Reflections on the Eve of the 509th Anniversary of the Reformation

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
—Galatians 1:8

Paul includes himself.

Apostles, angels, and every preacher who comes after them must all submit to the same test:

Is the gospel being preached the gospel that was originally received?

A preacher’s position, reputation, or contribution cannot exempt him from this test.

Yet when we read these words, we are usually not worried at all.

That is because we have inherited a familiar story.

It has been told again and again—in pulpits, theology textbooks, and church histories. It goes something like this:

Paul preached the pure gospel—justification by faith. The church later departed from it, adding works, merit, and human tradition, until Christianity became a religion of salvation by works. Then Martin Luther appeared. He returned to Scripture, rediscovered justification by faith, and restored the gospel preached by the apostles. We are the heirs of the Reformation; therefore, the gospel we preach is the gospel Paul preached.

This story gives us an enormous sense of security.

Paul’s curse falls on Rome, not on us.

Others preach “another gospel.” We preach Paul’s gospel.

But has this confidence ever been tested?

What if Luther’s interpretation of Paul involved a fundamental shift, and what we inherited was precisely that shift?

In that case, being “heirs of the Reformation” would not protect us. It might instead prevent us from asking the question we most need to ask:

Is the gospel we preach today actually the gospel Paul preached?

That is the question this series will examine.

I will state my thesis at the outset:

Paul and Luther both speak of justification by faith, but “justification by faith” is situated within two different gospel structures in their thought.

The real question is not who uses the phrase “justification by faith.”

The real question is:

What explains what?

Does “Jesus is the Christ” explain justification by faith?

Or does the question “How can a sinner be justified before God?” explain Jesus Christ?

I. Paul’s Gospel: Jesus Is the Christ

If Paul’s gospel were compressed into one sentence, it would be this:

Jesus is the Christ.

Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has been raised from the dead. God has publicly established Him as Lord and revealed Him as the promised Christ.

This is not, first of all, a theory about “how God forgives sinners.”

It is an event that has happened.

A man who was killed has risen.

A man rejected by the world has been exalted by God.

A crucified man has been declared Lord.

So when Paul went from place to place preaching the gospel, what he proclaimed first was this:

“This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” (Acts 17:3)

After Saul’s conversion, he:

“proved that Jesus was the Christ.” (Acts 9:22)

When he came to Corinth, he:

“testified to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.” (Acts 18:5)

Paul himself summarizes his proclamation:

“We preach Christ crucified.” (1 Corinthians 1:23)

Peter’s proclamation at Pentecost declares the same thing:

“God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)

This is the substance of the gospel:

Jesus is the Christ.

He died and rose again.

As a true human being, He lived out the character of the Son to completion and, through suffering and obedience, entered into glory.

He reached the destination Adam failed to reach.

He is the firstfruits, the pioneer, the head, and the firstborn among many brothers.

Paul’s gospel, therefore, does not begin with the question:

“How can I escape punishment?”

It begins with news about something that has already happened:

The crucified Jesus has risen. He is the Christ. He is Lord.

II. Paul’s Justification by Faith: Entering into Christ

Where, then, does justification by faith belong?

It belongs within this gospel.

Justification by faith is not the substance of the gospel. It is what happens when this gospel reaches the sinner.

Because Jesus is the Christ, to believe in Him is to turn to Him, belong to Him, and be in Him.

That is why, when Paul speaks about faith, he does not merely describe a person receiving a verdict concerning his guilt.

Again and again, he places the believer inside the story of Christ:

dying with Him,

living with Him,

becoming a new creation in Him,

receiving His Spirit,

becoming a child of God,

becoming an heir,

suffering with Him,

and finally being glorified with Him.

Romans 6:3–4:

“All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death … in order that … we too might walk in newness of life.”

Galatians 3:26–29:

“In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith … And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Romans 8:14–17:

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God … and if children, then heirs … provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

Paul certainly speaks of “reckoning.”

Romans 4 repeatedly speaks of righteousness being “reckoned.”

The question has never been:

Does Paul speak of reckoning?

The question is:

Within what story does this reckoning take place?

Paul’s language of reckoning is not detached from Christ and turned into an independent system of heavenly accounting.

By faith a person enters Christ. In Him, the old position has changed, and the new identity is truthfully declared by the Father.

It is therefore more precise to say:

Paul’s justification by faith cannot be separated from union with Christ.

Union is not simply another word for justification. But it is the fundamental answer to the question, “How does what belongs to Christ become ours?”

To believe in Him is to turn to Him.

To turn to Him is to enter His story.

To enter His story is to die and live with Him.

To die and live with Him is to begin living as a new person, as a child.

To become a child is to become an heir.

To become an heir is to move toward being glorified with Him.

This is a grammar of life.

III. What Did Luther Change?

Martin Luther certainly speaks about Jesus Christ.

He speaks about the cross.

He speaks about the resurrection.

He speaks about union with Christ.

At times he uses extraordinarily strong language about Christ belonging to the believer and the believer possessing Christ and all that is His.

This series, therefore, will not attempt to prove a claim that could never stand:

“Luther has no union, no life, and no resurrection.”

That is not the argument.

The real question is different:

In Luther, what question becomes the controlling question by which everything else is interpreted?

My hypothesis is that Luther shifted the center of gravity of Paul’s gospel away from the question of who this Jesus is and what God accomplished in Him, and increasingly toward another question:

How can a sinful human being be regarded as righteous before a righteous God?

The cross of Christ then comes to answer, first of all, the problem of guilt.

Faith comes to answer how the sinner receives Christ.

Justification becomes the organizing center of the gospel.

And the work of Christ comes increasingly to be interpreted through the categories of sin, law, divine wrath, forgiveness, and justification.

In the Protestant proclamation that was later widely inherited, this structure became extremely familiar:

You are a sinner.

You are in debt.

You deserve punishment.

Christ bears it for you.

Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you.

Through faith you are reckoned righteous.

Your sins are forgiven.

You are no longer condemned.

The gospel can then easily be compressed into another sentence:

Jesus died in my place.

The question that needs to be examined is not whether Jesus died for us.

Paul clearly says:

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3)

The real question is:

Within what story does “Christ died for our sins” belong?

Is it one part of the larger story in which Jesus is the Christ—the story of death and resurrection, suffering and glory, opening the way and bringing many sons into glory?

Or is the whole gospel ultimately organized around the claim that “He bore the punishment I should have borne”?

That is what the articles that follow will examine, passage by passage.

IV. Two Gospel Structures

For now, then, let us place the two structures side by side.

Paul

The substance of the gospel:

Jesus is the Christ.

He died and rose again and was exalted by God as Lord.

The application of the gospel:

Through faith a person enters Christ, is justified in Him, becomes a new creation, becomes a child of God, receives the Spirit, inherits the promise, suffers with Christ, and finally shares His glory.

Its governing movement is:

Christ → union → sonship → the way → glory.

This is the grammar of life.

Luther and the Reformation Tradition He Set in Motion

The hypothesis to be tested is that:

The substance of the gospel increasingly becomes:

Christ bears the sinner’s guilt and punishment.

The application of the gospel increasingly becomes:

Through faith the sinner receives Christ’s work, is reckoned righteous by God, has his sins forgiven, and is freed from condemnation.

Its governing movement increasingly becomes:

guilt → Christ bearing it → imputation → forgiveness.

This is the grammar of reckoning.

But this must be stated again:

“Life” and “reckoning” are not two mutually exclusive biblical vocabularies.

Paul also speaks of reckoning.

Luther also speaks of life.

The real difference, therefore, cannot be established by counting words.

The real question is:

Which story governs the other?

In Paul, does “reckoned righteous” remain subordinate to the larger story in which Jesus is the Christ, human beings are united to Him, become children of God, and move toward glory?

In Luther, is that larger story increasingly reorganized around the question of how the sinner can be reckoned righteous through Christ?

If so, then the difference is not merely two emphases within the same gospel.

The substance of the gospel has shifted, and its application shifts with it.

V. Why Must Luther Be Tested?

Because Luther himself demanded such a test.

In 1521, at the Diet of Worms, Luther stood before the emperor, princes, and representatives of the Church and was asked to retract his writings.

His response became one of the most famous declarations of the Reformation:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason … I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything …”

Whatever later embellishments may have entered the familiar form of the quotation, the principle Luther asserted at Worms is clear:

Test me by Scripture.

Then we should accept the challenge.

Not because Luther contributed nothing.

Not because the Reformation was worthless.

Precisely because his influence was so great, he should be subjected to the very test he himself demanded.

Galatians 1:8 makes no exception for Luther.

It makes no exception for popes,

no exception for Augustine,

no exception for Luther,

and no exception for the author of this article.

Everyone stands under the gospel.

VI. How Will We Test Him?

The method will be as simple as possible.

Read Paul passage by passage, and then read Luther passage by passage.

We will not begin by allowing later Lutheranism to speak for Luther.

Nor will we allow later Reformed theology to speak for him.

We will read Luther’s own interpretations of Paul.

Particular attention will be given to several texts that exercised enormous influence on later generations:

his Lectures/Commentary on Galatians,

his Preface to Romans,

and his prefaces to the books of the New Testament.

Then we will ask several straightforward questions:

What is Paul’s problem?

What does Luther understand the problem to be?

What is Paul’s answer?

What does Luther understand the answer to be?

What gets enlarged?

What gets diminished?

What originally belonged to the application of the gospel but is elevated into its substance?

What originally governed the whole gospel but becomes subordinate to the doctrine of justification?

Three disciplines will govern the investigation.

First, if Luther’s text does not support the charge, the charge must be withdrawn.

Every major claim about Luther should be demonstrated from Luther’s own writings.

Second, if Luther says elsewhere something that contradicts our summary, we cannot pretend those statements do not exist.

We must ask: What place do those statements occupy within his larger structure? Do they alter the controlling center?

Third, we cannot infer that a modern evangelical formulation “comes from Luther” merely because it resembles something Luther said.

Historical dependence must be demonstrated separately.

Similarity is not evidence of transmission.

This series, then, will not pronounce sentence first and search for evidence afterward.

It proposes a hypothesis and then subjects that hypothesis to the texts.

VII. The First Test: Galatians 1:4

I do not intend to begin with a later systematic-theological proposition.

We will begin with Paul’s own words.

Immediately before his warning about “another gospel,” Paul gives an extraordinarily compressed statement:

“Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” (Galatians 1:4)

Nearly every major question is already here:

Why did Christ give Himself?

What does “for our sins” mean?

What does He deliver us from?

What is the Father’s will?

What is the goal of salvation?

How does Luther interpret this verse?

And how does Paul’s own context interpret it?

We will place the two readings side by side.

Then we will continue.

Romans 7:24–8:4;

Romans 1:16–17;

Romans and James;

Luther’s New Testament prefaces;

and finally, back to Galatians 1:8–9.

What I intend to demonstrate is not:

Luther never speaks of resurrection.

Nor:

Luther never speaks of union.

Nor even:

Paul never speaks of forgiveness, punishment, or reckoning as righteous.

All of those claims would be too easy—and false.

What must actually be demonstrated is this:

What do Paul and Luther use to organize these shared terms?

Is the structure:

Jesus is the Christ; therefore, through faith we enter into Him;

or:

The sinner must be justified; therefore, Christ’s work is interpreted first of all as the solution to guilt?

If such a shift actually occurred, we will identify where it occurred.

If it did not, the charge must be withdrawn.

VIII. Judgment Deferred, Evidence Begins

I will therefore not render the final verdict for the reader here.

This preface has already made substantive claims, but those claims remain theses awaiting demonstration.

What I intend to do is place Paul and Luther side by side before Scripture.

If the arguments that follow hold, the question raised by Galatians 1:8 will eventually answer itself.

If they do not hold, the standard of evidence should not be lowered merely because the person being criticized is Luther.

The right to judge does not belong to Luther.

It does not belong to the Reformation tradition.

And it does not belong to me.

Judgment belongs to Scripture.

The burden of proof belongs to me.

Paul placed even himself under this test.

We have no reason to exempt Luther from it.

And we have no reason to exempt ourselves.

So, on the eve of the 509th anniversary of the Reformation, perhaps one of the best ways to commemorate the Reformation is not simply to repeat:

“Luther restored Paul’s gospel.”

Perhaps we should accept Luther’s own challenge:

Bring the Scriptures.

And ask the questions again:

What exactly did Paul preach?

What exactly did Luther interpret it to mean?

And whose gospel are we preaching today?

Judgment is deferred.

The evidence begins.

This series will be published in installments. Major claims about Luther will, as far as possible, be supported by direct quotations from Luther himself, with the work and date identified. If I have quoted him incorrectly, or if the context does not support my interpretation, please point it out. If I am wrong, I will correct it.