Concerning Love and the Fulfilling of the Law, part 40
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Galatians 5:22–25
Series: Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
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From the Confessions: The Defense of the Augsburg Confession
Now we will reply to those passages that the adversaries use to prove that we are justified by love and works. They cite: “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Here they exult, claiming that Paul testifies to the entire Church that faith alone does not justify.
We have shown above what we hold concerning love and works. But a reply is easy. This passage of Paul requires love. We require it also. For we have said above that renewal and beginning to fulfill the law must exist in us, according to the word: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Anyone who casts away love will not keep faith, however great it seems, for he does not retain the Holy Spirit.
Paul is not treating the mode of justification in this passage. He is writing to those who have already been justified, urging them to bear good fruit lest they lose the Holy Spirit.
Pulling It Together: The Roman Confutation claimed that people are justified by adding love and other works to faith in Christ. Conversely, the Lutherans confessed that love and good works are a necessary response to faith in the saving work of Christ. Although the work of Christ on the cross is sufficient for salvation, the person who will not love as Christ loves, has become spiritually cold and lives according to the flesh again. That person has become nothing, no longer keeping in step with the Spirit and living by faith. For the Holy Spirit does not dwell where Christian love and other fruits of the Spirit are not present.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me remember my baptism with daily repentance and sorrow for sin, so that the new person in Christ will emerge in me more and more every day. Amen
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Author
Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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