Concerning Christian Liberty

M >> Martin Luther >> Concerning Christian Liberty


Thus from faith flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love
a cheerful, willing, free spirit, disposed to serve our neighbour
voluntarily, without taking any account of gratitude or ingratitude,
praise or blame, gain or loss. Its object is not to lay men under
obligations, nor does it distinguish between friends and enemies, or
look to gratitude or ingratitude, but most freely and willingly spends
itself and its goods, whether it loses them through ingratitude, or
gains goodwill. For thus did its Father, distributing all things to all
men abundantly and freely, making His sun to rise upon the just and the
unjust. Thus, too, the child does and endures nothing except from the
free joy with which it delights through Christ in God, the Giver of such
great gifts.

You see, then, that, if we recognize those great and precious gifts, as
Peter says, which have been given to us, love is quickly diffused in
our hearts through the Spirit, and by love we are made free, joyful,
all-powerful, active workers, victors over all our tribulations,
servants to our neighbour, and nevertheless lords of all things. But,
for those who do not recognise the good things given to them through
Christ, Christ has been born in vain; such persons walk by works, and
will never attain the taste and feeling of these great things. Therefore
just as our neighbour is in want, and has need of our abundance, so we
too in the sight of God were in want, and had need of His mercy. And as
our heavenly Father has freely helped us in Christ, so ought we freely
to help our neighbour by our body and works, and each should become to
other a sort of Christ, so that we may be mutually Christs, and that
the same Christ may be in all of us; that is, that we may be truly
Christians.

Who then can comprehend the riches and glory of the Christian life? It
can do all things, has all things, and is in want of nothing; is lord
over sin, death, and hell, and at the same time is the obedient and
useful servant of all. But alas! it is at this day unknown throughout
the world; it is neither preached nor sought after, so that we are quite
ignorant about our own name, why we are and are called Christians. We
are certainly called so from Christ, who is not absent, but dwells among
us--provided, that is, that we believe in Him and are reciprocally and
mutually one the Christ of the other, doing to our neighbour as Christ
does to us. But now, in the doctrine of men, we are taught only to seek
after merits, rewards, and things which are already ours, and we have
made of Christ a taskmaster far more severe than Moses.

The Blessed Virgin beyond all others, affords us an example of the same
faith, in that she was purified according to the law of Moses, and like
all other women, though she was bound by no such law and had no need
of purification. Still she submitted to the law voluntarily and of free
love, making herself like the rest of women, that she might not offend
or throw contempt on them. She was not justified by doing this; but,
being already justified, she did it freely and gratuitously. Thus ought
our works too to be done, and not in order to be justified by them; for,
being first justified by faith, we ought to do all our works freely and
cheerfully for the sake of others.

St. Paul circumcised his disciple Timothy, not because he needed
circumcision for his justification, but that he might not offend or
contemn those Jews, weak in the faith, who had not yet been able to
comprehend the liberty of faith. On the other hand, when they contemned
liberty and urged that circumcision was necessary for justification, he
resisted them, and would not allow Titus to be circumcised. For, as he
would not offend or contemn any one's weakness in faith, but yielded
for the time to their will, so, again, he would not have the liberty of
faith offended or contemned by hardened self-justifiers, but walked in
a middle path, sparing the weak for the time, and always resisting the
hardened, that he might convert all to the liberty of faith. On the same
principle we ought to act, receiving those that are weak in the faith,
but boldly resisting these hardened teachers of works, of whom we shall
hereafter speak at more length.

Christ also, when His disciples were asked for the tribute money, asked
of Peter whether the children of a king were not free from taxes. Peter
agreed to this; yet Jesus commanded him to go to the sea, saying, "Lest
we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up
the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou
shalt find a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for Me and
thee" (Matt. xvii. 27).

This example is very much to our purpose; for here Christ calls Himself
and His disciples free men and children of a King, in want of nothing;
and yet He voluntarily submits and pays the tax. Just as far, then,
as this work was necessary or useful to Christ for justification or
salvation, so far do all His other works or those of His disciples avail
for justification. They are really free and subsequent to justification,
and only done to serve others and set them an example.

Such are the works which Paul inculcated, that Christians should be
subject to principalities and powers and ready to every good work (Titus
iii. 1), not that they may be justified by these things--for they are
already justified by faith--but that in liberty of spirit they may thus
be the servants of others and subject to powers, obeying their will out
of gratuitous love.

Such, too, ought to have been the works of all colleges, monasteries,
and priests; every one doing the works of his own profession and state
of life, not in order to be justified by them, but in order to bring his
own body into subjection, as an example to others, who themselves
also need to keep under their bodies, and also in order to accommodate
himself to the will of others, out of free love. But we must always
guard most carefully against any vain confidence or presumption of being
justified, gaining merit, or being saved by these works, this being the
part of faith alone, as I have so often said.

Any man possessing this knowledge may easily keep clear of danger among
those innumerable commands and precepts of the Pope, of bishops, of
monasteries, of churches, of princes, and of magistrates, which some
foolish pastors urge on us as being necessary for justification and
salvation, calling them precepts of the Church, when they are not so
at all. For the Christian freeman will speak thus: I will fast, I will
pray, I will do this or that which is commanded me by men, not as having
any need of these things for justification or salvation, but that I
may thus comply with the will of the Pope, of the bishop, of such a
community or such a magistrate, or of my neighbour as an example to him;
for this cause I will do and suffer all things, just as Christ did and
suffered much more for me, though He needed not at all to do so on His
own account, and made Himself for my sake under the law, when He was
not under the law. And although tyrants may do me violence or wrong in
requiring obedience to these things, yet it will not hurt me to do them,
so long as they are not done against God.

From all this every man will be able to attain a sure judgment and
faithful discrimination between all works and laws, and to know who
are blind and foolish pastors, and who are true and good ones. For
whatsoever work is not directed to the sole end either of keeping under
the body, or of doing service to our neighbour--provided he require
nothing contrary to the will of God--is no good or Christian work. Hence
I greatly fear that at this day few or no colleges, monasteries, altars,
or ecclesiastical functions are Christian ones; and the same may be said
of fasts and special prayers to certain saints. I fear that in all these
nothing is being sought but what is already ours; while we fancy that
by these things our sins are purged away and salvation is attained, and
thus utterly do away with Christian liberty. This comes from ignorance
of Christian faith and liberty.

This ignorance and this crushing of liberty are diligently promoted by
the teaching of very many blind pastors, who stir up and urge the people
to a zeal for these things, praising them and puffing them up with their
indulgences, but never teaching faith. Now I would advise you, if you
have any wish to pray, to fast, or to make foundations in churches, as
they call it, to take care not to do so with the object of gaining any
advantage, either temporal or eternal. You will thus wrong your faith,
which alone bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either
by working or by suffering, is alone to be cared for. What you give,
give freely and without price, that others may prosper and have increase
from you and your goodness. Thus you will be a truly good man and a
Christian. For what to you are your goods and your works, which are done
over and above for the subjection of the body, since you have abundance
for yourself through your faith, in which God has given you all things?

We give this rule: the good things which we have from God ought to flow
from one to another and become common to all, so that every one of us
may, as it were, put on his neighbour, and so behave towards him as if
he were himself in his place. They flowed and do flow from Christ to us;
He put us on, and acted for us as if He Himself were what we are.
From us they flow to those who have need of them; so that my faith
and righteousness ought to be laid down before God as a covering and
intercession for the sins of my neighbour, which I am to take on myself,
and so labour and endure servitude in them, as if they were my own; for
thus has Christ done for us. This is true love and the genuine truth
of Christian life. But only there is it true and genuine where there
is true and genuine faith. Hence the Apostle attributes to charity this
quality: that she seeketh not her own.

We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in himself, but
in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no Christian: in Christ by
faith; in his neighbour by love. By faith he is carried upwards
above himself to God, and by love he sinks back below himself to his
neighbour, still always-abiding in God and His love, as Christ says,
"Verily I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John i.
51).

Thus much concerning liberty, which, as you see, is a true and spiritual
liberty, making our hearts free from all sins, laws, and commandments,
as Paul says, "The law is not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. i. 9),
and one which surpasses all other external liberties, as far as heaven
is above earth. May Christ make us to understand and preserve this
liberty. Amen.

Finally, for the sake of those to whom nothing can be stated so well but
that they misunderstand and distort it, we must add a word, in case they
can understand even that. There are very many persons who, when they
hear of this liberty of faith, straightway turn it into an occasion of
licence. They think that everything is now lawful for them, and do not
choose to show themselves free men and Christians in any other way than
by their contempt and reprehension of ceremonies, of traditions, of
human laws; as if they were Christians merely because they refuse
to fast on stated days, or eat flesh when others fast, or omit the
customary prayers; scoffing at the precepts of men, but utterly passing
over all the rest that belongs to the Christian religion. On the other
hand, they are most pertinaciously resisted by those who strive after
salvation solely by their observance of and reverence for ceremonies,
as if they would be saved merely because they fast on stated days,
or abstain from flesh, or make formal prayers; talking loudly of the
precepts of the Church and of the Fathers, and not caring a straw about
those things which belong to our genuine faith. Both these parties
are plainly culpable, in that, while they neglect matters which are of
weight and necessary for salvation, they contend noisily about such as
are without weight and not necessary.

How much more rightly does the Apostle Paul teach us to walk in the
middle path, condemning either extreme and saying, "Let not him that
eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not
judge him that eateth" (Rom. xiv. 3)! You see here how the Apostle
blames those who, not from religious feeling, but in mere contempt,
neglect and rail at ceremonial observances, and teaches them not to
despise, since this "knowledge puffeth up." Again, he teaches the
pertinacious upholders of these things not to judge their opponents. For
neither party observes towards the other that charity which edifieth. In
this matter we must listen to Scripture, which teaches us to turn aside
neither to the right hand nor to the left, but to follow those right
precepts of the Lord which rejoice the heart. For just as a man is
not righteous merely because he serves and is devoted to works and
ceremonial rites, so neither will he be accounted righteous merely
because he neglects and despises them.

It is not from works that we are set free by the faith of Christ, but
from the belief in works, that is from foolishly presuming to seek
justification through works. Faith redeems our consciences, makes them
upright, and preserves them, since by it we recognise the truth that
justification does not depend on our works, although good works neither
can nor ought to be absent, just as we cannot exist without food and
drink and all the functions of this mortal body. Still it is not on them
that our justification is based, but on faith; and yet they ought not
on that account to be despised or neglected. Thus in this world we
are compelled by the needs of this bodily life; but we are not hereby
justified. "My kingdom is not hence, nor of this world," says Christ;
but He does not say, "My kingdom is not here, nor in this world." Paul,
too, says, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh"
(2 Cor. x. 3), and "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Thus our doings, life, and
being, in works and ceremonies, are done from the necessities of this
life, and with the motive of governing our bodies; but yet we are not
justified by these things, but by the faith of the Son of God.

The Christian must therefore walk in the middle path, and set these two
classes of men before his eyes. He may meet with hardened and obstinate
ceremonialists, who, like deaf adders, refuse to listen to the truth of
liberty, and cry up, enjoin, and urge on us their ceremonies, as if they
could justify us without faith. Such were the Jews of old, who would not
understand, that they might act well. These men we must resist, do just
the contrary to what they do, and be bold to give them offence, lest
by this impious notion of theirs they should deceive many along with
themselves. Before the eyes of these men it is expedient to eat flesh,
to break fasts, and to do in behalf of the liberty of faith things which
they hold to be the greatest sins. We must say of them, "Let them alone;
they be blind leaders of the blind" (Matt. xv. 14). In this way Paul
also would not have Titus circumcised, though these men urged it;
and Christ defended the Apostles, who had plucked ears of corn on the
Sabbath day; and many like instances.

Or else we may meet with simple-minded and ignorant persons, weak in
the faith, as the Apostle calls them, who are as yet unable to apprehend
that liberty of faith, even if willing to do so. These we must spare,
lest they should be offended. We must bear with their infirmity, till
they shall be more fully instructed. For since these men do not act thus
from hardened malice, but only from weakness of faith, therefore, in
order to avoid giving them offence, we must keep fasts and do other
things which they consider necessary. This is required of us by charity,
which injures no one, but serves all men. It is not the fault of these
persons that they are weak, but that of their pastors, who by the snares
and weapons of their own traditions have brought them into bondage and
wounded their souls when they ought to have been set free and healed by
the teaching of faith and liberty. Thus the Apostle says, "If meat make
my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth" (1
Cor. viii. 13); and again, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus,
that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth
anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. It is evil for that man
who eateth with offence" (Rom. xiv. 14, 20).

Thus, though we ought boldly to resist those teachers of tradition, and
though the laws of the pontiffs, by which they make aggressions on the
people of God, deserve sharp reproof, yet we must spare the timid crowd,
who are held captive by the laws of those impious tyrants, till they
are set free. Fight vigorously against the wolves, but on behalf of the
sheep, not against the sheep. And this you may do by inveighing against
the laws and lawgivers, and yet at the same time observing these laws
with the weak, lest they be offended, until they shall themselves
recognise the tyranny, and understand their own liberty. If you wish to
use your liberty, do it secretly, as Paul says, "Hast thou faith? have
it to thyself before God" (Rom. xiv. 22). But take care not to use it in
the presence of the weak. On the other hand, in the presence of tyrants
and obstinate opposers, use your liberty in their despite, and with the
utmost pertinacity, that they too may understand that they are tyrants,
and their laws useless for justification, nay that they had no right to
establish such laws.

Since then we cannot live in this world without ceremonies and works,
since the hot and inexperienced period of youth has need of being
restrained and protected by such bonds, and since every one is bound
to keep under his own body by attention to these things, therefore
the minister of Christ must be prudent and faithful in so ruling and
teaching the people of Christ, in all these matters, that no root of
bitterness may spring up among them, and so many be defiled, as Paul
warned the Hebrews; that is, that they may not lose the faith, and begin
to be defiled by a belief in works as the means of justification. This
is a thing which easily happens, and defiles very many, unless faith be
constantly inculcated along with works. It is impossible to avoid this
evil, when faith is passed over in silence, and only the ordinances of
men are taught, as has been done hitherto by the pestilent, impious,
and soul-destroying traditions of our pontiffs and opinions of our
theologians. An infinite number of souls have been drawn down to hell by
these snares, so that you may recognise the work of antichrist.

In brief, as poverty is imperilled amid riches, honesty amid business,
humility amid honours, abstinence amid feasting, purity amid pleasures,
so is justification by faith imperilled among ceremonies. Solomon says,
"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?"
(Prov. vi. 27). And yet as we must live among riches, business, honours,
pleasures, feastings, so must we among ceremonies, that is among perils.
Just as infant boys have the greatest need of being cherished in the
bosoms and by the care of girls, that they may not die, and yet, when
they are grown, there is peril to their salvation in living among
girls, so inexperienced and fervid young men require to be kept in and
restrained by the barriers of ceremonies, even were they of iron, lest
their weak minds should rush headlong into vice. And yet it would be
death to them to persevere in believing that they can be justified
by these things. They must rather be taught that they have been thus
imprisoned, not with the purpose of their being justified or gaining
merit in this way, but in order that they might avoid wrong-doing, and
be more easily instructed in that righteousness which is by faith, a
thing which the headlong character of youth would not bear unless it
were put under restraint.

Hence in the Christian life ceremonies are to be no otherwise looked
upon than as builders and workmen look upon those preparations for
building or working which are not made with any view of being permanent
or anything in themselves, but only because without them there could be
no building and no work. When the structure is completed, they are laid
aside. Here you see that we do not contemn these preparations, but set
the highest value on them; a belief in them we do contemn, because no
one thinks that they constitute a real and permanent structure. If any
one were so manifestly out of his senses as to have no other object
in life but that of setting up these preparations with all possible
expense, diligence, and perseverance, while he never thought of the
structure itself, but pleased himself and made his boast of these
useless preparations and props, should we not all pity his madness and
think that, at the cost thus thrown away, some great building might have
been raised?

Thus, too, we do not contemn works and ceremonies--nay, we set the
highest value on them; but we contemn the belief in works, which no one
should consider to constitute true righteousness, as do those hypocrites
who employ and throw away their whole life in the pursuit of works, and
yet never attain to that for the sake of which the works are done. As
the Apostle says, they are "ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. iii. 7). They appear to wish to build,
they make preparations, and yet they never do build; and thus they
continue in a show of godliness, but never attain to its power.

Meanwhile they please themselves with this zealous pursuit, and even
dare to judge all others, whom they do not see adorned with such a
glittering display of works; while, if they had been imbued with faith,
they might have done great things for their own and others' salvation,
at the same cost which they now waste in abuse of the gifts of God. But
since human nature and natural reason, as they call it, are naturally
superstitious, and quick to believe that justification can be attained
by any laws or works proposed to them, and since nature is also
exercised and confirmed in the same view by the practice of all earthly
lawgivers, she can never of her own power free herself from this bondage
to works, and come to a recognition of the liberty of faith.

We have therefore need to pray that God will lead us and make us taught
of God, that is, ready to learn from God; and will Himself, as He has
promised, write His law in our hearts; otherwise there is no hope for
us. For unless He himself teach us inwardly this wisdom hidden in a
mystery, nature cannot but condemn it and judge it to be heretical. She
takes offence at it, and it seems folly to her, just as we see that it
happened of old in the case of the prophets and Apostles, and just as
blind and impious pontiffs, with their flatterers, do now in my case and
that of those who are like me, upon whom, together with ourselves, may
God at length have mercy, and lift up the light of His countenance upon
them, that we may know His way upon earth and His saving health among
all nations, who is blessed for evermore. Amen. In the year of the Lord
MDXX.