Both texts are from Scroll Publishing: Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon Letter no. 99, 1 August 1521, From the Wartburg (Segment) Translated by Erika Bullmann Flores from: _Dr. Martin Luther’s Saemmtliche Schriften_ Dr, Johannes Georg Walch, Ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), Vol. 15,cols. 2585-2590.
Luther clearly believed in once-saved-always-saved false doctrine (also called eternal security) to the fullest extent! This is so sad. I was raised a Lutheran. No wonder why the church had no life.
What Luther actually said was edited out of the texts the pastors read in seminary, which is shown here. But nevertheless, Luther said it.
This is the opposite of what the Bible teaches.
This is the same paragraph as the one which follows, but this is from the Weimar Edition (first published in 1883), which apparently ellipsed out Luther’s most extreme remarks.
13.”If you are a preacher of Grace, then preach a true, not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here we have to sin. This life in not the dwelling place of righteousness but, as Peter says, we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. . . . Pray boldly-you too are a mighty sinner.” (Weimar ed. vol. 2, p. 371; Letters I, “Luther’s Works,” American Ed., Vol 48. p. 281- 282)
Here is the non-sanitized version. Here, Luther teaches once-saved-always-saved to the max! And this is the main problem with America today. Luther started as so deathly afraid of God that he embraced a doctrine that he knew at least some of the NT writers didn’t even teach, so he would never have to fear God again, even when boldly sinning—until he saw Him face to face—when it was too late (unless he totally repented before he died—which I don’t know of an record of).
13. If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.
This is the exact opposite of what Paul taught in Romans 6:1-2 and elsewhere.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
Let’s be free!
Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God? (Where Paul is reconciled with James — and with Hebrews and 1 John — and with Jesus. It all works!)
Martin Luther’s Subordinate Bible Books: Hebrews, James, Jude & Revelation
Martin Luther Cursed from His Heart Catholic Leaders, ‘Every Day’