Download And Enjoy Preface To The Letter Of St. Paul To The Romans By Martin Luther Presented As Manuscript

letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament, It
is purest Gospel, It is well worth a Christian's while not only to
memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as
though it were the daily bread of the soul.
It is impossible to read or
to meditate on this letter too much or too well, The more one deals
with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes,
Therefore I want to carry out my service and, with this preface,
provide an introduction to the letter, insofar as God gives me the
ability, so that every one can gain the fullest possible understanding
of it.
Up to now it has been darkened by glosses explanatory notes and
comments which accompany a text and by many a useless comment, but it
is in itself a bright light, almost bright enough to illumine the
entire Scripture.

My Sunday School class, yesterday, challenged me as a former Lutheran amp Lutheran oriented Episcopalian to explain Luther's ideas of Salvation by Grace thru Faith.
This in a Sunday School in a United Methodist Presbyterian congregation, I am a one man ecumenical movement,
To that end I am reading Martin Luther's preface to Romans, If you have not read M, L. 's prefaces to the books of the Bible and you want to learn,this is the place to go, Very good Great preface to the magnificent epistle to the Romans!
One of Luthers greatest achievements

Luther has written so many great works, but this is certainly among the highest.
Great material on Law and Gospel Excellent, brief intro, Essential for any Reformationoriented study of Romans, Wow what a preface! I read this a while back and was blown away by it! Essential reading for understanding and enjoying the book of Romans! The best thing I've read! Awesome overview of Romans, a must read.
Luther opens his commentary on the book of Romans with the central idea that what Paul was intending to do was establish the doctrine of the Christian faith through a proper understanding of the law that condemns and the faith that justifies.


Luther begins his preface by defining Pauls usage of the law and casting down the common misinterpretation that claims the law only states what must or must not be done.
In the opening section, Luther shows how God not only looks at whether one does His law, but He also looks at the depths of the heart.
The error of hypocrisy is doing the law only because the law commands it so, and not because the heart desires to fulfill the law.
It makes no sense to call others to follow the law outwardly when you despise the law inwardly, Doing the law, then, is not the same as fulfilling the law,

Hypocrisy can be avoided by fulfilling the law out of an abundance of love and pleasure for the law,
This is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit who provides the faith necessary to fulfill the law, Sin is more than an outward act, it is the activities in the heart that move men in their inner heart to do such things such as hypocrisy.
Unbelief is the root of sin and that which is antithetical to faith, Only through an act of grace can unbelief be overcome to produce the faith necessary to overcome sin, Because the depths of the heart are exceedingly wicked, only God can justify us through the faith that He provides us through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The faith that is provided does not work in conjunction with other works, but is sufficient in and of itself for justification, Works are not obsolete, but they are an outworking of the inward work of justifying faith, These works are evidence of our justification but they are not the basis of our justification,

Luther sees that Paul views those who are lost in sin and those who claim to be in Christ but are truly hypocrites inwardly as both being equally sinners before God.
Those who are lost are under the law and they are incapable of removing or fulfilling the law by their works or of their own accord.

The sin nature that we possess naturally desires to rebel against the law and as such remains under the law, This applies to both the saved and the unsaved, where the unsaved obey the flesh and the saved experience a war between the Spirit and their flesh.
The only thing that can mortify the flesh is the crucified and resurrected Son of God, The sin nature that we possess must be atoned for through the work of Christ on the cross, As when a married woman is free from her marriage when her husband dies, so the natural man is free from the bondage of sin when his sin nature dies.
The law is hated by those who are no longer under it because it only brings condemnation, Those who are saved are under grace and are incapable of falling out of grace because they have been predestined to remain there.
The battle between the spirit and the flesh testifies to the work of Christ in the believers life because dead men do not fight.
If the outcome of the battle or the will to fight was up to the believer, he would certainly fall away apart from the sustaining work of the Spirit.
The predestining power of God should lead the believer to find comfort and rest from the worries and concerns of working towards their own salvation.


Martin Luther in his commentary on the book of Romans gave a short summary of the whole book in his preface.
It is clear that the main concern of Luther was to define and explicate the key themes that permeate Paul's letter to the Romans, such as law, grace, righteousness, and faith.
Luthers readers would have been working through those same issues as the church was teaching a faith acquired by works as Luther preached a justification by faith alone.
Luther wanted to show through the letter of Paul that the issue had been settled long before Luther came onto the scene, Paul taught that unbelievers are under the law, believers are under grace, that righteousness can only be attained through the work of Christ, and that faith was a gift of God that imputed that righteousness to those who believed.
I believe that Luther was able to accomplish this task handily as he juxtaposed law and grace to help his readers see that the law serves to condemn those who it is under and grace served to cover the transgressions of the law itself.
For Luthers readers, this would have been tremendously encouraging as they were faced with this dilemma in the form of the doctrine of the Papacy.
Likewise, Luther frees his readers by reminding them of the priesthood of all believers, the fundamental doctrine of the reformation, Furthermore, he aptly shows that righteousness and faith are both dispensed through the work of Christ saying that our worry in this epistle should be both Christ and His gospel, and through those lenses we will see sin and grace, righteousness and faith, and the law fulfilled through grace.

Martin Luther was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.
Luthers theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood.
According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church.
Luthers confrontation with Charles V at the Diet of Worms over freedom of conscience inand his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an o Martin Luther was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.
Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood.
According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church.
Luther's confrontation with Charles V at the Diet of Worms over freedom of conscience inand his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an outlaw of the state as he had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
Because of the perceived unity of the medieval Church with the secular rulers of western Europe, the widespread acceptance of Luther's doctrines and popular

vindication of his thinking on individual liberties were both phenomenal and unprecedented.
His translation of the Bible into the vernacular, making it accessible to ordinary people, had a tremendous political impact on the church and on German culture.
It furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation of the English sitelink King James Bible.
His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity, His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism, Much scholarly debate has concentrated on Luther's writings about the Jews, His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis in.
As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial, sitelink.