Deaf Ears to the Law

Blessed is the man who...amid the struggle of conscience...is able to say, when sin overwhelms him and the Law accuses and terrifies him: What is it to me that you, Law, charge me with guilt, that you convince me of having committed many sins? I do indeed daily commit many. This does not concern me. I am deaf now. I do not hear you. You are, therefore, telling a tale to one who is deaf; for I am dead to you. But if you insist on disputing with me about sins, then go to my flesh and my member, my servants. Instruct, weary, and crucify them. But on my conscience, my master and king, you shall not be a burden; for I have nothing to do with you, because I am dead to you and now live to Christ. There I move in a different law, and the law of grace which rules over sin and the Law. Whereby? Through faith in Christ.

Source: Quoted in Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, A Practical In-home Theology for the Active Christian. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1959 Edition, 10th Printing (1994), p. 338.