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The Freedom of a Christian

by Martin Luther, Mark Tranvik (Translator)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 471 ratings · 44 reviews

Perhaps no work of Martin Luther's so captures the revolutionary zeal and theological boldness of his vision as The Freedom of a Christian. Yet, it is not easily accessible today. Mark Tranvik's new translation of Luther's treatise brings alive the social, historical, and ecclesial context of Luther's treatise.

Key Features:
-An informative Introduction that lays out the co...more

Paperback, 102 pages

Published September 1st 2008 by Ediciones Sigueme (first published January 1st 1520)

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Apr 13, 2013 Charles Puskas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More accessible introduction to Luther's teaching on grace alone by faith alone. Written on the eve of his excommunication from the Church, this was Luther's last ecumenical gesture toward Rome before making his bombastic exit. Much of the tract was written with a quiet gentility and piety that belied the heated polemics of the day and Luther's own ample perils of body and soul. Luther dedicated the tract to Pope Leo X, adorning it with a robust preface addressed to the "blessed father." He vowe...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Drury rated it 2 of 5 stars

Although Martin Luther, in his On the Freedom of a Christian, defines faith in terms of both the spiritual and physical realm, he sees reason as something purely of the physical realm that can, and should, be used for the betterment of mankind. However, he does not believe that reason or any use of it plays any role in salvation.
For Luther, Faith is everything, “for faith alone, and the efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation” (7). He spends the entire treatise arguing against the...more Although Martin Luther, in his On the Freedom of a Christian, defines faith in terms of both the spiritual and physical realm, he sees reason as something purely of the physical realm that can, and should, be used for the betterment of mankind. However, he does not believe that reason or any use of it plays any role in salvation.
For Luther, Faith is everything, “for faith alone, and the efficacious use of the word of God, bring salvation” (7). He spends the entire treatise arguing against the trappings of material goods, particularly what he calls “works.” He feels that these works are man’s attempt to circumvent the true spiritual path to God, and that these works are futile, because they cannot lead to salvation. He does allow an exception to his disdain of works, that of works done through faith. These are permissible because they are not done through reason, but instead purely for the glorification of God (20).
To further prove that works can have no role in man’s salvation, Luther breaks down faith into three parts. The first is that only faith can be in one’s soul. Works by nature are an external feature, and do not reflect the righteousness of a man’s soul. The second is the firm belief “in the promises of God.” These promises enable man’s soul to show itself prepared for a true relationship with God (9ff). Finally, faith allows man to bind himself to God through Christ. By accomplishing the three steps, Luther sees a trade-off happening which he equates to marriage, where man’s negative attributes are exchanged for Christ’s positive ones.
Luther argues that faith alone is so promising, that any attempt to create a work without faith is actually damaging to one’s faith and would cause one to “immediately lose faith with all its benefits” (13). He further clarifies that we conquer death only when we acquire full faith in Christ, by “preaching why Christ came, what He has brought us and given to us, and to what profit and advantage He is to be received” (14). It is through faith, and faith alone that we can come to salvation through our spiritual relationship with Christ.
At this point, Luther shifts his argument away from the spiritual realm and into the bodily realm. He contends that reason, while not playing any role in the heavenly realm is perfectly at home in the earthly realm. Although Luther maintains that “good works do not make a good man,” he feels that a “good man” will naturally do “good works,” but not out of any ulterior motive (16). He qualifies this by asserting that reason is used “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” (23). Therefore, any use of reason in a strictly secular sense is fully permissible, it is only when you attempt to use reason to attempt to circumvent the route of faith prescribed by God that we err. Martin Luther considered reason to be useful in a worldly sense, but he felt that its use in matters of faith was misled and destructive.
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Apr 27, 2012 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reformation

An excellent short introduction to Luther. His thesis here concerns a sacred mystery: “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.” In pursuing this paradox, Luther distinguishes true Christianity from lax liberalism on the one hand, and the oppressive dogmatism of Catholicism on the other. Carrying out this argument, of course, he promotes with characteristic boldness his vision of justification...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Bart Breen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Martin Luther's Concerning Christian Liberty is considered by many to be Luther's seminal work which encapsulates Salvation by Grace through Faith alone as a rallying cry that shook the world of his time. It's a remarkable short work and it's two sections are demarcated by it's opening lines, ""a Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone." This of course is pretty much a restatement of Christ's par...more Martin Luther's Concerning Christian Liberty is considered by many to be Luther's seminal work which encapsulates Salvation by Grace through Faith alone as a rallying cry that shook the world of his time. It's a remarkable short work and it's two sections are demarcated by it's opening lines, ""a Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone." This of course is pretty much a restatement of Christ's paradoxical statement, "He who would be the greatest among you, must be the servant of all."

Included in the Kindle version of this work is an opening letter to Pope Leo X, which speaks of a deference and respect that deteriorated subsequently with the eventual rift that rent the fabric of the Catholic Church soon after.

The first section related to faith, is of course, the strongest message related to Luther and in many ways the reclaiming of what characterized the Gospel of the early Church but which over time, had been laden with tradition, reason and experience to where the key message of the gospel was all but drowned out. Luther ties the message back to Scripture and the Word of God, which Luther rightly doesn't separate from the person of Jesus Christ. The Gospel message is brought strongly with a separation from the works and indulgences of Luther's day that had replaced the simple truth.

Luther expands upon the three great "virtues" of faith. First, faith gives us true Christian liberty: we are free from the law and works. Second, faith honors God because by believing His promise it truth and righteousness are imputed to Him. So to not believe the word of the gospel is to make God a liar. Third, faith unites the soul to Christ. Believing in Christ is compared simply and stunningly to a marriage of king and a prostitute, where both share equally in what each brings to the union, for example: "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."

Following this Luther then expounds upon works and their role carefully separating them from the Salvation message. He points that works serve as a means or purification for us against the continued presence of the flesh in our lives and further evidence of the love we have for God and our brothers and sisters in the faith.

When you consider that this message, so familiar in so many contexts today, was coming out in a manner that had been muffled for years it's easy to see the power with which it burst onto the scene of its times. What is more, when we consider that many traditions today which claim the message of Grace and Faith but which have equally in time become slowly laden with tradition, reason and experience, there is great value in returning to this as an opportunity to cast off those elements that perhaps in our own communities of faith, like the organized church of old, have crept in and begun to muffle the message of Grace that is the most remarkable message of God.

Luther was not a perfect man by any means. When you examine his life and some of his views in other areas, it's hard to reconcile the grace he spoke of with the bigotry he expressed in some regards, even if you try to factor in the context of the society he lived in as some form of justification. Even with that, Luther's message of Grace echoing what he found in the Bible and which society at that time was able to access without the filtering of the institutional church, echoes still even 500 years later.

As a Kindle Book the free version loses nothing in terms of it's readability. The work is short enough and simple enough that the usual features that help to make Kindle Versions easier to navigate, really aren't needed.

5 Stars.

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Mar 18, 2011 Jeremy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read it because it was free on my Kindle. And it was short. I think it's useful as a historical look back at the Reformation. That being said, Luther's whole point gets repetitive (salvation by faith, not works, not indulgences, etc.) to modern ears. Still there were some good quotes in there.

"I am not delighted at the faults of any man, since I am very conscious myself of the great beam in my own eye, nor can I be the first to cast a stone at the adulteress."

"A Christian man is the most free lo...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Joseph Sverker added it · review of another edition

Shelves: theology

I find Luther doing an excellent job in short and clear terms explain with biblical justification his view of justification by faith. He was accused ignoring the importance of good deeds for a Christian. But I think it becomes clear in this book that he is not ignoring them at all, he is, to his mind, putting them in their rightful place, namely as the consequence for living after one has been accepted by God through faith in Christ. I think this, if anything, is a more noble view of good deeds,...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Skylar Burris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christianity

I worshipped at a Lutheran church for almost four years and yet never read this. I’m glad I finally did, even though I am no longer a Lutheran. It really helped me to better understand the doctrine of “justification by faith and not by works,” and I appreciated the distinction Luther was careful to make between works and a *belief in* works and his insistence that ceremonies and rituals, though not salvific, are of immense value: “Hence in the Christian life ceremonies are to be no otherwise loo...more I worshipped at a Lutheran church for almost four years and yet never read this. I’m glad I finally did, even though I am no longer a Lutheran. It really helped me to better understand the doctrine of “justification by faith and not by works,” and I appreciated the distinction Luther was careful to make between works and a *belief in* works and his insistence that ceremonies and rituals, though not salvific, are of immense value: “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.” I also appreciated his emphasis on taking the middle ground between a laxity towards works on the one hand and a tyrannical belief in works on the other. Today, Lutherans and Catholics are not as far apart on this doctrine as they once were, and they have put forth a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification. Luther never intended to start a new church, but to reform an existing one, and yet he succeeded in doing both.

This little volume also helped me to make better sense of the seeming contradiction between the points of views of the apostles James and Paul, though I still find their perspectives on faith, works, and justification difficult to reconcile with one another.

As far as Luther's writing is concerned, he turns some good phrases here and there, but is a bit repetitive and sometimes dull, and it’s almost comical the way he insists to the Pope, basically, “Hey, I’m not criticizing you. I respect you. You and I are tight. It’s just…why don’t you control your whore of a church? But I totally respect you, pimp. I don't know why people suggest I'm insulting you, pimp.”
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Apr 23, 2013 Nick Bond rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I sometimes wonder why, with all of the alternative interpretations of Christianity that popped up over the years, such as the Arians, Ebionites, and Gnostics, so few actually stuck around. Some of it has to do with the political power of the early Church -- they didn't take kindly to heresy and you had to have a very strong following in order to pose a real threat to their power. Most likely you weren't going to gain this following simply by quibbling over the exact meaning of the trinity, you...more I sometimes wonder why, with all of the alternative interpretations of Christianity that popped up over the years, such as the Arians, Ebionites, and Gnostics, so few actually stuck around. Some of it has to do with the political power of the early Church -- they didn't take kindly to heresy and you had to have a very strong following in order to pose a real threat to their power. Most likely you weren't going to gain this following simply by quibbling over the exact meaning of the trinity, you needed a simple message that many people could relate to.

Martin Luther clearly hit on this message in 1517, when he posted his 95 Theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Put simply, he felt that the Catholic Church had too much power and that corruption, in the form of monetary "indulgences," had permeated its core. In 1520, he published a book called Concerning Christian Liberty, in which he expanded on these ideas. He believed that the only thing a person needed to do to enter heaven was to have a firm faith in God. No other earthly actions, regardless of how the Church viewed them, would have any impact on their fate in the afterlife. This was their "Christian Liberty."

The book is short and easy to read; in fact, most of it is just an elaboration on this single idea. What I found most compelling about it was his insistence that there was no need to threaten or coerce people into doing good things because good people would, by nature, act in accordance to their nature. Although I don't see the world in such black and white terms, I do believe that he has a point. When people truly buy into a community or social group, whether they be Christian, Muslim, or even Atheist, they naturally want to help others within that group.

In Luther's case, he believed that "buying in" meant having a faith in the Christian God -- in Western Europe in the 16th century, that wasn't far from the mark. When people did things in conflict with Luther's views, such as pardoners collecting for indulgences, he simply claimed that they did not have true faith. Of course, there are problems with this idea as well, as it provides an implicit justification for any action that accords with the group mentality. Although the Crusades predated the Protestant Reformation by three centuries, one could have easily justified them using Luther's reasoning. If the Crusaders had (or believed they had) a firm faith in God, then Luther would have viewed them as good people who couldn't help but do good things.

Nevertheless, by acting as a counterpoint to Catholic Church, I think Luther played an important role in the development of Christianity, even for people of the Catholic faith. If the Church grew too corrupt, they ran the risk of losing people to the Protestant denominations. Because of this, the Catholic Church has long since done away with indulgences in the form of financial transactions. However, the question of what motivates our good deeds remains. If we want our children to behave, should we bribe them with treats or foster a closer relationship with them? If a city has a problem with crime, should it increase penalties or rehabilitate struggling communities? Questions like these often boast shades of gray, but they are always worth asking.(less)

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Jan 17, 2013 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"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,...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Colin added it · review of another edition

Read this book if you want to see exactly what a hypocrite Martin Luther was. He blabbers on and on about faith not works and then says why works are important to curb the passions of the flesh. He blabbers on and on about the corruption of the ecclesiastics judging and condemning them for failing to teach faith to the people, and then proposes that Christ has given him and everyone else a perfect faith anyway, so that they have no need to be taught. Every conclusion he makes contradicts itself....more

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Jul 23, 2012 Vaughn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This little booklet was written by Luther while he still was an Augustinian friar (in essence, a monk), to Pope Leo X, to whose discipline he was subject. Luther tends to think in terms of dualistic paradoxes. This tract contains perhaps his most famous paradox, the claim that the Christian is both "a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none" and "a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."

For Luther, the essential religious question was how we can be "justified", that is, set right...more

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Oct 23, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity

Straight to the source. It seems that most reformed theologians bend over backwards to avoid admitting that works have anything do to at all with the Christian walk, while the more ancient and liturgical faiths do the same in regards to anything that has the slightest smack of antinomianism. Luther's treatise here on Faith Alone is the most concise summary and explanation of the doctrine, and it does well to rightfully comment on the necessity of works without relegating them to the dustbin of R...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Jeff Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christian

As I wrote in a book review of this on my blog recently at JeffRossBlog.com, "I’m not of a mind to critique the contents of this or any book by Martin Luther. I am deeply indebted to him as a Protestant. I am aware of the criticisms that some have against a few of his views and actions, especially from his later years, but those do not negatively reflect on his core writings which were of great significance in the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s."

Reading something nearly 500 years old causes...more

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May 19, 2009 Juli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I give it a 3.5 but rounded up on the stars. Luther contends that by putting assurance of salvation on works the Christian is contradicting the work of Christ and the promises of God. Nonetheless, Luther’s conviction is that this freedom does not exclude Christians from works but rather should be the compelling reason to serve God and one another. How would my life look different if I were to live more truly out of a place of freedom? I was especially struck by the weight of Luther’s thoughts wh...more

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May 02, 2012 Mike E. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read it online. Concise and excellent. Fuel for freedom and peace over sin, anxiety, and defeatism.

www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/m~luth...

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A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to
none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and
subject to every one.

Although these statements appear contradictory, yet, when they
are found to agree together, they will make excellently for my
purpose. They are both the statements of Paul himself,...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Francesco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A liberating, truly "evangelical" statement of Christian liberty - liberty from the guilt of sin and from the religion of man (based on works and rituals in order to merit with God) through the Gospel of free justification of Jesus Christ recevied freely by faith alone. This liberty is the only thing which will enable a sinner to truly God and one's neighbor and so fulfill the Law of Christ. One of the most important books you can ever read.

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Feb 17, 2010 Rashaan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: academics-textbooks-pedagogy

Wishing I had read this for the 10 series at UCLA while majoring in English, Luther's manifesto would have really put so much of the required readings into much needed context. Of course, hindsight is golden, and so is this text. If you love English and German literature or appreciate Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Baroque period, or have a keen interest in Western History, then what are you waiting for? Grab this deceptively simple text and dive into what set the Christian world on fire.

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Apr 30, 2012 Brian Eshleman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For a thinker of such theological depth that he might have single-handedly shaped the Protestant paradigm of the modern world, Luther is a very accessible writer in this little volume. He endeavors to come up with examples and illustrations that make deep Truth readily apparent, and he is surprisingly deft with the "soundbite".

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Oct 25, 2011 Kaitlyn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-school

"Focus...Focus...Focus..." This is what I had to tell myself countless times while reading this book.

I read this book for a History of Renaissance & Reformation class, and finished it just last week. It's a short book--only about 60 pages-- but I took me a while to read just because I had a hard time focusing. It wasn't hard to understand or anything, it just wasn't overly interesting and I had a hard time reading it.

Luther makes an argument that faith is all one needs to be saved, and uses...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Stevie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christian, books-owned

Refreshing and rich. He argues for faith alone in Christ alone for justification vs. the popularly held view of works based salvation.

Poignant Quotes:

"Thus the believing soul by means of the pledge of its faith is free in Christ, its bridegroom, free from all sins, secure against death and hell, and is endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of Christ its bridegroom."

"The inner man, who by faith is created in the image of God, is both joyful and happy becauee of Christ in who...more

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Mar 05, 2011 benebean rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, philosophy-religion, could-recommend, classics, heavy, medium, reread, cleaness-granny-smiles

I was only half paying attention to this when I read it... It was really convoluted theology that defies any attempts of my mind to absorb it, but it didn't hold my mind like C.S. Lewis.

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Sep 04, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Short, intensive treatise on salvation by faith. Timeless truths still applicable today and needing to be heard by a post-modern culture.

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Nov 09, 2007 Jamey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A brilliant book by a sadomasochistic bigot. There's a limited resemblance to Schopenhauer in that each was obsessed with a single thought whose logic he combed through exhaustively; but Luther's thought is totally dependent on a childish rescue fantasy, whereas Schopenhauer's depends on an odd blend of Plato and Kant -- a fantasy for grownups.

A passage of Luther that stuck in my head: "The Law is the hammer of death, the thunder and lighting of God's wrath that crushes to powder the obstinate s...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Bob Ladwig rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very helpful in understanding the doctrine of Christian liberty.

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Apr 21, 2013 Kyle Scheele rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: theology

Required reading! Fundamental to understanding Luther.

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Jun 18, 2012 Coleen Dailey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting background on some of Martin Luther's writings.

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Feb 13, 2009 Nate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a reformed Christian the phrase, "by faith alone" has been drilled into my mind since I converted 12 years ago. This book is the beginning of that idea by the father of a true revolution. Luther's discussion on justification, the place of ceremonies in the church, and the role of the believer in the church is first notch and worth the read. I do feel that the reformed christian doctrine has been perfected (for lack of a better word) since Luther's writing, but this book shows that this moveme...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Peter Hughes added it · review of another edition

Great read, good to read again.

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Jun 26, 2012 Matt Patrick added it · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Might be my favorite book of all time.

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Feb 15, 2011 Noah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Absolutely wonderful!

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About Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.

Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood. According...more

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