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CHRIST ALONE:
LUTHER ON CHRIST, THE SACRAMENTS,
AND THE CHURCH
When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses for public debate among scholars at the University of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, he was still an unknown Augustinian monk who had not yet recovered the gospel from the Scriptures. But already, in various theses he anticipated interests that would grow and clarify for him over time. For instance, thesis 32: “They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure 1 In this thesis, he writes of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.” of the salvation that he would later understand clearly in terms of the work of Christ, of the indulgences that were a corrupt outgrowth of medieval abuses of the sacraments, and of the teachers who as leaders in the church were leading Christians seriously astray. In this chapter, we will look at the mature thought of Luther on Christ, the sacraments, and the church.
Christ
Luther recovered for the church from the Bible the centrality of the person and work of Christ in redemption. He stripped away various medieval errors and accretions so that Christ shone clearly as the light of the world. His writing on the work of Christ was often remarkably simple and brief. He especially highlighted that Christ had accomplished all that was needed for the salvation of His people in His life, death, and resurrection. For example, Luther wrote in 1522: “Therefore one must teach as follows: ‘Behold, Christ died for you! He took sin, death, and hell upon Himself and submitted Himself. But nothing could subdue Him, for He was too strong; He rose from the dead, was completely victorious, and subjected everything to Himself. And He did all this in order that you might be free from it and lord over it. If you believe this, you have it.’” Similarly, he taught in his Large Catechism (1529):
There was no counsel, no help, no comfort for us until this only and eternal Son of God, in his unfathomable goodness, had mercy on our misery and wretchedness and came from heaven to help us… Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and righteousness and every good and blessing.
He has snatched us, poor lost creatures, from the jaws of hell, won us, made us free, and restored us to the Father’s favor and grace … he who has brought us back from the devil to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and now keeps us safe there.
In very consistent terms, Luther wrote later in On the Councils and theChurch(1539): “Christ, who is a king of righteousness in us through his precious blood, death, and resurrection, with which he blotted out our sin for us, made satisfaction, reconciled God, and redeemed us from death, wrath, and 4 Jesus is truly the complete redeemer, saving His own from death, the hell.” devil, and the Father’s wrath, and bringing to them life, forgiveness, and righteousness.
Luther stressed that the work of Christ was the foundation of the certainty and dependability of the promises of Jesus. As he had struggled with terrible temptations as a monk and found peace with God in the promises of the Word, so he wanted everyone to experience that peace. He taught that salvation came to everyone who trusted the promises of Jesus. He wanted to make clear that the promise and the presence of Jesus are objectively true and available even where there is no faith. Faith does not create the promise or make Jesus the Savior; rather, faith simply rests on the saving Jesus.
The Work of Christ and the Will of the Father Luther often made his thought on the work of Christ clearer as he related it 5 He to the will of the Father and to the preaching of the law and the gospel. insisted that the love and saving purpose that we see in the work of Jesus reveals and expresses precisely the love and purpose of the Father:
The first thing you see in this Person of Christ is that He does not look at anyone with a sour face, treat anyone in an unfriendly manner, or frighten and drive anyone away from Him; He invites and draws all men to Him in the kindliest manner, both with His words and with His bearing. He shows Himself as a servant who wants to help everybody.
Furthermore, He lets Himself be crucified for you and freely sheds His blood. All this you see with your eyes; and with your ears you hear nothing but friendly, sweet, and comforting words, such as: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1); “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden” (Matt. 11:28); “Whoever believes in Me shall not be lost, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), etc., etc. The Gospel of St. John is full of such verses. From this you can infer with certainty that He is not hostile to you but wants to show you all grace and goodness. Cling to this; hold firmly to it; do not permit your eyes and your thoughts to stray beyond this; and let nothing else that occurs to you lead you off the right path.
And as you now hear and see Christ revealing Himself to you, you can rest assured that the Father is disposed toward you in like manner….
Christ states: “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority,” but they are the Father’s words. And at another place we read (John 6:40): “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life.” He who grasps this in faith cannot think that God is angry with him or will reject and condemn him. For here there is neither a word nor a sign of disfavor, but only friendly, gracious words, a loving and kind look, in short, sheer fervor and ardor of ineffable, fatherly, and sincere love.
Luther fervently called everyone to look to Jesus and to find the mercy of the Father rich and abundant in Him. He did not want anyone to doubt the willingness of God to save all who come to Jesus. The Father and the Son are so united in purpose that the Christian need never worry that the will of the Father is any different from the words and promises of the Son.
The Work of Christ in the Preaching of the Law and the Gospel For Luther, the work of Christ came to sinners outwardly in God’s institutions and inwardly by the Holy Spirit and faith. Both the outward and the inward were necessary. He wrote:
Now when God sends forth his holy gospel he deals with us in a twofold manner, first outwardly, then inwardly. Outwardly he deals with us through the oral word of the gospel and through material signs, that is, baptism and the sacrament of the altar. Inwardly he deals with us through the Holy Spirit, faith, and other gifts. But whatever their measure or order the outward factors should and must precede. The inward experience follows and is effected by the outward. For he wants to give no one the Spirit or faith outside of the outward Word and sign instituted by him, as he says in Luke 16[:29], “Let them hear Moses and the prophets.” Accordingly Paul can call baptism a “washing of regeneration” wherein God “richly pours out the Holy Spirit” [Titus 3:5]. And the oral gospel “is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith” (Rom. 1[:16]).
The Christian must give priority to the outward institutions of the Word, both in preaching and in the sacraments. As God came to us in the incarnation, so He continues to come through outward means to accomplish His purpose. They are the means that God has appointed and through which He works by His Spirit.
Luther always stressed that we find God in His institutions, His appointed means, not in our creations or our experiences. We must use God’s ways to come to Him. Luther rejected the inventions of Rome and the claims of the Spirit’s revelations among the Anabaptists. Only the institutions established in the Bible connect us to Jesus. Luther boldly declared that he would rather have Jesus present in the preaching of the Word than in person: “Thus He comes to us through the gospel. Yes, it is far better that he comes through the gospel than that he would now enter in through the door; for you would not even know him even though he came in. If you believe then you have; if you do not believe then you do not have.”
For Luther, true preaching must always have two elements: the law and the gospel. We cannot know God or ourselves without these two truths. Of the law in preaching, he wrote: “The Law only shows sin, terrifies, and humbles; thus it 9 The law must be preached prepares us for justification and drives us to Christ.” regularly to God’s people who never outgrow their need of its humbling work. Luther insisted:
To those who are smug and have altogether discarded the fear of God, God’s blows and wrath must be presented in order that they may be warned by the example of others and cease to sin…. Therefore those who, influenced by I know not what reasons, maintain that the Law should not be preached in the church are pernicious teachers. Would you actually not teach the Law where there is a real people of the Law, namely, the greedy, the proud, adulterers, usurers, idolaters, etc.? Would you use the promises of the New Testament to increase the smugness of those who were smug before? Indeed, God wants the destruction of Sodom by fire and that lake of asphalt to be conspicuous to this day and to be spoken of in sermons and made known among all posterity, in order that at least some may be reformed and may learn to fear God….
Today you may encounter many who are offended by the necessary preaching of the Law and shun it, for they maintain that their consciences are burdened when they hear that sort of thing. But are they not fine Christians? They do not give up sinning; they are addicted to greed, to wrath, to lust, to reveling, etc. When they hear these sins censured, they are offended and do not want their consciences burdened.
Shall we for this reason let everyone do what he pleases and declare him blessed? Not at all; for you hear that the destruction of Sodom by fire is to be set before all succeeding generations and indeed before the very church of God, in order that men may learn to fear God.
11 that must be used to smash smugness Luther called the law a “hammer” and indifference.
While Luther stressed the condemning function of the law as primary, he was no antinomian. Rather, he expected that those who were carefully instructed in the law and who fled for refuge to Christ would live lives of love and real good works, not works invented to please human notions of ascetic holiness:
Paul is an outstanding interpreter of the commandments of God. For he compresses all of Moses into a very brief summary and shows that in all his laws, which are almost endless, nothing is contained except this very brief word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Reason, of course, is offended at this stinginess and paucity of words, when it is stated so briefly “Believe in Christ” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Therefore it despises both the doctrine of faith and the doctrine of truly good works. To those who have faith, however, this stingy and paltry phrase “Believe in Christ” is the power of God (Rom. 1:16), by which they overcome sin, death, and the devil, and obtain salvation. So also serving another person through love seems to reason to mean performing unimportant works such as the following: teaching the erring; comforting the afflicted; encouraging the weak; helping the neighbor in whatever way one can; bearing with his rude manners and impoliteness; putting up with annoyances, labors, and the ingratitude and contempt of men in both church and state; obeying the magistrates; treating one’s parents with respect; being patient in the home with a cranky wife and an unmanageable family, and the like. But believe me, these works are so outstanding and brilliant that the whole world cannot comprehend their usefulness and worth; indeed, it cannot estimate the value of even one tiny truly good work, because it does not measure works or anything else on the basis of the Word of God but on the basis of a reason that is wicked, blind, and foolish.
Luther was strong and clear that the law teaches us that Christians must love their neighbor. He certainly taught a third use of the law. We will return to Luther’s third use of the law in more detail later in considering his doctrine of the church.
When the law has been preached to crush all self-righteousness in sinners, then the gospel must be presented. The two are necessary, but must be sharply distinguished. The true preachers and the true Christians are the ones who know the law and the gospel and know when and how to apply each to the Christian’s conscience. He wrote:
Both the Law and the Gospel must be taught and considered. It is a mistake to confine yourself to one of the two. The Law serves no other purpose than to create a thirst and to frighten the heart. The Gospel alone satisfies the thirst, makes us cheerful, and revives and consoles the conscience. Lest the teaching of the Gospel create lazy, gluttonous Christians who think they need not perform good works, the Law tells the old Adam: “Refrain from sin! Be pious! Desist from this, and do that!” Then, when the conscience becomes depressed and realizes that the Law is not a mere cipher, man becomes frightened. And then he must give ear to the voice of the Gospel. When you have sinned hearken to the Teacher, Christ who says: “Come to Me! I will not let you die of thirst but will give you drink.”
For Luther, the gospel is purely and simply the promise of forgiveness through the work of Jesus: “Thus when I hear that Jesus Christ died, took away my sin, gained heaven for me, and gave me all that He has, I am hearing the 14 To hear the gospel is to hear Jesus, who in the gospel is present to Gospel.” save.
Christians always need to hear the gospel because they are always in need of forgiveness:
Further we believe that in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire Gospel. Toward forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments and, in short, the entire Gospel and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly.
The forgiveness that we constantly need was for Luther the great message and gift of the preaching of the gospel and of the gospel sacraments.
Sacraments
For Luther, as Christ is present to save in the preaching of the gospel, so Jesus is present in the same way in the sacraments. Much of Luther’s energy went to defining and defending the sacraments as real means by which Jesus is present for and a blessing to His people. Luther was often misunderstood by other Protestants on this point, as if his view of the sacraments were magical, superstitious, or divorced from faith. He insisted that God always uses material things to administer His blessings and that the sacraments are a certain, reliable statement of the gospel as a visible Word. He wrote: “Because it is one thing if God is present, and another if He is present for you. He is there for you when He 16 For adds His Word and binds Himself, saying, ‘Here you are to find me.’” Luther, Jesus had bound Himself to be found in the sacraments. Those who mocked or minimized the sacraments mocked God and did not understand His ways. He insisted: “Our fanatics, however, are full of fraud and humbug. They think nothing spiritual can be present where there is anything material and physical, and assert that flesh is of no avail. Actually the opposite is true. The Spirit cannot be with us except in material and physical things such as the Word, water, and Christ’s body and in his saints on earth.”
Luther rejected all mechanical or magical ideas of the sacraments, but he was adamant that they be understood as real ways in which Christ is present. The sacraments are Christ’s institutions, and He is present in them regardless of whether anyone receives them in faith. Faith does not make a sacrament; God does. It is for that reason that Luther spoke so strongly about the power of the sacraments.
Baptism Luther stressed the objective promise of Christ contained in baptism: “To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by men but by God himself.” Further, “In Baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and to practice all his life. He always has enough to do to believe firmly what Baptism promises and brings—victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with his gifts. In short, the blessings of Baptism are so boundless that if timid nature considers them, it may well 19 Specifically, he wrote of the blessing of doubt whether they could all be true.” baptism: “To appreciate and use Baptism aright, we must draw strength and comfort from it when our sins or conscience oppress us, and we must retort, ‘But I am baptized! And if I am baptized, I have the promise that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.’” At the same time, Luther insisted that faith must receive the sacrament for it to be saving. He wrote:
True, one should add faith to baptism. But we are not to base baptism on faith…. Whoever allows himself to be baptized on the strength of his faith, is not only uncertain, but also an idolater who denies Christ…. But a baptism on the Word and command of God even when faith is not present is still a correct and certain baptism if it takes place as God commanded. Granted, it is not of benefit to the baptized one who is without faith, because of his lack of faith, but the baptism is not thereby incorrect, uncertain, or of no meaning.
Baptism actually has no saving benefit to the individual unless it is received in faith.
The Lord’s Supper In his own day, Luther found himself attacked by Roman Catholics, by Anabaptists, and by some Protestants for his teaching on the Lord’s Supper. Luther insisted that he simply taught and believed what he found in the Bible. He summarized his teaching in this way:
Now, what is the Sacrament of the Altar? Answer: It is the true body and blood of the Lord Christ in and under the bread and wine which we Christians are commanded by Christ’s word to eat and drink…. It is true, indeed, that if you take the Word away from the elements or view them apart from the Word, you have nothing but ordinary bread and wine. But if the words remain, as is right and necessary, then in virtue of them they are truly the body and blood of Christ…. No matter whether you are unworthy or worthy, you here have Christ’s body and blood by virtue of these words which are coupled with the bread and wine.
The fruit of the presence and promise of Christ in the supper was clear for Luther: “In other words, we go to the sacrament because we receive there a great treasure, through and in which we obtain the forgiveness of sins…. Therefore, it is appropriately called the food of the soul since it nourishes and strengthens the new man.”
Luther fervently maintained the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper against all opposition:
Here again our clever spirits contort themselves with their great learning and wisdom, bellowing and blustering, “How can bread and wine forgive sins or strengthen faith?” Yet they know that we do not claim this of bread and wine—since in itself bread is bread— but of that bread and wine which are Christ’s body and blood and with which the words are coupled. These and no other, we say, are the treasure through which forgiveness is obtained. This treasure is conveyed and communicated to us in no other way than through the words, “given and poured out for you.” Here you have both truths, that it is Christ’s body and blood and that these are yours as your treasure and gift. Christ’s body can never be an unfruitful, vain thing, impotent and useless. Yet, however great the treasure may be in itself, it must be comprehended in the Word and offered to us through the Word, otherwise we could never know of it or seek it.
Luther always insisted that the Word and the sacraments must be kept together as to their realities and their effects because they were both the saving institutions of God.
Yet again, Luther was clear that only the believer receives the blessing of Christ promised in the supper: “It is he who believes what the words say and what they give, for they are not spoken or preached to stone and wood but to those who hear them, those to whom Christ says, ‘Take and eat,’ etc. And because he offers and promises forgiveness of sins, it cannot be received except by faith…. But he who does believe has nothing, for he lets this gracious blessing be offered to him in vain and refuses to enjoy it.”
As Luther insisted on the outward means of grace, so he also insisted on the inward ways of God, particularly the Holy Spirit and faith. The Holy Spirit graciously works faith in the heart of God’s elect through the Word. The inward work of the Spirit to give the gift of faith was central to Luther. He wrote, “In the Word comes the Spirit, and gives faith where and to whom He will,” and again, “God gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith where and when He will in those who hear the Gospel.”
The Church
As a priest, monk, and professor in 1517, Luther faced a church that was amazingly complex. The varieties of its institutions, offices, and activities seemed almost endless. To oversimplify, parishes, cathedrals, shrines, chapels, monastic establishments, schools, and charities were served and supervised by deacons, priests, ordained and lay monks, bishops, cardinals, and the pope. As Luther’s knowledge of the Bible and his reforming vision grew, he became convinced that the church Christ had established was, in contrast, a simple reality. As early as 1522, he wrote:
The belly-preachers have also perverted the precious words “holy” and “spiritual” for us; they have called their priestly and monastic estate holy and spiritual…. They have done the same thing with the name “church” by asserting that the pope and the bishops are the church. When they wilfully do what they please, they say that the church has commanded it.
Holiness does not consist in being a monk, priest, or nun, in wearing tonsures and cowls. It is a spiritual word which states that inwardly we are sincerely holy in the spirit before God. And his [Peter’s] real reason for making this statement was to point out that nothing is holy but the holiness that God works in us.
He gave a full statement of his doctrine of the church in his 1539 treatise Onthe Councils and the Church, his response to the pope’s summons of an ecumenical council to consider proposals for reform in the church.
In this treatise, Luther first discusses the history of ecumenical councils and their proper work. He concludes that however valuable ancient councils were, they could not rival the Scriptures for the clarity or completeness of their teaching of Christian truth: “In summary, put them all together, both fathers and councils, and you still will not be able to cull from them all the teachings of the Christian faith, even if you culled forever. If it had not been for Holy Scripture, the church, had it depended on the councils and fathers, would not have lasted long.”
Next, Luther turns to the real character of the church. For him, the church is essentially the life and ministry of the local congregation: “Now, wherever you hear or see this word preached, believed, professed, and lived, do not doubt that the true ecclesia sancta catholica, ‘a Christian holy people’ must be there, even 29 Luther expands on this basic though their number is very small.” understanding of the church in answering a most basic question for Christians: “But how will or how can a poor confused person tell where such Christian holy 30 As Christians found themselves living in people are to be found in this world?” a world with two competing claimants to the title of the true church, they faced the question as to how they could tell which was the real church of Christ. Luther presented several characteristics that Christians should look for in order to recognize the church. His discussion, interestingly, paralleled Reformed considerations of the marks of the church. But Luther was presenting more than marks. His full discussion really explicated his doctrine of the church, particularly through seven elements of its visible life.
The Word“First, the holy Christian people are recognized by their possession of the 31 Luther always returned to the foundational importance of holy word of God.” the Scriptures and the gospel in his approach to any doctrinal question. The church must have and cherish the revelation of God. “And even if there were no other sign than this alone, it would still suffice to prove that a Christian, holy people must exist there, for God’s word cannot be without God’s people, and conversely, God’s people cannot be without God’s word.”
Baptism“Second, God’s people or the Christian holy people are recognized by the holy sacrament of baptism, wherever it is taught, believed, and administered 33 The church possessed and correctly according to Christ’s ordinance.” administered the sacrament of baptism as taught in the Bible, a visible expression of the gospel.
The Lord’s Supper“Third, God’s people, or Christian holy people, are recognized by the holy sacrament of the altar, wherever it is rightly administered, believed, and received, according to Christ’s institution. This too is a public sign and a precious, holy possession left behind by Christ by which his people are sanctified so that they also exercise themselves in faith and openly confess that 34 Again, the they are Christian, just as they do with the word and baptism.” sacrament of the Lord’s Supper must be treasured by the church as Christ has taught it in the Bible.
Discipline“Fourth, God’s people or holy Christians are recognized by the office of the keys exercised publicly. That is, as Christ decrees in Matthew 18[:15– 20], if a Christians sins, he should be reproved; and if he does not mend his ways, he should be bound in his sin and cast out. If he does mend his ways, he should be 35 For Luther, the real church exercised absolved. That is the office of the keys.” discipline over its members. This element of Luther’s understanding has often been missed, but he was crystal clear about it.
Biblical Offices“Fifth, the church is recognized externally by the fact that it consecrates or 36 Luther recognized that calls ministers, or has offices that it is to administer.” the Bible established office in the church—not the sacral caste of priests—but the minister who faithfully preached the Word and administered the sacraments.
Luther’s focus on the simplicity and importance of the congregation came to quite radical expression, for his day, in his belief that in principle the congregation has the right to call its own minister. As early as 1523, he had written a treatise titled That a Christian Assembly or Congregation Has theRight and Power to Judge All Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss 37 Ministers were not a Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture. mysterious order created and imposed by a hierarchy, but were to emerge from the congregation.
Worship“Sixth, the holy Christian people are externally recognized by prayer, public praise, and thanksgiving to God. Where you see and hear the Lord’s Prayer prayed and taught; or psalms or other spiritual songs sung, in accordance with the word of God and the true faith; also the creed, the Ten Commandments, and the catechism used in public, you may rest assured that a holy Christian people 38 The church was visible in its simple, Word-centered of God are present.” worship.
Suffering“Seventh, the holy Christian people are externally recognized by the possession of the sacred cross. They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the devil, the world, and the 39 Since the servant was not greater than the master, as Jesus had taught, flesh.” the church would suffer in this world as it served Christ faithfully.
Luther derived these seven points from the first table of the Ten Commandments and recognized that, though these elements were never perfect in the church, they were truly present: “These are the true seven principal parts of the great holy possession whereby the Holy Spirit effects in us a daily sanctification and vivification in Christ, according to the first table of Moses. By this we obey it, albeit never as perfectly as Christ. But we constantly strive to attain the goal, under his redemption or remission of sin, until we too shall one day become perfectly holy and no longer stand in need of forgiveness.”
These seven characteristics were only the beginning of what could be said about the church. He said:
In addition to these seven principal parts there are other outward signs that identify the Christian church, namely, those signs whereby the Holy Spirit sanctifies us according to the second table of Moses…. We need the Decalogue not only to apprise us of our lawful obligations, but we also need it to discern how far the Holy Spirit has advanced us in his work of sanctification and by how much we still fall short of the goal, lest we become secure and imagine that we have now done all that is required. Thus we must constantly grow in sanctification and always become new creatures in Christ!
Luther taught the positive value of the law in a clear and remarkable way in this treatise. As Luther wrote in 1539, he was not only concerned to refute the Roman understanding of the church, but also to respond to the false teaching of antinomianism in his own ranks. He was as strong in rejecting the antinomians as in rejecting the pope. He stated powerfully that the Holy Spirit truly sanctified Christ’s people:
The Christians, however, are a people with a special call and are therefore called not just ecclesia, “church,” or “people,” but sanctacatholica Christiana, that is, “a holy Christian people” who believe in Christ. That is why they are called a Christian people and have the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies them daily, not only through the forgiveness of sin acquired for them through Christ (as the Antinomians foolishly believe), but also through the abolition, the purging, and the mortification of sins, on the basis of which they are called a holy people… there is always a holy Christian people on earth, in whom Christ lives, works, and rules, per redemptionem,“through grace and the remission of sin,” and the Holy Spirit, vivificationem et sanctificationem, “through daily purging of sin and renewal of life,” so that we do not remain in sin but are enabled and obliged to lead a new life, abounding in all kinds of good works, as the Ten Commandments or the two tables of Moses’ law command, and not in old, evil works.
He made particularly clear the importance of the Ten Commandments for the Christian life:
For they [the Antinomians], having rejected and being unable to understand the Ten Commandments, preach much about the grace of Christ, yet they strengthen and comfort only those who remain in their sins, telling them not to fear and be terrified by sins, since they are all removed by Christ. They see and yet they let the people go on in their public sins, without any renewal or reformation of their lives. Thus it becomes quite evident that they truly fail to understand the faith and Christ, and thereby abrogate both when they preach about it. How can he speak lightly about the works of the Holy Spirit in the first table—about comfort, grace, forgiveness of sins—who does not heed or practice the works of the Holy Spirit in the second table, which he can understand and experience, while he has never attempted or experienced those of the first table?
Luther’s commitment to the necessity of holiness in the life of the Christian was not something new in the face of the antinomian controversy. In 1522, for example, he had clearly taught about “genuine and true faith”: “It must not be an indolent and sleepy faith and only a dream. No, it must be a living and active thing, so that one devotes oneself to it with all confidence and clings to the Word, no matter what happens, in order that we may press forward through 44 He also wrote then, “Therefore since the Lord Christ fortune and misfortune.” is now completely yours through faith, and you have received salvation and all His blessings, you must henceforth let it be your concern to cast off all wickedness, or all that is evil, and all guile.”
Conclusion
Throughout his life as preacher and Reformer, Luther recognized how tempting it was for Christians to tire of Christ, the sacraments, and the church and to look for something new:
For we always must have something new, Christ’s death and resurrection, faith and love, are old and just ordinary things; that is why they must count for nothing, and so we must have new wheedlers (as St.
Paul says). And this serves us right since our ears itch so much for something new that we can no longer endure the old and genuine truth, “that we accumulate,” that we weigh ourselves down with big piles of new teachings. This is just what has happened and will continue to happen.
Luther believed that the devil used this desire for the new and unbiblical to advance his evil kingdom. Luther expressed that powerfully in these terms: “Now when the devil saw that God built such a holy church, he was not idle, and erected his chapel beside it, larger than God’s temple… the devil is always 47 In God’s ape, trying to imitate all God’s things and to improve on them.”
Luther’s day, as in ours, the church was always overshadowed by the devil’s chapel, but it never was destroyed.
In the last sermon that he preached, three days before his death, Luther lamented again that people so despised the gracious institutions of God. They still wanted something special and exciting like a pilgrimage or a holy relic. But he called on them to rest in the simplicity and abundance of God’s provision in Christ, His sacraments, and His church:
Oh, people say, what is that [preaching]? After all, there is preaching every day, often many times every day, so that we soon grow weary of it. What do we get out of it? All right, go ahead, dear brother, if you don’t want God to speak to you every day at home, in your house and in your parish church, then be wise and look for something else: in Trier is our Lord God’s coat, in Aachen are Joseph’s pants and our blessed Lady’s chemise; go there and squander your money, buy indulgence and the pope’s secondhand junk; these are valuable things! You have to go far for these things and spend a lot of money; leave house and home standing idle!
But aren’t we stupid and crazy, yes, blinded and possessed by the devil? There sits the decoy duck in Rome with his bag of tricks, luring to himself the whole world with its money and goods, and all the while anybody can go to baptism, the sacrament, and the pulpit! How highly honored and richly blessed we are to know that God speaks with us and feeds us with his Word, gives us his baptism, the keys [absolution], etc.!
But these barbarous, godless people say: What, baptism, sacrament, God’s Word?—Joseph’s pants, that’s what does it! It is the devil in the world who makes the high personages, the emperor and the kings, oblivious to such things and causes them to allow themselves to be so grossly duped and fooled and bespattered with filth by these first-class rascals and liars, the pope and his tonsured shavelings. But we should listen to God’s Word, which tells us that he is our schoolmaster, and have nothing to do with Joseph’s pants or the pope’s juggling tricks.
Notes
Notes
1. Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, 31.
2. “Sermons on the First Epistle of St. Peter,”LW, 30:13.
3. Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord(1959), 414.
4. “On the Councils and the Church,”LW, 41:140.
5. For a fuller discussion of some of these themes, see W. Robert Godfrey, “The Spiritual Vitality of Martin Luther,” in The Divine Fire(London: The Westminster Conference, 1996), 7–26.
6. LW, Vol. 24: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John, Chapters 14–16, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1961), 60.
7. “Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments,” in LW, 40:146.
8. WA, 10 III:349, LW, 51:114 quoted in Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. Robert C. Schultz (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975), 193n30.
9. LW, 26:126.
10. LW, 3:222–23.
11. LW, 26:316.
12. LW, 27:56.
13. LW, Vol. 23: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John Chapters 6–8, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1959), 272.
14. LW, 30:45.
15. Luther, Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord(1959), 417.
16. WABr, 3:379, quoted in Mark U. Edwards Jr., Luther and the False Brethren(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1975), 96.
17. WABr, 3:404–5, quoted in Edwards, Luther and the False Brethren, 97.
18. Luther, Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord(1959), 437.
19. Ibid., 441f.
20. Ibid., 442–43.
21. “Concerning Rebaptism,” in LW, 40:252.
22. Luther, Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord(1959), 447f.
23. Ibid., 449.
24. Ibid.
25. Luther, Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord(1959), 450. The language of Luther here is remarkably similar to that of Calvin in his Institutes, 4.17, 32, and 33: “In his Sacred Supper he bids me take, eat, and drink his body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. I do not doubt that he himself truly presents them, and that I receive them.” And “this is the wholeness of the Sacrament, which the whole world cannot violate: that the flesh and blood of Christ are no less truly given to the unworthy than to God’s elect believers. At the same time, it is true, however, that, just as rain falling upon a hard rock flows off because no entrance opens into the stone, the wicked by their hardness so repel God’s grace, that it does not reach them.”
26. Quoted in Köstlin, The Theology of Luther, 2:300.
27. LW, 30:6.
28. LW, 41:52.
29. Ibid., 41:150.
30. Ibid., 41:148.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid., 41:150.
33. Ibid., 41:151.
34. Ibid., 41:152.
35. Ibid., 41:153.
36. Ibid., 41:154.
37. LW, 39:305–14.
38. LW, 41:164.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 41:165–66.
41. Ibid., 41:166.
42. Ibid., 41:143f.
43. Ibid., 41:147.
44. LW, 30:28.
45. Ibid., 30:47.
46. LW, 41:127f.
47. Ibid., 41:167f.
48. LW, 51:390f.