“You, on the other hand, wickedly usurp this name and apply it to a coterie of knaves who do not ask at all what Christ said and commanded. They brashly determine and formulate whatever doctrines they themselves choose and then allege that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, they are so impudent as to elevate such a crowd of knaves above God’s Word and to say that the church is above the Gospel. Just as though there were a Christian Church without Christ and His Word! And since they occupy the highest place and decide questions without Christ’s Word—yes, contrary to it—the Holy Spirit must necessarily be with them, do and confirm all that they want from Him, call them to church, and command everybody to heed their voice as that of God Himself and to obey on pain of his soul’s salvation. You will have to wait a long time for this; He will not let it happen. For Christ describes the Holy Spirit as a Teacher who teaches and proclaims His Word.

On the other hand, if you hear people preaching about Christ and treating and expounding His Word, Baptism, His suffering, and His resurrection, then you can say: ‘Here I am listening to the true Christian Church. For here is the Holy Spirit, who teaches and brings to remembrance what Christ said, not human prattle about food, drink, and clothing. For how do such things concern the church?’” (Luther’s Works, v. 24, p. 174-175).

“‘Let us agree on the definition {of the words ‘Christian Church’ and ‘Holy Spirit’}, that we may understand the language.’

‘Yes,’ you say, ‘I have in mind the pope in Rome, the cardinals, bishops, doctors, and spiritual fathers when they convene, decree, and order something.’ Let the devil reward you for this! It is he who bids you misuse this glorious name, which deserves to be revered, for such tomfoolery; for example, for decreeing what is to be eaten or drunk on this or that day, or how long the bishop’s mantle is to be, or the dimensions of a monk’s cowl or tonsure, or how far up or down each one is to sit. Is this what you call Christ’s Word or ordinance? Or did He or His apostles ever teach this with as much as a word?

You see that these knaves are double-tongued. They take the words “Holy Spirit” and ‘church’ and apply them to their trumpery, but they do not teach a word of what Christ said and commanded. In fact, they teach and do the very opposite; and under the pretext of the name of Christ and the Holy Spirit they lead the people away from Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ did not say that I must believe and accept every resolution of the pope, the cardinals, and the bishops; He said that I should hearken to the Christian Church, which has the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father in Christ’s name and teaches nothing but what Christ said. This is to be the church, and I must identify it by these marks” (Luther’s Works, v. 24, p. 174).

“There are two parts to this text. Christ says clearly: ‘The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name’ and ‘He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’ The most important words are ‘in My name’ and ‘all that I have said to you.’ These words they dismiss from their mind and overlook, as though they were nothing or were spoken by a fool. But my dear devil, it will never do to dismember and mutilate a text! Put your spectacles on your nose, and either look at the text in its entirety or keep your hands off it altogether. Christ says that it is to be the Holy Spirit’s office to teach Christendom the Word of the Lord Christ and to bring it to mind. And later (15:24) He says: ‘He will bear witness to Me,’ and ‘He will glorify Me’ (16:14). He does not say: ‘He will confer on the church the power to resolve and order what it pleases about God’s Word. It is not the Holy Spirit’s office to alter Baptism, the Gospel, and the Sacrament, or to institute new laws and ordinances. No, it is His office to deal solely with My Word, ordinances, and commandments, to implant these in you and to teach you what I have said.’

With this support it is an easy matter to reply to the devil: ‘I do indeed hear your awesome words ‘Christian Church’ and ‘Holy Spirit,’ before which everyone is to bow without a word of contradiction. But I also insist on hearing what and who the Christian Church is and what is called the Christian Church. Let us agree on the definition, that we may understand the language’”  (Luther’s Works, v. 24, p. 173).

“Gross arrogance is now making itself felt in the papacy, yes, also among us. Many of us say boastfully: ‘We are evangelicals; we have learned this doctrine well.’ They brag that everything they do is right. …  This is a strong sermon and a sharp answer to the question at issue: “God cares not that you are Abraham’s seed, that you are baptized, that you have accepted the Gospel, and that you esteem its doctrine highly. Beware lest you still become the murderer of both God and man! For you are a fellow who disdains to give ear to the Word and will not tolerate the truth. You will not listen to correction. And after you have reviled and blasphemed God’s Word for a long time, murder will follow, and you will kill God’s servants and preachers with your fists.”

It is necessary for us to differentiate and say: ‘We concede that you are evangelical, that you can talk and write about this, and that you hear the evangelical message; but this does not make you a Christian. Just examine yourself with regard to your attitude over against the preachers of the truth. How many there are in this principality who bear their village clergy the greatest ill will! When the clergy tell them the truth and attack their sin and wickedness from the pulpit, they think that the village clergy have indeed deserved death. And at the same time these people boast that they are also good evangelicals.’ ‘Indeed,’ says Christ, ‘you are really evangelical!’ In the same way He says to the Jews: ‘I know you are Abraham’s seed; but you will not hear the truth, and you are hostile to those who preach the truth. Is that what you call being Abraham’s children and evangelicals? This attitude does not come from Baptism; it comes from hell. You merely cover and embellish yourselves with the name and title of church and Christians.’ Guard against these two virtues! He who falls away from the Gospel does not take it seriously. …. Christ says that they must be the enemies and murderers of God and man,’ ‘because My Word finds no place in you’” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 418-419).

“Therefore Christ says here: ‘You seek to kill Me, because My Word finds no place in you. Whence comes this sin, that you begrudge Me My life and want to take it from Me? Could you be free and rid of sin? Is it possible that you are Abraham’s seed? No, you must be God’s enemies and murderers. You are motivated by the foremost sin, enmity toward God. If you were well-disposed toward God, you would also be well-disposed toward Me. My Word finds no place in you. To be sure, God’s Word does assail you; but you do not mend your ways. I am catching nothing with My net. Indeed, I cast My Word among you; but you are averse to it and hostile to God. It follows that since you hate My Word and oppose it, you must also be hostile to Me. God has the advantage that you cannot kill Him. Me, however, you can kill, since I am mortal.’ Therefore an unbeliever is a murderer of God and of man, whether he be called Abraham’s seed or anything else. For if he could kill God, suppress the truth, and exterminate the divine Word, he would do so. Subsequently he also becomes a murderer of man.

This sermon is directed against the boasting of the Jews, who assumed that they, as Abraham’s seed, could not perish. Gross arrogance is now making itself felt in the papacy, yes, also among us. Many of us say boastfully: ‘We are evangelicals; we have learned this doctrine well.’ They brag that everything they do is right. They expect the Gospel to yield to their pleasure, just as the Jews supposed that because they were Abraham’s seed they could do as they pleased. The pope and the bishops also believe that their Baptism authorizes them to do as they choose in the church and in Christendom” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 418).

“Christ means to say here: ‘Now you see what two great virtues are yours! You are hostile to God and to your fellow men who do not see eye to eye with you. Therefore you are not free; you are committing these two sins, and the devil is riding you.’  The pope cannot show a greater affinity with the devil than by being hostile to all that God and man say and do. These two sins are two great lords and emperors. When they take possession of a man, he would like to see all the world dead. The pope, his bishops and princes, yes, the burghers, the peasants, and all men now do this; they are all enemies of God and man. They do not want to have the truth preached to them, nor can they bear to have a person who cites God’s Word assail their evil ways. Therefore they would be glad to kill all if they could. That is the source of damning, judging, condemning, defaming, and killing. That is Abraham’s seed.

‘Now, you noble little beast, you herblet, you little fruit, you floweret, are you Abraham’s seed? It is the devil’s seed that you are!’ According to their flesh and blood, they are Abraham’s seed; but according to their works, they are the devil’s seed. Similarly, the pope is the Christian Church inasmuch as he holds to Baptism, the Gospel, and Holy Writ; but since he is the enemy of God and of all Christians, he has fallen away from Christ and Baptism and has the devil as his father. He and all his cardinals, bishops, monks, and priests are children of the devil; for they are all murderers and liars” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 417-418).

“This was also the case in Paradise. When the devil had diverted Adam from truth to falsehood and had taken his soul by lies, he also robbed him of his life and gave him death. Then he had the entire man. Thus the bishops boast today that they are the Christian Church, but they will not tolerate the truth about Christ. They suppress it and thereby confirm their lies. If we do not admit that they are right, they hang, drown, burn, and exile us. Thus the burghers, the peasants, and the noblemen now vent their hatred and envy on us if we do not bow to their will. Nor are the bigwigs kindly inclined toward the preachers who tell them the truth.

He who falls away from Christ and His Word and does not stand right with Him becomes a slave to these two sins. He becomes a liar, an enemy of the truth, and an enemy of his neighbors life. Fine virtues, indeed, are displayed by the man who through lies becomes so base as to be hostile to God and man and unable to bear the truth! He is antagonistic to our Lord God, who permits him to hear the truth. If he could kill God, he would be glad to do so. He does his utmost, however, by blaspheming, cursing, and reviling Him. And he murders and kills man. Christ means to say here: ‘Now you see what two great virtues are yours! You are hostile to God and to your fellow men who do not see eye to eye with you. Therefore you are not free; you are committing these two sins, and the devil is riding you.’” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 417).

“These are the two fine virtues of anyone who falls away from his faith, the doctrine, and the Word: he is both a liar and a murderer. Thus I also say to the father, the pope: “You are baptized, purged of sin through the Baptism of Christ, as St. Peter says (1 Peter 3:2): ‘Your sin and death are drowned in Baptism and in the divine Word; you are thoroughly cleansed and washed.’ But you are wallowing in sin again, like a sow that is washed clean, soaked, and bathed but forthwith plunges into the nearest mudhole and gets herself dirty.’ I say: ‘Dear sow, you were just bathed, and you were nice and clean. Why don’t you stay away from the puddle and the mire and remain clean?’ Thus I also say that the bishops are bathed and made clean by the blood of Christ, that they are also called by the Gospel, that they are baptized, etc. But they insist on turning back, as a sow, after her bath, again wallows in the nearest mudhole and defiles herself; so they also become murderers and liars.

“Your defection from Christ, your failure to remain loyal to Him, stamps you as liars. For My words are the truth, and you do not give ear to them.” He who does not hear the truth is a liar and full of lies. He cannot comprehend and tolerate the truth and God’s Word. After the lies have taken root in him, he cannot be favorably disposed toward Him who speaks and teaches the truth; he hates Him and would like to kill Him. If he does not do this with his fists, he does it in his heart and thus becomes a murderer; for these two virtues, lies and murder, follow each other” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 416-417).

“This is a dreadful sermon. It brings out a wide difference among the children of Abraham. Christ says, as it were: ‘I know well that you are Abraham’s children, but you do the works of your father. You are Abraham’s children, but you have another father.’ He assigns two fathers to them: “Abraham is your father, but you have another father whose children you really are. And if you are not freed from this father and stop doing his works, your descent from Abraham will not help you. To be sure, you would still be Abraham’s children if another father, the devil, had not come along. But now you are murderers and children of the devil. Think this over! Abraham’s seed is to inherit Abraham’s kingdom and the promise, or the promised blessing, the kingdom conferred on Abraham; and his descendants shall fall heir to all this. But now you are killers and murderers, although you are of his lineage. That marks the difference. If you had remained Abraham’s children, as you are his natural descendants; if you were not false children, the seed and children of the murderer, the devil—then you would be true children, and you would soon be free. But since you are seeking to kill Me, you are not true children of Abraham” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 415-416).

“John 8:37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham.  He says, as it were: ‘You make much ado about the fact that you are descended from Abraham and are of his flesh and blood. But that will not silence Me or disprove My words.’ This is just as if I, Doctor Luther, were to say: ‘I know that you are bishops and priests, that you are baptized, that you are invested with an episcopal office, that you are in the church, that you come from Christ. But that is not enough; it does not make you the true church.’ ‘Well,’ they say, ‘should this not help us, that we are among the Christians, that we are in the Christian Church, that we hold a Christian office?’ No, that will not do it. They have attached far more importance and significance than we do to their claim that they are the Christian Church. With this they meant to imply that no matter what we stress or what we preach, the Christian Church will not err; otherwise God Himself would err.

The Jews speak in a similar way here: ‘We are Abraham’s seed, children of God, God’s people, and Abraham is not a slave of God. But just as Abraham is a friend of God, so we, too, are God’s children and His people.’ Now the papists declare: ‘Since Christ does not err—and He is God—we also are the Christian Church, and the pope does not err.’ We know this well, and you need not teach us this. You are baptized, you are descended from the right people, you are numbered among the Christians, you can recite the Ten Commandments, you can pray the Lord’s Prayer, you can hear a sermon. But to say that because of this you are a Christian—not yet! That is not enough to make you a Christian. That is like the Jews’ statement that they are of Abraham’s seed. Christ says to them: ‘You are not free for that reason. You must come to Me and be delivered through Me, or you will die and perish in Your sins.’ But why is it not enough to be of the seed of Abraham? Were Abraham’s children not God’s very own people? Yes. But Christ says: ‘You are slaves to sin and seek to kill Me, because My Word finds no place in you’” (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 415).