CKB on Wesley’s Debt to Luther

Last updated on: March 7, 2024 at 1:12 am by Ben Witherington

CKB on Wesley’s Debt to Luther 2024-02-18T21:42:27-05:00 Ben Witherington

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The common debt that all Christians, including Catholics share to Luther, is that the man existed, and had an effect on all history, and on the story of the whole church. This means telling some of the story. He was born in 1483, the son of a miner who prospered, and could afford to send his son to good schools. He was a bright boy and had the usual schooling with much Latin at Magdeburg and Eisenach. He did University at Erfurt taking a B.A. in 1502, and an M.A. 1505 so that he might become a wealthy lawyer. He had the world at his feet. In Stottheim on July 2 he cried out ‘St. Anne help me! I will become a monk!’ He saw this as the only safe way for himself, a sort of second baptism, in any case something supernatural happened with him at the altar in Magdeburg. On July 17th he entered the cloister. May 1507 he was to perform his first mass, and it was nearly a disaster. His father was someone who took God seriously and he asked ‘have you not read Honor your father and mother? God grant your entering the cloister was not delusion of the Devil.’ Hence his troubles as a monk. He was a good monk, but had no peace. His mentor Staupitz to whom he confessed again and again told him to consult the Bible, and ‘fly to the wounds of Jesus’. He would confess and then shortly thereafter remember something else he thought was a sin. Finally, he was given the task of teaching Scripture at Wittenburg– Psalms in 1513, 1515 Romans, 1516 Galatians, 1517 Hebrews. Here finally he found what he sought, particularly in Ps. 22 and Rom. 1. This leads to the famous 95 Theses on the Wittenburg Door, which led to debate in Leipzig, then inquiry at the Diet of Worms, then Bible translation at Wartburg. Luther hoped to put the whole church, particularly the Catholic church back on the right theological path. But part of that church preferred to stay where it was, and the rest had wandered away. But what was Wesley’s debt to Luther?

1)The structure of the Christian life. Justification by faith. Law and works approached the same way, out of legal right. cf. Paul, this has exemplary value though Wesley explicitly did not wish all to come this way. A premise leading to ‘sola fide’, but this is the entry to the new life, leading to sanctification, but faith and grace applied to every point in the new life. ‘Going on as at first I came…’

At this juncture he refers back to his previous lecture on Luther himself the application to Wesley in the last couple of pages of that lecture which is published on the 3/3/24 blog post.

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