A Word from Bob: Today’s post is Part 5 in a week-long blog mini-series on Reformation Week and the life and ministry of Martin Luther. You can read Part 1 here: How Do We Find Peace with a Holy God? You can read Part 2 here: Luther’s Spiritual Separation Anxiety. You can read Part 3 here: A Hopeless Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God. You can read Part 4 here: Works Do Not Work. I’ve developed this blog mini-series from my book Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life.
In Sheer Joy of Discovery, Luther Launched a Reformation
How did Luther move from spiritual separation anxiety to spiritual shalom with God?
Luther came to believe that he could never satisfy God through himself or through the church. As Luther came to the end of his rope, God sent him a rope of hope in the form of Johann von Staupitz.
Upon his return from Rome, Luther was transferred from Erfurt to Wittenberg, where he lived in the Augustinian cloister at the opposite end from the Castle Church. The chief glory of the village was the university. In 1511, Luther was invited to be one of the new professors, and a very important figure entered Luther’s life: the vicar of the Augustinian order, Johann von Staupitz. A decade later, in 1523, Luther expressed his eternal appreciation to Staupitz:
“It was through you that the light of the gospel first began to shine out of the darkness into my heart.”[i]
The anguish of soul and internal struggles to which Luther had fallen prey were evident to Staupitz upon their first introduction. D’Aubigne describes Luther when Staupitz initially encountered him:
“He was a young man of middle height, whom study, fasting, and prolonged vigils had so wasted away that all his bones might be counted. His eyes, that were in later years compared to a falcon’s, were sunken; his manner was dejected; his countenance betrayed an agitated mind, the prey of a thousand struggles, but yet strong and resolute. His whole appearance was grave, melancholy, and solemn.”[ii]
During the period when Staupitz was Luther’s confessor, he pointed Luther away from the idea of confessing individual sins, and taught Luther that focusing on particular offenses was a counsel of despair. Luther discovered that there was something more drastically wrong with people than any particular list of offenses that could be enumerated, confessed, and forgiven. The very nature of a person was corrupt; the whole nature needed to be changed. For Luther, the penitential system failed because it was directed to particular lapses. Luther had perceived that the entire person was in need of forgiveness. Thus confession was no solution; it only exacerbated the already insecure conscience.[iii]
As Luther’s whole person stood exposed before a holy God, he became obsessed with the picture of Christ the avenger. Staupitz searched to find some way to console Luther. Clearly reasoning and comfort were ineffectual; some other approach had to be unearthed.
Cropping Christ Back Into the Picture
The solution was paradoxical. Luther would study for his doctor’s degree so that he could undertake preaching and assume the chair of Bible at the university. Bainton noted the audacity of such a move, saying:
“A young man on the verge of a nervous collapse over religious problems was to be commissioned as a teacher, preacher, and counselor to sick souls. Staupitz was practically saying, ‘Physician, cure thyself by curing others.’” Staupitz thought that if Luther “was entrusted with the cure of souls he would be disposed for their sakes to turn from threats to promises, and some of the grace which he would claim for them might fall also to himself.”[iv]
The solution was also practical. Luther committed himself to learn and expound the Scriptures. On August 1, 1513, he began to lecture on the Psalms; in 1515, he started his lectures on Romans; and he taught Galatians from 1516 to 1517.
Through these studies, Luther began to see God in a drastically different light. His image of God was radically altered as the grace of Christ was cropped back into the picture.
Where God had been an angry enemy; he now is a loving Father. Where Christ had been an avenging judge; he now is a gracious Savior. This change in Luther’s image of God-in-Christ is the soul experience that changed Luther. How does a prodigal child find peace with a holy Father? Is it by doing the good works of a self-righteous son? No! It is through receiving by faith the amazing grace of the perfect Son.
Staupitz impacted Luther’s view of the penitential system of his day. In 1518, Luther wrote to Staupitz to thank him for his wonderful consolation:
“Reverend Father: I remember that during your most delightful and helpful talks, through which the Lord Jesus wonderfully consoled me, you sometimes mentioned the term ‘poenitentia.’”[v]
Luther’s new understanding of poenitentia became a core concept in Luther’s personal spiritual transformation. Poenitentia can mean either the remorse of the sinner or the penance imposed on the sinner by the church. The penitential system of the medieval church fused both meanings into the term “do penance” which meant both a contrite heart and the fulfillment of satisfactions.
This understanding partially caused Luther’s desperation in the monastery. On the one hand, he realized that he could never completely atone for his sins despite his constant struggle to do penance properly. On the other hand, he believed that without poenitentia, no one could stand before God free of guilt. Luther praised Staupitz for relieving him of the distress of his tortured conscience:
“Therefore, I accepted you as a messenger from heaven when you said that poenitentia is genuine only if it begins with love for justice and for God.”[vi]
Thus, under Staupitz, Luther learned that poenitentia began with love for God, that is, with a heart turned to God. Luther was learning that a heart is brought to this love and repentance only by the God of grace and love who reveals himself in Jesus Christ. Servile fear and guilt cannot produce love and repentance. Luther summarized the essence of his discovery: the change in our relationship to God is accomplished not by our works of penance, but by “the grace of God.”[vii]
The Joy of Discovery
Upon coming to this understanding, Luther shared with Staupitz the joy of his discovery:
“Biblical words came leaping toward me from all sides, clearly smiling and nodding assent to your statement. They so supported your opinion that while formerly no word in the whole Scripture was more bitter to me than poenitentia . . . now no word sounds sweeter or more pleasant to me than poenitentia.”
Notice what was central to this heart change for Luther: his new view of God-in-Christ. Luther explains:
“The commandments of God become sweet when they are read not only in books but also in the wounds of the sweetest Savior.”[viii]
The pastoral cure for Luther’s guilt-ridden soul came through the pastoral care of cropping the Christ of the cross back into Luther’s picture.
Through Staupitz’s ministry, Luther came to “grasp together with all the saints” (Ephesians 3:18) the infinite grace and multifaceted love of God-in-Christ. Luther began to see justification and forgiveness as the mechanism for reconciliation and relationship.
Justification is Christ’s sledge hammer that knocks down the door separating the prodigal from the Father.
Reconciliation is the bridge that paves the way for the Father to race to the prodigal and throw his loving arms around him.
The Reformer concluded his letter to Staupitz by connecting these discoveries to the writing of the Ninety-five Theses. While he was still pondering his new understanding of salvation by grace, “behold, suddenly around us the new war trumpets of indulgences and the bugles of pardon started to sound, even to blast.” So what did Luther do?
“Since I was not able to counteract the furor of these men, I determined modestly to take issue with them and to pronounce their teachings as open to debate.”[ix]
What Luther considered “modest,” was none other than the Ninety-five Theses which began the Reformation movement.
The Ninety-five Theses blossomed out of Luther’s joyful and sweet discovery that he was at peace with God because God was at peace with him through his faith in Christ’s grace.
In sheer joy of discovery, Luther launched a Reformation!
The Rest of the Story
Join me for Part 6: In Daring Confidence in God’s Grace, Luther Staked His Life on Christ.
Join the Conversation
How would your life and ministry be impacted if you cropped Christ into your picture with these two salvation images? 1. Justification is Christ’s sledge hammer that knocks down the door separating the prodigal from the Father. 2. Reconciliation is the bridge that paves the way for the Father to race to the prodigal and throw his loving arms around him.
[i]Luther, LW, Vol. 49, p. 48.
[ii]D’Aubigne, The Life and Times of Martin Luther, p. 37
[iii]Luther, LW, Vol. 48, pp. 64-70.
[iv]Bainton, p. 45.
[v]Luther, LW, Vol. 48, p. 65.
[vi]Ibid.
[vii]Ibid., p. 67.
[viii]Ibid., p. 66.
[ix]Ibid., p. 68.
