Martin Luther - Galatians

Galatians

Copyright 1998 by Watermark.

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

First printing, 1998

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Luther, Martin, 1483-1546.

Galatians / by Martin Luther.

p. cm. (Crossway classic commentaries)

ISBN 13: 978-0-89107-994-1

ISBN 10: 0-89107-994-7

I.Title. II. Series.

BT77.L85 1998

97-51470

227'.407dc21

Fifty Inconveniences That Arise out of Mans Own Righteousness Coming from Works, Extracted from Pauls Letter to the Galatians:

Chapter 1

1.To bring people from the calling of grace.

2.To receive another gospel.

3.To trouble the minds of the faithful.

4.To pervert the Gospel of Christ.

5.To be accursed.

6.To obey human traditions.

7.To please man.

8.Not to be the servant of Christ.

9.To build upon men, and not upon God.

10.That the most excellent righteousness of the law is nothing.

11.To destroy the church of God.

Chapter 2

12.To teach people to be justified by works is to teach them to be justified by impossibility.

13.To make the righteous in Christ into sinners.

14.To make Christ a minister of sin.

15.To build up sin again, when it is destroyed.

16.To be made a transgressor.

17.To reject the grace of God.

18.To judge that Christ died in vain.

Chapter 3

19.To become foolish Galatians.

20.To be bewitched.

21.Not to listen to the truth.

22.To crucify Christ again.

23.To hold that the Spirit is received by works.

24.To forsake the Spirit and to end in the flesh.

25.To be under the curse.

26.To set the human testament above that of God.

27.To make sin abound.

28.To be shut under sin.

29.To serve beggarly ceremonies.

Chapter 4

30.That the Gospel is preached in vain.

31.That everything the faithful do or permit is in vain.

32.To be made a servant and the son of the bondwoman.

33.To be cast out of the inheritance, together with the son of the bondwoman.

34.That Christ brings no benefit.

35.That we are debtors to fulfill the whole law.

Chapter 5

36.To be separate from Christ.

37.To fall from grace.

38.To be hindered from the good course of well-doing.

39.That being convinced of the doctrine of works does not come from God.

40.To have the leaven of corruption.

41.To have judgment remain for anyone who teaches this doctrine.

42.To bite and consume one another.

43.That this doctrine is reckoned among the works of the flesh.

Chapter 6

44.To think yourself to be something when you are nothing.

45.To glory in others rather than in God.

46.Unspiritually to please people who are not spiritually minded.

47.To hate the persecution of the cross.

48.Not to keep the law itself.

49.To glory in the master and teacher of unspiritual things.

50.That nothing helps at all, and whatever a person does is in vain.

The purpose of the Crossway Classic Commentaries is to make some of the most valuable commentaries on the books of the Bible, by some of the greatest Bible teachers and theologians in the last five hundred years, available to a new generation. These books will help todays readers learn truth, wisdom, and devotion from such authors as J. C. Ryle, Martin Luther, John Calvin, J. B. Lightfoot, John Owen, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Hodge, and Matthew Henry.

We do not apologize for the age of some of the items chosen. In the realm of practical exposition promoting godliness, the old is often better than the new. Spiritual vision and authority, based on an accurate handling of the biblical text, are the qualities that have been primarily sought in deciding what to include.

So far as is possible, everything is tailored to the needs and enrichment of thoughtful readerslay Christians, students, and those in the ministry. The originals, some of which were written at a high technical level, have been abridged as needed, simplified stylistically, and unburdened of foreign words. However, the intention of this series is never to change any thoughts of the original authors, but to faithfully convey them in an understandable fashion.

The publishers are grateful to Dr. Alister McGrath of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Dr. J. I. Packer of Regent College, Vancouver, and Watermark of Norfolk, England, for the work of selecting and editing that now brings this project to fruition.

The Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) earned his living as Professor of Bible at Wittenberg University, and this exposition of Galatians came out of his classroom. It is a digest of a translation of a transcript of forty-one lectures in Latin (the language of scholarship, which Luther spoke and wrote as easily as he did his native German), given in the year 1531.

Though diffuse, as the extempore utterances of passionate people often are, the work is orderly and well focused. It centers on four themes: the authority of Scripture against human fantasy, and the link between the Spirit and the Word; the sufficiency of the mediation and atoning death of Christ for the sinners salvation, and the impossibility of finding salvation through lawby works and merit; the reality of Gods gift of Christ to believers as their righteousness, securing them permanent pardon and acceptance despite all their shortcomings; and the place of faith (fiducia, confident trust) in the gospel promises and in Christ himself as the means of enjoying the salvation relationship and experience. Here we meet the characteristic and often sloganized emphases of reformational theology: that Scripture alone gives knowledge of Gods grace in Christ; that Christ alone