Pastor David Juhl put this note on Facebook. It is a Luther quote which Pieper cites:
A righteous man sins in all his good works.
This article
annoys the great saints of work-righteousness, who place their trust
not in God’s mercy, but in their own righteousness, that is, on sand.
What happened to the house built on sand in Matt. 7[:26] will also
happen to them. But a godly Christian ought to learn and know that all
his good works are inadequate and insufficient in the sight of God. In
the company of all the dear saints he ought to despair of his own works
and rely solely on the mercy of God, putting all confidence and trust in
him. Therefore we want to establish this article very firmly and see
what the dear saints have to say about it.
Isaiah 64[:6] says,
“We are all of us unclean, and all our righteousness is as a filthy
stinking rag.” You notice that the prophet makes no exceptions. He says,
“We are all of us unclean,” yet he himself was a holy prophet. Again,
if our righteousness is unclean and stinking before God, what will our
unrighteousness be? Moreover, he says “all righteousness,” making no
exception. Now, if there is such a thing as a good work without sin,
this prophet lies, which God forbid! Is not this passage from Isaiah
sufficiently clear? Why then do they condemn my article, which says
nothing but what Isaiah says? But we are glad to be condemned along with
this holy prophet.
Again, Solomon says in Eccles. 7[:20], “There
is no man on earth so righteous that he does good and sins not.” I
trust this passage is clear enough, and it corresponds with my article
almost word for word. And now, since Solomon is here condemned, look,
his father David must also be condemned. He says in Ps. 143[:2], “Lord,
enter not into judgment with me, thy servant, for no man living is
righteous before thee.” Now, who is God’s servant but the man who does
good works? How, then, does it happen that this very man cannot face
God’s judgment? Surely God’s judgment is not unjust. If a work were
actually altogether good and without sin, it would not flee God’s iust
judgment. The defect, then, must of necessity be in the work, which is
not pure. It is for this reason that no man living is justified in God’s
sight and all men need his mercy, even in their good works. Here you
papists have an opportunity to show your learning—not merely by
inventing bulls, but by answering such passages of Scripture.
Back
in the first two articles I have shown that all the saints struggle
against their sinful flesh, and continue to be sinners as long as they
live in the flesh which is at war with the spirit. At one and the same
time, they serve God according to the spirit, and sin according to the
flesh. If, then, a godly man is at the same time justified by reason of
the spirit, and sinful by reason of the flesh, his work must certainly
be like the person, the fruit like the tree. In so far as the spirit
participates in the work, it is good; in so far as the flesh
participates in it, it is evil....
But if they say here, as they
always do, “Yes, but this impurity is not sin but rather an
imperfection, or weakness, or defect,” my reply is that it is indeed a
defect and a weakness, but if that is not sin I am prepared to say that
murder and adultery are not sins either but only defects and weaknesses.
Who has given you papists the power to twist God’s Word and to call the
impurity of a good work weakness and not sin? Where is there a single
letter of Scripture supporting your side? Must we believe your
nightmares, unsubstantiated by Scripture, when you refuse to believe our
clear texts?...
If, then, David says that even God’s servants
cannot face his judgment and no man living is justified in his sight,
then this weakness must certainly be sin, and he who will not allow that
any living man is justified in his sight includes most certainly also
those who walk in good works. Unless, of course, they are neither “men”
nor “living.”
Augustine says in his Confessions IX, “Woe unto
every human life, even the most praiseworthy, were it to be judged
without mercy.” Look how this great heretic, St. Augustine, speaks
brazenly and sacrilegiously against this holy bull. Not only does he
attribute sin to a good life, but he condemns even the very best life,
which doubtlessly abounds in good works, as though it were nothing but
mortal sin, if judged without mercy. O, St. Augustine, are you not
afraid of the most holy father pope?
St. Gregory, too, speaks of
that holy man Job and says, quoting Job 9[:8], “Job, that holy man, saw
that all our good works are nothing but sin, if God should judge them.
Therefore he said, ‘If one wished to contend with God, one could not
answer him once in a thousand times.’ ” Gregory, how can you say this?
How dare you say that all our good works are nothing but sin? Now you
are under the pope’s ban, and a heretic far worse than Luther. For he
only says that there is sin in all good works; you make them out to be
nothing but sin.
If these passages do not help to substantiate my
article, then may God help it! I would much rather be condemned with
Isaiah, David, Solomon, Paul, Augustine, and Gregory, than praised with
the pope and all the bishops and papists, even though all the world were
made up of pope, bishops, and papists. Blessed is he who should die for
this cause!
LW 32:83-86 (from "Defense and Explanation of All The Articles", 1521). Quoted in Franz Pieper, "Christian Dogmatics", 3:35-37
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