thus you see clearly how completely the sacraments have been misunderstood by the theologians of the Sentences. In their discussions of the sacraments they have taken no account either of faith or of promise. They

cling only to the sign and the use of the sign, and draw us away from faith to work, away from the word to the sign. Thus, as I have said, they have not only taken the sacraments captive, but have completely destroyed them, as far as they were able.”

@threadreaderapp unroll please