The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and ExplainedLuther, Martin
ReligionChristian
The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained
Luther, Martin
Bible. Jude; Bible. Jude -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible. Peter; Bible. Peter -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Besides, there is also a distinction among the books of the Old
Testament. In the first place, there are the five books of Moses, the
foundation of the Scriptures, and which are especially called the Old
Testament. Then come both histories and books of narration, wherein
examples of all kinds are recorded, whether of those who held or
rejected the law of Moses. In the third place, there are the prophets
that are based on Moses, and what he has written they have in clear
language more fully explained and elucidated. But the bearing of all
the prophets and of Moses is one and the same.
But you ought to understand also about that which men say, that the
Old Testament is given up and laid by. In the first place, there is
that distinction between the Old and New Testament, as we have said
above, that the Old prefigured Christ, but that the New gives us that
which was promised first in the Old, and pointed out to us by types.
But these types have now ceased, because the end which they were to
subserve has been answered and attained, and that which was
prefigured by them has been fulfilled. So that now there should be no
further distinctions of food, clothing, place and time. All are alike
in Christ, in whom all has been fulfilled. The Jews have not been
saved by this, for it was not given them to this end that it should
make them holy, but to foreshadow to them the Christ who was to come.
Besides, in the Old Testament God introduced a twofold
government,--an external and an internal. There He undertook to rule
His people, both inwardly in the heart, and outwardly in person and
in property. Therefore He gave them such a variety of laws,
commingled one kind with the other. So it was under the government
that pertained to the person, that a man might give his wife a bill
of divorce and put her away.
But to the spiritual government pertained the command, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. But now He rules in us only
spiritually, by Christ; while the government that pertains to the
body and the outward state, he exercises through the instrumentality
of civil magistracy. So that when Christ came the external ceased,
and God gives us direction no more as to the _outward_ person, time
and place. But He rules us only spiritually through the word, so that
we may direct as to all that is outward, and be bound in nothing that
pertains to the body.
But what pertains to His spiritual government has not been abandoned,
but stands forever, now as then,--the law of love to God and our
neighbor, contained in the books of Moses, which God will still have
sustained, and by which He will condemn all the unbelieving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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