30. There are three different kinds of people on earth, among whom
Christians must live. The first of these are that rude class which is
unconcerned about the nature of God and how he rules. They have no
regard for God's Word. Their faith is only in their mammon and their
own appetites. They think only of how they may live unto themselves,
like swine in the sty. To such we need not preach anything of this
text: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God." They would understand nothing of it though we were to preach
it to them everlastingly. They would rather hear of the husks and
swill with which they fill themselves. Therefore we will let them
remain the swine that they are, and separated from others as they
are. But it is exasperating to have to encounter them among
Christians.
31. The second class are they who are still reasonable, concerning
themselves, about God's purposes and their fulfilment, and how we may
be saved. The heathen, and even we ourselves when under the papacy,
contended, according to reason, over these things. Here is the
beginning of all idolatry on earth; everyone teaches of God according
to his own opinion. Mohammed says: He that believes his Koran and its
doctrines is pleasing to God. A monk: He that is faithful to the
order and its regulations will be saved. The Pope: He who observes
his prescriptions and ritual, who makes a pilgrimage to the apostles
at Rome, buys himself an indulgence; he has acquired the forgiveness
of sins: but he who neglects it is under the wrath of God. These
observances they call judgments and ways, controlling consciences and
directing them to eternal life; and they imagine that they are God's
judgments and ways.
32. On the contrary, the Word declares that God wants none of these
things; that they are error and darkness and a vain service--idolatry,
which he hates and which provokes him to the utmost. All must
acknowledge who have practiced their own self-appointed observances
for any length of time, that they have no real assurance that God will
be gracious unto them and take pleasure in them because of their lives
and observances. Yet, in their blind delusion and presumption, they go
on in their vagaries till God touches their hearts by a revelation of
his law; then, alarmed, they must admit that they have lived without a
knowledge of God and of his will, and that they have no counsel or
help unless they lay hold on the words of the Gospel of Christ.
33. We were all like that heretofore. Even I, a learned doctor of
divinity, did not know better. I imagined that with my monk's cowl I
was pleasing to God and on the way to heaven. I thought that I knew
the mind of God well. I wanted to be his counselor, and to earn a
recompense of him. But now I realize that my belief was false; it was
blindness. I know that I must learn from his Word; that nothing else
avails before him but faith in the crucified Christ, his Son; and
that in such faith we must live, and do as our respective callings or
positions require. Thus we may know right and wrong in God's sight;
for our knowledge is not of our own invention, but we have it from
revelation. By revelation God shows us his mind; as Saint Paul says
(1 Cor 2, 16): "We have the mind of Christ." And again (verse 10):
"But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit."
34. The third class are those who transgress, having knowledge. They
have the Word of revelation. I am not now speaking of those who
knowingly persecute the truth--those of the first class, who are
unconcerned about God--but I am speaking of those who recognize the
revelation but are led by the devil to override it and go around it.
They would conceive ways and judgments of God that he has not
revealed. If they were Christians, they would be satisfied and thank
God for having given us his Word, in which he shows us what is
pleasing to him and how we may be saved. But instead, they allow
themselves to be led by the devil to seek for other revelations and
to speculate on what God in his invisible majesty is, and how he
secretly governs the world, and what he has determined in regard to
the future of each particular individual. And so presumptuous is our
human nature that it would even interfere, with its wisdom, in God's
judgment, and intrude into his most secret counsel, attempting to
teach him and direct him. It was because of his arrogance that the
devil was cast out into the abyss of hell; because he aspired to
interference in the affairs of divine majesty, and would drag down
man in the fall with himself. So did he cause man to fall in
paradise, and so did he tempt the saints; and so he tempted Christ
himself when he set him on the pinnacle of the temple.
35. Against this third class Saint Paul directs his words, in answer
to the impudent questions of wise reason as to why God punished and
rejected the Jews, as he did, and allowed the condemned heathen to
come into the Gospel grace; why he so administers justice as to exalt
the godless and allow the godly to suffer and be oppressed; why he
elected Judas as an apostle and afterwards rejected him and accepted
a murderer and malefactor. With these words Saint Paul would command
the wise to cease their impertinent strivings after the things of the
secret majesty, and to confine themselves to the revelation he has
given us; for all such searching and prying will be in vain and
harmful. Though you were to search forever you would nowhere attain
the secrets of God's purposes, but would only risk your soul.
36. If you, therefore, would proceed wisely, you cannot do better
than to be interested in the Word and in God's works. In them he has
revealed himself, and in them he may be comprehended. For instance,
he manifests his Son, Christ, to you, on the cross. This is the work
of your redemption. In it you may truly apprehend God, and learn that
he will not condemn you on account of your sins, if you believe, but
will give you everlasting life. So Christ tells you: "God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." Jn 3, 16.
In this Christ, says Saint Paul (Col 2, 3), are all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge hidden. Herein you will have more than enough to
learn, to study and ponder. You will marvel at the wonderful
revelation of God, and you will learn to delight in and love him. It
is a mine which can never be exhausted in this life by study, and in
the contemplation of which, as Peter says (1 Pet 1, 12), even the
angels never tire, but find unceasing joy and pleasure.
37. I say this so that we may be prepared to instruct and direct
those we may meet who, assailed and tormented by such thoughts of the
devil, are led to tempt God. They are beguiled by the devil to search
and grope, in his false ways, after what may be the intention of God
concerning them, and thereby they are led into such apprehension and
despair that they are unable to endure it. Such individuals must be
reminded of these words, and be reproved by them. So did Paul reprove
the Jews and cavilers of his day when they presumed to comprehend God
with their wisdom, to instruct him as his counselors and masters, to
deal with him directly themselves, without any mediator, and to
render him such service that he would owe them a recompense. Nothing
will come of such searching. Against its endeavors he has erected
barriers that, with all your striving, you will never be able to
overcome. And so infinite are his wisdom, his counsel and riches,
that you will never be able to fathom nor exhaust them. You ought to
rejoice that he gives you some knowledge of his omnipotence in his
revelation, as follows:
"For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be
the glory for ever."
38. Why should we boast, he would say here, when everything that has
being--and our own wisdom and capabilities, of course--did not
originate itself but had its origin in him and must be preserved by
him, must exist through him? He says (Acts 17, 28): "For in him we
live, and move, and have our being." And again (Ps 100, 3): "It is he
that hath made us, and not we ourselves." That is, what we are and
are able to do, and the fact that we live and have peace and
protection--in short, all the good or evil that happens to us--comes
to pass not by accident or chance. It all proceeds from his divine
counsel and good pleasure. He cares for us as his people and flock.
He governs us and gives us good things. He aids and preserves us in
every time of need. Therefore, all honor and glory are due to him
alone, from his creatures.