Luther’s Works, Volume 33
Overview
On the Bondage of the Will was considered by Luther himself as one of his best writings. This particular treatise is a reply to Erasmus’ work On the Freedom of the Will. Students of Luther and the Reformation period will welcome the helpful footnotes and many excerpts from Erasmus’ writings that accompany On the Bondage of the Will.
Top Highlights
“The Holy Spirit is no Skeptic, and it is not doubts or mere opinions that he has written on our hearts, but assertions more sure and certain than life itself and all experience.” (Volume 33, Page 24)
“Therefore, Christian faith is entirely extinguished, the promises of God and the whole gospel are completely destroyed, if we teach and believe that it is not for us to know the necessary foreknowledge of God and the necessity of the things that are to come to pass. For this is the one supreme consolation of Christians in all adversities, to know that God does not lie, but does all things immutably, and that his will can neither be resisted nor changed nor hindered.” (Volume 33, Page 43)
“At this Luther wryly observes that people seem more upset by the injustice of God’s wrath in damning the undeserving than by the injustice of his grace in saving the undeserving!” (Volume 33, Page 9)
“But if we are unwilling to let this term go altogether—though that would be the safest and most God-fearing thing to do—let us at least teach men to use it honestly, so that free choice is allowed to man only with respect to what is beneath him and not what is above him. That is to say, a man should know that with regard to his faculties and possessions he has the right to use, to do, or to leave undone, according to his own free choice, though even this is controlled by the free choice of God alone, who acts in whatever way he pleases. On the other hand in relation to God, or in matters pertaining to salvation or damnation, a man has no free choice, but is a captive, subject and slave either of the will of God or the will of Satan.” (Volume 33, Page 70)
- Title: Luther’s Works, Volume 33
- Authors: Martin Luther, Jaroslav Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, Helmut T. Lehmann
- Series: Luther’s Works
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Print Publication Date: 1972
- Logos Release Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History; Lutheran Church; Theology › Early works to 1800
- Resource ID: LLS:42.110.133
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-11T15:35:03Z