“In like manner you may deal harshly with the liars and hardened tyrants, and act boldly in opposition to their teachings and their works, for they will not listen. But the simple people, whom they have bound with the ropes of their teaching and whose lives are endangered, you must treat quite differently. You must with caution and gentleness undo the teachings of men, providing them a defense and explanation, and in this way gradually set them free. This is what St. Paul did when, in defiance of all the Jews, he would not permit Titus to be circumcised [Gal. 2:3], and yet he circumcised Timothy [Acts 16:3]. You must treat dogs and swine differently from men; wolves and lions differently from the weak sheep. With wolves you cannot be too severe; with weak sheep you cannot be too gentle. Living as we do among the papists today, we must act as though we were living among heathen. Indeed, they are heathen seven times over; we should therefore, as St. Peter teaches [I Pet. 2:12], maintain good conduct among the heathen, that they may not speak any evil of us truthfully, as they would like to do. They are delighted when they hear that you make a boast of this teaching and give offense to timid souls. This affords them a pretext for denouncing the whole teaching as offensive and harmful, for they have no other way of demolishing it; they have to admit that it is true.

God grant us all that we may practice what we preach, putting our words into deeds. There are many among us who say, ‘Lord, Lord’ [Matt. 7:21], and praise the teaching, but the doing and following are simply not there” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 73).

“You should rather tell them your reasons with fear and gentleness (as St. Peter teaches [I Pet. 3:15]), saying something like this, ‘My dear man, fasting and the eating of eggs, meat, and fish are matters of such a nature that salvation does not depend upon them. Both the doing of these things and the leaving of them undone may be for good or for evil; faith alone saves,’ etc., or, ‘The mass would be a good thing if it were properly celebrated,’ etc. In this way they would come to you and listen, and ultimately learn what you know. But now that you are so insolent, priding yourself on your superior knowledge, acting like the Pharisee in the gospel [Luke 18:11–12], and basing your pride on the fact that they do not even know that which you know, you fall under the judgment of St. Paul in Romans 14[:15], “You are no longer walking in love,’ you are despising your neighbor, whom you ought to be serving with gentleness and fear.

Take an analogous case: If an enemy had tied a rope around your brother’s neck, endangering his life, and you like a fool were to fly into a rage at rope and enemy and frantically pull the rope toward you or slash at it with a knife, you would most likely either strangle or stab your brother, doing him more harm than either rope or enemy. If you really want to help your brother, this is what you must do: You may slash away at the enemy as vigorously as you please, but the rope you must handle gently and with caution until you get it off his neck, lest you strangle your brother” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 72-73).

“On the other hand, there are some who have heretofore not yet heard the gospel, and who would be willing to learn if someone would tell it to them, or who are so weak that they cannot readily grasp it. These you should not bully or beat up, but instruct in a kindly and gentle manner, giving them a defense and explanation. If they are unable to grasp it at once, bear with them for a time. St. Paul says of them in Romans 15, ‘“Welcome him who is weak in faith’; and Peter says in I Peter 3[:15], “Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who desires a defense and explanation of the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and fear.” Here you see that we are to give instruction in our faith gently and in the fear of God to any man who desires or needs it.

If you only want to parade your vast learning before such people; if you pounce upon them with the bare assertion that their way of praying, fasting, and celebrating mass is wrong; …and if you do not, in addition, with gentleness and fear explain to them the why and wherefore—then these simple souls cannot help but think that you are a proud, impudent, and wicked man, and that is just what you are! They will get the impression that men are not to pray or do good, that the mass is nothing, and so on. You will be the cause of their error, and of their taking offense; you will be to blame. That is how it comes about that they disparage and belittle the holy gospel, and imagine that you have been taught some monstrous things. What do you gain by thus troubling your neighbor and hindering the gospel? When your inconsiderate ardor has cooled, they will say, ‘Ei, I will stick to my beliefs,’ and they will shut their hearts against the genuine truth” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 71-72).

“In the second place, if you want to handle the gospel in a Christian way, you must take into account the people to whom you are speaking. These are of two kinds. On the one hand, there are those who are hardened and will not listen, and who, in addition, deceive and poison others with their lying mouths. Such are the pope, Eck, Emser, and some of our bishops, priests, and monks. You should not deal with them at all, but hold to the injunction of Christ in Matthew 7[:6], ‘Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and the dogs turn to attack you.’ Let them remain dogs and swine; they are a lost cause anyway. And Solomon says, ‘Where there is no hearing, pour not out words.’  But when you see that these same liars pour their lies and poison into other people, then you should boldly take the offensive and fight against them, just as Paul in Acts 13[:10–11] attacked Elymas with hard and sharp words, and as Christ called the Pharisees a ‘brood of vipers’ [Matt. 23:33]. You should do this, not for their sake, for they will not listen, but for the sake of those whom they are poisoning. Just so does St. Paul command Titus to rebuke sharply such empty talkers and deceivers of souls [Titus 1:10–13]” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 71).

“From ‘A Sincere Admonition…,’ 1522, Luther writes, ‘In the first place, I ask that men make no reference to my name; let them call themselves Christians, not Lutherans.  What is Luther? After all, the teaching is not mine [John 7:16]. Neither was I crucified for anyone [I Cor. 1:13]. St. Paul, in I Corinthians 3, would not allow the Christians to call themselves Pauline or Petrine, but Christian. How then should I—poor stinking maggot-fodder that I am—come to have men call the children of Christ by my wretched name? Not so, my dear friends; let us abolish all party names and call ourselves Christians, after him whose teaching we hold. The papists deservedly have a party name, because they are not content with the teaching and name of Christ, but want to be papist as well. Let them be papist then, since the pope is their master. I neither am nor want to be anyone’s master. I hold, together with the universal church, the one universal teaching of Christ, who is our only master’” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 70).

“From, ‘Receiving Both Kinds in the Sacrament,’ later in 1522, He writes, ‘True, by any consideration of body or soul you should never say: I am Lutheran, or Papist. For neither of them died for you, or is your master. Christ alone died for you, he alone is your master, and you should confess yourself a Christian. But if you are convinced that Luther’s teaching is in accord with the gospel and that the pope’s is not, then you should not discard Luther so completely, lest with him you discard also his teaching, which you nevertheless recognize as Christ’s teaching. You should rather say: Whether Luther is a rascal or a saint I do not care; his teaching is not his, but Christ’s’” (Luther’s Works, v.36, p.265).

“Get busy now; spread the holy gospel, and help others spread it; teach, speak, write, and preach that man-made laws are nothing…rather tell them that a Christian life consists of faith and love….

But in this very matter of inculcating the word and driving out the laws of men I must also admonish those who are causing wholesale defections from and denunciations of the holy gospel. There are some who, when they have read a page or two or have heard a sermon, go at it slam bang, and do no more than overwhelm others with reproach and find fault with them and their practices as being unevangelical, without stopping to consider that many of them are plain and simple folk who would soon learn the truth if it were told them. This also I have taught no one to do, and St. Paul has strictly forbidden it [Rom. 14:1–15:1, I Cor. 4:5–6]. Their only motive in doing it is the desire to come up with something new, and to be regarded as good Lutherans. But they are perverting the holy gospel to make it serve their own pride. You will never bring the gospel into the hearts of men in that way. You are much more apt to frighten them away from it, and then you will have to bear the awful responsibility of having driven them away from the truth. You fool, that’s not the way; listen, and take some advice” (Luther’s Works, v.45 p. 68-70).

“For, since Christ is not only man, but God and man in one undivided person, he was as little subject to the law, being Lord of the law, as it would have been necessary for him to suffer and die for his own person. His obedience, therefore, not only in suffering and dying, but in his being voluntarily put under the law in our stead, and fulfilling it with such obedience, is imputed unto us for righteousness; so that, for the sake of this perfect obedience, which he rendered unto his heavenly Father for us, in both doing and suffering, in his life and death, God forgives us our sins, accounts us as righteous and just, and saves us eternally. This righteousness is offered unto us through the Gospel and in the Sacraments, by the Holy Spirit; and through faith it is applied, appropriated, and embraced; hence believers derive reconciliation with God, remission of sins, the grace of God, adoption as children, and the inheritance of eternal life.

Accordingly, the word to justify here signifies to declare just and absolved from sins, and to account as released from the eternal punishment of sins, for the sake of the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed by God to faith, Phil. 3:9. And this usage or import of that word, is common in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Prov. 17:15: ‘He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord’

(Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 633).

“These blessings are offered unto us through the Holy Spirit, in the promises of the Gospel; and faith is the only medium through which we apprehend and receive them, and apply and appropriate them to ourselves. This faith is a gift of God, through which we rightly acknowledge Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and confide in him, that, namely, for the sake of his obedience alone, we have forgiveness of sins through grace, are reputed of God the Father as righteous and just, and are eternally saved. Accordingly, these propositions are equivalent, and regarded as one and the same, when Paul, Rom. 3:28, says: ‘That a man is justified by faith;’ or, Rom. 4:5, that ‘faith is counted’ unto us ‘for righteousness;’ and when he says, that ‘by the obedience of one’ mediator, Christ, ‘shall many be made righteous;’ or, that ‘by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, unto justification of life,’ Rom. 5:18–19. For faith justifies us, not because it is a work of great value and an eminent virtue, but because it apprehends and receives the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel; for this merit must be applied and appropriated unto ourselves through faith, if we shall be justified by it. Hence that righteousness, which is imputed to faith, or to believers, before God, through grace alone, is the obedience, the sufferings, and the resurrection of Christ, by which he has rendered complete satisfaction unto the law for us, and made expiation for our sins” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632-633).

“For the purpose, therefore, of explaining this controversy in a Christian manner, according to the analogy of the Word of God, and of deciding it by his grace, our doctrine, faith, and confession, we declare to be the following:  Concerning the righteousness of faith before God, we believe, teach, and confess unanimously, according to the preceding summary of our Christian faith and confession, that poor sinful man is justified before God—that is, absolved and declared free from all his sins, and from the sentence of his well-deserved condemnation, and is adopted as a child and an heir of eternal life—without any human merit or worthiness, and without any antecedent, present, or subsequent works, out of pure grace, for the sake of the merit, the perfect obedience, the bitter sufferings and death, and the resurrection of Christ our Lord alone; whose obedience is imputed unto us for righteousness” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632).

“This article concerning justification by faith is, as the Apology declares, the leading article of the whole Christian doctrine; without which a disturbed conscience can have no sure consolation, or rightly conceive the riches of the grace of Christ ; as Dr. Luther has written: ‘If this single article remain pure, the whole Christian community will also remain pure and harmonious, and without any factions; but if it remain not pure, it is impossible to resist any error or fanatical spirit.’ Vol. V. page 159, edit. Jen. Lat. Vol. III. page 397. And with respect to this article in particular, Paul, 1 Cor. 5:6 ; Gal. 5:9, says: ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ For that reason he enforces in this article, with so much earnestness and zeal, the particulæ exclusivæ,—namely, the words, ‘without law,’ ‘without works,’ ‘by grace,’ (Rom. 3:28 ; Rom. 4:5 ; Eph. 2:8–9,) by which the works of man are excluded,—for the purpose of showing how highly necessary it is, in this article, not only to unfold the true doctrine, but also to set forth the contrary doctrines, that they may be discriminated, exposed, and rejected” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632).