January 20, 1528 (Part 2)

In Wittenberg, Professor Martin Luther lectures on 1 Timothy 1:9-12. Today’s Quotation is taken from the lecture’s exposition of v. 11: “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

Quotation:

[continued from the previous post] Paul overflows with spiritual and happy words: “the blessed God and his glory.” “Of glory,” because what is preached there is pure confusion [mera confusio] and the glory of God alone. Every man is a vain liar, according to Rom. 3:4. “The Holy Spirit will convince, etc.” [John 16:8] Therefore, he confounds all men. Thus it is that a man of confusion and of the glory of God shows mercy, goodness, and all things through Christ, as Rom. 8[:3] says, “sending his own son, in the likeness of sinful flesh.” Is it not glory to have poured out all the bowels [omnia viscera] of his inestimable mercy and limitless love in beneficence? Therefore Paul glorifies and praises and commends that blessed God. Blessed is he who alone has immortality, bliss, as if to say: “We are all simply wretched and condemned to eternal death. But God was not only the one and only God, but our blessed One who had mercy on our misery and poured out his blessedness on us.”

“Who is believed because he is believed” [1] is exactly the same as: [2] “which is entrusted to me,” and “this responsibility [officium] is entrusted to me.” Here Paul boasts of a certain righteousness and holiness of his own that God, as he says later, considered him a faithful man to whom God entrusted this responsibility. This is not boasting about the certainty of Paul’s word. The term “Paul, an Apostle”[v. 1] seems chilling to us. As does “the Word entrusted to me.” [v. 11] I have said that there is no quiet or peace for us unless we are sure that we have the true Word of God. It is a great thing to know that one has the most certain and infallible Word of God. This gift cannot be explained. Before we were in the Gospel, we were carried about by every wind. And even those who have the Gospel are not certain, but waver as the sects [Rottae] do. They doubt this Word and cannot make such a boast. I would not rejoice like Paul in the “glorious Gospel of the Great One,” entrusted to me. I know that I have it, that is, I stand on the Rock and despise all the gates of hell, although Satan fights against me quite enough. But when the heart doubts, Satan has won. Therefore, these boasts are certainly spiritual treasures, not like men’s words. He strongly recommends that the Word should not be taken up as if it were the word of men, etc. The Word is easily received, but to receive it as the Word of God, who is lives and is blessed forever, that is truly a great thing. [to be continued in the next post]

Notes

[1] Cui creditus quod creditus.

[2] This phrase is in German in Rörer’s notes: “ist gleich so viel.”