The Word of God in Luter’s homiletics.
What was the Word of God for Martin Luther?
When one searches on the Internet the words „Word of God”, one finds the expression „Scripture – God’ s Word”, „God’ s Word – the Bible” etc. I decided to look for images for the „Word of God” on the Internet, and, of course, I got all kind of Bible images.
And when I chose to write about the Word of God in Luter’s homiletics, I expected, that it was Luter’s „fault”, that intolerant fundamentalism among protestant believers came on the stage. I thought, that it was Luter, who claimed absolute inerrancy and infallibility to the canonical Bible as the only true Word of God. But I’m glad, that I was wrong.
The reason is, because I’ve been acquainted with the Lutheran orthodoxy’s view on the Word of God, which later was taken over by Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, and was firmly established under the slogan that „Word of God” is the Bible, in which God has said everything He ever needed to say.
When I was looking what is the Word of God for Luther, I found out different things that Luther meant, when he preached about the Word of God. Probably, the right way to say it is – Luther preached the Word of God. It looks like, that Luther didn’t use it as a „static” and „fixed” term, bet as a „dynamic” term that is always connected to Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus. So I decided to try to extract different categories, how the Word of God is mentioned by Luther in his preaching.
First of all, it needs to be said, that, to my mind, the Word of God in Luther’s homiletics needs to be viewed together with Luther’s view and admiration of the human ability to speak and to hear. Words played a great role for Luther and music as well. Luther saw „nothing more powerful, or nobler work of a person… than speaking” [1], because that is what strongly distinguishes humans from animals, even more than the character or works.
Therefore, there is a pragmatical approach in Luther’s homiletics and also hermeneutics – what the preacher does with the words. And no wonder, that linguistic researchers of the German language have noted, that the legacy that Luther left in the German language, i.e., translation of the Bible, sermons, writings, even songs, is unique for the nation. Taking into account the pragmatic side of Luther, let us review what Luther meant the following categories:
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The Word of God is the proclaimed Gospel from the Scriptures, which is about salvation and justification
Proclamation or preaching for Luther releases the word of God, which is in the Scriptures, speaking from heart to heart.
Luther had said, that apostles were commanded to preach, not to write. But the word has been written also without the commandment of Christ, and it is because the truth of Christ was in danger to become corrupt. If the preaching is centered on Christ, it doesn’t matter, if it is the preaching of apostles, Luther’ s preaching or our preaching, it is on the same level. Because if the message is the same, then it is the Word of God. Our preaching and Christ’s preaching then is the Word of God in the same sense. [2]
“God reveals the mystery of salvation through the external Word. This Word He has ordained to serve as a means and as a hollow reed through which He conveys saving truth in His heart.” [3]
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The Word of God is God Himself, God’s presence, Christ. God’s Self-revelation.
Distinctive point between Luther and the church of his time was Luther’s conviction, that God is present through the proclaimed message about God.[4] If the proclaimed message has touched us, then God Himself has touched us.
Luther’s emphasis on the Word and Sacrament in church service made it clear – the preached Word of God has to be present in the service, because the „proclaimed Word of God is not just preliminary to the sacraments, a lower stage of God’s grace that we “really” get through sacramental action. Rather, the apostolic message brings God and all God’s gifts.”[5]
When the Word about Christ is preached in the service, the ones that have heard it, must respond with „yes” or „no”. There is no alternative.[6]
Therefore there are only two great things, that are needed for the conversion of the person – the Holy Spirit and the Word of God as the instrument of the Holy Spirit, that makes the conversion.[7]
The Word of God should be looked as “a living, eternal, all-powerful Word that can make you alive, free from sin and death, and keep you so eternally; that brings with it everything of which it speaks, namely, Christ, with His flesh and blood and everything He is and has”. [8] The passage is often used by the preachers, who equal the Word of God with the Bible and so attribute this to the Bible, however, from the qualities, that Luther mentions, he makes it clear – the Word here is Christ Himself. “Souls would be inevitably lost if they are not changed by the Word of God; and if that Word were taken away, then eternal good, God, Christ, the Spirit would go with it.”[9]
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The Word of God transforms the human soul
In his Treatise on the Christian Liberty Luther wrote that only through faith alone without works, the soul is justified by the Word of God, sanctified, made true, peaceful, and free, filled with every blessing and truly made a child of God (supporting this with the verse from John 1:12).
Further, talking about the transforming and melting power of the Word of God, Luther gives comaparison of his time – 2 substances look like one, iron in the fire looks like fire, it is melting, it is strongly affected by the fire, so the same happens when the Word of God touches us – „[n]o good work can rely upon the Word of God or live in the soul, for faith alone and the Word of God rule in the soul. Just as the heated iron glows like fire because of the union of fire with it, so the Word imparts its qualities to the soul.”[10]
When the Christ is preached, God speaks and the Holy Spirit brings and creates faith, hope, love and new life.
The Scripture, according to Luther, is divided in 2 parts – commandments and promises. Taking into account that Luther liked to see the opposites, like the Law and the Gospel, so the promises stand on the side of the Gospel, and consequently in the side of Jesus and grace and can be received by faith.
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Spoken Word of God is the power of God, which is in the Gospel
Opera Dei sunt verba eius (Luther). - [Dieva vārdi ir darbi]
Luther describes the Word as something that brings fruit. Luther even puts the devil on the one side and the Word of God on the opposite side, saying, that if the devil can be called the master of a thousand arts, then the Word of God, that casts the devil away and weakens him, should be called the master of hunderd thousand arts, because it is power, profit, strength, and fruit.[11] Of course, the power of God comes from the Person possessing power – God.
In the dualistic manner, like putting the opposites – dead/alive, Luther argues: „[f]or though we had the bones of all the saints or all holy and consecrated garments upon a heap, still that would help us nothing; for all that is a dead thing which can sanctify nobody. But God’s Word is the treasure which sanctifies everything … which makes saints of us all”. [12]
I must mention here the conclusion of the famous Wittenberg sermon (the 2nd sermon Monday after Invocavit) on the power of the Word of God:
I will preach it [the Word], teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I have opposed the indulgences and all the papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And then while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer .. the Word so greatly weakened the papacy, that never a prince or emperor inflicted such damage upon it. I did nothing; the Word did it all. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon Germany. Yea, I could have started such a little game at Worms that even the emperor would not have been safe. But what would it have been? A fool’s play. I did nothing; I left it to the Word.[13]
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The Word of God is the right doctrine
Reflecting on the reformation, Luther had said, that from the beginning of the reformation, he was asking God not to give him dreams, visions, angels, but to give him the right understanding of His Word, the Holy Scriptures, because „when I have the Word of God, I know that I walk His way and that I will nopt fall in error or fallacy”.
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The Word of God is in the Scripture
It is important to note, that most of the middle age schools were linking the concept Word of God with the human spirit and conscious mind. There was „good” ‘higher reason’ and „bad” ‘lower instincts’. On the other hand, Luther tried to harmonize and unite the Word of God with material things. [14]
Luther states that the Scripture itself is the Word of God:
„The Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, written (I might say), lettered and formed in letters, just as Christ is the eternal Word of God veiled in human nature. And people treat the written Word of God in this world the same as they treat Christ…” (in a negative meaning – tear in pieces, crusify, justify heretical ideas..)[15]
Sola Scriptura means that the information found in the Scriptures is enough to save us from sins and not the indulgences or other odd Middle Age stuff that made the Church rich. Sola Scriptura streams from Luther’s observation, that the Church of his time was abused the tradition and rituals, adding to the necessities of the gospel the decisions of the catholic councils and the pope, therefore Luther said: „The Holy Spirit has embodied His wisdom and counsel and all mysteries of the Word and revealed them in Scripture and so no one needs to excuse himself or took and search for anything else”.[16]
But here is the greatest confusion, because Luther quotes are most often used to advocate the divine verbal inspiration of the Bible and the only embodiment for the Word of God. It is the reason, why most of the books on Luther and Luther’s homiletics and doctrines (in Latvian and English) are written by lutheran orthodox scholars and I couldn’t use them, because of their clear dogmatic direction.
Nevertheless, I conclude, that not the letters in themselves have power in the Scripture according to Luther, but God, who uses the Scripture as a point of contact. Luther wrote, that the divine grammar is different, and then he compares it to the sun and its brightness, and the Sun is Christ, nothing else. So then Luther says – Sic verba Dei res sunt, non nuda vocabula. [Jo Dieva vārdi ir lietas, nevis kaili vārdi]
Conclusion: I The Word of God is firstly God, who speaks and uses as the point of contact kerygma or the Scripture in order to save, transform, make holy the human.
The German theologian Meinhold was writiing that Luther’s understanding of the Word of God is in terms of German word Sinn[17] – direction, cause.
So from this, I personally think that Karl Barth, who has been famous with his Revelation, which is difficult to describe and define, tried to describe the same thing which Luther called the „Word of God”.
[2] Ibid., 137.
[3] W2. 830. In Robert Preus, Luther: Word, Doctrine, And Confession, 1993, essay.
[4] The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, 137.
[5] Ibid., 137.
[6] Ibid., 138.
[7] Large Catechism, Free will, 19.
[8] LW 36, 278. In Robert Preus, Luther: Word, Doctrine, And Confession, 1993, essay.
[9] LW 33, 53. In Robert Preus, Luther: Word, Doctrine, And Confession, 1993, essay.
[10] Martin Luther, A Treatise on Christian Liberty, transl. W.A. Lambert, ed. Harold J. Grimm, (Philadelphia, PA, Fortress Press 1957, (1970)), 5.
[11] The Large Cathehism, Introduction, 12.
[12] The Large Cathehism, The Third Commandment, 91.
[13] James Atkinson Martin Luther Prophet to the Church Catholic Michingan: The Paternoster Press, Williams B. Eerdmans publ. Company. 1983, 144.
[14] Heiko Augustinus Oberman, Eileen Walliser-Schwarzbart. Luther: man between God and the Devil,(orig. Luther: Mensch zwischen Gott und Teufel, Severin und Seidler Verlag) transl. from German, (Yale University Press: 2006), 274.
[15] W 33, 329; W29, 1770 In Robert Preus, Luther: Word, Doctrine, And Confession, 1993, essay.
[16] W28, 1110.
[17]P. Meinhold, Luthers Sprachphilosophie (Berlin, 1958) in Robert Preus, The Power of God’s Word, pastoral essey, Florida.
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