Faith and works

• Luther struggled with the concept of holiness, particularly how unholy humans could ever hope to have a relationship with a holy God.
• Luther tried the path of penitence/confession but was aware that he could not ever remember all of the sins he would need to confess.
• Luther also tried the path of mysticism, the experience of surrender to the greater reality of God, but felt that such experiences were fleeting.
• Luther was painfully aware of his lack of holiness and came to hate God for creating a situation with no bridge between unholiness and holiness.
• In Romans 1:17, Luther discovered that whilst no human actions could create holiness, one had to have faith that God gave holiness to humans as a gift.
• Luther’s focus on Sola Fide (justification through faith alone) and Sola Gratia (grace alone) and rejection of Judaism as dead legalism were influenced by his understanding of the Bible as the sole source of authority (Sola Scriptura).
• Key passages for Luther include Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:6; he rejected James 2:24 as it suggests works are important along with faith.
• The Council of Trent met from 1545-1563CE (Luther died in 1546C) and sought to reform the church and also opposed Luther’s doctrine of Sola Fide.
• The council banned ‘base gain’ for securing indulgences, a practice which Luther linked to one trying to work for holiness.
• Critical to the Council was the clarification that God works both through the Bible and through apostolic tradition; this undermined Sola Scriptura.
• The Council appealed to the Bible to convince the Church that we are justified by faith, but not by faith alone: ‘...the only thing that counts is faith working through love.’ (Galatians 5:6); ‘If you wish to enter life, keep the commandments.’ (Matthew 19:17)
• Human free will, moved by the grace of God must cooperate in salvation.
• E.P. Sanders is a contemporary Biblical scholar who believes that Luther misinterpreted the Bible’s teaching on ‘law’, Judaism and justification.
• Luther viewed the Bible only through his individualistic lens and consuming focus on finding personal peace with God.
• Luther missed that the Jewish covenant is based on grace, not law: it is a gift to be chosen by God.
• In the Jewish covenant, the relationship is maintained through obedience, a concept called ‘covenantal nomism’ – law in the context of the covenant.
• Christians are a part of a new covenant, not through the law of Moses, but through the cross, also involving covenantal nomism.
• Paul focused on faith because he had a very specific concern: did Christians have to obey the specifically Jewish laws (i.e. circumcision, diet, sabbath)?
• The answer of Paul is no; however, Sanders notes that Paul expected Christians to keep all sorts of laws.