The Freedom Of A Christian By Martin Luther

To the Christian Nobility – This literary work serves as a persuasive argument from Martin Luther to those who hold secular power in hopes of convincing them to take action in order to help reform the ways of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther lays out a foundation by saying that the Roman Catholic Church has built three walls in which to hide behind and protect the so-called authority that it possesses. The first of these “paper walls” is the declaration that temporal powers have no jurisdiction over the clergy, but Luther argues that every Christian is on the same playing field. The members of the clergy merely serve as the elected speakers of the body of Christ but are elevated no higher in status when it comes to the spiritual estate. …show more content…
Luther seems to butter up the pope by saying that the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church is not purely of Leo’s doing, but that of those that he surrounds himself with in leadership positions (i.e. the cardinals, bishops, etc.). While he may not intend to do any harm to the Roman Catholic Church or verbally bash the pope himself, Luther does not back down from saying that the Church is probably more corrupt than even those of Babylon and Sodom. In an effort to enlighten the pope to his ideas, Luther includes The Freedom of a Christian, which is a treatise that addresses the two-fold nature of Man: the inner spiritual man and the outer man. He says that no external factors can affect the state of the inner man and that things such as righteousness and freedom can only come with the acceptance and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The soul is justified by faith alone and not be works. The outer man may show works, but it is not necessary for salvation. Luther is of the opinion that works are the results or “fruits” of the Holy Spirit and they help to purify the earthly body from its lusts that it must deal with from day to …show more content…
In the preface to the Old Testament, he addresses mainly the people who are of the opinion that the Old Testament is no longer of any use to Christians when they have the New Testament. Luther, however, gently reminds readers that Jesus Himself referred to the Old Testament as “the Scripture” and told people of how the Old Testament pointed to His coming. Paul and Peter also encourage others to refer back to the Old Testament in their epistles. In short, Luther declares that the Old Testament should be read diligently and should also be highly regarded. The preface to the New Testament is Luther’s explanation of what he considers it to be, that being the “good news” or Gospel of Jesus Christ. While the Old Testament is a book of laws, Luther says, the New Testament is a preaching of the free benefits of Christ if one simply believes and has faith in