Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  But by baptism we are restored to the life of hope, or rather to the hope of life. For this is the true life, which we live, before God, in our renewed state. Before we come unto that life, we are in the midst of death. We are ever dying and rotting on the earth like other carcasses are; as if there were no life at all in us. But we who believe in Christ possess a hope that we shall be raised again at the last day unto the life eternal. It was in this manner also that Adam was raised again from his state of death by sin through this promise, thus spoken by the Lord. Not that he was raised to a perfect life; for he did not as yet regain that life which he had lost. But he conceived in his soul a hope of that perfect life, when he heard that the tyranny of Satan was thus to be bruised and destroyed.

  Under the divine mind and promise, declared in this text therefore, is included redemption from the law, from sin and from death. And by the same text is set forth the plain and certain hope of resurrection from the dead, and of being called into another life after the present. For if the “head” of the serpent is to be destroyed, most certainly death is to be destroyed also; and if death is to be destroyed, with equal certainty that which deserveth death, namely, sin, is also to be abolished. And if sin is to be abolished, so also is the law; and not only so, but that obedience which was lost is to be restored. And as all these things are promised through this Seed of the woman, it is perfectly manifest, as a natural consequence, that human nature since the fall can neither take away sin by any powers of its own nor escape death, the just punishment of sin, nor regain the obedience to God, which it has lost by the sin of the fall. For all these things require a greater power, a mightier strength than is possessed by man.

  Hence it was absolutely necessary that the Son of God should become a victim or sacrifice for us, that by the offering of himself he might accomplish all these things for us; that he might take away sin, swallow up death and restore unto us the obedience which we had lost. All these treasures therefore we do possess in Christ, but in hope. Thus Adam, and thus Eve, lived and conquered by this hope. And in the same manner all believers live and conquer, by the same hope, and will so live and conquer until the last day. Death is indeed a horrible and invincible tyrant; but the divine power thus makes that, which is in all things horrible, nothing; just as the same power of God made out of that which was nothing all things. For only behold Adam and Eve. They were filled with sins and with death. But as soon as they heard the divine promise concerning the Seed of the woman, which should bruise the serpent’s “head,” they were comforted by the same hope which comforts us, that death shall be destroyed, and sin shall be abolished, and that righteousness and life and peace shall be restored. In this hope did our first parents live and die, and on account of that hope they were truly holy and righteous.

  In the same hope do we also live. And when we come to die, we hold fast this hope of eternal life for Christ’s sake, which hope the Word always sets before us, while it commands us to trust in the merits of Christ. But in vain do we expect to attain unto that perfection in this life, that we should be altogether righteous, that we should love God perfectly and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. We do indeed begin and make progress, but sin which is in our members ever wars against us and is ever present; so that it ever mars or altogether prevents this our obedience.

  As therefore this life of ours, on account of the death within us and before us, may truly be called a death; so righteousness is altogether buried under our sins. It is in hope therefore alone that we hold fast life and righteousness, as things altogether hidden from our sight, but which will be revealed in their time. Meanwhile our life is a life in the midst of death; and yet, in the midst of this death, we hold fast the hope of life by the teaching, commanding and promising Spirit of God. This consolation is blessedly set forth in, Ps. 68:2, “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.” For we ascribe to our God the great glory that he not only helps us in this temporal life, as the devil sometimes stands by his worshippers, as is manifest from numberless examples among the heathen; but the glory which belongs to our God, is that “to the Lord our God belong the issues from death;” that he delivers from death those who are oppressed thereby on account of their sins and translates them into eternal life, Col. 1:13. And our God does this as Moses here teaches us by crushing the “head” of the serpent.

  In this part of the divine history of Moses therefore we have Adam and Eve restored, not indeed perfectly into that life which they had lost, but into the hope of that life, by which hope they have escaped, not indeed the first taste of that death, but the whole eternal substance of it. That is, although their flesh was sentenced to suffer and was compelled to suffer a temporal or momentary taste of death, yet, on account of the promised Son of God, who should crush the head of the devil, they hoped for a resurrection of the flesh and a life eternal after the temporal death of the flesh, which hope we also have.

  Next follows the other part of this divine speech, in which God first threatens her temporal punishment to the woman and then to the man his temporal punishment also.

  PART V. THE PUNISHMENT INFLICTED ON OUR FIRST PARENTS.

  I. V. 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

  This is the punishment which was inflicted on the woman; but a punishment full indeed of joy and gladness, because it varied not in the least from the sentence just before pronounced on Satan. For seeing that the glorious promise still remained that the head of the serpent should be crushed, there was a sure hope of a resurrection from death. And whatever is imposed on man as the punishment of his sin is possible to be borne, because this hope remains to him firm and sure. And this is the reason the Holy Scriptures are so very careful not to say anything in the punishment of the woman, which should be contrary to or at all militate against the sentence just before pronounced against the serpent. God did indeed impose a punishment on the woman, but he still left her the hope of a resurrection and of a life eternal. The death which she had deserved by her sin God transferred on the other and less honorable part of man, namely, on the flesh; that the spirit might live, because of righteousness through faith as the apostle says, Rom. 8:10, “The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.”

  The woman therefore is subject to death as to the flesh, but as to the hope set before her she is free from death. For that divine word, by which God threatens the devil with the “Bruising of his head,” remains ever sure to her. The animal life therefore hath, as here declared, its cross and its death; as Paul also said, “The natural body dies, but is raised a spiritual body,” 1 Cor. 15:44. So also in this natural or animal life there remains marriage, and the woman experiences those punishments on account of her sin, which the Lord here inflicts upon her; that from the time of her conception and at the time of giving birth and rearing children, she endures various pains and perils all that part of her life which she lives in a child-bearing state. All these evils and sorrows however pertain to the animal life or to the flesh itself only. But there remains to her all the while the hope here given her of a spiritual and eternal life after this present life.

  This punishment of the woman therefore, if we truly and rightly consider the whole matter, is in its holy reality a glad and joyful punishment. For although the righteous burdens imposed are painful to the flesh to bear, yet by means of these very burdens and punishment, her hope of a better and eternal life is actually strengthened. For Eve on the present critical occasion hears in the first place that she was not cast off of God for her sin. And in the next place she is not by her punishment deprived of that blessing of generation and fruitfulness which was promised to her and freely given to her of God before her sin. She sees that she still retains her sex; that she is still a woman! She sees that she is not separated from her Adam, to remain and live alone,
separated from her husband. She sees that the glory of maternity is still left her; she may still be a mother! And all these blessings of this present natural life are left to her, in addition to that promised hope of life eternal. This multitude of mercies, which was still reserved for her, no doubt wonderfully revived and gladdened the mind of Eve. Nay, a greater and more real glory still awaited her; she not only retained the blessing of fruitfulness and of continuing in marriage union with her husband, but she possessed also the sure promise that from her should come that Seed which should “bruise the head” of Satan.

  Eve therefore, without doubt, in this her most sad experience, for sad it must have appeared to her, had yet her bosom filled with joy. And it is very likely that she consoled her Adam with words like these: “I have sinned. But only see how merciful a God we have! What large blessings, both temporal and spiritual, has he still left to us sinners. Wherefore, we women will cheerfully bear this labor and this sorrow of conceiving and bringing forth children, and of obeying you, our husbands. This is indeed fatherly anger! for we have still remaining also the promise that the ‘head’ of our enemy shall be ‘crushed;’ and promise that we shall be raised again unto another life after the death of our flesh through our Redeemer. The greatness of all these blessings and this infinite multitude of benefits far surpass whatever of curse or punishment our Father has been pleased to lay upon us.” These and like conversations Adam and Eve, no doubt, often held together to alleviate their temporal sorrows.

  In this same manner also, ought we to contemplate the unspeakable treasures we possess in our hope of the life to come and by such meditations ought we to lessen the troubles of the flesh. This is what we find the Apostle Paul doing, 2 Cor. 4:17, 18, “For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

  Now tell me if all the temporal afflictions which may be laid on them, will not be borne resignedly and patiently by those persons who are enabled to lay hold of the hope of future glory and to believe in God, here promising the “crushing of the serpent’s head,” and who can moreover look upon those temporal blessings which remain to us; that our Lord hath given us this whole world to enjoy, and that he has given us wives, homes and children, and has preserved all things to us and increases them by his blessing? And will they not say, “That is not the anger of a judge nor a tyrant, but of a father!” On the other hand however, they will behold the anger of the judge falling upon the serpent. In his case there is not only no deliverance promised, but a certain “crushing of his head” foretold. And this anger of the judge Satan felt at the time, and he feels it still. And it is on this very account that he rages with such great and unceasing fury against the Church and the Son of God, until the last day shall come.

  The divine threatening therefore in this passage where the Lord threatens Eve with the sure punishments of her sin, was indeed a heavy threatening. But out of the midst of those very punishments there beamed forth unspeakable mercy. And this mercy so revived and strengthened Eve that she rejoiced with a heart full of gladness, even in the midst of her sorrows. And as to ourselves we feel how necessary these punishments are to crucify and keep under the flesh. For how could we be humbled if our nature were not pressed down to the earth with burdens like these? Eve therefore experienced and every woman of her station and duty must experience these sure calamities. These sorrows must be multiplied unto all women. They must both conceive in sorrow and bring forth in sorrow.

  It is moreover worthy of observation, that the Hebrew expression here used is RAB, which signifies both a continuous and distinct quantity; conveying to us the thought that these great and many and various sorrows, thus righteously inflicted on Eve, were such as she would not have had to endure, if she had not fallen by sin; and the expression also implies the sorrows and punishments inflicted particularly on conception and childbirth. This same expression signifies by its implied meaning the whole of that time, “conception,” during which the child is borne in the womb, which time is afflicted with great and various weaknesses, pains and diseases. The head, the stomach, the general health and the appetites are variously and greatly affected. And after the child is matured and the birth is at hand, the greatest sorrow of all is endured; and the child is not born without great peril even of life.

  When the heathen and those who have no knowledge of God or of his works see these things, they take such offence at them that they form the conclusion that, on account of these various troubles, it is not becoming a wise man to marry at all. And true it is that the female sex is far more deeply humbled and afflicted, and bears a punishment far more heavy and severe than men. For what sufferings of the body, equal to those we just described, does man endure? But by marriage the husband does take upon himself as it were a part of these punishments of original sin; for the husband cannot see his wife endure all this pain and sorrow without much distress in himself. So that many wicked men prefer living a life of profligacy to a life of marriage.

  Against such wicked sentiments as these the godly will arm and console themselves; and by true wisdom will set against these evils the certain and far greater blessings which attend the married life. Hence the ancient heathen poet Pindar, in his Ode to Hiero, King of Syracuse, condemns this perverseness in ignorant men. Though God, says he, is ever wont so to dispense his benefits as to leave some evil intermingled with them, yet none but the wise and good can carry themselves aright under them. For they adorn their prosperity; and under its bright colors they hide the adversity which they endure, setting their prosperity ever foremost to be seen of men:

  “To one good thing, two evil things,

  The gods appoint. Fools

  Know not how to adorn their ills.

  But wise men do: making the

  Worst, to wear the best appearance.”

  PIND. Pyth. Ode iii. 145-150.

  And this is what the godly ought ever to do in this their solemn case. The punishments, to which women are subject on account of the sin of the fall, are indeed great. But is there not in marriage a blessing which infinitely surpasses all the punishments of original sin with which it is afflicted? Have not those who are married in the midst of their great troubles that sure hope of immortality and eternal life which comes to them through the Seed of the woman!

  Nay, the troubles and trials themselves of marriage are not without their benefit. They all tend to break down and humble our nature, which cannot be humbled without the cross.

  And in the third place there is left to be enjoyed in these great bodily afflictions the peculiar glory of motherhood: that high blessing of the womb! This was a blessing which even the wise among the heathen so greatly admired and so loudly lauded. And other good gifts of marriage also remain to us and are enjoyed by us. We are borne in the womb of our mothers, we suck their breasts, we are nursed, we are nourished, and by the devoted attention and care of our mothers we are preserved in infancy and childhood. To view the great and solemn matter of marriage thus, is “to set our blessings in their fairest light.” This is not to look at our evils only, but to delight ourselves in the benefits and the great blessing of God in his holy ordinance of marriage; and under those benefits and that blessing, to sink out of sight the various punishments, corruptions, pains and afflictions by which it is compassed.

  But the godly alone understand these things and do them. They alone view marriage aright. They alone give honor unto women, as unto the weaker vessel; because they see them to be their companions of immortality as well as of mortality, and as being heirs together with them of the inheritance in heaven. The godly moreover behold them highly honored of the Lord by the blessing and the glory of motherhood. By them we are conceived, from them we are born, by them we are nursed in infancy.

  And for myself I have often contemplated with wonder and
delight the peculiar adaptation of the female body for nursing infants. How aptly, becomingly and gracefully, do even little girls carry infants in their bosom? And with what appropriate gestures do mothers dandle their infants, especially when the crying babe is to be pacified or quieted so as to be laid in the cradle? Only tell a man to do these same things and he will set about it as an elephant would attempt to dance; so awkward are his motions, if he has only to touch a babe with his finger, to say nothing about all those other offices and attentions which a mother only can perform. Whoever therefore rightly views and estimates the sacred matter of marriage will receive all these offices and services of the woman as signs and proofs of the blessing of the Lord, by which God testifies that the female sex, though thus severely punished on account of their original sin, are very dear to him and his peculiar care. Wherefore let these meditations suffice concerning the first part of the divine curse on the original sin of Eve.

  The other part of the curse lies in the particulars of the marriage union. If Eve had not sinned, her childbirth would not only have been without any pain, but even her union with her husband would have been most pure and utterly free from all shame. There would have been no more shame attached to those connubial circumstances than there is in a man’s taking his meal with his wife and conversing with her at the dinner-table. The bringing up of children also would have been most easy and full of pleasure. But all these blessings were lost by the sin of the fall, and in their place are endured by the woman all those too well-known evils of pain and labor in carrying the child, bringing it forth and bringing it up. Wherefore just as a graceful maiden weaves a beautiful chaplet from the flowers of the garden and bears it on her head, not only without any molestation but with the greatest pleasure and the greatest pride; so, if Eve had not sinned, she would have borne her child in her womb not only free from distress or inconvenience, but with the utmost pleasure and pride. Whereas now, in addition to all those pains of bearing the child and giving it birth, she has rendered herself subject to the power of her husband; while before she was wholly free and in no sense inferior to the man, and was an equal partaker of all the endowments bestowed by God on him.