Lazarus Spengler (1479-1534) was a layman who served as secretary of the city council in Nürnberg from 1507. Friends of Luther, including Johannes von Staupitz, drew him to the Wittenberg Reformation, and his hymn "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt" appeared in Johann Walter's hymnal of 1524. It is a sung commentary on Romans 5:12-21, written a year before Luther published On the Bound Choice, and it confesses the same bondage of the will. The Formula of Concord quotes its opening line in Article I on original sin, a sign of how widely the hymn was known and respected. Spengler wrote nine long stanzas in a difficult rhyme scheme. Matthias Loy of the Ohio Synod condensed them into shorter English stanzas in 1880, and an unnamed writer added another for The Lutheran Hymnal in 1941. The hymn moves from the first Adam, in whom all are condemned, to Christ the Second Adam, whose grace gives "new light, new hope, new strength." That turn matches the day's readings: Jesus demands a righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), and Paul announces that the baptized have died and risen with Christ (Romans 6:3-11).
Sung at Our Saviour
2026