Can we believe that what Luther wrote has any meaning for today? If Luther set forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ in truth, then the Gospel which does not change is the same Gospel today. We cannot dismiss the teaching of Luther on the enslaved will any more than we can dismiss what he wrote on justification by faith alone. It is his teaching on the enslaved will that interprets justification for us. In quoting from Johnson and Packer’s introduction to Luther’s Bondage of the Will, this startling quote is given to us:
The doctrine of free justification by faith only, which became the storm-centre of so much controversy during the Reformation period, is often regarded as the heart of the Reformer’s theology, but this is hardly accurate. The truth is that their thinking was really centered upon the contention of Paul, echoed with varying degrees of adequacy by Augustine, and Gottschalk, and Bradwardine, and Wycliffe, that the sinner’s entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only. The doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace; but it actually expressed for them only one aspect of this principle, and that not its deepest aspect. The sovereignty of grace found expression in their thinking at a profounder level still, in the doctrine of monergistic regeneration—the doctrine, that is, that the faith which receives Christ for justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God, bestowed by spiritual regeneration in the act of effectual calling. To the Reformers, the crucial question was not simply, whether God justifies believers without works of Law. It was the broader question, whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin, and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional, invincible grace, not only justifying them for Christ’s sake when they come to faith, but also raising them from the death of sin by His quickening Spirit in order to bring them to faith. Here was the crucial issue; whether God is the author, not merely of justification, but also of faith; whether, in the last analysis, Christianity is a religion of utter reliance on God for salvation and all things necessary to it, or of self-reliance and self-effort. ‘Justification by faith only’ is a truth that needs interpretation. The principle of sola fide is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia.
What is so utterly vital to see in this quote is that they have it precisely right. It is not just if a person believes in justification by faith alone; it is also what they believe about the doctrine of the will that drives them to understand grace alone. There is no belief of justification by faith alone as Luther and the Reformers set it out apart from a deep belief in monergistic (mono = one, gistic = worker) regeneration and God being the sole worker in regeneration. There is no belief of justification by faith alone as Luther and the Reformers set it out apart from a free (uncaused by man), unconditional, invincible grace that raises sinners from the spiritual dead to bring them to faith. We cannot believe what they believed about the Gospel of justification by faith alone apart from believing what they believed about the things necessary to and for that Gospel.
Could it be that in our day when there is a growing use of the phrase justification by faith alone that in reality we are far from what the Reformers taught about it in its fullness? Could it be that the Gospel is virtually lost in our day in the midst of so much religious talk? Can we speak of ourselves as Reformed or as the children of the Reformation when we don’t adhere to the crucial issues of the Gospel as the Reformers did? Could it be that Rome has triumphed in a major way in the world today with people adhering to its so-called gospel without getting people to submit to Rome itself? There is no preaching of the same Gospel that Luther preached without preaching and teaching people about their enslaved will. The real issue, as we know, is the Gospel Paul preached for there is no other Gospel. But did God pour out revival in the days of the Reformation and shake the world with a false gospel in that time? How we must be on our knees with the Scriptures and our departed teachers to be sure we teach the same Gospel. While it is far easier to fit in with political and denominational people if we don’t, the Gospel demands that we do so. We cannot please men and God at the same time when the Gospel is at stake.
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! 10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ (Gal 1:6-10).
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