Justification
The Dynamics of Sin and Grace
The Dynamics of Sin and Grace
- Instead of insisting the human being attain perfection, Lutheran spirituality begins by facing up to imperfection. We cannot perfect our conduct, try as we might. We cannot understand God through our own intellects. We cannot become one with God.
- We do not have to ascend to God; rather, the good news is that He has descended to us. Lutherans insist that there is nothing we can do, but that God does literally everything.
- Human sin and God's grace are the two poles of Lutheran spirituality. They are resolved in the principle by which, it is said, the church stands or falls; justification by grace through faith.
Paths to God
- Moralism -- seeks to earn God's favor, or a satisfying life, through the achievement of moral perfection. Good people go to heaven, it is thought, while bad people go to hell.
- Speculation -- the assumption that knowledge is the key to spiritual fulfillment. Many answers have been offered, but they keep changing, as the history of human thought shows. One school of philosophy is succeeded by another, and even scientific theories keep having to be revised.
- Mysticism -- attaining the ecstatic experience of becoming one with God. The techniques of achieving such experiences are varied, from ascetic self-denial to elaborate methodologies of mediation, but they all promise spiritual ecstasy and supernatural empowerment.
- Lutheran spirituality begins with the insight that all human efforts to reach God are futile. God is the one who is active, not human beings. The issue is not our ascent to God, but God's descent to us.
