29).

Far from repudiating the Ten Commandments, then, Luther, by insisting on
a distinction between Law and Gospel, and assigning to each a separate
sphere of operation in the lives of Christians, has done more than any
other teacher in the Church since the days of Paul to impress men with a
sincere respect of the Law, and to honor it by obedience to its
precepts.

19. Luther's Invisible Church.

In his Theses against the sale of indulgences, especially in the first
two, Luther had uttered a thought which led to a new conception of the
Church. He had declared that Christian life does not consist in the
performance of certain works of piety, such as going to confession,
performing the penances imposed by priests, hearing Mass, etc.,--all of
which are external, visible acts,--but in a continuous penitential
relation of the heart to God. The Christian, conscious of his innate
corruption and his daily sinning, faces God at all times in the attitude
of a humble suitor for mercy. The posture of the publican is the typical
attitude of the Christian. He recognizes no merit in himself, he pleads
no worthiness which would give him a just claim upon God's favor. His
single hope and sole reliance is in the merit and atoning work of his
Savior Jesus Christ. The Christian's penitence embraces as a constituent
element faith in the forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake. In the
strength of his faith the Christian begins to wrestle with the sin which
is still indwelling in him and which besets him from without. The agony
of the Redeemer which he places before his eyes at all times proves a
deterrent from sin, and the holy example of Jesus, who ran with
rejoicing the way of the commandments of God, becomes an inspiring
example to him: actuated by gratitude for the love of the Son of God who
gave Himself for him and reclaimed him from certain perdition, he begins
to reproduce the life of Jesus in his own conversation. His whole life
is determined by his relation to Jesus: his thoughts, affections, words,
and deeds are a reflex of the life of his Lord. For him to live is
Christ (Phil. 1, 21). All his acts become expressions of his faith. He
says with Paul: "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2, 20).

During the discussions which followed the publication of the Theses,
especially during the Leipzig Deb