On April 16, 1521, Martin Luther arrived in the city of Worms to appear before the imperial court of the Holy Roman Empire. The previous year, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull against the German monk for his writings. Now Luther . . . Continue reading →
Martin Luther
Luther And The Jews: From Over-Realized Eschatology To Bitter Disillusionment
I also noted on Friday that it is the unusual, not the usual, which is often most interesting to the historian. Luther’s 1543 treatise is not unusual; but this was not the only book he wrote on the Jews; and the other . . . Continue reading →
Luther: The Enemy Does Not Present To Us The Whole Christ
So far as the words are concerned, we know all this very well and can discourse on it. But in the struggle, when the devil tries to mar the image of Christ and to snatch the Word from our hearts, we discover . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Not Only For Others But For Me Too
…believe that Christ was given not only for the sins of others but also for yours. Hold to this firmly, and do not let anything deprive you of this sweet definition of Christ, which brings joy even to the angels in heaven: . . . Continue reading →
Luther: For Assurance We Need A Right Definition Of Christ
…By adulterating the genuine definition of Christ with his poison [the devil] produces this effect, that although we believe that Christ is the Mediator, in fact our troubled conscience feels and judges that He is a tyrant and a tormentor. So Satan . . . Continue reading →
Luther: God Wants Us To Listen
Thus [Paul] says also to the Romans (11:13): “Inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.” That is to say: “I want men to receive me, not as Paul of Tarsus but as Paul the apostle or . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Of Course Error And False Teaching Springs Up In The Church
We should not marvel nor be terrified if there spring up among us many different false teachings and false faiths. Satan is constantly among the children of God. These words teach us how we should conduct ourselves toward these heretics and false . . . Continue reading →
5 Reformation Doctrines That Still Transform The Church
By most accounts, the Reformation began when a young monk challenged ecclesiastical and academic authorities to debate a controversial practice that had developed in the late-medieval period. Why do we continue to remember it roughly five hundred years later? Waving off Martin . . . Continue reading →
Luther On Bound Choice: Celebrating The Recovery Of The Doctrine Of Sola Gratia (Part 2)—Erasmus Of Rotterdam
When Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was born, the printing press was about fifteen years old. Paul II was Pope. Frederick III was Holy Roman Emperor. What we think of today as the Netherlands was ruled by the House of Burgundy. Luther would not . . . Continue reading →
Luther On Bound Choice: Celebrating The Recovery Of The Doctrine Of Sola Gratia (Part 1)
In 1580, when the Lutherans and the Reformed met at Montbeilard, when the topic turned to predestination, Theodore Beza (1519–1605) rose, lifted his copy of Luther’s Concerning Bound Choice (De servo arbitrio), and said, “We stand with Luther.”1 The Lutheran representatives suggested . . . Continue reading →
Luther: We Pray For Trivial Things And Neglect God’s Majesty
We too are in the habit of praying for trivial and insignificant things. When we pray, we don’t take into account the great majesty of God. If God wanted to give us only petty and superficial things, he wouldn’t have given us . . . Continue reading →
Luther’s Cure For Spiritual Depression
My dearest Spalatin, I heartily sympathize with you and earnestly pray our Lord Jesus Christ to strengthen you and give you a cheerful heart. I should like to know, and am making diligent inquiries to find out, what your trouble may be . . . Continue reading →
Luther On The Difference Between Hagar’s Children And Sarah
Therefore the Law or the old covenant contains only physical promises, to which some such condition as this is always attached: “If you will hear My voice” (Ps. 95:7); “If you will keep My covenant” (Ex. 19:5); “If you walk in My . . . Continue reading →
Luther: The Law And The Gospel Make Promise On Different Conditions
For the Law did not have promises added to it about Christ and His blessings, about deliverance from the curse of the Law, sin, and death, and about the free gift of the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life. But the . . . Continue reading →
Luther: A Christian Expects To Be Shamed By The World
See here: a Christian must not think or undertake to arrange his affairs so that he is praised and blessed by the people of this world. No, it is already decided that he must expect shame and cursing, and submit to it . . . Continue reading →
Luther: If You Are Under The Law You Are A Slave
Now it should be noted that the Holy Spirit insults the people of the Law and of works here by calling them “sons of the slave woman.” It is as though He were to say: “Why do you boast about the righteousness . . . Continue reading →
Luther On Law And Grace
Therefore we are pronounced righteous, not on the basis of the Law or of works or of our own righteousness but on the basis of pure grace. Paul insisted on the promise so vigorously and stressed it so often because he saw . . . Continue reading →
Luther Contra Theonomy
A second kind of abrogation of the Law, an outward one, is that the political laws of Moses do not apply to us at all. Therefore we should not restore them to the courthouse or chain ourselves to them in some superstitious . . . Continue reading →
Luther On The Relation Between Sound Doctrine To Harmony
And let me add this admonition in passing: It is the nature and the result of sound doctrine that when it is taught and learned well, it unites the minds of men in supreme harmony. But where men neglect the faithful doctrine . . . Continue reading →
Luther On The First Use
Now if even the Moral Law of God, the Decalogue, gives birth only to slaves—that is, does not justify but only terrifies, accuses, condemns, and brings consciences to the point of despair—how, I ask you, could the laws of the pope or . . . Continue reading →