Christianity In Martin Luther's On Christian Liberty

Religion is the most important aspect of many people’s lives, serving as a roadmap to live a virtuous life while promising eternal life and salvation. In his work On Christian Liberty, Martin Luther writes on what it means to truly be Christian and how to achieve salvation. Luther discusses many aspects of Christian faith, including the difference between the inner man and outer man, the effect of works on salvation, the marriage with Jesus as a result of faith, how individuals should act towards others, and the important notion of Christian liberty that arises because of one’s faith. Luther’s ideas were highly controversial at the time as many of them opposed the thinking of the Catholic Church, one of the most powerful institutions in the world. The Catholic Church adamantly disagrees with many of the ideas expressed by Luther, including the value that works, the church, and humility has in salvation.

Man has a two-fold nature, consisting of an inner person and an outer person.

The inner person is referred to as the spiritual nature and the soul, while the outer man is referred to as the bodily nature and the flesh. Salvation is entirely dependent on the inner man. A Christian achieves salvation through faith in God alone, as expressed by Luther when he writes “therefore it is clear that, as the soul needs only the Word of God for its life and righteousness, so it is justified by faith alone and not any works”. External works have no effect on the inner man or on salvation. Thus, it is clear that faith is achieved only through the inner man’s faith and God and is not affected in any way by works or the outer man. The inner man needs neither laws nor good works, and will actually be hurt by them rather than justified if he believes they will lead to his salvation. No external thing has any effect in producing Christian

righteousness.
The Word of God itself is broken up into two separate parts, the commandments and the promises. The commandments, reflected in the old testament, demonstrate what to do to be a good Christian, but not how to do so, teaching us about ourselves by allowing us to recognize our helplessness. To that end, we rely on the promises, reflected in the new testament. The promises help us fulfill the commandments by “[giving] what the commandments of God demand and fulfill what the law prescribes.”
There are three great things that come as a result of faith, referred to as the three powers of faith. The first power of faith is Christian Liberty, the freedom that Christian experience from works and laws because of their faith in Christ. Christian Liberty makes the law and works unnecessary for a man’s righteousness and salvation. A Christian does not feel forced to do works, but will continue to do them because they help in living a Christian life. He who has Christian Liberty is free from the obligation of doing works because they are already choosing to do them. The second power of faith is that we are able to honor God by ascribing truthfulness and righteousness to him through our belief in him. This is a great honor because we cannot “ascribe to a man anything greater than truthfulness and righteousness and perfect goodness.” The third power that arises out of faith is the relationship we develop with Jesus. When we have faith, it is as though we are married to Jesus, with us as the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom, as he is referred to as multiple times in the Bible. When we come together with Jesus, our soul receives grace, life, and salvation, all qualities that Jesus possesses, as he cannot sin, die, or be condemned. Likewise, Jesus takes on all the imperfections that our soul possesses, including sins, death, and damnation. However, because Jesus is so perfect, he is not diminished in any way, despite taking on our sins as our own. His righteousness is far greater than the wickedness of our sins.
Although our works have no effect on salvation, there are other reasons why a person should do them. Firstly, the works help us to discipline the body and not be idle. A man should do works, including fasts, meditations, and labors, to ensure that his body, the outer man, “will obey and conform to the inner man.” If left unchecked and undisciplined, the body will naturally hinder the inner man.

The Catholic Church had issue with many of the points that Luther controversially wrote about. The Catholic Church, and on a larger extent the Catholic faith as a whole, adamantly disagrees with Luther’s notion that works have nothing to do with salvation or faith. In his letter to one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation in John Calvin, Jacopo Sadoleto, a Roman Catholic Cardinal, agreed that we achieve salvation through faith alone. However, Sadoleto argued that faith included not only preaching Christ but included works as well, making works vital to an individual’s salvation. While both Sadoleto and Luther agree we achieve salvation by faith alone, they have differing views of what that statement truly means, with Sadoleto including works in faith while Luther views works as serving a different purpose. Sadoleto’s stance on the importance of works is reflected in James, as it reads “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?” In addition to Sadoleto and the Bible, this point was discussed by the Council of Trent in their ninth Canon on justification. It reads “If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.” It is clear that the importance of works when it comes to faith is one of the main divisions between Catholics and Protestants.
The Catholic Church also disagrees with Luther in that they view the church as important to one’s salvation whereas Luther does not.