Theology of Martin Luther

In the middle of the 1300s, the religious atmosphere during in this time as pertaining to popular piety as well as the official teaching of the church evoked an increased fear of death as clergy portrayed God as extremely vengeful. Christ was pictured more so as a supreme severe Judge rather than a merciful Savoir. 

The existing Gospel of salvation in this time age evolved from the church’s high view on sacraments wherein grace was dispensed by the Church. God’s forgiveness for sins, for example, was believed to be obtainable only through the sacrament of penance administered by priests. In connection with the sacrament of penance, there was the church-authorized selling of indulgences that could be substituted for the third part of penance.

The prevalent ignorance of many led people to believe that they could purchase forgiveness of their sins. This is the primary factor that ignited Martin Luther’s rebellion against the papacy. In response to the abuses of selling indulgences as well as the practices that emerged from it that for Luther has no clear biblical warrants, he nailed his The Ninety-Five Theses at the door of Wittenberg Church in 1517 that was rebutted by Sylverster Prierias in defense of the Papacy in 1518.

Martin Luther’s theses had also outraged the Cardinal Cajetan of Augsburg, who clearly pointed out that Luther’s main contention was to where to put authority in matters of Christian doctrines and practice. In 1520, Luther was threatened by a papal bull of excommunication. The Reformer was inspired to write his magnum opus in response to the major issues that the established Church and state at large had faced due to his adamant protest against ecclesiastical abuses. In one year, he was able to write five treatises, one of them The Freedom of a Christian.

In this treatise, Martin Luther starts with his biblical anthropology explaining that a human being is a dichotomy of two nature-the inner person and the outer person. Luther believes that the human’s spiritual nature or the soul refers to “inner” or “new” person while when we speak of the bodily nature, this refers to the “sensual,” “outward”, or “old” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

For the inner person, the soul needs only things: the word of God. To Luther, the word of God is the gospel of God concerning his Son, who was made flesh, suffered, rose from the dead, and glorified through the Spirit who makes us holy.

To preach Christ means to feed the soul, make it righteous, set it free and save it, provided the preaching is believed. For faith alone is the saving and efficacious use of the word of God (Romans 10:9), was we confess it with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

This faith that justifies us is faith in Christ and, hence, we are justified by His merits, namely Christ alone (Romans 1:17, 3:10-12, 10:4). The word of God cannot be received or honored by any works but must be grasped by faith alone.

Applying this to the inner person, according to Luther it is only possible for this faith to rule in the inner person as Paul says in Romans 10:10, “for one believers with the heart and so is justified.”

But if we have been justified by faith in Christ alone, what then is the use of the written Scriptures? It should be pointed out that the entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts: commands and promises.

The function of commands is to show us what we ought to do, but they do not give us the power to do it. They make us aware to know ourselves, our inability to do good perfectly, and our sinfulness. The hope of salvation is in the promises of God where the glory of God invites us that if you wish to fulfill the law and not covet, as the law demands, then come believe in Christ in whom grace is promised to you.

He teaches that there is a threefold power of faith that justified: First, it frees us from the law that requires perfection from us that we failed to do and points us to Christ who perfectly obeyed the law and by putting our trust in Christ we are counted righteous. Those who seek to be justified by the law then must obey the law perfectly, which is a futile attempt since all humans have sinned.

Second, faith honors God. Martin Luther explains that faith functions in justification as it honors the one it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard. It is the highest worship of God to ascribe to him truthfulness, righteousness. Understanding Luther’s soteriology exposes the malady of those who boast that they need to work out the justification by adding good works to their faith then do not give God the utmost glory since they have a counterpart in their salvation.

Third, faith unites the soul with Christ. Luther had used the metaphor in Ephesians 5: 32 that portrays Christians or the church as Bride and Christ the bridegroom. Luther further explains that Christ is full of grace, life and salvation while the soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. But when faith enters the picture and sins, death damnation are Christ’s while grace life and salvation will be the soul’s.

Now after expounding on the inner person, how about the outer person? A Christian is servant of all and made subject to all. Insofar as Christian is free, no works are necessary. Insofar as a Christian is a servant, all kinds of works are done. Since by faith the soul is made pure and enabled to love God, it wants all things-the body in particular- join it in loving and praising God. Thus we cannot be idle. The needs of the body compel us to do many good works in order to bring it under control (1 Corinthians 9:27; Galatians 5: 24).

In true Christian life, one where faith is active in love we do not live in ourselves but in   Christ and as well as love for our neighbor (Gal. 5: 6).

The significance of Martin Luther’s rediscovery through his biblical exegesis of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone is in direct opposition to the prevalent belief during the Medieval Era.

The official teaching of the Church on salvation was influenced or grounded on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham. Under their economy of salvation, our free wills then had to cooperate with grace to do works necessary to be justified.

Martin Luther through his treatise opposed such teaching as unbiblical and does not render God the ultimate honor and glory as the sole source of salvation. Based on his studies on the Scriptures, for Luther faith or trust alone makes us right with God. Guided by his strong conviction that believers are justified by grace through faith alone.

Hence, works do not justify or merit salvation. Luther opposed the selling of indulgences as means of justification. The crux of the matter concerning authentic righteousness in the Christian life has been resolved and make clear as Luther declares that we are made righteous in God by justification by faith alone. Thus he stressed that faith of the heart is the source and substance of all our righteousness.

This doctrine strikes the very foundation of the Roman Church. Here lies the Christian freedom being justified by faith meaning, a human being does not need good work to earn salvation. Hence, He is lord of all completely free of everything yet as he is a servant called to minister belonging to the royal priesthood of Christ, he is completely attentive to the needs of all.

The retrieval of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone becomes a liberating power of the Reformation movement through Protestantism. It had turned the entire Christendom upside down both in Christian theology and praxis.  

By: Victor Aung Thu Lin

References:

1.      Guzman F. R. Noel. Martin Luther’s Ethics of Creation a Morality of Nature. Ph.D Diss, Boston, Boston University, 2006

2.      Althaus,   Paul. The Ethics of Martin Luther. Translated by Robert C. Schultz. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972.

_____. The Theology of Martin Luther. Translated by Robert C. Schultz. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966.