Luther was born Nov. 10, 1483, at Eisleben, Germany, to devout Catholic peasants. His was an age of superstition that believed in demons, ghosts, and witches. He reported that he distinctly heard the devil more than once and often disputed with the devil in the night about the condition of his soul. Such superstitions figured largely in Luther’s early theology
Terrified by a storm on July 2, 1505, he cried out to his patron saint, “Help me St. Anne, I will become a monk.” In 1505, he entered an Augustinian monastery. Fear for his salvation drove him into monastic life.
He once said, “If I could believe that God was not angry with me, I would stand on my head for joy.” Monastic life never relieved him of this fear. The righteousness of God was simply the punishment meted out to sinners for their punishment.
While in the monastery, he subjected himself to every possible form of discipline and mortification. No one could surpass him in prayer, fasting, vigils, self-discipline, and self-mortification. Yet in all these things his soul found no peace.
An older priest advised him, “You must obey God and believe in forgiveness. You have the wrong idea of Christ. Christ does not terrify; his office is to comfort”. A trip to Rome was very unsettling to his faith.
A final blow to his faith came with the sale of indulgences. The church developed indulgences as a means of releasing sinners from the penalty for their sins. By contributing a certain amount of money, one could purchase an indulgence.
In 1515, Pope Leo X authorised the sale of indulgences in Germany to raise money to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Johann Tetzel, a German priest, travelled in Germany selling them. Tetzel preached that an indulgence freed people from the punishment of any confessed sins to a priest and could even release souls who were already in purgatory.
Luther was outraged. He sent a letter to the Archbishop denouncing Tetzel’s actions, enclosing a list of his ninety-five theses, which were critical of issues and many other abuses within the Catholic Church.
About this time, Luther came to a conclusion that would change the religious world in its thinking about salvation. In his study of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he came to Romans 1:17, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written the just shall live by faith.”
He pondered over the meaning of the “righteousness of God” and concluded that righteousness was a free gift to those who believe in Christ. All the sinner had to do was accept it as a free gift. He concluded that justification is by faith only, rather than by the many works of the Catholic Church.
Justification was a judicial act of God whereby God acquits the sinner of his guilt and clothes him with the righteousness of Christ on the one condition of personal faith in Christ. He concluded that people are justified solely (alone) through faith in God’s promise that Christ died for their salvation.
In his view, when sinful people trust Christ died on the cross for their sins, then Christ takes their place before God’s judgment seat, and God finds them “not guilty” for Christ’s sake.
He further said that people cannot earn faith, but rather, faith is a gift from God. Once justified by faith, believers are then led by the Holy Spirit to do good works towed others. Works are the results of Justification, rather than the means by which people are saved.
This was a total departure from the Catholic position on faith. For Luther, justification by ‘faith alone’ was the sum and substance of the gospel. This was a drastic change from his Catholic concept of salvation. He translated the Bible into the German language.
The Latin Bible was so guarded by the Catholic Church that it was about the only translation available, with the exception of the Greek text, both of which Germans could not read. This opened up the Bible to the German people since it was now in a language they could understand.
So strong were his feelings about salvation by faith alone that in his translation of Romans 3:28, he added the word “alone” so as to make the passage read, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith (alone) apart from the deeds of the law.” When asked why he had done this, he said, “As to Romans 3:28, if the word ‘alone’ is not found in the Latin or Greek texts, yet the passage has that meaning and must be rendered so in order to make it clear and strong.”
First, Paul did not say this. If this is what it meant, why didn’t Paul say so? He was not ignorant of such words as “alone” and “only,” and could have placed them in the text.
Second, faith is not a gift from God as Luther contended because faith begins by “hearing the word of God”, Romans 10:17. This leads one then to repent of his or her sins, then to be baptised into Christ, Romans 2:38 / 1 Corinthians 12:13 / Galatians 3:27.
Third, it is not our imperfect faith that saves us, but the perfect faith of Jesus, who demonstrated His faithful obedience to the Father. Paul declares in Philippians 2:5-8 that Jesus emptied Himself of heaven with all its glories, took on human flesh, “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” We are saved “in Christ,” where all spiritual blessings are found, Ephesians 1:3.
The only way one gets into Christ is to be baptised into Him, Galatians 3:27. No man can have faith in Christ when he refuses to be baptised into Christ. The influence of Luther’s teaching can be seen in many of the translations of today.
In such passages as Galatians 2:16 / Galatians 2:20 / Galatians 3:22 / Ephesians 3:12, and in Philippians 3:9, where in the KJV, “faith of Jesus Christ” it has been changed to “faith in Jesus Christ” in later translations. This, no doubt, has been done to bolster the “faith only” doctrine of Luther.
Fourth, contrary to Luther, the Lord does not infuse righteousness into those who believe, as righteousness is not transferable, but is obtained by being fully identified with him and becoming like Him. Paul wrote, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20.
Salvation is dependent upon our willingness to die to ourselves and become one with Christ by “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” and living “soberly and righteously and godly in this present world”, Titus 2:1. Also see Romans 12:1-2.
It is interesting to note that later, when Luther came to James 2:14-26, he found that his doctrine of “faith only” conflicted with James’ insistence that man’s faith by itself will not save but is a dead faith. True faith will produce good works.
He plainly declared, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead”, James 2:26. Luther was furious in his denunciation of the epistle, insisting it was not canonical and did not belong in the New Testament. He referred to it as an “epistle of straw.”