{"id":2337,"date":"2020-05-29T16:36:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T21:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2020-05-29T16:55:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T21:55:13","slug":"faith-works-martin-luthers-treatise-on-good-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2020\/05\/29\/faith-works-martin-luthers-treatise-on-good-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith Works: Martin Luther’s Treatise on Good Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lutherans should celebrate the 500th<\/sup> anniversary of 1520 as a much more significant event than publication of the Ninety-Five Theses<\/em> in 1517.\u00a0 The Indulgence Controversy and the image of Luther\u2019s hammer has captured everyone\u2019s imagination for a long time.\u00a0 However, in 1520 the Turning Point in the emerging Reformation took place.\u00a0 In this year, Dr. Martin Luther published a numbers of significant texts that demonstrated that theologically he had turned a metaphorical corner and was not looking back.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a series of short posts, I intend to examine some of these most significant texts over the coming months as a way to recognize this 500th<\/sup> year milestone.\u00a0 I will begin here with Martin Luther\u2019s Treatise on Good Works<\/em>.\u00a0 Luther had promised Georg Spalatin, Elector Frederick the Wise\u2019s private secretary, to write a sermon to counter the criticism that his theological teachings prohibited good works.\u00a0 He completed the work in May and it appeared in print in June 1520.<\/p>\n

In this work Luther explained in detail his theological conception of the relationship between faith and good works for the first time.\u00a0 Late medieval scholastic theologians had sought to explain the connection between faith and good deeds.\u00a0 Two years previously, \u00a0Luther had rejected the late medieval scholastic theology in his explanations of the Heidelberg Disputation.\u00a0 In thesis 25 Luther concluded, \u201cHe is not righteous who does much, but he who, without, work, believes much in Christ.\u201d\u00a0 In the explanation of this thesis, he reversed the scholastic focus on repetitive actions to acquire righteousness.\u00a0 Thereby, he affirmed that faith receives righteousness before the Christian is able to perform good works.*\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Treatise on Good Works<\/em>, Luther presents an exposition of the Ten Commandments based upon his theology of justification by faith alone.\u00a0 This fits very well with Luther’s understanding of the First Commandment.\u00a0 First, he writes that true good works are those things that God actually commands in Scripture.\u00a0 Luther focuses his criticism throughout this text on religious activity promoted as good deeds of satisfaction by the papal theologians.\u00a0 Then Luther wrote this significant statement:\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe first, highest, and most precious of all good works is faith in Christ<\/strong>, and as it says in John 6 [:28-29], when the Jews asked him, \u2018What must we do, to be doing the good work of God?\u2019 Jesus answered, \u2018This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’\u00a0 Now when we hear that or even preach it, we pass over it: we think nothing of it and think it easy to do, but actually we ought to pause a long time and think it over properly.\u00a0 For in this work all good works exist, and from faith these works receive a borrowed goodness.\u00a0 We must make this absolutely clear, so that men can understand it.\u201d**\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Luther wrote explanations of each of the Ten Commandments throughout the rest of this treatise.\u00a0 Here, he emphasizes the idea that obedience to the commandments only flows from faith in Christ and his redemptive action.\u00a0 He concluded rhetorically in the following manner:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 “Look here! This is how you must cultivate Christ in yourself, and see how in him God holds before you his mercy and offers it to you without my prior merits of you own.\u00a0 It is from such a view of his grace that you must draw faith and confidence in the forgiveness of all sins.\u00a0 Faith, therefore, does not originate in works, neither do works create faith, but faith must spring up and from the blood and wounds and death of Christ<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you see in these that God is so kindly disposed toward you that he even gives his own Son for you, then your heart in turn must grow sweet and disposed toward God.”***<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*Martin Luther,\u00a0Heidelberg Disputation<\/em>, in Luther’s Works, vol.\u00a0 31, pp. 55-56; Martin Brecht, Martin\u00a0Luther: His Road to Reformation,\u00a0<\/em>trans. James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis 1985),\u00a0231-234.<\/p>\n

**Martin Luther, Treatise on Good Works<\/em>, LW 44:23-24 [Emphasis added]<\/p>\n

***Ibid., 38. [Emphasis added]<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lutherans should celebrate the 500th anniversary of 1520 as a much more significant event than publication of the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.\u00a0 The Indulgence Controversy and the image of Luther\u2019s hammer has captured everyone\u2019s imagination for a long time.\u00a0 However, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,1,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-grace","category-martin-luther-history","category-reformation","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions\/2370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}