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TOPIC: Luther, Martin - A Treatise on Good Works (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 01 Introduction to the Treatise
Other Subjects in this Topic:
_A treatise on Good Works
together with the
Letter of Dedication_
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1520
Published in:
_Works of Martin Luther_
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol. 1, pp. 173-285.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Occasion of the Work. -- Luther did not impose himself
as reformer upon the Church. In the course of a conscientious
performance of the duties of his office, to which he had been
regularly and divinely called, and without any urging on his
part, he attained to this position by inward necessity. In
1515 he received his appointment as the standing substitute
for the sickly city pastor, Simon Heinse, from the city
council of Wittenberg. Before this time he was obliged to
preach only occasionally in the convent, apart from his
activity as teacher in the University and convent. Through
this appointment he was in duty bound, by divine and human
right, to lead and direct the congregation at Wittenberg on
the true way to life, and it would have been a denial of the
knowledge of salvation which God had led him to acquire, by
way of ardent inner struggles, if he had led the congregation
on any other way than the one God had revealed to him in His
Word. He could not deny before the congregation which had been
intrusted to his care, what up to this time he had taught with
ever increasing clearness in his lectures at the University --
for in the lectures on the Psalms, which he began to deliver
in 1513, he declares his conviction that faith alone
justifies, as can be seen from the complete manuscript,
published since 1885, and with still greater clearness from
his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1515-1516), which
is accessible since 1908; nor what he had urged as spiritual
adviser of his convent brethren when in deep distress --
compare the charming letter to Georg Spenlein, dated April 8,
1516.
Luther's first literary works to appear in print were also
occasioned by the work of his calling and of his office in the
Wittenberg congregation. He had no other object in view than
to edify his congregation and to lead it to Christ when, in
1517, he published his first independent work, the Explanation
of the Seven Penitential Psalms. On Oct 31 of the same year he
published his 95 Theses against Indulgences. These were indeed
intended as controversial theses for theologians, but at the
same time it is well known that Luther was moved by his duty
toward his congregation to declare his position in this matter
and to put in issue the whole question as to the right and
wrong of indulgences by means of his theses. His sermon Of
Indulgences and Grace, occasioned by Tetzel's attack and
delivered in the latter part of March, 1518, as well as his
sermon Of Penitence, delivered about the same time, were also
intended for his congregation. Before his congregation (Sept.,
1516-Feb., 1517) he delivered the Sermons on the Ten
Commandments, which were published in 1518 and the Sermons on
the Lord's Prayer, which were also published in 1518 by
Agricola. Though Luther in the same year published a series of
controversial writings, which were occasioned by attacks from
outside sources, viz., the Resolutiones disputationis de
Virtute indulgentiarum, the Asterisci adversus obeliscos Joh.
Eccii, and the Ad dialogum Silv. Prieriatis responsio, still
he never was diverted by this necessary rebuttal from his
paramount duty, the edification of the congregation. The
autumn of the year 1518, when he was confronted with Cajetan,
as well as the whole year of 1519, when he held his
disputations with Eck, etc., were replete with disquietude and
pressing labors; still Luther served his congregation with a
whole series of writings during this time, and only regretted
that he was not entirely at its disposal. Of such writings we
mention: Explanation of the Lord's Prayer for the simple Laity
(an elaboration of the sermons of 1517); Brief Explanation of
the Ten Commandments; Instruction concerning certain Articles,
which might be ascribed and imputed to him by his adversaries;
Brief Instruction how to Confess; Of Meditation on the Sacred
Passion of Christ; Of Twofold Righteousness; Of the
Matrimonial Estate; Brief Form to understand and to pray the
Lord's Prayer; Explanation of the Lord's Prayer "vor sich und
hinter sich"; Of Prayer and Processions in Rogation Week; Of
Usury; Of the Sacrament of Penitence; Of Preparation for
Death; Of the Sacrament of Baptism; Of the Sacrament of the
Sacred Body; Of Excommunication. With but few exceptions these
writings all appeared in print in the year 1519, and again it
was the congregation which Luther sought primarily to serve.
If the bounds of his congregation spread ever wider beyond
Wittenberg, so that his writings found a surprisingly ready
sale, even afar, that was not Luther's fault. Even the
Tessaradecas consolatoria, written in 1519 and printed in
1520, a book of consolation, which was originally intended for
the sick Elector of Saxony, was written by him only upon
solicitation from outside sources.
To this circle of writings the treatise Of Good Works also
belongs Though the incentive for its composition came from
George Spalatin, court-preacher to the Elector, who reminded
Luther of a promise he had given, still Luther was willing to
undertake it only when he recalled that in a previous sermon
to his congregation he occasionally had made a similar promise
to deliver a sermon on good works; and when Luther actually
commenced the composition he had nothing else in view but the
preparation of a sermon for his congregation on this important
topic.
But while the work was in progress the material so accumulated
that it far outgrew the bounds of a sermon for his
congregation. On March 25. he wrote to Spalatin that it would
become a whole booklet instead of a sermon; on May 5. he again
emphasizes the growth of the material; on May 13. he speaks of
its completion at an early date, and on June 8. he could send
Melanchthon a printed copy. It was entitled: Von den guten
werckenn: D. M. L. Vuittenberg. On the last page it bore the
printer's mark: Getruck zu Wittenberg bey dem iungen Melchior
Lotther. Im Tausent funfhundert vnnd zweyntzigsten Jar. It
filled not less than 58 leaves, quarto. In spite of its
volume, however, the intention of the book for the
congregation remained, now however, not only for the narrow
circle of the Wittenberg congregation, but for the Christian
layman in general. In the dedicatory preface Luther lays the
greatest stress upon this, for he writes: "Though I know of a
great many, and must hear it daily, who think lightly of my
poverty and say that I write only small Sexternlein (tracts of
small volume) and German sermons for the untaught laity, I
will not permit that to move me. Would to God that during my
life I had served but one layman for his betterment with all
my powers; it would be sufficient for me, I would thank God
and suffer all my books to perish thereafter.... Most
willingly I will leave the honor of greater things to others,
and not at all will I be ashamed of preaching and writing
German to the untaught laity."
Since Luther had dedicated the afore-mentioned Tessaradecas
consolatoria to the reigning Prince, he now, probably on
Spalatin's recommendation, dedicated the Treatise on Good
Works to his brother John, who afterward, in 1525, succeeded
Frederick in the Electorate. There was probably good reason
for dedicating the book to a member of the reigning house.
Princes have reason to take a special interest in the fact
that preaching on good works should occur within their realm,
for the safety and sane development of their kingdom depend
largely upon the cultivation of morality on the part of their
subjects. Time and again the papal church had commended
herself to princes and statesmen by her emphatic teaching of
good works. Luther, on the other hand, had been accused --
like the Apostle Paul before him (Rom. 3 31) -- that the
zealous performance of good works had abated, that the bonds
of discipline had slackened and that, as a necessary
consequence, lawlessness and shameless immorality were being
promoted by his doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Before 1517 the rumor had already spread that Luther intended
to do away with good works. Duke George of Saxony had received
no good impression from a sermon Luther had delivered at
Dresden, because he feared the consequences which Luther's
doctrine of justification by faith alone might have upon the
morals of the masses. Under these circumstances it would not
have been surprising if a member of the Electoral house should
harbor like scruples, especially since the full comprehension
of Luther's preaching on good works depended on an evangelical
understanding of faith, as deep as was Luther's own. The
Middle Ages had differentiated between fides informis, a
formless faith, and fides formata or informata, a formed or
ornate faith. The former was held to be a knowledge without
any life or effect, the latter to be identical with love for,
as they said, love which proves itself and is effective in
good works must be added to the formless faith, as its
complement and its content, well pleasing to God. In Luther's
time every one who was seriously interested in religious
questions was reared under the influence of these ideas.
Now, since Luther had opposed the doctrine of justification by
love and its good works, he was in danger of being
misunderstood by strangers, as though he held the bare
knowledge and assent to be sufficient for justification, and
such preaching would indeed have led to frivolity and
disorderly conduct. But even apart from the question whether
or not the brother of the Elector was disturbed by such
scruples, Luther must have welcomed the opportunity, when the
summons came to him, to dedicate his book Of Good Works to a
member of the Electoral house. At any rate the book could
serve to acquaint him with the thoughts of his much-abused
pastor and professor at Wittenberg, for never before had
Luther expressed himself on the important question of good
works in such a fundamental, thorough and profound way.
2. The Contents of the Work. -- A perusal of the contents
shows that the book, in the course of its production, attained
a greater length than was originally intended. To this fact it
must be attributed that a new numeration of sections begins
with the argument on the Third Commandment, and is repeated at
every Commandment thereafter, while before this the sections
were consecutively numbered. But in spite of this, the plan of
the whole is clear and lucid. Evidently the whole treatise is
divided into two parts: the first comprising sections 1-17,
while the second comprises all the following sections. The
first, being fundamental, is the more important part. Luther
well knew of the charges made against him that "faith is so
highly elevated" and "works are rejected" by him; but he knew,
too, that "neither silver, gold and precious stone, nor any
other precious thing had experienced so much augmentation and
diminution" as had good works "which should all have but one
simple goodness, or they are nothing but color, glitter and
deception." But especially was he aware of the fact that the
Church was urging nothing but the so-called self-elected
works, such as "running to the convent, singing, reading,
playing the organ, saying the mass, praying matins, vespers,
and other hours, founding and ornamenting churches, altars,
convents, gathering chimes, jewels, vestments, gems and
treasures, going to Rome and to the saints, curtsying and
bowing the knees, praying the rosary and the psalter," etc.,
and that she designated these alone as truly good works, while
she represented the faithful performance of the duties of
one's calling as a morality of a lower order. For these
reasons it is Luther's highest object in this treatise to make
it perfectly clear what is the essence of good works. Whenever
the essence of good works has been understood, then the
accusations against him will quickly collapse.
In the fundamental part he therefore argues: Truly good works
are not self-elected works of monastic or any other holiness,
but such only as God has commanded, and as are comprehended
within the bounds of one's particular calling, and all works,
let their name be what it may, become good only when they flow
from faith, the first, greatest, and noblest of good works."
(Joh_6:29.) In this connection the essence of faith, that
only source of all truly good works, must of course be rightly
understood. It is the sure confidence in God, that all my
doing is wellpleasing to Him; it is trust in His mercy, even
though He appears angry and puts sufferings and adversities
upon us; it is the assurance of the divine good will even
though "God should reprove the conscience with sin, death and
hell, and deny it all grace and mercy, as though He would
condemn and show His wrath eternally." Where such faith lives
in the heart, there the works are good "even though they were
as insignificant as the picking up of a straw"; but where it
is wanting, there are only such works as "heathen, Jew and
Turk" may have and do. Where such faith possesses the man, he
needs no teacher in good works, as little as does the husband
or the wife, who only look for love and favor from one
another, nor need any instruction therein "how they are to
stand toward each other, what they are to do, to leave undone,
to say, to leave unsaid, to think."
This faith, Luther continues, is "the true fulfilment of the
First Commandment, apart from which there is no work that
could do justice to this Commandment." With this sentence he
combines, on the one hand, the whole argument on faith, as the
best and noblest of good works, with his opening proposition
(there are no good works besides those commanded of God), and,
on the other hand, he prepares the way for the following
argument, wherein he proposes to exhibit the good works
according to the Ten Commandments. For the First Commandment
does not forbid this and that, nor does it require this and
that; it forbids but one thing, unbelief; it requires but one
thing, faith, "that confidence in God's good will at all
times." Without this faith the best works are as nothing, and
if man should think that by them he could be well-pleasing to
God, he would be lowering God to the level of a "broker or a
laborer who will not dispense his grace and kindness gratis."
This understanding of faith and good works, so Luther now
addresses his opponents, should in fairness be kept in view by
those who accuse him of declaiming against good works, and
they should learn from it, that though he has preached against
"good works," it was against such as are falsely so called and
as contribute toward the confusion of consciences, because
they are self-elected, do not flow from faith, and are done
with the pretension of doing works well-pleasing to God.
This brings us to the end of the fundamental part of the
treatise. It was not Luther's intention, however, to speak
only on the essence of good works and their fundamental
relation to faith; he would show, too, how the "best work,"
faith, must prove itself in every way a living faith,
according to the other commandments. Luther does not proceed
to this part, however, until in the fundamental part he has
said with emphasis, that the believer, the spiritual man,
needs no such instruction (1Ti_1:9), but that he of his
own accord and at all times does good works "as his faith, his
confidence, teaches him." Only "because we do not all have
such faith, or are unmindful of it," does such instruction
become necessary.
Nor does he proceed until he has applied his oft repeated
words concerning the relation of faith to good works to the
relation of the First to the other Commandments. From the
fact, that according to the First Commandment, we acquire a
pure heart and confidence toward God, he derives the good work
of the Second Commandment, namely, "to praise God, to
acknowledge His grace, to render all honor to Him alone." From
the same source he derives the good work of the Third
Commandment, namely, "to observe divine services with prayer
and the hearing of preaching, to incline the imagination of
our hearts toward God's benefits, and, to that end, to mortify
and overcome the flesh." From the same source he derives the
works of the Second Table.
The argument on the Third and Fourth Commandments claims
nearly one-half of the entire treatise. Among the good works
which, according to the Third Commandment, should be an
exercise and proof of faith, Luther especially mentions the
proper hearing of mass and of preaching, common prayer, bodily
discipline and the mortification of the flesh, and he joins
the former and the latter by an important fundamental
discussion of the New Testament conception of Sabbath rest.
Luther discusses the Fourth Commandment as fully as the Third.
The exercise of faith, according to this Commandment, consists
in the faithful performance of the duties of children toward
their parents, of parents toward their children, and of
subordinates toward their superiors in the ecclesiastical as
well as in the common civil sphere. The various duties issue
from the various callings, for faithful performance of the
duties of one's calling, with the help of God and for God's
sake, is the true "good work."
As he now proceeds to speak of the spiritual powers, the
government of the Church, he frankly reveals their faults and
demands a reform of the present rulers. Honor and obedience in
all things should be rendered unto the Church, the spiritual
mother, as it is due to natural parents, unless it be contrary
to the first Three Commandments. But as matters stand now the
spiritual magistrates neglect their peculiar work, namely, the
fostering of godliness and discipline, like a mother who runs
away from her children and follows a lover, and instead they
undertake strange and evil works, like parents whose commands
are contrary to God. In this case members of the Church must
do as godly children do whose parents have become mad and
insane. Kings, princes, the nobility, municipalities and
communities must begin of their own accord and put a check to
these conditions, so that the bishops and the clergy, who are
now too timid, may be induced to follow. But even the civil
magistrates must also suffer reforms to be enacted in their
particular spheres; especially are they called on to do away
with the rude "gluttony and drunkenness," luxury in clothing,
the usurious sale of rents and the common brothels. This, by
divine and human right, is a part of their enjoined works
according to the Fourth Commandment.
Luther, at last, briefly treats of the Second Table of the
Commandments, but in speaking of the works of these
Commandments he never forgets to point out their relation to
faith, thus holding fast this fundamental thought of the book
to the end. Faith which does not doubt that God is gracious,
he says, will find it an easy matter to be graciously and
favorably minded toward one's neighbor and to overcome all
angry and wrathful desires. In this faith in God the Spirit
will teach us to avoid unchaste thoughts and thus to keep the
Sixth Commandment. When the heart trusts in the divine favor,
it cannot seek after the temporal goods of others, nor cleave
to money, but according to the Seventh Commandment, will use
it with cheerful liberality for the benefit of the neighbor.
Where such confidence is present there is also a courageous,
strong and intrepid heart, which will at all times defend the
truth, as the Eighth Commandment demands, whether neck or coat
be at stake, whether it be against pope or kings. Where such
faith is present there is also strife against the evil lust,
as forbidden in the Ninth and Tenth Commandments, and that
even unto death.
3. The Importance of the Work. -- Inquiring now into the
importance of the book, we note that Luther's impression
evidently was perfectly correct, when he wrote to Spalatin,
long before its completion -- as early as March 2 5. -- that
he believed it to be better than anything he had heretofore
written. The book, indeed, surpasses all his previous German
writings in volume, as well as all his Latin and German ones
in clearness, richness and the fundamental importance of its
content. In comparison with the prevalent urging of
self-elected works of monkish holiness, which had arisen from
a complete misunderstanding of the so-called evangelical
counsels (comp. esp. Mat_19:16-22) and which were at that
time accepted as self-evident and zealously urged by the whole
church, Luther's argument must have appeared to all thoughtful
and earnest souls as a revelation, when he so clearly
amplified the proposition that only those works are to be
regarded as good works which God has commanded, and that
therefore, not the abandoning of one's earthly calling, but
the faithful keeping of the Ten Commandments in the course of
one's calling, is the work which God requires of us. Over
against the wide-spread opinion, as though the will of God as
declared in the Ten Commandments referred only to the outward
work always especially mentioned, Luther's argument must have
called to mind the explanation of the Law, which the Lord had
given in the Sermon on the Mount, when he taught men to
recognize only the extreme point and manifestation of a whole
trend of thought in the work prohibited by the text, and when
he directed Christians not to rest in the keeping of the
literal requirement of each Commandment, but from this point
of vantage to inquire into the whole depth and breadth of
God's will -- positively and negatively -- and to do His will
in its full extent as the heart has perceived it. Though this
thought may have been occasionally expressed in the
expositions of the Ten Commandments which appeared at the dawn
of the Reformation, still it had never before been so clearly
recognized as the only correct principle, much less had it
been so energetically carried out from beginning to end, as is
done in this treatise. Over against the deep-rooted view that
the works of love must bestow upon faith its form, its content
and its worth before God, it must have appeared as the dawn of
a new era (Gal_3:22-25) when Luther in this treatise
declared, and with victorious certainty carried out the
thought, that it is true faith which invests the works, even
the best and greatest of works, with their content and worth
before God.
This proposition, which Luther here amplifies more clearly
than ever before, demanded nothing less than a breach with the
whole of prevalent religious views, and at that time must have
been perceived as the discovery of a new world, though it was
no more than a return to the clear teaching of the New
Testament Scriptures concerning the way of salvation. This,
too, accounts for the fact that in this writing the accusation
is more impressively repelled than before, that the doctrine
of justification by faith alone resulted in moral laxity, and
that, on the other hand, the fundamental and radical
importance of righteousness by faith for the whole moral life
is revealed in such a heart-refreshing manner. Luther's appeal
in this treatise to kings, princes, the nobility,
municipalities and communities, to declare against the misuse
of spiritual powers and to abolish various abuses in civil
life, marks this treatise as a forerunner of the great
Reformation writings, which appeared in the same year (1520),
while, on the other hand, his espousal of the rights of the
"poor man" -- to be met with here for the first time -- shows
that the Monk of Witttenberg, coming from the narrow limits of
the convent, had an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the
social needs of his time. Thus he proved by his own example
that to take a stand in the center of the Gospel does not
narrow the vision nor harden the heart, but rather produces
courage in the truth and sympathy for all manner of misery.
Luther's contemporaries at once recognized the great
importance of the Treatise, for within the period of seven
months it passed through eight editions; these were followed
by six more editions between the years of 1521 and 1525; in
1521 it was translated into Latin, and in this form passed
through three editions up to the year 1525; and all this in
spite of the fact that in those years the so-called three
great Reformation writings of 1520 were casting all else into
the shadow. Melanchthon, in a contemporaneous letter to John
Hess, called it Luther's best book. John Mathesius, the
well-known pastor at Joachimsthal and Luther's biographer,
acknowledged that he had learned the "rudiments of
Christianity" from it.
Even to-day this book has its peculiar mission to the Church.
The seeking after self-elected works, the indolence regarding
the works commanded of God, the foolish opinion, that the path
of works leads to God's grace and good-will, are even to-day
widely prevalent within the kingdom of God. To all this
Luther's treatise answers: Be diligent in the works of your
earthly calling as commanded of God, but only after having
first strengthened, by the consideration of God's mercy, the
faith within you, which is the only source of all truly good
works and well-pleasing to God.
M. REU.
WARTBURG SEMINARY, DUBUQUE, IOWA.
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