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Luther's Works #29
Lectures on Titus, Philemon, Hebrews
Luther-s Works: The American Edition, published by Concordia and Fortress Press between 1955 and 1986, comprises fifty-five volumes. These are a selection representing only about a third of Luther-s works in the Latin and German of the standard Weimar Edition, not including the German Bible. These two lectures were given about a decade apart. The first in point of time, the Hebrews lectures, were delivered in the "Theses" year, 1517. Luther was finishing his lectures on Hebrews when he was summoned to Heidelberg to attend a convention of the German Augustinians order in April 1518. Presumably the Augustinians were to settle the controversy precipitated by Luther in the Ninety-five Theses, but instead of receiving a rebuke, Luther gained a new following at Heidelberg, especially among the younger theologians. The lectures on Titus and Philemon were given ten years later, when controversy and polemics had become a necessary part of Luther's daily routine. Then too, Luther's commentary shows him to be most deeply concerned about imitating his favorite apostle in preaching effectively and relevantly.
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266 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1968
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March 12, 2018
A quite fine English edition of three sets of Martin Luther's biblical lectures at the University of Wittenberg. Not the most central of Luther's output, but certainly no less 'Luther' than any other!
Lecture's lectures on Hebrews, though concluding the present volume, take chronological priority. They were given between April 1517 and March 1518, and so span the decisive hour that has since been taken to mark the start of the Protestant Reformation. These scholia were uncovered in the Vatican Library a little over a century ago and edited by Johannes Ficker. They unveil a Luther quite medieval in style and format, and heavily indebted to frequent quotations from St. John Chrysostom. His lectures as they appear here only stretch through the end of Hebrews 11 - the last couple chapters of the text were not covered - and freely jump forward over units at will. Hence, the length of a chapter in Hebrews is no reliable guide to the coverage Luther gives it in these lectures.
The tone here is typically more academic, but Luther offers a convicting reflection on Christ and the defeat of death: "In Christ our Head, death and all the works of the devil have been destroyed ... because His whole Person could not be slain, it happened that death failed, and the devil succumbed in slaying Him; and thus death was swallowed up and devoured in life. In this way the curse was swallowed up and conquered in the blessing, sorrow in joy, and the other evils in the highest good. Thus now, too, it pleases our most gracious God to destroy death and the works of the devil in us through Christ. We Christians should learn, in order that we may die joyfully. ... He who fears death or is unwilling to die is not a Christian to a sufficient degree; for those who fear death still lack faith in the resurrection, since they love this life more than they love the life to come. Properly speaking, they are those about whom Ps. 106:24 says: 'They despised the pleasant land.' He who does not die willingly should not be called a Christian" (136-138).
Luther's lectures on Titus and Philemon, strung together as a single unit, were delivered between November 11 and December 18, 1527 - a little over a decade after the start of the Reformation. (The lecture series cannot be fully disambiguated, because on December 13, 1527, Luther's lecture bridged the last verses of Titus and the first verse of Philemon). The contents of these lectures were recorded by Luther's stenographer George Rörer, but were never revised or polished for publication, and so appear rough and unembellished.
It is frequently in these that Luther's genius is somewhat more palpable. The human plight is one of estrangement from God and enslavement to sin and death. "But we do not come to God except through Christ as the means" (83). Central here, as always, is a disposition of faith. "Our faith depends solely on Christ. He alone is righteous, and I am not; for His righteousness stands for me before the judgment of God and against the wrath of God. If to this I add the declaration, 'I have vowed three vows,' then immediately the plague has begun for a foreign righteousness has been introduced as a covering. Cut it off completely! If you want good works, do them for the benefit of your neighbor" (41).
Through such faith, one encounters the grace and mercy of God: "Grace is the favor of God by which He has forgiven us all our sins. Mercy is that by which He pities and overlooks if in any way you fall and are imperfect, and increases His gifts" (15). "But by what road does mercy come to us? By washing" (81). Such mercy is therefore conveyed at baptism, which is no mere 'outward thing' nor a human work: "in Baptism there is not only mere water, because there is present here the name, or all the divine power joined through the Word in Baptism, and God Himself is the One who baptizes" (82).
Luther contends that, whereas "nothing is pure or holy apart from faith," the converse also has much to commend it: "To us all things are holy, even sins committed against human traditions" - by which Luther means, not biblically prohibited acts, but violations of the additional strictures imposed by ecclesiastical ordinance, such as "touching the chalice or taking off the cowl" (7). Luther sees Paul's contrast between 'faith' and 'the command of men': "Unless I do something out of deference to you, there is no command except the command of love, which is the freedom of the Spirit and does not reject the truth. ... If the abbot permitted me to wear my cowl voluntarily, this would not conflict with sound faith. But he says: 'Unless you wear it, you will be damned.' Then everything must be torn up, because it conflicts with sound faith. Christian righteousness says: 'I know nothing except Christ.' I serve my brother through love, but I do not want to be saved through it. I do so out of free deference to him, but I shall not be either saved or damned and lost on that account" (41-42).
But this is, of course, not to say that Luther advocates an inert sort of 'faith'; quite the contrary: "To believe in Christ, to be moved to compassion for the poor and the weak, and to persist in these things - this is our religion, that is, the Christian religion. And if a cross follows, this is perfect Christianity. Godliness is to believe in Jesus Christ and to love one's brother" (9-10). "A justified person loves his neighbor and does the works of love. There follow the cross, imprisonment, and reproach. There you can see who are the true Christians, those who truly believe, those who love patiently" (53). "We have been redeemed, and we are purified daily in order that we may live in good works" (67).
What Luther is getting at is a radical regeneration, whereby one becomes "a new creature. Formerly, you were inclined to lust and could not be continent for five days, but now you despise it. You were not able to forgive the offense caused by a brother; but now if you are aggrieved, you forgive it and treat it with a gentle heart. Formerly you thought of Christ as a judge and called on Mary, but now your feeling is sweet toward Christ, who is your Mediator, Bishop, and Advocate, who speaks very good things on your behalf and offers His blood for you. This is a transformed feeling and a renewed heart, which no works can achieve" (84).
Luther also meditates here on the fractures that he could see his Reformation labors were producing, and the perilous fallout accompanying them: "The papists slander us. They are stubborn and attack the manifest truth, and still they slander us. Moreover, those who have worked with us and planted with us are stirring up sects. The Anabaptists, the Sacramentarians, original sin, and many such fanatics have come. Thank God that He did not disclose to me that such heresies were to follow, for I would never have begun. ... The enemies of the Gospel throw up this objection to me: 'What good is arising from your gospel? The people are degenerating into beasts. It is accomplishing nothing that is good. Wars and all sorts of evil are being provoked. Heresies and discord arise.' Let it happen as it is happening. I preach the faith to the elect. Therefore let no one be offended if he sees that persecution follows the Word or that sects arise" (8-9). This rejoinder is key to consider in an era in which deleterious ecclesiological and sociological effects of the modern world are traced to Luther's legacy (by, e.g., Brad S. Gregory, et al.).
Luther further explores his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers: "Christians are all priests ... It is the office of the priests to teach, to pray, and to sacrifice. ... Christians all have a priesthood, but they do not all have the priestly function. Although all can teach and exhort, nevertheless one ought to do so, and the other ought to listen, so that they do not speak at the same time" (16). Luther held that all those to whom this function is delegated are both elders and bishops: "We teach Christ, and we see who believe and who live in a Christian way; on the other hand, we rebuke those who do not do so, and if they refuse to change, we exclude them from the fellowship of Christians and from the sacraments" (17).
Just as Luther lauds the married state ("To forsake one's wife and to serve God is to serve the devil" [64]), he also greatly dignifies the work of laity in various 'offices,' whether the domestic offices of husband and wife or child, or even 'offices' like that of slave: "A servant girl can say this: 'I have washed the pots, lit the fire in the oven, and made the beds.' She confidently expects the appearing of Christ because she has done these works in Christ" (66). "Paul commends it even when I start a fire in the stove. These seem to be works of no value; but regardless of how private and domestic they are, they are outstanding if they are done on the basis of faith. ... Thus all human life and all human works are done in the name of the Lord. A child may be filthy, scabby, and infected with lice; yet he is an altogether precious thing" (88).
But this is not to say he denigrates the calling of true church leaders, for likewise "the preacher who pays attention to his office is confident; for he is completely sure that he serves God and does what God wishes, even though Satan certainly attacks him" (66). Alas, "it is a rare thing to hear a preacher who is constant in the Word. But if we hear one, this is a cause for prayer and thanksgiving. The very nature of the Gospel or the Spirit produces this in us. So we are trained by hearing evil everywhere to give thanks when we hear something good" (96).
Such church leaders should "be provided for by the church" because the work of a church leader requires that "he ought to tend to reading and stay with it not only for others, but that he ought to meditate constantly for himself, that is, ought to immerse himself completely in Scripture. Such study will enable him to fight back" against the heretics who inevitably surround and infest a church. "If he does not diligently study Holy Scripture, which he knows, the result will be a kind of rust, and a neglect of and contempt for the Word will arise. Even though you know Holy Scripture, nevertheless it must be read over and over again, because this Word has the power to stimulate you at all times. I have been preaching the Gospel for five years, but I always feel a new flame" (31).
In short, vintage Luther - combining his notorious prickliness with his radical wisdom - is just what you'll find between the pages of this volume. How could I help but recommend it?
Lecture's lectures on Hebrews, though concluding the present volume, take chronological priority. They were given between April 1517 and March 1518, and so span the decisive hour that has since been taken to mark the start of the Protestant Reformation. These scholia were uncovered in the Vatican Library a little over a century ago and edited by Johannes Ficker. They unveil a Luther quite medieval in style and format, and heavily indebted to frequent quotations from St. John Chrysostom. His lectures as they appear here only stretch through the end of Hebrews 11 - the last couple chapters of the text were not covered - and freely jump forward over units at will. Hence, the length of a chapter in Hebrews is no reliable guide to the coverage Luther gives it in these lectures.
The tone here is typically more academic, but Luther offers a convicting reflection on Christ and the defeat of death: "In Christ our Head, death and all the works of the devil have been destroyed ... because His whole Person could not be slain, it happened that death failed, and the devil succumbed in slaying Him; and thus death was swallowed up and devoured in life. In this way the curse was swallowed up and conquered in the blessing, sorrow in joy, and the other evils in the highest good. Thus now, too, it pleases our most gracious God to destroy death and the works of the devil in us through Christ. We Christians should learn, in order that we may die joyfully. ... He who fears death or is unwilling to die is not a Christian to a sufficient degree; for those who fear death still lack faith in the resurrection, since they love this life more than they love the life to come. Properly speaking, they are those about whom Ps. 106:24 says: 'They despised the pleasant land.' He who does not die willingly should not be called a Christian" (136-138).
Luther's lectures on Titus and Philemon, strung together as a single unit, were delivered between November 11 and December 18, 1527 - a little over a decade after the start of the Reformation. (The lecture series cannot be fully disambiguated, because on December 13, 1527, Luther's lecture bridged the last verses of Titus and the first verse of Philemon). The contents of these lectures were recorded by Luther's stenographer George Rörer, but were never revised or polished for publication, and so appear rough and unembellished.
It is frequently in these that Luther's genius is somewhat more palpable. The human plight is one of estrangement from God and enslavement to sin and death. "But we do not come to God except through Christ as the means" (83). Central here, as always, is a disposition of faith. "Our faith depends solely on Christ. He alone is righteous, and I am not; for His righteousness stands for me before the judgment of God and against the wrath of God. If to this I add the declaration, 'I have vowed three vows,' then immediately the plague has begun for a foreign righteousness has been introduced as a covering. Cut it off completely! If you want good works, do them for the benefit of your neighbor" (41).
Through such faith, one encounters the grace and mercy of God: "Grace is the favor of God by which He has forgiven us all our sins. Mercy is that by which He pities and overlooks if in any way you fall and are imperfect, and increases His gifts" (15). "But by what road does mercy come to us? By washing" (81). Such mercy is therefore conveyed at baptism, which is no mere 'outward thing' nor a human work: "in Baptism there is not only mere water, because there is present here the name, or all the divine power joined through the Word in Baptism, and God Himself is the One who baptizes" (82).
Luther contends that, whereas "nothing is pure or holy apart from faith," the converse also has much to commend it: "To us all things are holy, even sins committed against human traditions" - by which Luther means, not biblically prohibited acts, but violations of the additional strictures imposed by ecclesiastical ordinance, such as "touching the chalice or taking off the cowl" (7). Luther sees Paul's contrast between 'faith' and 'the command of men': "Unless I do something out of deference to you, there is no command except the command of love, which is the freedom of the Spirit and does not reject the truth. ... If the abbot permitted me to wear my cowl voluntarily, this would not conflict with sound faith. But he says: 'Unless you wear it, you will be damned.' Then everything must be torn up, because it conflicts with sound faith. Christian righteousness says: 'I know nothing except Christ.' I serve my brother through love, but I do not want to be saved through it. I do so out of free deference to him, but I shall not be either saved or damned and lost on that account" (41-42).
But this is, of course, not to say that Luther advocates an inert sort of 'faith'; quite the contrary: "To believe in Christ, to be moved to compassion for the poor and the weak, and to persist in these things - this is our religion, that is, the Christian religion. And if a cross follows, this is perfect Christianity. Godliness is to believe in Jesus Christ and to love one's brother" (9-10). "A justified person loves his neighbor and does the works of love. There follow the cross, imprisonment, and reproach. There you can see who are the true Christians, those who truly believe, those who love patiently" (53). "We have been redeemed, and we are purified daily in order that we may live in good works" (67).
What Luther is getting at is a radical regeneration, whereby one becomes "a new creature. Formerly, you were inclined to lust and could not be continent for five days, but now you despise it. You were not able to forgive the offense caused by a brother; but now if you are aggrieved, you forgive it and treat it with a gentle heart. Formerly you thought of Christ as a judge and called on Mary, but now your feeling is sweet toward Christ, who is your Mediator, Bishop, and Advocate, who speaks very good things on your behalf and offers His blood for you. This is a transformed feeling and a renewed heart, which no works can achieve" (84).
Luther also meditates here on the fractures that he could see his Reformation labors were producing, and the perilous fallout accompanying them: "The papists slander us. They are stubborn and attack the manifest truth, and still they slander us. Moreover, those who have worked with us and planted with us are stirring up sects. The Anabaptists, the Sacramentarians, original sin, and many such fanatics have come. Thank God that He did not disclose to me that such heresies were to follow, for I would never have begun. ... The enemies of the Gospel throw up this objection to me: 'What good is arising from your gospel? The people are degenerating into beasts. It is accomplishing nothing that is good. Wars and all sorts of evil are being provoked. Heresies and discord arise.' Let it happen as it is happening. I preach the faith to the elect. Therefore let no one be offended if he sees that persecution follows the Word or that sects arise" (8-9). This rejoinder is key to consider in an era in which deleterious ecclesiological and sociological effects of the modern world are traced to Luther's legacy (by, e.g., Brad S. Gregory, et al.).
Luther further explores his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers: "Christians are all priests ... It is the office of the priests to teach, to pray, and to sacrifice. ... Christians all have a priesthood, but they do not all have the priestly function. Although all can teach and exhort, nevertheless one ought to do so, and the other ought to listen, so that they do not speak at the same time" (16). Luther held that all those to whom this function is delegated are both elders and bishops: "We teach Christ, and we see who believe and who live in a Christian way; on the other hand, we rebuke those who do not do so, and if they refuse to change, we exclude them from the fellowship of Christians and from the sacraments" (17).
Just as Luther lauds the married state ("To forsake one's wife and to serve God is to serve the devil" [64]), he also greatly dignifies the work of laity in various 'offices,' whether the domestic offices of husband and wife or child, or even 'offices' like that of slave: "A servant girl can say this: 'I have washed the pots, lit the fire in the oven, and made the beds.' She confidently expects the appearing of Christ because she has done these works in Christ" (66). "Paul commends it even when I start a fire in the stove. These seem to be works of no value; but regardless of how private and domestic they are, they are outstanding if they are done on the basis of faith. ... Thus all human life and all human works are done in the name of the Lord. A child may be filthy, scabby, and infected with lice; yet he is an altogether precious thing" (88).
But this is not to say he denigrates the calling of true church leaders, for likewise "the preacher who pays attention to his office is confident; for he is completely sure that he serves God and does what God wishes, even though Satan certainly attacks him" (66). Alas, "it is a rare thing to hear a preacher who is constant in the Word. But if we hear one, this is a cause for prayer and thanksgiving. The very nature of the Gospel or the Spirit produces this in us. So we are trained by hearing evil everywhere to give thanks when we hear something good" (96).
Such church leaders should "be provided for by the church" because the work of a church leader requires that "he ought to tend to reading and stay with it not only for others, but that he ought to meditate constantly for himself, that is, ought to immerse himself completely in Scripture. Such study will enable him to fight back" against the heretics who inevitably surround and infest a church. "If he does not diligently study Holy Scripture, which he knows, the result will be a kind of rust, and a neglect of and contempt for the Word will arise. Even though you know Holy Scripture, nevertheless it must be read over and over again, because this Word has the power to stimulate you at all times. I have been preaching the Gospel for five years, but I always feel a new flame" (31).
In short, vintage Luther - combining his notorious prickliness with his radical wisdom - is just what you'll find between the pages of this volume. How could I help but recommend it?
August 16, 2018
In this volume, we once again have Luther's comments on different books of the Bible, that are also from different times. The Lectures on Hebrews is very early - 1517 - whereas the Titus + Philemon lectures in 1527. Looking at the latter, I did find I enjoyed his coverage of Titus more than that of 1 Timothy on the previous volume - which does note that the Lectures on Titus came prior to those of Timothy. They were close enough that I think Luther relies on the memory of the Titus lectures for his work on 1 Timothy. However these volumes are covering Luther's lectures / sermons in Biblical order - but this does mean that you do get a very different Luther at times.
I was quite surprised with the coverage on Hebrews. I had heard that later on Luther had some doubts about the authority of Hebrews, and that he was the first (?) to propose Apollos as the author (a suggestion I quite like), however back in this earlier part of his career, he clearly advocates the Pauline authorship view in this somewhat brief coverage of Hebrews. Unlike many of his other lectures, this is not a verse-by-verse approach, rathe often just a handful of verses from a chapter are looked at - and in fact it stops at chapter 11 (don't know why), which was perhaps the best chapter covered as you can see some of the early thoughts behind his later superior work on Genesis. It also took me by surprise how much he quotes and agrees with Chrysostom - not that I have anything against that fine preacher, it's just that this is strange for Luther from what I have read so far...
I really enjoy and enjoy preaching from Hebrews, so was disappointed that Luther didn't tackle this as deeply as I would've liked. Titus and Philemon were covered well. So I know move onto volume 30, the last of the volumes on his Lectures / Sermons on books of the Bible.
I was quite surprised with the coverage on Hebrews. I had heard that later on Luther had some doubts about the authority of Hebrews, and that he was the first (?) to propose Apollos as the author (a suggestion I quite like), however back in this earlier part of his career, he clearly advocates the Pauline authorship view in this somewhat brief coverage of Hebrews. Unlike many of his other lectures, this is not a verse-by-verse approach, rathe often just a handful of verses from a chapter are looked at - and in fact it stops at chapter 11 (don't know why), which was perhaps the best chapter covered as you can see some of the early thoughts behind his later superior work on Genesis. It also took me by surprise how much he quotes and agrees with Chrysostom - not that I have anything against that fine preacher, it's just that this is strange for Luther from what I have read so far...
I really enjoy and enjoy preaching from Hebrews, so was disappointed that Luther didn't tackle this as deeply as I would've liked. Titus and Philemon were covered well. So I know move onto volume 30, the last of the volumes on his Lectures / Sermons on books of the Bible.
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