Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume I)Luther, Martin
ReligionChristian
Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume I)
Luther, Martin
Lutheran Church -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 16th century -- Early works to 1800
In the distinction drawn between the sacramental sign and the
sacramental efficacy in paragraphs seven and eight, the
Protestant distinction between justification and sanctification
is involved. The one baptised, becomes in his baptism, wholly
dead to the condemning power of sin; but so far as the presence
of sin is concerned, the work of deliverance has just begun. This
is in glaring contrast with the scholastic doctrine that original
sin itself is entirely eradicated in baptism.[9] For baptism but
begins the constant struggle against sin that ends only with the
close of life. Hence the warning against making of baptism a
ground for presumption, and against relaxing the earnestness of
the struggle upon the assumption that one has been baptised. For
unless baptism be the beginning of a new life, it is without
meaning.
Nor is the error less fatal which resorts to satisfactions,
self-chosen or ecclesiastically appointed, for the forgiveness of
sin committed after baptism. For as every sin committed after
baptism is a falling away from baptism, all repentance is a
return to baptism. No forgiveness is to be found except upon the
terms of our baptism. Never changing is God's covenant. If broken
on our part, no new covenant is to be sought. We must return to
the faith of our childhood or be lost. The Mediæval Church had
devised a sacrament of penance to supplement and repair the
alleged broken down and inoperative sacrament of baptism.
Baptism, so ran the teaching, blotted out the past and put one on
a plane to make a new beginning; but, then, when he fell, there
was this new sacrament, to which resort could be taken. It was
the "second plank," wrote Jerome, "by which one could swim out of
the sea of his sins." "No," exclaimed Luther, in the Large
Catechism, "the ship of our baptism never goes down. If we fall
out of the ship, there it is, ready for our return." [10]
There are, then, no vows whatever that can be substitutes for our
baptism, or can supplement it. The baptismal vow comprehends
everything. Only one distinction is admissible. While the vow
made in baptism is universal, binding all alike to complete
obedience to God, there are particular spheres in which this
general vow is to be exercised and fulfilled. Not all Christians
have the same office at the same calling. When one answers a
divine call directing him to some specific form of Christian
service, the vow made in response to such call is only the
re-affirmation and application to a peculiar relation of the one
obligatory vow of baptism.[11]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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