1073. Luther argues in his commentary on Galatians . . .

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Luther argues in his commentary on Galatians (1519) that "there are two ways in which man is justified, and . . . these two ways are altogether contrary to each other." (Clearly, what he means to say is that there are two ways in which man is said to be justified, for only one of which is this statement, in fact, true.)

"In the first place, there is the external way, by works, on the basis of one's own strength. Of such a nature are human righteousnesses which are acquired by practice (as it is said) and by habit. . . . This is the kind of righteousness the Law of Moses, even the Decalog itself, also brings about, namely, when one serves God out of fear of punishment or because of the promise of a reward, does not swear by God's name, honors one's parents, does not kill, does not steal, does not commit adultery, etc. This is a servile righteousness; it is mercenary, feigned, specious, external, temporal, worldly, human. It profits nothing for the glory to come but receives in this life its reward, glory, riches, honor, power, friendship, well-being, or at least peace and quiet, and fewer evils than do those who act otherwise. This is how Christ describes the Pharisees . . . .

"In the second place, there is the inward way, on the basis of faith and of grace, when a man utterly despairs of his former righteousness, as though it were the uncleanness of a woman in menstruation, and casts himself down before God, sobs humbly, and, confessing that he is a sinner, says with the publican: 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' (Lk 18:13). 'This man,' says Christ, 'went down to his house justified' (vs. 14). For this righteousness is nothing else than a calling upon the name of God. . . . [W]hen the heart has thus been justified through the faith that is in his name, God gives them the power to become children of God (Jn 1:12) by immediately pouring into their hearts his Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), who fills them with his love and makes them peaceful, glad, active in all good works, victorious over all evils, contemptuous even of death and hell. Here all laws and all works of laws soon cease; all things are now free and permissible, and the Law is fulfilled through faith and love" (LW 27: 219 ff.).

But, clearly, it is this very contrast that Marxsen also draws in characterizing Paul's erstwhile Pharisaic ethics and his ethics as a Christian, which Paul himself contrasts in terms of "work(s) and fruit" (Gal 5:19, 22). The two ethics have fundamentally different starting points, as becomes clear if one asks each of them, What is to be done when ethics doesn't go well? Since Pharisaic ethics doesn't go well either whenever one doesn't know the will of God exactly enough or whenever one doesn't give oneself sufficiently to doing God's will even though one knows it, the remedy is that one either learns God's will exactly enough to know what is to be done and left undone or else one intensifies one's efforts to act and refrain from acting accordingly. Christian ethics, by contrast, doesn't go well whenever persons do not live out of the prevenient gift of God, who in Jesus Christ has already passed his good judgment on them. For then they are still the old man, not persons who have been changed and become the new man. And only the new man can bring forth fruit. The remedy, accordingly, can only be that they come to faith, that they allow themselves to be reconciled to God. In a formula: for Paul's Pharisaic ethics, persons must change their (knowing and/or) doing, so that works are forthcoming; for Paul's Christian ethics, persons must allow themselves to be changed, so that they can bring forth fruit.

11 December 2000