Defense of the Divine Revelation of the Cross

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." - (NIV)

One can conclude from this passage that faith comes from God and from God alone, and that it is not manufactured or generated through thought or even any type of human effort (we thus cannot make faith). We are 'called' to receive this faith, and I find that this is what Luther would have intended by the phrase "the divine revelation of the cross" (Gonzalez, 32) Although the correct faith produces the correct works by its very 'divine nature' (being the seed of God - Word of God), we are still called by 2 Peter 1:3-8 to escape corruption, try to add various divine qualities to our faith, and we are promised that if we do these things then we will not be unproductive or ineffective with our knowledge.

The point to be made is that faith should not be pitted against works because one is sort of like the outgrowth of the other. On the other hand faith needs human efforts to participate in the divine nature to add the godly qualities to the faith in order to be productive. Overall, faith thus is the very first element that is needed to build anything else.

The most important teaching of Luther thus is the divine revelation of the cross because it does more than what works, scripture, priesthood of the believer, or anything else that Luther had to teach could accomplish. The thief that Christ was crucified beside that asked Jesus to remember him when he entered into paradise would have received the divine revelation of the cross at a time when no one else had. This took no effort on the part of the thief, it took no evangelist, it took no scripture, but what it did take was Christ as God in the flesh standing beside him giving him the faith to believe. Overall, the divine revelation of the cross worked in a similar way for the salvation of Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ, and it works this way even today.

Clearly the divine revelation of the cross is the most important teaching that Luther ever had, and this is likely the way that Luther was saved himself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day, vol. 2. San Francisco, California: Harper, 1985.