Monday, November 6, 2017
573 - Performance Anxiety, Part 2
Spirituality Column #573
November 7, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Performance Anxiety, Part 2
By Bob Walters
“For in The Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” – Romans 1:17
As a young Catholic seminarian, priest, and monk, Martin Luther spent ten miserable years trying to confess enough of his sins to feel worthy of God’s redemption.
It was no picnic for the other priest, either, hearing Luther’s hours-long sin confessions of even sins he wasn’t sure he had committed, but they crossed his mind so Luther confessed them too, and then wondered about sins he might commit. It was exhausting and Luther was depressed; he could not be good enough for God.
Luther was certainly no obscure, crazed ascetic as legend sometimes implies. He was a near-legendary student, became a monk, was quickly elevated to Wittenberg University’s theological professorship, was the local church’s priest, and while still in his twenties was pastoral overseer of eleven churches. Luther even visited Rome early on as an emissary for his local archbishop in Saxony, Germany, on a matter of Church control and politics. Yet he still couldn’t pray his way to perfection; couldn’t work his way to redemption, couldn’t confess enough sin to be rid of it.
But Luther had done one specific and unique thing upon entering seminary that few others did, and it was what ultimately delivered him from depression and re-ordered the Church: Luther took the Bible he was given upon entering seminary and read it – something few priests did – and then applied it and preached it. That would get my vote for the greatest thing Luther did: he brought the Bible back into western Christianity.
His famed Ninety-Five Theses of 1517 were really just points of discussion, not rebellion, and written in Latin, like Bibles of the age, so few people could read them. The Theses focused on Indulgences (paying the church for “time off” in purgatory), not the whole of Catholic tradition and doctrine. But when others translated the Theses into German, and Luther himself translated the Latin Bible into German (New Testament 1522, Old Testament and Apocrypha in 1534), and Gutenberg’s printing press provided unprecedented mass production of these documents, soon the entire continent – including England - was scrutinizing, protesting and reforming Christian practices.
It is a deeply rich, complex, and continuing story. To me the touchpoint is Luther’s personal struggle with “not being good enough for God” but finding the answer – e.g. Romans 1:17 – in scripture. Even today, sincere, Biblically savvy Christians struggle with obedience, guilt, and shame, pleading for Godly knowledge and assurance that “they are good enough” and have “done enough.” Such personal angst often leads to sinful judgment of others’ “works” in a wrong, downward spiral of personal pride.
Are we good enough for God? No, not as we are, because God is perfect and we are sinful. But each one of us is created by God, in His image, in His love, for His glory. So be thankful first that God gave us the free will to seek and love Him, to believe in Him, and that He sent Jesus as our saving Christ who covers our sins and overwrites our earthly unworthiness into eternal glory. Our righteousness before God is a free faith thing, not an anxious human performance thing. Luther read all about it in the Bible.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves church but lives by faith in Jesus.
0 comments:
Post a Comment