Anti-Climacus

QUOTE: Nice profile of the new Martin Luther movie on NRO:

"The film, which begins with the young lawyer's decision to enter a monastery in 1507 and ends with the Augsburg Confession in 1530, includes a very early scene — invented by the filmmakers — seemingly calculated to puzzle and offend many viewers, although it should stimulate thought as well. In a very moving scene, the young monk Luther buries, in consecrated ground, the body of a young boy who has committed suicide. Luther then makes the point, from the pulpit of the local church, that we cannot presume to know how God will judge the boy's life. Yes, he argues, God hates sin, but he sent a Redeemer to accept our punishment on our behalf. "Those who see God as [solely] angry," he says, "do not see him rightly." He reminds them, "We have a God of love."

This, unlike the suicide aspect, is surely the central teaching of Luther's life and ministry, and the fact that it ever created a controversy speaks only to the truth that the Church, although inspired by God, is and always has been made up entirely of flawed human beings. Luther never aimed to bring down the Catholic Church or replace it, only to restore to it, and to Christendom, a true understanding of the Good News of salvation through Christ.

It was a lesson that Luther learned the hard way for himself, as the film makes abundantly clear. In more than one instance, we see and hear him late at night in his bedchamber, screaming imprecations at the Devil, railing at the enemy to leave him alone. As a young monk, Luther is nearly mad with guilt over his many sins, even though an elder priest notes, "You know, in two years I've never heard you confess anything even remotely interesting."

Luther recognizes that having any sin at all prevents us from entering the kingdom of Heaven, and he cannot imagine how God can possibly forgive him. If I have sinned, he thinks, I am not worthy of salvation. And that's that.

He was right, of course, as far as that went. Luther was not worthy of salvation, nor is anybody else. We all fail to keep God's commandments, and the penalty is death. Taking these ideas perfectly seriously, Luther cannot bear the thought of his sinfulness and is driven to seek "a merciful God," as he puts it."