Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the CreationLuther, Martin
ReligionChristian
Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation
Luther, Martin
Bible. Genesis -- Commentaries
This original state of things shows how horrible the fall of Adam and
Eve was, by which we have lost all that most beautifully and
gloriously illumined reason, and all that will which was wholly
conformed to the Word and will of God. For by the same sin and ruin we
have lost also all the original dignity of our bodies, so that now, it
is the extreme of baseness to be seen "naked," whereas originally that
nudity was the especial and most beautiful and dignified privilege of
the human race, with which they were endowed of God above all the
beasts of the creation. And the greatest loss of all these losses is,
that not only is the will lost, but there has followed in its place a
certain absolute aversion to the will of God. So that man neither
wills nor does any one of those things which God wills and commands.
Nay, we know not what God is, what grace is, what righteousness is;
nor in fact what sin itself is which has caused the loss of all.
These are indeed horrible defects in our fallen nature, to which they,
who see not and understand not, are more blind than moles. Universal
experience indeed shows us all these calamities; but we never feel the
real magnitude of them until we look back to that unintelligible but
real state of innocency, in which there existed the perfection of
will, the perfection of reason and that glorious dignity of the
nakedness of the human body. When we truly contemplate our loss of all
these gifts and contrast that privation with the original possession
of them, then do we, in some measure, estimate the mighty evil of
original sin.
Great causes of gross error therefore are created by those who
extenuate this mighty evil of original sin, who speak of our corrupt
nature after the manner of philosophers, who would represent human
nature as not thus corrupted. For such men maintain that there remain,
not only in the nature of man, but in the nature of the devil also,
certain natural qualities which are sound and whole. But this is
utterly false. What and how little remains in us that is good and
whole, we do indeed in some measure see and feel. But what and how
much we have lost, they most certainly see not who dispute about
certain remnants of good being still left in human nature. For most
certainly a good and upright and perfect will, well-pleasing to God,
obedient to God, confiding in the Creator, and righteously using all
his creatures with thanksgiving, is wholly lost. So that our fallen
will makes out of God a devil and dreads the very mention of his name;
especially when hard pressed under his judgments. Are these things, I
pray you, proofs that human nature is whole and uncorrupted?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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