Martin Luther

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MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN But he is equally opposed to those whom he calls fanatics. They held that it is the Christian's task to seek to rule society by the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, and that evil should not be resisted, but all earthly law and power abolished. It is contrary to the will of God to try to rule the world through the Gospel. God has ordained an entirely different authority to rule the world. It is in accordance with His will that power and the sword are used to that end, and the world is under the sway of that authority, and not of the Gospel. The Two Kingdoms and the "Autonomy" of Worldly Life Since the power in the hands of an individual can be miused how can it be corrected? Luther’s answer is ‘It is not the business of the spiritual ministry to bear the sword, but it must demonstrate the Christian way of bearing it.’ In his "Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount," Luther remarks that : "anyone who claims to be a Christian and a child of God, not only does not start war or unrest; also he gives help and counsel on the side of peace wherever he can, even though there be a just and adequate cause for going to war.” Romans 13:1 - 2 - Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 1 Peter 2:13 - 14 - Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. Jesus calls us to love our enemies—that means we can’t take up arms against them. The Church is betraying an essential part of its mission if it does not continually, exhort, warn, and remind those in earthly authority of the Law of God to which they are subject. It might be concluded that since the new age has come, we are to be freed from the old. But this is not wholly true. He who has come to faith through Christ has not ceased to be a child of Adam; he who has been justified through Christ has not ceased to live in this world of sin and death. . “A Christian, is at the same time justified and still a sinner. This dualism arises from his allegiance to ‘two kingdoms, God's and the world‘s. He not only owes allegiance to this world, his whole being is firmly knit with it and into it.” The relation in which the two ages stand to one another is not such that the new has supplanted the old. The old lives on, and continues to exercise its authority over the Christian. He is a dweller in two worlds, and St. Paul's words in Romans XII speak out directly to him, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." The error of the fanatics is clear. They do not take the present world with due seriousness. They seem to imagine that the kingdom of God has come in the fullness of its majesty. The Gospel applicable to the new world they make into a law applicable to the old. They do not face the reality of the old world, and thus they falsify the Gospel. But God has one order for this world and another for the new, and we may not confuse the two with impunity. It is equally clear where the secularists have gone astray. 82
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN They live in this world as if it were the only one, as if there were no God. They take the view that even if Christianity has anything to say about a future life, it has no relevance to the present. In the midst of our present existence God lays His mandate upon us, and His mandate is unvarying. In the final analysis, it is always a ministering love which He requires of us, whatever our station in this life. In love and service the preacher of the Word must work for the salvation of men through the Gospel. In love and service the ruler must administer law and justice, defend the country against attack, punish the offender. The strict enforcement of this latter might seem to be the antithesis of love but for all that it is the work of God’s love which the ruler performs for the good of society. If, for the sake of giving to his conduct the appearance of love, the ruler were to permit law and justice to be trampled under foot, or to let his country be overrun by an invader, he would be false to the task entrusted him by God: he would be false to love. Any use of power for its own sake is serving the devil. Power is a deadly temptation to selfishness and vainglory, and for that reason "He who would be a Christian ruler must put away the thought that he would rule and be mighty. For the mark of judgment is upon all life whose end is self-advancement, and upon all works which are not done in love. And these are done in love when their end is not the desire or advantage or honour or comfort of the doer, but the honour and advantage and good of others." Luther himself did not permit any war. He did not support the doctrine of Just War. Later Lutheran theologians did propose that to allow military services. 83
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Martin Luther

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