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| You Bet I'm Saved: A Lesson from Martin Luther |
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Recently, I taught a class on the Protestant Reformation, which focused on the person of Martin Luther. For me, Luther is perhaps my favorite Christian figure from antiquity. He is best known as being the forerunner of the Reformation and establishing five main doctrines that are still hallmarks of protestants world wide, namely sola fide (by faith alone), sola gratia (by grace alone), sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone). However, though he served the church greatly, he was also a man who was not without struggles.
Martin Luther's Struggle
One of the areas of struggle that he finally came to terms with, was the assurance of salvation. He attempted to gain this assurance through various monastic routines. However, after years of failure, he concluded that doing those routines to achieve the assurance that his heart so desperately longed for were, in his opinion, futile. The following is an excerpt from an Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans that explains his conclusion,
Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they
observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even
though they speak and hear much about faith. ``Faith is not enough,'' they say, ``You must
do good works, you must be pious to be saved. ''They think that, when you hear the gospel,
you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, ``I believe.''
That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart
never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn't come from this`faith,'
either.
Luther's Conclusion: By Faith Alone
He came to this conclusion when he discovered that salvation came through faith alone. He arrived at this conclusion when he stumbled onto a Scripture that revolutionized his theology. The passage read, “The just shall live by faith.” As a consequence, Luther gathered that salvation was entirely the work of God, challenging his own thinking that a monastic cycle of prayer, study, and sacramental observance would bring about that assurance. This experience was both a turning point in the life of Luther as well as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
The Need for Assurnace
Though assurance of salvation is available for every believer, “this assurance is not, however, a necessary consequence of salvation, and such assurance may be shaken as well as strengthened.” As a pastor over the years, I have counseled many people who have struggled with the assurance of salvation. As a matter of fact, I too have struggled with this issue as well in my own life. There are many people who are serving God’s Church who are faithful tithers and workers and are doing so in order to try to earn God’s approval and capture that assurance that their hearts are longing for. The consequence of such a struggle is the absence of what Christ promised, the peace that surpasses all understanding. Perhaps Milburn Cockrell could offer some help to the troubled soul that has this same battle. He states, “Salvation depends upon Christ's work for us, while rewards depend upon our works for Christ.” He correctly recognized that salvation is entirely the work of God. While we get rewarded for our works, those works, or for that matter our performance, have nothing to do with salvation. It is by faith alone.
Final Exhortation
My Luther experience came many years ago when I read the passage in Romans 5:1 which says, “Now, having been (past tense) justified by faith, we have (present tense) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. May this truth be branded on the heart of every believer. |
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Thank yo Pastor for posting this blog! Martin Luther happens to be one of my favorite s too!
Many people do struggle with what I call "Eternal Security" some will even get bent out of shape and have nothing to do with you because you hold this position, However I know that I am saved.
Dec 22, 1986, I received this great gift from God, Have I messed up at times? Yes, but just as sure as I'm writing that's how sure I am of knowing I will be in heaven one day! I would to God that all believers would come to this conclusion.
Before anyone comments and start talking about being Holy, Sanctified and the like, Be sure to study the words in the original language, and than ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding. Thanks Pastor Tim! |
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| Yep, and faith without works is dead. Our works will just naturally accompany our faith. i still struggle constantly with assurance of salvation. And no disrespect to any body, but I will not, can not believe "once saved, always saved" so it's a fruitless discussion with me. Sometimes i wish I did, though!!!! |
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Kathy |
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January 23, 2008 at 10:03am |
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| Pastor Tim, Martin Luther is also one of my great heroes of the faith. Aside from his spiritual intelligence and his ability to articulate his innovative perceptions, I am greatly inspired by his courage, to speak out against what he saw as in need of reformation in the Church, even at the very real risk of his own death. (He actually faked his death at one point.) As you have noted, however, he was not without fault, and apparently some very great faults of prejudice. I recently read a part of his writings that shocked me to the point I had to stop reading, but I plan to return to it later when I am more prepared for it. As with David who was a man after God's own heart, there is none righteous, no, not one, but there are great men and women of faith throughout history that are used greatly by God to mold us and to inspire us, and in my opinion, Martin Luther is among the greatest! |
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JayKTX |
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January 23, 2008 at 11:24am |
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| Excellent theology. May we all accept and rest in this truth. |
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Keith, it sounds like you have a very good handle on the assurance of salvation. I bet this is shy you have such a passion to evangelize the lost.
Lara, you have touched on a debate that has raged for several hundred years, which is whether Christians can lose their salvation. I am a member of a denomination that believes that one can loose ones salvation. Fortunately on both sides of the debate, the assurance of salvation is taught.
Kathy, I was wondering if you have seen the movie enetitled Luther. This is a movie that I showed in my class the other day. It is awesome. If you haven't seen it, I think you would enjoy it. |
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OJW |
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January 23, 2008 at 12:36pm |
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| Thanks for this blog Pastor Tim I often find myself defending my position on this matter and even wondering (at times) of it's truth. What settled it for me was when I realized that on my best days my rightouesness in His eyesight was as filty rags. In addition to that if our salvation is not secure than we're all gambling... hoping to roll a 7 on the Day we stand before Him. And finally without believing in eternal security it makes it impossible to witness.... Imagine this conversation with a non-believer.... The believer says:"You're living in sin (heading for eternal separtation from God--Hell), but if you accept Jesus and your Savior and Lord...you just might have a fifty-fifty chance on making it in..." The non-believers response, "Huh, are you serious?... " |
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Kathy |
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January 23, 2008 at 2:37pm |
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| Pastor Tim, I saw it and loved it! (Great idea though to see it again!) Also there's an old black and white Martin Luther movie that I love. (I think it's just called Martin Luther.) |
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Gene |
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January 23, 2008 at 3:51pm |
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If you want to hit the 100 comment barrier, you've picked a good topic..... :)
I believe that all of the faithful can rest assured of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ. It cannot be taken from us. Scripture is very clear on this.
We can, however, decide to let go of Christ. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And as it is with any relationship, we make a choice daily to either improve the quality of that relationship or to let that relationship die.
And so we can lose our salvation if we choose to let go of Christ.
Gene |
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OJW - I agree. If we do not have an assurance of salvation then how is our faith any different than say the Islamic faith where one cannot be sure of ones salvation either. We can totally trust in what Christ has done for our salvation.
Kathy - I haven't seen that version yet. I am going to look at renting it thought. Thanks for the idea :-)
Arlene - I agree. People will be judged by their heart whether their trust was in Christ for salvation or not. Regarding eternal security and free will, I would say that eternal security would not violate free will because those who accept Christ did so by their free will.
Gene - When I wrote this blog earlier today I didn't think that it would illicit many comments but I can see where that might be a possibility. Maybe we could have some discussion on Arminianism vs. Calvinism. |
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Gene |
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January 23, 2008 at 6:33pm |
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| I'd be glad to help you with that discussion but I don't know anything about Arminianism or Calvinism. I suppose they are related to something I wrote. Yes? |
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| Yes. Basically Arminianism says that one can loose ones salvation and Calvinism does not. |
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Gene |
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January 23, 2008 at 6:50pm |
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OK. Well after a person is saved, they still have free will, right? So doesn't that mean a person could choose something else over the relationship with Christ? And wouldn't doing that repeatedly severely damage that relationship to the point that the person would clearly no longer be following Christ in most aspects of their live? And if that person remain unrepentent wouldn't that person be denied entry to heaven? And doesn't being denied access to heaven mean that the person is no longer saved?
Again, the forces of the evil one cannot seperate us from God, so in that regard I'd agree with Calvinism. |
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| Not to long ago I did a fair amount of investigation into the writings of Martin Luther. I finally decided to give church a chance and thought I'd start with the Lutheran Church I was raised in. Thanks to the Internet I found that I could access a lot of Luther's writings. Well I don't want to get into a lengthy comment I just wanted to say this is a well researched post. Thanks. I remember briefly as an Adventist reading about Luther in Ellen G. Whites the Great Controversy the seventh chapter. |
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Glenn |
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January 24, 2008 at 10:53am |
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Pastor Tim,
Thanks for sharing your insight into Luther here. I wish I could have attended your class. I grew up Lutheran and am glad to say God has giving me a new understanding of grace along the way, even though it took a few years of legalism to get me there.
As to the Calvinism vs. Arminianism, I believe that God chose me from the foundation of the world to be His follower and child, and it is fully His grace that has brought me to that understanding. If God had not acted in my heart with His Spirit, I would never have become a child of God. Anyway if I at some point decided I don't want to follow Jesus anymore, I suppose I could walk away from God of my own choice. But that does not change the fact that God's grace is what moves us towards a relationship with Him.
Anyway I think that is enough rambling for now. Thanks PT for the great blog.
peace |
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Glenn |
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January 24, 2008 at 10:54am |
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| forgot the notify me box : ) |
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Gene |
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January 24, 2008 at 5:39pm |
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| PT, you're singing my song. |
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