Thoughts from Apology IV. on Preaching

So greatly has this shameful, abominable error prevailed! I myself heard a reputable minister, who did not mention Christ and the Gospel, but preached the ethics of Aristotle, (Aristotelis ethicos). Is not such preaching puerile and foolish among Christians? If, however, the doctrine of our adversaries be true, then are these ethics (ethici,) an invaluable collection of sermons, and a fine new bible. For it is not easy for any one to write better than Aristotle, with regard to an external, honorable life.

We see, that some learned men have written books, in which they endeavor to show, that the words of Christ and the sayings of Socrates and Zeno harmonize beautifully, as if Christ had come to give us good laws and commandments, through which to merit the remission of our sins; instead of proclaiming to us the grace and peace of God and imparting the Holy Spirit, through his own merits and blood.

It seems that part of the problem, lamented recently on Cyberbrethren, is that preachers hear the negative statements in the Confessions about Christ and the Law and Commandments, such as the one quoted above, and interpret these words to mean that, in Christ, there is no law or commandments to be preached. This is a misunderstanding of our confessional statements and their understanding of the Scriptures. (For more on this topic, one might read Scott Murray's Law, Life, and the Living God.)

The reader who pays close attention to what is being said will notice that Christ has not come to give us good laws and commandments "through which to merit the remission of our sins". Christ has indeed come to give us good laws and commandments; they're all over the place in the Gospels and in the writings of His Apostles. One such good law and commandment is: "This do in remembrance of Me" (see Luther's comments here, particularly the paragraph beginning: "And in the first place..."). Yet even though the observance of these laws and commandments does not merit the remission of sins, a person should nevertheless wish to keep them "if he wishes to be a Christian".