The Theology of Martin Luther

Continue to explore Luther’s Bondage of the Will. How does God’s necessitating foreknowledge interact with the preacher and what does it mean for the person in the world – what do they hold on to? In what way can God’s necessitating foreknowledge give us comfort? Secondly, it is God as He is hidden and revealed. How can that doctrine work itself out in pastoral care, if at all? What is the response after something horrendous to someone who asks, “How could God allow this to happen?” Luther stated “It belongs also to this same God Incarnate, to weep, to lament, and to sigh over the perdition of the wicked, even while that will of Majesty, from purpose, leaves and reprobates some, that they might perish. Nor does it become us to inquire why He does so, but to revere that God who can do, and wills to do, such things.” How do we give Jesus to persons in those situations in a real way that doesn’t point to the hidden God or knowledge we can’t know and doesn’t just give someone an abstract statement about the revealed God?

Consider Luther’s Bondage of the Will and how we understand a person who hears the gospel and does not believe. Explore Luther’s view on Single Predestination and Double Predestination. Consider Romans 1:21, 23. What would be the conclusion to teaching the bondage of the will? Consider what Luther says about the work of the preacher. The question of belief or unbelief is left solely to the preacher. It is not the determination of the preacher but the realm of the preacher. The distinction between God hidden and revealed is the same as the distinction between God not preached and God preached. The preacher is one of the means God works through. Is what Bayer says about “the dark, terrifying hidden God” relevant to pastoral care? The Spirit that works the Law in us is precisely the Spirit of God not revealed. Bayer makes the distinction between the general doctrine of God and the God that is hidden. There is also the doctrine of the Trinity which is the doctrine of pure gift. We cannot successfully posit a unity in our experience of God because we experience the hidden God who just kills us and drives us to despair and works, sin, death, and the devil in and around us. The other God revealed to us, in the preached Word, we are given all good gifts and everything is taken care of and everything that was demanded is given. The distinction is that there is a unity that will only be known eschatologically.

Consider the simul of Only the Dialogue is Eternal. What does it mean as Luther stated, “. . . the Christian is not in the current age he does not live he is dead …he dwells in another heavenly life far above this one.” Consider first fruits and tithes. We need to be able to tell people that God’s spirit really does something new here in the hope of proclamation. Explore Romans 8:3-4. Consider what walking with Christ looks like. How does it work to declare forgiveness yet hope to see people change? Luther uses degree language which is very important. An example is Luther’s statement, “But you are a saint? Insofar as I am a Christian . . .” Luther also stated, “This is to be noted well even it is not proved by reason which wants to understand everything in the matters and works of God. That two opposites are in one and the same subject . . . Here is a saint and a blessed one. He right away adds for this every saint will pray to you. Here you see a sinner the same can be seen in Romans 7. You are a saint and pray because of sin. You make sense of it.”

Consider the importance of the imputation for the simul. The simul covers both person and work. How do we understand the simul? It does not matter to what extent we are sinful, we are fully sinful. No matter what amount of sin remains in us we belong 100% to Christ. Consider imputation and the formal removal of sin. What does Luther say about the formal removal of sin and what does that imply about the potential for changed life or something new? Luther stated our sin is imputed to Christ and makes the distinction between imputation and purgation. He seems to be implying a lot about our work in mortifying sin in this life. Does Luther’s use of the word “until” refer to the resurrection or does it refer to what we do in this life? We know that by imputation we are fully accounted as righteous before God and there is no sin there but we are riddled by sin otherwise. Note that Luther’s statements must be read in context with his other statements.

Luther stated, “It is the office of Christ in this life to reinstate the human race in that lost innocence in joyful obedience to the law which existed in paradise in the positive. This he did when he died for us, bore the curses and punishments of the law and gave us his innocent righteousness. In this way the law obedience becomes joyful to us in some other way. We will render it in the superlative in heaven.” Luther also stated, “Then he brings the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him that they may delight in the law of the Lord. To render the law delightful undefiled is therefore the office of Christ.” Luther answers the question why the law should be taught. “The Law is be taught on account of discipline, according to the word of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:9. ‘The law is given for the unjust’ . . . Secondly the Law is to be taught in order to show sin, accuse, terrify, and damn the consciences . . . ‘The Law worketh wrath.’ Thirdly, the Law is to be retained that the saints may know what kind of works God requires in which they may exercise their obedience . . .” Is the third use an appropriate description or not in the antinomianism discussion? Consider the distinction between Christ as gift and example. Christ shows us a different way of living and it is that which coheres with the Law itself.

Consider the main theme of the Holy Spirit. Luther stated, “The Turks, priests and religious people who on sundry days experience an ecstasy are enraptured in life for some time stretched out without consciousness and speak of grand and marvelous things simple folks are captured by these things.” This has meaning for our current fascination today in books and movies focused on the afterlife experiences. Luther also stated, “God the Father commanded us not to listen to such raptures but to the Son in whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom.” Consider the distinction of the Holy Spirit. The hidden God is triune - we just do not know him as such. We cannot get an experience of God in that way. Luther stated insightfully and humorously, “Satan rears its head and insights the poor Christian to lust to greed to despair or to hatred of God. There I say the Christian stirs himself up and as if in wonder, ‘Look and you are still here? Welcome Mr. Sin. Where were you? Where do you spend your time so long? Are you still alive now? From where you come to us? Away to the cross.’”

Discuss Christ as the greater Moses in relation to the Law and Gospel. Why was Luther nervous about saying that Christ preached the Law? Consider the distinction between God’s alien work and his proper work. Luther stated, “Therefore Christ is not a lawgiver, nonetheless he shows the work of the Law.” God’s word comes to us as Law and Gospel. We preach the Law to believers and unbelievers indiscriminately. Consider the commands which Paul lays out in the New Testament. When we preach we are preaching to a whole person.

Explore how Luther discusses the subject of theology. Why do theology? What does theology mean for our lives? Luther understood theology as a critical reflection that was interior to the mission of the church itself which was particularly one of proclamation. The term used was lex orandi, lex credendi or “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” Our theology is in a critical and reflexive relationship with how we pray before God. For Luther it was more “the law of proclamation is the law of belief.” Theology has to take for its shape and its rule the specific ways in which the gospel is a particular kind of discourse. For Luther and the Reformers, to remove theology from the work of proclamation would be to remove it from its very nature and goal but also to remove it from the life of prayer – to take it away from its very object which is the relationship between the human and God. What is the connection between the law of prayer and law of proclamation? They both hold a critical relationship to belief. What is to be proclaimed? What is the subject of theology? It is the sinning human being and the justifying God. It is not one or the other but both.For Oswald Byer it is precisely the confession of our sin that we become aware of our individuality before God. Do we feel God hidden or do we feel God revealed? This is the critical work of the preacher and of Christology. It is crucial to Luther that Jesus Christ is the one who intervenes with the “naked” God and “naked” human being. It is the office of Jesus Christ to make God known and certain to us. God is who God is in himself and He becomes all of these things in the Word. By faith God is created in us by God’s work of grace in us. Explore Romans 4:17. God is not the Deity for us until He creates himself in us. The subject of theology is relevant to the distinction between first and second order discourse.

For Luther and Lutherans, the distinction of theology is about the sinning human and the justifying God. It is a distinction of what had come before Luther and the tradition and what has continued to be the primary way of talking about the subject of theology as faith seeking understanding. Some see a problem with faith seeking understanding because it does not always keep in mind particularly the historical nature of theological experience or of existence. Faith seeking understanding is not always rooted in the fact that we are those people who experience tentatio and who are driven to despair. For Luther, despair drives us to the Word. These two things are not in conflict with each other but there is a different angle towards the question. It is a way to keep theology relevant to the seeking human. It is the very nature of the Gospel happening to us in the midst of oratio, meditatio, and tentatio which leads us to that revealed Word. Faith cannot be something outside of the very work of God happening on us in our receptive life. In our preaching, does a person leave feeling comforted by God’s love knowing that they are helped, comforted, and assured of God’s love such that they can live? That is the only thing that preaching has to do as they live their lives. Each week it is about the fact that God is for us in Jesus Christ and all of our sins are forgiven, amen. Discuss Luther’s expository preaching in relation to the Law and Gospel. Preaching is delivering the two truths of the Law and Gospel. Theology is God’s work on us. Academic theology or the study of theology is to do nothing other than reflect on that work that we experience in our daily lives as those who are in the Word and for whom the Word is at work on us. It is just that simple for Luther in a lot of ways.

Explore Only The Decalogue is Eternal. Luther talked specifically about pastoral care. What does it look like? It is imitating and repeating the word of Christ that says to us. Luther stated, “... death comes over you yet Christ cries out right away, ‘I am the death of death, the hell of hell, the devil of the devil, do not fear my son I have won.’” This is what we need to speak to people over and over again into their lives. Luther continued, “Behold you are saddened, you are afflicted, you have been led into hell by the Law and by your black cholera that torments you . . . For such people who are tormented like this be on the lookout that you might console them. For they will say, ‘God hates me, he has forgotten me, he does not want me.’ Note indeed He does want you . . . It is for this very reason that God has instituted the preaching office and the church. Namely so that one brother might teach the other and wherever necessary console him.” Discuss the distinction of the preaching office and who is able to pronounce the absolution of sin. Discuss the distinction between the Law and law. In preaching a sermon, the law must be related to Law. Discuss the distinction Luther makes between the moral law and the Mosaic Law.

Discuss the two tables of the Law. The first commandment is that we fear, love, and trust God so that every other commandment starts with our fear, love, and trust of God. Discuss passive and active righteousness. Sanctification is a gift of God for us that we receive in Christ. Typically we talk of our horizontal life as living as we have been called to do. It is a part of Luther’s opening up of the Christian life as not being distinctions in holiness but our vocation in life and something sanctified by God himself. Consider Luther’s view of the role of the pastor. As we seek to apply Law and Gospel to people in the ways they need it there will be failure. For Luther, there is always going to be pastoral failure and we will not always get things right but we do what we can and ultimately we are giving the Word over and praying that the Spirit accomplishes it. It should give comfort and consolation to the pastor. For Luther, repentance is something that happens to us every day. It is the work of the Gospel and Law in us to show us our sin and need and for the Gospel to say we are loved and forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. Only the Dialogue is Eternal is referenced for the next topic of discussion.

In Galatians 3:10 we read, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” Paul seems to be saying we are under a curse if we rely on works of the Law. To what extent does a believer do the Law? Are we doers of the Law and if so does this bring us into a third use of the Law? Is Luther actually saying there is a third use of the law but does not call it that? God works on all but not all feel the second use of the Law and not all feel the comfort of the gospel. It is the hidden God who does not reveal himself. God is working in all things and not bringing all to salvation. It is the preacher’s job to give the Word that creates faith. Consider that anything our preaching accomplishes is nothing other than the work of the Spirit which accompanies the Word that we speak and yet we must do everything we can in the power of the Spirit to discern and divide God’s Word for people in the preaching of Scripture. In Galatians 4:6 we read, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” The thing that is promised is that the Word does all things for us.

Consider Oswald Bayer’s thesis about antinomianism. “In its universalizing of the gospel, the modern age is antinomian but at the same time it is increasingly nomistic.” On the one hand we live in an age that is defined by freedom but it is a freedom to become something else. The freedom of the modern age offers no hope or way out but only more complex ways of things we must do to become something else. Which Law do we make an idol – the one that is revealed to us or the one that we choose? Either one we are trusting in that instead of the gospel. Luther wrote the Smalcald Articles (1537) while he was ill, but it was a problematic document which showed Luther’s rough edges. It is during this time John Agricola (1494 – 1566) preached a sermon in which he said that God’s wrath over sin is revealed not through the Law but through the gospel. It is the message that comes from heaven and that means its gospel, not Law. For Agricola, the Law only has a civil function. Agricola had signed off on the Smalcald Articles. Luther wrote the Second Antinomian Disputation during this dispute. Follow the dispute between Luther and Agricola. Agricola’s “retraction” was rewritten by Melanchton by his request and Agraicola then sent the revision to Luther to rewrite. Agricola always felt poorly treated by Luther. These events happened over about four years. Finally Agricola sent the retraction rewritten by Melanchton and all accepted it except Luther. Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586) is responsible for a lot of the later writing in the Book of Concord. Luther would say that the Antinomians had two major problems. The first is that they say Christ has formally removed all sin. The antinomians pretended that the church was pure and whole without blemish. For them, when Christ warned against sin it was just the possibility of future sin. Luther pointed out that if we have no need for Christ then Christ looses his role as Propitiator and Mediator in our daily lives, in and out.

As the Smalcald Articles were being published, Luther added something in response to what was happening with Agricola. We can have original sin and actual sin and still have the Holy Spirit which is true for our life in Christ. Public sin draws us away from faith in the promise.

Explore Luther’s First Disputation and the 21st Argument and the best summary of repentance and why we need the Law. If we describe the shape of the Christian life as one of repentance and the life where real and serious sins exist, how would we describe that Christian life? Luther, when speaking of the papacy, said that they totally removed original sin by saying it was a certain weakness in nature which they called “tinder”. Luther speaks of serious repentance – repentance that is perpetual until the end of life. For Luther, in this life of repentance we cannot divine our own hearts nor the depths of our sins and therefore we cannot root it all out. Luther turns to the Lord’s Prayer for the shape of our repentance and how we repent before God. It is a petition that points out our need but is also a promise that comes to us. “Who asks that the kingdom of God come confesses that he partly still is stuck in the kingdom of Satan that is contrary to God’s kingdom.” In the Small Catechism he states, “May Your kingdom come. What does this mean? In fact God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer but we ask Him in this prayer that it may also come to us.” How would we diagram the simul justus et peccatore?

Continue to discuss repentance and how that works in the life of the believer. Can something else other than the Law work the sorrow of repentance? Is the following a valid theological move by Luther? “The gospel properly speaking is not what we do but it is the preaching of the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake by faith. Thus it describes the person, the gift, and the place. Indeed, when it convicts vices, adulteries, murders, etc., then it is not in its proper office but uses the office of the law to pursue and convict vices and to teach the life. How men already new and holy ought to enter the new life.” How does this use of the law work?

Luther stated, “If you see the afflicted and contrite, preach grace as much as you can. But not to the secure, the slothful, the harlots, adulterers, and blasphemers.” In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 we read, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Where are we in our modern age? How do we move the law to Law in applying the Law to real lives? Luther stated, “It is therefore very difficult to be a pastor and provide care for souls.”

Explore one of Luther’s most famous writings, Commentary on Galatians. Consider Luther’s interpretation of the Apostles’ Creed. Luther makes a link between creation and justification. The Word that creates, is the Word that justifies. The Word justifies by creating. God is categorically a gift-giver and that expresses itself in creation. Consider the gift of “take and eat” in which God comes to give himself to us. Explore active and passive righteousness. Luther thought that distinction is what structures everything and is the argument of Galatians. Luther felt that both types of righteousness were gifts of God and that we need to have both but we can never confuse them. What does Luther mean by “heaven and earth”? God is fully in control of both. How does Paul interpret what happens to Peter in Antioch? Paul shows us that Peter had confounded Law and grace (gospel). The boundaries of Jew and Gentile were broken. Explore Luther’s commentary on Galatians 3:5.

Explore the Double Use of the Law. What is the first use of the Law? It restrains by motivation of fear. The first use of the Law is a way of restraining any sin that works outwardly. The image of chains is a negative motivation. Why do we need the second use of the Law? What do the first and second use of the Law do differently? There is a distinction between inner and outer. The second use has to come down to thunder into our heart and shows us the first use of the Law’s problems, big or small, are rooted in our hearts. Luther stated, “The restraint showeth plainly enough that they which have need of the law (as all they have which are without Christ) are not righteous, but rather wicked and mad men, whom it is necessary, by the bonds and prison of the law, so to bridle, that they sin not.” Christ frees us from the Law but we are still in the flesh. There is no true active righteousness. Passive righteousness comes first that counts for the Christian. When we come to the first use of the Law it reigns over us as the outer person. The second use of the Law comes in to strike the inner man and show that we are dead and in bondage to sin. It is only in that work of restraining and then breaking the heart that the gospel comes in to enliven the inner man.

Continue to explore Luther’s Bondage of the Will. What is our posture before God before we have the final revelation revealed to us in the hereafter? What sort of comfort is this doctrine to give us? Explore the examples of the lives of Lot and Peter. Consider the relationship between the Law and law. The thing that the Law does is curse the one who is outside of Christ. Does the law work in a way that shows us that we are outside of Christ? Is there room for those little laws in forming and shaping our horizontal life? Explore aspects of the First Use of the Law and Second Use of the Law.

In Luther’s Bondage of the Will he points out the comfort of the doctrine. How is the will ultimately a pastoral doctrine? Consider the Third Use of the Law. Luther stated, “. . . when faith has come to men, he exhorts them to persevere, lest they be cut off. But exhortation establishes only what we ought to do, and not what we can do.” There is a tension. When we are exhorted to good works in this way in the Spirit, it is not doing anything other than giving form to the freedom we have in Christ such that we will be properly directed toward the neighbor. The good work will be moving us outside of ourselves. Once we have received the Holy Spirit we will in some way seek to obey God. How do we know what to do? To point someone anywhere else than the Law is a form of idolatry because it is saying we can find better works and better things to do and better ways to live than what God has revealed for us in the Law.

How does the Law and Gospel function in 2 Samuel 12:1-15? How does Nathan speak the word to David? Notice as soon as David’s sin is identified it is taken away. The sin will still have consequences. The light of the gospel reveals our darkness.

Explore Luther’s Bondage of the Will (1525) and a historical and theological introduction. Luther considered this work one of the most significant of his writings but it is not the most well-structured. How does Luther’s theology play out in the Small Catechism (II.3)? Erasmus was born in the Netherlands, had a great education, and became a monk but was so unhappy he left to do humanistic study. He met other humanists in England who showed him the importance and encouraged him to study the original languages. That was one of the reasons that drove him to producing his critical edition of the Greek New Testament (1516). Erasmus was always in bad health and lived solely off his lecturing so he was always poor. He, like Luther, did not like the Pope or the state of the church. He became well-known as a great scholar and had the ear of many important people. Many thought Erasmus would be the one to bring about the reform of the church. Erasmus felt that people should return to simple lives and following God’s commands. The problem with Erasmus was that as a humanist, he was not a great theologian. He could not see how the excesses and abuses of the church were supported by the broader theology of the church – how there was something undergirding and establishing these practices. There were four stages to the Erasmus – Luther relationship. The first, after 1517, most speculated that Luther and Erasmus were on the same side and worked together. Between 1517 and 1520, it became clear they were not compatible. Luther felt Erasmus was not focused on grace and Christ. 1520 marks the real break between the two. Erasmus felt that Luther, in his 1520 treatises attacked the Pope and monks too harshly. Above all, Erasmus wanted peace but Erasmus wrote his treatise from compulsion. He compared Luther’s reforming work to that of Pharaoh. Luther’s response was longer and more harsh and blunt. He never spoke positively about Erasmus again and felt he was an enemy of the church. Explore the theological differences between the two. Erasmus held a humanist picture of the division of man – a higher spirit, free soul that can choose to go higher or lower, and lower flesh. He had a problem with Luther’s view that man was a mule either ridden by God or the devil which removes human responsibility for evil and attributed it to God. Erasmus felt Luther’s Bondage of the Will would open up a floodgate of iniquity. Luther felt it would open up the floodgate of righteousness to those who heard the Word. Erasmus felt the Word is bound and is a particular Word. The truths of Scripture and theology should be spoken at specific times and to specific people when it is appropriate. Luther felt the Word was unbound and free and should be given at all times to all people. For Luther, if we assume we are free we will end up in bondage but if we start with the view that we are fully bound by sin, death, and the devil, the only way out is to proclaim the One who liberates us.

Continue to explore Luther’s Bondage of the Will. How does Luther discuss foreknowledge in the first section and what does it mean for our will? Everything is done according to God’s will. When Luther talks about bondage, the first step is not necessarily to talk about sin but that we are trapped in our wills that God moves along as God works all things and knows all things. For Luther, when we talk about free will we cannot attribute it all to our lives with God but in our daily lives there is a modicum of free will to chose to act righteous in a civil sense. Explore the distinction between necessity and compulsion. Was it necessarily the case that Judas was going to be a traitor? It was necessarily the case. Was his will compelled to do that? Luther would say no, his will was being moved in precisely the way it wanted it to be moved. Consider that Boethius’ The Consolations of Philosophy (524) was relevant for someone like Luther. For Luther, the doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and necessity of all things did not remove a person’s culpability for their sin. Luther would say God is always working all the things and he works within an evil agent. For Luther, God does not create evil nor is there anything outside his omnipotence and causation. Consider an example of Luther’s view on the need to know the doctrine of God’s foreknowledge. For Luther, if we have a high anthropology we will have a low soteriology and low Christology. A low anthropology is the only thing that will allow us to have a high soteriology and high Christology. Consider the image of God in us. Luther pointed out the importance of necessity.

For Luther, faith and its benefits is not something that is ready to fly away at any moment if we have a wrong thought or second of doubt. It is the daily working of the Holy Spirit in us. Obdurate sin is what moves against the promise. Faith in the promise is to desire what is promised and the forgiveness of sins. Faith is not something that we lose just because we are still the old man who has sin in his life. Consider the Formula of Concord. For Luther, to lose this is nothing more than willful rejection. It was not meant to cause anxiety because every day faith was a gift and the Holy Spirit will do the work of keeping us united to Christ. Luther ends the first section on preaching. There are three ways to preach Christ incorrectly according to Luther. Explore what Luther said about the affects of preaching in the right way. There is a need to be critical of our preaching and to preach Christ for you and for me.

There is a sense in which the gospel prizes faith over works so then some would say Luther and his followers say that Christians do not have to do works. Consider Luther’s defense. A Christian is perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. Since we are free from having to do works before God – nothing is being demanded of us from God - we are free to do works for others. Freedom is a very relational concept. Why do we have to do works? For Luther, in so far as we are the new man who wants to purge the outer man of sin he will immediately go back to how we are like the tree- we are good therefore we have fruit. For whom does a believer live in the world? What is the criterion for doing works for the other person? There is a strong sense that our work for the neighbor is not discriminating based on any other criterion than does this person need it. Consider Philippians 2:6-11 in which Luther finds the form of God a self-giving thing that we receive in a way.Faith gives us all the things we need so we can be open-handed to everyone else. Luther lists the only two things that make a work good or Christian.

Luther repeatedly comes back to the point that pastors are responsible for preaching in such a way that produces the right kind of faith and a right understanding of works. “The ignorance and suppression of liberty very many blind pastors take pains to encourage. They stir up and urge on their people in these practices by praising such works, puffing them up with their indulgences, and never teaching faith. If, however, you wish to pray, fast, or establish a foundation in the church, I advise you to be careful not to do it in order to obtain some benefit, whether temporal or eternal, for you would do injury to your faith which alone offers you all things. Your one care should be that faith may grow, whether it is trained by works or sufferings. Make your gifts freely and for no consideration, so that others may profit by them and fare well because of you and your goodness.” Recall what the only two types of good works are. Explore and discuss how to preach both Law and Gospel.

Explore the Heidelberg Disputation on good works about objectively demolishing everything we do as a source of hope or merit or grounds for standing before God. Our affections will not feel the weight of the first 12 theses. We need to remind ourselves of that truth which is revealed to us in the Cross which comes to obliterate all of these works. We can never trust our emotions. We need to route our emotions in a distinction between Law and Gospel and what they do for people so the emotions produced are healthy. Theses 13-18 is the more subjective side of the question. Can my will advance me towards righteousness? There is the problem of force. Does God force himself on us or do we have some sliver of will that allows us to chose and want the good. Is there something within us that allows us to prepare for grace? In Thesis 13 we read, “Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.” How can this claim be proved? The will is not free, it is bound. The will is free to do exactly what it wants to do which is evil. We read in Thesis 14, “Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can do evil in an evil capacity.” The distinction between active and distinctive is crucial. Luther’s example of passive capacity refers to a dead body. Consider water as not having an active capacity but having a passive capacity to be boiled. We need to make right distinctions and define things appropriately. Thesis 15 brings up Adam and Eve, “Nor could the free will endure in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in a passive capacity.” Even before the Fall, free will had no ability to actively work to stay innocent by itself. For Luther, even in the garden, Adam and Eve were only held in a state of innocence by their relationship to an external power, which was God and his life-giving Word for them. For Luther, we never ever ascribe the active capacity to stay innocent to the human. Humans are always the ones to receive. Peter Lombard’s Book of Sentences (c.1150) theology textbook is referenced. We always stand in need before God and there is nothing about our human nature that can change that fact. Discuss the Lutheran view of the ability to reject the promises.

Continue to explore the Heidelberg Disputation. Consider Theses 17 and 18 and the distinction of what despair means in these two theses because they almost seem to contradict each other. We despair not of God but of our works and will. That despair opens us up and gives room for the grace of God to work in us. It is the work of the Law before the Gospel is heard. Theses 19-24 is the keystone of the arch that moves us from the Law of God to the love of God. Everything builds on what has come before. Consider the presumption of the knowledge of God’s judgment on things. Romans 1:20 tells us, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” With that knowledge, people were not saved. When we trust the old Adam to look at history, creation, and the works of God, we will always find a way to talk about God’s nature and the way God has done things in a way that will not sweep away our good works and our will but will in fact justify and defend them. Luther concedes that we do have a natural knowledge of God but that insight exists at a purely cognitive level that does not get at the way God has specific intentions for humanity which are revealed to us in the work of the cross. What is the distinction between Old Testament saints and believers today? Consider the example of Jonah and the sailors at sea. Consider that Luther would say it is the office of Jesus Christ to make God concrete and certain for us.True recognition of God is seeing him in the cross. It is a concealed revelation that is only knowable by faith. Luther addresses the question, is wisdom evil?

Continue to explore the Heidelberg Disputation and the section that is the most life giving as everything has been striped away by now if we are following Luther and every objection that we could give to God’s work in us has shown to be a faulty, defense mechanism. In Theses 25-28 we get a description of the life being raised from the dead. There is no way out but there is new life from God in Christ alone. These theses are wonderful statements of God’s grace for us.Luther always links despair and grace together. This thesis points us back to the first twelve in that God is not interested in the works that come out of our concern for our self-righteousness or the desire to justify ourselves. Those works have no standing before God. Luther contradicts Aristotle in that it is not through frequently repeated acts that we become the thing that we are but that God makes us the thing that we are and then we can do those things. Luther does not mean we are to do nothing but it is that the works do not make us righteous. For Luther, Aristotle’s Ethics are fine but it depends on what we are talking about – not about justification or new life in Christ. It is fine for how we are to live in the world for others. Explore Thesis 26-28. It is only that humility that the Law brings about which causes that despair into which Christ comes. The interplay between the Law and the Gospel is leaving the old Adam nothing to do.Christ living in us will raise us up to do good works that imitate the work of Christ. The only thing we can put our hope in is the creative love of God. This love is what calls us into being. We will seek the things that we think are good and beautiful for our own good.

In Thesis 28 of the Heidelberg Disputation we read, “The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.” Luther stated, “Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive.” Explore Romans 3:21-26. Nevertheless or but God has done this for us. Not because of us but because of his love for us and Jesus Christ. For Luther, what makes a person a theologian of the Cross is experience. It is the experience of tentatio which teaches us to hold only to the Word and to deny good works and will. An example of tentatio is Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” What does a theologian of the Cross look like? To be a theologian of the Cross is to be one who understands that God has revealed himself in precisely the place we would not have looked for Him. It is to understand His revelation has done precisely the things that we could not have wanted or could not have realized we even needed. Consider the language of brokenness. We need to remember that we are not just theologians of the Cross but we are also always the old person and find ways to prop up our theology of glory.

Explore The Freedom of a Christian (1520). It is meant to be a comprehensive framework for a person to understand the Christian life and is communicated in a very clear straightforward way. It is not a polemical document but is written in response to papal critiques of Luther’s teachings. This is the first presentation of the doctrine of justification in the way it would become famous and well known. Consider the Letter to Pope Leo X. Luther wanted the pope to receive it as a sign of peace and a reconciling document between them. “May the Lord Jesus preserve you forever.” Consider a diagram in which we receive righteousness from God which is our passive righteousness. That opens us up to have active righteousness toward others. The flow is always coming down to us then going out to others. The document is based on the distinction between the inner man and the outer man. What is the one thing the soul needs before God? It is the Word. It is always the Word, faith, and love – never in the opposite way. Luther points out three things faith does. It frees us from the law. This is one of the earliest and most clear presentations of the distinction between Law and Gospel.The first thing that faith does is frees us from the penalty of the Law because of this distinction between Law and Gospel. Why is the distinction between Law and Gospel not historically seen more often?

Explore Luther’s The Freedom of a Christian (1520). Faith frees us from the Law because of the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. The second thing faith does is honors God as God. Explore Luther’s Larger Catechism. Faith created by the Holy Spirit directs that trust and honor to its proper object. Faith frees us from the Law, it honors God as God, and faith unites the soul with Christ. Consider the “Blessed Exchange”. How does this exchange work Christologically? The two natures of Christ are necessary for this to work. Believers in Christ become priests and kings as Christ is both Priest and King for us. We are set free from all spiritual dangers over us. By God’s power all things work together for our good. What does Luther mean that we are to be a priest? It is a work of intercession and a work of teaching. A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. This is an example of the way Luther would describe losing the benefits of faith. Does faith hold on to us? There is a tension in Luther’s understanding of how faith is God’s work on and in us and how we can lose it. It ultimately is just paradox and Luther does not resolve it.

For Lutherans, election is tied to the work of preaching. It is only after you have heard that message and received it in faith that we can turn around and say, ‘I’ve been chosen in this work of preaching where God gives us his Holy Spirit and can trust this has always been part of God’s will.’ But tension remains that always in the old Adam there is the ability to reject the gift. Lutherans do not look forward in election and predestination but look back at the promise we trust in. Assurance comes from the present Word and work of Christ in us every single day. The Holy Sprit unites us to Christ every day. Consider Practical Syllogism in which we see the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives. Luther stated that he had been baptized and he knew that he had been given those promises. Another comfort from Cranmer is that God is an electing God. We read in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” The link between pastoral and academic theology is that the pastor is to keep the people alive each week. Secondary theology should translate to proclamation, pastoral care, and giving comfort to people who are dealing with all the troubles of the world in their tentatio. In Galatians 2:20 we read, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” For Lutherans, preaching is done to every will that is bound by sin which is all of us. Explore the work of proclaiming absolution to people.

In 1517, the 95 Theses were called The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. In the Confutation of the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Catholic Church stated, “For when they ascribe only two parts to penance, they come into conflict with the whole church, which from the time of the apostles has which from the time of the apostles has held and believed that there are three parts in penitence: contrition, confession, and satisfaction.” Penance was foundational to the Roman Catholic Church. Confession was three steps. The first was to go and confess all your sins - as many as you could think of. The priest would then announce absolution. This absolution was to say that God had heard the confession and provide assumption of forgiveness. The priest would then ask the confessor to do works of satisfaction. After this was done, the confessor could participate in communion. Absolution was to deal with the guilt of sin but works of satisfaction were to remove the punishment for sin and was to reduce purgatory. When indulgences came, they took the third part of penance. The logic behind them was that they had their existence from the surplus grace that Christ and the saints had merited. It was called the “treasury of the Church.” Johann Tetzel (1465-1519) suggested indulgences be used to raise the money for the completion of St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel. Luther stated, “If the Pope knew the exactions of the preachers of Indulgences, he would rather have the basilica of St. Peter reduced to ashes than built with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.” Luther found that indulgences also caused civil disorder. By the time of Luther, indulgences were also able to get you or someone else released out of purgatory.

Continue to explore the 95 Theses (The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences). In Theses 1-4, Luther started to lay out his thoughts on what repentance is.Luther expected to have a debate with his students on the subject of indulgences but did not think this was going to change the world. It is key that baptism with repentance is something that happens to us every day. Explore Theses 5-7. What is the power of the Pope to forgive sins? The first part of Thesis 6 is a good example of the distinction between whether the sign is the thing itself or whether the sign signifies. “The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God . . .” At this time, Luther still believed in Purgatory. Consider Thesis 29. Explore Theses 36-40. In Thesis 39 particularly, Luther saw the pastoral problem of indulgences. How do Theses 36 and 40 relate? Consider that indulgences were being abused.For Luther they had a proper role but needed to be limited and restricted.

Luther hedged against the Pope in Theses 81 and 82. The whole system was set up not for the benefit of the people. Thesis 86 is another good example. Theses 92-95 are meant to mirror the first four Theses. What is the meaning of Thesis 93? Luther’s meaning was that it was good to preach the Cross because at the time no one was doing it. The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ – Against the Fanatics clarifies what the dispute is. When talking about Holy Communion, there is Christ – this object of faith. He has been talking about faith and how we use that object.

Explore 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Explore the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. Luther was asked at this time to deliver his “new theology” to a group of Augustinian monks in Heidelberg. Luther carefully laid out this set of theses. Luther made a distinction between a Theology of Glory and Theology of the Cross. Luther’s Theology of the Cross was not sentimentalism and was not about Christ being a victim or how we enter perceptively into the grief of the world. For Luther it was about a way of perceiving our lives and the world and a way of looking at all things through the Cross and suffering. The Theology of the Cross is a theology of revelation. God has revealed himself in a particular way and it destroys our speculation. It is our task to concern ourselves with God solely as he as revealed himself to us. For Luther, God in himself is hidden and the only way to know God is when he reveals himself. Both the Theology of Glory and Theology of the Cross are dealing with who is in control. For the Theology of Glory our works can contribute something but for the Theology of the Cross we solely attribute everything to God and we are wholly passive – we are not in control. The Disputation is set up mostly as a series of antitheses. It can be broken down into four parts: 1-12 The problem of good works; 13-18 The problem of will; 19-24 The great divide; and 25- 28 God’s work in us. Thesis 1 is about God’s Law and Thesis 28 is about God’s love for us. Luther wrestled in getting from one to the other to end up as objects of God’s love rather than those who are trying to justify ourselves by God’s law. Thesis 28 is a paradox. God creates the object of his love rather than being attracted to things that are lovable.

Continue to explore the Heidelberg Disputation. Consider Theses 1-2, “The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance persons on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them. Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.” What can advance a sinner to righteousness? Luther states what cannot. The law cannot deliver to us what it commands. How is it that the law cannot “advance” us? The law’s role is to show us our sin. The Holy Spirit works on us to put to death that sin. The things that structure Luther’s thought are active and passive righteousness, law and Gospel, and God hidden and God revealed. The law is God’s revealed will for his creatures and there is no Gospel (good news) without it. We read in Theses 3 and 4, “Although the works of human beings always seem attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins. Although the works of God always seem unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits.” Luther used the imagery from Matthew 23 “whitewashed tombs” but people in the congregation do not want to hear that. Explore the affects of antinomianism compared to nomism.

Continue to explore the Heidelberg Disputation. Explore Theses 5-6. All our works, especially the good ones, cause us to turn in on ourselves. In so far as we have a part of even God’s working in and through us, our works are still sinful. The promise is that we can do these works and whatever sin is in them God will not reckon the sin to us because we are in Christ. Consider what the Westminster Confession tells us about our works. Explore Theses 7-8. The key in these theses is the fear of God. When we fear that our works are the very things that will kill us that is when we are trusting in God and not making an idol out of our works. If we lack fear, we have self-confidence and pride in ourselves. Luther structures his whole shorter catechism on the Ten Commandments based on the idea of how we can trust in God above all things. It is that we fear, love, and trust God. Fear is what drives us to the Cross. Explore Theses 9 -12. We have to fear the condemnation of God in everything we do.

Explore Luther’s rules for studying theology. Consider how a theologian should approach Scripture and what makes a theologian. In 1539 Luther wrote a preface to a collection of his works and in it listed three rules for studying theology. (As seen in Psalm 119 in the way David sees God and prays to God.) The monastic form for studying Scripture was focused on oratio (prayer), meditatio (meditation), and illuminatio (illumination). Luther changed the last focus to tentatio (battle of despair). Luther used Psalm 119 because it can function as a summary of the Psalms and the Torah itself. He stated, “I will show you a right way to study theology, which I myself have practiced, and if you adhere to it you too shall be so learned that if it need should arise, you will be able to write books that are as good as those of the fathers.” These three realities exist together and cannot be pulled apart. The first is oratio or prayer. Luther held that the Scripture text should be approached by prayer. David in this Psalm asks God to teach, instruct, guide and lead him. For Luther, Holy Scripture is different than anything else we may read. Our prayer is focused on the Triune God who communicates himself to us. Scripture is the thing that presents and promotes Christ to us but only by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have received and claimed these texts as Scripture and the criterion is that they point us to Jesus. For oratio, we do not approach Scripture from some sort of angle of contemplation or action but that we are always waiting, humbling ourselves waiting to receive God’s Word and guidance from the Holy Spirit. For meditatio (meditation), Luther tweaks what was the concept held by monasticism –that we will never exhaust the work we need to do in the study of Scripture. We are to read it over and over, meditate with our heart and mind, and speak it and hear it. Consider David’s example of constant claims of meditation and relationship to the Word. Luther held that Christians are the ones who hear – they are being addressed by God. We are people who are communicated to and always in a posture of waiting to receive.

Consider tentatio (Anfechtung or trial). Luther related that after illumination from Scripture we feel an attack on ourselves – there is always the possibility before us that we could be destroyed and be separated from God. The image that Luther returns to over and over again is like Jacob at the Jabbok River. Explore Genesis 32:22-32. Luther states, “Thirdly, there is tentatio. This is the touchstone that teaches you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting is God’s Word, wisdom above all wisdom. So you see why it is that David so often in this psalm laments concerning all the enemies, the wicked princes and tyrants, the lying and godless spirits, which he must suffer by reason of the very fact that he meditates, that he applies himself to God’s Word, as we have said. For as soon as God’s Word goes forth through you the devil will afflict you and make you a real doctor [of theology] and teach you by his attacks to seek and to love God’s Word.” This struggle is seen in, for example, Ephesians 6:10-20. For Luther, this experience of tentatio or thrown into despair, makes one a theologian. It teaches us to hold to the Scriptures. Luther stated, “It is by living, no not living, but by dying and giving ourselves up to hell that we become theologians, not by understanding, reading, and speculating.” Consider the issue of the first commandment. For Bayer, the agonizing struggle teaches us to hold on to God’s Word. It doesn’t give us certainty but gives us an excess of certainty. For Luther, God in the midst of our struggle always gives his promise and reveals himself to us. All of this leads to proclamation – as we experience we can hand over the Word of promise for others to cling to.

Luther was trained in the Scholastic view of God and man particularly stemming from William of Ockham (c.1287-1347). This view held that man can do everything that God commands in the Law by his own natural powers. Freedom is intrinsic to what it means to be human. With this freedom, every action is pure, unconditional choice. If original sin affected man then he would cease to be man - he would be something else. If we have the power, why do we need grace? God is also free to do what he wants. Nothing man does has value unless God gives worth and value to it. God is offended by sin. All of our acts that are good need to be qualified by grace. Peter Lombard’s, Book of Sentences (c.1150) was the main theological textbook at the time. When God gives you His grace, the nature of the act stays the same. The view also held that faith was just another act, like all other acts. There are two ways which we merit God’s grace. One is Congruent Merit: God sees that it is a good thing to bestow grace on us because he can see we have done our best. The second is Condign Merit: God has promised he will recognize and honor our obedience and we will continue to receive grace. He honors the pact he has with us.

Begin to explore Luther’s Disputation Against Scholastic Theology (1517) as it was written for a classroom setting and to be used for debate. Consider his conclusion in which he states all that has been said was not against the Catholic Church or its teachers. Explore Theses 4-7. The image of the bad tree is universalized. He states, “It is false to state that man's inclination is free to choose between either of two opposites. Indeed, the inclination is not free, but captive.” Luther denies the fundamental thing that makes a human a human. Explore Theses 16-18. Consider the development of Luther’s theology found in the Bondage of the Will concerning love for God. We cannot love God. Luther states, “Man is by nature unable to want God to be God.” Consider the way Luther uses the term “evil”. Explore Theses 21-22. Consider the term “concupiscence”. We have wrong desires seated in our will. For Luther this was something we always need to repent of and fight against. The distinction between original sin and actual sin was important. Luther states, “No act is done according to nature that is not an act of concupiscence against God.” Explore Thesis 55. Luther states, “The grace of God is never present in such a way that it is inactive, but it is a living, active, and operative spirit . . . ” What is the opposition in this theses?

Continue to explore Luther’s Disputation Against Scholastic Theology. Consider Theses 29 and 30. What would you do to prepare yourself for grace in the Occamist model? This model holds we are free to do anything we can and God can choose or not to value it. Luther takes preparation for grace out of our person and moves it to election. Explore Theses 41 and 44 as they negatively reference Aristotle. Aristotle view was to work on skills and tools to become something. Luther held that we do not first cultivate a habit but we are given this new identity by God. In Thesis 50 Luther states, “Briefly, the whole Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light.” In Thesis 51 he states, “It is truly doubtful whether the Latin-speakers comprehended the correct meaning of Aristotle.” For Luther, if you want to know how to live in the world, Aristotle is fine. Consider Theses 79-80, “Condemned are all those who do the works of the law. Blessed are all those who do the works of the grace of God.” What are the works of grace he is referencing? In Theses 89-90 he states, “Grace as a mediator is necessary to reconcile the law with the will. The grace of God is given for the purpose of directing the will, lest it err even in loving God.” Compare Thesis 55 where grace is a “living and operative spirit” to Thesis 89, “Grace as a mediator”: Is it moving from a substance that God gives to someone to Jesus and the Holy Spirit the one God? Consider Thesis 75, “The grace of God, however, makes justice abound through Jesus Christ because it causes one to be pleased with the law.” Luther is not yet there to where grace is the Person. It is still a shadowy substance.

On October 31, 1517 Luther posted his 95 Theses. In October 1518, Cardinal Cajetan, extremely learned, was sent to Augsburg to examine Luther. After Cajetan left Augsburg, others were sent by Rome who were less knowledgeable. Cajetan wanted Luther to recant, but Luther refused and had to escape under the cover of darkness. At this time, he wrote For the Inquiry into Truth and for the Comfort of Troubled Consciences (1518). The example of his theology was shifting for the notion of promise was coming through. The distinction of a sign that signifies something else and the sign itself was how Luther broke with the system of penance. Luther called the priests’ word of absolution a verbum efficax – a word which does what it says. This is what gives people assurance. For Luther we are declaring the word of God to someone else. God continues to come to us through means and comes to us through the spoken or external word. Explore confession and the once for all nature of the Cross. For Luther, we need to every day remember the promises received in baptism and trust in the Word. It is a battle every day. Faith is the battle and only won with the Holy Spirit.

1520 was a big braking point with Luther in his church relations. The Pope did not receive the 95 Theses and explanations well and issued a Papal bull, Exsurge Domine (Arise O Lord) (1520). This warned Luther that if he did not stop he would be excommunicated. Luther took this bull and Canon Law and burned them. He continued to write. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) covered the sacramental trappings of the church. In 1521 he was summoned before the Diet of Worms and asked to recant. This is where he famously stated, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the Pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), for I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience . . . May God help me. Amen.” This was not an argument for being anti-authority nor individualism as the sole arbiter of truth. Luther did not deny the need for authority or submitting to it. After this Diet he was excommunicated and considered a criminal. Luther, aided by a friend, escaped and hid in Wartburg Castle for about a year. During this time he started to translate the New Testament into German. Many were critiquing the church and wanted reform. Luther had a lot of admirers and returned to Wittenberg and began to teach and preach. In 1525 he married Katharina von Bora in the middle of the Peasant’s Revolt. In 1530 we have the Augsburg Confession which crystalized the Lutheran reform as a movement. In 1534 the Bible was published in German which was a huge step in the process of reform. Late in 1545 he was asked to travel to and settle a dispute between the town of Mansfeld and the church. He died there on February 18, 1546 in the exact place he had been born. His life was always devoted to the service of the church. Consider the relationship between Melanchthon and Luther.

Why study Martin Luther? The crucial thing about Luther is that his theology addresses questions that we are still grappling with today. Luther states about the second article of the Creed, “Was ist das?” (“What Does This Mean”): “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.” This is the linchpin for Luther’s theology: “[Jesus] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil…” It is the foundation for everything else that flows out from Luther’s theology. Original sin has not changed throughout history. Luther had to deal with a Church that dealt in indulgences which enabled sin but did not allow for the word of forgiveness to be heard. The Book of Concord is a suggested reading. Consider the topic of death. The European mindset had been affected by the Black Plague and people had a very short life expectancy. Luther had to give a word of comfort to those suffering and facing loss. Consider the topic of the devil. Luther felt he lived in a very apocalyptic world. He felt embattled and afflicted by his sin. Death was all around and he felt the devil around him.

Explore a brief overview of Luther’s life. Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany in 1483. He entered university in Erfurt. Luther became a monk and was always concerned about the state of his soul due to the insecurity of life. Monasticism at the time was the most straightforward way to make sure that your soul was right with God. He joined the Order of Augustinian Monks. There was a push towards loving God absolutely and to practice perfect humility. In 1510-11, Luther took a trip to Rome but was utterly shocked by the immorality of the priests and bishops he met. In 1512, Luther earned his doctorate of theology. He succeeded Staupitz who had been Luther’s confessor. Luther had spiritual despair what he called “Anfechtum”. He lectured on Romans in 1515-16 and was also pastoring a church. Explore Luther’s breakthrough. The Psalms for Luther were very important. In 1516, Luther began to preach against indulgences.