Luther

 As our group has moved away from Wittenberg, the focus of our trip has shifted from the history of the Protestant Reformation into more modern times. I want to take a moment to take one last look at some of Luther’s thoughts, before I move onto other things. The life of Luther has impacted me a great deal, and I want to try and give a snapshot into some of his most heartfelt convictions. I know that this is a significant amount of writing, and I don’t expect that anyone should read it all. These are meant to be reflections on one of the most influential men that I have ever studied.

These are all quotes by Luther from Stephen J. Nichols book, Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought. They are taken from a discussion on Luther’s “Theology of the cross.” This is believed to be some of the most potent gateways into Luther’s heart. It is the way that he understood the grace of Jesus Christ his savior, and it is something that we need desperately in our time. Luther begins by talking about the nature of human sin.

“It enjoys only itself and uses everyone else, even God; it seeks itself and its own interests in everything: it brings it about that man is finally and ultimately concerned only for himself. This is the idolatry that determines all he does, feels, undertakes, thinks, and speaks. Good is only what is good for him and bad only what is bad for him.” 

This is the latin incurvitas. This is the idea that the self curves into the self. It means that any human attempt to be good or to be focused upon God in itself outside of Christ will only turn towards self. Even if the self thinks that it can advance towards God, it will only turn itself into itself. Luther wrote against the “Theology of glory”, trying to establish a correct nature of human sin and the role of Christ amidst our depravity.

The “Theology of glory” claims that mankind is not totally evil, and that man can actually chose God. This concept pervaded the theology of Luther’s world. He found that he was surrounded by people that wanted to deal with their individual sins as isolated from who they really were or what they truly wanted. They wanted to remain in their sins for comfort, while still feeling guiltless before God. He found himself in a world of pain where people sought answers that were selfish. He found in the “Theology of glory” that there was a tendency amongst men to ignore what Christ came to do, and only exemplified a desire to see Christ in glory. It was a theology that fundamentally ignored man’s sinful nature, wanting to use God and whatever means possible to satisfy their sinful state. This theology only emptied man of what they truly needed, and ultimately filled them with more of themselves: their own disease.

"He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is." 

Luther dared to ask the question that he saw in his own soul. That question was one of his own sinful heart. He knew that the church might momentarily relieve his guilty conscience, but he also knew that his sin was something that was deeply a part of who he was. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t change himself. Part of Luther’s discovery of Christ and his break away from the world of the Catholic Church was centered around his experience of his own sin. He knew that his sinfulness was deeply part of who he was, and he couldn’t shake the deep guilt he felt before a Holy God. And it was in that knowledge when Luther found true hope.

This is where we need to take a second to pause. In America, it is easy for us to say these things like “Lord I want you first”, or “I want you to be my joy and my satisfaction,” when in reality we have a hundred comforts that would block us from what that truly means. What does it truly mean to only have joy in Christ? We would mask joy with the excitement that God wants us to be prosperous, that he wants us to have perfect relationships and comfortable lives with an abundance of possessions. But this is not the world in which Luther lived. Luther lived in a world that was incredibly broken. He lived in a culture of death where a 3^rd of the European population was wiped out from the plague. The people in Luther’s day were no strangers to pain and loss, and they needed answers. People wanted a God who could stop their physical problems, and they were sure that they knew what they wanted. That sounds strangely reminiscent to the Jews in the time of Christ. Luther lived where people let their surroundings shape their theology, because they were afraid of what it might mean to truly give up what was closest to their hearts.

And it is in this world that Luther found the meaning of salvation. That salvation wasn’t in a series of sacraments that allowed him to feel licensed to have a sinful heart and live in a superficial world of external rituals for righteousness. Luther’s theology of the cross was where he found true life. It would seem that when the maker of heaven and earth is being crucified, that is where he is weakest. But in reality it is quite the opposite. Luther found that when Christ was on the cross, he was more powerful than ever. It is when Christ suffers that our greatest need is met. We deserve a cross because of our sin, but Christ takes our punishment. In Christ’s greatest suffering we find our hope.

"Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. ... For this reason true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ." 

And as I have been in Wittenberg, I have been able to touch the life of this man, and see the heartbeat behind all his theological reform. This was a brave man who refused to settle for a theology that was unbiblical and based on man’s conception of God. He saw that he had a condition of sin in his heart, and that no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t change who he was. And in looking upon Christ on the cross, he found that Christ offered him what he truly needed. He needed a change of his heart, not just external comfort. He needed a Christ who would suffer in his place. And He needed a Christ who could pay a penalty that he himself should have to pay. Martin Luther was willing to admit that Christ may not have come so that we as humans could have easy lives. Christ was crucified on a wretched cross! Life as a Christian may not be all that our sinful hearts desire, but Christ gives us what we truly need. Being a Christian for Luther wasn’t about external happiness. He was a man who refused to buy his salvation from the church while living in rebellion with God. He was truly a reformer.

Standing in his stead has been humbling indeed. Would I look upon Christ in the same fashion? What if my life doesn’t abound in material blessings because I chose to follow Christ? Do I want a Christ who is only glorified without having to suffer? Do I want a Christ who will give me happiness in this life or eternal joy in the next? If Christ is truly glorified in suffering, would I suffer my need for momentary bliss for a salvation that is worth eternity? These are hard questions. Questions that I don’t think anyone likes to ask. Luther asked these questions. And he was brave enough to point to a Christ on the cross, who confounds the wisdom of the ages for riches everlasting.

Luther’s theology of the cross finds Christ where he would seem to be weakest, but in fact he is doing the most. As 1 Corinthians says, “God destroys the wisdom of the wise.” Luther saw that it was not anything else in scripture that was central to Christianity, but Christ on the cross. He saw Christ in his suffering doing most for the Christian when so many were turning to a myriad of comforting half-truths and other evils. Luther found that because Christ suffered on the Cross and because he appeared weakest when he was doing most, for that reason the Christians life might look the same. A Christian is not a Christian because they have an easy life, but because they know that Christ's salvation is their ultimate joy. Luther realized that his true satisfaction did not come from self-promotion or external adornment, but through the redemption in his heart through Christ on the cross.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

-John 14:27