You can’t do it on your own. No, seriously, you cannot believe in Jesus or do anything good or pleasing to God on your own. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.

Isaiah 58:1-9a [9b-12]

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
…
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”
[If you remove the yoke from among you,
    the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil…]
— Isaiah 58:7, 9 (NRSVue)

Verses 7 and 9 are cited in Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 4: Justification (AP 4.254 or so) where Melanchthon cites an argument in the Confutation quoting these verses to show the necessity of works. Melanchthon’s response, which by this point in the article is predictable even to Melanchthon, is to counter with the gospel. Following the law without faith is not pleasing to God, therefore just doing works cannot justify us in God’s sight. Good works are necessary in that they are an expression of our faith, but they do not save us, and without faith cannot save us. Good works are for our neighbor who is in need, not for ourselves or for God. Melanchthon shortens this by saying that whenever the Confutation talks about works, those who agree with Luther must add the gospel.

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 [13-16]

Verse 4 thru 12 are cited in passing in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 2: Free Will (FC, SD 2.71) along with 2 Corinthians 3:4-12 as scriptural evidence that despite the freedom of will with which God made us, there is no way for us to come to faith or be saved through our own human abilities.

My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power…
— 1 Corinthians 2:4 (NRSVue)
Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.
— 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 (NRSVue)

Verses 4 and 12 thru 13 are cited through editorial insert a little earlier in the same article (FC, SD 2.5) to make clear that faith comes only through God’s action—and this is not an unknown, mysterious action. God gives faith when the Spirit is moving and the gospel is being proclaimed.

…and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
— 1 Corinthians 2:8 (NRSVue)

Verse 8 is partly quoted in the Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article 8: The Person of Christ, Affirmative Thesis 9 (FC, Ep 8.14) along with a phrase quoted from Acts 20:28 to drive home that Jesus really and truly suffered and died as a human in unity with the divine person that is Jesus. So indeed it was the Lord of glory who was crucified.

Verses 11 and following are cited through editorial insert in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 2: Free Will (FC, SD 2.56) as a way of completing the thought of the gift of faith pointed at with the comments on verses 4 and 12-13 above. The gift of faith is entirely about God’s grace. This is clear in the one who does not yet believe and comes to believe, but this section emphasizes that even the one proclaiming the good news is dependent on God’s grace and the Holy Spirit for being able to proclaim God’s Word in a way that works with what the Spirit is up to in the person hearing the proclamation—even in our weakness. So preachers, take heart! Your fumble or flub in an otherwise expertly crafted sermon might be the Holy Spirit at work.

For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.
— 1 Corinthians 2:11 (NRSVue)

Verse 11 is cited in a footnote to The Large Catechism, Part 2: The Creed, Third Article (LC 2.36, n. 138) as a place where something other than the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Bible. This citation is the human spirit. Luther emphasizes the uniqueness of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the other spirits that are mentioned in the Bible, because none of the rest of the spirits can make us holy.

Those who are unspiritual* do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
— 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NRSVue)

* The citations below use the word “natural” instead of “unspiritual” going along with the Latin of the Vulgate and Luther’s own translation.

Verse 14 is quoted in The Augsburg Confession, Article 18: Free Will (AC 18.3) to show that faith is not something we can obtain by our free will or any other human power but only through God’s Word proclaimed and the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 14 is also quoted in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 2: Original Sin (AP 2.30) to show scriptural support for one aspect of the idea of original sin. In this case, that without the Spirit, we are deficient because we will not believe, fear, or love God. The other aspect of original sin, by the way, is that we will follow the desires of our body and believe mortal wisdom and righteousness instead of God.

Later on, verse 14 is quoted in Article 18: Free Will (AP 18.7) to unpack what was in the Augsburg Confession. Melanchthon narrows down what works our free will is not capable of doing, which is fulfill the first table of the Law. Only the Spirit empowers us to love God, worship nothing and no one else, keep God’s name holy, and keep the sabbath.

Verse 14 is also quoted in the Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article 2: Free Will, Affirmative Thesis 1. (FC, Ep 2.2) to make clear the agreed belief that without the Spirit, no one can understand the issues of faith.

This is reiterated in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 2: Free Will, when verse 14 is quoted in quick succession (FC, SD 2.10, 12) to drive home the fact that there is no human power than can deal in any way with think, feel, or do anything that pleases God or even to understand what that might be without the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 5:13-20

[Jesus said,] “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”
— Matthew 5:13 (NRSVue)

Verse 13 is quoted in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 27: Monastic Vows (AP 27.6) as a warning to monastic communities that use the guise of religion to keep the self-indulgent well feed. When we turn away from our role in God’s reign, we lose our saltiness and should be trampled underfoot—especially when what we are doing causes harm to the body of Christ and the proclamation of the gospel.

[Jesus said,} “People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.”
— Matthew 5:15 (NRSVue)

Verse 15 is cited in a footnote to the Preface of the Book of Concord (BoC Preface.22, n. 40) to make sure we see the connection in the Preface to this passage. The Book of Concord was published against the desires of some of those who were standing against Rome. But those whose names are ascribed at the end of the Preface see its publication as promoting the gospel. They chose not to wait to publish the full book because they did not want to hide this light “under a bushel or a table.”

Just to note it here, since we’ll be coming back to it next week, verses 20 thru 26 are cited in a footnote in The Large Catechism, Part 1: The Ten Commandments, The Fifth Commandment (LC 1.182, n. 95). There is not much relevant to this pericope. For Luther, however, Matthew 5:20-26 was the prescribed gospel reading for the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, and from which we have sixteen of Luther’s sermons.

TheoThru

Why do the Lutheran Confessions make such a big deal about works and the absolute necessity of the presence of the Spirit to do anything acceptable to God?

Because if we could do anything pleasing to God without the Spirit, then that would be the thing we would have to do to earn our salvation. So even faith itself is not a work we can do but a gift from God the Spirit.

In one sense, secular humanists have it right in that it is possible to be a good neighbor and not believe in God. Jesus had compassion on the rich young ruler who followed the second table of the commandments but ignored the first. It is possible to follow the commandments that define our relationship to other people without God in our lives, but even these very good deeds will not save us and do not make us righteous before God. The first table is what matters for salvation and can only be followed through the presence of the Holy Spirit. The second table follow the first ordinally and because following the first table will lead us to a life that follows the second table.

What about those self-indulgent monks getting fat off the tithes of the poor that had Melanchthon up in arms? (And you know its bad if Melanchthon is upset.)

They were breaking both the first and second table, living without the Holy Spirit, and following the desires of their flesh and the wisdom of humans rather than believing, fearing, and loving God.

Can you be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees?

No. That’s why Jesus came and is why the Spirit still moves.