Luther on temptation to blasphemy

**py3ak** · #1 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 11:07 AM

I know that Luther deals with the temptation to blaspheme God in his commentary on Galatians. Does anyone know more or less where in the commentary he does so?

Presbyterian Deacon · #2 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 08:14 PM

Don't know exactly, but this is interesting:

Quote:

VERSE 20. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God.

Paul does not deny the fact that he is living in the flesh. He performs the
natural functions of the flesh. But he says that this is not his real life.
His life in the flesh is not a life after the flesh.

"I live by the faith of the Son of God," he says. "My speech is no longer
directed by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My sight is no longer governed
by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My hearing is no longer determined by
the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. I cannot teach, write, pray, or give thanks
without the instrumentality of the flesh; yet these activities do not proceed
from the flesh, but from God."

A Christian uses earthly means like any unbeliever. Outwardly they look
alike. Nevertheless there is a great difference between them. I may live in
the flesh, but I do not live after the flesh. I do my living now "by the faith
of the Son of God." Paul had the same voice, the same tongue, before and
after his conversion. Before his conversion his tongue uttered
blasphemies. But after his conversion his tongue spoke a spiritual,
heavenly language.

We may now understand how spiritual life originates. It enters the heart
by faith. Christ reigns in the heart with His Holy Spirit, who sees, hears,
speaks, works, suffers, and does all things in and through us over the
protest and the resistance of the flesh.

From Commentary on Chapter 2

Presbyterian Deacon · #3 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 08:26 PM

Quote:

“If thou couldst rightly consider the incomparable price, thou shouldst hold as accursed all those ceremonies, vows, works, and merits before grace and after, and throw them all down to hell. For it is a horrible blasphemy to imagine that there is any work whereby thou shouldst presume to pacify God, since thou seest that there is nothing which is able to pacify Him but his inestimable price, even the death and the blood of the Son of God, one drop whereof is more precious than the whole world.”

- Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1979), 95.

**py3ak** · #4 (**permalink**) 05-24-2008, 01:17 AM

Yes, there are some good quotes (and an interesting discussion on distinguishing law and gospel) that turn up when you hunt for "blasphemy". But I'm not finding any treatment of the temptation to blasphemy. Maybe it is not in the commentary on Galatians? Does anyone know? Did anyone else address this temptation?