# Martin Luther on the Mosaic economy



## Reformed Covenanter (Dec 28, 2013)

What do you think of the below extract from Martin Luther on the Mosaic economy?



> For the old testament given through Moses was not a promise of forgiveness of sins or of eternal things, but of temporal things, namely, of the land of Canaan, by which no man was renewed in spirit to lay hold on the heavenly inheritance.



Martin Luther, _The Babylonian captivity of the church_ (1520) in _Luther’s works_, trans. A. T. Steinhauser, ed. A. R. Wentz (55 vols, Philadelphia, 1959), xxxvi, 40.


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## RamistThomist (Dec 28, 2013)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> What do you think of the below extract from Martin Luther on the Mosaic economy?
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I don't agree with it fully, but I do think--and I think Luther was saying this--that there is a conditionality attached to the land-promise.


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## Peairtach (Dec 28, 2013)

The land promise was a type of the heavenly rewards we receive by God's grace because of good works graciously produced in us by faith. It would be very confusing and undermining of the faith of the Israelites if such promises of tenure and prosperity in the Land were somehow by a Covenant of Works, which would be impossible anyway.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2


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## RamistThomist (Dec 28, 2013)

Peairtach said:


> The land promise was a type of the heavenly rewards we receive by God's grace because of good works graciously produced in us by faith. It would be very confusing and undermining of the faith of the Israelites if such promises of tenure and prosperity in the Land were somehow by a Covenant of Works, which would be impossible anyway.
> 
> Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2



I am not saying it is a covenant of works. I am just noting that the text attaches conditions to the land: if they worship idols then God will kick them out of the land.


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## Peairtach (Dec 28, 2013)

Cameronian said:


> Peairtach said:
> 
> 
> > The land promise was a type of the heavenly rewards we receive by God's grace because of good works graciously produced in us by faith. It would be very confusing and undermining of the faith of the Israelites if such promises of tenure and prosperity in the Land were somehow by a Covenant of Works, which would be impossible anyway.
> ...



I wasn't really challenging what you were saying. That negative sanctions should be the penalty of sin is something that continues since after the CoW has been broken; if we go to Hell it is under the CoW. If we have been under the administration of the CoG and we do not believe, we have never truly moved into the life of the CoG. Something teaching the Israelites about this aspect of the CoW may be embodied in the Mosaic system in order to teach the Israelites about this.

But, on the other hand, under the now broken CoW the positive sanctions are now out of reach of all men but Christ, and, for the rest of us, must be obtained by grace through Him.

To be honest with you these are just some inchoate thoughts on the subject by one who strongly disagrees with the Republication thesis, but I recognise that both the Israelites and us, as sinners, need teaching about the now broken but continuing CoW.

The Republication of the unbroken pre-Fall CoW to sinful Israelites would not make any sense, and would be the wrong sort of instruction; not the kind they would need to lead them to Christ and grace.


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