Martin Luther: Did he pass the Litmus Test?
David
---------------------------------------------------
To Luther the teachings of Christ were not important because all that
he knew about works was that they were of no benefit or merit in regard
to salvation. By this thinking, he reduced the gospel to only the
redeeming and atoning sacrifice of Christ on behalf of sinners. It
became the gospel of going to heaven. However Christ and His apostles
preached the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore to the apostles
the teachings of Christ were very important, because teaching others to
keep the commandments of Christ would establish His kingship or the
Kingdom of Heaven.
In His last words to them He had commissioned them to make disciples
and to teach these disciples to observe everything that He had
commanded them during the years He had spent with them. In obedience to
this teaching they established the community in Jerusalem.
Christ wants a visible church, because He wants to demonstrate to the
whole world what life under His rulership is like. Luther had no wish
to establish a church along these lines, as is clear from his attitude
towards those who wanted to implement these things from the gospel:[19]
The Gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who
do of their own free will what the Apostles and disciples did in Acts
iv. They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging,
that the goods of others - of a Pilate or a Herod - should be
common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, would have
other men's goods common, and keep their own goods for themselves.
Fine Christians these! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they
have all gone into the peasants.
Of course Pilate and Herod were not part of the church and what the
apostles established was binding only within the church. But in the
church, where by the Holy Spirit the love of God had been poured out in
the heart of every believer, everybody just did what love demanded. For
how can the love of God be in a person who has the goods of the world
and yet closes his heart while seeing his brother in need?[20] It is
interesting to note that James, in his epistle of straw, would call
such behavior a dead faith, or a faith without saving power.[21]
At first, in the community in Jerusalem, there were no needy among
them. Some years down the road, however, someone wrote a letter to the
community in Jerusalem reminding them that, "Christ is the same,
yesterday, today, and forever." He was charging them to remember
those who led them, who had spoken the word of God to them, and warned
them to not be carried away with various and strange doctrines.[22] In
essence, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was calling them back
to the standard the apostles had established in the beginning, as this
is the pattern and foundation of how the church is to be, yesterday,
today, and forever.
The gospel is the gospel because it is the gospel. In other words, the
gospel cannot change and still be the gospel. And the gospel will prove
its authenticity by bringing forth the same fruit it did when it was
authentic, as at Pentecost after Christ's ascension. And what it
brought forth was authentic as well. The quality of life, the selfless
love it produced in the disciples, showed that Christ resided in that
place by His Spirit. So when a little while later, persecution arose
against this church, Christ Himself defended it, saying, "Why are you
persecuting Me?"[23]
This is the faith that was once for all delivered to all the
saints.[24] Not just a doctrine, but the faith. Faith is persuasion,
the persuasion in the atoning sacrifice of Messiah for the remission of
sins so that the Holy Spirit can be imparted, and the persuasion to do
the deeds one has been saved for, in the visible church of the
redeemed. This is saving faith.
[19] T. Münzer, Hochverursachte Schutzrede, Mülhausen, 1524
[20] Romans 5:5; 1 John 3:17
[21] James 2:14,17,20,26
[22] Hebrews 13:7-9
[23] Acts 26:14
[24] Jude 3