The Freedom of a Christian E-Book

Martin Luther

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Crossway Short Classics
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Martin Luther's Classic Work, Newly Translated by Robert Kolb Originally published in 1520, The Freedom of a Christian is one of Martin Luther's most well-known and enduring treatises. In it, Luther examines Christian ethics and how justification by faith alone impacts the liberty of believers. He famously writes, "A Christian is a free lord of everything and subject to no one. A Christian is a willing servant of everything and subject to everyone." Luther also further develops ideas and doctrines that were key to the Reformation, such as the priesthood of all believers and union with Christ. This addition to the Crossway Short Classics series features a new translation from the original German to English by renowned Reformation scholar Robert Kolb. The Freedom of a Christian reminds modern-day readers that it is ultimately grace that transforms God's people and frees us to love and obey.  - Accessible: Helpful for those looking to learn more about Luther and the Christian life, both new Christians and seasoned saints alike - Part of the Crossway Short Classics Series: Introducing modern-day readers to classic works of faith—other volumes include Fighting for Holiness; Heaven Is a World of Love; and The Emotional Life of Our Lord   - New Translation: Translated from the original German by world-renowned scholar Robert Kolb, author of Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith.  - Foreword by Carl R. Trueman: Author of the bestselling book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self 

Leseprobe

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The Freedom of a Christian

The Crossway Short Classics Series

The Emotional Life of Our Lord

B. B. Warfield

Encouragement for the Depressed

Charles Spurgeon

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

Thomas Chalmers

Fighting for Holiness

J. C. Ryle

The Freedom of a Christian

Martin Luther

Heaven Is a World of Love

Jonathan Edwards

The Life of God in the Soul of Man

Henry Scougal

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People

Francis A. Schaeffer

Selected Sermons

Lemuel Haynes

The Freedom of a Christian

A New Translation

Martin Luther

Translated by Robert Kolb

The Freedom of a Christian: A New Translation

Copyright © 2023 by Crossway. Translated by Robert Kolb.

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

Cover image: Bridgeman Images

First printing 2023

Printed in China

Scripture quotations in the biography are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations in Luther’s text are translations of Luther’s translations, and thus biblical quotations do not correspond necessarily to any English version precisely.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8226-4 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8229-5 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8227-1 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8228-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546, author. | Kolb, Robert, 1941- translator. 

Title: The freedom of a Christian : a new translation / Martin Luther ; translated by Robert Kolb. Other titles: Tractatus de libertate Christiana. English

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Series: Crossway short clasics series | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2022012723 (print) | LCCN 2022012724 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433582264 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433582271 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433582288 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433582295 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Liberty—Religious aspects—Christianity. 

Classification: LCC BR332.S6 L88 2023 (print) | LCC BR332.S6 (ebook) |

DDC 233/.7—dc23/eng/20220714

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012723

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012724

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2023-01-18 02:41:04 PM

Contents

Foreword by Carl R. Trueman

Series Preface

Biography of Martin Luther

The Freedom of a Christian

Scripture Index

Foreword

The year 1520 was remarkable for Martin Luther. With the issuing of the papal bull against him, it was becoming clear that there would be no easy and peaceful end to the crisis in Electoral Saxony. And in this context, Luther began to look in two directions. He still hoped against hope that some understanding with Pope Leo X might be possible; and he began to prepare the intellectual framework for a new type of theology. With regard to the latter, he produced three great treatises: The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, An Address to the German Nobility, and The Freedom of a Christian . Taken together, they offer a thoroughgoing manifesto of reform.

The Babylonian Captivity critiqued the medieval sacramental system and proposed an approach that reconfigured baptism and the Mass in clear relation to the prior preached word. The word of God and the believer’s grasping of it by faith were the decisive factors in sacramental efficacy. The Appeal to the German Nobility offered an ambitious revision of the relationship between church and state, and laid the groundwork for understanding the social and cultural outworking of Luther’s approach to salvation. And The Freedom of a Christian presented a revised form of Christian ethics—revised, that is, in light of Luther’s emerging concept of justification, church, sacraments, culture, politics, and ethics. Luther presented a thoroughgoing example of what reformation in the Saxon key might sound like.

It is the Freedom that you have before you. It is a vital text in the Luther canon because it makes clear both how practically different good works are in a Lutheran context—the fruit of forgiveness, not a basis for forgiveness—and the fact that works are still necessary for the believer, a point on which Catholics then and now challenge Protestants. To be forgiven, Luther argues, is to be freed from the law; and the response to freedom from the law is to do good works for one’s neighbor as a matter of spontaneous, grateful response. As Christ worked for us, not for his benefit but for ours, so we are called to be “little Christs” to our neighbors—not in the unique, salvific sense that applies only and exclusively to Jesus, but in the sense that our grace toward our neighbors is analogous to his grace toward us. Like Jesus, we do works for our neighbors motivated by love, not by law.

This is something the church must never forget. The Christian life is motivated by the gospel, not by the law. It is the promises of God, and love for God and neighbor, that provide the dynamic for good works. As soon as Christians start to rely on their good works for their standing before God, as soon as they start to do them in order to be right with God, then the character of the Christian life starts to degenerate from that of sons and daughters pleasing their Father to that of servants or employees earning a wage from their boss. And on this, Luther’s little essay is excellent, as it is on the importance of the word preached. As Luther makes clear, the conscience is free for good works when the word of promise comes from outside, in its declaration by the preacher. Christians need to be reminded of the promise continually, and that is why we need to be in church and hearing that promise proclaimed.

Readers should remember, of course, that this is an early text from the Reformation Luther. He himself was to discover that a simple focus on the unconditional promise of God could lead to professing Christians, remaining sinful as they do, twisting the very gospel itself into an excuse for evil and then acting in any way they pleased. And to be motivated by love does not necessarily make the content of an action godly or good. That is even truer today, when the concept of love has become little more than a sentiment with little or no moral shape at all. And thus in the late 1520s, Luther wrote his Small Catechism that fleshed out in more detail what works of love might actually look like. But the basic dynamic of Lutheran ethics is here in the 1520 treatise: good works flow from a life justified by faith in the promises of God. And that remains a solid rock on which to build today.