Luther’s Catechisms: The Sum of Christian Faith and Life
The Theology of Martin Luther
Christians have always catechized. They have always taught; and they have always taught by inviting the echo (at the heart of the word catechism) of the student back to the pastor, to the instructor. Luther grew up in a medieval world, which centered instruction of the four parts of that instruction, as it was conceived of in Luther’s time: The Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Ave Maria—the prayer to Mary. The ancient Christian catechism had been divided often—according to some scholars at least—into two parts, a moral section and a doctrinal section. In the Middle Ages, at the time in which Luther was growing up, that distinction was not clear-cut, but morals and doctrine were brought together in the focus of these four parts. The greater problem than how to define the catechism for Luther, as he surveyed the church of his day, was the ignorance of people. They didn’t know the catechism at all. They were not familiar with all the precepts of the Ten Commandments, he complained. They did not know the first thing about the creed. They might be able to say the Hail Mary, but probably not, and too often couldn’t say the Lord’s Prayer. And so from the very beginning of the Reformation, Luther wanted to improve instruction at the parish level.
Already in the 1510s, as the controversy began to break out over his Ninety-Five Theses, Luther was preaching on these elements of the medieval catechism (particularly on the Lord’s Prayer). And he suggested to a number of friends in 1518 and 1519 that they take a series of sermons which he had just preached and write them in understandable form so that they could be used for teaching the common people. One of his students, Johann Agricola, tried that and went into too much detail. Luther did not approve of Agricola’s exposition of the Lord’s Prayer on the basis of his sermons, and so he turned to his colleague, Nicolaus von Omsdorf. And Omsdorf wrote too short an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, a bare summary of the heart of Luther’s developing theology, which did not really instruct people in the prayer itself. And so already in 1519 Luther had written out his own memories of his sermons on the Lord’s Prayer so that people might be instructed in this fundamental part of the catechism.
Dr. Robert A. Kolb, Ph.D.Experience: Professor of Systematic Theology
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As the 1520s went on, Luther talked to a number of his friends in Wittenberg, to his colleagues such as Johann Bugenhagen and Philipp Melanchthon, urging them to write a simple catechism so that the people of God might be instructed in His Word. And Luther had a plan for that catechism. He suggested that in contrast to most medieval handbooks of Christian instruction, that the Ten Commandments be placed first because he wanted people to understand that God is wrathful against sin. He believed that those negative prohibitions in the Ten Commandments clearly showed our need for a Savior. And then he wanted to place the creed as the second part of the catechism so that people would understand the goodness of the gospel, so that they would understand how good God is as Creator, as well as Redeemer and Sanctifier. And then he believed that people should learn, first of all, how to respond in prayer, and then how to conduct personal or family devotions, and then how to live according to God’s plan for human life, which he put together in a series of Bible verses structured by his understanding of the Christian’s calling. To the medieval catechism, Luther also added an exposition of life in the sacraments. He added, first of all, in his sermons on the catechism (published as the Large Catechism), sections on baptism and on the Lord’s Supper, with a treatment of confession and absolution appended. And then as he developed his Small Catechism in the years 1529, 1530, 1531, he wrote in a section on the office of the keys of confession and absolution so that his people could understand the sacramental rhythm of dying and rising in daily life.
In the mid-1520s, he urged some of his colleagues to preach on the catechism and then write a catechism from their sermons. (Perhaps they did not do so because they had an inkling that nobody could do it well enough to please Luther.) And so finally, in 1528 and early 1529, Luther turned his own attention to preaching on the catechism in a series of three sermons. In a period of roughly a year, he treated the parts of the medieval catechism—the traditional parts of the medieval catechism—and drew together his ideas on what it was that the common people needed to know to be able to get a basic grasp of the biblical message; and then he sat down with his notes. He prepared the catechism actually in three forms: In the form of a wall chart and in the form of a textbook for servants and children, which parents were supposed to be able to use, and then in the form of, we might say, a kind of teacher’s manual—the Large Catechism, based on expansions of those sermons that he had preached. The wall catechism disappeared from use, but the Small Catechism became perhaps the chief instrument of spreading Luther’s message among the common people, and continued to be so in all lands where a Lutheran church was established, right up until the
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present day. The Large Catechism became an important support for instruction in the Small Catechism, and therefore it also with the Small Catechism was included in the Book of Concord, when at the end of the 16th century Lutherans drew up a list of defining documents for their faith. The heritage of Martin Luther, therefore, is conveyed in large part by this simple book of instruction. What the Book of Common Prayer is to Anglicans, what psalm singing is to many in the reformed tradition, the Small Catechism has been to laypeople within Lutheran circles for 450 years.
Many have seen it as a handbook for Christian doctrine, but just as Luther noted in the Large Catechism that he was not going to preach much on the creed because his people were to learn the creed from preaching and other instruction throughout their whole lives, so it seems to me at least, it is really unfair to call Luther’s catechism merely a handbook of Christian doctrine. It’s an inadequate summary of the biblical message at best, if one wants to present that message in any larger form at all. It is a very adequate summary of the heart, however, of Christian doctrine. It summarizes very well God’s law in the Ten Commandments and God’s gospel in the creed. Luther gave this very tight summary of God’s message for us so that he might go on to talk about life lived out in the sacraments, life responding to God in prayer, life lived out in the callings of the daily Christian life. And so I think it is best for us to look upon Luther’s catechism as a handbook for Christian living, as Luther’s plan for instructing young people in the whole of the Christian life, both doctrines and morals, so that their entire lives might be a life of faith lived out in the works to which God calls us in daily life.
Martin Luther apparently believed that the most important task of the church was teaching, conveying the biblical message, [and] applying it to people’s lives. And he believed that that had to begin at a very early and tender age. He followed the biblical dicta in Ephesians 6 and Deuteronomy 6 that parents should bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And so one of the most important tasks, he believed, that lay before the infant reformation movement, was indeed the construction of an evangelical catechism—a method of instruction and approach to instruction which would bring the word of the Lord effectively into the lives of the young. And following Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6, he thought that ought to happen in the family circle, as well as in the congregation. And so he wrote his Small Catechism, the textbook for basic instruction, by treating, for instance, the Ten Commandments, “in the plain form in which the head of the family shall teach them to his household.”
The goals for the Christian life and for Christian instruction, which
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Luther set forth in the Small Catechism for usage in the family, these goals were six in number. First of all, he wanted Christian instruction to work a conviction of sinfulness. Secondly, he wanted this Christian instruction to create faith in the triune God and to understand God as Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier. Thirdly, he wanted to create the response of faith in prayer. Fourthly, he wanted to immerse the Christian believer in the Word of God; and in his historical and cultural setting he focused primarily, first of all, on the sacramental forms of the words coming to us. Fifthly, he wanted to structure a response to God in the pattern of daily meditation and prayer which people could practice as individuals or as families or small groups of other kinds. And finally, he wanted to structure the response of faith in carrying out God’s callings in daily life in the world.
I’d like to read through Luther’s catechism with you and make comments on how he proceeded then to carry out these goals. First of all, Luther wanted to convict the Christian of his or her own sinfulness. To do that he used the familiar text of the Ten Commandments, part of the medieval catechism, and he constructed his explanation for the Ten Commandments in such a way so that the burden of the law falls weightily upon the sinner.
Luther’s understanding of the focus of the Ten Commandments, as we have mentioned before, fell upon the first commandment, and its command (as he paraphrased it) to fear and love and trust in God above all things. All the other nine commandments, according to his explanations, flowed out of the first commandment, for we are able to keep any of the commandments only because of the fear and love of God. That basic identity was key for Luther, as we said at the beginning of these lectures.
Scholars have debated whether the explanations that Luther wrote for the Ten Commandments were intended both to crush and to curb or instruct the learner, or whether they focused above all on the crushing. It’s clear from Luther’s comments on his reordering of the medieval catechism, placing the Ten Commandments before the creed, that he wanted the Ten Commandments to function here as a crushing agent, to remind the learners of their sinfulness. The question is: Did he intend also to instruct Christian consciences on what they ought to do to carry out the will of God in their lives as he wrote these explanations? The debate probably isn’t terribly important because the law functions in different ways, and it’s here no matter how we intend it. And we may intend to be crushing, and actually the hearer may need to be crushed. I know that I am a sinful, fallen creature; I just need help in figuring out what I am supposed to do in this situation. Or we may want to instruct people in avoiding dishonest trade
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or dealing in shoddy wares in their occupational life; and the person we’re trying to instruct may forget about the gospel and be crushed by that demand because they know that they have been involved in cheating their employer in some way or another, for instance.
The charm of Luther’s catechism is that it becomes very concrete. And there are good examples of this concreteness in the Ten Commandments. It is worthwhile, I think, to review what Luther said the Ten Commandments should mean. The first commandment, “You shall have no other gods,” simply means we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Luther acknowledged there are other fears and other loves and other trusts in human life that are all good gifts of God, but God is God, and in this commandment He commands that we recognize Him as the one in whom we put our ultimate fear, love, and trust.
Remember that Luther continued to number the Ten Commandments according to the medieval system, not according to the ancient Hebrew system, and so his second commandment is, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” In his explanation, he got right down to the level of peasant life. He said we don’t use God’s name to curse or to swear or to practice magic or to lie or deceive. That crushes the sinner, as we think about the times when we have cursed and sworn and practiced magic and lied and deceived. Instead, Luther says, positively we are to call upon Him in time of need. The proper use of God’s name is praying to Him and praising Him and giving Him thanks.
The third commandment Luther rephrased to simply say, “Sanctify the holy day.” And there Luther emphasized that that meant not despising His Word, not despising the preaching of His Word, but gladly hearing and learning it in whatever way God provides opportunity to do that.
For Luther, the fourth commandment was very important, for it laid down a sense of order in the world. “Honor your father and mother,” included not only literally father and mother but all people whom God had placed over us, all people who were entrusted with responsibility for us. And so fearing and loving God in this sphere of life meant, Luther said, not despising parents and superiors, not provoking them to anger. Positively, Luther said, this meant honoring them, serving them, obeying them, loving them, and esteeming them.
“Thou shalt not kill.” The proper fear and love of God will cause us to avoid endangering our neighbor’s life or causing him any harm. That’s the negative: Don’t endanger the neighbor’s life; don’t
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cause him any bodily harm at all. Instead, Luther says, what this commandment means is that we are called to help and befriend every neighbor in every necessity of life.
It is interesting that in the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” Luther does not provide negative examples. Perhaps he thought that in the area of our sexuality, the negative examples abound anyway. Luther said fearing and loving God in relationship to our sexuality means that we lead a chaste and pure life, both in word and in deed. And we are called to love and honor our spouses—our wives or our husbands.
“Thou shalt not steal,” means that because we fear and love God, we do not rob our neighbor of money or property. We don’t bring money or property into our own possession by dishonest trade or by dealing in shoddy wares—a quick summary of the kinds of practices that Luther saw were disrupting God’s creation in the realm of property. Instead, this seventh commandment means that we should help the neighbor to improve and protect his income and property.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” This commandment accuses us of lying about our neighbor, of betraying and slandering and defaming him. Instead, Luther said, this commandment demands from us that we stick up for him, that we speak well of him, and that we interpret charitably everything that he does.
The ninth commandment, according to Luther, was that prohibition of coveting the neighbor’s house or property. And this meant that we should not seek by craftiness to gain possessions that belong to our neighbors. Not his inheritance, not his property, not his home. We should not try to obtain them under any pretext of legal right. Instead, Luther said, this commandment demands that we are of service to our neighbor, that we help our neighbors keep what is theirs by God’s gift.
The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, manservant, maidservant, any of his animals, anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” And that means that we should not abduct a stranger or entice away the neighbor’s spouse or servants or cattle, but encourage them to remain and discharge their duty.
And then, as we have noted earlier, Luther concludes the commandments with that opening word in the biblical text in which God announces that He is a jealous God who loves His people dearly and visits the iniquity of fathers upon children to the
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third and fourth generation, but showing love to the thousands of those who love [Him] and keep [His] commandments. And Luther then says, “What does this mean?” And closes the commandments by saying, “God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments.” What that means is that we should fear His wrath and not disobey them. But He promises grace in every blessing to those who are given the gift of keeping the commandments; and therefore, that means that the good human life is found in loving Him and trusting Him and in cheerfully doing what He has commanded.
Luther went on to the creed. The gospel comes to those who repent of their sins, who recognize what has gone wrong in their lives; and the gospel creates faith. Luther revamped the way the creed was presented. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, it had been presented in twelve articles, perpetuating the legend that the twelve apostles had each contributed one article. He went back to the original intention of the creed, to focus on the three persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And in the first of those articles on the Father, he talked about particularly God’s goodness in creation and in His providence. In a sense, Luther does us a disservice by seemingly restricting the doctrine of creation to the Father, the doctrine of redemption to the Son, and the doctrine of sanctification to the Holy Spirit. And that’s certainly clear from the rest of his theology [that this] was not his intention, but that can be at least what happens in the creed itself.
But as he explains then the first article, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,” he focuses on God as Creator of me and all that exists—he’s always personalizing it—and then he talks about how God gives and provides and sustains in this life. He provides me with all the necessities of life and protects me and preserves me in the midst of danger and evil. And then Luther reminds the learner, He does this out of His pure fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness on my part. Even as our Creator, God comes to us as the giver, as pure grace, as the one who showers His favor without our doing a thing to deserve it. And the result of that is that we thank and praise Him, we serve and obey Him. Some scholars suggest that we thank and praise Him in the vertical relationship, and we serve and obey Him in the horizontal relationship by carrying out His will for our neighbor. Luther doesn’t explain that, but perhaps he intended it. All he says is that we are bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey this God who provides us with everything without any merit or worthiness in us.
The second article treats our redemption, and it is indeed true that
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our redemption comes as God’s plan unfolds in the incarnation. Luther begins his explanation by simply acknowledging the two natures. Jesus Christ is true God—begotten of the Father from eternity—and He is truly human—He was born of the Virgin Mary. And then in some senses, maybe the key word of the whole catechism: I believe that this Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is my Lord. And He has reasserted His lordship over me because He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature. He has delivered me and freed me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil. And then Luther quotes Peter: Not with silver or gold but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death (paraphrase from the Small Catechism).
In a sense, we may see (especially as we reflect upon this text in light of the Large Catechism) Luther’s use of elements from both of the atonement motifs of the Middle Ages. The Christus Victor comes in this explanation that Christ has freed me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, and the vicarious satisfaction atonement element is reflected in His word of deliverance, not with gold and silver but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. Again, Luther here presents the broader counsel of God in tight summary form. And why, why did God redeem me? Luther writes, “that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness and innocence and blessedness, [just] as He has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.” Luther is saying then that on the basis of the resurrection of Christ, which I have received in my baptism, I am His. In the sense [that] there are two poles in this explanation of the second article, I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, that I may be His own child. And because I am His own, I live under Him in His kingdom and I serve Him because I already have everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness on the basis of His resurrection and His eternal reign. And so, in the second article, Luther strengthens that sense of identity that he began to work on already in the first article, the identity which the gospel gives, the identity as being God’s own, God’s child, the one who lives in the kingdom of Christ to serve Him.
In the third article, Luther talks about the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying His chosen children, and in a sense he defines sanctification in a different way, therefore, than we normally do in the 20th century. Here sanctification is not the result of justification in human action but it is the follow-up of God Himself sanctifying us through His Word. Sanctification means for Luther not the performance of the human deeds of the horizontal relationship, but it means the gift of faith, the production of faith in us by the Holy Spirit’s use of the Word of God.
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His explanation of the third article begins with a confession of our inadequacy: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength [understanding or effort] believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” I cannot do it. My faith, my identity as a child of God is also His gift. Luther goes on, “But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, through the Word of the gospel, and enlightened me with the means of grace, with His gifts, and [He] sanctifies me and He [keeps] me in true faith.” Sanctification is a matter of the true faith, which gives me my identity and my basic orientation. What the Holy Spirit has done to me, He has done to the whole church of God. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens me as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in this one, true faith in the reliance upon Him as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit’s activities in this Christian church: He daily and abundantly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. And the eschatological hope on the last day: He will raise me and all the dead and will grant to me and all who believe in Christ eternal life (paraphrase from the Small Catechism). And at the end of each of these explanations of the creed, Luther has said, “This is most certainly true.” This is the way it is; this is God’s gift of the gospel.
What happens then in the life of this person whom the Holy Spirit has sanctified, in this person of faith? Well, first of all, Luther says, the believer prays, “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). What does this mean, Luther’s catechism asks? And he forged the response: Here God would encourage us to believe that He is truly our Father and we are truly His children, in order that we may approach Him boldly and confidently in prayer, even as beloved children approach their dear father.
In discussing the Christian’s life of worship and prayer, we have already done a great deal with the text of Luther’s Small Catechism. To refresh a couple of themes: As he explains the first three petitions particularly, he reminds us that God hallows His name. God lets His kingdom come; God has His will done without our prayer. But here we are praying that God may let His name be hallowed among us and let His kingdom come among us and let His will be done among us and by us. And, for Luther, the hallowing of God’s name happens in the hearing of God’s Word and in the living of a holy life according to it. The coming of His kingdom means that we believe His holy Word, and we live a godly life. The doing of His will means that God destroys everything that opposes this coming of the Word and its expression in our lives.
And then in petitions four, five, six, and seven, we turn from the needs of God in this world to our own needs. And we pray for daily
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bread, for everything we need for this body and life, from food and clothing, house and home, through good government, seasonable weather, peace and health, true friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. In the fifth petition, we turn to God and we pray that He will not look upon our sins. Even though we daily deserve nothing but punishment, we pray that God will give us all by His grace, and we pray that we may then go forth to forgive and cheerfully do good to those who sin against us. And as we pray for deliverance from temptation and from the evil one, Luther reminds us in his explanation of how great the threat is that we be caught in unbelief, in despair, or in other great shame and vice. And so we pray that the wicked one, Satan, may not deliver us into every form of evil but that God will rescue us, particularly at the time of our death.
To the Lord’s Prayer, the creed, and the Ten Commandments—that heart of the medieval catechism—Luther then wanted his people to think about, to be taught once again the importance of the coming of the Word of God. And that Word of God comes indeed through the proclamation of the faith as it is summarized in the creed. But it also comes, Luther believed, as the Holy Spirit sanctifies and gives His gifts through the sacramental forms of the Word.
For Luther, the baptismal model of all Christ’s justifying action, all the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit, is so vital because it provides there the basis in the individual believer’s life of the death and resurrection, as sinner and as child of God. And the Lord’s Supper, of course, repeated that, as did confession and absolution, for Luther. But the Lord’s Supper was also the heart of medieval piety. And so to meet his hearers, the learners of his day, where they were (as we like to say today), Luther needed also to treat the Lord’s Supper.
In his treatment of holy baptism, we see that Luther comes with the fundamental biblical material (as he cites Matthew 28 and Mark 16 and Titus 3 and Romans 6) in explaining, first of all, that baptism isn’t just water; it’s not magical water at all. It is water that is used according to God’s command and connected with God’s Word to make disciples. Baptism bestows “forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, [and] grants eternal salvation to all who believe, as the Word and promise of God declare,” Luther writes. Luther bases that upon the promise in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” and he sees this as the working of the Word that does, according to his understanding of that Word, effect forgiveness of sin and deliver from death and the devil as it grants eternal salvation.
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Luther then raises the question: How can water produce such effects? And answers, “It’s not the water [indeed] that does [them],” it’s the Word of God that does it. The Word of God takes this water—that without it has no significance or power at all—and indeed becomes with that water a washing of life, a washing of regeneration. As Paul wrote to Titus, “He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [whom] He poured out on us [abundantly] richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that [having been] justified by His grace [we should] become heirs [according to the] hope of eternal life” [Titus 3:5-7]. And then Luther says this saying is sure.
And what is the effect of this baptizing with water? It kills the old Adam, together with our sins and our evil lusts, and it sets us upon a life in which those lusts continue to be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance; in life in which they are put to death so that that new person in Christ can come forth daily and [be] raised up to live forever in God’s presence, as Paul writes in Romans 6.
And the rhythm of that dying and rising is repeated then in the practice of confession and absolution. Luther had a couple of different attempts at treating the office of the keys to heaven, the power to remit or retain sins, and in 1531 he put together a section called “How the Common People Are to Be Taught to Confess.” There he says that confession and absolution has obviously two parts—we confess our sins under the power of the law and its crushing force, and we receive absolution or forgiveness as the gospel is pronounced upon us by the confessor in God’s place. It is as if this word comes from God Himself, and therefore, when the confessor forgives us our sins, we can believe that we are forgiven by God.
Well, Luther asks, what sins should we confess? Luther categorically rejected the necessity of confessing individual sins or even of confessing to a confessor. The point is not that we must confess our sins to a confessor, the point is that we get to confess our sins so that we, with the power and strength of having another person there to look at those sins with us, so that we have that support in confronting our sinfulness. And then so that we can hear the sweet words of forgiveness, not simply coming through our own imagination off the page of the Scripture or out of our own prayerful approach to God, but so that we may hear with our ears and so that we may feel that hand of the confessor upon our heads to assure us of the presence of God in the words of forgiveness pronounced by this confessor. And so we confess not every sin we have, but those that are particularly troubling to us.
How do we figure that out, Luther says, which are such sins?
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And he gives this answer: Reflect on your condition in the light of the Ten Commandments. Use the law to evaluate. And then instead of using the Ten Commandments (he presumes them as background), he drives us into our callings from God. He writes: “Reflect on your condition in the light of the Ten Commandments, whether you are a father or mother, a son or daughter, a master or servant; whether you have been disobedient, unfaithful, lazy, ill-tempered, or quarrelsome; whether you have harmed anyone by word or deed; whether you have stolen, neglected, or wasted anything; or done any other evil” (paraphrase from the Small Catechism). It is interesting to note here how Luther conceived of the Word of God. The light of the Ten Commandments had to be shown through the Christian’s calling.
Then Luther gives a brief form of confession. He suggests, first of all, that the sinner approach the pastor or other confessor with a request for hearing of confession and for the declaration that sins are forgiven. And then the sinner says, “I, a poor sinner, confess [myself] before God that I am guilty of all sins and in particular [especially] I confess in your presence that,” and Luther gives an example, as a manservant or maidservant I am unfaithful to my master. For here and there I have not done what I was told. I have made my master angry, caused him to curse, neglected to do my duty, caused him to suffer a loss. I have been immodest in word and deed, I have quarreled with my equals, I have grumbled and sworn at my mistress, and I am sorry for this and pray for grace. I mean to do better. Or, Luther also used the example of the employer. “The master or mistress may say, in particular, I confess in your presence that I have not been faithful in training my children and servants and spouse to the glory of God. I have cursed. I have set a bad example by my immodest language and actions. I have injured my neighbor by speaking evil of him, overcharging him, giving him inferior goods or short measure. Masters or mistresses should add whatever else they have done contrary to God’s commandments and to their action in life” (paraphrase from the Small Catechism). And here again, we see Luther’s using the specific points of the Ten Commandments but placing them within the context of the Christian’s vocation or calling.
Luther recognized, however, that Christians who live with the gospel will not always come with heavily burdened consciences. They will recognize some sin, but they will not feel terribly burdened. That’s not a matter for concern or worry, Luther says. The Christian should simply look around in the memory for particular sins, but not in such a way that would turn confession into torture. The Christian simply mentions a sin or two that he or she is aware of, but let it go at that. And if no particular
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sin comes to mind at all, which Luther grants is quite unlikely, then just simply confess that the first commandment is not a commandment we can keep day in and day out, and say that we need the forgiveness of sins.
And then, Luther says, the confessor shall say, “God be merciful to [thee] and strengthen [thy] faith,” and then ask, “Do you believe that the forgiveness I declare to you is the forgiveness of God?” And the Christian should say, yes. And then the confessor shall say, “Be it done to you as you have believed, according to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen, go in peace.” But the sinner may have a greater struggle. And so the confessor is to be ready with additional passages of Scripture, as Luther says, to comfort and to strengthen the faith of those whose consciences are heavily burdened, who are distressed and sorely tried. This confession for ordinary, plain people, to be used by pastors with their parishioners, to be used within family circles as the forgiveness of sins is shared there, was really at the heart, I think, of the kind of piety that Luther wanted to provide for his people, as he sent them into the world once again then to carry out their callings, forgiven of their sins, joyous in heart.
That same thing happens when believers come to the sacrament of the altar. The sacrament of the altar, Luther wrote, was instituted by Christ Himself. “It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, given to us Christians to eat and to drink.” And then Luther supports that with the words of institution from the holy evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and also Saint Paul. He used there a conflation of those texts.
“Why, what’s the benefit?” Luther says. We are told in the words “for you” and “for the forgiveness of sins,” by these words—“the forgiveness of sins”—life and salvation are given to us in the sacrament. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. How can that happen simply through bodily eating and drinking, he wants to know? And he answers: “The eating and drinking do not in themselves produce these benefits, the words ‘for you’ and ‘for the forgiveness of sins,’ these words when accompanied by bodily eating and drinking are the chief thing in the sacrament. Those who believe these words have what they say and declare the forgiveness of sins” (paraphrase from the Small Catechism).
The Middle Ages had emphasized worthy reception of the sacrament, and Luther wants to know who receives the sacrament worthily. He does not reject the fasting and bodily preparation of the Middle Ages. That’s a good external discipline, he says.
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But those are truly worthy and well-prepared who believe these words “for you” and “for the forgiveness of sins.” Those who do not trust these words, who doubt these words, [are] unworthy and unprepared. For the words “for you” require truly believing hearts.
On the basis of this engagement of the Word then, Christians are prepared to live the Christian life. Luther’s Handbook for Christian Living wanted to arrange a daily encounter with this Word, and so he presented a second section after these six chief parts of Christian teaching, a second section which instructed the learners on how to say their prayers in the morning and evening and at the table. Luther caught the rhythm of daily human life, and so he made these places where believers could design an encounter with the Word of the Lord. In the morning when you rise, he says, make the sign of the cross. He had none of the 20th-century Protestant tendency to shy away from the sign of the cross. He believed that repeating that baptismal mark, the name under which we were named, is a good and helpful discipline for returning our thoughts to Calvary. And then kneeling or standing, he says, say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, a basic review of what God has in mind for us in the Scriptures in terms of His gospel and our response. And then Luther gave this prayer in addition to the Lord’s Prayer, which is suitable for beginning the day: “I [thank] Thee, [my] heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son, that Thou has [kept] me [this] night from all harm and danger. I [pray] Thee to keep me this day [also] from sin and all evil, that all my [doings and life] may please Thee. [For] into Thy hands I commend [myself], my body and soul, and all [things]. [Let] Thy holy angel [be with] me, that the Wicked [Foe] may have no power over me. [Amen].” Luther comprehends here the need for giving thanks and the need for the petitions of the day for God’s presence giving us safety from every evil; God’s presence giving us the power to please Him with all our lives; God’s presence through His holy angels that protects us from Satan himself. And then Luther says, after singing a hymn (and he suggested possibly one on the Ten Commandments, to kind of complete his catechetical review in the morning), but doing a hymn or whatever other devotion you like. Then go to your work joyfully. Encounter with the Word of God in the morning hours permits us to go to our work joyfully.
The rhythm of life includes the gift of food, and Luther provided a blessing before eating and after eating for the family to use, but also suitable for individual use. Luther begins with the words from Psalm 145:15-16, “The eyes of all [wait for] Thee, O Lord; and Thou givest them their food in due season. Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” And then he suggests saying the Lord’s Prayer and praying, “Lord God, heavenly Father,
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bless us and these Thy gifts which of Thy bountiful goodness Thou has bestowed on us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And at the close of the meal, believers were to use a conflation of Psalm texts from Psalms 106, 136, and 147, “And give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. He gives to the beasts their food and to the young ravens which cry, His delight is not in the strength of the horse nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.” And again, the Lord’s Prayer, followed by, “We give Thee thanks, Lord God our Father, for all Thy benefits through Jesus Christ.”
And at the end of the day, once again, as the believer is about to retire, Luther suggests the sign of the cross—in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and then saying the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. And then praying again a prayer similar to that of the morning, which gives thanks for the day, which seeks the forgiveness of sin, and which commends body and soul into the Father’s hand: “I [thank Thee], my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son, that Thou hast graciously [kept me] this day and I [pray] Thee to forgive me all my sins, [where] I have done [wrong], [and] graciously [keep] me [this] night. [For] into Thy hands I commend my[self], [my] body and soul, and all [things]. Let Thy holy angel [be with] me, that the Wicked Foe may have no power over me, Amen.” And then Luther says, “Quickly lie down and sleep in peace.” For, Luther believed, we are always in the hand of God, and therefore, we may always sleep and live in peace.
Finally, Luther completed his catechism with what is often called the table of duties. To use our terminology in our presentation of his understanding of the Christian’s calling, this is a table of responsibilities, simply a table for living out the callings of God in the various situations of human life within our responsibilities.
And so, Luther began with the responsibilities God gives in the church, using I Timothy 3’s instruction for bishops and pastors and preachers, and then admonishing Christian hearers to provide for their pastors and teachers and to listen to them and to learn well from them. He reviewed the duties of governing authorities to take care of their subjects, on the basis of Romans 13. And he reminded—using a number of other passages as well as Romans 13—that subjects are to obey the governing authorities in every way, but, of course, to obey God rather than man if it comes to that. He then provided instructions for husbands and wives, on the basis of a number of Scripture passages, and used Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 to remind parents of their obligation to their children and children of their obligations to their parents. He
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addressed the callings of laborers and servants and of masters and mistresses. And he closed this table of responsibilities by addressing young persons with the admonition of I Peter 5:5-6; widows with the admonition of I Timothy 5:5-6; and Christians in general by commending to them a life which is summed up in, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” [Matthew 19:19], a life which, in the words of Paul in I Timothy 2, gives supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for all people.
This was Martin Luther’s understanding of the Christian’s life, a life that was lived out where God has called, according to His Word, according to the Word which has given new life through death and resurrection in Jesus Christ, a life which lives a song of praise to God, confessing Him as Father and confessing self as a child of God because God has loved us in Jesus Christ.
