Posted on 07/08/2018 10:03:40 AM PDT by Luircin
One part of a full analysis of Luther's teachings on works, sin, and faith.
Coming soon: Luther's direct quotations about the relationship between works and faith.
Explanation is both unnecessary and irrelevant.
If a person is truly honest with themselves, they will acknowledge they sin each and every day. Some are what some call little sins, others "big" sins. Some sins are seen publicly....some just remain in the mind. In either case they are sins as that is how Jesus identified sin.
The mere thought of murder is equated to actual murder. The mere thought of adultery is equated to actual adultery. We could go on with example after example of these. They are all viewed as sin and sufficient to separate you from God.
That is why Paul wrote, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
When one considers how often one sins a day, we should be on our knees thanking God that by His grace it is through faith in Christ we are saved.
We are saved through believing Jesus died for our sins. We become His followers. We follow His commandments.
As Paul wrote,
21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:21-25 NASB
Did you read the article?
For that matter, do you even know what Luther’s position is? And can you provide textual first person evidence to back it up?
“Alas, I have my Reformation. But no one is reformed! “
>>Although I’m not a Roman Catholic, it boggles the mind to imagine how Luther’s position can fail to offend the conscience.
Luther’s position should offend the conscience of the Worldly Man. After all, the Worldly Man knows that he is pretty good, certainly better than most, and probably as good any of the men around him. The Worldly Man loves to tell the others, who aren’t as good as he is, that they need to sin less.
His sin, of course, is not really that bad and can be easily justified by him.
In Reformed theology, we understand that we are all sinners who cannot be good enough to meet God’s perfect requirements. Luther is telling us to stop pretending that our sin is OK, but our neighbor’s sin is too much.
This is the actual good news of the Gospel and explanation is never irrelevant since so many Christians are fearful and worried that they are not being good enough. They think they were washed clean when they were dunked in the water or said a prayer and that they started needing to “earn” it afterwards.
They were washed clean almost 2000 years ago and will still be clean 2000 years from now.
The mere thought of murder is equated to actual murder.
THANKS BE TO GOD, for blessed saint and Catholic priest Martin Luther!!
A flawed man, like all those God powerfully uses, but used all the more powerfully by his dependence on God, instead of the corrupt religion of Rome.
He recovered the Gospel of Grace that billions may know salvation
He translated the Scriptures into the language of ordinary men and women
He introduced music into worship
He exposed the corruption of Rome
He broke the chains that bound the church and state
And so much more.
Those who criticize a caracture of Luther, do it based on ignorance.
Flawed, warts and all, standing in desperate need of the grace of God, God used Saint Luther in ways his critics will never be used nor understand.
His praise will be from the Father, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
2 Corinthians 12:9
“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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
He also suggested bigamy was acceptable.
Thank you for trying to change the subject; I suspect you didn’t read the article, did you?
As for ‘bigamy’ being acceptable, do you know the context of this suggestion?
“Set fire to their synagogues or schools,” Martin Luther recommended in On the Jews and Their Lies. Jewish houses should “be razed and destroyed,” and Jewish “prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, [should] be taken from them.” In addition, “their rabbis [should] be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.” Still, this wasn’t enough.
Luther also urged that “safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews,” and that “all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them.” What Jews could do was to have “a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade” put into their hands so “young, strong Jews and Jewesses” could “earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.”
The subject is Luther and his words, why would you think I was changing the subject. Look up Luther’s advice regards bigamy. He clothed that advice in sanctimony.
I did look it up.
The advice is to Henry VIII, and Luther’s advice was that bigamy is less of a sin than adultery and divorce.
But please, keep showcasing your ignorance and refusal to do your research.
This is why people call Romanists hateful.
“The advice is to Henry VIII, and Luther’s advice was that bigamy is less of a sin than adultery and divorce.”
And also the Phillip of Hesse and he did NOT call it sinful. He said necessity allowed same.
I’m reminded about something I’ve frequently said, though hopefully not like it was a novelty I’d happened upon, that in our society we are dealing with people who not only make out that homosexuals nothing to repent of but that they couldn’t.
These are the two sides to the they were born this way argument.
On the one hand they seek to blame God, acting as if their lusts were His doing.
Yet on the other hand they act as if their sin is bigger than God.
Remember, immediately after listing off those who cannot enter the Kingdom we find Paul saying and such were some of you.
I’m fully convinced that for many it isn’t the charge that they must repent that most offends but that they actually can by the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ.
Saying someone must repent only tells them that you disapprove of their lifestyle; but, saying they can repent places the burden for continuing in that lifestyle squarely on their shoulders.
God is bigger than our sin. (period, fin, that’s all folks)
But as Luther might say observing these comments, when he said that the root of sin is men wanting to make themselves out to be god themselves, what I’m implying / adding is that sin and therefore the actual father of sin, the devil, is what ends up sitting on the throne of the heart that rejects Christ, and not the man who thinks he’ll be just fine on his own.
This, I think, is part of what Paul meant when he spoke of those who are slaves to sin. They are not sitting on the throne of their own hearts, their sin is. As for being free with respect to righteousness I take that as meaning that they can be a small sinner, effectively temperate and morally/ethically agreeable in all things or the greatest sinner and neither their (in human terms) goodness or badness affects that they are still slaves to sin.
The only thing a sinner like that can do to change being a slave to sin is to repent as God has provided in Christ (and only in Christ).
Which gets us to the flip side. God IS BIGGER than our sin, Grace is fully adequate to make anyone one a “such were you” person.
The saints are then slaves to righteousness, for Christ sits on the throne of our hearts, and we are free with respect to sin ... obviously because sin can no longer condemn us as Paul and Luther would no doubt agree, but I would go further to opine that because of on account to us being able to obey the Master that has saved us and not the body of death (which we still at present cart around) we can, or could be if our walk were perfect, not sin even though tempted.
Before anyone launch into me for that realize what I’m saying, what are I hope it’s implied limits, and how that works.
Let’s go back for a moment and consider again the sinner who is a slave to sin: whatever they do, just so long as they do not turn to Christ, doesn’t affect in any way that they are a slave to sin. They don’t have an obedience per se, the knocking by Christ to come in as it happens in their lives is still outside of them.
But the redeemed saint faces a choice of masters. Will they obey the Holy Spirit on the throne or the demands of the old body of death?
Obedience to the Holy Spirit is without sin. If a person were so active to obey the Holy Spirit on all occasions and to turn aside from the demands of the body of death they would be living without new sin while that obedience was so astonishing.
So I’m not saying that we who fall flat on our faces, spiritually speaking, don’t sin but that when we are described as being free with respect to sin that just doesn’t necessarily stop at us not being under condemnation. And when we do fall flat on our faces because we listen to the demands of the body of death we also have a mighty champion before God whose nail scars speak louder than our sins.
Also realize that there is coming a day when this body of death will be taken away, when there won’t be two trying to demand our obedience but just the Holy Spirit.
So those who say they’ve nothing to repent of, but they blame God for their sin, take up armor to equip themselves against the call of repentance ... in their eyes it just becomes us judging them and who are we to judge them?
And when they say they cannot repent they are bowing down to the slaver squatting on a place made for God and any who do repent, who are “such were you”, are offensive to them for, when we cut to the chase, they serve the King and not the squatter.
This is not just “homosexuality” but arguably any sin that so easily entangles. It’s just as a practical matter there doesn’t seem to be many sins besides homosexuality that seem to wrap up folks whole sense of identity, or who they think they really are, in them.
I’m not saying there aren’t other identity sins, just that homosexuality certainly is one.
In response, have another article that A: proves you wrong about what Luther actually taught about bigamy, and B: that you won’t read.
http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2006/03/persepctives-of-luther-luther.html
The funny thing is that once again, the Catholics did far worse in practice, WITH Papal approval, than even the worst of Luther’s, at the time, inexperienced advice.
So you’re arguing that people should be Catholic because they were worse sinners than the Reformers. That’s funny.
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