A Puritan at Heart

If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learned Jesus Christ aright. [Martin Luther]

When faith is of the kind that God awakens and creates in the heart, then a man trusts in Christ. He is then so securely founded on Christ, that he can hurl defiance at sin, death, hell, the devil, and all God’s enemies. He fears no ill, however hard and cruel it may prove to be…
Right faith is a thing wrought by the Holy Ghost in us, which changeth us, turneth us into a new nature…Faith is a lively ting, mighty in working, valiant and strong: so that it is impossible that he who is endued therewith should not work always good works without ceasing..for such is his nature. [Martin Luther]

HER clothing is all glorious within. What kind of glorious apparel is this? For we know that on earth Christians are poor and little esteemed. It is a spiritual adorning; not gold, silver, pearls, velvet, but obedience to the Lord our God. This apparel is brighter than the sun, for these are God’s jewels. He who goes about doing God’s will, goes about clothed in God’s beauty. To serve Him truly, is simply to abide in our calling, be it lowly as it may. [Martin Luther]

“If the soul be gracious,
the body shall be glorious.”

This passage is a glorious promise to us. It’s repeated twice because we tend to think “That doesn’t quite make sense. These words are difficult to believe.” No one could foresee that faith would be so important until Christ actually said, “Everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.” Now Jerome, Ambrose and Cyprian all believed in Christ, yet they were executed. How do we fit this together with the promise of eternal life? When we see how people who believe in Christ cursed, condemned, exiled, even beheaded and burned, it’s like having the rug pulled from under us. Christian’s aren’t allowed to live in peace. The promise about eternal life seems like a lie to us. If this is what eternal life means–that one is pursued–killed–then let the devil have that type of life.

But faith must close its eyes and refuse to pass judgement on what it sees or feels in the world. Believers won’t become aware of eternal life until Christ raises them from the dead. meanwhile there eternal life is hidden in death. It’s covered up and out of sight. But remember that as long as you live, and even when you’re dying, you have forgivness. if you feel the weight of sin crushing you, you can still say, “My sins are forgiven.” When your sins hunt you down, bit at you, and terrify you, you can look to Christ, put your feeble faith in him, and hold on tightly. [Martin Luther]

Paul, in Titus 1:14, says: “Teach them not to give heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn them from the truth.”

This is a strong command, that we are not at all to regard the commandments of men. Is not this clear enough? And Paul gives his reason: they turn men from the truth, he says. For as has been said above, the heart cannot trust in Christ and at the same time in the doctrines or the works of men. Therefore, as soon as a man turns to the doctrines of men he turns away from the truth, and does not regard it. On the other hand, he who finds his comfort in Christ cannot regard the commandments and the works of men. Look now, whose ban you should fear most! The pope and his followers cast you far beyond hell if you do not heed their commandments, and Christ commands you not to heed them on pain of His ban. Consider whom you wish to obey. 8. 2 Peter 2:1-3: “There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” [Martin Luther]

On This Reformation Day:

To his Reverend and Dear Father JOHN STAUPITZ, Professor of Sacred Theology, Vicar of the Augustinian Order, Brother Martin Luther, his pupil, sendeth greeting.

I remember, dear Father, that once, among those pleasant and wholesome talks of thine, with which the Lord Jesus ofttimes gives me wondrous consolation, the word poenitentia F86 was mentioned, We were moved with pity for many consciences, and for those tormentors who teach, with rules innumerable and unbearable, what they call a modus confitendi . F87 Then we heard thee say as with a voice from heaven, that there is no true penitence which does not begin with love of righteousness and of God, and that this love, which others think to be the end and the completion of penitence, is rather its beginning.

This word of thine stuck in me like a sharp arrow of the mighty, and from that time forth I began to compare it with the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began a joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than “penitence,” though I was busy making pretences to God and trying to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no word which has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than “penitence.” For God”s commands are sweet, when we find that they are to be read not in books alone, but: in the wounds of our sweet Savior.

After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this word is in Greek metanoia and is derived from meta and noun, i.e., post and mentem , F88 so that poenitentia or metanoia is a “coming to one”s senses,” and is a knowledge of one”s own evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change in our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the theology of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can so aptly illustrate St. Paul.

Then I went on and saw that metanoia can be derived, though not without violence, not only from post and mentem , but also from trans and mentem , F89 so that metanoia signifies a changing F90 of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate not only a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it, i.e., the grace of God. For that “passing over of the mind, F91 which is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the Scriptures.

Christ has displayed the true significance of that old word “Passover”; and long before the Passover, Abraham was a type of it, when he was called a “pilgrim,” i.e., a “Hebrew,” F92 that is to say, one, who “passed over” into Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos F93 learnedly explains. With this accords, too, the title of the Psalm in which Jeduthun, i.e., “the pilgrim,” F94 is introduced as the singer.

Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial satisfactions F95 and laborious confession, because, forsooth, they had derived their idea from the Latin words poenitentiam agere , F96 which indicate an action, rather than a change of heart, and are in no way an equivalent for the Greek metanoia .

While this thought was boiling in my mind, suddenly new trumpets of indulgences and bugles of remissions began to peal and to bray all about us; but they were not intended to arouse us to keen eagerness for battle. In a word, the doctrine of true penitence was passed by, and they presumed to praise not even that poorest part of penitence which is called “satisfaction,” F97 but the remission of that poorest part of penitence; and they praised it so highly that such praise was never heard before. Then, too, they taught impious and false and heretical doctrines with such authority (I wished to say “with such assurance”) that he who even muttered anything to the contrary under his breath, would straightway be consigned to the flames as a heretic, and condemned to eternal malediction.

Unable to meet their rage half-way, I determined to enter a modest dissent, and to call their teaching into question, relying on the opinion of all the doctors and of the whole Church, that to render satisfaction is better than to secure the remission of satisfaction, i.e., to buy indulgences. Nor is there anybody who ever taught otherwise. Therefore, I published my Disputation; F98 in other words, I brought upon my head all the curses, high, middle and low, which these lovers of money (I should say “of souls”) are able to send or to have sent upon me. For these most courteous men, armed, as they are, with very dense acumen, since they cannot deny what I have said, now pretend that in my Disputation I have spoken against the power of the Supreme Pontiff. F99 That is the reason, Reverend Father, why I now regretfully come out in public. For I have ever been a lover of my corner, and prefer to look upon the beauteous passing show of the great minds of our age, rather than to be looked upon and laughed at. But I see that the bean must appear among the cabbages, F100 and the black must be put with the white, for the sake of seemliness and loveliness.

I ask, therefore, that thou wilt take this foolish work of mine and forward it, if possible, to the most Excellent Pontiff, Leo X, where it may plead my cause against the designs of those who hate me. Not that I wish thee to share my danger! Nay, I wish this to be done at my peril only. Christ will see whether what I have said is His or my own; and without His permission there is not a word in the Supreme Pontiff”s tongue, nor is the heart of the king in his own hand. He is the Judge whose verdict I await from the Roman See.

As for those threatening friends of mine, I have no answer for them but that word of Reuchlin”s ” “He who is poor fears nothing; he has nothing to lose.” Fortune I neither have nor desire; if I have had reputation and honor, he who destroys them is always at work; there remains only one poor body, weak and wearied with constant hardships, and if by force or wile they do away with that (as a service to God), they will but make me poorer by perhaps an hour or two of life. Enough for me is the most sweet Sayior and Redeemer, my Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom I shall always sing my song; if any one is unwilling to sing with me, what is that to me? Let him howl, if he likes, by himself.

The Lord Jesus keep thee eternally, my gracious Father! Wittenberg, Day of the Holy Trinity, MDXVIII.

The fanatic hates the Word of God and exclaims ‘Bible, Bubel, Babel!’ Christians ought to use the Word, not the hand. The New Testament method of driving out the devil is to convert the heart, and then the devil fails in all his works. [Martin Luther]

The fanatic hates the Word of God and exclaims 'Bible, Bubel, Babel!' Christians ought to use the Word, not the hand. The New Testament method of driving out the devil is to convert the heart, and then the devil fails in all his works. [Martin Luther]

"Do not think the catechism is a little thing to be read hastily and cast aside. Although I am a doctor, I have to do just as a child and say word for word every morning and whenever I have time the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, the Creed and Psalms. I have to do it every day and yet, I cannot stand as I would. But these smart folks in one reading want to be doctors of doctors. Therefore I beg thee wise saints to be persuaded that they are not such a great doctor as they think. To be occupied with God's Word helps against the world, the flesh and the Devil, and all bad thoughts. This is the true holy water with which to excorcise the Devil." [Martin Luther]

“Do not think the catechism is a little thing to be read hastily and cast aside. Although I am a doctor, I have to do just as a child and say word for word every morning and whenever I have time the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, the Creed and Psalms. I have to do it every day and yet, I cannot stand as I would. But these smart folks in one reading want to be doctors of doctors. Therefore I beg thee wise saints to be persuaded that they are not such a great doctor as they think. To be occupied with God’s Word helps against the world, the flesh and the Devil, and all bad thoughts. This is the true holy water with which to excorcise the Devil.” [Martin Luther]