09/06/2026
Lesson from the Book of Concord for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday.
I. Of Sin.
Here we must confess, as Paul says in Rom. 5:11, that sin originated from
one man Adam, by whose disobedience all men were made sinners, and subject
to death and the devil. This is called original or capital sin.
The fruits of this sin are afterwards evil deeds which are forbidden in the
Ten Commandments, such as unbelief, false faith, idolatry, to be without the
fear of God, arrogance, blindness, and, to speak briefly, not to know or regard
God; secondly, to lie, to swear by God’s name, not to pray, not to call upon God,
not to regard God’s Word, to be disobedient to parents, to murder, to be unchaste,
to steal, to deceive, etc.
This hereditary sin is so deep a corruption of nature, that no reason can
understand it, but it must be believed from the revelation of Scriptures, Ps. 51:5;
Rom. 5:12 sqq.; Ex. 33:3; Gen 3:7 sqq. Wherefore the dogmas of the scholastic
doctors [that is, medieval Roman Catholic theologians] are pure errors and
obscurations contrary to this article, for by them it is taught:
That since the fall of Adam the natural powers of man have remained entire
and incorrupt, and that man by nature has right reason and a good will, as the
philosophers teach.
And that man has a free will to do good and omit evil, and, again, to omit
good and do evil.
Also that man by his natural powers can observe and do all the commandments
of God.
And that, by his natural powers, he can love God above all things, and his
neighbor as himself.
Also if a man do as much as is in him, God certainly grants to him His grace.
And if he wish to come to the sacrament, there is no need of a good intention
to do good, but it is sufficient if he have not a wicked purpose to commit sin; so
entirely good is his nature and so efficacious the sacrament.
Also that it is not founded upon Scripture that, for a good work, the Holy
Ghost with His grace is necessary.
Such and many other things have arisen from want of understanding and
learning concerning both sins and Christ our Saviour, and they are truly heathen
dogmas which we cannot endure. For if these dogmas would be right, Christ has
died in vain, since there is in man no sin and misery for which He should have died;
or He would have died only for the body, not for the soul, inasmuch as the soul is
entirely sound, and the body only is subject to death.
—The Smalcald Articles
