Es ist das heyl vns kommen her
The Gift of Salvation
Salvation is a free gift of grace through the mediation of Jesus Christ.
Salvation has come to us through grace and sheer goodness. Works can never save or protect us; faith looks to Jesus Christ, who has done enough for us all. He has become the mediator.
The Mirror of the Law
The law reveals human sinfulness and inability, serving as a mirror rather than a path to righteousness.
No one could keep what God had commanded in His law. So wrath arose, and with it, overwhelming distress before God in all its many forms. The flesh would not bring forth the spirit that the law demands above all.1 We were completely lost. A false belief had taken hold: that God had given his law as if we were able, by our own freedom, to live according to his will. Instead, it is only a clear mirror that shows us the sinful nature2 hidden within our flesh. Our fallen nature couldn't be cast off by our own strength. Although this was often attempted, sin only increased beyond measure.✦ For the law sternly condemns the hypocrite’s works.3 And the shame of sin has always been inborn in the flesh.✦
Christ's Fulfillment
Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf, satisfying divine wrath and offering life through his death.
Yet the law still had to be fulfilled, or else we would all have been lost. So God sent his Son among us, and he himself became human. He fulfilled the whole law and thereby stilled his Father's wrath— the wrath that had fallen on us all. And now that the law has been fulfilled— by the one who was able to keep it— then learn, devout Christian, what true faith looks like: it's nothing more than this: “My dear Lord, your death will be my life. You’ve paid the price for me.”
The Life of Faith
True faith trusts in God's promise, is sealed in baptism, and naturally bears the fruit of good works.
I have no doubt about this: your word cannot deceive. You say that no one should despair, and you'll never prove false. Whoever believes in me and is baptized—for that person heaven has been purchased, so that he will not be lost. Only the person who embraces this faith is righteous before God; faith itself produces the outward evidence.✦ provided that he doesn't neglect good works.✦ Before God, faith stands secure. Love will do good to your neighbor✦ if you've been born of God.✦ Through the law, sin is recognized. It crushes the conscience, but then the gospel arrives to strengthen the sinner once again. And it says, “Just crawl here to the cross; in the law there’s neither rest nor peace—”4 not through all its works.” Good works certainly flow from genuine faith. If you tried to strip it of works, it wouldn't be genuine faith. Yet faith alone makes us righteous; works are there to serve our neighbor.5 This is how we'll recognize faith.
Patient Hope in God
Believers are called to wait patiently for God's timing, trusting his word even when circumstances seem contrary.
Hope waits for the right time, trusting in what God's word says. God hasn't set a specific day for when that joy will arrive. He knows exactly when the time is best, and he intends no harm toward us. We should trust him with that. Though it may seem as if he won't act, don't let that frighten you. For he chooses not to reveal his help where it would do the most good.6 Let his word be more certain to you. And even if your flesh says a resounding no, still, don't let yourself be afraid.
A Prayer of Praise
The chapter concludes with a doxological prayer echoing the Lord's Prayer, seeking God's grace and glory.
For this goodness, let God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—be praised and honored with the highest praise, for he will fill us with grace. May what he has begun in us bring honor to his majesty.✦ May his name be kept holy.✦ May his kingdom come, and may his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread again today, and be willing to forgive our debts, just as we also forgive those who owe us. Do not leave us in temptation; deliver us from evil.7 Amen.
Read the original Latin
Es ist das heyl vns kommen her / von gnad vnd lautter gute. Die werck die helffen nymmer meer / sie mugen nicht behuten / der glawb sihet Jhesum Christum an / Der hatt gnug fur vns alle gethan. Er ist der mydler worden.
Was Got ym gesetz geboten hat / da man es nicht kund halten. Erhub sych tzorn vnd grosse nott / fur Gott so manichfalte. Vom fleisch woltt nicht eraus der geyst / vom gesetz erfodert allermeyst. Es war mitt vns verloren.
Es war eyn falscher won darbey / Got het seyn gesetz drumb geben. Als ob wir mochten selber frey / nach seynem willen leben. So ist es nur eyn spyegel tzart / der vns tzeigt an dy sundig arth. In vnserm fleisch verborgen.
Nicht muglich war die selbig art / auß eygen krefften lassen. Wiewol es oft versuchet wart / noch mehrt sych sundt on massen. Wann gleyßners werck er hoch verdampt. Vnd ye dez fleisch der sunde schand Allzeyt war angeboren.
Noch must das gesetz erfullet seynn / sonst weren wir all verdorben. Darumb schickt Gott seyn Son hereyn / der selber mensch yst worden / das gantze gesetz hat er erfult / damit seyns vaters tzorn gestylt. Der vber vns gieng alle.
Vnd wenn es nun erfullet yst. Durch den der es kund halten. So lerne yetz eyn fromer Christ / des glawbens rechte gestalte. Nicht meer denn lieber herre meyn / deyn todt wirt mir das leben seyn. Du hast fur mich betzalet.
Daran ich keynen zweyffel trag / dein wort kan nicht betriegen. Nun sagstu das kein mensch vertzag / das wirstu nymmer liegen. Wer glewbt yn mich vnnd wirt getaufft / dem selben yst der hymmel erkaufft. Das er nicht wurd verloren.
Es yst gerecht fur Gott allein / der dysen glawben fasset / der glawb gibt von yhm aus den scheyn. So er die werck nicht lasset. Mit got der glaub ist wol daran. Dem nechsten wirt die lieb guts thun. Bistu aus Gott geboren.
Es wirt die sund durchs gesetz erkant. Vnd schlegt das gwissen nider / das Euangeli kompt zuhandt / Vnd sterckt den sunder widder. Vnd spricht nur kreuch zum Creutz herzu / Im gesetz yst widder rast noch rue. Mit allen seynen wercken.
Die werck die komen gewißlich her / Aus eynem rechten glawben. Wenn das nicht rechter glawben wer Woltst yhn der werck berauben. Doch macht allein der glaub gerecht / die werck die sind des nechsten kneht. Darbey wirn glawben mercken
Die hoffnung wart der rechten zeit / Was gottis wort zu sagen. Wenn das geschehen sol zu freyd / Setzt Gott kein gewissen tage. Er weyß woll wenns am besten yst / Vnd braucht an vns keyn argen lyst. Das soll wir yhm vertrawen.
Ob sychs anließ als wolt er nit / Laß dich es nicht erschrecken. Denn wo er yst am besten mit / da wil ers nicht entdecken. Sein wort das las dir gewisser seyn. Vnd ob dein fleisch sprech lautter nein. So lass doch dir nicht grawet.
Sey lob vnd ehr mit hohem preiß / Vmb dyser gunheyt willen Got vater Son vnd heilgem geyst / der wol mit gnad erfullen. Was er yn vns angfangen hatt / zu eeren seyner maiestat. Das heylig werd seyn nammen
Seyn reich zukum / seyn wil auff erd / Sthe wie ym hymels throne. Das teglich brott noch heutt vns werd / Wöl vnser schult verschonen. Als wir auch vnsern schuldern thun. Mach vns nit in versuchung stan Löss vns vom vbel. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.5.20 — The law came in alongside so that the trespass might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
- ↩Rom.7.17-Rom.7.18 — So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Rom.7.18 — For I know that good does not dwell in me—that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present with me, but the working out of the good is not.
- ↩Rom.3.28;Gal.2.16 — For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Gal.2.16 — yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
- ↩Jas.2.17-Jas.2.18 — So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. Jas.2.18 — But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
- ↩Rom.13.10;Gal.5.6 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Gal.5.6 — For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any power; but only faith working through love.
- ↩1John.4.7 — Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- ↩Phil.1.6 — I am confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
- ↩Matt.6.9;Luke.11.2 — Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Luke.11.2 — He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come."
Notes
- 1 ↩The early German syntax is compressed; the line contrasts resistant human flesh with the spiritual obedience chiefly required by the law.
- 2 ↩Rendered “clear mirror”; the early German adjective “tzart” can suggest something fine or delicate, but here it describes the law’s revealing function.
- 3 ↩The masculine pronoun is rendered as “the law,” supplied from the preceding stanza’s context.
- 4 ↩“Crawl” preserves the source’s vivid image of the stricken sinner approaching the cross in helplessness.
- 5 ↩Rendered “makes us righteous” to preserve the source's theological claim about justification.
- 6 ↩Rendered contextually as “where his help would do the most good”; the early German expression is compressed and may refer more broadly to where God’s hidden action is best.
- 7 ↩Literally, “Do not make/let us stand in temptation”; “do not leave us in temptation” preserves the petition without implying that God tempts anyone.
Erfurt Enchiridion (Early Lutheran Hymns) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing