Can I Know God's Will? Crucial Questions for Reformation Trust Seekers

I hope you will have the sweet experience of resting in the massive comfort of these truths. I want you to feel the tremendous incentive for love and righteousness and for risk-taking missions flowing from these truths. And I pray that your experience knowing and trusting the sovereign grace of God will be such that God gets great glory in your life.

can i know gods will crucial questions reformation trust

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She also knows that man is constantly worked upon by God's spirit, and hence can never be altogether indifferent to the problems of religion. The experience of past ages proves this, as do numerous indications in our own times. For man will always yearn to know, at least in an obscure way, what is the meaning of his life, of his activity, of his death. The very presence of the Church recalls these problems to his mind. But only God, Who created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides the most adequate answer to the questions, and this He does through what He has revealed in Christ His Son, Who became man. Whoever follows after Christ, the perfect man, becomes himself more of a man. For by His incarnation the Father's Word assumed, and sanctified through His cross and resurrection, the whole of man, body and soul, and through that totality the whole of nature created by God for man's use.

[8] Erasmus can be called a mitigated skeptic because he iswilling to suspend judgment in order to avoid what he considers tobe extreme and unwarranted perspectives. Mitigated skepticismsuggests a more reasoned or philosophical view that raises doubtsabout the reliability of the evidence offered to justify anyproposition. If the evidence, reasons, or proofs are not completelysatisfactory then there is a suspension of judgment. Mitigatedskepticism is not in opposition to religious beliefs but goes tothe validity of knowledge claims. Mitigated skeptics can alsobelieve, however they consider their religious beliefs as beliefs,not as certain or necessary truths. Erasmus is willing to suspendjudgment when it comes to some of the major theological questionsin order that he might remain open to new insight. He asserts theright for people to be uncommitted, at least where doctrine has notbeen formally defined by the church. Erasmus looks more to churchtradition while Luther places all of his authority in the promisesof the Word of God.

[12] For Luther, it is imperative that Christians know what liesin their own power and what lies in God's power in matters relatingto eternal salvation. Erasmus' mitigated skepticism suggests thatmatters relating to salvation are irrelevant to Christians becausesuch knowledge is hidden from the powers of human knowledge. Lutherattacks such skeptical theology as the "unforgivable sin" becauseit is a sin against the First Commandment, the root of all othersins, the unwillingness to let God be God. 14Believers must know that theyare totally dependent on God, whose grace or unmerited love evokesin humanity the response of faith, that is trust and obedience.

[13] It is unthinkable for God to know anything contingently.Luther writes that it is "fundamentally necessary and salutary fora Christian, to know that God foreknows nothing contingently, butthat He foresees and purposes and does all things by His immutable,eternal, and infallible will."15 For Luther, the human willis in complete bondage to either God or Satan. Before the Fall thespirit of God directs humans, but after the Fall humans aredirected by the clutches of Satan. Luther does not explain how itis possible for the Evil Spirit to supplant the Holy Spirit inhumans, however, he is clear that it is not because humans canchoose between God and Satan, as Erasmus suggests. In theirbondage, humans are like animals used for riding, upon which eitherGod or the devil is mounted. Humans have no power to choose whichof the two riders will be in possession oftheir will.16Lutherwrites, "For if God is in us, Satan is absent, and only a good willis present; if God is absent, Satan is present, and only an evilwill is in us. Neither God nor Satan permits sheer unqualifiedwilling."17Without the certain knowledge that God foreknows all things, notcontingently, but necessarily, how can one believe in the trust ofGod's promises? For Luther, any hint of contingency will destroythe Gospel. Indeed, without the necessity of God's promise thereisno Gospel.18

Implications for Christian Ethics[35] Perhaps one of the greatest legacies of Luther's theology isthat he did not try to provide a formal systematic theologycomplete with all the answers. Luther believes that a totallyrationalized Christianity is a Christianity that ultimately leadsto atheism or skepticism. A rational Christianity would no longerrequire grace and faith in a transcendent God acting in the world.There is no space for free will in Luther's theology because thehuman will is held in complete bondage to either God or Satan.Erasmus' mitigated skepticism places too much emphasis on humanfaculties. But for Luther skepticism is unthinkable: Without thecertainty that God knows all things, not contingently, butnecessarily, Christians will soon stop trusting in God's promisesand then all faith will be lost and the gospel reduced to amockery. Luther's theology is rooted in a pure doctrine of faiththat must always be distinct from any contingent notion ofworks-righteousness or self-righteousness. 2ff7e9595c