Posted by xprotestant on August 12, 2008 at 18:13:03:
Salvation by Faith Alone
As a monk, Luther later wrote, he was tormented by the thought of damnation for sins, saying that he "hated this God who punished sinners, if not with silent blasphemies at least with huge murmurings. I was indignant against God. As if it were not enough that miserable sinners, eternally ruined by original sin, should be crushed . . . through the Law of the Ten Commandments . . . And so I raged with a savaged and confounded conscience." He therefore turned to the Bible. The Catholic Church had always taught that grace was active, in the sense that it came into force at the day of judgment when the righteous would be separated from the damned. As he read Romans 1, Luther became convinced that the grace of which Paul wrote was passive, hence available to everyone. This led to his conclusion that salvation came not through penance and repentance, nor through the intercession of saints and martyrs or the prayers of the church, but by faith alone. It was an entirely new idea. As Luther re-read Romans 1:16-17, he wrote, "I felt myself straightaway born afresh and to have entered through the open gates into paradise itself." This led to the further belief that the Bible was the sole authority. In 1517, he nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg University.
Luther's view of salvation was heavily influenced by his opposition to indulgences, introduced in his day by the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic view was that, since even one drop of Christ's blood was sufficient to atone for the sins of all repentant Christians, the Savior had left the rest of his atoning blood as a gift to the church. For a fee, one could purchase an "indulgence," which pardoned sins.13 More than anything else, it was Luther's opposition to this practice that led to his rejection of papal authority.
In 1520, Luther wrote his "Treatise on Good Works," in which he acknowledged that the Spirit guides us into good works, but also stresses their importance. He begins the treatise with these words: "We ought first to know that there are no good works except those which God has commanded, even as there is no sin except that which God has forbidden. Therefore whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing else than to know God's commandments. Thus Christ says, Matthew 19, 'If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.'"
Though the treatise deals with a variety of works expected of Christians, Luther wrote that "The first and highest, the most precious of all good works is faith in Christ." In this, he agrees with Joseph Smith, who wrote that the first principle of the gospel was "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" (Article of Faith 4).14
Though both Martin Luther and Joseph Smith stressed the importance and primacy of faith in Christ, both also taught that baptism was essential for the forgiveness of sins and for salvation. In his Larger Catechism, Part Fourth ("Of Baptism"), Luther wrote, "I can boast that Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God Himself, moreover, that it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved." He added, "And this also we cannot discern better than from the words of Christ above quoted:15 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Therefore state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he be saved. But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever." His Small Catechism, Part IV ("Holy Baptism"), II, agrees:
II. Q. What does Baptism give? What good is it?
A. It gives the forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the Devil, gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, just as God's words and promises declare.