Tentative Response--Faith not Works

1. Luther inveighs against the Church granting ‘indulgences’ in return for good works, for example helping build a cathedral. Indulgences can be described as ‘the remission of punishment (as in purgatory) due for sins. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution.” What’s wrong with that? How can this be said to ‘spark the Reformation’?

Luther fundamentally undermines the power of the Church as he suggests that indulgences or good works are not needed for salvation. For Luther faith and salvation are granted in two steps-- one, to know oneself as a sinner and two, to recognize that salvation will not come through your own works but the grace god send through Jesus Christ. The thinking that "whoever knows for sure that Christ is his righteousness not only cheerfully and gladly works in his calling but also submits himself for the sake of love to magistrates, also to their wicked laws, and to everything else in this present life--even, if it be, to burden and danger," Luther fundamentally challenges and further suggest that it is the "theology of the anti-Christian kingdom" (133). External proofs or works are not a requirement for salvation but merely faith is. Given such, indulgences or good works are insignificant. Challenged is the thought that any faithful performs good works and remains obedient to all earthly authority. When faith is all one need to follow Christ, the institution administering and overseeing the good works thought and taught as instrumental for salvation loses all power and influence. Moreover, the institution is claimed to be fraudulent, self-interested and blasphemous.