Theological Origins of Modernity

luther and the storm of faith 117
assent to a proposition, but a fundamental reorientation and redirection
of life. Th e life of faith is the mode of existence which fi nds its vital source
and center in God’s forgiving and renewing grace.” 66
Faith is not something chosen; it arises only through grace. Human beings
thus cannot come to believe or have faith by their own power. Th ey
are incapable of justifying themselves or of obligating God to justify or
save them by having faith in him. Rather they come to have faith and thus
warrant salvation because God wills it and graciously causes it to occur.
Faith alone saves, but humans have faith only because it is infused in them
by God, or to put the matter another way, they are saved because they have
faith but they only have faith because God has chosen to save them. Faith
is thus a mark of selection and predestination, not its cause.
Faith arises through an encounter with Scripture. Scripture is the means
by which God communicates with human beings. Th ere is no mystical individual
revelation. Faith is always faith in God’s word, but God’s word is
only known through Scripture. Scripture contains the truths about God
that are the premises of Christian life. Th ese truths are not based in reason,
but if humans live trusting that they are true, they discover a confi rmation
in themselves that is suffi cient to guide their lives and they discover
God responding to them in their hearts. 67 As Luther puts it, “Faith alone is
the saving and effi cacious use of the Word of God.” 68 God’s overt acts are
mysteriously concealed so that humans come face to face with him not in
the physical world but only in the inner response of their souls to the word
or Gospel. 69
In keeping with his nominalist training, Luther was convinced that the
reception of the word was a personal experience, but he insisted that it was
not a private and idiosyncratic revelation. Rather it was the result of an encounter
with Scripture within an interpretative community of fellow worshippers.
For Luther Scripture is always powerfully present, a voice speaking
to us here and now. Th is is the reason he emphasizes the spoken word
as the most powerful manifestation of God—in fact, the word was one of
Luther’s most powerful metaphors for God himself. 70 Th e word thus had to
be preached and heard, not merely read. In his Sermons on the Catechism
he prays: “Dear Father, grant thy Word, that it may be purely preached
throughout the world, and then grant grace and power that it may also
be accepted and the people believe. Th e fi rst concerns the Word and the
second the fruit of the Word. For if the Word is preached but not accepted,
the kingdom of God does not come.” 71 By preaching the Gospel the devil is
overthrown and the prisoner released from the kingdom of darkness to the
kingdom of light and liberty. 72 Hearing the word is the source of faith, the