Trinity Lutheran Church Blog

October is a time to revisit our Reformation heritage and the person, who reflects what the Reformation represents, Martin Luther. Rev. Roland F. Ziegler of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN explains the essence of Lutheran theology from his article Luther and Justification (For the Life of the World, January 2004. Volume Eight, Number One)

The spiritual struggle that Luther wrestled with was how can man stand before God and not perish? This was the question that drove him almost to despair as a monk. The remedies of monastic discipline and the theology of his day all failed him. He experienced himself unable to fulfill the will of God, and so God took on the shape of a terrible tyrant, demanding what no man could do, and nevertheless condemning man because of his inability to conform to His will. Only when he found the true understanding of the words “the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16), did he find peace and freedom.

In 1531 Luther lectured once again on the Epistle to the Galatians in which the apostle Paul attacks an understanding of Christianity as a religion of what man does.  In his commentary, Luther defines justification in a way that brings out an interesting nuance: “But the doctrine of justification is this, that we are pronounced righteous and are saved solely by faith in Christ, and without works” (AE 26, 223).  Justification is that we are pronounced righteous or acquitted. Here Luther follows the apostle Paul in the way he uses legal language to describe how man is saved. God pronounces man righteous, as a judge gives the verdict. The difference is that an earthly judge has to acquit the innocent and to condemn the guilty. He has to judge according to the defendant’s actions, what he has done. God does it differently. He does not judge us according to our deeds, but He pronounces us innocent, even though we are according to our actions guilty. A human judge searches for innocence in the accused. God finds only guilt but imputes to man Christ’s righteousness. This legal language safeguards that the reason for our justification is not something we have done, do, or will do, but solely what Christ has accomplished on the cross. It teaches us to look outside of ourselves for salvation and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and His righteousness during our life and never ever trust that we are pleasing to God because of what we do, but rather to realize that we are pleasing to God because of Christ.

Luther’s understanding of justification is essentially nothing but applied Christology … “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor. 5:19). Justification by grace alone through faith alone is the consistent application to man of the atonement whose fruits come to us through the Gospel.  To be a Christian is nothing but trust in this message: Christ did everything for us. This Good News comes to us externally through the word of the apostles and prophets, the preached word and the Sacraments.

The doctrine of justification tells us who God is: our Judge, who bore our punishment. It tells us who we are: guilty, but innocent in Christ. It shows us a foundation to stand on: Christ’s righteousness, ours in faith. It extols the God who without our doing makes us alive through the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

“Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling …” (LSB 761 v 3)

Always in His Grip,

Filed under: Messages from Pastor Kittel