Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (1882)

Luke 18:9-14

"For if we lose the doctrine of justification, we lose simply everything. Hence the
most necessary and important thing is that we teach and repeat this doctrine daily, as
Moses says about his Law (Deut. 6:7). For it cannot be grasped or held enough or too
much. In fact, though we may urge and inculcate it vigorously, no one grasps it
perfectly or believes it with all his heart. So frail is our flesh and so disobedient to the
Spirit!"
1

"This is how we must magnify the doctrine of Christian righteousness in
opposition to the righteousness of the Law and of works, even though there is no voice
or eloquence that can properly understand, much less express, its greatness."
2

So long as we have the old Adam in us, we have to struggle against our inborn
pride of works-righteousness, etc. It remains with them, what the orthodox church
confesses on the basis of the divine Word:

"Whoever boasts in his own work is miserably deceived." - "By grace I shall be saved;
by grace is heaven mine."

Christ presents this in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple.
He shows
1. in the Pharisee that whoever boasts in his own work is miserable deceived;
a. the Pharisee boasts in his own work.
3
Despite his glory, he lacked the
glory that avails before God.
4
For this reason this boasting is - self-
aggrandizement;
b. but he has miserably deceived himself = cheated himself; - he has not
attained righteousness
5
;

2. in the Publican that a sinner is righteous and saved by grace alone;
a. according to his internal and external nature the Publican had nothing
to boast except poverty and misery, shame and death
6
;

1
Luther, M. (1999). Luther's works, vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C.
Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.) (Ga 1:3). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
2
Luther, M. (1999). Luther's works, vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C.
Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.) (Ga 3:13). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
3
Luke 18:11-12; cf. Matthew 23:25-28.
4
Because Galatians 3:21; Romans 3:19-20, 27.
5
Luke 18:14; Job 8:14; Matthew 5:20
b. but he went down to his house justified;
. was it justification?
. how has the Publican obtained it? By grace alone, through faith,
that works, bestows, and receives grace alone: "God, be gracious
to me."
7
Offering, communicating, and appropriating grace - in
Word and Sacrament.
G.R.

6
Luke 18:13. (I, a poor, miserable sinner"; "me, a lost and condemned person"; "sinner"! KELG 219:8-9.)
7
Ephesians 2:7-9; Romans 3:24-28.