Martin Luther on Good Works – What Does This Mean?

Five Hundred years ago, Martin Luther completed his Treatise on Good Works, explaining several of the key insights of Lutheran theology. It went to the printers sometime from the middle to the end of May 1520 and was in the hands of Philip Melanchthon by June 8. Originally, the reformer intended it to be a sermon for his Wittenberg parish, but grew into a little book at the urging of his prince, Frederick the Wise through his secretary, Georg Spalatin, Luther’s good friend.

Luther feared that, as much as he had already published, it would not be read. He was very much mistaken. It was reprinted eight times by December 1520 and six more times in 1521. Before long it was translated into Latin. very quickly it appeared in English, French, Dutch, and Low German. This treatise has received very little attention, given that, very shortly after it was published, Luther produced a work that denied the Pope was the vicar of Christ, followed by others that taught all Christians were priests and had a leadership role in the church, that there were only two, or maybe three, sacraments and that Christians were at the same time free and subject to no one, but slaves of all, subject to all.

In this work, Luther explains that salvation and faith are not earned by good works, but that good works flow from salvation and faith. Because Christians naturally love God and want to please him, they do good works without giving them a second thought. No work done apart from faith is truly good. And for a Christian, living in the vocation that God has given to him or her, everything they do is truly a good work.

Martin Luther also redefined in this treatise what “Good Works” actually were. In the Middle Ages, good works came to mean religious actions such as attending mass, making pilgrimages to holy sites, prayers, purchase of indulgences, pledging to God that you would remain celibate and a host of other spiritual exercises. Dr. Luther explains that none of these things that were recommended by the church, impressive in the eyes of people as they were, are not good works at all. At best, they distracted from performing true good works — those commanded by God.

The Treatise on Good Works took the form of an extended commentary on the Ten Commandments. Many of Luther’s observations in it will sound very familiar to Lutherans — Dr. Luther would repeat many of them a decade later in his Large and Small Catechisms.

One comment the reformer made sounds strange to Lutheran ears. He teaches that faith is the first and greatest work a Christian does. In it are all other works. Theologian Norman Nagel used to explain that early on “Luther was not a Lutheran. the goose is in the oven, but he is not quite cooked yet.” And so it was. Luther and his friends would soon come to understand faith as purely a gift of God, created in the heart of believers by the Holy Spirit when he saves them in the waters of Holy Baptism and by the power of his word. Faith, we now believe is a Christian’s trust in God to keep his promises.