This is the fourth installment in our article series, “An Introduction to the Bondage of the Will,” written to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him.”
—John 1:1–3
At its core, the question of election is not simply, “Who will go to heaven?” but “Where does the power of salvation come from?” The bondage of the will is an assertion about power and action. It sees that God is the creator of heaven and earth and that, as the Almighty Creator, he is not dependent on anyone or anything else to act. It is also an assertion about you and who you are. The bondage of the will summarizes what Scripture states: you are a creature; you are sinful and unclean. Your will is bound to sin and cannot freely choose to love or trust in God.
God alone possesses the power to choose, to create, and to give life. The Bible gives us countless examples of how God exercises his power, and one of the most dramatic is the act of creation itself. God brought all things into being by his Word. He spoke, and it was so. The creation account teaches that God’s Word is not a mere symbol or message; it does something. God’s Word possesses his power and accomplishes his will.
When we ask about election, we must also ask about the Word, because God’s choice and his creative activity are always bound to his Word.
From the very first verses of Genesis to the opening of John’s Gospel, we see that the Word is the power of God at work. “In the beginning was the Word,” and this Word is not an impersonal force but a person, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. Through him all things were made, and through him the Father accomplishes his will. Therefore, when we ask about election, we must also ask about the Word, because God’s choice and his creative activity are always bound to his Word.
God, by his grace, has not left you alone. He does not leave you in your sin but has chosen to save you. He makes that choice known through his promise. At the fall of man into sin shortly after creation, God promised to save that which had been lost (Gen. 3:15). That promise was fulfilled totally in Christ, through one man all fell, and through one man all are saved (Rom. 5:18-19) And through Christ, God keeps promising. He promises faith, life, and salvation. But his Word of promise is not just a distant description; where he speaks, things are done and made.
When the Word is placed in baptism, his choice of salvation and faith is made in you in space and time
God gives you salvation through the preaching of his Word. Where his Word is proclaimed and placed, things are done just as they were at the beginning of the world. When the Word is placed in baptism, his choice of salvation and faith is made in you in space and time. When his promise, “This is my body, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” is spoken, the bread and the wine actually become so for you. The power of the Word means God is not waiting for sinners to choose, but that his choice actually comes to you and acts on you.
In asserting the clarity and perspicuity of Scripture, Martin Luther saw that God’s choice, like all his creative acts, is located in his Word. God’s will and choice may indeed exist before the foundation of the world, “but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (1 Pet. 1:19-20), not as a distant mystery but for your sake. God makes his eternal saving will effective for you through active preaching of his Word. God’s speaking is not passive; it is active. His Word does what it says.
This is true even of faith itself. As St. Paul writes, “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Faith is not self-generated; it is created by God through the external Word. Likewise, in baptism, it is not plain water that saves but water joined with the Word of God. The Word gives baptism its saving power. If we want to know the certainty of God’s election, his choice for us, we must go to his Word, for there God speaks his choosing Word directly to sinners.
Likewise, God’s active Word is not just gospel, but also law. To understand what God’s Word does and the actions it takes, law and gospel must be identified and distinguished. Or else as Luther notes, “He is bound to mix up everything, heaven with hell and life with death.”[1] The law of God is not an outline for human choice but the power of God accusing and condemning sin. In sin, the whole creation has become subject to the power of God’s law and death. The law is not merely a description of good behavior; it is a destructive force in a fallen world. It takes grasp of you and exposes your corruption. The law always accuses. It does not wait for you to fail before it acts; it is already at work, condemning and killing. As the Apostle Paul writes, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”(1 Cor. 15:56). In this way, all creation stands under the judgment of God’s Word in the law (Rom. 8:22).
God’s election is not a secret decree locked away in heaven.
Yet fortunately God has spoken another Word – his final Word – the Word of the gospel. This Word creates what did not exist before: faith, life, and salvation. The gospel proclaims that Christ has died and risen for you. This is not merely a general truth about the forgiveness of sins but a personal and particular promise that delivers what it declares. When you hear that Christ’s death and resurrection are for you, you receive God’s choice. His election becomes personal and real. The Word that once condemned now creates anew. It takes what was dead and makes it alive. It takes the sinner and makes them a child of God.
God’s election is not a secret decree locked away in heaven. It is a promise delivered here and now by his Word. Christ comes calling by his gospel, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10: 27-28). The preaching of Christ crucified and risen is God making his flock and saving them by his Word. Luther notes the passivity of the flock who,“know God as their shepherd; living in, and moved by, the Spirit, they follow wherever God wills.” [2] That is, when you hear and believe that Word, you are encountering God’s eternal will for you: to save, to forgive, and to make new.
The Word that once spoke the world into existence now speaks faith into your heart. The God who created all things by his Word re-creates you by that same Word. And in hearing it, you can be certain: you are chosen.
[1] Luther, Martin. The Bondage of the Will. Translated by J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston. Grand Rapids, MI: Revell, 1957, p. 164.
[2] Ibid, p. 311.
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