(paragraphs 48-72)
48 We shall now set forth from the Word of God how man is converted to God, how and by what means (namely, the oral Word and the holy sacraments) the Holy Spirit wills to be efficacious in us by giving and working true repentance, faith, and new spiritual power and ability for good in our hearts, and how we are to relate ourselves to and use these means.
49 It is not God’s will that anyone should be damned but that all men should turn themselves to him and be saved forever. “As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.”2
50 To this end, in his boundless kindness and mercy, God provides for the public proclamation of his divine, eternal law and the wonderful counsel concerning our redemption, namely, the holy and only saving Gospel of his eternal Son, our only Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Thereby he gathers an eternal church for himself out of the human race and works in the hearts of men true repentance and knowledge of their sins and true faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And it is God’s will to call men to eternal salvation, to draw them to himself, convert them, beget them anew, and sanctify them through this means and in no other way—namely, through his holy Word (when one hears it preached or reads it)3 and the sacraments (when they are used according to his Word).
51 “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). “Peter will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 11:14). “Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). “Sanctify them in the truth; thy Word is truth. I pray for those who are to believe in me through their Word” (John 17:17, 20). Therefore the eternal Father calls out from heaven concerning his beloved Son and concerning all who in his name preach repentance and the remission of sins, “Listen to him” (Matt. 17:5).
52 All who would be saved must hear this preaching, for the preaching and the hearing of God’s Word are the Holy Spirit’s instrument in, with, and through which he wills to act efficaciously, to convert men to God, and to work in them both to will and to achieve.
53 The person who is not yet converted to God and regenerated can hear and read this Word externally because, as stated above, even after the Fall man still has something of a free will in these external matters, so that he can go to church, listen to the sermon, or not listen to it.
54 Through this means (namely, the preaching and the hearing of his Word) God is active, breaks our hearts, and draws man, so that through the preaching of the law man learns to know his sins and the wrath of God and experiences genuine terror, contrition, and sorrow in his heart, and through the preaching of and meditation upon the holy Gospel of the gracious forgiveness of sins in Christ there is kindled in him a spark of faith which accepts the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake and comforts itself with the promise of the Gospel. And in this way the Holy Spirit, who works all of this, is introduced into the heart.
55 On the one hand, it is true that both the preacher’s planting and watering and the hearer’s running and willing would be in vain, and no conversion would follow, if there were not added the power and operation of the Holy Spirit, who through the Word preached and heard illuminates and converts hearts so that men believe this Word and give their assent to it. On the other hand, neither the preacher nor the hearer should question this grace and operation of the Holy Spirit, but should be certain that, when the Word of God is preached, pure and unalloyed according to God’s command and will, and when the people diligently and earnestly listen to and meditate on it, God is certainly present with his grace and gives what man is unable by his own powers to take or to give.
56 We should not and cannot pass judgment on the Holy Spirit’s presence, operations, and gifts merely on the basis of our feeling, how and when we perceive it in our hearts. On the contrary, because the Holy Spirit’s activity often is hidden, and happens under cover of great weakness, we should be certain, because of and on the basis of his promise, that the Word which is heard and preached is an office and work of the Holy Spirit, whereby he assuredly is potent and active in our hearts (2 Cor. 2:14ff.).
57 If a person will not hear preaching or read the Word of God, but despises the Word and the community of God, dies in this condition, and perishes in his sins, he can neither comfort himself with God’s eternal election nor obtain his mercy. For Christ, in whom we are elected, offers his grace to all men in the Word and the holy sacraments, earnestly wills that we hear it, and has promised that, where two or three are gathered together in his name and occupy themselves with his holy Word, he is in the midst of them.4
58 But if such a person despises the instruments of the Holy Spirit and will not hear, no injustice is done him if the Holy Spirit does not illuminate him but lets him remain in the darkness of his unbelief and be lost, as it is written, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matt. 23:37).
59 In this case it is correct to say that man is not a stone or a block. A stone or a block does not resist the person who moves it, neither does it understand or perceive what is being done to it, as a man does who with his will resists the Lord God until he is converted. And it is equally true that prior to his conversion man is still a rational creature with an intellect and will (not, however, an intellect in divine things or a volition that wills what is good and wholesome). Yet he can do nothing whatsoever toward his conversion, as was mentioned above, and in this respect is much worse than a stone or block, for he resists the Word and will of God until God raises him from the death of sin, illuminates him, and renews him.
60 It is true that God does not coerce5 anyone to piety, for those who always resist the Holy Spirit and oppose and constantly rebel against acknowledged truth, as Stephen describes the obstinate Jews (Acts 7:51), will not be converted. Nevertheless, the Lord God draws the person whom he wills to convert, and draws him in such a way that man’s darkened reason becomes an enlightened one and his resisting will becomes an obedient will. This the Scriptures call the creation of a new heart. 61 For this same reason it is not quite right to say that before his conversion man has a mode of acting6 in the sense of a mode of doing something good and wholesome in divine matters. Prior to his conversion man is dead in sin (Eph. 2:5); hence there can be in him no power to do something good in divine matters, and he cannot have a mode of acting in divine matters.
62 But if one is discussing the question how God operates in man, it is correct to say that the Lord God indeed has one mode of acting in man as a rational creature and another mode of action to work in irrational creatures or in a stone or block.7 Nevertheless, one cannot ascribe to man prior to his conversion any mode of acting by which he does anything good in spiritual matters.
63 But after a man is converted, and thereby enlightened, and his will is renewed, then he wills that which is good, in so far as he is reborn or a new man, and he delights in the law of God according to his inmost self (Rom. 7:22). And immediately he does good, as much and as long as the Holy Spirit motivates him, as St. Paul says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”8