Quotes from Martin Luther

[Lamb]

Luther on sheep and wolves: "Christ fights with the devil in a curious way, the devil with great numbers, cleverness, and steadfastness, and Christ with few people, with weakness, simplicity, and contempt, and yet Christ wins. So he wished us to be sheep and our adversaries to be wolves. But what an unequal contest to fight with ten or a hundred wolves! He sent twelve disciples into the world, twelve among so many wolves. I think it's a remarkable war and a strange fight in which the sheep are killed and the wolves stay alive. But they'll all go to ruin as a result, because God alone performs miracles. He'll preserve his sheep in the midst of the wolves and he'll crush the jaws of the wolves for ever."

LW 54 Table Talk No. 5031

 

[Lamb]

“I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO THAT I SHALL SPEND THE FIRST THREE HOURS IN PRAYER.”

(Said by Luther in response to a question about his day; found in Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Antedotes - PN6268.R4 A55)

 

[Lamb]

No. 1601 Between May 27 and 31, 1532

“Young fellows are tempted by girls, men who are thirty years old are tempted by gold, when they are forty years old they are tempted by honor and glory, and those who are sixty years old say to themselves, ‘What a pious man I have become!’ ”

 

[Lamb]

Under the papacy I was exposed to every error. The reason is that I had no faith. Faith is, as it were, the center of a circle. If anybody strays from the center, it is impossible for him to have the circle around him, and he must blunder. The center is Christ. From Luther's Table Talk.

 

[Lamb]

A Christian has no need of any law in order to be saved, since through faith we are free from every law. Thus all the acts of a Christian are done spontaneously, out of a sense of pure liberty.

MARTIN LUTHER, The Freedom of a Christian

 

[TurtleHare]

Hehe I doubt your gonna submit the quote about the pope and his bottom which isn't the word that Luther wrote but here's a good one Luther said the Pope farted so loudly and powerfully, that “it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart."

 

[Lamb]

Hehe I doubt your gonna submit the quote about the pope and his bottom which isn't the word that Luther wrote but here's a good one Luther said the Pope farted so loudly and powerfully, that “it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart."

Oh my! LOL

 

[Lamb]

“The law is divine and holy. Let the law have his glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbour; also to live in chastity, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me, how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell.

Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law,) but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me : to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth.

Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

–Martin Luther, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (Philadelphia: Smith, English & Co., 1860), 206.

 

[Lamb]

Here is a quote attributed to Martin Luther but it has been disputed because there is no source for it:

“Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep. Whoever sleeps long, does not sin. Whoever does not sin, enters Heaven. Thus let us drink beer.”

 

[Lamb]

“For as long as a person is convinced that he has some ability, even if it is altogether trifling, to work out his salvation, he continues to trust in himself and does not at all despair of his own efforts. Accordingly, he does not humble himself before God, and he selects a certain place, time, and work by which he hopes, or at least desires, ultimately to obtain salvation. but a person who entertains no doubt whatever that everything depends on the will of God, utterly despairs of his own effort, does not do any choosing, but expects God to work in him, such a person is closest to divine grace and salvation. Therefore these things are publicly taught for the sake of the elect, in order that they may be saved after having been humbled and crushed in the manner aforestated. The rest resist this humbling; yea, they reject the teaching that a person must despair of his own efforts and demand that some ability be left them, even though it be quite paltry. These remain secretly proud and enemies of the grace of God. This, I say, is the one reason for teaching the godly who have been humbled to know, to pray for, and to accept the promise of mercy.” St. L. Ed. XVIII, 1715

 

[Lamb]

I can't find the source for this one: "You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say."

 

[Lamb]

From Luther's Table Talk

"After baptism original sin is like a wound which has begun to heal. It is really a wound, yet it is becoming better and is constantly in the process of healing, although it is still festering, is painful, etc. So original sin remains in the baptized until their death, although it is in the process of being rooted out. It is rendered harmless, and so it cannot accuse or damn us."

 

[MoreCoffee]

Hehe I doubt your gonna submit the quote about the pope and his bottom which isn't the word that Luther wrote but here's a good one Luther said the Pope farted so loudly and powerfully, that “it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart."

Rather crude but the remark is on par for the times. Saint Thomas More wrote some crude replies to Martin Luther, some of them as the behest of King Henry VIII.

 

[Lamb]

Nature is not abolished by Grace No. 165 from Table Talk year 1532

"Grace does not entirely change nature but uses nature as it finds it. So if somebody is kind when converted through faith, he becomes a gentle preacher like Master Hausmann. If he is by nature irascible and severe, like Cordatus, he preaches after this fashion. On the other hand, if he is fitted by nature with some slyness, intelligence and power of reason, like Philip, he uses these qualities for the benefit of mankind."

 

[Lamb]

Table Talk No. 3329a

"Up to now I've never had an opponent who fought with me on the same ground. They've always run off on a tangent and haven't stayed on the field of battle. I have the knack of standing on firm ground. From it I argue. This is the point from which to strike. I don't run after anybody, for he who pursues somebody also gets tired."

 

[Lamb]

These are some quotes from Luther's Advent sermons:

“The angel said that Christ, born at Bethlehem, is not a terror-filled cause for sorrow, but great, comforting joy, for which a terrified heart wishes and yearns. …A troubled, sorrowful heart craves nothing more than peace and comfort, to know that it has a gracious God. And this joy, whereby the sorrowful heart has rest and peace, is so great that all the world’s joy reeks in comparison. For that reason poor consciences need to be preached to as the angel here preaches: ‘Hear me, one and all, who are miserable and sorrowful in heart, for I bring you a joyful tiding. You must not imagine that Christ is angry with you. For he did not come to earth and become man for that reason, that he might shove you into hell. Much less was he crucified and died for that purpose; instead, he came that you might have great joy in him.”

“It behooves us…to welcome him [Christ] with gladness, as the angel here [Luke 2] says, ‘For unto you a Savior is born.’ Is it not a great wonder than an angel from heaven comes to bring this message to mankind, that many thousand angels thereupon also rejoice, urging and preaching to us people to rejoice and embrace this graciousness with thanksgiving? We must write the words unto you with letters of fire into our hearts and welcome the Savior’s birth most gladly.”

“It is impossible for a human heart not to rejoice if indeed it believes that it has a Savior from sin, death, and all evil.”

“Before all else these angels [again – in Luke 2] want the world to know the precious Savior, Christ the Lord. All wisdom in heaven and earth reaches its ultimate and eternal purpose in this child. Here God draws near to us, and he is to be found no other way.”

“My trust, boast, and joy…will not be in money or skills, but in the dear child lying at the Virgin’s bosom, my Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.”

 

[Lamb]

I don't have a source to verify this Luther quote:

When I look at myself I don’t see how I can be saved. But when I look at Christ I don’t see how I can be lost.

 

[Forgiven1]

Am enjoying this thread of Lutherisms