Freedom of the Christian Part 2

[joseph]

The First power of Faith – Justification
Deacon Kathy Walzer

The first part of Luther’s treatise on “The Freedom of a Christian”
deals with his first thesis: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of
all, subject to none.” This is so because “the inner man” has been
set free from the burden of trying to please, satisfy, or earn favor/
merit with God through works.

As Luther explains it, the soul is not affected by any outward work
that is performed. The soul, he says, is not helped by sacred robes,
fasting or feasting, or sacred work. Nor is it harmed by everyday
garb, plain food, or secular work. The only thing that can affect the
soul is the Word of God. And when that Word comes to us, the only
proper application of the Word is faith. And the first power of faith
is to justify the sinner:

“Faith alone is the saving and efficacious use of the Word of God,
according to Romans 10:9…Therefore, it is clear that, as the soul
needs only the Word of God, for its life and righteousness, so it is
justified by faith alone and not any works, for if it could be
justified by anything else, it would not need the Word, and
consequently it would not need faith.”

Faith and works cannot co-exist in our minds as a means of
justification. To do so would be “limping with two different
opinions.” Rather when faith comes, it immediately teaches us our
sinfulness. “When you have learned this you will know that you need
Christ, who suffered and rose again for you so that, if you believe in
Him, you may through this faith become a new man in so far as your
sins are forgiven and you are justified by the merits of another,
namely, of Christ alone.” It is Christ who is our righteousness whom
we receive through faith in his gospel and His finished work in the
Cross and Resurrection on our behalf.

“Since faith alone justifies, it is clear that the inner man cannot be
justified, freed, or saved by any work or outer action at all, and
that these works, whatever their character, have nothing to do with
this inner man…Wherefore it ought to be the first concern of every
Christian to lay aside all confidence in works and increasingly to
strengthen faith alone and through faith to grow in the knowledge, not
of works, but of Christ Jesus, who suffered and rose for him, as Peter
teaches in the last chapter of his first epistle (I Peter 5:10). No
other work makes a Christian.”

The Word of God operates through both Law and Gospel (command and
promise). The Law teaches us what is good and what we ought to do,
but does not give us the power to do it. Therefore the commandments
are “intended to teach man to know himself” and to “despair of his own
ability” to keep them, and then to “seek the help which he does not
find in himself.” Here the promises of God come to our aid and the
gospel tells us to “believe in Christ in whom grace, righteousness,
peace, liberty, and all things are promised you…God our Father has
made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have
everything.” He gives us freely through “grace and sheer mercy” the
very things that He has commanded and that we are unable to fulfill in
our own strength.

So the first part of Luther’s treatise is concerned with the freedom
of a Christian, faith, the inner man, and the promises of God made in
the Gospel. Though justification through faith is the main part of
this section, we will look next week at the other two powers of faith
that Luther identifies before moving into a discussion of the place of
works in the life of a Christian.