7. The Helplessness of Man and the Omnipotence of God
J H Merle d’Aubigné
A living faith in Christ filled Luther’s heart and life. “Within my heart,” he said, “there reigns alone (and it ought thus to reign alone) faith in my Lord Jesus Christ, who is the beginning, middle and end of all the thoughts that occupy my mind by day and night.”
All his hearers listened with admiration as he spoke – whether from the professor’s chair or from the pulpit – of that faith in Jesus Christ. Men were astonished that they had not earlier acknowledged truths that appeared so evident in his mouth. “The desire of self-justification”, said he, “is the cause of all the distresses of the heart. But he who receives Jesus Christ as a Saviour enjoys peace, and not only peace but purity of heart. All sanctification of the heart is a fruit of faith. For faith is a divine work in us which changes us and gives us a new birth given by God Himself. It kills the old Adam in us and, by the Holy Ghost which is communicated to us, it gives us a new heart and makes us new men. It is not by empty speculations,” he again exclaimed, “but by this practical method that we can obtain a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
1This is a further abridged extract from d’Aubigné’s The History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, vol 1. Last month we saw Luther feeling called especially to the study of Scripture and to the reformation of the Church.
At this time Luther preached discourses on the Ten Commandments entitled Popular Declamations. They contain errors no doubt; Luther became enlightened only by degrees. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov 4:18). But what truth, simplicity and eloquence are found in these discourses! How well we can understand the effect the new preacher must have produced on his audience and on his age!
We will quote but one passage taken from the beginning. Luther ascends the pulpit of Wittenberg, and reads these words: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Ex 20:3). Then turning to the people who crowded the sanctuary, he says, “All the sons of Adam are idolaters, and have sinned against this First Commandment”. Doubtless this strange assertion startles his hearers. He proceeds to justify it: “There are two kinds of idolatry – one external, the other internal. In external idolatry, man bows down to wood and stone, to beasts and to the heavenly host. In internal idolatry, man does not worship a created being [outwardly] yet, fearful of punishment or seeking his own pleasure, loves him in his heart and trusts in him. . . .
“What kind of religion is this? You do not bend the knee before riches and honours, but you offer to them your heart, the noblest portion of yourselves. . . . Alas, you worship God in your body, but the creature in spirit. This idolatry prevails in every man until he is healed by the free gift of faith that is in Christ Jesus.
“And how shall this cure be accomplished? Listen. Faith in Christ takes away from you all trust in your own wisdom, righteousness and strength; it teaches you that, if Christ had not died for you and had not thus saved you, neither you nor any other creature would have been able to do it. Then you learn to despise all those things that are unavailing to you.
“Nothing now remains to you but Jesus Christ – Christ alone, Christ all-sufficient for your soul. Hoping for nothing from any creature, you have only Christ, from whom you hope for everything and whom you love above everything. Now Christ is the one, sole and true God. When you have Him for your God, you have no other gods.”
Thus Luther shows how the soul is brought back to God, his sovereign good, by the gospel, according to the words of Jesus Christ: “I am the way . . . no man cometh unto the Father but by Me”. The man who speaks thus to his age aims at something more than the correction of a few abuses; he is earnest above all things to establish true religion. His work is not merely negative; it is primarily positive.
Luther goes on to speak against the superstitions which then filled Christendom: among them the signs and mysterious characters, the observance of
certain days and months, familiar spirits, phantoms, the influence of the stars, witchcraft, the patronage of saints. He attacks these idols one after another and with vigour overthrows all these false gods.
But it was particularly in his lecture room before an enlightened, youthful audience, hungering for the truth, that he displayed all the treasures of God’s Word. “He so explained Scripture”, says his friend Melanchthon, “that, in the judgement of all pious and well-informed men, it was as if a new morning had risen upon doctrine after a long night of darkness. He showed the difference between the law and the gospel. He refuted the then prevalent error of the churches that men by their works merit the remission of sins and become righteous before God by outward discipline. He thus led men’s hearts back to the Son of God. Like John the Baptist, he pointed to the Lamb of God that has taken away the sins of the world; he explained how sin is freely pardoned for the sake of the Son of God, and that man receives this blessing through faith.
“He made no change in the ceremonies. On the contrary, the established discipline had not in his order a more faithful observer and defender. But he endeavoured more and more to make all understand these grand, essential doctrines of conversion, the remission of sins, faith and the true consolation to be found in the cross. Pious minds were struck by the sweetness of this doctrine; the learned received it with joy. One might have said that Christ, the apostles, and the prophets, were now issuing from the obscurity of some impure dungeon.”
The firmness with which Luther relied on the Holy Scriptures imparted great authority to his teaching. But so did the fact that every action of his life corresponded with his words. It was known that these discourses did not proceed merely from his lips: they had their source in his heart. And many influential men who regretted the divisions in the Church when the Reformation later burst forth, had already been won over beforehand by the holiness of the Reformer’s life and by the beauty of his genius; they embraced the doctrine to which he gave testimony by his works. The more men loved Christian virtues, the more they inclined towards the Reformer. Wittenberg was changed by this preaching of faith, and it became the focus of a light that was soon to illuminate all Germany and shine on all the Church.
Luther had an affectionate, tender heart and desired to see those whom he loved in possession of that light which had guided him into the paths of peace. He took advantage of every opportunity that occurred as professor, preacher, or monk, as well as his extensive correspondence, to communicate his treasure to others. One of his former brethren in the convent of Erfurt, the monk George Spenlein, was then living in the convent of Memmingen, per-
haps after spending a short time at Wittenberg. Spenlein had commissioned Luther to sell various articles that he had left with him. Luther carefully discharged this commission. He received, he says in a letter to Spenlein, in April 1516, one florin for a tunic, half a florin for a book, and a florin for a hood, and had remitted the amount to the father-vicar, to whom Spenlein owed three florins.
But Luther quickly passes to a more important subject: “I should be very glad to know”, he wrote to friar George, “what is the state of your soul. Is it not tired of its own righteousness? Does it not breathe freely at last and does it not confide in the righteousness of Christ? In our days, pride seduces many and especially those who labour with all their might to become righteous, not understanding the righteousness of God that is given to us freely in Christ Jesus; they wish to stand before Him on their own merits. But that cannot be. When you were living with me, you were in that error, and so was I. I am struggling unceasingly against it, and I have not entirely triumphed over it.
“O my dear brother, learn to know Christ and Him crucified. Learn to sing to Him a new song, to despair of yourself; and to say to Him: Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, art my righteousness, and I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken what was mine, and hast given me what was Thine. What Thou wast not Thou didst become, in order that I might become what I was not! Beware, my dear George, of pretending to such purity as no longer to confess yourself a sinner, for Christ dwells only with sinners. He came down from heaven, where he was living among the righteous, in order to live also among sinners. Meditate carefully upon this love of Christ, and you will taste all its unspeakable consolation. If our labours and afflictions could give peace to the conscience, why should Christ have died? You will not find peace except in Him, by despairing of yourself and of your works, and in learning the love with which He opens His arms to you, taking all your sins upon Himself, and giving you all His righteousness.”
Thus the powerful doctrine of the apostolic age, which was to be used again in the days of the Reformation, was clearly and forcibly explained by Luther. Spenlein was not the only man whom he sought to instruct in this fundamental doctrine. The little truth that he found, in this respect, in the writings of Erasmus2 made him uneasy. It was of great importance to enlighten a man whose genius was so admirable. But how was he to do so?
Erasmus much respected Luther’s friend, the Elector’s chaplain; to him Luther applied. “What displeases me in Erasmus,” wrote Luther, “who is a man of such extensive learning, is, my dear Spalatin, that by the righteous-
2Dutch scholar, who produced an influential edition of the Greek New Testament. He was critical of the abuses of the Church but did not embrace the doctrines of the Reformation.
ness of works and of the law, of which the Apostle speaks, he understands the fulfilling of the ceremonial law. The righteousness of the law consists not only in ceremonies, but in all the works of the Decalogue. Even if these works should be accomplished without faith in Christ, they may, it is true, produce . . . men perfectly upright in the eyes of the world; but they then deserve as little to be styled righteousness, as the fruit of the medlar to be called a fig. For we do not become righteous, as Aristotle maintains, by performing righteous works; but when we have become righteous, then we perform such works. The man must first be changed, and afterwards the works. Abel was first accepted by God, and then his sacrifice.”
Luther continues, “Fulfill, I beseech you, the duty of a friend and of a Christian by communicating these matters to Erasmus”. This letter places the relation between Luther and Erasmus in its true light. It shows the sincere interest he felt in what he thought would be really beneficial to this illustrious writer. Undoubtedly, the opposition shown by Erasmus to the truth compelled Luther later to combat him openly, but he did not do so until he had sought to enlighten his antagonist.
At last the nature of goodness was clearly explained. Then was declared the principle that what constitutes the real goodness of an action is not its outward appearance, but the spirit in which it is performed. This was aiming a deadly blow at all those superstitious observances which for ages had oppressed the Church and prevented Christian virtues from growing up and flourishing within it.
“I am reading Erasmus,” says Luther on another occasion, “but he daily loses his credit with me. I like to see him rebuke with so much firmness and learning the grovelling ignorance of the priests and monks, but I fear that he does not render great service to the doctrine of Jesus Christ. What is of man is dearer to him than what is of God. We are living in dangerous times. A man is not a good and judicious Christian because he understands Greek and Hebrew. Jerome, who knew five languages, is inferior to Augustine, who understood but one; although Erasmus thinks the contrary. I very carefully conceal my opinions concerning Erasmus, through fear of giving advantage to his adversaries. Perhaps the Lord will give him understanding in His time.”
The helplessness of man and the omnipotence of God were the two truths Luther desired to re-establish. It is a sad religion and a wretched philosophy that directs man to his own natural strength. Ages have tried in vain this boasted strength; and while man has, by his natural powers, arrived at great excellence in what concerns his earthly existence, he has never been able to scatter the darkness that conceals from his soul the knowledge of the true God, or to change a single inclination of his heart. The highest degree of
wisdom attained by ambitious minds, or by souls thirsting for perfection, has been to despair of themselves. It is therefore a comforting, true doctrine which unveils our impotence and proclaims a power from God. That truly is a great reformation which vindicates on earth the glory of heaven and pleads before man the rights of Almighty God.
No one knew better than Luther the indissoluble bond that unites the free salvation of God with the works of man. No one showed more plainly than he that it is only by receiving all from Christ that man can impart much to his brethren. He always represented these two actions – of God and of man – in the same picture. So, after explaining to the friar Spenlein what is meant by saving righteousness, he adds, “If you firmly believe those things, as is your duty (for cursed is he who does not believe them), receive your brethren who are still ignorant and in error, as Jesus Christ has received you. Bear with them patiently . . . and if you have any good thing, impart it to them. ‘Receive ye one another,’ says the Apostle, ‘as Christ also received us to the glory of God’ (Rom 15:7).
“It is a deplorable righteousness that cannot bear with others because it finds them wicked, and which thinks only of seeking the solitude of the desert instead of doing them good by long-suffering, prayer and example. If you are the lily and the rose of Christ, know that your dwelling place is among thorns. Only take care lest, by your impatience, by your rash judgements and your secret pride, you do not yourself become a thorn. Christ reigns in the midst of His enemies. If He had desired to live only among the good, and to die only for those who loved Him, for whom, I pray, would He have died, and among whom would He have lived?”