Luther’s Confession of Faith

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Last week we mentioned that on the 18th, we had the 478th anniversary of Martin Luther’s death. So, we spent time with Martin Luther last week, and I want to spend time with him again this week. As we remember Martin Luther who died on February 18, 1546. To do so this week let’s consider a text by Luther published in 1528. He gave it what I think is a great title, Confession of the Articles of Faith Against the Enemy of the Gospel and All Kinds of Heresies. Well, that’s quite a promise in the title. This was a very important book for Luther or booklet, we might say, small treatise, and it’s one that I don’t think many folks are familiar with, but I think it’s one that’s pretty crucial to Luther and is a wonderful summary of what are all those great emphases and great contributions of Martin Luther.

First, let’s take a look at the year 1528. Luther was in poor health. Waves of the plague had struck Wittenberg and nearby towns and Luther had lost friends, students’ lives were in jeopardy, and even the plague reached into Luther’s own household. This was a difficult moment for him. It was still in the early years of forming this new Church, and as we remember, he had a bounty on his head. There was a reward for the death of Martin Luther. It was in this time that he wrote “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” And as we know the lyrics to that hymn, you can see Luther in the midst of all that suffering looking upward at the mighty fortress, who is God for his protection. And in the midst of all that, he wrote this confession of faith. He says early on that, “I see that schisms and errors are increasing proportionately as time goes by, and that there is no end to the rage and fury of Satan. Therefore, in order that no one misuses my writings to confirm their error either during my lifetime or after my death as the sacramentarians have done and those re-baptizing fanatics have already begun doing I desire with this treatise to confess my faith point by point before God and all of the world.”

He goes on to say that if anyone ever hears that Luther has changed his mind from these points of faith and no longer agrees with them, then they are to dismiss those disagreements that he has been led astray and that those would be false teachings. He’s drawing a line in the sand here. He’s saying, this is what I believe. This is what’s important, and I want this to be my legacy. Well, what is this confession of faith of his now that we’ve seen how important it was to him? He starts off with a confession of the majesty of God and he starts with affirming trinitarianism. Then he turns to the person of Christ and a few brilliant paragraphs, he discusses the deity and humanity of Christ and then he turns to the work of Christ. And Luther says, “I further believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, suffered for us poor sinners, was crucified, dead, and was buried in order that He might redeem us from sin, death, and the eternal wrath of God by His innocent blood. And that on the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

So, there it is a confession of faith playing off of the Apostle’s Creed. He will go on to not only affirm what he believes, but also to offer what he rejects. He rejects the invocation of the saints he says. He rejects that there are the seven sacraments, instead there are only two. He says, “I consider the mass, the greatest, of all abominations.” And so, he ends with, “This is my faith.” And there’s Luther, that man of commitment, that man of conviction. And he is there offering us from 1528 his, Confession of the Articles of Faith Against the Enemy of the Gospel and All Kinds of Heresies. That’s Martin Luther, and I’m Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.