Martin Luther Quotes
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If Church history teaches us anything, it is that we cannot afford to be a vacillating Church. We minister to a people who are in great need of hearing truth, we dare not make any attempt to soft pedal that glorious truth.
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I would rather obey than work miracles.
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God the Almighty has made our rulers mad; they actually think they can do—and order their subjects to do—whatever they please. And the subjects make the mistake of believing that they, in turn, are bound to obey their rulers in everything.
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Ambition begat simony; simony begat the pope and his brethren, about the time of the Babylonish captivity.
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I would take to be quite a fool any man who would make a book full of laws and statutes for an apple tree telling it how to bear apples and not thorns, when the tree is able by its own nature to do this better than the man with all his books can describe and demand.
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On the Ninety-five Theses:
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The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man's reason.
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Riches, understanding, beauty, are fair gifts of God.
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The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.
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Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.
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To turn one's eyes away from Jesus means to turn them to the Law.
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Regarding the plan to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.
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There are some of us who think to ourselves, 'If I had only been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby. I would have washed His linen. How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!' Why don't we do it now? We have Christ in our neighbor.
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Those who read and rightly understand my teaching will not start an insurrection; they have not learned that from me.
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He who believes in God is not careful for the morrow, but labors joyfully and with a great heart. "For He giveth His beloved, as in sleep." They must work and watch, yet never be careful or anxious, but commit all to Him, and live in serene tranquility; with a quiet heart, as one who sleeps safely and quietly.
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Small Catechism, The Fifth Commandment, (1529).
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The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that he sunk himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.
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Some will object that the Law is divine and holy. Let it be divine and holy. The Law has no right to tell me that I must be justified by it.
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There is on earth among all dangers, no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroid reason, especially if she enters into spiritual matters which concern the soul and God. For it is more possible to teach an ass to read than to blind such a reason and lead it right; for reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.
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Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.
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A man who has no part in the grace of God, cannot keep the commandments of God, or prepare himself, either wholly or in part, to receive grace; but he rests of necessity under the power of sin.
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We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'
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In Matthew 12:23 Christ says: 'Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad and its fruit bad,' as if to say: 'Let the one who wishes to have good fruit begin by planting a good tree.' Therefore, let the person who wishes to do good works being not with the works but with the believing, for this alone makes a person good.
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We are nothing with all our gifts be they ever so great, except God assist us.