Something from ... Luther's "The Bondage of the Will" (Entry #10)

INTRODUCTORY NOTES:  During the life of Martin Luther, Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus, was urged by Roman Catholic Church leaders to challenge Luther’s teachings and to condemn him.  Although Erasmus would rather have kept the peace in the Church, Erasmus was finally goaded into attacking Luther.  Erasmus intended to defend the official Roman Catholic teaching that God’s grace was needed to do the works by which man could then merit additional grace.  Luther’s response to Erasmus is known as The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio).  Although Luther had published a myriad of writings in his career, he did not consider them worth preserving.  Luther regarded The Bondage of the Will as a rare exception to that rule.  In it, Luther writes at length that “free will” in spiritual matters is a lie, and that, if man actually has free will, then God loses such attributes as grace, omnipotence, and even his right to be God.

            The quotations from Luther in this blog post come from The Bondage of the Will translated by J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston, Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, MI. © 1957.

            The following are thoughts concerning Luther’s arguments, urging us to LET GOD BE GOD.  Something from Luther’s The Bondage of the Will.

LET GOD BE GOD: Let God be pure.


            Some have abandoned Christianity on the charge that all the wars in the world have been over religion.  While it is true that some Christians have done horrible things in the name of Christianity, they were certainly not done by the command of Jesus.  He has told us to put the sword away.  The only sword Jesus gives us the wield is the sword of the Spirit, that is preaching the word of God.  As for the Christians who have done horrible things in the name of Jesus, we call their actions for what they are—acts of wickedness.  We call such people to repent of their actions.  If they refuse, we excommunicate them and tell them that their sins cling to them.  Christians do not call anything good just because the name of Jesus was attached to it.  We call things good which God’s word defines as good.

            But the charge that all the wars of the world have been over religions is grossly overstated.  It is just an excuse to despise Jesus and his Church while attempting to sound noble while doing so.  But since people want to seem noble, they feel the need to find excuses for despising God and his word.  Jesus tells us why this happens: “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20) 

            Only God is pure.  His word tells us what is good.  It also shows that we are not.  In an effort to defend ourselves, we can decide that God asks too much and that we know better.  But God is good, and only God is good.  His word is pure, and it shows us that we are not.  Rather than rebel, it is right to repent.  Rather than tell God to conform to our will, it is right to conform ourselves to his.  Only God is pure.  But man still rebels against his purity, further increasing their own sins.  Here is something from Luther on letting God be pure:

            “Yet now that the gospel is come, men start blaming the world's wickedness on it!—when  the truth is, rather, that the good Gospel brings the world's wickedness to light; for without the gospel the world dwelt in its own darkness.  So do the uneducated blame education for the fact that, as education spreads, their own ignorance becomes apparent.  Such are the thanks we return for the word of life and salvation!” (page 94)