A stranger approached me on a Florida pier. He was out witnessing. After several exploratory questions, he knew my church affiliation: Church of the Lutheran Confession.
“Martin Luther was evil,” he said, totally dismissing Luther.
Although taken aback, I mustered a response. “Everyone’s a sinner. Martin Luther uncovered scriptural truths that were not being taught by the Roman Catholic Church.”
Ignoring me, he steamrolled on, “And, Luther’s ‘faith alone’ saying is wrong—faith must include works.”
Eventually, he left. I walked over to my son-in-law and said, “That guy says Martin Luther was evil.”
“He’s probably referring to things Luther said about Jewish people.”
Admittedly, I knew nothing about this and had to research it.
In 1543, Luther wrote On the Jews and Their Lies and Vom Schem Hamphoras. His goals for both publications were similar: furnish Christians with enough material to defend themselves against the Jews, help them “become the foe of the Jew’s malice, lying, and cursing,” and understand that their belief is false.
These publications contain ideas that one would not expect from Martin Luther. Even Philip Melancthon, a close friend of Luther’s, called these writings “severe,” while others, then and now, have been more critical. The stranger on the pier, for example, said “evil,” and an internet comment states, “I can’t differentiate between Luther the antisemite and Luther the reformer. I’ll have to bury him.”
Luther made mistakes, but “bury him?” We don’t worship Luther, but it would be impossible to cancel the work of Luther the Reformer. God used him to lead souls to the truth. Of course, we focus on the Word, not on the person who delivers it. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Our second topic on the pier was about Luther uncovering scriptural truths.
Luther, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, grasped the meaning of Romans 1:17, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'” Here he describes what happened:
“I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore, I did not love an angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear [Apostle] Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant [in Romans 1:17]. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through an open door into paradise!”
God in His grace imputes to us by faith the righteousness earned by Christ.
Luther went back over other Gospel passages and found that this is consistently the teaching of the Bible.
Pier Topic #3: The stranger claimed that Luther’s “faith alone” statement was wrong. Works are a product and proof of faith, so it’s true that faith without works is dead (James 2:17); but Luther’s Sola fide (“faith alone”) is in connection with justification, and Romans 3:28 says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” So faith alone saves (justification); but saving faith is never alone, because the Holy Spirit is always at work through faith to produce good works (sanctification).
O God, our Lord, Thy holy Word was long a hidden treasure Till to its place It was by grace Restored in fullest measure For this today Our thanks we say And gladly glorify Thee. Thy mercy show And grace bestow On all who still deny Thee. Amen (TLH 266:1)
is a retired teacher. He lives in Kasota, Minnesota.
