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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: cannot endure. For if this teaching were right [approved],
then Christ has died in vain, since there is in man no defect
nor sin for which he should have died; or He would have died
only for the body, not for the soul, inasmuch as the soul is
[entirely] sound, and the body only is subject to death.
II. Of the Law
Here we hold that the Law was given by God, first, to restrain
sin by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise
and offer of grace and benefit. But all this miscarried on
account of the wickedness which sin has wrought in man. For
thereby a part [some] were rendered worse, those, namely, who
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