MARTIN LUTHER ON GOOD WORKS
Lutherans around the world are still celerating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The first big celebration was in October 2017, when we celebrated the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Each year since that time has offered some events in Luther's life that are worth remembering: 2018 - the April 1518 disputation at Heidelberg; 2019 - the July 1519 debate between Luther and Eck at Leipzig. This year, 2020, brings a number of key events worth recounting: June 1520, issuing of the papal bull against Luther; August 1520, Luthers treatise Address to the German Nobility; October 1520, Luther's treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Christian Church; November 1520, Luther's treatise On the Freedom of the Christian Man; and December 1520, Luther's burning of copies of the papal bull and the canon law.
A lesser known event was the publication in May 1520 of Luther's Treatise on Good Works, which he began work on five hundred years ago, in March 1520. Luther had been accused by his enemies of antinomianism, i.e., that his stress on justification by faith alone would lead to a neglect of good works and virtue, and a parallel rise of lawlessness, license, and immorality. Princes, theologians, pastors, and laymen who were sympathetic to Luther's criticism of the papal church were concerned that Luther's doctrine of justification would be misunderstood and distorted by his followers or others less under his influence. Thus this treatise was his first attempt at a full development and explanation of the Lutheran doctrine of justification, and it succeeded in that attempt in many ways.
The May 1520 treatise can be found today in translation in volume 44 of Luther's Works: American Edition, pages 15-114, which we have in our church library. Here are some excerpts from the beginning of this treatise, still as relevant as ever for the Christian faith and life:
"The first thing to know is that there are no good works except those works God has commanded, just as there is no sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore, whoever wants to know what good works are, as well as doing them, needs to know nothing more than God's commandments.... When the young man in Matthew 19 [:16-22] asks what he should do to inherit eternal life, Christ sets before him nothing else but the Ten Commandments. Accordingly, we have to learn to recognize good works from the commandments of God, and not from the appearance, size, or number of the works themselves, nor from the opinion of men, or of human law or custom, as we see has happened and still happens because of our blindness and disregard of the divine commandments."
"The first, highest, and most precious of all good works is faith in Christ. As it says in John 6[:28-29], when the Jews asked him, "What must we do, to be doing the good work of God?" Jesus answered, "This is the good work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." Now when we hear that or even preach it, we pass over it; we think nothing of it and think it is easy to do, but actually we ought to pause a long time and think it over properly. For in this work all good works exist, and from faith these works receive a borrowed goodness."
"We find many who pray, fast, establish endowments [for monasteries, schools, and churches], do this and that, lead a good life in the sight of their fellowmen, and yet, were you to ask them if they were quite certain that what they were doing was well pleasing to God, they would say no. They do not know, or at least are uncertain. And there are some very learned men who lead them astray and tell them it is not necessary to be certain of this, and yet these learned men do nothing else but teach good works.... Now take careful note. All these works go on apart from faith; therefore they amount to nothing and are absolutely dead,... therefore their works are pointless and their life and goodness all amount to nothing. This is the reason that when I exalt faith and reject such works done without faith they accuse me of forbidding good works. The fact of the matter is that I want very much to teach the real good works which spring from faith."
"If you ask further whether they consider it a good work when a man works at his trade, walks, stands, eats, drinks, sleeps, and does all kinds of works for the nourishment of his body or for the common welfare, and whether they believe that God is well pleased with them, you will find that they say no, and that they define good works so narrowly that they are made to consist only of praying in church, fasting, and almsgiving. The other things they consider as worth nothing and think that God attaches no importance to them."
"It is from faith as the chief work and from no other work that we are called believers in Christ; but to trust firmly that he pleases God is possible only for a Christian who is enlightened and strengthened by grace. That these words seem strange, and that some people call me a heretic because of them, is due to the fact that they have followed blind reason and heathen ways of thinking."
"Thus a Christian man who lives in this confidence [of faith] toward God knows all things, can do all things, venture everything that needs to be done, and does everything gladly and willingly, not that he may gather merits and good works, but because it is a pleasure for him to please God in doing these things. He siply serves God with no thought of reward; content that his service pleases God."
[Luther's Works: American Edition, volumn 44, pp. 23-27]
Yours in Christ, Pastor Martin R. Noland
