Sermon on Threefold Righteousness

This is a sermon given by Luther in Wittenberg (probably 1518), and outlines a three-fold division of sin, along with a corresponding division of righteousness. The first division of sin is criminal "deadly sin" which runs contrary to civil law and societal order – that is "apparent righteousness", which can often be prideful, hypocritical and self-serving. The second division is "essential (or original) sin", which is contrary to, and remedied by, the righteousness of Christ. The third division is "actual (personal) sin", which is contrary to actual righteousness, and which stems from faith and divine righteousness. The first division has been considered a relic of an older pre-Reformation conception of righteousness, and was eliminated one year when later Luther gave the sermon "On Two-fold Righteousness", a doctrine which became essential to Lutheranism and was incorporated into the Formula of Concord