On Christian Liberty
By Martin Luther

            Martin Luther is arguably the foremost man to influence the Christian Church in the past millennium.  His leading of the paradigm shift away from the traditional Roman Catholicism of the Middle Ages will forever enshrine him as the father of the Protestant Reformation, as well as effect most evangelicals' understanding of the soteriology.  Because of his great influence, particularly through his elucidation of salvation being only by grace through faith apart from works, it would be a worthwhile venture to become familiar with the small, but influential work, On Christian Liberty, in which he deals with this matter of faith and works.

Summary

            In this treatise, Luther attempts to communicate the fact that the Christian is free from sin and death through faith in Christ.  This freedom, then, is to be used to serve one's neighbors, following after the example of God in Christ.  He undertakes this task by setting out two seemingly contradictory propositions.  First, he says that a Christian is "a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none," and second, "A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all" (2).  These propositions are his exposition of 1 Cor. 9:19 and Rom. 13:8, where Paul states that he is free from owing anything to any man, but that he is constrained by love to all men.  These propositions being the thesis of the book, Luther goes on to draw a parallel between these declarations and the two-fold nature of man, i.e. the inner and outer man.

            Scripture seems to say contradictory things about a person, such as "the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh" (Gal. 5:17).  This apparent contradiction can be cleared by the recognition of Paul's reference to an inner and outer man.  The inner man is the part of man that is commonly referred to as the soul.  Luther philosophizes that "it is evident that no external thing has any influence in producing Christian righteousness or freedom, or in producing unrighteousness or servitude" (4).  The only thing, then, that can effect the inner man for good is not good works, but rather the Word of God, or the Gospel.  Therefore, it is useless for Bishops and priests to depend on sacraments to be an inner man influence because their primary responsibility should be the preaching of the Word of God.  The preaching and understanding of the Word reaches its desired end, that of faith.  This faith is necessary for justification before God, and therefore the preaching of the Word is necessary.  He writes that, "since, therefore, this faith can rule only in the inner man...and since faith alone justifies, it is clear that the inner man cannot be justified, freed, or saved by any outer work or action at all, and that these works, whatever their character, have nothing to do with the inner man" (9). 

Besides ruling in the soul, faith has another function of honoring Him in whom it trusts because it considers Him trustworthy.  Once the soul recognizes the object of faith as trustworthy, then it consents to His will.  Obedience, therefore, is the direct result of faith, not of works.  Still another function of faith is that it binds the soul with Christ "as a bride is united with her bridegroom" (18).  Because of this union, all sin and death is relegated to Christ, while grace and life to the soul.  "For if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride's and bestow upon her the things that are his" (19).  Also because of this union, we share in Christ's prerogatives of being kings and priests.  As kings, we are not ruled by any outward force, but instead rule them; and as priests, we are able to appear before God through prayer.

Luther then turns to his discussion of the outer man.  This section attempts to answer the question, "If faith does all things and is alone sufficient unto righteousness, why then are good works commanded?" (33).  Luther responds that if we were only inner men, then we would indeed not need the works commanded, but since we are both inner and outer in our nature, we must be continually subjecting ourselves to discipline in the body so that "it will obey and conform to the inner man and faith and not revolt against faith and hinder the inner man, as it is the nature of the body to do if it is not held in check" (34-5).  This bodily use, though, must not be thought to justify a man.  "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works; evil works do not make a wicked man, but a wicked man does evil works" (39).  Luther mistakenly goes on to say that not only do good works not justify an unbeliever, but also evil works do not damn him (41).

The basis for Luther's ethic of good works with regards to the outer man is Christ's command to love our neighbor as ourselves.  At this point of the book, Luther joins the work of the inner and outer man into man's love for his neighbor.  "This is a truly Christian life.  Here faith is truly active through love [Gal. 5:6], that is, it finds expression in works of the freest service, cheerfully and lovingly done, with which a man willingly serves another without hope of reward" (49).  The Christian does not live in and of himself; rather, he lives both in Christ and in his neighbor, the former through faith, and the latter through love (62).  Luther ends his treatise by arguing that our faith does not free us from works, but from false opinions about those works (65).  This detail is the broad paradigm shift that Luther brought about in the Reformation.

Strengths & Needed Additions

This book has many strengths that commend it for reading, the greatest of which is the fact that Luther displays clearly the relationship between faith and works.  It is amazing to think that after so many centuries of the church's dependence on a works-based system of salvation, Luther would finally recognize the importance of faith's role in justification, and its relation to the works that are commanded by Scripture. 

Another strength is that he is very pastoral in his argumentation and application of this doctrinal clarification.  This work is so highly readable and understandable, it would be a great selection to read for a present-day Roman Catholic or secularist who is dependent on their works as righteousness.  On this same point, though, it would be helpful to add subtitles in future additions to better facilitate reception of Luther's argumentation.

A further addition that could be made concerns Luther's argumentation surrounding the needlessness of Christ to do any good works since He was righteous by His divine nature.  Though this is true in a philosophical sense, Scripture paints a slightly different picture.  It is true that Christ did not need good works to be righteous - but we did.  If Christ did not live the life of good works that He lived, then there would be no imputation of good works, and we would still be dependent on our own works for justification.  This updated argumentation actually fits the context of that which Luther was writing in that Christ did the good works out of love for others, namely, His elect.

Another doctrinal addition that would have been helpful would be to clarify the bestowal of faith to the believer.  Luther states that "although I am an unworthy and condemned man, my God has given me in Christ all the riches of righteousness and salvation without any merit on my part, our of pure, free mercy" (52).  He goes on, though, to say that one needs nothing except faith, which believes that this gift is true.  This seems confusing given the fact that he has just said that one needs nothing for salvation since it is a gift.  It would be better clarified if he spoke of faith as being part of the gift, in that once the illumination of the soul has occurred and one sees the glory of God in Christ, the automatic response of that person is faith overflowing with joy and humility.  Therefore, it is not faith that we exercise that saves, because faith can become for some a work; rather, it is grace that saves, and we apprehend salvation through the faith brought about by grace.

Weaknesses

Having looked at the strengths and needed additions, one must also look at the weaknesses of this work.  First, in the section on good and evil works, Luther states that "no evil work makes [a man] wicked or damns him; but the unbelief which makes the person...evil does the evil and damnable works" (41).  This simply does not square with Scripture.  The Law was to regulate actions, i.e. works.  If one were to transgress the Law, he was guilty of sin that led to damnation.  Luther here sounds like an English hyper-Calvinist.  Unbelief is not the sole reason for one's damnation.  We are all required to adhere to the Law in our un-converted state.  That is the purpose of the Law being written on the heart, to show all men to be unrighteous before a holy God.  The works of wickedness do stem from a fallen nature, but that nature is not coterminous with unbelief. 

Another weakness of Luther's essay is that he rarely does exegesis of any given passage.  I wonder if this is the beginning of Protestant proof-texting.  There are a many instances where he gets the substance of the passage in context, but there are others where his accuracy is questionable.  One such occurrence is his discussion of the unity between the soul and Christ.  He argues from Eph. 5:31-32, saying that this passage shows Christ and the soul becoming one flesh, as does the husband and wife.  The truth is, though, that this passage does not refer to Christ's union with the soul, but with Christ's union with His church.  It is historically understandable why Luther would shy away from wanting to show the institution of the church as being that which is unified with Christ, but to ignore it is detrimental to proper ecclesiology and soteriology.  One is not saved into a relationship with oneself, but into a relationship with Christ experienced in the life of a local body - the church. 

Conclusion

Overall, On Christian Liberty is a fine work for an overall view of the relationship between faith and works.  Luther demonstrates clearly the necessity of dispensing with dependence on works, which do not earn any righteousness before God.  He also demonstrates the obligation of all Christians to exhibit good works as love for their neighbor, and in such a way, prove the faith that resides within.  Though there are a few minor shortfalls in his doctrinal explication and the exegesis of certain passages, this essay is helpful, and should be recommended to those struggling with faith/works questions.

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