A Critical Reflection on Martin Luther's View of Salvation by Grace through Faith

by Boyan Mak Mihaylov

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https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6257-1246

Abstract:

Mihaylov, Boyan. A Critical Reflection on Martin Luther's View of Salvation by Grace trough Faith History of Christian Theology II, Dr. Otniel Bunaciu, Heilgenkreuz: TCM International Institute, 2023

This paper examines Martin Luther's theology of salvation, particularly his rediscovery of Pauline justification by faith alone. Luther's spiritual journey from legalistic anxiety to evangelical freedom is traced through his exegetical breakthrough on Romans 1:17, where he reinterpreted "the righteousness of God" not as God's punitive justice but as a gift received through faith. The study explores Luther's distinction between justification and sanctification, his pessimistic view of human will after the Fall, and his insistence that salvation is entirely by grace through faith. While affirming Luther's foundational contribution to Protestant soteriology, the paper suggests that Eastern patristic theology offers a valuable corrective by emphasizing synergy between divine grace and human freedom in the process of spiritual growth. The conclusion proposes that an integrated understanding of salvation encompasses both the minimal definition (justification and eternal life) and the maximal definition (progressive transformation into Christ's image through theosis).

Keywords:

Salvation, Grace, Faith, Justification, Martin Luther, Reformation, Righteousness of God, Free Will, Bondage of the Will, Theosis

Introduction

In contemporary Christian theology there are at least 5 different views ¹ what salvation is. According to Millard Erickson salvation is “the real application of Christ's work in the life of an individual”. ² My view of salvation is evangelical with some eastern overtones.

Sin broke our relationship with God, humans can not fulfill God’s requirements so they are destined not to live with God, in hell. That is why for salvation are needed: justification to change one’s juridical status, adoption to become spiritual sons and daughters of God, spiritual new birth of one’s heart to be changed³ and spiritual growth in the image of Christ. Salvation then can be spoken in minimal and maximal terms as, first, receiving eternal life with God, and second, growing in the image of Christ. So some eastern theological corrective I think is needed in the doctrine.

In a Christian worldview salvation is such an important doctrine because it determines one’s eternal destiny after physical death. This was the kind of inside battle Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) went trough in the beginning of the sixteenth century on which I would reflect in this paper.

The paper follows a four part structure. First a short introduction of biblical terminology is made. Second, a deeper look into Luther’s rediscovery of Pauline justification by faith is done. Third, the connection between salvation and grace is discussed. Fourth, the connection between justification, faith and works is discussed.

Biblical Terminology

To give a biblical definition of salvation I would like to use two verses from the writings of the apostle Paul:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:8-10, NASB)

The word “grace” is the Greek word χάρις ⁴ which in the main meaning is graciousness of manner or act. In a igurative or spiritual sense it is the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in life. “Faith” is the Greek word πίστις ⁵ which has the meaning of persuasion, moral conviction, a profession of beliefs, and by extension, the system of religious truth itself. The root of πίστις is also connected to faithfulness, so faith towards God is something personal and relational.

In this key verse apostle Paul explains that salvation is a gift from God to the believer because of God’s Grace and is received trough faith. According to Ephesians 2:10 good works were ordained of God from the beginning so no one can “boast” and trust in his good works. Paul’s idea that God saves us trough grace, not by works, is found also in 2 Timothy 1:2-9 and Titus 3:5 – 7. The fact that Paul teaches his students⁶ this doctrine should be of crucial importance to us!

Another key verse is in Romans 1:16 -17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith. (Rom. 1:16 -17, NASB)

“Righteousness” is the Greek word δικαιοσύνη⁷ which means equity of character or act and specially Christian justification. Paul quotes here Habakkuk 2:4. The prophet Habakkuk lived probably between 605 and 597 BCE ⁸ during the time of the Neo-Babylonian invasion of Judah (Hab. 1:6). ⁹ It was a difficult time for the Jewish people in which God Yahweh encouraged them by the prophet to live by their faith because faith in a time of pagan invasion was a real testing stone. According to Paul the gospel is the power for salvation received by faith. The word “righteous” in this passage connects the “righteousness of God” with “the righteous man”. But the main characteristic of a righteous person here is faith, not works: a personal trust in Yahweh in a time of trouble.

Luther’s Rediscovery of Pauline Justification by Faith

Martin’s Luther doctrine of salvation by grace trough faith is deeply connected with his spiritual journey. Luther is born in 1483. He studies for a bachelor in law. After surviving a thunderstorm in 1505 he became a monk in an Augustinian convent where he studied for master and doctor in theology. There he was preparing himself for his physical death because he thought he was not agreeable in the sight of God. ¹⁰ Luther was taught that one earns God’s grace trough good works which God would judge. But this judging God keeps him in a trap. How can he love a God which judges him? Especially for Luther Romans 1:17 was difficult. ¹¹ As the historical theologian Justo Gonzales puts it, he had a problem “of sin and grace, or of justice and love” ¹²:

For I hated that word “righteousness of God,” which, according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness, as they called it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner. ¹³

Luther hated the God who judges man according to the law and the gospel. ¹⁴ But when he prepared his lectures on Romans he began to see “the righteousness of God” in a different way: it is not the righteousness according to which we are judged but the righteousness to justify us. ¹⁵ In the whole context of the book of Romans Paul speaks that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” so faith in the gospel then makes one “righteous”, not good works. The righteous (δικαιος¹⁶, same root as in righteousness) is one who has faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In “Concerning Christian Liberty” Martin Luther contrasts the human laws with God’s laws and speaks of the importance of the human heart:

That's the way it is with human laws: you satisfy the demands of the law with works, whether your heart is in it or not. God judges what is in the depths of the heart. Therefore his law also makes demands on the depths of the heart and doesn't let the heart rest content in works; rather it punishes as hypocrisy and lies all works done apart from the depths of the heart. All human beings are called liars (Psalm 116), since none of them keeps or can keep God's law from the depths of the heart. Everyone finds inside himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. Where there is no free desire for good, there the heart has not set itself on God's law. There also sin is surely to be found and the deserved wrath of God, whether a lot of good works and an honorable life appear outwardly or not. ¹⁷

No one can keep the law, according to Luther. His teaching about original sin is strongly connected with Augustin’s. ¹⁸ The human will, seen as independent by the will of God, is a prerequisite for sin (lat. in voluntate esse peccatum). ¹⁹ Again in “Concerning Christian Liberty” Luther makes a distinction between the inner man and outer man. Concerning the inner man, he emphasizes justification by faith alone²⁰:

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). ²¹

Salvation by Grace

Justification by faith alone is an optimistic rediscovery of the theology of salvation by faith of the apostle Paul. But How is faith obtained? Here Luther becomes a pessimist. In “The Bondage of the Will” Luther objects to Erasmus that the human will is not free after the Fall. At the end of the disputation Luther writes:

Again: —If we believe that original sin has so destroyed us, that even in the godly who are led by the Spirit, it causes the utmost molestation by striving against that which is good; it is manifest, that there can be nothing left in a man devoid of the Spirit, which can turn itself towards good, but which must turn towards evil!

Again: —If the Jews, who followed after righteousness with all their powers, ran rather into unrighteousness, while the Gentiles who followed after unrighteousness attained unto a free righteousness which they never hoped for; it is equally manifest, from their very works, and from experience, that man, without grace, can do nothing but will evil! ²²

For Luther without grace a man “can do nothing but will evil”. Luther, as Calvin, arrives to the same views as the late Augustin that God in his grace predestined some people to believe and be saved.

A critique of the Augustinian tradition is that it does not make a difference between “free will“ and “free choice”. God lets us choose no matter of the inability of the will. Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) argued that man can consciously resist grace, in which John Wesley (1703-1791) consciously followed him ²³, with which I agree. Although some theologians think of the Arminians as SemiPelagians, there is a distinction: “In contrast to semi-pelagianism, Arminianism teaches that the first steps of grace are taken by God. ” ²⁴ That is what I believe. The early Augustine in "On grace and freedom of the will" is much more balanced holding both the freedom of the will and the necessity of God's grace for salvation²⁵. The Eastern Fathers believe that even fallen man retains a certain freedom (the so-called "gnomic will" according to Maximus the Confessor, 580-662) and follows or does not follow God. ²⁶ In my view eastern patristic thought is a good corrective. The prodigal son did not lose the ability to make decisions, but decided on his own to return to the father who longed for him. The resurrection of the son was the work of the father based on the decision of the son. (Luke 15:11-32)

Justification, Faith and Works

What is the relationship between faith and works in our salvation? Augustine (4-5 c.) believed that God's grace causes us to accumulate "good merits" ²⁷ He was in dispute with Pelagius (354-418), who completely denied the imputation of sin to humanity after Adam, and said a person is capable of doing good works for salvation without the need of special grace from God. In 428, the monks from southern Gaul developed an intermediate position: semi-Pelagianism. ²⁸ At this period in the East, the fathers speak of "deification" (theosis), whereby the believer becomes a participant in God. ²⁹ Gregory Palamas (13-14 c.) synthesized Eastern thought and distinguished between the divine essence, incomprehensible to us, and the divine energies in which we participate. ³⁰ Thus, Eastern theology speaks of synergy between God and man in salvation. ³¹ On the other hand first Luther begins do discriminate between justification (status before God) and sanctification (growing in holiness) ³². So justification has to do with salvation minimum and sanctification with salvation maximum. Deification (theosis) then starts to have a meaning for an evangelical mind after one is justified.

Our salvation begins with the new birth, continues with sanctification and spiritual growth, and ends with the redemption of our bodies in the resurrection. This is how the Niceno-Constantinopolitan symbol of faith ends. ³³ Apostle Paul wrote, "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Rom. 5:1-2) and "work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." (Phil. 2:12-13). Apparently in Paul the word "salvation" appears in various contexts! Martin Luther returns us to the basis of salvation (by grace, through faith alone ³⁴), but the eastern patristic tradition can enrich our view with an affirmation of our partnership with God in the process of spiritual growth!

Conclusion

Apostle Paul explains that salvation is a free gift from God, given by God’s Grace and is received trough faith. Good works can not play a part in salvation, because from the beginning of creation they are commanded. Because of the Fall humans are unable to follow God’s commands. The biblical view of righteousness is the equity of character or act. For Paul the main characteristic of a righteous person is her/his faith (not works) as a personal trust in God.

In the beginning Martin Luther understood the “righteousness of God” philosophically as the formal active righteousness. Later he understood Paul as writing of faith in the gospel, which makes one “righteous” apart from good works. God’s law makes demands on the heart, not only on works. Everyone finds in himself an aversion to good and a craving for evil. No one can keep the law, according to Luther.

Luther, as Calvin, arrived to the same views as the late Augustin that God in his grace predestined some people to believe and be saved. A critique of this is that it does not make a difference between “free will“ and “free choice”. Jacobus Arminius, and John wesley later, argued that man can resist grace. The Eastern Fathers believe that fallen man retains a certain freedom to follow or not follow God.

The apostle Peter ends his second epistle with: "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Pet. 3:18) By the Savior Christ we can have “the righteousness of God” given by God’s grace for salvation and can grow in Christ’s image. All this we have by a relationship of faith.