Luther and the Holy Spirit: why pneumatology still matters.

The person of the Holy Spirit receives little attention in the life of some churches. For many of us, the Spirit is our focus on Pentecost, and we may speak of the Spirit in a vague way when we address the thorny issue of sanctification, but our theology, teaching, and pondering often focus on the other two persons of the Trinity.

"Charismatics" and "Pentecostals," of course, do not suffer such a deficiency. However, in traditions that are not so oriented toward gifts of the Spirit, there is a noticeable lack of discussion of the work of the Comforter. This lack of attention is unfortunate. The primary work, or office, of the Holy Spirit should not slip from Christian catechesis, preaching, and theological training. In this article I address the role of the Spirit in Martin Luther's theology of justification and sanctification and look at the practical implications for preaching and teaching that follow from his understanding of the Spirit active in faith.

Luther's theology of the Holy Spirit

Luther's understanding of the Spirit's activity was more dynamic and focused than that of Roman Scholasticism. In his discussion of The Third Article in his Small Catechism he writes:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus
Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the
true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the
whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the
one true faith; in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives
all sins to me and all believers, and will at the Last Day raise up me
and all the dead, and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal
life. This is most certainly true.

This short commentary clearly explains the essence of the Holy Spirit's activity: The Spirit creates faith in the sinner. Here we begin to see some of the essential implications of Luther's pneumatology. Indeed, a proper understanding of the work of the Spirit is necessary for a proper understanding of faith. Faith is not a good work undertaken by believers but something done for us and within us by the Spirit of God. "But the real faith, of which we are speaking, cannot be brought into being by our own thoughts. On the contrary, it is entirely God's work in us, without any cooperation on our part." (1)

The power of the Word is found in the work of the Spirit which accompanies it. Paul Althaus explains, "The fact that the external word enters and overwhelms the heart is therefore not the result of an inherent dynamic which the word possesses in itself. On the contrary, the activity of the Spirit which always occurs through the word, must first be added to the preaching and hearing of the external word." (2)

The Spirit, moreover, enables a person to appropriate the saving message of the gospel. As Luther never tired of explaining, good news is only good news when it exists pro me--for me. Althaus clarifies: "This 'for me' is the decisive and essential factor in justifying faith which definitely distinguishes it from everything else which we otherwise call faith and especially from a mere 'historical faith.'" (3)

Although faith is the work of the Holy Spirit within the redeemed, the believer is not a passive agent. A Christian is active in the daily struggles of believing:

... people think: Doing good works is a heavy task, but believing is
something that is soon done. To be sure, faith does seem to be an easy
matter; but it really is a difficult art. Temptation and experience
certainly teach that, on the contrary, we must say that clinging to
God's Word so that the heart is not afraid of sins and death but trusts
and believes God, is a far more bitter and difficult task than observing
all the rules of the Carthusian and monastic orders. (4)

For Luther, a Christian participates in the work of God. This is essential for understanding Luther's theology correctly, especially when we speak of faith and sanctification. The glory may all be due to God, but that does not excuse one from exertion and toil.

The Holy Spirit works in many ways in this world. For Luther, however, there is one proper work of the Comforter. This Amt (function or office) of the Holy Spirit, as described in the Small Catechism, is to enable us to believe. (5)

We must be careful not to fall into the trap of saying that the Spirit creates a faith in believers which then saves them. Phrases such as "saving faith" or "saved by faith alone" can be misleading. Preferable to these would be "saved through faith" or "salvation comes by grace through faith alone." The faith does not technically save. It is the means through which God grants salvation, the pipeline through which God's blessings flow. As such, while God's acceptance and redemption of the sinner are one act, Luther can speak of it in two parts. "Christ has purchased two things for us: first gratiam, grace; secondly, donum, the gift." (6) The grace one receives from God is the change in one's status before God; Christians are viewed no longer as sinners but as holy. The gift is the internal change, through faith, which assists the person in overcoming sin.

Heinrich Bornkamm discusses Luther's understanding of this dual work of God:

"Grace" means a change in a person's situation toward God, so that grace
really reaches the person from without, from God's point of view....
"Gift" means the change in a person as accomplished by grace, the inward
event in faith and in the attendant overcoming of sin which faith brings
about. (7)

Christians are passive recipients of God's grace, but active participants in the gift.

Luther insisted, against the Enthusiasts, that the Spirit works only in conjunction with the Word. While the timing of the Spirit remains a mystery, the location will always be where the Word is preached. "Thus it pleased God not to give the Spirit without the Word, but through the Word, that he might have us as his co-workers, who proclaim on the outside what he himself works by the Spirit within, wherever he will." (8)

Luther tells us, "Where there is a genuine faith, there good works will certainly follow, too." (9) The key to his understanding of how the Spirit is active in sanctification may be summed up in one word: gratitude. Those convinced of their own sinfulness, who then come to believe that Christ suffered and died in their place, cannot but feel gratitude to God. Believers are grateful to God for many things: their families, their jobs, their health. However, it is gratitude to God for what Christ did on Calvary that is the basis of sanctification. In The Freedom of a Christian, Luther explains:

Here the works begin; here a man cannot enjoy leisure; here he must
indeed take care to discipline his body by fastings, watchings, labors,
and other reasonable discipline and to subject it to the Spirit so that
it will obey and conform to the inner man and faith and not revolt
against faith and hinder the inner man, as it is the nature of the body
to do if it is not held in check. The inner man, who by faith is created
in the image of God, is both joyful and happy because of Christ in whom
so many benefits are conferred upon him; and therefore it is his one
occupation to serve God joyfully and without thought of gain, in love
that is not constrained. (10)

In his Treatise on Good Works, Luther makes use of an analogy that many of his readers would easily understand.

We may see this in an everyday example. When a husband and wife really
love one another, have pleasure in each other, and thoroughly believe in
their love, who teaches then how they are to behave one to another, what
they are to do or not to do, say or not to say, what they are to
think? (11)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

On the contrary, he continues, when there is doubt, one acts with "a heavy heart and great disinclination." The Spirit, however, provides faith and dispels doubt so that the believer will naturally respond with all manner of good works. Luther says in his Lectures on Galatians of 1535:

In short, whoever knows for sure that Christ is his righteousness not
only cheerfully and gladly works in his calling but also submits himself
for the sake of love to magistrates.... For he knows that God wants this
and that this obedience pleases him. (12)

The response of love to God is expressed in good works performed in the world, not out of fear but a desire to please one's creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Finnish scholar Simon Peura summarizes this idea nicely when he writes, "When Christians love God with the whole heart, they also love what God wills and expects from them." (13)

For Luther, this is more than a simple psychological response. The Spirit is the one working faith in believers, the faith that is the basis for this gratitude. Therefore, Christians cannot take credit for the improvements in their lives; the source and cause is still God's grace. At the same time, this progression is not a mysterious process. It is in faith that one responds in gratitude, and the good works that follow are responses of thankfulness rather than attempts to appease a God who is keeping score.

Luther was convinced that a religious message that did not proclaim the complete forgiveness of sins without any human work or merit could not produce the genuine and free acts of love that come from believing the gospel. Only when a believer has been released from any threat of punishment can there be genuine sanctification. When the fear of doing too little is taken away, as well as the pride of assisting in one's salvation, the believer begins to live a life of genuine love.

This is not to say that acts of charity during this life amount to very much. Luther states in his Table Talk, "this fulfillment (namely, love) is weak in our flesh, that we must struggle daily against the flesh with the help of the Spirit." (14) Likewise, in arguing against Latomus, who wanted to categorize types of sins, Luther insists, "Every good work of the saints while pilgrims in this world is sin." (15) Christians make modest, although real, gains in their sanctification during this life. At times they may not perceive this to be true, but they are called upon to believe it.

Luther's desire to glorify God properly in his discussion of sanctification had some unintended consequences. In giving all the glory and ultimate responsibility to God for sinners' justification and sanctification, and minimizing Christian works of love during the earthly pilgrimage, there were those who used his theology to justify moral apathy or laziness: If God wants to do all the work, we should let him. Paul Tillich suggests that Lutherans forgot to add the "valuation of discipline" into the mix. The result was

that the ideal of progressive sanctification was taken less seriously
and replaced by a great emphasis on the paradoxical character of the
Christian life. In the period of orthodoxy, this led Lutheranism to that
disintegration of morality and practical religion against which the
Pietistic movement arose. (16)

As we shall see, misconstruing Luther's pneumatology runs the same risks.

The consequences of imprecision in pneumatology may lead to a type of Lutheran quietism. Both clergy and laity can easily come to the conclusion that, as long as the Word is preached, the Spirit will be present, and sanctification will follow. They believe that proclaiming the gospel is necessary and sufficient for sanctification to take place.

It is true that the Word is required, but human participation as well is required to grow in love. Luther never taught that the life of faith is passive. External righteousness is passive; internal righteousness is not. The latter is the "fruit and consequence" (17) of the former, and it is achieved through human cooperation with grace. "'To be led by the Spirit of God' is to put to death our flesh, that is, the old Adam, and to do it freely, promptly, and gladly.... This is not characteristic of our nature, but is a work of the Spirit of God in us." (18) While all the credit goes to God, who empowers believers to cooperate, they are indeed active. There is no sitting and waiting for the Holy Spirit to act magically among the faithful. Luther went so far in 1528 as to tell his congregation in Wittenberg that he would stop preaching in their church if he did not witness greater fruit among the faithful. (19)

Althaus spells this out quite clearly. "The believer does not rest in security on the forgiveness of sins, as though sin were no longer of any consequence, but he is completely involved in fighting to gain the victory over sin every day." (20) Moreover, the failure to participate in the struggle against the Old Adam is correlated with the loss of faith. "Luther repeatedly emphasizes that forgiveness of sins and justification for the sake of Christ are valid for those who fight against sin, and that they are bound to such a struggle." (21)

It is important for the life of sanctification that one safeguard and cherish the gospel message. The word of forgiveness is the font and source of the Christian struggle against sin, and that which casts the gospel in doubt wreaks havoc on the active life of faith. "For when [the Truth] enters the heart, the evil inclination soon departs.... But the devil does not easily let anyone come to the point of taking hold of and enjoying the Word of God; for he knows well what power it has to subdue evil lust and thoughts." (22) One's faith is strengthened for such work by continually returning to the word of God in both law and gospel, allowing the Spirit to fortify this faith for service in the active life.

Implications

Does such theological inquiry serve a purpose greater than mere historical interest? I suggest that there are important implications for clergy and laity alike. While vicious wrangling over theological minutia among Lutherans reached its peak in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, today the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. For many, theological subtleties are deemed unimportant or not worth understanding. This is unfortunate.

Consider the desire of the clergy and other church workers to improve the moral lives of their parishioners, to see them active beyond the pews in causes of charity. Few concerns are more universal in the church. Admittedly, encouraging piety among Christians is tricky business. It must involve good theology, psychology, public speaking, empathy, and modeling of behavior. This would be true in any religion. In Lutheranism, there is the added theological conundrum of encouraging works while teaching that they do not matter for one's salvation. (23)

Among certain believers, there has been such a fear of teaching works-righteousness that any meaningful statement of law is quickly followed with the promises of the gospel, as if to say that everything will be all right for those not living righteously anyway. The law is not given opportunity to do its work. Alternatively, those who do seek to balance law and gospel in their sermons often end up preaching about the law rather than preaching the law. Law, like gospel, must be pro me. The law must be preached so that I feel its accusing finger pointing at me, not as a lesson on human nature. Who will run to a physician who does not first perceive illness?

Moreover, we need to remember that the life of faith involves a lifelong listening to both law and gospel, what Soren Kierkegaard called repetition. (24) The redeemed must remain conscious of their sin through exposure to the law so that they will constantly be driven into the arms of Christ. Luther himself puts it this way, "Therefore, before and after we have become Christians, the Law must in this life constantly be lex occidens, damnans, accusans (the slaying, condemning, accusing law), as St Paul and many of our books so frequently teach." (25)

There are also those today, greatly concerned with works of social justice, who can tend to reduce the effects of the work of Christ suffering on the cross to platitudes about God accepting us as we are. With that warm, albeit shallow, reassurance, the congregation is provided with moral guidance and advice. The problem here is that the law often loses its "slaying, condemning, accusing" nature and simply becomes advocacy for the social agenda of the church. The law fails to strike at the heart of those in the pews. Luther's spiritual struggle, his Anfechtung, is relegated to the psychology of the sixteenth century and the Spirit becomes a mystical force to make us joyful and loving.

While awareness of one's communal responsibilities is essential in the Christian life, each individual must stand before God alone. The law speaks to the single individual, as does the gospel. Without that individual facing her sin honestly, the gospel message of God suffering in weakness for her becomes quaint rather than life-changing, and the possibility of her tackling the problems of the world will be based on her personal psychology rather than the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Only when the office of the Spirit is understood as the one who works faith in the redeemed do we have the foundation and framework for the entire Christian life. Then faith can mature and we are able to strive to be the people God desires us to be. (26)

Jeffrey K. Mann

Assistant Professor of Religion

Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania 

[e-mail]

1. D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar: H. Bohlau, 1883-1993), 10(3): 285.

2. Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. Robert C. Schultz (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966), 38.

3. Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, 230.

4. D. Martin Luthers Werke 33:283f.

5. See further Rolf Schafer, "Der Heilige Geist: Eine Betrachtung zu Luthers Erklarung des Dritten Artikels," Luther 61 (1990), 3:135-48.

6. D. Martin Luthers Werke 49:94f.

7. Heinrich Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, trans. E. Theodore Bachmann (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 186.

8. D. Martin Luthers Werke 18:695.

9. Luther's Works (LW), ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut Lehmann, 55 vols. (Philadelphia and St. Louis: Fortress and Concordia, 1955-1986), 21:150.

10. LW 31:358f.

11. LW 44:26f.

12. LW 26:12.

13. Simon Peura, "What God Gives Man Receives: Luther on Salvation," in Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther, ed. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 94.

14. LW 54:234.

15. LW 32:159.

16. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology III (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1963): 230.

17. LW 31:300.

18. LW 25:356.

19. See Fred W. Meuser, "Luther as Preacher of the Word of God," The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, ed. Donald K. McKim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 146.

20. Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, 236.

21. Althaus, 244 n.

22. LW 30:41.

23. This perennial issue in the Lutheran Church was the focus of my doctoral dissertation and first book, Shall We Sin? Responding to the Antinomian Question in Lutheran Theology (Peter Lang, 2003).

24. Soren Kierkegaard, Repetition, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).

25. D. Martin Luthers Werke, 51:440f.

26. This article is based on an earlier paper, "Luther, Pneumatology, and Ecumenism: Does Systematic Theology Still Matter?" presented at the American Academy of Religion, Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, March 17, 2006.