LUTHER ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
In the New Series of Luther's Works: American Edition, a number of Luther sermons that were previously untranslated are now being made available to the English-reading public. Luther's sermons are always fresh, relevant, and Biblical, so I thought I would share this excerpt from one of Luther's Easter-season sermons in the new series (vol. 58 in Luther's Works: American Edition published by Concordia Publishing House, pp. 102-104; available at www.cph.org:
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At this season it is customary in our church to preach and meditate upon the article of our Christian faith concerning the resurrection of the dead. For it is right and proper that this article should be emphasized and expounded at this time. Since we preached and heard about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday, it is proper that after Easter we should preach and hear the article on the resurrection of the flesh, that is our own resurrection. For our Lord Jesus Christ began the resurrection in his own body, but the resurrection is not completed unless we, too, are raised. Likewise, His suffering and death are not completed unless we come after Him and suffer and die with Him -- as St. Paul says that he supplies in his flesh what is still lacking in afflictions in Christ, Colossians 1:24 -- so also His resurrection is not yet brought to completion or fulfilled unless we follow after Him and rise from the dead. He is our Head; we are the member of his Body [Eph 5:23, 30]. Therefore, after the resurrection of Christ, one must also preach about our own resurrection, since the two belong together in order that the resurrection may be complete.
St.Paul treats this article very powerfully in this chapter [1 Cor 15]. The reason was that certain know-it-alls [Kliiglinge] had come into the church in Corinth, not only from among the Greeks, who sought after wisdom and regarded the Gospel as sheer foolishness, but also from among the Jews such as the Sadducees and their disciples, who had accepted the Gospel and been baptized. Some of these were preachers and teachers in Christendom and yet still did not believe that there was a resurrection of the dead. They claimed that a man, when he dies, falls dead as a tree falls, and dies as a cow and the irrational animals die, which were created only for this life and who have nothing more to a wait when this life ends. They were hale fellows who thought nothing of the resurrection of the dead and of the life to come, and who scorned and mocked the Christians who did believe this. So, too, in our day ... the worldly wise together with their highly knowledgeable and sharp-witted wise men, think nothing of the article that there will be a resurrection of the flesh and an eternal life. And they know how to laugh at us contemptuously and to mock us for believing such a thing.
It is against such know-it-alls--these people who are called "good Christians" and who even wanted to be esteemed as outstanding teachers and indeed the best preachers after the apostles, and who boasted of an exalted spirit -- that St. Paul opposes himself with all his might. Paul places the article of the resurrection upon the firmest foundation, forcefully shutting the mouth of these know-it-alls, so that he may preserve the genuine Christians steadfast in the right and pure faith in this article. He does this so that they will not be led astray or deceived through such poison and senseless babbling of reason and human wisdom as presumes to sit as master over the articles of faith...
Therefore, whoever believes and confesses Christ's resurrection must also believe and confess our resurrection. And again, whoever denies our resurrection also denies the resurrection of Christ--indeed the entire Gospel as well and everything that is preached concerning Christ.
Yours in Christ,
