Bayer shows the wonder and the glory that is found in the God who creates faith through the Word we are sent to preach, the Word that gives us certainty in Christ preached and promised.
As I approach completing my second decade in the ministry, I have found there are a number of disciplines which serve me as a theologian and preacher. Among them are two I would like to highlight for this brief essay. First, I have found there is great benefit in reading one book a year that is above my pay grade, so to speak. It is important to be challenged and humbled by some of the Church’s great thinkers. I find my reading of scripture, preaching, and teaching are all greatly enhanced by this practice. Second, I have made it a practice to select specific theologians and authors as sort-of conversation partners. There are a few theologians and thinkers who I spend a good deal of time reading, wrestling with, disagreeing with, and learning from. I do not necessarily choose thinkers I agree with, but theologians whose ideas I find challenging, invigorating, and insightful.
For me, Oswald Bayer’s Promissio fulfilled both of these criteria. Bayer is one of the most significant Luther scholars in the past one hundred years. His book, Living by Faith, has become a great conversation partner for me. I read this little volume once a year as it reminds me to ground my preaching and teaching about any topic or text in the reality of God’s justifying Word and work, even as I find myself wrestling with some of his conclusions. Promissio is the long-awaited English translation of Bayer’s dissertation. Though very dense and technical, taking up this challenging work will prove invaluable for preachers.
In Promissio, Bayer discusses when, exactly, Martin Luther’s theology became truly “reformational.” It has long been a discussion among historians as to what precise point Luther ceased to hold to the teachings of the Roman Catholic tradition and began to embrace the Pauline idea that the sinner is righteous before God by faith alone on account of Christ Jesus. By meticulously examining Luther’s lectures, writings, and teaching notes (scholion) from the 1510’s into the early 1520’s, Bayer proves Luther’s reformational turn did not come about as a sort of “Damascus Road” conversion, but through a deep wrestling with God’s Word and the contrary teachings of the church. Bayer concludes that, by 1520, Luther has taken the reformational turn. This is demonstrated in his work, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, where Luther shows how, Biblically, a proper view of the sacraments and the sacramental system is grounded in the concept of the promise (promissio).
Luther arrives at this view in his search for certainty that God is for him when he rediscovers how the words of absolution given to the penitent are “gifting words” which actually enact the forgiveness of sins and are not conditioned on some inner disposition of the one who confesses. This is accomplished through faith alone, a gift that is received, not one which is earned. Prior to Luther’s reformational turn, Bayer shows how Luther’s tropological reading of scripture (that is, a reading of the text that moralizes the Bible and turns the reader ever in on themselves) leads him to believe that certainty of God’s love can only be found in hating the things God hates, including my own sinful flesh and, more shockingly, anything good one might love more than God. Only once you actually hate yourself and your life will you truly know the love of God. This obviously drove Luther to despair. After all, who could ever really know if they sufficiently hate themselves. Preaching and the Word, in this system of thought, are not about God’s love for us in Christ, but how Christ is the example of the way we should suffer our crosses to find God’s favor. Ultimately, the Christian life and, therefore, the preaching of Word and Sacrament, turn us inward for certainty. “All the weight is put on inner penance.” (182, italics mine) The only word of God you can trust in this system is the word of judgment. You can only be certain of what God hates, and your job is to make sure you hate the same things, even if that includes you!
God’s love is found, not when I hate what He hates, but when Jesus delivers a promise into my ears.
The turn comes as Luther is embroiled in the Indulgence Controversy. His debates with Rome drive him deeper into the scriptures where he discovers that God deals with us, not in terms of hatred, but in terms of promise. God’s love is found, not when I hate what He hates, but when Jesus delivers a promise into my ears. Bayer writes:
“If, according to his early theology, judgment and grace, law and gospel, met in a single, external form of the word, the word of judgment, which only became righteousness through an inner change or smooth transition from judgment, Luther now discovered the external independence and otherness of the word of salvation, which although related to the word of judgment, is distinguished from it... in discovering the otherness of the word of salvation, he discovered the reformational distinction between law and gospel. In direct correspondence to this... faith, which is now seen as created by the oral public word of salvation, is distinguished from contrition and is itself no longer the confession of sins and supplication... The oral and public word of salvation, which is distinguished from the word of judgment, is the basis of the certainty of faith.” (205-206)
In other words, Luther did not abandon the reality that sin is something to be hated. God’s judgment against it still stands in the Law. But the Gospel is an entirely different Word from God. It is an unconditional promise of forgiveness which creates faith when it is publicly proclaimed. That is, it creates a sure and certain trust resulting from the sure and certain promise that God not only forgives sinners, but forgives YOU, on account of Christ. That faith is created in you when the promise outside of you is proclaimed to you by the preachers God Himself has sent in truth. That Word is given in the absolution, in preaching, in baptism, and most clearly in the Lord’s Supper. Luther’s discovery of the centrality of this promise in the oral, public proclamation of the Word (outside of you but for you), is what launched the Reformation.
So, how does working through a technical work on Luther’s reformational turn benefit us as preachers? I have at least two take-aways. First, Bayer’s treatment of Luther’s early theology should serve as a warning to preachers. When you take the scriptures, which are God’s Word of Law and Gospel intended to deliver Christ to us, and make them nothing more than morality lessons on how the Christian should live and, in the case of Luther’s early theology, suffer, then you turn gifts into demands and create uncertainty in your hearers. Such uncertainty is the enemy of faith and the promises God makes to create such faith. God does not make promises in order for us to turn in on ourselves and doubt His promises. He also does not give His Word to us so we can hate ourselves, but so we can be certain of His love for us. Bayer’s work shows us how all theological work, especially preaching, is to create faith in Jesus and should not end in despair of self.
The second great benefit of this book is to remind us of our calling as pastors. In the “Retrospective Afterword,” written by Bayer in 2023, he shows us the fruit of his study for preachers. Luther’s discovery of the promise shows preachers, in a rather invigorating manner, what our job is. He writes,
“This reformational description of the office of the ministry reminds me that, as a pastor, I am called to bring God’s promise to the people with a troubled conscience.” (411)
This understanding of the office then guides the way the preacher engages the text as he prepares for proclamation:
“As a preacher, I still find that I always do my best when I read and hear the text for the sermon with the following questions in mind: ‘What is its promissional structure? Where is the promise to be found?’ It is amazing what you discover when you do this. You find that the biblical texts are full of promises.” (412)
This book is no easy read. It will require focused energy on your part, but it is energy well-spent. A long examination of Luther’s reformational turn may not initially strike one as being beneficial for the weekly work that takes place in the pulpit. But, in showing us the crisis of uncertainty which results from Luther’s early theology, Bayer’s work succeeds in instructing preachers on the dangers of moralizing the Christian life. And, more so, it shows the wonder and the glory that is found in the God who creates faith through the Word we are sent to preach, the Word that gives us certainty in Christ preached and promised.
