the sign of great
cleverness for the Church to be filled with such quibblings. The aim
is to imitate Paul, who (Gal 4, 22-24) figuratively interprets the
story of Abraham's two sons, the one by the free woman, or the
mistress of the house, and the other by the hand-maid. The two women,
Paul says, represent the two covenants: one covenant makes only
bond-servants, which is just what he in our text terms the
ministration of the letter; the other leads to liberty, or, as he
says here, the ministration of the spirit, which gives life. And the
two sons are the two peoples, one of which does not go farther than
the Law, while the other accepts in faith the Gospel.

True, this is an interpretation not directly suggested by the
narrative and the text. Paul himself calls it an allegory; that is, a
mystic narrative, or a story with a hidden meaning. But he does not
say that the literal text is necessarily the letter that killeth, and
the allegory, or hidden meaning, the spirit. But the false teachers
assert of all Scripture that the text, or record itself, is but a
dead "letter," its interpretation being "the spirit." Yet they have
not pushed interpretation farther than the teaching of the Law; and
it is precisely the Law which Paul means when he speaks of "the
letter."[1]

[Footnote 1: What Luther means is that the popish theologians with
their vaunted "spiritual" interpretation had never penetrated to the
Gospel, which confers the life in the Spirit, but had satisfied
themselves with so literal and superficial an interpretation of the
Law as to seek salvation through work-righteousness.]

21. Paul employs the word "letter" in such contemptuous sense in
reference to the Law--though the Law is, nevertheless, the Word of
God--when he compares it with the ministry of the Gospel. The letter
is to him the doctrine of the Ten Commandments, which teach how we
should obey God, honor parents, love our neighbor, and so on--the
very best doctrine to be found in all books, sermons and schools.

The word "letter" is to the apostle Paul everything which may take
the form of doctrine, of literary arrangement, of record, so long as
it remains something spoken or written. Also thoughts which may be
pictured or expressed by word or writing, but it is not that which is
written in the heart, to become its life. "Letter" is the whole Law
of Moses, or the Ten Commandments, though the supreme authority of
such teaching is not denied. It matters n