Concerning Christian Liberty

M >> Martin Luther >> Concerning Christian Liberty


And, to cast everything aside, even speculation, meditations, and
whatever things can be performed by the exertions of the soul itself,
are of no profit. One thing, and one alone, is necessary for life,
justification, and Christian liberty; and that is the most holy word of
God, the Gospel of Christ, as He says, "I am the resurrection and the
life; he that believeth in Me shall not die eternally" (John xi. 25),
and also, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed"
(John viii. 36), and, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4).

Let us therefore hold it for certain and firmly established that the
soul can do without everything except the word of God, without which
none at all of its wants are provided for. But, having the word, it is
rich and wants for nothing, since that is the word of life, of truth, of
light, of peace, of justification, of salvation, of joy, of liberty, of
wisdom, of virtue, of grace, of glory, and of every good thing. It is
on this account that the prophet in a whole Psalm (Psalm cxix.), and in
many other places, sighs for and calls upon the word of God with so many
groanings and words.

Again, there is no more cruel stroke of the wrath of God than when He
sends a famine of hearing His words (Amos viii. 11), just as there is
no greater favour from Him than the sending forth of His word, as it is
said, "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions" (Psalm cvii. 20). Christ was sent for no other office than
that of the word; and the order of Apostles, that of bishops, and that
of the whole body of the clergy, have been called and instituted for no
object but the ministry of the word.

But you will ask, What is this word, and by what means is it to be used,
since there are so many words of God? I answer, The Apostle Paul (Rom.
i.) explains what it is, namely the Gospel of God, concerning His Son,
incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified, through the Spirit, the
Sanctifier. To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify it, to set
it free, and to save it, if it believes the preaching. For faith alone
and the efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation. "If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom.
x. 9); and again, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
every one that believeth" (Rom. x. 4), and "The just shall live by
faith" (Rom. i. 17). For the word of God cannot be received and honoured
by any works, but by faith alone. Hence it is clear that as the soul
needs the word alone for life and justification, so it is justified by
faith alone, and not by any works. For if it could be justified by any
other means, it would have no need of the word, nor consequently of
faith.

But this faith cannot consist at all with works; that is, if you imagine
that you can be justified by those works, whatever they are, along with
it. For this would be to halt between two opinions, to worship Baal, and
to kiss the hand to him, which is a very great iniquity, as Job says.
Therefore, when you begin to believe, you learn at the same time that
all that is in you is utterly guilty, sinful, and damnable, according to
that saying, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.
iii. 23), and also: "There is none righteous, no, not one; they are all
gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable: there is
none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. iii. 10-12). When you have
learnt this, you will know that Christ is necessary for you, since He
has suffered and risen again for you, that, believing on Him, you might
by this faith become another man, all your sins being remitted, and you
being justified by the merits of another, namely of Christ alone.

Since then this faith can reign only in the inward man, as it is said,
"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. x. 10); and
since it alone justifies, it is evident that by no outward work or
labour can the inward man be at all justified, made free, and saved; and
that no works whatever have any relation to him. And so, on the other
hand, it is solely by impiety and incredulity of heart that he becomes
guilty and a slave of sin, deserving condemnation, not by any outward
sin or work. Therefore the first care of every Christian ought to be to
lay aside all reliance on works, and strengthen his faith alone more
and more, and by it grow in the knowledge, not of works, but of Christ
Jesus, who has suffered and risen again for him, as Peter teaches
(1 Peter v.) when he makes no other work to be a Christian one. Thus
Christ, when the Jews asked Him what they should do that they might work
the works of God, rejected the multitude of works, with which He saw
that they were puffed up, and commanded them one thing only, saying,
"This is the work of God: that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent, for
Him hath God the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 29).

Hence a right faith in Christ is an incomparable treasure, carrying with
it universal salvation and preserving from all evil, as it is said, "He
that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 16). Isaiah, looking to this treasure,
predicted, "The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined
(verbum abbreviatum et consummans), in the midst of the land" (Isa.
x. 22, 23). As if he said, "Faith, which is the brief and complete
fulfilling of the law, will fill those who believe with such
righteousness that they will need nothing else for justification." Thus,
too, Paul says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness"
(Rom. x. 10).

But you ask how it can be the fact that faith alone justifies, and
affords without works so great a treasure of good things, when so many
works, ceremonies, and laws are prescribed to us in the Scriptures?
I answer, Before all things bear in mind what I have said: that faith
alone without works justifies, sets free, and saves, as I shall show
more clearly below.

Meanwhile it is to be noted that the whole Scripture of God is divided
into two parts: precepts and promises. The precepts certainly teach us
what is good, but what they teach is not forthwith done. For they show
us what we ought to do, but do not give us the power to do it. They
were ordained, however, for the purpose of showing man to himself, that
through them he may learn his own impotence for good and may despair of
his own strength. For this reason they are called the Old Testament, and
are so.

For example, "Thou shalt not covet," is a precept by which we are all
convicted of sin, since no man can help coveting, whatever efforts to
the contrary he may make. In order therefore that he may fulfil the
precept, and not covet, he is constrained to despair of himself and
to seek elsewhere and through another the help which he cannot find in
himself; as it is said, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in
Me is thine help" (Hosea xiii. 9). Now what is done by this one precept
is done by all; for all are equally impossible of fulfilment by us.

Now when a man has through the precepts been taught his own impotence,
and become anxious by what means he may satisfy the law--for the
law must be satisfied, so that no jot or tittle of it may pass away,
otherwise he must be hopelessly condemned--then, being truly humbled and
brought to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself no resource for
justification and salvation.

Then comes in that other part of Scripture, the promises of God, which
declare the glory of God, and say, "If you wish to fulfil the law, and,
as the law requires, not to covet, lo! believe in Christ, in whom are
promised to you grace, justification, peace, and liberty." All these
things you shall have, if you believe, and shall be without them if you
do not believe. For what is impossible for you by all the works of the
law, which are many and yet useless, you shall fulfil in an easy and
summary way through faith, because God the Father has made everything to
depend on faith, so that whosoever has it has all things, and he who has
it not has nothing. "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that
He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. xi. 32). Thus the promises of God
give that which the precepts exact, and fulfil what the law commands;
so that all is of God alone, both the precepts and their fulfilment. He
alone commands; He alone also fulfils. Hence the promises of God belong
to the New Testament; nay, are the New Testament.

Now, since these promises of God are words of holiness, truth,
righteousness, liberty, and peace, and are full of universal goodness,
the soul, which cleaves to them with a firm faith, is so united to them,
nay, thoroughly absorbed by them, that it not only partakes in, but
is penetrated and saturated by, all their virtues. For if the touch of
Christ was healing, how much more does that most tender spiritual touch,
nay, absorption of the word, communicate to the soul all that belongs to
the word! In this way therefore the soul, through faith alone, without
works, is from the word of God justified, sanctified, endued with truth,
peace, and liberty, and filled full with every good thing, and is truly
made the child of God, as it is said, "To them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John i. 12).

From all this it is easy to understand why faith has such great power,
and why no good works, nor even all good works put together, can compare
with it, since no work can cleave to the word of God or be in the soul.
Faith alone and the word reign in it; and such as is the word, such is
the soul made by it, just as iron exposed to fire glows like fire, on
account of its union with the fire. It is clear then that to a Christian
man his faith suffices for everything, and that he has no need of works
for justification. But if he has no need of works, neither has he need
of the law; and if he has no need of the law, he is certainly free from
the law, and the saying is true, "The law is not made for a righteous
man" (1 Tim. i. 9). This is that Christian liberty, our faith, the
effect of which is, not that we should be careless or lead a bad life,
but that no one should need the law or works for justification and
salvation.

Let us consider this as the first virtue of faith; and let us look also
to the second. This also is an office of faith: that it honours with the
utmost veneration and the highest reputation Him in whom it believes,
inasmuch as it holds Him to be truthful and worthy of belief. For there
is no honour like that reputation of truth and righteousness with which
we honour Him in whom we believe. What higher credit can we attribute
to any one than truth and righteousness, and absolute goodness? On
the other hand, it is the greatest insult to brand any one with the
reputation of falsehood and unrighteousness, or to suspect him of these,
as we do when we disbelieve him.

Thus the soul, in firmly believing the promises of God, holds Him to be
true and righteous; and it can attribute to God no higher glory than
the credit of being so. The highest worship of God is to ascribe to Him
truth, righteousness, and whatever qualities we must ascribe to one in
whom we believe. In doing this the soul shows itself prepared to do His
whole will; in doing this it hallows His name, and gives itself up to
be dealt with as it may please God. For it cleaves to His promises, and
never doubts that He is true, just, and wise, and will do, dispose, and
provide for all things in the best way. Is not such a soul, in this its
faith, most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does there
remain which has not been amply fulfilled by such an obedience? What
fulfilment can be more full than universal obedience? Now this is not
accomplished by works, but by faith alone.

On the other hand, what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to God
can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is this, than
either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth--that is, to attribute
truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and levity? In doing this,
is not a man denying God and setting himself up as an idol in his own
heart? What then can works, done in such a state of impiety, profit us,
were they even angelic or apostolic works? Rightly hath God shut up
all, not in wrath nor in lust, but in unbelief, in order that those
who pretend that they are fulfilling the law by works of purity and
benevolence (which are social and human virtues) may not presume
that they will therefore be saved, but, being included in the sin of
unbelief, may either seek mercy, or be justly condemned.

But when God sees that truth is ascribed to Him, and that in the faith
of our hearts He is honoured with all the honour of which He is worthy,
then in return He honours us on account of that faith, attributing to
us truth and righteousness. For faith does truth and righteousness in
rendering to God what is His; and therefore in return God gives glory
to our righteousness. It is true and righteous that God is true and
righteous; and to confess this and ascribe these attributes to Him, this
it is to be true and righteous. Thus He says, "Them that honour Me I
will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam.
ii. 30). And so Paul says that Abraham's faith was imputed to him for
righteousness, because by it he gave glory to God; and that to us
also, for the same reason, it shall be imputed for righteousness, if we
believe (Rom. iv.).

The third incomparable grace of faith is this: that it unites the soul
to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as the Apostle
teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one
flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the most perfect of all
marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but
feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they
have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so
that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to
itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that
Christ claims as His.

If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the
gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of
sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death,
and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the
soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs take to Himself that which
is His wife's, and at the same time, impart to His wife that which is
His. For, in giving her His own body and Himself, how can He but give
her all that is His? And, in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how
can He but take to Himself all that is hers?

In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of
a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For, since
Christ is God and man, and is such a Person as neither has sinned, nor
dies, nor is condemned, nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned, and since
His righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and
almighty,--when I say, such a Person, by the wedding-ring of faith,
takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them
His own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, and
as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and descends to
hell, that He may overcome all things, and since sin, death, and
hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be swallowed up by Him in
stupendous conflict. For His righteousness rises above the sins of all
men; His life is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more
unconquerable than all hell.

Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes
free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with
the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its Husband Christ.
Thus He presents to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle,
cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith
in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her
unto Himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
loving-kindness, and in mercies" (Hosea ii. 19, 20).

Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can
comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace? Christ, that rich and
pious Husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming
her from all her evils and supplying her with all His good things. It
is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have
been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her
Husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which
she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and
hell, saying, "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not
sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine," as it is written, "My
beloved is mine, and I am His" (Cant. ii. 16). This is what Paul says:
"Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ," victory over sin and death, as he says, "The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57).

From all this you will again understand why so much importance is
attributed to faith, so that it alone can fulfil the law and justify
without any works. For you see that the First Commandment, which says,
"Thou shalt worship one God only," is fulfilled by faith alone. If you
were nothing but good works from the soles of your feet to the crown of
your head, you would not be worshipping God, nor fulfilling the First
Commandment, since it is impossible to worship God without ascribing to
Him the glory of truth and of universal goodness, as it ought in truth
to be ascribed. Now this is not done by works, but only by faith of
heart. It is not by working, but by believing, that we glorify God, and
confess Him to be true. On this ground faith alone is the righteousness
of a Christian man, and the fulfilling of all the commandments. For to
him who fulfils the first the task of fulfilling all the rest is easy.

Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, although
they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be present. But at
present we are inquiring, not into the quality of the works done, but
into him who does them, who glorifies God, and brings forth good
works. This is faith of heart, the head and the substance of all our
righteousness. Hence that is a blind and perilous doctrine which teaches
that the commandments are fulfilled by works. The commandments must have
been fulfilled previous to any good works, and good works follow their
fulfillment, as we shall see.

But, that we may have a wider view of that grace which our inner man
has in Christ, we must know that in the Old Testament God sanctified to
Himself every first-born male. The birthright was of great value, giving
a superiority over the rest by the double honour of priesthood and
kingship. For the first-born brother was priest and lord of all the
rest.

Under this figure was foreshown Christ, the true and only First-born of
God the Father and of the Virgin Mary, and a true King and Priest, not
in a fleshly and earthly sense. For His kingdom is not of this world; it
is in heavenly and spiritual things that He reigns and acts as Priest;
and these are righteousness, truth, wisdom, peace, salvation, etc.
Not but that all things, even those of earth and hell, are subject to
Him--for otherwise how could He defend and save us from them?--but it is
not in these, nor by these, that His kingdom stands.

So, too, His priesthood does not consist in the outward display of
vestments and gestures, as did the human priesthood of Aaron and our
ecclesiastical priesthood at this day, but in spiritual things, wherein,
in His invisible office, He intercedes for us with God in heaven, and
there offers Himself, and performs all the duties of a priest, as Paul
describes Him to the Hebrews under the figure of Melchizedek. Nor does
He only pray and intercede for us; He also teaches us inwardly in the
spirit with the living teachings of His Spirit. Now these are the two
special offices of a priest, as is figured to us in the case of fleshly
priests by visible prayers and sermons.

As Christ by His birthright has obtained these two dignities, so He
imparts and communicates them to every believer in Him, under that law
of matrimony of which we have spoken above, by which all that is the
husband's is also the wife's. Hence all we who believe on Christ are
kings and priests in Christ, as it is said, "Ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into
His marvellous light" (1 Peter ii. 9).

These two things stand thus. First, as regards kingship, every Christian
is by faith so exalted above all things that, in spiritual power, he is
completely lord of all things, so that nothing whatever can do him
any hurt; yea, all things are subject to him, and are compelled to be
subservient to his salvation. Thus Paul says, "All things work together
for good to them who are the called" (Rom. viii. 28), and also, "Whether
life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and
ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23).

Not that in the sense of corporeal power any one among Christians has
been appointed to possess and rule all things, according to the mad and
senseless idea of certain ecclesiastics. That is the office of kings,
princes, and men upon earth. In the experience of life we see that we
are subjected to all things, and suffer many things, even death.
Yea, the more of a Christian any man is, to so many the more evils,
sufferings, and deaths is he subject, as we see in the first place in
Christ the First-born, and in all His holy brethren.

This is a spiritual power, which rules in the midst of enemies, and is
powerful in the midst of distresses. And this is nothing else than that
strength is made perfect in my weakness, and that I can turn all things
to the profit of my salvation; so that even the cross and death are
compelled to serve me and to work together for my salvation. This is
a lofty and eminent dignity, a true and almighty dominion, a spiritual
empire, in which there is nothing so good, nothing so bad, as not to
work together for my good, if only I believe. And yet there is nothing
of which I have need--for faith alone suffices for my salvation--unless
that in it faith may exercise the power and empire of its liberty. This
is the inestimable power and liberty of Christians.

Nor are we only kings and the freest of all men, but also priests for
ever, a dignity far higher than kingship, because by that priesthood we
are worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, and to teach one
another mutually the things which are of God. For these are the duties
of priests, and they cannot possibly be permitted to any unbeliever.
Christ has obtained for us this favour, if we believe in Him: that just
as we are His brethren and co-heirs and fellow-kings with Him, so we
should be also fellow-priests with Him, and venture with confidence,
through the spirit of faith, to come into the presence of God, and cry,
"Abba, Father!" and to pray for one another, and to do all things
which we see done and figured in the visible and corporeal office of
priesthood. But to an unbelieving person nothing renders service or work
for good. He himself is in servitude to all things, and all things turn
out for evil to him, because he uses all things in an impious way for
his own advantage, and not for the glory of God. And thus he is not a
priest, but a profane person, whose prayers are turned into sin, nor
does he ever appear in the presence of God, because God does not hear
sinners.

Who then can comprehend the loftiness of that Christian dignity which,
by its royal power, rules over all things, even over death, life, and
sin, and, by its priestly glory, is all-powerful with God, since God
does what He Himself seeks and wishes, as it is written, "He will fulfil
the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will
save them"? (Psalm cxlv. 19). This glory certainly cannot be attained by
any works, but by faith only.

From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian
man is free from all things; so that he needs no works in order to be
justified and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance from faith
alone. Nay, were he so foolish as to pretend to be justified, set
free, saved, and made a Christian, by means of any good work, he would
immediately lose faith, with all its benefits. Such folly is prettily
represented in the fable where a dog, running along in the water
and carrying in his mouth a real piece of meat, is deceived by the
reflection of the meat in the water, and, in trying with open mouth to
seize it, loses the meat and its image at the same time.