The apostle Paul "contends with the proud
and arrogant and with those who are presumptuous on account of
their works/' etc.; "moreover, in the letter to the Romans, this
theme is almost his sole concern and he discusses it so persistently
and with such complexity as to weary the reader's attention, yet
it is a useful and wholesome wearying." There have always been
some among the Jews and the Gentiles who believed it to be
sufficient if they possessed virtue and knowledge, not of the kind
that is outwardly put on but that which is inward and comes from
the heart. This was also the opinion of many philosophers. The
best and sincerest among them, only a few of whom except Socrates
are well known, practiced this morality not in order to impress
other people or to seek their own glory but adhered to it from a
true feeling of virtue and wisdom—and yet they could not refrain
from being inwardly pleased with themselves and to praise themselves
in their heart as righteous and good men. Of such, the apostle
says: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools/'
etc. (Rom. 1:22).
But here just the opposite shall be taught. For in the church we
must not merely see to it that our righteousness and wisdom, which
are not worth anything, are neither upheld by our own sense of
glory nor extolled by the good opinion of others, but rather, we
must take pains that they are destroyed and plucked up from our
own complacent inner feeling (even though, according to the Gospel
[Matt. 5:15], "the lamp that is lit is not to be put under the
bushel but on the stand so that it shines unto all that are in the
house" and "the city set on a hill cannot be hid" [Matt. 5:14]).
(For when we ourselves despise them, it will be easy for us not to
care for the judgment and praise of others.)
As Christ says through the prophet Jeremiah: "to pluck up and
to break down and to destroy and to overthrow" (Jer. 1:10),
namely, everything that is in us (i.e., all that pleases us because it
comes from ourselves and belongs to us) and "to build and to
plant," namely, everything that is outside us and in Christ.
This is also the meaning of Daniel's figure of speech concerning
the stone which "smote the image" (Dan. 2:34).3
For God does not want to save us by our own but by an extraneous
righteousness which does not originate in ourselves but
comes to us from beyond ourselves, which does not arise on our
earth but comes from heaven. Therefore, we must come to know
this righteousness which is utterly external and foreign to us. That
is why our own personal righteousness must be uprooted4—according
to Ps. 45 (where we read): "Forget also thine own people
and thy father's house" (Ps. 45:10)—just as also Abraham was told
to leave his own country. And in the Song of Solomon we read:
"Come from Lebanon, my bride, and thou shalt be crowned" (S. of
Sol. 4:8). Also, the exodus of the people Israel has for a long time
been interpreted to signify the transition from vice to virtue. But
one should, rather, interpret it as the way from virtue to the grace
of Christ, because virtues are often the greater and worse faults
the less they are regarded as such and the more powerfully they
subject to themselves all human affections beyond all other goods.
So also the right side of Jordan was more fearful than the left one. pp. 3 and 4