Reformation theology and its historical significance

Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings

What Martin Luther shared in his narrative (featured in Martin Luther: Selections From His Writing) for those in his era, and for all those generations many millennia later, was nothing short of a brilliant interpretation of what a non-reformist observer would view as honest Christian values. His substance and style made very logical and straight forward the Christian tenets that the Roman Catholic Church had put forth as dogmatic, dreary, and riddled with suggestions that those who didn't tow the line of the church would suffer, and be filled with guilt and dread.

Indeed, what Luther was saying - and is saying today, for those able to digest his profundity and intellectual vigor - is that the path to understanding the Word of God (through Christ) does not lead through fields of dogma and fear. Rather, one can find peace through Christ simply by believing in the righteous truths Christ and his apostles put forward. To summarize and paraphrase Luther's lengthy yet poignant explanations: salvation is available through faith and truth and righteousness based on Christ's life and doctrine, not through questionable man-made creeds designed to control and manipulate society.

The laws of men who are both political leaders and religious bureaucrats are too easily corrupted, Luther believed; but the laws of God (through Christ) were unassailable, incorruptible, and eternal.

Main Body of Essay: To wit, when Martin Luther alludes to his beliefs as the "divine truth" (Dillenberger 43) (in the essay, "The Freedom of a Christian"), he is certainly not backing off from the profound convictions which has resulted in his incarceration. He is boldly, believably a deep thinker demanding a hearing. He believes in fact that his essay (letter) will "vindicate" (45) him, and insists that no matter what the morality might be - good, evil, or suspect - of any person in authority over him, his only rage is towards those who ignore the truth of Christianity, as he sees the truth.

Indeed, his essay to Pope Leo X, written in November, 1520, nearly 485 years ago, he defends his principles and relentlessly attacks the official corruption he witnesses surrounds the pope. While he insists that he considers the pope "blameless," he vigorously launches a diatribe against acts carried out by the "monsters of this age," those whom the pope oversees.

He puts forth his views with such fiercely brilliant narrative, no intelligent person, surely not the pope, could ignore the substance of his protests. The point of his essay is that he wants a hearing before the pope - "...a lamb in the midst of wolves" - so he (Luther) may "indict your real enemies."

There are many aspects of his tome which are extremely impressive - beyond the fact of their truthfulness and poignancy. One of those aspects is his passion in regards to fully explaining why he is writing Pope Leo is remarkable. Luther is very vivid and direct in the energy he expends through the written word. In presenting his case, he writes that he is so inflamed with the desire that truth be known, he has no choice but to lash out in the name of a correct interpretation of Christianity. This presentation may sound conceited and arrogant in hindsight (by saying he was above those who challenged him), but Luther really had no alternative, given that his back was against the wall.

He (50) wrote that he had "...stormed with such great fury merely for the purpose of overwhelming" his "unequal opponents." But, at the time of his writing, he was glad to put an end to his "volume of violence of words" and of "intellect," in order to have a chance to speak to Leo in person. To set the stage for his visit, he sends his "Treatise on Christian Liberty" to the pope, which lays out the facts of how a Christian should live - "perfectly free...subject to none" and "perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all" (53). The one thing "and only one thing" necessary for Christian life to be fulfilled is "righteousness, and freedom" (54).

Luther explains that salvation encompasses three things (none of which are man-made; he accuses the pope's bureaucrats of creating false guidelines). First, he explains, there must be faith in Christ and in His word. Secondly, there must be truthfulness (and trustworthy deeds) which will lead naturally to a life of righteousness. And three, those righteous souls who have faith and who are truthful to the teachings of Christ, will be (60) united with Christ "...as a bride is united with her bridegroom."

Meanwhile, in his work, "A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galations," he strives not to cover new ground, but to clarify existing truths. The Apostle Paul carefully made clear - in Luther's mind - that there are several kinds of righteousness outside of the "most excellent righteousness, of faith" (which is the word of God through Christ) (101). Those other levels of righteousness include: the righteousness that is political (or "civil"); ceremonial righteousness ("manners"); and also there is righteousness "of the law, or of Ten Commandments" (100).

The righteousness of faith in God is "very strange and unknown" (103), not only to the world at large, Luther explains, but even to Christians. Hence, he feels the need to bring intellectual and emotional clarity to what Paul has written. On page 108, Luther clearly is spelling out the difference between laws of man (written and enforced by papists) and the doctrine of Christ (who was a "savior" and not a "lawgiver"). And if one cannot follow the teaching of St. Paul, Luther continues, one may as well accept "everlasting death" rather than the salvation Christ has put forward.

The "true rule of Christianity" is not found in laws, Luther emphasizes, but rather in the joining together (111) of "faith, Christ, acceptation or imputation." Given that faith is a large part of being a Christian, Luther continues, one need not try to purge all sin from one's life, but rather realize that having faith in Christ is the key to having one's sins forgiven (112). The doctrine of "schoolmen, with their ceremonies, masses, and infinite foundations of the papistical kingdom, are most abominable blasphemies against God" (113), Luther charged. He justifies his rage against the Catholic Church by quoting St. Peter, who said "There shall be false teachers among you, which shall privily bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that hath brought them" (Peter II 2 [:1[).

In his work, "Pagan Servitude of the Church," Luther is not only continuing his critical observations, but also, he is clever and cryptic. He lashes out against "...the gross superstitions of a masterful Rome" (250) designed to "...rob men of their money and their faith in God." He had "benefited...greatly" from the laws of the pope written by men around him. Luther had heard, he continues (250), a "most ingenious argument...to establish their idol in a workmanlike manner." And that argument was that the "papacy" should be seen as "the kingdom of Babylon and the regime of Nimrod, the mighty hunter." And so, given that those brilliant offerings by the officials of the church are no doubt true - he cryptically asserts - then he must "beg both the booksellers and my readers to burn whatever I have published on this subject." And instead of believing what he, Luther has written about god and faith, he goes on sarcastically (and very effectively), (251-52), only those in the Church know best how to offer communion ("...the church must be obeyed").

Luther gets serious about communion though, on pages 257-259, by pointing out that at the Last Supper Christ was speaking "of spiritual eating," not literally that one should eat the flesh. And Christ did not say, "All of you eat of this" and "All of you drink this," Luther quotes Matthew as saying, to mean that everyone should eat bread and drink wine. But rather, Luther continued, Christ meant that his "blood" was given to all, and was "shed for the sins of all," in a symbolic but spiritually powerful sense.

On page 324, as his "Pagan Servitude of the Church" continues, Luther points out that the "laying on of hands" was not a "sacrament" as was being implemented by the Church. It was meant (Luther insists) by Christ as a healing power, and only Christ could heal; but the church gave bishops the sacrament of the laying on of hands "...to embellish the duties of the bishops, lest they be entirely without function in the church." This is a brutally honest attack on the dogma of the church, not inconsistent with earlier attacks: the laying on of hands was "something new" (325) in the church that would be "easy and not so very vexatious to these high and mighty supermen." Luther, throughout the writings in this book, rages against any notion that arguments established "...by the wisdom of men ought to be reverenced by men."