Yet we have no doubt that we fail. We feel that failure in our battle against the sinful flesh every day; pulled as we are between the first Adam and the second Adam, Christ our Lord. We feel the tug of temptation as long as we live in the flesh, for sin and depravity adhere to our constantly crucified flesh. When we fail, we do so not intentionally, but as a failure that we lament and heartily repent. There will always be temptation to sin, we will fall into it, but it will not rule over us (Rm 6:14). This is why we Christians pray the Lord's Prayer every day: "Forgive us our trespasses." If we did not have the Holy Spirit, sin would not be a failure, but a success and it would never occasion any godly repentance, it would never drive us to our knees in contrite prayer. The Spirit succeeds because sin remains our failure. He comes to convince of sin (Jn 16:8).

The world does not cease persecuting the church and her children, and does so by pointing out not only the weakness of her children but also the ordinariness of the church's piety. Her piety is shaped by the Ten Commandments. She has no piety other than those things commanded by God. What is more pious than a right faith, right worship of God, obedience to earthly authorities, service to the neighbor's body, goods, and reputation? Yet, the world mocks these as insignificant; after all, "anyone can do them." They are the works of good order and social structure. Christianity, if it is to be a religion of works and perfection, must strive for glorious and glittering works, not the mundane works commanded by God in the Ten Commandments. But our Lord expects us to live our lives in the mundane, while we are on earth. We do not live by works in God's presence, but by faith. We cannot ascend into heaven to offer our works there (Jn 1:18). They must be offered here and be of use to those on earth. Since our works gain no merit with God, they can only be offered here and are best offered here.

"We exert ourselves toward piety and avoid sin as much as we can. If we sin, it is not deliberate; we sin through ignorance, and we regret it. We can fall, for the devil is lying in wait for us day and night. The remnants of sin also cling to our flesh. So far as the flesh is concerned, then, we are sinners even after we have received the Holy Spirit. Externally there is not much difference between the Christian and another socially upright human being. The works of the Christian appear cheap: He does his duty according to his calling; he rules the commonwealth; he runs the household; he tills the field; he helps, supports, and serves his neighbor. The fleshly man does not praise these works but thinks of them as common and as nothing, as something that laymen and even heathen do. For the world does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God (1Co 2:14); therefore it forms a distorted judgment of the works of the pious. It not only admires the superstition of the hypocrites and their self-chosen works but takes a religious attitude toward them and supports them with generous gifts. On the other hand, it is so far from acknowledging that the works of the pious are good, which appear cheap and meager, but are good and acceptable to God when they are done in faith, a joyful spirit, obedience, and gratitude toward God, that it denounces and condemns them as the height of wickedness and unrighteousness. Therefore there is nothing that the world believes less than that we have the Holy Spirit. But in a time of tribulation or of the cross and the confession of faith (which is the proper and chief work of believers), when one must either forsake wife, children, property, and life or deny Christ, then it becomes evident that by the power of the Holy Spirit we confess the faith, Christ, and His Word."