Tag Archives: Martin Luther

Nothing is so powerful against the devil

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Martin Luther, Sanctification, Uncategorized

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Nothing is so powerfully effective against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts as to occupy one’s self with God’s word, to speak about it and meditate42 on it, in the way that Psalm 1[:2] calls those blessed who “meditate on God’s law day and night.” Without doubt, you will offer up no more powerful incense or savor against the devil than to occupy yourself with God’s commandments and words and to speak, sing, or think about them. Indeed, this is the true holy water and sign that scares the devil to run away.43

42 Luther’s word translates as “thinking,” without necessarily implying a methodological contemplative prayer-reflection used in monastic life or specific spiritual practices. Here Luther presents an invitation for the ordinary Christian to learn a habit of prayer and in faith engage the word as the compass in one’s life.

43 In Luther’s medieval world, it was common to use “holy water,” das rechte Weihwasser (Ger.), aqua illa sancificat (Lat.), or “sanctified water/water that sanctifies” in, e.g., exorcisms to drive away evil spirits.

 Kirsi I. Stjerna, “The Large Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther,” in Word and Faith, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, and Timothy J. Wengert, vol. 2, The Annotated Luther (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 292.

Luther on Idolatry

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Martin Luther, Theology of Biblical Counseling, Uncategorized

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Idolatry does not consist merely of erecting an image and praying to it, but it is primarily a matter of the heart, which fixes its gaze upon other things and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils. It neither cares for God nor expects good things from God sufficiently to trust that God wants to help, nor does it believe that whatever good it encounters comes from God.

Kirsi I. Stjerna, “The Large Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther,” in Word and Faith, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, and Timothy J. Wengert, vol. 2, The Annotated Luther (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 302–303.

What God says of our Identity 

23 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Image of God, imago dei, Preaching

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But his theology of the cross involved the recognition that God sometimes works “under the appearance of opposites.” Thus Luther strove to cultivate in the congregation a faith that rested in confidence on God’s presence and promise even when his strength was being perfected in their weakness, as God had told Paul he was doing in the apostle’s life (2 Cor. 12:9). In this sermon on Mark 5 Luther, in both temporal and spiritual dimensions of life, poses the contrast of what human beings see in the world and what Christ sees. David had seen himself as a poor shepherd, and so had the world, but Christ viewed him as a king. “All of you who have faith in me regard yourselves as poor sinners, but I regard you as precious saints; I regard you as like the angels. I simply speak not more than a single word, and sin, death, sickness have to yield, and righteousness, life, and health come in their place. The way I speak determines how things are; they cannot be otherwise.” 

Robert Kolb, Luther and the Stories of God, Chapter 3

Preaching Advice from Luther 

23 Monday Jan 2017

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In his Preface to Galeatius Capella’s History (1538), and on the basis of the ancient Roman historian Marcus Terentius Varro’s statement, Luther thus declares: “The best way to teach is to add an example or illustration to the word, to aid understanding and retention. Otherwise, when a speech without examples is heard, no matter how appropriate and good it may be, it does not move the heart as much and is not as clear and easy to remember.”
Luther and the Stories of God, Robert Kolb

How Indulgences Relate to Penance

29 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in Church History, Martin Luther, Uncategorized

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Since the 499th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses will be upon us, here is an explanation of how the sale of indulgences relate to the doctrine of penance (the following is a mere section from a longer discussion of the complex doctrine. This volume of Luther’s works has very useful notes. I am no Luther scholar, and I have these notes of great value in understand the context for Luther’s actions and writings):

Meanwhile the Sacrament of Penance had become an integral part of the Roman sacramental system, and had replaced the earlier penitential discipline as the means by which the Church granted Christians forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. The scholastic theologians had busied themselves with the theory of this Sacrament. They distinguished between its “material,” its “form” and its “effect.” The “form” of the Sacrament was the absolution; its “effect,” the forgiveness of sins; its “material,” three acts of the penitent: “confession,” “contrition,” and “satisfaction.” “Confession” must be by word of mouth, and must include all the sins which the sinner could remember to have committed; “contrition” must be sincere sorrow of the heart, and must include the purpose henceforth to avoid sin; “satisfaction” must be made by works prescribed by the priest who heard confession. In the administration of the Sacrament, however, the absolution preceded “satisfaction” instead of following it, as it had done in the discipline of the early Church. To justify this apparent inconsistency, the Doctors further distinguished between the “guilt” and the “penalty” of sin….

It was at this point that the practice of indulgences united with the theory of the Sacrament of Penance. The indulgences had to do with the “satisfaction.” They might be “partial,” remitting only a portion of the penalties, measured by days or years of purgatory; or they might be “plenary,” remitting all penalties due in this world or the next. In theory, however, no indulgence could remit the guilt or the eternal penalty of sin,5 and the purchaser of an indulgence was not only expected to confess and be absolved, but he was also supposed to be corde contritus, i. e., “truly penitent.”A rigid insistence on the fulfilment of these conditions would have greatly restricted the value of the indulgences as a means of gain, for the right to hear confession and grant absolution belonged to the parish-priests. Consequently, it became the custom to endow the indulgence-venders with extraordinary powers. They were given the authority to hear confession and grant absolution wherever they might be, and to absolve even from the sins which were normally “reserved” for the absolution of the higher Church authorities….

Charles M. Jacobs, “A Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (The Ninety-Five Theses) 1517,” in Works of Martin Luther with Introductions and Notes, vol. I (Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), 18–19.

Just for that the world abhors the Gospel.

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in Church History

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The world bears the Gospel a grudge because the Gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world in turn charges the Gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive to God and man, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth. As a result we have this paradoxical situation: The Gospel supplies the world with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Just for that the world abhors the Gospel.

Luther, Commentary on Galatians 1:1

We Need Poets

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Isaac Watts, Literature, Martin Luther, Music

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First, we need Watts’ poetry in our lives. Our world clambers after the latest thing, and as we wear ourselves out in the process, great poets such as Watts often get put in a box on the curb for the thrift store pickup. How could a gawky, male poet, living and writing three hundred years ago, be relevant today? Our postmodern, post-Christian, post-biblical culture has almost totally dismissed what was called poetry in Watts’ day. Few deny it: ours is a post-poetry culture. Martin Luther insisted that in a reformation, “We need poets.” [Here I Stand]  However, Christians often accept the decline of poetry without a whimper. Won’t the machinations of society carry on just fine without poetry? Won’t the church do just fine without it? It’s not like poetry contributes anything vital. You can’t eat it. So thought Hanoverian King George II: “I hate all poets!” he declared. But are Christians to stand deferentially aside as culture pitches poetry —the highest form— into the lowest circle of hell?

 

Bond; Douglas (2013-10-29). The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts (A Long Line of Godly Men Profiles) (Kindle Locations 167-170). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.

The Alchemy of God

16 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Genesis, Mark, Ministry, Service

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The alchemists hoped to work by reversal and turn lead into gold. Such was human aspiration. But God can and does reverse the lead of sin and transform it into the gold of God’s glory. Sin always aims at the shame and ruin of God:

1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Psalm 2:1-3.

And yet God never quails:

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

Psalm 2:4-6. The pattern runs throughout the Bible. For example:

Joseph to his brothers:

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Gen. 50:19-20.

Service in Mark 10:

42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

Trials in 2 Corinthians 12:

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Death itself:

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Cor. 15:54-57.

Such reversals in the end leave God with all glory:

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Cor. 1:27-31.

Here is a bit on Carl Truman making a similar with reference to Luther’s teaching and as to eldership:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/justintaylor/the-difference-between-a-theologian-of-the-cross-and-a-theologian-of-glory

Definition of the Church

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Church History, Ecclesiology, John Calvin, Martin Luther

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How does a church differ from a group of Christians?

Definition of the Church:

At the Council of Constantinople of 381, the Fathers referred to the “one, holy, universal, apostolic church”. This is sometimes referred to as the Four Marks of the Church. Dever discusses these in The Church, chapter 2.

Lutherans define the church as follows in the Augsburg Confession, article 7:

The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.

Calvin defines the church as follows:

Hence the form of the Church appears and stands forth conspicuous to our view. Wherever we see the word of God sincerely preached and heard, wherever we see the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there we cannot have any doubt that the Church of God has some existence.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.1.9.

Dever sees two basic marks of the church:

These two marks are right preaching of the Word of God and the right administration of the baptism and the Lord’s Supper….The first mark is the fountain of God’s truth that gives life to his people, and the second is the lovely vessel to contain and display this glorious work. The church is generated by the right preaching of the Word. The church is distinguished and contained by the right administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (21).