19. Luther as a Preacher and Exegete

However much Luther took part in visitations and the like, his chief activity within his Church consisted not so much in external or ganization as in preaching, exegesis, spiritual counsel, and the preparation of treatises on the truths of salvation. As a preacher he now labored at the city church together with his friend Bugenhagen, and also visited the sick and performed other duties of private pastoral care. During the years following his return from the Wartburg, he delivered exegetical sermons on I and II Peter and Jude (1522-24), as well as on Genesis and Exodus (1523-27), besides preaching on the pericopes. In 1524-25 he had lectured on Deuteronomy, and in 1524-26 he delivered lectures on the minor prophets, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah. In 1526 he published his exegeses of Jonah and Habakkuk, and that of Zechariah in the following year. Among his other lectures the most important were those on Galatians (1531-35; the chief presentation of his doctrine of salvation) and on Genesis (1536-45); of his sermons the most noteworthy, besides those on the pericopes, were delivered on Matthew and John. His postilla, the second half not edited by himself, was completed in 1527; while the sermons which Luther, prevented by ill health from delivering publicly, preached to his children and household in 1532 formed the basis of his Hauaposlille. The translation of the Bible was com pleted in 1534, although he made emendations until 1545.

20. Theory of Confession and the Law

Within his own church questions repeatedly arose which led Luther to more explicit statements on weighty points of doctrine. While he had rejected Roman Catholic auricular con fession, he laid great stress on Evan gelical private confession, not because of any power of the confessor, but be- cause of the words of promise with which forgiveness is declared, provided that the penitent is filled with faith. Although the words of forgiveness should be proclaimed in every sermon_he held private confession conducive to the ascertainment of the penitent's spiritual state but declaration of forgiveness could be withheld only in case of manifest un-

76

belief and impenitence. In 1533, and again in 1536, Luther approved the retention of public general absolution together with private confession at Nuremberg, and even drew up a formula for such absolution. Nevertheless, holding that absolution was not conditioned by priestly judgment (though it was an objective and effectual conferring of forgiveness), he later declared that it might be conferred by one layman on another in virtue of the "power of the keys." On the other hand, in 1538 he stated that those capable of instructing themselves need not make a formal confession before receiving the Eucharist. In 1537 a controversy broke out with Johann Agricola on the nature of the law (see Agricola, Johann; and Antinomianism). Sharply opposed by Luther in theses of 1537-38 and the Wider die Antinorreer (1539), Agricola held that the Mosaic law had been abrogated, and that repentance should be preached only on the basis of the Gospel (the word of grace in Christ), not because of the law. Luther, on the contrary, maintained that the word of salvation could not awaken faith in the sinful heart unless it had first been broken by the law and its resultant terrors of conscience. This is, indeed, not true repentance, but is a preparation for it; and stress was also laid by Luther on the fact that wherever in the New Testament sin, wrath, and judgment are revealed, the law, and not the Gospel, prevails.