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[preface: Spiritual reading is
not confined to authors from a specific denominational background. Last week we looked at the works of Gregoryof Nyssa, an ancient Christian writer of the Catholic Church. In the future, we’ll examine Bernard of
Clairvaux, Brother Lawrence, Thomas Merton, and Henri Nouwen, all of who were
also Catholics. This week we are looking
at some writings of Martin Luther, writings that are of Spiritual Formation in nature. In this case, Luther’s works
can aid a person’s Spiritual Formation.
Luther also wrote things of an anti-Semitic nature, writings that will
not assist Spiritual Formation. The
point is, finding spiritual benefit from Christian literature, not agreement
with everything an author ever wrote.]
But
[Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on Bread alone,
but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Matthew 4:4)
This coming
Wednesday is October 31st, and it will be 501 years since Martin
Luther nailed his 95-theses to the church door in Wittenberg, an act that many
call the spark of the Protestant Reformation.
However, the act was not rebellion, it was an invitation to debate [that’s
how you did it back then, long before Twitter].
And the theses were not a breakup letter with 95 points. Take, for
example, the 25th theses, “The power which the pope has, in a
general way, over purgatory, is just like that power which any bishop or curate
has, in a special way within his own diocese or parish” (Luther, kindle location 657) . It was a 1519 debate and the publishing of
his 1520 tracts that led to his excommunication in 1521.
However,
today we’ll focus on one of Luther’s thoughts related to repentance and how
that affects our formation. Luther
brought up the subject with a former teacher that he refers to as a dear Father
in the Augustinian Order (Ibid. 775) . He wrote that love of God is the start of repentance,
and this may be different from a modern view.
Do we begin our repentance with the knowledge that God loves us, or do
we want to repent of our sins because of our love for God? This is an essential thought because it brings
up our relationship with sin and with God.
The goal of our formation is to be conformed to the image of the Son. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, one of
His clear motivating factors was His love for the Father. It is this love that Luther is talking about
when we consider our sins, and are moved to repentance. Moreover, that repentance is directly tied to
the change of our hearts and mind when we come to our senses in realizing our
errors (Ibid. 782-3) .
Written by Pastor Ozzy
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Works Cited
1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible.
LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.
Luther, Martin. 2018. The Collected Works of Martin
Luther. Prague: e-artnow.
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