God gives us powerful gifts in His Word, ones that can be used to openly share His soul-saving news of salvation for all believers. Read an excerpt from Martin Luther’s preachings recorded in Luther’s Works, vol. 72, Disputations I to see what the two most important gifts are and how we, as God’s people, ought to use and celebrate them.
The Lord Gives Us Sacred Theology
I shall give you a mouth and wisdom which they will be unable to withstand or to contradict. [Luke 21:15]
First, Christ promises that He will give a mouth and wisdom. Hereby He commends sacred theology to us so that we know that it is a divine gift, not a matter of philosophy or something discovered by human reason, but something given by the Holy Spirit from heaven above and poured out upon us.…
Indeed, the majority of the human race speaks against it and hates it with a terrible hatred and fury, as Isaiah testifies again: “All day I have stretched out My hand to a faithless people that speaks against Me” [Isa. 65:2; Rom. 10:21]. Herein is set forth for us to behold that stupendous and great miracle: that although nothing is in more common circulation and more exposed to view than sacred theology, like the light of the sun and of the stars which shines through all darkness, nevertheless the darkness does not comprehend it [John 1:5] but rather flees and despises it. This is so that we may truly understand that it is a gift, and not a matter of nature or a good that can be obtained through nature—a gift that is understood only by those to whom it is given so that they may receive it. For the rest, even though it is openly offered, it is so far from being a gift that they believe it to be poison and death for them.…
The Two Gifts Given in Theology
But this is not the place [to discuss] such people at present; let us continue with the word of Christ: “I will give you a mouth and wisdom.” He says that two things are given through theology: a mouth and wisdom. The writings of the Gentiles also praise [these things] and also say that two things are necessary for a good orator: words and substance. Words without substance they judge to be bubbles of water, or whatever could be more vapid still; substance without words they pity and deplore….
Nonetheless, Christ is not speaking here about the splendid eloquence of reason, nor about the faculty of speaking [discussed by the Gentiles], but about the power of the Word—about that power, I say, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, a discerner of hearts, piercing unto the division of soul and spirit [Heb. 4:12], concerning which human eloquence of words with all its pomp and glory neither knows nor understands anything. Otherwise this promised mouth would not be a new gift above nature and the natural mouth. For we have seen and still see the most eloquent men—let us name Erasmus, Sadoleto, Longolius—who, [sometimes], when Christ’s gift of a mouth and wisdom is lacking, treat of theological matters in such a way that, like mere infants and stammerers, they speak nothing but ice and cold. These two things [words and substance] are so closely connected in every public utterance that the poet has rightly said, “Each one requires the help of the other” (Horace, Arts poetica 410, in Loeb 194 [1926], pp. 484–85). About something that is unknown there is no desire—much less, certainly, is there any speaking. For neither Virgil nor Cicero would have been successful in writing an epistle of Paul or the Gospel of John, nor would Paul [have been successful in writing] the Georgics of Virgil or the orations of Cicero. For the mouth and wisdom [required for each] are different.
The Wisdom to Know and the Language to Speak
Therefore, the wisdom promised and given by Christ is a knowledge of things unknown to the world and to reason, that is, of heavenly and spiritual things, and yet—what is marvelous—it is one that dwells and rules in the hearts of men who are of the world and possess reason. Likewise, the mouth promised by Him is a new language and new tongues, and yet they are the native tongues of all nations, as it is written: “There is no language or speech in which their voices are not heard” [Ps. 19:4]. For each one hears the apostles not only speaking in other tongues [Acts 2:6] but also signifying and preaching different and new things which the natural mouth and tongue of speech had neither thought nor heard before. Here “the wavering crowd divides into opposing factions” (Virgil, Aeneid 2.39, in Loeb 63 [1916], pp. 318–19). It grasps the meter, but it does not understand the words which are [not] of human beings, neither is it acquainted with the matter. For [this] wisdom makes new words out of the old because it is not a wisdom born from us but one given from heaven, making all things new and transforming everything.
But the last thing He says is the greatest of all: that no adversary, whether old or new, will be able to resist this new wisdom and eloquence. As Isaiah says, “No implement made against you will accomplish its purpose” [Isa. 54:17]. And Psalm 1: “Everything he does shall prosper” [v. 3]. And yet not a few not only resist but also overcome them. But this victory of theirs is a passing bubble—or, rather, it is an eternal defeat and irremediable loss. But they are unable to resist the Spirit [and] wisdom which is speaking [Acts 6:10]; otherwise who would be willing to endure such hatred from the devil and the whole world for the sake of this wisdom, or [to endure] sin itself in our flesh, the most implacable enemy and most bitter and untiring opponent of our conscience, and, finally, [to endure] death itself, if this wisdom did not make us certain and vivify us with its own potent mouth—certain that we are victorious over all our adversaries. For it has a learned tongue (as Isaiah [50:4] says), by which it is able to sustain the fallen with a word; it has the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which with confidence cries, “Abba! Father!” [Gal. 4:6].
By this crying Spirit and sustaining word, the weak speak just as the prophets speak. And the weak man says, “I am strong” [Joel 3:10], and with Paul: “I can do all things in Him who comforts me” [Phil. 4:13]. But our mouth is not powerful and our wisdom victorious only because it makes us bound in conscience and certain of victory, but it also at last so compels and crushes the adversaries themselves that, having been convinced in their own conscience, they are forced to say, “This is the finger of God” [Exod. 8:19; Luke 11:20]; and again: “Never did a human being speak thus” [John 7:46].… May we be satisfied with this most powerful, mighty, sweet wisdom by which we are given victory by God, the Father of all victory, blessed forever. Amen.
Adapted from Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 72, Disputations I, ed. and trans. Christopher Boyd Brown (Concordia Publishing House, 2025), 511–15. All rights reserved.
Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1912–).
Read more from Martin Luther’s preachings with your own volume of Luther’s Works, vol. 72, Disputations I.
