Nominalism
is a movement in theology and philosophy which emerged in the late medieval
period. It is “an intellectual movement that stressed the power and activity of
the will rather than the intellect.” William of Ockham (1285-1347) is a
representative figure of Nominalism. Based on his theology, God has the power
to “do anything except what involves a logical contradiction.” Therefore, the
key point is what God has revealed to us, rather than what He can theoretically
do out of His wisdom to achieve something good and fitting for the creation.
“God’s actions are what God wills, and human actions are what human beings
decide to do based on their willingness to believe” (Lecture Notes of Lesson
9). Because of the heavy emphasis on the will, it becomes much less important
to understand the nature of God by human intelligence and reasoning.
Martin
Luther was trained as a nominalist during his vocation as an Augustinian monk.
He experienced great mental stress over this period and perceived God as an
angry judge who condemned and punished men because they sinned against Him.
Being a nominalist, Luther could only submit himself to the rules, regulations
and religious ceremonies of the Church with the hope to please God, but his
hard works only made him feel more sinful, weak, miserable and uncertain of
salvation. He confessed that he hated God as a result. He spoke of his own
experience in his Commentary on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians:
When
I was a monk I tried ever so hard to live up to the strict rules of my order. I
used to make a list of my sins, and I was always on the way to confession, and
whatever penances were enjoined upon me I performed religiously. In spite of it
all, my conscience was always in a fever of doubt. The more I sought to help my
poor stricken conscience the worse it got. The more I paid attention to the
regulations the more I transgressed them (Luther’s Commentary Gal 5:3).
Sent by
the prior of his monastery to study the Greek Bible, “Luther realized that
God’s righteousness was that by which He makes us righteous. Instead of an
angry, punishing God, he discovered a God of hope, love and mercy.” This was a
great discovery for Luther. Because of his highly positive experience, he
rebelled against his nominalist training which stressed on human will and
works. He also rejected the teaching that told Christians to do their best and
God would supply the needed grace. He considered the advice “hogwash,” which
would not give him a peaceful conscience because he would never know whether he
had done enough for God and for the sake of his own salvation (Lecture Notes of
Lesson 9). Moreover, he considered it unnecessary to use human reason to know
the nature of God because “human reason can think only in terms of the Law.” In
his opinion, reasoning could only make man do one thing or not doing another in
accordance with the church laws and regulations (Luther’s Commentary Gal
2:4-5). He advocated that “true Christian theology does not
inquire into the nature of God, but into God's purpose and will in Christ, whom
God incorporated in our flesh to live and to die for our sins” (Luther’s
Commentary Gal 1:3). Such thinking is indeed in line with the Nominalism he
abandoned that puts God’s will above and beyond God’s wisdom and nature.
Luther’s
spiritual experience and reflections led him to conclude that it is by faith in
Christ alone that sinners might
become righteous. He told his followers that “the true Gospel has it that we
are justified by faith alone, without the deeds of the Law. The false Gospel
has it that we are justified by faith, but not without the deeds of the Law.”
Good works and human merits would not bring about man’s salvation. On the other
hand, “faith is able to justify, because it apprehends Christ, the Redeemer”
(Luther’s Commentary Gal 2:4-5). This is because God so loved this world and
sent his Only Begotten Son to die on the cross for man’s salvation. Because of
Christ’s merits on the cross, we are saved from our sins and justified before
God. To Christians, “salvation is a ‘passive righteousness,’ meaning that it is
God’s work and not ours” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 9). Luther taught that “we
obtain grace by the free mercy of God alone for Christ's sake” (Luther’s
Commentary Gal 1:10). Instead of an angry and fearful God, Luther envisaged
that his theology, which was based on his personal experience, would prompt
Christians to “believe that God is merciful, loving, and patient; that He is
faithful and true, and that He keeps His promises” (Luther’s Commentary Gal
4:6). Moreover, one’s conscience would not be bound to any work or law, but
would be liberalized because of Christ.
Furthermore,
he condemned the Church leaders of his time that they taught “self-devised traditions
and works that are not commanded of God, (but) indeed are contrary to the Word
of God” (Luther’s Commentary Gal 1:7). The Pope should not be honored as such
because he only devised rules and regulations that were not God’s will which
would not make one righteous or justified by adhering to them. God’s revelation
is through the Scripture, particularly by the deeds and words of Jesus in the
Gospel (this thought is also in line with his nominalist training; only that he
did not consider the traditions and the magisterium to be part of God’s
revelation). Nobody including the Pope should be the supreme judge or
interpreter of the Scripture. Luther advocated that “we are not the masters,
judges, or arbiters, but witnesses, disciples, and confessors of the
Scriptures, whether we be pope, Luther, Augustine, Paul, or an angel from
heaven” (Luther’s Commentary Gal 1:9).
Although
Luther firmly believed that “justification is by faith alone,” we should not
take it to mean that he considered charity unimportant. He said, “Faith must of
course be sincere. It must be a faith that performs good works through love. If
faith lacks love it is not true faith” (Luther’s Commentary Gal 5:6). Despite
that faith must come first in order to know God and His will, it is necessary
for “all Christians to practice good works
after they have embraced the pure doctrine of faith, because even though
they have been justified they still have the old flesh to refrain them from
doing good” (Luther’s Commentary Gal 5:14). We may conclude Luther’s theology
by citing a simple quote from his Commentary on St. Paul’s Letter to the
Galatians: “By faith we are justified, by hope we endure to the end. In
addition we serve each other in love because true faith is not idle” (Luther’s
Commentary Gal 5:16).
Luther’s
“overwhelming positive experience” on God’s righteousness also prompted him to
formulate a “theology of the cross,” as opposed to what he experienced
previously which was called a “theology of the glory” (Lecture Notes of Lesson
9). In his theology of the cross, Luther reckoned that Christ is sinless and
innocent. Certainly, Jesus did not deserve to be hung on the cross for any
crime he had committed. Nonetheless, Christ took the place of sinners, and was
hung on the cross like other transgressors. In other words, Christ took all our
sins and died for them on the cross. He was “numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors”
(Isaiah 53:12). Through the cross, Christians would be able to see the loving
mercy of God the Father. Luther also recognized that it was impossible for men
to achieve perfection by following the Law. Moreover, he did not agree that it
was suffice for man “to do the best he can, and God will give him His grace”
(Luther’s Commentary Gal 2:20). In Luther’s opinion, doing good works and
gaining merits would not bring about one’s salvation, but might only result in
vainglory. On the other hand, Christ died for our sins on the cross. “The Law
kills Christ. But we go free.” As the Son of God, “Christ’s righteousness is
unconquerable.” Because of his resurrection and his victory over sin, death and
the devil, “sin is defeated and righteousness triumphs and reigns forever”
(Luther’s Commentary Gal 3:13). Luther said, “I have no fear that God will cover
all my sins and take my imperfections for perfect righteousness” (Luther’s
Commentary Gal 3:6).
The
Cross of Christ is a sign of salvation. The cross should no longer be seen as “the
terror of divine judgment on sinners, but when we confront this terror and
judgment, we face the fear and doubt and recognize in it the love of a merciful
God, a God who saved us in spite of our sinfulness” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 9).
Through faith in Christ, God brings righteousness, life, and mercy to the
believers. Christ “gets our sins, we get his holiness.” As a result, there is
no need for a sinner to become desperate even if he cannot get rid of his
temptations and sins since living with faith in Christ, he should be able to
obtain the wisdom of salvation, and whenever he feels miserable, he can always
look for the Christ dying for him on the cross to comfort and save him. It is
therefore a consolation rather than a painful experience (Luther’s Commentary
Gal 3:13). “The experience of consolation and the end of anxiety comes to the
Christian when grace becomes the new law” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 9). By the
grace of Christ, Christians can obtain forgiveness of our sins and peace with
God, which in turn bring a happy conscience – borne by the personal experience
of Luther.
Luther’s
insight into the theology of the cross is basically orthodox in terms of
Christology. It can generally be seen as a development or extension of the
vicarious sacrifice theory of redemption adopted by the Patristic Fathers which
views “Christ saved men by the sacrifice of the cross by which he reconciled
them to God” (Mitros 430). Yet there is a point of caution since Luther had
pushed his theology to the extent that “the divine nature had to suffer in
order to save us” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 9). According to orthodox
Christology, we believe that Christ is one person in two natures. Christ who is
God-man suffered and died on the cross for our salvation. So, we can say that
God became a human being through Incarnation and truly died for us out of His
infinite love for mankind. However, this should be understood in the context of
communicatio idiomatum (communication
of proper qualities between the two natures) of the hypostatic union. What can
be properly attributed to one nature may not be properly attributed to the
other. For example, the Gospel mentioned that Jesus grew in wisdom and strength
in the favor of God and man (Luke 2:40, 52) suggests that his human nature was
not infinite (unlike his divine nature). Similarly, it is unorthodox to admit
that the divine nature of God (or Christ), which is unchangeable, was subject
to suffering and even death. Luther’s notion of “divine passibility,” echoed by
some contemporary Lutheran theologians including Jurgen Moltmann and Dennis
Ngien, is based on the argument that “God's suffering love for humanity,
working in freedom, must flow out of the fullness of God's being. Furthermore,
to love in the fullness of his being, God must reciprocally take suffering,
even death, into his own being.” However, divine passibility may cause
philosophical as well as theological (soteriological) problems.
If
God actually and intrinsically dies, then the whole of creation, which He alone
sustains, must also die with Him. Furthermore, a death experienced by God
within which He may still actively sustain creation or resurrect Himself is not
a death in solidarity with that experienced by humanity (Anders “Divine
Impassibility”).
Therefore,
despite that Luther’s theology of the cross can help Christians to better
appreciate the love of God for us; it would require a proper understanding to
avoid causing confusion between the divine and human natures of the God-man
Jesus Christ, which had been historically misunderstood in Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
Bibliography
Anders, Peter D.
"Divine Impassibility and Our Suffering God – How an Evangelical ‘Theology
of the Cross’ Can and Should Affirm Both." Modern Reformation. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.
Coogan, Michael D. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New
Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Hammond, David. Lecture
Notes for TH 530 Lesson 9 – Luther’s Christology.
Luther, Martin. Commentary on St. Paul’s Letter to the
Galatians.1535. Project Gutenberg. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.
Mitros, Joseph.
“Patristic Views of Christ's Salvific Work,” Thought 42 (1967), 415-447. Print.
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