“What the apostle actually says in this text [Romans 6:12-14] is that sin shall not be able to […]

“For contrition that precedes faith is nothing but suffering on the part of man. It consists of anguish, […]

“Further, we say, we do not put the main emphasis on whether the person baptized believes or not, for in the latter case baptism does not become invalid. Everything depends on the Word and commandment of God. This is a rather subtle point, perhaps, but it is based upon what I have said, that baptism is simply water and God’s Word in and with each other; that is, when the Word accompanies the water, baptism is valid, even though faith is lacking. For my faith does not make baptism; rather, it receives baptism. Baptism does not become invalid if it is not properly received or used, as I have said, for it is not bound to our faith but to the Word.”

“In preparing to die, we should turn our eyes to God, to whom the path of death leads and directs us. Here we find the beginning of the narrow gate and of the straight path to life [Matt. 7:17].  All must venture forth on this path, for though the gate is quite narrow, the path is not long. Just as an infant is born with peril and pain from the small abode of its mother’s womb into the immense heaven and earth, that is, into this world, so man departs this through the narrow gate of death. And although the heaven and earth in which we dwell at present seem large and wide to us, they are nevertheless as narrow and small in comparison with the future heaven as the mother’s womb is in comparison this our heaven [i.e. sky]. Therefore, the death of the dear saints is called a new birth, and their feast day is known in Latin as natale, that is, the day of their birth. However, the narrow passage of death makes us think of this life as expansive and the life beyond as confined. Therefore, we must believe this and learn a lesson from the physical birth of a child, as Christ declares, “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow; but when she has recovered, she no longer remembers the anguish, since a child is born by her into the world [John 16:21]. So it is that in dying we must bear this anguish and know that a large mansion and joy will follow [John 14:2].”

“But it is equally clear that…this generation of theologians—with few but significant exceptions—has defined its calling by pushing off against the preaching of the church. Theology has been professionalized; it has become a guild unto itself. Turned in upon themselves, the theologians have kept the church at a safe distance, treating preaching as incidental instead of as the goal of theological reflection. And so the church, with rare exceptions, has passed over this generation of theologians when it has sought leadership, leaving the guild to its own standards and devices and telling the schools, with increasingly slim financing, to fend for themselves.”

“[Religion] does have a redeeming feature: it’s the human race’s historic witness to our awareness that something is seriously out of whack with the way we try to manage life. Even though I’ve said that religion is the largest management error of all time — and despite the fact that it commands us to do all kinds of things we would never have bothered with if we hadn’t invented religion in the first place (there was no religion in Eden when it was under God’s management) — it stands as a testimony to the fact that we owe both God and our neighbors an apology for making the world such as mess. In short, religion reminds us that we’re damaged goods. Having given it that much credit, though, it’s still a loser: after 10,000 years of religion, the world is not noticeably a better place. Indeed, under our religious manipulations, it’s gotten decidedly worse. Here, therefore, ends the kind word.”

“The problem the world has with preachers is that they not only give strange and culturally local ideas like an after-dinner speaker might, but they proceed to elect sinners, which is to say they remove the free will. The do this categorically, that means, not hypothetically and completely without any condition. Giving Christ sucks the air out for anything else, especially the free will. But is not the free will what religion is supposed to uphold? No. Free will is a synonym for death, since whatever it is, it is demonstrably not the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is life, and what is not life is death. Preachers destroy the myth of the free will, which has become the ultimate hope, and this surgical removal is precisely why no one can hear them.”

“You can judge what people need to hear by what they’re most afraid of hearing. And what people seem to be most afraid of hearing is the notion of unqualified forgiveness–grace. When I preach a sermon on grace I see the people in the congregation smiling and nodding their heads. It is like 200 proof whiskey to people to understand that they are forgiven and loved and the fuss is all over. But by the time the service is over and they arrive at coffee hour, the smiles are gone and the people are full of qualifying questions. People want to hear the Good News but they dread the Good News. I don’t know why they dread it so much but they do. We are afraid of it. We are afraid of really being forgiven and being free. It’s very strange.”

“An American president is, indeed, a ‘governing authority’ to which we should submit; but he is by no stretch of principles a king. We should submit to the office, in that we obey the laws he is supposed to execute, but he cannot require citizens to do whatever he commands. Our Constitution does not give him that power. He is neither the source of law nor the interpreter of law. The public elects the President from a field of candidates. Submission to his authority cannot always include voting for him. Nor can it mean refusing to criticize him. In our legal and political system, the people must assess the President’s performance and that of other elected officials; otherwise it would be impossible to have a democratic republic.

“If the cross is the place where God reveals Himself, then it is further the place where God’s revelation contradicts human reason most severely. Judged by everything called wisdom by the world, the word of the cross, as already St. Paul has seen, is the most foolish doctrine a philosopher can meet. That the death of one man is to be the salvation of all, that this death on Calvary is to be the atoning sacrifice for all sins of the world, that the suffering of one innocent person should assuage the wrath of God: these are claims contradicting all ethical and religious feelings of natural man. Already beyond discussion for the world is the presupposition for these claims, namely, the doctrine of man’s universal sinfulness, because it means the end of all philosophical ethics. For all philosophical ethics rest upon the principle which has been formulated by Kant (1724-1804) in the words: Du kannst, denn du sollst, “Thou canst, for thou shalt.” Now Holy Scripture claims that just this foolish preaching of the cross is the wisdom of God, which brings to naught the wisdom of the wise of this world. Between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of this world there is a total and irreconcilable contrast. What for human reason is wisdom is foolishness for God, and God’s wisdom is foolishness for the world.”