Martin Luther and the Rule of Faith
Twenty years after Staupitz had told Luther of his commission to preach and teach the Bible under the pear tree at the Black Cloister, Luther stood under the same pear tree with a student who had doubts of incompetence and weakness.[1]
A great deal had changed. The Black Cloister was no longer the house for the observant Augustinian order; it was now the Luther family residence (with rooms for visitors and student renters). Luther had been released of his vows of obedience by the vicar general of his order, excommunicated by the pope, and placed under imperial ban by the emperor. And Luther could offer comfort better than so what if the ministry of the word kills you? “Dear friend, that’s how it was with me too.”[2]
“You should preach to God not considering human judgments. If someone can do it better, he should. You should just preach Christ and the catechism. This wisdom will lift you above all judgments, for the word of God is wiser than humans.”[3]
Luther pointed the young preacher back to Jesus and the catechism. “Know that you are called. Christ must be yours, so that you may help praise him. In this stand firm.”[4]
Christ must be yours. This is the simple piety of Luther. He commends it to clergy and laity alike.
And that’s why Luther never left the simplicity and depth of the ancient catechism of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Our Father. The catechism unfolds the inner logic of the Bible. To know the catechism and to read the Bible by it is to read the Bible by its own light. “By your light we see light” (Ps 36:9).[5]
The catechism is like the ABCs of the Bible. It’s brief and accessible for young or old, learned or unlearned, and it can’t be replaced. You can never move on from the ABCs without losing the ability to read and write. In the same way, you can never move on from the catechism without losing the ability to read and hear God’s word. If you want to read and write, learn the ABCs. If you want to hear God’s word, learn the catechism.
And yet, as tends to be the case with common things, the catechism is despised. “Many regard the catechism as a simple, silly teaching which they can absorb and master at one reading. After reading it once they toss the book into a corner as if they are ashamed to read it again.”[6] Luther complained that folks were more interested in the apocalyptic of the Bible, the fables of the saints, and the dreams of the eccentric than in the simple, concrete, and personal words of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Our Father. That remains the case (though we might add historical criticism, archaeology, and the Enneagram to Luther’s list of apocalyptic, fables, and dreams).
The challenge and lesson of Luther’s analogy of faith is this: set aside the sweets and junk food of modern biblical studies and theology, and learn the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Our Father. “The longer they work with the catechism, the less they know of it and the more they have to learn. Only then, hungry and thirsty, will they truly relish what now they cannot bear to smell because they are so bloated and surfeited.”[7] Ponder and pray the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Our Father in your heart day in and day out; let these three great sermons shape you and let them form how you read and pray the Bible.
As a pastor and fellow Christian, Luther’s calling is to point to Jesus. That’s what the Bible is all about. See that man on the cross and that God in the manger? He is for you! He forgives your sin and gives you true life. Will you believe it? Will you trust his word and promise for you?
Luther recounts how he directed a downcast woman to Jesus Christ by pointing her back to the catechism. “Dear Mr. Doctor,” she told him, “I think I’m lost and can’t be saved, because I can’t believe!”
He responded: “Do you believe, dear woman, that it’s true what you pray in your Creed?” Luther remembers fondly how she received this question with joy. “She clasped her hands together: ‘Oh, that I believe! That’s certainly true.’ ” Luther comforted her. “Well, dear woman, then go forth in the name of God! You believe more and better than I!”[8]
Taken from Martin Luther and the Rule of Faith by Todd R. Hains. Copyright (c) 2022 by Todd Roger Hains. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com
Todd R. Hains (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is an academic editor at Lexham Press, where he launched and edits the Christian Essentials series, Lexham Ministry Guides, and a children’s catechism series (FatCat Books). He was previously the assistant project editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture and is the co-editor of the Acts volume in that series.
[1] WATR 3:187.27–29, 188.1–27 (macaronic witness), 188.30–42, 189.1–18 (German witness), no. 3143b. See also WATR 3:187.4–25, no. 3143a.
[2] WATR 3:188.1, no.3143b.
[3] WATR 3:188.6–9, no. 3143b (compare lines 39–41).
[4] WATR 3:188.12–13, no. 3143b.
[5] WADB 10,1:213.
[6] Preface to The Large Catechism (1529), BoC 1959, 359 (WA 30,1:120.5–8).
[7] Preface to The Large Catechism (1529) BoC 1959, 361 (WA 30,1:129.7–10).
[8] WATR 5:242.6–24, no. 5662, quoting lines 11–17.