When we have Christ by true faith, then he causes us to live in such a way that we are strengthened in faith, in such a way that I do these works which I do for the benefit and the good of my neighbor. For my
Christian name would not be sufficient, despite my baptism and my faith, if I did not help my neighbor and draw him to faith through my works in order that he may follow me. Then a person, after he has given all glory to Christ, is always remembering to do to his neighbor as Christ has done to him, in order that he may help him and everyone else. Thus Christ lives in him and he lives for the betterment of his neighbor, giving to everyone a good example of doing all things in love. So princes and officials should also perform their office in love. If he rules well, he should not boast that he is gracious and good to his people.
God will not forget to reward him. No, he should commit the matter of reward to God. So the monk should direct his whole life to his neighbor in love. He should not say: Oh, I have made the vow to my
God in order to be saved. If he does this, he is denying Christ, for this is not helping his neighbor. And even if he brought with him to Christ a whole cloakful of rosaries, it would not save him. Even if he took with him all the fish he ate when he was fasting, and the bones too, they would not help him at all.
Without faith you will not be saved. That's why Peter says we should desire the gospel and faith as a child longs for milk [I Pet. 2:2]. The child drinks milk in order to become strong. It does not drink it in order to become a human being; it is a human being before it drinks. Thus, if I have faith, I am already saved, without any works or merit. It follows that it is faith alone that does it and not works. For God's work, the love which he teaches today in the gospel, goes on. And so, if somebody charges that we are forbidding good works, you say to them: We do not forbid them; we are only pointing out the abuse of them and showing that they should be done for the inspiration and good of our neighbor and that we should not put our trust in them.
So, when I help my neighbor, I prove my name as a Christian. God does not want our work. Guide yourself strictly by that. It follows from this that to us believers Christ is salvation and consolation, but to the monks he is foolishness, for the gospel does not bring anything into their kitchens, cellars, or closets, as their laws did before. That's why they are the ones who are persecuting us now. But patiently take the cross of Christ upon you in order to be able to suffer this patiently, if you want to be Christians. Take your faith and your Christian name to heart, for it is highly necessary for you and for me. In the whole gospel nothing is more clearly emphasized than faith and love, as I said this morning. This sinks very slowly into the heads of the lazy monks and sleepers; therefore you should pray to God for them constantly.
As for us, we shall call upon God. Amen.
This sermon, preached in the parish church in Wittenberg, is preserved in two texts, one by Georg Rörer, who dated it Dominica post purificationis and wrongly attributed it to Bugenhagen, and the other by Stephan Roth, who included it in his festival postils of 1528 as a sermon on St. Matthias' Day (Feb. 24).
Both texts are printed in the Weimar edition and Rörer's text is printed with excellent critical apparatus in CL 7, 398–403. The text chosen here is that of Roth, in this case more dependable than most of his postils since it was worked up from his own notes. The sermon appears in a sixteenth-century English translation as "A Sermon of D. Martin Luther, upon the Gospell on Sainct Matthias Day" in Special and Chosen
Sermons of D. Martin Luther, Collected of his writings and preachings for the necessary instruction and edification of such, as hunger and seek after the perfect knowledge and inestimable glorie which is in Christ Iesu, to the comfort and salvation of their soules. Englished by W. Gace (London, 1578). On W.
Gace, see H. E. Jacobs, The Lutheran Movement in England (Philadelphia, 1891), p. 356, and Gordon Rupp, The Righteousness of God: Luther Studies (London, 1953), p. 42. Emanuel Hirsch says of this
Text in German; WA 17I, 38–46, compared with Rörer's macaronic text in CL 7, 398–403 and Roth's postil in WA 17II, 388–397.