| Who was Martin Luther? | Martin Luther was a German monk and professor of theology who felt a deep sense of sinfulness and profound anxiety for his soul’s salvation. |
| What did Martin Luther do to try and cleanse his sinfulness? | He tried all the spiritual paths available to him to cleanse him of his constant feeling of sinfulness as he felt disturbed by God’s utter power and the fact no unclean being could be presented before him. |
| What four paths did he take? | The penitential path, the mystical path, hating god and beginning to teach the bible. |
| What was the penitential path? | Penance is one of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church, designed to offer God’s healing in return for the confession of sins to a priest. During Luther’s quest to find peace he threw himself into confession. |
| What was wrong with the penitential path? | He found that he couldn’t remember every sin he had committed and would find himself having to repent multiple times a day. |
| What was the mystical path? | One of his advisors suggested he must strip himself of all assertiveness, arrogance, pride and self-seeking behaviour. In mysticism, this happens through a quasi surrender during meditation. |
| What was the problem with mysticism? | Luther however believed that his human nature was too entrenched in rebellion against God to reach these experiences again. |
| Why did he hate God? | His turmoil increased as he continued to fixate on the unbridgeable gap between him and God. |
| What did he say about this turmoil with God? | “Is it not against all-natural reason that god out of his mere whim deserts men, hardens them... he who said to be of such mercy and goodness?” |
| What happens when he starts teaching the bible? | He was startled to see Jesus ask “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” - this was exactly how he felt |
| What is sola fide? | This led him to start to study certain Bible passages in which he formed his theory that you are justified by faith only and not works. |
| What scriptures did he use to back him up? | Romans 1:17 , Romans 5:1 , Ephesians 2:8- 9 , Galatians 2:16 |
| Galatians 2:16 | "know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified." |
| Ephesians 2:8- 9 | For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works so that no one can boast. |
| Romans 5:1 | "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." |
| Romans 1:17 | For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." |
| What does it say in James? | The epistle of James maintains that ‘a person is justified by works and not faith alone’ which is contradictory to Luther’s statements. |
| What does Luther say in response to the epistle of James? | Luther concluded that the epistle of James was an ‘epistle of straw’ that had ‘nothing of the nature of the gospel about it’. |
| What did E.P Sanders have to say about faith and works? | E.P Sanders thought it was essential that the writings of Paul were read in context. |
| What context does E.P Sanders put faith and works into? | E.P Sanders recognises the part Judaism as it was at the time had to play in this time when the religion focused on works (kosher food laws, circumcision, observing Sabbath etc). Jews entered the covenant by grace but remained it by works. |
| What does E.P Sanders argue Paul was trying to say? | Paul, therefore, realised through his faith in Jesus Christ that to achieve justification you need to do more than follow the commandments of Moses but also have faith in Jesus Christ. |
| What does E.P Sanders think of Luther's message? | Luther and many other theologians had misinterpreted them to mean Paul was opposed to ‘good works’ when this isn’t what he was saying at all. |
