it when we have come to that place where we shall no longer
believe, but behold with our face unveiled_. So, too, how it is just
that He condemns the undeserving we cannot comprehend now, yet we
believe it until the Son of Man shall be revealed." (E. 284; St. L.
1870.) "Of course, in all other things we concede divine majesty to God;
only in His judgment we are ready to deny it, and cannot even for a
little while believe that He is just, since He has promised us that,
_when he will reveal His glory, we all shall then both see and feel that
He has been, and is, just_." (E. 364; St. L. 1964.)

Again: "Do you not think that since the light of grace has so readily
solved a question which could not be solved by the light of nature, the
light of glory will be able to solve with the greatest ease the question
which in the light of the Word or of grace is unsolvable? In accordance
with the common and good distinction let it be conceded that there are
three lights--the light of nature, the light of grace, and the light of
glory. In the light of nature it is unsolvable that it should be just
that the good are afflicted while the wicked prosper. The light of
grace, however, solves this [mystery]. In the light of grace it is
unsolvable how God may condemn him who cannot by any power of his own do
otherwise than sin and be guilty. There the light of nature as well as
the light of grace declares that the fault is not in wretched man, but
in the unjust God. For they cannot judge otherwise of God, who crowns a
wicked man gratuitously without any merits, and does not crown another,
but condemns him, who perhaps is less, or at least not more wicked [than
the one who is crowned]. _But the light of glory pronounces a different
verdict_, and when it arrives, it will show God, whose judgment is now
that of incomprehensible justice, to be a Being of most just and
manifest justice, which meanwhile we are to believe, admonished and
confirmed by the example of the light of grace, which accomplishes a
like miracle with respect to the light of nature." (E. 365; St. L.
1965.)

246. Statements Made by Luther before Publication of "De Servo
Arbitrio."

Wherever Luther touches on predestination both before and after 1525,
essentially the same thoughts are found, though not developed as
extensively as in _De Servo Arbitrio_. He consistently maintains that
God's majesty must be neither denied nor searched, and that Christians
should be admonished to