Luther’s Deliverdict?

Aulen again, quoting passages from Luther’s Galatians commentary: “To destroy sin, to smite death, to take away the curse by Himself, to bestow righteousness, bring life to light, and give the blessing: to annihilate the former, and to create the latter: this is the work of God’s omnipotence alone. But when Scripture ascribes to Christ all this, then is He Himself the Life, and Righteousness, and Blessing — that is, in His nature and His essence He is God. Therefore those who deny Christ’s Deity lose all Christianity and become mere heathens and Turks. Therefore the article of justification must, as I am continually saying, be exactly understood. For in this all the other articles of our faith are included, and if this remain whole then all the others remain whole. When therefore we teach that men are justified through Christ, and Christ is the conqueror of sin, death, and the everlasting curse, then at the same time we testify that He is in His nature God.”

Possibly, one could read Luther as distinguishing the narrowly forensic notion of justification as a conferral of righteous status from the more dynamic, military image of Christ as the conqueror of the curse. Perhaps he is merely saying that justification, LIKE the deliverance from the curse, is the work of God alone.

But the appearance of justification in this discussion is itself an intriguing fact, as is Luther’s insistence on the necessity of affirming the deity of Christ. As Aulen sees it, Luther is teaching that saying “we are justified through Christ” is “one and the same thing as to say that He is the conqueror of sin, death, and the everlasting curse.” Luther appears to be hinting at justification as a “delierdict.”