95 Theses, 95 Quotes
In 1519, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, launching the Protestant Reformation. In 2019, for the 500th Anniversary of that world-changing event, I collated 95 Martin Luther quotes from my book Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life.
Free PDF Version
You can download a free PDF of all 95 Martin Luther Quotes of Note here. If you would like to share this PDF with others, you can send this shortened link: http://bit.ly/Luther95PDF
Enjoy!
Also in Blog Format
I also divided these 95 quotes into 6 blog posts. Here are the links:
- 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on The Sufficiency of Scripture
- 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Comforting the Suffering
- 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Looking at Life Through the Lens of the Cross
- 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Preaching the Gospel to Yourself
- 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Growing in Grace
- 20 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Salvation by Faith Alone
A Sampler: Preaching the Gospel to Yourself—The Gospel for Believers
When we think of Martin Luther, we typically picture him preaching the true gospel of salvation by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone—to unbelievers. And that is certainly true. But it is equally true that Luther preached the gospel for and to believers. Robert Kolb summarizes Luther’s pastoral care ministry to believers:
“The combating of evil with the Gospel stood at the heart of his pastoral care.”[i]
As Christians, how should we respond when Satan condemns us? Luther taught that we must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday:
“The highest of all God’s commands is this, that we ever hold up before our eyes the image of his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He must daily be to our hearts the perfect mirror, in which we behold how much God loves us and how well, in his infinite goodness, as a faithful God, he has grandly cared for us in that he gave his dear Son for us. Do not let this mirror and throne of grace be torn away from before your eyes.”[ii]
Luther found that illustrations and images from human relationships often provided powerful illumination and enlightenment about God’s unfailing love. In a table talk on how hard it is to believe in the forgiveness of sin, Luther shares this powerful imagery:
“You say that the sins which we commit every day offend God, and therefore we are not saints. To this I reply: Mother love is stronger than the filth and scabbiness on a child, and so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us. Accordingly, although we are sinners, we do not lose our filial relation on account of our filthiness, nor do we fall from grace on account of our sin.”[iii]
Luther made this potent image of a mother’s love even more staggering by personalizing it further as he related the love of his wife Katy for their son Martin to the love of God for His children:
“God must be much friendlier to me and speak to me in friendlier fashion than my Katy to little Martin. Neither Katy nor I could intentionally gouge out the eye or tear off the head of our child. Nor could God. God must have patience with us. He has given evidence of it, and therefore he sent his Son into our flesh in order that we may look to him for the best . . . . When I reflect on the magnitude of God’s mercy and majesty, I am myself horrified at how far God has humbled himself.”[iv]
Luther never stopped marveling at the amazing grace of God in Christ:
“For who is able to express what a thing it is, when a man is assured in his heart that God neither is nor will be angry with him, but will be forever a merciful and loving Father to him for Christ’s sake? This is indeed a marvelous and incomprehensible liberty, to have the most high and sovereign Majesty so favorable to us. Wherefore, this is an inestimable liberty, that we are made free from the wrath of God forever; and is greater than heaven and earth and all other creatures.”[v]
For the rest of Luther’s quotes on preaching the gospel to yourself, see 15 Martin Luther Quotes of Note on Preaching the Gospel to Yourself.
Sources
[i]Kolb, “Luther as Seelsorger,” p. 4.
[ii]Tappert, Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. 116.
[iii]Luther, Commentary on Galatians, p. 70.
[iv]Luther, Commentary on Galatians, p. 127.
[v]Luther, Commentary on Galatians, p. 314.
